I'm so wrapped up in my own head that I don't see the redness around her eyes at first, the wet streaks on her rosy cheeks. Robbie leans forward, crossing her arms on the windowsill, letting her chocolate hair catch the light morning breeze. Her blue eyes look dark from where I stand, like the depths of the sea, places where the sun never shines. Robbie's gaze travels over the backyard and then flickers, ever so slightly, towards my house. Her breath catches painfully in her chest, a gasp of hurt that I know I'm personally responsible for. Good. Robbie should run as far from me as she can get, forget that she ever had a crush on the strange man next door. The monster inside of me hisses, begging for a taste of that fresh blood on its tongue.
I pinch myself harder.
After a moment, Robbie retreats back inside her room and shuts off the lights. I wait for a few, frantic, irregular heartbeats before I rise to my feet and edge back along the house. I hop the fence and head up the porch steps to find that the front door is locked.
My lips quirk into a smile. Good girl, Miss Holiday. I knock three times in quick succession and wait. After a moment, she lets me in. My cock thickens at the sight of her, with her red hair and dark green eyes. Audra is a beautiful woman, nearly flawless in her physical perfection. Yes, she could use a lesson or two on applying makeup, doing her hair, dressing more tastefully. Or maybe that's just me being picky. I am horribly fucking selective.
“I didn't want anyone walking in on me,” Audra explains unnecessarily, stepping aside for me to come in. I watch her as she closes the door behind me. I can still feel the hard pressure of her lips around my dick, feel the heat of her mouth and the graze of porcelain teeth. Mmm. I'd like to shove Audra to her knees again, thrust my cock into her mouth and let her taste me. First though, I suppose we should deal with the fucking elephant in the room. My dear friend, Mark, who can't seem to stop getting in my way, is fully wrapped in black plastic. It's a coffin suited to his person, I have to say. What a pathetic asshole. After tonight, I'll wash my hands of this prick, and it's doubtful I'll ever hear anything about him again. People like Mark disappear all the time; it won't even make the news. That is, if anyone even actually notices that he's missing. “It'd be awfully fucking awkward if your girlfriend showed up in the middle of all this.” My mouth hitches up into a wicked grin and laugher explodes from my throat. It's as rare an emotion as any other, and it surprises me. I don't let Audra see that. For all she knows, I'm a maniacal chortler.
“Oh, honey,” I whisper, leaning in and taking a sizzling kiss from Audra's lips. The hair on the back of my neck stands on end, and my entire body crackles with need. Who the fuck is this woman? I lean back and keep my composure intact. A kiss. Yet another rarity for me. Is it really Audra who's getting to me? Robbie? Mark? No, no. Definitely not Mark. “If I had a girlfriend, do you think I would be in the business of worshipping the darkness?”
Audra tilts her head at me, letting that red, red hair spill down her shoulder like blood.
“If she could match you blow for blow, yeah. Maybe you would be?” I imagine a recipe where I'm tangled up with someone equal to me – that I can do. But if I found that person, I think I would stop spreading the gift of the taboo to my clients. If I had the right concoction, I could sate the demon with a daily dose. Or at least I think so. I've never had the opportunity to try.
“Hmm. Let's get this corpse off my couch, shall we?” I avoid the question and grab my gloves off the coffee table, slipping them on and moving over to Mark's carefully wrapped skull. Audra has done him up like a morbid Christmas gift, all neatly folded and perfectly taped. I dig around in my pocket and pull my keys out, pressing the button on my key fob that automatically opens the trunk. Quite a handy tool for loading bodies. “In the trunk, please. Let's move quickly.”
Audra opens the front door and steps onto the porch, surveying the street from the safety of the ivy covered trellises before moving back inside. It's almost as if she's done this before. Or perhaps her demon is good at camouflage. It must be, considering how tainted Audra's soul seems to be.
“You know,” she says to me as she leans down and grabs Mark by his feet. With a small grunt of effort, we hoist the body off my sofa and into the air. I do my best not to stare at the stains on the fabric. Furniture shopping seems to be an inevitable future for me. “Real friends always help you bury the bodies.” My mouth twitches; it can't be helped.
“You imagine us becoming friends, Audra?” I ask, angling so we can get the body outside without bumping into the doorjamb. Sweat is already beading on her pale slope of a forehead, beads of moisture tantalizing in the last few rays of moonlight. I can see she's struggling with the weight of her decision – physically if not mentally – so I take a moment to tease her limits, see where we're at with our newly formed relationship. “Some of my clients like to think we are, but I disagree. Even if I stay over, have a cup of tea, that doesn't mean we're buddies.” I let the last word slip off the edge of my tongue in a hiss. Audra's face remains stoic, so I press forward, just to see how far she'll let me go. “Do you honestly think I'm doing this for free? Because you have nice tits? Oh no, Miss Holiday, you're going to owe me big fucking time for this favor.”