Alone (18 page)

She took a shaky breath and shook her
head. They wouldn’t find anything, but she couldn’t help the
irrational thoughts pressing their way into her brain—bloodied
clothes lying on the bathroom floor, Jackson’s body sprawled on the
bed.

Officer Bently’s partner followed as he
mounted the stairs. She wasn’t sure if she should follow but
realized she didn’t want two strange men poking around the bedroom
without her.

So she followed.

The duplex was small, the tiny landing
leading straight onto the bedroom with doors to the bathroom and
Jackson’s study either side. The officers went straight to the
bedroom. They did a quick search of the bedroom and Serenity got
the impression it wasn’t just Jackson they were looking for. Their
eyes seemed to scan every surface, probably noticing more than
Serenity would ever take in.

They took a
brief glance in the bathroom, a
quick check to make sure toiletries were missing, matching up with
Serenity’s story. Every step of the way, Serenity found herself
silently thanking Sebastian, but even the thought of him in this
intense situation hurt her heart.

The two officers
walked into
Jackson’s office and she followed close behind.

The
piles of porn, empty beer cans and
the mess made her cringe. She hadn’t bothered to switch off the
computer and was thankful it had automatically switched to standby,
hiding the streams of filth from the officers.

Mortified, she hung her
head.

Suddenly, Officer Bently lifted a hand.
His palm lunged toward her face and she instinctively flinched, but
his hand carried on past as he reached for the shelves mounted on
the wall behind her head. He plucked the small silver Nokia off the
shelf. The officer checked the display screen and showed it to
her.

One missed call.

T
he call she’d just made from
downstairs.

Officer Bently frowned, his eyes searching
her face. She knew he recognized what the flinch meant, probably
had seen it numerous time with other women. Something passed
between them, something that said ‘I know what you are’. Her eyes
pleaded with him not to mention what he had deduced.

“
What was your husband in
the hospital for?” he asked.

She blushed. “We had an accident in the
bedroom. He fell backward and hit his head on the
dresser.”

“
So the man you’re apparently
still intimate with has an injury bad enough to warrant a stay in
hospital and then he leaves you the next day, but you don’t even
bother to try to call him?”

“
We weren’t ‘intimate’,” she
said, her cheeks burning with shame. “At least, not
willingly.”

“
So your husband has a
history of sexual abuse?”

His words socked her in the
stomach.

“
But he couldn’t...”
have done
it!
she
almost blurted.

“
Couldn’t?” he
prompted.

“
He couldn’t help it,” she
said.

“
So why didn’t you try to call
him before now?”

“
I knew he didn’t have his
cell,” she said in a hurry.

“
Then why did you place the
call?”

“
I forget.”

The two officers exchanged a
glance.

I’ve said too much,
she thought.
Oh God, they’ll
know what I did.

A
bubble of panic formed in her stomach and
she fought to contain the terror. The officer, initially friendly,
had now switched to interrogation mode. They knew something wasn’t
quite right; they just didn’t know what.

Officer Bently stared at her, his deep
brown eyes locking with hers. She forced herself to maintain eye
contact; certain simply glancing away would confirm her guilt. This
man seemed to be reading her soul as though her secrets were
printed upon her skin.

Officer Dawson cleared his throat
again; almost a nervous tick rather than trying to get
attention.

“
Okay, Mrs. Hathaway,” he said,
and she tore her eyes from his partner. “I’m sure you realize this
is a very serious matter. If you have any information on the
whereabouts of your husband, please contact us.”

She nodded and they traipsed down the
stairs toward the front door.

Officer Dawson slipped a card into her
hand, but her attention focused on Bently. The way he looked at her
made her uncomfortable.

“
Thank you for your time,” Dawson
said as she opened the front door.

She gave him a tight smile and stood
beside the door, relieved they were leaving.

Both officers started to walk down the
path, but Bently stopped and turned back to her.

“
I’m going to check out your
story about the hospital and the timings at the bar, of course. If
I’ve got any other questions, you can be sure I’ll be
back.”

She nodded again, but said
nothing.

The two men turned and walked away from
the house toward a patrol car parked on the street.

Emotions whirled through her. How could
someone accuse Jackson of attacking them when Jackson was
dead?

E
ither someone had a huge grudge against
Jackson or someone wanted to mess things up for her.

Officer Bently glanced back at her as he
walked away. Quickly, she stepped back and shut the door. How far
would they follow this? Would they run a check on his credit cards?
She wondered if Sebastian had done as he’d promised and used the
cards in another state.

It seemed strange to think someone
like him would even bother to give time to such a mediocre
thing.

A
crazy laugh tried to explode from her but,
scared of the sound, she held it back.

The thought of Sebastian hurt her deep
down and she desperately wished him beside her. But, once again,
she remembered what he was and her eyes filled with tears. How
could she believe him a monster when every part of her soul wanted
to be with him?

She put her hand against her cheek,
remembering how his palm felt against her skin.

As though in a trance, Serenity wandered
back into the living room and slumped down on the couch. She felt
strangely numb and incredibly lonely. Everything she’d depended
upon in her life, every routine, had gone. She had no job to go to;
no friends or family to visit.

What does a woman who gets fired from her
job, murders her abusive husband and then falls in love with a—she
couldn’t even bring herself to think the word—do with her
day?

She
needed to get out of the house. She
would have packed the same bag she’d packed the night she decided
to leave Jackson, only Sebastian had already taken it, filled with
Jackson’s things.

T
wo things worried her. She didn’t want the
police to think she was running away; nor did she want them to be
any more suspicious. There was also the thing that had been
bothering her
that
night as well. This was the only place Sebastian knew where
to find her.

She was scared if she left, she would
never see him again.

Chapter Fifteen

H
is time had
come to
feed the previous night; otherwise, he
would never have left Serenity alone.

Sebastian sat on a wall by Venice Beach,
watching the weird and wonderful inhabitants of this part of Los
Angeles conduct their business.

N
ight had fallen once more, but Venice
Beach came to life at night. Small stalls selling everything from
paintings for tourists, to smoking paraphernalia for the locals,
lined the promenade wall. Opposite the stalls, more shops selling
much of the same intermixed with tattoo parlors and cheap
restaurants. People on skateboards or roller-skates raced down the
promenade, many of them with large, brutish dogs on leashes.
Everyone shouted to each other, whether they were acquainted or
not. Dreadlocks adorned many heads, even the Caucasian men and
women, and bright colored, baggy clothing hung from their skinny
frames.

Underhand drug dealing seemed to
be taking place everywhere
Sebastian turned; money changed hands and small
packages followed. A few men sitting on the floor held cards
reading, ‘will work for drugs.’ Laughably, another sign requesting,
‘no photographs’ was propped up beside the first. Among them the
tourists wandered with their smart ‘vacation’ clothes and their
mouths agape.

Sebastian hadn’t
wanted to leave
Serenity last night, but necessity forced his hand. He didn’t have
to kill all the time, but once a month was his absolute minimum.
Though he stretched the time as much as possible, when the time
came he grew weak, his body wracked with pain. He couldn’t risk the
need to feed taking over his ability to reason. He refused to
envision hurting Serenity as a result of his carelessness.
Sebastian thought he’d be able to sneak out; he’d hoped she slept
right though, never noticing him gone. He’d written the note just
in case.

The events following his
departure
interrupted his hunt. Though unable to read thoughts, he
was deeply aware of Serenity, of her presence occupying the same
night. Sensing something at the house was wrong, he’d headed back
immediately. Sebastian hadn’t been fast enough. He should be
thankful in a way. Madeline could have slaughtered Serenity when
she found her alone. For him to find Serenity shaken but still in
one piece had been a relief. As soon as she turned around and he
witnessed the hatred and fear in her eyes, his heart shattered into
a thousand pieces.

How much could you hate yourself before
eventually having to accept what you were?

He didn’t expect Serenity to see him as a
good person, but at the same time the thought of her seeing him as
a killer was unbearable.

There was no happy ending to this
story.

Bringing her to the house had
been a mistake
. He’d only prolonged the pain. Eventually, Sebastian would
have left and broken her heart, even if she’d never discovered the
truth. Serenity wouldn’t have been the only one in pain; leaving
her would have destroyed him as well.

Now she hated him and he needed to let her
get on with her life. It was the only way she would ever be
happy.

As he sat, brooding, a bulky black man
approached with a portable CD player in his hand.

“
Hey man, you want to listen to
my music?” He held out the headphones but Sebastian shook his
head.

“
It’s good shit,” the man
continued. “Come on, man, you can buy my CD.”

This tout was common place. Numerous
people walked the beach, trying to sell their rap music to
tourists, hoping to make it big one day.

“
No, but thank you,” Sebastian
said, staring back down at the ground.

“
What’s the matter? You think
you’re better than me?” Immediately, the big man’s hackles rose.
“Fucking posh, white man too good to listen to my
music?”

The man was angry; Sebastian was
angrier.

He lifted his head, eyes flaming yellow in
the dark. Confused horror flashed across the man’s face. He
stumbled backward and hurried away, not daring to glance
back.

Sebastian let out a sigh and reigned in
his temper. He needed to feed. He was a day past his normal meal
time and weakness crept through his body, accompanied by a dull
ache in every muscle. He’d never taken drugs, but imagined what he
felt would be similar to the withdrawals a crack addict
experienced. He needed to feed, but saw in his mind how Serenity
looked at him and how, by feeding, he was being the monster she
perceived.

Every time Sebastian thought of the things
Serenity said, he felt as if someone stabbed him in the
chest.

This
was all wrong.

He should never have let things
go so far. She was a
human.
He’d exposed her vulnerability and put her in
danger
.
He
couldn’t blame her for freaking out; he’d shown her a part of life
she’d only known in myths and movies.

Had he ever felt so alone in his whole
existence?

Yes, once, in the dark
days,
after
he’d first been turned and taken away from his wife and young
daughter. In those days he experienced a similar kind of pain, the
agony of being taken away from people he loved.

Sebastian groaned and put his head in his
hands. Serenity’s words kept turning over and over in his
mind,

‘
I hate you, you’re a
monster!’

He cringed, wanting to curl up
into a ball and squeeze himself together until he
became nothing, but
no longer existing wasn’t easy for his kind.

If he’d stuck to his original plan and
left town when he intended, Serenity would be free from him
now.