by L D Marr
The killer’s muttering and mumbles broke the night’s silence, and finally, Roz’s eyes popped open.
⌛
From somewhere deep in the haze of a beautiful dream that included Jonah, Roz had heard a strange and alarming noise. She tried to ignore it, but her mind had other ideas. It washed away the dream and left her awake in the real world.
Now she felt the itchy prick of something sharp on her chest. She opened her eyes and saw the stake that was pressed against her left breast.
Roz jolted up, causing the sharp stake to penetrate deeper into her skin.
“Ouch!” she said at the same time Buttons said a little too late, “Don’t move,” in her mind.
Roz stiffened and then pushed herself back down as far as she could into the mattress, so the stake was no longer touching her.
What’s going on here? Am I having another nightmare? she wondered.
“Now would be a good time to scream,” said Buttons.
She looked up above the stake and saw the small chubby hand that held it, the plumb body and face behind it, and the other chubby arm that hoisted the mallet above it.
Roz opened her mouth wide and screamed.
Shouts answered her scream. Then the sound of banging doors and many bare feet running toward her room.
She stopped screaming and started to scoot out from under the stake that pinned her down.
“No! Don’t move,” Buttons said in her mind. “Wait till the witnesses come. No one will believe this if they don’t see it with their own eyes.”
So, Roz waited.
Chapter 17
Wrapped in Loretta’s arms, the man who called himself Cowboy Bob was dragged from his delicious sleep by Roz’s scream, followed by the yells and commotion out in the hallway. He woke up just as Loretta started to stir.
That first scream was Roz! he realized.
Cowboy Bob fought down the urge to dash to her room at his top supernatural speed. He knew that wouldn’t go unnoticed with so many people around.
Instead, he sat up at a fast but normal human speed, grabbed his red long johns, and spoke to Loretta, who was groggily rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
“I must go quickly,” he told her while he hastily pulled on his sleepwear. “Someone might be in danger.”
“Danger?” she asked. “What do you mean?”
But Cowboy Bob had already run out the door with several of his buttons still undone.
Seconds later, he gently but firmly inserted himself through the crowd of women that blocked Roz’s doorway. Inside her room, he beheld a stunning sight. Madame stood next to the bed as if frozen. She held a stake to Roz’s heart in one hand, and in the other, a mallet poised to strike the stake.
Roz lay unmoving beneath the stake with an annoyed expression on her face. The small black cat that was her pet sat beside her on the bed absently grooming his nether regions.
“Madame! What are you doing?” Cowboy Bob shouted.
He strode to Madame, wrapped his powerful arms around her waist, and dragged her away from Roz. Madame’s body was stiff, and she maintained her statue-like position in his arms.
Could Roz have hypnotized Madame into this frozen state? he wondered. That would mean Roz already has as much power as I do. Is that possible for a newly turned vampire? And should I be wary of her?
“Let me go! Let me go!” the frozen Madame screamed.
Her face twitched in an expression of horror, and Cowboy Bob didn’t know if she was appealing to him or to the one who held her body captive. In all the commotion, Roz sat up on her bed and stared at her pet cat.
Regardless of who she had appealed to, Madame was released from her frozen posture. But Cowboy Bob kept a firm hold on her. She lowered her arms and dropped the mallet and stake onto the floor. Then she sagged against him and sobbed.
All the women crowded into the room. Some stared in shocked silence. Others whispered to each other.
“Madame is the killer!” said one.
“I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes,” said another.
Cowboy Bob turned Madame around, so she had to face him, and stared into her eyes.
“What were you doing? I’m asking you again, Madame,” he ordered in a voice laced with an irresistible hypnotic demand.
“I was going to kill her. I had to!” Madame said.
The crowd of women gasped. All except Roz who sat up on her bed quite composed and watched the proceedings with undisguised curiosity. She patted the spot of blood on her nightdress with a handkerchief.
“Why did you have to?” Cowboy Bob pressed Madame for more information.
“Because I had to,” Madame repeated. “And anyway, she’s no better than she should be. Going out at night to do her business with that deputy, so she doesn’t have to bring me a cut of the profits!”
“Huh!” said Roz in an offended tone. “There are no profits! And my personal life is none of your business in any case.”
“Right. You and your uppity ways,” said Madame. “I hated you since you first walked in the door. Pretending you’re better than the rest of us. But you’re not, you slut. You’re a harlot the same as that Gertie was. I had to kill her too.”
The crowd of women gasped again. Madame twisted her head around to glare at them.
“Yes. You’re all loose women. That’s the only reason the men are after you gals instead of a proper refined lady like me. The only male who gives me any attention these days is Buttons,” said Madame.
Now she turned to look at the small cat on Roz’s bed. But he pointedly turned his back on her and stared at a spot on the wall.
“Buttons! I’m sorry! I had to do it!” Madame pleaded with the animal. “You understand, don’t you, Buttons? You’ll forgive me, won’t you?”
The cat’s shoulders twitched, but he didn’t turn around.
There’s something odd about that creature, Cowboy Bob thought.
But he didn’t have time to ponder that line of thinking. The situation demanded action.
“We’ve caught Madame in the act of trying to kill Roz. And we all heard her confess to killing Gertie,” Cowboy Bob spoke to the rest of the women. “Now someone needs to get the law over here.”
“I’ll go,” Roz offered.
“No. You’re a part of the evidence this time,” said Cowboy Bob.
“I can go,” said Loretta from her spot crowded between two women near the doorway. “I just need to get dressed first.”
Cowboy Bob smiled at her.
So much spunk! he thought. Did I make a mistake when I transformed Roz into my mate instead of Loretta? Oh well, it’s too late to change that now.
Loretta smiled back at Cowboy Bob. Then she squeezed out of the crowded room. He heard the light pounding of her bare feet as she rushed away to her room.
Chapter 18
A half an hour later, Jonah sat in the wooden chair talking to Roz, who was still sitting in her bed. He’d been thrown off balance by the unexpected shock of learning what had just happened to her. And he couldn’t seem to pull his eyes away from the small red stain on her nightdress.
When the sheriff and Jonah had arrived, they’d followed the same procedure as with Gertie’s murder and sent everyone down to the saloon for questioning. All except Roz, who they allowed to stay in her room.
No one—not even Roz—had questioned the propriety of Jonah being alone with Roz in her room to question her. Well, not completely alone. Her cat sat next to her and stared fixedly up at Jonah.
Of course, we’re engaged now, so it’s perfectly appropriate for us to be alone together, he thought.
“I need to get your statement as the primary witness to the crime. Are you up to that now?” Jonah asked her.
“Yes,” said Roz. “But there’s not a lot to tell. It all happened very fast. I woke up when I felt something sharp poking into my chest. I saw Madame standing over me holding the stake and the mallet. I screamed, and she didn’t swing
it down. It was like she was frozen there for the short time it took for everyone to rush in here. So that’s how they caught her in the act of trying to kill me.”
“Hmm,” said Jonah. “I did find that part a bit odd. I wondered how all those people could get here so quick between Madame’s lifting the mallet and swinging it down. But maybe she wasn’t expecting you to wake up and scream. Maybe that surprised her, and she realized people would be coming, so she didn’t finish the job.”
“Yes. That must be what happened,” Roz agreed.
“You were very lucky,” said Jonah. “So that about wraps up the questioning. I guess we were on the wrong track all along. I’m sorry you were put in danger. I feel like it’s my fault for not having a clue about who the real murderer was.”
“I’m fine, and of course it wasn’t your fault,” Roz said.
But Jonah studied her face, and Roz didn’t look fine. Even though she’d escaped with only a small wound, she was clearly still quite distraught. The anguish in her eyes tugged on the strings of his heart.
I’d do anything to make her smile again, he thought.
Jonah reached out a somewhat awkward hand and placed it on Roz’s hand, which was nervously clenching the fabric of her quilt. She didn’t pull her hand away, but she stopped squeezing the quilt.
“It’s all over now. You’re safe. We’ve caught the murderer, and you don’t have to worry anymore,” he said. “But I understand how upset you feel. It must have been horrifying to feel that stake starting to go into your chest.”
“Yes, it was terrible. But I’m not actually upset about that,” she said.
But Jonah could tell something was bothering her. A cold chill went through him.
Is she having second thoughts about us getting married? he wondered.
Now worried that he’d presumed an affection that wasn’t returned, Jonah lifted his hand away from Roz’s hand. He stared into the dark amber pools of her eyes. He saw intensity and passion there but also something else he couldn’t understand. Something that chilled him even more.
“I know something’s bothering you though. Does it have anything to do with what happened between us last night?” Jonah had to ask. “Have you thought about it and decided you don’t want to get married to me?”
“No. That’s not it. I still want to get married!” Roz insisted. “But you’re right that something is bothering me. There’s something about me that I didn’t tell you. I should have told you last night, but I guess in the heat of the moment, I forgot. And I’m afraid that when you find out, you won’t want to marry me.”
She sighed deeply, stirring Jonah’s protective feelings as well as his passion. He wanted to wrap her in his arms, but he resisted that urge.
“If you committed a crime or something, you can tell me,” he said. “We both know that a lot of people out west are here because they’re wanted back east. It’s not going to make a difference to me wanting to marry you. Whatever you did in the past is behind you. I’m in love with who you are now, and that’s the woman I want to marry. Besides a husband can’t testify against his wife. So, we can get married fast, and that will be that.”
But Roz only shook her head and sighed again.
“No. That’s not it. I haven’t committed any crimes yet. It’s not what I’ve done, it’s who I am. What I’ve been turned into. When you find out, it’s almost certain you’ll fear and despise me,” she said in a voice that broke into a sob.
Now Jonah was confused.
“I don’t understand what you’re saying,” he said. “What do you mean about not committing any crimes yet? And I’d never fear and despise you. Can you tell me why you think I’d do that?”
Roz sniffed and wiped her nose with her blood-stained handkerchief. Jonah reached into his pocket, pulled out a clean folded one, and handed it to her. Roz accepted the handkerchief, but she held it clenched in her fist.
“It’s hard to talk about, but I’ll tell you. I must tell you. It would be wrong of me to marry you and keep this a secret,” she said.
Jonah waited.
Roz took a deep breath and began speaking.
“Have you ever heard of vampires?” she asked.
“What?” Jonah said. “No, I haven’t. What’s that?”
“Well, they’re in that book,” said Roz.
She pointed to the book on her nightstand. “Dracula,” Jonah read on the cover.
He was confused, but he let her continue.
“Yes. A vampire is a person who walks the Earth but is no longer alive,” she said. “A mortal person can be turned into a vampire by drinking the blood of an existing vampire just before the death of the person’s living physical body.”
Jonah’s mouth dropped open. He hadn’t expected to hear anything like this. But he couldn’t look away from her stare.
“I was turned into a vampire by Cowboy Bob a few nights ago,” she continued. “He’s a vampire too. It was against my will, but it happened, and now there’s no going back. I’m the walking dead. I can’t eat food or drink liquid except the blood I need to nourish myself. And I drank your blood without your knowledge last night. I’m sorry.”
Roz’s eyes leaked tears, and she covered her face with her hands. The spell of her eyes was broken, and Jonah looked away.
Now he felt frustrated and almost angry.
“Why are you telling me this crazy story?” he asked. “If you don’t want to get married, just say so. I can handle it. You don’t have to make up something you read about in a book to scare me off. You didn’t drink my blood last night. Don’t you think I’d have noticed? There’s no way a refined vegetarian lady like yourself could have done that!”
Roz dropped her hands from her face and leaned toward him. She stared into his eyes again with a burning intensity.
How could I have been fooled by this woman? he wondered. She seemed so perfectly rational and sensible. But now I come to find out she’s not like that at all. Not the person I thought she was. I guess it was a mistake to rush into the marriage proposal. But usually my instincts about people are good. I just don’t understand how I could have been so wrong about her.
Now Jonah wondered if the shock of Roz’s near death had unhinged her. That might explain why she was acting like an insane person. Yes, that made sense. Or...
Another suspicion crept into his head.
What if she really was crazy all along, and she hid it up till now. Maybe that’s what she’s running away from back east. Not a witch hunter like she claims. Could she have escaped from an insane asylum? I’ve heard those places are bad, so I guess I wouldn’t blame her for wanting to get out of there, he told himself.
Jonah scratched the rough stubble on his chin as he wondered about that. He didn’t have much experience with the mentally ill, but he thought he’d heard somewhere that it was best to act like you believed whatever they said.
“I’m not making up anything,” Roz insisted. “But I understand how hard it must be to believe. So, I’ll prove it to you. I’ll give you evidence.”
“OK. Evidence is good. How?” he asked.
“I’ll drink your blood again right now,” she said. “But I won’t hypnotize you this time, so you’ll know what I’m doing and remember it.”
Jonah couldn’t help rolling his eyes. If Roz noticed, she didn’t comment. But her cat Buttons, who hadn’t taken his eyes off Jonah the entire time, growled low in his throat.
“Sure. Go ahead,” Jonah said to Roz.
“Sit next to me on the bed,” said Roz. “Then I won’t have to lean way over there.”
⌛
Roz felt irritated with Jonah while she waited for him to sit down next to her. He moved stiffly in a manner that was the exact opposite of the passionate behavior he’d shown on the previous night. She understood that it was probably hard for him to believe that she was a vampire—but still!
He’ll know I’m telling the truth soon enough, Roz thought. But I have a feeling he’ll probably reac
t even worse than he’s acting now. Oh well. Here goes.
She looked into his eyes, and this time, Roz gave Jonah different mental instructions. “You will know that I’m drinking your blood. You will remember.”
“I’m waiting,” said Jonah.
He unbuttoned the top buttons of his shirt and lowered one side down to expose a well-muscled shoulder. Roz breathed in his aroma and the scent of his blood. She felt her longing stir, but it was awkward this time.
Roz leaned forward and placed her mouth over the same pulsing artery she’d drank from the night before. Jonah sat still and unmoving beneath her lips. She wasn’t as blindly ravenous as she’d been then, but she was still hungry. Her sharp incisors seemed to extend of their own accord and sink into Jonah’s firm flesh.
He flinched when she bit into him and said, “Ouch!”
But he didn’t pull away.
The blood began to flow in a thin stream. Roz swallowed and sucked on the two wounds to pull more blood into her mouth.
“I don’t need to watch this meal,” Roz heard Buttons say in her mind.
Then she heard the soft sounds of Buttons jumping off the bed and out the open window.
By now, Roz was sure that Jonah knew what she was doing, but she kept on drinking his blood. She was hungrier than she’d realized. Maybe what she’d drank from him the night before wasn’t enough.
Jonah sighed, but he didn’t do anything to stop her. Then his sighs became moans.
Am I hurting him? she wondered.
She started to pull away from him, but Jonah reached up a strong hand behind her head and pressed her back to his neck. Roz kept drinking.
Now Jonah’s moans grew more passionate. He wrapped his arms around her and pressed her body tight against his. He leaned back on the bed and pulled her down on top of him.
Roz felt herself getting lost in the combined passion of hunger and lust.
But I must be careful not to take too much, she reminded herself. And I need to know if he’s going to back out on his promise to marry me before I let him kiss me or go any farther, which he seems to be attempting.
