Chapter Twenty-four
Colin Hawke sat at the desk in the corner of the dining room and tapped at the keyboard. His wife, Katy, hovered over his shoulder like a nervous mother hen waiting for a fox. The twins were long since gone to bed. Colin glanced at the clock in the bottom left corner of the computer monitor and pinched the bridge of his nose rubbing his tired eyes. Katy halted her anxious movements and tried to look closer at the screen.
"You're finished?"
"Almost," Colin answered, his tiredness took away some of his self-control and he couldn't keep all the frustration out of his voice. He returned to his typing and his wife resumed her pacing.
"I know it was him. I know it." She clutched a raggedy old stuffed bear by it's neck tight to her chest.
"The police said they hadn't had any more recent sightings," he answered without stopping typing, the keys clacked quietly when he punched them. "They have no reason to suspect he's anywhere near here."
"They have me. I saw him."
"Even so they can't devote resources into looking for a runaway who's been gone over five years."
"That's why we have to do this," Katy said bringing the bear up to her face and holding it even tighter. "We need to get the public to notice him. We need to let Fulton know we miss him and that it's all right to come home. He could be out there somewhere afraid to come back because he thinks that we'll be angry or that we've forgotten about him. After we take this to the newspapers we can get in touch with one of those programs on T.V. that do those spots on runaways."
Colin moved the mouse and clicked the save and print icons, as the paper was drawn into the printer he swivelled his chair around to look at his wife. Her eyes were rimmed with red and her skin was drawn taut.
"We tried all this when he first disappeared and it didn't help then," he said.
"Perhaps he didn't see them the first time. Or maybe he wasn't ready to come home then but he is now. Why else would he come to the house?"
"Maybe he didn't."
"I saw him. It was Fulton, he hasn't changed since the last time we saw him."
Through her speech Katy's stance had become more rigid, both defensive and challenging. She placed the bear on the dark wood of the dining table.
"You act like you don't want to find him. Like you don't care if he ever comes back."
Colin stood. "How can you say that? I want him back as much as you do. It's just . . . There have been wild goose chases before. It takes a lot out of you when you invest your hopes in getting Fulton back and they are dashed time and again. I just don't want you to get your hopes up like that again only to be hurt."
He walked towards his wife and took her up in an embrace. Trying to take some of her pain away by his touch.
"This time it will be different," she whispered. "This time our son will be coming home."
Fulton finished attaching the cable to the junction box in the basement and closed the green metal door. This was the fourth power tap he had run from the neighbouring houses. With the extra power supply being drawn from multiple sources it was less likely the neighbours would get suspicious when their electricity bills arrived.
He made his way back up the stairs and emerged into the kitchen. The curtains had been drawn over every window in the house to keep the daylight out. Fulton left the kitchen paced through the dining room, although it hadn't been used for dining since they took the house over as they preferred to eat out, and on into the living room.
Francesca was upstairs with Gabriella and he could hear them in Gabriella's room above the dining hall. Since he had decided to stay with them Francesca had divided her days between the two of them. Fulton got the impression that Gabriella was getting jealous of all the time he and Francesca were together. Before although Francesca had had other partners as well as Gabriella they spent more time together than apart. Gabriella was unused to sharing her lover with another partner on an even footing.
Another difference he picked up on between those times, and one that Gabriella evidently approved of, was that Francesca's two lovers were mutually exclusive. He gathered that before when Francesca had used the vampire Xavier for her male requirements there had been many occasions where the three of them had taken part together.
Fulton dropped into the two-seater settee and hooked his legs over one arm. He scooped up the remote control and turned on the stolen television set. He had had to go without T.V when he was living feral on the streets and searching for Francesca, since they had come here Fulton had been bitten by the bug again. The new digital service gave him access to more channels than he had had access to before. Fair enough most of the stuff they put on was rubbish but with so many channels there was nearly always something he could enjoy on one of them, his parents had never gotten around to getting satellite. Not that his standards were the highest when it came to what he wanted to watch. Clicking over to some comedy film-quiz he settled back to watch.
Soon into the program the noise upstairs stopped and shortly after he heard soft footsteps padding down the stairs. Francesca stepped through the door to the living room pulling closed her short dressing gown, made of some thin almost transparent material, and tying the belt around her waist which gathered the bottom hem of her gown up even higher.
Francesca sauntered into the room her body shimmering with a thin layer of sweat and she crossed in front of the T.V. blocking Fulton's view. He made no noise of complaint and she swung a leg up onto the settee over his legs and she sat atop him.
He looked up at her in that dominant position and she gave a sly smile. Leaning forwards, letting her gown fall open, she untucked his shirt and raked her nails over his chest.
With her mouth next to his ear she whispered, "Tonight I'm going to sort out this intolerable financial situation. There'll be no more of us having to do it on this tatty furniture.
"You remember that party I took you to? The high class affair that made you feel out of place."
Fulton nodded. "I remember."
"There were many wealthy gentlemen at that party. Gentlemen who know about we vampires. Gentlemen who pay handsomely for the opportunity to get intimate with a vampire princess."
"You told them you were a princess," Fulton laughed and then the meaning of what she had just said filtered into his brain. "You prostitute yourself to them?" he said incredulously.
"I manipulate them," Francesca retorted with blazing eyes. "I get pleasure and money from them. They get to use my body for a few minutes, that's all. I don't need to explain myself to you."
Fulton tried to change the subject away from his disbelief at her profession lest he incur more of her wrath. "They like it when you wear fantasy costumes, that's why you had on the medieval underwear that night."
Francesca nodded. "They watch too much television, like others I could mention. All their impressions of what we are are based on the images that come out of that damn box." She let her face reveal her vampire nature. "They like to be dominated by me when I appear like this. They get off on the whole queen of the damned thing." As if to accentuate her point she ground her hips, wriggling on top of him and making his body react to her.
"That was a quick promotion from a princess to a queen," Fulton said enjoying her activity.
Francesca ignored him. She shifted her face back and stopped grinding while she thought. "We will hunt early tonight, just after it gets dark. You and Gabriella will return here while I go and earn some money. A little bit of sex and blackmail ought to get us the money we need to tide us over until we have a more reliable base of income."
She indicated the television; "Now turn the volume down on that thing I have people to call, arrangements to make."
Francesca placed her weight on her feet on the floor so that she could lift her body from on top of his. Fulton reached up and grabbed her hips, pulling her back down on top of him.
"Later."
Francesca regarded him, still slightly resisting his downward pressure. "You are still very presum
ptuous."
Fulton just stared back at her and waited for her to give in. He knew she wanted this as much as he did.
"One day I will have to teach you your place," she said, but she settled down on top of him.
"For now I think I know exactly where you want me."
Chapter Twenty-five
They had hunted early as Francesca had said they would and, after a brief argument from Gabriella, the two younger vampires had returned back to the house together alone. They weren't to expect Francesca back for four days while she gathered her finances. The two vampires walked back to the house in silence and each made their way immediately to their respective room.
Fulton closed his bedroom door behind him and threw his jacket onto the bed before flopping down beside it. He lay there for a few minutes before deciding he wasn't going to shut himself away just because Francesca was going to be away for a while. Why should he lock himself away in his room and be bored? Francesca wasn't around to relieve his boredom which left the television to do it. He changed into something more comfortable and headed down the stairs.
Standing outside the door to the living room he could hear the quiet, slightly tinny, sounds of the T.V. set and a louder girlish giggle that had to be coming from Gabriella. He opened the door silently and peeked inside.
Gabriella was lounging on the settee much as he did, although being shorter than he was her legs weren't hooked over the arm instead her legs rested on it just below the calf. He couldn't see the screen from this position but whatever was on it was certainly entertaining her. Gabriella giggled and this time it burst into a full-blown peal of good-natured laughter.
Fulton let her mirth subside before he pushed the door open fully, intentionally making noise, and entered the room. Gabriella shifted instantly into a less comfortable more upright position, straightening her clothes as she did so. She barely acknowledged him with a shallow nod.
Fulton nodded back and dropped sideways into a chair, his legs hooked so far over the arm that his feet could have touched the floor at a stretch. He focused his attention on the T.V. and saw a program he recognised. Shifting slightly as if that would make him see it any better he said, "I remember this. I used to love this show."
He started watching it with genuine interest and looked over at Gabriella. "Don't you think this is just the funniest?"
She shrugged. "It's okay, I suppose," she said feigning disinterest.
"Don't be like that," Fulton said. "I watched you just a minute ago and you were loving it."
Gabriella jumped up. "You were spying on me?"
"Not spying, I just-"
"Shut up!" Gabriella stormed past him towards the door. "I don't want to hear it." She thundered up the stairs.
Fulton watched her leave and turned back to the T.V., her footsteps stopped and came back.
"You were spying on me." Gabriella marched back into the living room and planted herself between Fulton and the television set with her hands on her hips. She was staring him down like he was a naughty schoolboy brought up before a strict headmistress.
"What, you can't get your jollies with Francesca for a little while so you stoop to perving on me instead?"
Fulton spread his arms displaying his palms to her in a placating gesture. "I wasn't perving on you."
She cocked her head to the side and raised an eyebrow. "Then explain what you were doing watching me."
He shook his head. "I can't."
Gabriella smiled. "I'll bet you can't explain why you were watching me outside the club either."
His eyes widened in surprise and he shook his head.
"You didn't think I knew about that. Well get a good look now," she said turning slowly on the spot running her hands down her fully clothed body. "This is as much as you get to see."
With that she stormed out for the second time. Fulton watched her all the way to the door, which she slammed behind herself. He continued to stare at the door as she stomped up the stars until the sound of her slamming her bedroom door snapped him out of it. He shook his head and turned back to watching television.
Fulton returned to the house just an hour before dawn. He could tell by the smell of the air when he stepped through the door that Gabriella was already back. She had already been gone when he woke up late that evening. She wasn't in the living room so she must have already closeted herself in her bedroom.
Well if she wanted to be stubborn there was nothing he could do about it. If she insisted on cutting her pretty little nose off to spite her face he wasn't about to risk loosing some fingers by trying to stop her.
Fulton slouched into a seat and flicked the T.V. on. Gabriella could stay in her room and be bored if she felt she needed to keep away from him.
Gabriella was lying on her bed studying the ceiling when she heard Fulton arrive back at the house. She heard him close the outside door and another of the inner doors opening and closing. It was quiet for a moment and then she heard the television come on.
She lay there for several minutes shifting position as she tried to convince herself that she wasn't bored out of her skull. Eventually she could take it no longer. Why should she have to hide herself away? He was the one with the problem not her. Why should she punish herself for it?
Gabriella got up and walked over to her closet. She slipped into one of the sheer negligees Francesca liked her to wear, when she wanted her to wear anything, and reached up to get a heavier dressing gown to cover herself up. She let her hand fall back to her side and closed the closet door with her other hand. She was more comfortable like this, she shouldn't feel the need to cover herself up in her own home. In fact it was better to give Fulton an eyeful of what he couldn't have.
She allowed herself a sly smile. Yes, it was much better to torment him in this way.
Gabriella walked down the stairs and into the living room. She chose not to take the chair nearest the door, instead she sauntered across the room to the chair on the opposite side of the room. This made sure that Fulton got a good look at her. She arranged herself in the seat so that she showed plenty of flesh without actually revealing anything.
He watched her all the way across the room and only averted his eyes after she was seated and could obviously see him if he continued to stare. Gabriella made it look as though she was concentrating on the T.V. but positioned herself so that she could just see Fulton out of the corner of her eye and she saw him keep glancing over at her. He just couldn't seem to keep his eyes off her.
Gabriella entered the living room and Fulton looked over to acknowledge her arrival, it wouldn't hurt him to make that little effort after she had swallowed her pride and come downstairs. He caught his breath when he saw her. After her little outburst about him being a pervert and her 'this is all you get to see' tirade, he would never have expected to see her dressed as she was. The flimsy negligee she wore barely classified as clothing. It was so thin it was almost transparent.
The time for any greeting had passed before Fulton knew it and Gabriella was now arranging herself in her chair. He saw her eyes flick over to him and quickly averted his gaze, they hadn't spoken but at least they were in a room together without arguing there was no point in angering her again.
He cast his eyes back to the screen but flicked his gaze over to Gabriella every so often. It wasn't just his imagination, she was pretending to watch the television but she was staring at him out of the corner of her eyes. After her explosion about him watching her here she was unable to take her eyes off him. He was about to call her up on her hypocrisy when his parents appeared on the screen.
Fulton didn’t move. His chest barely even rose or fell. His entire world was focused in on the screen and what it showed to him. They hadn’t forgotten about him, they were appealing for him to come back to them. He was so intent on the screen he didn’t feel the tears starting to creep down his cheeks.
Chapter Twenty-six
Francesca emerged from the bedroom wearing this client’s new favoured costume
. She had visited a few others and had threatened them with death or blackmailed them into giving her money. It seemed none of these men wanted their wives, families or most often shareholders, to know what they got up to with her. On one occasion a client had tried to have her taken care of with a beating from a pair of his security people. After she delivered their decapitated heads to him he agreed to pay.
But all this one wanted was for her to agree to take part in his new fantasy and he would pay her a handsome sum. That was how she came to be dressed in an old fashioned night-gown that was cut to emphasise her breasts, and a hooded cloak tied at the neck. It seemed this client had been overdosing on old Hammer horror films. With their busty actresses heaving their bosom's pretending to be vampires. He had even asked her to meet him in a real graveyard to really get into it. Of course he didn't expect her to make her way there on her own.
Francesca walked down the curved staircase into the lobby of the large house and was met by her client's trusted driver. He walked her to the car and opened the door to let her into the back seat.
It took barely five minutes for them to get to the graveyard and Francesca stepped out of the car when the driver came around and opened the door. She looked out at the gothic graveyard. It's iron gates and grey stone statuary and headstones were illuminated only by the light of the full moon. Although that meagre illumination was sufficient for Francesca's vampire eyes to see by the driver provided her with a lantern that burned with an electrically powered imitation of flame.
"He will meet you over there," the driver said pointing over to a small crypt used to house the bodies of rich families dead, possibly it was her client's own family crypt.
Francesca didn't speak to the driver to thank him for the lift, the light or the directions, he was just doing his job.
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