Love Is The Beginning (Valerie Dearborn) Read Online Free PDF Page B

yeah. You know what? You shouldn't come with me. You should stay
here. Maybe even go back downstairs. I always save the ones with blood and
stuff for last. It just lingers too long. I want to be out as soon as possible
after going into the rooms with… I'm really sorry about your mom and dad,” she
said again.
    Ella was gone, his dad was gone. He knew that, but he still
felt a terrible fear that he might see them again if he went in there. The
sheets on the bed were a mess, rumpled from taking Ella away. There was no
blood, which was a shock. And then he saw a tiny drop on the pillow. His gaze
fixated there. The girl opened the drawers, taking out all the clothes and
throwing them on the bed. Lots of dresses, tights, and pretty sweaters. “This
is a great wardrobe. Marion always buys them cute clothes. She's like Mother
Dearest but evil with a capital ‘E’. I think the real Mother Dearest was
more of a lowercase kind of lady.”
    How could she be so flip? “This was a girl's life. That...
woman killed her. Fed from her for who knows how long. What about her family?”
    “Oddly, Marion always takes orphans. Maybe because they’re not
as traceable, I don't know. I bet those kids think they’ve hit the jackpot. At
least at first. She gives them a better life, buys them pretty things, and pays
attention to them. She feeds them, and they travel the world with her. But they
also have a time limit. She likes them young. This one was what, twelve or
something? Once they’re teenagers, it's over, if you know what I mean. They
just turn up dead. I guess teenagers really are a pain in the ass.”
    “Stop!” Jack planted himself in front of her, desperately
wanting her to admit that things were awful, not the routine exercise she
seemed to think this was. “Her name was Ella. This isn’t a joke.”
    She moved away from him, her eyes spitting fire. “No shit,
Sherlock. Don’t you watch TV? You have to make jokes.  You Italians.” She
rolled her eyes. “You probably don't even have police shows. Not enough
nudity.” The whole time she'd been speaking she'd gone through the room,
touching everything in an impersonal manner. She took nothing with her when she
walked out the door and down the hall. He followed her.
    “Crap, I forgot this one,” she said and ducked into the room
across the hall.
    Jack remembered taking food to this room, it was the one
with the tall, handsome man with blond hair. She opened drawers and pulled out
more clothing.
    “Another female. Wow, look at the size of these diamonds!”
She'd pulled out a jewelry box from the top drawer then walked to the mirror,
moving her hair back from her ears so she could hold them up to herself. “These
are some nice things. Must have been Lucas or Dmitri who was here.”
    “What? Who’s that?”
    “Well, Lucas is like the head-honcho, and Dmitri is a total
womanizer. All these designer clothes and shoes—this is like, a fortune in
clothes. Sometimes I'd kill to take all this stuff to a consignment store. The
clothes I mean, obviously we take the expensive jewelry.”
    Jack stared at her dumbly. He didn't know. Was it obvious to
take stuff from a dead person's room?
    She kept talking. “Lucas keeps them for a while, and then
that's it. Usually, he lets them go, but they never know anything. Their minds
are always wiped clean.  He's a real catch,” she said sarcastically. 
    “Dmitri's just this Greek guy. He's a vampire and is rich
and has his women, but at least he's killable. It’s just a matter of time,” she
said it wearily. This girl was ten? She acted more like she was thirty.
    “How long have you been doing this?” Jack asked.
    She stood up from looking under the bed. Her shoulders went
back, and she picked up the jewelry box again. “Not long. Usually I'm in school,
but my dad talks about his work, or other hunters come over to the house, and I
hear it. Sometimes we get stuff in the mail. Pictures, descriptions, that kind
of thing.” She