Sacrificing Virgins Read Online Free PDF Page A

was laughing in the photo, as was the woman whose shoulder he draped an arm around. One long lock of cinnamon hair obscured her right eye, but her left held the secret mirth of a cat’s eye. Emerald and squinting at whatever moment they shared. Captured in that second when all the two of them could do was gasp for air from laughter, while holding back the tears of life. He searched his memory for some clue, but his brain remained mute. His heart did not turn over. Jayce felt no connection at all to the picture or the woman.
    Next to the frame was another, this one a posed portrait of a small child. A boy judging by the outfit. The toddler knelt in front of an obviously fake fall photo backdrop, chubby hands locked together atop a small stepladder with a collage of red and orange and browned leaves behind him. From the light of the photo, it appeared that the child’s eyes were green. Like his mother’s , Jayce guessed.
    I knew these two well, if I kept their pictures on my dresser , he supposed. Girlfriend and her kid? His own wife and son? He realized suddenly that there was a ring on the fourth finger of his left hand.
    God! Jayce slammed his fist down on the dresser and a bottle of woman’s perfume shivered on the edge of a small shelf next to the mirror. It fell and shattered on the wood below and the room filled with the dizzying scent of gardenias and vanilla.
    Jayce breathed in the scent and gasped.
    â€¦black lace slipped high and stark on the cream of her thigh, and he moved his lips farther, up into the warmth of her, tongue teasing at her sweetness as he inhaled that warm elixir of her sex. Her fingers twined in his hair, pulling him closer as he tasted her heaven and breathed in her perfume, lust mixed with the lush of gardenias, woody vanilla spiced with love. His eyes flickered at the intensity of the moment, as she pressed harder against him and filled the perfumed air with the soft cry of her pleasure…
    In a flash the moment was gone again, and Jayce staggered backwards, resting against the bed. He pressed a palm to his cheek, and closed his eyes again, trying to delve deeper into the memory, farther into the moment unlocked, and then stolen away again. But now he only smelled the overpowering thickness of spilled perfume, and presently he went to the bathroom to find a washrag to sponge up the spill before it ruined the wood. It was his dresser, he supposed, so he might as well take care of it.
    He opened the bedroom and kitchen windows and cracked the front door to let in a breeze. The air chilled him to the bone and the furnace kicked on and ran and ran. It couldn’t keep up with the first breath of winter. But the cold braced him, woke him. He’d been in a fog since he’d woken this morning in the strange bed, and now he needed a plan. Something had happened to him, and he needed to find out what. Was he in danger? Where was his wife, and, he supposed, his son? Who could he call to find out?
    He glanced across the room and saw the black-and-silver answering machine station sitting on an end table, one receiver poking its thin plastic antennae at the ceiling. A red light flashed incessantly, a heartbeat demanding notice.
    Jayce reached out to touch the button to hear the message and then hesitated. His neck grew instantly cold. What if he didn’t want to know?
    He needed to know.
    â€œHey, Jayce. It’s Bill from work. You remember work, don’t you? We remember you…but we haven’t seen you this week. Or heard from you. And well… Listen, I’m sorry about this, I really am, but…you brought this on yourself man. I mean—we were really understanding after Becky and…well, you know. But…it’s been months now, Jayce. And you’re not any better. We never know when you’re going to turn up…or if you’re going to turn up at all. I talked to you about this last week and you promised that was the last time.