The Key (Sanguinem Emere) Read Online Free PDF Page A

lifted from my face and something cold and wet is pressed to my neck.
    After a few moments of coaxing, she manages to uncurl my strained, whitened fingers from the edges of the bowl and pulls me unsteadily to my feet. My body feels limp, incapable of holding my weight and where her cold fingers touch my skin it burns and I shy away from her touch.
    “Oh God, I’m sorry,” Her voice is quiet, like she’s afraid my hearing is over sensitised. It is, and even the graze of her hand against the comforter makes my head twinge unbearably as a painful throbbing joins the myriad of symptoms I have suddenly acquired.
    “Was it the tea?” She mumbles nervously.
    “No, Cess, I guess the tea just set off whatever it is.”
    “Oh,” She smiles again, “You’ll feel better soon, just rest.”
    “You seem awfully sure of that,” I groan into the pillow as I turn my face into it, trying to blot out the light and dampen the heat radiating from my skin.
    “I am. I’ll let you get some sleep. We have a ton to catch up on.”
    She lays a gentle kiss on my hand and I find myself wanting to risk more illness and scurry away from her, my mind going unbidden to terrible places. Places where she is laying gentle kisses on my boyfriend.
     
    The creak of my door makes me lift my thrumming head from the cushion, stealthily stuffing the notes in my hand underneath it as I turn to watch Doctor Shane traipse smoothly inside. His eyes are watching me, even as he maintains the appearance of disinterest, glancing about my room. He pauses at a charcoal sketch of Dimitri and sighs in an affected manner that makes my lips curl back from my teeth.
    “Eva, I’ve been thinking.”
    Gosh, what a shocker.
    “And perhaps you and I got off to a bad start.”
    I nod empathetically, not really caring where he’s going with this, as long as he doesn’t take away any more of my work. Acknowledging my obstinacy, Shane runs his hand over one of the books Alex brought me and picks it up.
    “Bluebeard,” He mutters the name as he replaces it and casts another weary eye over to me, watching him with barely restrained malice. I pride myself on knowing some of the thoughts that are occurring to him as he takes a gander at one or two of my other books. All eclectic. An obvious theme runs through them all. I’m sure he’s noted it. But he doesn’t get it.
    He just thinks I’m nuts.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    SUNDAY 16 November 2008… 15:13
    I awaken again to the sound of my phone buzzing somewhere and, dazedly, I reach out for the vibration, clasping the coolness of it and pressing all the buttons at once in my sleep-riddled state.
    “Eva,” I mutter into the phone.
    “Eva? Are you alright? You sound like you’re sleeping.”
    Alexander.
    “Well, not anymore. What’s up?” My mouth tastes vile and I lazily get up to brush my teeth. For a second, as my eyes adjust to the darkened room, I fail to recall where I am, but then the memories of this morning return with a vengeance and I nearly reach up to clutch at my head as the shadow of illness riddles my brain. Strangely, though, nothing seems to have lingered.
    “I got this mad call from Cess at eight this morning. Now I just have to ask, has she lost her mind, or have you?”
    I dig around in the cabinet by my feet to find something to brush my teeth with, “Uh, I guess it depends which way you look at it. If you are referring to when I said I will never speak to that little, backstabbing bitch ever again, then I suppose you may say I have lost my mind,” A groan of disapproval sounds through the phone, “Look, I couldn’t help it, okay? She did that thing that she does so well. She puppy-dog eyed me and I felt so bad for being angry that I let her think we’re on speaking terms. And now, well, I reckon now I can’t back out of it.”
    “That is not really what’s worrying me. Between you and me, I always thought Cecily may be a bit too air-headed to