Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 64359 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 257(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64359 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 257(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
“Mama!”
He reaches for me and I pick him up. He is a warm, squirmy weight in my arms. Holding him feels like everything that is good happening to me all at once. I wonder what life was like before I had him. It’s very hard to remember, but my husband says that is normal too. He says that when a woman has a baby, her life starts over again. I think that must be true. I don’t remember giving birth to the baby, it’s the oddest thing. But my husband explains that it’s not uncommon to forget the pain of childbirth, so I am glad for that.
“Ow!” Baby nips me while nuzzling hungrily against my chest.
He’s the sweetest little thing with the most adorable little fangs. I have to pump to feed him, and there’s a special bottle I use because he tends to puncture them. It’s funny how some things feel so clear, and other things feel fuzzy. I try not to dwell on them, but there’s an unsettling feeling that seems to follow me around.
My husband appears with the bottle. It has been warmed to just the right temperature, and the baby reaches for it with his happy grabby little hands. He’d like to hold it for himself, but of course he can’t yet. I cradle him in my arms and hold the bottle for him as he suckles hungrily at the teat.
“He is growing so nicely,” my husband says.
I smile at the baby and then back at the man. I know their names. Of course I know their names. But they swim hazily in my mind and there is a sense that it doesn’t matter really. They are my baby and my husband. That’s all I have to know. That’s all that matters. Life is simple, and so am I.
I am safe.
I am kept.
I am home.
“You’ve worked so hard,” my ever so handsome and entirely adoring husband says. “You’ve looked after the baby all day long. I know you must be exhausted and hungry. Why don’t you let me feed little Rhys and you can go get something to eat.”
Rhys, that’s right. He’s named after his father. How could I forget? I am so silly sometimes.
“I am peckish,” I admit. “But I am watching my figure.”
“Your figure is perfect,” he replies. “I’ve left something in the back yard for you. Take as long as you like, my dear.”
Ileave my doting husband feeding the baby, and I go out to the back yard. The grass is cut neatly into a criss-cross pattern, and we have a lovely little bubble glass picnic table with a yellow-tasseled umbrella I like to put up on sunny days. The day is waning now, though. Dusk is starting to settle in a golden blanket across…
“Help me!”
“Oh!”
My meal really is waiting for me in the form of a naked numahn staked out on the lawn by his hands and feet. I would have missed him entirely if he hadn’t called out to me. I just find this home so enchanting. There’s something about this little corner of the world that feels perfect - as if it were built just for me.
I feel a welling of affection for my husband. He knows me so well. Meat is always nice. Blood is essential, but there is nothing like live prey to really satisfy my hunger. It tastes different. It is richer. It is… I am licking my lips as I approach the cowering creature.
He looks up at me with hope in his eyes. They always do, because I am a pretty lady in a nice clean dress and everybody knows pretty ladies in nice clean dresses can do no wrong. He thinks I am here to save him.
“Aw,” I say. “It’s not really fair for you to be tied up like this, is it?”
“Please let me go,” he whimpers.
He is relatively young, perhaps somewhere to the north of his twenties. He smells like fear. It is a spicy sort of tang that only serves to make me want him more.
“I think I should untie you,” I tell him.
“Thank you. Thank you so much. You’re so nice. I don’t know what’s been going on. I don’t know why that creature tied me up like this…”
“Creature?” I ask the question as I crouch down next to him.
“The one with the red eyes, the vampire…”
I let out a little laugh. “Poor boy, you sound so confused.” I am almost done untying him. Just one more…
“There we go,” I say.
He gets up and he starts running without so much as a thank you very much. I smile to myself, slipping off my kitten heels. They’re not terribly practical for the type of terrain I’ll be giving chase over. I don’t mind that he’s running. He’s actually playing along perfectly. I like to give my prey a head start. It’s only fair, after all. I am faster than most of the meals my husband provides me.