My Unbeating Heart by Eli Wilde

Author:Eli Wilde [Wilde, Eli]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-07-03T00:00:00+00:00

19

I never saw Hew for another week and even then, it was only briefly. I hardly left the lodgings. I could not part myself from Ophelia. Her voice, the way she moved, her skin scent, all these things and more drew me to her like blood to a beating heart.

“I’d like you to go to Bishopsgate,” Hew said to me, “to meet up with Father Sauvage. He has a warehouse located there I acquired for him. He uses it as a youth hostel.”

Ophelia invited him in as soon as she answered the door.

As soon as I heard him at the door, I hid three bottles of blood under the bed before he entered. I had a feeling he would not be pleased if he knew I was a cow blood drinker and I did not want him to be displeased with me. I stared at Ophelia as he spoke, not wanting to leave her.

“Do as Mr Hay says, Rufus,” Ophelia said. “It’ll do you good to get out of the house.”

Hew stared from me to Ophelia. Something in his eyes told me he knew we were together.

“What do yeh want me to do?” I asked.

“I’d like you to help Father Sauvage deal with some troublesome youths,” Hew said. “Ordinarily, he could deal with this himself, but lately, things have made a turn for the worse. These youths seem to have no care for their actions and how they impact on others. There is no talking to them. I’d like to see how you would handle something like this.”

“You want Rufus to rough them up?” Ophelia said.

Hew rubbed the top of the walking cane he carried with his thumb. “I’d like to say no, Mrs Ayre, but I am at a loss to think of any other way to tackle this problem.”

“Does it have to be right away that he sees Father Sauvage?” Ophelia asked. “Rufus has something wrong with his skin. The sun affects it really bad. He comes out red as a boiled lobster in no time at all.”

Hew stared at me for what seemed like a long time, but was probably only a moment. I did not like the way his eyes looked at me. It was as if he knew exactly what lay beneath my skin.

“I can cover me hands and face with soot,” I said. “The sun doesn’t burn me as much when I do that.”

Two days before, Ophelia wanted to take me out on the morning. It was a beautiful day. The smog cleared and the sun shone like I had never seen it shining in London before. I was apprehensive, but I left the house with her, trying to keep in the shade as much as possible. When we left Whitechapel and cut into Bishopsgate, there was no shade. I got the full effect of the sun on my uncovered hands and face. My skin did not blister like it had that first time I stepped into the sun as a vampire, but it reddened like I had been sunbathing unprotected all day long.

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