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“You go first.” I fold my hands on top of the table and look at my pieces.

Silence.

“I said you go first, you old coot,” I raise my voice since he has “selective” hearing and wait for his move. “Do you need to turn up your hearing aids?”

Silence greets me once more.

“Tom.” I finally look at him in exasperation and immediately wish I hadn’t.

Tom is indeed sitting across from me, but his plaid shirt is coated in blood. Thick lines of it start from his neck and run down in crimson rivers to the floor. Blank eyes stare back at me, and his mouth is agape. I realize I don’t hear any heartbeat. The only sound I hear now that I’m truly paying attention is thedrip, drip, dripof his life source onto the wood paneled ground.

I should’ve smelled the blood. I should’ve known the second I walked in here. That’s how distracted I am that I didn’t even realize my friend, my only friend, was waiting here for me like atrussed turkey. A gift from Genevieve no doubt, to prove to me that she’s not fucking around.

“Holy fuck. No.” My chair thuds loudly as I run over to him.

Barely touching his arm, I jump back when his head quite literally falls off his neck and rolls across the floor with a sick thud. Blood trails behind it and I’ll never get the image of his soulless eyes peering into mine while his body remains headless in his chair.

“Tom?” I squeak out, wishing away the horror in front of me. “No, no, no!”

I’ve killed thousands of people in my three hundred years. Some might say I have no soul, no moral compass. As a vampire who’s to really say, but I’d like to think I do. Most humans that I’ve killed were those who deserved it. Tom most certainly did not deserve this.

My friend. One of the few friends I have left in this world.

Had. Fuck that hurts.

I clutch my chest as tears cascade down my cheeks.

He doesn’t deserve this.

A kind old man who loves his family and is weeks away from meeting his new baby granddaughter. A man who is a staple in the city and whose loss will be felt seismically. The one small kernel of good that comes out of this is that he’s reunited with the love of his life, but even that thought doesn’t ease the roiling of my stomach.

I swipe my tears away when they trail down my cheeks.

Glancing back at his body, I spy a bloody stained piece of paper. It sits on his crudely cut neck, and I cringe while grabbing it. Gore has never bothered me before but knowing that this is Tom has bile climbing up my throat.

The scrawled handwriting on the paper makes me vibrate with fury.

She’s next.

Love, G.

Paper crumples under my fist and I fucking lose it.

I refrain from tearing apart Tom’s restaurant out of respect, but the urge to destroy something is very much there. My chest heaves and my vision turns fully crimson. This hasn’t happened since my early days of being turned. It’s like peering through a colored lens, the red swirls and floats wherever I look. I flex my fists, and my fangs make themselves known. I hiss around them knowing if I don’t drink some blood soon it’ll be bad news.

How fucking dare she?

First my mate, and now my best friend. Genevieve is begging for death. I’ll take great pleasure in separating her spine from her body and stringing it up like a gory Christmas garland for all to see.

Celine says I’m not a monster, but right now, knowing all the things I want to do to Genevieve, I feel like one. I won’t be able to rest until Celine is safely back in my arms.

If Genevieve thought this would be enough to get me to hand myself over to her, then she doesn’t really know me at all.

Not wanting Tom to exist in this state any longer, I attempt to squelch my anger and give my friend the sendoff he deserves. I’m lucky none of his family members have seen him yet and can’t have them finding this. Two of the workers are out cold in the back where thankfully, Genevieve didn’t kill them, but they’ll wake up with a nasty headache.

“Hey, buddy, I’m going to get you all cleaned up,” I whisper brokenly, and set about my task.

Using stray tablecloths, I wrap Tom’s body. Then I use a trash bag to cover him. It feels wrong and makes me furious all over again that this is what I have to do. Then I set aboutcleaning the blood up best I can and disposing of anything too far gone to keep.