Sips of Blood Part 27

Dusk covered the forest with a pall. The trees appeared to stoop in the shadows. Branches reached out at abnormal angles, deformed by the decreasing light. The leaves would hide as one among themselves. The gra.s.s would take on the blackness of night, but the gurgle of the stream would penetrate the dark with its own hysteria, slipping over rocks, cradling tadpoles, and absolving the treachery that had defiled it. The stream ran clear again, casting away the sludge of life.

Chapter 46.

Sade slammed the door shut on his Jaguar and breathed in the crisp night air. He felt refreshed--no, invigorated--by his evening with Cecelia. La pauvre fille would certainly be hoa.r.s.e tomorrow from all the screaming she did tonight. He smiled and flexed his hands. His grasp on the whip had been too tight. The knuckles of his hands hurt. He had switched hands frequently to vary the strength of the whipping. His right hand never seemed to have the stamina and power of his left.

For a taste of his blood la fille would submit to anything.

His silk s.h.i.+rt ruffled slightly in the breeze as he walked to the front door of his house. From the corner of his eye he noticed David's car. Splendid, he thought. More than one of us will be content this night.

The door had been left unlocked, and Sade made a boisterous entrance into the front hall. A vaguely familiar voice filled the house with a grating yip. And kept right on yipping even when scooped into Liliana's arms.

"Uncle, how do you like our watchdog?"

"La chiennne," Sade whispered.

"Meet Ginger. Ginger, my Uncle Donatien." Liliana waved one of the dog's paws at Sade.

Sade's chest puffed up to utter a loud condemnation.

"Arrete de faire l'idiote."

"Sir." David stood in the doorway next Liliana. "I didn't mean to cause any problems. Just that I knew how Liliana liked to take care of stray animals.

"Elle suce leur sang!"

"Uncle," Liliana screamed.

Sade caught his breath and calmed himself.

"Je suis vraiment navre."

"In English, Uncle."

"I apologize for my ghastly behavior, but that dog reminds me of another."

"Sir, originally the dog belonged to one of my downstairs neighbors, Mrs. MacMa.n.u.s. They found her dead just today."

"Quelle tragedie!"

"Yes, it was, Mr. Sade. She wasn't always pleasant, but still she came to a sad end. Seems she must have fallen and broken her neck."

"Enough! Why don't we go back into the living room? Uncle?"

"Yes, of course." Sade shook out his blousy silk sleeves and led the group into the living room. "Tell me, David, how did you manage to inherit la chienne?"

"Excuse me?"

"The dog. He wants to know how you came by Ginger."

"Picked her up in our apartment building hall a while ago. Thought it strange when the days went by and no Mrs. MacMa.n.u.s appeared to claim her dog. I had stuck a note under her door telling her that I had Ginger."

"That was very nice of you, David," Liliana commented.

"Oui. A saint for taking in that ragam.u.f.fin."

"I really can't give Ginger a permanent home. I've had a dog before, and I don't think my current work schedule could include caring for a pet. That's why I thought Liliana could help."

"Ma pet.i.te, you have suddenly become an adoption agency. I'm not sure you will be able to find a home for the animal."

"I'm keeping Ginger," she said with determination.

"Where?"

"In my room, if necessary."

Sade poured out a chilled gla.s.s of Tio Pepe and offered the same to his niece and David. They refused the offer, and both proceeded to sit on the couch. Sade lifted his gla.s.s and began pacing the room.

"If the dog is going to cause a problem here, I can certainly take her back. I'm sure I can find another home. Somewhere."

"She'll be fine here, David. Won't she, Uncle?"

"If the scent of it in your bedroom does not disturb your sleep," Sade hinted.

"I bathed Ginger before I brought her here. She didn't like it much, but we managed. Right, girl?" David scratched Ginger behind an ear and smiled. "In a way, I'll miss her."

"Take her home with you, monsieur."

"Uncle, David's not home nearly enough to care for a pet. There's usually someone here, either one of us or Matilda. It might even tempt Cecelia into coming back."

Sade slugged back the entire gla.s.s of sherry. Shame, the high just wasn't the same as when he was alive.

Liliana stood and walked over to her uncle.

"How about making peace?" Liliana leaned Ginger toward Sade's body. A throaty growl forced her to pull the dog back. "See, you've hurt her feelings, and now she doesn't like you."

"There may come a time, ma pet.i.te, when she learns not to like you," Sade whispered.

He saw his niece's hands tremble. The hunger had overcome her today. Her complexion held a deep hue, and she filled the room with a warmth that only came from satisfying the blood hunger. She squeezed the dog too tightly, and it yelped.

"Oh G.o.d, I'm so sorry. Perhaps my uncle is right, David." She turned to the young man still seated on the couch. "I may not be the right person to care for Ginger."

David laughed. "You hugged her to hard. Sometimes love hurts."

"Worn-out cliche," muttered Sade. "But now that I think about it... How about your grandmother? She's all alone and could certainly use a companion." Sade reached out to pet the dog, which snarled and snapped at his hand. "I guess we got off on the wrong foot." He smiled at David.

"Sometimes her disposition can be quite sour, Mr. Sade. I really don't believe it's anything personal."

"Grandmother?" Liliana was trying to digest the thought. "She wouldn't want a pet. Her furnis.h.i.+ngs would be ruined."

"Ginger is house-trained, n'est-ce pas, David?"

"She's up in age and occasionally has an accident."

"Just like your grandmother, ma pet.i.te."

"I can't keep her, David. It wouldn't be fair. She'd be in too much danger. I mean, I couldn't follow her around our property, and I hate penning up animals."

"She's a house dog. Never saw greenery except for the neighborhood park down the block from our apartment house. I wouldn't advise letting her out," said David.

"Fine! Then the little..."

"Dog, Uncle."

"Yes, the word would have come to me, I'm sure. La chienne," he obstinately said, "returns to her park in Manhattan. I'm glad I came home to settle this before it became too complicated." Sade reached out for the dog. Ginger caught the tip of his right thumb. "Le monstre goes back to David, ma fille."

Sadly Liliana handed the dog back to David, who refused to take it.

"You've become so attached to Ginger that I feel awful taking her away so quickly."

"She's safer with you." Again she proffered the dog.

"Take the d.a.m.n chienne back!"

"Uncle!"

David lifted the dog out of Liliana's arms.

"Perhaps I should be going," David said.

"At least la chienne should be."

David shrugged at Liliana, and they both headed for the front door.

Sade leaned slightly to the right, enabling him to see the pair share a parting kiss.

Superbe.

By the time Liliana returned to the room, Sade sat on the window bench watching David's car drive away.

"Have you taken him yet?"

"I'm not going to."

"Something set off a wild hunger in you today. Have you and he mated?"

"Mated?"

"f.u.c.ked."

"Thank you, Uncle, for the clarification."

"And I receive no answer. That has to mean you two have made love. You cannot possibly continue without feeding. Animal blood is not going to be the answer. Only his warm blood will relieve the tension inside your body." He turned toward her.

"Your hands tremble, ma fille. Your eyes are misted with the sweetness of the love play. The color of your cheeks has deepened. And your breath reeks of fur, flesh, and blood. Oh non, ma fille, don't look so worried. David could not catch the scent, but I know it well."

"I will not take his blood."

"Will you continue making love with him? I see by your expression that loving him is a great temptation. Remember, though, he is not the boy you loved many years ago. His features may be the same, but that is where the similarity stops. He does not have Stuart's grace, nor his naivete. David is a man who has lived before he met you. I believe he has lived a full life, ma fille. A full life that includes the more perverse occupations."

"You don't know that."

"Let me say that I sense it."

"I will not kill him." She had moved close enough to Sade that the scent of her afternoon banquet made Sade's nose twitch.

"I am not asking you to kill him. Only I want you to take of his blood, take of his life, and perhaps share an eternity with him.

"Our eternity is marred by sin, Uncle."

"Sin! It is a sin to pa.s.s on a gift?"

"Being made into a vampire is not a gift."

"Then don't make him a vampire and don't kill him, but at least taste of him."

"I tasted his skin, his hair, and his s.e.m.e.n. I controlled myself through all."

"And then you rushed off to some place in the forest and feasted. Am I not right?"

"Yes." Liliana sat down on a leather ha.s.sock. "But I did not take his life, and I did not endanger his soul."

Sade laughed. He wanted so much to tell her of the prost.i.tute who serviced not only himself but David. But if she were to hear that the woman was dead, she might run off to her grandmother, and Sade needed the girl's youth within his reach.

"It has, moreover, been proved that horror, nastiness, and the frightful are what give pleasure when one fornicates. Beauty is a simple thing; ugliness is the exceptional thing. And fiery imaginations, no doubt, always prefer the extraordinary thing to the simple thing."

The 120 Days of Sodom.

by the Marquis de Sade.