Free The Better to Eat You With: The Red Journals by Cara Villar Page A

bounty
hunter, let alone Little Red Riding Hood.
    I’m badass, bi-atch
    Stopping
to momentarily stare out at the woods around the house, I contemplated what I
knew of the household’s routines. A forest that stretched on for miles was to
the east, while swamps lay north and fields spread out in a rolling horizon to
the south—or so I’d been told, since I was not allowed outside. I’d deduced
that the biggest obstacle was finding a way out and how to just keep on going. Being
only half-Vampire, my speed was not quite as swift as a full-blood, but my
wolf-side ensured that I could keep up my nippy pace for longer. What I lacked
in power, I made up for in endurance.
    The first
one was the tricky, big obstacle I needed to get past. The second one was what
was going to keep me past the tricky, big obstacle.
    I also
knew that Osiris cloistered himself away in his study, doing what, I didn’t
know, but he always seemed to know when I was going to cause mischief. I’d
tried climbing out a window the day before, and I’d barely moved towards the
sill when he knocked on the bedroom door and asked if I wished to stretch my
legs. I’d stared at him like a dipstick and hastily shaken my head, disinclined
to spend any prolonged time in the unusual, apathetic Vampire’s company. When I
had tried sneaking a pair of tweezers from Porcia’s bathroom and attempted to
pick the lock on the kitchen door that lead out to the gardens, he’d suddenly
appeared out of nowhere just as I was about to crouch down, and asked me if I
liked puzzles. I’d blinked at him, too shocked to do anything else, simply
nodded and followed him out. To which   followed
two hours of intricate glass and steel puzzles and a game of chess.
    Creepy.
    Porcia,
however, I had been in the company of whether I was disinclined to be or not. She
clung to me as if I was her new BFF and chattered non-stop about anything in
such a manner that I couldn’t help but stare at her mouth in alarm while
she did whatever she wanted to me. That being said, the pedicure I was loathed
to receive that morning did actually make my feet look  so  much
better.
    But I was
not telling her that.
    Frost, in
contrast, was her ever-present   shadow. Silent and stoic, he’d obviously had a long while to
accustom himself to Porcia’s rambling. All he seemed to do was give a small
smile or a nod of his head, and then zone out completely. I couldn’t tell if he
even listened or not as he strolled along the halls of this estate with us. The
only time he didn’t accompany us was when Porcia and I were in each other’s
rooms. He never stepped past the threshold, but merely gave a slight incline of
his head, and wandered off to his own quarters. The first time he’d just wandered
off, I hadn’t even noticed until a few hours later. He was a ghost.
    Both
young Vampires, however, were currently out hunting, leaving me on my savvy
lonesome.
    I asked
Porcia once what Frost did when not in our company. She’d merely shrugged and
said, “Plays chess with Osiris or the violin with Felix.” All thoughts had then
derailed into my new obsession.
    Felix…
    The one Vampire
I’d like to get my claws into—and not in the good way. Well, I guess ‘good’
depends on your kink threshold, but that’s beside the point! For someone who
had been so keen to get me onto his side and into his clan, I’d seen neither
hide nor hair of him—bar the brief flashes of his passing by a door— since he’d
nigh stripped me to my undies. The infuriating scumbag was avoiding me, I knew
it. He had got me into a mess, and I’d barely seen him since.
    Can’t
he just stand still for ten minutes, so I can at least look at him? Is that too
much to ask?  Obviously.
    After
nearly forty-eight hours of searching, waiting and tracking my elusive prey, I
finally caught him the previous afternoon as he was leaving his quarters,
pulling on his biker jacket ( I still want one of those! ) and strolling
for the stairs.