Free Kissing Corpses by Amy Leigh Strickland Page A

said.
    “He hypnotized me,” I argued. I knew that my voice was sounding desperate.
    “Hypnotism can't make you sleep with a corpse if you're not at least open to it.” Gilchrist said.
    “What?” Geneva shouted.
    “You did sleep with him, didn't you?”
    I looked down at my feet.
    “And you knew he was a vampire?”
    “I found out on Sunday,” I replied, quietly.
    “So you knowingly fucked a corpse, and now he thinks you two will be together forever.”
    I looked up at Gilchrist, angry. Maybe I was furious with him. Probably I was just furious with myself. “I didn't know he was evil, alright? He drinks bank blood. I thought he was a pacifist.”
    “He won't be drinking bank blood anymore.” Gilchrist bundled up the papers and bag from Daylight Donuts and stood up. “Where's the trash?”
    Cody pointed. “In the closet.”
    Gilchrist continued to lecture as he walked around the kitchen. “You think you're his first post-mortem romance? Rawdon Hale's psychosis functions on a ten year cycle. He decides to straighten out his life, to foster his humanity. He sets up a legitimate business selling antiques. He finds a new home far away from his previous one. He feeds on animals and willing prostitutes until he can find a source of bank blood and then he thinks he's almost human. Then he meets a girl. The last one was Laura Ruiz, may she rest in peace,” he crossed himself automatically, not pausing one second in his speech to do so, “He falls in love. He tries to turn her. Usually she's repulsed-- only one actually went for it, that's another story-- and she tries to run. He kills her. He spirals into monstrosity, leaving a trail of corpses and anemic women with gaps in their memories. He carries on this way for a few years before deciding he needs to find his humanity. Then he starts all over again. You just figured out his secret sooner than most. That's the problem with the promiscuous times we live in. Most girls enjoy months of gentile courting before they figure it out. You hopped right into bed with him.”
    Silent tears streamed down my face. I was going to be one in a long line of girls murdered by Rawdon Hale. I was going to die all for a few days of excitement at the idea that somebody wanted me.
    “I'm so sorry,” I said to Geneva.
    She sat next to me and hugged me. She didn't speak. I couldn't tell if she even believed me.
    “So who are you then?” Cody asked. “Vampire Hunter D?”
    “Dhampirs are a myth. I am a slayer. Liam Gilchrist. Your name?”
    “Cody Hunt.”
    “Hunt,” Gilchrist repeated with a smirk. “Funny.”
    “How are we going to stop him?” Geneva asked. “I mean, if he thinks he's--”
    “He is a vampire. To start,” Gilchrist said, picking up his coat. “Miss Harker is going to get dressed and bring me to his lair.”

    Liam Gilchrist and I stood on Rawdon's lawn, looking up at the house. The neighborhood was empty. It was a new development that stopped construction because of the housing market collapse. Few houses had sold and the inhabitants of those homes were off at Sunday services.
    “Come on,” he said, lifting his black leather bag and slinging it over his shoulder. “We have work to do.
    “The back of the house is blacked-out,” I said. “I think he sleeps in the basement.”
    “You know what happens to a vampire in the sunlight?”
    “They catch fire?”
    He laughed.
    “They don't actually sparkle, do they?”
    “Fuck no.”
    “Then what?”
    “They're dead.” He jiggled the front doorknob. It was locked. He slipped a set of picks out of the front pouch of his bag and slid one into the lock. “They're corpses. They can't animate in the sunlight, the light of our Lord.”
    “For someone so religious, shouldn't you be at church?”
    “The Lord will forgive me missing services if I'm actively slaying a demon.” The lock clicked. He turned the knob. “Ha. Left the deadbolt unlocked.”
    I looked around the neighborhood once before following