Free Countess Dracula by Guy Adams

make me happy. I found it tonight. But I need you to be a part of it.’
    ‘The maid?’
    ‘Yes, though probably not in the way you think.’
    Nayland didn’t want to hear more: this was the terror that waited on the next sunrise, the next step on the downward spiral. He knew she wouldn’t spare him. ‘What did you do?’
    In answer Elizabeth reached across and turned on the bedside light. It took a moment for what he saw to sink in. He scooted across the bed to prop himself up against the footboard, staring at the woman facing him.
    ‘What have you done?’ he asked. ‘What the hell have you done?’
    ‘Something miraculous, and all it cost was the blood of someone unimportant.’
    Someone unimportant
. How mild those words were. How terrible.
    ‘Tell me!’
    ‘Darling, there’s no need to shout. It was just an accident, a happy accident.’
    ‘Not for her.’
    ‘Oh, who cares about her? She was nothing, just a silly little girl. Since when have we had to worry about people like that? This is who we are, the gods of the screen, grown beautiful by feeding on them. All I did was take it a step further. Her blood made me beautiful. Am I not beautiful?’
    Nayland couldn’t deny that. She looked absolutely stunning, better even than she had in his screening room. She was the perfect dream of herself. The definitive Elizabeth.
    ‘Of course you are.’ He moved closer and she tilted her head, spreading her limbs out before him, soaking up all his attention.
    ‘Did I ever look better?’
    ‘No,’ he admitted. ‘But … the girl …’
    ‘Is dead and there’s nothing that can be done to bring her back. So why worry? We just need to get rid of the body.’
    He sank back on the bed. ‘We?’
    ‘You wouldn’t let me struggle on my own, would you? And you know I’d be grateful. I might even love you for it.’
    ‘Don’t promise what you can’t deliver.’
    ‘Who knows?’
    Nayland knew only too well but he wasn’t going to argue about it.
    ‘Will you help?’ Elizabeth rubbed her young toes on his old, grey chest. ‘You wouldn’t let me go to the chair over such a stupid little thing as this, would you?’
    ‘I should.’
    ‘But you won’t.’
    ‘No, God help me, I won’t.’
    ‘Good boy.’
    They dressed, Nayland unable to stop staring at Elizabeth, she loving every moment of it.
    ‘What are we going to say?’ he asked.
    ‘I told Patience that we were going to take her out. Who’s to say what happened to her after we left her?’
    ‘Not the maid. You. People won’t believe it. You’re so young …’
    This had never occurred to Elizabeth, the idea that she had restored her beauty but wouldn’t be able to show it. She looked at herself in the mirror. ‘This is Hollywood – they’ll believe anything we tell them. That’s what they do. We’re not human, we’re not real … they expect miracles from us every day.’
    ‘And Patience? Or Fabio?’
    ‘Fabio will see dollar signs, Patience will just have to do as she’s told. That’s what she’s for.’ Elizabeth tore herself away from the mirror. ‘We’ll worry about that in the morning, one thing at a time.’
    She led him into the bathroom. He saw the drained body of Georgina dumped in the tub.
    ‘Oh God.’ Nayland pressed his hand to his mouth, then said, ‘Oh Elizabeth, what did you do?’
    ‘What needed to be done.’ She had brought in the red dress that she had promised Georgina she could wear. ‘Help me get her into this.’
    ‘Why, for God’s sake?’
    ‘Because it will look better. We dress her up and dump her. Stick to our story, that we took her out for dinner somewhere …’
    ‘Where?’
    ‘I don’t know. Luciano’s, Oceanic …’
    ‘They’ll check! The police will ask if we were there.’ Nayland rubbed at his face, trying to force his brain into action. ‘This needed planning, care … you just killed her and now …’
    ‘I needed you,’ Elizabeth purred. ‘All right? I admit it. I should have asked