Free Disappeared: MANTEQUERO BOOK 2 by Jenny Twist Page B

she intended, she met him.
    She had been looking out over the valley at the almond groves in late blossom, pink and white and utterly beautiful, and when she turned there was a young man standing behind her. She almost screamed and put one hand to her chest.
    “Hola, Guapa,” he said, taking off his hat and giving her a courteous bow. “I am Ignacio. I am sorry if I startled you. It is very beautiful, is it not?” He gave a great sweeping wave of the hand, taking in the panorama below them.
    Alison just stared at him, unable to speak, her hand still clutched to her breast. He was an extraordinarily beautiful young man, with high, aristocratic cheekbones and sensitive lips. His eyes were a very dark brown, almost black, and they looked at her now with a hint of amusement as she struggled to regain her equilibrium.
    “Perhaps you would allow me to escort you home,” he said, proffering his arm in an old-fashioned gesture.
    Feeling as if she were in a trance, Alison took his arm and they walked off together into the gathering dusk.
     
    She stopped as they got to the top of the street, and turned to him. Under her calm exterior she was horribly afraid. She knew who he was – had known from the moment she saw him. And now she believed it all, every word. Here before her stood the man who had killed her dearest friend and colleague. He looked like an angel, but was actually some dreadful, demonic, vampiric creature. And she was afraid, very much afraid, that his attention had now become focused on her new friend, Heather. But still she had to say it.
    “Ignacio, did you know another English lady? Her name was June – June Blacker.”
    Ignacio’s face lit up. “Juno,” he exclaimed. “My beautiful Juno. Do you know where she is?”
Alison reared back in surprise. “Don’t you know where she is?” she said. Then, mustering all her courage, “I thought you had killed her.”
    An expression of utter despair crossed the young man’s face. “Juno? Kill my beautiful Juno? How could I do that? All I did was love her.” He raised his face to the sky, now fully dark, and all she could see were his eyes, glowing red. “They locked her away from me. The doors were shut against me. I have been calling for her ever since.” He looked down again, his face a mask of agony in the moonlight. “I call for her every night. But she does not come. Only the other one came. The one who cannot speak.”
    Alison looked into his eyes – those dark eyes that had been black but now glowed red in the darkness – and what she saw was madness.
    She turned and ran down the street, banging at the door and crying for Heather, terrified he would catch her before she could get inside. But when she turned and looked back, he was gone.
     
    “It’s all true. I’ve seen him. He’s real.”
    Heather was laughing at her. “Listen to yourself. You are seriously suggesting that this – vampire – killed June and nobody reported it to the police. They just sealed up the house with dog-roses and God knows what else – holy water probably – and waited for him to come back for them. Does it seem likely?”
    “It’s not them he’s coming back for,” Alison said. “It’s you.”
Heather burst into a storm of laughter, her shoulders shaking with mirth.
    “Look at yourself. Come on, have a proper look at yourself.”
    “No!” Heather tried to pull away as Alison dragged her to the mirror.
    “What size were you when we came here? Twenty-four, twenty-six?”
Heather muttered something that might have been ‘twenty-six’.
    “Look at you now! You can’t be more than size eighteen. In less than a week, Heather. You’ve gone down five dress sizes in less than a week. What do you think could have caused that? There is no sensible explanation for that amount of weight loss.”
    She stopped and stood in front of her friend, her arms crossed, her expression severe.
    “We’ve got to go now. We’ve got to get out before he completely