Free Vampire "Unseen" (Vampire "Untitled" Trilogy Book 2) by Lee McGeorge

chair to face him more directly. “He was confused. Yes. He called me one night and asked if he had hurt me. It was strange, really strange because he really thought he had done something to hurt me. He sounded upset and nervous so I went to visit him and when I got there I found that he had cut his own neck, here.” She drew a line across her shoulder and collarbone. “He was covered in bruises and cuts from fighting with Nealla. But that was the strange thing. He didn’t know the difference. He had cut himself and been injured in a fight, but he thought he had attacked me.”
    “He hadn’t attacked you at this point?”
    “No, not at all.” Ildico said almost pleading. “Like I said, he was really nice until the last time I saw him.”
    “Was Paul aware that he was changing?”
    Ildico nodded firmly. “He was very aware. The next day he said he wanted to go to London to visit his doctor. He said he was sick and needed help. He was very strong about it and had made the decision.” Ildico held her hand up leaving Noica in anticipation that she would speak again. “Do you know what happened with Raul and the Boy?”
    Noica shook his head.
    “He got into a fight with Raul and the young boy who is always with them.”
    “Mihai?” Lupescu asked.
    Ildico nodded. “I think that’s his name. We saw them, we saw Mihai and Raul and I told Paul that Raul... Raul... he likes young boys.”
    Lupescu nodded in acknowledgement. It looked like old news to him.
    “Paul got angry and he chased Raul into the forest.”
    “Did you go with him?” Lupescu asked.
    “He ran too fast and I couldn’t keep up. I tried, but I lost them for a while. Then I saw Raul running towards me. He looked very frightened, he ran past me like he was being chased but Paul wasn’t there. I went deeper into the forest and found Paul with the boy...” she went silent and her eyes glazed over.
    “What did you see, Ildico?”
    Ildico closed her eyes and purged a few breaths through her nose. “He was drinking blood from boy’s hand. There was a cut, here,” she demonstrated the wound by tracing it out with her finger. Mihai’s wound. “Paul didn’t cut the boy,” Ildico asserted. “Raul did. Paul tried to do first-aid... he... he...”
    “He found the boy bleeding and drank from him.” Noica said.
    Ildico closed her eyes and nodded. “He was horrified by what he had done. He was crying so much. Paul didn’t believe in strigoi, but this made him change his mind. He didn’t believe he could become a vampire but then he found himself drinking the blood of a child.”
    “What happened next?” Noica asked.
    “We went to his apartment. He cried a lot, he was worried and scared. He was worried that if people found out what he had done they would kill him and bury him in the forest. He was so upset. He cried most of the day. I stayed with him that night to make sure he was OK, but the next morning he was very different.”
    “Was this when he attacked you?” Noica asked.
    “Attacked me?”
    “When he forced you to have sex with him?”
    Ildico suddenly shrunk away again and was back in the painful mindset. “Yes. I left straight after and didn’t go back. I didn’t want to see him. I don’t want to see him ever again.”
    “Ildico,” Lupescu said. “What Paul McGovern has done to you is a serious crime and I think it is best we record it as a crime to stop him doing it to anyone else.”
    She laughed, snorting tears at the absurdity. She grabbed a photograph and waved it at him. “He’s done worse,” she said. Then she turned the photograph around and looked at it for a little too long. It was the same photograph of Nealla, his eyes open, his scream frozen solid. It was a horror picture to just about anyone, but Noica would swear that Ildico, whilst examining the picture and despite all of her tears, was wearing the thinnest of smiles.

    ----- X -----

    Paul had stripped the room of the wet carpet and built a worthwhile