Guilty Pleasures   ::   Гамильтон Лорел

His skin was warm. “You need to rest, Phillip. You're tired.”

He nodded. “Tired,” he said.

I led him to the soft dirt. He lay down on it, then sat up, eyes wild, grabbing for me. “Aubrey! He …”

“Aubrey's dead. He can't hurt you anymore.”

“Dead?” He stared down the length of his body as if just seeing it. “Aubrey killed me.”

I nodded. “Yes, Phillip.”

“I'm scared.”

I held him, rubbing his back in smooth, useless circles. His arms hugged me like he would never let go.

“Anita!”

“Hush, hush. It's all right. It's all right.”

“You're going to put me back, aren't you?” He drew back so he could see my face.

“Yes,” I said.

“I don't want to die.”

“You're already dead.”

He stared down at his hands, flexing them. “Dead?” he whispered. “Dead?” He lay down on the fresh-turned earth. “Put me back,” he said.

And I did.

At the end his eyes closed and his face went slack, dead. He sank into the grave and was gone.

I dropped to my knees beside Phillip's grave, and wept.



48

Edward had a dislocated shoulder and two broken bones in his arm, plus one vampire bite. I had fourteen stitches. We both healed. Phillip's body was moved to a local cemetery. Every time I work in it, I have to go by and say hello. Even though I know Phillip is dead and doesn't care. Graves are for the living, not the dead. It gives us something to concentrate on instead of the fact that our loved one is rotting under the ground. The dead don't care about pretty flowers and carved marble statues.

Jean-Claude sent me a dozen pure white, long-stemmed roses. The card read, “If you have answered the question truthfully, come dancing with me.”

I wrote “No” on the back of the card and slipped it under the door at Guilty Pleasures, during daylight hours. I had been attracted to Jean-Claude. Maybe I still was. So what? He thought it changed things. It didn't. All I had to do was visit Phillip's grave to know that. Oh, hell, I didn't even have to go that far. I know who and what I am. I am The Executioner, and I don't date vampires. I kill them.