Drowning Ophelia (Immoral Dracula) by Eva Natsumi Read Free Book Online Page A

that he wanted me to give you this.” Abigail handed her a letter.
    Please.  
    Ophelia turned it over, there was nothing else.   His last recourse was please?
    “Is he serious?”  
    “If you said no he believed nothing else would change your mind. His first and only entreat is that you stumble over whatever obstacles his stupidity built and listen to your heart and mind and come to him.”
    “That’s much better than please .”  

VIII

    “You are beautiful.” Abigail returned the dress Ophelia had arrived in, only freshly cleaned. Somehow, she felt more comfortable in her own clothes.
    “Is that why you have a coffin?” Ophelia jumped right in with the questioning. She thought of a few when she left Casimir. Of course when she saw him most of them went flying out her head, but the coffin had stayed.  
    “What?”
    “Do you sleep in a coffin as well?”
    “No, of course not,” Casimir laughed. “Am I not allowed a few kinks?”
    “Can’t you just… store the blood? Get it from a blood bank?”
    “It has to be fresh.”
    “So only take a little. Take some and then let them go… People would be receptive to your disability.”
    “That would… It’s impractical! Don’t you think I’ve thought of everything and then some! Do you think I just became this way? That this accident happened to me and all my humanity poured from me like water out of a teakettle? I thought, ‘great, what a wonderful excuse to become a serial killer!’”
    “No of course not—“  
    “I have considered every possibility. In every blink I make and in the slumbers of my nighttime these possibilities are with me, and so are their failures. There is no other way. It is the most humane.”
    “How on—“  
    “If I drink this much at a time I can go years without ever feeding again. I’m off the map. To feed a little and then let them go… it would take a constant supply of fresh blood that is just not there.”
    “This much?”
    “Ophelia…” Casimir moved to her. Ophelia shoved him away. “When you meant we’re here for you, that I’m here for you. You meant as a snack .”  
    “I would never hurt you.” Ophelia couldn’t breath. She stumbled back in to the seat. “I didn’t hurt any of them. I sent them away… I’m honestly surprised you didn’t figure this out. Especially with how we…” Ophelia glowered. “With how we what ?” Ophelia’s breaths were fluttered, she was angry and shocked. Casimir sat below her knees. He gently stroked her hand and face. Ophelia shook her head. “I’m just a fool. I’m the virgin jester for everyone here.”
      “I love you.”  
    “You’re a liar,” Ophelia said. Casimir sputtered. “You didn’t send everyone away.”
    “Everyone in their rooms was sent away.” Ophelia bit the inside of her cheek. Nina was most certainly not in her room. “What if they weren’t in their room?”
    “Why would a person not be in their room? Unless of course they were with me…” Casimir smiled, drawing her knees closer to him. He asked a great question. How was she to answer it? But he must have known Nina was with Ophelia. He did see everything, after all.
    “You purposefully left her here,” Ophelia accused. Casimir’s eyes shadowed, dark and cruel. “I left no one. If they were in their room—“
    “She wasn’t and you knew that! Send her home.” Ophelia snapped her head away, silvery hair flying in Casimir’s face. Casimir stood and walked toward the window. The night was pearly, illumined by stars. After some long, tenebrous minutes, Casimir spoke,
    “It will take at least a day for another car to get here. I suspect you’ll want to be on it.”
    “How will you survive?” Ophelia’s breath steadied, yet she still could not look him in the eyes. “If you sent your, your food away I mean.” Casimir did not answer. The silence in the room weighed like an anvil. “What if you came out?”
    “As what? A murderer?” Casimir laughed. “I’m