Snow Heart by Arvalee Knight Read Free Book Online

does.” Blinded with pain, Nieves stepped backwards away from Alric and his sneering paper doors. “Liar! Erika loves me!” Her foot slipped off the edge. Alric leapt forward and for a moment—just a split second in time—she thought Alric called out her name.
    Alric reached out to catch her but it was too late. He slipped, falling into the sand of his rock garden. “Nieves?” he whispered getting to his knees.
    She let out a moan, her head bleeding profusely.
    He noted the dark stain on one of the rocks that were scattered about the sand—the only white one among the jagged black rocks, large enough to reach a man’s knees. She’d fallen on the smooth one, he noticed with relief.
    He couldn’t quite understand why he was relieved. Alric told himself it was only because he’d be able to inflict more torture on the girl better if she were actuality alive. A healthier victim would be more of an entertainment than a weak and dying victim.
     
    †
    “She’s lost a lot of blood,” Wilhelm informed professionally. “I’ll need to have her moved to the infirmary as soon as possible.”
    “What reason is that?” asked Alric, far too impatient with the doctor.
    Wilhelm heard Alric’s aggravation quite clearly as he had trained himself to do, and remained calm in order to keep his voice smooth. “Nieves may have a concussion. If that’s the case, someone will need to wake her every hour. Her vitals are stable for now and the transfusion went well but…” His eyes moved to the inside of Alric’s room. “She’s very weak.”
    “She’ll live,” Alric stated, though it was meant to be a question.
    “Yes, I suppose you’re right.”
    Alric pressed his back against the door’s framework. “Then there is no reason to move her, now is there? I would enjoy waking her from sleep—it might just make her angry.”
    “Angry?” Wilhelm muttered. “Of course,” Wilhelm thought silently, “Alric’s only concern is the suffering of others.”
    The doctor slid his hands into the pockets of the white hospital jacket. “And you, Alric? How are you feeling?” His concerns about Alric could never be diminished. Alric’s weak health, after all, was a part of the curse. Wilhelm’s calling as a doctor never failed to keep him concerned about those around him.
    “I want Boris brought to me when you’re through with the girl.” Alric was apparently in no mood to discuss his own health.
    Wilhelm raised an eyebrow. “Boris? May I ask why?”
    “I want to thank him for bringing such a lovely victim to me as entertainment.”
    Alric’s words were coated thickly with sinister ideas. If he was going to do anything it would most definitely not be thanking Boris.
    Wilhelm feared what might happen to the twenty-six year old lawyer—then again, Boris was a little troubled himself. He regretted to admit it but Wilhelm felt that Boris’s demise would be for the better of the community.
    “I’ll bring him in right away.”
    “Good.” Alric pushed himself off the door frame.
    The doctor watched with concern as Alric slid his bedroom door closed. He could not imagine the torture Alric might press against the young girl, Nieves. Alric’s past was never something enjoyable to remember—the scars upon his back proved that as a factual bit of information.
    Alric glowered at the girl from the corner of his eye. “Why?” he thought. “Why had I tried to save her from the fall? To save her for later use, perhaps? I called out her name as if I needed her. Ridiculous! I don’t need that pathetic piece of trash.”
    He couldn’t believe he allowed the girl to stay in his room. He told himself that it was only to keep an eye on her—to watch her suffering grow. Though, in a way, Alric did not want to watch her. He didn’t even want to look at the girl.
    Alric turned to the rock garden doors then stopped at the sound of Nieves’ moan. She was in pain, he reveled with joy. The delight of her no longer smiling was a gift to