The Dead Tell (Magical Temptations Collection) by Jaycee Clark Read Free Book Online Page A

who not only enjoyed the macabre, but craved it. He gave them that. Gave them the dark beauty. Gave them art worthy of Poe. Not everyone appreciated the dark. The art of death.
    People should, they really , really should, but most didn’t. Most stayed away from the dark, from reminders of death. Fear was a strange thing in the way it drove people.
    Personally, he fi gured people should study death more often. Learn to appreciate it. If they did, the fear would dissipate. Fear, once conquered was simply another aspect of, well, life.
    Death, after all , was inevitable—had been since the dawn of time.
    He glanced at all the wall.
    His wall of art. The art of his creations, his dolls.
    So many pretties. So many he’d tried to immortalize. He’d achieved more with the digital images, than he had with the bellows. And God knew photo manipulation with any computer wasn’t that difficult. He could distress the edges.
    But it wasn ’t the same.
    The antique look was what he wanted. Distressed, old. Silver image s that were lasting. People said digital images lasted, but take out a satellite, servers could be corrupted, hard drives crashed, images could be erased.
    But these, these ha rd images, laced onto slides with chemicals, these called to him. Tempted him for more, for better. Teased him and his muse and there was a reason. Hundreds of years after the first ones were taken, those images were still here. Not that digital didn’t have its place. Most of the time, images could be retrieved so easily. They could be manipulated, unlike, the silver ones. One shot. He’d had one shot with the bellows.
    Some of t hose had not worked out.
    He traced his fingers along the edges of the glass. Expensive hobby. Beautiful hobby.
    N ext time he would not be rushed. He’d go out, find a place he liked in the middle of the damned bayou if he had to, and then, then he’d make it perfect . Make it so no one found her. At least not right away.
    Because he knew they ’d already found the other one.
    He ’d known his time was short . He’d heard the two men talking as they climbed over the wall and realized they were cops. He’d hidden and waited until he couldn’t wait any longer. They would find him and he knew more would be arriving and more people meant he’d have a hard time getting away, getting his equipment away. He’d had to hide it in the mausoleum he’d hidden it in several days ago when he’d taken his stuff there so it would be ready. It was one thing to see a man go in several days in a row. Another to see the same man make several trips into the same cemetery on the same day. The same day a woman was murdered.
    He ’d taken his stuff a day earlier after scouting out where he wanted to hide it. The old mausoleum with an easily picked lock wasn’t easy to locate but he had. Then he’d gone back several days later and dumped his things. Finally, he’d taken his creation, his doll, making sure everything was perfect.
    But before that, he ’d waited. Waited and watched until her.
    Her and then he’d known.
    She was exactly what his muse needed.
    He took her.
    He grinned.
    And had fun with her.
    He gla nced over to the door hearing the muffled cries from within.
    He was having fun with this one too.
    He liked them awake and cohere nt enough to fight him, but not so much that they drowned out the muse. He wanted art.
    The images on the wall created a collage. Eyes, eyes opened and narrowed in terror. Mouths turned down, tear tracks on pale cheeks.
    All in black and white.
    Color took som ething away. Though there were colored images as well. He just preferred the images to be black and white. He could always add color later. Just a splash. Just a dash. A blue bruise on a cheekbone. Violet in an iris, or a dash green. Red.
    Red was his favorite. Gave the images life they might not otherwise have had. Red...
    The rouged skin of ligature marks. The skin marred otherwise perfection.
    Those were from some of hi s earlier