Sips of Blood Read Online Free Page B

Liliana does not
suck you dry, I shall make a stew of you."
     
    * * *
     
    The cup slipped from her fingers and crashed
into pieces against the porcelain of the sink. Liliana's hands
shook. She needed fresh blood. The blood extracted from cadavers
kept her going only for a short while.
    Three years before, she had gotten a job near
the city at an embalming company that serviced several funeral
homes. She would position a dead body on the embalming table so
that the blood would flow into the gutters that ringed the table.
From there the blood would drip into pails. Most times she worked
alone, but when another worker was present she would have to take
great care to save the blood before someone could dispose of it.
The blood was not rich in the nutrients she needed but did afford
some assistance in staving off starvation.
    Slowly she picked up the jagged pieces of
china. Lennox. Relatively new and simple. Too simple for her Uncle
Donatien, who preferred the ornate and antique.
    She dropped the pieces of china into the
garbage.
    "Ma petite!"
    "In the kitchen, Uncle Donatien!"
    "My precious pet," said Louis as he entered
the room with arms outstretched.
    Liliana tolerated the hug and the
un-uncle-like kiss Louis persisted in giving.
    He sniffed the air.
    "Blood. Sour, bitter blood. Have you been
drinking that horrid filth again?"
    "I brought home some blood from work and just
had a cup of it."
    "Yech! Did you store that garbage in our
cooler?"
    "Yes, I put the left-overs in the
refrigerator. I don't want to argue over it, Uncle."
    "Dead blood in our home, among our
vittles."
    "Uncle, we're dead."
    "Mais non. Dead is when you putrefy
and disappear into dust. We, child, thrive in the arms of
immortality."
    "We can be destroyed."
    "Ah, a sin."
    "A reality check, Uncle."
    "And here I have brought home a gift for you.
Something at least better than that awful stuff you steal from
work. Work!"
    "I work to feed myself. I can't manage to get
enough animal blood to satisfy my appetite."
    "Of course not, animal blood is thin. It
lacks the richness of warm fresh human blood."
    "No, Uncle, I'm not returning to feed on
others like ourselves."
    "You compare us to these mortal wimps that
cross our paths?"
    Liliana started for the doorway.
    "Wait! I've brought you something alive."
    "And probably small and cuddly."
    "You get pleasure drinking from those horrid
rats?"
    Liliana shrugged and faced her uncle. "What
did you bring home?"
    "It needs to be cleaned up a bit. I was going
to bathe him before delivering him to you."
    "You caught something in the wild?"
    "No, it has the... la chiasse."
    "Dysentery! It must be ill. Where is it?"
    "Not malade, more like ill-tempered.
He's in the animal carrier in my car."
    Liliana hurried out to retrieve the animal
and was delighted and left breathless when she opened the
carrier.
    While being washed in the bathtub, the rabbit
managed to take more than a nibble from one of Liliana's fingers.
Her cry brought the sound of her uncle's French curses to her ears.
Eventually the rabbit was cleaned and bundled in a natural Egyptian
cotton towel and taken to be reacquainted with Louis.
    "He is adorable. There's no way I can take
his life."
    "If you don't, I'll throw him live into a
stew pot."
    "You wouldn't dare!"
    Donatien Alphonse François de Sade rose nobly
from the feather cushion of the couch and walked over to where his
niece stood.
    "Please, child, you refuse the charming men I
have brought home for you. At least accept this small token of my
love.
    "Your skin was once so soft. Now it is papery
thin, and blotched from the many years of famine." He touched her
cheek and slid the back of his fingers across her lips. "My
favorite little girl."
    During these awkward moments Liliana was glad
that she looked wasted to her uncle. She believed it was the only
thing that saved her from his incestuous desire.
    "Did you see Grandmother today?"
    Her uncle shook is head and stepped closer.
She was sure he would have taken