The Anatomy of Vampires: Volume 1 Read Online Free

move—couldn’t think, believing she was gone from me forever.
    As the morning grew older, the warm light of the day crept farther and farther into the room. Unsure of the effects of the deadly sunrays, I moved her fragile body from my lap and moved to douse the light by coving the windows with coverlets, coats, and any other thick materials I could find about our house. And then I crawled straight back to her and began my grieving again, rocking her side to side as though she were my baby. For even in her most monstrous hours, she was still mine. And I loved her.
    At long last, I grew weary of mourning and once again, set her down over the cold floor. It was sometime in the late afternoon, but I didn’t make it my business to pay attention too much else. And I still refused to leave the room with her. Spent, I pulled myself up on the sofa, collapsing with my head resting over one of the jade cushions. I laid there for what felt like more hours, and just stared at her corpse. Ghastly, it was, something from my worst nightmare, but I just could not tear my focus from her. Something within me was disbelieving she could be truly gone in such a flash, when just several hours ago lived the promise she would exist forever.
    My eyelids grew heavier, and eventually, they closed. I don’t remember drifting. I only remember floating in the soft blackness, asleep. It must have been some time around seven in the evening I was jolted awake. I blinked heavily, rubbing the sleep away from my eyes, sitting up to see her impossibly looming over me in the deep shadows of the room. Silver moonlight pooled over the dusty floors. I gasped at the ghostly vision of her, the chills rolling wildly under my skin throughout my whole body, believing my grief had surely driven me to madness. She seemed so frail and in dim, murky light, her dress torn, looking improper, scraps of fabric hanging off from the shoulder and hips. Places where material was missing, I could see the pure color of her skin.
    My pulse was swift, and I do not recall breathing as I waited for her to strike, but ever so gently, I felt her cold grip wrap around my wrist. The action was gentle and did something to relax me. I released the breath I’d been holding. She hushed me and knelt before me on the sofa, her eyes blue, her face…human. I struggled to believe what I was seeing. I watched her reach to one of the corner tables to turn on the gas of one of the lights. My focus shifted for only a moment as I watched the little flame come to life from behind the glass, illuminating the severe angles of a face I knew so well, but then, did not know at all.
    “Darling,” she whispered, her full lips quirking with the hint of a small smile. I never wanted it to disappear from her face.
    I leaned forward, touching my palm to her marble cheek, her blue irises shifting instantly to black. My wrist—my pulse had gotten too close. I did not retract, however. Not immediately. I was too fascinated with what she had become. “Sorry,” I muttered, finally.
    She shook her head. “I won’t hurt you,” she spoke gently. “I’ve already fed this evening. Multiple times.” She even chuckled and the sound was positively musical. It ran circles around my head and I felt a wonderful warmth spread through my center. For the first time in days, I felt myself smile.
    “How are you before me when I watched you die in my arms only hours ago?” I asked, blinking hard to ensure I was truly awake. The bridge of my nose stung as my eyes started to water. She was there. But something about her still seemed ghostly, like she’d disappear any moment. The walls of the room felt like they were closing in on the two of us. The periwinkle-patterned wallpaper, torn and warped in several places, was alien to me. The art scattered across the walls, pieces I was all too familiar with because we had collected them together, felt like they didn’t belong to me at all. She didn’t belong to me, anymore. The