Chapter 250 - Final Arrangements part 7

But he was right. We were leaving the city on the morrow. There really wasn't much of a reason to dispose of our victims properly. I was mostly just trying to impart a lesson to my acolyte, to be a good maker and train my unruly fledgling. And I really didn't know why I was trying to do that. I would be doing the world a big favor if I left him unschooled. Some other ancient blood drinker would tire of his antics, end him before the year was up probably. It was just hard for me to be lackadaisical when it came to doing things the proper way. It went against the grain for me. Perhaps it was my fathering instincts. This is the proper way to do it, and we do it because it is the proper way.

So I compromised.

We carried Annette or Annabelle to the roof of the garage with her cohorts. Arranged them neatly side-by-side. We made sure all the bites on their bodies had been healed with the living blood. I made Lukas do it so he was familiar with the process, then I broke open the two chimneys and we stuffed their bodies inside.

The stone throats of the chimneys were narrow and crumbly, but we managed to cram all three inside. We threw some broken bricks down on them before I replaced the uppermost section of the flues.

"There," I said, dusting off my hands. They were covered in brick dust and soot. "It will be months before someone finds them. This building has been abandoned for a long time. Maybe, when summer arrives and the bodies begin to smell, someone will be compelled to investigate… but then again, it may be years before our victims are found. As you said, it doesn't matter now. Neither of us is returning to Liege."

"No," Lukas said, staring off across the city. He gazed at the glittering lights with a look of faint revulsion. "I've never much cared for this city. Maurice brought me here when he smuggled me out of Germany. I think his grandmother lived here once." And then he laughed.

I joined him for a moment, admiring the brilliant skyline, watching traffic wind its way through the streets. I imagined all those vehicles to be luminescent blood cells surging through the veins of some transcendent being. I watched boats glide down the Meuse, thousands of anonymous men and women pass by thousands of brightly illuminated windows. I took in the glittering towers. The hovels and huddled tenements. The parks and sprawling factories. Where the eyes of my companion smoldered with revulsion, however, my eyes gleamed with adoration.

Adieu, mon chere, I thought. Goodbye, my beautiful Liege.