Chapter 161

There was a beauty in the woman's flesh, underneath the dirt that lingered on her skin, underneath the grease that weighed down her lank hair, underneath the stench of cigarette smoke that seemed to infiltrate every pore of her body. As I held her close, I admired the sharpness of her cheekbones, the gentle curve of her brow and the smooth lines of her throat. I didn't see the needle marks that punctured the thin, the bruised skin on her arms, nor did I see the deviated septum of her nose, decimated by too many years of slavish drug abuse. She was beautiful to me. When she took her last breath, the wound on her neck still sluggishly pumping out the blood I could taste on my lips, I told her so, whispering into her ear until she was gone and I was left holding the empty husk of her body. And all the while as I hunted and fed, I felt the intrusive gaze of the seer. I should have grown used to it by now, that constant crawling sensation over my skin, however the weight of it was so heavy