In Cold Blood Read Free Page A

between the trailers and tents. The police were gone, the tape taken down, but a bunch of flowers lay wilting on the ground near the tiger trailer. Her stomach lurched. Flowers? Why? She had only bitten the woman.
    She found Ivan’s trailer – it was easy enough as it said ‘
Vampir
’ in large red letters and had a picture of a caped vampire dripping blood.
    ‘Ivan?’ she called as she knocked. ‘Are you in your coffin or can I come in?’
    He opened the door immediately. He was dressed in jeans and a shabby jumper, and it was only when he spoke and she saw his filed and built-up teeth that there was anything of the vampire about him. It looked odd, the jumper and those teeth. But the magic was still there: something unspeakably enticing about him.
    ‘Lovely to see you!’ he cried, waving his arms around. ‘I didn’t expect you’d ever come – but this is great.’
    He swept her into the smoky warmth of the trailer. There was no coffin, but a narrow bed used as a sofa. The smoke and the warmth came from a wood-burning stove. Ivan swept a pile of comics from a small wooden table onto the sofa and pulled up a stool.
    ‘Sit? Would you like something? Tea? Something stronger?’
    ‘Let’s start with tea.’ Ava smiled. She let the warmth and the oddness of Ivan’s caravan fold around her and she relaxed into talking to this strange, strange boy. She didn’t know or care where this evening would go – but she was up for the ride.

Six
    They talked for hours. Ava felt secure, buffered against the horrors inside her head. She was drunk on Ivan, light-headed with having fun again. Perhaps, even, falling in love slightly, she thought. Did she trust herself to fall in love again after Nathan? Ivan was different, though – and she was different.
    It was dark when she made her way back from the park. Snow swirled so thickly in large, cartoonflakes that it was hard to see. She didn’t expect there to be anyone out tonight. But there was a skinny, stooped man leaning in a doorway coughing. He must have been fifty at least. His skin was tired and grey from smoking, and his eyes were blank. He stepped out of the doorway to ask Ava for money.
    Ava reached into her pocket for coins, and her fingers found the piece of mirror. The reality of what she was came crashing back to her. At the same moment, she saw a scratch on the man’s bare arm – a line of dull, drying, dark red blood. The longing came over her so quickly she couldn’t stop herself. Ava grabbed his hand and pulled it to her mouth, then sank her teeth into it.
    The man screamed and screamed, thrashing at Ava’s head and shoulders with his other arm, butshe didn’t let go. She sucked and swallowed and felt the warmth flood through her again. At last she tore herself away and ran off, leaving the man yowling.
    As she passed a side street, Ava saw the same tall figure she’d seen before. He was wrapped in a long coat. He had a hat pulled down over his brow and a scarf over his mouth, but his eyes gleamed brightly between them as though he were smiling.
    The warmth the blood had spread through her body was gone in an instant – those cold, knowing eyes chilled her to the core. Ava wanted to run, but didn’t dare in case he ran after her. There was something about him, something odd that she couldn’t pin down and that made her feel instantly sick with fear. It was a feeling both of evil and of some strange familiarity – as though she knewhim and knew he was very bad.
    Panicked, Ava ran; she was almost as terrified that he’d seen what she’d done as that he’d catch her. But when she turned and glanced over her shoulder, the man was hurrying the way she’d come, towards the screaming man. She was relieved, but alarmed – was he going to help? What would he think of Ava, running in the other direction? She didn’t care, as long as he didn’t come near her.
    Back at the hotel, she showered and tried to calm her nerves. The man hadn’t followed her