Read Online Vigil: Verity Fassbinder Book 1 by Angela Slatter - Free Book Online

at West End Library just a matter of hours ago.
     She wasn’t much different, except for the lack of a graffiti moustache. She appeared to be in her sixties, but I was fairly
     certain that her true age was being artfully concealed by a combination of expensive cosmetics, a cunning glamour and a lot
     of Botox. Even so, the skin on her face and neck was a little too tight, too smooth, as if it had been burned once and a lot
     of effort had been made to reverse the effects; not even magic and surgery can completely conceal something like that. She
     wasn’t overly tall, but she had a good figure, just a little thick around the waist. Her pale champagne dress fitted impeccably;
     her hair, an elegant mix of grey and blonde, was immaculate and her eyes a twinkling blue. The get-up was completed by a diamond-encrusted
     watch, a pendant shaped like the bird-and-shield design on the wine bottle seals, baroque pearl earrings and a selection of
     knuckleduster rings probably worth more than my house. She looked like the kind of grandmother who wouldn’t want to be hugged
     too tightly lest it wrinkle her ensemble.
    ‘Yes?’ she said. She didn’t say,
I’m calling the police
, which was telling. She held a pair of thick black silicon gloves somewhat at odds with her outfit.
    All I could think to say was, ‘You’re not eating them?’
    The glance she gave me suggested I was as stupid as I felt. ‘Oh, no, lovie. If you take their tears,’ she answered quite tenderly,
     ‘you can’t use the meat afterwards. It’s too dry and tough. Really, it’s either wine or veal.’ She smiled. ‘Look at you, Grigor’s
     daughter, so terribly Normal but still causing trouble. Who’d have thought?’
    I swallowed, a hundred questions rearing up, not the least of which was,
How did you know my father?
But I didn’t need to ask that one at least; it was easy enough to guess. I peered at the child lyingon the table in front of her and Lizzie’s terrible stillness knocked the curiosity from me. The moments before I detected
     the faint rise and fall of her chest seemed endless. All I wanted to do was get her out of there.
    ‘Isn’t she lovely? I was ecstatic when Sally brought this one! It’s much nicer when they’re clean and content, but oh, they’re
     so hard to get hold of. I will have to punish her, though, for sending you. I assume it was Sally; she’d sell her mother to
     save her own skin.’ The woman didn’t wait for an answer, just beamed at me. ‘The little one smells a bit like you, you know.
     I thought she might be yours. That amused me no end, the idea of harvesting Grigor’s grandchild! But when I looked closer,
     I couldn’t see him anywhere in her. Still, a happy mistake; now I can take care of you, too – you’ve made some trouble for
     us! Oh, maybe I won’t punish Sally after all.’
    ‘Lizzie,’ I called, but she didn’t stir. I tried again, louder. ‘
Lizzie!
’
    ‘She can’t hear you, dear. I use a sleeping spell right up until I’m ready to put them in the press. You don’t want too much
     panic; that sours things. It’s the grief you need, the pain, and it’s always best taken fresh. Giving them time to worry just
     makes things, well, stale and bitter.’ Her eyes glittered. ‘My, what a vintage you would have made when you were young, girl.
     What anguish, what unadulterated heartache! The loss of your father, everything you’d known overturned. What wouldn’t I have
     done to take your tears . . . It’s so much sweeter, a wine born of deep sorrow.’ She clicked her tongue. ‘But that grandmother
     of yours kept such a watch over you! How fierce she was.’ Her tone was equal parts irritation and admiration.
    ‘Wake her,’ I said. ‘Wake Lizzie up and give her to me and we’ll walk out of here. I’ll tell no one about you. Just give her
     to me.’ I’d have told a million lies if only I could get the little girl away safely, but of course the woman knew that, and
     it was