David stayed behind to talk to the ghouls, as the teenagers rearranged the living room to make up their nightly accommodations on the floor. Beth and Marko shared a look as they headed through the entryway, out the front door and around the side of the house.
"A hell of an entrance, girl." Marko grinned as they walked through the side yard. The master suite doors were still locked from the inside, requiring them to reenter through the patio doors.
"I didn't stage it." Beth seemed tired. "I didn't have time to clean up."
"Uh huh." Marko was skeptical. He knew both she and David had a flair for the dramatic, using it to their advantage as much as possible. "So where were you?"
"At the police precinct, cementing that story."
"Looks like you ate a cop."
Beth shook her head. "It takes a lot of power to plant false memories. It would be easier for David to do it, but I already knew what holes needed to be plugged, so I went myself."
"Then stopped for a second meal, huh."
"The first one didn't agree with me." Beth sighed."
Marko nodded. "That happens, girl. Your body purging your humanity, accepting its corrupted state of immortality." His fingers were on the doorknob when Beth put her hand on his arm.
"I tried, Marko," she said as she extended her other arm, holding her hand out to give him something. "But there's just not enough left…"
"Don't say it." Marko snapped, taking the small objects she offered him. He looked at the rings in his palm, the silver dull and stained with dried blood. One was set with a blue eye, the other one hazel. He slid the blue one on his right middle finger, the hazel eye onto his left. "You tried?"
The blonde nodded, sorrow on her features. "We can burn the remains, bury the ashes. Whatever you and David decide."
Marko nodded tightly. It wouldn't do to have the festering pieces of Dwayne stinking up the safe house. "Okay. We'll decide soon."
"I'm sorry, Marko. I'll miss them, too."
"Yeah, girl. We'll all miss them." Marko opened the door and headed inside the master suite. Beth sighed, looking up at the night sky, before following him in.
"I want you to select the five weakest; the ones that are more trouble than they're worth, the ones who've invited the interlopers and coattail riders, opened our home to those who can't hold their tongues. Kill them, along with any of their friends who saw me walk into the living room last night, and tell the surviving five that that's what will happen to them if they don't take me seriously." David ordered Maria and the three other ghouls, as they stood in the kitchen, talking quietly. "If you don't feel up to murder, you have three hungry vampires who will do it for you."
Of the four ghouls, Charlie looked the greenest around the gills. David clapped his shoulder. "You've survived this long. Welcome to the big leagues."
"Thanks, I think."
Maria sighed, digesting David's order. "That'll cut down on our eyes and ears around town."
"We don't need that many. You're going to be stamping out the embers, more than you already have been, since word's gotten round about this house. I may have to pay a personal visit to that nosey neighbor you mentioned."
"David, he's a long-standing member of the chamber of commerce. They'd notice him missing."
David gave Maria a look. "I didn't say I was gonna kill him. Just put the fear of me into him."
"Pizza's here!" A teenage voice called from the living room, where cheers went up. David shook his head, while the ghouls exchanged looks.
"We'll take care of it." Jake reassured the vampire.
"I expect you to." David's lip curled in a sneer. He gave Maria a final glance before he left the kitchen.
"I kind of miss Max. He was a jerk at times but not like this." Sophia whispered, eliciting tentative chuckles from the others.
