“But it’s your livelihood.”
“I know.” Frankenstein eyed Loren, wondering if he knew what he used to do for a living.
“I do.”
“Did you read my mind?”
“The servants talk about you. I can hear them. They don’t know I’m there.”
“And how did you manage that?”
“I’m very good at sneaking around.” Loren shrugged, making his dress rustle.
“You must be.” Frankenstein frowned. “I hurt a lot of people.”
“But it wasn’t your fault. Just like me, something happened and your spells collapsed. You didn’t do it on purpose, did you?”
“No, of course not. I would never do such a horrible thing on purpose.” But he might have done it by accident. An epiphany struck, giving him the answer in an instant. It had been his fault. He had caused the spells to collapse by taking away their energy.
“Frankie?” Loren reached for him. “Sorry, you don’t want me to call you that. Can I call you Frank?”
“Yes, of course.” He realized a name was a most trivial thing. He reached out his hand, meeting Loren halfway. “What would you like me to call you?”
Loren’s eyes brightened but then he blinked and the joy evaporated. “Loren is fine.”
“What were you about to say?”
“You’ll think I’m mad.”
“Aren’t we all?”
“I suppose.” Loren turned Frankenstein’s hand over and traced his finger along the lines on his palm. Very quietly, so softly his voice was barely a whisper, Loren said, “I would like it if you called me sweetheart.” He glanced up into Frankenstein’s eyes and then away. “Just once.”
Feeling as if he owed him that, Frankenstein opened his mouth but the carriage suddenly lurched forward as the driver took on speed. Frankenstein emitted a shocked “oof!” as he catapulted into Loren.
“What’s going on?” Loren helped Frankenstein right himself as the carriage careened away from Adelaide’s estate. “Where is he going?”
Frankenstein pulled the curtain away from the front, expecting a window, but it was only a fixed pane of glass.
“Driver? Driver!” Frankenstein pounded at the front glass but the driver ignored him and slapped the reins on the horse’s backs. He considered breaking the glass but he wouldn’t be able to reach the man without climbing out. Also, he didn’t want to expose Loren to the elements. Neither of them had bothered with heavy outerwear since they were only to go a short distance from Adelaide’s home before turning around.
“Should we jump?” Loren asked.
Frankenstein peered out the side window. The ground rushed away at dizzying speed. He might have risked it had he been alone or if Loren hadn’t been wearing a long dress. If they survived the fall, they wouldn’t be able to run away. If the driver had a gun, they would be easy targets.
“I think it best to stay inside.”
“Is there anything in here we could use as a weapon?” Loren tried to pull off the decorative molding but a few thin sticks of wood wouldn’t protect them.
“The lamp.” Frankenstein nodded to the small interior lamp on the opposite wall to the door.
“The lamp?”
“We can hit him with it when he stops.” Setting the man on fire would put whatever scheme he had to an end.
“Or use it now to set the carriage on fire.”
“With us in it?”
“I was thinking the back end but no, you’re right.” Loren shook his head. “This is all my fault.”
“How in the world do you figure that?”
“Someone must have found me and this is how they’re going to get their revenge.” Loren threw himself into Frankenstein’s arms, heedless of messing up his hair, make-up, or dress.
Frankenstein felt again that rush of protective instincts. Strong and sure, he held Loren tight and murmured, “Don’t worry. We’ll be okay.” He only hoped he was right.
Chapter Nine
They seemed to hurtle through the night for hours. By the time they stopped, the lantern had used all the oil held in its tiny chamber. Nonetheless, Frankenstein held it in his hand, ready to dash the man once he opened the door. If nothing else, the glass would cut his face to ribbons, making him easily identifiable should he flee.
“Come on out.”
Frankenstein recognized the voice but couldn’t place the name. “Stay here,” he said, tucking Loren behind him.
“I can’t stay here.” Loren gripped Frankenstein’s shoulder.
“I’m trying to keep you safe.”
“I’m not going to be separated from you.”
“Fine. Just stay behind me.” Frankenstein opened the door.
The driver stood well away, a pistol in his hand, his hat casting a shadow over his face. Even without the shadow, he had a scarf pulled up to hide his features and slightly muffle his voice. “I don’t want to use this.” He indicated the gun.
Frankenstein didn’t want him to use it either. “Who are you?” Frankenstein knew the voice but couldn’t place it.
“Doesn’t matter.” He used the gun to point toward a ramshackle building. Pale light seeped under a battered door. “Drop what’s in your hand and get inside.”
Frankenstein debated obeying or fighting. Again, if not for Loren, he might have fought but the dress—or more precisely, the corset—would prevent Loren from being able to fight or run with ease. Mindful of Adelaide’s property, Frankenstein put the lamp back inside the carriage then took Loren’s hand.
The man scoffed and said, “Isn’t that just like you.”
Frankenstein didn’t respond. Each time he got the man to speak, he got closer to recalling his name.
“In.” The man gestured with the gun.
Together, Frankenstein and Loren moved toward the building while the driver stayed back to keep them both in his sights.
“In.” He said more firmly, waving the pistol more deliberately.
“We’re going.” Frankenstein kept Loren shielded despite the fact his remarkable healing ability meant he could most certainly recover from a gunshot. Mostly, he didn’t want to take the risk should he prove wrong. He’d rather die himself than allow Loren to suffer any injury.
“Oh, my God.” Loren clapped his hand to his face. “What is that stench?”
Frankenstein knew. Nothing in the world smelled like decaying flesh. He’d encountered plenty in his work with the police.
Inside, he found one large room. Detritus filled the corners but someone had taken the time to sweep the center. A large table held the remains of a body.
“Tie her up.” The man tossed a coiled rope toward Frankenstein, who let the bundle hit him then fall to the floor.
“No.” Frankenstein kicked the coil away.
“Do what he says.” Loren offered out his arms.
“Behind her back,” the man demanded.
Frankenstein knew the voice. He knew this man. He now even knew what he wanted. Sadly, he couldn’t give it to him, but he couldn’t tell him that directly. First, he had to get Loren out of here and then…well, he’d worry about that once he’d protected Loren.
“I won’t let him hurt you,” Frankenstein whispered as he picked up the rope and tied Loren’s hands behind his back. When he finished, Frankenstein stepped in front of Loren.
“I know what you did,” the man said.
“I can get you your money back,” Loren began, but the man cut him off.
“Not you. You.” He pointed the gun at Frankenstein.
“Me?” Frankenstein asked, playing dumb. “I didn’t do anything to you. Unless—did you lose your pet? I’m sorry if you did. Releasing the spell wasn’t intentional, just a horrible accident.”
“Wasn’t no accident. You pulled all the power to bring her back.” He pointed the gun past Frankenstein toward Loren. “And now you’re going to do it again.”
“What is he talking about?” Loren pressed closer to Frankenstein, near enough h
e felt his body heat.
Had he not had his grand epiphany in the carriage, Frankenstein wouldn’t have had any clue what the man was talking about. But he did know. And there was only one way someone else could have figured out what he’d done.
“You have the books.” Frankenstein widened his stance.
“Yes.”
“There’s no point hiding your face now, Constable Higgins.”
“I knew you’d realize it eventually.” Higgins pulled the scarf away. The last few months had not been kind to the man.
“You’re a constable?” Loren asked.
Higgins ignored Loren, which Frankenstein considered a blessing. “Took me weeks to work my way through them books. Struggling to grasp the magic, the rituals. That’s what you did, isn’t it? Killed all them pets to bring the love of your life back.”
Frankenstein didn’t correct the man about the reason behind resurrecting Loren. He felt his creature was safer if he didn’t know that it had all been just an experiment.
“I didn’t mean to kill the pets.”
“I don’t think you did. No man could have been that honestly shocked as you were the day we showed up at your home.”
“Constable Higgins, please, I have been forbidden to use my reanimation skills by law.”
“You think I care about that?” Higgins stepped closer, his gaze darting to the table. “It was against the law to use them on a human but you did it and now you’re going to do it again.”
“Again?” Loren asked.
“I can’t.” Frankenstein would only ever be able to perform his feat once.
“You can and you will.”
Instead of telling him why he couldn’t, Frankenstein nodded and agreed to help Higgins, but inside he turned his mind over to finding a way to escape.
“What’s going on?” Loren struggled against the ropes, but gently, delicately, so as not to arouse Higgins’s suspicion.
“He wants something from me.”
“What?” Loren’s hands shook in his bindings. “What could he possibly want from you?”
Frankenstein shook his head. He wasn’t going to say it. He’d make Higgins say it. “Don’t worry,” Frankenstein whispered to Loren. “I’ll make this right.” Frankenstein projected confidence into his voice despite the fact he had a feeling this would go as wrong as everything else. If he could get Loren out of this alive, he’d consider it a win.
“What did he mean about the love of your life?” Loren whispered the question too low for Higgins to hear.
“I’ll explain. But not now.” Maybe he wouldn’t have to explain. But that thought sickened him. The only way he would get out of explaining was if he failed to get them out of this alive. He decided he’d rather confess everything to Loren than use him to bring another person back to life. “Higgins, listen to me.”
“No. You listen to me. You did it once and you can do it again.”
“You don’t understand how I did it.”
“I do. And you’ll bring her back.” Higgins’s hand dropped to the table with the body. Tears filled his eyes. “You’re going to fix her just like she was.”
Frankenstein thought of Captain Mayhew and his dog Chipper. Bringing a pet back who had been gone too long hadn’t worked out well at all. With a human? Frankenstein imagined Higgins’s wife coming back, not eating, not doing much of anything but staring into the fire and half-heartedly responding when her husband called her name.
“Higgins, please. There’s something you need to know.”
“I know that I loved—love her,” Higgins corrected himself adamantly. He touched the edge of the white cloth that covered the body. “I know that she shouldn’t have died. A cold. Did you know that? That’s what that doctor said. It was just a cold and she’d get better but she never did get better. She got worse and worse and he kept giving her more of that dreadful medicine.”
Frankenstein wanted to comfort the man but knew Higgins didn’t want comfort. He wanted his wife back. “Higgins—”
“Bring her back!” The gun wavered in his fist. “You draw the energy out of your love and put it into my wife.”
“I can’t do that.” Even if Frankenstein could draw all the power out of Loren, he still couldn’t do what Higgins wanted him to do.
“You’d better.” Higgins pointed the gun at Loren. “One way or another, she’s going to die again.”
“Again?” Loren gasped.
“She doesn’t know?” Higgins lowered the gun when Frankenstein stepped in front of Loren.
“No.”
“Afraid she’d be afraid of you if she did know?”
“I only wanted to study her.”
“What?” Higgins lowered the gun.
“What the hell does that mean?” Loren demanded while struggling harder at his bonds.
“I’ll tell you, Loren. I swear I will, but—”
“Do it now,” Higgins said. “Maybe she won’t want to live once you tell her why she’s here.”
“It’s not about that and you know it.” Frankenstein approached the body on the table, using himself to shield Loren. “You’ve seen what happens when I bring people back from a violent end.”
“My wife died in her sleep.”
“Be that as it may, I can’t bring someone back who’s been gone this long. You know that.”
“I don’t know that!” Higgins leveled the gun at Frankenstein’s heart. “You have magic and you can make her whole again.”
“I can’t.”
“You did it with her!” Higgins pointed the gun at Loren.
“He was dead only a second!” Frankenstein screamed back. Too late he realized he’d made a terrible mistake.
“He?” Higgins shook the thought away. “You’re just trying to confuse me. Make me think you didn’t bring her back but you did.”
“I did bring him back but after only a second of death.” Frankenstein kept his voice calm and even as he tugged on the shroud.
“She,” Higgins insisted.
“He,” Frankenstein confirmed. “He passed and I brought him back in less than a heartbeat.”
Higgins shook his head, not sure if he should believe or not.
“Loren breathed out his last breath—his soul breath—into my body and I held his soul while I gathered the energy together in my hands.” Frankenstein kept gently tugging on the shroud until he’d pulled it away from the woman’s matted hair. “I had no idea I was spooling together the energy from all the pets I’d ever reanimated.”
“No?” Higgins asked, lowering the gun.
“No. I felt the power coming into me and I kept building it up while holding Loren’s soul inside, and then when I couldn’t hold anymore, I breathed back into him while pressing all that power into his heart.” Frankenstein lowered his voice. “All that happened in seconds. Your wife has been gone for months.”
“I kept her cold to keep her—”
“Her soul is long gone.” Frankenstein dramatically pulled the shroud from the body. Higgins tried not to look down but he seemed as compelled as Frankenstein himself. Higgins’s wife was still remarkably intact but her face was sunken, her pallor ghostly.
“You can get her soul to come back,” Higgins insisted.
“I can’t.”
“You can.”
“Defying the grave is one thing, and perhaps I can do that, but would you dare to rip her out of heaven?” Just because he didn’t believe in such a place didn’t mean others didn’t. “Would you do that to the woman you love?”
Higgins shook his head and took a step back but then he seemed to gather strength. “I think she’d want me to bring her back. She’d want to be with me.”
“If I managed to call her soul back, this is the body it would come back to.”
“She’d heal.”
“She wouldn’t.” Frankenstein had to be cruel to be kind. “You would trap her in this rotted shell, force her to live in this ghastly vehicle. Her brain is surely gone by now so she would h
ave no thoughts. Her eyes have long since turned to liquid so she’d have no sight. Her organs—”
“Stop!” Higgins turned and vomited.
From the stench alone Frankenstein knew he’d been drinking heavily, probably for weeks if not months.
“Let her go,” Frankenstein said. “She wouldn’t want you to do this.”
Higgins wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
“If you really love her,” Frankenstein said, “let her go.”
Higgins shook his head but his gaze kept returning to his wife.
Frankenstein didn’t think it would be long for the man to realize reanimating her would bring back a corpse without a soul.
“If I can’t have mine, I don’t see why you should have yours.”
As Higgins lifted the pistol, Frankenstein realized his intent. He leaped in front of Loren and took the shot in the center of his chest. He expected to be blown back but he hardly moved at all. When he looked down, the smallest hole marked the penetration and only a trickle of blood emerged.
“You shot me.” Horrible pain made him clutch at his chest.
Higgins fired another shot but missed then ran.
Frankenstein grasped the table to hold himself up but soon collapsed on the floor.
“Frank!” Loren struggled to get out of his bonds. When he managed, he bent over him.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry that I did this to you.” Frankenstein reached for him but couldn’t get his hands to work. “Please forgive me.”
“I forgive you. Just don’t leave me.” Loren managed to get himself untied then unfastened Frankenstein’s shirt. “What do I do?”
“There is nothing to be done.”
“Don’t say that!” Loren shook his head. “It’s not bleeding much.”
“Look behind me.”
“You’re on the floor.”
“My back. Did the bullet come out my back?”
Loren rolled him to his side and gasped.
“What?”
“Nothing.” But when he let him lie flat, Loren’s eyes said there was most certainly something there. Frankenstein didn’t have to see to guess it was another hole, one much bigger than the one in the front. “What should I do?”
“Kiss me goodbye.”
Loren shook his head. “I’m not letting you off the hook that easily.”
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