“Do you sense anything?” Eddie asked her.
Tiredly, Maxine shook her head and resisted the urge to lie down on the sofa. Barely. “There is no one here. I feel nothing but the…” She didn’t know how to describe it. “The noise.”
“Noise?”
“The city is loud. It…is wearing on me. I’m sorry.” She ran her hand over her face.
“Nothing to be sorry about, ma’am. None of this is your fault.” Eddie sighed. “I know you say different. But I’m not going to blame you for not destroying him even if you had the chance.”
“Why not? Alfonzo seems eager enough to do so.”
“He’s had it rough. He doesn’t mean to be so, well, mean.” Eddie shifted to half-sit on the window frame, peering through the blinds as he searched for trouble. “He’s only doing what he thinks he needs to.”
“But why don’t you fault me for not destroying Dracula?”
“I don’t want to wish death on anybody. Not even him. You didn’t know he was going to do this. Fuck, we didn’t even know he was going to do this. Sorry about my language.”
“It bothers me none. Honestly, it doesn’t. And, yes, I knew. At the very least I had a suspicion.”
“But it isn’t the same. I don’t believe in killing people because they might do something.”
“I agree. But now that it has come to pass, it has to end.”
“Will you help us, then? Really?”
She nodded. “I have to do whatever I can. So many are dead. So many more will die. I cannot let that happen if I can stop him.” She looked up as Bella walked into the room carrying a tray of food. She was starving. Bella handed her a plate of fruit, cheese, and bread, and she had to stop herself from annihilating it. “Thank you.”
“Of course.”
Alfonzo returned and began unhooking his belts and putting his weapons down on the table. “We will stop here for a few hours to rest. I’ll take first watch. Eddie, second. Bella, third. We all stay in this room.”
Oh, thank God. She did not question why she was not on the list of those to watch out for demons. She was still not to be trusted in his eyes, and she could not blame him. She knew there was nothing she could do to win it back.
The room was quiet as they ate. She finally gave in to her exhaustion and lay down on the sofa, pulling a pillow under her head. There was enough furniture in the drawing room for them each to have somewhere to sleep, but the floor would have been the same to her.
Sleep came for her quickly.
Her dreams were not empty.
She was suddenly standing on a balcony, overlooking a vast forest and mountain range. It had snowed recently. The moon was full and crimson and cast the white surfaces in brilliant hues of reds and maroons. The air was cold, and even in her vision her breath turned to mist around her. It was breathtaking.
A hand settled on her shoulder, and she jolted at the contact. Whirling, she was not surprised at who she saw standing there, towering over her. She knew his face this time. He was looking down at her with a tired and beleaguered kind of acceptance. His breath did not fog as hers did. He had no warmth of his own. He was dead, after all.
She took a step back from him, wary and unsure.
Wordlessly, he turned from her and walked inside through a large, ornate door. The architecture reminded her of his throne room—twisted and terrible, filled with screaming faces and mortals being consumed and taken by monsters. It was not merely decoration; it was a warning. A promise to all those who saw it. This is the fate that awaits you if you stay here.
But now she knew she could never leave. She would be dead either when Alfonzo saw fit to kill her or the vampire would take her life. There was no surviving this ordeal; it was only a matter of when and how it happened.
Death was inevitable.
And so was her going inside.
It was freezing, and she shivered. Vision or not, dream or not, she wasn’t going to suffer in the cold out of childish spite. She walked inside and shut the door behind her. He was standing by the fireplace, a poker in his hand, nudging at the fresh log atop the stack. It was comfortably warm in the room, that kind of soothing heat that only came from a fire.
“I will ask you but the once,” she began after it was clear he was not going to start the conversation. “And only once. Stop this insanity now.”
“I will end it in time. Once my armies have been fed. Once the lust for blood has been quenched, and I have all that I have come for. I will take it all back into myself and retreat to some distant shore as I have done before, and as I will do again. Humans shall retake this city and will whisper of the legends of the time the skies went black and darkness came for them. In time, it will be nothing but a myth. Explained away by some terrible plague.”
“Vlad…please. You have done enough to prove to me that I was a fool. No more need die.” She walked slowly across the carpeted floor to approach him, keeping her distance. Not that it would do her any good. He could move faster than she could see, and this was his home. He was the master here.
“You think I have torched this land for your sake?” He sneered. “Do not flatter yourself. You wander my world because I wish you to see who I truly am, but the destruction I have wrought was in the workings long before I knew you. I have been in this city for two years.”
“What?”
“I have lain in wait. I have seeped into every pore, every water work, every shadow of this city. My creatures were a warning to the wise to escape before I unleashed the rest. Did I delay a few days when I met you? Yes. Would I have taken up my armies and departed if the hunters returned you to me? Yes. But they did not, and here we are.” He placed the poker back in the rack with the others and leaned his hand on the mantel, watching the flickering flames as they sputtered and gained purchase on the untouched lumber.
“And what is to become of me?”
“That is for you to decide.”
“How so?”
“Will you still love me in the end, or will you come to despise me instead? Will you look at me in disgust as you did just now upon the balcony?”
“I…” She began to argue, then stopped. He was right. She went to make excuses, to tell him how many he had killed, but it was futile. He knew. And they paled in comparison to all the suffering that lay in his wake. He was a wrathful god. “Then…kill me. Do not make me endure this.”
“No. You will not die until I allow it.”
“Then I will have Alfonzo—” She gasped in shock as her back met the wall. He had slammed her there, and pain bloomed across her shoulders. She could not pay it much heed, for his hand was around her throat, threatening to squeeze. It tightened but did not cut off her air.
“Do not dare speak those words!” His voice was a snarl as he glared down at her. “You belong to me. You live by my grace, and you will die by my mercy, not his.”
She placed her hand to his wrist and felt his tepid skin. She didn’t try to pull away. Even in a vision, it was as though he were really there. “I can destroy you,” she whispered.
“Then do it, little empath. My Lady of Souls. Do it. Tear me from my cage and thrust me unto the void.” He bared his teeth, fangs extended. “Deem me unworthy of this world and your love and do what no one else has ever managed to accomplish. Free me from my curse.”
She hesitated. “Please. I don’t want to do this.”
“Decide, Maxine. The choice is yours. This is the fork in the road before you. The point of no return approaches. Kill me…or obey me.”
She placed her other hand on his chest and felt him burning there. She was not certain if she could destroy him from a dream.
But she was unwilling to even try.
Tears streaked down her cheeks. His anger faltered and faded and dissolved into a weary sadness. He released his grasp on her throat and moved to wipe her tears away. “Forgive me, Maxine.”
“Do not make me do this.”
“I have no other choice. I know you do not see
it yet. But you will.” He crooked a finger beneath her chin and tilted her head up. “I love you. And I will have you love me in return. All of me. Walk the streets of my pain, my darling. And when you find me at the end of it, I will accept your judgement on my knees. I will bow to you like a slave and take your forgiveness or wrath with a joyful heart.” He leaned down, ghosting his lips over hers. “But not until I have decided you have suffered enough.”
And with that, he kissed her. It was harsh. It was passionate. It was needy, and it was full of love, lust, and greed. She moaned against his lips, unable to stop herself. He undid her. All her surety, all her resolve, cracked and shattered under his first strike like a shield made of ice.
Hands scooped her by her thighs and lifted her up the wall to his height. She was left with nothing to do but to cling to him, startled, as he forced her legs to hook around his waist. Fearing the fall, too startled to fight it, she crossed her ankles behind him. His hands slid up her stockings, rolling her dress to her waist.
His lips did not leave hers. They did not relent. He kissed her deeper, tilting his head to the side, her new height easing his access to her.
Stepping in, he pressed himself to her. He was there at her core, already eager for her. It made her gasp and whimper. She broke the kiss, needing to fill her lungs with air. She was trembling.
He chuckled at her reaction. “Once the hunters abandon you—and they will, my sweet, mark my words—I will come for you. Then I can complete our dance.” He once more mimed the action she knew he wished to do to her, if there were not so many layers of clothing between them.
She arched her back. It felt so good. Each time he pressed against her it sent a thrill through her body. A hint of pleasure she could only dream of—things she had only stolen from the minds of those she had touched.
The feeling of him crashed over her like a wave, like velvet and satin and like wings in the night sky. The creature she had fallen in love with had not changed. He had simply grown more complicated. He had warned her of the things that lurked in the shadows of his mind, and she had been foolish enough to think she had understood.
He growled low in his throat. “But I will not come for you yet. I will have them fall from grace. I will break them, one by one, until they lie weeping and shattered at my feet. I will tear the wings from their backs and their halos from their righteous heads.” Still he kept at his tempo, driving her mad with his teasing despite his terrible words. “I will make them leave you, frightened and afraid, and know that they have sealed your fate. Then I will use their desecrated flesh to decorate my home. Perhaps I will even add them to my ranks.”
And despite his gruesome threats, her body did not stop begging for him. She clung to him, whimpering each time he leaned into her, tilting his hips up to hers just so. “Please, Vlad—”
“Please, what? Release you? Take you here and now in this dream? Would you have me spare them, or do you prefer I kill them sooner so we might be joined in the flesh? What is it that you wish for? Say it, and it shall be done.” When she was silent, he purred his next words. “And therein lies my game, my love. You do not know that for which you wish. And until you do, you will languish in this nightmare of my creation.”
He tilted her face to his once more, and his breath washed over her lips, no longer cold, but hot. Spurred to life by his desire for her. “But while we wait for you to make up your mind, my sweet princess—my Lady of Souls—know that you belong to me. And the instant they leave you behind…I will come to claim that which I own.”
His lips crashed against hers again, devouring her, making good on his words of possession. And in his touch, she crumbled. Overwrought, her mind sank back into the darkness.
5
Mordecai leaned forward and kissed Zadok’s shoulder. “You’re too kind, my old friend.”
“Who am I to stand in the way of young love?” The vampire chuckled. “Go. And now we’re even.”
“Your debt is paid, yes, yes, and all that.”
“Mmh, one thing. If you come up out of her for air, mind if I cut in? She is such a pretty thing.”
“If there’s anything left, of course. If she’s half the hellcat I think she is, perhaps we can have her together.”
The vampire waved his hand to dismiss the incubus. “Go. You’ll have this one chance.”
It was Bella’s turn to take watch. She was standing by the window, idly twirling a dagger between her fingers. Eddie was so tired that he had nearly fallen asleep standing up. Poor boy. Alfonzo was lying in the corner, his coat tucked under his head. She always knew when he was sleeping. The snoring was a pretty good indication.
It made her smile. No matter the chaos, no matter the death, or destruction, or the end of the world—it didn’t matter. Alfonzo Van Helsing snored like a lumbermill. And to travel with him meant she had to become inured to it or reach the level of exhaustion where she ceased to care. Even the poor empath Maxine was too tired to wake from her sleep, no matter the noise.
Bella looked over at the woman and frowned. Her heart broke. She was at the mercy of everyone else’s needs. First the vampire’s hunger, then Alfonzo and his search for revenge. Maxine seemed like a kind, compassionate woman. She did not deserve the fate that was forced on her. Either in her gift that left her unable to be touched—at least by natural humans—or in the morbid and dreadful future before her.
It was clear to her that Maxine loved the vampire. Alfonzo and Eddie might miss it. Alfonzo for his disbelief that such a thing was possible, and Eddie because he did not know what real love looked like. But Bella could see it for what it was. It was tragic to watch Maxine’s first real hope for a simple connection with another be dashed.
Bella’s heart broke for Maxine.
But broken love was something with which she was familiar. Her gaze traced back over to Eddie. Guilt stabbed at her, seeping into her like a poison, making her hate herself. Eddie loved her. She knew he did, for he had said the words aloud. Yet she did not feel the same for him.
But why not?
She should.
He was sweet, kind, young, handsome, and her dear friend. They traveled together. They fought together. She trusted him with her life. But no love bloomed in her heart for him. She searched and searched and found none. She worried if she dug much harder through the turf, she would destroy the roots of the friendship they shared in the process.
It made her feel lesser. It made her feel disgusting. What was wrong with her that she could not embrace his love and return it with her own? It was a great mark of shame on her soul.
Souls.
Funny things, those.
Bella looked back to Maxine and wondered if the empath knew of the unrequited love that Eddie bled out upon the floor every time he turned to Bella. She assumed so. And she also assumed Maxine was dignified enough not to speak of it.
How many secrets did the empath know? How many unknown and tragic things lived inside her mind? Maxine seemed so much older than she was in years. There was a grief in her eyes, as if she had seen far more than a person should have been able to witness in such a short span of time.
“Help!”
Someone screamed from outside. A man caught up in panic. She whirled to the window to see if she could see the source. There was someone running down the street, tripping over his own feet in his eagerness to escape. Creatures were at his heels, snarling and biting.
“Quick! Everyone, wake up!” She didn’t pause in her rush to the door as she shouted for the others to join her. She didn’t wait to see if they followed, knowing they would be close behind. She burst out the door and raced toward the man, summoning her knives and daggers to fly forward and strike the monsters chasing the gentleman up the street.
They screamed in pain as her knives bit into their hides, propelled by her abilities. Several of her blades punched straight through their flesh, sending blood gushing out of the wounds left behind.
She held her hands out at her sides, commanding
the knives to obey her. They swirled about the creatures, ripping them to shreds until there was barely anything left. Only bits of blood and bone on the sidewalk.
“By God. Oh, holy Hell,” the gentleman wheezed. He was leaning heavily on his knees. His head down, coughing to fill his lungs. “First monsters, and now flying knives? You aren’t going to kill me now, are you?”
“No. I saved you.”
“What a relief.” He didn’t lift his head. “I suppose I should panic about the impossibilities later.” He coughed. “I do not know who you are, or how you did that, but I must say, I’m quite grateful.”
Bella smiled. “It isn’t any trouble.” She paused as she looked him over. His voice sounded familiar. Something about him struck her and told her that she had seen him before. When he lifted his head, she gasped. She knew him indeed.
“Bella?” the man asked in disbelief. He straightened and ran a hand through his blond hair in an attempt to smooth it back. He did not need to worry. He was still impossibly handsome. His lavender eyes were still breathtaking, even if he looked disheveled and out of sorts from having run for his life.
“Mordecai?” She took a step toward him.
“What are you doing here?” he asked and closed the distance between them, eagerly pulling her into his arms.
She embraced him tightly, her body nesting so wonderfully with his. It felt like home. He smelled so good. She pushed away the errant thoughts and tried to focus. He had asked her a question, after all. “My friends and I are trying to stop this madness.”
The man gaped. “I suppose I should have to ask my dance partners more explicit details about themselves in the future. Hello, yes, how are you, where are you from, can you wield a terrifying and deadly power?” He shook his head. “I should be terrified. But I find the sun is missing and the streets are overrun with monsters. I suppose I am simply grateful it is you who has saved me. Can your friends also wield flying knives with their minds?”
Curse of Dracula Page 4
