by K. T. Tomb
She didn’t know how to respond, not yet. That Alfred Covington was mad, she had no doubt. Just how mad, she would have to gauge... and then get the hell out of here and as far away from him as possible.
He continued, “That is my identity. That is why I was selected by The Duke for this job. And that is why I know so much about your condition.”
She nearly choked. She thought immediately about her opium addiction. “You know about my condition, do you? You know about addiction?”
“That is not the condition of which I speak, Miss Kelly.”
“Then you do have me confused with someone else. Perhaps someone as mad as you?”
He smiled simply and folded his hands in his lap, while his pipe trailed smoke out of the corner of his mouth. “I think it is your turn to tell your story.”
“But I want to know more,” she responded condescendingly. “I want to know of these vampires—”
“You’ll know more after meeting the Duke,” he answered curtly.
Nora wasn’t sure which was more frightening to her. She was terrified of having to relive her story and tell it to Alfred, but the prospect of having an audience with the Duke of Cambridge wasn’t appealing to her in any way either. She had the perfect excuse.
“I don’t have the proper clothing to wear for such a meeting and a lady, especially one from my station, ought not to appear before the Duke of Cambridge if not properly dressed.”
“We have thought ahead,” he responded.
“Pardon?”
“In anticipation of your meeting the Duke, Missus Boyles and I selected the proper clothing for you to wear more than two weeks ago.”
“More than two weeks ago?” Nora frowned. “That would be before you brought me here.”
“I was confident you would come on your own,” he responded.
“But instead, you brought me here when I was in no state to protest.”
“I brought you here because you were gravely wounded and needed proper attention,” he snapped.
“What exactly was your plan, good sir?” she asked, some bite in her voice. Her ire was up, though she wasn’t sure why. She had started on the rant in order to avoid having to tell her own story, but, once started, she was unable to check her temper.
“My plan was to help you realize your full potential. My plan was to get you to see that you needn’t throw yourself away. My plan was to restore hope.” He rose from the chair abruptly and strode purposely toward the door. He turned before passing through it and added in a lower tone, “Perhaps I was wrong.”
After the door closed behind him, Nora was attacked by a powerful sense of regret. He believed in me before he even knew me and I do this? In that moment, she decided that she would meet the Duke, if for no other reason than to get some answers.
Chapter Eleven
“Bring this lovely young lady in here where I can have a better look at her,” the Duke of Cambridge bellowed when he had his first look at Nora. “The cream has worked wonders on you, as I knew it would. I’ve used it myself. You see, Nora, we have that little problem with the sun in common. In fact, a wide-brimmed hat and a thick layer of the cream is the only way that I can go out at all. Fortunately, Her Majesty doesn’t require my presence in the light of day very often.”
Nora wasn’t sure how to respond to what amounted to a raving outburst from the Duke upon seeing her. He wasn’t anything like she was expecting. She had expected a stuffy, snobbish, and condescending aristocrat. She was completely disarmed by him. Not to mention, she liked him immediately. “Thank you, truly. The cream has certainly been a relief.”
“You see there, Alfred?” Cambridge called out as he greeted Alfred with a firm handshake. “I told you it was the ticket to your success, especially with the fairer sex. Perhaps you can find yourself a wife from the use of it.”
Alfred shrunk from the suggestion of a wife. “I was only following your advice, sir.”
The Duke turned to Nora. “He needs a wife to straighten him out a little. Although, that Missus Boyles does keep him in line, wouldn’t you agree, Miss Nora?”
“I do,” she responded.
“It’s good to finally meet you,” he beamed as he guided her toward the divan. He and Alfred sat in adjacent chairs, which were upholstered in the most immaculate brocade.
Nora was almost afraid to sit on the divan because of just that. “Alfred has had high hopes for you from the moment he first spoke of you. Those expectations have only grown since you were brought to his home. I’ve been haranguing him on a daily basis to convince him to bring you for a visit.”
Nora glanced at Alfred, who avoided her gaze and then turned her attention back to their host. She was a great deal more at ease than she had expected to be. “He has spared nothing when it comes to my care,” she said. “I haven’t eaten so well or slept so peacefully since… well, maybe never.”
“Glad to hear it. I hope he hasn’t been pressing you too much to be involved in our little agency. His subtlety leaves a great deal to be desired at times.”
Nora found that particular comment hilarious and accurate, but she chose not to embarrass Alfred and gave the Duke only a polite smile. “Mister Covington has been a gentleman in every respect. I owe him a great deal of gratitude.”
“As do I,” the Duke agreed. His broad smile suddenly shifted to a deep wrinkled frown; a transformation of alarming speed. “What we have to discuss tonight is of a very serious nature. Before I can speak further, I must have assurances from you that not a single word of what is discussed tonight is ever repeated outside of this room. Do you understand my request?”
Nora, taken aback by his sudden shift in demeanor, felt her eyes widen. “I... I understand,” she answered, just above a whisper. What could this be? she wondered.
“Our realm has seen several setbacks in recent years on foreign soil,” the Duke began. “Though on some occasions we’ve had some good fortune and come out victorious, it has become more and more evident that we are lacking where it comes to military intelligence concerning both our allies and our enemies. In both cases, we have had to rely on intelligence provided to us either by our allies or what we have been able to obtain from captured soldiers. At times, we have even purchased intelligence from dubious third parties. To the say the least, the quality of said information has been severely lacking. It has cost Her Majesty soldiers and silver on numerous occasions. In some cases, better intelligence might have prevented any conflict at all or brought what conflict did arise to a hasty conclusion. Are you following me, so far?”
“I am,” Nora answered. What he was laying out for her was certainly intriguing. She scooted forward on the couch and glanced at Alfred. His face was turned away from her. She looked back at the Duke.
“I served as an officer in the Austrian army,” the Duke began again. “My marriage was arranged to forge a bond and because Her Majesty desired my services. Alas, the service she requires of me is heading up a unique group of individuals—we’re commissioned for six, in total—whose purpose is to obtain intelligence on behalf of Her Majesty’s Royal Armed Forces. I was uniquely qualified for this office because of a particular characteristic that I won’t explain just yet.”
He paused, studied her with great concentration, inhaled, released his breath slowly and continued. “This unique group of intelligence gatherers is made up entirely of what are known as mortal/immortals. Some call them the immortal dead.”
“Vampires?” Nora asked in a whisper. She felt an involuntary shiver go up her spine. Right behind it was a tangle of questions, which she had no chance of sorting out. Her eyes immediately turned again toward Alfred, whose expression had changed from its previous dull state to one of amusement. “I’m not sure I’m understanding this correctly.”
“As a vampire hunter, Mister Covington knows more about this particular species of non-human than any other mortal on the planet. Our first efforts have been to recruit from the ranks of vampires that are already in existenc
e...”
“But I’m not a vampire,” Nora cut in.
“We’re well aware of that, Miss Kelly,” the Duke chuckled. “Please, allow me to finish.”
“I apologize.”
“Quite alright. I wouldn’t have expected anything less from you. Nevertheless, please listen to the entire story. We are commissioned for six agents. The first three were recruited from the ranks of those who are undead. Two of those didn’t work out so well and Alfred had to remove them from service. The third seems to be doing fine.
“Besides being somewhat independent and bloodthirsty, vampires are extremely difficult to recruit into service to Her Majesty, so we changed our tactic and started looking for mortals who might be transformed for our purposes. So far, the one mortal we recruited and successfully transformed is far superior to the others.”
“What, exactly, do you mean by transformed?” Nora looked from the Duke to Alfred and back again.
“It means that you would become a vampire,” Alfred replied, his voice barely above a whisper.
Nora whipped her eyes back toward her benefactor. It was all beginning to make more sense. Alfred had been withholding information for a very good reason. Broaching the subject of being transformed into a vampire wasn’t easily done. In fact, being placed in a special unit of Her Majesty’s Royal Armed Forces paled in comparison. In spite of her Irish predisposition toward spreading blarney, Nora was entirely speechless.
Chapter Twelve
When she finally found her voice again, it came out in a low, cracked tone. “How is someone turned into a vampire?” She couldn’t believe that she was actually asking the question. Am I really considering this? Of course I’m not. I’m just curious, right? Truth was, she wasn’t entirely certain how to answer her questions.
“Of the thirteen different ways that one can become a vampire, there are really only six that might be applied to you specifically,” the Duke began.
“Wait… I wasn’t asking about me. I’m not at all sure about this…”
“Understandable. I was speaking hypothetically, of course,” the Duke smiled.
“Hypothetically.” She attempted to swallow the dry lump in her throat. “Okay, I will play along. How would I become a vampire?”
“Allow me to ask you three questions first,” the Duke responded.
“Okay.”
“Have you ever been excommunicated by the church?”
“No.”
“Have you ever practiced sorcery?”
“No.”
“Are you able to transform into a werewolf during the light of a full moon?”
“No.” She couldn’t hold back her giggle as she answered the last question.
“That only leaves three. You would have to eat a sheep that was killed by a wolf, take your own life or be bitten by a vampire,” the Duke replied as casually as if they were deciding what to order for dinner. “Eating a sheep killed by a wolf is fairly impractical for our purposes. You would have to eat it, hoof and all. No one can eat that much food, certainly not in a single sitting.”
The idea of being a special agent in service to Her Majesty had been difficult to dismiss. Up to that point, she had seen her life as pointless. Tragic, even. Being a part of the Queen’s special service unit would give her life purpose. It would allow her to escape the world she’d lived in Limehouse. Of course, the commitment—and sacrifice—she would have to make was enormous. Could she do it? And what, exactly, did it mean to be a vampire? What were they proposing to her, exactly?
“And if I refuse the offer?” she asked the Duke.
“You will be placed anywhere in the world you would like to be with enough resources to give you a good start and all of this will be forgotten. You’ll be asked to maintain discretion about our agency, of course.”
Nora’s mind spun nearly out of control. She wanted purpose, but to achieve it, she was going to have to give up her life. Is that really what I want? But did becoming a vampire mean giving up her life? Perhaps she was merely choosing a different type of life.
“Sir, may I ask why you recruit vampires?”
“A good question, Miss Kelly. The answer is both simple and complicated. Unless one has a lineage of monster hunting, such as our dear Alfred Covington, one is at a distinct disadvantage when dealing with the powerful undead.”
“Unless one is one of them,” said Nora.
“You have hit the nail on the dead, my dear,” said the Duke.
“But you also spoke of acquiring secrets.”
“And what better creature to do so than one who can move about within the shadows of the night unnoticed.”
Nora, despite her misgivings, could see the wisdom of that.
“And vampires are... real?”
Alfred laughed from his seat. “Sorry, Miss Kelly,” he said. “I have lived with them all my life. And so have my family members down through the generations. Vampires are more real than you might realize. In fact, there are two of them within ten square miles of this place.”
Nora shivered and felt a little sick. The walking dead... so close?
“If it will make you feel any better,” interjected the Duke, “allow me explain a few things about certain characteristics that you already have. Whether or not you accept the role, they will be important things to understand.”
Nora swallowed and discovered she was shaking. These two men had literally put the fear of God into her. “Okay.”
“Pardon my bluntness, if you will. You already have a tendency toward the erotic. In spite of the fact that your sexual experiences have, up to this point, been extremely irregular, they have and continue to fulfill a certain inexplicable need. Such a predisposition is helpful in the acquiring of secrets. Men, as you are sure to know, speak loosely in bed.”
Her first instinct was to berate him for what he had just suggested. Nora glared at him with her mouth open. In proper society, a gentleman didn’t broach the subject of eroticism with a lady. Before that moment, she had felt as though her strange desire for the erotic meant that she was bordering on perversion. Numbing those feelings had been one of the reasons she had so often used opium and, consequently, become addicted to it.
“That misplaced desire is a product of a marked one.”
“Marked one?” Nora was lost.
“I’ll explain in a moment. You see, that mark, the one which drew the attention of Mister Covington, is the blistering of your skin when you are in the sunlight.”
“That is merely because I’m a fair-skinned Irish lass,” she countered.
“Is it?” the Duke asked. “Did you always have that condition or did it come along about the time you were first defiled? It wasn’t voluntary, was it?”
Nora thought back. She had been raped by her stepfather at a young age. A defilement indeed, and something she chose not to dwell on. “And you know this how, my lord?”
“The one follows the other, miss. Indeed, I had the same condition, which came from the same root cause. I had been taken advantage of at a young age by a predator. An immortal predator, I might add.”
Nora opened her mouth to speak, but then closed it again. She didn’t know what to say or what to think. She needed, she was quite certain, more opium. Desperately so.
“Those burdens have marked you—as they had me—but they can be repurposed. In the case of the skin condition and the scarring it has caused, it can be reversed completely. In essence, those things most cumbersome in your life and those things which have caused you to feel as though you were without purpose will be taken away when you become immortal.”
Nora had been rendered silent as his words penetrated past her confusion and began to take root inside of her.
“But what does the mark mean?” she persisted. “Please, I need to know.”
Alfred opened his mouth, but the Duke raised a hand and Nora’s host closed it again. “I’ve got this, Alfred. Miss Kelly, the mark means someone in your bloodline had been bitten by a vampire. As is well kn
own, one must be bitten three times by a vampire. The first needs only to be someone in your bloodline. The second, well, you are evidence of the second.”
“And the third bite?”
“Ah, the third bite is truly transformative, Miss Kelly.”
“You mean...”
“Yes. Should you be bitten again, you will turn into such a creature.”
“But why?”
“That, I do not know. But it is God’s truth.”
Nora opened her mouth, but words failed her.
“I think that is enough for now, Miss Kelly. Alfred, take her to her room and allow her to think things over.”
“As you wish, sir,” Alfred responded, rising to his feet and extending a hand toward Nora.
Just before departing, the Duke turned toward her, took her hand, kissed it softly and then looked up at her with the same smile with which he’d greeted her earlier. “No matter your decision, Miss Kelly, I have found it to be a distinct pleasure and singular honor to have spent this time with you. I do hope we will have many more occasions to do so.”
“It has been an honor,” she responded, feeling that her response was quite lacking, but unable to speak further.
***
The words of the Duke of Cambridge still rang in her ears.
To be sure, they kept her from sleep most of the night. As she listened to the parlor clock chime the hour of three a.m., she started through it in her mind once more. In spite of his unabashed candor, what he had told her about her life, about her feelings, about her burdens, and how they had come upon her, was entirely true.
Was what he told her about how those burdens could be lifted true as well? Something inside her told her that he knew, not because of what others had told him or because of what he had read somewhere, but because he had experienced the lifting of those burdens himself. What would it feel like to have that heavy weight lifted? What would it feel like to add to that new freedom a great purpose?
