“I will tear out your throat if you attempt to harm him!” she hissed.
I didn’t move, barely heeding her presence. I was still reeling from Radu’s words. He was the monster we sought? Was he working with the vampires who had taken Jonathan—his children? Had Gabriel brought us into some sort of trap after all? I looked at Gabriel, but he looked just as stupefied as I felt.
“I am responsible for all of this,” Radu continued, his voice dropping with sorrow. “I deserve your wrath.”
“Radu, silence!” Anara shouted, before turning to her focus back to me. “Lower the kukri. I will kill you!”
“You’ll not harm my sister, Anara,” Gabriel managed to bite out in warning, though he still looked shaken.
“What do you mean? Explain!” I demanded from Radu, ignoring Anara and maintaining a solid grip on my kukri.
In a quick blur of movement, Anara sprang towards me and yanked the kukri from my hand before retreating back to Radu’s side. I blinked, astonished by the rapid movement. Abe, Seward and Gabriel instantly rose to their feet, crowding protectively around me.
“Please. Answer me,” I pleaded, my voice quavering as I returned my focus back to Radu. “What are you—”
“Radu’s biological children have been carrying out the attacks and abductions around Europe. Vlad and Ilona,” Anara said, spitting out the names like they were a bitter poison. “They are evil. Father,” Anara said, her voice softening as she rested her hand on his shoulder. “Their evil is no fault of your own.”
Vlad and Ilona, I thought with a daze. I recalled the male and female vampire at the Langham. Were they the children of the anguished vampire who sat before me? Two as one, Lucy had said. Brother and sister . . . working together? Two leaders?
Dazed, I sank back down into my chair, as Abe, Seward and Gabriel followed suit. I leaned forward, pressing my forehead against my trembling fingertips, and I forced myself to speak.
“Where . . . where are they now?” I asked.
“I do not know, I swear it,” Radu answered swiftly. “If I did, they would not be causing so much destruction. I would do what needs to be done. They must be stopped. I understand that now.”
“Now?” Seward asked, his eyes narrowed. “Did you have the chance to stop them before?”
“Do not speak harshly to him,” Anara snapped. “You do not know what—”
“Anara, it is all right. They have a right to know everything. Especially Wilhelmina,” Radu said quietly, his regretful eyes holding mine. “Yes, I did have the chance to kill them once, but I could not do it. How could I? They are my blood. My son calls himself Vlad, after the many voivode rulers from our line. But my beloved—my now departed wife Ludmila—” He paused, his gaze straying to the painting on the wall of the sad, green-eyed woman. “She named him Alexandru. Alexandru and my daughter Ilona shared the same womb. We soon realized they share the same evil nature. Alexandru became particularly obsessed with the past great rulers of our line—their cruelty, their power. As he grew older, I realized that he wanted to restore our line to its previous glory. Ilona was not as desperate for power as my son. He has been the true leader, and she his most loyal follower; she loves him so.”
Radu stopped speaking for a moment, a bloody tear trickling down his cheek.
“I tried to make my son understand the reason our line died out was because of our obsession with power. Centuries of infighting cannibalized our ancestors. But I could not reach him—nor could my Ludmila. I knew there was no hope when my children massacred a small human village for sport when they were barely adults. Ludmila was so heartbroken at the monsters that they had become, she starved herself to death. But even this did not affect my children,” he continued, his voice dropping to a raw whisper. “Vlad began to gather followers—human and vampire alike. Vlad wanted to rule over not just the humans—but other vampires as well. He destroyed all who opposed him. As he gained more power, he gained more followers. Many of our kind fought against him.”
“Vlad was the cause of the civil war?” Gabriel asked, horrified.
“One of the causes, yes. He was not the only vampire who wanted power, but they came the closest to an all-out invasion. With the disappearances and massacres, they were bringing potential attention to vampires, which risked our annihilation. Humans still greatly outnumber us; it is why we live in the shadows. That is when it was decided that—that they needed to be executed,” he added, with great difficulty. “But I . . . I could not bear—”
Radu’s voice caught, and Anara kneeled down at his side. Her eyes shimmered with tears of blood as well. She took his hands, pressing her lips to his knuckles.
“Este de inteles, tata,” she whispered.
Her words seemed to give him the strength to continue, and he turned back to face me.
“Several members of the Order—I do not know who, I could not bear to know—tracked my son to a forest in central Transylvania, where he was preparing to carry out more attacks on human villages. There was a violent confrontation—many died—but the attempt to kill him failed. He was left on the verge of death, and it is believed that he survived in a weakened state for years somewhere in Transylvania. He must have subsisted off of animals, the occasional human—whatever it took to keep his strength for all those years. My daughter was not with him, and no one was able to track her down. The attacks on humans ceased, and I thought their threat had been eliminated. Three years ago, rumors began to spread about his resurrection and the regrouping of his followers. The attacks on humans began once more.”
“How many followers do your children have?” Abe asked. “How many oppose them?”
“I do not know their numbers, but there are many. We believe that the feral packs of vampires, like the ones you came across, are of their creation. Newborn vampires not given time to adjust to their hunger or abilities. They move quickly and kill many. As for those who oppose them—they are not as many as his followers, I am afraid. Many have gone into hiding for fear of retribution.”
My thoughts raced in a frantic blur. Three years ago. The forest in central Transylvania. That was where I had witnessed the creature feasting on my father. I recalled its torn and ragged flesh, its cold eyes on me—the same eyes I felt at the Langham and on the Westminster Bridge.
My entire body went cold as the revelation slammed into me with the force of a sledgehammer. The creature who had taken Jonathan and killed my father were one and the same—Radu’s son. And now I had a name. Vlad Alexandru Draculesti.
I repeated the name in my mind, over and over again, until it was a litany, and I felt a swell of rage so great that my entire body began to shake.
“My . . . my father—” I whispered. “He was killed in the forests of Transylvania three years ago by a weakened vampire. Abe and I saw it happen.”
The silence stretched as Radu met my stare, his eyes widening in horror.
“Oh, Wilhelmina,” he breathed. “I heard Vlad killed a human to fully restore himself. I did not know. I am . . . I am so sorry.”
I lurched weakly to my feet. Abe buried his face in his hands, while Gabriel and Seward studied me with sympathy and concern. Anara moved protectively closer to Radu, as if preparing for me to strike. But my rage had already begun to subside, transforming back to the grief that had been my constant companion since Father’s death.
“I–I need—” I began. I felt claustrophobic and struggled to breathe, as I had in the Langham a few nights ago when Abe had whispered in my ear that the creature from Transylvania was in London, and I uttered the same words. “I need air.”
Not waiting for a response, I turned and stumbled from the room. I made my way out of the drawing room, out the front door and into the courtyard, sinking to my knees as I took in great gasps of air.
The sheer enormity of all I had learned sank down onto my shoulders like a great weight. Legions of vampires living in our midst. A secret war between them. A half-brother who was vampire. Parents who kept a multitude of
secrets from me. Confirmation that Father had died at the hands of this Vlad. And Jonathan, innocent and unaware of any of this, imprisoned at the hands of monsters who wanted to take over the human world.
I closed my eyes, once again longing for my previous ignorance; my peaceful life back in London with Jonathan, Clara and my students, and no knowledge of this hidden world that was possibly about to bring mine to an end.
Footsteps approaching from behind me brought me back to the present, and I climbed back to my feet. Abe and Seward approached me cautiously, as if I were a wounded animal.
“I’m quite all right,” I said. “There was no need for you to—”
“You are not all right,” Abe interjected.
He stepped forward to enfold me in the comforting warmth of his arms, and I allowed the tears that I had been holding at bay to fall, thinking of not only my father and Jonathan, but of all the victims of these monsters, and the immensity of the fight that still lay ahead.
When my tears subsided, I stepped out of Abe’s arms, and we all stood in somber silence.
“We know who took Jonathan. Radu can find and kill his son,” Seward said. “We can return to London, and let them fight their own—”
“No,” I said swiftly. “I won’t turn back now, Seward. I’m too close to rescuing Jonathan.”
“Mina, you heard him. Vlad has many followers,” Seward said, frowning. “We don’t have the—”
“I’m not returning to London without Jonathan!” I cried, staring at him in disbelief. “And now that I know my father died at Vlad’s hands, I won’t let my fiancé suffer the same fate.”
“What if he already has?” Seward asked bluntly.
“Jack!” Abe cried.
“Then I will avenge him,” I returned, though the thought of Jonathan’s possible death sent a spiral of grief through the pit of my stomach. “As I will avenge my father, and Arthur, and Lucy, and all the deaths that monster is responsible for!”
I was now keenly aware that this journey was about more than rescuing my fiancé. It was about stopping the impending threat of vampires from taking over the human world. I had severely underestimated the treacherous path that lay ahead of us when we’d left London. The best weapons and a small army of vengeful villagers wouldn’t be enough to take on Vlad, Ilona and his followers. I knew what we had to do going forward, though a rush of dread filled me at the thought.
“Radu said that there are other vampires who oppose Vlad. We need to ally ourselves with them to destroy him,” I said, meeting their eyes. “We need to join the war.”
THE END
Continue Mina's story in Book Two, FORTRESS OF BLOOD, available for preorder HERE.
Fortress of Blood
Book 2 of the Mina Murray series, FORTRESS OF BLOOD, is available for preorder HERE.
A Message From the Author
I hope you enjoyed THE BEAST OF LONDON, the first book of the Mina Murray series. I’ve long been a fan of Bram Stoker’s classic tale, and Mina Murray has fascinated me for years. It was a thrill to retell the tale from her point of view. Her journey continues in the sequel, FORTRESS OF BLOOD, available for preorder here.
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About the Author
L.D. Goffigan writes dark fantasy, paranormal, and thriller novels. She studied film and dramatic writing at New York University. She grew up on the East Coast but now resides in a large city by the sea on the West Coast. When not writing, she enjoys traveling and dreaming of new fantastical tales to tell. Her novel, THE BEAST OF LONDON, is the first book of the Mina Murray series.
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The Beast of London: Book 1 of the Mina Murray series Page 18
