It happened in an instant. A terrible instant.
Rosalind grabbed Szabina by the throat, pinning her to the wall. Holding Szabina’s horrified gaze, Rosalind plunged her free hand into Szabina’s chest, tearing the fabric of her dress, and pulled out her still beating heart.
Paralyzed, I could only watch in grief-stricken terror as Szabina’s beautiful face withered and the life drained out of her eyes. Rosalind stepped back, still holding Szabina’s heart, as she slid lifelessly to the ground.
Anara screamed. It was the most desolate scream I had ever heard. I couldn’t scream if I tried; shock had seized all of my senses, it was like witnessing my father’s death all over again.
Rosalind lingered over Szabina’s still body for a moment, and I saw a brief flicker of regret in her eyes before she turned to face us.
“My father gave me special permission to kill Szabina. The rest of you are for him and his followers to enjoy. Wilhelmina and Abraham,” she continued, giving me and Abe a malevolent smile. “He desires special time with the both of you. I am afraid your deaths won’t be swift and painless.”
Rosalind and her vampires left the room in quick flashes of movement, the door shutting behind them. At once, we were released from our paralysis.
I sank down to the floor, trembling. I hadn’t warned my friends in time, and Szabina was dead because of it. I let out a strangled sob as my gaze fell on Szabina’s body. Her once youthful face was now shriveled with age, those vibrant eyes reduced to nothingness. Her death had been violent, senseless, and undeserved.
Anara stumbled over to Szabina’s body, quaking with grief. Gabriel looked down at Szabina with an amalgamation of shock, fury, and despair. Seward’s face was ashen, while Abe’s eyes were wet with tears. No one moved or spoke for several long moments, as if our shock and grief had momentarily stopped time.
Anara finally stood and moved to the door. The others followed, and I made myself stand as well.
Anara tried to open the door, shoving her body against it, but it didn’t budge. She let out a bellow of grief and anger as she stepped back.
“We walked right into a trap,” Seward muttered.
“One of the servants just warned me,” I whispered. “I wanted to tell you all. And now, Szabina—“ my voice broke, and I pressed my hand to my mouth.
“The only person responsible for Szabina’s death is Rosalind,” Anara spat. “I will kill her—slowly—with my bare hands.”
“If we can find a way out of here,” Gabriel said. “This door is made to withstand our strength.”
Desperate, I looked around the room. There was no other way out except through the impenetrable front door.
“Seward,” I said, as a sudden thought occurred to me. “Do you have your revolver?”
Seward straightened, reaching into his pocket.
“They didn’t take it from me,” he said, with surprise and relief.
“It would have seemed suspicious to remove our weapons—she wanted to keep us at ease,” Abe said bitterly.
Seward started to point the revolver at the door to fire, but I stopped him.
“Wait,” I said. “We should say goodbye first. We can’t take Szabina with us.”
I moved towards Szabina’s body, trailed by the others. I kneeled down, touching her withered face.
“Szabina,” I whispered. “I am grateful that I had you in my life…even if it was for a brief time.”
We will win this war. Your death will not be in vain, I silently added, repeating the same words I’d once promised to Arthur Holmwood, who’d been killed by feral vampires during our initial journey to Transylvania.
The others spoke brief words of their own. After a solemn silence, we again moved back to the door.
“Stand behind us,” Anara said to me and Abe. We obliged as she moved to the door, inhaling. She turned back and whispered, “It’s just Endres. Rosalind is not out there.”
She gave Seward a nod, and he stepped forward to aim his revolver, firing. The door partially shattered. Anara and Gabriel kicked at it, and it fell back with a thud.
Endres was indeed standing outside the door. At the sight of us, he charged towards us with his fangs bared. With brutal efficiency Anara stopped him, placing her hands on the side of his head and twisting. With a sickening crack, she broke his neck, and he slumped to the floor.
Anara gestured for us to follow. We cautiously stepped out of the room and over Endres’ body. The hallway was empty.
“The back door,” Gabriel whispered. As we crept down the hall, I gripped my kukri knife, anticipating an army of Rosalind and her ferals at any moment.
We were halfway down the hall when I heard the first snarls. I whirled to see a dozen ferals practically fly towards us from the opposite end of the hall.
They were on us at once. I cried out as I was slammed against the wall by a wiry-thin feral, her eyes black and teeth bared as she lunged for my throat. I moved quickly, staking her through the heart with my kukri, and she crumpled into a heap at my feet. Abe and Seward warded off several ferals who leapt onto them, while Gabriel and Anara killed even more ferals as they approached. I froze when I saw Rosalind's two vampire henchmen race towards us from further down the hall, their faces infused with fury.
“Mina, Jack, Abraham—go upstairs! Find another exit—leap from the windows if you must—I will hold them off!” Anara shouted, turning to face the henchmen. “Gabriel—go with them! Get them out of here!”
“You can’t fight them on your own!” Seward shouted. “Anara, this is madness!”
“Go or I will kill you myself!” she shouted, charging towards the two henchmen.
Abe had to grab Seward by the arm and drag him with us as we obliged her, turning to race down the hall and up the winding staircase. The estate seemed suspiciously empty; I prayed that Madeline and the other servants had fled.
We raced up the stairs, a half-dozen ferals on our tail. We raced into the first open room on the top floor, which appeared to be a study.
Gabriel slammed the door behind him once we were inside. He dragged a bookcase in front of it as Abe, Seward, and I darted to the balcony.
It was a long way down, and the ferals began to slam their bodies against the door. It was only a matter of time before they forced their way inside. We were trapped.
7
BERLIN
“We need to jump!” I cried. “We have no choice.”
“We won’t survive the bloody fall!” Seward shouted.
“I can hold two of you and break the fall,” Gabriel said, moving over to the balcony. “But we must—“
His sentence was interrupted by the bookcase tipping over from the force of the ferals crashing into the door. The door would not hold for much longer.
“Take Jack and Mina,” Abe said to Gabriel, hurrying past him to open the balcony doors. There was no ledge; it was a sheer drop to the ground.
“No!” I protested. “I will not—“
“We don’t have time to argue!” Gabriel shouted, as the door began to splinter behind us.
I yelped as Gabriel grabbed both me and Seward. I struggled to dislodge myself from his grip, but it was firm as he raced towards the balcony and leapt from the edge, still holding us in his arms.
We were temporarily airborne, and panic flooded my body until we landed in a heap on the ground. Gabriel held us steady, even as we landed, his hold breaking our fall. Winded, I stumbled to my feet.
Clutching my sides, I took in great gulps of air before looking up. Abe’s head was poking out of the balcony above. He looked relieved that we'd landed safely.
But in the room behind him, I could hear the door crashing in. In only seconds, the ferals would be inside the room.
“Gabriel—get him out of there! Please!” I cried. “I will go back inside if I must!”
“Abe—you need to jump!” Gabriel shouted. “Now! I will break your fall!”
To my relief, Abe did not protest. He braced himself b
efore leaping from the balcony.
In a lightning-fast move, Gabriel reached out and grabbed Abe by his waist before he reached the ground. His muscles strained with effort as he slowed Abe’s momentum, carefully lowering him to the ground.
Once Abe was steady on his feet, I flew towards him, burying my face in his neck.
“Thank God,” I whispered. “Do not risk your life like that again.”
“I will always risk my life for you,” Abe said fiercely, cupping my face with his hands. “Always, my heart.”
“This is all very touching,” Seward shouted from behind us. He had taken out his weapons and stood next to Gabriel, who surveyed both the surrounding grounds of the estate and the window above. “But we are still under attack. Anara is fighting those damned vampires by herself! They’ll soon be on us again.”
“I will go back to fight with Anara and hold off these ferals. Go to the stables. If there are no horses, make your way to town on foot—stay off the main roads,” Gabriel said.
“No—come with us!” I protested.
“Your safety is my priority,” he said. “Get out of here. Now!”
“We’ll go to Berlin,” Abe said, grabbing my arm. He turned to Gabriel, giving him an address in the city. “You’ll find us there.”
Gabriel nodded, his gaze now trained on the window above as he moved his body into a fighting stance.
I reluctantly ran with Abe and Seward towards the stables, praying that Gabriel could hold off the ferals on his own. The surrounding grounds of the estate were also empty; I hoped this meant all of Rosalind's vampires were still inside the estate and her servants had indeed fled.
When we reached the relative safety of the stables, we found only two horses inside. Seward mounted one horse while Abe and I mounted the other.
As we galloped away, I heard a cacophony of hisses and snarls behind us. I reached for my kukri, but the sounds were coming from the increasingly distant estate, and I saw no ferals on our tail. Gabriel, I thought, with both relief and worry. He must be holding them off.
“Gabriel and Anara are strong,” Abe shouted, as we galloped into the forest that surrounded the estate. “They have dealt with ferals before.”
But his words did not ease my worry. Stay alive, Gabriel, I prayed, turning to watch the estate disappear behind us. Stay alive.
IT FELT odd to be seated in the backseat of a cab, clattering through the bustling streets of Berlin, as if we hadn’t just barely escaped with our lives. But hours later we were doing just that, sitting in disoriented silence as our driver made his way to the address Abe had given him.
We'd cut through the forest to make our way into town, where we’d taken the main road into Berlin. I'd kept my kukri out the entire time, expecting an army of ferals to descend on us at any moment, but our brief ride had been uneventful. When we arrived in Berlin, we left our horses at a stable yard and flagged down a cab.
Now, as I looked out at the passing streets, a plethora of emotions flowed into my heart. Grief over Szabina, fear for my brother and Anara, rage towards Rosalind. By the time our cab stopped outside of a modest home in the Tiergarten neighborhood, I realized that I hadn’t even asked where we were going.
“Whose house is this?” I asked, as we made our way to the front door. The block was dominated by a row of multistory apartments; we were approaching one of the few residences that appeared to be a townhome.
“Professor Hans Becker. He was a friend of your father’s,” Abe replied. “He is not here; he attends a biology conference this time of year in Boston. He offered me his home as accommodation any time I am in Berlin.”
“I don’t recall Father mentioning him.”
“Robert kept his correspondence with him private. I only found out about him when he contacted me after Robert’s funeral. He was one of the few—perhaps the only—scientist your father confided in. He knows about vampires. I was not anticipating our stop in Berlin—I do not have a key,” Abe hastily added. “I fear that we must break into his home. I do believe the professor will understand when I explain the circumstances.”
“I can handle this,” Seward said. He looked around to make certain no one was watching us, before reaching down to fiddle with the lock. The door easily swung open, and he ushered us inside.
“Well done, Jack,” Abe said, impressed.
“When I started at Scotland Yard, my main job was arresting pickpockets and thieves. I learned quite a bit."
The professor’s home was middle-class and spartan, with hardly any decorations or personal touches. It looked like the home of a bachelor who hardly spent any time there.
I hurried into the sparsely furnished drawing room, opening the curtain to peer out the window. Seward joined me, his apprehension matching my own.
“How long should we wait for the others?” I asked.
“Patience,” Abe said, approaching us. “I know you are frightened…but you both forget—our companions are strong vampires. They can fight Rosalind.”
“Szabina was strong and powerful,” I reminded him, fighting back a wave of tears as I thought of our fallen friend. “She was killed.”
“That was different. She was betrayed. We all were. We could not have known what Rosalind was planning. We shall have to act with more caution going forward.”
We remained inside the house for the rest of the day. I periodically looked out the drawing room window as the hours passed, hoping to see Gabriel and Anara each time. Abe spent most of his time in the professor’s study, poring over some new research he’d left behind. Seward was as restless as me, pacing each room, cleaning his revolver, continually looking out of the windows for any sign of our friends.
"You care for Anara, don't you?" I asked him, as we both looked out the window at the quiet street for the dozenth time.
He hesitated, avoiding my eyes.
"I do," he finally replied. "I have come to know her. Anara has gone through much in her long life. She… she is quite remarkable. I am worried for her. Rosalind and her vampires are strong."
"Anara is strong as well. They both are," I assured him, my words meant to comfort us both.
I tried to occupy the rest of my time by reading a book on biology in the study next to Abe, but I could barely concentrate on the words, wondering what was taking so long for our friends to return. I thought of Rosalind’s two strong henchmen who'd initially been able to overpower them. What if Rosalind had an army of such vampires? My mind continually circled around various dark scenarios—each one ending with my friends captured or killed.
“My brother doesn’t know that I love him,” I said suddenly, just after evening fell, looking up from my book. Panic seized me at the realization. “If Gabriel dies, he’ll never know—“
“You do not know if any harm has come to him,” Abe said gently. “He knows you care for him.”
“I tried to kill him when he told me who he was,” I reminded Abe. “I was cold to him. He’s done nothing but keep his promise to our mother by watching over me, and I left him at Rosalind’s estate to die.”
“Mina—“
A sharp knock at the door interrupted him, and hope ignited in my chest. I was instantly on my feet, racing into the entrance hall and throwing open the door.
Relief coursed through me at the sight of Gabriel and Anara. But they weren’t alone.
In between them, they gripped the arms of a woman who could barely stand upright, her entire form concealed by a hooded black cloak.
Anara reached out to yank down the woman’s hood. It was Rosalind.
8
PALE SHADOW
I stood frozen in the doorway, my mouth agape.
“What the bloody hell is this?” Seward demanded, stepping into the entryway behind me.
Gabriel and Anara stepped inside without a word, Rosalind moving limply along with them. I instinctively jerked back, though she was hardly threatening in her current state. Her bright hair was matted with dried blood, her eyes dazed and unfo
cused. She seemed to be in a thrall, a pale shadow of the haughty malevolent creature who had slaughtered Szabina.
“We need a cellar or an empty room,” Anara said, closing the door behind them. “Whose house is this?”
“It belongs to a friend. He is not here,” Abe replied, surveying them with unease.
“We need a secure room,” Anara repeated.
“Why? What is the meaning of this?” Abe asked. “This is a private home. Why would you bring—“
“We do not have much time,” Anara barked, glaring at Abe. “We need to restrain her; this thrall will not hold.”
“Use the cellar,” Abe replied, after a tense pause.
He stepped back, gesturing to a door at the end of the hall. Anara and Gabriel headed towards it, dragging Rosalind along with them. Stupefied, I watched them go. My joy at their safe arrival had been replaced by shock at the sight of Rosalind.
We scurried after them, descending the rickety stairs that led to a large, empty cellar. Gabriel used rope to secure a seated Rosalind by her neck to a wall post, while Anara held both her arms still. Once she was secured, Anara lifted Rosalind's wrist, removing a wooden stake from her bodice. She pierced Rosalind’s flesh with the stake, watching calmly as her blood seeped from the wound.
“You should not be in here,” Gabriel said to us, not looking up. “Leave now.”
“No,” I snapped, weary of their continued evasiveness. “Why did you bring her here?”
“Because we need to find Skala quickly, on our terms, rather than waiting for him to kill us. We know that Rosalind was deceiving us the whole time—he could bring an army with him. We need to find him before he finds us,” Anara snapped.
“How do you intend to find out where he is?” I demanded. “From Rosalind?”
Realm of Night (Mina Murray Book 3) Page 5
