That wasn’t to say that what had followed had been innocent. Not in any shape of the imagination. Bella had been free for the first time in her life—cut loose of all the expectations of the world around her. For all her life, the whispers of the desires of others had stung her psyche.
Be a better orphan.
Be a better woman.
Be a better hunter.
But not with Mordecai. With him, she could simply be. He put no expectations upon her. He seemed utterly grateful to receive whatever she might pay him, kindness or otherwise. And she decided she was unwilling to treat him poorly.
He was so attentive. So intuitive. He knew what she wanted before she did. She supposed that was his instinct, after all. She smiled faintly. He was an incubus. A demon of lust sent to prey on the weakest part of mankind.
It could all be a trick. He could be seducing her slowly, seeking to make the moment he finally devoured her lifeforce the moment he also shattered her heart. But there he was, lying—rather undignifiedly, she might add—in her lap, hugging her leg like it were a stuffed toy and he a child.
He was smiling in his sleep.
He was happy.
And it was because of her that he felt so.
It made her smile as well. She knew she shouldn’t enjoy him. He was a demon from the pits, and she was a hunter. She was sworn to rid the world of things like him. But I was not taught the whole truth. That they can love. That they can wish for families. That their lives might have meaning beyond the death and ruin of mortal men.
She had been like this for a few hours, if the muted toll of a church bell nearby was any indication. She spent the entirety of it lost in her thoughts and the slow, repetitive movement of her fingers through his hair.
His horns were fascinating. They did not dig into her enough that she cared overmuch. She gave up stroking his hair to run her fingers over one of the ridged black curls. There was writing etched into it, as if it had been carefully carved there. It was a language she could not fathom. One she had not ever seen before.
A demonic tongue, she was certain.
He mumbled, snuggled into her harder, clutching her leg to his chest, and buried his face into her lap. With a whine, he uttered something that might have been vaguely English. “Dn’stop…”
She went back to stroking his hair. He purred in contentment—actually purred like a giant cat—and rolled half onto his back to give her more room to pet him.
“You are ridiculous.”
“An’ you like it.” Again, he slurred it so badly in his half-sleeping stupor that she nearly missed what he had said altogether. He yawned loudly, stretched, and draped his arm over her legs, clearly caring little for how much room he was occupying. He clearly liked to take up as much of it as he possibly could.
“I take it you slept well?”
“Haven’t slept that good in…mmmh…don’t know. You?”
“Not much, I’m afraid.”
A single purple eye opened to look at her. “Then I didn’t fuck you hard enough.” It slipped back shut. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I wasn’t trying to make it as good as I could. I was trying to be nice.”
“Nice?” She shook her head in disbelief.
“I was being a shining knight. I was damnably chivalrous.”
That made her laugh, and she squeaked as he pulled her down to lie on the bed next to him. He was cuddling with her again, but this time with his head resting on the pillow of her breasts. “I was your King Arthur last night.”
“I think you have been reading the wrong myths.”
He grinned. “You’re wonderfully naïve if you don’t think Arthur ever fucked a girl up the—” She slapped his shoulder, and he broke off his elicit speech with a grunt. “Fine. You and your silly bashfulness. We’ll cure you of that yet.”
They fell into companionable silence for a long time, before she had the urge to speak again. “Mordecai?”
“Mmh?”
“What’s your favorite color?”
“Purple.”
“What is your favorite food?”
“Strawberries.”
“How old are you?”
“Three hundred and twenty-seven years old.” He finally lifted his head, one thin eyebrow lowered as he scrutinized her. “What’re you doing, angel?”
“We do not know each other. You claim to love me, and I…know nothing about you. I am trying to rectify that.”
“With a list of facts.”
“Yes.”
“That I could write down for you.”
“Yes?”
He sighed heavily and lowered his head. “Mortals. You’re a stupid lot, you really are.” His tail curled around her leg, higher up on her calf than before. “I enjoy moonlit nights on the black sand beaches of Urn’ala, a precinct of Hell. I love tiger lilies, but flowers make me sneeze in general, so I observe them from afar. I keep cats as pets. What else would you like to know about me, oh glorious comptroller, tax collector of my life?”
“Have I offended you?”
“Oh, hardly. I’m amused.” He grinned and placed a kiss to the swell of her breast. Her face grew warm. “If this is what you think love is, I am more than happy to play the game.”
“I am twenty. I think my favorite color is blue.”
“You aren’t sure?”
“I’ve never really thought about it.”
He snickered. “Then why did you ask me?”
“I don’t honestly know. I thought it was what a person is supposed to know about their lover.” She looked up at the ceiling and furrowed her brow. “I find this all very confusing.”
“Lover. We are lovers now?”
“I think the last few nights have been quite clear to that effect.”
He grinned and stretched over her again, nearly preening himself in his obvious pride. “Lovers. A good first step. Keep talking. Tell me this checklist of your life. I will take it all with joy.”
“I do not much care for flowers either. I think it was because I was never raised with them.”
“Oh?”
“I was an orphan. I moved from home to home until one night a band of vampires set upon us. Everyone died, save me. When they came for me…that is when my gift first manifested. I tore one of them to shreds with every last piece of broken furniture I could lift with my mind. The others fled. Alfonzo heard my tale and came to speak to me. I joined up with him, for I did not know what else to do. I did not want to live my life in an orphanage only to be sent to the streets.”
“You and Zadok have something in common, then. He was an orphan too, or so he says. I am sorry.”
“Thank you.” It was an odd thought to have something in common with the blond vampire she had met briefly and mostly in battle. She wondered if she would meet him again on different terms.
She wondered a lot about her future. She did not know what it held for her, but she knew with whom she might want to spend it. What a dangerous thought. She tightened her grasp on him, and he answered it in kind. He turned his head to kiss her collarbone. It made her smile. He likely meant it as an innocent gesture, but the effect it had on her was anything but. “I too love strawberries.”
“See? We are meant to be. Destined lovers from the stars for our shared love of red fruit.” He held her like he loved her. Really loved her. Perhaps it was not her body he was trying to claim after all.
Perhaps it really was her heart he was after.
She wondered how long she could pretend she had not already given it to him.
Maxine’s dreams were quiet. She barely slept, to be fair. She stayed there on the floor with Zadok, holding him, gently stroking his shoulder. She had put her gloves back on, afraid that too much contact with him might weaken her control. His soul was more substantial than those of the mortal lives she had accidentally destroyed, but hardly as firm as Vlad’s. She worried that if she touched him for too long, she might tear him to pieces without intending to.
Finally, he
stood and, placing a kiss atop her head, walked across the room in silence. He seemed lost in his thoughts. He retook the shape of Bella, and, nudging Eddie to wake him to take his turn, the vampire lay down to pretend to sleep for the rest of the night.
Maxine had then shut her eyes. She only knew sleep had come for her because Eddie was gently shaking her arm. “It’s morning, Maxine. We’ve got to go.”
It was time for all this to end.
In a strange way, she was relieved. She hated this endless wandering—this purgatory within which she had been placed. It would be a relief to make forward motion, even if it was into disaster.
The hunters allowed her to use the water closet to relieve herself before they departed. She ran some cold water through her hair and over her face to try to straighten herself out a little. She assumed Zadok would not wait long before revealing his game.
Maxine and “Bella” were the last to step out the door and down the stairs to the street. The huntress stopped her with a gentle hand on her gloved wrist. Turning toward the other woman, she watched as Bella took her hand and lifted it to her lips. She placed a gentle kiss atop her knuckles. It was a masculine gesture—one of the few times she let the act slip—and it was a tender one as well.
“Be strong, empath,” Zadok-Bella whispered. “He needs you to be strong.”
And with that, the moment was over, and the false huntress was once more the giddy young girl, smiling proudly and bouncing down the stairs to the street, holding Maxine’s chain in her hand. With a shake of her head, Maxine could do little more than follow.
“You were right,” she said quietly to the illusion as she walked behind the pack of hunters. “I think I would have been happier not knowing what was to come.”
The blonde girl flashed a cunning smile over her shoulder. “That makes me two for two, hum?”
“I suppose so.”
Regardless of which turns Alfonzo chose to take, or which alleyways he decided to duck down, it did not matter. They never made progress. The streets were always the same. Repeating again and again, connecting to each other in nonsensical and impossible ways. It was truly a nightmare. But whose, she could not say. Dracula’s, or theirs?
She supposed it did not really matter.
It was around one bend that Alfonzo drew his sword and held it in front of him. Eddie drew both his pistols. Finally, they were not alone.
More or less.
Zadok—an image of him, at any rate—stood in the center of the street facing their way. Ghouls were crouched at his back, jaws dripping ichor and gore as they clung impossibly to the walls of nearby buildings like a spider might do. The hungry creatures gnashed their teeth.
They were all a lie. Even the monsters.
As was the vampire who stood at their lead. “Greetings, hunters! Have you been enjoying my Master’s hospitality?”
“Fuck off, demon,” Eddie snarled and lifted a gun and pointed it straight at Zadok.
“Now, now, don’t be so hasty.” Zadok lifted his hands in a false show of harmlessness. “I have only come here to negotiate.”
“Uh-huh.” It was clear Alfonzo did not believe him. Nor did he have any reason to. “You’ve come to negotiate only because we’re getting closer, aren’t we?”
“Hardly,” Zadok said through a lopsided smile. Malice and amusement glittered in his yellow eyes. He held all the cards, and the poor men in front of her had no inkling of how much danger they were really in. “Well. If you two hunters have not been enjoying my Master’s grace, I know of one who has.”
“You can turn around and—” Alfonzo paused. “Two?”
The illusion of Bella at her side melted away. Before Maxine could warn the two hunters, Zadok stepped forward, a dagger in each hand, and sliced Eddie’s back with one and Alfonzo’s arm with the other. He cackled and vanished as Alfonzo whirled to swing his sword through the vampire.
Gunfire rang out, but Eddie’s shots met empty air.
“Where…where is Bella?” Eddie whirled around. “What have you done with her? Bella!”
“Shout all you want, mortal, she cannot hear you.” Zadok appeared again, standing in front of them.
Eddie raised his guns again, but Maxine interrupted him. “Save your bullets. He’s another illusion.”
“Come here and face me!” the young man shouted, his voice cracking in panic. “Where is she?”
Zadok laughed and shook his head, as if beleaguered by the tantrum of a child. “First, no, I will not face you both. I would be a fool to do so. You are not a threat to me by benefit of your stupidity, not your lack of brute strength. And second, she is nowhere near here. She has been gone for days.”
“What?” Alfonzo took a threatening step toward the illusion before he growled, realizing how pointless it was. He pressed a hand to the bloody slash on his arm. Zadok could have killed them both if he had wanted to, but Maxine knew he was under orders to leave them alive to suffer. “You’re lying.”
“Am I?” Zadok was nearly preening himself. “What say you, Maxine?”
The two hunters turned to her, and her face grew hot. Of course, the vampire would not let her stay out of this. “I…he’s right. Bella has been gone for over two days.”
“And you said nothing? We had a viper in our midst, and you said nothing!” Alfonzo reeled toward her, lifting his fist as if to clock her again. She staggered back. “You are a traitor, Maxine. To us and to humanity itself! I should kill you here!”
“If I told you and I revealed his game, Bella would die. I wished to keep her alive!” She took another step away from the irate hunter. “He cannot lie to me, any more than any of you. I believe his threat.”
Alfonzo snarled and whirled back to the smirking illusion of the vampire. “Set her free!”
“And that is why I have gone and revealed my little game, however wonderful it’s been having a chance to get to know you all.” He sneered. “My Master extends to you a bargain which I am sure you will understand is quite generous. One that will only be good this once. Leave this city. Turn back now. Abandon your crusade for retribution against Dracula, and Bella will be free to return to you unharmed. We will leave Boston with Miss Parker and relinquish our hold upon this place.”
Alfonzo snarled. “Never. I will see his evil driven from this world. I will not rest until he is in the grave! She can destroy him, and I will see it done.”
Zadok rolled his eyes and looked over to Maxine with a perfect expression of “I told you so” on his sharp features. He turned back to the hunters. “Do you not wish to discuss it?”
“Al. Al we have to save Bella. We should take their offer,” Eddie begged.
Alfonzo shook his head. “They’re lying. They’d never give up this city. Even if they do, they’ll go on to another. We have an opportunity here that I cannot let pass. We stay. We fight. We’ll save Bella another way.”
Eddie ran his hand over his face. “But…Al. This is asinine. We’ve walked for days and made zero progress!”
“Then go!” Alfonzo shouted at the younger hunter. “Leave if you are too much of a coward to do what needs to be done. I will take the traitor”—he jabbed an angry finger in the air in her direction—“and I will put a stop to this once and for all. I will make sure she tears his soul from his chest like she should have when she had the chance. I vow to God above I will see it done!”
“You will not make one more step of progress in this city unless my Master allows it, Alfonzo Van Helsing. This city is his domain. He is the only god in this place. Take the bargain, you foolish mortal. Take Bella and leave this place with your lives.”
“Al, we should listen to him—”
“Shut up, Eddie!” This time it was the young hunter who met Alfonzo’s fist.
Eddie fell to the ground, clutching his head with a groan. Maxine knelt to help him stand back up, holding him steady.
Zadok tsked and shook his head. “Very well. Then know this—the only chance you will have to move forward
is if you leave Miss Parker behind. The Master has his own plans with her, and they do not involve you. If you wish to seek out your revenge, you will only do so if you release her.”
Alfonzo shook his head. “You’re baiting another trap. I won’t fall for it.”
“How many weeks do you want to uselessly crusade around in circles? Hm? How many until you run out of scavenged food and die? We have not even bothered to send beasts to slow you down. We have not needed to. Your rage is impotent, and you know it.” Zadok shrugged. “He is willing to let you test your mettle against him…if you abandon the empath.”
“She is the means I have of destroying him once and for all. No.”
Zadok laughed. “If you want to give her the opportunity to judge him, then leave her! Do you not realize what will happen once you do? She will return to his side, where he wishes her to be. If she deems him worthy of destruction, she may do so.”
“She cannot be trusted to do the right thing. She claims to love him.”
Zadok tsked and shook his head. “You would make her destroy the man she loves in your need for revenge?”
“It isn’t revenge.”
“Mmhm.” Zadok shook his head. “The fact remains as it was, hunter—leave her, or go not a single step closer to your goal. That is all.”
Alfonzo growled and clenched his fists at his sides. He rounded on Maxine. She staggered back, trying to keep distance between them. But it was no use. He was faster and moved with purpose. He grabbed the front of her coat in his fist and dragged her up to him.
“Careful, hunter,” Zadok warned. “I am allowed to kill you under one condition—if you threaten her wellbeing.”
“You can try,” Alfonzo replied even as he glowered down at her. “You listen to me, Maxine. That man is a demon. He might as well be Satan himself. Look at all the horror he has created—all the death and suffering.” He fished a key out of his pocket and undid the locks at her wrists, letting the shackles and the chain drop to the ground with a loud clatter. “I need you to do the right thing. I need you to.”
She nodded weakly. “I will strive to do what is right.” She was no more free than she had been a second prior. She had only traded her chains for another more ephemeral set.
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