“What the fuck?” Zane said.
This time the sentiment was shared by all.
Vincent noted Maria’s mounting terror. The clan would search for someone to blame and Maria made a perfect scapegoat. But that was the future. For now, Maria was still distracted by the present. Her husband was dying and she had to stop his inexorable decline. “Paul!” Maria rushed toward her lover and kneeled before him. Tears racked by tears. Vincent studied the dying, comatose man, putting it all together in his mind. “Silver nitrate,” Vincent explained. “The killer must’ve injected him earlier.”
Vincent's gaze found Maria and he knew the look in her eyes all too well, her grief and anguish mirroring his own loss all those years ago. But Sasha made a choice; Paul didn’t. One death could be avenged; the other merely mourned.
“I'm sorry,” Vincent said. The words felt trite but he said them anyway, the only solace he could provide the shaken woman.
The silence inside the dining hall was suffocating. Fear hung over the vampires like a shroud. An alien emotion to these creatures had become… commonplace.
Zane glared at Vincent. “You were with the prisoners.”
“So was Sebastian, Sherlock.”
“Maybe the two of you are in on this together? I never trusted the little cunt!”
“Biker boy is losing it,” Sebastian observed drily.
“Silver nitrate works slower in humans,” Vincent explained. “Any one of us could have injected Paul with the poison this morning or even the night before, depending on the dosage.”
Zane's paranoid gaze found Angelique. But she offered no support, one way or another. “What about the meat? She must've known.”
Angelique approached Maria. “What’s going on here?”
“I swear, I don’t know.”
“You must've seen something,” Angelique insisted.
“I swear to God...”
“Don't lie to me!”
Tears of rage and pain exploded from Maria's face. “Goddammit, I loved Paul! He was everything to me. Do you think I would just sit back and... Oh God, Paul...”
Maria's knees buckled, unable to support her weight any longer. She would have stumbled over one of the chairs but Vincent was there to catch her. Her grief struck a chord deep within Vincent. He could relate to her in a way the others couldn’t and didn’t care to. He traded a fierce look with Angelique. “Stop it!”
The threat of impending violence made Angelique take a step back. Vincent continued. “You all have been feeding on her since last night. She probably didn't know who was coming or going after you guys got through with her.”
Angelique considered this for a moment. “Good point,” she grudgingly conceded. “Sebastian, you and Faust were snacking on the meat this morning. Out of all of us, you two spent the most time with our party favors.”
Sebastian looked exasperated. “Now you think I’m part of this?”
“All I know is we're dropping like flies here. We’ve got to get out of this place.”
To their collective surprise, it was Vincent who answered.
“For once, I couldn't agree more.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
IT WAS MID-afternoon now and the sun had reached its zenith. It was turning out to be a beautiful summer day and the chateau’s brooding structure seemed out of place in the vibrant surroundings.
At the same time, inside Dracula’s chateau, the vampires descended a wide, circular staircase that corkscrewed its way into the darkness. The beams of light from their torches flitted across the fissured walls like lost souls, breathing life into a parade of shadow.
Angelique and Zane made up the head of the group, Vincent and Maria followed in the middle while Sebastian formed the end of the line. The sound of gurgling water could be heard in the near distance and the surrounding walls glistened with condensation. The place was dank and oppressive, another example of Dracula living up to his reputation.
It didn’t take long before the vampires arrived at the bottom of the stairs. Angelique paused and reviewed the map for a second before she pushed the groaning steel door open. Metal scraped against the stone floor. Holding her torch high, Angelique passed through the doorway and the others followed.
They emerged in a circular chamber dominated by a medieval hand-drawn well. The round hole formed the center of the underground chamber and a rusty chain extended down the endless shaft, disappearing into the darkness below.
“Be careful what you touch!” Angelique warned as she slinked toward the well shaft. Vincent tracked her catlike advance, her body coiled and alert, eyes scouring the chamber. Angelique reached the edge of the dark abyss and peered into the gaping hole. Her torch barely illuminated the endless shaft as it dropped off to darkness.
Zane extricated a Euro from his pocket and tossed it down the black well. They waited a few seconds before they heard a distant splash.
“Do we have any volunteers?” Angelique asked with a playful smile.
“You do realize this would be the most obvious place for the killer to set a trap,” Vincent noted.
“I'm aware of the situation. That's why Maria will be doing the honors.”
Vincent could feel the anger rising inside of him. Angelique shook her head. “For a man who doesn’t like to break promises, you sure have no problem breaking hearts.”
“Angelique…” Vincent’s patience was running thin.
“No one here is raising a hand against her,” Angelique interjected before Vincent could protest. “But if anything should happen to her on the way down…” She didn’t have to say more.
Angelique turned her attention to Maria.
“If the well is booby-trapped, you'll die. But if it isn't, you'll gain a head start on us. How does that sound?”
Maria nodded. She understood the offer and took it. Vincent was ready to chime in but Maria's resolute expression stopped him in his tracks. The fierce determination in her gaze spoke louder than words - she’d rather take her chances in the dark well than endure the vampires a second longer.
Without uttering another word, Maria grabbed the well chain. Below her, the darkness awaited.
***
The instant Maria disappeared down the shaft and the shadows swallowed her whole, the suspense began to mount in the well chamber. Vincent watched in tense silence as he pondered the thought that was going through all their minds - would Maria trigger a trap before she hit the water?
Vincent had been against her being lowered into the well, but he also recognized that it might be Maria’s best chance in the end. Angelique told her it would provide a head start. Vincent had no doubt the vampires would easily close the gap but at least for the moment, Maria would be safe.
Unless death was waiting for Maria down below.
Vincent pushed the thought aside and hoped the vampire killer had not factored the well into his plans.
***
Maria felt like she was easing into a deep, gaping wound inflicted upon the earth. Down below in the dark, she could make out the faint gurgle of water.
Waiting like a wet tomb, she thought.
One hand clutched the chain and the other was clasped around an electric lantern that coaxed little detail from the encroaching blackness. Up above in the well chamber, Maria could hear the windlass turning as Zane paid out the chain.
Fear remained an ever-present companion as her body swung back and forth, legs dangling, her clothes streaked with mud from the slimy walls. But below Maria’s terror, part of her had ceased to care. Losing Paul was like losing a part of herself and life seemed meaningless now, a lonely road not worth traveling any further.
Maria didn’t know what awaited her at the bottom of the shaft; there was the distinct possibility the well was booby-trapped but on some level, she welcomed the release from her pain.
She pointed the lantern downward and focused most of her attention on the water at the bottom of the well. All around her, the creaking chains echoed, rusty steel scraping
against moss-covered rock. Maria's legs dangled in the void and her feet brushed against the slippery walls.
“I can see the water,” she shouted, her voice eerily amplified by the weird acoustics of the well shaft.
Maria dropped lower...
And lower...
Until...
SPLASH!
She hit the murky bottom and most of her body disappeared under the black water as the chain paid out. The well was cold but the water at the bottom was freezing, and the shock made her cry out. Her scream reverberated and she could hear Vincent’s voice emanating from above, seemingly miles away.
”Are you alright?”
For a protracted moment, Maria didn’t answer, still adjusting to her surroundings and fighting back the sudden onrush of claustrophobia. Everywhere she looked, she was confronted by the same disorienting sight – a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree prison of glistening stone and cascading water. Her teeth chattered, the freezing cold water seeping right through her clothes and skin, straight into her bones.
The light of her lantern slithered across the walls and finally, to her relief, revealed a possible way out. A moss-encrusted culvert disappeared into the darkness. Water streamed from the tunnel’s opening, which must have been about two feet wide and four feet tall. Just big enough for Maria to fit through.
Maria shivered and struggled to hold the light. The water was freezing and she couldn’t remember ever feeling this cold before. The shock and exhaustion from the other night, coupled with the fact that vampires had decided to relieve her of a few pints of blood, wasn’t helping matters. The exhaustion hit her on a cellular level, every nerve ending crying out for relief. But she couldn’t give in to it. Already the chain was being pulled – she wasn’t going to be alone for long.
Maria hazarded a glance upward and saw Sebastian preparing for his descent. That was it! She had to make her move! Maria scrambled into the grime-encrusted culvert, doing her best to ignore the numbing cold that had taken hold of her. The pain was paralyzing and almost brought tears to her eyes, but her survival instincts were in charge now. Maria realized with a sense of relief that she still wanted to live, despite the horrors she had endured over the last twenty-four hours.
Maria stood up but realized she had to keep her shoulders slung low or she would crack her head on the ceiling of the culvert. Her clothes clung to her like a wet second skin. The water was ankle-high in the culvert and each step was an excruciating effort, but it was an effort she was willing to make.
She had taken a few steps when she heard a sound that seemed incongruous with her medieval surroundings. For one surreal second, she wondered if she was dreaming. Because the shrill sound pulsing through the culvert sounded a lot like a ringing cell phone.
***
Inside the well chamber, Angelique traded a look with Vincent.
“Seems like your new girlfriend made it. Who’s next?”
Sebastian was the first to volunteer. He grabbed the end of the rusty chain with one hand, face locked in a determined mask. Sebastian always felt as if he had to prove himself, over and over again. He might be older than most of the other members of the clan but all they ever saw was the face of a teenager and more times than not, it translated into a lack of respect. That made it easy for them to dismiss him. Zane’s recent behavior was just another reminder that people would always judge a book by its cover. Cover be damned, Sebastian was getting ready to throw the book right at that damn biker. He hated being trapped in this young form for eternity but looking at the bright side, at least he’d reached puberty by the time the master welcomed him to the fold.
But being fourteen forever could make life exceedingly difficult. Signing a lease, driving a car, getting into clubs - everyday life posed a never-ending series of challenges. And hunting adult prey was a whole other matter. He couldn’t saunter into a bar and pick up an adult like most other vampires could. Had he been a mere child, he could play on women’s maternal instincts but as a perpetual teenager, he was trapped in a limbo between boy and man, lacking all the advantages and burdened with all the disadvantages.
Nevertheless, Sebastian had one steadfast rule – he refused to prey on teens. Feeding on the young would bring back too many memories, the nameless faces of all those starving street urchins who haunted the cobbled streets of London, desperately searching for scraps to sustain them through another cold, merciless winter. Sebastian might be a monster, but he did adhere to his own personal code.
“Make sure she doesn't get away,” Angelique instructed.
Sebastian nodded and shot Zane a warning look.
“You better not drop me.”
The eternally youthful vampire snatched the chain and allowed Zane to lower him down the shaft. The surrounding darkness lit up in streaks of red and orange, his heightened vampire senses cutting through the darkness. He saw Maria vanish in the culvert below and his features tightened with a predatory edge.
“Faster! She's getting away.”
Zane must have heard him, because his descent picked up speed – biker boy must be spinning the well’s wheel with all his might. It didn’t take long before Sebastian reached the end of the line. The chain paid out entirely and the teenage vampire plunged into the murky waters below.
“What's going on down there?” Angelique’s voice echoed from above.
Sebastian didn't respond.
His gaze was riveted to the surface of the water.
A growing realization filled his features. The water was covered with a thick, gooey substance that hadn’t been there when Maria arrived at the bottom of the well.
“What the hell?” Sebastian analyzed the substance more closely and horrified understanding crept into his face.
The water was covered with gasoline.
The moment Sebastian formulated the thought, his gaze found Maria. She stood in the open culvert, looming a few feet above Sebastian. And she was holding a sparkling flare in her hand.
Sebastian’s eyes widened with terror. Almost reflexively, he snatched the chain and screamed, “Pull me back up! Hurry!”
But it was too late and Sebastian knew it.
Maria hurled the sizzling flare into the gasoline-covered water. The instant the flare made contact with the gasoline, the water ignited and the well transformed into a raging furnace. The teenage vampire let out a guttural death cry that bounced across the shaft as flames enveloped his body.
Up in the well chamber, the vampires recoiled, finding their worst fears confirmed but not quite in the way they had anticipated.
The meat had turned out to be the booby trap!
Both Angelique and Vincent stole a glance down the shaft, which was now spitting up a roaring fireball with Sebastian’s burning form at its flaming center. The dying vampire was going supernova as he tried to clamber up the shaft, his tortured shrieks rattling the remaining children of the night.
Sebastian made it halfway up the shaft before he succumbed to the inferno and tumbled back into the burning heart of the well.
***
Vincent could hear the muted splash of Sebastian hitting the water below. It was followed by the silence of the grave.
Angelique flashed Vincent a reproachful look. “So much for your taste in women.”
Vincent remained silent, knowing that Maria played him.
It was just past two o’clock and already their numbers were down to three. It was becoming increasingly doubtful that any of them would make it to nightfall.
The sun was scheduled to set at 6.22. Four hours to go. Vincent had a feeling it might turn out to be the longest four hours of his life.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
VINCENT, ANGELIQUE AND Zane returned to the dining room and found another surprise waiting for them. In their absence, a few more dates had been carved into the table and three more dead bats had been added to the collection.
1909 - Julian.
1931 - Coraline.
1812 - Sebastian.
Their ki
ller was as consistent as he was meticulous. Angelique paced back and forth, growing anger barely kept in check. “Looks like someone’s been busy.”
Vincent was still struggling with the idea of Maria being involved with these murders when a chair whistled past his head, missing him by mere inches. It smashed with devastating force against the wall, splintering to pieces. Zane glared at Vincent. The biker vampire regarded Vincent with unbridled contempt, rage boiling to the surface - Zane had finally made up his mind about his number-one suspect.
“This is your fault. We should've wasted the bitch when we had a chance.”
Vincent held Zane's gaze but there was doubt in his face now. Maria’s betrayal had shaken his confidence. Ever since Sebastian met his end in the well, Vincent had wondered how Maria could have played him. Her terror had seemed so real - she deserved to win an Academy Award for her performance.
“No way she pulled this off on her own,” Angelique said. “For one, she couldn’t be in two places at the same time.”
Zane shook his head, his fury energizing him. “Isn’t it obvious? The bitch had help from her boyfriend over here.”
“And how do you explain me leaving these little souvenirs behind?” Vincent pointed at the dead bats on the table. “I was with you all this time.”
“You’re working with someone else.”
“Stop it!”
“Shit, I'm just getting started. I'm so tired of all these games and bullshit! You found out somehow, didn't you?”
Vincent exchanged questioning looks with Zane and Angelique, wondering what the biker was getting at. From the beginning, Zane had pointed his finger at him. Maybe there was more than simple jealousy at work here. Maybe Zane believed he had a reason to target the clan. Vincent’s curiosity was piqued. ”What are you talking about?”
“Don't pay any attention to him, he's losing it!”
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