The buildings surrounding them looked innocuous enough, but every time they approached one of them, Michael’s sixth sense suggested that Anna wasn’t inside.
“What if she’s underneath us?” Michael kneeled down and placed his hand flat on the cold ground. Sure enough, he could sense her more keenly from there.
There was a manhole cover near their position which wouldn’t be difficult for even one vampire to lift up.
“She could be in the sewer,” Michael said.
“That’s not all that’s down there,” Lucille said. “London has a very extensive system of tunnels. That would explain why these buildings don’t feel right to you.”
Michael nodded. It made sense. He picked up the heavy metal disk and cast it aside, then he jumped down into the darkness below, landing squarely on his feet in a puddle.
The water didn’t take long to penetrate his shoes and the legs of his trousers. Ordinarily, getting soaked in human filth would annoy the hell out of him. But if he found Anna and stopped the terrible threat that seemed to loom over her, it was worth the sacrifice.
The only problem was that he still couldn’t pick up on her scent down here. The stench of human excrement and garbage was too overwhelming.
Lucille landed next to him and marched straight ahead. Perhaps her nose had picked up something his couldn’t.
They continued for ten, twenty feet, then Lucille stopped in her tracks.
“Listen,” she said.
Michael shook his head. He couldn’t hear a thing.
“We better go,” she whispered.
Before he could question her, or they could retreat, Michael saw why Lucille had become spooked all of a sudden. The two vampires that appeared before them looked very different from any Michael had seen before. Their eyes glowed in the dark as they bared their sharp fangs.
“You shouldn’t be here,” the one on the left hissed.
“This is our domain,” the other said.
“We made a mistake, our apologies,” Lucille said, trying to placate them.
Michael shot her a confused look. This didn’t sound at all like the Lucille he knew and disliked. What had gotten into her?
Anna was here somewhere. Couldn’t Lucille just tell these two what was what, that they were breaking Council laws by holding one of their own? Couldn’t they fight these two idiots?
Michael opened his mouth, but Lucille rested her hand on his arm to silence him. They exchanged a look and he decided against better judgement to follow her lead. The safety of his fledgling was on the line, but she had been in the business of enforcing Council law much longer than he’d even been alive. Perhaps she knew best.
“What’s your business here?” the other vampire asked.
Both of them stood slightly hunched forward with their fists balled, ready to fight if necessary.
“We were just looking for a place to stash prey. You know how it is.” Lucille gestured at the tunnel surrounding them. “But seeing as this spot is taken, we’ll be on our way.”
The two rogue vampires exchanged a look, then surged forward.
Lucille took Michael’s hand and dragged him back toward the manhole they’d entered from. They fled as quickly as they could, jumped up onto street level and sprinting north toward the park.
Michael was quick, but Lucille was even faster, so with her dragging him along, they ran so quickly they could not be seen by human eyes. They only stopped once they’d reached a spot in the park surrounded by trees where they weren’t overlooked by anyone.
“What the hell was that? Those were the vampires we’d been looking for. They took Anna!” Michael protested.
Lucille just shook her head. “It’s not so simple. Those weren’t ordinary vampires like you or me.”
Michael frowned. They did look unusual, but still. They should have at least tried harder to rescue Anna.
“They’re Soul Eaters.” Lucille turned to face Michael. “They don’t just drink blood, they drain their prey completely. Every kill makes them stronger, and over time, they’ve evolved into what they are now!”
What the hell was a Soul Eater? Why had he never heard the term before?
“So what? You’re almost four-hundred years old, and I’m not a bad fighter either. Together we might have defeated them!” Michael argued.
“They would have torn us to shreds. Trust me.” Lucille paced the clearing in the trees, back and forth, her arms folded. “Let me think.”
Michael looked back in the direction where they’d just come from, but it didn’t seem like they had been followed. Any vampire worth his salt would have caught up with them now, and if these two were really so strong, they wouldn’t have had any trouble at all.
“So call more of your Council people. We’ll defeat them with sheer numbers.” Michael suggested.
“Still too risky.”
“Well, we can’t just do nothing. I’m sure Julius won’t be happy if word gets around that anyone can just move to London and ignore the laws, whether they’re Soul Eaters or not. It’ll make him look weak,” Michael said. The longer they waited, the more danger Anna would be in. If they had intended to kill her when they fed from her, they might want to finish the job now. If every mortal soul gave these monsters more strength, then what would happen if they took an immortal soul?
If they couldn’t overpower them, then they had to trick them or outsmart them somehow. Although Julius was the wisest vampire Michael knew, he couldn’t trust him to help if he didn’t benefit from it somehow. Not after the incident with Cat…
That was it!
Michael took a deep breath and retrieved his phone from his pocket.
“What?” Lucille asked. “Have you thought of something? Who are you calling?”
“Alexander,” Michael said.
Lucille’s eyes widened. “Of course. Cat’s blood!”
Michael smiled. They’d had a bit of a slow start, but throughout the night, Lucille and he had actually started to work as a team. The sparkle in her eyes told him she was on the same page.
“Hello, Alexander?” Michael started. This wasn’t going to be an easy conversation, but it was unavoidable. Even Lucille seemed to agree on that.
“What’s wrong?” Alexander asked, who must have picked up Michael’s urgent tone.
“Those vampires who had left Anna for dead, they’re so-called Soul Eaters.”
“Ah.” Alexander’s reaction suggested he knew a lot more about the topic than Michael did.
Lucille stepped forward and grabbed the phone from Michael’s hand, switching it to speaker.
“Brother, they’ve taken the newborn,” she said in a matter-of-fact tone.
Alexander sighed on the other end. “How many?”
“Two that we know of,” Michael said. “We can’t let them have Anna. They’ll kill her!”
“Even with Council reinforcements…” Lucille started.
“Alexander, I need your help to get her back,” Michael interjected.
“My friend, after what you’ve done for me last month… What do you need?” Alexander asked.
“We won’t be able to defeat the Soul Eaters in direct combat, but if we had, say, a secret weapon…” Lucille said.
“Sister, you’re not suggesting—”
“By all accounts, it ought to work. And she wouldn’t need to be here. We could just use a little sample—” Lucille continued.
“I’m not ready to involve Catherine in this! The risk is too huge!”
“Just a few drops would do it,” Michael said.
“Brother, you’ve got the most extensive library outside of the Council itself. Don’t tell me you don’t know what Soul Eaters are capable of. And to think we have two running wild around London? That’s not just unacceptable, it’s dangerous. Sooner or later, they’ll catch wind of Catherine’s identity and then, it might be too late. Right now, we have the advantage.”
Alexander kept quiet for a few moments.
“I can gu
arantee that this will do wonders for your relationship with Julius,” Lucille added. “He’ll take it as a sign of loyalty to his leadership.”
Michael and Lucille exchanged a look. He had to agree, right? This was the only play they could reasonably make.
A rustle broke the silence on the other end. “I’ll do it,” Cat said.
“It’s not safe,” Alexander interrupted her.
“It never will be as long as Julius is angry with us. A little goodwill from his side could go a long way.”
“Will you both hang on for a moment?” Alexander asked.
“Sure,” Michael said.
He stared at the floor as the call went mute. Alexander and Cat had their own conflict to resolve. They’d made their case, and the matter was out of their hands now.
The line rustled again, making Michael perk up.
“Meet me at the house. I’ll bring a sample of Catherine’s blood. But after this, we’ll be even, you understand?”
Michael breathed a sigh of relief. “Yes, Alexander. I understand.”
“And dear sister, I need your assurances that you won’t disclose the finer points of tonight’s plan to Julius. If he thinks I’m handing out vials of Catherine’s blood, he will want some for himself and that can’t end well.”
Lucille shook her head. “I won’t say a word. I swear it.”
“Thank you, my friend,” Michael said.
The line went dead. Lucille and Michael shared a look.
“Thank you,” he said.
She brushed his gratitude away. “I didn’t do it for you. Imagine what will happen to me if it becomes known I’ve let a bunch of Soul Eaters run rampant under my watch. My position in the Council would be compromised.”
Michael nodded. Sure. If that was how she wanted to play it, fine. He still didn’t like Lucille very much as a person, but their partnership tonight had taught him that she was a powerful ally to have. Without her help, Anna would be doomed, and as a result, so would Michael.
He’d never planned to become someone’s maker, but now that he was, he couldn’t turn his back on her. If she didn’t survive, he wouldn’t be able to just shrug it off.
The Bond between them was too strong.
Chapter Twelve
Michael and Lucille had returned home and waited in the library for Alexander to show up.
Michael sat in one of the two leather chairs as Lucille paced back and forth. Dawn was still hours away, but he grew more restless with every passing minute.
Finally, Alexander burst in, causing Michael to jump out of his chair.
“You made it. Let’s go,” Michael said.
Alexander gestured at him to sit back down. “Hang on. We must prepare ourselves, or we’ll lose.”
Michael pressed his lips together. Of course, mentors had a nasty habit of being right, and Alexander was no different. But the tightness in his chest hadn’t let up all night, and he was at the end of his tether. What if they were too late? How would he live with himself?
“You brought the blood, yes?” Michael said. “What else do we need?”
Alexander approached one of the ceiling height bookcases that lined the wall. “It’s here somewhere. Ah!” He reached up and retrieved a tatty old leather binder and brought it to the large mahogany desk that stood at the other end of the library.
Michael joined him and watched as he carefully unfolded the fragile documents inside to reveal plans and diagrams, hand-drawn on discolored paper.
“What are these?” Michael asked. “And how did you come by them?”
“Just an auction find. Never mind.” Alexander inspected sheet after sheet until he paused on one marked ‘Kensington.’ “Here it is. These are plans from the 1920s and ‘30s, when they tried to streamline the London Underground system.”
“We came across the two Soul Eaters in the sewer, though, not in a rail tunnel.”
Alexander nodded. “It’s all connected. Have a look here.” He pointed at a section of tunnels marked in black ink. “These are part of the Underground network. Those dotted sections are part of the sewer. Was this roughly the spot where you had your confrontation with the Soul Eaters?”
Lucille leaned across the table and pointed out the exact location. “Here.”
“Right. Well, if you look a little bit further north from there, there the two systems link up via a ventilation shaft.”
“I could feel Anna’s presence strongest over here.” Michael pointed at a spot further south in the sewer line. Looking at the plans now, it made perfect sense. There was a dead end section of maintenance tunnel that crossed underneath the sewer. That was probably where they had imprisoned Anna.
“That’s our target,” Alexander said as he picked up the old plans and carefully folded them up again. “We’ll have to create a diversion and then trap them once they turn up to investigate.”
Lucille nodded and smiled. “The two of us can take of that, brother. They’ll recognize me, and we can douse you in Cat’s blood to disguise you as my prey. They won’t be able to resist.”
Michael straightened himself. “That’ll give me the chance to slip into the other tunnel system from the ventilation shaft and get Anna.”
“When is your backup coming?” Alexander asked Lucille.
“I can have them in position within a moment’s notice. Then they’ll capture the rogues at our signal.”
“Good. Michael, you take this—” Alexander handed him a little vial. “Just in case.”
Michael didn’t need to open the small bottle to know what was in it. He nodded as they shared a look of understanding. It was deeply flattering that Alexander would trust him with a little sample of Cat’s blood. Michael put it away deep in his pocket, fully expecting to return it to Alexander by the end of the night.
The three of them shared a look. It seemed like a solid plan. Certainly better than Michael’s initial impulse of just heading down there by himself and fighting the two strange vampires to the death. With a bit of luck, they’d return home with Anna before long.
“I do believe we’re ready,” Alexander said. “Where are the weapons?”
Lucille gestured at him to follow her, but he stayed behind with Michael for a moment.
“It’s going to be fine. Your woman will be fine.”
Did Alexander just refer to Anna as ‘his woman?’ Michael frowned.
“Don’t tell me you’re still going to deny it?” Alexander asked, a coy smile playing on his lips. “Catherine was the first to notice it. Your expression when you talked about her gave it away.”
Michael shook his head. “I’m her maker. That’s all.”
“I’ll let you in on a little secret. Sure, there’s a bond between maker and fledgling, and you would have sensed if she was in danger, but not like this. I can see you’re in physical pain because of it. This something else, something deeper.”
“That can’t be. And it goes against everything—” Michael protested.
“Oh, hush! Deep down, you know I’m telling the truth. All that stands in your way is your misguided belief that your relationship is somehow inappropriate, when really, your situation is a lot more common than you’d think. Now let’s go and get her back, or I will have potentially compromised Catherine’s safety for nothing!” Alexander urged.
Michael pressed his lips together and swallowed, hard. Had he really been that far off the mark? Neither Alexander nor Lucille seemed to bat an eye at the chance of something more intimate developing between Michael and Anna. It would be so much easier to just let go of all the guilt he had developed since their one and only kiss. He took a deep breath and followed Alexander into the reception room, where Lucille waited with the weapons.
Fine. If they—especially Anna—made it out of this mess alive, he would confess his forbidden feelings to her. And then it would be up to her to decide how to move forward.
***
It would have been easy for Anna to lose hope.
She’d been st
uck in this dead end tunnel for hours, with nothing to keep her company but the periodic rumble originating from nearby Underground trains. She had become so used to the interval at which the trains passed that she’d started anticipating them.
Maybe a dozen or so trains ago, she’d felt some strange sensation, as though she wasn’t entirely alone anymore. It was like she could feel Michael’s presence, but that reassuring feeling had passed very quickly, leaving her alone again. Was this another one of those vampire sense things, like the one warning her of the rising sun? More likely she was starting to lose her mind already.
But if he did turn up, and Anna did get out of here, she would insist on a heart-to-heart with Michael. She would tell him that it was fine if he didn’t want any sort of romantic relationship with her; she’d understand. They could just forget about the kiss and everything, and pretend it never happened.
The sad fact was that he was the only one she had now, and she couldn’t bear for things to be awkward all the time. If they were going to be just friends, fine. They would never cross that line again.
Anna paced around her cell, investigating every inch of wall for the hundredth time, which only confirmed what she’d already known: she was trapped and there was no way out.
Then without any warning, the door to her cell swung open, revealing the creepy old vampire who had approached her out on the street.
She took a step back and bumped into the wall behind her.
Her captor smirked and seemed to float slowly in her direction. Could she make a run for it? Something told her he was only slowing things down in order to toy with her. He’d catch her without any problem if she tried anything.
“What do you want with me?” Anna asked.
He let out a chuckle. “Oh, dear child. How do I explain?”
By just telling me already, Anna thought. Her throat felt tight as her heartbeat sped up more and more.
He was only a couple of feet away from her now. “I am not one to leave unfinished business,” he whispered, then leaned forward and inhaled deeply. “Ah. The smell of youth.”
Anna kept her breaths and movements to a minimum. She didn’t want to provoke him. Unfinished business? They’d left her for dead, so was he going to finish the job now?
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