For the moment. Although he may not wish he was. He has begged the Chainmaster for death many times over. He has lost three of his limbs, eaten by ghouls…and is about to be forced to dine on the very limb he used to punch Miss Parker in the head.” The vampire remained stoic through his entire casual and impassive explanation of the torture. “Do you still claim this is not about revenge?”
“I mean, I’m not going to pretend it won’t feel good to make you sick shits suffer. But no.”
“That is fair.” The vampire twirled his sword and folded it at his back. But Eddie knew it was not a vulnerable pose. “I am Walter Northway.”
“I’m Eddie Jenkin.”
The vampire smirked. Eddie thought he did, anyway. Might have been a trick of the shadows. “Well met. Let us begin.”
“Maxine? Maxine!”
Someone shook her. She gasped and thrashed, feeling silk sheets underneath her. Around her. She struggled against whoever was touching her. Hands on her shoulders were touching her bare skin. Flashes of a gutter, of young boys laughing, of a carriage abandoning him on the street.
Zadok.
She looked up into his concerned face. She was naked. But she could not find the will to care. She looked at him in confusion and reached up to trace her fingers over his cheek. She gasped and pulled her hand back from him the moment she saw it.
Her skin! What was wrong with it?
She looked down at her hands. They were pale. A ghastly gray.
She was so cold.
“By God, Maxine…” Zadok tilted her head up to look at him again. He searched her eyes as if he did not understand what he was seeing. “What has he done?”
Vlad! She turned and found him lying beside her. He was on his back, the sheets tangled around his waist. He was looking up at the ceiling. But his red eyes were glassy and empty.
Vacant.
Regret flooded her. She had lived and she was alone. She threw herself atop him, trying to wake him. She shook him, placed her hand on his cheek, and called to him. She remembered the pain. Of something fighting back. But she must have won in the end. He was gone.
Tears fell from her cheeks and landed on his chest.
They were crimson.
She leaned down to kiss him, but his lips were unresponsive.
“He will not wake. I thought you were both dead.” Zadok tugged gently on her arm. She was weeping, but she allowed him to pull her from the bed, even though her limbs felt useless and like jelly. He slung a robe around her and pulled her into his arms. “My dove, tell me what’s happened. What has he done?”
“He has done nothing. This is my fault.” She curled into his chest but could not tear her eyes away from Vlad. There was too much to describe. She pushed away from Zadok and glanced around the room. There, by one wall, was a mirror. She walked to it and carefully stepped up to it to examine herself.
Crimson eyes looked back at her, set into features that were far paler than any she had ever worn. She recognized herself, but barely. She opened her mouth and ran her fingers along her teeth, finding her canines longer and sharper than they should have been.
“You are a vampire,” Zadok breathed. “Did he turn you?”
“No. I…I destroyed him.”
“You what?” Zadok shook his head. “I don’t—”
“I take a piece of those I kill. And a piece of his curse was enough to do this, it seems.” I have freed you from your eternity. I have taken this burden from you. She looked back at Vlad. Walking to the side of the bed, she pulled the sheets up over him and sat at his side. She stroked through his hair, smoothing it out, and gently shut his eyes. She leaned down to kiss him.
She let her soul touch the cold body beneath her lips and tried to find him. Tried to find…anything.
But nothing called back to her.
This deathless world is mine now.
“This is all—I don’t know how I am to react to this.” Zadok leaned on the wall and threaded his fingers into his hair. He began rambling, speaking so quickly in French and English that they blurred together, and she struggled to understand him. “You have become him! My Master lies dead, his Lady is now my Mistress, and there is a hunter at our doors attempting to kill Walter and—”
“What did you say?” She looked up at