Curse of Dracula - Kathryn Ann Kingsley Page 0,114

and took a step back. “You destroyed him.”

“I…” She cringed as if he had slapped her. “Yes. And a piece of his soul became mine. Such is the reason I now have been poisoned by his curse.”

“And he is bereft of anything at all? He is dead?”

“I do not know. I believe so.” She was pleading with him, her crimson eyes looking for any compassion he might be able to spare. “Please, forgive me.”

He had the urge to strike her. To kill her for what she had done. She betrayed their Master—the man he claimed to love—and—his fury sputtered and failed. “Did he know what you planned to do?”

She nodded.

Walter ran a hand over his face, groaning loudly. “He embraced his death.”

“Yes.”

He sighed. “Very well.”

“Can I get up yet?”

Maxine laughed, and Walter looked up to see her approaching the young hunter still lying on the ground. It was he who had spoken. She reached out to help him up, and he grasped her by the hand as she hefted him easily to his feet.

“Whoa!” he yelped at her sudden strength.

“Sorry. I fear I do not yet know what I am.” Maxine smiled sheepishly at him. “Are you all right, Eddie?”

“No, I’m shit, actually. Lost a finger to a bitch of a vampire, lost my friend to a bitch of an incubus, was about to lose my life to that big bitch over there”—Eddie gestured at Walter, who struggled not to reup his desire to smack him—“lost my mentor to the biggest bitch of them all, and now you’re…fuck, Maxine. What did you do?”

“I’ve been asked that question three times now, and three times I will say I fear I do not yet fully know.” Maxine looked down at her hands in confusion. “But there is one thing to be certain—this fight ends here, and it ends now.” She turned to Walter. “I do not ask you to serve me, Mr. Northway, or you, Mr. Lafitte. I do not ask it from anyone. But I intend to protect Eddie should you decide to continue this fight.”

Zadok and Walter looked at each other for a long moment. It was the Frenchman who spoke first, unsurprisingly. “I…know why you did it. And if he wanted to die as you say, then I shall respect my Master’s wishes. I will need more time to accept what has been done.”

“As do we all,” Maxine murmured.

“I’m not excited to find out what our new master vampire might do with powers untempered and untrained by time,” Zadok said with a mild shrug. “Nor do I wish particular ill on the boy. He killed Elizabeth. I think I owe him a favor.”

“That is one of the few times I think you have spoken logic.” Walter allowed his sword to vanish from his hand. He watched Miss Parker for a moment and remembered her kindness toward him. Her kindness toward all the creatures she met. “I will not serve you, Miss Parker. But I will seek to aid you, if that is enough.”

“It is more than I could ask. I would prefer friendship.” She smiled. “I am not one for keeping staff.”

“In you remains the only shred of a chance I have at a family who cannot leave me. Friendship it is.” Zadok bowed, joining into the accord. “This will be interesting indeed. At least you are far more attractive to the eyes than our previous Master.”

Walter kept himself from decking the Frenchman. Perhaps he would do so later. “What do you intend to do now, Miss Parker?”

She looked up at the moon overhead. “I think you should both go indoors.”

Without having to be warned twice, he let his body dissolve into bats and head to the sky. He would seek shelter inside. He did not know what meant to follow such strange events. He mourned the loss of his friend. He grieved for Dracula. He would cry in silence and solitude this evening and likely many more to come.

But he knew his friend had needed rest. And he hoped he had found it at long last.

“Maxine?”

She shushed Eddie. She wasn’t certain about what she was doing and needed to focus. It was as though she had been sat at a grand organ after taking a few lessons on a child’s piano. There were too many switches, levers, foot pedals, strings, pipes—she knew if she hit the wrong key, she might ruin everything.

Power like an ocean flowed beneath her fingertips. She could understand a little of why Vlad acted