he wept for mercy. I have impaled a woman upon a pike and left her there for her family to find and smiled as I did. I relish the pain of others. I wallow in their misery and take joy in their agony. What you will see in my treatment of Van Helsing is nothing compared to that which I have wrought. It is all this I demand that you love—it is all this you should welcome into your heart with open arms, lest we both take the grave instead.”
And with that, the world folded away from them.
24
When they reappeared, he threw her away from him. She staggered and fell, hitting the ground hard on her hands. She winced at the pain but made no noise.
“Master and Mistress, hello!” A voice came from near her. Neither male nor female. She looked up, and her eyes went wide. Neither was it human or vampire.
The creature was something else entirely. A demon, perhaps? She had never seen one. It had rough greenish skin, a blunted but delicate-featured face, and a dozen long, thin, terrible horns that bent in graceful arcs away from its face. It blinked like a lizard, and its eyes were a bright and vicious yellow.
The creature was also fully naked, save for chains that draped along its inhuman form. Its legs were canted like those of a beast, and a long tail swished around behind them. It smiled down at her, toothy and dangerous. The glint in its features said that it would like to hurt her—very, very much.
“Forgive me for the state of my workbench. I did not know I would have company. Especially not her.” A taloned hand reached down to help her stand. She scrambled to her feet on her own. The creature shrugged, placed a hand in front of its waist, and bowed. “I am the Chainmaster. At your service, my Lady.”
“I am not your lady…”
“You are his toy, then? Even better.”
“Enough.” Dracula broke into the conversation. “I have been told you make progress with your newest project.”
“Yes, indeed! Come, come. Let me show you.” The creature walked away from them. It was only then that she could examine her surroundings—a chamber made entirely of roughly hewn stone, like a cavern that had been chipped away until it was mostly rectangular. Candles burned in sconces along nooks carved into the walls.
This was not the public library. Perhaps it was beneath the city—or perhaps it didn’t matter anymore. Dracula’s will was imposing itself upon the very fabric of the world around him. It was futile to try to make logical sense of where she was.
Vlad gestured for her to follow the creature. She wished she had not asked to come here, but it was too late. She needed to see what was happening to the ill-fated vampire hunter. She needed to witness the malice that her vampire enjoyed.
And so, she followed.
As they walked, she realized she was in…a prison. The walls were lined with doors with small barred windows. From inside them she heard the whimpering cries. But it was not the sound that made her pull up to a full stop.
It was what poured from their cages.
Fear. Pain. Agony. Death. Hands reaching up from a pit, begging for mercy. For clemency. For forgiveness. Please…please help me. Please free me. Save me. I never did anything to deserve this!
She put her head in her hands. Their emotions threatened to drown her. She couldn’t breathe.
Hands settled on her shoulders, and it was as though an ice-cold knife cut through the rest of the voices, silencing them and sending them scattering to the shadows from which they came.
She shuddered at the sudden silence but did not lower her hands from her face.
“Are you able to proceed?” His voice was as cold as a frozen winter. Unreadable and taciturn.
“I need a moment.” She lowered her hands and forced herself to pull in a long breath and let it out. “I was not expecting so many.” She could keep them at bay, but she had been caught off guard.
Draw a line in the sand. She shut her eyes and tried to visualize it. She was a rock in a river, and they were the water around her. She was not them. She was not their emotions. She was her own mind, her own self, her own soul. Slowly, the feeling of drowning abated. After a pause, she nodded, and he removed his hands from her shoulders.