is my chance—my real chance—to stop him.”
“He cannot be stopped. Even if you defeat him now, you know he will return. It’s just a matter of time. You would end so many lives for the chance to hurt him?” She shook her head. “That’s madness.”
“You do not know what he has done.” Alfonzo stormed up to her then and grabbed her roughly by the upper arms, shaking her once. She heard the vampire growl at the show of violence, but there was nothing he could do. Alfonzo glared down at her. “You do not know what he is capable of. He impaled my cousin on a pike and left him propped in the front yard of his home. Abraham was a father of two children. He was alive when the wood met his flesh. He was left to slide down the length of it as it pushed its way through his organs. He was still breathing when the authorities found him. And he was not alone. All the rest who sought to stand against him met the same fate.”
Alfonzo’s expression turned knowing and cruel, looking down at her with a prideful kind of arrogance. “And do you know why they stood against him? Why they took up arms to defeat the vampire? Not because he wished to destroy London. Oh, no. Because of a woman. He hunted her. Seduced her. Fed from her.”
“Enough.” Vlad was seething, but there was nothing he could do.
“When Mina was too far gone, too corrupted, and flinched away at the sight of daylight for that he was feeding her his own poisonous blood, she begged for freedom. Abraham granted her that mercy. And the vampire, in his selfish rage, murdered them all.”
Maxine yanked out of his grasp and took a few steps away from the hunter. She glanced over to Vlad, whose expression was an unreadable mask of stone. She felt from him only death. Death that he was—death that he would pay others. “Did you love her?”
He was silent.
“Vlad,” she pressed. “Please.”
He hesitated before answering reluctantly. “No. She was a bauble, nothing more.”
She cringed and looked away. She knew he was ancient—he had told her in his own words that he had loved before. And how many “baubles” did a man like him take to amuse himself? She suspected as much, but to hear him say it was another matter entirely.
“Maxine…remember our accord.”
Yes. A promise never to lie to each other. He was telling her that he loved her without saying as much in front of the hunters. She shook her head, wishing it all to go away. Wishing she could crawl into her bed and sleep.
Vlad sighed heavily. “Hunter. Accept my offer. Give her to me, and I will leave this place in peace. I ask one final time.”
“No.” Alfonzo yanked his sword from the turf and took a battle stance across the line from the vampire. “Fight us here and now instead.”
The Vampire King laughed, cold and empty. Devoid of any humor, humanity, or kindness. “How I would love to grant you what you wish. But no. I will make sure you learn the cost of your revenge. I will ensure you will see what you have wrought in your foolishness.”
“Coward. Fight me. Or is the sun weakening you too much and you know you will lose?”
“Hm?” Vlad smirked. “What sun?”
“Wh—” Alfonzo began to speak but did not get a chance to finish.
Vlad lifted his hand above his head. He reached toward the sun, sharp nails looking like talons that extended from long fingers. He closed his hand into a fist.
And all at once…it was dark.
The sun was gone.
Blotted out from the sky as if it had been swallowed into a hole. She looked up in awe, blinking at the sudden darkness. Her eyes struggled to adjust to the change. There were no clouds hiding the sun. But that was not to say there was no glowing disk hanging in the sky. There was.
But it was the moon. Huge, and full, and the color of blood. Stars glimmered about the terrible usurper on the throne.
The city fell deathly silent. No birds chirped. No wind rustled the trees. All the sounds of the city merely stopped. It was as though life itself held its breath.
Then…came the howling. Like a wolf in the distance, answered by another, and another. But the sounds were not like a canine, but something else, something other. Creatures of the darkness who had come to answer their Master’s call.
Worse than the howling was what followed.
The screams.
Faint and far away, numerous and chilling. His army had already begun to feed. Maxine shivered and shrank back toward the house.
“What have you done?” Alfonzo asked through his shock, his eyes wide in horror. “How have you…how have you done this?”
Vlad laughed and smiled piteously at the hunter, as if he were a parent whose child had learned of gravity and scraped his knee. “You know so very little, Helsing, of what I truly am. Of what I am capable. I could rule this world if I wished it. You would be surprised to know how little in this world I desire. You will be horrified to see the lengths to which I will go to secure that which I do. Now, you will learn who I truly am.” He looked to Maxine with those words. She knew they were meant for her. Vlad took a step away from the barrier and stretched his arms out at his sides. “You will now see the full reach of my curse. Come and stop me…if you think you can.”
And with that, his form exploded into a swarm of bats and soared up into the dark sky above, little more than movement against the unnatural night’s canopy.
She heard screams in the distance. They hung in the air like the morbid calls of birds, replacing their counterparts like the moon had stolen the sun. He had threatened to destroy the city…and now she learned Vlad Tepes Dracula was not a creature who bluffed.
Resting her back against the brick of her home, she looked up into the darkness. “Oh, Vlad…What have you done?”
Fin.
“Curse of Dracula”
Immortal Soul: Part Two
Arrives August 1st, 2020
Order it here!
Also by Kathryn Ann Kingsley
The Masks of Under:
King of Flames
King of Shadows
Queen of Dreams
King of Blood
King of None
Queen of All
Halfway Between:
Shadow of Angels
Blood of Angels
Fall of Angels
The Cardinal Winds:
Steel Rose
The Impossible Julian Strande:
Illusions of Grandeur
Ghosts & Liars
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About the Author
Kat has always been a storyteller.
With ten years in script-writing for performances on both the stage and for tourism, she has always been writing in one form or another. When she isn’t penning down fiction, she works as Creative Director for a company that designs and builds large-scale interactive adventure games. There, she is the lead concept designer, handling everything from game and set design, to audio and lighting, to illustration and script writing.
Also on her list of skills are artistic direction, scenic painting and props, special effects, and electronics. A graduate of Boston University with a BFA in Theatre Design, she has a passion for unique, creative, and unconventional experiences.