with their food. We’re a game to them. Keep talking.”
She told the rest of the story…leaving out the kiss once more. All she said was that he hypnotized her and touched her cheek.
“I thought you couldn’t be touched?”
“I can’t. I didn’t think I could. Not without destroying or maiming the other person.” She looked down at her gloved hand. “It seems it works differently for him or his kind. I saw into his mind…into his soul.”
“What did you see there?”
“Death.” She laughed dryly. “A great deal of death. And…he has changed his face and his name over the years.”
“What?” Alfonzo furrowed his brow. “What do you mean?”
“I think he is far older than you know.” She shook her head. “I’m not sure yet. I can’t confirm it. It’s only a theory.”
All at once, the three hunters looked deflated, their shoulders slumping. The idea that they might not know the truth of who they were fighting settled on them like physical weights. It hurt her to see. “I have not learned anything of the war he wishes to wage upon the city. We did not have much time to talk.”
“Why did he bring you home? Why go through all that mess only to…drop you off in your bed?”
Maxine took in a slow breath, held it, then let it out in a rush. She knew the answer; she hated having to say it out loud. “He wants me to realize the trap I am in is far larger than any chains he would sling on me or any cage he might keep me in. He brought me to sleep in my bed to show that I cannot run or hide from him. I am still his prisoner all the same. In his own right, I think it is a show of mercy to let me run about my jail with some sense of freedom.”
The room was deathly silent.
Not enjoying the awkwardness, she continued. “Even if you were to try to sneak me from the city limits, I believe he would follow me. Our souls have touched. He…is in my dreams now. It is…it is already too late for me, should he wish it.”
“I’m sorry.” Alfonzo shut his eyes and leaned his head back against the wall, rubbing a hand over his stubble. He didn’t argue her point. He knew it was true.
“What do we do?” Bella frowned. “We can’t let this happen.”
“Tonight, we hunt. Eddie, you’ll stay with Miss Parker to protect her.”
“No.” Maxine shook her head. “I don’t think he intends to hurt me. I would be dead, or bitten, or a ghoul, if that’s what he wished. Putting Eddie with me is guaranteeing he be considered a complication that would need to be removed.”
“She’s got a point.” Eddie seemed less than excited about being in the vampire’s direct path. “But, Maxine, what if he comes for you?”
She paused. Now came the difficult choice. To tell them about his invitation or not. If she did, they would follow her and likely die because of it. Dracula would not take kindly to interlopers in what she assumed was meant to be a private parlay. If she didn’t tell them, she was lying to the first attempt at friends that she had experienced in many years.
Lying would save their lives.
But it would still be a lie.
While the three of them had barely survived a tussle with the vampire Walter and Zadok and their forces, she knew a fight with Dracula was a very different thing entirely. She had no doubt he could destroy them without trying, especially if he felt he had reason to.
“He might come for me. And if he does, so be it. He is toying with me as you said, Alfonzo. I amuse him because of my gift. He is enjoying tormenting me.”
And so, she lied.
The two younger hunters looked to Alfonzo, their mentor and leader. “What do we do now, boss?” Eddie asked.
“We hunt once the sun goes down. We hope Maxine may continue to use the vampire’s fascination with her to suss out more of what he is planning. It is better to have him distracted.”
She nodded. She could do that much. The creature needed to be stopped, no matter the strange pull he had over her. No matter the fact that he could touch her.
He meant to destroy the city.
It was just as she had told him in her dream.
Her conflicted emotions mattered for nothing.
11
It was seven thirty in the evening when she stepped out her door,