a single mortal girl? Isn’t that a bit of an overreaction?”
“Dracula informed us you were our most important priority this night. Especially since there are three hunters lurking in the shadows.” Zadok rubbed his hand against his neck. Bella had told her that she had slit his throat during the brawl. “I think it is a valid concern.”
“I am alone.” She stepped up into the carriage with Walter’s assistance and sat on the seat across from the blond, yellow-eyed, smiling vampire. He was a vicious and sadistic thing. It did not take her gift to tell her that. His expression did the deed well enough.
“Mmhm.” It was clear the grinning vampire did not believe her. He stood from his seat and moved to sit beside her. There was no avoiding him.
Walter climbed inside, shut the door, and rapped on the wall closest to the driver with his knuckles. The crack of a whip sounded from outside, and with the lurch of wheels, they were off.
“You did not speak to the hunters of your appointment with our Master?” Walter watched her warily from the bench across from her. It was clear he did not believe her.
“I did not.”
“Why?” Zadok purred. “Did you want to come, then? Do you desire to be our Lord’s new plaything?”
“No.” She glared at the blond vampire and shifted farther away from him in her seat. “Under no circumstances do I want anything of the sort.”
Walter tilted his head slightly as though trying to solve her like a puzzle. “Then why? It is foolish to come at all, let alone without telling the others.”
“If I speak to the hunters of his invitation, they would follow me, even if I requested that they not. If Dracula sensed them nearby, he would kill them for their intrusion. Am I wrong?”
“No,” Walter confirmed.
“And he is far more formidable a foe than both of you, even combined, am I correct?”
“Yes.” The redhead conversed in simple absolutes, it seemed. He was not a conversationalist. She preferred it over the leering creature sitting at her side.
That left one last question. “If I refused to come at all, what were your instructions?”
“To go inside and drag you to his lair,” Zadok provided, his voice sultry as the thought of it clearly brought him great pleasure. “Kicking and screaming.”
“I suspected as much. You see why I have come peacefully. And you see why I have not told the hunters. I only wish to avoid violence. For me, for the hunters, for the city as a whole.”
“It is a hopeless endeavor. But I commend you for your efforts,” Walter replied, and she was once more surprised at how old he felt to her. Far older than even the Vampire King himself. All she could feel from him was a tired weariness over the whole ordeal, where his elder was still driven by passion. “It takes a wise soul to understand they will fall to something they cannot hope to defeat.”
She looked out the window to the street as it rolled past them. His words were true. She was facing a power that could command monsters and turn the moon an eternal, full, and unflinching red.
What am I against a creature such as him?
“Tell me something, vampires.” She let her fingers trace along the fringe of the curtain that decorated the wall. “Why do you serve him?”
“Our reasons differ.” Zadok chuckled, shifting lower in his seat. He draped an arm over the back of the upholstered surface, inching his touch closer to her shoulder. She leaned away from him. “Myself? I enjoy it and the benefits his cruelty afford me. Walter does it from a childish sense of loyalty, as Dracula is his sire.” Zadok paused, as if waiting for her to ask what the word meant. She was well enough versed in the breeding of horses to catch his meaning. Vlad had made Walter directly.
She nodded once in understanding.
The blond-haired, yellow-eyed Frenchmen smiled broadly in response. “Tell me. Is it true that I cannot touch you? Usually, our lord threatens me with violence if I play with his toys. But with you, he said there were far more dire consequences than the usual dismemberment I suffer.”
“He is being quite literal. If you don’t wish me to tear out your soul from your carcass and sending it skittering into the void, no, you can’t touch me.” She looked to him pointedly. “On second thought, go on and try.”
Walter chuckled.
Zadok recoiled from her. “What kind of monster are