“Very well, Elizabeth.”
She sat up from where she was lying and smiled wickedly. “Good. Where do we begin?”
Zadok.
Maxine sighed drearily. “Damn it.”
The vampire smiled at her and placed a hand to his chest and bowed. “Wonderful to see you too, my lady.”
Eddie raised his gun to fire at the vampire, who seemed entirely unalarmed by its presence. And for good reason. Maxine reached out and put her hand on Eddie’s gun and lowered it. “Save your ammunition. He is not really there. He is a mirage.” She could not sense any soul or emotions coming from the apparition.
“Very good! I would hardly be so foolish as to stand here before three capable hunters. Don’t think so little of my intelligence. And I am called the Illusionist, after all. I have not come for a duel, regardless.”
“Then go away, fiend.” Alfonzo had his sword in his hand all the same. He rightfully didn’t trust the vampire, illusion or not. “Unless you fight us, we have no business with you.”
“Oh, but I have come to welcome you to our new city. This place is ours now, make no mistake. I come with an offer to you. Give me the Master’s new prize, and the rest of you may leave here alive. Turn back, hunters, and save your own lives.”
“No.” Alfonzo’s tone left no room for discussion.
“Very well. But I’m afraid you will not get much farther into our city than this.”
“You cannot stop us. We will fight through whatever you put in our way.”
Zadok chuckled. “Therein lies the naivety of mortals. You think you can simply punch and slash your way to Dracula. You will make it not an inch closer if he does not allow it.”
“What do you mean?” Alfonzo growled. “Speak plain.”
“Ask Maxine. She understands.” Zadok pointed at her with a dark smile. “She can feel it.”
She pulled back half a step. Alfonzo didn’t look at her; none of the hunters did. They knew better than to take their eyes off an enemy.
“What is he talking about, Maxine?”
“This…this place isn’t Boston anymore. It’s something else. It’s as though…” She looked off, trying to sort out her words through the hum of the city around her. Then it came to her. The reason everything was so very loud. It wasn’t simply the death and the destruction. It was something more than that. “It’s as though this place has become one of the creatures itself. It is as though it… is alive.”
“Yes! Very good!” Zadok seemed honestly proud of her. “You are so wonderfully clever. How I wish you could be mine. Ah, well, c’est la vie, my dove. Maybe in another life.” He sighed dreamily. “And you are very correct. My Master’s plague stretches to far more than flesh and blood. He has claimed this place as his. He commands the very brick and mortar of this city. You will wander helplessly in circles, my dear sweet hunters. In time, you will wear yourself down.”
“You’re lying,” Alfonzo snapped.
“We shall see.” He shrugged idly. “I needn’t attack you. I only need to watch you burn your candles low. And when you admit the trap you are in, that is when I will come for you. But my offer stands. If any one of you wishes to turn back and leave this place and spare yourselves a painful death—you will walk out of the city limits unharmed and with our blessing.”
“Never.” Alfonzo snarled. He stormed forward and swung his sword through the air, intending to cut the vampire in half. But it passed harmlessly through the illusion. “Face me!”
Zadok was still smiling. “Why?”
“Fight me with honor!”
That inspired the vampire to laugh. “Honor. What a charmingly mortal notion. Honor. Dignity. Fairness.” He scoffed. “These are concepts created to keep you trapped within a spider’s web. They are constructs you build around your society to try to ensure that those with morals play within their pens only to be fed upon by those without such trivial philosophies. Abandon them, hunter, and see yourself plainly for what you are—a bloodthirsty thing driven forward only by the need for revenge.”
“You’re lying.”
“Am I? Once again, I think we shall see.” Zadok took a step back then folded a hand at his waist and bowed low. “My offer stands. Oh, and dear Maxine? I nearly forgot. My Master sends you his love.”
Alfonzo went to swing his sword again, useless as it was. Zadok vanished in a blink. But his laughter echoed in the air. “Walk your feet bloody for all I care. Prove me wrong.”
Maxine was shivering again. She was trying desperately to keep from falling into another fit of panic. She had to try to keep herself together. She had to try to be strong. The city is alive. Well…as alive as Vlad may be. It was all around her. Zadok was not lying. If this thing served its master in the same way all the rest did, it could keep them wandering about for days.
But she also knew it would not stop the hunters from trying.
“Hey, uh, Al?” Eddie interrupted the silence.
“We are not turning back.”
“No, that’s not what I was gonna ask.” Eddie shifted uncomfortably. “All your books. All the Helsing legends. Um. Did any of them mention anything about a whole city turning into a giant, bloodthirsty monster?”
Alfonzo’s shoulders slumped. “No.”
Eddie groaned. He summed up nicely, and with a perfectly crass choice of words, her exact opinion on the subject. “Oh, good. We’re fucked.”
4
They walked for hours among the twisted streets and the dead. And as the vampire had warned, they seemed to make no progress despite their march. Boston was not that large a city. By this point, she should have been able to walk from her home in the Back Bay to the waterfront and back. But with no landmarks she could identify, she couldn’t even say which way they were headed.
Only that it seemed to do no good.
They marched. And with every hour, warped creations that seemed birthed from nightmares dogged their steps. Maxine did not know that she would ever become adjusted to the sight of them.
One creature had eyes that seemed to cover every inch of its body. They opened and shut in undulating waves. When it died, it had burst into flame that glowed a bright blue and reduced its remains to ash. Which was for the best.
There were enough bodies.
When they were too tired to continue—or they claimed to be out of pity for her aching feet and slowing gait—Alfonzo had chosen a home and knocked. He shouted for whoever was inside to open the door, and that they meant no harm. No one answered, so he kicked the front door in. Thankfully, no one was home. Nor were there corpses littering the floor.
She sank down onto a sofa in the home’s drawing room. Eddie took up a spot by the window, keeping watch for if they were being pursued. Bella went to scrounge for food while Alfonzo searched the building for trouble.
“Do you sense anything?” Eddie asked her.
Tiredly, Maxine shook her head and resisted the urge to lie down on the sofa. Barely. “There is no one here. I feel nothing but the…” She didn’t know how to describe it. “The noise.”