Chapter Nineteen #2
“I’m not leaving here without answers.” She lowered the tip of the stake until it pressed against mottled, gray skin. “I’ll kill every single one of you if I have to.”
“Such passion,” a croaking voice said from behind her.
She spun around. The robed figure flipped back his hood, revealing an ancient, leathery face with sunken eyes and cracked lips. The furrowing of his eyebrows and slight tilt of his head were so unexpected, it took a few seconds for Felicity to recognize that he was looking at her with sympathy.
He was so thin, she could have toppled him with a flick of her wrist, but he pitied her.
“What is your name, child?” the man asked.
She kept the stake where it was. “You don’t need to know my name.”
The creature laughed, a sound like rustling leaves. “You may call me ‘Mordecai.’”
“Mr. Mordecai—”
“Just ‘Mordecai.’ We do not follow your human rules of address here.” He produced a lit cigar from within his flowing robe and took a long draw. “Now, what has you so riled up?”
She glared at the woman cowering beneath her. “This one has information I need.”
Mordecai gestured to the dagger that had fallen to the ground. “What did its owner do to you?”
Her legs were sore from holding the awkward position on the bed. “It murdered my parents.”
Mordecai exhaled a cloud of smoke and nodded.
“You’re not surprised?” She put the stake away and crawled off the bunk. “You must know what I intend to do.”
Mordecai uttered another rustling laugh. “My dear, all of us have taken countless lives. We are here as penance. We wish to suffer for our sins.” He pointed his cigar at the wall to his right. “Tell her, Laurence.”
She turned her attention to a bed she’d assumed was empty.
The blanket moved, and what emerged from the darkness was a figure that she could hardly believe had once been human.
Its spindly arms and legs were so coated with tar that they resembled the branches of a scorched tree.
The thing leaned against the wall of its cubby as if it didn’t have the strength to hold itself up yet managed to bring a long pipe to its lips.
When it had exhaled an enormous quantity of smoke, it held out hands tipped with ragged, yellow nails.
“I took a thousand lives with these hands,” it whispered. “To atone for that sin, I became a doctor. For three centuries, I saved as many as I could and released the ones who begged for death.”
She tried to imagine the vampire younger and less decrepit. It—he—was trying to atone for all the lives he’d taken.
“All of us have similar stories,” Mordecai said. He pointed to the bed next to Laurence’s. “My mate, Annabelle, was a nurse.” He pointed to the woman Felicity had accosted. “Laurence’s mate, Yelena, served in the army medical corps.”
Laurence gave a raspy cough, then lay back down on his bed.
“So, you see,” Mordecai said, “we have no fear of death.”
She stood there, with the weight of their silence pressing down on her shoulders, knowing that she would have killed all of them without a second thought if she had encountered them a week earlier.
Mordecai stubbed out his cigar. “Show me the dagger.”
She grabbed the weapon, but it slipped out of her hand and clattered to the floor. Mordecai reached down and retrieved it.
“Interesting,” he whispered. “Yes, I have seen this before.”
Her pulse pounded in her ears. “Whom does it belong to?”
“You will not like the answer.”
“Tell me!”
He ran the pad of his thumb along the gold dog’s broken ear. “The one you seek is long dead.”
“No, that’s not—no!” She couldn’t have been dead, not after everything Felicity had done to find her. “You’re just… trying to distract me.”
He abruptly tossed the dagger. She caught it by the hilt in midair.
“Excellent reflexes,” he said. “Exactly what I’d expect from a hunter.”
The room fell silent. Jonathan edged closer, as if preparing for a fight.
She returned the dagger to her bandolier. “H-How did you know?”
Mordecai let out another laugh. “I have walked this earth for millennia, child. You reek of righteous fury.” Then he waved his hand. “Leave. Flee this place before I am forced to make an example out of you.”
She didn’t want to go, but Jonathan grabbed her arm and dragged her away. As they left, she felt more conflicted than ever. Mordecai had known she was a hunter but had answered her questions, anyway. If he was right, her quest had come to an end.
The anger that had sustained her over the past ten years sputtered out, leaving a gnawing worry.
How was she supposed to tell her family about this place?
The occupants wanted to die because of everything they had done, all the violence and the hatred and the death they had inflicted upon the world.
Some of them had even chosen to help humans, either out of penance or in a genuine desire to do good.
For ten years, she’d stood staunchly on her family’s side of a centuries-long war without truly understanding her opponent.
Even her exhibit had been tainted by her anger, as each artifact had been carefully selected to further the impression she wanted to impart: that vampires were without conscience, and therefore evil.
The problem was, she no longer believed that to be true.
“Wait,” she said.
Jonathan turned and placed a hand on his hip. “What now? Did those old ghosts get to you?” He shook his head. “Pity. I had hoped to set you loose on my enemies.”
The back of her throat took on a bitter taste as she imagined plunging her sword through Mordecai’s chest. She’d dispatched dozens of his kind in her quest for vengeance, branding them all guilty and deserving of death without a second thought.
Every vampire in that den was punishing themselves for their sins, while she continued her bloody rampage unbothered.
She was the one without a conscience, not them.
“I… I’m sorry,” she said.
His eyebrows shot up. “A hunter apologizing to a vampire?” He whistled. “Please go on. I rather like this side of you.”
“Stop talking,” she said. She’d threatened to kill him, bound him with an artifact, and forced him to do her bidding.
More than once, he’d nearly died. It had been easy to dismiss the vampires she’d staked while patrolling the streets of London because she hadn’t known them. They had been nameless enemies.
Not Jonathan.
Her jaw trembled. “What have I done? I’ve treated you terribly.”
Jonathan’s smile fell. “It wasn’t all bad. Being ordered about by a hunter was a rather titillating experience.”
She couldn’t stand it any longer. Before she changed her mind, she reached up, grasped the beads of the crucifix, and pulled. The string shattered, sending bits raining to the ground. Jonathan stared at them for a long time before clearing his throat. “Well, that was unexpected.”
She couldn’t hold back a laugh. “Do you want me to put it back?”
He recoiled. “Are you trying to chase me away?”
“Maybe I’m just tired of your presence.”
He scoffed. “Impossible. I’m the most charming man in London. Certainly the most charming vampire.”
She grinned. For the first time in weeks, she didn’t feel like she was weighed down by bricks perched precariously on her shoulders.
Her feet ached, but she didn’t mention a cab because she didn’t want the night to end. The Sorrow townhouse was home, but she’d never truly felt like she belonged there. With Jonathan, she felt whole.
It wasn’t until several minutes later, as they followed a dark alley into the fringes of Mayfair, that she realized they weren’t heading to the hunter base.
A faint hope sparked to life deep inside her that he’d ask her to stay with him, even though it was impossible.
Great-Uncle Ezra was expecting her to return and relay the location of Jonathan’s haven.
If she failed to report in, her family would form a search party.
After the loss of Winifred and Vincent, Felicity suspected Great-Uncle Ezra would dispatch every available hunter.
They would eventually find and follow her trail and any vampire they encountered along the way would be slaughtered.
It wasn’t right.
She stopped so suddenly that Jonathan bumped into her. He put his hands on her shoulders. “What’s wrong?”
“I can’t do this. Take me home.”
He frowned. “Why?”
What excuse could she use that he’d believe?
She couldn’t tell him she’d agreed to lead hunters to his haven in direct violation of her promise to grant him immunity.
“I-I need to return the weapons I borrowed. Before someone…” She trailed off as she noticed the line of cloaked figures blocking the other end of the alley.
A sinking feeling in her chest warned her of what was coming, but somehow, it was still a shock when the tallest in the group walked forward and the moonlight landed on his features.
Great-Uncle Ezra.
“You have done exceptionally well, my dear,” the old man said. He snapped his fingers and an enormous silver wolf appeared from behind him.
Felicity had seen hunter werewolves before.
Her own brother had been forced to endure the curse to assist the family in tracking vampires.
But the creature before her was more gruesome than any nightmare.
Patches of its fur were missing, its eyes glowed a sickly green, and wisps of smoke drifted up from where a thick, silver collar was wrapped around its neck.
“Surprised to see us?” Great-Uncle Ezra rifled the wolf’s fur. “I would have come sooner, but William had a difficult time tracking your scent.”
William. Her cousin. Charles’s twin brother.
“No,” she whispered. “Please tell me you didn’t…” The saliva vanished from her mouth. Great-Uncle Ezra had done the same thing to William that Uncle Ethan had done to Vincent.
The old man opened his arms. “Your mission is complete, Felicity. Come. Take your proper place among us.”
She should have been thrilled. This was what she’d wanted for six years.
She took a step forward, then halted. What was she doing? Her past was stained with blood, but that didn’t have to be her future. As she opened her mouth to refuse, Jonathan grasped her wrist. “Was this your plan all along?”
“It’s not what you think.” She had started out prepared to betray him but had changed her mind.
He shook her once before dropping her arm with a scowl.
“I shouldn’t be surprised. Well, you have your answers, Miss Sorrow, and I am free of your wretched artifact.
I see no reason to continue our association.
” He reached his hand beneath her cloak and withdrew the dagger from her bandolier.
It happened so quickly that she didn’t have time to react.
“I’ll be taking this, hunter,” he said.
Then he vanished, leaving her feeling as if she’d been plunged into a snowbank.