Page 114 of The Gloaming

I pulled my knees back up towards myself, scrabbling to get back into a seated position, but she wrenched my legs out again, sitting on my feet to hold me there. Reaching for the box she’d brought in with her, the lid swung back with a faint rattle, and she picked out a surgeon’s scalpel. Deftly, she turned it in the lamp’s light, examining the blade.

“You’ll have to excuse me if I’m a little clumsy.” She waved her stump at me. “I’m used to having both hands, but I’ll try my best. I’mdyingto find out how much you can take.”

I glared at her, unable to move or act under her weight as she cut through my filthy vest to expose my torso.

“Soon Murray will come for you.” The words came out like a purr. “The daylight won’t stop him – not now. He’ll be weaker, though, exposed…” Her eyes gleamed, and she drew the tip of the blade from my sternum to the waistband of my jeans in a long, shallow cut. “Alistair knows him too well.”

The scalpel’s path burned against my frozen skin. Blood trickled warmly down my side while my breath clouded in the frigid air. I bit down hard enough to taste copper, forcing back the sound rising in my throat. Every instinct screamed at me to fight back, break free, dosomething. But the manacles bit deeper as I tensed, and Émilie’s weight pinned my legs uselessly to the bench. It’d been a long time since I’d felt this… defenceless.

“He won’t fall for it.” I spat through gritted teeth.

Her quiet laugh filled the small space. “He already has. The sun’s rising, and we know exactly where he is. That’s the problem with sharing blood…” She made another cut by the first, deeper than before. “Nicholas might be able to sense you now, if you shared enough. But Alistair? Even a tiny taste from years ago is enough for him to know when Nicholas is close.”

Unfazed by my lack of reaction, she made another long cut beside the first. “By the time we’re done, he’ll be here. And then…” She pushed the stump of her arm into my stomach to pull the skin taut. “Well, then the real fun begins.”

I tried not to flinch as she angled the blade, the cold flat side of it against my flesh. Unable to stop myself, I cried out as she drove it under the skin, peeling the surface cleanly away. The raw, exposed flesh bled heavily as my heart rate rose. But she wiped it clean, not even tempted. I dug my fingernails into my palms, swallowing my scream as she drew another line, and began again.

???

After Murray’s revelation, Tom was growing more concerned about Erin’s state by the second – though for the first time since they’d been at the empty house, he genuinely thought they might have a shot at finding her. The three immortals made their way down to the ground floor, leaving the faded old notebook on the dressing table.

He followed them downstairs, his mind spinning. Every time he looked at Nicholas now, he saw both the monster who might have got Erin killed and the prisoner who’d survived hell. And yeah, Erin could handle herself. She always had. But the idea that he was starting to see Nicholas as an actual fucking person… that was a whole new thing he didn’t have time to get his head around right now. Though maybe the mess of contradictions that was Murray was why Erin hadn’t talked to him about all this sooner – not that he’d exactly made himself available to discuss it.

“There are only so many places this Alistair could hide within a reasonable distance of the city and his feeding ground. Not all of those will match the information we have, so we need to narrow it down,” Adam said, continuing a conversation Tom hadn’t been listening to. The immortal placed a mug of coffee in front of him with a deliberate bang, drawing his thoughts back into the room as liquid sloshed over the rim. “It’s a process of elimination.”

“What?” Tom asked, coming back to himself as Isabel removed a vacuum flask from the fridge, the seal breaking with a soft hiss. The red liquid made a sick, viscous sound as she poured it into a highball glass. Tom’s throat closed up, acidburning at the back of his mouth as he fixed his gaze on the kitchen tiles, counting the squares to keep his coffee down.

“You’ve lived here your entire life, is that correct?” Adam asked, evidently trying not to roll his eyes.

“In the city? Yeah. But we’ve already gone over this – soil and metal, remember? I don’t know every inch of the city, no one does – and if you reckon we’re looking for a metal building, you’ve got no chance,” Tom answered, averting his eyes from Isabel. “This is Steel City.”

He thought about it. “We could maybe try the industrial district, near Solace’s place. Some of the warehouses and closed up workshops might fit the description, but Erin searched them when she was looking for Murray before – we know they’re abandoned.”

“I dinnae think a warehouse would leave such a scent,” Nicholas said, taking an identical glass from Isabel. “T'would have to be somewhere smaller, and iron – no the stainless steel used in modern structures.”

“Could younot?” Tom protested, unable to restrain himself any longer.

Isabel arched a dark eyebrow at him, taking a delicate sip from her glass. “Would you have me hunt in the streets instead? I assure you, that would prove far less… palatable, to your sensibilities.”

Tom wrinkled his nose. “No, but you could at least wait until I’m not here to watch the show. An opaque cup wouldn’t hurt.”

“They have to keep feeding if they are to be at peak strength,Tom,” Adam reasoned. “And we need that strength.”

“We won’t needanythingif we can’t figure out where the bastard is keeping her,” Tom fumed under his breath.

“Nick, I assume you didn’t find anything at the warehouses?” Isabel asked. “It seems to be our only plausible destination. And now, with more context?”

Tom and Adam shared a look of confusion.

“What’re you talking about?”

Nicholas sighed and rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. “I didnae mention it because we didnae learn anythin’ – but Erin and I went to see Solace.”

“We need to knoweverything, haven’t you figured that out yet?” Tom tried not to raise his voice, but he couldn’t help it. “Solace knows this city better than anyone. She must have had something to say?”

“She wasnae exactly in a position to. Her warehouse had been attacked – presumably by Alistair’s female accomplice, given the description she provided.” Nicholas’s voice dropped lower. “Solace didnae see much, but they’d fed on her people. Killed them. Vampire on vampire feedin’…” he trailed off, shaking his head.

“But… it is taboo.”

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