Page 10 of The Doctor and the Devil
“My daughter and I would be honored,” Papa had said.
Thus began the most fateful evening of my life.
Deep into my ruminating, I realized I’d been staring at the same page of notes for almost an hour. Night would soon fall, and now that I knew Rafael was somewhere in the area, I was worried about him trying to approach me again and putting both our lives in jeopardy. I enjoyed a fair amount of latitude from the operations of the Order, and I certainly didn’t want to test their boundaries—or their patience.
I blew out a breath and rubbed the headache forming between my brows.Dieu, I am tired.I knew I had more work to do, but I owed Charlotte a visit to help her prepare for her upcoming wedding. There was also the possibility that I felt a gnawing sense of guilt at keeping secrets from her, considering I counted her as one of my best friends. As a foreigner, friends were hard to come by and even harder to keep.
Would it be so bad if Charlotte and Daphne knew? Would they condemn me for the sins of my past—my weakness of character in the face of the devil himself? Surely, they couldn’t fault me for falling in love with the wrong man—not that hewasa man.
But he certainly felt like one in my arms.
On the other hand, the blood plague is the thing that Daphne works so hard to rectify in France, and Charlotte was turned without her consent. Rafael is at fault for both.
As am I.
I winced as the realization condensed in my mind, like clouds blotting out the sun, but I was too much of a coward to tell them everything.
I won’t risk losing their friendship…yet. Eventually, I will. Eventually, I will have to. Just not tonight.
I put on my second-best gown, an amethyst silk confection embroidered with blue flowers and trailing green vines, and pinned my curls up as best I could without a lady’s maid. Charlotte and Daphne never minded my reluctance to abide by the same rules and fashions as the court, but if I didn’t at least make an effort, Charlotte would spend half the evening trying to convince me to let her buy me a new wardrobe. Not that she pitied me, exactly, but she insisted the boring parties at Versailles were made more interesting with my attendance, despite my wallflower tendencies and inability to stomach champagne.
I pulled on my thick wool cloak, locked my apartment and my clinic, and made my way to the busy street where I could hire a fiacre to drive me to Charlotte’s impressive estate. No sooner had I entered the dim carriage than a pair of fierce hands grabbed me and roughly pushed me back against the seat. Before I could scream, another hand came up to my face, stifling the sound and cutting off air.
Panic raced through me, and I lashed out, kicking at my attacker. I experienced a moment of triumph when I felt my boot connect with soft flesh and bone and heard a gruff curse, but the hand around my face tightened and my victory was short lived. Darkness beyond that of the encroaching night pulled at my senses, and I felt myself slip into the depths of unconsciousness.
4
RAFAEL
April 15, 1768
Rue Ordener
I sensedtrouble before I was fully awake, but that didn’t stop me from launching myself out of bed, shifting into my wolf form, and bolting across the countryside toward her. Even after twenty years, hundreds of miles, and lifetimes separating us, I felt her distress like a spider sensing the vibrations of flies caught in its web. Tremors of panic delicately thrummed along threads of silk that seemed to be affixed directly to my absent heart.
Fear. Anger. Not anger…outrage. Confusion. Disgust.
I struggled to concentrate—to focus on her feelings enough to determine what was happening to her and what shape these dangers would take—but as ever, I couldn’t think clearly when it came to Mina. Rage built in me with every strike of my paws upon the earth, and fear for her fragile, mortal body gnawed at me. More memories surfaced as I ran, but this time they carried an ache of a different kind.
Let me make you, Mina, my love. Allow me to turn you so we won’t ever be separated by time,I’d begged. Her eyes were a sharp blue that night, like a chunk of sea ice that had been worn by ocean currents into a deadly point.
Not until I know more,she had said.I love you, Rafael, truly, I do. But I must understand what this curse holds for you. What it could mean for me, too.
I’d railed at her, then, and stormed from the bedchamber. Ever practical, ever calculating, ever mindful Mina, who would always put knowledge and science and thought ahead of every feeling. Mina, whom I’d said loved reason more than she loved me.
I chuckled to myself now but had been devastated at the time.What a fool I’d been.I was so in love with her, I expected her to act as I would have—to throw everything away and dive headfirst into endless nights of ceaseless sexual pleasure and the power of consuming another human’s precious life-force. She wouldn’t, though. She couldn’t. She was Mina, and for me to ask anything else of her…to ask her to be anything other than what she was, was utterly idiotic.
It had taken me years to learn that particular lesson.
No matter.I was back for her now, and it was up to me to convince her that I wasn’t the devil she’d left behind. I was an entirely different demon now, and one who would spend however long atoning for all my mistakes.
She must believe me about the blood plague. When I speak with her, shemustbelieve me.
Well, I’d have to find her first.
Onward I raced, faster and faster. Paris finally came into view. I reached out with my senses as soon as I drew near, hoping to find her in the jungle of scents and sounds all clamoring for my attention.
My mental connection to Charlotte flickered, and a spear of icy fear staked me in place. She wasn’t dead—she couldn’t be. It would certainlyfeeldifferent. She felt…asleep. Unconscious, perhaps. An involuntary snarl slipped between my bared teeth. If I couldn’t find her by sensing her, I would have to use my other skills to locate her.
