Page 3 of The Doctor and the Devil
No! He made his choices, you silly woman, and they were never for you—or about you. Gather your wits and do not let him in.
It would have been easier if he wasn’t holding me upright in the middle of the street. How long had I been clutching at him? Seconds? Minutes?Oh, Mina!
I pushed him away, nearly tumbling again. Attempting to recover from the surprise and embarrassment, I brushed off my skirts and fixed my askew spectacles.
“That’s Dr. Van Helsing,” I snapped.
He arched a brow. I hated that he was as handsome as I remembered. Lean muscle wrapped in moon-pale skin; dark eyes that felt both hot and cold when they gazed upon me; those high cheekbones and patrician nose that spoke of his family’s royal lineage. His full lips parted over those frightening white teeth—two gleaming sets of fangs that I’d never seen on another vampire—and he spoke again.
“So, your father finally allowed you to study,” he said. It sounded like he was smiling, but his lips were set in a firm line. “I should have expected that you would wear him down eventually. Congratulations on becoming a physician, Mina.”
The words stabbed at painful memories, and I flinched.Is it possible that he doesn’t know about Papa?
“What are you doing here, Rafael?” The shock at seeing this ghost from my past had faded some, and now I found myself looking nervously over my shoulders. People—powerful people—were looking for him and had been unable to find him.Yet here he is.
I hadn’t seen him in twenty years, except for the brief moments outside Gévaudan when he and Charlotte had come to free Antoine and me from the clutches of thebêtes de sang, a dangerous group of vampire soldiers under the command of a corrupt general. He hadn’t looked like this, though—dressed in a gently worn black silk coat and leg-hugging black breeches. He’d been in his beast form—a massive creature resembling a wolf, if wolves had crawled their way up to earth from the bowels of Hell.
Is he here for me? Has he come for me?Sadness bloomed in my chest, chasing away the reflexive hope.Don’t be stupid, Mina. It must be some horrifying coincidence. And anyway, you don’t want him here.
“Is that any way to great an old friend?” he purred. “A friend who has very recently saved your life.”
He was teasing me, trying to goad me into a spat, but I was too fatigued to play his lofty mind games.
“I haven’t seen you in twenty years,” I lied. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Perhaps you have me confused with someone else.”
Breathe, Mina. Air—yes, I need air. And…something else that starts with an A. Ale! Yes, back to what I was doing. Walk away. Get away from him. Calmly. Slowly. Do not run—he would only give chase.
Without waiting for his response, I turned back up the road, desperate to get to the warm, heady din ofLe Raisin Perduand to safety—if one could call a shady tavern in the poor end of Parissafe.Fortunately, having treated most of the patrons for one thing or another, I could. The tavern would be full, and I longed to have my supper and drown away this unfortunate encounter with several pints of ale. I wanted the company of people, even if I did not partake in the conversation. As a foreigner, it made me feel less alone.
“Oh?” His voice was in my ear as he kept pace with me. “You always were a terrible liar, little Mina.”
“Don’t call melittle Mina.Don’t call me Mina! I am Dr. Van Helsing! And you…you are…you areunwelcome!”
“Unwelcome?After all we have been through? After all this time?” He tutted, lips twitching as if he were covering a laugh. “Very well. If you insist on formalities, I will oblige. It has been an age,Dr. Van Helsing. How have you been keeping? I’m in town for only a short time—you must come to dine.”
‘All this time? Come to dine?’I stared at him, angry and perplexed. As much as I didn’t want to rise to his teasing, my temper flared, and I stopped a few steps away from the tavern door.
“I’m afraid my calendar is quite full,” I bit out. “But if you’re short on dining companions, I know several people who would dearly love the pleasure of your company. Though, I am not certain you’d enjoy the dinner conversation with the Order.”
He stopped, the expression on his face grave.
“Stay away from them, Mina,” he warned. “They are not what they seem. And you are not prepared for what is to come.”
Unable to control my anger any longer, I exploded.
“You unleashed this plague upon the world, Rafael!” I hissed. “And every day, I try to help hold back the tide of destruction. Do not offer me warnings or advice or inconsequential opinions while I am the one atoning foryoursins.” Rage and disgust leeched into my words. “I should stake you where you stand.”
Betrayal and pain flitted across his face, along with a thousand unsaid words. He looked like he was about to speak, but his gaze snagged on something behind my shoulder. I turned to watch a drunk man stumble out of the tavern, recognizing him as one of the farmers from just outside the city. I’d treated his son for a broken arm last summer, one which I suspected had more to do with a drunken ass of a father and less to do with a tumble from an apple tree.
I scowled.What a trying day this is turning out to be.I would simply have to convince Rafael to leave me alone and return to whatever rock—or castle—he’d crawled out from. Steeling myself for another calm, cold tirade, I turned back toward him, only to discover that he’d disappeared. I tried to ignore the throb in my heart that always seemed to accompany his absence—rather, it had…twenty years ago.
Wonderful.Now he would be off lurking in the shadows again, waiting for yet another inopportune moment to risk putting me in danger once more.
Or would he?
It doesn’t matter, I thought to myself.He is here and you’ve been in danger since he showed up in France.
I stomped intoLe Raisin Perduand sat down at my usual table—tucked into a back corner, cloaked in the gloom of the dingy establishment. As soon as I entered, the warmth of the room fogged my spectacles, and I pulled them off to clean them on my handkerchief. Tonight was busy but strangely subdued, as if the patrons bent their heads and muttered in hushed voices against some unknown, ominous portent.
