Page 6 of The Doctor and the Devil
The words wrought an ironic laugh from me, but in my current animal form, it came out as a muffled hiss, too soft and small for these mortals to hear. I longed to shift into a more predatory form and rip out their throats for the things they said about Mina—my Mina—but that would only alert the Order that I was as predictable as I seemed to have become. I still had much to learn about my foe and killing these men would get me no closer to my end. Besides, Mina disliked when I killed, and if I was to win her back, I would at leasttryto stem my murderous urges. These men, however, were making it a Herculean trial.
Patience, Rafael. Patience!If either of them attempts to harm Mina, I will act. Until then, I must wait and watch.
I yawned and stretched my soft, leathery wings, then folded them back against my body. I twisted around to better see the front door to Mina’s clinic, where I’d approached her earlier in the evening. I shouldn’t have done it, but I couldn’t help myself. The last time I’d seen her—or rather, the last time I’d let her see me—she’d been bound and gagged on the floor of a cave outside Gévaudan. Those abominations of my bloodline, the so-calledbeasts of blood,had abducted her and her human companion. I was forced to reveal myself to her in my wolf form to help my werewolf whelp Charlotte take on the vampire soldiers.
How Mina had looked at me then. Shock, horror, fear, recognition.Longing, I dared hope. Still, I would not have chosen that particular moment to confirm what I could assume were her suspicions: I was alive. I was alone. And I was in France.
And so was the blood plague—the curse that could destroy the world.
My family’s curse.My curse.
These men the Order hired, Pascal and Hubert, stilled as they saw what I’d sensed minutes before—Mina returning from the humble tavern at the end of her street. The closer she drew to her clinic and to my disreputable group’s hiding place, the louder my blood sang—calling to her. If I’d been born with a beating heart, it would have pounded in my chest, but as ever, all I felt was a vague sense of need that lessened the nearer she was to me.
She walked with purpose, but she’d always walked that way. Mina had been driven by purpose from the time that I’d first met her at the tender age of sixteen, and it was comforting to see that she hadn’t lost whatever it was that drove her forward.
“You walk as if your legs can’t bear not to run,”I used to tease.“Women are meant to be slow, graceful creatures. Amble a little, for fuck’s sake.”
I remembered how her beautiful sapphire eyes would widen when I spoke profanity to her, and it brought forth another chuckle.How I’ve missed laughing in amusement.
A man spilled out of the tavern—not drunk, but tall, thin, and weak—and hailed Mina. As he jogged to catch up to her, instinct propelled my bat wings forward and I fluttered closer, taking up a perch on the underside of a thatch roof nearby. Pascal and Hubert still leaned with forced casualness against the decrepit building at the end of the road, but I could tell they watched Mina intently.
“Please, Pierre,” Mina said. “I’ve already told you. I will do what I can for your wife, but if you truly wish me to impress upon her the danger you believe her immortal soul is in, you will need to find someone else.”
“But her soul is in danger,” the man insisted.
Mina pinched the bridge of her nose—a gesture I recognized as the summoning of reserves of patience.
“Her life is in danger, Pierre,” she said. “The blood plague might not be the most ideal solution to the predicament of hunger, but scores of others have found peace with it.”
“Doctor, that’s blasphemous,” Pierre whispered.
Mina was unmoved. “Your wife’s soul is not my concern. But I can tell her about the plague’s effect on the body. If that’s not the answer you’re looking for, then I’m afraid I won’t be much help to you.”
She turned back to her clinic. The man called Pierre stood in the street for a moment more, then walked back to the tavern muttering to himself. I watched Mina enter and lock the door behind her. She lit a candle and collected several sheaves of paper from the desk, then disappeared into the back to climb the staircase up to her living quarters. Accepting that I would not—at least, for the time being—drain every drop of blood from Pascal and Hubert and leave their withered bodies in the gutter, I abandoned my perch and flew around the back of the building to the narrow alley that ran the length of the block. I’d stashed my clothes in a stack of empty crates before shifting to wait for Mina, but even as I thought about turning back into my human form, I reconsidered.
I needed to talk to her—to convince her to join me…tohelpme. She had been so cross earlier, and as much as I enjoyed riling her and watching the heated blood of frustration pulse through her exquisite body, I didn’t think she would take kindly to a second attempt at contact so soon. She needed time, and while I didn’t have a lot of time to offer her, I could give her a day to accept that I’d come back.
I am here for you, my Mina.
From my refuse-strewn alley hiding place, I looked up at the glow from her candle moving between rooms. I watched her enter her bedchamber and after a time, the golden halo of light in her rooms went dark.
Did she think of me before she fell asleep? Surely, she would be expecting me to return. Impatience needled me. It was peculiar to have learned so many harsh lessons in the art of patience considering I’d lived longer than most and would remain even after humanity had turned to dust. Mina always brought that out in me. A restlessness that I had once termed ennui, yet she had referred to as stifled passion.
Passion.I wanted it with her. I wanted to once more visit pleasure upon her body and taste the overwhelming lust for life she carried in her blood. It had been so long—too long since I’d had anything that made me feel truly alive. Blood that didn’t taste bitter. Sex that didn’t fill me with shame, guilt, anger. Conversation that didn’t bore me beyond measure. Existence without Mina had been unbearable, but I’d been resigned to it for the last twenty years to protect her…no, that wasn’t quite true…to allow her to live, perhaps. I’d wanted to give her a chance to savor the delights of humanity instead of shackling herself to a world of pain and suffering and death. Tenacious as she was, I’d had to be ratherforcefulin severing our attachment and ruining our dream of a future together, so I understood her reasons for loathing me on sight.
Still, my need for her was almost crippling. As I’d never been any good at denying myself the mere morsels of perverse pleasure I could have and too often reveled in my own trappings of sin, I relented.
Just to look—not to touch.
Closing my eyes and letting go of my corporeal form, I turned into mist. Shifting into a formless cloud took a great toll on my energy and would leave me temporarily weakened when I returned to my body—I would need to feed tonight—but I didn’t care about that now. The memory of Mina’s body in my arms earlier still burned my icy, dead skin. As I floated up to her window, I briefly considered that my actions were invasive, aggressive, and disrespectful…should I simply turn around and leave her tonight?
An older memory flashed. She was eighteen. Fresh, young, sweet, determined to change the world. Dark brown curls splayed across the pillow, wide sapphire eyes glazed with sweet contentment, and her ivory skin made rosy by our lovemaking. Her soft, round curves felt so good beneath me, as if her beautiful body was the promise of new life itself. I was cold, deathless, wintry Hades, and she was my Persephone—blooming with pleasure from my touch.
“Come for me, Lady Persephone, and bring spring to my heart,”I’d commanded. She’d laughed at me then—laughed at a Prince of Wallachia!—and almost refused to obey. Thankfully, her desire for me had been too great, and she’d come apart around me.
I was so lost in thought I almost missed the soft shuffling sounds of Pascal and Hubert creeping down the alley toward me.What are these fools up to?
“All I’m saying is, how do we know she doesn’t have asanguisugeup there with her? I say we just climb up and take a little peek just to make sure.” Pascal snickered.
