Page 76 of The Doctor and the Devil
The door opened a fraction, and a man with salt and pepper hair and a black domino mask looked me over. Surprise and recognition lit in his brown eyes, and I thought I remembered him from the last ball I’d attended at Versailles, but I couldn’t be sure. He waited expectantly—eyes wide.
“Good evening,” I said. “I’m here to negotiate with you.”
Laughter deepened the wrinkles around his forehead and mouth, and the hollow sound filled me with a white-hot stab of anger.
“Well, I suppose we should hear you out,” he replied. “Do come in, Doctor.”
I entered the room and beheld the disapproving sneers beneath two dozen domino masks. I’d seen more than a few of these men before and knew they kept their masks merely for the sake of tradition.
A second man approached and smiled, offering me a seat at the large round table in the middle of the room. Gradually, each man came to the table and sat down, at least indicating a willingness to listen. I considered that a positive sign.
“Gentlemen,” I began. “You know me—you know who I am. I’m here to negotiate on behalf of a few individuals: the House of Dracul, the Comtesse de Brionne, Captain Antoine de Valle, the Vampire Emissary and his wife, the duchess—”
“Yes,” the second man interrupted. “We are aware of who your friends are. Get to the point. What is it you’re requesting, and what is it you’re offering?”
“I’m requesting the full cessation of your campaign against the sufferers of the blood plague; the vampires. I’m requesting the protection of my friends and their families. And I’m requesting the absolute and total dissolution of the shadow dealings of the Order,” I said in a cool, even tone. “For this, you will be allowed to leave here with your lives. You will be allowed to return to your families…and bask in the sunlight.”
Laughter erupted around the table. I waited with waning patience for their response.
The second man spoke again.
“You cannot be serious,” he replied.
“Respectfully, I am not known for my sense of humor,” I shot back. “I’m afraid you must decide now. Renounce this foolish campaign and fight for peaceful coexistence or suffer the consequences of your actions.”
The first man flicked his gaze to two younger men waiting against the walls. They moved toward the door, barring anyone from leaving—attempting to barricade me inside.
“Respectfully,” the man scoffed. “We are charged with protecting our king and our people. You come in here attempting to parlay with us to allow our country to fall under the ruin of some foreign bloodsucker? How utterly idiotic. You haven’t even come with anything worth bartering—oursanguisugedogs are outside right now, sniffing your lot out. They’re armed with something very special, Doctor. Perhaps you’ve seen its effects on that wretched Dracul filth.”
My heart pounded. I looked around the room, making eye contact with each of these self-righteous men. Gently, I pressed against their minds, hoping to find something…anything. A crack in their resolve. The faintest tendril of self-doubt. Willingness to change.
Despair took hold of me when I came up empty.
I stood from the table, and one of the men behind me moved away from the door to put his heavy hand on my shoulder, trying to force me back into my chair. I turned around, finding the man’s gaze in the gloom.
“Do not touch me again,” I warned.
Yes, hello, the silver whispered in my blood.Have you come to threaten me?
“We know more than you think, Van Helsing,” the second man continued. “We know you’re that younger Dracul’s little whore. We know of your father’s failure to stem the tide of that curse. We know your hellcat friends are plotting to infiltrate and dismantle our Order from within. We have the weapons we need to take them out and end the line of bastard monsters in its entirety. God works through us, and we are fit to damn you all to the fires of Hell.”
“I’ve never been a particularly religious woman,” I answered. “But I do know that there is no God here. You serve your own aims, and your actions are guided by fear and greed. It is not too late to change. Simply say the words, and I will spare you.”
Again, riotous laughter filled the dark little space.
“I’ve heard enough of your madness,” the man said, waving a hand in dismissal. “Take her below. At least we can use her as bait to trap that bastard Dracul and his filthy brother. Send out word to the bloodsuckers—we move against the homes of the comtesse and the duchess tonight. Burn everything. No survivors.”
The man at my back moved forward, reaching for my shoulder again.
My heartbeat drumming a war cry in my ears, I closed my eyes and let the silver take hold. Pain fractured my bones and flesh apart, but only for an instant. In one breath, I was sitting at the table, having a calmly insulting conversation. In the next breath, I was without form, a shapeless silver mist, driven by the need to protect.Hunt. Kill.
Amid the exclamations of surprise, I slid up my aggressor’s extended arm…corrupting, breaking, poisoning. I watched as he screamed—a bloodcurdling sound—and collapsed to the ground as his heart sizzled in his chest.Dead.I went to the next man by the door, slithered down his open mouth, took root in his stomach and exploded outward in splinters of cursed silver.
Shrieks and terrified shouts echoed off the damp stone walls as I drifted through each man at the table, still searching for those dim threads of hope, still finding nothing but rage and hatred. The scent of scorched flesh and fresh blood and shredded skin permeated the room as I worked, ending life after life. At last, I came to the man who’d spoken so cruelly to me.
I shifted back to my human form, suddenly naked, but altogether uncaring.
“Holy Mary, Mother of God,” the man screamed, falling to his knees in prayer. “Protect me with your divine mercy. Save me from this unclean spirit—this demon from Hell!”
