Page 16 of Winterfall Destiny

A bit of a mess. Tortured?

8

MAEVE

Ethan stands outside the study door, and an unwarranted spike of fear at the sight of the massive guy runs through as he nods at me.

"How's it going, Ash?" he asks in his rough brogue.

"Better." Ash clamps his lips together.

What?

Ethan rubs a hand across his mouth. "Fair warning, Maeve. Dorian left the vamp in the sun until he agreed to talk, but then the guy wouldn't tell us enough so Dorian uh... switched tactics."

"I understand," I reply.

But I'm not prepared. The vampire's unrecognisable; I can't figure out where the burns stop, and the bruised skin begins. His hemia features add more horror to the situation. The broken face would be gruesome on a human, but he's a thing of nightmares, huddled in the corner of the room, knees drawn to his naked, livid red chest.

Andrei. All I can see is Andrei if he'd walked outside that day. The vamp regards me, his irises milky blue, the colour sucked out of him. Then he darts a look behind me. He barely has a face for me to read, but his mind's awash with splintered images, some blackened as if scorched like his body, and I clench my teeth. Nothing. Not even a mind to control.

"Come out," says Ethan beside me. "Maeve."

He pulls at my hand, and I frown at him. "I'll see more of and worse than this." I don't finish the sentence: when we confront Gabriella; kill her followers.

Eloise rubs her nose as she walks in and glances at Ethan. "Anything?"

"No. And I haven't touched him."

Shaking her head, the tall woman moves to stand over the maimed... thing. Eloise exudes a calm deadliness she shares with Dorian, her attractive features as deceptive as her partner's.

"Do you want Dorian to come back and ask you more?" she says, as if asking a guest what they require. He returns a hard look from his half-dead eyes. "You do know I'm a necromancer?" The thing nods. "Unfortunately, I reanimate people in the bodily state they die in. I imagine you'd find that unpleasant, especially if Dorian decides to remove a limb next."

I swallow hard. Maybe I don't want to witness this.

"My heart," he manages to rasp out.

"Oh, he'd leave that alone, otherwise I can't work my magic." She smiles sweetly.

I've always seen Eloise as the softer of the hybrids, level-headed and with compassion and never ruthless, but this woman has Dorian's blood, too.

Which begs the question what's the child they created like?

"Now, would you like to tell us where Gabriella is and what you were doing at the docks in London?"

"That's obvious. Gabriella's leaving via boat," says Ethan gruffly.

"Surprised she never chose Whitby," Ash says.

"Why? What do you know about the place?" asks Ethan. "Has Gabriella visited?"

Ash chuckles.

"He means the book the humans base their hemia myth on," says Eloise, not looking around. "Their story about one of the originals. He arrived in England at Whitby."

"Dracula existed?" I ask. Ethan's laugh comes too loudly as my worlds collide again. "Are you serious?"

"You haven't read the book, have you?" Eloise looks over her shoulder. "The story's based on a real hemia vamp. His surname might interest you."

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