Page 122 of Lucy Undying

“Yes!”

My hopes rise, but then he flinches and corrects himself. “No. But I know where she will be! Tonight! They’re having a gala for the Celestial Circle in the Goldaming Life Center. Iris is going to be inducted, and her mother will reveal herself in her final, glorious form.”

“Her mother?” I ask, shocked. “Her mother is still alive?”

“Alive again, yes. A living goddess, like the four of you.” He gazes at the Doctor, rapt.

“Can I kill him?” the Lover asks. “Please? Even if he hasn’t murdered anyone yet, he’s definitely done it in his heart.”

“Oh, but I have! I’ve killed several people, to prepare! To show my devotion!” Kyle turns to the Lover, a smile like a child’s asking for an allowance.

Dracula tries to claw the Doctor’s arm. She shakes him until he goes back to screaming and writhing. We should kill him now. I know we should.

But.

“I’m going to ask for a favor, and you each have to agree. If even one of you doesn’t, I’ll accept it. But the Doctor and the Queen are right: Dracula was never in charge here. It’s Iris’s mother pulling the strings. Keeping Dracula as a pampered pet, letting him prowl unhindered and protected as she took her family’s empire to new heights. She’s in charge of all of this. And she’s got Iris. She’ll use her up and drain her dry. I can’t leave existence until I know Iris is free.”

“But all their vampires smell like Dracula. When we kill him,” the Queen says, “they all die. She’ll be safe.”

“Vampires aren’t the only monsters.” The Lover crouches in front of Dracula, hitting his legs so he swings wildly back and forth. He hisses and spits and she hits his legs again.

“A lot of Goldaming Life leadership is human,” the Doctor admits. “If you use the term ‘human’ loosely. Even if they lose all the vampires, they’ll still have Iris and her blood. Which will be even more valuable then. They’ll never let her go, not willingly. What are you proposing, Lucy?”

“Can you take Dracula somewhere? Keep him hidden until I get Iris out? And then, once she’s safe, you kill him.”

The Doctor nods. The Lover looks up from where she’s breaking Dracula’s fingers as he tries to claw at her. She shrugs. “Oui.”

But the Queen hasn’t said anything. I look to her. I know her story best of all. I know what she went through, what was done to her, what Dracula represents. She’s going to say no, and I’ll accept it. Iris is brave and tough and clever. I have to believe she’ll be able to save herself after we do our part.

“We deserve better,” the Queen says, so softly I can barely hear her. Then she looks at me, chin held high, as regal as the day we met despite her lack of silk and jewels. “You changed our lives. We can keep hold of those lives long enough for you to save the girl.”

“Yay!” The Lover claps. “This is exciting!”

Dracula swings at her, raking his remaining nails down her arm. She hisses and breaks his wrists as if she were snapping pencils. She looks down at the damage to her arm, thoughtful and concerned. “How do we transport him? He’s dangerous.”

The Doctor, still holding Dracula suspended by the back of his neck, twists. With a crack, the rest of his body goes limp. “Internal decapitation. Not permanent like the external variety. We’ll have to redo it every few hours, but we’ll be fine.”

“What about when it gets dark?” I ask. “I don’t know when I’ll be back.”

“Look.” The Doctor points to Dracula’s jaw, or lack thereof. When none of us understand what she’s pointing to, she closes her eyes, nostrils flaring with irritation. “The blood.”

“There is no blood,” the Lover says, slowly and sweetly, as though talking to someone who has lost all connection to reality. I know, because it’s how I talk to her.

“Exactly. He’s already spent it all bleeding from this wound and trying to heal. He has none in reserve, and we aren’t going to put him in unhallowed ground or allow him to drink. He can’t finish healing if I keep breaking his neck, and he can’t shift without any blood in his system. Honestly, Lucy, you’re the one who told me to study vampires.” She’s disappointed in me, but I can’t even care, I’m so relieved.

“Where will you go? How will I tell you when I have Iris?”

“Iris can call me on my little birdie box!” The Lover pulls a phone out of one of her many pockets. She’s wearing enormous jeans, but only a bra on top. I hadn’t noticed before now. Apparently her fashion sense has deteriorated over the decades. That, or I’m the one who’s out of touch.

“You can come to my house!” Kyle, whom I had happily forgotten existed for a few brief minutes, skips toward the front of the building. “They’ll never look for you there!”

The Doctor shrugs. “I’d rather not, but we know he’s loyal.”

The Queen smiles. “Dracula’s final moments, spent in the soulless home of someone else’s familiar. No dignity, no grandeur, no gravitas.”

He snarls and glares, tongue lolling, eyes rolling madly in his head. The overall effect is deeply pathetic. I don’t know if I have a soul, but whatever’s still inside me is nourished by the sight.

We toss Dracula into the trunk of Kyle’s car. I grab keys for another vehicle off one of the headless vampire guards. Then I pause and take in my three friends. The Queen who held me captive because she was so lonely, the Lover who let herself be murdered just to feel something, and the Doctor who dismantled countless humans trying to find humanity.

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