Page 40 of Taken By the Ripper
She slowly and quietly rounded the estate, her heart beating fiercely in her chest. The loud pulse in her ears seemed to shout Mazie’s name with each beat.
Although she had no idea where the den of vampires resided, she did know one thing—a trail always started somewhere.
The skies burned like fire above her, with yellow, red, and orange hues to match the turmoil running rampant through her soul. As she followed the roads through Whitechapel, thosesunset colors slowly faded into a darker hue until only a faint pink lingered in the sky.
The crowds thickened the nearer she approached the Ten Bells. The hum of murmuring voices grew into a loud roar when she rounded the corner and lost herself in the throng of people surrounding the pub.
Clara stood on her toes and craned her neck to try to peer over the shoulders of a woman several centimeters taller than her, but an even taller man blocked her line of sight. For just a moment, the crowd shifted to give her a better look at the crime scene.
Police officers kept the crowd at bay with their bodies when the rope seemed to have little effect at holding them back.
She craned her neck again in search of a certain blond-haired detective, but as far as she could see, Claude was absent from the scene.
If not here, then where was he?
No time remained to ponder over his whereabouts when she had a sister to find.
Lampposts flickered to life as the lamplighters quietly went about their jobs, racing against the waning light. Shadows seemed to follow in her wake as she pulled away from the throng and moved closer to the partitioned-off alleyway behind the pub. Dark alleyways appeared to be a vampire favorite, and it was as good of a start as any.
Other nosey passersby tried to cross the rope line for a better look at the crime scene, which occupied two officers’ attention long enough for them to step away from the alley. Clara glanced back and forth, took a deep breath to steel her nerves, and slipped beneath the rope and between the thin brick walls casting heavy shadows at her feet like a lure to catch a prized fish.
Someone called after her. She didn’t turn to look and instead quickened her pace around full garbage bins and empty crates.
Until the darkness swallowed her whole.
She carried no lantern, no candle, could not use the sunlight for direction. But it didn’t matter. Finding her way was not her ultimate goal.
Because the vampires were going to come to her.
The voices beside the pub faded in the distance until they were only a dull trickle in comparison to a roaring waterfall of noise. She paused to listen to her surroundings. An incoherent mumbling coming from a homeless man somewhere around the corner. A drip of water running down the rooftop behind her. The clomping of hooves from a passing carriage the next street over.
Otherwise, all was quiet. She was alone.
Determination stole over her as she pulled out the scalpel from her pocket, and not giving herself a moment to reflect on her decision, she slit the small blade across her palm.
She hissed at the sting of pain and watched as a rivulet of blood dripped down her hand. It pooled at the tip of her finger and plummeted toward the ground. But before it plopped onto the cobblestone, someone caught her hand and brought it smoothly and silently to their mouth, licking the blood from her palm.
“I was waiting for you,” the man whispered in her ear in a seductive tone.
She squeezed her eyes shut and released a shuddering breath. Although every instinct in her body screamed at her to run, to fight, to flee, she remained still and accepted the fate she had brought onto herself.
“Where is my sister?” she asked in a hoarse voice.
“Exactly where you think she is.”
In the den of vampires, then.
“Bring me to her.”
The vampire playfully nipped at her ear. “As you wish, my dear.” He draped a silk handkerchief over her eyes and tied it behind her head, effectively blinding her senses. “But as some people say… Be careful what you wish for.”
Then he picked her up in a quick, agile swoop, and she allowed herself to be captured by the very creature that had created chaos all across Whitechapel.
And she didn’t know if she would make it back out alive.
D
ank water and musty walls greeted her senses first, followed by the squeal of a metal door and then a resoundingbangas it slammed shut behind them. Whispering voices echoed on either side of her as the vampire dragged her forward by hands bound by scratchy rope. A blindfold continued to cover her eyes, but if they’d been open, she was sure she would find an eerie darkness awaiting her on the other side of the velvety fabric.
