Page 42 of Taken By the Ripper
“These are vampires, Mazie!” Clara hissed, glancing cautiously between each creature. “You don’t know what you’re doing. You don’t know what you’re risking.”
Mazie balled her hands into fists, her arms shaking. “We were going to lose the house.”
She blinked several times to try to make sense of her sister’s words. “What are you talking about? I’ve kept the finances under control.”
But her sister shook her head profusely. “The lender came by while you were gone several years ago. He said that after Papa’s death, he had shown us mercy by putting off collecting property expenses. He threatened to make us back pay for previous years of unpaid expenses. Or I could work for him, and he needn’t bother needling you for money.”
The defeated look on her face told her what this work was without even opening her mouth.
Clara sagged against the bars, her head drooping. “You could have come to me. Youshouldhave come to me. I could have dealt with this.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Mazie shaking her head. “You think I don’t see what you do. You think I don’t help. I couldn’t burden you with this. I knew how upset it would make you.”
“But…” She wasn’t sure what she could say. Not after this terrible confession. “How long have you been…” She lifted her head and gestured to all of Mazie. “…this?”
Mazie hissed and flashed her pointed fangs. “You took away my one chance at escaping that terrible life, Clara. You stole Claude’s affections. I had to figure out something else. Because I couldn’t stand… I couldn’t do it anymore.” She gestured to the male vampire. “Ferdinand found me. He turned me at my own request, and I am no longer forced to lie on my back for strangers.”
Squeezing her eyes shut, Clara made no attempt to bat away the guilt climbing over her body like thorny vines. Even after everything she’d done to shelter her sisters, the harsh world had found them, anyway. She could not save them. And now? She had needlessly put Jack in danger by allowing herself to get captured. She could not save anyone. All she managed to do was bring more harm upon the people she cared for.
Physicians vowed to help, not hinder. But if she couldn’t even help her own family?
What did that make her?
Useless.
The vampires turned to leave, and in a desperate attempt to keep Mazie with her longer, she said, “All the stories I’ve heard of vampires are that they love to live up their lavish lifestyles. If I didn’t know better, I’d say we’re in a sewer.”
Ferdinand snorted. “In Whitechapel? The only people living lavish lifestyles are those who cast too large of a shadow that they can’t see the people beneath. This city deserves what’scoming to them. Now, if your ghoul would only show up, we can finally begin this in earnest.”
“Why?” she croaked when it felt as if her throat were clogged with impenetrable mucus. “Why are you doing this?”
“To give us the life we deserve. When the city is in chaos, when those people casting large shadows are dealt with permanently, we can intercede. Take advantage of that chaos. Climb our way to the top when there is no one to interfere.” He shared a small smile with Mazie. “First Whitechapel. Then London. We’ll be an unstoppable force.”
“And what of the rabid ghouls running amuck?”
Ferdinand chuckled. “How did you think we’ll rise to the top? By saving the city from our own creations.” He held his hand out in front of him and inspected his nails. “Unfortunately, there will be plenty of casualties. But change never happens without a little bloodshed.”
Clara shook her head with disbelief and glanced at her sister. “You can’t possibly go along with this, Mazie.”
A flash of red eyes accompanied her sister’s blatant anger, her jaw snapping down to show off her fangs. “Anything is better than what I have endured. I don’t care what it takes. I’m not lying on my back any longer.”
She sagged further against the bars in absolute defeat. “Forgive me. You never should have had to endure such a fate.”
The defiance and caution momentarily melted from Mazie’s countenance, but her defensive walls quickly returned as she turned on her heel with a huff. “I’m sorry it had to come to this. If there had been any other way…”
Mazie’s words trailed off, leaving the smallest bit of room for… For what? Familial connection? Because that had been absent for years, it seemed.
“Don’t hurt my ghoul,” she begged instead. “He…he’s important to me.”
A malicious smile turned up on Ferdinand’s lips as he looped his arm through Mazie’s. “We are counting on that.”
Together, they disappeared from the room, and not once did her sister glance back before even her silhouette vanished from the dim torch light. She continued to reel with disbelief long after, trying to make sense of what had happened. Of what was about to happen.
Silently, she begged Jack to stay away. If Ferdinand had promised she would come to no harm, then the only person in danger was her ghoul. At least for now. And only if he kept his promise. She needed to find a way to escape before Jack put himself in harm’s way for her sake.
She removed the items in her pocket and set them side by side on the ground in front of her. Two scalpels. A bandage. Needle and thread. Nothing silver. No garlic. No holy water or silver cross. If those were truly a vampire’s weakness.
“Mazie,” she whispered, her shoulders slumping with defeat. “What have you done?”
