I couldn’t speak. My lips moved, but no sound came out. The Baron must have seen. Or maybe he just knew what I was thinking. He answered my silent question.
“Why? You ask why? Is the answer not obvious? Your father robbed me of a treasure beyond price. His debt has passed to you. You are here to suffer. And you will. But perhaps not in vain. You could save yourself . . .”
I shook my head. I didn’t want his voice in there, telling me lies. He wasn’t going to spare anyone.
“Of course I will,” he said. “I am not without honour. And I believe God speaks to all of us in His own way. There were two halberds. Was that not a sign? Two long, wooden shafts for two blunt stakes for two slow deaths. It can mean nothing else.”
I looked at Charlie, then at Luna. I wanted them to understand how sick I felt.
“You can let them go,” I said. “They haven’t done anything.”
The Baron shook his head. “No,” he whispered. “They haven’t. But you have. You revealed yourself too carelessly.” He looked at Luna and Charlie with contempt. “You must learn to see people for what they are. Food. A resource to be exploited. A source of amusement, perhaps. But never more than this. A hard lesson to learn, but a vital one, if you wish to join me and become a member of my Coven.”
I saw his fingers twitch slightly when he said this, as if he was getting ready to slash something.
“Your father believed a vampire could be tamed. ‘Redeemed,’ he called it. A life spent pilfering donated blood. He was a fool. What kind of vampire sucks blood from a bag? We are predators. And a predator makes no apologies. You don’t expect a wolf to repent for killing a deer, do you?”
The Baron stared at me. I couldn’t look away. It would have been a denial of the truth. I had killed a deer in the forest, chased it down and fed. I had been a predator. And I hadn’t felt the slightest bit sorry for what I’d done.
The Baron looked amused. He began to circle me. He drifted past one shoulder, then the other. “We are more alike than you realize. The spirit of the hunter is in us both. It stirs in your heart. I see it. Embrace your true nature, and together, we can transform you into something divine. Something eternal. All it will take is a little sacrifice, and a few more nights like the last one, when you found that gift I left for you.”
I had no idea what he was talking about. Then I remembered the boy, the blond twin, whose body I had found at Luna’s cottage. Was that what he meant? I saw him nod. He was right behind me, speaking straight into my mind.
“It was good, wasn’t it? That first taste of human blood. Why deny it? It is ambrosia to our kind. And it is the only thing that can sustain you now.” The smile on his face slipped away. The look that replaced it was one of exaggerated pity. “You are weak. That is why you suffer. And yet, only through suffering does one become strong. Don’t you wish to be strong?”
The Baron stood in front of me and put his hands on his hips. His head tilted up as he spoke.
“I can make you so much more than you are. But you have to give up your past, starting now. So make your choice. Who dies? Tell me now, or I will have you all impaled.”
I nodded, as though I finally understood what he was getting at, but I was careful to look down at the floor so he couldn’t see into my eyes. I couldn’t risk that he would sense what I was thinking. That there was a way out of this. I needed the Baron to get angry. So I did my best to irritate him. I made like the Chicago Man and started muttering incoherently. The only thing I left out was the tune.
“What was that?” the Baron said.
I mumbled again, making sure my mouth was moving but my head was down so he couldn’t lip-read or look into my eyes and see that I was speaking gibberish on purpose.
“At me, pup,” he hissed. “Look at me!”
He stepped forward, grabbed me by the throat and hauled me off my feet so that they were dangling above the floor. It hurt and I couldn’t breathe, but it was working. I was so close. All he had to do was toss me against a wall, any wall. Then I could throw something at the windows. A statue. A candlestick. Anything. The sunlight would stream in and kill us both.
Instead, the Baron stared straight into my eyes. He glanced at the painted windows and smiled. Then he turned me around so that my back was against his chest. He wrapped the other arm around me so I couldn’t move.
“Clever boy,” he whispered. “Our weakness is known to you. And my strength, you sense that too, do you not? Indomitable. Eternal. You desire this, too. You cannot hide it. You fear your end. But to hunt through the ages, your mind cannot be mired here. You must let go of all this.” He waved a hand at my friends. “You cannot be connected to anyone but me. Only I will endure.”
The Baron still had his hand around my throat. He let go so that his arms were around my chest in a bear hug.
“Because you are a vampire, because you are immortal, you think that time is not your enemy, but it is,” he said. “Time is a thief. It will take everything from you. All of your friends, the ones you love, they will die centuries before you. All that you value will be stripped away. Music will change. Your language will change. Your country will change. Your religion. Everything will change but you. Cling to the past and it will drive you insane. I am doing you a favour. I am teaching you how to give up that which you care most about. You will thank me for it in time. When you are more evolved in your thinking. More detached and independent.”
He held me up so that I was suspended at arm’s length above the floor, then he set me down. By the time I had my balance, he was standing behind Luna and Charlie.
“You will choose,” he hissed. “Now.”
I was out of time. We were done for.
Then I heard a knock. Four quick raps. The secret panel opened and Maximilian stumbled in. I recognized him only by his suit. There was a black bag over his head and his arms were tied behind his back. He struggled to keep his feet, then tripped and fell against his desk.
The Baron dropped me. I heard another familiar sound—heels clicking on a hard floor. And that was when Nurse Ophelia walked in.
She wasn’t dressed like a nurse when she came to save me. She was wearing a dress. An old dress. And nothing I’d ever laid eyes on was as beautiful as she was that day. Nothing. Not in any painting. Not in any movie. Not anywhere.
The Baron looked absolutely shocked.
“Ophelia . . . How is this possible?”
Ophelia looked at him and smiled. It was a smile unlike any I’d seen on her face. I can’t imagine what she was feeling. Regret, maybe? Sadness? Disappointment? I don’t know. But an instant later it was gone and her face hardened. When she spoke next, her voice was like granite.
“I have come to offer you a choice, husband.”