Chapter Forty

Alice knew something was wrong the moment she climbed up the ladder. It was almost as if the air itself felt electrically charged; as if some malignant evil had moved into her home and spread its scrabbling fingers into her scalp.

And her basement smelled like rot.

She tried to call out but only made it as far as a squeaking noise before she saw them.

Saw him.

The face of a thousand nightmares—of a hundred panic attacks.

Dr. Kurchausen was in her house.

He held a finger to his lips, shaking his head in a slow, exaggerated movement. Grogan, Kurchausen’s creature, stood on the other side of the storeroom at an angle, pointing a gun at her head. He motioned toward the doctor with the barrel of the gun, telling her without words to move, but even if she’d wanted to comply, she couldn’t do it.

She couldn’t move. Couldn’t speak.

Couldn’t breathe.

She heard Hunter ask if she’d stepped on the ferret, and she yanked herself out of her frozen state to try to scream—to warn him—to close the trapdoor and keep him safe. But Kurchausen’s lips were moving, and he made a gesture with one hand, and then she levitated off the floor and flew across the room to him, dropping gracelessly when she reached him. He caught her before she could fall—by grabbing her neck.

And then he dug his fingers into her throat.

“You thought you could escape me? You are nothing. You are my property,” he hissed, his eyes truly wild. This close to him, the hideous smell of rot was so overpowering her eyes watered.

That’s when Hunter climbed through the trapdoor and took in the scene in an instant.

“Let her go,” he roared, his muscles bunching as he prepared to leap to her rescue, but before he could take a single step, Kurchausen swung the pistol up and dug the barrel into Alice’s ear so hard it made her cry out.

“No,” she told Hunter. “Charlie!”

He immediately understood and kicked the trapdoor shut with one foot. Alice hoped Charlie wasn’t too afraid, but Kurchausen would probably know him for a Minor demon, if he really was at the top levels of the Chamber.

She couldn’t take the chance that Charlie would be captured and enslaved or killed.

“Hunter. Run,” she begged him, knowing he could move fast enough to get help.

Fast enough to survive.

She would gladly get shot or even face a future in captivity—the future she’d been so terrified of that she’d been willing to die to escape—if only Hunter could be safe.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he said, his eyes darkening to a deep, fiery scarlet. “Not without you. Kurchausen, if you don’t let her go, you’re going to be very sorry for a very short while.”

The doctor sneered at him. “A very short while?”

“Yes. Because after that, you’re going to be dead.”

Kurchausen looked at Grogan. “Shoot him.”

“Stop!” Alice screamed, but it was too late. Grogan shot Hunter in the chest, knocking him back against the wall, and she started to cry, sure he was dead.

But then he pulled himself up to stand, leaning on the wall.

“What are you waiting for? Finish him,” Kurchausen shouted at Grogan.

“No! Wait!”

The doctor raised an eyebrow at Alice’s plea and motioned to Grogan to hold off. “If I wait—if I let your precious vampire live—what will you give me for his life?”

“Alice, no,” Hunter groaned, clutching his chest. “No! I’ve called Bane. The troops are on the way. Don’t do this.”

Kurchausen nodded. “Then we’d better hurry. Grogan, kill the vampire and set him on fire. In fact, burn down this entire establishment—the house, the rescue, everything.”

“No,” she screamed. “No, stop! Doctor, please. Don’t hurt him. If you promise me you won’t hurt him, I’ll go with you.”

“You’re going with me anyway,” he said dismissively and started dragging her off. “Shoot him, Grogan.”

She wildly cast about for what she had worth bartering for Hunter’s life, and then, remembering, dug in her pocket for the gold coin she’d picked up. “Wait! I have pirate gold. Treasure! You can have all of it!”

He let go of her neck and slapped her face hard. “Right. And next you’ll offer me the Brooklyn Bridge. Shut up, you stupid bitch. You’re coming with me right now and—”

“Stop!” She felt the blood run down her chin from her split lip, just like she’d felt it so many times before. It had always been one of the doctor’s favorite ways to discipline his property. But she ignored it and played her last card, tears streaming down her face. “Let him live, and I’ll do whatever you want. Voluntarily. I’ll even try to help you with your rituals instead of fight you.”

Kurchausen froze, narrowing his beady eyes at her. In his bland gray suit, with his bland gray hair, he could have looked like any middle-aged businessman if it weren’t for the madness in his black, black eyes.

Or the overpowering scent of rot from the blood magic he practiced.

“Anything I want? And you’ll help?”

Hunter roared out his denial, but he was trapped by Grogan’s gun pointed at him and by Kurchausen’s gun pointed at her. His beautiful face was twisted with anguish and pain, and his skin seemed to be turning paler right in front of her eyes as the blood drained out of him.

“No! Alice, no!”

But it was too late, because Kurchausen nodded. “Yes. What do I care about one vampire’s life? He can live, if I have your word.”

She started to answer, but he twisted the pistol barrel in her ear, hurting her enough to make her cry out. He’d always loved it when he could make her cry—when he could make her scream in pain.

“Not your promise. Why would I trust you? No, you will swear an oath on your power that you will obey me and even take the initiative to help me. My magic will bind you to the oath.”

She shuddered, because she knew she would be truly trapped with him for the rest of her life if she swore a blood oath, but one glance at Hunter firmed her resolve.

“Yes,” she whispered, but then she took a deep, shaky breath and tried again. “Yes. I so swear it, on my power.”

He muttered some words in a language she didn’t know, and an excruciating pain like the searing burn of a brand flamed across the palm of her hand. She cried out again, and when she looked down, a blackened symbol that looked like writhing snakes was imprinted on her skin.

“There’s no going back now,” the doctor said, a death’s head smile spreading across his face. “That binding is unbreakable until the death of the one who cast it. Even after you die, you will have to obey me.”

Alice’s soul cried out in denial, but she’d had no choice. She’d had to do anything she could to save Hunter. She loved him.

She hung her head, miserable, waiting for the doctor’s first command.

She didn’t have to wait long.

He handed her the gun and laughed, a horrible, high, evil laugh, while all but dancing with glee. “Shoot the vampire.”