Page 24 of Taken by the Ripper (Time for Monsters #9)
His grip on her hair tightened. Another whimper escaped her mouth.
A gasp on the other side of the room pulled her attention to the familiar silhouette of her sister.
“You promised you wouldn’t hurt her!” Mazie screeched.
She tried to rush forward, but Ferdinand threw Clara to the ground, grabbed Mazie, and trapped her arms to her sides with his own arms wrapped around her.
She kicked and struggled, but the other vampire proved much stronger than her. “You promised!”
Ferdinand laughed. “Do you know how politicians get to the top, dear? By spewing promises they can never deliver. I need the ghoul to know we are in control. To break him at the very beginning to get him to comply. The perfect tragedy.”
“But she’s my sister!”
“And you helped turn her in. You are as much to blame for what happens as myself.”
Clara pushed herself to her hands and knees, wincing when glass cut into her skin. She still felt dizzy, and her scalp burned from mistreatment, but there were no other side effects thus far. When would she become a ghoul? How long did it take?
On the opposite side of the room, Claude released a pained grunt.
Clara’s eyes darted in his direction only to find his body shrinking little by little until his human form replaced the hulking mass of ghoul.
Daylight hadn’t come yet! She briefly wondered if one of these deadly concoctions in the room was influencing a premature shift.
His hand rested against his temple, his eyes unfocused as he glanced from person to person in the room. His attention lingered longest on Clara’s neck on the spot of blood dripping from a syringe wound.
Anger contorted Claude’s expression. He pushed himself to his feet and flew at Ferdinand in a rage. The vampire side-stepped easily and kicked Claude’s bad leg. He collapsed, unable to walk far without his cane to aid him.
“What have you done to her?” he hissed.
But Ferdinand only grinned in fascination. “Things are starting to make so much more sense! You can shift? Into the police detective at that. No wonder you kept slipping through our fingers. I never could have guessed.”
Clara lifted her hand to her neck and touched the wound.
According to news articles and police reports, the deaths happened quickly.
That meant the infection also spread quickly if Claude took care of it so fast. Currently, she was showing no signs of infection.
No inflamed or swollen skin. No pain. No pus or liquid other than blood escaping the small wound.
As a nurse, she would have given it more time just to make sure. But also as a nurse…
She believed she was not infected. Did this mean she was immune?
She glanced toward Claude, eyes wide. It was almost as if he understood her fleeting look across the room.
Perhaps… Perhaps, as another conjecture, she might be immune because of her connection with Claude, with the ghoul.
They were mates, body and soul. Was that protecting her?
It made far more sense than just luck. Working in medicine, she didn’t believe in luck.
Only science. And this hypothesis was better than anything else she might be able to come up with on quick notice.
Ferdinand shoved Mazie aside and approached Clara with a frown. “It should have happened by now… No matter. I have many ways to use you to get the ghoul to comply.”
The vampire reached out a hand toward Clara, and she knew right then that she was useless against a vampire far faster and stronger than herself. Any attempt to fight would be futile. But that didn’t mean she wouldn’t try.
She reached for the scalpel in her pocket, holding it tight in her hand. She was not about to comply without a good fight.
“Don’t hurt her!” Mazie released an ear-splitting screech as she moved forward, nearly faster than Clara’s eyes could follow. Her sister grabbed Claude’s silver knife and jumped onto Ferdinand’s back.
Ferdinand attempted to throw her off, but whenever Mazie was determined to do something, nothing could stop her. Not even a strong, wily vampire.
With another inhuman screech, Mazie plunged the silver dagger into the man’s neck. Only then did he manage to grab a hold of her and throw her off him. Like a cat, she flipped through the air and landed on her feet, bracing herself as if readying herself for more fight.
But Ferdinand was preoccupied with the knife in his neck. Smoke wafted from the weapon. A burning stench filled the air. The vampire grabbed the knife and pulled it out, throwing it aside. It clattered against the ground and skittered beneath a table.
However, the damage was already done.
Smoke continued to burn through his neck.
The acrid stench became stronger by the second.
Clara covered her nose with her hand, but it did nothing to block out the smell nor the vampire’s screams of agony as the silver from the weapon coursed through his blood.
It only took a short time for the silver to circulate through his body.
The man’s flesh burned from his bones, quickly followed by his skeletal structure, until nothing remained but a pile of ash.
An eerie silence descended upon the room as Clara’s mind tried to catch up with the most recent events.
When her brain finally reacted, she glanced around in a panic.
All vampires had fled the scene, none seeming to dare to make themselves known.
Claude was on his hands and knees, panting against what was likely the exhaustion caused by his shift. And Mazie…
She was untouched. Her red eyes transitioned back to their regular blue hue as if her vampire instincts sensed an end to the danger.
The two sisters stared back at one another for a long moment. She wasn’t sure who moved first, only that they threw their arms around each other and hugged the other tight.
“Please forgive me,” Mazie cried, her face buried in her shoulder. “This was never supposed to happen. I thought this was the right thing to do.”
“You did not come this far without good reason and great hardship.” She squeezed her sister in a tight embrace. “I hold no ill will against you.”
“Thank you,” Mazie sniffed. “I only wanted out of this terrible city. I don’t know what to do now.”
Claude stepped forward in his ragged clothing, exhaustion boring a hole into his entire demeanor from the dark circles under his eyes to the slump in his shoulders.
“I believe I can help with that. You and Norma will come to live with me and Clara in Paris.” He turned to Clara and clasped her hands between each of his. “If you will have me.”
“I’m not going anywhere without you,” she replied in a breathy whisper. “Perhaps I’ll get a real shot at becoming a doctor. One with an actual degree.”
He laughed and kissed each of her hands. “A bit of warning, dove. The deal comes with a ghoul on the side.”
She grinned. “Even better.”
“Claws, tail, and sharp teeth included.”
She enjoyed the thrill of the warning. “I look forward to it.”
“And a bit of monster hunting with the detective career.”
She tugged only one hand away to place it on her hip. “Are you trying to scare me away? Because it’s not working.”
“I’m only trying to see how far you will go for me.”
“All the way.”
“All the way,” he murmured disbelievingly before tugging on her hand and pulling her into a kiss.
She instinctively melted against him, the heat of his kiss both smoldering with heat and icy with pure relief.
She was glad he was safe. She was relieved they’d all made it out of this situation alive, even if it wasn’t the outcome she’d expected.
Now that mysteries were revealed, and pieces of the puzzles put together, her decision was easy.
Yes, she would go wherever he did. Two people joined body and soul. Her mate. Her rock. Her heart’s desire. Her Claude.
“I think I’ll just…” Mazie hummed awkwardly. “Umm…make myself scarce.”
She and Claude broke the kiss to laugh as Mazie crossed the room to observe something on the wall with an overly intense expression.
“Does this mean you remember everything?” Clara asked, searching the blue of Claude’s eyes.
He nodded. “I remember everything. Even in this form now. The moment Ferdinand turned to ash, I remembered.”
“This was not how I envisioned things panning out. She ran a hand down the length of Claude’s arm.
He grinned, his “kiss with a demon” pulling his mouth on one side. “No. It’s better.”
And then he pulled her into another kiss, and she knew without a doubt… This was where she always wanted to be.