desperate longing to find justice. But that still didn’t explain why he blamed Stephan, not his father, for Katya’s death.
She shook her head, as if to clear her mind. She really couldn’t take any more of any of this right now.
Maggie was blithely talking about a friend who was a werewolf and had apparently been “ernhanced” in some way during during World War II, but she couldn’t bring herself to listen. She was too busy obsessing over the possibility that Mark had been around for over a hundred years.
She stood up, feeling ill. Had Mark been lying to her all along? Evading the truth all along? Had he mistrusted Jonas when he was really no better than the other man?
At least Jonas admitted what he was….
She stood up, angry, confused, and thinking there was really only one person she could trust.
Herself.
“Let’s go,” she said, hoping her agitation wasn’t evident in her voice.
“Lauren, please, I wish I knew how to convince you that Stephan has to be stopped.”
“I do believe he has to be stopped.”
Maggie’s turned her phone on as they left the library, and seconds later it rang. She answered, and Lauren watched her face grow pale.
“What is it?”
“We have to get back to the house.”
“What’s happened?”
“Heidi is gone.”
From the moment he and Jonas entered the house, Mark knew that something wasn’t right.
There were vampires here, that was for certain. As the door closed behind them, Mark felt the flutter of wings. He turned his flashlight toward the sound. The creature veered slightly, shrieking with pure fury. He swung the heavy hammer he carried, stunning the creature. It fell to the floor, stunned. His stakes were honed to razor sharpness, and his aim was excellent; he speared it instantly. A smell rose as it let out a dying gasp and disappeared in a puff of dust and grime, a flash of fire. It didn’t totally disintegrate; it’s skull rolled and crashed into an arm bone. As he watched, there came another fluttering; this time one of the hideous beings was heading for Jonas.
Jonas cried out and ducked, but he swung as well, replicating Mark’s earlier move. They had to catch the things in air, knock them down, then impale them instantly. That seemed to be the method.
Mark aimed his light across the room. The flooring was gone in places, an d he could see down into the basement below them.
“Most of them will be down there,” he told Jonas. “Hopefully asleep.”
Jonas swallowed hard. “Let’s go.”
They found the stairs. Jonas almost crashed through a rotten step on the way down, but Mark caught him. The basement turned out to be filled with coffins, some relatively modern, some ancient and decaying. “Go for the old ones first,” Mark told Jonas.
“Shouldn’t we do them together?” Jonas asked thickly.
“Do you see how many there are?” Mark asked him.
“Um…yeah.”
“No time to partner up.” Mark went for what looked to be the oldest coffin and opened it quickly. The woman sleeping inside was young and beautiful, dressed in an elegant gown that spoke of a long-ago time in a distant place. She had become as she was in the late seventeen hundreds, he guessed.
“My God,” Jonas breathed from just behind Mark. “That…angel can’t be a creature of evil.”
Mark stared at him.
The woman’s eyes suddenly popped open, and she stared at them in shock and fury. Her lips curled back as she hissed out a terrible sound of hatred.
“Shit!” Jonas said.
“You should know,” Mark told him harshly.
He lifted his stake over her heart just as she started to move. Not fast enough. He hammered the point into her. Her mouth opened again, but this time no sound came. Instead, blood spilled out. She had feasted quite recently. She began to change, her beautiful face turning skeletal, and then she was soot.
Mark heard a rustling in the next coffin and turned on Jonas. “Damn you,
Jonas swallowed and came to life.
“The old ones. Go for the older ones first,” Mark reminded him, then headed for the coffin where he’d heard the rustling. When he swung it open, the dignified and elderly Edwardian vampire was ready.
But so was he.
The creature never growled, never let out so much as a shriek. He simply exploded in silence, with nothing but a puff of black.
Mark began to move more quickly. After a moment he heard Jonas let out a moan. He turned instantly, worried.
