“Going to pour any minute. Let’s get going before it does, unless we want to get soaked.”
“I’m already soaked,” I complained.
“I meant me.”
He half dragged me along a trail that seemed to go on forever, and then a stone wall appeared out of the darkness in front of us. He moved to the right, and we skirted the wall until a tall gap appeared – an ancient entrance to the ruined building that towered before us.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“Shut up,” he snapped, and removed a small flashlight from his pocket. He switched it on and played the beam along the steps before turning to me. “Don’t trip. You crack your head open, that’s your problem.”
I wanted to protest, but the malevolent gleam in his eyes stopped me cold. I allowed him to pull me along into the interior of the structure, the darkness so dense it was like oil. We made it to an antechamber and he stopped to face me.
“This is what you get when you consort with monsters,” he hissed.
“What are you talking about?” I asked, the tears running down my face streaking the grime on my cheeks.
He grunted. “Your boyfriend. You know damn well what I’m talking about.”
“I…I don’t. I swear.”
“Ha! That’s too rich. Then you’re just a fool.” He drew a deep breath. “He’s a living monster. A vampire. Nosferatu. The living dead.”
I didn’t have to fake my reaction. “You’re crazy.”
A backhanded slap so violent it surprised me came out of nowhere and knocked my head to the side. I cried out in pain and felt a trickle of blood ooze from the corner of my mouth.
Victor’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not crazy. He’s a vampire, and I’m in the business of hunting and killing them.”
I did my best not to cry. “What does that have to do with me?” I managed.
“You two are a pair. He’ll come to save you. And when he does, that’s the last thing he’ll ever do.”
“If he’s a vampire, why hasn’t he bitten me or something? That doesn’t make any sense.”
It was Victor’s turn to blink. “I don’t know, and I don’t care. Maybe he’s got you under one of his spells. It doesn’t matter. What I do know is that he’ll come to rescue you. And that will be the end of him.”
“So you kidnapped me to lure him…here? Where are we?” I demanded.
“A cursed place. A ruined fort on an island off the coast. Where the undead will gather to celebrate their unholy kind any day now. I thought it fitting he should meet his end in one of their sacred spots.” Another laugh. “Poetic. The forbidden gathering penetrated by the likes of me, and their kind exterminated like rats on their home turf.”
“I…I don’t understand. You really believe in vampires?”
“They’re as real as we are,” he growled.
“How do you know?” I asked.
“Enough questions!” he barked, and grabbed my arm hard enough to make me cry out in pain. “We’re going down those stairs,” he said. “Again, you fall, it’s on you.”
He guided me down a set of steps carved from the rock, the little penlight illuminating the way. At the bottom stood a rotting oak door, the iron that bound the planks together rusted nearly to dust. He shouldered it aside and dragged me into a chamber the size of a small office. Mold and lichen streaked the walls, and three inches of cold water covered the floor.
“What is this place?” I asked, the fear in my voice real.
He sneered. “Your mausoleum unless your boy shows up soon.”
My eyes widened. “How do you know he’s even going to come? How could he know I’m here?”
Victor laughed again. “Because he called your cell, and I told him that if he didn’t come and trade himself for you, you were deader than Elvis.”
I gasped. “He called?”
“A few minutes after we got into the boat. Depending on where he is, I figure he’ll put in an appearance any time.”
“What makes you think he’ll come – that he won’t just leave me to die?”
“Your friend who’s been hanging out with my brother told me all about you two.” He paused. “That, and he said if I hurt you, he’ll rip my heart out and eat it in front of me.” Victor smirked. “Sort of tipped his hand there.”
The water lapped at my boots. “Where’s the water coming from?” I asked.
“The tide.” He dragged me across the room and reached into the water. “Sit,” he ordered. I did as instructed. He removed a length of chain attached to an iron ring in the stone floor and forced it around my bound wrists, coiling it several times before clamping the end link to one of the middle links with a galvanized shackle. He stepped away and surveyed his work with approval.
“Tide comes up about two feet per hour. I figure that gives you maybe three before you drown, assuming hypothermia doesn’t get you first, which would be my bet. I’d give even money on you being dead inside an hour, although it’s apparently not a bad way to go – you just drift off into nothingness.”
“Why are you doing this, Victor?” I asked between sobs. “I haven’t done anything to you.”
“My parents were killed by a vampire. You don’t matter. I don’t matter. Nothing does except eliminating them until there are none left.”
“And how do you plan to do that? I thought they were supposed to be invulnerable. They can fly, transform into bats, walk through walls.”
His smile was as cruel as his eyes. “You really don’t know what you’re talking about, do you?” Victor looked around the room. “I’ll let you in on a little secret, seeing as you’re not long for the world. I have some powerful magic working for me. Four talismans placed at the four entrances of the building. A sorcerer
