Page 90 of Once Bitten, Twice Mine

“I was too busy before, my sweet, but now our wedding is my top priority. I am at your disposal. I want this to be the social event of the year. You deserve nothing less.”

The door to the study opened again, and she couldn’t imagine who else had shown up at her home, but her shoulders relaxed when Lucy entered.

“Miss Blythe, a letter has arrived for you.”

“You can put it in my room. I’ll look at it once my guests have left. Will you have Cook make a tea tray?”

“The letter is from Dr. Murnau, and it’s marked as urgent.”

Caroline’s stomach dropped. There was only one reason why the doctor would contact her urgently.

* * *

The hospital had become as familiar to her as her own home. Despite having volunteered there for years, it had always made her a little uneasy. Now the smell of antiseptic and the dull echo of her footsteps on the tile floor were a comfort. Voices murmured from the main ward; the nurses were back tending to patients. Unlike the other times she had been there, the drapes were open. It wasn’t a sunny day by any means, but the grey light of day made the room glow.

The best news was that no one’s skin was smoking. It made her feel better that Valeria hadn’t ripped through the town again, leaving half-drunk bodies in her wake. Unless she had killed them all and they were already in the morgue.

But Valeria had no reason to return to her village.

Murnau’s door was cracked, so she pushed the dark wooden door open with her index finger as she called out, “Hello?”

Dr. Murnau was hunched over his desk, scribbling furiously into his journal. Open books littered the table around him, and it seemed as if he was too focused to hear her, so she called out again as she walked into the room.

It wasn’t until she was in front of the desk that his head popped up, surprised to see someone before him. “Ah, Miss Blythe,” he said, his glasses slipping to the tip of his nose before he clumsily pushed them back up. “I didn’t expect you to get here so quickly.”

“Your letter worried me, so I set off as soon as I received it.”

“I debated sending for you because the last thing I want is for you to be in danger, but you have been such a help, and you have a personal stake in what’s been happening in our fair village. Mrs. Montgomery was the one who finally pushed me to send for you, even though she doesn’t know the full truth of what has happened. They’re out doing house calls to make sure the last of our patients have recovered, but they don’t need to be here for this since they don’t believe.”

Her hands shook so she stuffed them in her cloak pockets. Dark bags had returned beneath his eyes, but his demeanor was strong. Victorious. This wasn’t the world-weary man she had worked with over the past few weeks. He was still overworked, but the unrelenting grief had left him. “You said that you had what you needed to prove our theory?”

He hadn’t specifically named vampires in her letter, but he never did in case someone else read it. Which was smart, as she wouldn’t put it past Lucy to put the letter up to the light before giving it to her.

“I do,” he smiled. “I apologize for being a little scattered. It’s been so busy I’ve scarcely stopped working. The other night, I went hunting for the vampire. I know you think he moved on, but I wanted to be sure, so I equipped myself with a yew stake, and I caught the Devil.”

“What?” Caroline’s heart stopped as her entire world flipped on its axis. Valeria had left days ago, but maybe she stuck around. Or she changed her mind about being with Caroline, but was intercepted before she reached her. “How did you catch the vampire? What happened? Where are they now?”

“Here, let me show you.”

Murnau got up from his desk, and Caroline’s stomach turned as she followed him from the office and down the stairs to the basement. It was a dark, damp place that smelled of mildew. There wasn’t any flooring, just finely packed dirt. There were many barrels and crates that she knew held excess medical supplies, but the air was thick. So thick it made her want to run back to the safety of the light of day.

There was no light underground.

Well, no natural light. The amber glow of gas lamps dotted their path amongst everything in storage.

“I always meant to renovate down here. I never understood why the previous owners of the hospital hadn’t finished the cellar,” Murnau said in a voice barely above a whisper. “I never understood all of the iron, but now I wonder if it had another purpose. Containment.”

They rounded a corner, and she saw what he meant. Iron bars were placed from floor to ceiling, making a cage in this part of the cellar. It wasn’t very big, no more than six by six, and at first she thought it was empty before she saw a pile of rags on the floor. God, she was going to vomit. She didn’t know how she was to rescue Valeria from this prison with Dr. Murnau there.

“I also brought iron shackles with me, just in case. I remember what you said about the stories of fae and how some of them seemed similar to the vampire tales. Your theory was correct. I couldn’t get a good shot to kill it, but I was able to incapacitate it and bring it here. The killings have stopped. There haven’t been new patients coming in with bites.”

There was no way he would let Valeria go. She needed a plan. Fast. She felt bad betraying the doctor who had been so, so kind. His only crime was caring about the village she loved.

Murnau picked up a wooden stick that was propped against one of the crates. He shook it against the iron bars, making an awful racket that echoed through the cellar. She wanted to tell him to save his energy, that she wouldn’t wake up until sunset, and that was hours away. But then, the rags stirred.

The primal part of her brain that knew evil was real and before her begged her to run, to escape this place once and for all, but she was frozen. Too scared to even move.

The rags dropped, and shock radiated through her.