Page 80 of Whispers at Dusk
“No. You shoot me, I shoot her,” he said.
“I don’t think so!” A voice snapped out from behind one of the Gothic archways. Mason’s voice.
“Drop it now,” Mason continued. “Or you’re a dead man, no eternity. So far, I think you’re just an idiot desperate to believe in something. You haven’t killed anyone, and the justice system might go easy on you. I’m not sure about Romanian law. So drop it!”
The young man was shaking so much Della feared he would fire by accident.
“I—I have failed the Master!” he cried.
“Drop it now!” another voice chimed in. Alexandru.
“Now!” That from Jeanne Lapierre.
“You’re surrounded, drop it now—or die!”
The last was spoken by Edmund Taylor.
Della was never sure if the young man decided to drop the gun he wielded—or if it just fell from his shaking fingers—but he sank to the ground, sobbing. He was not upset as Alexandru came forward to cuff him; he was just wailing he had failed the Master.
“I think this is our young Canadian,” Della said. “We need—”
“I have emergency vehicles on the way,” Alexandru assured her. “They’ll be just seconds. But I believe she’ll be all right—and we made a right move. I believe... Thank you! You...this team, you know what you’re doing. And she’s alive!”
“So far,” Taylor murmured worriedly.
Mason had reached them by then.
He hunkered down by the young woman leaning against the tombstone in the mist, checking her pulse again.
“Edmund, I think she’s going to be fine. I believe Stephan Dante teaches his method, which is stalk your prey, watch their habits, find a way to get them a drink—and make sure that drink is well drugged. She’ll make it—I truly believe it.”
They could hear sirens, loud and piercing against the fog and the coming darkness. Alexandru questioned the young man, but they had fallen into Romanian. Della couldn’t even begin to pick out a few words.
The young man was loudly sobbing as Anton Alexandru led him toward one of the police cars that arrived at the location.
And EMTs were there, quickly moving to help the young woman.
Della stood by Mason. Alexandru did all the talking to those who arrived. At last, the scene began to clear and they were left standing among the old stones.
“I didn’t get much from him yet,” Alexandru told their group. “He met thegreat vampire kinglast night at a bar. They invented a story to get their victim out of the hotel—telling her they were the police and one of her friends had been hurt.”
“They didn’t even pull the charming bit,” Della murmured.
“No, it’s as if... I don’t know, as if they were too hurried this time,” Edmund Taylor said thoughtfully.
“The great vampire king wanted us here,” Lapierre said.
Mason turned to Alexandru. “How did he drug her? If he said one of her friends was hurt, she would have realized—”
“Oh, the great vampire king did charm her in a way. He told her he was going to take her to her friend at the hospital, got her into a car—and offered her a bottle of water. Then he told this fellow—the man here tonight, born and raised in Sighisoara, drenched in legends about Vlad the Impaler—just to keep her hidden near the castle until he was ready with all the proper equipment to take her blood, and then begin his journey to immortality. Oh, he has a set of teeth on him—fangs, I mean.”
“And we’ll discover the saliva on the teeth belongs to a dead man who was incarcerated at a prison in the States,” Mason said.
“So, Stephan Dante has moved on already,” Della said.
“Let me get you to your hotel. I can only imagine what a long day this has been for you,” Alexandru said. “But thank you!” he said quietly. “Thank you, eternally. The young woman will live, and that is everything. I will get you to your hotel and head to the hospital.”
Della smiled and nodded. She was grateful; they were all grateful.
