“I thought you said it would be ready,” a woman said in a heavy accent. I recognized the voice as belonging to Katya.
“I’m almost done. It’s not like pouring wine, you know,” I heard Dr. Rostov reply. I heard a strange sound, almost like a grunt. Then there was the awful sound of sliding metal. The doctor spoke again. “Give it maybe fifteen minutes then toss it.”
“You’re not coming?”
“Later.”
We heard a sound like clinking glass headed in our direction.
I pulled Jamie into an alcove. We slid in beside the soda machine. Neither of us dared to breathe. I peered out. In the dim candlelight I saw Katya pass by carrying a large wine decanter and some glasses. The glass decanter caught the candlelight as she passed revealing the shape of a human heart inside. I looked up at Jamie. I could tell by the expression on his face he’d seen it too.
When we no longer heard the glass clinking, we stepped out. From inside the room we heard the doctor groan and heard a strange slurping sound. We went to the door and looked inside. There we saw the doctor leaning over in a chair, his back to us, a large bundle across his legs. Remembering their ability to turn to shadow, I knew we had to be fast.
I nodded to Jamie and we rushed the room, closing the door behind us. The doctor looked up. His face was dripping with blood. He stood. The body of a young woman dropped to the floor. She had been wearing a pale purple sundress. Her skin now looked snow white. The dress strap had been cut. Her chest had been sliced open, her heart removed from her chest. The doctor looked shocked.
“Where are the girls,” I whispered harshly, lowering my blade to his throat. He might be able to shift quickly, but not before I could decapitate him.
He smiled at me, but I pressed the blade in more deeply. “Not so fast,” I said. “Talk!”
He laughed.
“Talk,” I said again in Russian, “you piece of trash. Where are my girls?”
His eyes lit up in surprise. “Ahh, of course,” he said with a smile. “They are with her. Go ask her for them,” he said with a laugh, his eyes indicating they were in the room at the end of the hall.
“What did you do to my brother?” Jamie cursed at the man through clenched teeth.
“I cured him.”
“You condemned him,” I corrected.
“Really? Once he has made the final transformation he’ll have immortal life in a world where your kind are on a fast track to extinction.”
“My kind? I imagine you were once human too, weren’t you?” I said
The doctor looked thoughtful, almost as if I reminded him of something he’d long forgotten. For a brief second I saw him remember, and a kind of sadness crossed his face. He then pulled himself together and looked at me with a scolding glance. He looked down at the sword and back at me again. I could see he was calculating.
I shook my head at him.
He smiled.
I swung.
Before he could transform, his head hit the floor, that odd calculating expression on his face. His head rolled across the floor, hitting the girl’s lifeless body. Jamie reached down to examine her. Both of her wrists had been slashed open.
“They drained her, took her heart,” he said, looking sympathetically at the girl.
I had not seen her before, but she looked to be only a teenager. I eyed the rest of the room. Clearly this was the doctor’s blood-letting room. Strange instruments hung from the walls and ceilings. Blood was smeared on the once pale yellow fabric of the couches. I shook thinking of Kira and Susan in such a place.
As quietly as possible we took a quick canvas of the room and found it empty. As we were nearing the door again, we heard voices in the hallway.
“Where is Rostov?” I heard Rumor ask.
My heart skipped a beat.
“Door is closed. He must have gone down already,” I heard Finn reply.
She sighed heavily. “Bring them,” she instructed to someone.
In the hallway, I heard the muffled cries of Kira and Susan. I reached for the door, but Jamie stopped me.
“Not yet,” he mouthed to me.
From the hallway, I heard a door click open and the sound of Rumor’s receding voice. The sound of footsteps drifted upward and away.
“Roof?” Jamie questioned.
I nodded.