The tremors shook her cottage again, and the clattering of dishes in her cupboard woke her from a sound sleep. She hadn’t meant to drift off yet, and the romance novel she’d been reading still lay open beside her. She’d planned on taking a hot bath, but for whatever reason, she dozed off while waiting for it to cool a bit, and by now it had certainly gone ice-cold. As she stretched, she idly hoped that the shaking hadn’t slopped water all over the floor and made a mess of things.
The tremors had been happening more often recently, and even though she only rarely made the trip into town, idle conversations with the locals made her certain that they hadn’t felt anything at all. That, more than anything, made her think that the watcher was getting close to finding her again, but unfortunately, she couldn’t go back to Baltimore to lose herself among the masses this time: not with the whole Gambino family looking for her after their very expensive hired muscle had vanished on her wild goose chase, never to be seen again.
It had been months since the Marquis had been seen in the mirror room, and he’d never returned from wherever the nightmare creature had taken him. Josephine wasn’t the least bit sorry about that or the part she’d played in making it happen. If she had to suffer to ensure his centuries-old evil had been snuffed out, then so be it.
The house shivered again as she sat on her bed wearing only a nightgown, which worried her. Normally they didn’t come so close together. She wondered, not for the first time, if taking a certain Gambino bullet would be better than the uncertain fate that awaited her at the hands of those red eyes and nightmarish mouths, but her will to live could not be quashed so easily by logic, and she would just take it one day at a time.
Then she heard a splash from the bathroom and was up like a shot. She hadn’t drained the tub, but it shouldn’t be able to act like a mirror in a dark room, should it? she thought to herself.
Josephine took the chance to pull the old plaid curtain nearest to her open just a crack. She saw no red eyes hunting her in the glass, but she did see the full moon, which told her everything she needed to know. Instantly, she was up and moving towards the bathroom door, where she heard something moving inside. She reached for the bat she’d left out just in case the mob found her, and then opening the door, she swung it hard at the dark shape crawling out of her tub.
It didn’t seem likely that it was a mobster, but it looked even less like a supernatural aquatic tentacle monster. The dark shape easily caught the bat in mid-air, but it was only when it looked up at her that the shadowed face whispered, “My little morsel, after all, we’ve been through together… After all I’ve done for you… this is how you repay me?” the familiar French voice said sarcastically.
Josephine shrieked in surprise and let go of the bat as she scrambled away from the vampire.
“But, but - you’re dead!” she yelled. “And even if you weren’t, I didn’t invite you in here!”
“Ma chérie,” he smiled, stepping into the hallway enough that she could clearly see his soaked and bedraggled form in the moonlight. The right half of his suit was shredded to ruin, and the remaining clothing was stained with blood and ichor. She had no idea what he’d been up to in the time he’d been gone, but she was quite sure she didn’t want to know. “I have been dead since before your grandparents breathed their first breath, and for me to require permission, a place would need to be a home. This is hardly that. This is just some flop house rented by the week to people who would rather not be found, and I can come and go as I please.”
As he advanced slowly on her, she walked backward until she found herself against the wall, but when he got there, he didn’t murder her or tear out her throat. Instead, he caressed her cheek lightly and said, “You know, that little job of yours became much more complicated than any of us thought it would be. I wonder how many people died because you had no idea of what you were doing…”
“One,” she whispered, her voice trembling in fear. “The footman was crushed when the house collapsed, but Morton Junior survived, b-but he’s in hospice. His mind… it’s gone.”
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“All that destruction, and yet he somehow managed to survive,” Hugo teased. “How remarkable. I’m sure your pastor would have something to say about the almighty and plans and all that.”
“That the boy’s survival was an act of providence, there is no question,” she said shakily, slowly regaining her nerve despite her proximity to the monster. “As to Ezekiel, he and I haven’t had the chance to discuss it - he’s been upstate in a religious retreat for months and—”
“Months?” Hugo laughed. “My little morsel - it has only been a few nights, or perhaps a week since I have finished putting that thing in its place.”
“It’s been six months,” she said flatly, not sure what the vampire’s game was here. “Closer to seven now, honestly.”
“Seven months?!” he yelled in surprise, making her flinch from the volume before he walked away to open the front door. She was tempted to try to get to her crucifix, but she knew that the symbol would do much less in her hands than it would in a man of faith’s. She could never cow a monster like this the way that Ezekiel could. “My goodness - how times does fly when you get lost between worlds. I’d quite forgotten that from my last trips.”
Finding the weather cold and a little unmelted snow in the shade of the pine trees, he turned and sat down on one of the dining chairs in the living room. “I have been gone too long then, Madame Green. I had only been planning a short social call to thank you for leading me back, but you must tell me everything that has transpired in my absence.”
Though Hugo’s tone was as unflappable as ever, the vampire was as close to shaken as she’d ever seen him, which eased her fears somewhat. So, taking a moment to fetch herself a housecoat and make herself decent, she turned on the lights and got the vampire a towel before she put the kettle on to make herself some tea.
Then she told him everything. She told him how the boy was a vegetable, but she’d still read to him until her falling out with the Gambinos after he’d been away two weeks. She told her about Ezekiel and the gaps in the man’s memory. She even told him how the watcher still looked for her on dark nights, and she feared that one day soon, it would find her.
Hugo listened to her whole story patiently, not interrupting to ask a single question, and then he said, “Then it’s settled. You can move into one of my spare rooms for the foreseeable future. It will solve all of your problems.”
“My problems?” she scoffed. “That would make every problem I have worse!”
“Au contraire mademoiselle,” he teased. “No one in the Gambino family or any of their affiliates would dare to touch you if I vouched for you. I wouldn’t let them. And being close to me for a month or two would likely make The Watcher Between Worlds lose interest in you altogether.”
“How do you figure?” she shot back incredulously.
“It’s afraid of me,” he whispered conspiratorially.
“Creatures like that exist beyond the bounds of our world and are afraid of nothing,” she countered as she got up to remove the whistling kettle and make herself a cup of tea.
“Nothing human,” he agreed, with a patronizing smile that made her want to hit him. “Let’s just say that when it comes to fighting things that are bigger than me, I don’t play fair, and all elements of chivalry go right out the window.”
“You’re just trying to get me to owe you a favor so that you can finally bite me,” she said grudgingly, not sure that she believed a word of it.
“Not so,” Hugo smiled. “Just this once, it so happens that I owe you a favor.”
“How do you figure that one?” she asked. “You went through hell because of me.”
“Well, yes,” he agreed, “but sometimes a trip like that can be worth it. It just so happens that along the way, I got to see my favorite person, however briefly, and I had the chance to feed that thing one of my most painful memories, even if I can’t quite now recall what it was, so all in all it was a lovely trip. Now I need only get a bite to eat and all will be right with the world.”
Josephine looked at the vampire across from her dubiously. Taking him up on his invitation seemed like a horrible idea, but living in fear and waiting in the darkness long enough for an otherworldly monster to devour every memory that made her who she was while she waited for the mod to lose interest seemed even worse to her.
“I’ll think about it,” she finally answered grudgingly.
“Excellent,” he said, standing. “I’ll go get everything straightened out and send someone around with the car tomorrow to fetch you then.”
“Wait,” she called out, but it was no use. He was already fading to mist. She waited until he was fully gone before she sighed. “Josie - what the hell have you gotten yourself into now?”