Jekyll & Hyde Inc.

She was down on all fours, like an animal, with a collar around her throat. Being pulled along by a length of steel chain. Daniel looked at the man holding the other end, and he quickly dropped it and backed away. Daniel checked the mirror in his hand, but the reflection showed that Gill was still human. Naked and filthy, covered in cuts and bruises and bites, her face was almost blank, showing nothing but dumb suffering. Because all the personality had been beaten out of her.

Some of the victims had been pointing and spitting at Gill, laughing and kicking her in the hope of attracting a master’s approval—but they all found other things to do rather than face the anger in Daniel’s eyes.

He remembered Paul saying he made Gill disappear. And that after what Gill had done to them, she deserved everything that happened to her. Daniel had assumed Paul killed her, but apparently that hadn’t been enough. The proud and ambitious Commissioner Gill had been dragged down into the darkness and tormented by both the vampires and their victims, just for the fun of it. No wonder the police couldn’t find her; she wasn’t a part of their world anymore.

Daniel said Gill’s name, but she didn’t react. Tina watched his back, scowling at anyone who even looked like they were getting too close. No one made any objection. Submission to authority had been bitten into them. Daniel knelt down before Gill, putting his face close to hers. She wouldn’t look at him.

“Is that who I think it is?” said Tina. “What would the vampires want with a police commissioner?”

“Someone wanted her silenced, so she couldn’t talk about what happened to me and my friends,” said Daniel. “The vampires were supposed to kill her, but apparently they thought this would be more amusing.” He said Gill’s name again, right into her face . . . and very quietly, she said his name.

“Tell me what I need to know, and I’ll get you out of here,” said Daniel.

“That’s not what we’re here for . . . ” said Tina.

Daniel spun on her. “I need to know!”

Tina nodded stiffly, and Daniel turned back to Gill. “Why did you send us to the Frankenstein chop shop, Commissioner?”

“Told to,” she said, in a voice so harsh he had to concentrate on every word. As though she’d damaged her throat from screaming too much. “Orders. From high up. Don’t know who. They only way, they said, to get past the glass ceiling. Wanted a promotion. Like you.”

“You sacrificed us,” said Daniel.

“Yes. Sorry. So sorry . . . ”

Daniel thought he’d have so much to say when he finally saw the commissioner again, but faced with everything that had been done to her, he really didn’t.

“You keep wanting to rescue people,” said Tina. “But we’re not here to save anyone.”

“I can’t leave her like this.”

“Daniel . . . ” said Gill.

“Yes?”

“Please. Kill me.”

He didn’t argue. Just placed one hand on the back of her neck, and broke it quickly. Her body seemed such a small thing, as it crumpled to the ground. No one around them gave a damn.

There was a time when Daniel would have rejoiced to know that the woman who’d betrayed him and his friends was dead; but now he had a new target for his anger. He rose to his feet and glared at the gathering, and the nearest victims flinched away. They knew a real threat when they saw one. Tina moved in close beside Daniel, and put her mouth next to his ear.

“Don’t even think about saving anyone else. All of these victims are addicts, and I know all there is to know about the power of addiction. They don’t want to be saved, and they’d fight you if you tried. The best we can do is trigger the bomb and release the holy waters, and wash all the suffering away.”

Daniel nodded slowly. “I need to see the vampires die.”

“Technically, you’ve left it a bit late,” said Tina.

They managed a small smile.

A striking female vampire appeared suddenly from out of the crowd, to stand before Daniel and Tina. Dressed to the height of 1920s fashion, she wore the long black dress of the silent screen vamp, complete with hanging beads. Her face had no color at all, and even though her night-black hair was bobbed, it was nowhere near as dark as her eyes. She smiled slowly at Daniel with her pale lips, and he felt his hackles rise. It was like having a shadow turn around and fix you with a dark and hungry look. She swayed a little closer, never once taking her eyes off Daniel.

“You’re not one of us.”

Her voice was deep and sultry, but in a practiced sort of way, as though she’d forgotten what a woman was supposed to sound like. Up close, she smelled of blood and grave dirt.

“We’re security,” said Tina.

The vampire ignored her, holding Daniel’s gaze despite everything he could do to look away.

“I don’t know you,” she said. “But I want you. Come with me, and I will teach you all the pleasures of the night. For as long as you last.”