The day went exceedingly fast for Clair. Breakfast was embarrassing, as Clair sat down next to Baron Golde and his wife, as well as several other participants in the night's bedroom antics. Clair ate quickly, a blush on her face through most of the meal.
At breakfast she was informed that Asher had been called away on estate business, while the Honorable Christopher Wilder, the Bears, Lady Montcrief, and several others were going on some scouting expedition to some old ruins. That left Clair free to search the manor, except Ian kept her busy until late after luncheon, trying to whisk her away to private spots for private moments.
Her aunt, however, had the tenacity of a bloodhound, finding them before anything more than a passionate kiss or two could be shared. Ozzie trailed behind her aunt like a lost puppy. Galen, never one to be left out of any teasing of his cousin, also popped in on them right at any moment the two found themselves alone. The crafty bugger always had a big smirk on his face, and Ian cursed beside her. Clair found it both humorous and frustrating.
Later in the day, Clair finally got to begin her search for proof of the earl's preternatural abilities, for Ian got an urgent message from his Yorkshire estate. Fortunately for Ian, the estate was only four hours away on horseback. Unfortunately for Clair, Ian would have to miss the country ball the earl was holding in his guests' honor.
Ian kissed her goodbye, warned her to be careful, and promised to return as quickly as possible the following morning. He waved as he and Galen left. With both regret and relief, Clair watched him ride away.
Although sad, Ian's departure gave Clair the freedom she needed to explore the downstairs estate, which turned out a disappointment, with the exception of the cellars. Those she was unable to view since they were locked up tighter than a drum.
It turned out entirely a wasted day. She found no werewolf proof. No wolf man footprints, except for the wolfhound prints Clair had discovered earlier. She got no mad, passionate lovemaking. And her chaperone was only a chaperone until Ian left; then Mary went off on her merry way to pave her path to hell with desire. Clair thought all these things as she watched her aunt Mary and Ozzie walking along the terrace. Ozzie was holding her too close, and Mary was cooing at him.
"Traitor," Clair mused out loud. The way Aunt Mary was gazing at Ozzie with heat in her eyes, and the way Ozzie was looking at her aunt, as though she were a seven-course meal or new recipe, it was more than obvious what the couple had been doing. They'd been frolicking and fornicating, while Clair had been forced to take a nap all by her lonesome.
"You sneaky little coquette," she muttered to herself about her aunt, a half smile on her face. "It's you who need the chaperone, Auntie." Clair stood alone by the balcony entrance, waiting for the earl to be announced. Glancing out the large crystal-cut windowpanes, she could see the soft white glow of the full moon. At least one thing would come from this dismal day. Tonight, when Asher didn't show up, she'd have her proof he was a werewolf. Werewolves had to change on the night of the full moon. It couldn't be helped.
Of course, she knew Asher would make up some lame excuse—like another emergency on the estate—for being absent. But it wouldn't matter. She would have more circumstantial evidence. During the next two full moons she would contrive to be around Asher and note he'd be once again not available. If she were very lucky, she might even get to see him shape-shift. What a thrill that would be, making her scientific day. Clair smiled beguilingly. She was getting closer to the truth. Fulfilling her Frankenstein destiny. She would join the greats such as Galileo, Newton, Darwin and her uncle Victor.
Her smile froze then turned to an open-mouthed O.
Asher grinned wolfishly at her as he walked down the large marble staircase. Gotcha! he thought gleefully as he made his bow to her.
"You're not a…" Clair stopped herself before blurting out the w-word.
"A what?" Asher's expression was amused. He had never seen Clair so stumped before.
"A… a… a-afraid of wearing that hue of burgundy for an evening jacket. How refreshing, since most of the men here are dressed in somber black or those garish colors yellow and green," Clair said in a rush.
"Drat! Drat, drat, and triple drat!" she muttered to herself. She had done it again—convinced herself that earls were werewolves and barons vampires, when in reality everyone was human and no one was a supernatural predator at all. What a huge disappointment she was to the Frankenstein name. There would be no prestigious Scientific Discovery of the Decade Award for her. No publication. No lecturing in front of her peers in the scientific halls of academia. What would Uncle Victor say? Bloody hell. What would Ian say? He would probably never let her live it down.
"My, you are fast on your feet," Asher commented. Seeing Clair's confusion, he grinned. "Ah. You were talking about fashion and here I thought you were talking about something else." Dropping her hand politely, he took a step back and glanced down at the deep burgundy of his coat. "I could change. Would you like to see me change?" He hesitated, enjoying Clair's chagrin. "Jackets, that is."
Flustered, she shook her head. "You look divine, as always." Clair's mind was racing, her angst receding somewhat as she tried to find explanations for her abominable lack of investigative skills.
"Humph!" she muttered, vowing to apprentice herself to Mr. Durlock Homes for a time and learn his superior investigation skills. Asher preened a moment, then entered the receiving line to greet his guests.
In a drat-I-can't-believe-he's-not-a-werewolf depression, Clair strolled outside, taking the large stone stairway leading from the terrace down to the gardens. The air was crisp and the soft white orb of the full moon nestled into the velvety black sky. It shone down, highlighting the lush green foliage of the garden.
Strolling down a path at the edge, Clair kept thinking about her mistakes. Ian the vampire was not a vampire. Wider the vampire was not a vampire. Ozzie the warlock was not a wizard. And Asher the werewolf was not a wolf. How could she have been so wrong? Where had her hypotheses gone awry? What fatal steps had she taken in her research that led her to this once-again humiliating moment in time?
And who was making that whimpering sound?
Alert, Clair hurried up the path farther into the deep shadows made by the trees along the side. Someone was in trouble. A female, by the sound of the cry.
Stumbling into a small opening between the hedges, Clair came upon a scene straight from one of those horror novellas, the ones which were much more fictionalized than her uncle Tieck's novel. She blinked, gasped, then blinked again, trying to understand what she was seeing.
The red-haired maid whom Asher's butler had assigned to Clair was draped over one of Christopher Wilder's arms, her bare neck exposed. Blood was flowing from a wound on her neck. The maid was crying, her arms beating to no avail against Wilder's chest.
Turning, his gaze malevolent, Wilder bared his fangs, and his eyes glowed with an otherworldly light.
"Bloody hell!" Clair cursed, unconsciously using one of Ian's favorite phrases. "You are a vampire. I was right! Right!"
For one small second Clair wanted to dance with joy, until the reality of her situation came crashing down upon her. She was alone with a fang-baring, blood-drinking killer!
The maid's cry interrupted her thoughts. No, Clair wasn't alone, and she had to do something to save the maid. She reached up to touch her silver cross, only to remember she hadn't worn it to the house party, since she had been hunting werewolves and not the walking dead.
Quickly discarding her plan to back the vampire away from the maid by clutching a cross, Clair settled on another scheme. Grabbing a thick fallen branch, she charged Wilder and swung it at the vampire's head. As plans went, she would later realize, this was doomed to failure.
Wilder grabbed the branch with one hand, still holding on to the maid. Behind her, Clair heard a hiss that made the blood curdle in her veins.
"Well, bloody hell," she muttered. She had wanted to find a nest of them, and she had. Leaping away from Wilder, she turned to find herself face to face with an enraged Lady Montcrief. Her face Clair would long remember, with its glistening incisors smiling in satisfaction.
"You're mine, bitch," Lady Montcrief laughed, her tone sharp as nails. "Tonight, you die!"
"You won't get away with murdering me, you bloodsucking witch! Ian will hunt you down and stake you like you deserve," Clair vowed, her face pale with fear. Lady Montcrief was evil incarnate, and Wilder wasn't much better. She had been right, in a manner of speaking. She supposed they could write that on her tomb-stone: She got most of the facts wrong, but she was right at least once. It killed her.
"You can't kill her. Asher will be livid," Mr. Bear said, appearing, slurring slightly due to the length of his fangs. They were extremely long, Clair noted in an abstractly terrified, rational manner.
She agreed with him wholeheartedly. Meeting Mr. Bear last night at the dinner party, she had found him rather insipid and stupid. Tonight, he was a genius. "He's right! Asher will be upset!"
Lady Montcrief snarled, her fangs lengthening even more. As Clair stared in fascination, she realized fearfully that there were many ways to die. And half of those were here in the garden with her, where death was sitting on his pale horse in the guise of Lady Montcrief and her nasty friends.
A thump to Clair's left caught her attention. Wilder had dropped the unconscious maid on the ground, coming to stand next to Mr. Bear. His canny eyes watched Clair hungrily. "We have no choice, Bear. She knows too much now. But I want to play with her first."
Clair shuddered. Revulsion was thick in her voice when she challenged him. "In a pig's eye!"
Mr. Bear looked worried as he glanced from Wilder to Clair and then back again. "You're drunk on blood lust, Christopher. You're not thinking clearly. Asher will be very angry if you kill his honey pot." Pointing a finger at Lady Montcrief, Mr. Bear added, "And you're just jealous of the chit."
"And you're afraid of Asher," Lady Montcrief hissed scathingly. "You want to be master of our little nest, but you're too afraid to challenge him."
Bear shrugged. "Asher's too strong. I won't beat a dead pony, Jeanette. I still think it's a grave mistake to kill her. Mesmerize her instead."
Lady Montcrief turned her fiery red eyes on Mr. Bear. Their heat was almost physical as she growled, "She knows too much. We can't take the chance. Asher will understand. Besides, the Frankensteins are a queer lot. None of their descendants can be mesmerized. We have no choice. Humans are a devious race, and this one," she added with loathing, "this one is more devious than most. She alone knew of our nest. She knows what Wilder is. She even accused me, the accursed bitch!"
Seeing the vampires concentrating on each other, Clair began backing away, wishing she had her lucky rabbit's foot. Wishing Ian were there. Wishing she had told him she would marry him. Wishing Frederick were around. Her uncle. Brandon Van Helsing with his Van Helsing stakes. What a horrendous night! She was all dressed up and waiting to be bitten and sucked to death by a pack of vicious, immoral vampires.
As Clair moved, Lady Montcrief grabbed her and jerked her up close and personal. Using all her strength, Clair shoved back and screamed for everything she was worth. It was a long shot, but it was the only shot she had: the vampires' strength was much greater than hers.
Lady Montcrief quickly yanked Clair back by the roots of her hair. "I'm going to so enjoy draining all your pretty blood. Then, when I'm finished, I'm going to chop you into little pieces and feed them to Asher's wolfhounds."
Clair jammed her thumbs into Lady Montcrief's eyes, a diversionary tactic she'd read about that actually worked.
"Damn you to hell, you stupid vixen!" Lady Montcrief screeched. "You'll pay," she glowered as she slapped at Clair blindly, a blow which sent Clair reeling.
Through the roaring in her head, Clair heard Asher's voice. "Jeanette, how many times have I told you not to play with your food?" His sounded like the voice of doom.
Clair lifted her head and then quickly had to lay it back down. She felt as if she had a concussion. She blinked and turned her head to the side just as Asher knocked Lady Montcrief a good five feet across the clearing.
Clair blinked, then blinked again as Asher snarled, exposing long white fangs, hissing at Wilder, who was now crouched and ready to attack. She wanted to sink into unconsciousness. She was an idiot. Asher was not a werewolf pretending to be a man. No, he was a vampire pretending to be a man. The master vampire. The leader of the London nest. And she, Clair Frankenstein, was a bona fide idiot. She'd had it all so right and all so wrong.
A scream of pain caught her attention. It was Wilder. Despite the pain in her head, Clair raised herself to her elbows, lifting her head. She had to help Asher, since he was fighting to save her life.
Wilder was pinned to the ground, and Asher had the younger vampire by the throat. "Look out," Clair managed, as she helplessly watched Lady Montcrief hit her protector with a piece of iron fencing.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Mr. Bear and managed to whisper, "Help him."
To her despair, Mrs. Bear appeared, fangs long and wicked-looking. Together Mrs. Bear and her husband also attacked Asher.
"No!" Clair shrieked before she began sinking into darkness. Snarling, hissing and growling sounds swarmed all around her.
Suddenly, from a great dark distance, she heard Lady Montcrief and Mrs. Bear scream, and then Wilder's curses turned to awful gurgling sounds. Then Clair knew no more, for the world went utterly black.