Beauty and the Clockwork Beast by Nancy Allen Campbell

Author:Nancy Allen Campbell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Deseret Book Company
Published: 2016-06-08T04:00:00+00:00

Miles took in the scene with a rage that was surpassed only by a nauseating sense of fear that gathered thick in his throat as he crossed the room to the two women crumpled on the floor. He pulled first at Lucy, whose pale pink corset and ruffled white shirt were sliced across her shoulders. Angry red lines seeped blood onto the delicate fabric.

She glanced at him with huge eyes as she ran her hands over an unconscious Miss Hughes.

“She hit her head,” Lucy said, her voice shaking. She placed her hand at the back of Miss Hughes’s head and pulled it away to reveal a liberal smear of blood. “And she was thrown in the fire, although I believe her clothing took the brunt of it. I pulled her out right away.”

Miles caught sight of Lucy’s other hand and grasped her wrist, examining her palm. It was a pale shade of red that would soon become darker, more inflamed and blistered. “You’ve been burned,” he said through clenched teeth.

He made his way to the telescribe connector on the wall and attached his telescriber with a hand that trembled slightly. Barely trusting himself to speak with any sense of calm, he punched in a message for Sam to come immediately to the library with his medical bag.

Gusts of wind and rain howled through the broken windows, and he looked up at the jagged pieces of glass where something large and fast had flown into the room. With a litany of curses, he slammed his hand against the crank that controlled the heavy drapes and walked back to Lucy while the mechanism pulled the material closed, muting the storm outside.

Lucy looked at him as he knelt by her side and placed two fingers on Miss Hughes’s throat, relieved to feel a thready pulse in the Medium’s neck.

“She was attempting to conjure Marie,” Lucy said quietly, holding the hem of her skirt against Miss Hughes’s head.

“With what? Black Magick?”

Lucy scowled at him. “No. Far from it.”

“Marie did not do this,” he said. “It was not her presence in this room when I entered.”

“No,” Lucy agreed. “Most assuredly it was not your sister. I know who it was. Or rather, what.” Her expression was as grave as he’d ever seen it. “It was a vampire in black mist form.”

She glanced up as Sam entered and squatted down next to Miss Hughes. “A vamp? Then we must treat your back immediately. We will need a mix of Abelfirth and Chromaxium. We shall have to rush you to the airfield and head straight for London—I don’t have any with me.”

Lucy moved her hand and bloodied dress away from the young Medium’s head. “I have some upstairs.”

Miles stared at her, slack-jawed, as did Sam, who temporarily stilled his hands. “How on earth do you have a supply of anti-vamp?” Sam asked. “It’s all I can do to secure some, and even then I must jump through a series of hoops that make it nigh impossible.”

“I am part of the research team.

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