Phoebe reached the floor and only hesitated for a moment. As much as she wanted to help Hiram, she knew that he was dangerous in this state. Growling and snarling, he heaved against the chains, more beast than man. Those chains were some of the biggest and thickest that she had ever seen, and yet they were snapping beneath the vampire’s strength, broken links flying in all directions. One of the links nearly landed on her, and that prompted Phoebe to start running.
 
She had made it halfway across the room when the chains finally gave way.

There was nowhere to hide; the only piece of furniture in the room was the chair, and the door seemed like a lightyear away. So Phoebe turned and faced the giant as he sprang toward her, the floorboards quaking beneath his weight. What else could she possibly do?

“Hiram, I know that you can hear me,” she said slowly. Which was a guess at best; the vampire was in a crouching position, his movements frenetic and jerky. His lips were peeled back to reveal every single tooth — molars and incisors and, of course, those long and deadly-sharp fangs. Whatever was going through his head wasn’t rational at all.

One of his hands crashed down next to Phoebe, the impact almost toppling her. Saliva dribbled down from his gnashing mouth, pattering onto the floor.

“You don’t have to do this,” she tried to persuade him. “You’re a good person.”

Her words didn’t seem to penetrate the ravenous hunger; the giant’s face inched down toward her, razor teeth bared. Phoebe stared back into his crimson eyes, seeing only that terrible need. And then something else splashed onto the floor. Inky-black tears spilled down Hiram’s cheeks in dark rivulets.

“No, Tristan and everyone else was right. I’m an awful person,” he said. “I remember everything now. I wasn’t some tragic hero. I did atrocious things and I invited this nightmare into me.”

Phoebe saw that he was telling the truth.

She retreated cautiously, her gaze alternating between the giant and the door. Hiram reached for her, fingers outstretched; then, without warning, he sank his teeth deep into his forearm. Distracting himself. He groaned, more out of desperation than pain, and Phoebe took advantage of the small opportunity that he had given her.

Dashing the rest of the way across the room, she squeezed herself beneath the door. A few seconds later, the door shuddered and cracked as Hiram slammed against it. Phoebe glanced back, saw the wood splintering as the vampire smashed and clawed his way through it.

Then she fled.

***

Everything about this situation was making Tristan nervous.

He had agreed to help Levi for a large — no, a gigantic — amount of money. When the vampire had first contacted him, the job had seemed easy enough. Trick Hiram, retrieve his memories, and then receive a very handsome reward. But there was something off about Levi, and it was putting Tristan on edge. He had expected vampires to be creepy — they drank human blood, for one thing. Levi wasn’t just creepy, though.

He was terrifying.

As they had walked down the hallway, leaving Hiram to recapture his memories, Levi had asked him if he knew any shrinking spells. When Tristan had asked why, the vampire had grinned horribly.

“Emmanuel used to provide me with shrunken people,” Levi had replied. “I’ve grown fond of them.”

That answer had made Tristan’s flesh crawl. He had decided that it’d be better not to work with Levi in the future, no matter how much money he offered. The threats alone weren’t worth it, and as Tristan had mumbled an excuse and left the vampire in the hallway, he had wondered what exactly Levi was doing with those shrunken people.

At least it was almost dawn, and the vampire would be disappearing into a dark room for the duration of the day. That would give Tristan a chance to unwind, away from Levi’s cold, cruel eyes. He’d dig through his books and find another spell, just in case the current one didn’t work on Hiram. Tristan headed toward his study, that sense of doom lingering. He guessed that it had something with his Fae heritage, a psychic ability to predict when he was in trouble.

And he was definitely in trouble. He didn’t doubt that Levi would carry out his threats, including the more gruesome ones.

On his way to his study, Tristan noticed the gaping hole in the door to the room where they had been keeping Hiram. He stopped, studied the jagged fragments of wood strewn across the floor. His psychic ability set off shrieking alarms in his head, and as he realized that Hiram had escaped, there was a sudden flurry of movement in the corner of his eye.

The last thing that Tristan saw was Hiram’s mouth yawning open, sharp teeth glistening.

***

Phoebe crept down the hallway, staying close to the baseboard. If she could make it to the front door, she could escape. Or that’s what she hoped; she wasn’t sure if Tristan had cast some sort of spell that prevented anyone from leaving. If that was the case, she would hide until she figured out another plan. Maybe Hiram would come to his senses, although she remembered what he had said, about being an awful person.

And yet she also recalled how he had fought himself, battled those inhuman urges.

Footsteps boomed down the hallway, steadily headed in her direction. Phoebe’s heart lurched and she darted into yet another room. This one was stacked with furniture, which gave her ample hiding places. Quickly, she crawled under a dresser, avoiding the enormous dust bunnies that loomed over her like filthy clouds. Holding her breath, she strained her ears, hoping that she hadn’t been spotted. Seconds passed, and then a minute.

The footsteps intensified, as did the sick feeling in Phoebe’s belly. A pair of colossal legs appeared, striding toward the dresser and the tiny woman hiding in the shadows. The giant paused, as if contemplating something, and Phoebe prayed that he would leave.

Just as she was beginning to think that her prayers had been heard, Levi bent down, his face filling the gap between the dresser and the floor.

“Oh, you’re still alive,” he remarked, his smile hideous. “Well, if he doesn’t want to eat you, I will.”

The vampire’s pupils expanded, filing his eyes with that dreadful red. Sensing his intentions, Phoebe turned away, refusing to meet his hypnotic gaze.

“You want to come to me,” Levi whispered, and that strange, familiar fogginess leaked into her mind. His mind-control abilities weren’t as powerful as Hiram’s, but she struggled against them nevertheless. Yes, I want to come to him, Phoebe thought, and she truly did. Even though she knew that he’d drain her dry or swallow her like a piece of candy, Phoebe’s heart and legs ached, longing to walk in the direction of the vampire.

No. No, I don’t think so, you bastard.

“No,” Phoebe said, teeth gritted so hard that they hurt.

His hand lashed out, trying to seize her, and Phoebe moved as far away as possible, her back pressing up against the wall. The giant’s enormous fingers dug and scratched and scrabbled at the floorboards, leaving behind long grooves.

“I was kidding about eating you. Come out and I’ll make you my pet,” the vampire coaxed, still grasping for her. “I’ll dress you up in the finest silks and you can do tricks for me.”

“Go to hell!”

Levi’s expression darkened. “Fine. Be that way.”

He stood, and as Phoebe wondered what he was doing, the dresser lifted high into the air, the drawers rattling and banging loudly. With his supernatural strength, Levi held the huge piece of furniture as if it weighed nothing at all.

“You should have come out,” he said, tossing aside the dresser. Phoebe knew that running wasn’t an option, so she balled up her hands and glared at the giant defiantly. This seemed to delight Levi; he squatted down, eyes glittering.

“Oh, look how fierce you are,” Levi laughed, poking her in the stomach with one enormous finger. It was like being battered by a wildly swaying log, but she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing her discomfort. He pinched the back of Phoebe’s doll dress and yanked her up from the floor. The dress seams protested, threatening to rip, but Phoebe was more concerned by the fact that Levi had positioned her over his waiting mouth. His tongue reared up, licking at her legs, and she responded with frantic kicks. Pounding at the wet, heavy mass of his tongue did nothing except elicit a chuckle from the giant. He was the cat and she was the mouse, and he was toying with her before the inevitable occurred.

The growl came from the darkness, low and angry and not quite human, and a moment later Hiram charged at them.

Levi grunted in pain and surprise as the other vampire barreled into him full-force. Somehow, he held onto Phoebe, whose world had become a violent blur of motion and titanic, heaving bodies. She was trapped between two kaiju-sized beings, and as they snarled and fought each other, Phoebe was terrified that she’d be squashed. When Hiram bit down on Levi’s shoulder, her captor shrieked and finally let her go. Phoebe spilled from his open hand onto the floor, and she moved out of the way quickly. Which was a wise decision, because the giants rolled where she had been, still punching and biting.

“Give the power to me,” Levi hissed, managing to shove the other vampire away. “I can use it better than you can!”

Hiram laughed bitterly. “Even if I could give it away, you’re the last person on Earth that I’d give it to. You’re a monster.”

“So are you!”

“I know,” Hiram said. “And I’m sorry for that.”

Phoebe noticed that both vampires had slowed down, as if exhaustion had hit them. And she realized why: thin beams of sunlight filtered through the window shades. Dawn had arrived, bringing with it golden light. One of the beams brushed Hiram’s cheek and the skin smoked and smoldered, grayish smoke curling outward in wisps. He didn’t flinch, didn’t react at all. The pain didn’t seem to reach him.

“You’re weak! You’re pathetic! You’re urrrk —,” Levi screeched, his rant extinguished when Hiram grabbed him roughly. Phoebe couldn’t see Hiram’s face but Levi did, and whatever he saw gave him pause. His rage was replaced by horror, his hazel eyes so wide that they bulged.

“Wh-what are you?” Levi whimpered, and Hiram’s head moved enough that Phoebe caught a glimpse of something horrible: the edge of a swirling chaos, a ravenous madness that had existed before this world did.

I invited this nightmare into me, Hiram had told her.

“This is the answer that you were chasing for so long,” Hiram said, and Levi howled in terror. His cry became higher, shriller, as Hiram hurled him through the window, his body launched out into the sunlight. Fire exploded over his skin and clothes, and by the time that he hit the ground, he was nothing more than whitish ash. Hiram stood staring at the broken window, far enough away that the light didn’t cause him to spontaneously combust as well. At last he turned, and to Phoebe’s relief, his face had resumed its normal shape.

“I remember now why I forgot everything,” he told her, and Phoebe should have taken the opportunity to escape. Even if it hadn’t been daytime, Hiram wouldn’t have followed her. There was only grief in his eyes, enough to fill several lifetimes, and the fight was gone from him. But Phoebe didn’t move toward the doorway, toward the warm sunlight; instead, she went back into the darkness where Hiram wiped futilely at the blood on his face, his hands too stained to remove it.

And then, slowly and gently, he reached down to pick her up.