“Stay here,” Kendrick said, waving her back.
“What in there can hurt me? I’m a vampire,” Genevieve objected.
“Keep close, then,” Kendrick said before putting his shoulder to the door. It gave with little resistance, and Genevieve followed him in.
They found Fletcher in what passed for a cellar—he had been entering and exiting by a broken window. The boy huddled under a pile of rags, his breathing thick with phlegm and his face marred with bruises.
“Fletcher?” Genevieve breathed, touching his mottled cheek. It was blazing hot.
Something under his jacket squeaked.
Kendrick moved the fabric aside. They came face to face with a puppy, a small, skinny thing that barely looked old enough to be weaned and still had its milk teeth. It yelped and attempted a growl.
The noise roused the boy. He flinched away.
Kendrick yanked her back just as silver in his hand flashed. The object was not a shiv or a switchblade, but a silver-plated table knife.
“Get back,” Fletcher forced out. He held the knife out in front of him warningly as he coughed. The rattle in his chest sounded horrible. “Get back, reavers, back…”
Genevieve pulled against Kendrick’s hold. “Let go; he’s not well. Fletcher, it’s me. Miss Dryden. What happened?”
Kendrick released her and bent over, ridding Fletcher of the knife. “He’s delirious.” She heard the sizzle of the silver against his skin as he slid the knife into his pocket.
The puppy squeaked and flinched away, and that made Fletcher gasp and recoil.
“He’s hurt; I have to help him!” Genevieve pulled back the rags and the boy’s coat to find the gashes on his arms. “Dear God, what happened?”
“He’s human.”
“He’s a child and myfriend!” Genevieve spat. “I am not leaving this boy here.” She moved to lift him.
Kendrick gently pressed her aside to lift the boy himself. “Carry the dog.”
“Dogs don’t like vampires.” She eyed it dubiously.
“He fought for the thing; he will want to see it when he recovers.”
“Will he recover?” she whispered, using some of the ragged blankets to tuck around the boy. She carefully used another to lift the squirming dog.
“We’ll do our best.”
“We?”
“Well, you’re not taking him down to the Ossuary. Besides it being off limits to humans, it is probably the worst place for him. But as it happens, I have a nice, clean house.” He nodded towards the rickety stairs they climbed down. “After you, Miss Dryden.”
ChapterEighteen
“Have any of the bedrooms been cleaned?” Kendrick asked as he came through the door, the injured boy rousing enough to twist in his hold. Genevieve hovered at his elbow, the puppy squirming unhappily in its swaddle, much like the boy.
Joseph looked up from conferring with one of the maids. His brows snapped down. “Only the master.”
“That will do.” Kendrick started for the stairs.
“What’s toward?” Joseph met him at the base of the steps.
“L’go,” the boy muttered, but then he coughed, the low, thick sound of his lungs fighting the sickness in them. “Le’go!”
“It’s all right, Fletcher,” Genevieve said, setting her hand on his head. “I’m here.”
