I turned on my phone’s flashlight and headed up, Vlad right behind me. I shined the beam on the wall. “See that clean line?” Knowing I had leaned against that filthy wall made my stomach flip. “That was my shoulder. And that lighter line above was my head.” I wasn’t sure how many showers it would take to feel clean again.
“You’re talking to the wrong person if you’re looking for sympathy. Have you any idea the kind of disgusting conditions I’ve had to stay in during daylight hours over the centuries? And unlike others of my kind who are at least insensate, I was wide awake for it.”
“You win,” I said, coming to the top of the stairs. I shined the light left and right. A hall opened up to the right with a large common area directly in front of us, mirroring the reception space below. There were doors to what might have been offices across from us and then another hall on the far left.
Pointing to the left hall, I said, “The prince’s room is at the end of that one.”
Vlad gestured to a pool of blood and bile on the broken tiles. “Yours, I assume.”
“Unless someone else got their ass kicked up here recently, I’ll say yes.” I started down the hall and felt the sticky evil again. Still. I’d hoped the axe would have killed off the remains of the prince. “Do you feel that?”
“I feel something uncomfortable, something setting off an itch between my shoulder blades. Might that be what you’re referring to?” he asked.
“Probably. For me, it feels like a sticky sludge of evil, coating my skin.” I shined my light down to the end of the hall, wondering if the tall wooden doors were only in my dreams.
Two eyes shined back at me.
Yelping, I almost dropped the phone.
Vlad steadied me. “It’s Léna.”
“I guess that means we’re in the right place,” I said, wishing for nothing more than to be downstairs, safe in bed with Clive.
Vlad gave a grunt of assent and we continued on. When we got to the end, we paused in front of the tall wooden double doors. Vlad and I looked at each other and he pushed one open.
Shining the light around, I saw the room was all wrong. It wasn’t a room in the prince’s palace anymore. It was an office—or had been anyway. There was a desk to the right, with two chairs in front of it. Mold grew on the wall behind the desk like a giant Rorschach test. Dust and grime covered every surface.
A wall of floor-to-ceiling bookshelves cut the room in half. The few books remaining had been torn and chewed. Nests of paper filled the corners of the room. Huge webs hung like fog, making it hard to see details.
Vlad took it all in. “I see no fireplace.”
I pointed straight back. “Behind those shelves. This is only about half the size of the prince’s room. There’s more back there.”
Vlad looked between me and the shelves. “Are we thinking that’s where he’s been hiding?”
I took an involuntary step back. “I wasn’t until now,” I whisper-shouted.
We moved slowly into the room and then Vlad had me stand to the side while he went to the center bookshelf. He punched a hole in it, put his hand through the hole, and ripped it down.
There was no wall behind it. The other half of the room was open. The smell, though, hit like a sulfurous punch.
“Demon?” I whispered.
Vlad looked back at me, his brow furrowed, and shook his head. “Thermal spring.”
“Oh.” Right. I forgot. There were hundreds of thermal springs below Budapest. Why was the smell so strong here, though?
The prince’s side was empty of furniture. My running shoes scraped over centuries of accumulated dirt, droppings, and other things I didn’t want to think about. Moving closer to the fireplace, I tripped on something. Vlad was there, his hand on my arm to steady me.
Sweeping my flashlight over the floor, I realized I was standing on a board. I stepped off and crouched down. Why was there a half-inch-thick board in front of the fireplace?
Vlad ran his hands along the mantel and then tested stones inside the fireplace. “Sometimes loose stones cover hidden pockets for secreting treasures. I’m not finding anything, though.” He stood and brushed off his hands. “Why did Léna show us this?”
“Can you move a second?” I asked. “I want to see what’s under here.”
He stepped off the board and lifted it before I could. We were hit with an even stronger wave of sulfur and rotting fish.
I slapped my hand over my nose and mouth. “Why?”
