The Heartless City (31 page)

“Iris, we can’t fight him,” he groaned. “You have to save yourself.”

She bent down beside him and seized the sides of his face with both her hands, filling his veins with tenacity and courage.

“We’re not giving up!”

A howl split the air as Andrew rose and stretched out his massive arms, and Elliot closed his eyes and bit his cheek.

He’d fully transformed.

“Use it,” Iris cried, dragging Elliot back to his feet. “Use his feelings to make yourself stronger. We can do this!”

Elliot sucked in a breath and clutched the bars to steady himself. That night in the snow, before Iris saved him, he had used the Hyde’s hunger to run as fast as the creature. Maybe, with his empathy and Iris’s adrenaline, they really could survive long enough for Andrew to change back. He looked at her and nodded, but then Andrew turned around, and his raging desire peaked as he charged toward the cell.

He rammed into the bars with the weight of a wrecking ball, and Iris and Elliot stumbled back, but righted themselves in time. The door opened only an inch before they shoved it back, gripping the bars and straining to keep it closed with all their might. Andrew gnashed his dagger-like teeth and launched himself at the door again, but Iris closed her eyes and flooded her system with adrenaline, and Elliot harnessed Andrew’s wild drive and stood his ground. It worked for a while, but eventually the attacks became too much.

“Iris,” Elliot cried, “I can’t hold it for much longer!”

She looked around, her brow sprouting with sweat. “I have an idea. We’ll release the door―”

“What?”

“Just hear me out! We’ll release the door, and I’ll run out and get him to follow me. You can gather your strength while he chases me around, and then I’ll run back, and we’ll hold him off with the door again. It will work.”

“But what if he catches you?”

“It’s the best chance that we’ve got. I can regenerate my strength, so it has to be me that goes.” She paused and nodded toward her hand, which still held the gleaming scalpel. “If I have to, I can wound him―that will give me some time to escape. As long as he doesn’t actually get my heart, I’ll be able to heal.”

Elliot shook his head. It was madness, but what other choice did they have?

“All right,” he said. “On three, we let go and you run out.”

She closed her eyes and took a breath. “One… two… three!”

They released the door, and it swung back and pinned Elliot to the wall. Iris dashed out, swiping Andrew to make sure he saw her and followed. He turned around and bounded after her like a rabid dog.

Elliot peeled himself off the wall and watched as Iris ran. Andrew crawled on top of the table and launched himself after her, but his strength was so great he flew too high and crashed against the ceiling, destroying an entire row of buzzing, electric lights. The room dimmed and shattered glass rained down onto the floor, but Iris continued running, shielding her head and face with her arms. She tore up the stairs and then down again with Andrew trailing behind her, and then she turned and headed back for the safety of the cell. Elliot sucked in a breath and readied himself to hold the door again, but just as Iris reached the pile of glass, Andrew caught her.

She tumbled forward, face-first into the broken glass, and when she rolled over, her palms, neck, and face were gushing blood. Andrew crawled on top of her, but she wiped her eyes, raised the scalpel, and slashed at his face and neck. The blade made contact, and even more blood erupted from Andrew’s throat, but after a gurgling howl, he recovered and lunged at her chest. She stabbed and sliced again, reopening the healing wound, but he pinned her down before she had the chance to evade his grasp. He bared his razor sharp teeth, and the scalpel slipped from her hand. All she could do was raise her bloody palms to his bleeding throat, squeezing as hard as she could, pressing his face away from her chest. Elliot flew from the cell, thinking of nothing but getting between them, but then Andrew jerked back, fell to the ground…

And changed back to himself.

When Elliot watched Will change from a Hyde to himself in the bakery, the transformation had been uneven, gradual, and slow, but Andrew’s change was clean, complete, and instantaneous. It was almost as if he wasn’t shifting from one state to another, but merely waking up from a nightmare that had ended. Iris sat up, staring and feeling equally mystified, and when Andrew rose from the ground and looked at them, the puzzlement swelled.

“Are―are you two all right?” he asked.

Elliot nodded, crossed to Iris, and helped her to her feet.

“Yes,” she said, healing her wounds as she spoke. “But what just happened? I’ve never seen a Hyde change in the middle of a kill―especially not so quickly and completely.”

“Neither have I,” Elliot said. “Andrew, how are you feeling?”

“I…” he began, blinking and shaking his head, searching for words. “I feel
different
now. That burn I’d felt inside ever since the Lord Mayor infected me…” He raised his head and looked at them, barely breathing. “It’s… it’s gone.”

“Gone?” Elliot echoed. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m certain.”

“And it hasn’t gone away since you first swallowed the tablet?”

“No.”

Elliot looked at Iris, at the blood on her now-healed hands. “My God,” he murmured. “Iris, your blood came in contact with Andrew’s wound. You―I mean―your blood… Iris, it could be―”

“The cure.”

The words seemed to escape her lips almost unconsciously. The three of them stood in silence, until a gunshot tore through the air. They all jumped and jerked their heads to the stairs, where the shot had sounded. The basement door was swinging open, its iron lock destroyed. Elliot raced up the steps with Iris and Andrew close behind. Once they reached the top, they saw a figure sprawled out on the floor, and when it sat up and shook its head, they gasped.

It was Philomena.

She blinked and glanced at the smoking shotgun lying by her side.

“Albert wasn’t kidding,” she said. “These things have a hell of kick.”

“Philomena!” Elliot cried. “When did you―how did you manage―?”

“Please. One question at a time.” She raised an arm and an eyebrow. “Care to help a lady up?”

Elliot parted his lips and then stepped forward to take her hand, and when their skin met, the surge of her proud relief relaxed his heart.

“When my mother barged into my room this morning,” she said as he helped her to stand, “it was to inform me that my marriage had been arranged. I knew I couldn’t wait any longer; I had to run away. With Jennie’s help, I drugged her tea with a massive amount of laudanum. She fell asleep in my room, and Albert and I made our escape. I’d planned to steal my father’s pistol, but all I could find was this.” She crouched down and, with some effort, picked up the shotgun. “I found Milo before I left, and he told me where you and Cambrian were, so Albert and I took a carriage and drove here as quickly as we could. I followed the sounds of crashing and screaming down here, to the basement door. When I couldn’t unlock it, I took the gun and―well, you know the rest.”

“Philomena,” Elliot breathed, “You truly are a marvel.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.” She grinned. “Now what the hell is going on? Why are you covered in blood?”

She gestured at Andrew and Iris, who glanced at their clothes as if they’d forgotten.

“We’ll explain in a moment,” Iris said. “Where is Albert?”

Philomena glanced at the floor, guilt pricking her chest. “I was worried about you,” she said to Iris. “I didn’t know what else to do, so after he dropped me off here, I sent him to look for you. I told him to go to that secret address you gave me when you first moved in.”

“That’s all right,” Iris said, raising her hands. “I understand. And actually, I think the four of us should go there now.”

Elliot knit his brow. “Go where?”

Iris set her jaw before turning to face him. “To see my mother.”

Disbelief flooded the room as they all turned to stare at her.

“I thought you said your mother was dead,” Andrew finally murmured.

“I lied,” she said. “My mother faked her death to escape the Lord Mayor.” She paused and took another breath. “Her name is Virginia Carroll.”

o, what’s your real name then?”

Philomena was the first to speak once the four of them were safely inside the hansom cab. She’d come to Mansion House in a carriage, but Albert had taken the horse with him to Iris’s address. The distance was too far to walk, and Iris and Andrew could hardly stroll down the street in their bloody clothes, so Elliot had gone and found a hansom cab to take them. Thankfully, besides the shotgun, Philomena had also stolen quite a bit of money, and a generous tip had persuaded the driver not to ask any questions.

Once Elliot returned with the cab, the other three snuck past the guards, ran out, and joined him inside. The driver took off, and the four of them sat in silence, catching their breath. Once the danger had passed, Philomena asked her question. Iris, who was seated next to her and across from the boys, glanced at Elliot with a twinge of guilt before she answered.

“My name really is Iris Faye, it’s just… Iris Faye Carroll.”

“And your mother was that female doctor who worked with Lady Cullum? The one who studied with Dr. Jekyll and died―well, I suppose
allegedly
died―in a lab explosion?”

“Yes. The Lord Mayor killed Lady Cullum when she discovered he was making the drug and infecting people, but not before she had the chance to tell my mother the truth.”

Elliot glanced at Philomena to see how she took the news about the Lord Mayor infecting the public, but her lack of a reaction―and the fact that she hadn’t asked any more questions about the blood―told him that Iris and Andrew had filled her in while he’d gotten the cab.

“My mother knew the Lord Mayor would be coming for her next,” Iris continued. “So she blew up the lab, made it look like she’d died, took me, and went into hiding.” She turned to look at Elliot. “I’m so sorry I lied to you.”

Elliot reached over, took her hand, and shared his feelings with her, and she closed her eyes and let out a breath when she felt his understanding. “You were protecting your mother,” he said. “We’d all have done the same thing.”

Iris smiled and opened her eyes again, and he released her hand.

“What I don’t understand,” he continued, “is why she hid your existence. Sometimes, after she and Lady Cullum would come for tea, my mother would say how sad it was that Virginia had no family.”

Iris sighed. “She said it was for my protection because of my abilities. And since she wasn’t married… well, no one would have respected her as a doctor or a woman if they’d known she had a child.”

“But why are we going to see her now?” Andrew asked. “We need to find Cambrian.”

Elliot shook his head. “Andrew, we can’t. He’s at the palace.”

“But he needs to know―”

“Have you lost your mind?” Philomena said. “There isn’t a place that’s less safe for us to go right now.”

Andrew sat back, let out a breath, and then turned back to Iris. “Are you sure your mother will even be there?”

“It’s Sunday. That’s her day off.” She glanced at her lap and wrung her hands, her anxiety thickening. “We have to go there. She’s the only one with answers to our questions, and this time, she won’t be able to refuse an explanation. Not when she finds out that I… that my blood might be…” She trailed off, as if saying the words out loud might somehow jinx them.