Department 19: Zero Hour Read Online Free PDF

of time,” said Seward, his body shaking with impotent fury. “You cannot see the hypocrisy in everything you say and do, the vanity and the arrogance, so what the hell would be the point?”
    Dracula’s smile widened. “Perhaps you would prefer a bottle of warm milk to another glass of wine?”
    Seward felt his face flood with reckless, furious heat. “I would prefer—”
    His preference, which was about to include an extraordinarily graphic description of a coupling between Dracula’s mother and a herd of wild horses, was cut off by a heavy knock on the dining-room door, an intervention that was probably for the best, at least as far as Seward’s remaining well-being was concerned.
    “Enter,” said Dracula, setting his wine glass on the table and turning to the door with a look of profound disinterest on his narrow face. The door swung open and the large, instantly identifiable shape of Valeri Rusmanov stepped through it. The old vampire’s eyes were glowing with faint crimson, and his face, as craggy and unforgiving as a mountainside, was set in a tight expression of displeasure.
    “My lord,” he said, glancing briefly in Seward’s direction. “I am sorry to disturb you.”
    “And yet you have done so,” said Dracula. “So be quick about the reason.”
    Valeri’s eyes narrowed a fraction. Seward didn’t think Dracula saw; the first vampire’s treatment of his oldest ally was so casually dismissive that the Blacklight Director didn’t really believe that he thought of him as an actual person, in possession of a mind of his own. But Seward saw it; he saw it very clearly.
    “It is Mellor,” said Valeri. “The vampire who came to us from California. You have seen him, my lord, he is tall, strongly built, with blond—”
    “Must I listen to you describe him like some breathless teenager?” asked Dracula. “Tell me what this man has done.”
    “He took a boy from a village at the edge of the forest, my lord. Less than ten miles from here. The population of the village is barely a hundred, so the boy’s disappearance has caused uproar.”
    Dracula looked down the table and rolled his eyes in a gesture of disarming familiarity.
    Like we’re two old friends listening to how one of our kids screwed up,
thought Seward.
    “What has been done?” asked Dracula.
    “I have taken care of it, my lord,” said Valeri. “I arranged the boy’s body in the forest and made it appear as though he was killed by a boar. The villagers are out searching as I speak, and will doubtless find him shortly.”
    “You still have not provided a compelling reason for disturbing my dinner, Valeri,” said Dracula. “I suggest you do so quickly.”
    There was a pause, also noted by Seward, and, when Valeri replied, his voice contained the faintest of tremors, as though he was working hard to keep his temper. “I wanted to know what you would have me do with Mellor, my lord. He knowingly broke one of the rules you set in place.”
    Dracula rolled his eyes again and reached for his wine. “Impale him,” he said. “Place him on a pole in the courtyard as a warning to the others. It disappoints me that I should have to give you such obvious instruction, Valeri. Are you of any actual use to me, or do I keep you here for nothing more than nostalgia?”
    Valeri didn’t respond. Dracula took a long sip of his wine, then regarded his servant with narrowing eyes.
    “Is there anything else?” he asked, his tone making it clear that it would be best for Valeri if there wasn’t.
    “No, my lord,” replied the eldest Rusmanov, and turned towards the door, his face as impassive as ever.
    “Valeri?” said Seward, politely, and felt adrenaline shudder through him as the old vampire turned to face him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Dracula set his glass down and lean back in his chair, an expression of curiosity on his face.
    “You have something to say to me?” asked Valeri, his voice low and full of menace.
    “I do,”