Connery nodded, a thoughtful expression on his face.
“You know where we’re heading?” I suggested, trying to read his features.
“Maybe,” he said, cryptically.
“Well, don’t keep it to yourself.”
“Well,” Connery paused, “I can’t be certain, and don’t let it influence you, but it seems like we’re heading for Wales. Maybe North Wales.”
“And that is suggestive?”
“Back in olden times,” Connery explained, “British vampires had a sort of heartland in amongst the mountains of North Wales.”
“How olden times?”
“Thousands of years.”
“Older even than Jack.”
Connery nodded. “I would guess. But I’m sure he knows about it; it’s a powerful place. The sort of place where maybe a vampire could hide himself, even from someone like the King of Nightmares.” He shrugged. “It’s just a hunch. Do you want to play a driving game?”
I wasn’t a big fan of driving games so we sang along to Connery’s CD collection instead.
“No iPod?” I asked.
“Vampires are always behind the technology curve. I’m still amazed by the wonders of vinyl.”
Against the odds, Connery and I had similar taste in music, and for the next hour the interior of the car resounded to the noise of rock classics, sung by a couple who could barely hold a tune between them. It was awesome. We sang like maniacs and laughed ourselves silly as we failed to hit the high notes. We waved at other drivers when they stared in at us as if there had to be something wrong with us both. I played the dashboard like a drum kit and Connery broke out a wavery falsetto for the high notes in Bohemian Rhapsody.
As afternoon wore into early evening, Connery suggested I look up someplace to stay on my phone.
“It’s not late yet,” I pointed out. “We could still make it before sundown. Come to think of it, there’s no reason for us not to keep driving through the night. You are a vampire if I remember rightly.”
But Connery shook his head. There was a reason that we had left during the day; because we didn’t want Jack to see us coming, and that still applied.
“Let’s find a place to spend the night and then go on in the morning,” Connery said. “Hopefully, we can catch the bastard when he’s still in bed.”
I had a hunch that time of day would make little difference when trying to sneak up on Jack, but anything that gave us an advantage was good. It raised a question that had probably been on both of our minds but which neither of us voiced until we were settling down to sleep in a ratty little room in a hotel at a service station.
“Do you think he’ll be expecting us?” asked Connery.
We had gotten into our room, showered, enjoyed a meal in the restaurant, returned to our room and were undressing for bed when he spoke.
I shook my head. “I wish I knew. He must know that I’m able to find him.”
Connery nodded. “Unless he doesn’t think you’re smart enough to figure out how to use this ‘thing’ in your head.”
“I guess. But I struggle to hide how smart I am. I’m sure he would have noticed.”
“So he knows you’re able to find him. The question is; does he think you’d try?”
I had absolutely zero wish to see Jack again in my life. He had captured me, held me against my will, drank my blood and terrified me. It was possible that he had done it all with the best of intentions, but that had made it no less harrowing for me. On the other hand, he had seen me with the resistance in the catacombs and so knew that I was working with them. He could safely assume that they wanted the 1st King dead and that I had told them about my dreams, so he might guess that I was coming for him.
Then again, the last time he had seen me, he had left me to the King of Nightmares. Did he even know I was alive?
“I just don’t know enough about what vampires of that age are capable of,” I admitted. “The vampires I usually deal with aren’t really at that level.”
Connery smiled ruefully. “Same here.”
“Well, you’re getting there,” I pointed out. “Only a few hundred years to go.”
“Seven or eight, you mean?”
I grinned at him as I got into bed. “Do you ever think about it?”
“About getting that old?”
“Yeah.” I had never known a vampire well enough to ask the question before. As humans got older, all they really had to look forward to was incontinence, death and senility; for vampires, the possibilities were almost limitless.
Connery shook his head as he slid beneath the sheets beside me. “You try not to. I mean, when you hear about the older ones turning into bats then it’s hard not to think; how cool would that be? I can’t wait to do that! But it doesn’t do to get ahead of yourself. How vampires age depends on the quality of blood they drink, and no one knows yet if A1! or any of the other blood substitutes on the market can give us those sorts of powers. We may have seen the last of the super-powerful vampires.”
I nodded, thoughtfully. “I’d be okay with that.”
“Right now, so would I. They all seem to be a bunch of dicks.”
I laughed and kissed him. “I can’t imagine you turning into a dick.”
He met my adoring gaze with a curious look on his face. “Do you ever think about it yourself?”
“About you turning into a dick? Sometimes. Like, when you leave the toilet seat up.”
“About being a vampire.”
Maybe today was the day for big discussions. Our life as a couple thus far had been dominated by circumstances; survival first, relationship second. But now we were far from London, from the resistance and from the Court of Clubs, far from all those worries, and it gave us the chance to worry about things between us. Because things between us were pretty great; I didn’t want to lose Connery and he didn’t want to lose me. But he was a vampire and I was a human. If nothing else could tear us apart, then time might yet.
“No,” I admitted.
Connery nodded with sadness in his eyes. “Would you ever think of it?”
I sighed. “I’ve spent a lifetime hating your species. Ever since my parents were killed. I know that they would be happy for me to be turned, but – even with everything that’s changed in the last few months – I’m just not sure I’m there yet. I can’t say for sure if I’ll ever be there. I’ve met some nice vampires – present company included – and some total bastards who treat humans like shit. I guess I worry that it’ll change who I am.”
Connery nodded. “It depends on who turns you and the circumstances. If you’re turned by someone who loves you, because he loves you, then you’ll be the same Ursula you’ve always been – only forever.”
I squeezed his hand under the sheets. “How about we save the country first, and if we both live through that, then we talk again.”
Connery gave a comic eye roll. “It’s always something with you; killing serial killers, getting kidnapped, saving the country. This is what I get for falling hopelessly in love with a career woman.”
I laughed and kissed him again and he stared into my eyes a long time.
“You know that it wouldn’t matter, right?”
“What do you mean?”
“Vampire or human, however old you get, I’d still be there.”
“I know.”
I wished that the conversation could have ended there, but as we lay there in each other’s arms, Connery couldn’t help asking, “Can you still feel him now?”
I gave an exasperated sigh. I knew why he was asking now; because it felt to him like this sweet and intimate moment between us was being intruded upon by another vampire, but it was still starting to wind me up.
“Okay, I’m saying this once and I need you to hear me.”
“Ursula, you don’t understand…”
But I wasn’t in the mood to listen. “Nothing happened.”
“I know that. That’s not why I’m…”
“Not finished
. He was my jailer. Not only did nothing happen, but I didn’t want anything to happen and I still don’t want anything to happen. It’s not my fault that he did this to me. And, by the way, jealousy isn’t sexy.”
Connery tried to protest that I had misunderstood his concerns, but I cut off any further discussion by rolling over and turning out my bedside light.
Perhaps I should have heard him out first.
Chapter 7
The following morning we set out again, our map no more than that strange tug from within me, a tug that was getting stronger with every passing moment as we drew closer to our quarry. It was becoming clearer and clearer that Connery had been right in his guess about our destination. Our path left the A-roads behind, winding out into the long empty roads that wove a winding route up and between the mountains of North Wales, that seemed to become craggier and more foreboding in their aspect with each mile that passed beneath our wheels.
It was easy to see why this had been a vampire stronghold in times gone by. I tried to put myself in the shoes of an ancient Briton walking this way two thousand years ago, with no more protection than my spear. To my left and right were rocky cliffs, scattered with dark cave mouths. I could not know what eyes watched me or what creatures lay in wait. Then, perhaps, I would meet some other traveler who might offer to walk with me – these were dangerous tracks, after all. I would not know that something was wrong until I saw the glint of the moonlight on his fangs. It was an ideal place to lay an ambush for the unwary traveler, and an ideal place to flee to and in which to hide when the local villagers came with stakes and burning torches looking for vengeance.
“Look there.” Connery pointed out of the tinted car window.
I peered. “What am I looking at?”
“Carved onto the rock.”
The carving was crude and simple, it had been worn by the weather and partly obscured in lichen, but it was still unmistakable as a stylized bat.
“Old vampire sign,” said Connery.
He was forced to remain in the car as it was morning now and the sun was already high in the sky, but I got out to have a closer look. The carving must have stricken fear into the hearts of my ancestors, but as I ran my fingers across it, I couldn’t suppress that thrill you always get from direct contact with the ancient past. A vampire had carved this into the rock centuries ago – millennia, even – and I was here now touching it. That was pretty amazing.
And it was not the only one. As we drove further into the heart of the mountains, we saw more, some small and scratched out so only Connery’s sharp eyes could spot them, others deeply carved across a cliff face, marking a boundary or issuing a warning. They were so old that they were almost as alien to Connery as they were to me. He himself was centuries old and yet these markings predated him by a few thousand years.
The landscape got wilder as we drove on. We saw no one, the road got rougher – pitted and pot-holed – the trees seemed to shrink to windswept shrubs, clawing for footing in the thin soil. The grass now seemed more grey than green and was cut through by ragged claws of rock protruding from the ground.
“Friendly place,” commented Connery.
“Hey, it’s your ancestors that used to live up here, not mine.”
We hadn’t spoken about last night. That was good. We couldn’t afford to be wasting energy on stuff like that when we had an important job to do. Still, I found it hard not to think about it and I guessed that Connery was doing the same. We loved each other – that was never in doubt – but so much had happened and was continuing to happen. I couldn’t think about it now; I just couldn’t.
Although we were not traveling as far today as we had yesterday, the steep gradient meant that the going was slower. We were also proceeding more cautiously. Had Jack chosen this hiding place for the same reason as those ancient vampires? Was he laying an ambush? I was pretty sure that I would know if he was nearby, but might Bathsheba or some other vampire follower of his be watching us from a cave, high in one of these rock faces?
We stopped for lunch; sandwiches for me and A1! for Connery.
“You know, it is actually very beautiful,” I said. “I’ve never been to Wales before.”
“No?”
I shrugged. “Not a big traveler.”
“We could come back here when it’s all over.”
It made us both feel better to make plans for ‘when it was all over’, as if by making such plans we increased the chances of it all ending happily.
“We could just stay out here,” Connery smiled wistfully, “pick a cave and we’ll move in and never think about Lundercity or the King of Nightmares again.”
I rested my head against the comforting strength of his shoulder. “Wouldn’t it be brilliant if we were the sort of people who could do that?”
Connery gave a humorless laugh. “Except that, if I was the sort of person who could abandon his friends then you wouldn’t like me.”
“And vice versa,” I agreed. “Nice dream, though.”
“A nice dream.” He sighed. “It’s tough being such fucking heroes all the time.”
“That’s us. The saviors of Lundercity.”
“They’ll probably build statues to us.”
We drove on.
About an hour later, I gasped in shock and Connery pulled up. “What is it?”
“We’re getting near.”
“Does it hurt?” Connery was genuinely worried for me.
“No, it…” As ever, it was frustratingly difficult to describe. Once again, I focused my mind and tried to find that thing inside myself that enabled me to control this sensation that had suddenly become sharper. Time to turn the volume down again.
I sighed in relief.
“Better?” asked Connery.
“Better.” I nodded. “You know that feeling when you know you’re supposed to be doing something and you can’t remember what it is but you know you are supposed to be doing it?”
“I guess.”
“Sort of like that but turned up to eleven.”
“Weird.” Connery looked out through the car windows. “I reckon there’s another hour or so of daylight. How about we back the car off a bit then walk back up here when night falls? That ought to give us the best chance of sneaking up on him.”
I nodded. “I’m starting to think that he doesn’t know we’re coming.”
“How come?” asked Connery as he did a U-turn and took us back the way we came.
“Because he’s still not reaching out at me.”
Connery nodded. “Well, on the bright side, if he doesn’t know we’re coming then we aren’t walking into an ambush.”
“And on the dark side?”
“Is Bronx Jack really the sort of person you want to creep up on?”
We chatted as we waited for the sun to go down and it felt like old times between us. The arguments and awkwardness of the last few days weren’t going anywhere, but I guess any relationship has to go through the occasional rocky patch, what matters is that you’re able to get through those patches together.
As the mountains cut out the last of the sunlight, we got out of the car and made our way back up.
“If we leave the road can you still find him?” asked Connery.
“I could find him with a blindfold on.” I’d turned the volume back up a bit and Jack’s ‘signal’ was coming in loud and clear. I could feel his presence up ahead of us. What I couldn’t tell was if he was on his own.
As we got closer, Connery took the lead, following my directions. Moving like a trained soldier, he darted from rock to rock, keeping in cover, the darker shadows of the cliffs consuming his form. He might not be a vampire who hunted anymore, but he still had the DNA of a hunter, and he moved like a wolf stalking its prey; stealthy and deadly, but also powerful and graceful. There was a strong animal side to Connery’s nature, but in the best possible way, and it was another thing that instantly turned me on about the man.
As I laid my hand against the rock, b
ehind which we were hiding, I felt the tell-tale grooves of a vampire carving. Peering through the gloom, I realized that the cliffs here were thick with them, far more so than the country through which we had already traveled. Was that why Jack had come here? This had been a vampire stronghold long ago, perhaps some ancestral memory drew him here. Or perhaps it was for a more practical purpose than that; perhaps this was still a safe, defensible place for a vampire on the run, as Jack seemed to be.
The sensation inside me seemed to grow by the moment and I opened my mouth to say that we had to be very close now. But before the words had a chance to get out, I heard a rush of air, and a split second later I hit the ground as if I’d been struck by a car.
By the moonlight, I caught a flash of fangs and burning eyes as Bathsheba lunged down for my throat.
Before she could strike, she was yanked off of me and flung back towards the cliff, gracefully somersaulting in mid-air to land on all fours, poised like a big cat, ready to pounce. Connery put himself between me and her, protecting me, squaring up to the fierce female vampire. Theoretically, it should have been a pretty one-sided fight. A vampire’s strength is a factor of their age and how much they work out. Connery was significantly older than Bathsheba and was at the peak of physical fitness. Even if he’d been a human, you’d have put money on Connery in a fight. Bathsheba clearly stayed fit, but she couldn’t compete with Connery.
And yet, she did. Connery and I had both seen Bathsheba in action before and she belied the basic rules. Presumably, it was because of her connection to Jack. I knew that she drank his blood – I had seen it myself. Vampire blood had no nutritional value to other vampires, but perhaps the blood of the older ones had some worth beyond that? By whatever means, it appeared that Jack gave Bathsheba strength.
Or perhaps she was just a hard bitch.
To my human eyes, Bathsheba was little more than a dark blur when she sprang at Connery, but he was clearly alert enough to see the spring and met her in mid-air. The pair grappled on the ground like wild cats and then leapt apart. Again, Bathsheba made the first move, ever the aggressor, driven by that anger that seemed to fuel everything she did. Connery blocked the punches she threw, but caught her foot in his chest, knocking him back against the cliff. He ducked and rolled, bouncing back up onto his feet with lightning speed, ready to meet the next attack.
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