Thicker Than Blood

by Shalini Boland

  ‘Enough!’ His voice silenced the crowd once again. ‘It is a straightforward case. The girl has pleaded guilty. The sentence is death.’

  Aelia’s blood stopped cold. The air emptied from her lungs and her legs turned soft. There was a ringing in her ears and a feeling like she might float away, a severing from the solid earth beneath her feet. There came a low murmur from the crowd and then a high-pitched wail as a small cloaked figure emerged and threw itself onto the floor in front of the elders.

  ‘Please, please!’ the woman shrieked. ‘Not death. Please!’

  Aelia felt the world snap back into focus.

  ‘Mother?’ she whispered, still rooted to the spot.

  The woman knelt on the ground sobbing. ‘Please, Praetor Garidas, I beg of you! Do not kill my eldest girl. It is not her fault. It was me. I did not raise her properly. Blame me.’

  There were loud mutters from the crowd now.

  ‘What is she doing here?’ the Praetor said. ‘What are you doing here, Madam Laskarina? You should not be here.’

  ‘Where else would I be? This is my daughter. And you have known her from childhood. You cannot do this to her. Have mercy.’

  ‘Mother,’ Aelia croaked and staggered across to the kneeling figure. ‘Mother!’

  Her mother turned and flung her arms around her daughter, pulling her down to where she knelt. Aelia breathed in deeply and allowed herself a stolen second of relief. It felt so good to smell the scent of her mother. To feel such love after the hatred of the crowd, the dispassion of the elders and the betrayal of her lover.

  ‘There is another way,’ her mother said to the elders, shrugging off her recent hysteria. She rose to her feet and stood to face the four displeased men. ‘You remember it. You must remember it. There was a trial when we were children. You know how that ended. You could pass the same sentence today. It is within the law. It is within your power to make it so.’ She pulled Aelia to her feet and held her close.

  Aelia did not dare look up, but buried her face into the soft space between her mother’s shoulder and collar bone.

  The Praetor lifted his hand to silence Aelia’s mother and to still the crowd. He turned to the other elders and they stood in council for a few long moments. Aelia couldn’t think of anything but the word ‘death’.

  The elders soon returned to their places behind the trestle. The crowd became completely silent once more.

  ‘Madam Laskarina, you were given strict instructions not to attend this trial today. You have disobeyed the elders and there will be a punishment.’

  Aelia’s mother did not react.

  ‘However, you have brought to our attention a precedent which we cannot ignore. And we are relieved to have an alternative to the sentence of death.’

  Aelia’s mother prostrated herself on the ground and cried out her thanks. The crowd reacted noisily with booing and jeers, but there were also a few cries of relief above the general displeasure. Aelia stood above her mother’s cloaked body. She wondered how Lysus was reacting to this. Then she told herself she should not care. The Praetor’s voice cut through her thoughts and through the noise of the crowd:

  ‘Aelia Laskarina, you can thank your mother, for we have decided your fate and it is to be banishment. You have been lucky today.’

  Lucky? Mingled in with the terror, and the vague relief of having escaped death, she felt an urge to laugh at his word choice – lucky. She heard him still talking and struggled to concentrate on his words.

  ‘You may not say goodbye to those you know. You may not take anything with you but the clothes on your back. You may not return to this village during the course of your natural life.’

  Banishment. Sent away from everyone and everything she knew. So it may as well have been a death sentence. Her mother rose to her feet and embraced her once more.

  ‘My darling daughter,’ she murmured in her ear. ‘You will survive. You will find a way, I know it.’

  Aelia clung to her mother as they were prised away from each other by rough guards who surrounded them.

  ‘Be strong!’ her mother shouted as she was dragged away out of sight. ‘Be strong, Aelia!’

  Chapter Six

  Present Day

  *

  A strange engine-like hum filled Madison’s ears and she had the odd sensation of weightlessness. The lingering gluey smell made her remember. She snapped her eyes open and her eyelashes brushed against cloth. She’d been blindfolded … no, some kind of hood had been pulled right down over her face. She panicked and suddenly breathing became hard. She tried to move her hands but they were tied and so she struggled against her restraints, crying out.

  ‘Hey!’ her voice sounded hoarse and muffled. ‘Hey! What’s going on?’

  ‘She’s awake.’ It was a bland male voice without an accent.

  ‘Yeah, I think we gathered that,’ came the reply.

  ‘Why am I tied up?’ Maddy shouted. ‘Take this thing off my head.’ She pulled again against her restraints, but couldn’t move at all. Her ankles were also bound together and as she struggled the ties cut into her skin.

  ‘Calm down. You’ll hurt yourself.’

  Maddy’s temper flared, her initial fear momentarily forgotten at the amusement in the man’s voice. ‘I might be a bit calmer if you hadn’t snatched me, tied me up and shoved a bag over my head.’

  ‘I’ll need you to be quiet now,’ the man said.

  ‘You can go …’ But then Maddy felt a wetness seep through the material over her face. There was that cloying smell again blocking everything out. The engine sound grew faint, there was a whooshing noise in her ears and her thoughts went fuzzy and then blank.

  *

  They gathered in the basement where no daylight could harm them. This was no normal basement, but a lavish suite of apartments furnished in the late nineteenth century style. They all sat, except for Alexandre who paced the sitting room as he filled them in on his discoveries. Ben was wild-eyed, exhausted and hysterical.

  ‘Do you think she’s dead?’ he asked Alexandre.

  ‘No I do not. It is not even a possibility so do not think it.’

  ‘You can’t know that, Alex.’ Ben stood up and ran his fingers through his hair. At fourteen, he was no longer the naïve young boy Alexandre had first met a year ago. ‘How can you pretend you know that? She could be lying dead in a ditch somewhere.’

  ‘Don’t ever talk like that again,’ Alexandre replied.

  ‘I’ll talk how I want. It’s my sister out there! And it’s your fault she’s gone missing. It’s because you’re vampires. You attract trouble. You’re not safe to be around.’

  ‘Calm down, Ben,’ Jacques said.

  ‘No, Jacques,’ Alexandre said. ‘Ben is correct. It is our fault Madison is missing. We have put Ben and Maddy’s lives in danger, but we will make it right. We will find her. Tonight, at first dark, we will go and confront Blythe.’

  ‘We can’t go to that place again,’ Leonora said. ‘We’re defenceless against those lights.’

  ‘We won’t go to his offices. We’ll find out where he lives and we will kill him. Madison will be there, I am sure of it. Then I’ll hunt down the other vampires and I will kill them too. We cannot live like this any longer – under threat all the time.’

  ‘Sounds good to me,’ said Freddie.

  ‘You make it sound so simple, Alexandre,’ said Leonora. ‘But you don’t even know if she will be there. This may be nothing to do with Blythe or his vampire clients. Perhaps she … needed some space away from us and has gone off for a few days.’

  At this, everyone began talking at once; telling Leonora what a ridiculous suggestion that was and that Maddy would never go off without telling them.

  ‘Fine, I’m wrong,’ she said. ‘I’m just exploring all the possibilities.’

  ‘I guarantee it is Blythe behind her disappearance,’ Alexandre repeated.

  ‘Well then, we need to find out where he lives,’ Isobel said. ‘And Ben, you need
to sleep.’

  ‘How d’you think I’m ever gonna sleep?’

  ‘Then go upstairs and read or watch television or just lie in bed awake. You need to rest.’

  ‘But I …’

  ‘If you don’t, you’ll be no good to anyone.’

  Alexandre turned his head at a knock on the basement door.

  ‘Only me, love.’ It was Esther, the housekeeper.

  ‘Come in,’ Isobel called out.

  They had no secrets from Esther and Morris Foxton, the caretakers of Marchwood House. That summer, they had discovered that Esther was the great granddaughter of Refet, the Turkish guard who had accompanied Harold Swinton (Leonora and Freddie’s father) back to England in 1881. That was the year Alexandre and the others had become vampires. Esther and Morris had known about the vampires long before Maddy and Ben ever had. It was a secret their family had been entrusted with for over a century.

  But none of them mentioned to her that Madison was missing.

  Esther looked across at Ben.

  ‘You look like you could do with some food and some sleep, young man.’ Then she faced the vampires. ‘It’s not good for him, keeping him up all night like this. He needs a proper night’s sleep. He’s a growing lad. Come upstairs. I’ll make you a nice bowl of soup and you can go and have a lie down.’

  Ben looked as though he might cry.

  ‘And I thought at least you’d know better,’ she said to Isobel. Esther put her arm around Ben and began to lead him out of the room. ‘Oh, nearly forgot. This came for you, Alexandre.’ She handed him a white envelope with his name hand-written on the front.

  ‘It’s been hand-delivered,’ he said. ‘I’ll bet it’s from Blythe.’

  ‘That solicitor?’ Esther said.

  ‘Did you see anyone dropping it off?’

  ‘No, it was on the doormat.’

  Alexandre growled. ‘If only I could get out of here, I’d be able to catch up with whoever delivered it.’ He ripped open the envelope.

  ‘Has something happened?’ Esther asked.

  ‘What does it say?’ Ben walked over to Alex and ripped the paper out of his hand. He began to read:

  If you wish Madison to survive, the five of you must return to Cappadocia to the underground city. You must be there after sunset on the shortest day or she will die.

  ‘What’s happened?’ Esther asked. ‘Is Maddy in trouble?’

  ‘No!’ Ben shouted. He punched the door and then bent his head in pain and brought his fist up to his mouth.

  Alexandre felt anger and terror sweep through his body. Everything was disintegrating. Madison was missing, her life in danger. She might be hurt. She would definitely be scared, even though she would never admit it. And now his family was also going to be put in danger. Why was this happening? Why couldn’t they be left in peace? He didn’t want to harm anybody. All he wanted was to live his life. He felt so caged in right now. He needed to run, to shout, to feed. Alexandre understood why Ben had punched the door. He wanted to destroy the whole house.

  Everyone began talking at once.

  ‘Quiet, everyone! Please.’ Alexandre said. ‘Esther, did either you or Morris hear a car coming up the drive? Are you sure you didn’t see who delivered the letter?’

  ‘No. I didn’t see anything. Like I said, all I saw was the envelope on the doormat.’

  ‘We need to get some security cameras fitted,’ said Jacques.

  ‘Good idea, but a bit late now,’ said Alexandre. ‘So if they didn’t come by car, they must’ve come on foot and it would’ve taken them at least fifteen minutes to walk across the grounds. Esther, maybe you and Morris should drive around and see if you can find who dropped that letter off.’

  ‘Yes,’ she replied. ‘We’d better be quick before they disappear. Ben, you need some ice on that fist.’

  ‘I’ll come with you, Esther,’ Ben said.

  ‘No, I don’t think …’ Esther started to reply.

  ‘Yes,’ Alexandre interrupted. ‘That’s a good idea. Take your mountain bike and scour the grounds. But don’t engage the person. Just follow them, see where they go. Are you alright to ride … with your hand?’

  ‘I’ll be fine,’ Ben replied. ‘I’ll ice it first.’

  ‘Go quickly.’

  Ben returned the note to Alexandre and left with Esther.

  ‘He’s just a boy,’ Leonora said. ‘You should not have sent him.’

  ‘He’s not that much younger than our human ages, Leonora,’ Isobel said.

  Alexandre raised his eyebrows at his usually over-cautious sister.

  ‘What?’ Isobel replied. ‘It’s true. We can’t treat him like a weak child. He’s been through too much with us.’

  ‘Fine,’ replied Leonora.

  ‘But I cannot go back to Cappadocia,’ Isobel said, ‘to that underground place. I just cannot.’

  ‘Don’t worry, Belle. We’ll sort this out before it comes to that.’

  ‘How?’ she replied, her voice becoming shrill.

  ‘I thought Harold and Refet destroyed the entrances to the underground city,’ Freddie said.

  ‘They did, according to Harold’s journal,’ Alexandre replied. ‘But we know Hamilton Blythe found a way down there – they found the Cappadocian vampires didn’t they.’

  ‘So what are we supposed to do now?’ Jacques said. ‘We can’t just sit around like nothing’s happened. This daylight thing sucks.’

  ‘Jacques,’ said Isobel. ‘Must you speak like that? But I do agree with you. It is truly frustrating.’

  ‘We should go online and find Blythe’s house,’ Freddie said. ‘That man needs to be stopped.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Alexandre. ‘Yes he does. And that is just what we shall do.’

  *

  Ben’s fist throbbed as he hopped onto his mountain bike, but he barely registered the pain. Esther had put a small bag of frozen peas inside one of his gloves to try and bring the swelling down. Which way should he go? He should probably head down to the woods. If he was going to sneak into Marchwood, that was where he’d do it. He pushed off and headed across the front lawn to the meadow beyond.

  Maddy. She was all he had. Sure, Freddie and Leonora were his ancestors, so they were technically family. But they weren’t like Maddy. Freddie was awesome, like a cool vampire cousin or something and Leonora was alright, a bit boring, but alright. But Maddy had always been there for him. She’d lay down her life for him and he would do the same for her. She was his sister, his mother and his father all rolled into one, and he wouldn’t let anything happen to her. He pedalled faster, his mind creating unwanted scenarios which he tried to block out. If he could catch this person who’d left that terrible note, then he could get Maddy back. His eyes watered and he brushed a gloved hand across his face. Stupid cold wind.

  Within minutes, Ben had reached the woods. He rode along the perimeter, peering into the leafless gloom. There was no movement aside from the shiver of branches and the occasional startled bird. He turned his bike and entered the woods, weaving expertly through the trees, hopping over tree stumps and constantly scanning for any sign of a person. He wished he had the vampires’ heightened senses. If they were here, they would’ve caught up with the person already. Maybe he should get a dog. A dog would come in very handy right about now.

  Even as Ben searched, he realised it was useless. Whoever had delivered the note was probably long gone and even if they were still in the grounds, there were acres and acres to cover. It was a waste of time. He felt a spurt of anger at the futility of his search and suddenly skidded to a halt, flinging his bike against a tree. It lay twisted on the ground, one wheel spinning in the air. Ben stood there for a moment, breathing hard. Then he sank down onto the frosty ground and wept.

  *

  Winston Blythe’s home address was not so easy to come by. They had been looking online, but so far had come up blank. If only night would fall, so Alexandre could travel to London and track him down the old fashioned way, but t
hese interminable minutes of daylight ticked by at a snail’s pace.

  What had that note said? He reached into his pocket and pulled out the crumpled piece of paper. It said they were to arrive there on the shortest day – that was December 21st. Today was December 15th. That gave them six days to get her back. Well he did not intend to find her in six days, he intended to find her tonight and then those who were responsible would pay. He balled up the note and put it back in his pocket. Where was Ben? Maybe he had found the person who delivered the note or perhaps Esther and Morris had had some luck. It was so infuriating having to wait around for others. He felt a hand on his shoulder.

  ‘Be calm, brother,’ Isobel murmured. ‘We will find her. You know we will.’

  ‘There cannot be any other outcome,’ Alexandre replied.

  ‘Have you had any luck locating Blythe’s address?’

  Alex shook his head.

  ‘Leonora is still looking online. If anyone can find it it’s her. She has a knack for this modern technology.’

  ‘Who would have thought it,’ Freddie said. ‘My sister, the twenty first century techie.’

  ‘Well I haven’t had much luck so far.’ Leonora lifted her head up from her laptop and Alexandre thought for the hundredth time how uncanny the resemblance between her and Madison. The same fair skin, only Maddy had freckles; the same pale blue eyes, only Maddy’s sparkled with humour whereas Leonora’s glittered with … disdain. She hadn’t always been so cold. He felt sorry for her. She was a good person, but she wasn’t easy to like.

  ‘There’s nothing on Blythe that I can see,’ she said. ‘Sorry.’

  ‘Then keep looking,’ Alexandre said.