by Amy Cross
“Any friend of Hugo Bane is a friend of mine,” he replied. “Hugo and I go back a long way.”
“And you know what he and Matthias are, don't you?” I asked, turning to him.
“I know that they're specimens of an exceptional species,” he told me. “I am a doctor of medicine by trade, but in my spare time I exhaustively research the myths and legends of the ancient creatures. I can't publish my work, of course, because no-one would ever take me seriously, but I have prepared pamphlets and books on some of the key figures of vampire and werewolf culture. At the same time, I know to keep my head down. One would not like to attract any unwelcome attention, would one?”
“You're really fascinated by them, huh?”
“I've spent my whole life searching for information about these creatures,” he replied. “I only wish I had the resources to present my work to the world. To prove that I'm not just some idiotic old crank. If I had more money, I'd be able to make the world listen to me. I'd most likely win the Nobel and every other prize going. As it is, I'm regarded as little more than an eccentric idiot.”
“I'm sure no-one thinks that,” I replied, as I looked over at the far side of the room and saw that a second bed had been placed close to the window. “Is that for Judith?”
“Hugo and his lady friend have chosen to sleep in one room together,” Doctor Russell said cautiously. “I would usually be against such an arrangement, but in this instance I am in no position to argue. I'm not sure whether Matthias will want a bed at all, but I suppose I should at least provide one. So long as you don't mind sharing a room with him?”
“That's fine,” I replied, before turning to him. “Just one question. How do vampires sleep? Like, real vampires? In coffins? Upside down? Do they turn into bats?”
***
“This is the most uncomfortable contraption I have ever had to endure,” Matthias snarled as he turned once again on the bed, causing it to creak beneath his weight. “And I've been literally tortured! In an actual dungeon!”
“So have I,” I reminded him, staring up at the dark ceiling. “Matthias, I meant what I said a moment ago, if you need to sleep then I don't mind you coming over onto this double bed with me.” I waited, but all I heard was the continued creaking of the other bed as he tried in vain to get into position. “You're never going to get to sleep like that.”
“I should have had some wine!”
“You need wine to sleep?”
“It helps.”
“Are you an alcoholic vampire?”
“Curse this thing!” he snapped, finally sitting up in the darkened room.
“Was that an actual curse, or just a figure of speech?” I asked. “Because these days, with you guys, it's hard to really know.”
“I can't sleep anyway,” he said, getting to his feet. As he did so, he let out a faint gasp, as if he was in pain.
“Are you okay?” I asked, sitting up. “Are you hurt?”
“I'm fine,” he muttered, heading to the window and looking out at war-time London.
I waited, but he seemed lost in thought. Ever since our arrival in the city, he'd seemed increasingly troubled by something, and I was starting to understand what was wrong. Maybe.
“Are you regretting your decision?” I asked.
He turned to me.
“You could have kept going,” I pointed out. “You could have headed off to places where you'd never have been found. From what Hugo's told me, it sounds as if there are other worlds out there where you could live a long life and never be disturbed. Instead, you hunkered down in a monastery in France and sat there brooding.”
“I was not brooding!”
“You literally told me that was what you were doing!”
He muttered something under his breath.
Climbing off the bed, I went over to join him. I didn't know exactly what to say, but I knew I wanted to think of something that would help. I wanted to help calm his troubled mind.
“You can still go,” I said finally.
I saw a flicker of doubt on his face.
“I mean it,” I continued. “You've come this far, but you're under no obligation to help with anything else. I know why Hugo's helping me. He's obsessed by the puzzle aspect of it all, and actually getting me home is really just a by-product of that. But you -”
“I thought this was what you wanted,” he replied, interrupting me.
“Only if you mean it,” I told him. “I don't want to drag you along on a wild goose chase.”
“Humans are confusing,” he murmured, “and you, Chloe Carter, are more confusing than most.” He paused. “In truth, I don't know why I'm here. All my decisions before this have been logical, they've made sense. I've been able to explain them. This time, it's something different. I can't explain what I'm doing, I only know that I tried to walk away so many times, and that on every occasion it felt... wrong, somehow. For the first time in my life, I'm not certain about what I want.”
“Well,” I replied, “I'm sorry if this complication is my fault.”
“It is,” he said, glancing at me, “and the apology is... noted.”
He hesitated.
“There's something you should know, Chloe,” he added finally, with a hint of reluctance in his voice. “I haven't told anyone, not even Hugo, but I've got to stop ignoring the truth. I've realized something about myself. I...”
He seemed unable to get the words out.
“What is it?” I asked, reaching out and touching his hand.
“As hard as this is for me to accept,” he continued, “and as terrifying as the prospect seems, I think I -”
“Who's that?” I asked suddenly, as I saw a figure standing outside in the street, seemingly watching the building. I told myself that the figure must just be some passerby, but something about him kept my attention and, after a moment, I realized that Matthias was now watching him as well.
“Who do you think that is?” I asked.
“I don't know,” he replied, clearly lost in thought, “but I'll tell you one thing. I don't like being watched.”
Chapter Ten
Hugo
“Can humans really sleep on such things?” I muttered angrily as I tried a different position on the bed. “How are you not all walking around with ruined spines?”
“It's fine for me,” Judith replied, watching from the other side of the bed. “And it's not as if you'll actually be sleeping in it, is it? I know full well that you'll be spending all night in that office, working on new theories about the ring.”
“It's so hard to believe that it really comes from Gothos,” I told her. “No part of that place should be able to exist in this world, although there have been rumors from time to time. Still, the parliamentary doctrine of the old rulers clearly states that the Prehensible Emperor is solely responsible for -”
“I don't know what that means,” she said, interrupting me.
I sighed.
“It's quite simple,” I continued. “When Gothos was built, coincidentally by a man also named Gothos, the Tribunal of Skrith was somewhat distracted by a war in the Silver -”
“Hugo...”
“Before Gothos, there was a line of dragons that guarded the only known -”
“Hugo, please...”
“There was a box,” I added, trying to simplify it for her, “and in the box there was half a universe.”
“Half a universe?”
“Yes. The left half. And -”
“The left half of a universe?”
“Now you're starting to get it,” I told her. “This is the true story of all creation. So half the universe was in the box, and the other half happened to have taken the form of a tree named -”
“Enough!” she said firmly.
I hesitated, somewhat surprised by her reaction.
“Whenever you talk about all this stuff,” she continued, “I just end up with a headache. It's not that I'm not interested, Hugo. It's just that it's so far beyond my life, beyond
my frame of reference, that it doesn't make sense. I love you, and I know what you are, but I can't truly comprehend any of this. Before, I was always able to let you get on with things, and I had other matters to focus on. Now, it's as if I'm getting drawn a little deeper into a world that I can never truly understand.”
“I suppose,” I said cautiously, “your next question would have been, who made the box?”
“Maybe human minds just aren't cut out to get all of this.”
I tried to work out how I could simplify things for her, but finally I realize that this wasn't the point at all. I had always tried to protect Judith from the truth about vampires and other ancient species, and now she'd been drawn deeper into the heart of it all.
“You should leave,” I told her. “Did I even ask you if you wanted to come to London? Or did I just assume and drag you along?”
“I want to be wherever you are.”
“If you go back to Paris, I'll come for you,” I continued, “I promise. When this is over.”
“I believe you would,” she said, getting to her feet and coming around to my side of the bed, “but I could no more abandon you, than I could go against my own true nature.” She placed her hands on my shoulders. “I'm not going anywhere,” she explained, “and I'll do anything you ask me to do. I just don't need to hear any more grand stories about the history of your species. Chloe seems keen to leap into things headfirst, but I'm focused on the world I know. Home. Paris. My family's farm, which I want to one day reclaim. Those are the things that keep me up at night. Do you understand?”
“I... think I do,” I told her.
She smiled.
“You're right,” I continued, “I will be working on the ring all night. But once this whole mess is over, I want to take you away from the war.”
She shook her head.
“Why not?” I asked.
“I want to be around when peaces comes,” she explained. “I want to stand in the fields near my home, and not be afraid that tanks might rumble into view at any moment. I want to witness the celebrations. Maybe that makes me a simple person with simple pleasures, but I can't help myself. And I truly believe that the war will be over, hopefully very soon. I believe that good will always defeat evil.”
“I wish you were right,” I whispered.
“I know I am.” She looked past me, toward the window, and then she hesitated. “Hugo,” she said cautiously, “there's a man standing outside, on the street. He seems to be watching the building, almost as if he's waiting for something.”
Getting to my feet, I headed to the window and looked down. Sure enough, a man was standing out there, and I instantly felt a flicker of concern at the sight of him. I tried to reach out, to get into his mind, but I found to my surprise that he was blocking me. That, in itself, was enough to make me realize that this was somebody who had trained their mind to resist vampire incursions. It would have been an awful coincidence for such an individual to happen to be outside this very house on this very night.
And then, suddenly, I heard a door creaking open far downstairs, and I saw the figure of Doctor Russell emerging from the house.
“What is he up to?” I whispered, and I instantly found that his mind was much more open.
“What's going on?” Judith asked, sounding worried. “Hugo? What -”
“The ring!” I gasped, filled with shock as I realized that I'd been played for a fool. “That idiot is trying to sell the ring!”
Chapter Eleven
Chloe
“Why would Doctor Russell do that?” I asked as Matthias and I ran out of the room, only to find that Hugo and Judith were rushing out from another room at the far end of the landing.
“He has the ring!” Hugo shouted.
“I know!” Matthias replied, and they both hurried down the stairs.
“What's going on?” Judith asked as she and I began to follow them. “I thought Doctor Russell was on our side?”
“There has to be some kind of explanation for this,” I said breathlessly, bounding down the stairs so fast that I was taking them two at a time. Even with that, I was completely unable to keep up with Matthias and Hugo as they moved furiously down through the house. “Is it possible that he's just calling on the advice of another expert?”
I ran down another set of stairs and quickly reached the hallway, only to hear the sound of a car racing away. I hurried to the open front door, and the first thing I saw was Matthias running along the road in a desperate attempt to catch the car. Turning, I then spotted Hugo standing in the middle of the street with his hand gripped tight around Doctor Russell's throat.
“Wait!” Doctor Russell was gasping as I hurried over to join them. “I can explain!”
“Who was that?” Hugo snarled. “Who just took the ring?”
“I would never betray you!” Doctor Russell explained as he struggled for air. “I simply contacted someone else for some advice, and they said they needed to see the ring for themselves! I didn't know they were going to take it, but they probably just got scared when they saw the two of you! I'm sure they'll bring it back once they've finished their examination!”
“A fine story,” Hugo said firmly, “but it doesn't explain why they handed you a wad of cash.”
“That's just a donation! They appreciate my work and -”
“You sold that ring!” Hugo sneered.
“Never! I merely tried to use my contacts to uncover some more information!”
“They got away!” Matthias said as he hurried back along the street. “Who were they? We need to track them down before they have a chance to get out of the country.”
“We were sold out!” Hugo said, pulling Doctor Russell's face closer to his. “What is it with humans? Why is it so damn impossible to trust any of them?”
“You have to believe me,” Doctor Russell replied, “I could win a Nobel prize for my work, I could be -”
Suddenly he let out a pained gasp, and I heard a crunching sound coming from his throat. He began to cough up blood, and I realized after a moment that Hugo was crushing the man's neck with his bare hand. Doctor Russell struggled for a moment, spluttering and crying out, but finally Hugo let go and the old man slumped dead to the ground.
“Wasn't that a little premature?” Matthias asked. “He had more information. We could have forced him to tell us who those people were.”
“I already know who they were,” Hugo muttered, as he placed his right foot against Doctor Russell's face and pressed down, quickly shattering the man's skull. “I could smell it on them, they're something to do with Zieghoff. The man might be dead, but his operation lives on. They're probably some kind of team that he set up, and his death simply means that they'll carry on with a new leader.”
“How do we find them?” I asked. “Can you guys somehow sniff them out?”
“Don't be ridiculous,” Hugo snapped. “We're not bloodhounds. Those people sped off into the night before we had a chance to stop them. They could be anywhere by now.”
“What about Doctor Russell's desk?” Judith asked. “If he's been in contact with someone, there might be some details in his papers!”
She hesitated, waiting for an answer, before turning and running back inside.
“She might have a point,” I suggested.
“I trusted that man,” Hugo muttered darkly. “When will I ever learn that humans are the most pathetic species in all of existence? At the first mention of money or gold, you'll drop all your principles and sell out all your friends.”
“We're not all like that,” I told him.
“Enough of you are!” he snapped, stepping toward me. “I'm starting to think that it was a mistake to ever spend time with humans. All you do is lie and cheat and steal, you sabotage yourselves at every possible opportunity and you seem to actively seek out ways to make every situation worse.”
“We -”
“No wonder your species is looked down on with such contempt!” he added angrily. “You do re
alize that you're the butt of jokes, don't you? In all the worlds that exist, humans are laughed at and reviled in equal measure. You're an utterly pathetic waste of a species, and frankly I think the whole of reality would be much better off if you just stopped treading water and got on with the task of destroying yourselves. After all, you've come so close in the past. Why not finish the job off properly?”
I opened my mouth to reply to him, but for a moment I was lost for words.
“That seemed a little harsh,” Matthias said cautiously. “Hugo...”
“I meant every word that I said,” Hugo replied, “and I promise you all that once we've untangled this petty web of nonsense, I have no intention of ever fraternizing with humans again.”
“Why don't you go now, then?” I asked. “We can manage just fine without you!”
“You'd all be dead without me,” he replied, “and -”
“I found something!”
We all turned and saw Judith hurrying out of the house, holding a set of papers.
“Look!” she said as she reached us, holding the papers up. “According to this note, Doctor Russell was originally supposed to take the ring himself to a meeting point. He must have received different instructions later, before those people showed up, but look at this.” She points at one of the lines on the sheet. “That's where he was supposed to go. Doesn't it stand to reason that the people in the car are headed there now?”
“Aldernay airfield?” I whispered as I read the sheet of paper. “Why would they be going to an airfield?”
“Isn't it obvious?” Matthias said. “They must have orders to fly that ring straight back to their bosses in Germany.”
“We're going after them,” Hugo said, turning and hurrying across the street. “Russell had a car. I'll get it started.”
“What about his body?” I called after him. “Are we just going to leave it here?”
“I don't see why not,” Hugo replied, stopping at a nearby car and then glancing back at me with a contemptuous sneer. “For all I care, let the local police blame his death on the ghost of Jack the Ripper. Let wild dogs drag him away and break his carcass up. We have more important matters to deal with now. We have to get to Aldernay before that plane takes off!”