by Angela Foxxe
“That’s something,” Gabriel said lamely. “What time did Isla leave?”
The pouty woman with the blond hair looked up, eager to strike up a conversation with the handsome benefactor. “She left just 15 minutes ago.”
“Thank you,” he nodded, resisting the urge to sprint out of the room to look for her.
There was only one place she could be. She would be at her flat, where she thought she was safe. She was never safe, not now when the sun dipped low in the skies. The moment he got into his car, he drove like a madman. He had to reach her, he had to keep her safe.
He had an inkling that she had discovered more about him, more about his family, and more about the gemstone. He was careful, but she had wanted to figure this out on her own. Damn the internet. Damn her curiosity. He got to her flat building in less than twenty minutes and looked up to the window. There were no signs of her there. Perhaps she really was feeling sick? The early night brought in cold air, and he didn’t like the feeling of it. It made him feel more dead than alive…
He walked behind the building and saw a rusty looking fire escape ladder. Without difficulty, he swung himself to it and climbed up the stairs. Then he stopped as soon as he reached the hallway. From the end, her flat door was wide open.
No. No.
He slowly walked in and found a woman sitting calmly on a couch facing him. She was a wispy looking one, with dirty blonde, shoulder-length hair and muddy looking blue eyes that had a tinge of red in her irises. She wore black jeans, a black long-sleeved shirt and boots.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“Oh, you do smell alike. Isaac was right,” she said, her eyes widening as he took a step closer. “I forgot my civilities, by the way. I’m Anna, Anna Sawyer. Your brother turned me in 1936. I was a whore in Granby Street. How’s that for an introduction? And you, you’re Gabriel. I only saw you a couple of times from far away. You’re so handsome up close, aren’t ya?”
“Where did you take her?”
“Oh, you mean your pretty, weak little human?” Anna began. “Isaac’s taken her far away. He says you have something he needs.”
“Do you even know what this is?”
She shrugged. “I don’t care. I just follow my sire. When he’s ‘appy, I am too.”
“So he’s kept you in the dark…” Gabriel muttered.
“About what?”
Gabriel shook his head. “What does he want?”
“He wants you to go to him, give whatever the feck it is, and he’ll leave you be,” Anna replied, her face visibly curious about what he said. She stood up and walked up to him, tiptoeing closer to his face.
“I think you’re better looking than Isaac. But don’t tell him that,” she said coyly.
“You’re in love with him,” Gabriel said with a sly grin, “yet, you don’t interest him. You’re only his slave.”
Her eyes turned dark and she stepped back. “I’m having her for a snack later. Isaac promised to share his glory, and he told me it starts with your downfall.”
“Where is Isaac?”
“Highgate Cemetery. He told me a family reunion is needed. Shall we?”
CHAPTER TEN
A light rain spread all over London by the time Gabriel and Anna got to Highgate Cemetery. They walked past the tall columns, gateways to the world of the dead and decaying. They walked past thick ivy vines. He saw spectres dart to and fro, curious of the newcomer he had brought along. He said nothing.
She was someone new, and sinister. Someone who didn’t belong here, like that other man by the Blackwell crypt, who had the audacity to bring someone living and breathing into their domain at night.
Leaves crunched under their feet, and an adder quickly steered away from their direction. Arriving at the family crypt, Gabriel saw the bolted doors were cracked open, a faint light came from the entrance.
He walked in first, followed by Anna, who had taken the liberty to hold a silver dagger in her gloved hand. He knew it was hurting her, yet she bore through the pain like a good subservient would.
He saw her at the end of his father’s crypt, her face messed up from dirt. He saw no trace of blood. Isaac was afraid he couldn’t control himself, he didn’t want to hurt Isla either, because she looked so much like Lily…
“Isla,” Gabriel began, taking a step closer to her, reaching out for her with one hand.
“Don’t. Unless you have it with you.”
“I don’t have it with me,” Gabriel said in a loud voice. “It was lost that night, remember?”
Isaac grit his teeth and looked at Isla. “You gave it to her. You gave it to her because she looks like Lily.”
Anna’s head snapped up, hearing that woman’s name. She had heard Isaac say her name in those brief moments of sleep. She had long wondered who she was. Her sire held many secrets, and Lily was one of those secrets.
Isla looked at Gabriel, confused.
“It was gone. Along with Lily,” Gabriel maintained.
“No,” Isaac shook his head, his fingernails turning sharp, “you hid it. You thought she could keep it. But I knew what you were up to. Using a human, using Lily so she could hold your watch.”
Isla shook, trying to make sense of what Gabriel’s older brother was saying. Isaac looked at her, his eyes growing dark under the torches that lit the mausoleum. So she could hold your watch… what was it made of? He only wanted the gemstone, right? She saw the other nightwalker keep away the blade inside a leather pouch. Her face indicated she had been hurt, even if she wore gloves. Was that what he meant? So she could hold the watch?
“I don’t have it,” Gabriel said again.
“You gave it to her. Isla, it is Isla, right?” he began, facing her, “where is it?” he asked her. She said nothing. “Where is it?” he shouted to her and she closed her eyes for a millisecond, the fear stealing through her.
“She doesn’t have it!” Gabriel interrupted him.
Isaac faced Gabriel again. “She does. That’s the only reason why you’ve gotten close to her. That’s the only reason why Isla Morgan is still alive.”
Isla looked at Gabriel, her eyes welling up with tears. She had wanted to be wrong. Some part of her wanted it all to be wrong, that Gabriel genuinely liked her. This isn’t the time to think about it, she told herself, you’re about to die, dammit.
“I’ll help you find it. It’s still in Gloucestershire,” Gabriel said.
Isaac shook his head and laughed. “It’s still there? Where you killed Lily?”
There was a flash of pain in Gabriel’s eyes. Isaac hadn’t let go of it, like he hadn’t let go of it.
“I looked for it everywhere, I’ve been scouring the family manor for years. Oh wait, it’s your manor now, is it? A physical memory of your faults and failures, a testament of how you failed the Blackwell name.”
“Like you have. Tell me, how have you wasted father’s inheritance for you? How many people have you killed instead of healed, Doctor Whittock?”
There was pure poison in Isaac’s eyes now. “I’ll kill her,” he hissed.
“You’ll kill someone who looked like the one you obsessed over?”
“I loved her!” Isaac bellowed. “You only used her. You only used her!” He walked over to Isla and grabbed her, jerking her body forward. She now stood beside him, his grip on her arm so tight, she felt like passing out.
“Let her go,” Gabriel said in a low voice.
“Or you’ll what? Kill Lily all over again?” he looked at Isla and smelled her face, his nose precariously close to her cheek. “She’s feistier than Lily, that’s for sure. She does reek of kindness, doesn’t she? Like her father and mother…”
Isla looked at Isaac. He knew something about the accident that killed her parents even if no one was there at dusk.
“Wh- what?”
“Didn’t Gabriel tell you? Oh wait, that was Aidan. Didn’t Aidan tell you? He was there when your parents died, when you almost died.”
“How…?�
�� her voice croaked. Her legs felt like jelly, but she forced herself to stand properly beside Isaac.
No one else was there, Gabriel thought. He had wanted to save them all, even if they had been the enemy, a nightwalker’s most fatal enemy. That second’s change of heart spared one life, but that second’s decision killed two others.
“You knew all along that they were Hunters. But you didn’t know that they had a daughter with them,” Isaac hissed.
Isla looked at him, tears flowing freely from her face. She still remembered that night, she remembered it so clearly it hurt… Gabriel killed her parents? No. No. And he had wanted to kill her back then, too. But she survived. She lived on, oblivious to the truth. She lived without knowing how that accident happened, when there was no one on that dirt road. The officials blamed it on a slippery road; and she and her parents plunged into deep icy waters after that trek to Gloucestershire…
She remembered the flurry of snow as she sat in the backseat, her head resting beside the window. Across the horizon, there was some fading light. They had passed by a large field with a river snaking through it.
She saw her mom look at her with a wide smile as she sat in front.
“You okay there, Isla?” Arthur asked her, hoping Isla was oblivious to the fact that they were being followed. He had seen a stranger following them from a distance, one that was not part of an archaeological study with fellows from the museum. Was it possible they could actually walk in daylight now?
Isla nodded at her father, when suddenly her mother screamed.
“Arthur-!”
Isla jerked forward as their car veered to the side to avoid someone in the middle of the road. The car tumbled down to the river and she couldn’t scream…
The next thing she knew, she woke up on the riverbank, villagers were pulling her out, helping her and calling for medics. She coughed up more water, felt the freezing cold for a few seconds, and then fainted again.
“You were in the middle of the road?” Isla whispered.
“The girl remembers!” Isaac said dramatically. “Oh, believe me, us nightwalkers were talking about it for years. How one of our kind killed the last male heir to the Hunters. The last one of the Ashworth family line,” he said the last words while glaring at Gabriel. “Arthur Morgan and his wife knew about us. It was why Arthur was so well versed in archaeology, am I right, Isla?”
She didn’t say anything. She didn’t know at all. Who were the Ashworths? All she wanted now was to get away from them, pretend this was all a nightmare. She felt the necklace her parents had given her getting heavier on her neck or maybe, just maybe, she was imagining things. This is all a dream, she told herself, maybe I died with Mom and Dad all along…
“Her safety for the diamond, Aidan,” Isaac hissed, “it’s all I want, and we can forget about this.”
Gabriel shook his head. “Even if I had it, I wouldn’t give it to you. It’s unfortunate that the excavation had to be handled by someone who looked just like our Lily.”
“Our Lily?” Isaac gave a hollow laugh. “She was mine, before you took her from me, just like my birth right. Just like the estate.”
“I don’t have it.”
“There’s a reason why she’s here, Aidan,” Isaac said, “There’s a reason why Lily is here again.”
“She isn’t Lily. She doesn’t even know what we are. Let her go.” He saw the reaction on Anna’s face, and knew she was curious about who Lily was, and clearly jealous about the attention Isaac was giving the human.
“Then why must you be with her all the time? She has it, I know. Or she knows something about it. You found something, didn’t you?” he whispered into her ear.
She closed her eyes and found herself nodding. “I found skeletons.”
He shook her about roughly. “No, what else did you find?”
Gabriel took a step forward, ready to attack his brother any moment. There was something about Isla’s eyes that made him stop.
“Buttons,” Isla uttered, then she took a shaky breath, “and a watch…”
Isaac let go of her arm roughly, and before she fell on the floor, Gabriel caught her. She looked at him, defiant, even if it was clear she was scared.
“A watch. Where is it?” Isaac demanded as Gabriel helped Isla up.
Anna now stood beside Isaac, waiting for her sire’s next request. She looked at Isla with contempt. Lily? Who in the hell was Lily? Isaac had never told her about Lily. She suddenly wanted to snap this woman’s neck. I would never drink her blood, she thought with distaste.
Isaac found himself shaking his head. “Where is it?” he shouted.
Isla shook for a few seconds. “In the… it’s in the museum.”
“Well, you’re taking us there,” Isaac hissed.
They all couldn’t hold onto the watch, even if the silver had been buried deep in mud. Silver was still silver.
She nodded. “If I give you the watch, will you let us go?”
“You have my word,” Isaac said solemnly, placing a thin and pale hand over his chest.
Isla nodded and stood straight, shrugging away from Aidan’s grasp.
Isaac saw this and laughed. “She hates you already. Her past self must’ve remembered,” he taunted.
Gabriel said nothing.
Isla looked at him. “I don’t remember much of the accident, but I remember someone standing in the middle of the road,” she said quietly, stopping beside a torch.
Anna took a step forward, seeing Isla take out something from her pocket.
“It’s the watch!” Anna cried out, just as Isla held it up against the torch.
The watch’s shimmer suddenly blinded everyone, everyone except Isla. She saw Anna blindly crawl for her, as did Isaac. Gabriel’s eyes were squeezed shut. Without thinking twice, she grabbed Gabriel’s hand and led him out of the crypt and Gabriel stumbled clumsily, his eyes still stinging.
She quickly pocketed the watch insider her sweater as they ran through a maze of graves and vines and roots. Gabriel struggled to keep his eyes open, still feeling as though the silver watch was held before his eyes.
“Left, left!” he told her as she held onto his hand tightly.
She felt a sense of relief seeing the wrought iron gates. But she couldn’t get up by herself. Suddenly, she was lifted off of her feet by Gabriel and he effortlessly leaped up to the top of the wall and down the opposite side.
He huffed. “Would have been easier if there was no silver,” he told her panting, still squinting. He pointed to his car parked across the street. “Can you drive?”
She nodded and helped him cross the road and into the passenger side. “Where are we going?” she asked, nervously turning on the car.
“Blackwell Hall. Use the car’s GPS,” he said, closing his eyes as the car began to drive off.
Isla looked at the mirrors nervously.
“We have a head start. He doesn’t have the diamond,” he told her, seeing how jumpy she was.
She said nothing, but she began to drive, and she drove fast. She turned on the heater minutes after realizing she was freezing. Every few minutes, she would check the mirrors, afraid they would be right behind them, or worse, right beside them.
“We can’t fly,” he said, “nor can we run like cheetahs.”
“What’s wrong with silver?” she found herself asking.
“It’s part of being a nightwalker. There’s this curse that carried on after Judas betrayed Jesus for a bag of silver coins. I don’t know how it translated for nightwalkers, but the older ones told me it started there.”
After that conversation they grew quiet. They were quiet for the next two hours, as he had fallen asleep. The radio’s signal faded so she turned it off. Moments later, she passed by rows of menacing looking trees, stripped of their leaves. It looked like it was about to rain when she pulled up to a road with a stately entrance.
Across the field was a limestone mansion that stood out in the darkness, a foreboding hall with large wi
ndows and buttresses at the façade. She helped him get out of the car, and he insisted he could walk this time, without her help. Looking up, she saw gargoyles in the corners and bath spouts shaped like the heads of wolves. It looked abandoned. She felt apprehensive.
“You’re safe here,” he told her. “Can you hold onto the door?”
She opened it for him. The entrance hall was dark. His eyed adjusted to the dark easily and he reached for a cupboard nearby and took out a candle, lighting it up with matches.
“Father had it mixed with silver. A lot of things in this house are made of silver, but I took them out, the door is one of those exceptions.”
“How can we be safe here? Will he know we’re here?”
“Of course he will. Isaac still wants this hall to himself,” he replied with a frown, “and I’m never giving him that satisfaction.”
The house was even grander inside, despite its exterior. She saw the intricate wallpaper, differentiating from one sitting room to the next. Heavy curtains and large Persian rugs abounded. There were four suits of armor on display in a corridor. They almost seemed alive as they stood with their weapons. He led her to a separate room, a drawing room filled with paintings of people and landscapes. She saw individual portraits, and one that looked like him.
He placed the candelabra on a table beside him and then he took a seat and closed his eyes, mustering his strength to return.
“Do you need anything?” she asked him. “Blood?” she whispered.
His eyes flew open. “No. I’m not getting that from you,” he muttered, his eyes darkening. He saw her pale face, the shadows from the flames dancing on it. It made her look unreal, almost ghost-like.
She looked around, her fingers touching the tapestries and the frames on the table, the mahogany felt cool underneath her touch. “No one stays here?” she asked, stopping beside a towering bookshelf.
He shook his head. “No one.”
“Why?”
“I sometimes visit. I just don’t stay too long. It brings painful memories.”