by Liz Strange
“Yes, it’s true. I could never find a way to tell you… I didn’t want to lose your friendship.”
“Vampires? This is absurd! I don’t believe it.”
I pulled back my lips slightly, exposing my partially elongated fangs. She brought a trembling hand to her mouth, and her throat worked as if she was having trouble swallowing. God, it was the worst possible way for her to have found out. Her fear permeated the room like sour milk, and I felt a crash of self-loathing as her reaction began to arouse me. Something in human fear satisfied a dark and hardened part of my heart. Usually it did not bother me to know this about myself, but in that instance I was keenly aware of how monstrous it made me.
We all remained in our tense standoff, with the rain pounding against the windows, until a swath of light cutting across the room from outside broke the moment. Giovanni raced to the window, slamming his hand against the wall after a brief peek outside. “They’re here! We don’t have time. We have to go!”
Charlotte turned her wild eyes on me. “Who’s here? What the hell is going on? I knew that there was something bad happening here… What have you gotten me involved in?”
A sound like gunshots rang outside. I grabbed Charlotte by her arm and began to steer out of the room, when she screamed.
“Please, Charlotte, I’m sorry. I don’t have time to explain, but no matter what I may by I will always be your friend.”
“My friend! You’ve done nothing but lie to me since the moment we met. Why should I trust you now?”
Giovanni looked at me, eyes pleading. “Rachel, we have to get out of here.”
Just then Eli burst through the doorway bloody, and soaked from the rain. “There are men here. They have guns, and, and… Jimmy’s men are holding them off outside, but I don’t know for how long. There are a lot of them.”
The air was pungent with the smell of blood. I took a step in Eli’s direction, and he sensed my concern before I could speak. “I’m fine, just a little scuffle. We have to get out of here.”
“Rachel, take Eli and Charlotte down the back stairs and through the servants’ wing. Go out the door by the stables, and cut across the field to Blake Road. Go to the house near there that I showed you. I’ve got to help Jimmy’s men if I can, and take out a few of these bastards! We need to get them off our tail once and for all!”
My body felt electrocuted with fear at his words. “Please, Giovanni, don’t do this. Come with us, we need to get away!”
“Go now!” he bellowed so loudly Charlotte cringed. He raced out the door before I could say another word.
Eli took my hand in his firm grip, and I reached out for Charlotte to do the same, but she recoiled from my advance.
“Don’t touch me. I’m more than capable of moving myself. I don’t want your help.”
There was no time to argue, though I was sick at the loss of her affection. Yet I was even more afraid of what could happen to Giovanni. “Okay. I’m sorry, I just want all of us to get out of here without getting hurt.”
We made our way along the hallway to stairs, concealed by a narrow door that, at first glance, appeared to be a linen closet. These led directly into the kitchen via the dry goods storage room. The kitchen contained the only interior access to the servants’ wing, which was the second storey to the eight-car garage. Here existed a series of small bedrooms and two baths, and at the farthest end of the hallway an exit to the back of the house. The stairs wound down the back of the house to a small walkway joining the garage to the guest house, most recently used as Giovanni’s art studio.
Eli slowly opened the door from the storage room into the main kitchen area. He peeked into the space then ushered us forward with a movement of his hand. The room, which until then had always seemed warm and comforting, now seemed desolate. The sound of an altercation reached us from the main hallway, followed by a loud crash.
“Stay here,” I said through clenched teeth. I shot forward to the kitchen’s opening into the hallway, where a man was being brutally beaten by two others.
Even though his face was a bloody mess, I recognised Jimmy as the one being attacked, and rushed to his aid. I grabbed the man who was holding him down, wrenching his head about until the spine snapped. His body immediately went limp, and I tossed it to the floor, where it slid sickeningly in the water that had dripped from the men’s wet clothing. My movements were so quick, Jimmy’s other assailant had barely enough time to register that his partner had been killed before his own lifeless body joined him. I knelt to Jimmy’s side, glad to see that his eyes were open and alert.
“Are you all right?”
“Takes more than that to keep me down,” he said before spitting out a mouthful of blood. I turned back as I heard movement, angry to find both Eli and Charlotte watching my actions from the kitchen doorway. I pointed behind them, and they both retreated into the relative safety of the kitchen.
“Where’s Giovanni?” I tried to keep the desperation out of my voice.
“Outside. He managed to kill a few, and my boys have some down as well, but then two armoured cars pulled up and all Hell broke loose. I lost sight of him, and the next thing I know I’m being dragged in here by these two.” His eyes drooped, and I knew he was hurt badly. I raced up the hallway to the front door, which stood open, allowing rain to pour in to pool on the wooden floor. I peered out, but saw only the angry faces of strangers, and several unfamiliar vehicles, including the armoured cars Jimmy had mentioned.
“Fuck!” I screamed and raced back to the kitchen.
Inside I found Eli trying to calm a near hysterical Charlotte. Her eyes grew wide at the sight of me, and she skidded backward until she collided with the wall.
“She saw what you did to those men,” Eli said.
“You are a monster, a vampire or whatever you are! Stay away from me!” she shrieked.
I approached her slowly. “Charlotte, I’m not going to hurt you. Those men might have killed us. It was their life or ours, and I’m not sorry for choosing us.”
She shook her head as I continued to approach. As I reached Eli’s side, he took my hand, an innocent action that seemed to excite her fear even more. “What are you doing to him? He’s not one of you, that I know.”
“No, he’s not.”
She turned her tormented eyes in his direction and I felt a tug on my hand. “You don’t have to go with them, with her. You can stay, I’ll help you.” Her words tumbled out in a strange, high-pitched voice. She fought to control the fear threatening to overtake her, the strength that she had possessed her whole life keeping her one step ahead of falling apart.
“This is my family, Charlotte. Where they go, I go.”
She was about to speak again when a chorus of hostile, panicky voices streaming in from the hallway interrupted us. The strangers’ nearness pushed home the need to leave immediately. “We have to go now.”
“I’m not going with you.” Her words were as firm as she could make them.
Eli yanked my arm, and he pulled open the door to the servants’ quarters’ hallway with his free hand. “Let’s go. If she wants to stay, let her.”
“We can’t leave her to these men. Who knows what will happen.”
“They’re not after her. They want Giovanni.”
“I’m not going with you.” She spoke with less conviction than before. Her gaze darted to the hallway at the sound of a man’s voice raised in anger. A flurry of heavy footsteps ricocheted down the hallway in our direction. She turned back to us, as one wayward tear spilled down her pale face. “Go, and if Eli is going with you, I won’t be an accomplice to his death. I’ll do my best to send them in another direction.”
We leapt through the doorway. “I’m sorry,” I called back over my shoulder, just as the door was shut firmly behind us. I heard the scraping sound of something being dragged in front of it. We raced up the narrow flight of stairs as the sounds of several men’s voices were heard, entering the kitchen. We couldn’t wait for Charlotte’s reac
tion. We were running for our lives.
The rain was a wall of wetness against the second floor windows. I heard the rumblings of car engines, gunshots and screams from the courtyard below. As we reached the end of the hallway and the exit to the back of the house, I dared a look down onto the activity below. The events that I witnessed that night were forever burnt into my mind.
Several men were down, some obviously dead, and others still attempting to move about. With the darkness and the rain it was difficult to be sure which men were whose. One of the armoured trucks had been brought around, and its massive doors stood wide open. On the ground near the truck a mass of men writhed about as if involved in some contorted, violent orgy.
One man pulled back from the group, yelling, “Nous l’avons recu. Nous l’avons recu.” We got him. We got him. At the sound of his words, several more men retreated from the pile, and for the first time I had a clear view of what was taking place.
They had Giovanni pinned to the ground under some kind of heavy, chain net. Even under its weight and confinement he managed to throw off several of his attackers, one smashing violently into the rear of the armoured truck. The man’s head exploded in a shower of blood and brains, and he fell to the ground dead. The man who had yelled suddenly waved his hand to someone out of my line of sight then another man rushed to Giovanni’s side.
Several others replaced the men who were thrown off. The man now at his side pulled out a syringe, plunging it deeply into Giovanni’s neck. His body convulsed, bucking the administrator off to the side. I pounded my fists against the window, the glass shattering. The rain spilled in through the jagged hole, drenching the front of my shirt.
“Giovanni, no!” I screamed, but the words were lost to the sounds of the rain, engines and yelling.
Then another vehicle pulled around the side of the building into the courtyard, spilling a whole new batch of men out into the hostile crowd. They held what resembled cattle prods, with which they began to poke at Giovanni’s body. The devices emitted bright jolts of light, which snaked out and into Giovanni’s body.
“Rachel!” He uttered my name with such force I thought my brain might explode.
His head turned in my direction, and for one fleeting moment I thought our eyes connected. Then came another jolt, and a scramble of men blocked my view. His body spasmed and jerked about horrifically under the net, while several of the men broke out in riotous laughter. His body lay still. The rain soaked his clothing, and his dark hair was plastered to his face and neck.
“Rachel, we have to go. We can’t help him now.” Eli’s words sounded tinny and far away, like the soft whine of a mosquito in my ear. He pulled at my arm, but he couldn’t budge me from my spot in front of the window. The world around me died. I watched in horror as Giovanni’s body was casually tossed inside the back of the open truck. The leader, and the man who had injected him, looked about quickly before piling in themselves. The door was pulled shut behind them with an audible thud.
As the truck began its return to the front of the house, a group of Jimmy’s men burst out of the rear doors and sprayed gunfire into the remaining crowd. A few made it back to the second truck and it peeled away with a violent shriek of rubber against concrete. Of the remaining attackers, any who held guns returned fire while running for the safety of the nearby woods. More bodies joined those already splayed about the now bloody courtyard.
I moved away from the window toward the waiting escape route to the outside, but I was not aware of any conscious decision to flee. Our footsteps thundered like mortar fire in the narrow space. Bright spots of light swam before my eyes, and Eli’s mouth moved, but I could not hear what he was saying. He thrust the door open onto the night with the butt of his hand, and I stumbled out behind him.
As we passed through the darkened walkway from the garage to the guest house, I caught glimpses of Jimmy and his men taking care of the few remaining Desmarais members. They did not stop for pleas of mercy, and I silently thanked them for their ruthlessness.
Eli pulled me inside the guest house, where he went immediately to the safe hidden in the floor. He pulled out several packages of money and documents to help us get out of the country quickly. He had been made aware of all aspects of our secret life after the night of my revelation, and had access to all types of funds, documents and allies. Thankfully, he was still able to think coherently.
I stood, transfixed by the sight of Giovanni’s art supplies, and my still unfinished portrait resting in the easel. I felt myself being drawn into Eli’s warm embrace and when he finally pulled away I noticed for the first time that his eyes were streaming with tears. I could not cry. I felt decidedly numb.
Then the most amazing and unbelievable thing happened. As we turned to leave, a blur of movement appeared in the doorway. I reacted instantly, my fangs thrust outward, and I pushed Eli behind me as I leapt toward the intruder. A cold, solid hand caught the front of my shirt, impossibly stopping my attack. As our two bodies made contact I looked up into a face I had hoped to never see again.
The green eyes I remembered all too well met my gaze, but I didn’t find the fury that had been there during our first encounter.
“I’m here to help.”
Chapter 18
“Rachel, who is this?” Eli’s voice was strained with fear.
I looked to him then back again to the face of Giovanni’s maker. “I don’t know his name.”
“Charles. Now let’s go, there’s a second wave of men on their way here. We have but minutes.” There was no hesitation to his words, and I felt oddly certain that he could be trusted. “Charles, this is Eli. He’s to be protected at all costs.”
“Of course.”
Together, the three of us took off in the direction of the forest, not stopping until we were safely under its camouflage. In the woods we encountered several of the Desmarais men, who fled when they came under fire. We destroyed them all in turn, though their deaths did not bring me any satisfaction. A thousand lives taken in retribution could never make up for Giovanni’s loss. At least they would no longer be able to hunt down others of our kind. We left their lifeless bodies where they fell, continuing to our destination on Blake Road.
Within a mile of the house to which we were fleeing, we caught the sight of dancing licks of orange flame. We stopped just within the range that our vampire eyes could discern the house, where it stood engulfed in flames.
“They have really prepared this time. I think it’s safe to assume all your contacts in England have been compromised, and even if your man back there manages to get out with his life, he will be followed.”
I had to agree. We headed up the road, farther away from both our home and the now destroyed safe house. We had gone about two or three miles, all the way discussing our options, when we heard the sound of an approaching vehicle. We retreated into the shadows, watching in silence as a car with its headlights off slowly made its way up the road. I recognised the car as soon as it was near, though I don’t think that I had ever seen the person at the wheel driving before. Charles looked at me questioningly.
“Isn’t that Charlotte’s car?” Eli whispered in my ear.
“Yes.” I jumped from my hiding spot, racing up the road until I was alongside the vehicle.
When Charlotte caught sight of me she slammed on the brakes. Eli and Charles emerged from the darkness and joined me at the vehicle.
The window lowered and Charlotte was clearly startled when she spoke. “Jesus, you seemed to appear out of nowhere.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Well, now that I’m over my initial shock, I’m here to help.” She pressed the unlock button for the vehicle’s doors. “I saw what they did to Giovanni, and to the other men who were trying to protect you… and I don’t know exactly how I feel yet, but you are my friend, and you need somewhere to go.”
That I could not deny. I opened the driver’s door. “Move over. I know you don’t like to drive and I can see bett
er in the dark than you can.”
The men climbed into the backseat without a word.
“Where are we going?”
“Go in the back way to my place. You know where the old house is that has the private road.”
I nodded and continued to drive.
She turned to explain to the men in the back. “In the old days it was a meeting house of sorts, and there’s an underground space, with a tunnel connecting it to the main house. Nobody knows about it except for family, who are now all dead. It should be safe, and there will be at least two ways to escape, if need be.”
“They might search your house,” Charles offered from the backseat.
“I don’t know about that. I was quite hysterical when the men found me, and they got me out of there quickly and all but dumped me at the bottom of the road leading up to my estate. I think they believe I was quite traumatised, and just a silly old lady to boot.”
“It’s the best chance we have right now. You and I have to find somewhere to rest for the day, and I don’t want to take any chances that these men might try to rescue Eli.” My voice sounded strange to my own ears. The full force of what had happened had certainly not hit me. I was oddly calm and focused.
“Very well. Perhaps you’re right, and I think this group will need some time to regroup also. They lost quite a few of their ranks during the battles. Giovanni chose his men well. They were quite lethal.”
I felt a quick stab of pain at the sound of Giovanni’s name, but I pressed on. I was able to make quick time of getting to Charlotte’s, even with the lights off, since I could see upward of a mile in the distance. Soon I heard the biting sound of the tires against gravel, as we pulled off the road onto the narrow drive to the house. It was little more than a rut zigzagging through the forest, with nothing to indicate any kind of entrance. In some spots, the vegetation was so thickly overgrown Charles and I had to get out and remove what was blocking the path. We replaced the debris across the breadth of the path, making it all the more difficult for any type of vehicle to follow.