‘Why would they do that?’
‘Either to try and put the blame with us or simply to start Trials off with a bang,’ replied Jake.
Roxy still had her arm through mine and I was grateful for that. As I looked around at the various assembled vampires, I realised I still had no clue who was friendly and who wasn’t. I felt more relieved than I can say when Will emerged at the top of the stairs. He strode unerringly toward us. I felt sure he would always find me easily, and for once I found that comforting.
‘Are you all right Elinor?’ he asked when he was close to us.
‘I don’t know.’
Jake and Roxy were suddenly gone from my side, and halfway across the floor towards the stairs, before I’d even missed them. Will lowered his tall frame onto the sofa next to me. He placed cool fingers to my face and turned me to look at him. ‘I am more sorry than you could ever know for what you have just witnessed.’
Tears filled my eyes at his quiet words, and he wrapped his arms around me, pulling me close. ‘Khiara’s love of the macabre does not seem to have lessened much over the years.’
‘Why would she do something so terrible to one of her own people?’
‘Khiara rarely cares for anyone, she is interested only in power and control.’
‘But what can it achieve?’
‘Proof to me that she cares not whom she destroys, and if she can do this to one of her own, she is capable of far worse to one of my people.’
‘Can you keep everyone safe?’
Will released me, keeping one arm around my shoulders. ‘The truth is, I fear not. My main concern now is to keep you away from her.’
I shivered.
‘Would you like to go home?’
‘More than anything … but—’
‘The body has been removed, there is no trace.’
Will stood and helped me to my feet. ‘Luke will drive us.’
We walked slowly back toward the stairs, and Will kept his arm firmly around me. At that moment I felt as though I never wanted to let him out of my sight again. I’d never felt so insecure before in my life, if it was, in fact, insecurity I felt.
Luke appeared at the foot of the stairs, almost as though he’d materialised from thin air. ‘Do you need a ride home?’
Will nodded. ‘Please. Perhaps, afterwards, you would be good enough to oversee the securing of the club for me?’
Luke nodded, and led the way to the front doors. I stiffened as we neared the place where Vincente’s mutilated body had been, and Will’s arm tightened around me.
I tried to keep my eyes straight ahead, but couldn’t help a sidewise glance. There was nothing to see.
As we drove away from the club I began to relax slightly, and the closer we got to Highgate, the better I felt. I knew I’d feel even better once the gates and the doors were secured against the outside world.
Two more nights passed and there had still been no news of Khiara. I wondered whether I was the only one who desperately hoped she’d gone back to Italy.
Will was non-commital, slipping into his inscrutable ‘Elder’ mode.
I felt as though everything had happened too fast, and I was trapped on a rollercoaster careering madly out of control. The confrontation with Edward Oldman had been shocking enough, but with Trials following so closely, my grip on reality seemed to have slipped. The phone rang constantly, which didn’t help my shredded nerves.
After four more nights of constant phone calls and no more news, Luke arrived for a meeting with Will. I fully expected to be banished to another room, but strangely I wasn’t.
‘Katarina and Josephine are stirring up trouble amongst the ranks.’ Luke sat in one of the armchairs.
I wouldn’t say I felt overly surprised by that piece of information.
‘In what way?’ Will’s voice was mild.
‘Saying one of our people must have killed Vincente and kidnapped Khiara.’
Will gave a short laugh. ‘Yes, I have heard that amusing little ditty. In fact, I probably have the bloody t-shirt.’
‘Don’t you think Khiara could be hiding just so we can be blamed?’ I joined in the conversation. It all seemed clear as crystal to me. Scheming bitch. It was a good way to ensure Will couldn’t beat her at the Trial thingies.
Luke shrugged and looked at Will, who was busy blowing perfect smoke rings at the ceiling. Good to know he was taking everything so seriously.
‘What do you think Will?’ asked Luke.
Will leaned forward and extinguished his cigarette in the ashtray. ‘It is, of course, possible. But I must admit I do not have a clue what to do at the moment. Perhaps we should nail a “missing” poster on a lamp post in the immediate vicinity?’
I began mentally to write the copy.
Missing – one Italian female vampire.
Black hair, pointy teeth and a very nasty temper.
Answers (sometimes) to the name ‘Khiara’.
The phone rang, Will sighed heavily and got up to answer it. Plucking the phone from its hub, he spoke curtly into it. ‘Speak to me.’
I could hear a female voice chattering away, which verged on hysterical, but I couldn’t make out the actual words.
‘Preferably in English.’
There was a slight pause and then the voice continued at a slower pace.
‘Very well, we shall come over.’ Will replaced the phone and turned to face us, his expression stern. ‘It would appear Grigori has been attacked.’
‘Destroyed?’ Luke asked the question I hadn’t wanted to.
‘No, for some reason, he has been left alive. Presumably so he can tell us all a tale.’
Luke muttered a curse.
Will continued, ‘He is barely conscious and has been badly beaten, burned, and bound in silver chains with crosses.’
I shivered, remembering the pain of just one small silver belly bolt. ‘Do you think it could be a trap?’
‘It was certainly a trap for Grigori, one way or another.’
‘If it’s true.’
He looked at me then, and raised a dark eyebrow. ‘When did you get so cynical?’
I shrugged. ‘Around twelve years old.’
Will’s steady gaze appraised me. ‘That matter has been resolved.’
I wondered if it had. I didn’t want to think about Edward Oldman ever again. Part of me wished I’d let Will kill him, although deep down I knew I could never have lived with it. Just seeing him again, after all those years, had brought some of the old nightmares to the surface. But I knew now was not the time to talk about it.
I glanced at Luke who had been watching both of us with a strange look on his face. Suddenly, he smiled. ‘I’ve known Will for more than a hundred years, yet I’ve never seen him look at a woman the way he looks at you.’
I thought Will may well dispute Luke’s words, but he just threw me an amused glance. ‘Thanks for that Luke, you have just ruined my reputation as an incorrigible flirt.’
‘I never said you weren’t a flirt.’ Luke grinned. ‘Just that none of the other women meant anything. No one has until Ellie.’
Will’s eyes glinted. ‘I believe she knows that.’
Did I? I’d never been very good at having any kind of personal conversations, and the fact that one had suddenly become a three-way conversation was considerably adding to my discomfort.
‘It is a good job vampires do not blush.’ Will smiled, touching my cheek gently. ‘Otherwise I have a feeling my little fledgling’s cheeks would be matching her wonderful titian hair by now.’
‘Are we going or not?’ I stalked over to the door with as much dignity as I could, which thanks to years of dance training was quite considerable.
Luke opened the drawing room door for me with an exagg
erated flourish, and as I went through he said to Will, ‘Mind you, she is lovely.’
‘And I am exceedingly jealous with a very violent temper.’ Will followed me out.
‘Don’t worry, she only has eyes for you.’
‘Just stop—God—how old are you two? You’re like a couple of adolescent schoolboys.’ I stood by the front door with my hands on my hips, and looked back at them as they stood together outside the drawing room. Mouth-wateringly gorgeous, and definitely dangerous, they were the kind of men most women could only dream about – if their imagination stretched that far.
‘We are merely trying to lighten a distressing situation.’ Will smiled. ‘Shall we go?’
After securing the house and gates, we got into Luke’s car, and he drove smoothly away. When we neared Chalk Farm, Luke turned into Adelaide Road, one of the many residential roads that led to Camden High Street.
Just before the main road, he took a left turn onto Eton Road, and I looked out at the elegant Victorian terraced houses. Who knew what secrets lurked behind their doors? I shivered again. Even with Will and Luke beside me, I wasn’t feeling up to whatever was in there.
Luke pulled up under a Residents’ Permit Only sign and turned off the ignition. We sat in silence for a few minutes.
‘Showtime,’ Will announced into the darkness, and I jumped.
I glared at him, and he leaned in to kiss me gently on the forehead. ‘Come on, let us get this over with.’
We got out of the car, and Will ran lightly up the steps to the front door. After unlocking the door with a key from a large bunch of keys, he motioned us to follow.
I went in, and Luke followed me, closing the door behind him.
The sound of the door closing had an ominous finality about it, and I didn’t like it one bit.
The vampire coming towards us I didn’t like one bit either.
Katarina, of course.
She was casually dressed for once, in tight-fitting blue jeans and a red velvet hooded sweatshirt. She looked almost human, but where she came from, that was probably an insult.
‘Katarina.’ Will’s voice was cold.
She took his saying her name as an invitation, and ran to him flinging her arms around his neck.
I really didn’t like her.
Will disengaged her arms none too gently, pushing her away from him at the same time. ‘Cut the theatrics. Just tell me what has happened.’
She gave him a baleful look, which would have cowed most men I’m sure. But Will is very definitely not most men.
‘Grigori is in there,’ she pointed at a door to my left.
OK, I very nearly felt a bit sorry for her then, but she suddenly shot me a venomous look, and all sympathy evaporated.
Will nodded and went to the left-hand door with Luke and myself following. Grigori was lying on a sofa, wearing nothing but a pair of black trousers, which were torn and filthy. His face was barely recognisable, it was horribly swollen with so many cuts, bruises and bites all over it, I doubt even his own mother would have known him. Both his eyelids were bruised and inflamed, and his eyes were partially closed. His large chest had been slashed with what could only have been a sword, because the wounds were deep and long. Cross-shaped burns covered almost every part of his flesh, whilst angry, weeping welts marred his upper body, and had almost certainly been caused by silver chains.
I couldn’t begin to guess how anyone had managed to overpower such a giant of a man. Even if he’d been human, he would still have been a force to be reckoned with. The wounds were so similar to those of Vincente that I found myself picturing that dreadful scene again.
Unfortunately for Grigori, he was still conscious, and whoever had done this had clearly intended him to remain so, which meant they knew exactly what they were doing.
‘What happened Grigori?’ Will stood close to him and stared down at his battered face.
‘They have my mistress,’ he rasped through his swollen, black lips.
‘Is that so? And “they” were?’
‘Masked.’
‘Handy.’
Grigori’s eyelids fluttered closed, and I glanced at Will’s stern face. His expression looked uncompromising. I went to speak, but he lifted a hand without looking at me, and I swallowed the words. I stared back at Grigori’s swollen, beaten and bitten face, and his scarred body; surely no one would deliberately hurt one of their own people so badly. Would they? Could it really be some kind of trap?
Will strode to the door and I looked to Luke for guidance. He nodded and gestured that I should follow Will, which for once I did reluctantly.
He went a short way down the narrow dark hall and stopped at a door on the right-hand side. Opening the door, he turned to me. ‘It would be better if you waited in here, Elinor.’
I went into the room and heard him shut the door behind me, and breathed a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel better for long, because I found myself face to face with both Katarina and Josephine.
Josephine was seated in a large armchair, elegantly dressed in slim-fitting black trousers and a loose knitted blue jumper, perfectly flattering her pale beauty. Her blonde hair hung loose to her shoulders like a shining waterfall, and she pushed it back from her face with a languid, almost bored movement. Her cold, light blue eyes raked down my body and back up to my face, although she didn’t speak.
Katarina perched on one of the arms of the chair, looking like an evil little gnome, and she glared at me with such open hatred that I took a step back.
‘Hallo fledgling,’ said Josephine in her clear, cold voice. ‘How very unusual not to see you attached to your Master.’
I held my arms out to my sides and waved my fingers. ‘No strings.’
Katarina’s face twisted in a contemptuous sneer. ‘How long do you think you can hold onto Will, fledgling?’
Great. Just to make my week even more perfect, I was facing a confrontation with the bitchy twins of evil from Will’s chequered past. I glanced down at the beautiful emerald ring glinting on the third finger of my left hand, its fiery depths still reminded me of the green lights in his eyes. I looked back at the vampire gnome. ‘I don’t think that’s any of your damn business.’
Josephine snorted with derision. ‘If Khiara couldn’t hold him, then you definitely have no chance at all.’
‘Khiara hasn’t been with him for a long time. What can I say? Except he obviously prefers a younger woman.’
Both female vampires were suddenly very close, and invading my personal space.
These women were out to hurt me for reasons I knew nothing about. I couldn’t believe it was just because of Will – gorgeous though he certainly is – there had to be more to it than that.
Will is only two rooms away, I reassured myself. I didn’t really believe they would dare try anything with him so close. They might be psychotic, but I didn’t think they were suicidal. Thoughts flew around inside my head at manic speed, whilst I kept both women in sight.
They began to circle me in opposite directions, for all the world like hungry sharks, making it really difficult to keep them both in my sights at the same time.
Katarina ran long, red-painted fingernails down my cheek, whilst Josephine came close behind me, pulling long strands of my hair between her slim fingers. She began to pull my hair gently at first, then harder, and finally she twined it around her fingers, so she could force my head back to expose my throat. I struggled to free my hair but she only held it even tighter.
I could feel their icy breath on my face now. They were so close they hemmed me in, and I didn’t think I’d be able to fight them both off, but I’d make damn sure I took one of them down.
Katarina laughed suddenly, a sound like shards of ice shattering. It was the same laugh I’d heard in my nightmare weeks ago. I recognised i
t. My nightmare had suddenly become real life.
‘Oh poor little fledgling. So young and so afraid,’ she mocked. ‘How will you ever become a real vampire?’
‘I have a good teacher.’ I struggled against Josephine’s vicious hold on my hair.
Both women laughed nastily. Katarina suddenly dug her fingernails deep into my cheek, and raked her nails down my face and exposed throat with one swift malicious strike. I screamed as loudly as I could, and shoved her away from me with all my bodily strength. She lost her balance and fell to the floor, but sprang to her feet again in seconds. She’d grabbed my arms before I had a chance to do anything to Josephine.
The door behind us crashed open.
‘What the fuck is going on in here?’ Will’s voice.
Relief flooded through me at the sound of his voice. Katarina and Josephine let go of me instantly as if I’d burnt them.
They turned to look at him innocently, and Katarina smiled sweetly. ‘Just a little female bonding,’ she purred.
Will came further into the room and, grabbing an arm of each woman, hauled them roughly away from me. They hissed and spat, which had no effect on him whatsoever.
He put his body between us and looked at me properly for the first time, noticing the scratches on my cheek and throat made by Katarina’s talons. I felt the cool blood as it seeped from the wounds and trickled slowly down my skin.
Will narrowed his eyes. ‘Which one of them did that?’
Both women looked really afraid now. I wasn’t sure I should give him the answer, I felt afraid of what he might do.
‘Elinor?’
I shook my head slightly.
‘I see.’
With a blur of movement, he punched suddenly backwards, hitting both women simultaneously.
Both fell to the floor.
‘Now that is a definite improvement.’ He came close and kissed the blood from my face. ‘Blood-thirsty bitches. Always have been, and always will be, unless they cross me again, in which case they will cease to exist altogether.’
Katarina and Josephine chose that moment to stir, and Will released me to go back to them. He walked forward and stood on each woman’s arm, to prevent them from moving.
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