A Bloody London Tale (Book 2): The Epidemic

by Prichard, Cornelius

  Emma walked into the hallway, carrying two bags of blood. “As far as a hunter is concerned all vampires are evil, whether you are or not, and it’s going to be the hunters on the telly. They’re the ones waxing lyrical about how horrible vampires are, how we’d be better off dead, how this epidemic is obviously something we all planned…” She shook her head. “Yeah, because I planned for this to happen to me.”

  Tom looked at me and I looked at Tom. “In that case we need to get some vampires on, don’t we?” He grinned as he walked over to the phone. “What’s the number of that newsroom?”

  For a moment everyone was silent and then Emma rattled off the number. “Is this a good idea?” I looked between Jack and Emma as Tom told whoever it was that answered he was one of the newly created vampires. “Surely this is going to make things worse?”

  “It can’t. People view as all as evil predators. All Tom will do is give them a voice.” Jack sighed. “I’m not sure he should be doing it, but in the end talking to the people who believe we are all evil might well be the best thing he can do.”

  “Ah, now, this is interesting. According to my producer we have a vampire on the phone. Hello, Tom.”

  “Hello, Len.” Tom looked over at us and smiled. “I’m looking forward to setting you straight, because you’ve been told far too many lies about vampires by people who hate us.”

  “Hating you and wanting to eradicate you all aren’t the same thing.”

  “Surely you must hate us, if you aren’t willing to stop and ask me if I’m actually feeding from humans.”

  Len looked surprised. “What are you drinking?”

  “Cow’s blood at the moment. Do you have anything against that?”

  “No, I don’t.” Len looked at the hunter. “When did you become a vampire?”

  “Four days ago. I’m with two other newly created vampires who are as young as I am and we’re all learning how to cope with what happened to us together, because we didn’t ask to become vampires. I went on a trip to Romania with a friend and came back a vampire.” Tom shook his head. “If I’d had a choice I wouldn’t have become a vampire.”

  “I had a phone call from one of the vampires I know in Romania. She believes, the same way I do, someone is using the mad vampire over there as a cover to do this to as many people as possible. Isabella also had a couple of interesting theories - she believes the mad vampire was created on purpose and that someone on the flights might actually be changing you when you’re on them.”

  “How is that possible? I thought a human had to be bitten by a vampire.”

  “So did I, but I’ve been thinking about it and it seems possible someone might be able to strengthen the chemicals in a vampire’s saliva in such a way drinking them could turn you into a vampire. Someone could have put this in to the water of everyone on the flight, but only those who were most susceptible would change into vampires.”

  “Or they might turn in the next couple of days.” Emma shook her head. “We have no idea how this might affect people long term, Jack.” I could hear the worry in her voice. “How could someone do that?”

  “We think it’s possible they might have been offered immortality in return for doing what they did, because there are people out there who want to be vampires. They’d do anything for immortality, so something like this… it wouldn’t bother them.”

  Lena

  “Thank you.”

  I looked at the woman who had given birth to me. “There’s nothing to thank me for.”

  “Not everyone would have stepped in.”

  “Maybe not, but I wasn’t going to let Remus hurt you. He looked the same way he did when he attacked my parents.”

  “The Remus I loved wouldn’t have done that.” Tereza sighed. “I have no idea why he made the decision he did.”

  “How do we even know it was a decision?” I thought back to the day it happened. “Mama and Papa…” I looked at her. “Do you mind me calling them that?”

  “Of course not, darling. They were your parents. I may have given birth to you, but that doesn’t make me anything, because I abandoned you.”

  “We were going home, just after sunset. They hadn’t planned on being out that later. They were worried something might happen and I wasn’t. I didn’t know anything about vampires them. Mama didn’t want me to know anything about them, I think, because she wanted me to have a normal childhood. Someone grabbed Mama when we were about ten minutes away. Mama didn’t scream, so I didn’t know anything was wrong until Remus dropped her to the ground, but then it was obvious. Even in the twilight I could tell she was far too pale. Papa… I was too focused on Mama to see what happened to him. All I knew was that he was on the floor, like Mama, and the person who’d hurt them both was staring at me. There was nothing in his eyes. I don’t know if it was too dark for me to see anything, but when his eyes went the same way tonight I knew he was going to attack you.”

  “You ran for home after that.”

  I nodded, even though it wasn’t a question. “It was the only logical thing I could do, Tereza. I thought he was going to hurt me the same way he hurt Mama and Papa. After they were buried Grandmama waited by their graves while Grandpapa told me everything I could ever want to know about vampires. When I asked him why someone would hurt Mama and Papa he told me he didn’t know, but I know now he was avoiding the subject. He didn’t want to tell me it was my birth father who killed my parents.”

  “He must have been watching you for a while.”

  “That’s what I thought.” I nibbled my lip. “Remus seems… it’s like there are two sides to him.”

  “Becoming a vampire doesn’t change someone straight away, but it does have an effect. He’s been alone for a long time, and he thought I was dead, and…” Tereza sighed. “I can’t understand why he thought Sori stole you. It doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Maybe he didn’t. Maybe he’s just saying that to make us believe he had a reason for what he did, when he didn’t. He simply lost it.” I shrugged. “The more time I spend talking with people the harder it is for me to know what is going through their heads. People keep lying, or they don’t tell the whole story, or they make up stories for themselves, to explain they they made the decision they did.”

  “I’ve seen that a lot. Remus, I think, wants us to believe his story, but there doesn’t seem to be any other reason for what he did to Sori.”

  “Could he have been thinking about changing her?” I studied Tereza. “I know he said he loved you, but he could have love Mama as much as he loved you, only she was married to someone else.”

  “Why would he have wanted to change me if he was in love with Sori?”

  “He didn’t have to be in love with one of you at a time. People love more than one person all the time. It’s possible he was in love with both of you and when you were his it didn’t matter as much, but then you weren’t there, Mama had me and Papa, and Remus was angry. I don’t know why he killed Mama first. Maybe he’d already propositioned her. Maybe she said no to him the same way you did and it made him far more angry than he had been when you said no, because you were protecting his baby.” I sighed. “There are far too many maybes. I don’t have the answers to all the questions. What I do know is Remus killed my parents. I’m not going to find it easy to forgive him for that.”

  “I don’t expect you would.” Tereza shook her head. “I’m so sorry. If I’d let him change me when he asked maybe we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

  “No, we probably wouldn’t, and I wouldn’t be alive, so I don’t entirely think it was the worst choice you could have made. Throwing yourself in the river…”

  “When I woke up I realised what a terrible idea it was. I don’t know what it was about being a vampire that cleared my mind, but it seemed as though whatever it was making me feel so helpless had gone entirely. I wish that could have happened before I did something so incredibly stupid.” She reached out and took my hand. “You were never the problem, Lena. Whenever I
saw you I was swamped with love, but then I felt like I didn’t deserve it, and you’d look at me with Remus’s eyes, and I’d start hating myself even more than I did before. My head was a mess. If I’d talked to someone about it that might have helped. I didn’t. I couldn’t. Admitting there was a problem, even to Sori, was impossible.”

  “How did you convince Mama to take me?”

  “I didn’t really need to do a lot of convincing. Sori had just lost her baby and she could see how much trouble I was having coping. Over and over she told me she’d be bringing you back to me in the future, and that made things worse. She didn’t mean to. My lovely best friend was just doing what she thought was best and I will always remember that. Knowing she was just taking you until I felt like I could cope… I can’t believe Remus killed her. I wish I could talk to her. I wish I could tell her how much she meant to me.”

  “She knew. Mama knew. If she didn’t she wouldn’t have been willing to give me the letter you wrote and Grandpapa told me she thought that was one of the most important things.” I looked at Tereza. “It’s hard for me to accept you’re really here. I thought you were dead, Tereza, and you aren’t.”

  “I know. I had some really trouble accept what happened as well.” She brushed a hand through her hair. “I didn’t know I could become a vampire I thought it had been long enough, but apparently having you meant every bite was amplified. Explaining it isn’t easy. This isn’t something I know an awful lot about. My mentor explained it to me as best she could and I still don’t truly understand why it happened.”

  “Can I talk to your mentor?”

  “Possibly. She’s a little bit busy at the moment dealing with the chaos.” Tereza shrugged. “People are talking about this being done on purpose, but a vampire who’s trying to make it so that vampires and humans have to live together. I’m not a part of all that. I wanted to come and see you instead.”

  “How did you know where I was?”

  Amalia

  “Why didn’t you tell me your girlfriend was here?” I shook my head. “Why didn’t you tell me you had a girlfriend?”

  Miron shook his head and walked out. Most of the hunters followed him, but one stayed. Luca and I looked at each other. “He didn’t tell you because he knew what he was planning on doing from the moment this happened. He’s been spending a lot of time with us in the last couple of weeks. I can’t tell you what’s changed, but I know for certain he has.”

  “Yeah, I noticed.” Sighing, I brushed a hand through my hair. “Thanks for sticking up for me.”

  “I don’t believe what they believe. I’m not as vocal as you are, but not all vampires are evil.”

  “Still, I do appreciate it. I know you have to be careful.”

  “Not anymore I don’t.” He studied me. “You remember the last conversation we had about my father?” I nodded. “He’s wrong to think the way he does, he’s wrong to pass it on to the other hunters, and I finally had the courage to tell him that.”

  “Luca…”

  “Lia, I had to.” He reached out and took my hand. “I’ve been in love with you for far too long not to do it, so now this doesn’t have to be a secret.”

  “Where are you staying?”

  For a long time he was silent. “Yeah, I’m not really staying anywhere.” He shrugged. “I hunt during the nights and I sleep during the day, so it’s not as though it’s all that dangerous.”

  “I’ll talk to Papa.”

  “No, I can’t ask you to do that.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “I don’t believe there was any asking involved. I told you what I was going to to and that’s what I’m going to do, so live with it.” I shook my head. “I can’t believe you’d do that.”

  “Do you know how much I love you? Do you know how hard it was for me to keep my mouth shut when he kept putting you down, over and over?” He pulled me close to him. “Now I don’t have to deal with it any longer and I can do this.” He kissed me. “He can’t stop me.”

  “No, your father can’t, but I can.” Papa walked into the room with Isabella by his side. “We came to see what was taking you so long, sweetheart.”

  “Luca and I were having a conversation.” I looked at Papa. “He needs somewhere to stay.”

  “I’m not certain that’s a good idea. Will you be able to keep your hands to yourself, Luca?”

  “Probably not.” I didn’t need to look at him to know he was smiling. “I love your daughter, Ciprian. I’ve been in love with her ever since she told me I was a fool for seeing things in black and white. If it hadn’t been for her I wouldn’t be the person I am now and that’s something I will always be grateful to her for.”

  “He speaks well, brother. Does he walk the talk, however? That’s the important thing.” Isabella stepped forward. “I am a vampire, young man. What are you going to do about it?”

  “Should I do anything about it? You seem to be one of the vampires here who are helping the newly created…”

  “Everyone down.” I tugged Luca down as I moved and saw Papa doing the same thing to Isabella. An arrow went through where Isabella had been seconds before. “I didn’t think I’d be in time.”

  We all looked at the bolt and then Papa looked at me. “How did you know?”

  “I heard the crossbow.” I didn’t move, but Luca went over to the window. “It’s Miron.”

  He’s not out there now, but I don’t doubt you’re right.” Luca moved to help Papa up, and then Isabella, while I stood. “Are you both alright?”

  “Thanks to Lia.” Isabella wrapped her arms around me. “Luca’s welcome in your home. He was willing to help a vampire stand up.”

  I found myself laughing, but I knew if I hadn’t started laughing I would have burst into tears. “I think the best thing we can do is leave the hospital. Miron might come back to try again. He hates vampires.”

  “How does he even know I am a vampire?”

  “You came in with Papa, which means you’re probably our aunt. There’s no certainty, but that wouldn’t have bothered Miron, because I think he’s blaming everyone for his girlfriend ending up in here.”

  “Miron had a girlfriend?” At least I wasn’t the only one who didn’t know. “Since when?”

  Gareth

  “You’re really going to do this.” Sam looked between me and Tom. “You’re both going to go on live telly and talk to the nation.”

  “What other options do we have?” I wasn’t entirely certain I agreed it was the only one, but it was definitely something I believed we needed to do. “We can let the hunters talk about us as though we’re part of some conspiracy or we can go on the offensive.” Even Jack agreed with that. “Personally I’d rather go on the offensive.”

  “In that case we need to work out what we hope to achieve from this.” Sam took out a notebook and a pen. “I trust you to say the right things, Gareth, and keep the viewers focused on us being victims.”

  “Do we mention how we think we became vampires or how we thought we become vampires?” Sam scribbled down a note. “I think we need to stick with telling the truth as much as possible, but do we want whoever it is doing this to know we’re on to them.”

  “We don’t want them to know.” Tom sounded certain. “Jack’s been trying to sort something with that and we don’t want to get in the middle of things. I think we stick with the getting bitten in Romania story, because we don’t really know what happened, so it’s not truly a lie. It’s just a part truth.” I nodded. “What we want out of this is the chance to live alongside the humans. We didn’t ask to become vampires, but now we are the best thing we can do is fight for the rights of all vampires, and one of the things were definitely need is access to blood.”

  “Butchers open at night.” Sam scribbled it down. “Possibly willing human donors, but it’s probably best not to say too much about that.” He looked at us. “I think we also need to say something about houses being safe for us. Shutters for the windows is often a sign to hunters and it’s not f
air of them to attack everyone who happens to have shutters.”

  “No, it’s not.” Tom brushed a hand through his hair. “So we need to talk safety for ourselves and from the hunters, about blood, about the possibility of jobs… this is going to end up being a long list of things we want.”

  “Does that makes it a bad thing?”

  “Probably not.”

  There was a knock on the door. Jack was in charge of that, but that didn’t stop me from going to see who it was. “Olivia?”

  “Hi, Jack.” She smiled at him. “I heard you have some newbies who are going on the telly. I wanted to have a chat with them, to see what they were up to, because I think it’s important everyone working on a solution to this mess is working together.”

  “You’ve only been a vampire for a week.”

  “Does that mean I can’t be involved?” She reached out and touched his cheek. “I don’t need you to protect me. I’m doing okay. Ben and I have had a couple of long conversations, so I think we should be fine, once I get used to this whole being a vampire thing.”

  Shaking his head, he stepped back. “Young vampires. You’re all pushing for a change that might not happen.”

  “No, it might not, but we should still try.”

  When she looked up she saw me. “Hello.” She smiled. “I’m Olivia.”

  “Gareth.”

  “Good. How are you getting on with your list of wants?”

  “You’re best off coming in here if you want the answer to that question.”

  Nodding, she walked over to me. “I’m in the same position you are.”

  “I heard. How are you getting on?”

  “The process is a slow one, but I’ll be okay in the end, the same way you will. I think the most important thing at the moment is all working towards the same aims. I’m working with a couple of vampires who have contacts at 10 Downing Street, in the hope I’ll be able to talk with someone there about what we need. You are the guys who are going to be on telly, though, so we can’t be talking about different things - because if we do they’ll know we aren’t all working together.”