He stumbled back and his lips parted uttering a silent cry as I wrapped my fingers around his heart. I kept his body close to mine to avoid spilling his blood in my sister’s room.
“Such a coward,” I uttered as I dragged him down the stairs. I threw him out on the drive and Q5 appeared armless from behind the conifers. He looked from the body to me and his jaw dropped as his eyes widened.
As he approached I threw him his arm and tore Q’s shirt into a bandage so that he could hold it in place.
“Thanks I guess.”
“You’re welcome, do you have a light?”
“You want to smoke, now?”
I shook my head and pointed at the body, “You have to burn the remains.”
“But the flame won’t burn hot enough, I’ve stud…”
“He isn’t mortal; we’re different, save your biology for class.”
“Oh,” he said, as he handed me his lighter, on the case was a picture of an angry panda and I shook my head, my patience with the modern world wearing thin.
Once Q’s body was alight I walked Q5 into the house and called Levi to come and pick us up.
“So, what’s your real name?”
“Brian,” he said, moping, holding onto his arm.
“How old are you?”
“Seventeen.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Why are you sorry? You didn’t ruin my life and turn me into a nameless monster. You’ve got nothing to be sorry about, I’m the bad guy.”
“You’re not so bad, unlike your friend.”
“He wasn’t my friend, he called me Q5 for God’s sake,” he started to laugh and he shook his head, “Q5, what does that even mean?” He continued to laugh and only paused when Levi walked into the room, his light cleansing the shadows from the entire house.
“Don’t worry, he’s ‘armless,” I said softly, watching Brian from the corner of my eye.
“Don’t give up your day job,” he muttered, turning to look up at Levi.
Levi’s smile disappeared as Brian met his now empty eyes.
“Your boss?” he asked, turning to look back at me.
I shook my head and Levi smirked as he walked around to stand behind me, his hands resting, poised, on my shoulders.
“Why shouldn’t I kill you?” Levi asked bluntly.
Brian looked to me, worry in the backs of his eyes, calming as I smiled lightly to him. “To tell you the truth I expected this,” he said quietly, “I know that you are the good guys in all of this, I loved my life before, my family, and I know that if they win then it’ll all be gone, and I’ll lose every hope of getting some sort of normality back.”
“You expected this?”
I walked over to where Brian was sitting and I sat down next to him, “I want to trust you Brian, I want to help you get your life back, we just need you to tell us everything that you know about the corruption, and Bernadette.”
He nodded vigorously and rested his healing arm onto his lap. “I was taken because of my technical abilities; I suppose you could say that I have been somewhat of a detective for them.” He looked around the room and chewed on his bottom lip before he continued, dropping a bomb bigger than either I or Levi could have ever imagined. “They had already started work on a tracking system, I refined it and now I can tell you where every immortal in London is and what they’re doing.”
“And the corruption, they have this?”
He shook his head and wavered his hand in the air, “Technically yes, but I am the only one who can get onto the programme and the only one who knows how to use it. Even if they cracked my passwords they wouldn’t know what to do with it. I could get it for you,” he added, shocking us both with his nonchalant attitude.
I looked to Levi who was frowning across at Brian. “Victor,” Levi began, “perhaps he could tell Victor where it is and he could get it.”
“Do you think we could get away with that?” I asked, looking between them both.
Brian shrugged, “Sure, they let any old dead man in. As long as your heart doesn’t beat you’re welcome.”
“Now, tell us what you know about Bernadette.”
The corruption’s Bernadette had fifteen followers in London still alive. The others that we had taken out had been a part of the seven other leader’s tribes.
Brian had not only spent his time with the corruption researching us, but he had done his fair share of snooping into the corruption, which was what led him to seek me out, either to be killed or to be of use. He had discovered that there were seven major tribes working together under one power, this power didn’t have a known name, and there was nothing anywhere that suggested that it even existed.
Bernadette was the youngest leader out of the seven, being only two hundred and fifty years old, but she was by far the craziest. She had caused outrage within the tribes as instead of retreating in early November she had continued her attacks and by doing so risked exposure. However, when her plans became apparent to the other leaders they chose not to intervene, giving her the chance to prove herself by taking me out of the picture, and every other hunter that was against their cause.
Levi, Brian and I returned to George’s home and left him to stay with Oliver in the underground servant’s quarters. He was reluctant, but he understood our hesitation to trust him. He had told Victor where to find his computer, and instructed him only to take the hard drive, instructing him on how to do so.
Victor was confident, but when wasn’t he? The ball was in a matter of days and I had no doubt that they would be trying their damndest to open the programme. Without Brian they had no clue where we were or what we were doing, giving us a distinct advantage.
Before he left, two nights before the ball was set to take place, Victor walked with me to the end of George’s driveway.
“I need to ask you something,” he started.
I smiled at his sudden anxiety, “Shoot.”
He took my hand and held it to his chest, “Tell me now, will I have anything to come back to?”
“What do you…?”
“You know what I mean Victoria. Will I have you to come back to?”
I met his eyes and knew that this was his attempt at trying to convince me to stay, or at least to convince me to take him with me. I knew what he needed to hear and I wasn’t stupid enough to tell him the truth. “Yes,” I said quietly, “I’ll be here when you get back.”
He let out a breath and kissed my forehead, pausing for a second, his shadows taking ownership of my body. His fingers teased my lips and before his lips parted to meet mine I stepped from his dark grasp and stood, mouth open, eyes wide, watching him hopelessly.
“I’ll be here,” I said one last time.
He bowed his head and ran out into the night.
I stood peacefully alone in the driveway for a minute after he had gone, alone with my thoughts, and the feeling that maybe things wouldn’t be as bad as I had feared upon my arrival in London.
Chapter 25
Victor didn’t return.
I sat beneath the canopy of my four-poster bed at Rainbow’s End and waited for Levi. We had waited the entire next day for Victor, but we heard nothing from him. It was the night before the ball and tensions were running high. I had spent the night at Rainbow’s End in an effort to calm myself, to little avail.
Levi was coming to pick me up to take me to George’s where we would all stay until it was time to act.
“You took your time,” I said as he walked into my room.
He shrugged and offered me his hand, “Gabriel wouldn’t shut up.”
“Is he giving you a hard time?”
“For such an intelligent thing you do ask the most idiotic questions.”
“Not long now and you can both return home, we have the upper hand with Brian, once we have the programme sorting the rest of them out should be no problem.”
“If we ever get our hands on it,” he muttered, “Have you heard anything from him?”
I shook my head and sighed, “He’ll be okay.”
“Hmm, come on, George wants us to do a final training session before we get ready for the ball.”
As I put my hand in his I pulled him back. Without hesitation he took me in his arms and kissed me fiercely only once, before he turned from me and left the house, his hand holding onto mine as if I was his life jacket in a sea of darkness.
“Harder!” George shouted as I leapt forward and thrust my fist into Levi’s face.
Levi dodged and kicked out knocking me off of my feet. Gabriel helped me up and frowned across to Levi.
“George, how about you show Gabriel some of your hunting techniques?” I asked as I stepped back until I felt Levi’s arms wrap around my waist.
Gabriel averted his eyes from Levi and shrugged as George approached him.
“Come on; let an old dog teach you some new tricks.”
Levi laughed as he kissed the top of my head and he pulled me out of the sight of George and my maker. “Are you ready?”
I smiled and leant against the door to George’s gym, “I’ve never been more ready.” I pushed myself off and stepped out into the corridor, “I’m going to check on Oliver and Brian.”
He closed the door behind me and shouted something inaudible into the room causing George to laugh and Gabriel to mumbled curses.
I ran down to where Brian had been staying and closed the door quietly behind me upon entering the room.
“Do you have it?” he asked, walking up to me, anxious and excited at the same time.
I shook my head conveying my own anxiety, “He hasn’t returned yet.”
“What do you mean, he hasn’t returned yet, it’s been almost two days?”
“I know,” I uttered with a sigh, “But what can I do?”
“If I had the hard drive I could find him,” he mumbled, turning from me to sit back on his bed beside Oliver.
I walked around and sat down next to him, “Do they still trust you?” I asked.
He met my eyes and knew instantly what I was really asking. He thought about it for a second before he smiled and shrugged, “Sure, but do you trust me enough to send me out on my own?”
“If you’re as clever as you say you are then I trust you to do the right thing.”
He smirked and nodded, “Right, well, shall we?” He stood and ran to the door, holding it open before I could answer.
“Be careful,” I said quietly as I opened the gates for him and ushered him out.
He smiled brightly, embracing the night’s shadows, and said, “I’ll meet you back here in an hour.”
An hour later I stood by the gate, pacing back and forth, dread poisoning my mind each time silence greeted me.
“Psst!”
My heart pounded hard against my chest and my hands shook. I span around to see Brian stood alone of the other side of the gate, his hands hanging through the iron bars.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” he said, a smirk playing on his lips.
“You didn’t scare me.”
He lifted his chin and raised his brow, “Right, tell your heart that.”
I saw a promising bulge in his pocket and pointed down to it, “Are you happy to see me or is that the hard drive?”
He sighed and took out a package, neatly wrapped in black cotton. “Do you have a computer?”
“George has one in his study, is that all you need?”
He shrugged, “Should be. What’s up?”
I turned my attention back to him, averting my eyes from the shadows beyond the gates, “Nothing, go on, I’ll be right behind you.”
Frowning and turning with a shrug he wandered down the drive and went back into the house.
“You won’t find him standing there.”
I froze at the sound of her voice.
“He’s not dead if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“Can you see them?”
Her laugh was little more than a rustling of the leaves, those that were left clinging to the frozen branches, and her voice was but a whisper of the wind through the tall dry grass on a summer’s day.
“Sometimes,” she whispered, “They don’t know what happened, but they watch over you, they are all here.”
I turned around and looked above, below, and to the side of her, but she was alone. “Why can’t I see them?”
She shrugged, “I haven’t been dead long enough to figure everything out.”
“Have you spoken to Levi?”
Clarence shook her head, her features faded as she moved as if paint washing away in a bowl of water.
“I’ve missed you.”
She graced over the gravelled driveway and held her ghostly hand up to my face, her apparition was far more distant and faint than when I had seen her in the house, I supposed it was because her body was no longer holding her to the earth.
“Good luck tomorrow,” she said.
I bowed my head and her warm soft lips pressed against my frozen skin.
When I opened my eyes she was gone and Levi was stood at the front door watching me, concern filling his eyes.
Pushing my hands into my pockets I took one last look around and walked to Levi, the one keeping me grounded, for the time being.
I crept onto my toes and kissed his lips slowly, deliberately, delicately.
“I have something for you,” he said, taking my hand.
I followed him up into our bedroom and couldn’t help the small smile that grew so innocently and freely onto my lips.
“It’s beautiful,” I uttered.
“Considering all that you have been busy with I figured that you wouldn’t have made time to buy a dress for tomorrow’s ball.”
I ran my hand along the silky material and smiled at the thought of wearing such a precious gown. It was full length and fitted, how Levi had taken my exact measurements I still to this day do not know. The colour was that of the far out ocean, the darkest blue, pure and crisp.
“I hadn’t really thought about it,” I said, laughing a little at the insignificance of the gesture. “Thank you.”
He pushed my hair over my shoulder and kissed my neck, whispering, “I have to go, but I’ll be back in time.”
I opened my eyes and shook myself as I turned to face him, with my brow furrowed I shook my head, “Where?”
He sighed and picked up a jacket, “Wait here for me.”
“Where have I heard that before,” I muttered under my breath, before I looked up to him and held my hand out towards the door, “Go.”
He pulled me into his arms and kissed me before he stole his eyes away from me and left. I waited until I heard the front door close and I fell back onto the bed, my hands over my eyes.
In my heart of hearts I knew where he was going and I knew why he was going. Levi had lived for me for the past two hundred years, and he would give up anything, everything, if it meant keeping me on the right side of the divide.
He knew that Victor meant something to me, but I knew that he hated it. As I lay in my own silence I cursed myself for getting so close to both of them. Life would have been so much simpler without love, it would have been easier to do my duty, as with no love there was no second guessing anything. Without love I could take risks that I couldn’t dream of taking having a man on both arms.
I sat up and ran my hands through my hair. It was pathetic of me to be so caught up in my love affairs. I was facing the biggest fight of my life.
As I closed the door to our room I left behind my thoughts of them both.
Brian was in George’s study with a mass of technology that I couldn’t begin to understand.
“Do you want to see?” Brian asked.
I nodded as I walked around to him and looked upon what seemed to be a huge map of the city. “So, this is it?”
He laughed and shook his head, “You old guys never appreciate this stuff. Look,” he said pointing at a gathering of red dots, “these are the bad guys,” he motioned to a second gathering of
yellow dots and looked up to me, “and this is us.”
“So red are dead?”
“Yeah, see this one here, that’s me.”
“Why is it so much smaller than the others?”
He scratched the top of his head as he said, “It’s the only real flaw to the whole thing. The sensors throughout the city can draw out immortals because of their light and darkness, it’s almost like radiation. When more than one or two of either party gathers they create a cloak for the enemy almost, the party’s radiation overpowers the enemies, hiding them from the programme.”
“Wait, you have sensors all over the city?”
“That’s all you took from that?” he asked, he shook his head and said, “Yeah, the guy they had before me had been doing some real crazy testing on our kinds, he determined the properties of our stuff and made a device that can sense it. The leaders planted them in street lights and other places all over the city. They have plans for the entire country.”
“So there never was a mole,” I uttered to myself. “If this got into the wrong hands…”
“It could mean the end of the world as we know it, yeah, which is why once I realised that I was on the wrong side I came to help or die trying.”
I rested my hands onto his shoulders and took a breath. It was bigger than I dreamt it ever could be. Whilst we were chasing bum leads the real enemy was developing a technology that could lead to the eradication of all living immortals.
Chapter 26
I stood outside with one of George’s cigars in hand. My hair was on top of my head in rollers and I was wrapped up in my dressing gown. The night had passed without trouble. I had no doubt the other side were just as anxious for the evening’s events as we were.
“Rose?”
His voice was something of a constant reminder of whom and where I was.
I took a breath and held out my hand to him. As I closed my eyes I painted a smile onto my lips, “I’m here.”
He smiled, his breath relieving him of his tension, and squeezed my hand before dropping it. “Do you think we can do this?”
“You’re not getting cold feet are you?” I asked, looking up to him.
An Immortal in London: Corruption Page 21