“There’s more. Something else is there by the dam and I don’t think it’s a vampire. It’s too big.”
Somehow, asking “Can we go home now, please?” made a hell of a lot of sense. Only problem was, home was no longer an option. They were in too deep.
Chapter 33
In the Dark Park
Bijou stole a car way too quickly. They’d paused by a silver Golf Polo parked down a side street, and Bijou had walked up to it as if it were hers, held out her palm and the alarm chirped off cheerfully even as the doors unlocked.
Helen shook her head, preferring not to think too much how this had happened. It was better to climb in and shut up as the engine purred into life and Bijou moved them away from the growing threat.
“Where are we going?”
Bijou drove like a maniac, the car’s rev-counter in the red every time she pushed the engine to its limit. “A place I know. We’ll be safe until morning.”
“Why’re you doing this for me?”
“You’re too good for them. They’ll want you. Hell, they’ll want me too after this night.” Bijou’s laugh sounded harsh, with a bitter edge to it.
“Too good for what?”
“Vampires.”
A memory of the raven-haired woman’s bloodstained mouth sent a shiver through Helen. Two days ago she would have laughed at the idea. Today she was not so sure.
Next to her, Bijou sniffed and wiped at her eyes, squinting at the road. Only one headlight worked and not well, at that.
“Mama Ruthie was your mom, wasn’t she?”
“Yeah. ‘Was’ is the operative word. I jus’ knew this was a bad idea, coming all the way here. But no, we couldn’t afford to let you fall into the wrong hands, oh no.”
“If I may ask, what would they do to me? Eat me? Drink my blood?”
“Any number of things. Most likely make you one of their own, a very powerful slave. This world already has too many of their kind. The balance is wrong. There are too many people and things sucking the life out of the world. Not enough sources. As you an’ me are right now, we are agents for change an’ stuff. They seek to control things, make them the same. Predictable.”
“So, now what?”
“We run. We hide. We try to get back to the DRC.”
“But there’s all that fighting up there.”
“That’s jus’ the stuff you read in the papers. Truth is, the DRC’s a big place. Not all of it has gone to shit like you see on TV and there’s plenty more places to hide.”
“But I don’t want to go to the Congo.” Helen tried to force air out of her stricken lungs while she considered the implications of Bijou’s plans.
“Well, where else do you suggest we go?”
“There’s Cape Town. I grew up there and know my way around. I’ve got friends there.”
Bijou snorted. “You really know nothing, Helen Ashfield. Cape Town’s one of the worst places you can go.”
“Why?”
“The same reason why Joburg’s a bad place. Vampires.”
“They never bothered me before.”
“Well, you hadn’t sent off that flare for a million miles right then. You first gotta learn to hide it before you can even think of setting foot inside a large city.”
“And for that I need to go to the Congo?” The chick was quite mad.
Bijou made a low sound that wasn’t really a laugh. “I know you must think I’m crazy but getting you out of the country right now is the best I can do for you.”
“Why me?” A big, helpless anger welled up inside Helen.
“Why indeed anyone? Sometimes it’s something that is passed down from mother to daughter. Sometimes it lies dormant to skip a few generations. No one knows save for the fact that once in a while some people are born who can bring magic into the world.”
“Now what? What am I supposed to do?”
“We get you someplace where the leeches won’t get you until such time as you’ve figured out how to protect yourself. Then you’re on your own. Or, you can join us an’ try to get rid of the vampires before they suck the last of the magic out of the world.”
“What if I don’t want to?”
Bijou shrugged. “Not sure. Maybe we’ll hunt you down an’ kill you so the vamps don’t get to turn you into one of them. You’d make a good vampire, Helen. You’d be very powerful. Almost as powerful as being magic.”
“I just want my old life back.”
“Sorry. No can do.”
“This is hardly fair.”
“Since when was life fair? Do you think I asked for this life? Do you think I wanted to grow up the daughter of a magician? Do you think I wanted to run around trying to save your sweet cheeks?”
“No, but–”
“No buts. Either you’re with us or you’re against us. They’re not going to leave you alone, either. You’ll end up some old vamp’s personal power supply or they’ll use you to do things you never ever considered you’d ever do.”
The conversation was going nowhere, so Helen shut her mouth and glared out the window. Bijou switched the car’s radio on to some African station that played a clamor of kwaito rhythms and said no more.
She kept checking the mirrors, never letting the car slow to a complete halt when they reached intersections. Eventually she took a side road that led to a large–and very dark–botanical garden.
“They’ll be closed,” Helen said.
“There’s always a way in.” Bijou pulled the car into a space near the exit.
“Shouldn’t we try to get out of the city instead?”
“You ever seen those nature documentaries about hunting dogs?”
“Yes.”
“Think on it a bit. It’s still early. We’ve quite a few hours of darkness ahead of us. If we run now, they’ll herd us to where they want us to run. Best we choose the territory where we’ll make our stand, where we have some form of advantage.”
“It’s a park, for fuck’s sake!” Helen hated the tears prickling at the corners of her eyes.
“Exactly! And there’s magic here that will confuse your scent and help hide us.”
“Oh,” Helen answered. More of this magic shit and she was going to puke. If it weren’t for the weird stuff going on these past few days...
“Gods, girl, you got a lot to learn. In the cities there are always spots where the magic is strongest. Sometimes the people are aware of this so they plant gardens or put up monuments. Before we go in, I want you to close your eyes for just a moment an’ try to feel out with your magical self.”
“This is stupid.”
“It may sound stupid now but it’s going to save your life someday. Trust me, okay?”
“Sure.” Helen laughed. She shook her head and closed her eyes. Okay, so she’d play along.
Of Bijou standing next to her, who breathed deeply and evenly, she was immediately aware. Then the incessant scream of insects. A low rumble of cars passed about two hundred meters to her left. The following presence she felt was the sense of not one but numerous predators closing in, single-minded in purpose, to find her.
Helen gasped and opened her eyes to stare at Bijou in shock.
“Don’t worry about them. We’ve a few minutes before we need to move.”
Bijou gestured for Helen to close her eyes again. Helen complied and tried to shove down the growing sense of desperation, of being singled out.
She must try not to panic. Breathe evenly. Do what Bijou says and she might stay alive to see the dawn.
The power was like a butterfly brushing against her cheek and Helen turned her face toward the tickling sensation.
“Good.” Bijou spoke as if from far away. “You’re a natural. You feel that? That’s inside you, too. Those dead things on our tail have the same but they’ve twisted it so that they always have to keep taking an’ taking.”
Now that she’d identified the sensation, like a balmy evening wind across her skin, Helen doubted she’d forget the feeling. Bijou b
lossomed into flame next to her. Helen did not need to look to feel the buzz radiating off her unlikely savior.
Bijou snapped her fingers and Helen jolted out of her reverie. “Okay! Now we go. If we get separated, for whatever reason, I want you to stop long enough to feel where the magic is pulling at you the strongest. Chances are you’ll find me there an’, as long as we don’t move or speak an’ we remain hidden, they shouldn’t be able to find us.”
“They’ll know we’re here, right?”
“That can’t be helped.” Bijou grasped Helen’s hand. “Now, let’s run!”
Under any other circumstances, it would have been lovely to visit the dam and its surrounding waters during less trying times but since she hadn’t been harmed yet, Helen trusted Bijou to lead her farther into the vast landscaped area.
They ran up a gradual slope, Helen knew not where, until they were hemmed in on both sides by a hedge. Were those dogs baying in the distance or was it the wild whooping of something unspeakable?
For the second time that evening her breath rasped through lungs made painful by her flight. Where would this end? Whenever she flagged in her strides, Bijou would tug, forcing her on. From where she drew her reserves she had no idea. She’d like nothing more than to sag to the ground to get oxygen into her starved bloodstream.
Without warning, Bijou twisted to their left and Helen lost her footing, pulling both of them to the lawn in a tangle of limbs. A gap in the hedge showed and Bijou had meant for them to take it, save for Helen’s ill-timed stumble.
Bijou pointed to the low rise in the gloom ahead. “Run! Get into the water, there’s a small nook that’s darker. Get in there. Don’t move. Try imagine pulling your magic in tight into your heart. Try not to breathe unless I say it’s okay.”
With a definite goal in sight, Helen pushed a last burst of fire through her limbs, almost tripping over her feet as she scrambled into a crouching run that took her the last few meters up the slope. The ground gave way beneath her feet and she flopped into thigh-deep water which splashed up into her mouth and tasted of algae and mud. The dark square beckoned–safety of sorts.
A creature howled not far behind them then another answered from up the slope.
They were trapped!
Helen sploshed through the water, grimacing when something large brushed against her leg to flash away with a burst of luminescence. A fish? She didn’t want to think too hard about what that could have been.
Of their own accord her hands sought purchase on smooth tiles, dragging her up onto a narrow slate shelf where she drew in ragged breaths, trembling.
Some distance away something ignited with a magnesium white flare before darkness settled. Where the hell was Bijou, and what was she doing?
Chapter 34
The Wild Hunt
Once Trystan opened his awareness and locked onto Helen’s Essence he couldn’t shut down the connection. Was this what it was like for sensitives, a continual abrasion of raw nerves?
“You’ve been too successful creating mental barriers,” Arwen had said after his first unsuccessful attempt.
Thereafter he’d pushed until he’d felt something shift, break almost. Now there was no going back. The process could only be described like being a radio tuned into more than one frequency and it took all his concentration to still drive the Hudson without taking out streetlights and random pedestrians along the way.
“What’s wrong with you?” Arwen asked when they once again veered to the wrong side of the road.
“Your bloody bright idea.” Trystan bit off the words. “You’ve gone and forged some sort of link between me and Helen.”
Etienne shifted forward so that he leaned on the back of Trystan’s seat. “Well, you had a thing for her already, didn’t you?”
“Well, Arwen has gone and made it worse!”
“That’s right! Blame me for everything.”
“If you hadn’t evoked Helen’s Essence in the graveyard that night, none of this would ever have happened,” Trystan said.
“That boy would still have lost it at school,” Etienne said. “Then Helen might be dead ’cause it was only because she could–”
“We don’t know that for sure, Etienne,” Arwen said.
“There was no way she could have punched him. Remember, there was a half-meter of sharp steel between Tim and Helen and he was about to bring down the killing blow. I saw the force he used bringing down his arm. Tell me, are you going to move quick enough to block your attacker with nothing more than your bare hands, especially when you haven’t had one day of martial arts training in your life? Helen’s an artist, not a frigging kung fu expert!”
Trystan tuned out their conversation as best he could and focused rather on the mesmerizing rhythm of passing streetlights. The dark star of Helen’s biggest or rather strongest pursuer flared, the signature familiar. Mantis. Of course.
If Mantis was loyal to the Black Pope then why had she made a run for it? Had the elders up in Gauteng put her up to playing double agent? Why would a vampire more than twice the age of most elders on the subcontinent prefer to serve as a jagter? Too many questions. Perhaps she was like him, too in love with freedom to be tied down. She could keep Helen for her own. Maybe this had been the opportunity for which she had been waiting. On her own Mantis was no match for half a dozen experienced jagters half her age but if she created another who had the additional skill of shaping Essence...
Trystan shivered. Give Mantis a few years to drain Helen and she could take on just about anyone. Would that be such a bad thing? She hadn’t killed him when she’d had the chance, though she’d delivered him into the hands of the Black Pope.
She was playing. The bitch had been around since the early 1400s and had had centuries to hone her craft. Trystan could not comprehend so much time. For him two centuries had already passed in a blur.
“Red light!” Arwen’s screech dragged him into the present.
He pushed his foot hard on the brake pedal and the car screamed to a halt.
Bemused, he cast about. A large dam lay on the left of the road. That was where they needed to go. Trystan grinned. “You don’t have to worry about my driving. We’re there.”
“That’s a relief.” Etienne’s fear rolled off him. Damn this state of hyper-alertness. Could he ever close himself off to those around him after this night?
“Maybe you two should stay in the car,” Trystan said.
“So we can be sitting targets?” Arwen had ice in her tone. “And, besides, why should you care?”
Trystan didn’t have an answer for her. Instead he ground his teeth and nosed the car down a leafy avenue into a long-deserted parking lot. The only other car was a silver Polo parked near the far exit. Why should he care?
Arwen’s hand was hot on his wrist, her blood rushing with her emotion. “Is it because you’ve spent enough time with us to stop seeing us as prey items, Trystan? Is this why you’ve been avoiding human contact for so many years?”
Damn! Too close to the bone. He tensed, wanting to slap the girl or find some manner in which he could shut her up. Trystan pulled the key out of the ignition then pressed it into the soft flesh of his left palm as hard as possible.
“If the two of you are going to walk with me, I want you to promise me that you’ll hide yourselves at the first sign of trouble.”
“Like that’s going to help,” Arwen said.
“I’m not staying in the car, if that’s what you’re wondering,” Etienne said. “So, vamp, if we do get into a spot of bother, what do we do?”
“Don’t run, for starters. That only triggers the chase instinct. Fire’s something that some of the more superstitious vampires dislike. Best is the old-fashioned stake through the heart routine but driving a point of wood through bone won’t be easy for either of you, you’re not strong enough to get through the rib cage,” Trystan said.
“We’ll use magic,” Arwen said. “You’re overlooking the obvious.”
He’d not c
onsidered Arwen’s skills in the matter but since she did not possess a strong Essence, her claim puzzled him.
“But you cannot generate Essence.” He frowned at her.
Arwen looked at him as if he’d sprouted a tree out of his forehead. “So? I can bend it, make it so that Etienne and I appear less...noticeable. I could summon–”
“Enough bragging! Fine! Do what you must do but don’t get in my way.”
The girl glared at him through eyes narrowed to slits.
The little trollop didn’t scare him.
“Then what are we waiting for?” Etienne asked.
“Five minutes,” Arwen spoke. “Five minutes then we’re following you, so no messing about.”
“I still don’t see what you’re hoping to achieve in this situation where you are both so hopelessly out of your league.”
Arwen fixed him with the kind of glare that would curdle milk. He wanted to laugh at her but held himself in check. When he’d been younger he’d hated it when people had told him he couldn’t do something. He’d thought himself immortal back then, until the one came who plucked him from his humanity. Trystan shoved those thoughts deep. They didn’t bear thinking of, not now, at any rate.
“Very well, mortals. Do what you must but whatever you do, don’t interfere with anything I do.”
“Unless you’re threatening Helen,” Etienne said.
Trystan did not have an answer to that. How would this evening’s turn of events resolve?
A bright pain flashed through his head, robbing him of sight for a moment with its brightness, and he clutched at his eyes and bumped his head against the steering wheel with a dull thunk.
“What’s wrong?” Etienne asked.
“Someone’s using magic,” Arwen answered. “I’ve never... Sweet Jesus, it’s the magical equivalent of an EMP.”
Trystan’s limbs lost strength and he slumped to one side, the window’s glass warm against his skin. That’s why vampires didn’t want Essence-strong humans running around and in this place with so much un-assimilated Essence swarming. Who knew what they could accomplish?
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