‘We’ll have a lot to discuss,’ Clarence said. ‘The most important thing right now is that you’re safe, and away from Rebirth. You sleep, now – you’ll be able to think clearly once you’re rested.’
Khalida nodded and leaned back on the mat, burying her face in Clarence’s jacket to mask the musty smell of the mat. Clarence paced over to where Ling had slept, and pushed her blankets back with his foot. She wasn’t going to sleep, but she closed her eyes.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Consider Becoming A Vampire
Khalida woke up to the smell of roasting meat. She blinked and sat up on the bed, her back stiff from the uncomfortable mat. The metal door was open. It was still bright outside, but everything was washed in golden light, the sun just beginning to set in the sky.
‘Clarence?’ she called.
‘I’m out here,’ he said. ‘I caught a rabbit for you.’
Khalida got to her feet, and stepped outside. The air was evening cool, and heavy with the sweet, pure scent of the countryside, tinted with the smell of cooking meat and gentle smoke. What was once a large lawn had overgrown back to nature; tall, patchy thickets of weeds and grass covered the land, until the hill sloped down to a small woodland.
Clarence was sitting in the shadow of a tree, roasting a rabbit over a fire. He looked as ruffled as Khalida had ever seen him; there was mud and dust on his shoes, his shirt sleeves rolled up, his hair dishevelled. He needed to shave, and there were shadows under his eyes. She fleetingly pictured him in the mud-soaked trenches of World War One.
‘Do you feel rested?’ he asked.
‘Not really,’ she said. ‘Did you sleep?’
‘A little,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry that I couldn’t bring you anywhere nice, but we just had to get out of London.’
‘That’s okay,’ she said. It had been hours since she had called Poppy. She guessed that she was either on her way to, or at, Mitch’s family cottage in Snowdonia, but that was more than six hours ago, now. Her heart sank; she had no idea where they were and no way of reaching them. A sensation of loneliness washed over her. She began to walk away from Clarence and further down the hill to the woodland, the long grass brushing against her legs.
‘Where are you going?’ he asked, turning the rabbit over the fire.
‘Bathroom,’ she called back.
She found a spot out of sight and beneath one of the trees, which was free from grass and plants. Despite everything, she felt peace begin to settle inside her; the countryside was idyllic. Cain had once discussed moving away from London for when they were ready to start a family, though he had wanted to move to Scotland. She bit her lip, wondering for how long he would have kept lying to her. They had decided that they would adopt if they were going to have children, but then, what was he going to do? Would he have ever told her, or would he have simply watched as his children aged past him?
She sighed and stepped back towards the house. She got back to Clarence, who was slicing off rabbit meat onto two paper plates, along with a few slices of bread, a pre-made salad, some cheese, and cut up apples.
‘It’s not a great meal, I’m afraid,’ he said, handing her a plate as she sat down next to him under the tree, ‘but it’s still a meal.’
‘No, it looks good. Thank you,’ Khalida said.
Clarence smiled. ‘It might be the last actual meal we get for a few days, now.’
‘Did you catch the rabbit?’ she asked, eating with her fingers.
‘Yes,’ he said. ‘My father used to take me hunting. My vampires instincts improved the game.’
They ate as the sun slowly sank down lower in the sky.
‘Do you ever regret not being able to enjoy the sun?’ she asked.
‘Not particularly,’ he said. ‘I was born a vampire, so I have never experienced anything other than negative connotations of sunlight for decades now. Even as a child, when I had much greater immunity to it, I always disliked the brightness and the scratching feeling of it. Why regret something that just gives you pain?’
‘I think I would miss it,’ Khalida said.
‘You’ve never lived through the night as a vampire,’ Clarence said, ‘when the cold and the dark don’t bother you. If I were made into a human, then I would miss that.’
He cut off some more rabbit meat and passed it over to her plate.
‘So,’ she asked, ‘what’s the plan now?’
‘We’ll stay here for a while,’ he said. ‘It’s not ideal, but it’ll give me time to plan ahead and prepare for us to leave the country.’
‘Won’t that just give Rebirth more time to find us?’ she asked.
‘I need time to arrange our passage out of the country,’ he said. ‘Rebirth are searching for us right now, but they’ll also be looking for us at the borders; we can’t go anywhere without new identity papers.’
‘So, I’ll be leaving everything behind,’ she said.
‘If you want to live, yes,’ Clarence said. ‘And Khalida… I think it’s time for you to consider becoming a vampire.’
‘What?’ she asked.
‘Think about it,’ Clarence said, ‘we will be on the run for a long time now. You’re a fair hunter, but you’re still human. You aren’t as strong as you could be, and you aren’t as fast. It’s dangerous for you to remain human.’
‘I don’t care, Clarence,’ she said. ‘I don’t care if that kills me. If I die, then I’ll die human.’
He rolled his eyes. ‘Then you’ll live a very short life, and Rebirth may eat you alive.’
‘I would still rather die,’ Khalida said, ‘and you know that.’
‘We have a few days here,’ Clarence said. ‘That will give enough time for the transformation period to last, and then we can begin our new lives together.’
‘No, Clarence,’ she said, ‘I don’t care. I don’t care if you think it’s the right thing to do, nor do I care if staying human kills me.’
‘You need to let go of this,’ Clarence said, calmly. ‘Please, Khalida, just trust me on this.’
‘No, I don’t,’ she snapped.
‘I’m doing this for you,’ he said. ‘I’m doing everything for you, and when I say that you should even just think about becoming a vampire, it’s for your benefit.’
‘I never asked for it,’ she said.
‘You could be a little more grateful,’ Clarence said, bitterness seeping into his voice.
‘Why?’ she asked. ‘You literally bragged about eating humans a few hours ago. You saved my sister and I from being killed – congratulations – but that doesn’t mean I owe you a goddamn thing!’
‘Your sister, at seventeen, knew what was at stake here better than you do!’ he shot back.
‘She was a teenager, for fuck’s sake!’ Khalida said.
‘She was old enough to understand what she wanted from life,’ he said. ‘You barely knew her, but I did, and she told me that she was sick of her life. The most she could have hoped for as a human was for an office job, and then becoming a housewife. On the night the Blood Thieves attacked, she was going to run away with me, and we would have done if the Blood Thieves hadn’t shown up when they did. I was going to let her live the life she deserved, the life she needed, and a life you keep trying to deny yourself. Like you really want to keep working in some decrepit rundown hospital babysitting drunks for the rest of your life. Why else would you become a hunter if you didn’t crave something else?’
‘What did you do to my sister, Clarence?’ she asked.
‘I loved her,’ he replied, ‘as I love you.’
‘She committed suicide,’ Khalida said, getting to her feet. ‘What did you do to her?’
‘How should I know?!’ he yelled. ‘The Blood Thieves forced me back with them, and you were flown off to England. I tried to find the pair of you, but couldn’t until years later. I loved Akmar, and I never saw her again after that.’
‘Did you bite her?’
‘She wanted that life,’ Clarence said, ‘a
nd she knew the consequences of it. Stop thinking of your sister as being some stupid little girl, Khalida, she knew what she was doing.’
‘She was still a teenager, Clarence!’
‘So?’ he said. ‘I saw seventeen-year-olds die in battle. I saw seventeen-year-olds being mowed down by artillery fire. I saw them with half their organs torn out and still crying out for days. I saw them drown in mud, and go blind as they were gassed. Akmar knew what she was doing, and she made that decision herself. Then she died, and then I found you. Khalida, we were meant to be together. Everything in our lives has lead us to each other.’
‘What do you want from this, Clarence?’ Khalida asked. ‘Because it’s not to save me, and it never was.’
‘What do you mean?’ he said.
‘This is about yourself, not me or Akmar,’ she said. ‘What do you want?’
‘I want to keep you safe,’ he said.
‘That’s just a symptom of what you want,’ Khalida said. ‘Clarence, what do you want? Really, truly, deeply, what do you want from this life?!’
‘I want to have a home,’ he said. ‘I want some goddamn stability.’
‘And you think that I can give that to you?’ she asked.
‘Yes, because I fell in love with you,’ he said. He sighed and leaned back against the truck of the tree. ‘I need to have someone with me, Khalida. Someone by my side.’
‘Then fall in love with someone else!’ she snapped. ‘Jesus fucking Christ, Clarence – you were a rebound. I never really loved you.’
‘Khalida, examine the situation that we’re in,’ he said. ‘We aren’t going to know peace for a long time, and if we don’t work together, we will be killed. I need you as much as you need me. If the past makes you uncomfortable, then forget about it; right now, it doesn’t matter.’
‘That isn’t going to make me love you,’ she said.
Clarence opened his mouth to argue, before closing it, his body rigid and his ears pricked.
‘We need to go, now,’ Clarence said, sharply, turning back to her. ‘Come on.’
‘What? Why?’ she asked as he caught her hand, sending a spasm of pain as he clutched her broken fingers.
‘Someone’s coming,’ he said, as he pulled her down towards the patch of woodland.
Then, she heard it, too; a single engine approaching the house. She frowned. There wasn’t the roar of engines, there wasn’t any urgency as the sound grew louder.
‘Clarence, wait,’ she said, pulling back against his grasp, digging her heels into the dirt. ‘I don’t think it’s Rebirth.’
‘It doesn’t matter,’ he said. ‘We cannot be seen. If they’re just humans then we’ll put them at risk, Khalida.’
The engine cut off. The sound of several car doors closing cut through the silence. Clarence tugged at her hand harder, as some of the brambles snatched and pulled at the bottoms of her jeans.
‘Clarence, let go!’
She tried to pull back against his grip, then dropped her gaze to the ground to see if there was anything she could use against him, though the grass was to long that it completely obscured the sight of anything that could be useful.
‘Clarence!’ she yelled. ‘Stop!’
The tight grip on her hand eased, and Clarence turned to face her.
‘Khalida,’ he said, ‘I love you, and I can’t lose you again. We have to keep going.’
‘For Christ’s sake, don’t be so melodramatic,’ she snapped, as she yanked her hand away from his. ‘You have your Bentley parked outside. It’s not like they’re going to think no-one’s around. And if it is Rebirth, we can’t run away. They’re going to see a couple in an abandoned house, which you have the keys to. This only looks suspicious if we run away.’
‘Khalida, trust me,’ he said. ‘We have to leave, now.’
‘Khalida!’
A flame of pure ire ignited in her. Khalida punched Clarence as a hard as she could, and immediately cried out in pain at the force of her hand hitting something so solid. Clarence sighed, his shoulders dropping, as she sprinted back towards the house where Cain was yelling.
‘I’m here!’ she shouted.
He came into sight, emerging from the other side of the house, and without thinking, she leapt into his arms and buried her head against his shoulders, breathing in his warm, comforting smell of home. Then, she remembered, and pushed back hard away from him. Cain’s arm instantly dropped from around her, and he stepped back. She looked over his face; he looked more exhausted and sickly then she had ever seen him.
‘Clarence told you, then?’ His eyes were large and anxious, though as he cast his stare over to Clarence, who stood back from them, his face cemented into a frown. ‘About me?’
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I assume the stuff about you being a vampire and his brother are true. I don’t know about the rest of it.’
‘What did he tell you?’ Cain asked.
‘You were there the night my family was murdered,’ she said.
Cain sighed and rubbed his hand against his face. ‘Well, that’s true,’ he said, ‘and I am sorry for lying to you…but it was the only way I could feel remotely normal.’
‘And you never thought to tell me,’ she said. ‘Even when I started hunting vampires, when I was aware of their existence, you never thought I should know about that.’
‘That just made it harder to tell you,’ he said. ‘Before that, we could just pretend that none of this existed, and we were just two normal people.’
‘So, you decided to lie to everyone,’ Clarence said, his eyes flickering over to where Poppy, Leah and Mitch were now walking over, ‘and live in denial. How very typical of you, Cain.’
‘Stay out of this,’ Cain said, his face reddening.
‘If I had, Khalida would be dead,’ he said. ‘How did you find us, anyway?’ he asked, looking over their group.
‘I called them when we stopped off in that town,’ Khalida said.
‘And I knew exactly where you would be,’ Cain said.
‘Great,’ Clarence said, ‘now we aren’t safe here either. Did you take the main roads here?’ he asked Mitch.
‘We avoided them wherever possible,’ he said, ‘but we need to leave, immediately.’
‘They came to our house, Khalida,’ Cain said. ‘Rosemary May and Banes; they wanted to take me back to Rebirth’s base, said that Rebirth knew who my siblings were. But then, Banes killed Rosemary and told me to run.’
‘Banes,’ Clarence said, his mouth twitching into a smile, ‘Banes Intuneric? Tycho’s toy?’
‘He was our spy,’ Khalida said.
‘He’s also Feigrey’s pet,’ Clarence said. ‘Did you not think that you might be double-crossed?’
‘That doesn’t matter now,’ Poppy said. ‘What matters right now is our survival.’
‘Also, Leopold Papon’s old place?’ Cain asked, turning to Clarence. ‘You idiot – Rebirth will already know about this place. How could you assume it was safe here?!’
‘We were literally chased out of London,’ Khalida said.
‘We would have been fine here,’ Clarence said, ‘but now we can’t take that chance. Together, Khalida and I could escape, but a group of humans moving together will be too slow.’
‘I’m not going with you,’ Khalida said.
‘Khalida,’ Clarence said, his shoulder falling back, his face shifting into something exposed, his eyes soft, ‘think about what you’re doing here. I have always kept you safe, and they have done nothing but put you in danger.’
‘It’s up to you, Khalida,’ Poppy said. ‘If you want, we will leave Cain here with his brother.’
Khalida turned to look at the both of them; Cain was clutching his hands, his eyes watery and downcast, whereas Clarence was eagerly looking at her with an expression both predatory and protective.
‘Cain’s coming with us,’ Khalida sighed, not looking at him as she began to walk towards her friends.
‘So, you’re going to go off with him
?’ Clarence said, his voice rising in pitch, gesturing to Cain. ‘A coward of the highest order? After all the times he’s lied to you?’
‘Goodbye, Clarence,’ she said taking a step away from him.
‘Khalida, wait,’ Clarence said, stepping towards her. ‘You can’t leave me. Everything I have done, I have done for you. I can’t go back.’
‘That’s not my problem,’ she said.
‘I’ve spent the last few years caught between our sister’s and Feigrey’s power games, and right now, if they find me, I will be dead as well,’ Clarence said. ‘We are all currently in the eye of the storm of Rebirth’s inner power struggle. I am certain that Rebirth will collapse, but we’re all at risk of being killed by them, Khalida. Cain and I are partially at risk owing our relations. I have been a part of Rebirth for years now, whereas you have merely brushed the surface. With me, you will be safe.’
‘You left me for dead in Malaysia!’ Cain snapped. ‘You brought me there as a sacrifice for your crime!’
‘I saved your life!’ Clarence retorted, taking a large step towards him, pointing his finger at his chest. ‘You are alive now because of me! I saved your life, and I saved Khalida’s life! So, when I say that you ought to trust me and that I am critical to your survival, perhaps it’s wise to listen.’
‘We don’t have time for this,’ Poppy said. ‘The sun is setting, and we’ll be at greater risk in the dark.’
‘You can’t keep her safe,’ Clarence said. ‘You’re all running away together; a group consisting of two hunters who can fight, one who can’t, a dhampir, and a vampire who is too weak to be of any help. None of you stands a chance in hell against Rebirth. We ought to split up into groups – that way, one group will stand a chance of survival.’
‘I’m not leaving Khalida,’ Cain said.
‘And you’re not coming with us,’ Mitch said.
Clarence rolled his eyes. ‘Look – I know how Rebirth works, I know how my sister thinks, I know what Feigrey wants. I’ve lived through two World Wars as a soldier, surviving between bombs and sunlight. You can try and get away without me, but you won’t get very far. If you want to survive, then you need me.’
‘It’s your choice again, Khalida,’ Poppy said.
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