Khalida looked up at Clarence and sighed.
‘I think he would be of some use to us.’
‘Are you sure?’ Mitch asked.
‘Not really,’ she said, ‘but it seems that we don’t have a lot of choice here.’
‘So, what’s the plan now, then?’ Leah asked, scratching her dog’s head.
‘Our original plan,’ Poppy said. ‘We travel to our safe houses, and try to figure out how to take down Rebirth.’
‘Are you crazy?’ Clarence asked. ‘If you stay, then you’ll be caught before the week is out. Our only option is to leave.’
‘And what?’ Poppy said. ‘Let Rebirth take over?’
‘Yes!’ Clarence said, his eyes widening. ‘They aren’t going to last for much longer as it is. We should hide and wait it out. We’ve done that before, right, Cain?’
Cain frowned. ‘Not this time. But you’re welcome to leave, Clarence.’
‘Khalida,’ Clarence said, ‘you believe in this suicidal nonsense?!’
‘I do,’ she said. ‘I want to stay to fight.’
‘You have several broken fingers,’ he said. ‘How do you expect to fight when you cannot clutch a stake or a water pistol?’
‘I’ll manage,’ she said. ‘They’re not getting the goddamn country, Clarence.’
‘They already have,’ he said, ‘but you can have a life somewhere else.’
‘Once people find out what’s going on, they’re going to want to stop it,’ she said. Clarence let out a hollow laugh.
‘Khalida, are you really expecting the public to care?’ he said. ‘Are you truly that naïve? Rebirth have been pulling the strings on this country for years now, and the British people at large simply do not care.’
‘We have to try,’ Mitch said, ‘and I would like to think that there are enough people in Britain who will try to stop them.’
‘Then the entire country will go up in flames!’ Clarence said. ‘And Rebirth, or something else just as bad, or worse even, will win, if Britain doesn’t become a war-torn third-world country.’
‘You had the chance to leave,’ Khalida said.
‘I assumed that by going into hiding, you meant that you were going to remain hidden,’ Clarence said, ‘as an intelligent person would.’
‘As Khalida said,’ Mitch said, frowning at him, ‘you had your chance to leave. You still can.’
He sighed, his expression slipping into a haughty look as they began to walk round to the front of the house.
‘Aren’t you going to ask how Cecilia is, then?’ he asked Cain.
‘No,’ Cain said, flatly.
‘She’s the commander of Rebirth,’ Clarence said. ‘You ought to be proud.’
Cain raised an eyebrow. ‘Why?’ he asked. ‘She’s never cared about anyone but herself. I still don’t know why you stuck around with her for so long.’
‘We’re family,’ Clarence said, ‘and we survived because we stuck together. I just assumed you would still care.’
Cain scoffed. ‘You both wanted to feed me to the Blood Thieves to save your own skins, which would have happened if their plan hadn’t derailed.’
Clarence rolled his eyes. ‘And who do you think derailed the plan?’ he said. ‘You still ran away to let your girlfriend be killed by them. Don’t act like you’re innocent, Cain, it’s beginning to tire now.’
With her insides turning into knots, Khalida ducked back to walk with Poppy.
‘Do you think that everyone we left behind will be okay?’ she asked. ‘Our family and friends? Clarence said that Rebirth would only be interested in us.’
Poppy’s face twisted into a wry grin. ‘I think he may be right, there, but there’s no guarantee.’
‘We’ll be officially missing soon,’ Khalida said, ‘when none of us turns up for work, and our houses remain empty. And my mums; this will be the same as when Akmar disappeared.’
‘She was a traumatised, young woman,’ Poppy said. ‘The situation is different, here. At least, they’ll probably assume that you and Cain left together.’
Khalida frowned. ‘Not sure if that’s any comfort to me.’
‘We thought that you had died,’ Poppy said, ‘that Rebirth had taken you – or, at least, Mitch and I did, but Cain was desperate to try and rescue you. He said that if you were dead, then he would continue to live by you. And he did know exactly where Clarence was taking you; we wouldn’t have been able to find you as quickly without him.’
‘And Clarence?’ Khalida asked, her voice flat.
Poppy narrowed her eyes. ‘He’s expendable,’ she said. ‘We could kill him, but he does have inside knowledge of Rebirth that could help us, and if we left him here, then he would probably follow us anyway. I assumed he would be less of a threat and more beneficial towards us if we brought him on board. Khalida,’ she said, ‘I found out on the way here, but Paula Stockport’s dead. Apparently, it was a suicide, but I don’t believe it. I think it was Rebirth.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Khalida said. ‘You’d known each other for a long time.’
Poppy nodded stiffly. ‘We’ll be keeping a close eye on both Clarence and Cain from now on, especially Clarence, and I won’t hesitate to kill him if I suspect he plans on crossing us.’
‘I suppose you’re right,’ Khalida said, ‘but he knew my sister. Apparently, he loved her, and I don’t know to what extent he was involved in the death of her and my family, but he definitely was. Cain was there, too; apparently, he ran away while Clarence made sure that Akmar and I were safe. But I don’t know if I can trust a word he’s said.’
‘Can you remember anything?’ Poppy asked.
Khalida shook her head.
‘Not really, and I don’t want to. I just remember that something terrible happened, and I can’t tell if something is a dream, a memory, or something I’ve imagined. There’s just a black hole of…wrongness.’
‘Don’t force yourself to remember anything,’ Poppy said. ‘That’s not your responsibility.’
‘And, thank you, Poppy,’ Khalida said, as they approached the cars, ‘for everything. I mean it. Even now, I have no regrets about meeting you and becoming a hunter. I’ve saved lives, and I’m proud of that.’
Poppy’s smile had a softened edge to it.
‘It’s been a fun ride so far. I’m glad we met.’
‘So, who’s travelling with who?’ Leah asked.
‘Clarence, Leah and myself take one car,’ Poppy said, ‘and Mitch, Cain and Khalida take the other. We both take different directions, and head towards our meeting place.’
‘Poppy, I’m not leaving you,’ Mitch said, taking a step closer to her, ‘especially not with him. We said – when we go to hell, we go to hell together.’
‘And I’m not leaving Khalida behind again,’ Clarence said. ‘That’s my one condition.’
Poppy’s eyes flashed with exasperation. ‘Fine, whatever. Clarence, you go with Mitch. It makes sense for the most wanted targets to have the best protection.’
‘You’re putting him with me?’ Mitch asked. ‘I don’t want to be separated from you, not now.’
‘I don’t plan on dying,’ she said, ‘and neither do you. We’ll be fine, Mitch. Leave fifteen minutes after we do.’
Clarence slid into the driver’s seat of his car, as Mitch took Poppy’s hand and led her a short distance away from the cars. Wanting to give them some space, Khalida walked around to the other side of Mitch’s Jeep, where Leah was sitting.
‘So, this is kind of fucked up, then,’ Leah said, looking out across the fields. Khalida gave a dry smile.
‘You could say that.’
‘So, I was finally able to get into some of the files Banes got for us,’ Leah said. ‘Kind of pointless now, since we have Clarence, who can simply tell us about it, but, hey.’
‘What did they say?’ Khalida asked.
‘They’re a three-point plan of annihilation and domination,’ Leah said. ‘First and current point is to eliminate any general t
hreats, so, people like us; hunters, journalists, civil servants…us curious sorts, and any opposing vampire clans in the UK, as well. Second point; over the next year or so, people from various sectors of the government will begin to be phased out. Some will resign, some will be taken ill, and some will just disappear, to allow for Rebirth agents to move forwards and assume their roles. Then, there’s the third point; they’re going to try to bring in new laws…hang on,’ she said, getting out her phone and reading off it, ‘...there’s one called the Criminal Preventive Measures Act, which’ll give police the power to arrest anyone with three or more convictions, and or a history of anti-social behaviour, without evidence. There’s another that will give judges the power to double the prison sentence of anyone who lives in certain areas with a high crime rate. And I found out what’s happening in Bexhill.’
‘What?’ she asked.
‘They’re building some new government facilities just outside of it,’ Leah said. ‘A new immigration detention centre and a prison, both run by a private security firm.’
‘Christ,’ Khalida said. She stood up to see Poppy with her head against Mitch’s shoulder, their arms wrapped around each other. She could see Poppy inhale deeply, Mitch stroking her braids, their lips moving, whispering into each other’s ears before they broke off into a short, lingering kiss.
‘Well, that’s it, then,’ Leah said, as Poppy made her way over to the car. ‘Hope to see you again, Khalida.’
‘You too,’ Khalida said, giving them a rueful wave and a smile before she climbed into the driver’s seat.
‘So, where are we actually going?’ Clarence asked, as they watched the car pull out of the driveway and disappear from view.
‘A cottage in Wales,’ Mitch said.
‘Whose cottage?’ he asked.
‘Mine,’ Mitch said.
‘And you thought that this place was obvious,’ Clarence sneered. ‘We’ll be dead within the week.’
The sun began to dip lower in the sky, tinting the pale yellow with pink. Khalida looked over to where Cain was standing in a shaded area. She took a deep breath and headed over towards where he stood.
‘Hey,’ she said, ‘can we have a moment to talk?’
He looked up at her and nodded. ‘Sure,’ he said, his voice slightly higher pitched than usual.
‘You lied to me,’ she said, brushing back her hair behind her ear. ‘With hindsight, I can see why it wouldn’t have been easy for you to tell me…but still…Cain…how long were you going to keep on lying to me? After we married, after we had children? Until I had shared so much of my life with you that even if I left you, it wouldn’t be long until I died anyway?’
‘I don’t know,’ Cain said. ‘I probably would have had to have left you before then, anyway; you would have figured it out. I just…wanted to feel normal. I wanted to feel like I could be a human again, but the longer we were together, the more important it became to keep the secret, otherwise I’d lose the most happiness I’d had in a very long time.’
‘Clarence told me that you had a wife,’ she said, ‘before the war.’
Cain nodded. ‘Beatrice,’ he said, softly. ‘I used to call her Bettie. You know, Khalida, for a long time, all I wanted was for that war to have never happened. It ruined so much of the world, and I’ve been living through its consequences all my life. I would have had such a happy life without it, and for decades I thought that all that happiness was lost. Until I met you, Khalida. You made me feel that I was a good person. You made me happy, and I truly, truly love you.’
‘But you must have known that it wasn’t real,’ Khalida said. ‘Even before I became a hunter, before I knew that vampires existed, you should have known that I would have concerns about being in a relationship with someone who wasn’t even human. When you bought me the house - that’s when you should have told me.’
‘I know,’ Cain said, ‘and I’m sorry. I’m sorry for lying to you, I’m sorry that I never told you until it became too late, and I’m sorry you had to hear the truth from Clarence.’ He sighed and kicked at a pebble on the ground, scuffing his shoe on the dry earth. ‘The world just gets worse, Khalida. And it has nothing to do with how society changes, but that every single day you’re forced to move further away from everything you ever cared about. Honestly, I would rather have simply died in France than lived as a vampire. But with you…for a while…I could just forget about the past. It was wrong not to tell you. It was wrong for me to let this relationship continue and develop without telling you.’
She nodded in acknowledgement, letting his words filter down through her mind.
‘And what happened in Malaysia? You must have known about Rebirth before all of this, right?’
‘I honestly don’t know the full details,’ he said. ‘In the Eighties, Cecilia got involved with a small clan of vampires in England, which wasn’t unusual,’ he added. ‘We mostly split our time between living around or in other vampire groups, or by ourselves before then. Only, she got really passionate about this one. I didn’t care too much,’ he said, ‘nor did Clarence. I didn’t know anything about it, but it was during the AIDS crisis, when vampires got too greedy and were dropping dead all over the place. It made sense for clans to stick together.
‘Clarence and I did our own thing for a while, then he became involved and things became weird. I tried to distance myself from them. I thought that the group that they were always with was a small group of friends. Then, when Clarence went off to Asia, I realised that it was serious. I hadn’t spoken to him in a while, then he asked me to join him out in Malaysia.
‘Khalida, I didn’t know what was going on. I just thought that he just wanted to see me again. I know, in hindsight, that the Blood Thieves wanted to kill me and your entire family, but that night…it was just chaos. Clarence was up to something, but I didn’t know what; I didn’t know anything, so I just ran as fast as I could away from there. I didn’t even realise that it was your village until much later on,’ he said, running his hand through his hair, ‘and, again, I should have told you, but that would have meant having to tell you everything.’
Khalida sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. She could see Mitch looking at them, pointing to his watch.
‘Cain…I…I don’t know how I feel about you, now.’
‘You don’t have to,’ he said.
‘We need to stay together right now,’ she said, ‘but let’s just dial things back for now. We’re going to be friends first and foremost, Cain.’
He nodded. ‘I understand.’
‘It’s time to go,’ Mitch called out to them. ‘Marr, let me drive. Khalida can’t do it because of her hands.’
‘No. Why?’
Mitch gave him a look of disbelief. ‘Because I know where we’re going.’
Khalida slipped into the backseat, directly behind the driver’s seat, while Clarence sat in the passenger’s seat, explaining to Mitch how to drive the car. He gave her a quick smile, which she pulled away from and firmly stared out the window to avoid.
‘You should keep away from towns,’ Clarence said, as they passed a pair of horse riders.
‘We have to pass through the village, anyway,’ Mitch said. ‘We aren’t planning on using any main roads, or the Severn Bridge.’
‘It’s going to be a long journey, then,’ Cain said.
Mitch nodded. ‘Six hours, if we’re lucky.’
Clarence sighed and sat back in his seat. ‘We could have left the country in that time.’
‘And how would we have done that without being caught?’ Mitch said. ‘How much cash do you have on you, Clarence?’
‘Six-hundred-and-seventy pounds,’ he said, ‘which would have barely lasted between Khalida and I. I can also sell my Rolex and the car if need be. I also have hidden accounts and interests, which no-one knows about, not even Cecilia but they will take a while to access.’
Mitch nodded. ‘Okay. We’ll need that money to survive. Do you have any contacts you trust?’
‘I have a few human contacts,’ Cain said. ‘There’s a woman in Birmingham who can get us new identities, but it will take a while for all of us.’
Khalida looked over to him. Cain gave an apologetic shrug, and she turned to look out of the window again as they drove through the village.
Now that it was evening, the picturesque qualities had intensified with the setting sun, the golden rays falling on the thatched straw roofs and sandstone buildings, catching on the petals of the flowers, which teamed from every window box and hung from lampposts. A few teenagers were sitting out on the square, and a shop was putting down its shutters. Clarence leaned forward in his seat; in the rear-view mirror, Khalida could see his eyes narrowing. She looked over to Cain, who was also staring intently at him.
‘Clarence?’ she asked, following his gaze. On the far side of the square, there was car; dull, red and unassuming. The rear windows had been tinted, but she could see the two who sat in the front seat. Both figures were wearing sunglasses. A fierily chill shot down her spine.
‘Clarence, who are they?’
Chapter Twenty-Four
A Sickening Crunch
‘They’re Rebirth,’ he said, turning his head away from them and raising his hand to block his face. ‘I don’t know who, but we have to get out of here. Don’t look at them.’ Mitch drove the car onwards as casually and quickly as he could manage.
‘Why did you have to drive a fucking Bentley, Clarence?’ he muttered, as one of the teenagers nudged the other and pointed towards the car, while they mercifully pulled away out of sight of the square.
The second they had inched away from the village, Mitch slammed his foot down on the accelerator. Khalida was thrown back in her seat as the car thundered down the country lane. The hedgerows around them became a green blur as she was jolted in her seat, the ache in her body flaring up, her heart hammering. Peering from the back seat, she could see that the red car was following them.
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