If anything, he’d seen it all merely as a game that he knew he would ultimately win.
‘So many children, Elinor,’ he said softly.
‘Take me with you tomorrow night,’ I said. ‘Please don’t leave me here again.’
He sat up and cradled my face in his hands. ‘I do not know what to do for the best. I want you with me always, you know that, but the horrific sights we have seen over the past few nights … I really do not want you to witness them. I want to protect you.’
‘You can’t protect me from everything for all eternity.’
‘Actually,’ he said, ‘I can.’
‘Let me come with you tomorrow.’
He didn’t look enamoured.
‘Please, Will.’
He frowned and shook his head slightly. ‘I have to keep you safe.’
‘You can keep me safer if I’m with you.’
Actually, I wasn’t sure what I did really want. I knew I had no desire to see any of the horrors Will had witnessed over the last few nights. But not being with him night after night was a recipe for disaster. His jealousy of Daniel would not disappear just like that, and could ultimately hinder Daniel’s own chances of survival.
Will seemed determined to leave me behind, and continuing the argument at the moment felt futile. Although if he thinks for one moment I’ve given up, then he clearly doesn’t know me as well as he thinks he does.
Whoever would have thought I’d be caught up in such a weird triangle, trying to keep the peace between my more than three-hundred-year-old-lover and a teenage boy. Life may be strange, but death is infinitely stranger.
Will’s Journal, 20th May
I am really going to have to work on my jealousy. At least try harder to hide it. It is pathetic to say the least, but the sight of Elinor and the boy playing their silly game without an apparent care in the world … She is nearer to his age than mine by centuries, I suppose it is why I feel so insecure. I know she has never truly loved anyone before me, and that does give me cause for concern. She is so young.
The renegades seem to be “upping their game”, which I believe is the modern term. If they wanted to get my attention, they had it with the first child. I hope to God there will not be any others before we catch the bastards.
I really do not want to take Elinor with me on the hunts, but neither do I want to leave her here – here alone with the boy.
There is no doubt in my mind that she will continue the argument before I need to go out again. She is very determined, and in spite of everything that has happened, I feel the need to smile when I think of her altercations.
Chapter Six
The following night I resumed my disagreement with Will. I could tell he was torn between keeping me with him and away from Danny, or leaving me in the comparative safety of the house.
Luke and Jake were waiting in Luke’s BMW outside the house, no doubt preferring to steer clear.
I decided on a new tactic.
‘If things get really bad, I’ll stay in the car and Luke can check on me with this.’ I held up the iPhone. ‘You say you can tell when I’m in trouble, so you could come straight back.’
He actually smiled at that. ‘Elinor, your logic brings a certain humour to the table.’
‘Good. Let’s go then.’
He raised both hands, palms outwards, in an admission of defeat, and I followed him out of the front door before he changed his mind. Round One to me.
Roxy seemed more than happy to stay behind playing Tekken with Daniel, and Jake seemed just as happy to leave her. What did that say about their relationship, I wondered. Although more to the point, what did it say about mine and Will’s? Perhaps Jake simply isn’t the jealous type. I don’t think I would ever have been happy to leave Will alone in the house with a teenage girl, but hell, I just knew I was insecure.
Will and I sat in the back of the car, and he twisted in the seat to look at me, his eyes shining eerily in the dark. He touched my forehead with his fingertips and smiled wryly. ‘Your thoughts are buzzing around inside your head like angry hornets. Is there anything you would like to share?’
‘I thought you could read my thoughts anyway.’ I pulled a face at him.
He shook his head. ‘Not when they are this manic.’ He took hold of my hands. ‘So share, Elinor.’
I turned to look at Jake and Luke in the front of the car and then back to Will. He understood instantly, just as he always did. ‘Later perhaps,’ he said, and I nodded.
At that moment the mobile rang, and I struggled to pull it out of my jacket pocket. I pressed the answer button, ‘Hello.’
‘It’s Jez,’ said a voice. ‘We’ve got trouble by the Freemasons Arms.’
‘We’re on our way.’
‘Hurry.’ The phone went dead.
‘Freemasons,’ I said, ‘Jez has trouble.’
Luke nodded, and drove off towards Hampstead. We parked in the road next to the Freemasons, and walked the short distance to the pub. Although we were now in early summer, it didn’t feel very warm, not that temperatures bother vampires too much of course. There were a few people drinking outside. Typical of the English, I thought, trying to pretend we live in a warm climate by parodying the hot spots of Europe, drinking and eating outside at every possible opportunity. This wasn’t, however, particularly good news for us, because we really didn’t want a human audience.
We went round to the beer garden which overlooked the Heath, where Jez waited for us. He glanced at me, before he spoke to Will. ‘You may not want Elinor to see this.’ His voice was barely above a whisper.
I wondered whether I’d be relegated to the car straight away.
Will drew my arm through his, in the comforting gesture so typical of him, and I smiled.
‘I have no intention of leaving her alone,’ he said. ‘Where is the problem?’
‘This way,’ muttered Jez, starting off towards the Heath.
Will looked down at me. ‘Unless you would prefer to wait here?’
I shook my head. I’d made my decision, and I had to start being a tougher vampire at some point. His lips twitched with amusement. Obviously he’d caught that thought.
‘How interesting,’ he said. I gave him a questioning look. ‘You becoming cold and ruthless.’
I frowned. Some things really should remain “unthought”.
We followed Jez across the Heath, and were soon out of sight of the pub’s garden. This part of the Heath was shielded by trees now, and I felt grateful for the abundance of spring growth.
When we had walked a little further, I could hear a high-pitched squealing, which sounded for all the world like a wounded pig. Luke and Jake ran the last few yards with Will and I following at a slower pace.
Two male vampires I didn’t know were holding a little girl to the ground, and the squeals were coming from her. I’d never seen anything like her, not ever. If I had thought Daniel’s brief lapse frightening, then this was entirely something else, like horrific scenes from an exorcism.
The girl could have been no more than six years old, judging by the size of her, but any similarity to a normal human child had long since gone. In fact, all humanity had ceased to exist.
Her small face contorted in an evil mask, blood-flecked spittle flew from her lips, and she snarled and hissed at her captors. She ground her tiny fangs between hisses, and her eyes were filled with blood lust. The language coming from the rosebud mouth sounded like nothing any normal six-year-old should ever know, much less speak.
Her red eyes suddenly fixed on me, and she became calmer. She stopped her manic struggles, and her voice took on a wheedling, persuasive tone, which sounded decades older than her tender years.
‘Pretty, pretty red-haired lady, don’t let them hurt me,’ she lisped. ‘Save me from the bad men.’
Shock ran through me. Didn’t she realise I was a vampire?
‘This is different.’ Will took hold of my arm, and walked me away from the others.
&nbs
p; ‘Do you think you can try to talk to her?’ he asked. ‘That is the most articulate speech I have heard from any of the children.’
‘I’ll try,’ I said. ‘What do you want me to ask her?’
‘Try to find out if she remembers who sired her, what he looked like, and where it happened.’
I nodded and we walked back to the group.
‘Pretty, pretty red-haired lady,’ said the child again.
I knelt on the grass quite close to her, but Will moved me back. ‘Do not get too close.’
‘What’s your name?’ I asked, not at all sure how to go about this.
‘Cassie,’ she said. ‘Can I come home with you?’
‘Cassie,’ I said, ‘do you remember anything that happened to you?’
‘Blood.’ She writhed on the grass, trying to free herself from the two men holding her. ‘I like blood. I need blood. Give me some of yours pretty lady.’
She suddenly wrenched herself free from the two vampires, and lunged for me with amazing speed. She was no match for Will, however, who grabbed me around the waist, lifting me effortlessly out of her reach. Luke and Jake grabbed her, and flung her back to the ground.
‘Keep a better hold on her,’ snarled Will, to the other two vampires. ‘I will have both your heads if she gets another chance to attack Elinor.’
‘Sorry Elder,’ muttered one of the men.
Cassie had gone back to snarling and spitting again.
I continued to talk quietly to her, trying to reassure her, emulating the way Will had often talked to me when I had been beyond reason and suffering from the Thirst. I told her she was pretty, and that we could help her, and she eventually grew calmer. Then her red eyes fixed on me again. ‘Are you one of us pretty lady?’
‘What do you think you are Cassie?’
‘I’m a monster,’ she said, smiling and baring her fangs again. ‘I like the taste of blood.’
‘Why? Why do you like the taste of blood Cassie?’
‘A man made me taste it, and I liked it. I want more.’
‘What did this man look like?’ I persisted. ‘Do you know his name?’
Cassie looked slyly at me then, reminding me of Linda Blair in The Exorcist. ‘Why? Do you want to play “grown-ups” with him?’ She cackled, and the harsh sound sent icy trickles down my spine. ‘Or do you prefer the Boss Man?’ She cackled again manically. ‘Maybe you want to do everyone.’
‘I would just like to find the bad man.’ I kept my voice soft and calm, although it wasn’t easy.
‘He lives over there,’ she said nodding her head towards the Freemasons. ‘But he’s not as pretty as the Boss Man.’ She threw a coquettish look at Will. ‘Do you want to play Boss Man?’
‘Do you know his name Cassie?’ A stream of obsceneties, that she should never have known, let alone said, made me flinch.
‘She called him Clyde,’ she spat. ‘But it’s not his real name.’
‘Who’s “she”?’
Cassie laughed manically again. ‘He calls her Bonnie.’
Will sighed. ‘She is not lucid enough to get any more information from,’ he said. ‘Stake her.’
He turned to walk away when Cassie started to shriek again. ‘I’m telling you the truth you bastard!’ She screamed. ‘His name is really Thomas, but she calls him Clyde.’
Will looked down at the creature Cassie had become. ‘Well we all know what happened to Bonnie and Clyde.’
‘Where did this happen Cassie?’ I asked her, and when she looked at me, I felt a pang of sympathy. Nothing more than a child vessel, her cherubic face transformed by the curse of the undead, something that at her age she would never be able to control.
‘Thomas came when I went out to get sweets.’ She began to sob. ‘He was near my house, but I never went home again.’
Tears filled my eyes. I knew there were many kinds of evil in this world – to some extent we ourselves would be labelled evil … but this … I looked at Will.
‘We will find him,’ he promised, ‘and I will personally remove his existence from the world. With great delight.’
‘Where is your house Cassie?’ I asked the sobbing child.
‘The road next to the pub,’ she said. ‘They live there too.’
So now we had a road. Progress at last. Will moved me back from the child, keeping an arm around my waist. I knew what they were going to do now, and I also knew I didn’t want to witness it.
Cassie’s voice took on the adult whine again. ‘Are you going off to do naughty things with the Boss Man now, pretty lady?’ she laughed manically and began to struggle against her captors again. Streams of foul obscenities began to pour from the child’s mouth again, making the words sound all the more revolting. She reverted once more to a tiny creature made up of pure evil.
‘Hold her fast,’ said Will. ‘Luke – you know what to do.’
Luke nodded, and Will guided me away from the scene, walking so swiftly that I had to run to keep up with his long strides. I wanted to protest, but I knew why he was going so fast, he simply did not want me to hear anything.
‘It won’t hurt will it?’ I asked as we slowed our pace near the pub.
‘Well thankfully, I have never experienced it personally,’ he said, ‘but it will certainly be quick, you have my word on that.’
‘The poor child, and her poor parents. What kind of monster keeps siring children?’
‘The kind who gets himself killed,’ replied Will. ‘You have my word on that too.’
We went to sit at an unoccupied table in the pub garden, while we waited for Luke and Jake. I fell quiet, unable to make small talk, and stared unseeingly at the wooden table. I tried hard not to think about Cassie, and what she must have been like as a human child.
I felt Will touch my hair. ‘How are you doing?’
I looked up into his eyes. ‘I’ll be OK,’ I said. ‘I have to be don’t I?’
Will moved along the bench nearer to me and cupped my face in his hands. ‘Is this the start of the new ruthless Elinor?’
‘Something like that.’ I didn’t sound very convincing.
Will stroked my cheeks with his thumbs, ‘I will always take care of you,’ he said.
‘I know.’ I attempted a smile. ‘You are the one thing in this whole mad existence that makes any sense to me.’
He leaned in and kissed me. As he drew away, he looked over my shoulder, and I knew the others were returning. The deed was done and poor little Cassie was no more.
‘Poor Cassie,’ I said. Somehow knowing her name made everything worse.
‘Indeed,’ he said. ‘I promise you this, the senseless massacre of children will be avenged.’
I knew nothing could bring them back, those innocent children, torn from their families and turned into tiny vessels of evil. Why? What could the renegades possibly hope to gain?
Luke and Jake came to sit at our table, whilst the other three remained standing, like good soldiers waiting to be dismissed. Perhaps, in a way, they were.
‘Good work all of you,’ said Will, slipping back into the role of Elder, ‘especially you, Jeremy.’
Jez smiled back, pleased.
‘What now Will?’ asked Luke. ‘There are several hours until dawn.’
‘If the renegade’s predilection for small children is anything to go by, I think we can assume he will not make another move until tomorrow,’ said Will. ‘So I suggest we all get an early night, and meet back here after sunset tomorrow.’
He stood and held a hand down to me. I put my hand in his, and stood too.
As we all turned to leave the garden, a slender, stunning blonde woman stepped directly in our path, blocking our exit. Her dark blue eyes raked down Will’s body, and she obviously liked what she saw, because she gave a predatory smile. Dressed exquisitely, she wore a midnight-blue sheath dress and matching jacket. Diamond studs sparkled in her ears, and large diamond rings flashed on her fingers. Her shoulder-length hair was perfectly groomed, and gleamed i
n the light from a nearby lamp-post. In fact, from the top of her immaculate blonde head, to the pointed tips of her Jimmy Choos, she looked like a classy model. She was also a vampire. I remembered what Daniel had said about the woman who had stopped him, “Pretty blonde bird”, he’d said.
She was certainly that.
She smiled at Will, flashing impossibly white teeth but without showing fangs. So clearly not a new vampire then. The old vamps have somehow perfected not flashing fangs. I’m still working on it, but without a reflection it isn’t easy.
‘You must be the famous Elder of London,’ she purred in an upper-class English accent. ‘Very nice.’ She lingered on the word ‘very’ making it almost a drawl.
Will remained silent.
She turned to include me in her gaze, ‘and you must be the little pet fledgling.’ Her voice took on a bitchy note. ‘Not quite so nice.’
I became aware that Luke had moved to my other side so I was now protected from all angles.
She looked back at Will again. ‘Now I would have thought a man like you would want a real woman in his bed – one with plenty of experience.’ She smoothed her dress provocatively over her hips and let her gaze travel up and down his body again. ‘A woman able to keep you satisfied all night long.’
‘Is there a point to this inane babble?’ Will’s voice was devoid of emotion.
She laughed, and the sound made me shudder. It felt like someone trickling ice cubes down my back. Will squeezed my hand imperceptively and I felt better.
‘My point, Elder, is that these little messages we are leaving for you are just the beginning,’ she said. ‘A mere taste. Things are about to get so much more interesting.’
Luke made a move towards her, but she avoided him with a move so fast, no human would have even seen it. She laughed again.
‘Until tomorrow – Will,’ she said softly, emphasising his name, then she turned and ran off in a blur of speed. In those shoes too.
‘Do you want me to go after her?’ asked Luke, but Will shook his head.
‘It is not her I want,’ said Will. ‘It is her man, whoever he may be, and we need her to remain free to lead us to him.’
Revenge is Sweet Page 6