Revenge is Sweet

by Berni Stevens

  As he wrapped a towel around his lean waist, I decided to talk about something else I’d been thinking about a lot.

  ‘What was your wedding day like?’

  He grabbed a hand towel from the rail and began drying my hair with it.

  ‘Will?’

  ‘Why on earth would you want to know that?’

  ‘Just curious … and if I’m honest … more than a little jealous.’

  His lips curved in a soft smile as he concentrated on a thick shank of my hair, rubbing it gently between his towel-covered hands. ‘You have no need to ever be jealous.’

  ‘But you married her – Emily – in a formal ceremony. She was your legal wife. I’m nothing – nobody – all we do is live together.’

  ‘Elinor, mio caro – il mio amore – you could never be nothing – you are my everything.’

  I knew my words had hit home, because Will always resorted to a mix of Italian and English when his emotions began to run riot.

  ‘Every girl dreams of getting married and if they say otherwise, it’s a lie.’

  Will looked thoughtful. ‘Is that so? I had no idea you were so … tradizionale … traditional.’

  ‘So what was the wedding like?’ What I really wanted to ask was what Emily had looked like on the day, but luckily my ridiculous ride to self-destruction screeched to a halt before I could.

  He started rubbing his own hair with the towel and walked towards the bedroom door, giving me a glorious glimpse of his perfect backside when the towel flapped apart. Opening the door, he gestured for me to go in first.

  ‘It was a warm summer’s day, and we were married in the grounds of my parents’ house in Oxfordshire. The reception was held in the ballroom and the ball itself continued into the early hours.’

  It sounded amazing, a wedding fit for a member of the English aristocracy. I tried not to picture Will with Emily, but since I’d seen her portrait, I found it difficult. Scenes played in my head – scenes I’d made up – yet they felt frighteningly real. I pictured Will making love to her and whispering endearments to her in Italian, the way he did to me. Although I knew perfectly well he hadn’t learnt to speak Italian until he met Khiara, and moved to Italy. Then my stupid imagination pictured him whispering to her.

  ‘Elinor.’

  I started out of my thoughts to find Will standing very close to me. He took hold of my left hand and smiled at the ring he’d put on my finger. Raising my hand to his lips, he kissed it softly.

  ‘There is nothing I would rather have in this world, than you as my wife for all eternity.’

  I went to speak, but he put a finger to my lips.

  ‘I love you more than I have ever loved anyone else – ever. You are my world – mio tutto – my everything. So if you would like a formal wedding, then a formal wedding we shall have. I promise you, that when these dreadful events are over, I shall arrange our wedding.’

  With a smile he dropped gracefully down to one knee, and even clad only in a wet towel, he looked mouth-wateringly gorgeous. The dark, damp hair which flopped over equally dark eyebrows, his perfectly chiselled features and the lithe, pale body with little beads of water glistening on muscular shoulders. All of which made me want to throw myself bodily into his arms. Still holding my hand, he looked up at me, and his eyes glinted with a myriad of greens.

  ‘So … Elinor … the love of my eternal life, would you do me the honour of becoming my wife?’

  I stared at him. He never ceased to amaze me. He was always unpredictable, but now he’d proved himself to be an incurable romantic.

  ‘If you promise to wear a towel and nothing but a towel on numerous occasions – then of course I will.’

  He stood up and dropped a kiss on my forehead. ‘Good. That is settled then. Now put some clothes on before Luke comes back.’

  Luke and Will were downstairs with Danny. When we’d checked on him earlier he’d still been out for the count – and that wasn’t a Dracula joke. I went down to the cellar to see whether he’d woken up yet. As I reached the door I could hear arguing, which meant he had. I opened the door to see him standing with a defiant look on his face, his hair stuck out in all directions at gravity-defying angles, and his cheek sported a huge bruise.

  ‘You didn’t have to bloody hit me.’

  Will sighed. ‘Daniel, it was close to dawn, we were twenty minutes’ drive from home, and you were behaving like a veritable pain in the arse. Also, we have dangerous enemies in town – one of which has expressed a desire to reclaim you.’

  ‘Well maybe I want to go with him.’

  ‘Then that is your choice, but one I would strongly advise against.’

  ‘I was only having fun.’

  ‘At the expense of others. You should, at least, think of Elinor – who had just been through the traumatic experience of witnessing her first public execution.’

  Daniel looked at me then, his temper evaporating at Will’s angry words, ‘I’m sorry Elles. I’m a complete prat.’

  Will rolled his eyes. ‘Well that was an apology of sorts. How is your head, boy?’

  ‘Bloody hurts.’

  ‘I have not lost my touch then.’

  Luke laughed. ‘Good to know.’

  Will looked up to where I stood by the door. ‘Luke and I are supervising the boy’s first feed from a human. You are most welcome to stay.’

  I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to witness that or not, but Danny looked at me with such pleading in his blue eyes that I nodded. Obviously he felt nervous, so if I could help with moral support then I would. Although I didn’t think morals actually entered into anything.

  We all trooped through to the other cellar, and sure enough an unconscious human lay on the floor – someone that no doubt Luke had brought in earlier.

  I listened as Will went thought the guidelines to Danny, but I couldn’t be sure that he was taking anything in. His eyes were fixated on the man’s neck and I knew he must be listening to the hypnotic throb of the pulse in his neck, because I could hear it too. I watched as Danny went slowly towards the man, dropping to all fours as he got near. He crawled closer, moving with the boneless grace and silence of a cat. His eyes glowed a dull red when he leaned in to sniff at the man’s neck.

  ‘Slowly boy,’ Will spoke quietly, as though he were speaking to a young, frightened animal. ‘Very, very slowly, find the vein first.’

  I started to feel afraid that Danny would simply rip the man’s throat out, as I watched his eyes fill with blood lust and his hands begin to shake.

  Luke moved closer to Danny, ready to grab him if it all went horribly wrong.

  Will continued to talk in a quiet, calm voice. ‘When you have located the jugular vein, you may puncture it slowly and carefully. There is to be no tearing. Are you hearing me boy?’

  Danny nodded, his eyes never leaving the man’s neck. Suddenly with the speed and precision of a cobra, he sank his fangs into the large vein in the man’s neck and began feeding. He continued drinking for what seemed a very long time, and I started to feel anxious. I shot a look at Will, but he continued to watch Danny intently, almost as though he was timing him.

  ‘Slow down.’ Will had moved in closer to Danny now. Danny continued to feed greedily and I heard the man’s heart stutter at one point. ‘Enough.’

  Danny ignored Will, and continued to suck the man’s lifeblood from his body.

  Will clamped a hand on the back of Danny’s neck and removed him forcibly from his prey. Danny’s eyes were completely bloodshot now, and his chin glistened with fresh blood. He snarled as Will hurled him to the other side of the room.

  ‘I said enough!’

  Danny came running back towards Will, but Luke grabbed him by both arms before he’d covered even a fraction of the floor.

  ‘Calm down Danny,’ he said, holding him easily as he struggled.

  Will watched him struggle with Luke for a moment, his hands on his hips. He turned to me. ‘Teaching the young is always so rewarding.’ He tu
rned back to Danny. ‘Calm down boy or I shall be forced to knock you out again.’

  Danny stopped struggling with Luke and seemed to be making a supreme effort to stay calm. Gradually his eyes returned to their normal blue and he nodded to Luke. ‘I’m OK now, honest.’

  Luke slapped him on the shoulder. ‘Good boy.’

  Will went over to check on the human, feeling his pulse like a doctor. To my surprise, he leaned in and sealed the puncture wounds on the man’s neck with his own saliva.

  ‘You forgot to save his life.’ He said to Daniel. ‘If you do not seal the wound, the human will bleed to death. You have just punctured a main artery. Please remember that tomorrow.’

  ‘Yes sir.’ Danny looked calm and normal now, his cheeks slightly flushed from the intake of blood.

  ‘Well done.’ Will gave him a friendly nod and Danny beamed back, like a child receiving praise from an admired tutor. ‘Luke, could you do the honours?’

  ‘Certainly.’ Luke picked up the man and let himself out of the back door.

  ‘Now about that surveillance camera …’

  Chapter Fourteen

  The next evening, Will and Luke had been outside for over two hours searching for the cameras. I’d been told in no uncertain terms to stay in the house with Danny. No amount of complaining had helped my cause either. I felt terrified one of Thomas’s cronies would grab Will whilst he was outside the gates and take him away to torture and kill him. As Daniel and I sat in the drawing room, my panic-riddled thoughts almost drove me to the brink of a nervous breakdown. But strangely, the voice of reason had been Danny’s.

  ‘Elles, nothing’s going to happen to him … honest … he’ll be fine.’

  ‘You can’t know that.’

  ‘Anyone’d be bloody suicidal to even try.’

  I managed a weak smile. ‘This Thomas is clever, none of our people can find him.’

  ‘Bet I can.’

  I wished Will had never mentioned that idea now. I walked over to the windows and pulled back one of the huge wooden shutters so I could look through the window. Our night vision is as good as any cat, and I could easily make out the gates and the surrounding high walls. I couldn’t see any sign of Will and Luke at first, but I caught a movement in my peripheral vision, which made me look to my left. Will was crouched low on top of the wall, searching through the ivy. He suddenly pounced on something, and I watched him jump the ten feet to the ground, landing effortlessly. He gave a low whistle, presumably to alert Luke, because he came back through the gates at once.

  ‘I think Will’s found something,’ I said.

  ‘Cool.’ Danny was flicking through the cable channels, having completely lost interest in my paranoia. He stopped at an old episode of True Blood and immediately started laughing at the antics of the Governor’s girlfriend.

  ‘I’d like to bite that blonde bird,’ he said.

  ‘Bit old for you.’ I was still watching Will as he came back towards the house.

  Closing the shutter, I went out into the hall to open the door.

  As he came in, Will held up a small dome-shaped camera, which had a smoked glass cover protecting the delicate mechanism from the elements.

  ‘There must be more than one,’ I said, and he nodded.

  ‘I have no doubt. Luke is still searching.’

  I looked at the tiny camera. ‘Is it still working?”

  ‘No, I disabled it.’ He opened his other hand to reveal two tiny round batteries.

  I crossed the hall to the room we had recently converted to a study. My pleading had paid off, because Will had bought a top of the range iMac and installed broadband. The internet was invaluable, I could read the news almost as it happened, and the shopping sites were wonderful – just as long as Will didn’t discover the very recent bookmarked pages of Vivienne Westwood and Vera Wang wedding dresses. How embarrassing would that be? I’d look like a serial bride or something. He hadn’t mentioned any likely dates for the wedding; in fact he hadn’t mentioned the wedding at all since he’d proposed. I almost wondered whether the proposal had actually happened, or whether it had been a figment of my imagination. Then the insecure part of me began to wonder if the proposal had merely been something to keep me quiet after discovering he’d been married before. I had had plenty of friends in the theatre who sported engagement rings, but none had yet married, at least not to my knowledge anyway.

  Were we now officially engaged? Will had given me a ring last year after all, and I wore it on my wedding finger. He hadn’t proposed then. Now we had enemies in town, and people were dying – again. Obviously this had to be Will’s top priority. But even so … shouldn’t he mention our wedding again? Or was I just being my normal paranoid self?

  Sighing, I turned the computer on, and typed, ‘surveillance cameras’ into the browser.

  Instantly pages and pages of CCTV equipment came up. It didn’t take me long at all to find our little spy. It turned out to be one of the more expensive DIY systems, enabling the owner to view live, play back, and to control the cameras by remote access. The system included a fifteen-inch monitor and four cameras.

  ‘Four cameras,’ I said, turning the screen towards Will. He narrowed his eyes at the bright screen. I turned the brightness down as he leaned in to look at the page.

  ‘Three more to find then.’ He touched my hair briefly as he straightened up. ‘A man’s work is never done.’

  ‘You’re going out there again?’

  ‘We have to find the other cameras.’

  ‘Be careful.’

  ‘Always.’ He turned back at the door and his lips twitched into a small smile. ‘After all, I need to stay healthy in order to witness you wearing one of those wedding dresses.’

  Damn. I never could keep anything from him. I had thought his reticence with computer technology would keep my secret dresses from his all-seeing gaze.

  At least it was a mention of sorts about the wedding.

  ‘Good job I wasn’t looking at porn sites,’ I muttered.

  ‘Indeed it is.’ His dry response floated back as he went out of the front door.

  Ears of a bat too. Nothing ever got past him. I smiled, suddenly picturing Will’s face with bat ears. Closing down the computer, I joined Danny in the drawing room. He’d switched to one of the MTV channels now, and was happily deafening himself.

  Still feeling nervous, I found myself pacing the room until Danny sighed and flicked the sound to mute on the TV.

  ‘He’ll be all right,’ he said again. ‘Honestly, you’re making me nervous now.’

  The phone rang at that point, making both of us jump, and I crossed the room to answer it.

  Jez’s voice came on the line, sounding exultant. ‘Ellie? I think we’ve found the current lair.’

  ‘You’re not thinking of going in alone I hope.’

  ‘No. I’m hoping Will and Luke will come along.’

  ‘Where are you?’

  ‘Not too far from you. Shall I come round?’

  ‘Yes. Don’t think of doing anything without talking to Will first.’

  ‘I’ll be there in ten minutes.’

  I replaced the phone, a feeling of foreboding washing over me – again. Danny gave me a questioning look, so I told him what Jez had said. He was all for saddling up and riding out – metaphorically of course.

  ‘You don’t think it’s a bit convenient?’

  He shrugged. ‘Why? Bloke’s got to be somewhere hasn’t he?’

  ‘But to be found so soon after – after the other night.’ I still couldn’t bring myself to say the word execution out loud.

  Call me cynical, but I found it pretty hard to believe that Thomas could have been found so quickly. Some of Will’s best men had been searching for his lair for weeks without any luck.

  I heard Will and Luke come back in, and just about managed to stop myself from rushing to greet him like some pathetic little Stepford Wife. Both men came in to the drawing room, holding three more cameras aloft in
triumph.

  ‘Two at the back and one more out front.’ Luke spilled six batteries on to the pine chest.

  ‘Way to go.’ Danny whooped. ‘And Jez has found him. He just phoned.’

  Will arched a dark brow in my direction. I shrugged.

  ‘He thinks he has. I’m not convinced.’

  ‘Elles thinks it’s too easy, she’s dead suspicious.’

  I shrugged again. ‘It is all too easy, and too soon.’

  Will nodded. ‘I tend to agree with you, Elinor. It sounds like another trap to me too.’

  ‘Blimey, you lot are so … old,’ Danny looked from one to the other of us. ‘What do you think Luke?’

  ‘I think we have to check it out, trap or not, but the likelihood of Thomas or the woman waiting to be caught and ultimately exterminated, is exceedingly unlikely.’

  Danny made a rude noise, which Will, for once, chose to ignore.

  ‘Jez is on his way here,’ I said.

  Danny plonked himself in one of the armchairs, but obviously thought better of turning the sound up on Muse’s latest offering, and started flicking channels again instead, until Will’s sharp eyes spotted a local news channel, and he put a hand on Danny’s arm.

  ‘Put the sound on.’

  The reporter was standing outside Jack Straw’s Castle, an old coaching inn opposite the Heath, which had been converted into expensive apartments a few years ago.

  ‘She’s a bit tasty.’ Danny looked at the pretty blonde approvingly. He did seem to have a thing for blondes.

  ‘Quiet.’ Will lowered his lean frame to the sofa, and I went to sit next to him.

  ‘After the deaths on Hampstead Heath ten days ago, it is believed that the latest murder discovered tonight, could have been committed by the same person. A man walking his dog, found the body of a young woman, at approximately 10 p.m. Cause of death has not yet been confirmed. Police have announced that they are widening their search, and are now looking for a serial killer. An official warning has been issued to residents and tourists living in this usually peaceful area. This is Josie Wilson for BBC London News.’

  The cameras went to an angry mob of people who were all talking at once. Someone obligingly held a mic in the face of one woman.