‘Later, yeah?’ said Drake. ‘I was just going to give this stuff to Aasha.’ He indicated a bag he was carrying. Vijay didn’t need to ask what was in there. Whatever it was, it was obviously stolen.
‘No, now,’ said Vijay firmly. ‘Come upstairs to my room. You can go and see Aasha afterwards.’
They went up to Vijay’s room together. ‘Sit down,’ said Vijay, indicating a chair by his desk.
Drake looked at it, but remained standing obstinately. He dumped the bag on the floor and thrust his hands into his jeans pockets. ‘What’s all the big mystery?’ he asked Vijay. ‘Why are you acting so weird? Have I done something wrong?’
‘You know what you’ve done wrong,’ said Vijay. ‘Stealing.’
Drake glanced at his latest bag of ill-gotten gains. ‘We talked about this before,’ he said. ‘You can’t stop me.’
‘Actually, I can,’ said Vijay. ‘In fact I can do better than that. I can tell my parents that you’ve been stealing clothes and jewellery for Aasha. How do you think they would react to that?’
Drake scowled angrily. ‘You wouldn’t dare,’ he said. ‘Why would you do that?’
‘I would do it because stealing is wrong, and Sikhs don’t lie, especially not to their parents.’
‘That’s wack,’ said Drake. ‘Aasha would murder you if you pulled a stunt like that.’
‘You think I wouldn’t?’ challenged Vijay. ‘You think I’m too much of a coward?’
Drake looked uncertain. He said nothing.
‘But perhaps I don’t need to tell them,’ said Vijay. ‘Not if you do something to make up for it.’
‘Like what?’ asked Drake.
Vijay swallowed. He knew that what he was about to suggest was wrong. Stealing was always wrong. But even Sikh scriptures taught that a poor man stealing bread to feed his family was different from a greedy man stealing money to make himself rich. Perhaps under some circumstances, stealing could be right, or at least justifiable. He had to take the risk if he was ever going to get anywhere with Rose. To Drake, he said, ‘Could you steal some medication? Some pills?’
A frown came over Drake’s face. ‘What? Drugs? I don’t know about that, mate. I ain’t never done nothing like that. I could get into massive trouble, yeah? Why do you want pills anyway? You don’t even drink beer.’
‘Not illegal drugs,’ explained Vijay. ‘Prescription medicine. It’s for Oscar.’
‘Who?’
‘You know. Rose’s little brother. He has cystic fibrosis.’
‘Oh yeah,’ said Drake. ‘The little guy in the wheelchair.’
‘If he doesn’t get the medication he needs, he’s going to get really sick. He might even die.’
Drake scratched at the pale wispy hairs that had appeared on his chin these past few weeks. ‘It ain’t my fault he’s sick,’ he said.
‘No, but this is your chance to do something about it. It’s no big deal. You’re out stealing stuff anyway, so why not do some good for a change?’
‘I dunno,’ said Drake. ‘I suppose I could have a poke around, see what I can find. Can you tell me exactly what he needs?’
‘I’ve got a list here that Rose gave me. Let me copy it out for you.’ Vijay wrote out the names of the medicines in his neatest handwriting and passed it to Drake.
Drake studied the list and screwed up his face at the names of the drugs. ‘Flu … flutic … I can’t read this.’
‘Fluticasone,’ said Vijay. ‘It’s a steroidal spray that reduces inflammation in the nasal passage.’
Drake looked at the other items on the list dubiously before flinging it down in disgust. ‘I can’t get these,’ he said. ‘How can I steal something if I can’t even say it? I’ve no idea what to look for.’
‘Then I’ll have to tell mum what you and Aasha did.’
Drake looked at him with something like hate in his eyes. ‘You’re gonna tell your mum I stole some stuff for Aasha, unless I agree to steal some stuff for you?’ he demanded.
‘Yes. Exactly.’
‘That’s twisted.’
‘That’s the deal,’ said Vijay adamantly. He handed the list back to Drake.
‘Why do I need to steal it anyway?’ asked Drake. ‘Why can’t you just get it over the counter like normal people?’
‘Because they’re rationing it,’ said Vijay. ‘It’s almost impossible to get hold of some of these drugs. Whenever Rose manages to find a pharmacist with some in stock, they always tell her they can only give her a day or two’s supply. But Oscar desperately needs more. If he doesn’t get it he might die. And I think I know a place you can get it from.’
Drake seemed to be thinking it over. ‘Okay, I’ll do it,’ he said at last. ‘But only if you agree to one condition.’
‘What’s that?’ asked Vijay suspiciously.
‘Come with me,’ said Drake. ‘It’s the only way I’ll know if I’m grabbing the right stuff.’
Chapter Sixty-Seven
Holland Gardens, Kensington, London, wolf moon
Leanna stared into the bedroom mirror. Like every fitting in the new house in Kensington, the mirror was luxuriously finished, with an elaborately sculptured bronze frame. The artist had stamped the hand-made work with their signature. It was a unique work of art, for sure. But no matter the beauty of the mirror, the face that stared back at her was hideously disfigured. She brushed her long tresses away, better to study the blistered and scabrous skin that covered half of her face.
The red sores had healed as much as they ever would. The pain that had sucked her into a vortex of agony had subsided now. But the ravaged skin still itched viciously, and no cream or medicine could ease it. That would pass eventually, she hoped.
But the pits and furrows where the acid had reached deep into her flesh with its burning fingers would never diminish. Neither would her hatred of the woman who had done this to her.
Only the promise of vengeance eased her pain now. She would wear this mask of ruin as a constant reminder of the evil she had suffered.
And she would begin to repay that debt of suffering tonight.
The sound of the bedroom door opening and closing told her that she had company. Warg Daddy’s face appeared in the mirror behind her. She let him see her hideous scars for a brief second before hiding them again behind her long hair.
His eyes revealed nothing. He had asked her only once about her disfigurement. She had made certain that he would never mention it again.
‘It’s time,’ said Warg Daddy.
She turned to face him. ‘Everything is ready?’ she asked.
‘Everything,’ he confirmed. ‘The Brothers are waiting for me. Adam too.’
‘Good,’ she told him. ‘And the test subjects?’ The people they had injected with infected blood had all reached Stage Two of the condition now – at least those who had survived. They were hungry for blood and ready to be released. The moon would change them to full wolf form, and then they could make their own way in the world, spreading the condition further. Each one was a seed carrying almost unlimited potential to turn humans lycanthropic. A domino effect, cascading onward, inevitably, uncontrollably.
‘They’ve all gone,’ confirmed Warg Daddy. ‘Just as you ordered.’ He paused, as if he expected something more from her.
She kissed him on the mouth, trying to inject some passion into her caress. ‘Good luck,’ she wished him.
Still he lingered.
‘What?’
Warg Daddy seemed nervous in her presence. He often was. She liked to keep him that way. ‘What are your plans for tonight?’ he asked eventually.
‘Private,’ she told him. ‘Personal.’
He glanced again at the burned half of her face, now hidden from view beneath a curtain of golden hair.
‘Go now,’ she commanded. ‘I’ll see you again in the morning.’
He turned away without another word, and she heard him leave the house with the Brothers.
Vengeance.
Her d
ebts would be repaid. And she would begin tonight.
Once she was certain that Warg Daddy and the Wolf Brothers had all gone, she slipped out of the house alone, leaving it for the first time since her photo had appeared on the news channels as Britain’s most wanted. She smiled grimly. Fame had not been part of her plan, but it seemed that everyone in Britain now knew her face. She pulled her hood over her hair, drawing it tight. Her jeans and hooded jacket gave her anonymity, no matter how hard the police might search for her.
Snow had begun to fall after noon, just a few flakes at first, then heavier as the day dragged on. Now the snowflakes were tumbling down as if they intended to smother the world. The army had gritted the major routes, but the snow covered smaller residential streets in a white blanket. The sky stretched above, white as the snow on the ground.
Leanna moved quickly through the strangely quiet streets, indistinguishable from the few strangers who hurried past. Her footprints were already disappearing under a sprinkling of white.
Chapter Sixty-Eight
Brixton Village, South London, wolf moon
After his confrontation with Salma Ali, Ben went directly to the Hallibury’s house to see how Oscar was getting on. The boy had developed a nasty chest infection in the past few days and desperately needed antibiotics.
‘It’s a bacterial infection,’ explained Rose’s mother, Jane. ‘He often picks them up at this time of year. It’s because of the build-up of mucus in his lungs. He needs special antibiotics to treat the infection, and we just haven’t been able to get hold of any. When we heard there’d been a medical delivery at the butcher’s shop on Brixton Hill, my husband went around to see what they had, but the butcher refused to let him in.’
‘I kicked up a bit of a fuss, actually,’ said Richard Hallibury. ‘The thought that there were drugs that could make Oscar better just out of reach made me furious.’
‘I understand,’ Ben told him. Salma Ali’s words had made him feel equally angry. Angry and impotent, but he didn’t plan to take this lying down. With men like Richard Hallibury to back him up, he had a chance of taking control of this neighbourhood and bringing Ms Ali’s budding dictatorship to a quick end.
But a loud rapping at the front door indicated that he might have underestimated her willingness to act.
‘Who on earth can that be?’ asked Richard Hallibury.
The knocking came again, even louder than the first time. A heavy pounding at the door, from a wooden stick or some other blunt object.
Ben didn’t like the sound of it. He glanced out of the front window and saw a group of men gathered outside the house.
Jane Hallibury laid a hand on her husband’s arm. ‘Don’t answer,’ she said. ‘Ignore them.’
‘I’m not a prisoner in my own home,’ insisted Richard. He went into the hallway to open the door.
Ben heard shouting. ‘Wait here,’ he said to Jane and Oscar. He went to see what was happening.
A gang of men had seized Richard Hallibury and dragged him outside. Two of the men held Richard by his arms. Ben wasn’t the least surprised to see that one of them was Mr Stewart. Around ten others were in the mob, some of them carrying heavy tools and other makeshift weapons. Salma Ali stood among them.
Ben strode up to her. ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ he demanded.
Salma Ali raised her eyebrows. ‘Please calm yourself, Mr Harvey, or I will have to ask for you to be restrained.’
Two of the men came forward and Ben backed a step away from her. It was clear that these thugs would do whatever she asked. ‘Explain yourself,’ he said.
‘Certainly.’ Her usual smile was missing. Instead she had what Ben thought of as her lawyer’s face, stern, serious, simultaneously vulnerable and unassailable. He had seen her use that face many times to persuade people to do what she wanted. She had even used it on him. With that face and that voice, and her carefully chosen words, she had an almost magical ability to connect to people at an emotional level, tapping into their raw fears and dreams, exploiting feelings they didn’t even know they’d felt before her speech roused their passion and turned them into a mob.
‘We are removing this man into safe custody for the protection of the community,’ she said, indicating Richard Hallibury. ‘We have eye witness statements that he is in fact a werewolf.’
‘That’s ridiculous,’ said Richard. He struggled to free himself, but his arms were too tightly held.
‘Horrifying and almost unbelievable,’ agreed Salma Ali, ‘But nevertheless true. We also have evidence that his wife is a werewolf too. Take her!’ she shouted.
Two more men pushed into the house and emerged dragging Jane into the street. ‘I can’t leave my children,’ she wailed. ‘I can’t leave Oscar.’ She struggled feebly in their strong grip.
Rose appeared on the doorstep. ‘No!’ she cried tearfully. ‘You can’t take them away. You mustn’t!’ Ben could see Oscar inside the front room, peering anxiously through the window.
‘This is outrageous,’ said Ben. He turned to the men who held Jane Hallibury. ‘Look at yourselves,’ he said to them. ‘What do you think you’re doing?’
Salma Ali spoke for them. ‘They’re protecting their families and their loved ones from these monsters,’ she said. ‘We’ve all seen what these beasts are capable of. And we know what will happen to them when the wolf moon comes tonight. At least these two will be locked safely behind bars.’
‘That’s absurd,’ shouted Ben. ‘You can’t lock these people up!’
At last Salma Ali’s smile appeared. ‘Actually we can. This is a perfectly legal citizen’s arrest. We are acting on evidence to remove a threat to the community. Trust me.’
‘I don’t trust you,’ said Ben. ‘And there is no actual evidence against these people, just trumped-up and malicious accusations.’
Salma Ali remained resolute. ‘We have to act in the interests of the group now. The common good takes precedence over individual needs. I’d hoped you would have seen the truth of that, Ben, an intelligent man like you.’
Ben shook his head. ‘I won’t allow you to imprison these people.’
‘No,’ said Salma Ali. ‘I know you won’t. And that’s why I can’t allow you to walk away from here. Seize him!’
Chapter Sixty-Nine
Upper Terrace, Richmond upon Thames, West London, wolf moon
Sarah was busy cooking dinner when James returned home from his latest food expedition. She heard him burst in through the front door and come running down the hallway into the kitchen. A dusting of snow rested on the shoulders of his jacket, but his face was flushed with exertion.
‘Hey, steady on,’ she said. She had never seen him in such an agitated state before. ‘Calm down, whatever’s happened?’
‘Where’s Melanie?’ he asked breathlessly. ‘I need to speak to her immediately.’
‘She’s with Grandpa,’ said Sarah. ‘I think she’s reading to him.’
James leaned against the door panting.
‘Stop and get your breath back,’ she told him. ‘You look like you ran all the way back from Brixton.’
‘I did,’ he said. ‘That’s exactly what I did. I had to get back as soon as I saw what they did.’
‘What who did, James?’ Melanie stuck her head around the door. ‘What on earth is the matter? I could hear you from upstairs.’
‘It’s Ben,’ blurted James. ‘They’ve taken Ben Harvey.’
Melanie’s face paled. ‘What do you mean, taken?’ she asked. ‘Who’s taken him?’
‘I don’t know who they were exactly,’ said James. ‘But I saw them. A group of men, with a woman in charge. They arrested him and dragged him into the woman’s house. They were talking about locking him in the cellar. We have to go and rescue him, Melanie. We have to get him out!’
Melanie stared at him, uncomprehendingly. ‘They arrested him? Are you talking about the police?’
‘No,’ said James. ‘They were like a mob, a crowd of pe
ople. The woman in charge said it was a citizen’s arrest. They took Ben and two others, a man and a woman. They said that Ben and the other two were werewolves.’
‘That’s ridiculous,’ said Melanie. ‘Are you sure you understood?’
‘Yes!’ wailed James.
Sarah calmed him down and got him to go through it all again, filling in the details he’d forgotten to tell them the first time around.
By the time he’d finished, it was obvious that Melanie’s mind was made up. ‘Okay, let’s go and get him out of there,’ she said.
Sarah had been listening carefully to James’ story. She couldn’t allow Mel and James to rush off on some mad rescue mission. ‘But how are you going to get him out?’ she asked. ‘You don’t even have a plan.’
‘I’ll think of something,’ said Melanie. ‘I always do.’
Sarah wrung her hands together anxiously. This was so typical of her sister. She was always rushing into trouble, it was like a magnet for her. But it was equally true that she always managed to wriggle out of it somehow. She’d had a few close calls though. It would be better if Sarah went too, to stop her doing anything stupid. But how could she? She hadn’t been out for months. How could she do this now?
‘I want to come too,’ she said. ‘I want to help.’
‘No,’ said Melanie. ‘Stay here with Grandpa. If we don’t come back, you’ll be all he has left.’
Chapter Seventy
West Field Gardens, South London, wolf moon
It was time to go out stealing and Vijay was terrified. His nerves had been growing all day until he’d eventually vomited. Since then he’d felt a little better, but it was still more frightening than anything he’d ever done before, even worse than when he’d been summoned to the headmaster’s office for fighting with Drake and Ash.
‘Come on,’ said Drake. ‘It’s not so hard. And anyway, this was all your idea.’
Vijay nodded. They needed to get medicines to help Oscar. And Vijay had to prove himself to Rose. More than that, he needed to prove his courage to himself. If he failed at this, he would spend the rest of his life knowing he was a failure. ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘You’re sure it’s not too dangerous tonight?’ The night of the wolf moon had come at last. ‘The werewolves will turn when the moon comes out.’
Lycanthropic (Book 2): Wolf Moon (The Rise of the Werewolves) Page 27