Chapter 4
Hester | Edinburgh, present day
Will’s confusing comment stays in my mind, rattling around annoyingly like a pebble in an empty glass jar.
It doesn’t make sense to me. There’s no way he’s seen me acting, so I have to conclude that he must have been lying to Camilla.
And that disturbs me even more. I’ve come to admire his brutal honesty, but I suppose he’s only human and not perfect.
But to me, there’s something captivating about him when he’s in actor mode: striding around, delivering his lines with such authenticity and passion that he’s the embodiment of each character he plays.
And the audience loves it, gobbles him up with their eyes, and begs him for more like he’s making love to them. Fuck us, Will. Fuck us hard!
I sip shakily from my mug of warm blood, pushing aside a vivid mental image of being gripped around the throat and being fucked hard by Will onstage, his intense dark eyes boring into mine.
It’s a recurring naughty fantasy of mine ever since I got the part of Viola and one I know I shouldn’t indulge in.
Especially since I got the role by nefarious vampiric means.
Sadie has called a flat meeting, and I’m waiting in the lounge. So far, I’m the only one here. The fifth wheel.
Newly engaged lovebirds Sadie and Elliott are around somewhere.
They’ve been spending a lot of time in her room.
And she’s even been staying over at his flat in Causewayside, which is a first as she often describes it as a ‘poky little slum’.
She says it’s because she needs to overhaul the blood donation service, but I think she’s really giving Elliott a good ‘overhaul’ since he has newbie vampire needs.
I’m sure they’re also making up for lost time since he was rescued from the Highlands.
But I don’t begrudge them that at all. I’m happy they’ve finally worked things out and that they’ve resolved their thrall-master relationship.
It never sat well with me. I’d been on at her to turn him for decades.
Floss and Damian I haven’t seen much of either.
They’ve been having romantic night-time flying dates to remote locations, where Damian can run around and burn off his newbie vampire energy.
Floss often comes back with her long skirt ripped, mud on her face, and twigs in her hair.
But emanating a soft satiated glow that suggests she’s been indulging Damian’s more primitive vampiric urges too.
I don’t begrudge them that either. Until Alexander is dealt with, they’re living on borrowed time, and I can’t keep shielding them forever.
Well, I could, but it would be nice if I didn’t have to.
A sharp pining for Will surfaces, and I wish for the umpteenth time that I had my own cosied-up relationship with him to enjoy.
But how could that ever happen? He’s human for starters, and it’s not like he’s ever shown any interest in me.
OK, he said ‘Break a leg’ before my audition, and the way his eyes lingered on mine when he said it was almost bordering on flirtation.
However, it was also tinged with hostility, like he did want me to break my leg. Very confusing, as per usual with Will.
There’s a sharp snap of fingers in front of my face. ‘Hester! Are you joining us? Or are you in a corpuscle coma?’ Sadie asks.
Floss giggles, and I jerk out of my reverie to find the coven now seated in the lounge and looking at me curiously. Elliott and Damian are on the opposite couch; and Floss is sitting on the floor, resting against Damian’s legs, his hand entwined in hers.
‘Sorry,’ I mumble, averting my eyes and attempting a joke, ‘jet lag’s a bitch.’
Sadie leans back in her revolving leather chair and eyes me suspiciously.
I feel her fingers trying to poke into my mind and immediately strengthen my mental wall so she can’t get in.
I trust Sadie, but I know she finds my acting amusing.
If she knew the truth of my audition, she’d never let me hear the end of it.
Luckily, she still has no clue because I’m at the top of her meeting agenda.
‘Firstly, big congrats to Hester for winning the part of Viola in the Twelfth Night! She practised really hard for it, and I should know since I helped her with her lines.’ Sadie smooths her blonde bob smugly, and Elliott’s mouth twitches.
‘Since she’s been struggling with stage fright since 1752, this is kind of a big deal.
..’ she continues, reading from her iPad, while I squirm uncomfortably.
‘It shows a certain tenacity and dedication to the craft that is to be admired. So here’s to Hester!
We know you’ll make the Bard and us proud! ’
Everyone dutifully raises their mugs of blood, murmuring ‘To Hester’, and we all clink and drink. I swallow my mouthful with difficulty as there’s a guilty lump in my throat.
‘Right. Moving on,’ Sadie says briskly. ‘We need to discuss Alexander and his unfortunate thralls and come up with a plan of action. We’re all going to London obviously.’
Everyone nods, and Damian squeezes Floss’s hand. She looks anxious, so she must’ve said something to him mentally to convey her fear. I don’t eavesdrop on their conversation, though. It’s private.
Sadie turns to me. ‘When do your rehearsals start, Hester?’
‘Next week.’
‘Right. So before anything else is decided, we need to find somewhere to stay,’ Sadie says, looking around at us. ‘We don’t know how long it’s going to take to find the wriggly bastard.’
‘At least we know his brothel is in Covent Garden. That narrows it down,’ supplies Elliott.
‘Yes, thanks to your special long-range telepathy, we do.’ She smiles at him fondly. ‘But it’s an expensive area of London, and there’s a group of us. I don’t particularly want to waste our precious money on accommodation.’
‘We could stay with Charlie,’ suggests Floss. ‘Belgravia is quite close to Covent Garden. He might even help us since he despises Alexander.’
Sadie wrinkles her nose. ‘We can’t just turn up on his doorstep. And is he even functioning anymore? He was looking decrepit in 1921, so I imagine the state of him a century on isn’t pretty. But I guess it’s an option.’
Ugh, not if I have anything to say about it. I don’t particularly want to meet Charlie again since he’s my ex. He’s the reason I moved to Edinburgh in 1905 after all. But as I haven’t told the others I’m staying elsewhere, I keep quiet.
Elliott is tapping away on his phone, I assume searching for hotels. ‘There are plenty of options that don’t cost a lot,’ he says.
‘Yeah. Look, what about this Travelodge in Cricklewood?’ Damian jabs a finger at Elliott’s screen. ‘It’s got a discount for group stays.’
‘Let me see.’ Sadie wiggles her fingers, and Elliott hands over his phone. She reads the information about the hotel impassively, not looking too thrilled. ‘It’s a good price. But it’s two-star with a 3.7 rating. That means fleas and thin pillows.’
Damian huffs a laugh. ‘So you want a five-star hotel, but you only want to pay two-star prices—in London.’
Sadie looks at him stonily as if it’s a given. ‘Yes.’ She hands Elliott back his phone. ‘So I veto it.’
‘You only have to stay there until we find Alexander,’ I counter, knowing that fulfilling Sadie’s desire for a nice, but cheap, hotel could take a while. ‘Plus the bed use will be minimal, and the fleas won’t bite you.’
‘That sounds like you’re not planning on staying there with us,’ Sadie says, whipping her head round. She fixes her eyes on me. ‘So where are you staying?’
Whoops.
‘Ah, the theatre management is organising accommodation for all the actors,’ I say reluctantly. ‘In an apartment in Southwark not far from the Globe. For the season.’
‘Cool location!’ says Elliott approvingly.
‘So do you have to pay for it?’ Floss asks.
I shake my head. ‘No, it’s part of the contract.’
‘Right, that settles it,’ says Sadie decisively. ‘We’re staying there too. There’s no point paying for a crappy hotel if Hester’s got free accommodation.’
I groan inwardly. ‘It’s a one-bedroom studio, hardly enough room for—’
‘There might be a pull-out couch,’ Sadie interrupts. ‘Studios often have them for extra guests.’ I can tell by the set of her lips that she’s made up her mind. Because why should Hester get the nice one-bedroom studio in Southwark while she has to stay in Cricklewood?
‘If there’s no pull-out couch, we could buy an air mattress and take turns in Hester’s bed,’ says Floss with a grin. There’s a slight flutter of her eyebrows, and Damian smirks.
‘It will be tiny,’ I say weakly. ‘And I’ll be tired and need to relax after rehearsals.’
‘Rubbish,’ insists Sadie, waving away my protests. ‘You’ll be all fired up and raring to go 24/7. You’ll hardly notice we’re there. And we can figure out what to do about Alexander while you’re rehearsing.’
I gulp at that. I’ve been trying not to think about rehearsals.
I seriously need to hit Damian up for some hypnosis sessions to help with this stage fright.
And goddammit, I was looking forward to having some me-time in my own apartment, especially since Will is going to be staying in the building too.
I was hoping I might be able to muster up the courage to ask him back to mine for a few one-to-one practice sessions.
But with two loved-up vampire couples staying there, that’s out of the question. And by the way, Floss is quickly devising a schedule for all of us; it looks like I’m hardly going to get a chance to sleep in my own bed!