Chapter 39 #2
Damian is the logical choice. But by the way he guns the engine and takes off down the driveway in a spray of gravel, I’m rethinking the decision to put a newbie vampire behind the wheel.
Sitting on Elliott’s lap in the back seat, I dig my nails into his shoulder as we whip around the corner and onto the main road.
‘Is he deliberately trying to make us crash?’ I whisper in his ear as Damian’s foot hits the accelerator.
I’m not worried about my physical safety particularly, but more about shunting another car off the quiet country road.
Stone walls and fence posts whip past the window.
‘Perhaps he’s trying to prove he’s not a namby-pamby driver now that he’s invincible. ’
‘He probably just wants to get it over with,’ whispers back Elliott. ‘Either that, or he’s giving up dentistry and wants to be a Formula 1 driver.’
I snort.
Floss is in front with Hester perched on her lap. She’s in cat form since there wasn’t room back here. I eavesdrop on their conversation.
Floss: Ow, stop digging your claws in!
Hester: It’s not my fault your boyfriend’s driving like a bat out of hell. Tell him to slow down.
Floss: I don’t want to distract him. He’s concentrating.
Hester: If I end up as roadkill, it’s your fault!
I smile at their bickering and glance over at Lucy and Tim to see if they’re listening, but they’re snogging madly. I screw up my nose and bury my face in Elliott’s neck. He smells a lot fresher since he took a shower and borrowed some of Tim’s clothes. It’s like history repeating itself.
‘What’s up?’ He peers around. ‘Oh.’
‘I knew it was a bad idea to bring those two. We’ll be searching the castle for Alexander, and they’ll be holed up in one of the rooms, pounding away,’ I mutter.
Elliott’s shoulders shake with laughter. His arms tighten around my waist. ‘I missed you,’ he says simply.
My lips hover over his neck. I want to bite him so badly, but this isn’t the time nor place. We have a job to do.
‘I missed you too. I know I’ve been acting weird ...’
He rubs his temple against mine. ‘It’s OK. It’s a weird situation. We can talk about it later—’
Damian slams on the brakes, and we all scream. Luckily, Elliott has his arms around me. Lucy doesn’t fare so well and ends up bottom first in the footwell behind the driver’s seat. Tim fishes her out.
‘I’m OK,’ she says shakily. ‘But what’s going on?’
‘Alexander’s coming,’ says Damian in a low voice.
‘Babe, are you sure?’ says Floss worriedly. ‘I can’t feel anything—oh shit, he’s right. I’m getting it now. He’s definitely somewhere nearby.’
Wow, Damian has a blood bond with Alexander too, I guess, since Floss is his sire; and he’s a newbie, so he’s hypersensitive. This could work in our favour.
‘Hester, can you shield them both?’ I ask.
She meows. I take that as a ‘yes’.
‘Should we go back or ...?’ asks Tim.
Without waiting for anyone to give an opinion on the matter, Damian floors it down the narrow lane to our left and pulls off behind a stone wall and cuts the engine and the lights.
OK ...
I’m unclear as to his thinking. ‘Hello, earth to Damian? What are you doing?’
‘I’m not sure. But it’s safer if we get off the main road.’ He sounds a bit freaked out. ‘It feels like tugging and burning. Here.’ He presses a hand to his stomach.
Floss pats his leg. ‘It’s OK. It’s the blood bond activating, babe. Now you know what I feel. It’s great you’re trusting your vampiric instincts.’
‘I don’t like it.’
‘I know, but think of it like a safety beacon. It keeps us protected from him.’
Floss comforting Damian and recounting vampire lore are all very well. But it’s frustrating sitting here, doing nothing. And as much as I like sitting on Elliott’s lap, my neck is getting a crick in it, and Lucy and Tim have gone back to their snog fest.
‘I’m getting out to stretch my legs. Let me know if anything changes.’
‘I’ll come too,’ says Elliott.
I shrug. ‘Sure, if you want.’
We exit the car, and a black furry form winds around my legs, nearly tripping me up. ‘Yes, you can come too, Hester.’
She meows. Just a little kitty run. I can still shield Floss and Damian.
The three of us make our way over along the stone wall to the section that faces a stretch of road leading into the forest. I do a scan of the road and the trees ahead, but there’s nothing in the frosty silence apart from the hoot of an owl. It’s making me nervous.
‘Shouldn’t you be feeling him too since he’s Lucy’s sire?’ I whisper to Elliott.
‘You’d think,’ he whispers back. ‘But no, I’m a pathetic vampire after all.’
‘Don’t say that. Your power is just taking a while to come through. It’s different for everyone. Isn’t that right, Hester? You couldn’t shape-shift when you were first turned?’
Green eyes contemplate us from the top of the wall, where she’s sitting, licking her paw.
No, that took a year to come through.
‘She says—’
‘I heard her,’ Elliott interrupts. ‘It took a year.’
I whack his arm, pleased for him. ‘There you go! You can hear Hester. That’s amazing! That’s a great start.’
‘Yeah,’ he says, sounding a bit forlorn.
But before I can encourage him further, Hester leaps off the wall in a flurry of fur. Get down, both of you. Shit shit shit.
I pull Elliott down into the grass with me.
Me: What is it? What did you see?
Hester: A magical mystery bus of horror!
Me: What?
Elliott: Don’t mind me. Just joining in the conversation.
I look at him and beam. It’s the first telepathic communication we’ve ever had. Hell yeah, baby vamp! I hold up a fist, and Elliott grins and bumps it lightly with his own.
Elliott: A bus you say, Hester?
Hester meows and butts at my hip with her head. Yes, don’t look over the wall whatever you do. Stay out of sight. I’ll go and warn the others.
She bounds off.
Me (muttering): Sorry, Hester, but I need to see this.
Elliott: Yeah, me too.
We inch up the wall until our eyes are level with the top of it.
A blast of light hits me right in the retinas, and I wince.
Then a black double decker bus is towering over us, strobe lights flashing and dance music playing full bore.
As it passes by, I get a quick glimpse of women in their underwear gyrating on the seats and in the aisles.
Then another of a blank-faced woman staring out with haunted eyes.
She looks right at me; and I duck, but not before I catch a snippet of her thoughts, as if she’s projecting them on purpose in a last-ditch attempt for someone, anyone, to save them.
I scoot back down next to Elliott, and we do a hunched-over run back to the car. ‘That was Alexander and a party bus of thralls,’ I say to the others. ‘There must be at least forty of them in there. I caught the thoughts of one of them. She wants to die.’
‘Oh no, how awful!’ says Floss. ‘We have to help them.’
‘Did you pick up anything else?’ asks Tim.
I bite my lip. ‘No, unfortunately.’
‘I did,’ says Elliott. ‘He’s taking them to London because his Airbnb rental contract ran out.
Get his plan, though: he wants to set up a vampire brothel for his fellow Nosferatu in Covent Garden and charge them a premium.
Some of the thralls love the idea of being turned, hence the partying. Others not so much.’
That must’ve been the one I saw sitting at the window.
‘But he needs more of his special serum to do that,’ Elliott adds. ‘Since I escaped and Lucy stole his syringes, that could be a problem. But he’s still got all his notes from the mice, so he’s going to try and recreate it synthetically.’
I gape at this. ‘Wow, looks like you’ve got long-range telepathy coming through, which is a great power to have! I’m jelly.’
Elliott takes my hand and squeezes it.
‘There’s no point storming the castle if Alexander’s not there,’ he points out. ‘And I refuse to drive to London from Scotland, especially with Damian behind the wheel. We may as well go home to Edinburgh and plan our next move. Obviously, we can’t let him follow through with his heinous plan.’
I raise an eyebrow at that. I mean, I was a prostitute for over one hundred and fifty years, and I turned out OK. But the memory of that girl’s stark staring eyes is difficult to forget. ‘Vampire whore’ probably wasn’t at the top of her list of career choices.
Hester clears her throat, and we all look round. Oh, she’s back in her normal body now. ‘I know it’s not as pressing as a horde of vampire prostitutes, but I’ve kind of also got an important audition in two days’ time.’
Ah, yes. That. Back to reality. It looks like our Highland road trip is definitely over. And us not storming the castle is a good thing for the owners of the Airbnb. There would’ve been a lot of broken furniture, blood splattered on the carpet, and a vampire buried in their back garden.