Chapter Twenty-Nine
She pressed back
against the window, her eyes darting around like a trapped
rabbit’s. Gabriel saw her expression and stepped
forward.
‘Hey, April, it’s
okay, don’t be frightened,’ he said, his hands outstretched. But
April was already moving. She turned and ran, banging into a lady
carrying a takeaway coffee which exploded on the floor in a spray
of milk and foam.
‘Hey!’ shouted the
woman angrily, but April couldn’t hear anything except the wind
rushing past her ears. She glanced behind and could see him
following her. No! She pulled up her dress and her feet pounded the
pavement, once again glad of her flat shoes, and she swerved to
avoid tourists and shoppers. She dashed across a road, barely
missing a black cab, and plunged into a narrow alleyway.
How close is he? she wondered, not
daring to look back. Little shops with cute Dickensian bow windows
whirled through her vision as she looked for an exit. She skidded
to a halt just as a bus whooshed past her nose in a red blur.
Left or right, left or right? her brain
screamed.
‘April! Stop!’
Gabriel’s voice was close behind her. Too
close. She went right, sprinting up the street, veering
across and into another alley, hoping to lose Gabriel in the tangle
of tiny streets. She plunged through a dark opening and along a
narrow lane, no more than a pathway really, which hooked right and
back onto the road. Where now? She followed the tide of people
flowing downhill - where there were people there was safety,
right?
She ran out into the
road amid blaring horns and dazzling headlights. But then she was
on the other side and to her right was the wide-open space of
Trafalgar Square. It was teeming with tourists and pigeons, but it
was too open, too exposed for safety. Besides, she had to stop, her
legs, her lungs wouldn’t take any more. She hurried as best she
could up some wide white steps to her left and hid behind a pillar.
It was a church, or a courthouse or something equally grand, but
all April cared about was that she couldn’t be seen. She slumped
against the stone, gulping in air and trying to calm herself down.
She ducked her head out and stared back the way she had come,
scanning the crowd, looking for Gabriel in hot pursuit.
Maybe I’ve lost him, maybe he gave up,
she thought.
But no, there he was,
walking casually towards her as if nothing had happened.
How did he get here so
fast?
‘April, I’m sorry if
I scared you back there. I didn’t mean to freak you out, I just
want to talk,’ he said, both hands held out, palms down, as if he
was trying to calm a skittish animal. ‘Don’t run,
please.’
Out of the corner of
her eye, she could see some tourists coming down the steps from the
church, cameras in hands. So she screamed. A long high-pitched
Hammer Horror-style scream. Every head within earshot turned in her
direction and April took full advantage of it, quickly backing away
from Gabriel, shouting, ‘Help! Help me! He stole my purse and now
he’s trying to get my phone!’ She waved her mobile to underline the
truth of the claim.
A middle-aged fat man
in a puffer jacket stepped between April and Gabriel.
‘Hey, buddy,’ he
called in a gruff New York accent. ‘You bothering this
lady?’
‘She’s my
girlfriend,’ said Gabriel, not taking his eyes from
April.
‘I am not!’ cried
April.
‘Hey, pal, why don’t
you give her some space, huh?’ said the New Yorker. ‘I don’t think
she wants you around right now.’
‘Yeah, leave her
alone!’ shouted a black lady.
‘I’m calling the
police!’ yelled someone else, stepping between them.
And April was off and
running again, blindly taking the first road she came to, sprinting
between towering white buildings, then taking a sharp left into an
alleyway. As she ran she scrabbled with her phone, clumsily
scrolling to Reece’s mobile number and pressing the ‘call’
button.
‘Come on, come on,’
she panted, holding the phone to her ear without breaking
stride.
‘This is Detective
Inspector Ian Reece …’
‘DI Reece! This is
April … April Dunne,’ she gasped desperately.
‘… leave a message
after the tone.’
Dammit! Voicemail.
As the tone sounded,
she tried again. ‘DI Reece, this is April Dunne, I’m in …’ She
looked around her desperately. ‘Somewhere in London, near Trafalgar
Square, I think I’m being foll—’
And then she was
talking to the air. Her phone had been snatched out of her hand.
She twisted around, stumbled and fell, landing on the ground with a
jolt. Gabriel was standing over her, peering at the
phone.
‘Who were you
calling? The police?’
April opened her
mouth to scream again, but Gabriel was too quick. He jumped forward
and before she could do anything, his hands were on her.
This is it, she thought, strangled at sixteen.
But to her surprise, he simply lifted her back onto her
feet.
‘What are you doing?’
he said to her angrily, barely out of breath. ‘Why are you running
away from me?’
‘Because you’re a
murderer!’ shouted April and kicked him as hard as she could in the
shin.
‘Ow, Jesus!’ he
cried, doubling over, and April ran. She ran as fast as she could
go. At the end of the alley were some wide steps where the lane
became an arched tunnel and she jumped down them three at a time,
her footsteps echoing, her breath rasping. Ahead of her she could
see some people and she shouted out to them.
‘Please help me!
Please, he’s after me!’
The first of them
caught her as she ran into him. ‘Hey, hey!’ he said, laughing.
‘What’s the rush? Who’s after you, love?’
The man was in his
twenties, dressed in an expensive-looking polo shirt, his hair
slicked back. His three companions were also young men similarly
dressed in flashy retro trainers and short-sleeved shirts, despite
the cold. One of them had tattoos running up his arms.
‘Him!’ gasped April,
pointing to Gabriel, who was now standing at the top of the stairs,
silhouetted against the light inside the tunnel.
‘Who’s that, your
boyfriend?’ asked one of the other men, sniggering.
‘Or her pimp,’
shouted another and they all laughed. April could now smell the
booze on their breath.
‘Having a domestic,
love?’ said the first man, the yellow light of the tunnel shining
on his hair. ‘Don’t worry, we’ll sort him for you.’
‘Let her go,’ said
Gabriel, walking towards them. ‘I won’t tell you
again.’
‘Oo-ooh!’ mocked one
of the men, to more raucous laughter. ‘He won’t tell us
again.’
Slick Hair stepped
forwards and another of the men grabbed April’s arms from
behind.
‘Well, how about I
tell you something, pal,’ said Slick Hair.
‘She’s with us now.
We’ll take good care of her, won’t we, boys?’
‘Yeah!’ They all
laughed and the man holding April twisted his head around to leer
at her.
Slick Hair reached
into his pocket and, with a flash of metal, he produced a
knife.
‘So unless you want
some of this,’ he began, waving the blade in front of Gabriel’s
face, ‘I suggest you—’ But he never got to finish the sentence.
Faster than the eye could see, Gabriel grabbed his hand and
twisted. There was a sickening crack that sounded horribly loud in
the tunnel, followed by an even louder scream. The next few seconds
were a blur: the man holding April tossed her to one side and she
dropped to the floor. Then she heard a terrible guttural roar like
a charging wolf and the man flew past her, his head cracking
against the sloped wall of the tunnel. There were more thuds and
another scream and then it was over; all of the men were lying on
the ground and Gabriel was bending over April to help her
up.
‘It’s okay,’ he said
softly, ‘it’s over now.’
‘Get away from me,’
she screamed, scrabbling along the ground until her back met the
wall.
‘April, they were
going to hurt you,’ he said, bending down towards her, but before
he could touch her one of the men got back to his feet and grabbed
Gabriel’s coat, shouting obscenities. April spotted the knife,
lying on the floor by her leg. She quickly reached out, grabbed it
and stuffed it into her coat pocket as she clambered to her feet
and ran up the steps, but Gabriel caught her at the top and pushed
her into a doorway, his face cold with anger.
‘You have to believe
me, I had nothing to do with your father’s death.’
‘Why should I believe
you?’
‘Okay, you want to
call the police?’ he said, handing her back the phone. ‘Go ahead,
call your Detective Inspector Reece, ask him where he was when your
father was killed.’
She looked up at him,
then down at the phone. With shaking fingers, she dialled Reece’s
number.
‘April?’ said Reece
urgently down the line. ‘Where are you? What’s happened? I tried to
call you back, but it went to voicemail. Are you
okay?’
‘Yes, I’m fine,’ said
April. ‘Look, I know this sounds crazy, but can I ask you
something? Where were you when my father was killed?’
There was silence at
the end of the phone. ‘What’s this about, April?’ he asked
suspiciously. ‘Are you in trouble?’
‘Please, DI Reece,
can you just tell me? It’s important.’
She could hear the
policeman take in a deep breath and let it out. ‘I was interviewing
a witness,’ he said. ‘A lad from your school, actually, Gabriel
Swift. Had to cut it short when Carling got the call about your dad
on the radio. Listen, what’s going on? Aren’t you with your
mum?’
‘I’m just going home
now,’ she said, looking at Gabriel. ‘Hang on, he was a witness? To
my dad’s murder?’
‘Another case,’ said
Reece. He paused for a moment. ‘Isabelle Davis, in fact. He saw
something that night too. Listen, April, do you need me
to—’
‘Sorry, Detective
Inspector, I’ve got to go,’ she said and hung up, immediately
turning towards the Embankment Tube entrance only metres
away.
Gabriel grabbed her
arm, but she pulled it free. ‘Let go of me,’ she hissed, gripping
the knife in her pocket.‘Do you want me to scream
again?’
‘Okay, okay,’ said
Gabriel, holding his hands up in surrender. ‘But at least let me
explain.’
‘I’m not interested
in anything you’ve got to say,’ said April, turning back towards
the station.
‘I can tell you
what’s been going on.’
That stopped April in
her tracks. She looked back at him. Was he telling the truth this
time? He’d promised to explain before but hadn’t followed through.
Okay, so he wasn’t there when her dad died - and she was more
relieved than she thought she’d be about that - but he could still
have killed Isabelle and he still obviously knew something he
wasn’t telling her. And April had to know. She had to.
‘Okay,’ she said.
‘You’ve got two minutes.’
Gabriel nodded
towards the little park next to the station. ‘Maybe we’d better go
somewhere a little more private.’
‘No, first tell me
why you’re suddenly a police witness for the Isabelle Davis case,’
said April.
Gabriel could see she
wasn’t going to budge and sighed. ‘I called the police anonymously
that night to tell them I’d found the body - and I didn’t tell them
you were there - I later found out that you didn’t tell them I was
there either. I’ve never thanked you for that, by the
way.’
April shrugged.
‘You’re welcome,’ she said, with slightly more sarcasm than she
intended. ‘But why were you talking to Reece when my dad was
killed?’
Gabriel paused before
answering.
‘I called them again,
told them I’d thought of something else. I wanted to help them
catch Isabelle’s killer.’
‘But what made you
wait a week? Why did you suddenly get all
public-spirited?’
‘Because of the
party,’ said Gabriel. ‘Because I saw what they were doing, what
they were going to do, and I thought I might be able to help stop
it.’
‘Stop what?’ said
April. ‘And who are “they”, exactly?’
Gabriel glanced
around him. ‘Listen, I’ll tell you whatever you want to know, but I
can’t talk about it out here. Come on, I promise I won’t hurt you,’
he said, walking backwards towards the park as he
spoke.
April shrugged and
followed. What was the worst that could happen? He could kill you and eat you, said a voice in her
head. Considering how her day had been going, that didn’t seem so
bad to April right then.
‘So what have you got
to tell me?’ said April impatiently as they walked through the
gardens. ‘You can start with that night in the cemetery. What
exactly happened to Isabelle Davis? And what were you doing
there?’
‘I know you have no
reason to believe anything I say,’ he said slowly, ‘but she was
killed by a vicious animal and I was there trying to protect
you.’
‘What, the way you
did back there with those blokes?’
‘They weren’t going
to help you, April. Believe me, they had bad things in
mind.’
‘And how would you
know that? Can you read minds?’
Gabriel walked on a
few more steps, looking down at his feet. ‘Listen, April,’ he said.
‘I still can’t tell you everything, not all at once.’
‘Oh Jesus Christ,
forget it!’ shouted April. ‘I’m supposed to trust everything you
say, however ridiculous, but you won’t trust me with your precious
secrets? Just forget it!’ She turned to leave the
park.
‘I could smell
them.’
April gave him a
double take. He had said it in such a quiet voice, she wasn’t sure
she could have heard him correctly. She gave a nervous
laugh.
‘You could smell
them?’
Gabriel nodded, his
eyes hooded and faraway. He certainly didn’t look like he was
joking.
‘Okay, and what did
they smell of?’
‘Violence, cruelty.
Sex. The bad kind.’
April just blinked at
him. He was serious, this wasn’t a wind-up. Her stomach felt like
an express lift dropping between floors. She looked back towards
the bright entrance of the Tube station, but they were too far away
now. No one would see them from this distance. She glanced behind
her; the park gates were there, but they opened onto the
Embankment, thick with roaring traffic. She was
trapped.
‘I can smell you too,
April,’ he said. ‘I can smell fear, regret and … something else -
what is that?’
‘Leave me alone,’ she
whispered, backing away horrified.
‘You were right about
me, April,’ he said, matching her step for step. ‘I am a killer. A hunter. We all are. Some of us are
just better at it than others.’
And finally the penny
dropped, finally she understood what he was talking about, what the
real story had been all along.
‘You are kidding me,’
she said. April knew she should have been scared, mesmerised,
rooted to the spot with terror, but instead she was furious. ‘You
are not serious!’ she screamed,
stepping towards Gabriel, her hand groping in her pocket. She
pulled out her mobile phone, held it up and clicked the button. The
flash lit up the little park and Gabriel jerked back, momentarily
stunned.
‘No way,’ whispered
April as she looked down at the screen, because Gabriel wasn’t
there. He’s not there. No trick of the light.
No faulty camera. He’s simply not there. ‘You’re a vampire?’
She looked up at him in disbelief. ‘You’re a bloody
vampire?’
Gabriel took a step
forwards. ‘April—’
‘You are! You’re a
bloody VAMPIRE!’ she yelled, backing away, but he was too fast. He
was on her in a second, his hands gripping her arms. He pushed his
face close to hers - and it was terrifying. His mouth was stretched
back in a horrible grin, his sharp glittering teeth bared, his nose
wrinkled and upturned, his eyes narrow and black. Oh God, so black. The very same eyes she had seen
that night in the cemetery.
‘Yes, I’m a vampire,’
he hissed. ‘I’m just a monster to you, aren’t I?’ He bent his head
lower, his teeth moving closer and closer to her neck.
He’s going to kill me too. April knew she wouldn’t
get another chance. Some older, darker primordial instinct took
over and she gripped the knife in her pocket and thrust it upwards,
screaming.
A look of confusion
passed over Gabriel’s face, then his arms dropped and he looked
down at the handle of the knife protruding from his
abdomen.
‘You stabbed me,’ he
said. April watched in horror as he reached up and pulled the knife
out and stared at the dark blood on the blade. Gabriel looked from
the knife to April, but she didn’t wait to see his reaction. She
turned and ran, straight out of the park and into the road without
breaking stride. She ran straight across Embankment, packed with
speeding rush-hour cars, oblivious to the danger, not caring if she
was smashed by a bumper or crushed by the wheels. A car passed in
front of her so close it blew her hair out to the side, but she
kept going, ignoring the blaring horns and squealing brakes. She
was a gazelle being chased by a lion, a swallow chased by hawks,
completely focused on putting that moving metal river between them.
She almost made it. Her last step fell an inch too short and her
toe clipped the kerb, sending her pitching forwards. Crying out,
she landed on one knee, grazing it badly. As she staggered back up,
she could feel the blood running down her shin, she could see the
hole in her tights and the red wound beneath it. It didn’t look
good, but she didn’t stop, half-limping towards the river. She knew
she’d never make it to the Tube, but maybe there would be a boat or
somewhere to hide. Hobbling badly, the pain sending little stars
shooting across her vision, she staggered to her left. Towering
above her was a huge stone column - Cleopatra’s Needle. Almost
hopping now, she made it to the foot of the monument and rested
against the stone base for a moment. Where
now, genius? she thought. April
struggled down the steps at the back and sat down behind one of the
huge sphinxes. It was the best hiding place she could hope for in
the circumstances.
She felt her knee
gingerly.
‘Ouch,’ she whispered
to herself. She didn’t think it was that bad, but it was stiffening
up. If he found her she’d be unable to run. Will he find me? Is he even alive? It was just
typical of her luck. I find the boy of my
dreams and he turns out to be a murderous vampire. I really can
pick ‘em, she thought. She felt in her pocket for her phone,
she had to call someone, but who? She couldn’t very well call the
police and tell them there was a vampire loose in Westminster and,
by the way, I’ve just stabbed him. Reece! Of course, she would call
Reece, he would know what to do. April glanced at her phone to pull
up his number and saw the phone’s screen, with the photo of Gabriel
there in glorious Technicolor. Or rather, not there. Just like her
photo of Milo from the party, there was a weird black swirly hole
where Gabriel should have been. She knew she needed to act, but she
couldn’t take her eyes off it. A
vampire! It was unbelievable, ridiculous. But in a funny
kind of way, it all made sense. His sudden disappearances, the
things he couldn’t explain, the Circle of Lebanon, even the
late-night date in the square, suddenly they didn’t seem so crazy.
So why didn’t I work it out before? she
wondered angrily. ‘Because vampires don’t exist, you idiot!’ she
whispered.
‘But we
do.’
April jumped, pushing
herself back against the sphinx.
‘Please, April, no
more running,’ said Gabriel quietly. ‘It’s too cold.’
‘But I stabbed you …’
she whispered. ‘You had blood.’
‘Yeah, we have blood
too, but …’ He lifted his dark-stained shirt up, wincing. There was
a hole in his side, but the blood around it was congealed and dry.
It looked like an old wound, one that was well on the way to
healing.
‘How… ?’ was all
April could manage.
Gabriel sat down on
the step, keeping a little distance from April. ‘I’m a vampire,
remember?’ he said wearily. ‘We heal quick. Bloody hurts though.’
He put his shirt down and cradled his stomach, as if he had bad
indigestion.
‘You were going to
bite me!’ she shouted indignantly. ‘I didn’t have any choice! I
thought you were going to kill me, the way you did
Isabelle.’
‘I wasn’t going to
bite you,’ he said. ‘And I didn’t kill Isabelle. I just wanted to
scare you. I wanted to let you see what everyone else sees, to see
what I really am.’
‘But why didn’t you
just tell me?’
‘How could
I?’
April gave a short
ironic laugh. ‘I suppose, “Hi, I’m Gabriel, I’m a bloodsucking
demon,” might not win you many friends.’
‘We’re not demons,’
he said angrily.
‘Oh, it’s “we”, is
it? There are more of you?’
‘More than you’d
believe.’
All in a rush, April
realised that it was all true. Everything. The nests, the Regent, the Highgate
Vampire, the book in Mr Gill’s shop, it was all true. ‘Oh my God,’ she whispered, feeling a
terrible sense of shame as she remembered the way she had spoken to
her father, mocking his silly little hobby, calling him pathetic
for believing in monsters. But he had been right all
along.
‘So where are they?’
said April. ‘Who are they? How can I tell who is and who isn’t a
vampire?’
Gabriel shrugged.
‘It’s not that simple.’
April felt another
rush of anger. ‘Listen, Gabriel,’ she snapped. ‘You’re either going
to have to kill me and eat me or you’re going to have to stop
talking in riddles. Seriously, it’s getting on my bloody
nerves.’
Gabriel threw his
head back and laughed, then stopped, wincing. ‘You’re certainly
different, April Dunne.’ He chuckled, holding his
side.
‘What’s so funny?’
said April, still annoyed.
‘Well, most people
confronted by a vampire for the first time scream or beg for their
lives. You, on the other hand, stab the vampire and then start
telling him off.’
Despite herself,
April started giggling too. She covered her mouth, but it still
bubbled out with an edge of hysteria and the chuckles were replaced
with great gulping sobs and her shoulders heaved with the effort.
All the tension of the day was pouring out with the tears. Gabriel
came over and held her and even though she knew she should push him
away, she clung to him, her face pressed into his chest. Despite
her fears, there was something comforting about his
embrace.
Finally, the sobs
became sniffles and she blew her nose.
‘So you’re really a
vampire, huh?’ she said, wiping her face.
‘Afraid
so.’
‘So what’s it
like?’
‘Difficult.’
She snorted. ‘I’ll
bet.’ She pushed herself up, trying to stand. Her knee didn’t feel
too bad. ‘Come on, let’s walk,’ she said, reluctantly leaning on
his arm. ‘So long as you don’t try anything.’
They walked slowly
back along the river, silently watching the rolling black waters
reflecting the lights from the buildings. April stopped and looked
up at him.
‘How old are
you?’
Gabriel paused before
answering. ‘I was born in 1870-’
‘Good God, but that’s
… that’s insane. So are you immortal? Can you never die? Have you
always looked like this?’
Gabriel touched her
hand gently and she was surprised that she didn’t
flinch.
‘Don’t try to take it
all in at once, April,’ he said. ‘It’s hard to grasp, but it’s
true. It really is.’
They were coming
under the shadow of Hungerford Bridge now.
‘How’s the knee?’ he
asked.
‘It’s okay,’ she
said, doubtfully. ‘More to the point, how’s your side?’ She lowered
her voice and glanced around. ‘Listen, I’m sorry I stabbed
you.’
‘Come here,’ he said.
‘I’d like to show you something.’ Bending over, he effortlessly
scooped April up in his arms and began running up the steps to the
Jubilee Footbridge.
‘Hey,’ she protested,
‘I’m not an invalid.’
‘I know,’ he said.
‘Now shut up, I’m trying to be nice. And considering you just
stabbed me, I’m also being very understanding.’
April shut up. She
was still annoyed about being lied to, not to mention badly freaked
out by the whole ‘vampire’ thing, but it was, well, nice being
picked up by a boy. RIP feminism, she
thought to herself. Gabriel put her down gently and they began
walking across the river. The London Eye was a glowing disc on the
South Bank.
‘It’s beautiful,
isn’t it?’ said April softly. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen the
river at night before. Not up close like this.’
Gabriel nodded. ‘I
used to live near the river,’ he said. ‘I’d come here at night and
just watch it flow past. Of course, it was much busier then. And
the London Eye wasn’t there - it was all warehouses and pretty
nasty slums, and living by the river was considered dirty and
dangerous.’
April stopped and
looked around to make sure no one was listening. ‘So you’re really
telling me you’re a vampire? A vampire?’
Gabriel nodded. ‘I
know, it’s crazy, isn’t it? But it’s true, I assure
you.’
‘But what are you?
Some sort of … ?’ She wanted to say monster, but she was too
polite. He might be a creature of legend, but calling him a
‘monster’ to his face still felt a little rude.
‘I’m human, just like
you, but I’ve been infected by the vampire virus. I won’t blind you
with science, but essentially the vampire disease is constantly
destroying our cells and the body is constantly making new ones.
That’s why we have great skin and hair, and we never get ill. We
age much, much more slowly because our bodies are constantly
regenerating. So no, we’re not supernatural, it’s just that science
hasn’t caught up with us yet. And no, before you ask, I can’t turn
into a bat.’
April smiled. They
walked a little further. She had been right - her knee was
stiffening up, making her lean on Gabriel a little more. She found
she didn’t mind that too much.
‘So how did it
happen?’ she asked, looking up at him. ‘How did you come to be a -’
she whispered ‘- vampire?’
‘I got bitten,’ he
said simply.
April shot him an
impatient look and Gabriel shrugged.
‘I chose to become a
vampire,’ he said quietly. ‘And I did it for love.’
April still didn’t
know how to react to all this new information and she certainly
wasn’t sure how she felt about Gabriel Swift any more, but she
definitely didn’t like him using the L-word when it wasn’t
connected to her.
‘Love?’ she asked as
they began walking across the bridge again.
‘I know, it sounds
crazy, but I was young and impetuous and … anyway, I was a student,
studying law. I didn’t have enough money for a social life, though,
so I used to come out here walking at night, that was my
entertainment. Then one night, just over there—’ he pointed
downstream ‘—I heard a scream. A gang of yobs, just kids really,
were roughing up a girl, trying to steal her pocketbook. So I waded
in.’
‘My
hero!’
‘Yes, well.’ He
coughed. ‘That time it didn’t really go my way. I got quite a
beating. In fact, the young lady in question ended up pulling them
off me. All very embarrassing.’
‘And she became your
girlfriend?’
He nodded. ‘That was
Lily, who became my girlfriend - fiancee, actually. She was
beautiful and sweet, but she was also strong-headed. She hated the
constraints of her sex, how she had to conform to certain
old-fashioned notions of decent behaviour.’
‘I’m with her
there.’
‘Her attitude was
always “why shouldn’t I go out walking alone?” She was an original
thinker. So we began courting, and we fell in love and I
proposed.’
‘So what went wrong?’
April could hardly believe she was feeling jealous of a woman who
had been born over a hundred years ago. But given the way this
evening was going she wouldn’t have been entirely surprised if
Gabriel had suddenly produced his beautiful fiancée, still alive,
still radiant and brave.
Gabriel shook his
head and looked out at the river. ‘She got sick. Consumption -
tuberculosis. It might be hard to imagine what it was like in
London a hundred years ago, but the conditions were terrible.
Disease. Overcrowding. Whole families would jump into the Thames to
avoid starvation and TB was the biggest killer of all. All it took
was for one infected person to cough in an alleyway or marketplace
and everyone who walked past would inhale it and contract the
disease.’
They had come to the
end of the walkway now and Gabriel helped April down onto the South
Bank path. They walked into Jubilee Gardens where there was a small
fair in the shadow of the big wheel. They stopped to watch the
children going round and round on a Victorian-style carousel,
squealing as the horses dipped up and down.
‘It was so hard to
watch,’ said Gabriel. ‘She was wracked with pain every time she
coughed, blood spotting her handkerchief. Then it spread to her
neck and leaked through her skin as a horrible pus. She lost weight
and finally it spread to her spine and she found it difficult to
walk. I so wanted to save her.’
He paused, looking up
at the stars for a moment.
‘There had been
rumours about bad things happening around Christchurch even before
Jack the Ripper. Bodies turning up. It was a dark place back then,
even in the daytime with the fog blocking out the sun. People could
do what they liked, then disappear into the shadows. I had a
friend, another student, who boarded in Whitechapel because it was
cheap. He fell in with a bad crowd, drinking gin, smoking opium,
worse. One night he told me about the vampires. He spoke about them
in hushed tones, as if he was talking about royalty. I was as
sceptical as you were, but he showed me his scars. They were using
him as a “feeder”. That’s what we call someone who allows a vampire
to drink their blood. He was evangelical about it, he said his
“master” would turn Lily - if he made her a vampire she would never
be sick again. He wasn’t just a powerful vampire, he was the
Vampire Regent, the top man.’
Gabriel shook his
head at the memory. ‘I knew Lily would never agree. She was very
religious, you see. But that night, it was worse than ever. I sat
up mopping the cold sweat from her forehead, each cough and spasm
like a knife through my heart. I couldn’t stand it. I was
weak.’
‘No,’ said April,
touching his hand. ‘It was a brave thing to do.’
‘Was it? Or was I
just scared to go through all that on my own? I don’t know any
more. Either way, I went with my friend to see the Regent. He lived
in a big house near Bethnal Green. I knew the rumours about
vampires were true as soon as I got there. The house was grand and
luxurious, but dark and full of so many evil-looking creatures. I
never saw the Regent’s face, then or since. He was always in
shadow. He asked me what I wanted and when I told him he sounded
sympathetic. He bit me and …’
‘What
happened?’
‘I died, but I had to
will myself to live. It’s like clinging on to a cliff by your
fingertips. It was horrible, truly horrible.’ He
shuddered.
‘But you did it for
her, for Lily,’ said April. ‘It was a beautiful
thing.’
Gabriel shook his
head. ‘It didn’t turn out that way. I was tricked. When it was
over, the Regent laughed in my face. He said if I wanted to save
Lily, I would have to turn her myself.’
‘But why did he go
back on his word?’
‘Power. Vampires love
power almost as much as the kill. I was a diversion, an amusing
pastime. But I was angry, so angry with him.’
‘So what did you
do?’
‘I attacked him. He
hadn’t expected it - too arrogant, I suppose. I think I hurt him
pretty badly, but I barely got away alive - his guards came after
me in force, chasing me across London. It was a stupid thing to do,
it meant I had to grab Lily and flee. We didn’t get very
far.’
‘What happened to
Lily?’
‘She died in my
arms.’
He turned away from
her and April instinctively reached out for him, then stopped
herself. He was a vampire. A killer, a
supernatural being. He had been born in 1870- She barely knew how
to deal with human boys, she really shouldn’t go getting mixed up
with him. After a moment, they turned and walked towards
Waterloo.
‘So what did you do
then?’ asked April.
‘Nothing. I wanted
vengeance, but there was little I could do. They knew who I was, I
wouldn’t have got near the Regent. Plus I was weak physically. You
need human blood to be a strong vampire and I had sworn to Lily
that I would never kill anyone except the Regent. It’s hard, the
hardest thing anyone can ever ask of you. All of your instincts as
a vampire are those of a hunter, a killer. However much you want to
rise above it, the urge is within you. Sometimes it gets too much
and vampires go rogue, like a fox in the henhouse.’
April thought for a
moment, trying to visualise Gabriel killing. For some reason, she
just couldn’t. After all those doubts, all those suspicions, now
she knew he was a vampire, a pure-bred killer, she just couldn’t
imagine him taking a life.
‘But why did you vow
only to kill the Regent? Why just him?’
‘If you kill the
vampire who turned you, then the virus he infected you with is
neutralised. It’s like putting a dock leaf on a nettle
rash.’
April looked at him
sharply. ‘So you’d be cured? You could live a normal
life?’
Gabriel smiled. ‘In
theory. It’s very rarely happened. I’ve only heard rumours of it,
and it’s not an exact science. It could just be another
myth.’
‘But if the Regent
knows you’re hunting him, how can you walk around London? Won’t his
guards find you?’
‘That’s just it - he
doesn’t know. That night, his followers chased me to a church in
Spitalfields and I fought them. In the struggle, a lantern was
broken and the vestry was set on fire. I escaped through the crypt
but they believed I died in the fire.’
‘Are you sure? What
if they catch you?’
Gabriel smiled, but
he looked troubled. ‘Vampires are arrogant. They assumed I was
dealt with, so why concern themselves with some nobody? I certainly
gave them no reason to doubt they had killed me. I have stayed
hidden ever since, but I have kept watch, biding my time, tracking
them, making sure they still believe I’m dead. But recently
…’
‘What?’
Gabriel shook his
head. ‘I can’t put my finger on it, but I have this sense that I’m
being watched.’
April felt herself go
cold. It was hard enough to grasp all this craziness, but the
thought that someone - some killer - might be watching them,
following them was too much for her. ‘Do you think it’s the
Regent?’ she asked urgently. ‘Do you know who he is?’
‘No, I’ve never got
that close,’ said Gabriel. ‘He’s clever, he never stays in the same
place for long and always travels under guard. He’s deeply
paranoid, always covers his tracks, and he’s very, very good at it.
So good, in fact, that I lost track of him about a year ago, but I
can feel his presence - he’s definitely on the move
again.’
‘If he’s so good at
hiding, how do you find him?’
‘He loves power more
than he loves anonymity, so he won’t be able to stay hidden for
long. Even now, he will be the head of a big international company
or in some influential government think tank. He will start
meddling in things, manipulating people and events - he won’t be
able to stay quiet for ever. And I think these killings are just
the start of it.’
Gabriel looked into
April’s eyes and saw her fear. ‘I’m sorry, I don’t mean to frighten
you, but I’m sure the Highgate murders are linked to him. Even if
it isn’t the Regent, there’s definitely something going wrong - the
balance has been upset.’
‘What
balance?’
‘The balance between
humans and vampires. Despite what you see in the movies, vampires
are quiet, unassuming creatures. We don’t wear red capes and live
in big castles; we stay as hidden as possible because it’s easier
to hunt that way. You don’t want your prey to see you
coming.’
April shivered. ‘And
by prey, you mean us?’
Gabriel nodded. ‘But
recently, it’s almost as if some of us have been stepping out from
behind the curtain, as if they don’t care that people will guess
their secret. And now these three deaths—’
‘You’re frightening
me, Gabriel.’
He looked at her. ‘I
think you should be frightened.’
They had reached
Waterloo Road now; it was still busy, but the shoppers had gone
home and the commuter crush had eased. A bus was just whooshing to
a stop as they got to the stop and they jumped aboard, pushing
their way to the top deck and finding a seat out of earshot of the
other passengers.
‘So where is Lily? I
mean, where is she buried?’ asked April as the bus set off,
enjoying how the movement of the bus made her sway against
him.
‘Highgate. In the
cemetery.’ He paused, watching the lights of the city flash past.
‘That’s why I was in Swain’s Lane that night. It was her birthday,
and I always go to talk to her on the day. But there was someone -
something - else there, another
vampire. I could smell him, feel the danger. He’d killed foxes and
birds, a cat, he was in a feeding frenzy.’
‘God. So what did you
do?’
Gabriel shrugged. ‘We
fought. He was strong, although I think Isabelle must have put up a
fight because he was injured. But he would certainly have killed
you if I hadn’t been there.’
April had a sudden
horrible thought. ‘But did he see you? Does the killer know who you
are?’
Gabriel nodded.
‘That’s my worry. It was very dark, but there’s a good chance he
saw my face when I pulled you into Swain’s Lane. And then there’s
the other things.’
‘Like
what?’
‘This sense of being
watched, for one. That’s the real reason I haven’t been around much
over the last few weeks, this feeling that someone is leading me
into a trap. And then there was the business with the police. When
I went in to talk to your friend DI Reece, I got the distinct
feeling they were already aware of my involvement, as if someone
had tipped them off.’
April felt a sinking
feeling. ‘The Regent?’
‘I don’t know, but it
would be very convenient if I became the prime suspect in a murder
inquiry and was therefore out of the way. But by the same token, if
the Regent knows who I am, why hasn’t he had me
killed?’
‘But do you know who
the killer is?’
Gabriel looked out of
the window. ‘I told you: no. But the point is, if the Regent is
behind the murders, then the killer’s identity is almost
irrelevant. If the Regent ordered Isabelle’s death, it doesn’t
really matter who killed her. It’s
why he killed her that’s
important.’
April nodded and
glanced around at the other passengers on the bus. A big black
woman in a green raincoat carrying worn shopping bags; a young man
in what looked like his first suit; two girls reading a magazine.
They all seemed so far away, as if they were on the other side of a
double-glazed window. They were in the real world, while April had
slipped into this parallel universe where nothing made sense like
it used to.
‘So why don’t all
vampires kill the one who turned them?’ she asked.
Gabriel gave an
ironic laugh. ‘Because you have to choose to be a vampire. If a
vampire bites an innocent and infects them with the virus, the
disease will kill them. Only if you choose to be a vampire, if you
actively embrace the curse, will you survive, but you have to
really want it. So those who make it through aren’t about to murder
their maker. They’ve embraced being a vampire. It’s like the police
or teaching, it attracts a certain type of
personality.’
‘Now you’re teasing
me,’ said April, searching his face.
‘A little bit.’ He
smiled.
‘But vampires are
killers, right? Don’t they kill each other?’
‘No. We’re hunters,
we choose weaker prey. Lions don’t attack leopards because they’re
both predators. Not only would it attract attention, there’s little
in it for either party: we can’t feed off each other. And that’s
why I’m worried about what’s been happening in Highgate. It’s
against all the rules. Alix Graves, that could have been an
accident, something gone wrong, but to follow that with Isabelle
and your dad? Three high-profile murders in three weeks, it’s
against every vampire instinct. It makes me think there’s got to be
some purpose behind it.’
‘Or someone, maybe?’
‘Yes. I can’t believe
this could happen without the Regent’s involvement.’
April caught sight of
her reflection in the dark window. Serious and intense -
desperately trying to absorb all this information and ask the right
questions. It’s as if I’ve got
a test on it
tomorrow. The thought made her laugh.
‘What’s up?’ said
Gabriel, frowning.
There was an edge of
hysteria to April’s giggles. Deep down, she was worried she was
starting to lose it.
‘What, April?’ said
Gabriel with annoyance.
‘I’ve just been
struck by how absurd this is,’ said April, shaking her head. ‘I’ve
just buried my father and now I’m discussing the ins and outs of
vampire lore, like it’s all real.’
‘It is real,
April.’
April thumped her
fist against the seat in frustration. ‘But how can it be? Do you
know how insane this sounds?’
Gabriel turned on
her, irritation sharpening his tone. ‘Insane or not, it’s
happening. Your father was killed because of it.’
April was angry now,
edgy. She could feel a pressure building inside her, all the
frustration, grief and anger in a growing knot at the back of her
skull and tingling down her spine. The thought crossed her mind
that this whole thing, the knife, the wound, was just some sick
joke, that it was all a conjuring trick. Suddenly, she grabbed
Gabriel’s top and pulled it up.
‘What the hell?’ he
said.
‘Show me! Show me the
wound!’ she snapped. ‘I want to make sure it’s real.’
Gabriel grabbed her
hand and pushed it against the red welt. It was raised and hot; it
certainly felt real.
‘Do you want to stick
your fingers in it?’ he said angrily. ‘Will that satisfy
you?’
She pulled her hands
away quickly.
‘And why should I
believe you?’ she demanded. ‘Because you told me a sweet tale of
undying love? You could have got all that from a Mills and Boon
novel.’
‘Don’t insult me,
April,’ growled Gabriel, pulling his top down. ‘I’ve told you the
truth, something I’ve never done with anyone else, so don’t throw
it back in my face.’
‘All I know for sure
is that my father has been murdered because he was investigating
something. Maybe he had discovered there were vampires in Highgate.
Maybe he was after you.’
Gabriel shook his
head. ‘He wasn’t.’
‘Yeah? And how would
you know?’
‘Because he was
investigating the school.’
April stopped and
stared at him.
‘How do you know
that? Do you know who killed him?’
‘No, I told you the
truth about that. I really don’t know.’
‘But you suspect
someone, don’t you? Tell me! I have a right to know!’
Gabriel looked away
and she grabbed his coat, pulling him around to face
her.
‘Gabriel, tell me!
Who killed my father?’
Gabriel looked into
her eyes, his gaze strong and unwavering. ‘You have to believe me,
April, I don’t know. But I’ll repeat what I said about Isabelle -
if the Regent ordered his death, it doesn’t matter who carried it
out.’
‘It may not matter to
you,’ she hissed, ‘but I want to do to them what they did to my
father.’ She began to get up, reaching for the button to stop the
bus.
‘Don’t, April,’ said
Gabriel, pulling her back down. ‘You’ve come too far to walk away
from this now.’
‘I’m not walking
away,’ she snapped. ‘I’m going to find my father’s killer, with or
without you!’
Gabriel nodded
slowly. ‘All right. I’ll tell you what I know, but you won’t like
it.’
She crossed her arms.
‘Try me.’
‘Okay. First,
Ravenwood is a vampire school.’
‘What?’ April laughed
mirthlessly. ‘Now you really are joking, right?’
‘Do you want to hear
this or not?’
She nodded. She
wasn’t sure if she really did, but Gabriel was right: once you’d
fallen down the rabbit hole and discovered Wonderland, you couldn’t
very well go back to normal life.
‘Ravenwood is a
recruiting tool,’ said Gabriel.‘The vampires have formed a sort of
shaky alliance between the clans.’
‘The nests, you
mean?’ asked April.
Gabriel looked at her
curiously. ‘How do you know that term?’ he said. ‘I haven’t heard
it in a long time.’
‘Something I heard
from my dad,’ said April lamely. She didn’t want to tell him
everything she knew - about the notebook and Mr Gill or even DI
Reece’s theories. She still didn’t know if she could trust him,
however much she might want to.
‘Anyway, I don’t know
who’s in charge at the school- they’re way up in the food chain,
well protected - but their plan is clearly very ambitious. They’re
gathering the cleverest, most influential and most able children in
the country under one roof, then converting them to the
cause.’
April couldn’t
believe it. Caro had been right all along.
‘They’re turning kids
into vampires?’
‘Some, not many. But
they’re all in danger. That was why I whispered “Get out” to you
that first day at school. It was stupid I know, but I was angry. I
couldn’t stand to see someone else sucked into their
scheme.’
He sighed. ‘It was
futile gesture. Vampires are hugely manipulative, they can control
people in other ways than by conversion to vampirism.’
‘How?
Hypnotism?’
Gabriel laughed. ‘No,
simpler things than that - sex, drugs, blackmail, love, to name a
few.’
‘Love?’
‘It’s easy to love a
vampire.’
Tell me about it, thought April, then shook her
head to dismiss the thought. She couldn’t get sucked in, not right
now.
‘But what are they
going to do? What’s the big plan?’
He shrugged. ‘To take
over, of course. They want their people at the top of every
important part of society - doctors, barristers, politicians,
soldiers, bankers, in all senior, influential
positions.’
‘But you can’t have a
vampire prime minister - he wouldn’t show up on TV.’
‘Which is exactly why
they concentrate on seducing and manipulating people instead of
turning them. You just have to persuade them that your way is the
right way, whether it’s communism, Christianity or vampirism. Make
them believe in the cause. And those are the people they put in
front of the cameras: the prime minister, the president. But the
people pulling the strings stay in the shadows, out of
sight.’
‘Okay,’ said April,
mulling it over. ‘So if the kids are being recruited, who’s doing
the recruiting?’
Gabriel looked at
her, a genuine confusion on his face. ‘You haven’t worked that out
yet?’
Her eyes were wide.
‘You?’
‘And my friends,
yes.’
April looked at him,
aghast. ‘But if you hate the Regent, how could you become part of
this?’
‘For one thing, I’m
still not sure the Regent is behind it.
But that’s why I’m there - getting close to them is the only way
I’ll find out what they’re doing and who’s calling the
shots.’
‘But you’re
recruiting? You’re seducing a load of innocent science geeks,
persuading them to become vampires?’
It was all too much.
The man she was falling for was not only a vampire, he was part of
the conspiracy. She had allowed herself to believe that he was one
of the good guys, a lone wolf walking apart from the rest of the
pack, but he was one of them. Then suddenly in a flurry, she
thought of poor Ling crying in the toilets after Davina and her
friends had left, her arm bleeding, and another piece of the jigsaw
clicked into place. ‘You’re drinking their blood?’
Gabriel’s eyes were
blazing now. ‘Oh, grow up, April!’ he snapped. ‘How else am I going
to get their confidence? Besides, what would you prefer I do? Drink
a little blood from some silly little schoolgirl or murder someone
in their own home?’
‘Silly little
schoolgirl?’ she said, barely keeping her voice level. ‘Do you
think they’re your playthings? They’re
human beings! Are you saying that if you didn’t bite Sara in the
bathroom at Milo’s party you’d have had to go and tear someone’s
throat out?’
‘No, of course not,’
he said. ‘But I have to feed. We all do.’
April felt another
piece of the puzzle drop in. ‘Hang on, this “we”? Do you mean
Davina? Benjamin? The Faces? They’re all vampires?’
Gabriel
nodded.
‘Jesus,’ she
muttered, her head swimming.
‘Oh God,’ said April,
reaching up and pressing the bell. ‘Why didn’t you tell me all this
before?’ She was already up and moving painfully down the
stairs.
The bus doors swished
open and she ran as fast as she could with her injured knee,
pulling out her phone as she hobbled forwards.
‘April!’ called
Gabriel, catching up with her. ‘Where are we going?’
April looked at him
and held the phone to her ear. ‘To save my friends.’