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I didn’t feel brave enough to go shopping when I rose the next night. Facing humans in my dishevelled state would be sure to draw unwanted attention. Cleaning up first would be a good idea. I decided to go on the hunt for fresh water so I could at least wash the dirt off my face and hands.
Luc kept popping into my head like an annoying song you couldn’t help memorizing the words to as I searched the tunnels. I felt guilty that I’d abandoned him to the imposter. When I’d run away, had I broken the prophesy? He was supposed to kill me but if I’d changed fate, was it possible that he might be slain by the imposter now?
Deep in the bowels of London, I tried not to think of Luc and to concentrate on investigating the latest tunnel I’d found. This one was even older than the others and was cramped enough that I had to duck or risk scalping myself on the rough rock ceiling. Hearing a noise somewhere in the distance, I stopped to listen. Rat, I decided and continued on. Once upon a time, coming across a rat in a sewer would have filled me with the utmost terror. Now I didn’t give a crap. An army of rats could try to overwhelm me and I’d flick them off like nits. Nothing in these sewers can hurt me, I had just finished thinking when I stepped out of the tunnel and directly into an ambush.
All the stealthy noises I’d heard during my exploration suddenly made sense. It hadn’t been rats at all but creatures far more cunning and deadly. A glance backwards showed me I was completely surrounded. Sly, crafty and tricky, ten vampires blocked the intersection and my escape. These vampires were a far cry from the pair I’d dispatched last night. They were clean, well dressed and worryingly organized.
A guy who might have been twenty when he’d been turned stepped forward. His coat was black, hung almost to the floor and looked warm. I envied him. My clothes were still slightly damp from my dip in the water. His black hair was trendily cut, if you were a fan of the eighties. He sported several piercings through his eyebrows and ears. “Who are you?” he asked in a cultured, proper English accent.
“Nat,” I replied then corrected myself when I saw mouths open, “Natalie Pierce.” I didn’t want to go through the whole ‘you were named after an insect’ saga again.
“She’s an Aussie,” someone muttered.
“What? Who turned one of them into one of us?” The question was full of loathing and not aimed at anyone in particular. Frigging poms, I thought in disgust at their snobby attitudes. Bunch of bloody whingers. They’d always treated Australians like distant and embarrassing cousins they’d rather pretend didn’t exist.
“What are you doing here, Natalie Pierce?” the once trendy and now sadly behind the times vamp asked. The murmurs quietened.
“Um, hiding from the Court,” I hazarded. Astonished whispers spread through the group. If this wasn’t a pack of rebels then my take on vampires was all wrong. Maybe they were even a band of my supporters. I decided it would be smarter to wait for proof of that before showing my holy marks to anyone.
“I am Ty,” the black haired vamp said with a short bow. “We have been watching you as you have explored our tunnels.” Gee, that’s not disturbing at all. More disturbing was the fact that I hadn’t known I was being stalked.
“We want to know what happened to John and David,” a short, pixie like girl demanded. Most of the vamps were wearing black but she was dressed in a red blazer and purple jeans. Her hair had been dyed the same shade of red as her top. Clearly, she liked to stand out. Maybe she hadn’t learned the value of blending in yet. To be noticed by these creatures was not necessarily a good thing.
“They attacked me and I defended myself.” I kept my answer as short as possible. The more I kept my mouth shut the less damage I could do.
“You killed John and David?” a tall, wide shouldered male vamp said in clear disbelief.
Ty silenced them all with a frown. “Come with us, please. There is someone I’d like you to meet.” Surrounded as I was, I had zero choice, no matter how polite they were acting. Cursing silently that I’d so handily fallen into their trap, I followed behind Ty as we traversed even deeper beneath London.
After nearly an hour of making our way through low tunnels, we stepped out into a wide cavern. The top was lost above the electric lights that had been rigged up at a ten foot height around the perimeter of the circular space. Vampires, around forty of them, ceased their conversations as Ty led me to a long table in the centre of the room. It could seat twenty and had two long bench seats and one regular wooden chair. The dark wood was faded from age and the surface was scarred from rough treatment. Conversation picked up again but it was hushed and interspersed with frequent peeks in my direction.
A man who I assumed was the leader of this tribe sat on the lone chair. His attention was directed at the book he was hunched over. Something about the book gave off ominous vibes. It was a lot bigger than the journal that was currently stuffed down my pants. It was about a foot long, six inches wide but only a centimetre deep. The pages were thick and weren’t made from conventional paper. The book was far too old for that. Even from a distance I could see that the writing was in a language that no one in this day and age would be able to read. Only I and some of the more ancient vampires would be able to decipher the words. As the page turned, I caught sight of a drawing. It was strikingly similar to the one at the beginning of the prophet’s journal. The demi-god, tall, thin and in no way resembling any creature that had walked the earth before stood next to a human, offering its wrist. Who are these people? More to the point, what do they want with me? Unease skittered down my spine.
“Alexander?” Ty addressed his leader. When he looked up, Ty stepped forward and bowed respectfully.
“Who do you have there, Ty?” The question was in French. I pretended to not understand and examined him curiously. Around fifty in mortal years, Alexander was probably much, much older than that. His suit had gone out of fashion around two hundred years ago. His white shirt had lace at the collar and cuffs. No man in their right mind would wear lace these days. Silver hair was swept back from his forehead. He had few lines on his face and could have been considered handsome if meeting his eyes hadn’t been like staring into the pits of hell.
“Her name is Natalie Pierce. We found her wandering the tunnels.” Ty spoke rapidly and seemed nervous.
“So,” Alexander stood and approached me, “this is the intruder who so rudely dispatched John and David, our faithful watchdogs.” I kept my face bland and interested, giving away no clue that I could understand everything they were saying.
Staring into my face, Alexander did his best to psych me into blurting out something stupid. Little did he know but I’d faced creatures far more dangerous and crazy than him. Silvius had kidnapped me and made me what I was. Vincent had stabbed me through the heart with the sword that was destined to take my head. One had killed me and the other had tried to finish the job properly. What was Alexander going to do to me? What could he do that hadn’t already been tried before? That was a question I didn’t really want an answer to.
“Where is your maker, girl?” he asked me in lightly accented English.
“Dead.” No one was shocked by the knowledge. “A Court guard came to Australia and killed him.” I wasn’t about to mention names, not unless I had to. “He brought me back to France and introduced me to the Court. They expected me to bow and scrape to them but that just isn’t my style. So I took off and ended up here.”
After another lengthy stare, Alexander nodded and stepped back. “You are welcome to join our little family,” he indicated the group of vampires who had drawn closer to watch the exchange. “Stay as long as you like.”
I had the feeling this was an invitation I couldn’t refuse. Everyone looked at me curiously, almost as if I was a new species. Compared to them, I guessed I was.
Ty drew me aside as their leader returned to his book. “Roxie,” he gestured to the pixie girl. She scowled then ambled over. “Show Natalie to the sleeping chamber,” he instructed.
With a bad tempered jerk of her head, Roxie stomped off toward a wider tunnel. We headed upwards and the passage emptied out into an abandoned subway station. A few carriages had been left behind when the station had ceased to be operational. There were five in total. All were made of wood with the paint long ago faded or peeled off. It was like stepping back in time before everything had been made of metal or plastic.
Roxie headed straight past the first four carriages to the last one in the row. Climbing the narrow stairs after her, I saw that the carriage had been converted into a sleeping area. All the seats had been removed and bunk beds had been installed.
“Pick a bed that doesn’t already have blankets,” Roxie said without a speck of graciousness. “Blankets are in the box up the front.” I followed the finger she pointed with and saw the box in question. It was a beat up old trunk that was covered in scratches.
“Thanks.” My reply was about as gracious as her offer had been. I retrieved a couple of moth eaten blankets from the trunk and chose the top bunk right at the back of the train. Roxie watched me with all the welcome of a dog hunkered over a rotten bone. “So,” I said when my bed was made, “what do you all do here?” I was trying to make idle conversation and was doing a dismal job of it. Something about these vamps, about this whole place had my fight or flight instincts jockeying for position. Vampires were everywhere, watching me, watching Roxie, watching each other. It would be impossible to leave without being noticed.
“We eat, we sleep, we fuck,” Roxie said with a sneer. “What else does our kind do?” On that note, she turned and stomped back toward the main cavern.
While eating, sleeping and fucking were all enjoyable to some extent, it just wasn’t enough for me. There had to be more to this existence than satiating our hungers. Was that why I was so different from other vampires? Because I had retained my favourite pastime of reading? Because I missed my old life?
Walking back to the main cavern slowly, I reviewed what I knew of vampires in general. I hadn’t spent enough time in their company yet to know what habits they had. Luc and I had been on the move so much that we hadn’t had time to chat about what we liked to do in our spare time. Thinking of him brought another flash of shame. I was startled to realize I missed him. Out of all the vamps I’d met so far, Luc was easily the nicest. You just miss his body, my mind whispered snidely. That was true. I hadn’t fed my flesh hunger in a while now. I wasn’t the least bit tempted to bounce on any other vampire I’d met. Ty was cute in a pierced, bad boy kind of way but I just couldn’t see myself getting naked with him.
Conversation paused as I made my reappearance then quickly resumed again. I was a nine second wonder. Sidelong looks were sent my way but heads turned away when I tried to catch anyone’s eye. After five minutes of this, it dawned on me that almost all of the vampires here were terrified. From the way their gazes returned time after time to Alexander then skittered away again, I deduced that he was the source of their fear.
Standing on the fringes, I watched them all watching their supreme leader. It was one tiny mistake that gave Alexander away. He sat at the table, once more hunched over the book. His silhouette lay on the floor beside him, reading its own shadow copy of the book at a shadow table. Alexander raised a hand and scratched his nose. His shadow didn’t. It was good. Very good. But the silhouette wasn’t quite paying enough attention.
Every vampire I’d met who had a shadow that could think for itself had tried to kill me. I was under no illusions that Alexander would be any different. So far, none of the vamps had seemed to be aware of what their shadows were up to. Sentient shadows were a mystery that I just didn’t have an answer for. One thing was certain, in my efforts to avoid my destiny I’d landed in the den of yet another evil being. More evil than the average vampire, that was.
A group of four rebels standing nearby exchanged whispers, taking turns to stare openly at me. After a heated discussion, they sauntered over with exaggerated casualness. Three were male and one was female. All wore black coats like Ty and had almost as many piercings. The female’s eye makeup was gothic and made her skin seem almost translucently pale. Her pale yellow hair was cut short, like a boy’s.
“So, what part of Australia are you from?” one of the guys asked. His accent was more Irish or Scottish than English.
“Brisbane, Queensland.”
“Queensland is supposed to be the ‘sunshine state’ isn’t it?” another male said. “You don’t have much of a tan do you?” he sniggered.
“I don’t get much sun these days,” I reminded him. I’d have one hell of a tan for approximately a nanosecond before I disintegrated. The others sniggered some more.
“How long have you been one of the nocturnal?” the girl asked. Her accent was almost as cultured as Ty’s. I judged her to be the oldest of the four, in vampire years. All looked to be around their early to mid-twenties.
If I told them I’d been turned less than three weeks ago they wouldn’t believe me. I should still be a ravenous, sex starved lunatic from what Luc had told me. “Almost a year,” I lied.
“If you need to screw, I’m up for it,” offered the third guy. His teeth overlapped when he grinned. How he could take a bite from a human and not tear out their jugular by accident was a mystery.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I responded as politely as possible.
During our conversation, Ty kept his eye on me from a distance. He didn’t make it obvious but I was aware of his scrutiny.
Several other small groups approached me to make inane conversation. They sized me up and offered their services if my flesh hunger got out of control. All were jittery and their attention constantly flitted to Alexander. The man himself kept his focus on the book, flipping through it and reading pages seemingly at random.
I wondered how fifty-odd vampires could live in one place without being discovered. Even in a city the size of London, surely they would be noticed. That’s not your problem. You need to concentrate on getting out of here. That was true and it was becoming clearer to me as each minute passed with excruciating slowness. I didn’t want to live in fear of a man who wasn’t even my master. If I had to live as a monster then I’d rather do it on my own than in company such as this.
As the hours passed, I tried to blend in and to watch the group as a whole. Patrols of two came and went regularly. They reported to Ty each time they returned. He listened gravely, nodded then sent another pair out into the tunnels. I’d had no chance of remaining undetected in the lair that had so temporarily been my home.
Dawn neared and vamps began drifting off toward the railway tunnel. I hadn’t had enough time to work out whether there were any patterns to the patrols yet but I wasn’t going to stay here much longer. Come nightfall, I was going to make a break for it. I had a bad feeling about these sewer vamps, especially about their leader. My hope was, if he really was up to something, he would let me settle in for a few nights before he did anything unpleasant to me. As a newcomer and someone who had killed two of his watchdogs, I wasn’t going to be held in very high esteem.
Following the small pockets of huddled groups, I trudged to the last train and made my way to my chosen bunk. Copying the others who had the top bunk, I vaulted up and lay down. This time I managed not to smash my head into the ceiling. Not only would that have been embarrassing, it would have been difficult to explain. Vampires were many things but they were rarely clumsy.
I didn’t want to accidentally roll over when I woke and risk crushing the journal. Thinking of a hiding place that might work, I removed it and the cross from their place of concealment beneath my clothes. Slitting a hole in the side of the mattress facing the back wall, I winced at the low tearing noise and slid my belongings inside. A thorough search would uncover them easily enough but I was hoping it wouldn’t come to that. This time tomorrow, I’ll be far away, sleeping somewhere safe. I hoped this was true. I really did.
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