Chapter Eighteen

I clutched at Will’s arm as Luke’s words sank in. Will’s face remained impassive and he raised an eyebrow without commenting.

He strode from the room with Luke following. I ran after them.

‘Stay here Elinor,’ said Will.

‘No bloody chance,’ I muttered.

I heard him growl something in Italian, which was almost certainly nothing flattering, but he didn’t issue any more orders, so I continued to follow the pair of them. We all ran downstairs to Danny’s room. The far door was open, the darkness beyond, gaping wide and empty. The game on the Xbox still played one of its video sequences, proving that Danny hadn’t been gone long, as he’d been preparing to change levels. Will and Luke went swiftly through the doorway to the other cellar and I followed. The second cellar was also empty with the garden door wide open. How the hell …?

As we emerged from the house into the garden, I saw to my intense relief, Danny’s lanky figure by the door in the wall. He was pulling on the heavy iron handle with all of his weight. His hands were raw and bleeding as if he’d been hitting the wall. He turned to see us and renewed his frantic efforts to open the door.

‘I can’t … I can’t open it …’

Will reached Danny almost before I’d even blinked, and clasping his arms around his chest, he dragged him away from the door. Danny struggled with a violence I’d never seen from him.

‘He’s here,’ he shouted. ‘He’s here.’

He snapped his fangs at Will’s arms, trying to bite him and thrashed his body from side to side in an effort to escape. ‘He’s here for me.’

Will threw Danny bodily at Luke before running at the wall. He ran vertically up it, and vaulted easily over the other side. He was gone in seconds. I shrieked in alarm.

Daniel still struggled against Luke’s hold. ‘He’s here,’ he said again, but quieter this time.

‘Quiet Daniel.’ Luke’s voice sounded stern and most unlike him.

‘If Will can do that … what’s to stop the other vampires coming in?’ How I wished I’d never seen him scale the wall. ‘Or Danny getting out that way?’ I looked to Luke for some kind of reassurance.

‘Nothing,’ said Luke calmly. ‘Apart from the alarms, the security panels and locks on all the outer doors – plus the human police if they happen to be around. Calm down Ellie, Danny won’t be able to do that yet, any more than you will.’

I had a sudden flashback to last year, when Will encouraged me to jump up onto the top of the cemetery wall. So … actually I probably could do exactly that, and if I could, so could Danny.

‘But Danny got out of the house – how the hell did he get out?’ All very well telling me to calm down, but not so easy to do.

Danny’s eyes were wide and frightened as he continued to look towards the door in the wall. ‘He’s gone.’ He started to tremble, looking younger than his fifteen years. ‘He’s gone,’ he said again.

The door opened and Will came back, completely unscathed, and looking as cool as ever. He shook his head. ‘Took off in a car,’ he said. ‘The woman was driving.’

‘What the hell were you thinking?’ Fear for Will’s safety suddenly got the better of me. ‘There could have been hundreds of them – and you – you just run up the wall?’

He looked amused. ‘Elinor, I would have known if there were “hundreds” out there.’

Luke relinquished his hold on Danny. ‘Nice vaulting,’ he said to Will as they high fived each other. I stared at both of them in amazement.

‘Nice vaulting?’ I stood between them with my hands on my hips. ‘Are you both completely insane?’

Even Danny smiled a bit then. ‘He’s pretty cool for an old man Elles.’

‘I stand corrected. All three of you are mad.’ I turned to go back to the house. ‘Juvenile.’ I flung back at them.

A sudden knock on the door in the wall stopped any further discussion as we all looked at each other. Will moved silently back to the door, his fingers splayed against the dark wood as he listened.

‘Is anyone going to let me in?’ A female voice asked.

‘Now why would anyone do that?’ Will replied softly.

‘Thomas said you would let me in. I want to come in.’

‘Well I want Thomas dissected into many small pieces, but alas, we do not always get what we want.’

‘I’ll scream rape if you don’t let me in.’ The voice took on a malicious tone.

Will sighed and beckoned Luke to him. He stood to one side of the door as Will punched the code into the security panel on the other side. I had no idea what to expect as he opened the door, but my heart sank as I saw the owner of the voice. Will grabbed her arm, hauling her unceremoniously into the garden, as Luke slammed the door shut behind her.

She could have been no more than fifteen, of slender build, with short, tousled dark hair and brown eyes. Dressed in skinny jeans, and a bright red, strappy top, she looked just like any other teenage girl, apart from the fangs she bared at Will, as she tried to get her arm free from his grasp.

‘What do we have here?’ Will let go of her arm and regarded her with some interest. ‘Could you be a gift for our Daniel do you think?’

‘He’s not your Daniel,’ she said, rubbing her arm.

‘Who turned you little girl?’

‘None of your business.’

Will raised a dark brow. ‘On the contrary, it is very much my business.’

Here we go again.

She looked the rest of us over with the ill-concealed contempt of a teenager, her dark eyes stopping to appraise Daniel, before coming to rest on me.

‘Who are you?’

Will came to stand between us. ‘Now she really is none of your business.’

The girl folded her arms with a jangle of beaded bracelets as she glared up at him. ‘Loser.’

‘Watch your mouth child.’

‘Or you’ll do what?’

What was it with the teens of today? They seemed to have no fear at all, and no manners either. I felt a million years old listening to her.

Will grabbed the girl around the throat, his eyes blazing angrily. ‘Or I will dispose of you in the time-honoured fashion. With a very sharp stake.’

I grabbed his arm. ‘Will, for heaven’s sake – she’s a child.’

He looked at me, still retaining his grip on her throat. ‘What she is, my love, is yet another damned renegade fledgling – and you know how we disposed of the others.’

Luke moved closer. ‘Why don’t we take this inside?’

‘Good idea.’ Will released the girl’s throat with some reluctance, although his eyes still gleamed with anger. He stepped back with a nod to Luke, who took hold of the girl’s arm and guided her towards the house. Daniel followed him, seeming eager to put a distance between himself and Will. Funny that.

Will stared after them, his face impassive again.

‘What does it mean?’

He looked down at me. ‘Well, for the moment it means Thomas can track us wherever we go, with two fledglings as opposed to one.’

‘Is that why he left her here?’

He shook his head. ‘No, I do not believe so. But she cannot stay with us nevertheless.’

I wondered what Will’s intentions might be towards this new development and a small part of me sympathised with the fledgling. If she had been newly-turned by Thomas, he seemed to be upping his game yet again.

As we all trooped into the drawing room, the girl flung herself into the nearest armchair, swinging slim legs over the arm and staring at us with a defiant look on her pretty face.

‘Do make yourself at home.’ Will’s voice oozed sarcasm as he stood in front of her.

She seemed completely unruffled, and pulling a packet of chewing gum from the pocket of her jeans, she unwrapped a stick, stuffed it into her mouth, and deliberately dropped the paper onto Will’s immaculate rug.

‘Pick it up.’ Will’s voice sounded calm enough, but we all knew better. Danny moved to pick up the paper and keep the peace, but Will put an arm across his chest to stop him.

‘Not you boy – her.’

The girl continued to chew her gum noisily, staring up at Will as she chewed. Her gaze continued to be insolent, almost daring Will to do something. He moved closer.

‘I said pick it up.’

She shrugged slim shoulders. ‘You have no control over me.’

In a sudden blur of movement, Will had hauled the girl from the chair by her legs, sending her crashing to the floor, and flipped her over on to her stomach before she could make a move. As she struggled to get up, he put his foot in the small of her back, stopping her.

‘This is my house and London is my city,’ he said. ‘You are not remotely welcome in either. Now … pick your rubbish up from my floor.’

He moved his foot and she sat up, picking up the paper and stuffing it into her pocket.

Will grabbed her by the arm and thrust her back into the chair. ‘Why have you been left here?’

She glanced around the room at the rest of us before answering. ‘He thought his boy might be lonely.’

Will glanced at Luke. ‘She will not be of any use to us.’

For once she did look worried at his words and sat up straighter. ‘He wants me to get close to him.’ She pointed at Danny. ‘I’m supposed to get him away from you.’

‘Is he expecting you to return from here?’ The softly spoken words sounded terrifying even to me. ‘We disposed of his other messenger after all.’

‘He’ll come back – for me and for him.’ She sounded a little desperate. ‘He’ll come back.’

‘Debatable.’ Will sat down in the opposite armchair and lit a cigarette. Both teenagers watched him smoke with envy in their eyes. Personally, I’d never seen the attraction of putting sticks in my mouth and setting fire to them, but each to his own.

Will turned his attention to Luke. ‘Where would be a good place?’

Luke thought for a moment. ‘We don’t want to put any of our people at risk. Thomas will track her wherever she is.’

‘True. So where do you suggest?’

‘A nice quiet mausoleum perhaps?’

‘My thoughts exactly.’

The girl looked truly terrified at that. Perhaps no-one had explained the concept of ‘vampire’ to her as yet. I decided to step in.

‘Supposing she starts attacking humans in the area?’

Will looked at me with some considerable amusement. ‘She will be chained up.’

Ah.

‘You can’t do that to me.’

‘Perhaps you would care to explain why not.’

‘You need me.’

Will gave a short burst of laughter. ‘Need you? I think not. You are surplus to requirement and should be thanking me for not staking you right here and now.’

‘Bastard.’ She glared at him again. ‘If you want to get to Thomas I’m your best shot.’

‘Why would you help me?’

‘Perhaps I want to get away from him.’

Will shook his head. ‘I am very much afraid you will have to do better than that.’

‘I know where he’s staying’

The room fell silent.

Will threw his finished cigarette into the grate and crossed one long leg over the other. He looked completely relaxed, his arms resting on the arms of his chair and his steady gaze concentrated on the slight figure of the girl in the chair opposite. After a few minutes, she squirmed under his intense scrutiny.

‘Stop staring at me you bloody pervert.’

‘If I have to warn you about your mouth again, I guarantee you will be sorry.’

‘Whatever.’ She pulled the chewing gum from her mouth in a long strand and began chewing it back in again.

Will narrowed his eyes. ‘Very well girl, tell me everything you know and I shall decide what to do with you after that.’

‘My name is Nikki.’

‘I have no interest in what you are called. Start talking if you want to preserve your existence.’

‘Thomas and Sarah have been together for ages.’ She put her head on one side whilst staring back at Will and continuing to chew. ‘Like hundreds of years …’

‘Did he sire her?’ Will interrupted.

Nikki rolled her eyes at him. ‘How should I know?’

‘Did he sire you?’

Nikki lowered her gaze for a moment and when she looked back up, her eyes looked moist and her lashes were wet. ‘I was coming back from school – going to get the tube home, and she … Sarah … stopped me and asked where The Flask was.’

‘Hampstead or Highgate?’

‘Hampstead.’

Will gestured for her to continue as I crossed the room to sit on the sofa. Danny came and sat next to me, whilst Luke remained standing, in order to block Nikki’s exit should she suddenly decide to make a run for it.

‘I told her Flask Walk – she was standing right near the turning. I should have realised something was wrong.’ Nikki looked around at us in a distracted way, almost as though she couldn’t actually see any of us. ‘She – she said someone was following her and she was scared and asked me to walk to the pub with her. I thought it would be OK because she was a girl.’

‘She said that to me,’ Danny burst out.

‘Quiet.’ Will kept his attention on the girl sitting before him. ‘Then?’

‘Well he was there wasn’t he? They had a car parked round the corner and she made me get in it with him – and her … there wasn’t anyone around to help me.’

‘Wrong place wrong time,’ said Will with a frown. He stood up and began to pace the room.

Nikki carried on speaking as though he hadn’t said anything. ‘They took me to this house … she … she held me while he did it … it hurt so much.’ She looked up at Will when he stopped in front of her. ‘She forced me to drink his blood. It tasted really rank. I couldn’t breathe, she had hold of my nose, so I had to open my mouth – and I drank his blood. It went all dark and when I woke up again – I’d changed.’

‘Have you fed since?’

Nikki nodded her head. ‘A human near Kenwood – I hadn’t had anything for days – I felt so hungry.’

‘So he starves his fledglings to make sure they have no self-control and then they will feed on whatever he gives them.’

I’d known Thomas was a monster, but to starve his fledglings in order to keep control sounded beyond revolting to me.

‘Where is the house?’

‘I don’t know the address but I can find it.’

Will turned to look at Luke. ‘Do you believe that?’

Luke looked thoughtful. ‘I think if we rush out with all guns blazing we could all end up like Jez.’

Will nodded. ‘I think so too. We should put this little girl somewhere safe for tonight. Somewhere that is not here.’

Nikki launched herself at Will, screaming abuse at him, but he grabbed her arms and held her still without any obvious effort.

‘Chains,’ he said, and Luke immediately left the room.

‘Will …’ I’d jumped to my feet at the same time he had. He gave me a steady look.

‘It is for the best. Please do not interfere.’

Luke came back in with chains and I felt relieved to see they weren’t silver.

‘You haven’t got a car,’ I said. ‘You can hardly carry a chained girl round the streets of Highgate and not get noticed.’

‘Which is why Luke is going to call Jake.’

Will chained Nikki with the speed and expertise of someone well-versed in such practices. I should probably have been very worried by that. An amused look crossed his features and I knew he’d caught my thought.

‘Luke, perhaps you would be good enough to take our guest downstairs until Jake arrives.’

‘I was helping you,’ Nikki spat at him. ‘I told you the truth.’

Luke slung her over his broad shoulder.

‘Yes, you did well until you offered to take us to the house.’ Will walked around Luke and grabbed her face with his strong fingers. ‘Did you really think you could lead us into another trap so easily? Take her downstairs.’

Will’s Journal, 4th June

Once again events have interrupted any kind of normality. The arrival of the girl prevented the “talk” with Elinor I had been preparing myself for. I believe we should set a date for our wedding, even though she has not mentioned it herself. The fact she has been researching dresses on the internet means she still wishes to have a wedding. This is what I have been telling myself anyway. She does not behave any differently towards me, so I have to truly believe that she does love me. I think I am – at the moment – beyond pathetic.