‘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 - some
thing
- 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.’