‘Or some
one
, 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.’
Chapter Thirty
Fiona wasn’t at the house. In fact, no one was. It was deserted, save for the mass of half-empty glasses littering the tables and kitchen worktops and the piles of uneaten food next to the bin. Someone had made a bit of an effort to tidy up after the guests had left, at any rate. Not her mother, that was fairly certain. Where was she anyway? April tried her phone again, but it went straight to voicemail.
‘Hi, Mum, where are you? I’m home, but no one’s here, I’m getting worried. Call me as soon as you get this, okay?’
‘Have you tried your friend Fiona?’ asked Gabriel.
April pulled a face at him.
Of course
she had tried Fee, but she called her again anyway. No, still voicemail:
‘Hi, this is
Fee,
you know what to do ...’
She looked at Gabriel. ‘Where would they have taken them?’
Gabriel shrugged. ‘They could have gone anywhere. But I doubt they’ve been kidnapped.’
‘How do you know?’ snapped April. ‘They could have ripped their throats out by now!’
Gabriel stepped over to her, but she pushed him away.
‘April, think! They want to convert them, not kill them - what would be in it for them?’
‘How should I know?’ she yelled. ‘You’re the bloody vampire - you tell me! Isn’t it
fun
killing people?’ she asked sarcastically.
‘I wouldn’t know,’ he said, glaring at her as he stepped over to the mantelpiece. ‘Look,’ he said, handing April a hastily scrawled note that had been propped up against a clock.
April, darling, gone to Euphoria, York Road. Your name’s on the list, Davina. xx
April didn’t say a word in the taxi, she was too angry: angry with Davina and Benjamin for trying to recruit/murder her friends; angry with Fiona and Caro for going with them and wanting to be friends with such airheads - such
vampire
airheads; angry with Gabriel for being a -
goddammit -
vampire; and angry with her mother for disappearing to God knows where in her time of need. Finally, she couldn’t keep it in any longer.
‘What the hell are they doing going clubbing on the day of my dad’s funeral?’ she snapped. ‘What were they thinking?’
‘I’m sure your dad wouldn’t have wanted his wake to be all doom and gloom.’
‘There’s a big difference between “no doom and gloom” and “clubbing”,’ April said acidly. ‘And what about me? Why didn’t they wait?’
‘Well, they didn’t know where you were or if you were coming back,’ said Gabriel.