Reece returned her gaze for a long moment. ‘No, April, it’s not your fault,’ he said seriously, standing up. ‘Unfortunately, this sort of thing does happen. It’s not pleasant, but it happens. And London’s a very big place with a lot of people in it. I know it might feel as if it’s following you around, but it’s not. Sometimes these things are entirely random.’
‘But what happened, DI Reece?’ she said. ‘I mean, don’t you have CCTV footage or something?’
Again, the two police officers glanced at each other.
‘Yes,’ Reece said, ‘but it’s inconclusive. The incident happened in a tunnel near Covent Garden. Sadly, it doesn’t have cameras. We have footage of you running from Trafalgar Square and then ...’
‘What?’
Reece shrugged. ‘It’s probably nothing. We have a fairly clear shot of you running into an alleyway as if someone is chasing you, but there’s no one behind you.’
April frowned, feeling a horrible clench in her stomach.
‘No one?’ she whispered. ‘No one at all?’
Reece frowned. ‘No. Did you think there would be?’
April shook her head. ‘Like I said, I thought someone was following me, but I guess I was just imagining it.’
‘Exactly. So don’t worry about it, it’s probably just coincidence. There’s a lot of it about.’
April did her best to smile at the policeman. She knew Reece was trying to be nice, but he didn’t know the truth. He didn’t know that Gabriel was there, he didn’t know he might have killed those men in cold blood. And he certainly wouldn’t have believed her if she had told him the rest of the things she knew about Gabriel Swift. April stood up and showed the officers to the door. She was just closing it behind them when she had another thought.
‘DI Reece?’ she called, just as he reached the gate. ‘Can I ask you something?’
Reece glanced at her, then turned to Carling and told her he would meet her in the car.
‘Why did you say “it’s probably nothing”?’ asked April when the other officer was out of earshot. ‘You know, about the CCTV footage.’
Reece pulled a face. ‘Oh, that. Nothing to worry about, probably just a fault with the camera.’
‘But what was it? Was I being followed?’
Reece shook his head. ‘No, it’s just a shadow on the film, nothing more,’ he said, and tried to laugh, but it sounded hollow. April could tell something was bothering him.
‘Please, DI Reece,’ said April. ‘You’re starting to worry me.’
The policeman looked at her for a moment, then sighed. ‘Okay, just after you run into the alley, something else passes across the alleyway, like a thick shadow. For a while I thought it might be someone following you, but our tech boys assure me they can see the wall through it, so it’s probably just a fault on the disk or something. I really shouldn’t have mentioned it. Now, try not to worry,’ said Reece. ‘I promise you, we’ll get to the bottom of all this.’
Not before I do
, thought April as she closed the door.
Chapter Thirty-Two
April was trying her best to be brave, but it was breaking her heart to see Fiona load her suitcase into the taxi. It had been wonderful to have her to stay, even if she had spent most of her visit talking about vampires and notebooks and impossible goings-on, but it was still term-time and Fiona’s parents wanted her to get back. April was glad they had let her come at all; she knew she wouldn’t have got through the funeral without her; it was like having a piece of her old, sane life to lean on, one last scrap of normality to cling to, but now April knew she had to let her go. Much as she hated to admit it to herself, April Dunne had become a jinx. More than that: people around her were dying, and after last night, she couldn’t risk the vampires getting any closer to Fiona. She couldn’t lose her too. Not ever.
‘Do you really want me to go?’ said Fiona, pulling April in for a hug.
‘I wish you could stay honey, I really do,’ replied April, ‘but I can’t hang on to you for ever. I’ve got to start doing things on my own now. And anyway, you’ve a first-class ticket - you don’t want to miss out on that free pastry, do you?’
Fiona smiled and hugged her friend tight. ‘You call me every day, okay?’
‘Are you kidding?’ said April. ‘I’ll be on the phone every hour!’
She wanted to say more, but she was afraid if she did she would burst into tears again.
‘You be safe now,’ said Fiona. ‘Seriously, it’s dangerous around here. No running into haunted houses without at least one good torch.’
April giggled, but Fiona’s expression turned serious.
‘And watch yourself with Gabriel, okay?’ she said, lowering her voice. ‘I know he’s gorgeous and everything, but he’s still a boy and they’re only after one thing. All right?’
April felt a flare of excitement at Gabriel’s name, which was immediately quenched by the memory of her conversation with the police.
‘I’ll be careful,’ said April as Fee got into the taxi. ‘I promise.’
And then Fiona was gone, waving from the back of the cab as it turned the corner and disappeared out of sight. April stood in the road, staring at the place where her best friend had been standing. Now her last anchor to her old life was gone and she was left drifting in this bizarre fantasy world of beasts and bats. She didn’t know what to do.
She felt a buzz in her pocket and pulled out her phone: one text message - Fee. She clicked it up and there were just two words:
‘Be Strong.
’
April smiled. It was good advice; she only hoped she could follow it. She was just turning to go back inside when she saw him. Gabriel was standing across the road, looking at her, just like on that first night.
April looked quickly around the square. She didn’t want the police to see him.
‘Come inside,’ she said. She led him in through the front door and into the living room, shutting the door. She turned and stared at him, anger making her shake.
‘Gabriel, if I ask you a straight question, can you give me a straight answer for once?’
‘Of course,’ he said.
‘What did you do to those men who were hassling me last night?’
He looked away. ‘I did what I had to.’
‘A straight answer, Gabriel!’ she said.
He stared back her. His eyes were fierce. ‘What do you want me to say, April? That I tore off their heads and drank their blood? Is that what you think of me?’
‘Did you kill them?’ she shouted. ‘Tell me!’
‘NO!’ said Gabriel in surprise. ‘Of course not! What on earth makes you think I would do such a thing?’
‘What on earth?’ mocked April. ‘Just your being some sort of bloodthirsty creature of the night.’
‘I’m not a
creature
!’ he yelled, anger making his pale cheeks flush. ‘And I did not kill those men.’ He grabbed her arms and looked into her eyes. ‘On everything I hold dear,’ he said in an even, measured tone, ‘and on everything
you
hold dear, I swear to you, I did not kill them.’
His gaze was so strong, so intense, April felt her heart pounding. She looked into his dark eyes and she saw no malice, no evil there. He was so genuine, so earnest, she knew in her heart he was telling the truth.
‘Oh God, I’m sorry,’ she whispered. ‘After last night, I so wanted to believe you, but it’s so hard. And then the police came this morning and told me those men were killed.’
Gabriel’s face softened and he pulled her closer. ‘I know, I know it’s hard,’ he said. ‘But I need you to believe in me because ...’ He broke off and turned away.
‘Why? What is it?’
‘Because ... you’re important to me, April—’ He stopped and took a deep breath. ‘I want to walk away, but I can’t help myself, I haven’t felt this—’
‘APRIL!’
It was her mother’s voice.
‘Oh crap,’ said April and ran to the bottom of the stairs.
‘What’s all that shouting?’ snapped her mother. ‘I’m trying to get some sleep here.’
‘Sorry, we were just ... I’ll keep it down.’
‘Don’t make me come down there,’ said Silvia, shuffling back into her room.
April took a deep breath and walked back into the living room.
‘Okay, so who did kill them?’ she asked.
Gabriel looked at her warily. ‘Is that what the police were here about?’
‘Yes, they said the details were similar to the murders in Highgate.’
Gabriel frowned, thinking. ‘Someone else must have been following you,’ he said, almost to himself. ‘Someone I didn’t see.’
‘What? You mean another vampire?’ said April, a cold feeling coming over her.
‘Yes. If the murders are similar then it must have been. I was worried this might happen.’
‘Worried about what, exactly?’ she said. She was scared now. ‘Is someone trying to kill me too?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Gabriel.
She grabbed his arm. ‘Tell me! I need to know!’
He carefully took her hand from his arm, but kept hold of it. ‘I don’t know, April. That’s the truth,’ he added in response to her disbelieving expression. ‘But what I do know is that something’s going on here, something bad. The vampire clans have almost always been at war, but this is something different, something new.’
‘So what’s going on?’
He looked at her. ‘We have rules. And someone is breaking them.’
April snorted. ‘Vampires have rules?’ she said sceptically.
‘I know it sounds insane,’ he said, ‘but over the centuries, we have found that they keep us hidden, and for vampires remaining hidden is everything.’
She pulled a face. ‘So what are these rules?’
He looked away. ‘You won’t like it.’
‘Big surprise.’
‘No children, no families, no one famous, never more than one kill per moon - per month. All these things draw attention. All the deaths in Highgate break the rules.’
‘So what does that mean?’
Gabriel shook his head. ‘Either the whole ceasefire is breaking down, maybe the Regent is orchestrating these attacks, perhaps both. And there’s another possibility - that it’s a rogue vampire acting on their own.’
‘But why would they do that? What about the hunting thing? I mean, why attract so much attention?’
Gabriel shrugged. ‘Maybe they’re not in control of their urges, or they’re killing for the sheer pleasure of it. Or perhaps they have a plan of their own, because they feel threatened in some way.’
‘And if that vampire killed my dad ...’
Gabriel looked grave. ‘That’s what worries me. If a rogue vampire thought your dad was a threat, he could see you as a threat, too.’
April sat down hard. As if she didn’t have enough on her mind without a killer stalking her.
‘But how does the thing in Covent Garden link in?’
‘He was obviously following you, waiting until you were alone.’
‘No, I mean why is that against the rules?’
‘Never kill more than one at a time. And never before midnight.’
April laughed nervously. ‘Before midnight? Now that does sound like something from the movies.’
‘No, it makes sense. After midnight people are more likely to be on their own, there are less likely to be witnesses, and you’d be surprised how few police are on duty.’
‘Is that why parents always tell us to be home by midnight?’
Gabriel smiled grimly. ‘Always be home by midnight, April,’ he said. ‘That’s one of the few vampire myths that is true.’