Dark Tomorrow (Bo Blackman Book 6) (26 page)

‘I knew it. I knew you were still alive,’ Mrs Goldman gasps. She holds Alice to her as if she’s afraid to let her go. As if releasing her will mean that all this is nothing more than a dream.

‘Mum, I can’t breathe.’

Mrs Goldman blushes and relaxes ever so slightly. ‘Sorry, baby.’ She looks over her shoulder at me. ‘Thank you.’ Her voice catches. ‘I’m not sure I can ever thank you enough.’

I snatch a look at Maria, who’s watching the reunion with a blank, impassive mask. ‘Actually,’ I say softly, ‘I think there is something you can do that would cover it.’

‘So what feels better?’ my grandfather enquires. ‘Seeing all those children rescued and returned to their families or re-homed, or seeing Stephen McIntyre and his cronies dead?’

I roll my eyes. He merely shrugs. ‘By the way, Maria left you a present when she came back to pick up her things. I took the liberty of putting it in the fridge.’

I frown. ‘She shouldn’t have done that.’

‘It was her choice. Young Alistair took his things as well. I rather think that, now they’ll be living on the same street, he’ll have less time to spend on his criminal hacking activity. I’m not sure Maria approves of what he does and the pull of young love can be strong.’

‘Not just young love,’ I murmur. Kimchi comes up and noses at my hand. I stroke his ears. ‘Speaking of packing up, we should probably go ourselves.’ I look round the warehouse. ‘We can’t stay here forever.’

‘Well…’ he demurs.

My eyes narrow. ‘Well, what?’

‘I might not have told you the entire truth when I said that MI7 didn’t know we were here.’

‘Excuse me?’

‘You’re excused.’

I put my hands on my hips. ‘Arbuthnot Blackman, you need to explain right now what’s going on.’

‘They’ve been monitoring your actions and they’re quite impressed. They are prepared to offer you the premises and their contents if you agree to help them out from time to time.’

I glare. ‘I thought you said I’d never make a spy.’

He throws back his head and laughs. ‘Not as a spy. As a … consultant. Now that you’ve shown you can play nicely with all the other little tribers.’

‘The other vampires aren’t staying. They want to head off and make their own lives. Join other communities.’

‘Yes.’ He scratches his chin. ‘There will be a few problems with that, you know.’

‘We’ll deal with them if and when they occur.’ I feel remarkably serene ‒ until one of the sirens suddenly goes off. Kimchi whines. I whip my round to the camera feed and grit my teeth. It’s show time. Bugger.

***

Three gulps of Maria’s blood swirls round my body as I go out with O’Shea and Michael flanking me. The Kakos daemon has been outside for half an hour. I’ll give her this – she’s bloody patient.

‘Well,’ she says, tapping an immaculately manicured fingernail against her mouth. ‘Have you come to a decision, Ms Blackman?’

I smile coldly. ‘I don’t respond well to ultimatums.’

‘You haven’t answered my question.’

‘The tide has turned,’ I respond. ‘Maybe you saw the news? We’re responsible for rescuing more than a hundred children. The vampires are the heroes of the hour.’

‘You know as well as I do that public opinion turns on the toss of a coin. As you said, you’re the heroes of the hour but what happens in the next hour? It wouldn’t take much for everyone to remember that you’re nothing more than a bunch of bloodsucking fiends.’ She regards me steadily and switches tactics, apparently desperate to do anything to rile me. ‘X pretended to be your friend but he manipulated you. He used you.’

I shrug. ‘He didn’t enter my mind like you did. He didn’t force my own thoughts against me.’

‘He didn’t enter your mind because he didn’t need to. You were only too happy to fall into line.’

‘I used him as much as he used me,’ I say frankly. I step forward. For the first time, I realise I’m not afraid of her and I’m not afraid of X. ‘Tell me, do you consider yourself evil?’

‘That’s an absurd question.’

I cross my arms and wait. The daemon sighs, as if under a great imposition. ‘No,’ she answers, sounding bored. ‘I do not. The things we have done are necessary.’

‘You massacred the Families because you were afraid of them.’

‘We massacred the Families because they pinned the blame on us every time they needed an excuse to kill someone.’

I meet her eyes. ‘Everyone is afraid of you. We’ve always known that Kakos daemons were to be feared. If you had simply communicated your displeasure to the Families, they would have stopped.’ I flick my finger at an invisible piece of lint. ‘But you chose to act first, to kill rather than communicate. I’d call that evil.’

‘Please,’ she scoffs. ‘Evil doesn’t exist. Everyone has the capacity to do bad things, just as everyone has the capacity to do good things.’

‘That’s bullshit. Evil does exist.’ I smile. ‘You and I are perfect examples of that.’

She raises an eyebrow. ‘You don’t really think you’re evil.’

‘I think I have the capacity for it but I have people on my side who will keep me right.’

‘The half-breed.’ She scoffs. ‘And Michael Montserrat.’ There’s no denying the sneer in her voice. She doesn’t even glance in his direction. ‘You do realise why X turned him to a human, don’t you?’ Her lip curls. ‘He was jealous. He still is. He wants you to leave Montserrat. In a way X is right. A vampire mating with a human will never work.’

‘Maybe it will and maybe it won’t.’ I raise my arms nonchalantly. ‘You know, X also
saved
Michael. He would be dead otherwise.’

‘Am I to take it that you do not wish for X’s head?’

‘I’d love his head. I’d love to rip it off his shoulders myself.’ The daemon smirks and opens her mouth to speak. She doesn’t need to read my mind to know I’m telling the truth.

I hold up my index finger. ‘I’m not finished. Yes, I want him dead. Maybe I always will. I want you dead, too, and every other Kakos daemon in London. There’s part of me that also wants to be human. Part of me that still wants to attack every black witch I see, despite the pact I’ve made with them. I want to see Magix go bankrupt. I want Vincent Hale to die very, very slowly. I want a lifetime’s supply of blue raspberry lollipops. I want to be able to fly. I want unicorns to exist and no child to ever suffer again. I want happiness and sunshine and smiles for the entire world forever.’ I toss my hair. ‘But it’s not about what I want. Reality isn’t always perfect, in fact sometimes it’s sodding terrible. But we manage. We get through it. We live to fight another day.’

She rolls her eyes. ‘Spare me the philosophical sermonising.’

‘Fine. This is the deal. I will not leave London. The vampires will not leave London. You got what you wanted and the Families are dead and buried. It’s a new age now. You will no longer find yourself blamed for a trail of corpses. But if you or X or any other Kakos daemon ever lifts a finger to harm us or manipulate us again, then Magix will receive a vial of Romany blood and instructions about what to do with it.’

‘You think that’s a win for your kind?’ she sneers. ‘It’s not much of a happy ending.’

‘This is about survival, not vengeance. Nobody needs more blood on the streets. There’s been enough already.’ I pause. ‘Consider the vampires as peacekeepers rather than warmongers. That makes us better than you. We have the method to destroy you and we choose not to use it.’ I smile again. ‘Unless you force us to.’

‘That doesn’t make you better, it makes you weak,’ she spits.

I gaze into the distance. ‘Aggression is so unbecoming, don’t you think?’ I smile. ‘Now scat.’

She stares at me. I can almost feel the ice emanating from her. ‘Fine. We’ll leave you alone. There are hardly any vampires left anyway.’

‘There’ll be more some day soon,’ I respond calmly. ‘By removing the Families, you’ve removed centuries of irksome tradition. We’re no longer above human law but we no longer have to abide by our ancient strictures either. I wonder what will happen when we start recruiting Romany people as vampires,’ I muse.

‘You wouldn’t dare.’

I shrug and smile. The daemon throws me one more glare, then spins round on her heel and stalks away.

O’Shea moves up beside me. ‘Man, I’m still shaking.’

Michael walks up to my other side. ‘Well done.’

I bite my lip. ‘I hope I’ve done the right thing. In truth they all deserve far, far worse and we all know it.’

‘It’s harder to stop a fight than to start one. We’re safe. And every vampire has a new beginning. They don’t have to spend the rest of their lives looking over their shoulders.’

I slip my hand into Michael’s and he squeezes it. We watch the Kakos daemon as she reaches her car and gets into the back. Someone else steps out and I draw in a shocked breath as I realise it’s X. Perhaps he’s being punished after all. He raises a hand, whether in gratitude or acknowledgment or flippancy, I don’t know. Then he returns to the vehicle.

As the three of us watch them drive into the city dusk, lights begin to spring up across the skyline, illuminating London. I smile. She might be a bitch sometimes but she’s my bitch. I love this damned place.

My phone rings, breaking the temporary peace. I glance at the caller ID and answer. ‘What’s up, D’Argneau?’

Michael stiffens.

‘The lengths I go to for you, Bo Blackman! It’s taken me days of digging but I think I finally have something. It turns out that Streets of Fire is involved in some serious illegal activity. I don’t know about Kakos daemons but this could bring them down. They’re breaking just about every rule in the book. In fact…’

‘Don’t tell me,’ I interrupt.

There’s a moment of silence. ‘Excuse me?’

‘Put it in a file and sit on it. It’s information that might come in useful in the future but I don’t want it right now.’

‘Do you have any idea how many hours I put into this?’ His voice is rising.

‘Feel free to bill me.’

‘You bet your sweet arse I will, darling.’

Michael leans across. ‘Call her darling again,’ he growls into the phone, ‘and you’ll live to regret it.’

‘Who’s that?’ D’Argneau asks suspiciously. ‘It sounded like Michael Montserrat.’

‘Mm. Thank you so much for everything, Harry,’ I say warmly. ‘You’ve been fabulous and I’ll make sure all the other vampires know in case they wish to procure your services for themselves.’

D’Argneau manages an impressive volte-face. ‘All the vampires? I know there’s not very many left but
all
of them?’

‘You could be the sole vampire representative if you play your cards right,’ I purr. ‘They’re no longer above the law so you might find yourself very busy indeed.’

Appeased by thoughts of legal grandeur, D’Argneau hangs up. I lean my head against Michael’s shoulder, pretending not to notice that O’Shea does the same on his other side.

I’m a vampire, a creature of the night with occasional psychotic tendencies. Surprisingly, I think I’m alright with that. Maybe the world needs people like me, at least for now.

I have no idea what tomorrow will bring, whether it will be good or bad or simply ambivalent. I’m not convinced any more that tomorrow matters. Today is what counts and today I have the man I love by my side while the people who matter to me are hale and hearty. Sure, tomorrow’s another day. But today is pretty sodding good – and that’s all any of us can ask for.

Thank you so much for reading Dark Tomorrow. I truly hoped you’ve enjoyed it and all of Bo’s travails and adventures. If you have a spare minute, it would mean a huge amount if you could leave a review on Amazon. All reviews make such a massive difference to independent authors like myself and every single one is very much appreciated. If you would like to keep up to date with any future releases, as well as the chance to receive exclusive content and giveaways, then do sign up for my
newsletter here.

All the best,

Helen

After teaching English literature in the UK, Japan and Malaysia, Helen Harper left behind the world of education following the worldwide success of her Blood Destiny series of books.  She is a professional member of the Alliance of Independent Authors and writes full time although she still fits in creative writing workshops with schools along with volunteering to teach reading to a group of young Myanmar refugees.  That’s not to mention the procession of stray cats which seem to find their way to her door!

Helen has always been a book lover, devouring science fiction and fantasy tales when she was a child growing up in Scotland.

Helen currently lives in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with far too many cats – not to mention the dragons, fairies, demons, wizards and vampires that seem to keep appearing from nowhere.