The Generals with Debbie and Alice left them eventually, to resume the fight against the vampaneze — all hands were needed in the War of the Scars. A couple kept in touch, meeting up with them every month or two, monitoring their progress. But most of the time the ladies of the shadows — as the vampirites referred to them — traveled alone, choosing places where the vampaneze were active, recruiting fervently.
They’d come to my hometown two weeks ago. There’d been many reports of vampaneze here, and a band of vampirites had already formed to combat them. Debbie and Alice came to raise morale, and also to spread awareness among the street folk. That task accomplished, they’d planned to move on soon. Then I’d turned up, beaten and bleeding, and their plans changed.
I rubbed my right shoulder as I shuffled to the secret room. Alice had removed the arrowhead and stitched me up. The wound had healed cleanly, but it still stung like crazy, and I was a long way from full recovery.
Alice and Harkat moved the furniture that helped mask the entrance to the hidden room at the rear of the house. Then Alice pressed a secret panel and a section of wall slid back to reveal a cramped cell. There was a very dim light set in one of the walls.
“They searched the house thoroughly last time,” Alice reminded me, checking that the jug beside the mattress on the floor was filled with water. “You could be in for another long stay.”
“I’ll be fine,” I said, lying down.
“Hold on!” I heard Debbie shout, as Alice was about to close the section of wall on me. She came hurrying to the entrance, carrying a small bag. “I’ve been waiting until you were strong enough to give this to you. It will help pass the time.”
“What is it?” I asked, taking the bag.
“You’ll see,” Debbie replied, blowing me a kiss and stepping back as the cell was closed off. I waited a minute for my eyes to adjust to the dim light, then reached inside the bag and pulled out several notepads bound together by a rubber band. I broke into a smile — my diary! I’d forgotten it entirely. Now that I cast my thoughts back, I recalled handing the notepads to Alice before leaving with Harkat two years earlier.
I slipped the rubber band off the pads, thumbed through the copy on top, then paused, upended the diary, and went back eighteen years to before I sneaked out to the Cirque Du Freak and met Mr. Crepsley. Within minutes I was adrift in the past, and the hours flew by as I focused on my scrawled writing, aware of nothing else.
O
NCE I GOT THE ALL CLEAR
, I returned to my bedroom and spent the next couple of days bringing my diary up to date. I’d soon filled out the most recent notepad, so Debbie brought me fresh writing material. I wrote all about my adventures with Harkat in the barren wasteland that seemed to be the world of the future. I described my fears, that the world might face destruction regardless of who won the War of the Scars, and that I might be in some way linked to the fall of mankind. I told about discovering Harkat’s true identity and returning home. A quick rundown of our recent travels with the Cirque Du Freak. Then the latest cruel chapter, in which Tommy died and I learned that Steve had a son.
I hadn’t thought much about Tommy since that night. I knew the police were scouring the city in search of his killers, and that R.V. and Morgan James had killed eight others and wounded many more in the stadium. But I didn’t know what the general public made of the murders, or if I’d been identified as a suspect — maybe Steve was setting me up to take the blame for this.
I asked Debbie to bring me all the local papers from the last few days. There were poor pictures of R.V. (full-vampaneze couldn’t be photographed, but R.V.’s molecular system must not have changed yet) and Morgan James, but none of me. There was a brief mention of the incident outside the stadium, when I’d been attacked, but the police didn’t seem to place much importance on it or link it with the stadium murders.
“Were you close to him?” Debbie asked, tapping a photo of a smiling Tommy Jones. She was sitting on the end of my bed, watching me while I read the papers. She’d been spending a lot of time with me during my recovery, nursing me, chatting with me, telling me about her life.
“We were good friends when we were kids,” I sighed.
“Do you think he knew about Steve or the vampaneze?” Debbie asked.
“No. He was an innocent victim. I’m sure of it.”
“But didn’t he say he had something important to tell you?”
I shook my head. “He said there were things we had to discuss about Steve, but he wasn’t specific. I don’t think it had anything to do with this.”
“It scares me,” Debbie said, taking the paper from me and folding it over.
“You’re scared because they killed Tommy?” I frowned.
“No — because they did it in front of tens of thousands of people. They must be full of confidence, afraid of nothing. They wouldn’t have dared pull a stunt like this a few years ago. They’re growing more powerful all the time.”
“Overconfidence may prove to be their undoing,” I grunted. “They were safer when nobody knew about them. Confidence has brought them out into the light, but they seem to have forgotten — light’s no good for creatures of the night.”
Debbie put the paper aside. “How’s your shoulder?” she asked.
“Not too bad,” I said. “But Alice’s stitch work leaves a lot to be desired — I’m going to have a terrible scar when the wound heals.”
“Another one for the collection,” Debbie laughed. Her smile faded. “I noticed a new scar on your back, long and deep. Did you get it when you went away with Harkat?”
I nodded, remembering the monstrous Grotesque, how one of its fangs had caught between my shoulder blades and ripped downwards sharply.
“You still haven’t told me what happened, or where you went,” Debbie said.
I sighed. “It’s not something we need to talk about right now.”
“But you found out who Harkat was?”
“Yes,” I said, and let the matter drop. I didn’t like concealing secrets from Debbie, but if that wasteworld really was the future, I saw no reason to burden Debbie with foreknowledge of it.
I woke early the next morning with a terrible headache. There was a small crack between the curtains, and although only a thin shaft of light was visible, I felt as if a strong torch was being shone directly into my eyes. Groaning, I stumbled out of bed and pulled the curtains closed. That helped, but my headache didn’t improve. I lay as still as I could, hoping it would go away. When it didn’t, I got out of bed again, meaning to go downstairs and get some aspirin. I passed Harkat on my way. He was leaning against a wall, asleep, although his lidless eyes were — as always — wide open.
I had taken a few steps down the stairs when a wave of giddiness overcame me and I fell. I grabbed for the banister, managed to catch it before I toppled over, and slid to a bruising halt halfway down the stairs. Head ringing, I sat up and looked around, dazed, wondering if this was an aftereffect of my wounded shoulder. I tried shouting for help but I could only work up a croak.
A short while later, as I lay on the stairs, gathering my strength in an effort to crawl back to my room, Debbie walked by the top of the staircase. She caught site of me and stopped. I raised my head to call her name, but again I could only form a choked croak.
“Declan?” Debbie asked, taking a step forward. “What are you doing? You haven’t been drinking again, have you?”
I frowned. Why had she confused me with Declan? We looked nothing alike.
As Debbie climbed down to help, she realized I wasn’t the tramp. She stopped, coming on guard. “Who are you?” she snapped. “What are you doing here?”
“It’s . . . me,” I gasped, but she didn’t hear. “Alice!” Debbie shouted. “Harkat!”
At her cry, Alice and Harkat came running and joined her at the top of the stairs. “Is it one of Declan or Little Kenny’s friends?” Alice asked.
“I don’t think so,” Debbie said.
“Who are you?” Alice challenged me. “Tell us, quick, or —”
“Wait,” Harkat interrupted. He stepped past the women and stared hard at me, then grimaced. “As if we haven’t enough . . . problems!” He hurried down the steps. “It’s OK,” he told Alice and Debbie as he picked me up. “It’s Darren.”
“Darren?”
Debbie exclaimed. “But he’s covered in hair!”
And I realized why she hadn’t recognized me. Overnight, my hair had sprouted and I’d grown a beard. “The purge!” I wheezed.
“The second phase.” Harkat nodded. “You know what . . . this means?”
Yes — it meant my time as a half-vampire was almost at an end. Within a few weeks the vampire blood within my veins would transform all of the human cells and I’d become a true, night-hugging, sunlight-fearing creature of the dark.
I explained the purge to Debbie and Alice. My vampire cells were attacking my human cells, converting them. Within weeks I’d be a full-vampire. In the meantime my body would mature rapidly and undergo all kinds of inconveniences. Apart from the hair, my senses would go haywire. I’d suffer headaches. I’d have to cover my eyes and plug up my nose and ears. My sense of taste would desert me. I’d experience sudden bursts of energy then loss of strength.
“It’s terrible timing,” I complained to Debbie later in the day. Harkat and Alice were busy elsewhere in the house while Debbie helped me cut my hair and shave.
“What’s so bad about it?” she asked.
“I’m vulnerable,” I said. “My head’s pounding. I can’t see, hear, or smell right. I don’t know what my body’s going to do from one minute to the next. If we get into a fight with the vampaneze anytime soon, I can’t be depended upon.”
“But you’re stronger than normal during the purge, aren’t you?”
“Sometimes. But the strength can dwindle away suddenly, leaving me weak and defenseless. And there’s no way of predicting when that will happen.”
“What about afterwards?” Debbie asked, trimming my fringe. “You’ll be a full-vampire?”
“Yes.”
“You’ll be able to flit and communicate telepathically with other vampires?”
“Not straightaway,” I told her. “The ability will be there, but I’ll have to develop it. I’ve got a lot of learning to do over the next few years.”
“You don’t sound too happy about it,” Debbie noted.
I pulled a face. “In many ways I’m glad — I’ll finally be a true vampire, as a Prince should be. I’ve always felt awkward, being a half-vampire and having so much power. On the other hand, I’m facing the end of a way of life. No more sunlight or being able to pass for human. I’ve enjoyed the best of both worlds since I was blooded. Now I have to leave one of them — the human world — behind forever.” I sighed moodily.
Debbie thought about that in silence, cutting my hair back. Then she said quietly, “You’ll be an adult at the end, won’t you?”
“Yes,” I snorted. “That’s another change I’m not sure about. I’ve been a child or a teenager for the better part of thirty years. To leave that behind in the space of a few weeks . . . It’s weird!”
“But wonderful,” Debbie said. She stopped cutting and stepped in front of me. “Do you remember when you tried to kiss me a few years ago?”
“Yes.” I grimaced. “That’s when I was pretending to be a student, and you were my teacher. You hit the roof and ordered me out of your apartment.”
“Rightly so.” Debbie grinned. “As a teacher — an adult — it would be wrong of me to get involved with a child. I couldn’t kiss you then, and I can’t kiss you now. It’d feel terribly wrong kissing a boy.” Her grin changed subtly, mysteriously. “But in a few weeks, you won’t be a boy. You’ll be a man.”
“Oh,” I said, thinking about that. Then my expression changed. I gazed up at Debbie with new understanding and hope, then gently took her hand.
A
BENEFIT OF THE PURGE
was that my wound healed quickly and I got my strength back. A couple of days later, I was almost back to full physical fitness, except for my headaches and growing pains.
I was doing push-ups on the floor of my bedroom, working off some of my excess energy, when I heard Debbie squeal downstairs. I stopped instantly and shared a worried look with Harkat, who was standing guard by the door. I hurried to his side and removed one of the earplugs I was wearing to block out the worst of the street noises.
“Should we go down?” Harkat asked, opening the door a crack. We could hear Debbie babbling excitedly, and as we listened, Alice joined her and also began to talk very quickly.
“I don’t think anything’s wrong,” I said, frowning. “They seem happy, as if an old friend has . . .” I stopped and slapped my forehead. Harkat laughed, then both of us said at exactly the same time,
“Vancha!”
Throwing the door wide open, we barged down the stairs and found Debbie and Alice chatting with a burly red-skinned, green-haired man, dressed in purple animal hides and no shoes, with belts of sharp throwing stars — shurikens — looped around his torso.
“Vancha!” I shouted happily, clutching his arms and squeezing tight.
“It is good to see you again, Sire,” Vancha said with surprising politeness. Then he burst into a grin and hugged me tight. “Darren!” he boomed. “I’ve missed you!” Turning to Harkat, he laughed. “I missed you too, ugly!”
“Look who’s talking!” Harkat grinned.
“It’s great to see you both, but of course I’m most pleased to see the ladies,” Vancha said, releasing me and winking at Debbie and Alice. “Female beauty’s what we hot-blooded men live for, aye?”
“He’s a born flatterer,” Alice sniffed. “I bet he says that to every woman he meets.”
“Naturally,” Vancha murmured, “because all women are beautiful, in one way or another. But you’re more beautiful than most, my dear — an angel of the night!”
Alice snorted with contempt, but there was a strange little smile playing at the corners of her lips. Vancha looped his arms around Debbie and Alice and guided us into the living room, as though this was his house and we were the guests. Sitting down, making himself comfortable, he told Debbie to go fetch some food. She told him — in no uncertain terms — that he could do his own fetching while he was here, and he laughed with delight.