Thicker Than Blood (Marchwood Vampire Series #2) (12 page)

‘
So am I to stay here with
the widow in the meantime?’

‘
Yes, I’m sorry, little
one, but I could not manage to persuade them otherwise. Here ...’
He handed Aelia a piece of crumpled parchment which she unfolded.
‘A map from here to the cave. It is a straightforward journey and
should be no more than a day’s walk. You must set off early that
day.’

‘
Only a day’s walk? But
when I left, it took so long to get here. I must have wandered in
circles.’

Her father set his drink down and cupped her
face in his hand. ‘I’m so sorry you had to face that alone, but I
knew you would survive it. You have always been a brave girl.’

‘
Really? You think
so?’

He laughed. ‘Yes, really. Don’t you feel
brave?’

‘
Not at all. I always seem
to be terrified of everything.’

‘
Courage is all about
continuing on despite your fears. And, my little Aelia, you have
continued on.’ He kissed her forehead.

‘
Widow Maleina must come
too.’

‘
I don’t think so. It was
hard enough to get a space for you. I’m not sure they will allow
it.’

‘
But I can’t just leave
her to the mercy of the barbarians. Not after she took me
in.’

Her father sighed. ‘Very well. Bring her
along, but I can’t guarantee they will let her descend. Every space
has been accounted for. There is a list.’

‘
We’ll manage it. That is
if she’ll agree to come. She doesn’t believe in the
invasion.’

Her father looked distracted.

‘
What is it?’ Aelia asked.
‘Is there something you’re not telling me?’

‘
I know it was Lysus
Garidas,’ he said quietly through gritted teeth.

She gasped. How could he know? She was too
scared to ask. She didn’t want to speak about this with her father.
He was talking to her like an adult and it made her feel
uncomfortable.

‘
You were both seen,’ he
continued. ‘But the girl who followed you, neglected to mention
that she also saw
him
.
Only
your
name was given to the Praetor.’

So someone
had
followed her and Lysus? Aelia felt
mortified. Who could it have been?

‘
It doesn’t matter who it
was,’ her father said, reading her thoughts. ‘But I got the truth
from her, and now Praetor Garidas knows it too. His son is the one
to blame but he escaped punishment. That is how I got the Praetor
to relent and save you a space below the ground.’

‘
What did … What did Lysus
have to say about it? Back then, he told me we would be wed …’ A
torrent of unpleasant memories surfaced and it was all Aelia could
do to stop the tears from flowing. She was determined not to cry
over him.

‘
Praetor Garidas sent him
to live in the next village on some pretext or another,’ her father
said. ‘And it is a good thing too, for I don’t think I could have
looked at the boy without …’

‘
Father, I’m sorry.’ She
put a hand on his arm.

‘
Let us not dwell on it
further. We will all be together soon and we can find you a
suitable match. You are nineteen now – a little old to be a bride.’
He gave a sad smile. ‘But you are pretty enough for your age not to
matter. We will put all that business behind us.’

A suitable match?
The reality of
going back home was starting to sink in. How would she be able to
face her friends and neighbours? Surely they would shun
her.

‘
Much as it pains me, I
must leave you now, daughter. I have been gone too
long.’

‘
Already? But you must
meet the widow. She’ll return before noon. You must stay for a few
hours at least.’

‘
I wish I could stay a
while longer. I’ve missed you so much and it is wonderful to look
upon your sweet face after all this time. But I promised your
mother I would return with news. She’ll be sick with
worry.’

‘
Very well.’ Aelia looked
down, desperately trying not to cry. ‘Will you at least stay for
breakfast?’

He smiled. ‘That I can do.’

Chapter Fourteen

Present Day

*

How long had she been shivering in this damp
unlovely place? There were no windows so she couldn’t even gauge
what time of day it was. Maddy’s earlier panic had quickly morphed
into boredom and frustration. She paced the floor, stamping her
feet to get some warmth into her chilled bones.

‘
Come on!’ She hammered on
the door with her fist. ‘Someone tell me what’s going on!’ If
anyone was outside, they weren’t answering. What else could she do?
She thought for a while, trying to decide what the best strategy
would be. Well, maybe she could try and get friendly with the
vampire girl. Didn’t they say it was a good idea to try and make
friends with your captors? She was sure she’d seen that in a
documentary. Or was it in a movie?

Several hours later, the door opened
again.

Maddy tried to catch the girl’s eye as she
walked in, but she stared straight ahead.

‘
Hi,’ Maddy said. ‘What’s
your name?’

Nothing.

‘
I’m Madison. You probably
already knew that. My friends call me Maddy.’

No response. Maddy felt a bit stupid, but
she was determined to plough on. The girl carried a tray with a
bowl of what looked like soup and a big hunk of bread.

‘
That looks really good.
Thanks.’

The girl flicked her eyes across at Maddy.
Maddy felt slightly encouraged.

‘
So, don’t you get bored
just bringing me food and then taking it out again? It can’t be
that interesting.’

The girl gave her a glare as
she dumped the tray on the bed and picked up the empty bowl.
Oops
, Maddy thought.
Criticising
her probably wasn’t the best move.

‘
I mean, as a vampire you
can do really amazing stuff. Why don’t they just have a human doing
the meal deliveries?’

‘
Because a human might get
stabbed in the face with a piece of broken plate,’ the girl
replied.

Maddy smiled. ‘Fair enough. So what did you
say your name was?’

The girl rolled her eyes at Maddy and left
the room.

Maddy grinned to herself.

Over the next couple of visits, Madison kept
up her plan to try and befriend her vampire captor.

‘
So when did you actually
become a vampire?’

The girl didn’t respond, but Maddy was
getting used to being ignored. She didn’t let it put her off.

‘
Let me guess … Hmmm …
You’ve got that French plait going on and you talk pretty normally,
but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Okay, my guess is, you
were turned three hundred years ago. Am I close?’

The girl tried to suppress a smile.

‘
Aha! You’re smiling. I
reckon I’m right. Am I right? Just nod once for yes.’

The girl left the room.

‘
Spoilsport,’ Maddy called
after her. ‘And I’d kill for a cup of tea. What are the
chances?’

She felt like she was slowly getting
somewhere. The girl wasn’t hostile. If only she could get her to
talk, she could find out some useful information about exactly
where she was and who was behind her abduction. She also needed to
know if Ben was safe. Maddy was desperate to get out of this place.
What if Alex and the others couldn’t track her down? She’d been
here for ages already and there was no sign of a rescue. She knew
it was up to her to escape. She had to try harder to befriend the
girl.

How long had she actually been here? She
made a guess that when the girl brought her bread and fruit, it was
probably meant to be breakfast. She’d had that three, no four times
now, so that must mean she’d been here for at least four days –
Four days! It felt like she’d been here four months. Wait, the door
was opening again. That was quick. There was normally several hours
in between each visit.

This time the girl was carrying a mug.

‘
Is that …’ Maddy took the
mug in her hands. ‘… tea! Oh that’s amazing. Thank you. I’ve been
dying for a cuppa since I got here. I usually have it with milk,
but hey, I’m not complaining.’

The girl turned around and headed back
towards to the door.

‘
Please don’t go just
yet,’ Maddy said, really meaning it. ‘It’s lonely in here. And it’s
always nice to drink tea and chat. You don’t have to say anything,
just stay for a minute or two. Please.’

The girl hovered in front of the door, her
back to Maddy.

‘
So, you never told me
when you were made into a vampire. Was I right? Was it three
hundred years ago?’ Maddy sipped her tea. ‘Mmmm, great
cuppa.’

‘
No,’ the girl said
softly.

‘
No? So not three hundred
years ago. How about Victorian? You look quite like a girly girl,
no offence meant. Just, your high heels and your clothes are very …
perfect and pretty. Are you from the Victorian times?’

‘
No.’ The girl left the
room.

Maddy sighed and blew on her tea.

*

Alexandre gave a cursory glance around his
hotel accommodation. It was stunning – a suite of sumptuous rooms
hewn out of the honey-coloured rock and linked by elaborately
carved archways. Turkish rugs, wall hangings and tapestried
furniture adorned the sitting room and in his bedroom the columns
and canopy of the four poster bed were actually carved from the
rock. But he had no time to appreciate the splendour on offer. They
had to find the entrance to the underground city and rescue
Madison.

There was no way he was going
to hang around for two days until the 21
^st
to hand themselves over like
trussed up turkeys to that Cappadocian creature. He may call
himself an emperor, but to Alexandre, he was a monstrosity, a
stealer of life. And he wasn’t to be trusted.

Morris had already gone to his own room. He
would sleep now, but had arranged to meet them at six in the
morning in case there was anything they needed him to do once day
broke. Isobel, Jacques and Freddie were now busy covering the
windows with blackout material, but Leonora had gone hunting. She
had said she wouldn’t be long, but Alexandre was impatient. Why on
earth hadn’t she fed before the journey.

Before the sleeping disease had taken hold,
the vampires had been very open with each other about how they took
their sustenance, sometimes even hunting in twos or threes. But
since their long sleep, they had all become more solitary. They
didn’t even discuss it. Of course, Alexandre told Madison
everything. She didn’t treat it as though it was something
terrible, but quizzed him on every aspect because she was
interested: Yes he drank blood, but no he did not kill anybody.
Unfortunately, his victims would probably suffer fevers and
delirium, but he ensured they would not remember what had happened.
It was a part of who he was. He could either starve, or live with
the guilt. But he could go days between feeds and he always
stretched it out as long as he could.

Aah, here was Leonora, her cheeks flushed
and her eyes bright. She gave him a dazzling smile, beautiful in
its unexpectedness.

‘
This place agrees with
you,’ he said. ‘You’re glowing.’

‘
Blood agrees with me,’
Leonora replied. ‘I was so ravenous in that crate. I could smell
the customs people and it was all I could do not to break out of
the box.’

Alexandre and the others laughed.

‘
Well, I’m glad you didn’t
break out,’ Freddie said. ‘Or you would be a little pile of ash
right now.’

‘
Oh, don’t even joke about
it.’ Isobel shuddered.

‘
Are we ready to go?’
Alexandre asked.

‘
What exactly do you need
us to do?’

‘
We must stick together.
This is their territory and if they know we are here, they will be
watching out for us. We are stronger together and they are less
likely to attack.’

‘
Do you think they will?’
Jacques asked.

‘
In truth, I don’t know.
But I hope not. If they had wanted us harmed, they would have tried
to do it before now. Blythe told me they want us to join
them.’

‘
So tonight is just a
little look-see?’ Jacques said.

‘
Exactly,’ Alexandre said.
‘If we can locate Maddy’s whereabouts, we can plan her
rescue.’

‘
Will we go to the place
where the old ventilation shaft used to be?’ Leonora
asked.

‘
Not yet. I have a feeling
that is where we are supposed to go at the appointed time. They
will have guards posted.’

‘
So what do we do?’
Leonora said.

‘
We go to the river where
the cave is.’

‘
But the cave is gone,’
Freddie said. ‘Harold and Refet blew it up.’

‘
Yes, but we can walk the
city from above. See if we can sense anyone below.’

‘
I suppose so …’ Jacques
sounded dubious.

‘
Well, do you have a
better idea? We cannot attract their attention. We have no idea how
many of them we’re facing.’

‘
I think we’re
screwed.’