Thicker Than Blood (Marchwood Vampire Series #2) (24 page)

‘
Have you told the
others?’ Morris asked.

‘
Not yet. I’d better get
you locked up and then I’ll let them know.’

Morris stood and got a warm jumper from his
case. Next he took his coat from its hanger in the wardrobe. He put
on a hat, scarf and gloves, cleared his throat and followed Leonora
outside into the cold Cappadocian night.

*

‘
What do you mean she’s
gone? Gone where?’ Alexandre took a step towards Sergell who
bristled at his approach. The other vampires tensed. ‘You’d better
not have harmed her …’

‘
Or what?’ Sergell smiled.
‘We didn’t touch the girl, but she escaped this
morning.’

Alexandre scrutinized the other vampire’s
face. He didn’t think he was lying. Sergell appeared calm, not
angry or worried by the turn of events.

‘
How could she have
escaped from here? She is a single human. You are a group of
immortals.’ Suddenly, Alexandre almost felt like laughing. Madison
was a constant surprise to him. He allowed himself a small smile.
Good for her. He would find her easily, hide her somewhere safe and
then he would deal with this ‘situation’.

‘
I’m glad you find the
situation amusing,’ Sergell said. ‘But she has only made it worse
for herself. You see, I cannot now guarantee her safety when they
find her.’

Alexandre dropped the smile. ‘When who find
her? What have you done?’

‘
We are in pursuit. Night
has fallen. It is only a matter of time before my hunters bring her
down.’

Alexandre moved quickly. He must find her
before they did. But he was forgetting, these creatures were as
fast as he, if not faster. Before he reached the exit, two of them
had him pinned him against the rock wall.

‘
You’ve only just arrived,
Alexandre,’ Sergell said, walking up to him. ‘You can’t leave
already. And his Imperial Highness will be with us tomorrow. Now
that you’re here we cannot risk losing you too.’

‘
You don’t need to do
this,’ Alexandre said, struggling against the two vampires who held
him. ‘We can work this out amicably. She is of no threat
…’

‘
We have moved past that
point,’ Sergell interrupted. ‘And anyway, I think it’s all working
out rather well. Your family will be along shortly to see what’s
keeping you and then you can ‘meet your maker’ as it were.’ He
laughed.

As Alexandre listened to Sergell’s
self-satisfied speech, he tried to clear the red mist in his head.
‘We had an agreement, Sergell. You said you would release Madison
if I came here. You are now honour bound to let her go. Call your
men off the chase.’

‘
We had no such agreement. An
order was issued which you are
duty
bound to obey. His Imperial Highness gives the
commands and we merely follow.’

‘
And who is this Imperial
Highness? Why should I listen to a word …’

Sergell slapped his face with the back of
his hand, a fingernail cutting into Alexandre’s cheek. He was still
pinned to the wall by two vampires and could not retaliate although
he now began to struggle against his captors.

‘
Do not use that tone with
me, fledgling,’ Sergell snarled. ‘I am not in the mood for
it.’

Alex suddenly realised the seriousness of
his predicament. He was also terrified for Maddy’s safety. The
others had been right to warn him against coming here alone. He had
had some naïve notion of talking these vampires around or
overpowering them somehow. What a joke. He had to get out of here.
He would try to distract them somehow.

‘
I apologise,’ Alexandre
said, relaxing his struggle against the vampires. ‘I meant no
disrespect. But I would like to know who is this Imperial Highness
of whom you speak. Were you referring to the vampire who turned
me?’

Sergell’s face relaxed a little. ‘Yes, our
Emperor. And as I said earlier, he was your maker. It seems we
share a father.’

Alexandre almost gagged. That creature was
not his father. The very idea that it was related to him in some
way made him feel physically ill. But he swallowed down his
distaste and nodded to Sergell in acknowledgement.

Sergell gestured to his vampires to relax
their hold on Alexandre. As soon as they did, Alex tried to break
for the exit again. But he was not quick enough. Before he was able
to step forward two paces, hands seized his upper arms and slammed
him backwards. He jabbed his elbows out sideways to try and shake
them off and swung forward with his feet, catching one of the other
vampires in the stomach and sending him crashing through the
recently made hole in the wall. Alexandre had wrestled one of his
arms free and now used it to try and prise the other vampire off
his arm. But he was instantly surrounded. He knew it was pointless
to carry on, but he continued to try and break free
nonetheless.

‘
Quite impressive,’
Sergell drawled. ‘You will be useful.’ He turned to one of his
henchmen. ‘Take him.’ Then he took a step closer to Alexandre. ‘Go
quietly with my men and I will personally ensure your family
remains unharmed when they arrive.’

‘
And Madison?’ Alexandre
asked, clenching his jaw and trying to keep his rage under
control.

‘
Alas, as I said before,
she is already as good as dead.’

Alexandre tipped his head back and brought
it down with as much force as he could summon, head-butting Sergell
in the face and shaking himself free once more. The other vampires
fell on him, punching, kicking, snarling and tearing at his body
until Sergell shouted, ‘Enough!’ They fell back and silence
descended.

From where he lay on the ground, Alexandre
looked up through swollen bloodied eyes. His fury kept the pain at
bay, but he couldn’t move. Bones had been broken and his insides
had been pounded to a pulp. Sergell’s face gradually came into
focus, looming over him and as he came closer Alexandre could feel
his metallic breath on his face.

‘
Anyone else I would
kill,’ Sergell said, his voice low and cold.

The vampire’s face receded and Alexandre was
dragged along the stone floor. But even now, after only a few
moments, he could feel his body healing itself. The bones knitting
back together, the skin regenerating, his internal organs
repairing. Wherever the vampires were taking him, he would escape.
They could not keep him here. Whatever it took he would get out.
Soon he would return to full strength and there would be no
creature or room strong enough to hold him.

Chapter Twenty Nine

Cappadocia, 575 AD

*

Suddenly, a low rumbling sound filled the
room and a wash of orange light flooded in. There was silence and
stillness followed by whimpers and screams. Aelia felt the
grasping, squirming bodies disappear from on top of her. She was
able to breathe again. Everyone had scrambled towards the back of
the cavern, terror in their eyes. Aelia had been curled into a ball
to protect herself from the people who had been trying to grab at
her bag. Now, she knelt and lifted her head to look up at the
source of the light, staring in fear and fascination at the two
demons that stood in the open doorway.

Apart from several inert bodies on the
ground, Aelia was now the only human remaining in the centre of the
cavern. Everyone else was cowering and huddled against the outer
walls, as far away from the creatures as possible.

The demons in the doorway were blonde-haired
female beauties with terrible dark red eyes and sharp teeth,
silhouetted in a halo of torchlight. No emotion registered on their
faces, reminding Aelia of the blank-faced expression a snake wears
when it’s sizing up its dinner. The silence in the room was like a
heavy living thing.

‘
Here, kitty, kitty,’ one
of them said in a low hypnotic voice. ‘Don’t keep us
waiting.’

‘
A little child might be
nice,’ the other said. ‘Anyone care to volunteer their baby? Or
shall I come and choose?’ The demon stepped inside and cast her
eyes around the wall. She didn’t seem to have noticed Aelia
crouched only a few feet in front of her. Sobs and cries now
punctuated the silence.

Aelia knew she had to offer herself up to
them, although the thought made her insides turn to water. She was
infected with the blood plague anyway – as good as dead already.
Her body shook as she struggled to her feet. A low gasp came from
behind her; someone shocked at her audacity, her foolishness. She
forced a smile onto her face.

‘
I will go willingly with
you,’ she said.

‘
How charming,’ the demon
in front of her spoke. ‘It wants to play.’

The two creatures broke into peals of
laughter as Aelia stepped woodenly towards them, forcing one foot
in front of the other. They linked arms with her and led her out of
the chamber and along the passage. Aelia heard the stone roll back
into place, sealing her human companions back into their dark
chamber.

‘
Is one enough?’ one of
them asked the other.

‘
This one is interesting.
I am bored of the taste of fear.’

‘
Very well. She can be our
little secret.’ They giggled and walked out of the torchlit
corridor into the darkness.

As they continued on, they occasionally
passed back into the light which flickered from lamps set into
recesses in the walls. Nobody passed them and Aelia felt herself
almost being carried along, her feet barely touching the ground.
She tried to distract herself from a rising terror by focusing on
their beautiful clothes - garments fit for royalty - made from
sumptuous fabrics in rich jewel colours of golds and blues and
greens, the like of which she had never seen before. As they glided
through the empty passages and caverns, their hems brushed the rock
floor, swishing like the sound of the wind through the trees.

Before too long, they entered a small
chamber, fully carpeted with plump brocaded cushions strewn about
the floor. If not for the circumstances, Aelia would have loved
this room. It was warm and comfortable with a feeling of opulence
that she had never imagined could exist. But she realised this room
would not be a place to love; it would be a place to fear and
tremble.

One of the creatures stroked her cheek with
a sharp fingernail. Aelia closed her eyes. She didn’t want to look
at the teeth or the eyes. She tried to steady her breathing and
think about the blood plague which now coursed through her body and
would soon be infecting these two terrible demons. She smiled as
she felt the first bite and then she felt a pulsing lightness
inside before she fell into unconsciousness.

*

‘
She’s awake.’

Aelia opened her eyes to darkness. Even if
she couldn’t see where she was, she could certainly smell it. She
was back in the sealed chamber with the other humans. Her head was
on the old woman’s lap and now she felt liquid being splashed onto
her lips. It dribbled down her chin and she opened her mouth a
little to let it trickle onto her parched tongue.

‘
They gave you food and
water,’ a man said. ‘They said it was just for you. That if we
touched it they’d snap our necks, but surely you can spare some for
the children.’

‘
Leave her be, Marcus,’
the woman said. ‘She’s only just woken.’

‘
Well we’re all starving
and dying of thirst here. There’s no time to leave her be. If she
says we can have some, that’ll make it alright won’t
it?’

The water had reached her throat, melting a
few of the stabbing blades inside. She swallowed and blinked. Then
she smelled the woman’s rank breath and coughed.

‘
We weren’t sure if you’d
pull through,’ the woman said. ‘You were shivering in your sleep
and muttering about all sorts.’

‘
What’s your name?’ Aelia
croaked.

‘
You can call me
Nonna.’

‘
Nonna, is what the man
said true? Is there food and water here for me?’

‘
Yes, it’s true,’ the man
interrupted.

‘
Give it to the children,’
Aelia said.

A grateful murmuring broke out, but Nonna’s
voice rose up above the rest.

‘
Wait! We must save some for the
girl. If she gets none,
they
will want to know why.’

‘
Is there any fruit?’
Aelia asked. ‘I would love a piece of fruit, that’s all.’ And then
she closed her eyes and slept again.

The next time she awoke, she didn’t feel
quite so bad. It was a relief to feel almost normal again. Widow
Maleina had said the infection would work quickly, but Aelia didn’t
feel ill at all. Just tired. She was surprised to see the others
had saved her some food - bread, a little cold meat and a ripe
peach. She fell upon it, feeling the others’ jealous hungry stares.
Forcing herself to stop before devouring every single morsel, she
passed a few pieces of bread and meat to the children, who snatched
it wordlessly from her hands.

‘
Why are
you
so special?’ one of the women asked
bitterly. ‘Why do you get food?’

‘
Did
you
offer yourself to those things?’ Nonna
asked the woman.

The woman looked at her feet.

‘
No,’ Nonna said. ‘You
didn’t. Aelia is a brave girl. The demons have left us alone since
she came along. You should be thanking her and singing her praises
instead of moaning.’