Thicker Than Blood (Marchwood Vampire Series #2) (34 page)

Aelia couldn’t put it off any longer. It
seemed time was running out for everyone. She didn’t know how long
she herself might have. The plague was in her system and, although
as a demon she hadn’t felt any symptoms yet, surely it was only a
matter of time. She would go to Lysus now, before she changed her
mind.

Moving down several sets of staircases, she
eventually reached the ninth floor. This was where most of the
demons’ quarters lay. Although the creatures needed no light to see
by, this level was ablaze with lanterns. The corridors were wide
and smooth, the walls adorned with silk hangings and the floors
polished to a gleaming honey glaze. There were no filthy human pits
down here. The only humans were the demons’ personal slaves who
were not used for feeding, but for the practical tasks of tidying,
dressing, washing and arranging. They were also charged with
disposing of the used human bodies.

Lysus and his family lived on this level,
but Aelia wanted to avoid running into either his parents or his
demon master or mistress. She would have to wait until he was
alone. As Aelia waited and watched, she saw that Lysus’ mistress
was a powerful demon with a whole suite of chambers. As well as
human slaves, she had other demons to do her bidding. She was also
blatantly ignoring the Emperor’s command to refrain from feeding
until the infection was under control. Aelia was pleased. If she
was still feeding, that probably meant most of the others were
too.

Aelia didn’t have long to wait. The disease
was taking hold and the demons were weak and sleepy. After a day of
watching, she was able to walk unchecked into Lysus’ tiny chamber.
She stood in the open doorway. He was lying on his back, staring up
at the ceiling, his arms behind his head. After a few beats, he
glanced towards the door and hastily rose to his feet, bowing his
head.

‘
Forgive me,’ he said. ‘I
only lay down for a few moments to rest. It will not happen again.
I will continue with my work now if it pleases your
lady.’

He looked scared and Aelia felt a moment’s
pity for him.

‘
Lysus,’ she
said.

‘
Yes, my lady.’ He kept
his eyes on the floor.

‘
Lysus, it’s
me.’

‘
My lady?’ He tentatively
raised his eyes to meet Aelia’s, his body still
cowering.

Aelia, the demon, wore rich robes of deep
blue and her loose golden hair fell in tresses over her shoulders.
She knew she probably looked nothing like the simple young girl she
had been three and a half years earlier.

‘
Do I … Do I know you?’
Lysus asked. ‘You remind me of …’

‘
It is I, Aelia Laskarina
of Selmea.’

Lysus drew in his breath and relaxed his
stance a little.

‘
What?’ he said, as
realisation slowly dawned. ‘But you were … and now you are
…’

‘
Yes. And yes,’ she
drawled, beginning to enjoy herself a little. After the build-up to
seeing him again, this was not as terrifying as she had
anticipated. She enjoyed seeing the various emotions skitter across
his face – fear, shock, recognition and now something else –
lust?’

‘
You are a demon,’ he
said. ‘And you’re still so beautiful.’

‘
And you are still trying
to manipulate me with your charming words.’

‘
No, no, I just meant
…’

‘
I’m no longer interested
in you, Lysus. I do not care what happened in the past. I’m not
here for revenge or to forgive you. All I want is my
family.’

He flushed with embarrassment and
defensiveness.

‘
It wasn’t my fault. I
wanted to marry you, but my father said …’

‘
Did you not understand me
when I said I wasn’t interested in your explanations?’ Aelia felt
anger quicken in her chest. She moved to stand in front of him,
bringing her face up close to his and curling her lip into a snarl.
He took a step backwards and she leant towards him. Her previous
words forgotten as she remembered the hurt and humiliation, the
separation from her friends and family, her fear and loneliness,
the wasted years. It would be so easy to take her revenge now. No
one would hold her accountable. She had the freedom to do
it.

His heart beat loud in her head and she
smelt his rich blood, thick with the bitterness of terror. It would
still have tasted sweet to her and she bent, meaning to pierce his
flesh and take her fill.

‘
I’m sorry,’ he gasped,
breaking her train of thought for a second.

Aelia hesitated. She still hadn’t found out
about her family. She would finish him after he told her what he
knew. She moved her mouth from his throat to his ear.

‘
Where are my family?’ she
hissed.

‘
I’m sorry,’ he
stuttered.

‘
So you said. But what of
my mother and father? Where are they?’

‘
That’s what I’m trying to
tell you - I’m afraid they are dead.’

‘
No!’ She let go of him
and stood swaying for a moment before sinking to her knees. ‘Are
you saying this to hurt me? To distract me?’

‘
I would never purposely
hurt you, Aelia,’ he replied. ‘I swear. I may have done some awful
things in the past, but I am not cruel. Not on purpose. I’m so
sorry, Aelia, for everything.’

Warm blood tears dripped onto her
cheeks.

Lysus still trembled, but he crouched down,
put his arm around her shoulders and smoothed her hair.

‘
They were one of the
first families to be taken,’ he said. ‘It would have been quick.
I’m so sorry.’

‘
All of them?’ she
whispered. ‘My sisters too?’

‘
I’m sorry.’

‘
But how can you be sure
they are really dead? Perhaps they …’

‘
I saw them … afterwards.
There can be no mistake about it.’

‘
Then there is nothing
left for me in this life. There is nothing I want.’ She felt empty,
drained, nothing mattered anymore. ‘I think I already guessed the
truth, but I needed to hear it from someone who knew.’ She sniffed
and wiped her face, smudging crimson tears across her
cheeks.

‘
How is it you are like
this?’ Lysus asked.

‘
This was not the plan,’
she replied, drawing away from his embrace. She stood and tried to
compose herself. ‘I did not wish to become a monster, but it was
beyond my control.’

‘
Maybe you could help us?’
Lysus asked, standing.

‘
I have already done all I
can,’ she replied. She felt bone-weary all of a sudden. Sick of
everything. Her anger had vanished and she didn’t have the energy
to summon it up again. ‘I will tell you what I’ve done and you can
pass the knowledge to the other humans. Perhaps you will yet escape
from this, even though it is too late for me and my
family.’

‘
Tell me,’ Lysus
said.

Aelia gestured to him to sit on the bed. She
sat too, cross-legged like a child. There she told him of Widow
Maleina and the blood plague. She told him how she had infected
herself and how this had now passed over to the demons, that they
were finally succumbing to a sleeping sickness from which, she
hoped, they would never wake up. That fairly soon, the humans who
survived would be free to leave their underground prison.

‘
But what of the plague?’
Lysus asked. ‘Surely we will all be infected, living in such
close-quarters as we do.’

‘
The widow created it so
it is only transferred through the blood. As long as they do not
feed on you, you should be safe.’

‘
They never use me for
that,’ Lysus said. ‘Not so far anyway.’ He looked across at her and
she felt something stir as his gaze connected with hers. ‘I’m
really sorry for everything,’ he said. ‘And not just because you’re
a demon who could finish me off with one bite.’

Aelia gave him a half-smile. She remembered
why she had fallen for him in the first place, with his easy charm
and sense-of-humour. He had little respect for the rules and that
was still attractive to her.

He grinned back.

Suddenly she felt a shadow behind them.
Lysus broke eye contact and looked up, the smile vanishing from his
face. Aelia sensed Mislav in the doorway. For a moment, she worried
he might have overheard her talking about the plague and she turned
to look at him.

‘
This is the human?’
Mislav asked. ‘The one who upset you?’

‘
We have resolved our
issues,’ Aelia said. This wasn’t quite the truth. She didn’t think
she would ever really forgive Lysus, but she found it didn’t matter
to her so much now. He wouldn’t change. He was a silly arrogant boy
with too much charisma and good bone structure for his own good. He
could still make her swoon and it would be better if she kept out
of his way and never saw him again.

‘
Your family?’ Mislav
asked. ‘Does he know where they are?’

She shook her head. ‘They are gone.’

‘
I’m sorry for your loss,’
he said. ‘But you will find it is better this way, in the long
run.’

No compassion, Aelia thought. Is this how I
will become?

‘
And so your dealings with
this mortal are complete?’ Mislav asked.

‘
I suppose so,’ she
replied and looked across at Lysus with a twinge of longing at what
might have been. She stood and went to join Mislav.

‘
Good,’ the demon replied
before turning to face Lysus. ‘Boy, we do not need you anymore,’ he
said. And before she could stop him, Mislav crossed the room and
snapped his neck. ‘I will not allow a mortal to upset you,’ he said
to Aelia. ‘If you are upset, I am upset.’

Aelia’s mouth hung open as she stared at
Lysus’ broken body in Mislav’s arms.

‘
What have you done?’ she
hissed. Aelia crossed the room and looked down at Lysus, his eyes
staring emptily up at the dusty ceiling, where moments before they
had danced with fear, then humour, then compassion.

‘
You’ve been crying,’
Mislav said, tracing his finger down her cheek.

‘
Get off me, you monster!’
she shrieked, all control gone. Her family was dead, Lysus was dead
and here she was - an immortal, destined to live in dark misery for
an eternity with these evil, unfeeling devils. A few moments ago,
she had almost given in to her demon nature. She was no better than
they were. She deserved to die, but even the plague was no
guarantee of death, just a long sleep during which she would
probably have to endure centuries of nightmares. No. She couldn’t
take another second of this unnatural existence. She didn’t want to
think about consequences anymore, about wrongs and rights and
destinies or duties.

Aelia backed away from Mislav who still held
Lysus’ limp body. She left the chamber and retreated along the
corridor. In a haze of grief and anger, she raced up the staircase
to the floor above. She knew where she was headed, and now she had
made the decision, she welcomed it. She couldn’t wait. Up she went
to the next floor, through the Emperor’s empty hall, past the pits
of suffering humans, up and up to the next floor, past demons and
chambers, stables and food stores. All these things passed her in a
blur of irrelevance. Until she reached the top where the man stood
next to the millstone. The rolling stone which led to the outside
world. She couldn’t wait to breathe in the air, to get away from
this stinking place of death and unnaturalness.

‘
Open it,’ she
ordered.

The man looked surprised. ‘But …’

‘
Open it or I’ll do it
myself.’

The man shrugged and wheeled the stone
aside

She stepped through the opening and walked
slowly down the steps into the gloomy cavern, whispers of fresh air
swirling around her. She moved across the cavern towards the narrow
passageway which led to the white cave on the outside. How long had
she been down here? she briefly wondered. It didn’t matter. She was
leaving now and she would never return to this godforsaken place.
Through the passage she walked, calmer now, humming a tune which
she remembered her mother singing to her when she was a child.

And now here was the place which led to
freedom. She crossed the cave, saw the thick shapes of the pillars
standing sentry-like outside. She blinked and took a breath and
then she walked out of the cave and into the unforgiving brightness
of the midday sun.

Chapter Forty Two

Present Day

*

Maddy’s eyes were wide. Focused on a point
beyond Alexandre’s left shoulder. He swung around just in time to
ward off a flying kick from a female vampire with glittering eyes
and bared fangs. Behind her came an army of speeding shapes.

‘
Get back!’ he yelled to
Maddy. ‘Hide!’

The female vampire now had her arms around
his neck. She was trying to snap it. He twisted around and slammed
her down onto her back. She was up in less than a second, her palm
on his face and her spike heel grinding into his foot. He picked
her up and threw her into the cliff wall, dislodging rocks and
stones and chunks of snow which rained down on her. Then he turned
his attention to a male who was trying to get past him to
Madison.

‘
Maddy, I told you to get
out of here! Run. Hide. Now!’ But he knew no matter how fast she
ran, she would not be able to hide from them. She disappeared from
view behind a rock and he tried to head off the approaching
vampire. They traded punches and kicks and then began to grapple in
the snow. He had the creature pinned, but didn’t know how to
incapacitate him. More vampires moved in. He couldn’t fight all of
them at once. They were going to overpower him and there was
nothing he could do about it.