Thicker Than Blood

by Shalini Boland

  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 21st 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.’

  ‘Jacques!’ Isobel said.

  ‘Thanks for your input, brother. But thankfully I have a little
more optimism than you.’

  ‘Sorry, Alex,’ Jacques said. ‘But now we’re here, I’m just starting to realise this isn’t going to be easy.’

  ‘Of course it isn’t! But what do you suggest? Should we repack ourselves into our crates and go home? Would you leave Maddy to her fate?’

  ‘Of course not, Alex. I’m sorry. Ignore me, I was just talking nonsense.’

  ‘It’s not nonsense, Jacques,’ Isobel said. ‘We all feel nervous.’

  ‘Come on,’ Freddie interrupted. ‘Let’s go. Talking about it is making me doubt everything.’

  ‘You’re right, Freddie,’ Alexandre said. ‘We won’t know what’s out there until we go.’

  They went out onto the terrace of their suite which perched halfway up the side of the cliff and looked out onto the valley and cliffs beyond, which were dotted with more cave dwellings - some dark and empty, others glowing with warm yellow lights. Thankfully it was far too cold for the other hotel guests to make use of the outdoor areas. They were all cosily tucked up in bed or lounging beside crackling fires.

  ‘We must head north,’ Alexandre said.

  ‘I remember,’ Isobel sighed. ‘As if I could ever forget.’

  Alexandre clasped his sister’s hand. ‘We will finish this thing here. We will end it once and for all and put it behind us.’

  ‘I hope you are right,’ she said, closing her eyes and stepping off the terrace. The others followed and Alexandre watched them drop down the side of the cave-studded rock face and move up and over to the top of the opposite cliff. They stood on the grassy summit, four dark shapes against the blue black sky. Alexandre paused, took a breath and joined them.

  *

  Esther bustled around the steamy kitchen for a few minutes, before finally putting two plates on the kitchen table. She sat down in front of one of them.

  ‘Don’t mind if I join you, do you?’ she asked Ben. ‘Keep you company.’

  ‘No, course not.’ He sat opposite the housekeeper and eyed his plate: a cheese and mushroom omelette, chips and salad. ‘This is great. Thanks.’ But he couldn’t stop thinking about the piece of paper in his pocket. It had taken the edge off his appetite.

  ‘Eat up, then,’ Esther said, looking across at him.

  He still hadn’t even lifted his knife and fork.

  ‘What’s the matter? Too tired to eat?’

  ‘No, no, this is great.’ He grabbed his fork and speared a chip. Was he just being paranoid? Maybe the note paper wasn’t the same at all, maybe it was just his memory playing tricks on him. But no. He knew it was exactly the same. So why then had it ended up in the recycling box in their house?

  Uncomfortable conclusions kept springing to the front of his mind and he tried to shove them away. It was Esther who had brought them the original note in the first place. But it couldn’t be anything to do with her … surely. Why would she have written it? She had no reason. Yes, she and Maddy clashed a bit, but not so much that she would betray her like that. No. Esther was a good person. She had nursed Maddy and Ben back to health after their first vampire encounters and she and Morris had come to their rescue in London when Maddy and the others were trapped in Blythe’s underground facility. She wouldn’t have looked after them only to sell them out in the end.

  Anyway, it had been Esther who had asked him to empty the recycling box and she wouldn’t have done that knowing he might find the note paper in there. Not unless she was really stupid, which she wasn’t. God, he felt ultra-disloyal even thinking about it. How could he even look her in the face. He stared down at his omelette.

  ‘Worried about your sister?’ she asked. ‘Don’t be. Morris will bring her back safe. And don’t eat if you don’t want to. You can always heat it up later. I expect you’re tired out after all that work.’

  ‘I’m okay.’ He blushed, convinced she must know what was going through his mind.

  ‘Your face has gone all red. Hope you’re not coming down with something. Although I wouldn’t be surprised after all the dramas we’ve had going on around here.’

  ‘I’m fine. Honestly.’

  ‘I shouldn’t have got you doing all that work. It was probably too much, what with your bruised hand and all.’

  Ben let her ramble on. It was no good disagreeing, or even agreeing for that matter. When Esther spoke it was like a force of nature, you just had to let it run its course. She said what she said and that was that.

  Maybe he’d give Jacques or Freddie a call later. See what they made of the note thing. Alex might not take it seriously and he was probably too busy with too much on his mind. He might think Ben was being over paranoid. But maybe Freddie would have an idea about it. Ben chewed on a piece of omelette, but it was no good. His appetite had completely deserted him.

  ‘D’you mind if I go upstairs?’ Ben asked. He knew she wasn’t his mum or his boss or anything like that, but he thought he’d better ask. He didn’t want to offend her, not after she’d gone to all that trouble of making him dinner.

  ‘I think that’s a good idea,’ she replied. ‘You go on up and have an early night. I don’t know what I was thinking getting you to do all that work. I didn’t want you to brood, that was all.’

  ‘It’s okay. I kind of enjoyed it.’

  ‘There! I knew you would. Took your mind of things for a little while didn’t it.’

  Not really, he thought.

  ‘Good. Right. Well, you go on upstairs and hopefully you’ll feel better tomorrow.’

  Ben got up from the table and left the kitchen. He took the stairs two at a time and pulled his mobile from his jeans pocket. There was a message from Morris. How had he missed that? As he entered his bedroom, he opened the message and sank down onto the floor to read it. He leant back against the bed and sighed. All it said was that they’d landed. Ben hadn’t really thought they’d have any news yet, but part of him had hoped for something more.

  He tossed his phone onto the rug and eased the crumpled piece of paper from his pocket. The paper was quite thick. He smoothed it out on the floor. It was rectangular shaped, smaller than A4. Maybe it was A5. Ben held the paper out in front of him, his head tilted to the side. No, not quite A5. It looked like one side was uneven, at an angle like it had been cut. Ben wished he had the real note to compare this one against. Why would one side have been cut? Had this been part of the actual note and they had cut off this blank piece? But that wouldn’t make any sense. He stuck out one side of his bottom lip and puffed his fringe out of his eyes. Maybe it was just an innocent piece of paper which happened to look like the paper the note was written on. Maybe it was just as simple as that.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Cappadocia, 575 AD

  *

  Winter melted into spring, and spring soon became summer. Aelia’s days with the widow had a reassuring rhythm and she had mixed feelings about returning to her village. She wanted to see her family, of course she did, but how would everyone else feel about her return? Would her friends be allowed to associate with her? Did her sisters even know what she had done? And what about Lysus? Would he be there too? Part of her didn’t ever want to see him again, but another part of her wanted to look him right in the eye with the full measure of scorn and hatred he deserved.

  Today, Aelia and the widow were negotiating their way down a narrow goat track cut into a steep gorge. At the bottom, in the relative shade of the valley, they would find wild mushrooms and asparagus. As well as being edible, they needed asparagus for treating jaundice, toothache and as an antidote for venomous spider bites.

  The sound of running water grew louder and Aelia spied flashes of silver at the foot of the gorge, where the river peeked out from beneath its canopy of poplars and pistachio trees. The way down was precarious and took much concentration. Aelia was aware that one misplaced step might have her plummeting to her death, but in front of her, Widow Maleina looked sure-footed and confident.

  Aelia sighed as she thought about the widow. She was being contrary and refus
ing to talk about the invasion. Every time Aelia had tried to broach the subject, she would either snap at her or pretend she hadn’t heard her speak. Aelia didn’t know what to do. How could she leave the old woman alone to be slaughtered or enslaved? She was a crotchety old thing, but the widow had saved her life and given her a home.

  The morning sun grew stronger and a trickle of sweat ran down Aelia’s back. Only a couple of days now remained until Midsummer, the day she was to travel back to her village and begin living underground. Aelia hadn’t thought to ask her father how long they were all supposed to remain down there. It would surely be for several weeks; maybe even months. How strange it would be to live in darkness, to never see the sky or the trees. She felt a little frightened by the whole idea of it.

  Growing up, Aelia had always pictured a simple life for herself – a dutiful daughter who would marry and have children. Now she realised nothing was ever certain in life. Perhaps she might eventually have those things, but it was getting harder and harder to imagine. Who would want to marry her now? Perhaps she would end up like the widow – living alone in a cave on the fringes of society. It wasn’t such a bad life. At least you got to be independent. But then, to live for so long without love must be a terrible thing. Maybe that’s why the widow was so cantankerous – she had no one to soften the edges.

  ‘You’re dawdling.’ The widow’s voice cut through her thoughts. ‘I have no use for idlers and layabouts. Do you think you’re a princess surveying your lands? You are an outcast, girl. Do not forget it.’

  Aelia flushed, lowered her eyes and picked up her pace. Over the past few days, Widow Maleina had said some particularly hurtful things to her. Aelia thought it might be because of the approaching invasion. Perhaps the woman was frightened. But Aelia dismissed the thought as soon as she had it. She didn’t think the widow would be frightened of anything. She had a suspicion that these digs were supposed to put her off returning home. Words like ‘outcast’ were stark reminders of what she had left behind.