By Midnight

by Mia James

  ‘Do you really want me to go?’ said Fiona, pulling April in for a hug.

  ‘I wish you could stay honey, I really do,’ replied April, ‘but I can’t hang on to you for ever. I’ve got to start doing things on my own now. And anyway, you’ve a first-class ticket - you don’t want to miss out on that free pastry, do you?’

  Fiona smiled and hugged her friend tight. ‘You call me every day, okay?’

  ‘Are you kidding?’ said April. ‘I’ll be on the phone every hour!’

  She wanted to say more, but she was afraid if she did she would burst into tears again.

  ‘You be safe now,’ said Fiona. ‘Seriously, it’s dangerous around here. No running into haunted houses without at least one good torch.’

  April giggled, but Fiona’s expression turned serious.

  ‘And watch yourself with Gabriel, okay?’ she said, lowering her voice. ‘I know he’s gorgeous and everything, but he’s still a boy and they’re only after one thing. All right?’

  April felt a flare of excitement at Gabriel’s name, which was immediately quenched by the memory of her conversation with the police.

  ‘I’ll be careful,’ said April as Fee got into the taxi. ‘I promise.’

  And then Fiona was gone, waving from the back of the cab as it turned the corner and disappeared out of sight. April stood in the road, staring at the place where her best friend had been standing. Now her last anchor to her old life was gone and she was left drifting in this bizarre fantasy world of beasts and bats. She didn’t know what to do.

  She felt a buzz in her pocket and pulled out her phone: one text message - Fee. She clicked it up and there were just two words: ‘Be Strong.’

  April smiled. It was good advice; she only hoped she could follow it. She was just turning to go back inside when she saw him. Gabriel was standing across the road, looking at her, just like on that first night.

  April looked quickly around the square. She didn’t want the police to see him.

  ‘Come inside,’ she said. She led him in through the front door and into the living room, shutting the door. She turned and stared at him, anger making her shake.

  ‘Gabriel, if I ask you a straight question, can you give me a straight answer for once?’

  ‘Of course,’ he said.

  ‘What did you do to those men who were hassling me last night?’

  He looked away. ‘I did what I had to.’

  ‘A straight answer, Gabriel!’ she said.

  He stared back her. His eyes were fierce. ‘What do you want me to say, April? That I tore off their heads and drank their blood? Is that what you think of me?’

  ‘Did you kill them?’ she shouted. ‘Tell me!’

  ‘NO!’ said Gabriel in surprise. ‘Of course not! What on earth makes you think I would do such a thing?’

  ‘What on earth?’ mocked April. ‘Just your being some sort of bloodthirsty creature of the night.’

  ‘I’m not a creature!’ he yelled, anger making his pale cheeks flush. ‘And I did not kill those men.’ He grabbed her arms and looked into her eyes. ‘On everything I hold dear,’ he said in an even, measured tone, ‘and on everything you hold dear, I swear to you, I did not kill them.’

  His gaze was so strong, so intense, April felt her heart pounding. She looked into his dark eyes and she saw no malice, no evil there. He was so genuine, so earnest, she knew in her heart he was telling the truth.

  ‘Oh God, I’m sorry,’ she whispered. ‘After last night, I so wanted to believe you, but it’s so hard. And then the police came this morning and told me those men were killed.’

  Gabriel’s face softened and he pulled her closer. ‘I know, I know it’s hard,’ he said. ‘But I need you to believe in me because …’ He broke off and turned away.

  ‘Why? What is it?’

  ‘Because … you’re important to me, April—’ He stopped and took a deep breath. ‘I want to walk away, but I can’t help myself, I haven’t felt this—’

  ‘APRIL!’

  It was her mother’s voice.

  ‘Oh crap,’ said April and ran to the bottom of the stairs.

  ‘What’s all that shouting?’ snapped her mother. ‘I’m trying to get some sleep here.’

  ‘Sorry, we were just … I’ll keep it down.’

  ‘Don’t make me come down there,’ said Silvia, shuffling back into her room.

  April took a deep breath and walked back into the living room.

  ‘Okay, so who did kill them?’ she asked.

  Gabriel looked at her warily. ‘Is that what the police were here about?’

  ‘Yes, they said the details were similar to the murders in Highgate.’

  Gabriel frowned, thinking. ‘Someone else must have been following you,’ he said, almost to himself. ‘Someone I didn’t see.’

  ‘What? You mean another vampire?’ said April, a cold feeling coming over her.

  ‘Yes. If the murders are similar then it must have been. I was worried this might happen.’

  ‘Worried about what, exactly?’ she said. She was scared now. ‘Is someone trying to kill me too?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Gabriel.

  She grabbed his arm. ‘Tell me! I need to know!’

  He carefully took her hand from his arm, but kept hold of it. ‘I don’t know, April. That’s the truth,’ he added in response to her disbelieving expression. ‘But what I do know is that something’s going on here, something bad. The vampire clans have almost always been at war, but this is something different, something new.’

  ‘So what’s going on?’

  He looked at her. ‘We have rules. And someone is breaking them.’

  April snorted. ‘Vampires have rules?’ she said sceptically.

  ‘I know it sounds insane,’ he said, ‘but over the centuries, we have found that they keep us hidden, and for vampires remaining hidden is everything.’

  She pulled a face. ‘So what are these rules?’

  He looked away. ‘You won’t like it.’

  ‘Big surprise.’

  ‘No children, no families, no one famous, never more than one kill per moon - per month. All these things draw attention. All the deaths in Highgate break the rules.’

  ‘So what does that mean?’

  Gabriel shook his head. ‘Either the whole ceasefire is breaking down, maybe the Regent is orchestrating these attacks, perhaps both. And there’s another possibility - that it’s a rogue vampire acting on their own.’

  ‘But why would they do that? What about the hunting thing? I mean, why attract so much attention?’

  Gabriel shrugged. ‘Maybe they’re not in control of their urges, or they’re killing for the sheer pleasure of it. Or perhaps they have a plan of their own, because they feel threatened in some way.’

  ‘And if that vampire killed my dad …’

  Gabriel looked grave. ‘That’s what worries me. If a rogue vampire thought your dad was a threat, he could see you as a threat, too.’

  April sat down hard. As if she didn’t have enough on her mind without a killer stalking her.

  ‘But how does the thing in Covent Garden link in?’

  ‘He was obviously following you, waiting until you were alone.’

  ‘No, I mean why is that against the rules?’

  ‘Never kill more than one at a time. And never before midnight.’

  April laughed nervously. ‘Before midnight? Now that does sound like something from the movies.’

  ‘No, it makes sense. After midnight people are more likely to be on their own, there are less likely to be witnesses, and you’d be surprised how few police are on duty.’

  ‘Is that why parents always tell us to be home by midnight?’

  Gabriel smiled grimly. ‘Always be home by midnight, April,’ he said. ‘That’s one of the few vampire myths that is true.’

  ‘Or was true.’

  ‘Exactly.’

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  ‘Okay, so you’re telling me th
at garlic is useless?’

  April was sitting in the kitchen getting a crash course in the finer points of vampire lore.

  ‘Not if you’re talking about pasta sauce,’ said Gabriel. ‘But if you’re talking about killing a vampire, then yes.’

  ‘So where did the garlic thing come from then? Why not parsley or coriander or something?’

  ‘It’s because garlic was used in medicine - it’s like an ancient antibiotic that could “magically” cure people. If left untreated, some diseases can give you delusions, so administering garlic became seen as a way to drive out demons.’ He saw April’s raised eyebrow. ‘Hey, I’m in the business, I know these things.’

  ‘Holy water?’

  ‘Nope,’ said Gabriel. ‘And we can go into churches too.’

  ‘Sunlight?’

  ‘There’s a degree of truth to that. We can go out in the sun but we don’t like it much, it irritates our skin, hurts our eyes. That’s why some days we don’t go into school - we don’t want to be sitting in the refectory in direct sunlight. That’s why vampires love nightlife and hate early mornings. We prefer the night and winter in the same way bleeders - sorry, humans - prefer the sunshine.’

  April put up a hand. ‘Wait, you call us “bleeders”?’ she said incredulously, feeling both insulted and disturbed that vampires could talk about people as if they were just livestock.

  ‘Sorry,’ said Gabriel.

  ‘Okay, so what about crossed candlesticks?’

  ‘Now that’s just silly, and so is the thing about not being seen in mirrors. We’d never be able to walk around a town centre for fear of walking under scaffolding or being reflected in a shop window.’

  ‘So why does everyone believe it?’

  ‘Because we want you to. All those myths were started by vampires.’

  ‘What? Why?’

  ‘It’s simple, really. If anyone ever started to suspect someone was a vampire, all they had to do was turn up during the day, or eat some garlic or something. It’s just another way to stay hidden.’

  April paused for a moment, trying to take it all in. ‘But if you’re so good at hiding, can you spot another vampire?’

  A troubled look crossed Gabriel’s face. ‘It depends. Turned vampires - the ones who have been turned by a bite, like I was - are easy to spot: they’re too perfect. I mean, seriously, how often have you seen a teenager without spots? But true vampires are much trickier.’

  ‘What’s a true vampire?

  ‘The offspring of two vampires. They’re much more powerful because they’ve always been this way, it’s a natural part of them. Manipulation and ruthlessness come effortlessly, they can kill without a second thought. Plus their powers of recovery are much greater, so it’s almost impossible to kill them.’

  ‘But why are they “true” vampires?’

  Gabriel pulled a sour face.

  ‘Arrogance. They believe they’re pure-bred, superior to both humans and turned vampires; the ultimate predator at the top of the food chain.’

  April shivered. ‘How do you spot a turned vampire then?’

  ‘Like I said, we’re hunters, so our eyesight, hearing and sense of smell are much better than humans’. A true vampire looks and smells the same as a bleeder, but I would be able to smell a turned vampire.’

  ‘Why? What do they smell of?’

  ‘Death.’

  ‘I shouldn’t have asked.’

  April looked down at her hands, trying to make her next question sound as casual as possible, but feeling butterflies in her stomach as she spoke. ‘So what about feeding? What about blood?’ she asked, torn between a morbid fascination and a flaming jealousy at the thought Gabriel licking some other girl’s pretty neck. Gabriel seemed to pick up on her thoughts and grimaced.

  ‘You’re really not going to like this part,’ he said softly.

  ‘Try me.’

  ‘Well, we can eat - our heightened senses of smell and taste make excellent food one of our great pleasures. But blood? We have to feed on human blood at least once a week, otherwise we start to get sick.’

  Gabriel was right, April didn’t like it, not one bit. She thought of Ling weeping in the toilets, blood seeping from her wrist, and felt her anger rise again.

  ‘Who are you feeding from?’ she asked tersely, unable to disguise the distaste in her voice.

  ‘Feeders. People who allow us to drink a little of their blood. We don’t need much.’

  April put her hands around her throat. ‘Don’t even think about it,’ she said.

  ‘I wouldn’t dare to presume,’ he said with a smile. ‘But seriously, that’s part of the reason for the recruitment at Ravenwood - they have more humans to feed from and the more a vampire feeds, the stronger they will become.’

  April took a deep breath. She hated what he was telling her, but knew there was no point in getting worked up; it was the way he was, he had to feed. And she knew she had to focus on what they could change, how she could help stop more innocent people becoming victims.

  ‘So how can we stop them? A stake through the heart?’

  ‘Yes, that would work. One of the few things the movies get right. Vampires can be killed by destruction of the body - of anything you can’t do without, basically. So a pierced heart, suffocation or drowning, crushing of the body, decapitation, burning, anything serious like that, but smaller wounds can be regenerated and healed pretty quickly. As you saw last night.’

  Gabriel pulled up his top to show her the wound. It was red and raised, but it was almost healed. April looked up into Gabriel’s eyes and couldn’t believe she had been so frightened of this boy that she had stabbed him. He was so beautiful and kind and gentle and … she reached out and touched the wound, her fingers lingering on his skin.

  ‘I’m sorry, Gabriel,’ she said softly.

  ‘April,’ he whispered, placing his hand over hers and moving towards her. But suddenly, almost involuntarily, April pulled back.

  ‘I … I’d better go and check on my mum,’ she said quickly and grabbed the door handle.

  What are you doing? she thought furiously as she ran up the stairs. He’s totally hot and you had your hand on his skin and now you’re running away?

  Cursing herself, she stuck her head around the door of her mother’s room.

  ‘Mmm, darling?’ moaned Silvia, turning over sleepily. ‘Is that you?’

  ‘Yes, Mum,’ she said.

  ‘Could you be an angel and pass me my pills? Got a splitting headache.’

  Sighing, April did as she was told.

  ‘Thank you, sweetie,’ murmured Silvia as she pulled the duvet over her head. ‘And could you turn the TV down? I keep hearing voices.’

  ‘Yes, Mum.’

  She gently closed the door and padded back downstairs. She found Gabriel sitting on the sofa in the living room, a book on his knee.

  ‘Sorry, I hope you don’t mind,’ he said, holding up the cover which read: Beneath The Dark Waves: The Loch Ness Monster Mystery.

  ‘One of my dad’s,’ said April proudly.

  ‘Looks pretty good,’ he said. ‘I was just reading that there is more water in Loch Ness than all the lakes in England, Scotland and Wales put together. Twenty-two miles long, one and a half miles wide. That’s a hell of a hiding place.’

  ‘My dad didn’t find Nessie,’ said April, sitting down next to him and peering at the photos, ‘but we had a nice holiday up there. I remember there being an ice-cream van permanently parked outside our cottage, but that might be rose-tinted spectacles.’

  Gabriel looked across at her. ‘I wish I’d met your dad,’ he said softly. ‘But I promise you I will do everything in my power to find out who murdered him.’

  April could only nod. ‘I miss him,’ she said finally.

  ‘Why don’t you tell me about him?’

  April looked away. ‘Nah …’

  ‘Come on, I’m serious,’ he said. ‘Tell me about Scotland.’

  ‘Okay,’ she said, secret
ly glad to be talking about happy times. She leant back against the sofa head-rest and began to tell stories, her fondest memories. The time on holiday in Skye, when they had found a boat washed up on the shore and he’d lifted her up to get inside and find pirate treasure but all they found were old nets. Or the time he’d tried to teach her to fish and she’d fallen over and got her wellies full of frogspawn. And the birthdays and the pantomimes and the bike rides. And as she talked, she felt safer and more relaxed than she’d felt in weeks, maybe years. She slid slowly down the sofa until she was resting her head on his shoulder and it felt good, it felt right. Gabriel slowly, gently began to stroke her hair, pushing it back behind her ears, and April felt a warm tingle spread all the way through her. Kiss me, she urged, closing her eyes, for God’s sake, kiss me.