By Midnight

by Mia James

  She kissed April on the cheek and disappeared into the crowd.

  April put her empty juice glass down and began to make her way towards the back of the house, walking out through the open French windows and onto the terrace. Portable gas heaters glowed in a long line, taking the chill from the freezing night air.

  ‘There she is!’ said Davina, sweeping up the terrace stairs, her arms open wide for an embrace. She was wearing a strapless sheath dress completely covered with white sequins and a white fur stole, which made her blonde mane look even more glossy and luxuriant than normal. April had to hand it to her, vampirism certainly suited her. As they hugged, April saw that the lawn at the bottom of the stairs was covered by a huge marquee filled with the flashing lights of a disco.

  ‘Is that “The Macarena” they’re playing in there?’ asked April with a smile.

  ‘Oh God, I could strangle my father sometimes,’ said Davina, casting her eyes to the heavens. ‘It’s his age, you see. He booked some cheesy Radio One DJ from the eighties. Cost him a fortune, apparently.’

  ‘And is he here? Your dad, I mean?’

  ‘Oh, Daddy wouldn’t miss the Winter Ball for anything. He’s down there shaking his stuff right now, so embarrassing. It’s like for three hundred and sixty-four days of the year he’s this arse-kicking take-no-prisoners corporate machine, then for one night he has to act like a teenager.’

  April smiled sadly. ‘I think it’s nice.’

  ‘Oh God, I’ve put my foot in it, haven’t I?’ said Davina, touching at April’s hand. ‘I’m so sorry, I didn’t think.’

  ‘No, don’t be silly, I just meant it’s nice he can be human.’

  April realised the irony of what she had said about the man she suspected was the Vampire Regent and almost laughed out loud.

  ‘I suppose,’ said Davina, oblivious. ‘I just wish he didn’t have to do it in public.’

  Glancing around, Davina took April by the elbow and led her back towards the house.

  ‘Now, I don’t want to ruin your night,’ she said, ‘but you’ve seen who’s over there, right?’

  Following Davina’s gaze with a sense of inevitability, April saw a group of boys standing at the end of the terrace, drinking and laughing, among them Benjamin, Marcus and Gabriel.

  ‘Don’t worry, I don’t think he saw you. I’m sorry, darling, but Ben insisted on inviting Gabe. I know he’s not your favourite person at the moment, but I have asked Ben to keep you apart.’

  ‘You didn’t have to do that,’ said April.

  ‘No, no, whatever he’s done, I’m completely on your side and I don’t want anyone upsetting you on a night when you should be enjoying yourself. Speaking of which, I think we both need a drink,’ she continued, leading April back inside the house. ‘I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but my useless brother has invented the best cocktail.’

  April laughed and shook her head. ‘I’ve already encountered the Apple Pearl, thanks. I think I’ll stick to juice this time.’

  Davina pouted. ‘Killjoy.’

  ‘On the subject of boys,’ said April, ‘I haven’t seen Jonathon in a while.’

  A flicker of distaste passed over Davina’s face. ‘Oh, ancient history,’ she said airily. ‘We broke it off when his dad had to move out of town. He was cute, but there’s plenty more fish in the sea.’

  April had almost been expecting the ‘family had to move out of town’ line. It was one she and Caro had been hearing again and again as they tried to track down the disappearing Ravenwood students.

  ‘So where did he go?’ she asked, as casually as she could.

  ‘Somerset, I think,’ said Davina with a sigh, ‘or was it Devon? Nowhere with an airport, anyway. But he’ll probably like being out in the middle of nowhere, poor boy, he always did spend so much time reading.’ She snapped her fingers at the barman, then turned to April. ‘You sure I can’t tempt you?’

  ‘Not right now,’ said April. anyway, I’ve got to visit the little girls’ room. See you later.’

  April followed the corridor to the left and through the door, locking it behind her. She slipped off her shoe and put her foot up on the closed toilet seat, then pulled up her long skirts. At the top of her thigh, there was a frilly sky-blue garter she had borrowed from her mother’s drawer and sticking out of the top of it was April’s mobile phone. She pulled it out, gave it a kiss and switched it on, then carefully placed it inside her bra.

  ‘Good job they make these things so slim,’ she murmured. No girl should ever leave home without her own personal vampire detection device.

  ‘Right then,’ she whispered to herself as she checked her appearance in the mirror. Caro had once again styled her hair beyond recognition: it fell in glossy waves to her bare shoulders. Her amazing violet ball gown and the dark red lips and blusher all made her feel like a 1930s Hollywood siren. ‘Not bad,’ she said, allowing herself a smile, ‘not bad at all.’

  She picked up her bag, winked at herself in the mirror and turned to unlock the door. ‘Party time,’ she said.

  Caro was clearly having fun. As April watched her from the top of the stairs, she saw her drink two glasses of champagne in quick succession, before dragging a group of gorgeous men onto the dance floor, throwing shapes to some classics of the synth-pop generation. But she clearly hadn’t forgotten her mission, because by the time April pushed her way through the throng, she found her friend sitting at a table deep in conversation with none other than Nicholas Osbourne.

  ‘Hey, April, come and meet Davina’s dad,’ she shouted, waving April over. ‘You’ll never believe what a great dancer he is.’

  ‘I don’t know about great,’ said Nicholas, shaking April’s hand. ‘I think my children are a little embarrassed.’

  ‘They’ve obviously never seen you do the “Birdie Song” dance, then,’ said Caro.

  ‘Your friend here has just been giving me a lecture in corporate ethics,’ said Mr Osbourne, clearly amused. ‘She thinks she could run my businesses more efficiently than I do.’

  ‘I simply pointed out that if you donated more money to charitable organisations, it could be a great PR coup worth millions in marketing.’

  ‘What do you think, April?’ he asked, turning to include her in the conversation. Behind his back, Caro was mouthing the word ‘school’. April almost laughed out loud. ‘Well, how much do you donate to charity? It’s all tax-deductable, isn’t it?’

  Nicholas nodded. ‘Some of it, anyway.’

  ‘So why not copy the Victorians?’ she said. ‘The big philanthropists used to build hospitals and schools.’

  ‘Yes, you could call it the Osbourne School of Dance,’ said Caro and Nicholas laughed.

  ‘I like your thinking, girls, but I’m not sure it would work. People are much more cynical about that sort of thing these days. If Agropharm built a hospital there would be an outcry, people accusing us of exploiting the sick, forcing our drugs and equipment on them, even using patients as guinea pigs. It’s a crazy topsy-turvy world we live in.’

  ‘So what about a school?’ said April.

  ‘Same thing, I’m afraid. It’s no secret I’m a big supporter of Ravenwood, but that’s acceptable as my kids are students there. Anything more and the liberal press would accuse the company and me of brainwashing young minds and stealing all their best ideas.’

  ‘And our young minds are so impressionable, aren’t they, April?’ said Caro coquettishly.

  ‘But getting the best minds and stealing their ideas - that’s what business does anyway, isn’t it?’ said April.

  ‘Well, not the brainwashing part,’ said Mr Osbourne. ‘And we do pay people for their ideas.’

  This guy is smart, thought April. She’d expected the Vampire Regent to be intelligent and charismatic, of course, but Davina’s dad was as smooth as a politician, which only made him more dangerous.

  ‘I bet you’d like to have Caro on your staff, though, Mr Osbourne,’ said April. ‘She’s in the top one per
cent of the country. She’s going to study at Harvard.’

  ‘MIT,’ corrected Caro. ‘Or Cambridge.’

  Nicholas chuckled. ‘You get your qualifications, then you come to see me, all right?’ he said, patting Caro’s hand. ‘Now, I think I hear Duran Duran coming on. I’ll see you ladies later, okay?’

  ‘That man is pure evil,’ said Caro when he had gone. ‘He’s got to be the Regent, got to be.’

  ‘What makes you so sure? The love of Duran Duran?’

  ‘I was asking him about his rivals and whether he’d ever consider a merger and he looked like he’d rather cut their throats. He’s not the sort of man who would ever let anyone else be in charge.’

  ‘That just makes him an alpha-male captain of industry, Caro. It doesn’t make him a vampire.’

  ‘What’s made you Little Miss Benefit of the Doubt all of a sudden?’ said Caro.

  April leant in so they couldn’t be overheard, despite the loud music. ‘Because I’m the bloody Fury, remember?’ she hissed. ‘I’m the one who would have to kill him. Not that I’ve got a clue how I’m supposed to go about that - I can’t very well go about kissing everyone at the party, can I? Anyway, if anyone’s going to be killed, I want to make damn sure it’s the right man.’

  ‘Okay, okay,’ said Caro defensively. ‘I’m only trying to help.’

  ‘Sorry. I know you are. So where’s Simon?’

  ‘Trying to shag anything that moves, as far as I can tell. I asked him what he was doing with all the rugby lot and he was like, “Oh, they’re all right once you get to know them, they’re a real laugh.”’ Caro rolled her eyes. ‘When I tried to tell him he was in danger, he just called me a mad conspiracy nut. I guess he’s got a point - if you don’t actually know what they are, it does sound pretty crazy.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ said April. She could tell it was killing Caro to see Simon going over to the ‘dark side’.

  ‘It’s not like he’s my boyfriend or anything,’ said Caro, shrugging it off. ‘Talking of boyfriends, I think that’s my cue to disappear,’ she said, nodding to the other side of the room. April looked up and her heart skipped a beat. Gabriel was staring right across at her.

  ‘I’m not surprised he’s staring,’ whispered Caro, ‘you look stunning tonight. But be gentle with him, huh? He is on our side, sort of.’

  ‘We’ll see,’ said April as she stood up. She walked across the dance floor purposefully.

  ‘April …’ said Gabriel, but she ignored him and headed towards the far side of the marquee and out into the gardens. She walked around the ornamental fountain and stopped on the side furthest from the marquee, her arms wrapped around her against the cold.

  ‘Here, put this on,’ said Gabriel, coming up behind her and draping his jacket over her shoulders. She couldn’t help enjoying the familiar warmth and smell, remembering the other times he had given her his jacket. Nor had it escaped her notice that he was looking gorgeous in his well-filled dinner suit, his bow tie and top button undone, his hair falling down over one eye. She stood there for a minute, staring out over the Osbournes’ garden wall to where the gravestones and tombs were twisting from the ground, bleached white in the moonlight.

  ‘It’s so peaceful over there at night, isn’t it?’ she said quietly. ‘So pretty.’

  ‘It’s not always that way,’ said Gabriel.

  She turned on him immediately. ‘Oh, don’t start with your cryptic bullshit, Gabriel. Aren’t we beyond that by now? You’re a vampire, I’m the saviour of all mankind, what more secrets could there possibly be?’ She looked into his face and groaned. ‘There are, aren’t there?’

  ‘Aren’t there what?’

  ‘More secrets.’

  ‘April., you can’t—’

  ‘Oh, shut up!’ she said. ‘You, my mother, my grandfather, even Miss Holden - you all want to talk to me about some secret but never get around to it, and I’m sick to the back teeth of it!’ She turned to walk back towards the house. He grabbed her arm and spun her around, so she was looking straight into his dark eyes. They were so fierce, so passionate.

  ‘Look at me, April,’ he said. ‘I’m here to help you, but you can’t keep pushing me away. I know it’s hard for you to accept, but there’s no point pretending this isn’t happening. If we don’t do something, the people who killed your father will win. They will go through with whatever they’re planning.’

  ‘And what if they do?’ snapped April. ‘What difference will it make? One more corrupt government, one more group of self-interested people in power? How is that any different from what we have now?’

  Gabriel’s grip on her arms tightened and he shook her once, hard. ‘Oh, wake up, April!’ he hissed. ‘You’re not a child any more, so stop thinking like one. These people are not just corrupt, they are evil. Pure evil. They will rape and torture you, they will starve you and burn you and laugh all the way. They enjoy pain and suffering, they love the taste of blood. They have no limits, no morality, they will do anything they think will benefit them: nuclear war, chemical weapons, maybe even something worse! Maybe they’re planning on pushing the world back into a vicious feudal state with humans as their eternal slaves. Anything. How will it be different? It will be hell on earth.’

  April was scared now. Scared of Gabriel and the anger in his eyes, scared of the threats and scared of what she might be forced to do. She pulled away from him.

  ‘But I don’t want this!’ she yelled. ‘I don’t want to have to deal with any of this.’

  ‘Well, get used to it,’ he spat. ‘I’m not happy about it either, but we have to work with what we’ve got.’

  ‘Damn you!’ shouted April, punching him on the arm as hard as she could. He dodged her next blow and caught her hands, pulling her into a tight embrace.

  ‘April., listen to me,’ he said urgently. ‘I wish it was different, I really do, but we need you, I need you, I …’ He ground to a halt.

  ‘You what, Gabriel?’ she said angrily. ‘Spit it out! You love me? You hate me? You want me? What? Tell me how you feel.’ She was furious at him, at the whole situation. He was asking her to sacrifice her whole life to go to war with an enemy she couldn’t even see. Sacrifice, that was the word her father had used the morning they had fought. Well, she didn’t want to sacrifice anything, not when the one boy she wanted wasn’t prepared to even tell her how he felt.

  He looked at her then looked away. ‘I swore,’ he said. ‘I swore I would never go there again.’ Gabriel’s grip didn’t waver when he gazed down at her, his eyes burning like coals. ‘You say you didn’t ask for any of this, but neither did I,’ he said, his voice like gravel. ‘I thought that part of my life was gone for ever, yet here you stand in front of me, so … so … incredibly beautiful, so wonderful and yet so fragile and dangerous at the same time.’

  April could barely breathe. She wanted to respond, but her mouth just hung open.

  ‘All I want is you,’ he said. ‘More than anything in the world, I want to kiss you and never stop.’ He stared down at her and his final words were little more than a whisper. ‘But I can’t.’

  April wrenched herself away from him. ‘So does this stupid Fury thing mean we can never be together? Does it mean you have to keep running from me?’ she said, tears filling her eyes. Every part of her was yearning for his touch, his kiss, she wanted him to reach out to her, hold her, but to Gabriel she was an infection, an untouchable. It was breaking her heart.

  ‘I don’t care about any of that, Gabriel! Don’t you understand ? I don’t care about my destiny or your broken heart or the balance between humans and vampires! All I want is for you to tell me how you feel. No legends, no lore, just two people who like each other, who want to be together. Is that too much to ask?’

  Gabriel just looked at her, a terrible air of sadness and regret surrounding him.

  ‘Oh great,’ she said, throwing her hands in the air. ‘That’s just great. You want me to save the world, but you can’t commit to a date? And I�
��m the one who’s behaving like a child?’ She turned and began to run back towards the house, ignoring the pain in her knee and in her heart.

  ‘April!’ he called. ‘April!’

  But she was gone.

  April sat at the bar, staring down into her second Apple Pearl. God damn you, Gabriel Swift! she thought. Everything about him was right: he was sexy, mysterious, serious and funny, he was like an addiction she just couldn’t kick, but at the same time he was maddening, always throwing up barriers between them, always finding yet another reason why their love was doomed. The things he had said made her heart judder, but what use was feeling that way if it meant you had to live on either side of a glass wall? Logically, dispassionately, of course she could see that there was a sense to what Gabriel said, but why should they let something written in a dusty old book get in their way? They could move to Paris or the Caribbean or Alaska or something, where none of this mattered, where they could just be. Even as she thought it she knew they couldn’t. Destiny and birthmarks and vampires and furies aside, April knew she could never be happy if she didn’t find out what had happened to her father. All right, Gabriel, she thought, taking a long drink and banging the glass down. If you won‘t do anything about it, I will.