Beautiful Bargain

by Skye Jones

  I expected him to say something back, but he merely gave her a bleak, tight smile.

  “So,” I pushed on. “Me, Mum, and Angel, we get dolled up to the nines. You rough us up a little, nothing but surface stuff, and we go and beg for the guard’s help. We only need to distract them for a short time. As soon as we start talking with them, Angel and I can work on getting inside their heads.”

  “I don’t think you should do this, Sheila.” My father put his hand on Mum’s arm. “You’re not young anymore, and it won’t be safe.”

  “No.” She turned and touched his cheek. “I should. I want to. I’ve been nothing but useless for years. I let everything grind me down, and I lost myself, and worse, I nearly lost Milly. I won’t let her go and do this alone. And I’m only in my forties, darling. Hardly ancient.”

  “I don’t like it,” Dad said.

  “I can’t do it, but your daughter can?” Mum arched one perfectly styled brow. She still plucked, bless her, even with the world going to hell.

  “My daughter, our daughter, has a powerful gift. You don’t.”

  “I have other gifts, unless you think I’m too old to interest any man.”

  “Is that what this is about? Proving you are still attractive, Sheila? My God.”

  “No,” she snapped. “Not at all. It’s about me doing something useful for once. I know I can still look pretty, and I can flirt. It’s something I’ve always been good at. And by flirting, I mean it in the truest sense of making people feel good; it’s not always sexual. You can flirt with people you would never get into the sack with. I’m good with people, or I used to be. I can use that. And I can keep an eye on the girls. Otherwise, they are going to go into this alone. The two of them.”

  “I don’t like it,” he said, nostrils flaring.

  Dad rarely got angry but when he did, watch out.

  “Look, we can finalize the details at a later point, when we at least have an actual plan in place.” Slim turned back to the map.

  “There is no way I am letting you women go and do this,” Jackson said.

  “Seconded,” Ben said.

  “What if I went with them?” Ivan interrupted. All eyes turned to him.

  “Won’t that ruin things? A man with them will stop the guards wanting to help, particularly if they are only doing it to get a leg over,” Doc argued.

  “What if I’m injured. Horribly so. They drag me out of it and bleeding, to the fence. The girls are hurt too, but I’m the one beat up? They only have to get the men talking for one of us, Angel, Milly, or myself, to give them a mental nudge, and get them to let us in the compound. Then we get them to take us to wherever they go to make a drink or use the toilet. I can act unconscious still, and the ladies here can keep the men busy. Things won’t get out of hand or go too far because you will have a true blood vampire in there with them.”

  He looked around the room, his voice becoming lower. “Trust me when I say that as a true blood, I am incredibly powerful. I am hard to hurt, and I could take out ten men easily if it came to it. Of course, we don’t want that because we don’t want a massive fuss, and security alerted all over the capital. But if needs be, I can do whatever it takes to keep the females safe.”

  “It’s the best plan, Jackson,” Alex said. “Ivan is correct. He’s got more power than all of us put together. Plus, if we leave them here, unless Ivan stays, they are going to be in danger. The Ravens might come. It’s better we all stick together.”

  “We will need to be transported in a way that will keep us safe from the sun,” Ivan said.

  “How about a lead-lined coffin?” Ben quipped.

  Ivan shot him a dirty look, then his expression turned thoughtful. “Actually, something along those lines might not be a bad idea, as long as you bastards let us out. We need something absolutely airtight.”

  “You won’t be able to breathe,” I said, confused. I was sure Alex had said they breathed air.

  “We breathe slower than you guys, same as our hearts beat slower, and all the rest of it. We could survive in one of those things for days. So long as you fuckers let us out.” Ivan looked around the room.

  “No reason not to,” Jackson said, “I mean, it’s not as if you’re Slim here, is it?” He shot the man in question a decidedly aggressive grin.

  “I’m not sure I’m happy about all this,” Ben said. “I don’t think it’s right to bring Milly along.”

  “I tend to agree.” Jackson squared his shoulders and his jaw took on that arrogant thrust.

  Oh, for the love of God, what did I have to do to get through to these guys.

  “Listen.” I pushed my chair back and stood as all eyes swivelled to me. “I’m not going to stay here while you all ride off to save the world. I won’t sit in this house and wait, terrified of what has happened to you all. I can be a part of this. I want to be. I’ve spent my life sitting around, waiting. Waiting to marry a man who didn’t love me. Waiting to see if that day I would be allowed to take the later bus, or have any small pleasures, like grabbing a nasty powdered coffee with Dad. Waiting, although I never acknowledged it because I was too scared to, for my cushy existence to come tumbling down. I spent every day waiting, as this…” I tried to find my words. “This gnawing, never-ending sense of unease ate away at me, while I sat and waited. Not again. I can’t. I swear I’ll lose my mind.”

  Tears came to my eyes, and I blinked them away, pissed off at their timing and hoping they didn’t make me look weak when I most wanted to appear strong.

  Jackson leaned forward, his hands bunched into fists on the table top as he blew out a long breath, considering me, before giving a terse nod. “Okay, baby, you’ve got it. You’re in.”

  “Okay, enough planning and arguing for tonight. It’s time I got some shut eye.” Doc yawned and stretched. He didn’t want shut-eye, judging from the bulge in his pants; he wanted something a bit more energetic once we got up those stairs. Not that I minded.

  “Slim, you need the bathroom?” Doc asked. Slim shook his head. “Okay, well, I’ll walk you to your accommodation.”

  Slim mumbled a curse, but he followed Doc to the door.

  “Doc seems a lot more accepting of your guest,” Ivan noted.

  Jackson laughed. “Doc doesn’t want bloodshed, so he’s doing the honours, that’s all.”

  “Are you retiring for the evening, Angel?” Ivan asked her. “Or would you like a game of chess?”

  “Game of chess sounds good. How about a mini tournament? We play, whoever wins plays Alex?”

  Alex laughed. “Ivan is by far a better player than me. It would make more sense if the two of us played and whoever wins goes against Ivan.”

  “Fine by me,” Angel replied.

  They set about getting the chess set ready and pouring drinks.

  I gave them a wave as I left. Jackson turned to Alex and furrowed his brow. “I think Angel’s original plan is the better one. We need to… talk.”

  Biting back my smirk, I saw from Angel’s smile she knew what Jackson meant by talk.

  Doc came back from taking Slim to the hut he was sleeping in, and the guys bolted the door and set the alarms. Then they all followed me upstairs.

  I doubted we’d be getting much sleep.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Milly: London Calling

  We were in a van. A big white transit thing that Jackson and Doc had stolen and spent a day or two working on. In the back of the van were two lead-lined coffins. Where they had gotten such things, I had no idea.

  The sun would be setting in about an hour, and we were roughly two hours away from London.

  The few days after the night we all agreed on a loose plan had been spent pouring over maps, and for Angel and myself, hours of practice at honing my mind-reading.

  We’d decided to start out when it was still light, meaning we would have as much dark as possible for cover for the vamps once we arrived in London. It meant as we drew near to the capital, we would have to run the gauntlet of
any Foamers. I’d heard there were a lot more down here, which was why the city was heavily fortressed now.

  Doc and I sat up front with Jackson who drove.

  In the back were Ben, Angel, my parents, Ivan, and Alex. The vamps travelled in style, locked in their coffins. My parents sat together in frosty silence when we’d closed the doors on them. Dad insisted on coming if Mum was, and they still argued to the last minute about the merits of her going. Slim stayed behind to safeguard his sister, and because Jackson insisted he couldn’t come as he didn’t trust him not to sell us out.

  I didn’t think Slim would sell us out. All he wanted was the damn cure, but when I’d crawled into his head the previous evening, I found out he hadn’t minded being left behind because without him there, then his sister was totally vulnerable to attacks.

  Tense silence filled the space between those of us traveling upfront. No one spoke, and Jackson’s face was grim. We were risking a lot, but the rewards were huge. If we got the cure, then we could start trying to heal a broken world.

  Sometimes in life you had to take risks. Even if they were of the life and death variety because when the world went to total shit, there were things bigger than your own survival.

  I didn’t want to die, but I would if it meant saving millions.

  “Get into Doc’s head and make him feel pain,” Jackson ordered out of nowhere.

  “Excuse me?” I shot him a horrified glance.

  “Yeah, do it,” Doc said. “I want to know you definitely can before we leave you at the wall.”

  “We will have Ivan with us; he’s more than enough protection.”

  “It goes that bad Ivan has to do his shit, and you’re already in more danger than I can stand,” Jackson said. “Get into Doc’s head and make him do something. Then make him feel pain. I want to know you can for sure.”

  I’d been practicing like crazy with Angel, and she’d taught me much. Including, how to make sure I did it every time. “Okay.”

  I sat and let myself think about Doc, his life, his dreams, his feelings. Doing this proved more difficult with people I knew for some reason, but if I didn’t pull it off, then I wouldn’t put it past Jackson to tie me up in the van and leave me there for my own safety or some bullshit.

  The earth jolted, as if the van had rocketed across three lanes of the empty motorway, and then, there I was. In Doc’s head. I didn’t dig around; instead I focused on making him do something. I pushed so hard it hurt me, my jaw clenched tight, but then Doc’s voice filled the van.

  “Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream.”

  I giggled, losing my concentration. Doc’s singing voice was awful, and he’d belted it out.

  He turned to me, face red. “Thanks a fucking lot, Milly.”

  “I’m sorry,” I gasped between laughs. “I didn’t know your voice was that bad.”

  Feeling like the biggest bitch ever, but knowing he was off guard, I focused once more. Pushed inside his head and let out a dose of pain.

  “Ah, fuck.” Doc bent over, head in his hands, so suddenly he hit the dashboard with his forehead.

  I pulled out of his mind immediately and shot Jackson a dirty look. “Happy?”

  “Yeah, happy.”

  “Next time make yourself the fucking guinea pig.” Doc sat up, his face covered in a fine sheen of sweat.

  “I’m driving,” Jackson said with a smirk.

  “Christ, Milly, that hurts. It’s like being electrocuted in your own head.”

  “I know.” I was kind of proud of the ability. As far as I was aware, it did the person on the receiving end no long-term harm whatsoever, but incapacitated them completely in the moment. “Are you okay?”

  “Fine, now, but don’t do that to me again. Next time Jackson wants you to test your powers, use him, okay?”

  “Deal.”

  The road ahead was empty, except for litter strewn about, blowing in the evening breeze. Overturned shopping carts, abandoned cars, empty drawers, and other rubbish lined the sides of the motorway. We saw two cars going the opposite direction as I stared morosely at the depressing landscape.

  Unlike a lot of post-apocalyptic films I had seen where people couldn’t travel because there was no petrol, or cars didn’t work, the opposite was true in Britain. Most people had nowhere to go. If you were in a safe compound, you weren’t leaving. Feral gangs tended to stick to small local areas they knew well. The outliers, like Jackson and his guys, and the Ravens, didn’t make up enough numbers to use all the petrol sitting around in abandoned cars or unused at the pumps. It would run out one day though. I wondered if they still had things like oil and gas imports in London. How much of a working city and economy was it, compared to the rest of the U.K.?

  As the sun set, glinting low light off the motorway bridge up ahead, something at the side of the road caught my eye. I turned to look and saw four wolves, their eyes trained on our vehicle as it rumbled past.

  There had been talk, before the collapse, of re-introducing wolves to Scotland. Now they roamed all over, animals that had gotten loose from zoos or safari parks and now bred in the wild.

  Some people had even seen big cats, but they tended to get killed because they were a danger to everyone; whereas the wolves minded their own business and usually stayed deep in the forests. It was unusual to see them. I poked Doc in the leg and pointed, and he smiled as he followed my finger to see them for himself.

  Deer, rabbits, hares, badgers. All these animals were abundant once more. Some birds that had been on the endangered list were now a common sight, and every summer a riot of butterflies and bees could be seen, so I supposed there were good points to millions, perhaps billions, of people getting sick globally.

  Nature was taking advantage of the vacuum left by our species retreat.

  “I’d love to live up in Scotland one day, in the Highlands,” I mused, almost to myself, but Jackson glanced away from the road to give me an indecipherable look.

  “What? Leave England?” Doc asked with mock horror.

  “Yes, I’d like to live in the middle of nowhere among nature. Even if things sort themselves out and we start to get back on track, I’d like that one day.”

  The sun finally set on the horizon and Doc pounded on the wall of the cab separating us from the storage part of the van, shouting, “Give it ten minutes and then wake the vamps up.”

  Two loud knocks let us know he’d been heard.

  My heart skipped in a weird mixture of excitement and terror. We were going to do this. A rag-tag little band of nobodies might be about to get the cure, and in the process of doing so, start to bring down the corrupt government ruining people’s lives.

  Once we reached the outskirts of the old city of London, Jackson slowed the van to a crawl and pulled into a lot in front of a dilapidated, disused warehouse and assorted outbuildings. He drove past the first building and turned right to park up behind the main warehouse, hiding the van from the street. Once we were parked, he jumped out, and ran around to the back of the van, as Doc and me clambered down from the cab.

  “Open up.” Jackson banged on the back doors of the van, and they slid open after a moment.

  Angel looked stunning. She grinned at me. Her hair was teased and big, shining red and sexy in the dim glow of the sodium lights. Mum looked stunning, too. Eyes rimmed in Kohl, that I had found on a raid with Jackson and Doc. Her hair was swept up, and she wore a sexy pair of black trousers, knee high boots with a heel, and a low-cut, cowl neck top that showed an expanse of cleavage. It was weird seeing my mum dressed in such a way.

  I wore the shorts and top Melody had put me in all those weeks ago. It looked hot, and for this assignment looking hot was the main thing.

  Our backstory was that we’d been trafficked by a gang from one of the nearby smaller compounds, and our brother had come looking for us, been beaten and almost killed, but we had gotten away.

  Ivan was playing our brot
her, and we’d found an old supermarket trolley, which we’d brought with us to push Ivan in, hopefully disguising his height and build if he slumped down enough in it. I thought he’d barely fit, despite it being one of those giant ones people used to use for doing a month’s worth of shopping.

  We didn’t need too much of a backstory because once we got the guards to allow us near without them shooting us on sight; we could slip into their heads. We only needed one or two to be susceptible, and then we could persuade them to let us in. Then we simply needed to keep them distracted for a while as Jackson and his crew did their work.

  The address for the government official they had targeted was only a five minute walk from the wall. The apartment block would probably be heavily guarded, but they had Alex who could mess with people’s minds to a degree, Jackson who could get into the guard’s heads and cause them pain, and a lot of firepower. I personally believed they should take either me or Angel with them, but they’d flat out refused. We were left being the distraction, guard bait.

  “Okay, do your thing.” I turned to Ivan who was stepping down out of the van.

  He glanced at Jackson. “Is he going to go crazy if I do this?”

  “Ben, Jackson, take a hike for a minute while Ivan roughs us up a little.” I shot them both a pleading glance.

  They growled and muttered and cursed, but they did as I had asked.

  “Okay, brace yourself.” Ivan took my wrists and pressed deep and hard. It hurt, but I didn’t make a sound because I knew if I did then Ben risked turning.

  Soon, I had livid red marks on my wrists and upper arms. Then he got hold of Mum and messed her hair up something fierce, before ripping her cowl neck to expose even more of her chest. Angel muttered a low, sorry, before she scratched mum’s chest with her long nails, letting blood bloom in their wake.

  “Ouch, Jesus.” Mum winced, but she didn’t touch herself or wipe the blood away.

  Angel turned to Ivan. “Come on then, big man, do your worst.”