All I could do was lean against the wall closest to me and try to come to terms with what I’d just been told. “Can you send me the letter, Grandpapa? I want to see it for myself.”
“I can do that, but if I do I want you to promise me one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“You won’t try to kill Remus. Neither of your mamas would want him to be hurt, even though he did make some mistakes in the past. Both of them loved him and I think you could, if it’s possible for you to see past the pain he’s caused you.”
Nodding, I thought about the vampire who was my birth father. “I do need to talk to him, though. He must have known he was killing one of his closest friends and I don’t understand how he could have done that.” I sighed. “Do you understand how he could?”
“No, but then I’ve never been through what he did, Lennie. He went through hell becoming a vampire when he knew he wasn’t far off becoming a father, then your mama gave away her baby, and then she killed herself. It can’t have been easy for him, so I can understand why he made the decisions he did. I wish he hadn’t, but we couldn’t find him to talk to him.”
Gareth
“You aren’t the first to come back from Romania a vampire.” I looked at Jack. “We have three others where I’m taking you, who are all going through the same things you are, but they were lucky enough to have someone there to help them. They all killed more people than you did. One killed his own sister and he’s having difficulty dealing with that.”
“I can understand.”
“All the vampires in the country are coming together in an attempt to sort things out, but it’s not going to be an easy thing to do. We aren’t entirely certain how many people did come back in the state you did and had no one there to help them, so when home, to wherever home was, so we need to listen out for unexpected deaths all over the country.”
“Unless he picked London on purpose.”
Jack shook his head. “You were from Maidstone. I think the vampire, or vampires, is looking to cause as much chaos as possible all over the world. For now all we can do is focus on where we are, because there are going to be other new vampires wandering the streets - some created by the new vampire you created.”
I found myself smiling. “At least I’m not the only one who did that.” It really was a relief to know I wasn’t the only idiot who’d gone out and fed from someone. Not knowing what I’d become was the most horrible thing I’d ever had to deal with, so having the support of other people who’d gone through the same thing would help. “We can look out for each other.”
“That’s what I was hoping you’d do. New vampires have a hard enough time, without things like this happening, and as you’ve all been changed against your will… I hate this. I hate that it’s happened and there’s very little I can do to change that, but what I can do is help you all with the transition.”
“How many new vampires did end up stepping into the sun?”
“When they’ve had a chance to make the decision prior to the transformation it’s far less than those who are changed against their will. With vampires in your position it’s around 7 out of 10, but I’m hoping that’s not going to happen this time. I don’t know, though, because there are going to be hundreds of new vampires who’ve all been changed against their will, which is something that’s never happened before. It will be chaos. That’s the only word for it.”
“You believe the vampire who did this wanted to cause chaos.”
“I do, unfortunately. That’s the only explanation for this, Gareth, and he must have seen his chance when he realised there was a mad vampire roaming one of the towns in Romania. A vampire like that can change a lot of people in a very short period of time. He’s probably, at this point in time, changed over a hundred people into vampires, because he won’t care about what he’s doing. It different for young vampires. You do often realise what you’re doing and some of you can stop. Unfortunately, by that point, the vampires in question are often addicted to blood, which makes it far harder for them to stop feeding the way they have been since the beginning. As we know they’re out there I’m hoping we’ll be able to round up enough in time, but there are no certainties when it comes to things like this.”
Jack stopped in front of a house that didn’t look very big, but looks could be deceiving. I watched as he opened the door and then followed him into the house. “Thank you for coming to get me.”
“You’re welcome.” The house wasn’t any bigger once we got inside and it was very dark. “It’s one of those things I have to do, because I feel like it’s my job to keep an eye on as many new vampires as possible.”
“This house will become very full very quickly.”
He laughed. “There’s more than one safe house. We have to have them all over the place and they can’t seem too different from the outside. If they do it’s not unusual for one of the hunters to find the house. Some hunters are more understanding of what we are that others. They accept that becoming a vampire doesn’t change us into something evil - it just means we need blood to survive, which is one of the hardest things to come to terms with.”
“How did you become a vampire?” I asked the question before I could over think it, because I knew I would if I gave myself a chance to. “Were you given a chance to decide to become a vampire or did you go through the same thing we are?”
There was a long silence. I thought he wasn’t going to answer me, which wouldn’t be a surprise, because it probably wasn’t going to be easy for him to talk about. Choosing to become a vampire… I nibbled my lip as I waited, trying to work out why he might not answer. Did he think I’d be angry with him if he got the choice I didn’t? I couldn’t understand why anyone would choose to become a vampire, but if he had made the decision there had to be a reason for it.
“I fell in love.” He laughed. “There was a woman I loved and she was a vampire. I didn’t find out until after we were married, because she didn’t want to scare me off, and she told me she wanted to be with me for eternity. At the time I had no idea how long eternity could be, especially as she was… she was one of those vampires who believed she was better than humans, so she would have changed me no matter what. I asked her to give me a couple of days to come to terms with what she’d told me and she was willing to give me that. She knew vampires who’d chosen the life lived longer than those who hadn’t, so she wanted me to choose to be a vampire, rather than forcing me into it.
“When I realised I truly did love her enough to be with her for eternity I went to her and said I wanted her to change me. The smile she gave me. She was so pleased I’d made the decision and that made me more certain I’d made the right choice. It was easy to believe that when I wasn’t a vampire.” Jack brushed a hand though his hair. “Until I became what I am now I had no idea how hard it was going to be to come to terms with being a vampire. Drinking blood… it’s the simplest thing in the world if you don’t realise what you’re doing. I managed to kill my entire family before I realised what I was doing, because she wanted me to do it. She’d put me in my old bedroom at home, so when I woke I would feed from the first people I came across, and it wasn’t until I dropped my little sister to the ground, her body empty of blood, I came out of the blood haze I’d found myself in.
“My wife, the woman I loved and thought loved me, was ecstatic. She thought I was going to be just like her, but I didn’t want that to happen. I’d killed my entire family and I wanted to walk out into the sun. I was nearly at the point of doing so when I was stopped by another vampire. He talked to me about what I’d done, about the choice I’d made, about everything I should have talked about before I made the decision to become a vampire, and he convinced me to give the vampire life a chance. Now I’m grateful to him, because I can help people like you. I know what it’s like to hurt someone. I know what it’s like to kill someone. I know what it’s like to have to come to terms with being a vampire, even though I made the decision in the first place, bec
ause choosing to become a vampire doesn’t actually make the transition that much easier. I think it’s more than we feel like we have to keep going. If we hadn’t made the choice it would be far easier to walk into the sun.”
“Thank you for telling me.”
“You’re welcome.” Jack studied me. “I think you’re going to be okay.” Our eyes met for a moment. “I think this is something you’re going to be able to live with. The others…” He shook his head. “Killing your sister is never an easy thing to deal with.”
We walked into what appeared to be the living room. Three people were sitting there, watching the telly, and I found myself looking at it. The newsreader was talking about a vampire epidemic. “When, exactly, did this start?”
“A week ago. It must have been the same day you travelled to Romania. They did their best to pretend nothing was wrong, but slowly that’s become impossible. There are too many vampires wandering around the city and they’re too young to know what they’re doing.”
“How many people go to Romania?”
“Far too many, it seems.” Jack looked around the room. “Gareth, I’d like to introduce you to Sam, Emma, and Tom.”
I looked around myself and found my eyes locking with Emma’s. She smiled at me. “Hi, Gareth. I see the rest of your trip went as well as mine did.”
“Yeah, it did.” At least there was a friendly face there. “Emma and I met when we were in Romania. You were there as a normal tourist, I think, while I was there on a vampire hunt.”
“I was.” She sighed. “Being there as a normal tourist didn’t save me from the vampires, unfortunately.” She patted the sofa next to her. “Come and join me. We can come to terms with being vampires together.”
Amalia
Waking up and knowing my house was going to be full of vampires within the next couple of hours was worrying. The last thing I needed was for a whole group of hunters to see it as a chance to make the world a better place. I had a horrible feeling Miron would have told them what was happening, so they could do what he believed needed to be done. Sighing, I sat up, trying to work out how I was going to protect the vampires from the hunters, which was the last thing I thought I’d be doing. If they were going to help us the last thing I wanted was for them to be hurt by people who didn’t understand all vampires were different and the majority believed humans could easily live alongside vampires, if the humans were willing to give the vampires a chance to prove themselves, but far too often the humans saw the vampires as nothing more than predators.
As I stood I realised we needed to meet somewhere else. I didn’t bother to dress. Instead I went downstairs to talk to Papa. He smiled when he saw me. “There’s no need for you to worry, sweetheart. I already called my sister and my friend. We’re going to meet at the hospital, so Miron doesn’t know where we are, because the last thing I want is for this to turn into a massacre.”
“Good.” I breathed a sigh of relief. “Miron doesn’t understand why we won’t kill all the vampires.”
“To him it’s very black and white. Humans are being hunted by vampires, therefore the vampires are evil. Unfortunately he doesn’t see the shades of grey we do, shades of grey that exist in the human race as well as when those humans become vampires, so it’s not a surprise some of those vampires want to take over the world. If you give a person with those thoughts a little power it’s what they’re going to do.” Papa shrugged. “My sister was a lovely girl. She was one of the most wonderful people I knew and becoming a vampire didn’t change her into someone else. It just made things a lot more difficult than they would have been if she wasn’t changed into a vampire.” He sighed. “I loved my sister more than anything. If it hadn’t been for what happened to her I think I would have turned into a clone of Papa, but I realised when it happened to someone I knew, someone I cared about, that I’d been looking at things wrong. I passed that onto you, because I believed it was the most important lesson I had to teach you. I still believe that now and I’m so glad you’ve become the hunter you are, rather than following in the footsteps of those who believe all vampires should die.”
“How could I?” I sat down opposite him. “You’ve always been my role model. Grandpapa, to me, embodied the old way of hunting, which just led to far too many hunters being killed. I think it’s important for us to learn to live with the vampires, rather than viewing them as the enemy, because they aren’t. They might well have to drink blood, but that doesn’t make them evil, and I’ve been out hunting with vampires before.”
“Why would you do that?” Miron’s voice was full of disbelief. “What would have happened if they turned on you, Amalia?”
“They weren’t going to. The vampires I was working with knew I was someone who’d accept them for who they were, instead of seeing them as nothing more than the vampire they’d become, so they were willing to show me the hidey holes of vampires who were killing humans, vampires they believed should be killed for what they were doing, because it just makes life far more difficult than it needs to be - almost all of the vampires I’ve worked with have wanted to live alongside humans.”
“I don’t understand why.”
“You wouldn’t. To you vampires are evil. It doesn’t matter who they are or who they were. What matters is what they are and being a vampire, of course, changes those people into someone entirely different, purely because they now find themselves needing to drink blood.” I shrugged. “Their need to drink blood doesn’t change them. It makes their lives different, but it doesn’t change who they are.”
Miron shook his head. “You and Papa are soft. No wonder I never wanted to become a hunter.” He stepped into the kitchen. When I was talking with the other hunters yesterday they told me the two of you were soft, but I didn’t want to believe them. Why would I? You’re my family.” Our eyes met. “I don’t remember Grandpapa being soft on vampires.”
“He wasn’t.” Papa sounded more disappointed that anything. “He would have killed my sister if he found out she was still alive, so I kept it from him. I buried the vampire who killed her in her casket and never told him she was out living her life, because I wanted to protect her from him. If you try to hurt her, Miron, I will choose her over you.”
“Of course you would.” Miron laughed, but there was a bitterness to it I hated hearing. “Amalia’s always been your favourite child and I know that’s because she’s the same as you. I’m far more like Mama, which is something I will always be grateful for. She was a true hunter, unlike the two of you.”
Papa sighed. “Yes, she was, and being a ‘true hunter’ is what got her killed. If that’s what you want to do I’m not going to stop you, but there’s no reason to be so proud of being like your mother. She was a very hard woman, someone I found it very hard to love, and sometimes I don’t remember why I married her in the first place. Then I remember the woman she was before she became a hunter. The woman she was before Papa turned her into someone I didn’t recognise. He taught my wife what it was to be a ‘true hunter’ and I lost the woman I loved. If it hadn’t been for the two of you I wouldn’t have stayed with her, but I wasn’t going to leave the two of you with someone who couldn’t love you.”
“I don’t believe you.” Miron gave us one last look. “Have fun with your vampires this evening. I hope everything works out well for you, but I’m not going to be here. I’m not living with the two of you any longer.”
With that he was gone. I knew I’d lost my brother, because he was going to become one of them, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. If he’d been the brother I remembered him being I might well have done. Miron had been changing for months and I hadn’t realised why soon enough. He’d been spending time with the hunters, so he thought I was soft, which was the whole reason he didn’t want me out hunting for the mad vampire. I looked at Papa.
“Do you think he’ll come back to us when he realises he’s made a mistake?”
“Maybe, but I don’t think he will realise he’s made one.” Papa s
hrugged. “All we can do is what needs to be done, Amalia, and that means finding mentors for the people the mad vampire attacked.”
Nodding, I brushed a hand through my hair. “I’m going to see if I can find where he might be sleeping. If I can kill him when he’s still confused it will make everything easier.”
“Be careful. The last thing I want is for him to hurt you.”
Lena
Knocking on the door to Remus’ flat was one of the hardest things I’d ever done. When he saw me his face lit up. “Come in, Lena. It’s a pleasure to see you. Would you like a cup of tea?”
“I’m not planning on staying.” He sagged. “I believe you. I talked with Grandpapa and he told me you were my father. He also told me the woman I believed was my mother happened to be one of your closest friends, once.”
A Bloody London Tale (Book 2): The Epidemic Page 4
