A Bloody London Tale (Book 2): The Epidemic

by Prichard, Cornelius

  “On to Gareth then. Here’s him entering Heathrow Airport. See the time and date again. Now here’s him leaving, with a very lovely stewardess. Do we have the stewardess’ names, Gareth?”

  “Polly. She was so kind to me, even when she found out what had happened to me.”

  “Tell us your story.”

  “At the beginning it’s very much the same as Tom’s. When I got on the plane I wasn’t feeling that bad, but slowly the sensation got worse. The best way I can describe it is fuzzy. There really is no other word. It was like that time when you have the flu and you know you have it. All you really want to do is sleep. Moving is exceptionally difficult. People thought I was drunk, because everything else was moving, so moving myself… if it hadn’t been for Polly I would have been stood there for hours. No one else tried to help me. No one else even seemed to care how terrible I was feeling. I suppose that’s what happens when people assume you’re drunk.” I shrugged. “She took me home with her. Now I think about it I’m very glad I picked that option, otherwise she would have taken me to the hospital, and I dread to think of the damage I would have caused if I was there. I went straight to bed when I got there. I thought some sleep would help me feel better. I wanted to feel better more than anything, because that sensation… it was horrible.

  “When I woke up I felt hungry, like Tom did, and Polly had left me her spare key. I thought going to one of those 24 hour cafes would work fine, so out I went, in nothing but my boxers, and some guy called me a freak. I’m not surprised he did. No normal person would go out wearing boxers in the middle of the night, but I wasn’t feeling the cold. All my other senses were… being out there and able to smell things the way I did.” I shook my head. “Being called a freak made me angry. I’ve never been that angry before and I hope I never get that angry again, because I went after him, grabbed him, and sank my teeth into him.” I had no idea how I was so calm, but going over it again was easier. “I panicked when I realised what I was doing. I dropped him and went back to Polly’s.”

  “Leaving someone you’d just fed from on the ground.” Cormac shook his head. “That was exceptionally clever. Well done, Gareth.”

  “Until that day I had no idea vampires existed. Tell me how you would have reacted to that happening to you. I expect you’d do everything right, wouldn’t you?” I smiled. “Of course you are lucky enough to know something about vampires. I didn’t. Not real vampires. I thought they were a story. There’d been nothing to disprove that until the day I found myself drinking blood.”

  “Didn’t you go to Romania on the hunt for vampires?”

  I nodded. “Yes, I did, and I didn’t find one. Do you know why I thought I didn’t fine one? Because they didn’t exist.” I sighed. “Maybe other people believed they existed, but I didn’t. Not until I become one, anyway, and now I don’t have a choice.”

  “What happened to you at Polly’s?” I turned to look at Len. “She is still alive, isn’t she?”

  “Yes, she is, because I told her to keep away from me. I didn’t want to hurt anyone else. She happened to know Jack and rang him. Jack came to get me not long after that, so I had some time to sort myself out. Being a vampire is much easier when I’m full, because then I don’t have to think about what my next meal’s going to be. I hate that more than anything. I have to drink blood in order to survive.” I looked at Tom. “Jack gives us animal blood. It works. We have some here, so we don’t end up doing anything silly, because that is always a possibility. We have been vampires for a very short period of time and it’s still hard to accept what I’ve become. This isn’t something I asked for. If I’d had a choice I would have turned them down, because the very thought of being a vampire… well, having to drink blood… not being able to go out in the sun…” I thought of all the things I wouldn’t be able to do with my life. “Being a vampire, frankly, sucks. I’d quite like to have my life back, now, but that’s not going to happen. I can’t even have a job.”

  “You could have the night shift.”

  “Only if it starts at sunset and ends at sunrise. If it goes past that hours I will end up dead. I can’t go shopping pretty much anywhere. I have nowhere to get blood. I have a feeling Jack has human volunteers who’ve been getting his blood for him, because he’s in the middle of running about five different safe houses, all housing young vampires, as well as helping the other vampires who are doing the same thing. I’m sure Cormac’s idea of dealing with this would be to kill us all. All vampires are dangerous. We went to go out hunting humans.” I shuddered at the thought of biting a human again. “Please don’t listen to the hunters. They have no idea what it’s like to be a vampire. They had no idea what it’s like to have to drink blood. It’s something I’m still having real trouble getting my head around, because the very thought makes me feel ill. I do it, because I know I have to, and if I don’t I will end up on the streets. I need it to survive, so my body will do anything it can to get it, unfortunately.”

  Lena

  When I woke up I was in my bedroom. Remus had put me in there because he wanted me to hurt my flat mates and that wasn’t going to happen. Instead I rang a number I’d never planned on ringing.

  “Lena?”

  “I need you to come here and get me, Tereza. Quickly.”

  “What the hell did he do?”

  “Guess.” I ignored my stomach, but I knew I wasn’t going to be able to do it for very long. “I don’t know how long I have.”

  She hung up. It was a relief knowing someone was on their way. I have no idea how long it was before she knocked on the door, because I was focusing on ignoring everything. I know I was feeling far too hungry for my own good and it would be long before I gave in to the urge to chew on one of my friends. I wasn’t going to let it happen, though. My birth mother was there and she was going to look after me. When Tereza walked in my room she was holding a bag of blood. I have no idea what was in it, but I sank my fangs into it anyway, as she shooed everyone away.

  “I don’t know why Remus is being the way he is.” Tereza brushed a hand through her hair. “I don’t understand why he changed you.”

  “He wanted to own me, Tereza. He wanted me to kill my flat mates and have to turn to him for help. Turning to you is going to make him angrier, but I wasn’t going to let him do that to me. He’s taken my life away from me, but he’s not going to take my humanity, no matter how hard he tries.”

  “Good girl.” She smiled. “You’re far stronger than the two of us put together. I’m sure you get that from Sori. My dearest friend.”

  “We’re going to need to be in the lounge when Remus arrives.” I stood, feeling more like myself than I had done, and Tereza put an arm around me. “You okay, sweetie?”

  “Ask me in an hour.”

  “Yeah, I know. At least you haven’t woken up in your own coffin. That was horrible.”

  “Waking up knowing he wanted to kill everyone was pretty horrific.”

  Together we walked out into the living room. I knew we didn’t have long. “Okay, everyone, my father is a psycho, so you either need to be out of here or willing to fight.”

  Marie stood. “He changed you, didn’t he?” I nodded. “I didn’t believe him when he kept telling me that was what he was going to do. If I had I would have warned you. I’m sorry.”

  “Wouldn’t have changed anything.” I might have had a weapon, but that wasn’t going to stop him. “I would still be in this position even if you had told me, Marie, so don’t blame yourself. You can, if you truly feel the need to make things better, pick up a weapon and help me.”

  “Knives are best, yeah?”

  “Yeah.” I smiled at her. “I thought you didn’t believe in vampires.”

  “It’s kind of hard not to when your friend’s father is feeding on you.”

  “Seriously?”

  “I should have stopped him, but…”

  “It’s addictive, isn’t it?” Tereza went over to Marie. “I understand exactly what it was like.
He did the same thing to me. If I hadn’t been pregnant and scared of hurting Lena I have no idea how long it would have gone on. Eventually you do become immune to the chemical that can turn you into a vampire. Well, mostly immune. You can still be turned if they do the blood exchange thing.”

  “Thank you, Mama. You can stop now.” Tereza looked over at me. “You were there for me when I needed you. That makes you Mama in my eyes.”

  “Oh, darling.” She was by my side in seconds, giving Marie the space to get the weapons, but I could see the relief in her eyes. Knowing someone truly understood really did seem to help. “I know I don’t deserve it, but thank you so much.”

  “Don’t be silly. You probably had PND and now we can fix things. It’s not as though we don’t have plenty of time to do it.”

  “Bastard.”

  I laughed. “Yeah, he is.”

  The door opened as Marie, and my other flat mates, walked into the room carrying knives. I didn’t realise we had as many as we did, but I was grateful. Remus looked at me, then at Tereza, and then at the humans who’d made the decision to stay and help. “Well, this is interesting.”

  “Not what you expected, Remus?”

  “No, but better, possibly. You do realise you aren’t going to win against me, right? It will be amusing to see you try, but you aren’t going to get anywhere.”

  Gareth

  My phone rang when we were on a break. Cormac kept looking over at me and I was doing my best to ignore him. I answered it when I saw it was Jack. “We nearly have the person who was slipping the vampire serum into your water. It won’t be long until they’re arrested. Olivia’s convinced the Prime Minister, although I have no idea how she did it, this is an act of terrorism.” He laughed. “She’s going to be a real asset in the future.”

  “Yes, she is.” Gareth looked at Cormac. “Have you told Tom?”

  “I have. The two of you have been doing wonderfully well. There’s a poll running and people are in favour of working with the vampires to build a life we can all live together. From some of the comments I see no one much likes Cormac.”

  “That’s to be expected. We were trying to make him seem like he was the enemy, which is obviously working.”

  “How much longer will you be off air?”

  “About ten minutes and then we need to go back to the interview.”

  “There is a chance Len will be telling you about the arrest. Remember to look surprised. You aren’t meant to already know what’s going to happen.”

  I laughed. “I’ll do my best.”

  When Jack hung on me I felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. It wasn’t a very big weight, but it was enough to give me a little more freedom. “Gareth?” I looked over at Cormac. “You’re right. I have no idea how I’d react if I did become a vampire, so I shouldn’t have judged you for reacting badly.”

  “Apology accepted.”

  “You doing okay?”

  “Fine.”

  “Where’s Tom?”

  “No idea. I’m not his keeper.” Knowing Tom he was probably outside, getting used to the scents of the world, but I wasn’t going to tell Cormac that. “I think he’s probably out feeding and that isn’t something he’d want to do around other people.”

  “It isn’t.” Tom made a sound. “Seriously, Cormac, I’m not going to lose it and start eating people.”

  “I believe you. The two of you are the most well-adjusted young vampires I’ve come across, which was unexpected. It doesn’t normally happen this quickly.”

  Tom and I looked at each other. “We had a reason to sort ourselves out quickly. We knew how bad things were already and it had only been a week. The epidemic is going to keep going for a little while, before we can totally bring it under control, but we’re getting there.” He shrugged and I was grateful he once again had an explanation. “The vampires hated the epidemic as much as you did. They didn’t want this to happen. They didn’t want the entire world to know they existed, but they didn’t have any other option, unfortunately. This happened and they had to deal with it.”

  “Would you like a hunter working alongside you?” I stared at Cormac. “I know I haven’t exactly been friendly, but that’s not my job here. I was meant to make you seem like the enemy and I failed, because you aren’t the enemy. Vampire aren’t all evil. I always knew that. I just have a certain job to do.”

  “We don’t want a hunter, but we could use you.” Tom sighed. “We will need certain assurances. The last thing I want is for you to try killing a vampire who doesn’t need to be killed.”

  “Will my word be enough?”

  “Possibly. Are they are vampires who can confirm you’re a man of your word?”

  “Strangely there are a couple.” Cormac smiled. “Who I am when I’m filming isn’t the man I truly am. It’s far easier to project the evil hunter than I want it to be, although I was going a good job before. I wanted people to be scared of you, because then they’d stop going out, and that really was my aim. I didn’t want anything more than that from what I was doing.”

  “I believe you.” Strangely I did. “You can stop now, though. I think people realise the danger.”

  “I hope you’re right. I hope they do realise the danger, but humans don’t always. When they see vampires a lot of them, unfortunately, see these book vampires, ones they’ve had a crush on since they were young, so they do stupid things.” Cormac shrugged. “I’m doing my best to protect them from themselves, which doesn’t often work, unfortunately.”

  “You’re trying to be a good man.”

  “I am. I may be a hunter, but that doesn’t make me evil, anymore than being a vampire makes the two of you evil.” He stood. “I’ll help you keep things tidy. Any vampires who aren’t willing to follow the rules can be removed.”

  “Everyone in your positions.”

  Tom smiled. “Sounds like a plan.”

  Lena

  Remus was dead. I thought he was dead, anyway. It was Tereza who bent to check, because I wasn’t going to get any closer to him than I had to, and then she turned to nod at me. “He’s gone, Lena. We won’t have to deal with him any longer.”

  “Good.” I sat down on the sofa. “Anyone know a good way of getting blood out of the carpet? I don’t want to lose that security deposit unless we have to.”

  “Unfortunately, I have no idea how to get blood out of carpet.”

  “Before we deal with the blood we have another problem.” Tallulah was kneeling by Marie. “Remus, before I stuck my knife in him, managed to break Marie’s neck. As he’s been feeding from her…”

  Tereza looked at me. I stared at Remus, wishing I could kill him again, because he had to make things more difficult. Sighing, I stood, with Tereza by my side, and we moved to pick Marie up. “We’ll take her to the bedroom. I’ll keep an eye on her while Mama goes to get some more blood for us. If she is going to rise as a vampire I don’t think it will be long.” I’d just grabbed hold of Marie’s arm when she moved. Fortunately I was closest, so she sank her teeth into me. “Blood, Mama, quickly.” I dragged Marie into the bathroom and locked the door behind us. “Hey, Marie.”

  “Hungry.”

  “I know, honey. For now the best thing we can do is focus on other things, okay?” I smiled at her. “How often did Remus feed on you?”

  “Three times I remember.” She looked uncertain. “The three… they seemed to blur together. It was hard to know when I was with him and when I wasn’t with him, because it felt like I was with him all the time.”

  “You could well have been.” I should have been keeping a closer eye on my friends, but there was so much going on I’d taken my eye off the ball. “I’m sorry, Marie.”

  “What are you sorry for?”

  “Not stopping him from doing this to you.”

  “Oh, Lennie, you wouldn’t have been able to stop him. Unfortunately he was the sort of vampire who got what he wanted when he wanted. Now he’s dead we won’t have to deal with tha
t issue…” Screams cut into her speech. “You need to go out there now.”

  “Tereza said Remus was dead.”

  “Yeah, because he wasn’t pretending to be dead.”

  Someone tried to open the bathroom door. “I suggest the two of you let me in.” Remus’ voice wasn’t what I wanted to hear. “There are three girls out here I could easily kill, but I won’t if you both come with me now.”

  “We can’t.” I looked at Marie. “If we go out there we’re going to do something stupid.” I could feel my stomach grumbling. “Do you want to kill Tally?”

  “No.” Marie nibbled her lip. “I don’t want him to kill Tally either, so we have to go out there.”

  “My patience is wearing thin.”

  Breathing deeply I opened the door. “Good.” He smiled at me. “Come out.”

  “You said you wanted us to let you in.” Grinning, I grabbed hold of what remained of his shirt and pulled him into the bathroom. After locking the door again I tossed the key out of the window. “Now we can’t get out.”

  It probably wasn’t the best idea I’d ever had, but I was putting the people I cared about first. Breathing deeply I looked at Remus. “You are an idiot, Lena. There are some lovely people out there you could have fed from. Locking us all in here isn’t going to fix things.”

  “No, it’s not, but it’s going to stop us from hurting them. Mama…” He surprised me by slapping me around the face. “What was that for?”

  “You call her Mama? She abandoned you, Lena. I never did. I watched over you all the time. How can you…” He stared down into my eyes. “You don’t deserve the immortality I gifted you with.” He had a knife in his hand and I had no idea where he’d got it from. “You should have known I was there. From the very moment I knew you were with Sori I was there. I thought Sori and I could be your parents, but she kept pushing me away. I thought you knew better than to do something as stupid as pick Tereza over me.”