by Mia James
‘We need to find the King Vampire,’ she said finally. ‘I mean, that’s the only way we can release Gabe from this curse.’
‘Good,’ said Fiona. ‘Then at least we know what our goal is.’
‘But how do we ...’ began April.
‘It doesn’t matter how,’ said Fiona firmly. ‘You don’t need to have all the answers. Right now, Gabriel just needs to know that you’re fighting his corner and that you’re doing all you can to save his life. Okay, so it’s going to be difficult, but the best way to get him out of that hole is to show him the way, isn’t it?’
Suddenly April fell much better – having it all laid out in such a straightforward manner really did put it all in perspective. And only in speaking about it had she realised how worried she had been about Gabriel.
‘Thanks Fee,’ she said. ‘Seriously, thanks.’
April loved that, despite being separated by hundreds of miles, her best friend still knew her better than anyone and could cut straight to the heart of what she was feeling. More importantly, April could see that Fiona’s no-nonsense approach might answer some of the other things weighing heavily on her too. Find the King Vampire and there was a good chance she might find out who had killed her father. And if they could stop the King, they might stop the vampires once and for all.
‘Of course,’ said Fiona, ‘There are a few tiny problems with your plan.’
‘My plan?’ smiled April. ‘I thought it was your plan.’
‘Well, if it works, it was all me. If not ...’ Fiona didn’t need to finish that sentence. If it didn’t work, there was a good chance there wouldn’t be anyone left to take the blame. ‘Either way, we do have the small problem of tracking down a man who has remained hidden for centuries, and who is probably surrounded by some of the most bloodthirsty killers to ever walk the face of the earth. Could be a tricky one.’
‘Maybe not that tricky,’ said April thoughtfully. ‘I think I might have an idea.’
April hung up and walked over to the little dressing table. She pulled back her hair to look at the star birthmark behind her ear. She was a Fury, there was no point pretending otherwise. It was time to do like Fee – bet heavily. There wasn’t really an alternative.
Chapter Eight
April banged on the door yet again, her palm beginning to hurt now.
‘Come on, come on,’ she whispered to herself, stepping back and looking up at the windows above the little bookshop. There was no movement, no twitching curtains; it could just be a store room for all she knew. Maybe Jessica didn’t even live here. April didn’t actually know very much about Jessica. No, that wasn’t true: April knew Jessica was a vampire and that Gabriel had turned her; she also knew Jessica was some kind of witch who knew about secret potions and hidden subterranean libraries. And she knew Jessica would understand her urgent need to locate the Vampire King. The one thing she didn’t know about Jessica, was how she would react to being woken up at quarter to eight in the morning – if indeed she was even in the building.
Maybe she’ll turn me into a frog, she thought, peering through the shop’s little window with its dangling “Closed” sign.
‘April?’ She whirled around to find Jessica standing there holding a takeaway coffee in one hand and a supermarket shopping bag in the other. ‘You know we don’t open until ten?’ she said with a slight smirk.
‘Oh, ah. Yes, but I thought you might be in.’ She gestured up towards the windows above the shop. ‘I thought you might live here.’
‘I do,’ said Jessica, stepping past her with a set of jangling keys. ‘Just been out for some breakfast stuff. Is there something urgent you wanted to see me about?’
She pushed the door open and April followed her in.
‘Not urgent really, I just wanted to ...’ Actually, now she was face-to-face with the woman, she wasn’t entirely sure what she did want. Redfearne’s Bookshop was only five minutes’ walk from grandfather’s house – if she was so desperate for these answers, why hadn’t she come before?
Because you’re frightened what you might find, dummy.
After all, here was Jessica, beautiful and sophisticated, the owner of a mysterious shop filled with weird skulls and books on magic – and who knew way more about April’s boyfriend than she did. It was enough to make the most confident teenager insecure.
Jessica was looking at her quizzically.
‘Ah, I’m actually living with my grandfather now, just around the corner,’ said April. ‘So I thought I’d pop in and say hello.’
Jessica nodded, but her smile said that she didn’t believe this for a moment. You didn’t come and hammer on someone’s door at eight AM if you just fancied a chat.
‘Do you have time for a cup of tea?’ she asked, gesturing towards the back of the shop. ‘Have a perch by my desk.’
April sat awkwardly, clutching her bag on her knee, silently rehearsing what she would say as Jessica clanked around in the shop’s back room. What was she going to say? “So Jessica, you know all about the vampires. Can you give me the address of the King?” or “Can you tell why my boyfriend’s acting weird?” What was the etiquette here? Could you even go up to your partner’s ex and start asking about his behaviour? April didn’t have much experience in this area, but she suspected not.
Jessica came back out and handed April her tea in a bone china mug illustrated with a storybook picture of a fairy, then sat down behind her desk which was piled high with letters and packages.
‘You don’t mind if I open the morning’s post as we chat, do you? Very dull, I know, but paying the bills is all part of keeping this place afloat.’
April watched as the woman began opening envelopes and arranging the contents – usually books, no big surprise there – into piles.
‘So how are you feeling?’
‘Feeling?’
‘After the fire,’ said Jessica. She inclined her head towards the shop. ‘My customers make sure I hear about everything even slightly unusual. I couldn’t have missed hearing about it if I’d tried.’ She blew on her tea. ‘They do have some strange theories about what happened.’
‘Really?’
‘The wildest one was that it was a battle between opposing clans of vampires.’
April almost choked on her tea and Jessica laughed. ‘Don’t worry. I heard a rumour about dragons being kept in the dungeons at the Tower of London last week. The laws of averages mean that they’ll get it right once in a while.’
‘You knew?’ said April, her eyes wide.
Jessica shook her head. ‘No, not at all. I guessed Robert Sheldon might have another agenda beyond Ravenwood, but ... no, I had no idea that was going to happen to you – or to poor Annabel Holden.’
‘But if you thought something was happening with Mr Sheldon, why didn’t you say?’
Jessica slid a gold letter opener into another envelope and slit it open. ‘I have known – or rather, known of – Robert Sheldon for many years. He was always scheming, manoeuvring, always on the edge of something, but to be honest, I didn’t think he was dangerous. Or rather, no more dangerous than the rest of them. Clearly I was wrong.’
‘Did you know about Mr Sheldon through Isabelle?’
‘Isabelle?’ said Jessica, looking up.
‘Isabelle Davis. She went to Ravenwood, didn’t she? I thought she worked here too.’
Jessica gave a gentle laugh. ‘It’s funny how history seems to repeat itself over and over again. No, Isabelle didn’t work here, but she came to see me – or rather, she came to the shop asking about the Albus Libre, as you did.’
April almost gasped. ‘So what did you tell her? Did you send her to the library as well?’
‘No,’ said Jessica, her expression turning serious. ‘Isabelle wasn’t like you. I told her I couldn’t help her and that she had to find it her own way.’
‘So why did you help me and not her?’
‘Because you were trying to help someone else; you were prepared to take a big risk i
n order to save someone you cared about and I thought that should be rewarded. And ...’ she paused. ‘I imagine that’s why you’ve come to see me again, isn’t it? To talk about Gabriel?’
‘Am I that transparent?’
Jessica smiled. ‘He’s the one thing we have in common, isn’t he?’
April looked down at the mug, absently examining the faded picture on the side. ‘It’s just that I’m worried about Gabe,’ she said. ‘He’s acting strange and ...’
‘You wanted to know whether it was normal, right? Is Gabriel being a vamp or is he just being a man?’
April gaped at her. Could she read minds?
‘I know,’ said Jessica smiling thinly, ‘Sometimes it’s hard to tell them apart, isn’t it – a psycho killer or a thick-headed idiot?’
She shuffled her letters into neater piles and smoothed them down on the desk. ‘Listen April, men are men whether they drink blood or not. All those love spells you read about in fairy tales –’ she shook her head ruefully, ‘– they don’t work, not on men anyway. They’re too self-absorbed by half.’ Then she looked up, her eyes meeting April’s. ‘Is he starting to get black-outs again?’
‘Yes! How did you ...?’
‘Never mind. How much time has he lost?’
‘He can’t remember much of the evening we went to Sheldon’s house – not the bit before I arrived, anyway.’ April had a sudden sick feeling in her stomach. ‘And now I think of it, he said he couldn’t remember much about the night Isabelle died, that night he saved me from the killer.’
Jessica looked at April for a long moment, then carefully put her letter opener down. ‘It’s happened before. Not for a long time – at least, not that I know of.’
From Jessica’s expression, April could tell this wasn’t good news.
‘What happened? I mean, the other times he forgot stuff?’
Jessica paused for a beat. ‘People died, April.’
April tried to draw a breath and found she couldn’t. ‘Do you think Gabriel was involved?’
‘Listen to me carefully, April,’ said Jessica, sitting forward. ‘I know you love Gabriel, but you have to understand who he is, what he is. He’s a vampire, he’s a born killer. Or at least he’s been turned into one and when he’s in the grip of the thirst, when he absolutely has to feed, nothing on earth should get in his way.’
April could feel all the blood draining from her face. She was frightened for Gabriel, for what he was going through, but she was frightened for herself too. Was Gabriel truly a killer? Was he out of control like Marcus had been? Like Benjamin? She had seen that up close, and April wasn’t sure she could stand it if Gabriel turned into a monster like that.
She flinched as she felt Jessica’s hand on top of hers.
‘Hey,’ said the woman softly, kneeling down next to April’s chair. ‘Gabriel’s one of the good ones, remember? And so are you – and you wouldn’t have fallen in love with anyone bad, would you? But he is a vampire and I’m sure you’ve seen enough of that to understand what he’s going through.’
April nodded. She could still close her eyes and see his face that morning at the top of Primrose Hill, just after he’d taken the Dragon’s Breath and changed back into a vampire – his eyes red slits, his gums pulled back like a snarling dog’s. He wasn’t human at that moment, he wasn’t Gabriel, not the man she knew. But somehow ... he had been. Inside, he was still the man she loved.
‘Jessica, please,’ she said, ‘What’s happening to him?’
‘I wish I could tell you, April. All I know is that when he starts forgetting things, it always happens at times of increased darkness, times when the vampires are on the rise again. It could be coincidence, but I suppose that’s something you’re going to have to find out.’
‘But you’re worried, aren’t you?’
‘Yes, I am. Not for his physical self – he’s about as tough as they come.’ She smiled sadly. ‘No, I’m worried about what it does to Gabriel’s mind. I’ve known him a long time, April, and he’s too sensitive – too fragile emotionally. He may not be able to remember, but he suspects what he might have done and it’s been eating away at him. That might be why he pulls away from you at times. He scared of who he is.’
April wanted to cry, but knew she mustn’t. Gabriel was the one in pain and he needed her support. ‘Can’t we help him? I mean, if it’s happened before, you must know what to do.’ She hated the desperation in her own voice, but that was how she felt. She would do anything to help him, anything.
‘People have to want to be helped, April,’ said Jessica. ‘Gabriel’s too proud, that’s always been his problem. He’s a lone wolf – thinks he has to do it all himself.’ She gave a smile. ‘That’s men for you. They’d rather plough into the sea than ask for directions. But the same applies to you too.’
‘Me?’
‘You can’t do this on your own either,’ said Jessica. ‘Yes, you’re a Fury and yes, I imagine it feels like a huge burden, but remember that you’re not on your own. You have people you can talk to – friends you can trust – so lean on them. That’s what they’re there for.’
April looked at her. ‘Why do I feel there’s a “but”?’
‘But ... be careful whom you choose as your friends. What you have inside you is incredibly powerful. Don’t underestimate it. A lot of people would love to be able to control what you have. Question everyone, question their motives – even question mine.’
‘Yours? But I came to you. And what would you want the Fury thing for anyway?’
‘Everyone loves power, April, everyone, even if they think they do not. That’s why I didn’t tell Isabelle about the White Book.’
‘I don’t understand.’
‘Isabelle didn’t want the Albus Libre for someone else, as you did. She wanted it for herself.’
Suddenly, April understood why Benjamin had wanted the Dragon’s Breath that night at Ravenwood, and why Sheldon had tried to drain her blood. If someone had control of both the disease and the cure, they could create an army of vampires at will – and destroy any other nests or clans who might try to question their authority. You’d be a vampire super-power with the power of life and death over everyone.
‘So Isabelle was ... she was working for the other side?’
Jessica’s smile was ironic. ‘I don’t know who she was working for, or whether it was all her own idea, but that’s what I mean about power. It can corrupt, April. You are frightened of your power and that’s the best way to be – because you will agonise over your choices, wondering if you’re doing the right thing. For Isabelle, I think the answers were all too clear – whatever was best for Isabelle.’
April couldn’t think what to say. She felt knotted up with questions, none of which had easy answers. April had always assumed Isabelle was like her, someone struggling with her “gift”, stumbling around in the dark, looking for clues. But April supposed whatever she had in her blood was as random as any disease – cancer didn’t only go for bad people, it took plenty of good people too – and there was no reason why a Fury couldn’t be as ambitious and self-serving as a vampire.
‘So what happened to her? Was she involved in something that got her killed?’ April suddenly felt sick again. ‘Was it something to do with Gabriel? I mean, he was there the night she died – and he doesn’t seem to be able to remember it.’
Jessica shook her head. ‘Don’t go jumping to conclusions – and no, before you ask, I don’t know what happened to Isabelle. But if Gabriel has suppressed his memories of that night, pushed it to the back of his mind for some reason, that suggests to me that it was traumatic in some way, though I can’t say for sure. I think that’s something you’re going to have to take up with him. If he’ll open up to anyone, it’s you.’
‘Thanks, Jessica,’ said April, getting up. ‘I actually thought I was going to get a telling off coming in here.’
‘Well you have, sort of. It’s time to stop pretending all this isn’t happening. W
hen you’re lost in the darkness, the only way out is to keep moving forward. It’s a bitch, but there’s no way back now. You can’t put the genie back in the bottle.’
April nodded and picked up her bag. ‘Sorry for disturbing you so early.’
Jessica shrugged and pointed towards the desk. ‘You were only keeping me from my admin. Talking of which, I’d better get back to it.’
April winced at the light as she closed the shop’s little purple door. She looked down at her phone: still only eight-thirty. She sighed and turned towards the tube. She didn’t feel much like going to school, but Jessica was right – she needed to keep moving forward.
‘April!’
She turned; Jessica was standing in the doorway of the shop, beckoning. ‘I think you’d better come and see this,’ she said, her face serious.
Back inside the shop, Jessica carefully locked the door, then led April back to the desk and picked up a white padded envelope from the pile of post.
‘What is it?’
‘Tip it out onto the desk.’
From the expression on Jessica’s face, April immediately knew that she didn’t really want to see what was inside. Gingerly, she took the envelope by one corner and upturned it.
‘Eww!’ she cried, as a small wet thing plopped onto the desk. Like a slug or a piece of meat. ‘What the hell is that?’
‘It’s a tongue,’ said Jessica simply, ‘Someone ripped it from an animal.’
‘God!’ said April, taking a step back. ‘But why?’
‘It’s a message, April. Someone doesn’t want me talking.’
‘To me? They don’t want you talking to me?’
‘That’d be my guess.’
‘But it’s too late,’ she said, looking towards the door.
Jessica gave a grim smile. ‘Then let’s hope no one sends you my tongue.’
