‘Everyone has gone mad! I’m not joking. Seriously not joking! I’m calling the vet tomorrow to get the pigs checked out. I’ve been on badgers the last few days and—’
‘It’s not the pigs, Mads,’ James countered. ‘We know you’re worried. And we know you’re right. But he’s made up his mind and there’s no reasoning with him. He’s going to do this, with or without us. As Freddie said, short of chaining him – and chains wouldn’t hold him, anyway – there’s nothing we can do to stop him.’
Madeleine now approached and knelt by my side. Putting her hand gently on my knee, she pleaded, ‘Please, Nate. You have no idea how painful a journey you’re embarking upon. She is mortal and there can never be a happy ending. And all this, when you have no emotional protection. I’ve loved and lost, as you well know. At a time I, too, had no protection. And I would never wish it on anyone.’
I knew why she was doing this. As a seventeenth-century human, Madeleine had had to bury the love of her life, and then her two young children three weeks later, and despite subsequently having the power for four hundred years, she had still to recover from it. But I had made up my mind. I couldn’t think about the pain. I couldn’t think about the bigger picture. All I knew was an insatiable need to spend time with Rowan Locke, and to keep her safe.
‘You can’t forgive a girl for trying.’ She smiled sorrowfully as she read my thoughts and conceded defeat. I shook my head and put my hand over hers. ‘Very well,’ she now said, matter-of-factly and evidently fully utilising the power. Standing up, she continued calmly, ‘I suppose we’d better get on with business, then. There will be no ditching us. In fact, you are going to let us help you get through this.’ She looked at me questioningly, and on seeing my slow nod, declared, ‘Good! We’ll run through the file I’ve got on Rowan Locke, then.’
Bugger! I should have known they had been doing their own investigations into things, but even I hadn’t expected them to have been quite so efficient. I wasn’t ready for this. ‘I need to check on Bess, she—’
‘No, you don’t!’ Madeleine asserted, picking up a brown manila file from the sofa table, before taking it with her to the floor in front of the fire. ‘With the concessions being made here and the impact they could have on us all, listening to this is the least you can do.’
I looked anxiously at the file, now laid out before her cross-legged form. She must have put a call into Richard Morley after the accident, and he had no doubt put a private detective on the case. Although I wanted to know everything there was to know about Rowan, I didn’t want it to be this way. I wanted to find things out for myself. But whether I liked it or not, nothing was remotely normal about recent happenings and we needed answers.
But … what if there were things I didn’t want to hear?
Elizabeth gave me a quick hug before moving hand-in-hand with Frederick to sit next to Madeleine.
I thought of how this information would have been gained. I didn’t like the idea of a private investigator hovering around Rowan. Indeed, I didn’t like the idea of anyone but myself hovering around her. I couldn’t stop my heart pounding. One beat a minute? I had just counted ten beats in that many seconds.
I thought of what I already knew about Rowan and it comprised pretty much the little snippets I had gained when in the hospital. I had noticed she had not been wearing a wedding-band, but that didn’t mean much nowadays.
I tried to prepare myself for the fact she may be attached, but the very thought of it made me feel … nauseous? No matter – he didn’t deserve her. I would never have let her drive one-hundred-and-seventy miles alone at 2 a.m.
I found myself out of my seat and nervously pacing up and down. I stopped, aware I was being watched in disbelief by everyone in the room. Such movements were out of character, I conceded.
Madeleine sighed. ‘I’ll put you out of your anguish straight away, Nate – Rowan Locke is currently single.’
I shut my eyes for a moment and exhaled air I hadn’t realised I had been holding in my lungs. I allowed my jaw to relax and quickly ran my hand through my hair.
Madeleine was concerned again. ‘But you know there can be no future here? She’s mortal …’
Had I not made that perfectly clear? ‘Madeleine—’
But James interrupted. ‘You know humans and vampires aren’t completely incompatible, Mads?’
The innuendo in his voice left us in no doubt as to what he was referring.
I looked at him aghast. In fact, we all looked at him aghast, although Madeleine’s look was mingled with fury.
‘Don’t look at me like that! You didn’t think I’d only feel bloodlust when I was a vampire, did you? Believe me, we are still very compatible!’
We were all speechless.
‘Come on! There’s a shortage of vampire women around. I still have a man’s needs and … okay – I wish I hadn’t opened my mouth … particularly in mixed company.’
James looked shamefaced at the countenances of Elizabeth and Madeleine. He furtively sneaked a glance at my face, set like stone. How could he have been so irresponsible? So reckless?
Frederick recovered first. He looked confused and asked in a hushed voice, ‘But how can you not damage the human?’
‘It’s just a matter of control. Look!’ James leapt up from the sofa and picked up a marble paperweight from the nearest table. ‘We all know I can crumble this piece of stone into dust – but I’m picking it up and I’m not. Just because I have the strength to break it, doesn’t mean I do. Even as a human, I had the strength to hurt a woman – but in the act, even when I may have got a bit overexcited, I never hurt her. It’s all about control.’
Elizabeth spoke with feeling, ‘But the thirst for blood. Surely in the act you can feel it?’
‘You just feed well before. You didn’t honestly think my feeding on animals would be enough to satisfy my carnal desires? That’s just nourishment. Black pudding or fauna stew simply don’t hit the right spots!’
Disgusted sounds emitted from around the room.
‘I still have sexual desires towards human women. They’re generally separate to the bloodlust. Come on! We all know we are more extreme versions of what we were before.’ He shot a rapid glance in my direction. ‘Up until a couple of days ago, that is. And I simply have never abstained!’
Madeleine spoke in an ominously quiet voice, ‘You have stooped to depths I never thought imaginable. How close have you come to killing a human woman?’
There was an awkward silence from James before he sighed. ‘There have been moments … but I’ve never hurt a woman. There’s enough warning to know if things are going to turn …’ He took a deep breath and continued clinically, whilst inspecting his finger nails, ‘The closest it’s got is my having to use my charm on one or two occasions after my fangs have accidentally popped out.’
‘Jesus Christ!’ I snarled through clenched teeth.
‘Come on! Birds and the bees, Nate! I thought it was an appropriate time to have this chat!’
I didn’t trust myself to reply. I was barely in control of a fury I had rarely, if ever, felt. I couldn’t believe I had entrusted him to take Rowan to the hospital. And then I remembered he thought she was pretty. That was too much. I was going to tear him limb from limb.
I roared and launched myself at James, only to be thwarted by Frederick, who had anticipated my move and placed himself between us.
‘Move, Frederick – NOW!’ I roared, snapping at James over his right shoulder.
James looked horrified as he replied to my thoughts, ‘You can’t possibly believe I’d have— Jesus! As for the pretty thought … Look, I find Elizabeth and Mads pretty, but I’ve never acted on it …’
Frederick growled now.
‘I suggest you shut up, James,’ Madeleine warned. ‘I’m half-tempted to ask Freddie to stand aside as it is – or let them both at you.’
Elizabeth approached me slowly and gently touched my arm. It would not be appropriate to do this in fro
nt of her. And in any event, my ‘killer instinct’ moment was receding to a ‘damage to maim’ moment, which wouldn’t be remotely as satisfying. ‘I am going for a ride,’ I growled, before launching myself out of the open French doors to find Bess.
Chapter Five
Rowan Locke
Returning to the room four hours later, I fixed James with a look that would have left him in no doubt as to the sincerity of the utterances I then spoke. ‘Never talk to me about your carnal activities again. And if I even get a whiff of that pretty thought of yours, know that I will personally castrate you.’
James knew it not to be an empty threat. We can tear each other to pieces, whilst being physically invulnerable to everything else. I watched him cross his legs.
‘Believe it or not, I just wanted to give you hope and—’
I interrupted him to snarl, ‘It can never be a possibility.’ How could Rowan ever think of me in those terms – and how could I ever put her safety at such risk?
‘Enough!’ Madeleine proclaimed from the sofa, whilst she finished painting the last of her perfectly manicured nails. I couldn’t recall her ever having used that particular shade of nail polish before. She put the brush back in the clear bottle, with its blood-red contents, did up its top and popped it back in her handbag, before returning to the paperwork laid out on the rug. ‘There have been enough interruptions,’ she said, before blowing on her nails and waving her hands around in the air. ‘We all need to be prepared here. Particularly as I’ve just received the latest report.’ She looked up to meet my eyes. ‘Nathaniel, bless him, has invited Rowan to visit.’
There was silence. Damn. This private detective was good.
‘Luckily, the investigator picked up on it when he scooted around her hospital room and spotted Nate’s note and flowers.’
He had been in her hospital room?
‘Flowers?’ Elizabeth exclaimed incredulously, before beaming. ‘That’s so sweet, Nate! And you’ve never invited a woman to Ridings, even before we changed. I can’t wait to meet her!’
Frederick, with a bottle of 1794 claret in hand, chuckled. ‘I don’t think you’ve really thought this one through, have you, bruv? The estate is overrun by vampires … and if that isn’t bad enough … one of them is desperate to welcome her as a sister, and James here will no doubt want to jump her bones!’
‘Shit!’ James muttered.
My furious glare resulted in a more nervous chuckle from Frederick, but his fading smile was wiped off his face completely when Elizabeth provided a hard jab of her elbow to his stomach.
It was true though. What the hell had I been thinking? I just couldn’t help but picture Rowan at Ridings.
‘Okay … I’m continuing whatever here,’ Madeleine stated impatiently. ‘Rowan Locke: Born April twenty-ninth, 1977.’
‘April twenty-ninth? Nate’s human birthday!’ Elizabeth exclaimed.
‘Spoooookyyyyy,’ Frederick teased, and promptly got another elbow jab.
‘She would appear to have been adopted as a young baby.’
So that was why I couldn’t identify physical similarities between Rowan and her sister.
‘Her adoptive parents were Rosie Fairchild and Seth Locke …’
She paused, and I prompted, ‘Madeleine?’ Now she had started, I was desperate to find out more.
‘No, it’s just I knew of a Seth Locke …’
‘There will have been a lot of Seth Lockes in the world, Mads,’ Frederick said as they shared a look.
‘Yeah, I know,’ she said, returning her focus to the pages in front of her. ‘Point taken. Anyway, there isn’t much on them at the moment but I’ll look into things a bit more.’ She proceeded quietly, ‘Rowan was orphaned at the age of six.’
I shut my eyes against the pain and vulnerability of being mortal.
Elizabeth whispered, ‘How?’
Madeleine scanned the file. ‘He’s going to do some more on that because it looks suspicious. There was some kind of house fire. One newspaper report stated: Rowan and her adoptive sister Clare, then aged four, were found barricaded in a locked cellar beneath the house by fire-fighters. They had been alerted by Clare’s cries for her mummy and daddy. When found, Rowan was apparently desperately trying to keep her sister quiet, because her daddy had said they were playing a game that meant they had to be as quiet as mice.’
‘No wonder her emotions are tortuous,’ James muttered.
And no wonder they were so overwhelming, I reflected, pinching the top of my nose. This girl had been through so much. She was a tortured soul. Any emotional response to a stimulus in the current day must be determined by her history. And the grief?
‘Her aunt, Heather Fairchild, aka Aunty Hetty – who there’s more on later, for obvious reasons – took in Rowan and Clare and brought them up. The little sister, Clare, is married to Mark Robinson and has …’
‘Two little boys, Nathan and Tom, aged six and three. I know – I met Clare at the hospital.’ I smiled at the memory.
‘Rowan went to primary and secondary schools in London, having moved from her first school in Wiltshire after the death of her parents. She looks to have been a straight-A student: A grade A-Levels in English Literature, Art and History. She went on to study English Literature at Cardiff University, where she got a First Class BA honours degree.’ I smiled. She must love books, too. ‘She’s had a number of boyfriends …’
‘Can we skip this?’ I pleaded quickly and silently, my jaw set hard.
Madeleine skim read the information before her, which I deliberately didn’t seek to read in her head, before saying, ‘You should know about Jonathan Martin. They met at university and lived together. They were originally an item for three years, broke up for a couple of years, before getting back together again. They were engaged with a wedding-date set when they broke up the last time in 2007 …’
How could he have ever let her go?
‘It would appear he had a fling with her housemate … who was then her best friend, and due to be her bridesmaid.’
Both Elizabeth and I growled in unison, before sharing … was it a comradely grin? It felt good.
‘He lives in London and, up until yesterday, worked as an environmental scientist. However, at 3 p.m. yesterday afternoon he abruptly walked out on that job, paying no heed to notice requirements. He announced he was taking up a position in property investment at Frey Investments.’
‘Quite a career change,’ Frederick observed. ‘And in quite a manner. Frey Investments must have made it worth his while.’
Small world despite the number of people within it, I pondered. I knew of Frey Investments, due to Gray Portfolio.
‘The reason I’m telling you all this, is because the investigator says he is still sniffing around. He visited Rowan in hospital late this afternoon and declared his undying love for her.’
Good God!
‘Apparently, her close shave with death has made him realise he can’t possibly live without her. It’s noted here, he seemed to be quite aggressive in his assertions, whatever that means.’
I was experiencing a strong urge to do Jonathan Martin harm. He was in no way good enough for her. And what the hell did ‘aggressive in his assertions’ mean?
It took me a long time to remove violence from my thoughts and to refocus. I had to ask the question I was terrified of hearing the answer to. ‘Does he say what Rowan’s response was?’ My voice was quieter than a human whisper.
‘Sorry, of course he does! I quote, “Said very loudly (bordering on a scream) ‘Eff off you pitiful excuse for a human being! If I ever set eyes on you again, I’ll not be responsible for my actions!’ She threw her full water jug at him before he was escorted from the room by medical personnel.”’
Both James and I chuckled. There was no doubt he was investigating the right girl. I found myself beaming with pride in her and experiencing such overwhelming relief, I laughed out loud. I was being stared at again.
‘I don’t know how t
his human investigator gets all this stuff,’ Frederick said, clearly impressed, whilst slowly removing his astounded gaze from me.
‘So this encounter happened this afternoon?’ I asked Madeleine.
‘A few hours before your flowers arrived.’
That explained the crippling rush of anger and rage I had experienced, when writing her note.
‘She’s exactly what Nate needs!’ Elizabeth cried delightedly. I looked at my sister incredulously. ‘You may be my brother … but sometimes you can be so disagreeable. You definitely need to be put in your place. This could actually be fun! Promise me, you’ll let me meet her?’ I shook my head in disbelief. True sadness entered her voice. ‘If it wasn’t for the fact she causes you pain … and she’s human, she would be perfect!’ Smiling, she forced herself to sound more upbeat, ‘Oh well, day by day.’
Meeting her eyes now, I smiled gently. ‘I am not sure she will even see me.’
‘Oh! She will!’ she declared confidently, with a huge grin on her face. ‘I’ve seen how human women react to you – how they’ve always reacted to you, actually. Just remember, even with your human cloak on, your pupils go really big and black when you’re angry – they always have done – and they used to scare little old mortal me. But when you are content, your eyes are a gorgeous soft brown. I don’t think I ever remember them sparkling like they did a moment ago when you laughed, though. You should laugh more often. You should prepare, too … perhaps practice some small-talk!’
I groaned and she giggled.
‘He didn’t do too badly at the hospital, Elizabeth. At one stage it sounded pretty flirtatious to me,’ James interjected quietly.
Had it? I glanced cautiously at James.
‘Yes, Nate – you obviously have hidden depths. And yes – I’d say she was responding.’
‘Yesssss!’ Elizabeth squealed in delight. And I had no control over the warm glow that started somewhere around my heart.
No Such Thing As Immortality Page 7
