by Stead, Nick
CHAPTER TWENTY–FOUR
The Pack Reunited
We made it back to the right stretch of coastline without any further clashes with the Slayers or the human world in general, mostly thanks to how sparsely populated the area of the country was. I led Gwyn to the same cave we’d used as shelter during our first day there. My nose told me Selina and the vampires were still using it, so I motioned for him to go inside and make the most of the darkness again. He was all too happy for another chance to be free of his fleshy prison for a while, and he bounded in without giving me so much as a second glance. I’d join him soon enough but I wanted to hunt first.
I was still in my hybrid form, prowling along the cliffs on all fours. A rabbit made the mistake of bolting from its hidey-hole and instinct took over. I gave chase, running it down in seconds. One bite was all it took to crush the tiny life, blood oozing out between my teeth and bones crunching as I gulped it down. It was only a small rabbit and did little to appease the hunger, but there wasn’t much else to be had in the area. And now I was finally back, I didn’t want to wander far again. So I settled for hunting these small morsels, all the while dreaming of the large prey I’d be living on in the weeks to come.
The sun was still hours away from setting when I’d had my fill of small, unsatisfactory kills. I knew I should probably make the most of the time to rest, but I felt wide awake and full of impatience for the journey ahead. We were so close to making it happen now. As long as Zee had found a ship, I didn’t see any reason why we couldn’t set sail that very night.
I settled down on top of the cliffs, looking out across the waves and enjoying the peace of the area, away from all the noise and fumes of the human world. A cold wind was blowing in over the sea, ruffling my fur and doing its best to assault the flesh beneath, but it wasn’t strong enough to get past my skin’s hairy defences. I barely felt its bite as I sat there watching the waves.
There was something mesmerising about the movement of the tide. I could understand why the ocean had called so strongly to Zee. He’d told me of how it whispered its promises of freedom and adventure, and I thought I could hear them now as well. It was easy to imagine riding those waves to far off lands, so very different to the one I’d called home. In a way, I imagined it would be like passing through the void and into the next life. I was about to leave everything I’d ever known behind and embark on a voyage into the unknown, a voyage which would take me to a new world and a new way of life. It had begun with the decision to leave the human world behind, for the safety of my family and friends. But the life I sought could never be mine so long as I stayed in the UK. Our little island simply wasn’t big enough to offer the vast expanses of wilderness I needed to hide from the Slayers. I hoped there were still places even the Slayers wouldn’t go, wild places in harsher climates where we could survive without fear of being hunted or killed in our sleep. I hoped my dream was about to become a reality, and that it hadn’t been just a dream.
Despite the wind, it was quite a warm afternoon for mid-autumn. I lay back and turned my gaze skyward, squinting against the glare of the sun and watching the gulls circling overhead. Their screeches sounded indignant to my ears, like they were complaining about the monster invading their territory. I grinned and dared them to come closer, then they’d have something to complain about.
My eyes began to close, tiredness creeping up on me while I lay there daydreaming. And before I knew it, I’d started to drift off into a light sleep, feeling a rare sense of peace and renewed hope for all the future might hold.
I woke with a start. The temperature had dropped, the sun retreating below the horizon and its last dying rays shining weakly across the water, vanquished by the darkness already taking over the sky. I’d been up there far longer than I’d intended. Dusk was upon us and the vampires would be waking, along with Selina, if she hadn’t woken already. It was time for me to return to the cave and find out what I’d missed while I’d been off with first Will, and then Gwyn.
My companions were awake when I got back to the cave. Lady Sarah was sitting on a natural ledge carved into the rock, tall and proud and looking every part the royalty she’d been in life. Selina sat across from her on the cave floor, cross legged and leaning forward slightly, her back arched. Her clothes were looking more dishevelled than when I’d left her three days ago, but the grime did nothing to diminish her beauty, her face seeming to shine in the gloom with genuine smiles and laughter, her eyes glittering like gemstones.
In contrast, Lady Sarah’s face could have been carved from the stone she sat so regally on, as though she were still upon the throne she’d been forced to give up. Selina’s beauty was somehow earthly and more human, while Lady Sarah’s was the kind of perfection most mortals could only dream of. It was hard to believe the two were sisters.
They seemed to be reminiscing, Selina laughing at something which meant little to me but obviously held a great deal of meaning for them. A smile also crept into Lady Sarah’s features, though it lacked the warmth of Selina’s. For just a second I thought I saw her eyes soften from shards of ice to cold pools, but as I drew closer they hardened again, and I couldn’t be sure if it was just my imagination.
Zee stood apart from them, caressing the amethyst he wore as a pendant with the fingers of his left hand. In his right he held his hip flask. He raised it to his lips and took a sip of the rum, grimacing at the burning sensation as it slid down his throat. His eyes stared straight ahead, as though keeping watch for our enemies, and yet he had that faraway look of a man lost in memory. It didn’t take a mind reader to guess which memory either. I knew he’d fallen through time, back to the eighteenth century and his beloved Lady Charlotte again – she who still had a hold on his heart even now, from beyond the grave.
The sight of them made me happier than I’d expected, even though it hadn’t been that long since we’d parted. I felt a warmth in my chest and for once it wasn’t the anger rising. Finally I’d found my pack. There was just Gwyn missing, but I was fairly certain he’d be lurking nearby.
I was only a few paces from the cave when Zee was apparently brought crashing back to reality, his head snapping round in my direction and his eyes refocusing on the present. Seconds later he was gone from his lookout post, rushing across to me in a blur. I barely had chance to register the movement when he came to a stop in front of me, the tip of his cutlass pressing against my throat. His eyes held all the stormy fury of the ocean, the waves of his wrath threatening to drag me down into darkness.
“Woah, Zee, it’s just me,” I said, holding my hands up.
“Nick!”
He sheathed his sword and pulled me into a rough hug.
“Had you drifted into unchartered waters for a moment there, Captain?” Gwyn said, appearing at the mouth of the cave. There was a crescent moon overhead. It hadn’t waned far past a half moon, still bright enough to bind him in flesh and blood. He gave an involuntary shiver as the cool air slid over his bare skin, but his eyes gleamed with their usual mischief.
“I was deep in thought,” Zee answered irritably, letting go of me so he could glare at the knocker.
“Yeah, I got that. I mean, how else can you mistake Mr Wolf here for a threat? He’s only the last of his kind and all that.”
“Gwyn, don’t make me regret rescuing you,” I growled.
Both Lady Sarah and Selina were on their feet, though the medieval vampire hadn’t rushed over to help. I wasn’t sure if that was because she’d been quicker to recognise me as me, or whether she’d just expected Zee to handle it if I had been an intruder. But they were both smiling at the sight of me.
“Welcome back,” Selina said, making her way over to us and pulling me into another hug. Lady Sarah walked beside her, Gwyn trailing slightly behind.
“Yes, it is good to see you and Gwyn still in one piece,” Lady Sarah added.
I broke away from Selina and shrugged. “Well the Slayers tried their best to take a few bits off here and there, but th
ey will keep underestimating us. What can I say, I’m just too fast for them. Gwyn was in worse shape when I found him.”
“Nothing the darkness can’t cure,” he answered cheerfully, but I thought I saw a haunted look creep across his face for a moment. I had to wonder if he’d been put through more than the injuries I’d seen when I’d first laid eyes on him in his glass cage, and I made a mental note to ask him about it at some point. But not right then.
“And what of Will and the demon?” Lady Sarah asked.
“Dead,” I answered. “I’ll give you the tale later. Never mind that, where are we at with finding a ship?”
“Come, I’ll show you,” Zee said.
He led us to a small cove, out of sight of the nearby villages. Boats and ships are another thing I know little about, but there was some kind of nautical vessel waiting for us, and if I had to guess, I would have said it was a modern fishing trawler of some description. It was a decent size for the five of us but probably modest in comparison to the pirate ship Zee would have once commanded.
There was a man already on board. My senses told me he was a human in his sixties, and a snarl rose straight to my lips, without bypassing my brain first. I might have lunged straight for him if Zee hadn’t placed a hand on my shoulder to hold me back.
“Ahoy there, Captain,” the man said, nodding at Zee and grinning. He never once reacted to Gwyn’s nakedness, and if he was shocked at my wolfish appearance, he didn’t show it, his heart remaining slow and steady in his chest. But it was not the same fearlessness I’d observed in Will. This man didn’t have that cold feel to him and he certainly didn’t have a lack of emotion. His smile was genuine.
Zee nodded back. “Crew, I’d like you to meet Brendan. He’ll be navigating for us during the daylight hours.”
“A human?” I growled.
“Yes, but one you can trust. He has been bound to me for some time now and he’s proven himself a great seaman of this modern age.”
“But a human?” I repeated. “We’re supposed to be going somewhere the Slayers can’t find us. How do you know he won’t lead them to us the first chance he gets?”
Zee waved that away, full of an even greater confidence than I’d seen in him in the midst of battle. “He’s under my spell, of course, and the Slayers have yet to break it. For as long as we’re at sea, he’s one of us, and if he gives an order in my absence you’re to obey it, and show him the same respect you’d give me. This is important, Nick. I can’t be above deck while the sun’s up, and without a competent seaman who understands all this modern technology, we risk drifting off course, or worse. Someone has to steer us clear of any debris floating along our path. So unless you have some experience of sailing the seven seas, it’s a human or nothing.”
“Ghouls can be out during the day. Isn’t there a ghoul who was a sailor in life?”
“There probably is,” Lady Sarah answered. “But the ghoul would have had to have died recently to understand how to work the machines of this era. I know not of any who continued to take an interest in the human world after returning as ghouls, other than for food. And even without the Slayers hunting us, they would see less of it than we vampires or you werewolves. The odds of finding one comfortable with modern boats are extremely slim. Besides, we would need more food than we can carry to keep a ghoul from turning on us.”
“What about zombies then?”
A frown flickered across her face. “Enslaving a zombie to help get us over the water is no less of a risk than enslaving a human. Do you not remember what I explained to you of necromancy before? If my control were to waver for even the briefest of moments, the zombie could turn on us as surely as a hungry ghoul would. Living humans, on the other hand, have no option but to obey a vampire for as long as we keep them under our spell. Unless the human in question has the strength required to break it, but few do.”
“Yes, and my spell keeps him from telling anyone anything,” Zee added. “The Slayers could torture him to within an inch of his life and still he would not talk.”
I didn’t know why I was so against Brendan coming with us when I’d been willing to bring the Slayers’ necromancer, Lauren, if only she’d accepted my offer to free her. The man seemed likeable enough. His lined face had a good humour to it and the green eyes peering out from the hood of his waterproof jacket were kindly. A grey beard framed the lower half of his face. He was still looking at us while we talked but his eyes weren’t focused on anyone, not even Zee, and he showed no sign of following the conversation.
“Can’t you just teach me, Gwyn and Selina how to drive this thing?”
Zee shook his head. “We need another experienced seaman on board and Brendan is he. I won’t sail without him.”
“Fine,” I growled. “How soon can we be off?”
“We’ve spent the last two nights gathering supplies. There’s enough food and fresh water to last you and Selina for just over two weeks, though it shouldn’t take quite that long, plus a share for Brendan. And he doubles as a fresh blood supply for we vampires. One human alone won’t have enough blood to offer the two of us, but now we have Gwyn, that solves that problem.”
“Oh that’s right, just exploit the knocker as your walking blood bank,” Gwyn said. “Don’t worry about asking me first or anything.”
Zee sighed. “Will you allow us to feed on you while we’re out at sea?”
“See, that wasn’t so hard. Of course I’ll donate some blood to my vampire friends.”
“So can we set sail tonight?” I pressed.
“She’s good to go, whenever you guys are,” Brendan said.
Zee nodded, his eyes shining with excitement. “Yes, now we have sufficient provisions we can get this voyage underway.”
“Okay, no sense hanging round here then,” I answered.
“It might not be that easy,” Selina said. “Look.”
She’d turned back to watch something advancing towards the beach. It took me a moment to pick out the three dark figures approaching, moving so silently that they could only belong to one race. My heart sank and I raised my eyes skyward. Would fate not allow me a night of things going smoothly just this once?
The wind changed direction and carried the scents of the three figures, confirming what I’d already guessed. Ulfarr had returned.
CHAPTER TWENTY–FIVE
Elder vs Ancient
Zee swore and drew his cutlass.
“Get behind me,” he said, stepping forward into a fighting stance.
Before I could say anything, Selina also took a step in front of me, Varin materialising beside her. Lady Sarah hung back, and she was the first to make any kind of protest against them taking a stand.
“No, Selina. Your witchcraft is no match for an Elder vampire and I will not let you give your life for petty rivalries between our races.”
“The decision is not yours to make, sister. We might not be able to defeat Ulfarr, but we can slow him while Nick makes his escape on the boat.”
“Here’s an idea,” Gwyn said. “Why don’t we all just make a run for it before Ulfarr and his cronies reach us, instead of playing who gets to die the noblest death? I mean, is there any wonder we’re all dying breeds?”
“It is too late for that,” Lady Sarah answered. “The ship will never escape the range of his powers before he has chance to sink it, if that is his wish.”
“I’ve cast all the protective spells I know,” Selina said. “They might not be able to withstand an Elder vampire indefinitely, but maybe they’ll see us out onto the open water.”
“It will not be enough,” Lady Sarah insisted. “Someone will have to keep them distracted while the rest of us escape, but it should not be you, Selina. Once Ulfarr breaks free of whatever spell you place them under, you will be as helpless as any human. Let Zeerin slow them if he is willing. We have Brendan to work the boat in his stead, and there is more chance Ulfarr will let a fellow vampire live.”
I noticed she wasn’t making any off
ers to fight by Zee’s side, but at least I understood why by then. As her sire, Ulfarr had more power over her than anyone else in our unlikely pack. All he had to do was order her to stand aside and she would be powerless to obey.
Selina turned to glare at her sister, her mouth opened to argue.
“No,” I growled. “Either we all go or none of us do. It means more than I can put into words that you guys are willing to sacrifice yourselves for me, but I’m not getting on that ship if the cost of a new life for me is the life of one or more of my friends.”
As I spoke, I felt the same warm glow I’d had at the sight of them after three nights apart. Some might say I was becoming human again after embracing my monstrous side for so long, but the emotion came as much from my lupine half as it did my humanity. Both are social animals after all, and the wolf in me wanted a pack as desperately as the human in me did.
But the warmth soon succumbed to a fresh sense of dread creeping into my veins. The rival vampires had drawn close enough for me to make out the head of the pelt Ulfarr wore. He could have just rushed us and killed me right there on the beach if he’d wanted, but he was so confident of his own power that he had no need to rush.
Gwyn eyed the approaching trio. “Oh yes, let’s all die together. A much better plan.”
“It’s me Ulfarr wants,” I pointed out. “You guys don’t have to die with me.”
“You already earned my sword and my loyalty,” Zee reminded me. “I’m not about to hand you over to Ulfarr for crimes you didn’t commit, even if he is an Elder.”
