I'd been around vampires long enough to know how they act in situations like this. One of two things happens. They are either powerful enough to fight back, instantly and without pause, or they concede to the other vampire's superior strength and slink away into the night, tail between their legs. Avery was not slinking and he was most definitely arrogant enough to believe he was as powerful as Michel. So, an attack was imminent, I was sure.
But still, nothing came.
Samson tried to distract me, I half heartedly listened to his stories of life in London before he joined my line. Working for the Master of the City, Boris, obviously before he was killed by Alastair. That story was almost enough to grab my attention fully, but the vampire feigning sleep on the parlour room floor, was too much of an unwanted distraction to pay enough attention to Samson's intriguing tales. Alain and Daniel started joining in with his conversation though, adding bits and pieces to the scene Samson was painting. They too, had known Boris and were sad at his demise. Even though of different lines, and Alain and Daniel's paths had not exactly crossed Samson's before now, they all knew the same haunts and locales that Samson had frequented. Fun, fun, fun in Nosferatu London, to be sure.
But I only vaguely paid attention, most of mine was still on the coiled spring on the floor.
Time must have passed, because before I knew it, I felt the pull. I didn't react outwardly, I needed a moment to prepare myself for what lay ahead. Not the facing of Alastair, that was natural to me, not even the thought that Lutin would undoubtedly be nearby, but the fact that I would have to take Avery with me on the hunt. Antonio and Ricardo would shadow us, Michel who couldn't afford to tempt himself with a closer proximity, was staying here, in the house, but would keep abreast of what was happening through his shadow guards.
The plan was to get Avery close enough to determine it was Amicus and that he had the amulet with him. And that was it. Michel had made me swear to not approach the ancient, not attempt to do my job and save the innocents he would undoubtedly be killing. We'd argued, of course, but he'd won. My track record so far with Alastair had not been good, in fact I had almost died on two occasions and on the third been captured by the influence of a Fey Prince. So no, not a good track record at all, we needed a better plan than my usual, stake out, guns blazing - well, at least stakes blazing - approach.
When the pull had got to such a point that I could no longer deny it and Michel had started watching me - a little too closely, no doubt picking up on my wayward emotions, reacting to denying myself the hunt - I sighed, ran a hand through my hair and stood up.
Samson sprang to his feet in response, his conversation stalled with Daniel and Alain for the time being. I didn't look at Michel, it's not that I was angry with him for sending me out with Avery, for not coming with me instead. Well, maybe just a little. But, it was more if I looked at him, he'd see. He'd see what doing this was actually doing to me.
I would crumble under his gaze, his knowledge that I wasn't up to this task and I couldn't face failing this and failing to help another lot of humans in the same night. So, I didn't look at him, I simply walked towards the door and said, “Come on Plucking Pervert, we've got a job to do.”
I was out the front door before I felt him at my back, a solid wall of heat and energy, a presence that towered over me, making me want to hunch my shoulders, run screaming into the night. I forced my back straight and just headed in the direction of the pull.
Michel's house was on the edge of Knightsbridge, closer to South Kensington than Samson's house and therefore closer to the pull. Alastair was hanging around Knightsbridge, he certainly wasn't venturing far. I wondered why? Vampires usually moved about, within the VC, or vampire central area of a city, the fact that he was restricting himself to one location was unusual. The fact that he was killing humans, again and again, in the same location, was suicidal. There was just no intelligent reason for it at all.
“Where is he, Hunter?” Avery asked in that commanding voice.
“Not far now,” I replied, curtly.
I couldn't be stuffed explaining I didn't have a map in my head, had no idea what the street name was that Alastair was standing on, what the scene would entail. My Nosferatin powers don't work like that, I just get pulled in the direction of the hunting vampire and my body automatically takes the quickest route there. I don't question it, I just do it.
Avery, though, obviously liked to question.
“Do you know the street?”
“No.”
“Do you know how many humans are there?”
Sometimes I could tell, but not always. Usually not. “No.”
“Do you know if the fairy is with him?”
I sighed. “No.”
“You don't seem to know much then, do you, Hunter?”
“I know he's about to feed from an innocent. I know he won't stop until they are dead. I know exactly how best to place a stake in his heart, so that it enters without hindrance and he turns to dust, without me having to inhale it. Shall I demonstrate?”
He didn't react at all.
“I only need to be close enough to identify the amulet, Hunter, you will not be drawing your stake.”
“Don't tempt me,” I muttered.
He was quiet for a while. We were getting closer, but I wasn't going to tell him that. I'd be quite happy to share absolutely no intel' with him at all. He can just go with the Nosferatin flow for all I cared.
But, my body started slowing of its own accord, a natural response to the proximity of the feeding vampire. You don't just run full on into a hunting scene, you get there quickly, but you approach carefully. Avery turned to look at me, his eyebrows raised in a motion similar to how Michel questions me.
“How far now, Hunter? Or do we need to be practically on top of them for your skills to be accurate?”
I glared at him and tried the door to a building on our right hand side. It was locked, but I was certain it would have access to the roof, where we could get a good idea of what Alastair was doing, without giving our scent away. I didn't want Alastair to sense me, I certainly did not want Lutin to. So, from a safe distance it was.
Avery stepped forward, clearly having reached the same conclusion I had made, but before he could use his mojo on the door lock, I simply ran my hand over the handle, spread a little Light and ecstatically heard the lock click. I tried to hide my satisfaction at having beaten the vampire at his own game.
“First time?” he asked, giving me the raised eyebrow look again and waltzing past.
His Sanguis Vitam shot out in a concentrated burst, disabling the alarm. I wouldn't have thought of that and probably would have had the cops corner us in under ten minutes flat. I cursed myself inwardly at that oversight, but just followed him inside without a word.
He found the stairs and we were soon quietly creeping along the rooftop towards the edge that I hoped would overlook where Alastair was. I've never approached a hunt from this angle before. My pull was not taking me here, this was all me. My pull wanted me to be on the ground, around the corner, confronting the bad guy. I sympathised with it, completely.
“Well done, Hunter,” Avery said quietly, but there was steel in his voice.
I peered over the side of the building and cursed under my breath. The street below was adorned with awnings, brightly coloured stripes in green and gold. Every shop window on both sides of the road was bedecked with them. Alastair was indeed right below us, I had brought us to the exact spot overlooking his carnage.
It was just a shame it was underneath an awning and we couldn't see a bloody thing.
“Fuck,” I said more vehemently, as I tried to get a better angle from further along the rooftop. It was futile, he was well hidden. Only the legs of one of his victims was visible as it spilled out onto the paved road below.
Avery hadn't moved from his original spot, directly above the awning that covered our prey. He just watched me, arms folded across his chest, expression closed, as I paced and tried d
ifferent angles and spots along the top.
“Maybe we'll get a look at him when he moves,” I offered, hopefully.
Avery said nothing.
If I had been with Michel, he would have offered a solution, at the very least a suggestion to try. Avery just let me wallow, his silence said more than words ever could.
I cast a glance around for Lutin, but couldn't spot the Fey. If he was there, he was well hidden. Maybe he only came out when a threat to Alastair appeared. At least he wasn't springing out from behind the air conditioning unit on top of our roof. I quickly did a double check to make sure.
All the while Avery watched me with those slightly glowing hazel eyes, a small smattering of ochre and amber deepening their tones.
Finally, I admitted defeat and just made myself stand there and listen to the sounds of lives disappearing down the gullet of a vamp. My hand had naturally taken my stake out from my jacket, unbeknownst to me. I was fingering it, like it was a lifeline, centring myself from the whirlwind of emotions that were threatening to take me away.
It wasn't long, I knew it wouldn't be. That's why I hadn't reconsidered a different location before he was through. It was a mere few seconds, less than a minute, but it felt like a lifetime. Well, at least four. I could sense the humans now, or at least smell their differing smells. Human bodies, as they die, don't smell nice. They lose their signature scents, more basic, perfunctory smells take over. Even though death by vampire can be horrific, messy and utter carnage, Alastair was swift and clean, precise and immaculate. He didn't waste blood in spillage, but despite that clean and swift death, there are other smells.
The body sweats as the adrenaline pumps in reaction to their imminent death. Major organs fail, before the heart eventually and unavoidably gives in. The bladder, the bowl, even the stomach can regurgitate. All manner of base smells indicating death.
I could smell them all and I didn't deny them access to my brain. I acknowledged each and every one of those scents. Noted them, filed them, accepted them. Four more humans dead and I hadn't done a thing to save them.
Alastair shifted below us on the ground and Avery's attention finally left me. But I knew instantly when he had disappeared. Like before, there one minute, gone the next. His Dark signature just vanished from under the awning. Gone.
I didn't say anything. I could sense he had gone from here, I was betting Avery could too. We just stood there in silence for a while. I wouldn't have called it companionable. Or awkward. Just reflective, I suppose.
“Well,” Avery finally said into the thick night air. “Talk of your skills has been greatly exaggerated.”
Don't push me, Plucker.
“No defence? Bad day? That time of the month? Fight with the boyfriend?”
I ignored his barbs and turned towards the door on top of the roof. I'd made it three paces when he swung me back towards him with a firm grip on my upper arm. I could feel his nails digging into my flesh, but I would not show him it hurt.
“Michel may let you operate below par, but I will not. I do not take kindly to being led on a wild goose chase.”
I bristled at that, more anger seeping in. “Fuck you!" I spat. "This wasn't a wild goose chase. I brought you to him. How was I to know there'd be something obstructing our view?”
“Do you think I even care for whatever pathetic excuse you dream up?" Avery said in a barely contained growl. "This is not a hobby club, this is real life. If you are unable to deliver the amulet, then you are of little use to me. I will only suffer fools once, Ms. Monk, you've had your turn. Now, perform or get the fuck out of my way.”
He released my arm abruptly and then simply flew up into the dark sky and disappeared. I was numb with shock, not from the flying routine, I've seen that enough times not to build a sweat, but the way he had talked to me. I don't think I had ever met a more arrogant man before in my life and that's saying something. I live surrounded by vampires, arrogance is their middle name. But Avery, took the cake on the arrogance front. He took it, ate it and licked the plate clean.
I stood there for a while longer, the smells of the dead humans still wafting up into the night air, surrounding me, bemoaning me, condemning me. The fact that I wasn't intending on actually coming to their rescue on this occasion was irrelevant. I had wanted to, but couldn't because we needed reconnaissance, intel', a plan of attack based on more information than we already had. But now, their deaths were in vain.
Now, we would have to try all over again, to assess the enemy, to identify and confirm. I would have to lead Avery to Alastair again tomorrow night and if I fucked up, he would make sure I knew it. Not that I would need reminding, but still, no one likes their failures to be flashed in their face. Avery had every intention of humiliating me and then some, I was sure.
But more than that, what really ate at my heart and mind right now, was the thought that four more humans would die tomorrow, because I had failed tonight. Could I stand by and let that happen a second night in a row? Could I dishonour Nut and Nosferatins worldwide, by simply watching from afar?
I let out a frustrated scream that floated away on the still night air.
Fuck Avery and his demanding arrogance. Fuck Alastair, the murdering piece of shit.
And fuck me, for being responsible for the deaths of four more humans this night.
Fuck. Me.
Chapter 23
Making New Friends
I found myself on the doorstep of a church. I don't know why. Churches are for Christians. I'm a Christian, or at least I was. My aunt used to take me to the Anglican church in Cambridge, a big old white building on the corner of the main thoroughfare. Lovely old style English eaves, stained glass windows and a well tended garden surrounding a peaceful shining beacon of faith.
Nowadays, I don't attend regularly. What's the point when I tend to pray to Nut more than Jesus or God. Maybe God does exist, maybe he's up there next to Nut, for the Norms, for the regular humans. But I'm not regular. I'm a Nosferatin and therefore Nut is my goddess now.
But old habits die hard and here I was sitting on the cold concrete steps of a big sandstone building, with commanding arches and huge stained glass windows. The door was locked, being after dark, I wasn't surprised, but just being near it was enough. I leaned my back against the double oak doors and sucked in a deep breath.
Returning to Michel's London based home was not an option right now. I couldn't face him, to see the disappointment on his face. To feel the humiliation Avery had already witnessed, taunted, provoked. I just couldn't. But more so, because I wasn't sure I could lie to him either and get away with it. It would be expected that I try again tomorrow and lead Avery to Alastair and again I would be expected to not intervene, but watch from afar as he killed four more humans.
I couldn't. I knew it. I couldn't stand by for a second time and not try to save the innocent lives he consumed so recklessly, so easily. I just couldn't, but Michel would argue, his points would sound so reasonable, make so much sense and I would be forced to concede, to agree to his terms, his plan. But I can't. So, I would have to lie and right now I lacked any ability to maintain a façade at all.
I sat there on those bitterly cold stone steps, because I lacked the courage to face my kindred and stand up for what I believed was right. I sat there because I knew I couldn't hide my emotions from him, because I knew he'd read me like a book and right now my page was open on the chapter that read: She places a stake through the Dark vampire's heart and saves the humans' lives.
But I am not stupid. I have learnt a thing or two and when Antonio and Ricardo appeared on the pathway before me, I just sighed. I needed all the help and protection I could get. Being alone in London was not a wise move right now. The reason behind Citysider's absence still puzzled my mind and sent a warning through my bones. And then there was Alastair and Lutin. I hadn't been able to get the better of them yet and I didn't think I'd be doing it alone any time soon.
I got up stiffly from my cold position on the
steps and stretched my body, easing out the dull ache that had taken up residence with the cold. I walked down towards my shadow guards, my hands in my jacket pockets, fingering my stakes. Not that I wanted to stake them, but that familiar cool metal helped soothe my mind and soul.
When I stood before their passive faces, I said, "I need to walk. Can we just walk for a bit?"
They both nodded in unison, a small smattering of relief shining in their eyes. They had thought I'd refuse their protection. Well, in a past life I might have, I could hardly blame them their response.
I had no idea where I would go to, but I was determined to bypass Michel's. After several minutes I found myself walking through an almost deserted Hyde Park, my shadows hidden seamlessly with the night. The air was crisp and cool, the sounds of London in the middle of the night, a drone of ambient noise. I was getting used to it, but it still was louder than Auckland had ever been. More people, more lights, more noise. How was the city surviving without Citysider? Why had I not had another pull other than those to Alastair?
My mind kept skipping from one thing to the next. Citysider. Alastair. Lutin. Avery. So much turmoil in my mind and I didn't have a solution to any of the problems they presented. I said a little prayer to Nut asking for guidance, but received nothing in reply.
Then, before I even realised it, I found myself on the doorstep to Samson's home. My feet, or Nut, had brought me here. I was relieved, the cold had started to seep in and I needed to see my vampire. Hopefully, he would back me on the whole having to kill Alastair plan. Unlike Michel and Avery, surely Samson would see it my way?
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