All Rotting Meat

by Maleham , Eve

  He could see that they liked their home. It was colourful, and he couldn’t look anywhere without seeing personal touches; there were framed photographs of them on the walls, a few pairs of shoes piled up in front of the door. A strange calm settled around him now that he was in their home.

  They walked up the stairs, and only the quietest, smoothest creak came from them as they crept down the hallway. Banes stopped and listened; there was nothing but silence.

  The door of their bedroom was closed. Rosemary leaned forward, her hand on the door handle, as she slowly opened it. A subtle change in her body brought her to Banes’s attention – her stance was rigid, and frozen. There was a long, heavy second of nothing.

  A burst of water came firing out of the room. Rosemary leapt to the side, as Banes flattened himself against the wall.

  There was another burst of water; Rosemary darted back along the hallway as Cain came into view, a water pistol raised in one hand, the other clutching a stake. He looked even more sickly in person than he did in the photographs Banes had seen him in, his ash-white skin tight across his gaunt face, his hair brittle. His body seemed as if it was made from twigs.

  ‘Get the hell out of my house,’ Cain said. There was a slight, but unmissable, shake in his voice. His gaze met Banes’s eyes, who felt his mouth dry as he saw acknowledgement in Cain’s.

  Rosemary growled just as another stream of water was fired towards her, and with an eerie grace and fluidity, Rosemary vaulted forwards. Cain’s eyes widened in shock, and he froze as she landed a heavy punch into the centre of his torso, her arm knocking the stake loose. Banes heard his breath leave his body. Cain curled around himself as Rosemary’s leg came up and crashed down on his head. The water pistol fell to the floor; she kicked it back to Banes, who snatched it up and held it outright towards them, as Rosemary twisted Cain’s arms back behind his back, forcing him to kneel.

  ‘If you scream, then we will hurt you more,’ she said. ‘Look – you’re the brother of the co-commander of Rebirth. You know how serious this is, don’t you? Cain, from this point on, things can go really badly for you, or they can go fairly smoothly. The choice on this is yours to make; we really just want to ask you a couple of questions.’

  ‘Fuck you,’ he panted.

  ‘You’re a traitor, Cain,’ she said, ‘but this isn’t the end of the world for you. You’re in a very privileged position here, you just have to comply with us.’

  ‘And Khalida?’ he asked, staring up at Banes with a look of utter loathing. ‘What happens to her?’

  ‘That depends on how well we comply,’ Rosemary said, ‘and how many questions you answer. Look, the game’s up for you, now, Cain. But we can discuss this like rational people back at Rebirth’s headquarters; it can be very civil if you let it be. Your girlfriend can join us as well.’

  ‘I just wanted a normal life,’ Cain sighed.

  ‘You could live for a very long time, Cain,’ Rosemary said. ‘Perhaps your normal life is yet to come.’

  ‘No,’ he said, ‘I was happy here. The happiest I’d been a century.’

  ‘This doesn’t have to be the end,’ Rosemary said, pulling him up onto his feet.

  ‘Yes, it does,’ Cain said, drawing himself to his full height and looking Banes in the eye. ‘By the way – Banes is a spy, and we know all about Rebirth; your government connections, your training camp in Scotland, your leaders, your…’

  Rosemary’s eyes widened towards him, filling with ire, her mouth opened and twisted back into a snarl. Before she could speak, Banes flew forward in one motion, shoving Cain out of the way as he brought his hand around Rosemary’s head and slammed it into the wall. Cain scrambled back into the bedroom while Banes’s hand tightened its grip on the back of her skull. Her hair was silky and comfortingly warm. She yelled, her limbs flailing, trying to twist back to attack him. Her legs kicked back and hit his knee. Banes lost some of his foot’s gripping as she pulled her legs up and wrapped them around his arm. He lost his balance and fell to the floor. She hit him hard across the face. Blood bubbled up in his mouth. His vision blurred and for a fraction of moment he saw his future flickering with his past. He saw himself being dragged back to Rebirth by anonymous hands, the pain of the holy water, loosing Kojo and Tycho to a dark and hollow nothing, loosing his own existence, loosing everything he ever experienced and pure meaning itself to a void of nonbeing.

  He reached up. His arm was strong; it felt stronger than it ever had done in his life as he brought her cranium to the wall again. There was a loud, heavy thud, and the wall shook slightly. Her resistance was weakening as he brought her to the wall again, and by the fifth hit, she was unconscious. Banes dropped Rosemary on the floor. There was an indentation in the wall.

  ‘Jesus Christ, what a fucking mess,’ he said, breathing heavily. He went to reach for the stake, but found Cain holding it out, pointing it towards him. ‘Cain, give me the stake.’

  ‘No,’ Cain said.

  ‘If I have to fight you, I will win,’ Banes said. ‘Also, there’s a back-up team parked a street away. I don’t know if Rosemary called them, but if she did, then they’ll be here any second, and we’re both going to die.’

  ‘You betrayed her,’ Cain said, drawing the stake closer towards him; Banes could see the faint russet stains of blood on the wood, ‘you betrayed Khalida. You lead Rebirth here.’

  ‘I tried not to,’ Banes said, edging around the side of Rosemary’s body, ‘and I don’t want to kill you, either. We have very little time here. We have to go – now.’

  ‘You’re the goddamn devil,’ Cain said, his voice shaking slightly. ‘That’s what you all are – devils straight from hell.’

  ‘I know,’ Banes said, ‘but we have to go now.’

  ‘I just wanted a normal human life,’ Cain said, taking a step closer to him; Banes saw the spark of tears well up in his eyes, ‘and live with someone I love. Build a life together.’

  ‘I know you’re not going to kill me,’ Banes said, snapping a piece of railing off the wooden banister and holding it firmly in his hand, ‘and I know that you can’t, either.’

  ‘You don’t know – ’ Cain began.

  ‘– Look,’ Banes cut across him, ‘Rebirth know where you live – they know everything about you, and Clarence, and Cecilia, and Khalida, and they will kill you over internal conflict in Rebirth between Cecilia and Tycho. You’re a pawn in a power struggle.’

  ‘Where’s Khalida now?’ Cain asked, raising the stake towards him.

  ‘Still at work,’ Banes said, pulling back further away from him, his feet crunching on the plaster and flakes of brick, which now littered the floor. ‘They plan to kill her as she leaves, if not before. You have to leave right now, Cain. Get her, and go into hiding.’

  ‘We could have been happy,’ Cain muttered, his eyes looking at nothing.

  ‘Yeah, you could have been,’ Banes said, as Rosemary’s eyes fluttered open. ‘Go and find Khalida, leave the country, and don’t look back. Cain!’ he snapped, ‘This life is over for you! But if you want Khalida to live, then you have to go right fucking now!’

  Rosemary’s eyes found him, angry and burning, and in one, sharp movement, he brought the stake down into her chest. Her body convulsed, her back arched, her eyes dulled – and then she was still. Banes let the railing fall from his grip and onto the floor beside her.

  ‘Jesus Christ,’ Banes sighed, shaking slightly. ‘Look – go, or don’t go. Either way, I’m finished here.’

  As he left, he saw a dawning realisation creep through Cain’s eyes. He turned back into the bedroom and hurried through the small, silent house until he was back in the kitchen and beside the back door. He took a deep breath, listening to the sound of his heart race. He had no idea where the back-up team were, or how fast they could arrive at the house.

  He steadied himself, slipped out into the garden, and began to walk calmly towards the van. The moment he walked past its doors, he broke into a sprint. The stagnant n
ight air whistled past him. His feet barely touched the ground as he darted through side streets and leapt across buildings. There were a few more hours before the sun would start to rise.

  Chapter Twenty

  State of Meltdown

  Khalida had made up a duffle bag for a quick escape, packed with their strongest and most durable clothing, passports, burner phones, and cash. Cain had hated the need of it, but there it sat, waiting under their bed.

  ‘It’s like you think we’re living in a spy thriller,’ he had said, leaning on the doorway as she packed. She shot an exasperated glance back at him.

  ‘We should be prepared,’ she said. ‘These people are dangerous, Cain.’

  ‘I know,’ he said, ‘but I didn’t ask for this.’

  She sighed, softness replacing the irritation.

  ‘I know you didn’t, and I’m sorry.’

  ‘So,’ he said, sitting on the edge of the bed, feeling the extremely familiar waves of anxiety roll through his insides, ‘this…Rebirth…’

  His inescapable brother and sister, and all of their bloodlust. He wanted to tell her that it wasn’t worth the danger. They would win, and the best she and him could do would be to care about their own personal happiness. But Khalida’s resentment of the unfair had been what had attracted him to her. He wanted to share her zeal as he once had. He wanted to tell her that it wasn’t his fault that the world had worn him down, that he had once cared enough to be stirred to action, too, that he still wanted to believe. But it was the smell of mud, blood, gunpowder, despair and war that just made him want to retreat to their house every day.

  ‘This is really happening, then,’ he said.

  ‘Yeah,’ she said, staring into the bag.

  ‘We’ll get through this,’ he said, taking her hand.

  ‘Let’s hope so,’ she said.

  Cain snatched the bag up from under the bed and pulled his pyjamas off, putting on long, casual clothes that covered as much skin as possible. He pulled out one of the burner phones and called Khalida, but the call went straight to voicemail. Cain glanced at the clock; her shift hadn’t ended yet.

  ‘Khalida, it’s me, Cain,’ he said. ‘Look, you’re in danger. Rebirth are coming after you. They’re planning to attack as you leave work. They’ve been to the house…Banes was here as well. Don’t come home, it’s not safe here. Go straight to Poppy’s house. I love you, and be safe.’

  He hurriedly texted her the same message, then searched for the hospital’s number. He rang; the line was busy, and he was put on hold.

  ‘Fuck,’ he breathed, pulling the bag up onto his shoulder.

  The police, or Rebirth agents, could be descending upon their house at any moment, but he still took a moment to absorb the look of their bedroom. The smells of them both...he ran his hand over the bed sheets, remembering the feel of them and how warm they were in sleepy morning lie-ins, the feeling of Khalida slipping under the covers and falling instantly asleep after a night shift, the sex they had had, and how he would wrap his arms around her, sitting up in the morning, eating toast and sipping coffee.

  Tears stung in his eyes again. Every time he found himself happy and settled, the rug would be pulled out from under him. Every time he found himself comfortable with someone, he would find himself being dragged away from them, though, this time, he had thought that it could have worked. He knew that, one day, he would have to tell Khalida the truth, but every time he had ever come close, he hadn’t been able to. The nearly constant, deadening hunger and weakness were worth it if he could pass as human. He had never wanted the spell to be broken.

  The idea of leaving a home again brought a shocking wave of pain crashing over him. Unexpectedly, he felt a burning heaviness rise up in his throat. He had never wanted to leave in the first place.

  He gave one last glance around the room and left, stepping over the body in the hallway. He hurried down to the kitchen and drained the last of the coconut water from the open carton, then stuffed the remaining two cartons into his bag. Khalida’s phone was still going straight to voicemail, and the hospital’s line was still busy.

  Khalida had taken the car to work with her, and the buses were on strike, so he ran. It never came easily to him; he lacked most of the grace he had seen in other vampires, especially while carrying a heavy bag.

  Quickly, his thirst and hunger intensified inside of him, and his thoughts turned exclusively to the image of hot, iron-rich blood, and the smooth, slight thickness of it as it passed through his mouth and down his throat. The heat, that brilliant, metallic tang. That gorgeous mixture of every perfect orgasm, every moment of total joy, a sudden warmth and light in a miserable, dark world. The craving and desire to bite, to drink and eat, never left him. In his early days, he had hoped that after time the craving would leave but it only intensified and the best he could do was to placate it.

  By the time he approached the hospital, he was sweating heavily and out of breath. He burst through into the Accident and Emergency department, which was in a state of meltdown. Every single chair was full, people were slumped on the floor, and the walls were lined with occupied stretchers. It was a pandemonium of screaming children, people groaning, complaining, yelling, the wail of the phones and machinery, and staff having to yell over each other to be heard. Cain ignored all of this and pushed forwards to the first person he could find in a paramedics uniform.

  ‘Khalida!’ he said, grabbing the woman by her shoulders, sending a spasm of indignation across her face. ‘Khalida Natakarn! Is she here?!’

  The nurse pulled back away from him. ‘What do you want, sir?’

  ‘Khalida Natakarn, she’s a paramedic’ Cain said, trying to push the words out of his mouth as fast as he could. ‘She’s my girlfriend, there’s been an emergency, I’ve tried calling but…’

  ‘Khalida…’ the woman said. ‘Her shift finished about half an hour ago. Hey!’ she called after him, as he turned and ran back through the department. ‘What’s going on?!’

  He ran two streets away from the hospital to a multi-storey car park, where Khalida would have parked the car. A set of flashing blue lights overtook him, and he felt a sickening sense of dread as they turned left towards the car park building. Cain slowed his running to a walk.

  ‘Oh, fuck…’

  He pulled his hoodie up over his head as he paced around the solid, concrete building, his speed increasing once he was away from the eyes of police. He couldn’t smell anything to indicate any serious; no smoke, or petrol, or blood.

  Khalida’s handbag was lying on the floor, its contents thrown out across the pavement. Her phone was completely shattered, as was her small, plastic water pistol. Several coins from her wallet were scattered around, the wrapping of a sanitary pad was flickering in the breeze, and several old receipts were drifting away.

  He ran up through the building, rounding up to where the police were cordoning off a floor.

  ‘Stand back there, please, sir,’ one of them said. Cain ducked his head away to the side to avoid them getting a direct look of his face.

  ‘What’s going on here?’ he asked. His heart skipped a beat as he saw their car, crashed against the wall of the ramp exit. The passenger side had been crushed in, though the driver seat door was opened. ‘I parked my car here,’ he quickly added, ‘am I able to get to it?’

  ‘Not for the moment, sir,’ the officer said. ‘There’s been a crash, and we’re currently trying to figure out what happened.’

  ‘That’s okay,’ Cain said, feeling the palms of his hands sweat, as the sound of his own voice was overshadowed by the thundering of his heartbeat. He couldn’t see any blood in the driver’s seat, but Khalida was nowhere to be seen, and someone had thrown her handbag out of the building. ‘I’ll…I’ll get the bus home.’

  ‘There’s the strike on,’ he heard the officer call after him as he began to walk away, his legs weak and shaking. He made it back onto the pavement, and one street away, before he collapsed against a wall and th
rew up. His head was spinning. Too late.

  Too exhausted to run anymore, he wandered the streets until he could flag down a taxi, which he collapsed into, giving Poppy Stone’s address.

  ‘You okay, mate?’ the driver asked him, with firm, authoritative caution in his voice.

  Cain caught a glimpse of himself in the rear-view mirror. He was greyish-white, veins clearly visible under his skin, and his hair was stuck down against his head with sweat.

  ‘I’m fine,’ he said. ‘I’m not on drugs.’

  ‘Okay, then.’

  He could barely keep his eyes open as the taxi moved through London. He took out a carton of coconut water from the bag and drained half of it, leaning back on the seat. He had missed Khalida by minutes. The taxi pulled up in front of the Stones’ house, and he thrust a fifty-pound note into the driver’s hand. Cain staggered through their driveway and rang the bell, leaning against the doorframe.

  Mitch opened the door in a dressing gown. Cain caught a glimpse of the stake he was clutching.

  ‘Cain…’ he said, staring at him, ‘what’s happened?’

  ‘Rebirth took Khalida,’ he panted, ‘as she was leaving work. They came to our house…Banes was there.’

  ‘Jesus fuck,’ Mitch said. ‘Get in the goddamn house,’ he said, pulling Cain into the hallway. ‘Poppy!’

  Cain walked into their living room and collapsed onto the sofa, drinking the remaining coconut water. Poppy appeared in the lounge, wrapped in a long, silk dressing gown, her eyes heavy with dark circles. She took a seat on the opposite chair.

  ‘They took Khalida?’ she asked.

  Cain nodded. ‘I think so.’

  Poppy narrowed her eyes. ‘You think so?’

  ‘Banes came to our house with a woman from Rebirth,’ he said. ‘He killed the woman, and told me that Rebirth were after Khalida, too.’

  ‘The woman?’ Poppy asked.