Cain shrugged. ‘Short, blonde, pale, kind of gothic looking.’
‘That sounds like Rosemary May,’ Poppy muttered to Mitch.
‘Okay,’ Cain said, ‘I ran to the hospital to find Khalida, since she wasn’t answering her phone, but she had already left. I found her car crashed in a multi-storey car park, with her handbag thrown out into the street, and her nowhere around.’
‘Perhaps it’s possible that she managed to get away free?’ Mitch said, standing behind the sofa.
‘I don’t see how,’ Cain said. ‘I saw the crashed car. There wasn’t any blood or any bodies. If she ran away on foot, then vampires could’ve easily caught up with her. She didn’t have her water pistol, and she would have been tired after her shift. Even if she managed to reach home, Rebirth would be crawling all over it. I know Rebirth have her. Banes told me to get to her, but I was too late.’
‘We’re all in danger here,’ Poppy said. ‘We need to leave right now. I’ll call Leah.’
‘Not without Khalida!’ Cain said.
‘Cain,’ Poppy said, ‘there’s no way that we can get to her. It’s hard to think about, but if Rebirth has her, then she’s gone, and we can’t get her back.’
‘I’m not going to give up!’
Poppy sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.
‘And Banes?’ she asked. ‘What happened to him?’
‘He said that he was leaving the country,’ Mitch said. ‘We should have killed him, anyway.’
‘He was just with the woman – Rosemary – and I told her that Banes was a spy and that we knew about everything, then he killed her, told me to go to Khalida, and fled,’ Cain said.
‘Why did you tell her that?’ Poppy said, shifting in her seat and looking at Cain.
‘To buy some time,’ Cain said. ‘She was trying to kill me.’
‘And you were able to talk to Rosemary, right?’ Poppy said, her eyes locked onto his. Cain saw an unreadable burning in them.
‘Yeah,’ Cain said, ‘briefly.’
‘Your only connection to this is that you’re Khalida’s partner,’ she said, ‘and Rebirth must have known that Khalida was at work. So, why did they send Rosemary May to dispose of you, who’s only involved by association, and not Khalida, the hunter?’
Cain ran his hand through his hair.
‘How on earth should I know? Look, they –’
‘Who are you, Cain?’ Poppy said, her eyes blazing.
‘What do you mean?’ he asked, tightness constricting his lungs.
They stared at each other from across the lounge. Cain saw her hand tighten its grip over her cane.
‘You’re a vampire.’
Before Cain could move, Mitch leaned over the sofa and brought the stake down to Cain’s throat, its tip resting against the skin of his neck.
‘Okay,’ Cain said, trying to pull back a little from the stake, but Mitch’s hand on his shoulder held him in place. He was aware that he could smell Mitch’s aftershave, feel the warmth of his body against him, and the sharp tip of wood against his skin. ‘Okay – I’m a vampire. But I’m good!’ he said, as Mitch’s grip on his shoulder tightened. ‘I don’t try to harm people, I don’t kill people. Look!’ he said, gesturing to the carton of coconut water, ‘I drink this as much as possible! I was a vegetarian in my human life, for Christs sake!’
‘And Khalida?’ Poppy asked, her voice ringing. ‘What does she know?’
‘Nothing!’ Cain said. ‘Honest to God, she doesn’t know that I’m a vampire. I’ve been lying to her ever since I met her.’
‘And what makes you important to Rebirth?’ she asked.
Cain bit his lip, not meeting her gaze.
‘Answer me!’
‘Cecilia and Clarence Marr are my adoptive sister and brother,’ he said slowly, ‘and Rebirth want me because of some kind of internal conflict between Cecilia and Tycho.’
‘Fucking hell,’ Mitch said. ‘You’ve got to be shitting me.’
‘Jesus,’ Poppy said, sinking back in her seat.
‘This is one hell of a clusterfuck,’ Mitch said.
‘So, when Khalida told you about vampires, and when she became a hunter, you just kept quiet?!’ Poppy said. ‘Didn’t think that maybe it was time to end the relationship and move on, or something? When she told you about Rebirth, you didn’t realise that you were putting her in danger?!’
‘I know!’ Cain yelled. ‘Don’t you think I didn’t know that?! And none of this would have happened in the first place if you hadn’t dragged her into it!’
‘Don’t you dare leave this at my feet!’ Poppy snapped. ‘She chose to hunt. It was her decision.’
‘You manipulated her!’ Cain said. ‘You made her feel like she had to be responsible to stop anyone else being orphaned by vampire attacks because of her past, just so you had someone else to play with! You goddamn sociopaths!’
‘She’s my friend!’ Poppy yelled. ‘And as for ‘dragging her into it’, it seems the only reason they got to her in the end was because of you, anyway!’
‘Cain!’ Mitch said, cutting through their shouting. ‘What the fuck are you doing here?’
‘I came to get help!’ he said. ‘I thought that you would try and save her.’
‘It’s impossible to get into Rebirth,’ Poppy said. ‘The base is made of a nuclear bunker, for Christ’s sake. We won’t know where to go, where they’re keeping her – it might not even be in London.’
‘So, what do we do?’ Cain asked.
‘What makes you think there’s a we?’ Mitch muttered.
Poppy frowned. ‘You said that Rebirth want you for some sort of internal conflict, so I can understand why they would come after you for that, but why did they take Khalida? Why not just kill her?’
Cain shrugged. ‘How should I know?’
Poppy gave him a long stare, then sighed.
‘And how should we trust you, Cain, after all of this?’
‘Because I love Khalida,’ Cain said. ‘Because I’ve known her since before she knew anything about vampires. Because I’ve always hated being a vampire, but never had the strength to kill myself. Look – I know that I’m untrustworthy, but I am out of options. I just want to save Khalida.’
‘We all do,’ Poppy said, ‘but I don’t know how to do that.’
‘C’mon, Cain,’ Mitch said, taking the stake away from his throat, ‘it’s your brother and sister. You’ve got to have some idea how they think.’
‘I’ve not had any contact with them for years,’ Cain said, ‘but Khalida and Clarence used to date.’
‘Jesus,’ Mitch said. ‘So, being a lying bastard runs in the family, then?’
‘He might do something for her,’ Cain said. ‘I don’t know what, though.’
‘Cecilia outranks him,’ Poppy said, ‘and I can’t imagine she would want Khalida to live, in any situation. Besides, we don’t know the full details of what is happening with Rebirth internally.’
‘We could try to see if they want an exchange,’ Mitch said. ‘Khalida for Cain.’
‘I’d be fine with that,’ Cain said.
Poppy shook her head and turned to Cain. ‘What exactly did Rosemary May say to you?’
‘She said that she was going to take me back to Rebirth’s base,’ Cain said, ‘ask me some questions, and if I complied, then Khalida and I would…she said I was in a privileged position. I should have just done what she said.’
‘For a liar, you’re far too trusting,’ Poppy said. ‘And I don’t see any way of now contacting Rebirth without us all being killed. Aside from you, we’re all disposable to them.’
‘So, that’s it?!’ Cain said. ‘We’re just leaving Khalida behind?’
‘We don’t have a choice, Cain,’ Poppy said, ‘and we can’t bring Rebirth down by ourselves.’
‘And we can’t stay here, either,’ Mitch said, taking out his mobile. ‘I’m calling Leah, and we’re leaving.’
‘Then what?’ Cain asked.
Mitch looked at Poppy. ‘Are we taking him with us? He’s a vampire, and we can’t trust him.’
‘What do you want to do, Cain?’ she asked him, with a new tiredness in her voice.
‘I want to bring Khalida back,’ he said, ‘but you’re right; my siblings hate me, I’ll have no sway in Rebirth, and as much as I want to believe that I can storm into their base and rescue Khalida, I don’t even know how to get there in the first place. But you always seem to have a plan, and I want to help.’
‘And how am I supposed to know that you’re not working for Rebirth?’ Poppy asked.
‘You can’t,’ Cain said. ‘I only have my word.’
‘Then we can’t know that you’re safe,’ Poppy said.
‘Please,’ Cain said, his voice breaking, the sting of tears threatening his eyes, ‘I don’t care what it takes. Drag me along in chains if you have to, but if Khalida is gone…then I want to live by her. If she wanted to save others and stop Rebirth, then I want to do the same. Please trust me when I say that I try to live as humanely as I possibly can. I never kill anyone, I drink animal blood and coconut water, and when I have to hunt, I never take enough to do any real harm. Look,’ he said, opening his mouth and pointing to his teeth, ‘I even had my fangs filed down.’
‘Shit,’ Mitch muttered. ‘You know, I actually think you’re being honest.’
‘So, are we taking him with us?’ Poppy asked.
‘It’s your call,’ Mitch said.
Poppy sighed. ‘Fine,’ she said. ‘With Khalida gone, we need all the help we can get.’
‘Thank you,’ Cain breathed.
Poppy rose to her feet. ‘But, if you cross us or lie to us again, then we won’t hesitate to kill you, Cain. You understand that, don’t you?’
He nodded.
‘Absolutely.’
‘Right,’ she said. ‘We’ll leave in fifteen minutes.’
Chapter Twenty-One
A Brother For a Brother
By the time her shift had finished, Khalida was exhausted. The pace of her work was no less relentless than what she had become accustomed to but, as always, she had hoped for some relief, just half an hour where things would ease off. But at three in the morning they had had to wait, trapped in their vehicle, in a line of ambulances outside an Accidental and Emergency department close to collapse. Inside the staff faced a hellish night of trying to prioritise who needed a bed and who could go without, running out of room, running out of stretchers, running low of supplies, donor blood having to be brought in from other hospitals.
That night they had wasted a precious forty-minutes responding to a prank call, then to a drunk man who had repeatably called her a cunt as she tried to treat him as a call came in that a young girl was having a prolonged seizure which they weren’t able to respond to. The abuse itself didn’t faze her, but she was left wanting to push the man out the back of the ambulance and stuck with the bitter unfairness that their time and resources was being spend on him rather than those who needed actual emergency care. The last job of the night was rushing a young man with a gunshot wound to hospital.
Robotically, she had changed out of her uniform and back into her street clothes. At least she now had some precious, clear twenty-four hours without having to smell antiseptics, or feel the constant, crushing pressure that hung over every single decision she made. But there was only a few more weeks left before she would either have to go private or loss her job. She knew that for most of her patients, there would be no other alternative but to go to a private hospital in case of an emergency, and leave with extra debt, to live lives that they already could not afford.
She sighed and set off towards the car, which was parked in a multi-storey car park. The streets were silent, with only the occasional car driving past. A fox ran out in the road in front of her; she stopped as it turned to look at her, its eyes flashing in the street lights, before it turned and ran back into the darkness. Her eyes stung with tiredness. There was a likely probability of falling asleep at the wheel, and killing herself in the process.
Khalida walked with a deadened mind, thinking of nothing but a fleeting idea of calling a taxi. The giant, concrete structure loomed in front of her. She held her keys between her fingers like swords as she climbed the stairs to the first floor, passing someone curled up in a sleeping bag in the stained stairwell. She reached into her pockets, and put a five-pound note beside them.
Her car was parked a little way back from the door; there were a few other cars around, but no people, and her footsteps echoed as she walked over. Without dropping her steady gaze, she switched on the torch attached to her keyring and flashed it swiftly over the boot and backseats of her car.
‘You’ve not changed at all,’ a smooth, male voice said.
A sickening jolt of electric raced through her. Khalida spun around to face Clarence, who was standing back, next to the door. He smiled gently back at her, one hand in the pocket of his suit jacket. He hadn’t changed either. She remembered when the exact same image of him had brought her comfort.
‘I’ve missed you,’ he said.
Khalida froze, her muscles rigid. A long second stretched out as they stared at each other across the car park, forcing her brain to think through its exhaustion muddled fog. Her fingers traced across her keys to the tiny wooden stake on her key ring, knowing that Clarence’s eyes wouldn’t miss it. She had a water pistol in her handbag; the holy water inside was barely diluted, so it would certainly maim him enough for her to escape.
How fast could she get the pistol and fire at him? She gave herself a moment, her heart thundering, to see how she would stay rooted to the spot and make a grab for the pistol. It had a short range, which Clarence could easily duck. How fast could she get in the car? Her fingers brushed over the car key.
The second broke. She thrust the key into the lock and turned it hard, praying that it wouldn’t jam.
‘Khalida, wait!’
Clarence leapt forward. Her heart thundered as she yanked the door open and slid into the front seat, slamming it shut behind her. Clarence’s hand came crashing through the window as she slid the key into the ignition; she screamed and closed her eyes as large chunks of shattered glass fell onto her, and ducked to the side, away from Clarence’s reach, as she put her foot down hard on the accelerator. The car shot off.
Vaguely aware that Clarence’s grip had bent the metal of the car’s frame, she drove the car towards the ramp exit. She turned sharply to the right; the corners were much too tight for the speed was going at, and she felt her arm muscles straining to keep a hold of the wheel as the remaining tires squealed sharply. She was going too fast to think properly. She veered to the left, a moment too late in realising that she had not left enough space, and the car slammed into the wall.
She tightened her vice-like grip on the wheel, which was the only thing keeping her in place since she hadn’t had enough time to put on the seatbelt, but the impact was so great that her body was thrown like a ragdoll. She felt her body leave the seat and a sharp a pain run through her fingers from the strain of holding on.
When she opened her eyes, she knew that something had gone wrong. There was a tightness in her lungs, a craving for more oxygen, but she could only take short, sharp breaths. Her little and ring finger of her right hand were bent back at a painful angle. Her vision was swimming slightly, though she could see no lacerations or compound fractures, no bleeding. She sighed, then remembered what was happening.
‘Are you okay?’ Clarence asked. It looked like he had only just reached the car. She blinked; the past few seconds had felt like an age. ‘Are you hurt?’
He sounded concerned; there was a soft tenderness to his voice that she found simultaneously comforting and jarring. Either way, she was trapped.
Still struggling with her breath, she nodded, her hands still clutching onto the steering wheel.
‘You can let go, now,’ he said, a hint of playfulness in his voice.
She remained fr
ozen in her seat, staring straight out ahead of the crushed bonnet of the car, her heart still racing. Clarence opened the driver’s door and leaned across her to remove the keys from the ignition.
‘Cute,’ he said, examining the small stake, before throwing the keys over the side of the wall. ‘Are you sure that you’re not hurt in any way?’
‘Actually,’ she said, trying to breathe normally, ‘I think you should call an ambulance. I think I’ve ruptured a blood vessel.’
Clarence smiled. ‘Khalida, I can smell that all of your blood is where it should be. Come on, we should get going.’
She made no attempt to move.
‘Come on, I’m being serious,’ Clarence said. ‘Rebirth are on their way to find you. I wasn’t too sure if I could get here in time myself, and I don’t know how far behind me they are.’
‘What?’ she asked, gingerly stretching her legs and trying to step out of the car.
Clarence stepped forwards, and with a graceful ease he lifted her out of the seat and placed her gently on the concrete. Her legs shook, and she leaned on Clarence for support. The whiplash from the crash was worse than she had first assumed, with her shoulders and neck being incredibly stiff and nearly impossible to move without a feeling of great discomfort.
‘Rebirth,’ Clarence said, as he lead her away from the car wreck, ‘or to be more precise, Tycho Feigrey. He wants you as a means to cast suspicion onto Cecilia in a power grab, since you have now dated both of her brothers. Does that make sense? Does your head hurt?’
‘I’m fine, Clarence,’ she said. ‘Wait…brothers, plural?’
‘You didn’t know?’ he said, his features pinching into a frown. ‘Khalida, Cain is my brother. To be precise, the birth child of my adoptive parents.’
‘What?’ she asked again. The word felt dull and stupid in her mouth. Her heartbeat was heavy in her chest. ‘So…does that mean Cain is a vampire?’
‘Yes,’ Clarence said. ‘Look, Khalida, we need to leave. We can talk about this later.’
‘And what about Cain?’ she asked. She licked her lips to try and return some moisture to her mouth, which had suddenly become like sandpaper. ‘If I’m danger, then so is he, right?’
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