“Really?” Rob said to Julian. Julian shrugged. Rob turned back to the man who had spoken and said, “You’ll have to pardon me, but I’m a bit new to all this. Who the fuck are you?”
The man glowered. “Alistair Sacker, head of the Shield Foundation. Just what are you supposed to be?”
“I’m Robert Cromwell. I kick arses that need kicking.”
The man’s face twisted in disgust. “The werewolf, or whatever you are. The packs won’t protect you, creature.”
“What makes you think he needs them to?” Julian said.
“And you,” Alistair said. “Your family name can’t protect you, not after all this. I have you this time, boy.”
“You can’t have him,” said a voice from the tunnel. “He’s mine.”
Alice strolled into the room. The warlocks swung around and the gunmen hesitated, some turning to Alice, some keeping their weapons trained on Fiona and her companions.
Alice looked like she’d been through a war. She was covered in blood and her clothes were badly torn, but she moved with an easy confidence and Fiona knew that whatever had happened to her, she was fully recovered from it. Her bright eyes gleamed with the pleasure of a successful hunt.
She held a corpse by one ankle and it bumped along behind her as though it weighed nothing. Fiona saw large, leathery wings and glimpsed a monstrous face.
“Alistair,” she said by way of greeting as she dragged the corpse past him. She dropped it in front of Julian.
“What is that abomination?” Alistair said, his face a mask of revulsion.
“A vampire,” Julian said, staring down at it in disbelief.
“That’s no vampire.”
“A real vampire,” Julian said. “Drained dry too, from the looks of him.” To Alice he said, “You killed him?”
Alice wore a very self-satisfied smile.
“He was much stronger than you.”
“I’m nastier,” Alice said.
The resemblance leapt out at Fiona. “Is that Yadrim?”
“You know this thing?” Rob asked. “Or knew it, if we’re being accurate.”
Fiona scowled. “I thought I killed him.”
“If you’re a part of this, Alice,” Alistair said, “then you’re under arrest as well.”
“I’d wait a minute if I were you, Alistair,” Alice said. “If you hadn’t been in such a rush to get down here, you’d have noticed you aren’t the only ones to come to see what’s happened tonight.”
Alistair gave her a look of utter hatred. He snapped his fingers at one of his subordinates, who took a phone from his pocket and went back towards the facility entrance.
“Who’s up there?” Fiona asked.
“And ruin the surprise?” Alice said. “You’ll find out in a minute.”
“Just for once,” Rob said, “it would be great if it was someone who didn’t try to kill us.”
They waited in silence, except for Mr Beak who flew off to look for Mr Shell. Jessica leaned her head against Fiona’s chest and Fiona held her tighter.
Rob reacted first. His nose twitched and his ears lay flat against his skull. Julian frowned and then a few moments later his expression turned to stone.
Two men and a woman emerged from the tunnel. Alistair’s subordinate trailed after them. One of the men was hard-faced and ruggedly built and dressed in a grey suit with the tie pulled loose. His fingers were bare of any ring. The woman was skeletally thin and she lifted her chin as though to look down her nose at everything. Her business suit probably cost as much as the Kendalls paid in annual rent. A ring with a green gem sparkled on her finger and Fiona assumed she was a witch.
But the man in the lead was the one who captured her attention. His face was a portrait of hard angles and grey touched the temples of his dark, combed-back hair. He swept his gaze once around the room and Fiona was sure he took in every tiny detail. He wore a black suit and had a ring on his finger, but the ring was black and without a gemstone.
“At ease,” he said.
Every rifle in the room was lowered.
“You have no right to order my men, Trajan,” Alistair said. He raised his ring hand, bunched into a fist. “The Shield Foundation has jurisdiction here. We were the first on the scene.”
“The Shadow Emergency Powers Act.” Trajan’s voice was deep and smooth. Alistair’s threat of magic did not appear to bother him. “In the event of a magical incident, authority falls to the first member of a select list of groups recognised by the London Council to arrive on the scene.”
“I need not remind you the Shield Foundation prides itself on being on that list,” Alistair said. “We have been there since our founding in the nineteenth century.”
“Yes,” Trajan said. “And I’m sure I don’t need to remind you that the Blackwood family has been on that list for even longer.” He turned to Fiona and her companions. “Hello, Julian.”
Julian’s expression didn’t change. “Uncle Trajan.”
Alistair’s face reddened with anger. “That boy is wanted for murder!”
“But he is a Blackwood and he is first on the scene,” Trajan said. “You’ll find my fellow councillors agree with me.”
“He’s first on the scene because he and his co-conspirators are responsible for this debacle! They broke in here, overcame the Hargraves and are trying to set the plagues of London loose!”
Trajan ignored him. “Julian, what needs to be done?”
Everyone looked at Julian and Fiona saw him freeze under all the scrutiny. Whatever was going on here, she had the feeling it wouldn’t go their way if he couldn’t handle it.
Then Rob tapped him on the shoulder with a claw. When Julian looked up at him, he asked, “What do we do first?”
Julian’s expression cleared. “Is the situation on the surface secure?”
“There’s nothing to see up above,” Trajan said. “Aside from the lightshow over the Thames, we remain undiscovered. We brought several magicians with us and they are making sure we are not disturbed.”
“Doctor Hargrave is dead,” Julian said. He sounded like a soldier, crisp and direct. “Reviving Evelyn is our priority. We need her knowledge to ensure the facility is stable. Director Sacker, spread your men around the perimeter of this room and keep an eye out for anything coming up from below. We had trouble in that direction.” Alistair’s left eye twitched several times. “The body of this vampire needs to be cremated as soon as possible. My friend and I would appreciate a medical once-over too.”
“And some clothes,” Rob said.
“Yes,” Julian said. “We also need some clothes for Rob.”
“I’ll see to topside,” the rugged man with Trajan said. He stared a little too long at Rob and Fiona saw the wolf in him then, barely masked by a thin film of human flesh. He had to be someone important amongst the werewolves, perhaps even their leader. He strode back towards the surface and everyone avoided meeting his gaze.
“It’s been a while,” the woman with Trajan said, “but I’ll see what I can do for Evelyn.” Her heels tapped on the metal grating floor. She pursed her lips as she lowered herself beside the unconscious woman.
“What about us?” Fiona asked.
“We want to go home,” Jessica said.
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Julian asked her.
Jessica frowned, then gasped, “Mr Shell!” before dashing in the direction Savraith had thrown him.
“I’ll need to speak to you later,” Julian said to Fiona. “About what happened while you were” – he glanced at his uncle – “in the company you were keeping when you arrived.”
“Well, you know where I live, apparently,” Fiona said.
“I’ll get you out of here as soon as possible.”
“Thanks.” She looked in the direction Jessica had run, but couldn’t see her. “I’d better keep an eye on my sister. She might take something vital apart while no one’s looking.”
It was Rob who downplayed the involvement of Fi
ona and Jessica to such a degree that the Shield Foundation and the councillors were willing to let them leave. Julian didn’t know how much good it would do, now that they’d been noticed by the likes of Alistair Sacker, but at least it got them out of there. Rob commandeered several of the Shield soldiers to assist with getting the girls and a battered Mr Shell to the surface.
As soon as Evelyn was conscious, she injected herself with one of the Hargraves’ infamous compounds and refused to do anything but start repairs. In a voice like ice she instructed two men to remove her father’s body from the control room.
While Rob led a squad down into the depths of the facility to check on the ooze they’d been fighting, Julian inspected the chains around the central sarcophagus to make sure they still held. That was when Alice told him she was leaving.
“The sun’s up,” she said, leaning on a railing.
Julian nodded. “I know how tired that makes you.”
“It might be a while before I sleep with Yadrim’s blood in me. I feel …” She flexed her fingers. Julian saw her blue eyes pulse amber.
“Can you get to a taxi all right?”
“It takes half a day of sunlight for me to catch fire, remember?” she said, smiling so the tips of her fangs showed. “Perhaps even more right now. Getting to a taxi won’t hurt much.”
“Thank you for your help, Alice. I’m glad you were here.” His lips and tongue stalled for a moment on the next words, but he made himself speak. “Can I call you?”
She stared at him without blinking and he forgot to breathe. “Hmm,” she said.
And then she strolled towards the exit to the surface.
He had a dozen things to think about and a dozen more things to do, all of them important, but right then he couldn’t help but watch her leave.
He had just finished checking the vines and was about to head for the control room when Trajan stopped him with a hand on his arm.
“You’re going to have to stand before the council over this,” Trajan said. “More than that, you’re going to have to be involved in what we do next.”
“I’m not interested in politics,” Julian said. “I thought that was obvious.”
“This place is too important to become a political football. Evelyn will need help keeping the council out of this place.”
“Her father managed it,” Julian said.
“Not alone, whatever it looked like.” When Julian didn’t answer he added,
“Don’t worry. I’ll be there to navigate you through the minefield of council politics.” He reached a hand towards the sarcophagus, though did not touch it. “The vines are your work?”
“Yes.”
“Remarkable. Have you been to see your parents since your return?”
“No.”
“I’ll tell them you’re looking well,” Trajan said. “Do get some rest though, so that I’m not lying.”
By midmorning everything was trundling along well enough for Rob to feel entitled to slip away. He went up to the surface and lounged on the steps at the back of the square. It was a grey and cloudy London day, but Rob did his best to imagine a bright sunny morning.
He smelled coffee and then Julian and turned with a big grin on his face. “Fantastic,” he said as Julian handed him a cup. “Kind of you to go get it.”
Julian sat down on the steps beside him, a can of energy drink in hand. “I’m nominally in charge. I had someone else go and get it.”
Rob laughed. He sipped his coffee and ignored the scalding heat of it while Julian cracked his can of drink.
“Can’t believe it looks so normal up here,” Rob said.
“Well, that was the idea.”
“I know. All these tourists and whatnot though and they don’t know a thing. The world nearly ended last night, didn’t it? I’m feeling pretty good about that, actually. I mean, it was the girls from next door who beat the bad guy, but still.”
Julian grunted. “It’s been my experience that saving the world is a right pain in the neck.”
“I’ll try to enjoy the moment then.”
He smiled a little. “Yeah, good thinking.”
Rob leaned back on the stairs and tried more of the coffee. It was nothing special, but it tasted like the world’s finest java beans just then. “So, you and the vampire girl, huh?”
“Once,” Julian said.
“Maybe again?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. Not like before, at least. She –” He shook his head. “I really don’t know.”
He didn’t laugh out loud, but he couldn’t help a broad smile. It sounded like a yes to him. “It doesn’t worry you, then? That she might bite you?”
“She’s about three hundred years old,” Julian said. “She’s had time to learn to control it. Besides, she promised me she never would.”
“And you believe her.”
“Any relationship has to have trust, right?”
“Truer words.” Rob looked up at the sky and wished it was clear, like the endless blue of Australia where he’d first roamed as a werewolf. “Question for you.”
“Go ahead.”
“What am I?” Julian turned at the plaintive note in his voice. “I thought I knew, but you saw. I wondered why the London werewolves all kept away from me and now I know. I’m a freak.”
“No,” Julian said. “I think you’re the real thing, the original shapeshifter, capable of much more than just running as a wolf. There are old stories – not much, but enough to sketch out a picture. You came first. The ones we have around here, they’re devolved versions of you.”
Rob thought about that and found some little comfort in it. “Pub tonight? If the world isn’t ending, that is?”
“There’s still a night of the full moon left, isn’t there?” Julian asked.
“Yeah.” Rob sighed. “And I don’t have my wrist-chain. Have to be the cage in Mrs Prashad’s basement for me.”
“Skip the cage,” Julian said. “We can deal with it.”
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More Books by Sean Cunningham
The adventures of Rob, Julian, Fiona and Jessica continue in The Hawthorn Chronicles:
Ghost Electricity #1
The Mortal Edge #2
Immortal Make #3
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Acknowledgements
Every book has a team of people behind it and this one is no exception.
I’d like to thank my editor Lorna Ferguson for the advice and feedback, for spotting the problems I couldn’t see and for the excellent education that was working with her. Thanks also to my cover artist Fiona Jayde, who guided this first-time author through the process when I knew nothing about the visual language of book covers. And to friend and fellow author Peter M. Ball, for timely authorial advice at a number of different stages of the journey.
Thanks to my parents, Brian and Maree, for indulging their son’s voracious appetite for books with many trips to bookstores and libraries and for understanding when I raced off after dinner to keep reading.
And finally, thank you to my partner Amber, for reminding me where I was going and what I was doing when I tried to head off in too many directions at once.
Author’s Note
You learn something from every book you write. This one taught me that the story, at its core, has to be about something very human.
Rob and Julian, Fiona and Jessica, they sat in my head for a long while before I was able to start writing their story. T
heir names changed, their silhouettes shifted, but they just wouldn’t get on with it.
Then my brother told me he was permanently moving back to Australia from the UK. He came over a year ahead of me. Though we lived in different cities, we kept in frequent touch via email. With the rest of our family on the other side of the world, it was good to have that close connection nearby. I knew I would miss him once he was gone.
And then I knew the core story of this novel: a story of four isolated young people finding each other.
While fighting vampires and other such monsters.
Ghost Electricity is the first volume of The Hawthorn Chronicles. Rob and Julian, Fiona and Jessica, they have many adventures ahead of them. But the heart of those adventures will always be the connections between them.
I hope you’ll join them for the journey.
About the Author
Sean Cunningham is the author of The Hawthorn Chronicles, an urban fantasy series with London at its heart. His books blend fast-paced action, vivid characters and epic adventures.
Sean has a degree in Microelectronic Engineering and works as a software engineer. He lives in London, England, after moving over from Brisbane, Australia to work and travel for a couple of years and then forgetting to leave.
He enjoys the travel opportunities London provides and doesn't actually go to a new city or country with the intention of setting a story there, but it often happens. He enjoys whisky and has started learning about wines.
You can sign up for Sean's newsletter, with news about his latest releases, here: seancunningham.co.uk/sign-up
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