‘Jayna, don’t you see? Now we’ll always be together. For ever. If you were me, wouldn’t you have wanted the same thing?’
I froze. I already knew the answer to his question, but that didn’t make it any easier to accept. I spread out my fingers and stretched and stretched them.
‘Besides, it’s wonderful!’ Andrew beamed at me, pure delight the likes of which I’d never seen before radiating from his entire body. ‘Can’t you feel how powerful you are? We’ve both been reborn as something beyond our wildest dreams. Can’t you feel it?’
A flare of anger shot through me at his attitude, but it faded just as quickly. Andrew loved me. I loved him. We could be together now. We were the same and that was all that mattered. Wasn’t it . . .?
‘I thought from all those vampire horror films I’ve seen that all you had to do was . . . bite me?’
He grinned. ‘It’s not that simple. It takes the blood of a vampire to make a vampire.’
I shuddered. ‘I still can’t get used to that word.’
‘The word doesn’t matter. You can call yourself what you like. It’s what you are that counts. And isn’t it terrific? Exciting? It was worth it, wasn’t it? You’re one of us now . . .’
‘Us? Who are you talking about?’
‘Us. Julius and me and all the others out there like this. There are bound to be more.’
‘Julius made more?’
‘Only a few more.’ Andrew shrugged. ‘At least, that’s what he told me. He warned me what to expect, how to survive. He thought he owed me that much. He liked you, you know. He liked both of us. That’s why he didn’t kill us, even though he could have. Instead, he brought me back to life.’
Kill us . . .? How many had he killed, then? And he’d made more like himself, like Andrew . . . How many others had those ‘few more’ created?
No . . . Don’t think about it. Julius was someone else’s problem.
‘Back to life? You said something about that when you . . . when you gave me your blood.’ I lowered my head.
‘So you do remember.’
‘Not all of it.’ The shaking was over, except for my stomach. I shivered. I was beginning to feel icy cold all over and dizzy. ‘I don’t feel too well.’
‘I’ve got a surprise for you.’ Andrew smiled at me. ‘It’s something that will make you feel good. Follow me.’
‘I hope it’s a hot bath.’
‘It’s something much better.’
I got out of bed and, after quickly getting dressed in an old pink shirt and jeans, followed him downstairs, through the kitchen and into the back garden. The only light came from the moon, which kept disappearing behind dark clouds. The air smelled fresh and warm, the wind stroking my face. I breathed deeply, which only made me feel worse. I could hear strange sounds, like being in an electrical shop and hearing the noise of twenty televisions on different channels all at once. I could hear what sounded like Mr Travis from four doors down, arguing with his wife about the cost of their dinner. I heard canned laughter coming from someone’s TV, and I heard what I was sure was Mrs Tout softly weeping. The tears of loneliness. I shook my head, trying to shake all sounds out of it.
‘You get used to that.’ Andrew smiled. ‘Just tune out. Don’t concentrate on any sounds that you don’t want. The rest will soon fade.’
I tried to concentrate on not concentrating. To my surprise it worked, sort of. I could still hear noises, but the sensation was like a distant external buzzing rather than something inside my head.
‘Why’re we out here?’
Andrew took my hand and led me towards the bottom of the garden. The dry grass crunched under my feet and I didn’t dare glance down, dreading to think what I was stepping on. All those creepy-crawlies that only emerged at night. Ugh! All at once, the garden began to rock and sway and I put my hand to my temple. My stomach pains were getting worse.
‘Andrew, something is wrong. My head is spinning. And I feel sick.’
‘I know. That’s how I felt in Julius’s house when I woke up.’
‘Will it pass?’
‘Soon. Very soon.’ We’d reached the bottom of the garden now. The branches of our neighbour’s horse chestnut tree hung down over one half of our two-metre-high back fence.
‘Stay here.’
Then, as I watched, Andrew vaulted over it from a standing start as if it were no more than a twig on the ground. I stared after him, unable to believe my eyes.
But why was I so surprised? Hadn’t Andrew lifted Pete off the ground as though he were a pillow? Andrew was super-strong and super-fast and he could hear a pin drop from two streets away.
Was I the same? Could I be the same? Did it just take practice or was there more to it than that? I tried to focus on Mrs Tout, to see if she was still weeping. That sound had stopped, but all the other noises came back, more cacophonous than before. I tried to separate them, to focus on just one, but I couldn’t. All I was doing was making my head ache. I tuned out all the noises again. I obviously still had a lot to learn.
Something was wrong. I felt so peculiar, my mind reeling now, my body freezing. I tried raising my hand to my head but it dropped back to my side. I didn’t even have the energy to do that. Oh God! I was about to collapse.
‘Here we are!’ Andrew appeared from nowhere to stand before me. In his hand he held Juniper, the grey and white rabbit that belonged to Mr and Mrs Rossetti’s son, Matthew.
‘Why’ve you got Juniper? You’d better put him back before Matthew misses him.’ I shook my head again to clear it since my words seemed to be uncertain and slurred. The moonlight vanished as the moon hid and the only lights now came from the back windows of the surrounding houses. By rights I shouldn’t have been able to see anything. Yet I could still see perfectly clearly.
‘Andrew . . .?’
‘You have to feed, Jayna,’ he said softly. ‘If you don’t drink, you’ll die.’
I looked from Andrew to Juniper, and back again. ‘You must be joking. I’m not—Not Juniper! Put him back.’
Slowly Andrew shook his head. ‘You must drink, Jayna.’
‘Never!’
I turned to make for the house, but my legs gave way under me. I fell to my knees. I struggled to stand up again but couldn’t. Andrew knelt down before me, Juniper still in his hands. Then he . . . he bit into Juniper’s neck and held the rabbit out to me in both hands. Instantly the smell of blood assailed my nostrils, pushing all my senses into high alert. My mouth filled with saliva. Closing my eyes, I ran my tongue over my teeth. They were all far longer than a few seconds ago – and razor-sharp. My whole face was changing. I gasped. Andrew had warned me that it would happen, but it was still a shock. Stunned, I opened my eyes to look at Andrew, but his face was morphing into something inhuman. Something monstrous. His jaw had extended and all his teeth were longer and needle-sharp at their tips. His green eyes were now a vivid blood-red. Instinctively I knew that my face mirrored his, the same colour eyes, the same teeth, the same monstrous blood lust. And what happened next . . .
Andrew made me drink.
I was too weak at first to push his hands away. But the first sip stopped my head from reeling, took away the dizzy feeling and made the cramps in my stomach disappear. And it tasted . . . tasted so warm, so sweet as it flowed down my throat.
I took the rabbit from Andrew’s hands.
He smiled and nodded at me, his expression triumphant. I needed no further urging. To my shame and my horror and my disgust, I drank.
25
WHEN I’D FINISHED, I looked down at the ground. Andrew fed after me, but I couldn’t look – the slurping and gulping sounds were bad enough. When he’d finished, Andrew tossed poor Juniper’s body away from him like so much trash. His warm hands cupped my face, so I had to look at him. His face was back to normal and he looked exultant. I wished it was contagious.
‘How are you feeling now? Less dizzy? Stronger?’ he asked.
I nodded. ‘Yeah, I’m OK now.’ As lo
ng as I didn’t have to look in a mirror to fully take in what I’d done, what I’d become.
He helped me to my feet and as we walked back into the house, I asked something that was bothering me, choking me.
‘How often must we . . .?’
‘Every day.’
‘Isn’t there some other way?’
Andrew shook his head, and moved to stand in front of me. ‘You can eat and drink what you like, but it won’t make any difference. Only blood makes a difference.’
‘What did you feed on when I was . . . unconscious?’
‘Anything I could find in your garden. I promised I wouldn’t leave you and I didn’t. I’ll never leave you, Jayna.’
‘I don’t know if I can do this . . .’ I admitted.
‘Shh!’ Andrew kissed me. ‘You’ll get used to it. It’ll be like breathing, like eating every day to survive. Just something you have to do.’
‘But it shouldn’t be like that. It shouldn’t be something you get used to.’
‘We have no choice.’
There was nothing I could say to that. We were both silent for several moments. I lowered my head. Sadness, quiet and still, wrapped around me like a plush velvet cloak.
‘What day is it?’
‘Tuesday. Why?’
‘Mum and Teegan are coming home on Saturday. That’s something at least.’ I sighed. ‘I miss them. I’ll meet them at the train station on Saturday morning and just hope that between now and then I can come up with some way to explain all this.’
‘You can’t.’
‘Pardon?’
‘You’ll have to wait until Saturday night to see them. You and I must sleep during the day. It’ll take decades before sunlight won’t kill us.’
I stared at him until my eyes hurt. ‘You mean we have to sleep in a coffin filled with earth and—’
Andrew creased up. ‘Of course not. We just have to sleep somewhere where daylight can’t get to us. Then we wake up when the sun goes down.’
‘I won’t see the sun again?’ I said, aghast. ‘Not for decades? You don’t mean it.’ What else had Andrew not told me about this new life?
Andrew shrugged. ‘I thought you’d realized.’
I closed my eyes. ‘I’ll not see the sun again . . .’
‘We have other things that ordinary people don’t have to make up for it.’
Other things . . . but not daylight and sunshine and blue skies. I couldn’t take it in. What would life be like without daylight? I stretched out my fingers.
‘Where were you sleeping before all this? At your house? How have you made sure that daylight doesn’t get to you?’
‘I’ve been sleeping in the attic at home, temporarily. I thought you and I could stay here in your room until your mum and sister get back, and in the meantime we can start looking for something more permanent.’
‘You mean you want us to live together?’ I asked, surprised.
‘It would make sense. We could protect each other that way. And we’d be together all the time. I’d love that. Wouldn’t you?’
A month ago, when it would have been just an impossible, out-of-reach fantasy, something I would hope for in the future, then yes. But now . . .?
‘Yeah, I guess . . . But if we don’t find somewhere permanent before Mum and Teegan get home, where will we stay? In your attic?’
Andrew nodded.
‘Is it safe?’
‘Yeah, just as long as a pipe doesn’t burst, and that’s not likely in autumn. That’s the only reason my dad ever goes up there.’
‘What about Morgan? And your mum?’
‘Mum in the attic? Do me a favour! And why would Morgan go up there?’ said Andrew. ‘We could stay there for a while, until we found somewhere safe. We’d just have to be careful not to make any noise.’
I considered the proposition. It didn’t appeal. How could I possibly live under the same roof as Morgan? ‘How do we get up there past your family?’ I asked.
‘We jump up onto the conservatory roof, then up onto the part of the roof over the back bedroom and then walk up the slates to the skylight,’ Andrew said, as if he were giving instructions for getting to the end of the road.
‘Just how do we jump more than three metres? Turn into bats?’
‘Don’t be sarky. We bend our knees and jump. You’d be surprised at what we can do once we’ve fed. I’ve done it already.’
‘You have?’ I was surprised.
‘Of course, with plenty of room to spare. And as you’re always telling me, anything a mere man can do a woman can do better!’ Andrew smiled. I couldn’t smile back.
Silence.
‘Andrew, I’m scared.’
He reached out for me and held me till there wasn’t a millimetre of space between us. His arms felt like steel as he held me, but at that moment it was just what I needed. My arms around his waist gripped him just as tightly.
‘We’ll be all right. We have each other now,’ he murmured.
I nodded slowly. ‘What was it like when it was just you?’
‘Let’s just say I wouldn’t want to go through that again,’ he said sombrely. ‘It was the worst time of my life.’
‘And that’s why you wanted me to join you? For company?’
‘That reason was way down on my list,’ Andrew replied with a frown. ‘Jayna, I want you with me. To share all this power. We’re strong, invincible. Can’t you feel it?’
‘Invincible? Daylight will kill us. Not feeding will kill us. We can’t go near garlic. A stake through the heart—’
‘Don’t be silly, Jayna. You’ve been watching too many Dracula films.’
‘I’m newer at this than you are, remember? Tell me, what will kill us?’
Moments passed before he answered, ‘Daylight, not feeding, fire and silver burn us, water can drown us, being beheaded doesn’t do us much good – but the same applies to everyone else as well! We’re not that much changed. We can’t turn into bats or wolves or anything stupid like that. It’s just that all our senses are heightened, more acute. That’s what makes us stronger.’
But at what price? I sighed. ‘I still don’t understand what I am, all I am.’
Andrew got to his feet and pulled me up after him. ‘Don’t worry. Once you’ve got more used to it, you’ll love it.’
‘Do you?’
He looked straight at me, but didn’t answer.
26
‘SO WHAT DO we do now that we’ve fed? Drift into some unsuspecting virgin’s bedroom and make our presence felt? Howl at the moon? No, that’s were-wolves. How about if we—’
‘How about if we go upstairs?’ Andrew interrupted.
All at once I became very still. Seconds ticked by. ‘Why?’ Stupid question, but I still asked it.
‘We have to make sure that your room is really secure from daylight.’
‘Oh,’ I said, relieved. ‘How do we do that?’
‘Newspaper over the windows stuck with sticky tape, then brown parcel paper over that ought to do it. I stuck the curtains down when you were unconscious, but we need something more secure. Have you got any parcel paper in the house?’
‘Yes, in the kitchen drawer, but hang on. If I put newspaper over my windows, Mrs Tout will be over here in about two seconds flat.’
‘Tell her you’re repainting your window frames or something.’
I sighed again. ‘All these lies – and it’s going to get worse, isn’t it? We have to hide what we are and what we do. Hide behind a mass of lies.’
‘It’s the only way. I don’t like it any more than you do.’
Looking at Andrew, I wondered. Then I hated myself for allowing the merest scintilla of doubt to enter my head. It’s just that Andrew seemed to have adjusted to what we were so much more easily than I had. Then I reminded myself that he had had longer to get used to the idea. Is that all it would require – a little time and a few dead animals before I too not only became used to what I was, but positively relished it? Was t
hat truly what I wanted?
‘I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this.’ The thoughts were spoken out loud before I could stop them spilling from my mouth.
‘Yes you will. I’ll help you get used to it.’ Andrew was confident. ‘Soon you’ll begin to see our lives before Julius for what they really were – half lives. We were living with blinkers on, but not any more.’
I nodded, hoping against hope that he would be proven right.
Half an hour later, my window was completely covered. There was no way a shaft of even the thinnest daylight could creep into my room. Andrew stood back, satisfied with what we’d done. It saddened me. It was like shutting out the rest of the world, cutting most of our remaining ties with it.
Andrew came and stood behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist, kissing the back of my ear and nibbling on my earlobe. ‘I can think of something else we can do now we’re alone,’ he whispered.
I turned in his arms to face him, but before I could say a word, Andrew’s lips were on mine, crushing them. I drew back to catch my breath, but found myself in Andrew’s arms being carried over to the bed. He dropped me onto it, to join me less than a second later. His hands were tearing at my clothes, popping the buttons on my shirt and pulling down my trousers without unbuttoning and unzipping them first. And his irises were slowly but surely turning blood-red.
‘Andrew, what the hell—’ I tried moving away but he was intent on stripping me naked. I tried pushing his hands off me, but that didn’t work either. I pulled myself upright and drawing back my hand, I slapped his face just as hard as I could. His head snapped back.
That had worked.
Andrew sat up, the imprint of my hand glowing red on his cheek. He blinked for a couple of seconds, like he was seeing me properly for the first time since he’d dumped me on the bed. And his irises were slowly returning to their normal colour instead of the blood-red they’d been before.
‘What d’you think you’re doing?’ I hissed at him.
‘I want you.’ Andrew frowned.
‘Let’s get something straight,’ I said, moving to the other side of the bed, pulling my shirt around me and holding it in place with my hands as most of the buttons were now scattered around the bed. ‘I may be the same as you now, I may be a . . . a vampire, but that doesn’t make me a whore. So don’t you dare treat me like one.’