Poison Blood, Book 1: Revelation

  Chapter 12: They’re waiting for me

  The main reason we’re taking public transport and travelling in broad daylight is because the light of day is safer than the cover offered by darkness. The crowds and commuters create an additional barrier between us and the enemy. The System won’t risk exposure by coming at us head-on, attacking us in front of witnesses. This means they’ll be forced to play more cunning games, utilise trickery, and that in itself is a frightening prospect.

  But at least they won’t pick a fight on the train.

  Still, mum is being extra careful. As well as carrying a rucksack full of special weapons, she has arranged for The Council’s best fighters to pick us up from London. She called one of her bosses last night, Marcus, the one responsible for the vampire hunters, asking for back-up to wait for us on the platforms. Grudgingly, she’d admitted that it was because I was back – Marcus didn’t agree to deploy so many of his soldiers, as he liked to call them, until he got the truth out of her.

  Even more reluctantly, she disclosed the fact that I’d returned a vampire – Marcus had given her a real grilling about how I could be alive; I’d disappeared from Amber’s radar.

  Mum has assured me however, that my best bodyguard is Amber, that’s why she sits in the backseat with me as we drive to the train station in mum’s car. A magical witch, she doesn’t just see alternate futures depending on the decisions people will make, she can move things with her mind, make potions, and cast real spells. Her charms have helped protect our home for the past few years – vampires couldn’t get within a mile of it.

  Of course, Christian had come pretty close, and that’s only because he was powerful enough to make Amber think I didn’t exist. And if I didn’t exist, then why would she have been protecting our house in the first place?

  “If anyone notices anything out of the ordinary,” mum says as she drives off, “any hint of a threat, we won’t take any chances. Amber, your main responsibility will be to get Ellie to safety. Aiden, you know what you have to do.”

  “Yes,” he answers smoothly from the front passenger seat.

  I wish they’d tell me what he’d be doing. I need to know how he’ll be safe. That he’ll be safe. I want to ask why he can’t come with me and Amber, but I bite my lip. He can’t know I care about him. No one can know – what would they think? I take a deep breath and tell myself that mum will protect him.

  Mum!

  What if something happens to her? She needs more protection than I do. She and Aiden need Amber more than I do. For god’s sake, I’m a immortal – a million times stronger and faster and better than them – and they’re treating me like I’m a little damsel in distress!

  Is this mum being mum, overprotective and overcautious to the point of smothering me, like she’s always been, or does she really think I’m incapable of taking care of myself? I went 6 months without any witch or ex-Slayer watching my back. Kept myself well-hidden from anyone who may have been searching for me without even knowing I had a huge sign across my forehead saying ‘Missing’ (from the point of view of The Council) and ‘Wanted’ (by The System).

  Or is the enemy so powerful that even the vampirised strongest human in the world wouldn’t be able to stop them? That’s a scary thought. Even scarier when I think that mum and Aiden will be up against them. I have to rectify this. If only I knew how…

  But I do know how!

  I turn to Amber. Like mum and Aiden, she’s surveying everything outside the car, scanning the vehicles driving beside us, the pedestrians beyond them on the pavements. Chanting something under her breath, her eyes look blank – trying to see into the future whilst monitoring the present. I can hear what she’s quietly repeating, but I don’t understand it. It’s in a language I never learned.

  “Amber?” I say hesitantly.

  Her lips freeze around a ‘sha’ sound. Slowly she twists her head to face me and stares at the collar of my brown coat.

  “Aiden says you blame yourself for what happened–”

  “Ellie dear,” mum interrupts. “Don’t disturb Amber while she’s working.” Her tone is strict but that only brings out the rebel in me.

  “Stay out of this mum!” I sound like a whiny teenager. Will Aiden think I’m immature? Hopefully he’ll think it’s rather grown-up of me to try and iron out the awkwardness between Amber and me. “Amber and I need to talk about this, especially if she’s going to be my personal bodyguard. Don’t you think she’ll protect me better if she can actually look at me?”

  Mum makes nothing short of a grunting sound and glares at the road ahead.

  “It’s my fault,” Amber says sadly, “so of course I blame myself.” Still not looking at me, just staring intently at her faded denim jeans that she’s wearing with a cream top and a black-leather biker jacket.

  “It isn’t anyone’s fault,” I say firmly. Maybe not even Christian’s. As I said before, it feels like this is how it was meant to be for me, which is weird because I’ve since found out I was destined to be a vampire Slayer, not a vampire. “I can see that nothing I say will convince you. I bet you want to make up for it–”

  “I’d do anything.” Her tone is pleading.

  “Really?”

  The witch finally looks at my face. “Yes.”

  “There is something you can do for me–”

  “Ellie!” mum cautions.

  “Stay out of this Kim!” Amber says before turning back to me. “Ellie, I’ll do anything. You only have to ask.”

  “Promise?” I ask in a teasing tone and she nods solemnly. “Once you promise, you can’t go back…”

  “I won’t.”

  “Or change your mind once you find out what it is.” I keep my tone light.

  “I won’t,” she repeats at the same time mum says, “Ellie, stop it. And Amber, be careful what you–”

  “Kim!” the psychic complains. “This is between me and Ellie. Do you have any idea what it’s been like for me? What it’s like to think you killed the very thing you were born to protect?”

  “You cannot possibly be asking me such a question!” Mum is furious and hits the accelerator. Like getting to the train station faster will cut short this conversation!

  “But you never believed she was dead, Kim,” Amber cries, eyes glistening. “You don’t know–”

  “Amber, it’s okay,” I reassure her. Hesitantly, I touch the tips of my fingers to her hand and move it away in a flash.

  “I promise I’ll do it,” she assures me, her tone defiant. “Whatever you want.” She throws a challenging look at Aiden and mum.

  “Thanks,” I tell her genuinely.

  “So?” she probes when I turn to stare out my window.

  “I’ll think of something.”

  “Oh.” Her tone is just as startled as the expressions on mum and Aiden’s faces. “It seemed like you knew what you were going to ask…”

  “I just like the theatrics.” I shrug. “I’ll let you know when I decide.”

  And I feel thankful that Amber can’t see what I’ve already decided. I like these little drawbacks and glitches in their powers. Amber not seeing vampires, Lydia not seeing humans, and Christian… What are the kinks in his abilities? Are there any limits to his powers at all? I can’t think about that. It will only freak me out.

  My mother gives me quizzical looks via the rear-view mirror until she parks the car near the train station. I finally digest the fact that I’ll be meeting The Council in under an hour. Good thing they know I’m coming. They can get their heads around it. Their Slayer is still at large and ready to lead the attack on our enemy.

  That is, if the enemy doesn’t find me first.

  I can’t think like this! I scold myself. Just because I know how I’ll deal with that situation, doesn’t mean I should jinx the good luck we’ve had so far today with such inauspicious thoughts!

  I wish Aiden wouldn’t walk so close to me while we head for the platform – his scent is making me light-headed. W
ell, mum and Amber are flanking me as we walk briskly through the crowds, and he’s at the end, but its like his skin is right in my face. My face up against his… Stop it!

  How do I smell like to Aiden? I know his nose isn’t sophisticated enough to appreciate the strawberries-and-cream tones that accompany the flowery fragrance, and he can’t smell it unless he’s reasonably close to me, like when we were about to kiss, but hopefully he thinks it’s nice all the same.

  We enter the carriage of our train as soon as we locate it. Amber sits next to me, mum opposite me and Aiden next to her. Diagonally opposite me. I feel elated that I can see his face. He can see me too, so I do everything in my power to not stare at him like I want to. Pretend that I hardly know he’s there. It isn’t easy, believe me, when his scent is so alluring and his face gets prettier and prettier.

  As we near the train’s departure time, our carriage fills up pretty quickly, which isn’t a surprise because the first stop is London.

  Wait a minute. We’ve missed the morning rush hour – should our train be so packed? I do a quick scan of the vicinity as the train sets off, even though my senses have told me that I’m the only vampire on the train. I’m just a little on edge, that’s all. Half an hour from now, we’ll all be shrouded by the fiercest of The Council’s fighters who’ll safely deliver us to headquarters.

  But I just can’t shrug off the feeling that I’m being watched.

  Then again, I am a rather beautiful sight to behold. The brown coat looks really good on me. This is the first time I’ve been amongst humans without my hood pulled over my face, hiding it. Now, I’m sort of flaunting my super-human good looks, so of course people will stare.

  They’re not staring though, I realise as I roll my eyes around the carriage once more. I just feel like I’m being… if not watched directly, then monitored somehow. Stop being so paranoid!

  Unfortunately, it wasn’t paranoia, but instinct.

  It’s less than five minutes until we’re at Paddington Station when Amber jumps to her feet, her face a picture of alarm. At the same time, I hear someone’s phone vibrate in their pocket.

  While Aiden and mum rise from their seats to ask the witch, “What did you see?” in unison and panic, I twist my head to locate the person whose phone received a text message – it was just two bursts of drr-drr rather than a continuous vibrating so I’m sure its not a call.

  Right at the back of our carriage, a man takes out his phone, presses a button, reads a message, and then looks straight at me. Our eyes lock and I read his mind.

  I can’t read minds, so it’s intuition really.

  He’s received instructions to do something. Do something to me.

  Maybe it was the shock, disbelief, and fear that froze Amber to her spot, why it took her so long to speak. Perhaps she didn’t know the answer until she finally said, “Marcus,” but something in the pit of my ice-cold, stone-hard stomach had already told me that if we were surrounded by humans, then the threat we were facing now was not The System, but The Council.

  How naïve of us to not consider the possibility that someone in our own team would dislike having a vampire for a Slayer so much that they’d want to eliminate me altogether.

  Then Amber’s words come out in a rush and I twist to see her face, ghost-white and a picture of doom. “Marcus sent his new soldiers, the train’s full of them.”

  “What?” mum gasps, devastated. Her face loses colour and she looks down at me, horrified.

  I gaze up at her. I can’t say anything. I can’t move. Neither can she. So we just stare at each other, guiltily. Blaming ourselves for putting the other in danger.

  “I saw last night, Marcus deciding to send some people to Reading to watch you,” Amber whispers to mum. “But I assumed he simply changed his mind about continuing to provide you with bodyguards. I wish I could see the reasons behind peoples’ decisions, rather than just the decisions themselves!

  “When you decided to tell us about Ellie, I concluded that Marcus sent his warriors for Ellie’s protection. I didn’t want Ellie to be any more self-conscious – she never liked being watched – so I didn’t mention that there’d be people on the train with us. I assumed you knew Kim. I still should have said something. I’m so sorry.

  “More of Marcus’s men are waiting for us on the platforms in London. Again, they were sent to watch us from afar. He’s just changed his mind. He’s decided he wants them kill her.” She makes an effort to meet my gaze but is too guilty to succeed.

  Somehow I’m still sitting. I’m the only one sitting. The entire train is on its feet, slowly and determinedly converging towards us.

  Towards me.

  “Its okay, Ellie,” Aiden says to me. “Kim, Amber, and you, will be no match for them. Amber can knock them all out in one go.” He turns eagerly to his sister. “What are you waiting for?”

  “You think I haven’t been trying to send them flying backwards ever since I saw Marcus make the decision?” she retorts angrily. “It’s not working! They’re all wearing protection charms – my protection charms – as well as taking power boosters. Kim won’t be able to defeat them by herself. And Ellie…” She looks down at me despairingly.

  I know she can’t read my mind or see my future, but she obviously saw something that told her that I wasn’t going to fight these innocent people.

  Yes, they are innocent. Soldiers following commands from high above.

  They’re not evil.

  I can’t kill them. Because to fight them, even to defend myself, is to kill them. One punch, one kick, perhaps even a slap to their faces, will crush their bones.

  I wasn’t born to harm innocents, but to protect them.

  This instinct is so strong that I cower backwards across the seat, in fear of hurting people I shouldn’t, until I hit the window behind me. This is the last thing I should be doing.

  I know what I ought to be doing, but to do that I need the train to stop. A few more minutes…

  “It’s going to be alright, honey,” mum finally says to me. “I won’t let them touch you.”

  She takes one long stride and positions herself between me and what’s coming. She doesn’t take out any of the weaponry she brought with her, which makes me think that she really doesn’t want to kill these Council members either.

  Amber and Aiden go and flank her as the ambush approaches. My hands reach towards Aiden, wanting to pull him to me. Hold him within my arms, shield him with my body. Can he fight? He has no supernatural abilities so he shouldn’t be involved in this.

  “Aiden,” I hiss, getting to my feet.

  His head turns to me immediately but quickly looks away.

  “Come and stand behind me,” I urge him desperately. “I’ll protect you.” I want to put myself between him and anything that wants to harm him.

  His reply is just the movement of his lips but I can hear it clearly. “The three of us can handle them.”

  “But these aren’t the only ones,” I argue. “There’s more.”

  They’re waiting for me.