Chapter Thirty-Five
It was as if April was waking from a dream she didn’t want to leave, those short seconds of cosy oblivion just before the real world seeped in. Then it came at her in a rush: Miss Holden, the flame, Benjamin, his twisted smile. April knew she wasn’t about to wake up under her duvet. She kept still, her eyes shut, her breathing even. She wanted to work out where she was before anyone knew she was conscious. She could feel the ropes holding her to a chair, could feel the wooden arms digging in to her back. Kidnapped and tied up? – not a good situation, especially having seen how it had turned out for Miss Holden. Her heart leapt as she thought of the teacher. ‘I have no more need for this witch,’ Ben had said. Had he killed her? It was more than possible. April had glimpsed the beast behind his mask: Benjamin Osbourne made Marcus Brent look like a fluffy kitten.
April became aware of raised voices; it sounded as though they were in the next room. ‘Why did you bring her here? Are you insane?’ shouted one, muffled through the wall. ‘As if my office wasn’t incriminating enough!’ It had to be Sheldon, thought April with a sinking stomach. ‘She wanted to see her boyfriend,’ said another voice. There was no mistaking the cruel arrogance in that one: Benjamin Osbourne.
‘Don’t get smart with me,’ said Sheldon. ‘Don’t you think the police will be watching her, trailing her wherever she goes?’
‘I thought you could control the boys in blue?’ replied Ben.
April supposed that if they were both outside the room, she was okay to open her eyes. She squinted against the light and found that she was in a large drawing room – and she wasn’t alone. Her heart leapt: Gabriel! He was tied to a chair to her left, and although his head was slumped forward on his chest, he seemed to be breathing. Thank God, thank God. It wasn’t a good situation, but at least they were together – and he was alive.
‘Hey there, beautiful,’ he said in a gravelly voice, opening his eyes.
‘Gabriel! Oh my God, I thought I’d lost you!’
‘You can’t get rid of me that easily,’ he said with a crooked smile. ‘I’m already dead, remember?’
‘Not yet,’ said April. ‘Not if I have anything to do with it.’ She strained against her ropes, but she was stuck tight. ‘If only I can …’
‘Quiet,’ said Gabriel urgently as the volume of the argument in the next room rose. ‘We don’t want to end up like him.’
He gestured backwards with his head and April twisted around. She gasped in horror. There was a body lying on the floor between their chairs.
‘Teddy the Toad,’ said Gabriel. ‘Outlived his usefulness, apparently.’
‘Oh God,’ whispered April, looking away. ‘How did—’
But Gabriel cut her off.
‘They’re coming,’ he hissed. ‘Stay still and play dead.’
April immediately closed her eyes and feigned unconsciousness.
‘You’ve brought danger to my house – I won’t tolerate that,’ said Sheldon, his voice moving towards them.
‘Relax, sir,’ said Benjamin in a mocking voice, ‘I have some information about your favourite student.’
April squealed as Benjamin grabbed her hair, yanking her head up.
‘Wakey-wakey, lover,’ he said as she opened her eyes. ‘I think it’s time for some formal introductions. You’ve met my friend Teddy, of course,’ he said, poking the body with his foot. ‘So first I’d like to introduce my master. April Dunne, meet Mr Sheldon …’ He gave her a mock-bow.
‘… and Mr Sheldon, meet the Fury.’
Sheldon snorted impatiently. ‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ he said. ‘April is not a Fury.’
Benjamin nodded.
‘Oh yes she is. She killed Milo and Marcus.’
‘No, Ben,’ said Sheldon. ‘You killed Marcus. On my orders, as I recall.’
‘Well, it wasn’t the hardest kill you’ve sent me on,’ said Benjamin, staring at April. ‘He already had one foot in hell, didn’t he, Fury? He drank too much of your blood in the cemetery that night. When I got to him, he already looked like a corpse.’
‘You killed Marcus?’ said April incredulously.
‘You didn’t think lover boy here was up to it?’ said Benjamin. ‘I don’t think so. The poor lamb’s frightened of blood. I followed you after your little tiff at the party and I killed Marcus where he stood.’
‘And I’ll do the same to you,’ said Gabriel in a low voice.
‘Oh, you’re awake now, are you?’ said Ben, walking over to Gabriel and punching him in the side. ‘I don’t think you’ll be doing anything today except dying.’
‘Enough!’ said Sheldon impatiently. He walked over to April, examining her closely. ‘Is this true, April?’ he said, talking to her as if she was a naughty schoolgirl caught talking in class. ‘Speak up, girl, or would you rather the traitor spoke for you?’
‘Traitor?’
Sheldon gestured towards Gabriel.
‘You really think Gabriel was fooling anyone? He wouldn’t drink blood, wouldn’t kill, it was all very transparent. And then he comes here saying he’s desperate to work for the Regent as his assassin … such sweet irony, isn’t it, Ben?’
Benjamin chuckled. ‘Sure is, boss. Shall I …?’
Sheldon nodded and Benjamin disappeared into the corridor.
‘Are you a Fury, April?’ repeated Sheldon. ‘You’d better give me an answer or I won’t be able to stop Benjamin doing to you what he did to your beloved Miss Holden.’
‘What have you done to her?’
‘I cut her pretty little throat,’ said Benjamin casually as he walked back in carrying a heavy metal jerry can. He unscrewed the top and took a sniff.
‘Ah, I love the smell of petrol in the morning,’ he smiled.
‘It’s evening, you idiot,’ said Gabriel.
Without a word, Ben turned and poured the liquid over Gabriel’s head, making him splutter and cough. The sharp smell of fuel filled the room.
‘What are you doing?’ said April, suddenly terrified. ‘No! You can’t!’
‘Can’t I?’ asked Ben, sloshing more over Gabriel’s body and legs. ‘But I am.’
‘All right, stop. Stop! I am the Fury, okay? I’m the Fury!’
‘So it’s true.’ Sheldon laughed. ‘Now it all makes sense. Gabriel thought you had killed Marcus and that was why he took the blame for the murder. I had assumed it was simply a convenient case of mistaken identity. I really should have known.’
Sheldon walked over to April and, without warning, slapped her hard across the face, splitting her lip.
‘Your kind disgust me,’ he said.
‘I’m not too fond of you lot either,’ said April, spitting out blood.
He grabbed her hair and yanked it back so that her birthmark was exposed. April squealed from the pain, but Sheldon was oblivious.
‘Look at it,’ he said with contempt. ‘The mark of the North Star, the bringer of light. Are you the best they can do?’
‘I’ve killed two of you already,’ said April, sticking her chin out.
Sheldon snorted and pushed her away.
‘Oh yes, well done,’ he said. ‘That will make us even, then, won’t it? We killed Isabelle Davis and now we’re going to kill you.’
‘Isabelle? What’s she got to do with it?’
‘Apparently your history teacher hasn’t been doing her job,’ said Sheldon. ‘There are three Furies a generation. Isabelle Davis was the first. Like you, she thought she could bring us down. Like you, she was wrong.’
‘Dead wrong, wasn’t she, Gabriel?’ giggled Benjamin. ‘You put her straight though, didn’t you?’
‘Ben,’ said Sheldon, a warning in his voice. ‘Not now. Let’s concentrate on the job in hand.’
Ben nodded. ‘All right then,’ he said, patting his pockets. Oh God, he’s looking for his lighter, thought April.
‘Regent!’ she shouted out suddenly, desperate for anything that would slow their executioners down.
Sheldon loo
ked at her sharply.
‘What did you say?’
‘You’re the Vampire Regent, aren’t you?’ she said, hoping she sounded more confident than she felt. ‘You’re the one in charge of recruitment at Ravenwood. You ordered Marcus’s death, you’re the one they all listen to.’
‘Finally,’ said Ben. ‘Finally she gets it.’
‘You?’ roared Gabriel, jerking forward in his chair. ‘You are the Regent? How can that be? How can you have been so close all this time … NO!’
Benjamin flicked his lighter open, waving the flame in front of Gabriel’s petrol-soaked face.
‘Be quiet, Romeo,’ he said. ‘Or I’ll turn you into charcoal.’
‘But what about the governors at Ravenwood?’ said April quickly. ‘I mean, I saw, you were bowing and scraping. You were scared of them.’
‘Once again, my so-called students disappoint me,’ said Sheldon shaking his head. ‘We are vampires, April. The ultimate predators. We excel at two things – the hunt and the kill. And to be a hunter you need to be able to hide in plain sight, to make your victims believe you pose no threat – until you strike.’
‘So you let the governors believe they’re in control, while lining them up as your pawns when you take the throne?’
‘Throne is right, sweetness,’ said Ben.
April frowned.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Jesus, don’t you Bleeders ever listen in school?’ said Benjamin with irritation. ‘Doesn’t anyone read the dictionary any more? A Regent only steps in to rule while the king is absent. But soon Robert will be crowned as king,’ he said, looking over at Sheldon with something like hero-worship in his eyes. ‘And he will lead us to glory.’
‘That’s enough, Ben,’ snapped Sheldon. ‘Now is not the time.’
‘Now is our time, Robert. It’s time to stop hiding, to stop cowering in the dark, always terrified of being discovered. No, when the throne is ours, we will live like kings and humans will live in the eternal darkness, begging to be our slaves.’
‘Like Alix Graves?’ said April.
‘Ah, you’re not quite as dim as I supposed, April,’ said Sheldon. ‘Alix Graves thought he could be our equal, he thought he could muscle his way to a position of power. When he found out what we really wanted, he tried to back out – he even threatened to tell the media about our little scheme.’
Sheldon wagged his finger. ‘Never try to blind-side a vampire, April. You may find someone tears your throat out.’
‘Like my father?’
Sheldon looked at his watch and shook his head. ‘Sorry, April, I wish I could stand here answering all your questions, but it’s time we got on with this.’
He gestured to Ben.
‘No!’ shouted April. ‘If you kill me, you’ll have no chance with my mother!’
Ben and Sheldon looked at each other, then burst out laughing.
‘Have a chance with her?’ said Sheldon. ‘Is that what she told you? Oh, she’s good.’
‘But she said … she said you’d had an affair and now you wanted her back.’
‘She wanted to be with me,’ he spat. ‘Your precious mother always was a little tart, even at university. She’d go wherever the most popular boys were. Anyone with a title, teachers, anyone cool, she had to have them. So she hooked up with me for a while, then cast me aside when her precious William came along. Look how wrong she was about him. But now she sees I’m in charge, so she’s back, crawling after me like a dog on heat.’
‘Don’t talk about her like that.’
Sheldon looked at April with contempt.
‘I can see you don’t believe me. Why do you think your family moved to Highgate?’
‘Because my dad had to get a job. He talked her into it.’
Mr Sheldon laughed.
‘William Dunne hated me. Your mother persuaded your father to come to London, not the other way around. She wanted to be with me. She begged, April.’
Shock ran through April’s body.
‘Is that why you killed my father?’
‘He didn’t kill your father, you stupid little bitch,’ said Benjamin.
‘Don’t you speak to her like that!’ growled Gabriel. ‘I’ll kill you!’
‘You’re not going to kill anyone, Gabriel,’ said Benjamin. ‘You think it’s beneath you.’
‘I’d make an exception for you.’ He looked at Sheldon. ‘And for you too, Regent.’
Sheldon laughed.
‘I am a born vampire, Swift. You know the difference, don’t you? I would crush you like a bug.’
‘Oh really?’ said Gabriel, straining at the ropes. ‘You overestimate your power.’
‘Do I? I don’t think so, Gabriel,’ said Sheldon, a smirk on his face. ‘Ask yourself what really happened in the cemetery on the night Isabelle died.’
‘I fought off her killer,’ said Gabriel. ‘The killer you sent.’
Sheldon raised an eyebrow. ‘Half right, boy,’ he said. ‘Think harder.’
April looked at Gabriel. He had a faraway look as if he was seeing the scene in front of his eyes. ‘I know what happened,’ he said, frowning as if he was trying to remember something that had been bothering him. ‘I tried to help her—’
‘But you’re not sure, are you, Gabriel?’ said Sheldon. ‘You don’t even know why you were there, do you?’
‘I was there to visit Lily’s grave—’
Benjamin laughed, a mocking, delighted laugh.
‘And who did you fight with that night?’ sneered Ben. ‘Who were you struggling with?’
‘What do you mean?’ said Gabriel, his face a mask of confusion. ‘The vampire with the strange eyes …’
Sheldon laughed and clapped his hands in delight.
‘He really has no idea,’ he said. ‘Even after all this time. Truly amazing.’
‘You leave him alone!’ shouted April. ‘Don’t listen to them, Gabriel! You helped Isabelle and saved my life, remember?’
‘Yes, Gabriel’s such a hero isn’t he?’ mocked Sheldon. ‘If you knew the truth, I doubt you’d be so comfortable being in this room with him.’
‘Don’t think you can play your mind games with me,’ said April. ‘I know who he is.’
‘But look at him, April!’ said Sheldon. ‘He doesn’t even know himself! Do you really think it was chance that Gabriel was there in the cemetery that night – the touching anniversary with his fiancée which just happened to fall on the night Isabelle was killed? Quite a coincidence, isn’t it?’
‘Not if you were trying to frame him for the murder,’ said April.
Sheldon shook his head. ‘It really is remarkable how much love blinds people to the truth,’ he said. ‘If we really wanted to connect him to a murder, there are plenty more bodies with his bloody fingerprints on them, believe me.’
Then, seeming to tire of the conversation, he turned to Benjamin.
‘Enough talking,’ he said. ‘Let’s get on with it.’
He pointed to April. ‘Her too.’
Benjamin frowned. ‘But I thought you wanted to keep her? If we have her blood and the White Book, we can—’
‘Do as I say,’ said Sheldon impatiently. ‘While the Fury lives, we are all in danger. It goes deeper than her blood.’ April watched in horror as Benjamin picked up the jerry can and began soaking the furniture and walls with the petrol, moving towards her, a smile on his face.
‘Wait,’ she shouted. ‘I thought you wanted the Albus Libre. I know where it is.’
Ben looked at her, then over at Sheldon. ‘Where?’ he said guardedly.
‘I have it here,’ said April.
‘Where?’
She nodded downwards.
‘My inside pocket.’
Ben glanced at Sheldon for permission, then put the can down and cautiously reached inside her jacket.
‘Mind your nose,’ April whispered. Ben frowned and leant in closer. ‘What did you say?’
The moment he was close enough, Ap
ril lunged towards Ben, the front legs of her chair pivoting and catapulting her forehead hard onto the bridge of his nose with a crack. Her momentum carried her forward and she landed on top of him, splintering the wood of the chair. April pulled her hands free from the ropes, expecting Ben to leap at her, but instead he stayed on the floor, clawing at his throat. As she looked on in horror, Ben’s neck began to swell and twist, the arteries beneath the skin turning black, his eyeballs bulging as if there were some great force pushing from inside his skull. What the hell was happening? April reached up and felt the wound on her forehead – and straight away she understood. Her blood had mixed with his, immediately infecting his system.
‘Help me…!’ Ben screamed, his voice rising to a wail and then a shriek as his legs thrashed uselessly against the ground. Suddenly, dark blood poured from his nose, ears and the corners of his eyes. His hands dropped from his throat and he lay still.
‘April! Behind you!’ shouted Gabriel, but he was too late.
As fast as a snake, Sheldon grabbed her around the neck and dragged her backwards out of the room.
‘Try and follow us and I’ll snap her neck like a twig,’ he growled. As he reached the door, Sheldon kicked the petrol can over, spilling a lake of petrol towards Gabriel, still tied to his seat.
‘No!’ shouted April, trying to twist away. Sheldon slammed her against the door frame, dazing her as he opened his lighter, flicked the wheel and threw it into the fuel, instantly sending an orange-white sheet of flame across the floor.
‘Gabriel!’ April shouted, as Sheldon dragged her backwards out of the room and up the stairs. Gabriel, she thought desperately. I’ve got to get to Gabriel.
‘Let me go!’ she screamed, kicking out.
‘Oh no, I’ve got other plans for you, Fury,’ he hissed into her ear, locking his arm around April’s throat, making her struggle for breath. She clawed at his arm, but he didn’t seem to feel it as he hauled her up, step by step. Facing backwards, she could only look with despair as the door of the drawing room filled with flame, black smoke pouring up towards the ceiling.
‘No, no, no …’ she moaned. How could Gabriel have survived such an inferno?