‘He loved you,’ whispered April. ‘He really must have loved you.’
Silvia nodded. ‘Yes, he did. It was the one thing I was always sure of. The only thing, actually.’
She looked up at April and her eyes were shining with tears. ‘And I loved him back. I really did.’
‘So why did you ...’ began April, then stopped.
‘Oh Jesus,’ she whispered. Because it had all suddenly fallen into place. She knew. She knew who the King Vampire was – and she knew exactly where he was too. She looked at her mother. There were a million questions she wanted to ask, but they would all have to wait. Because there was someone she loved who needed her help right now. April jumped to her feet. She had been wasting too much time.
‘Where are you going?’ said Silvia.
‘It’s great you’ve told me all this, but I’ve got to go.’
‘Now?’
‘Now.’
She turned and ran down the stairs, taking them three at a time.
‘April! Come back,’ shouted Silvia. But April was already running, sprinting towards the school. Running towards Gabriel.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Ravenwood was dark. April stood in the shadows across the road, panting, with her hands on her knees. She had run all the way from Pond Square, suddenly filled with a desperate need to find Gabriel – and at the same time, somehow absolutely sure he was here. If Chessy had been telling the truth-- that tonight was some sort of audience with the King for the chosen few – then everything April had ever wanted to know about the vampires would be inside that building. But why was it so dark, so lifeless? It just looked like an ordinary school shut up for the night. Maybe the Suckers had just been boasting. But April could almost feel their presence – she knew they were there, just knew it.
For a moment, her mind flashed back to her mother’s bedroom, the certificates, the photographs. Why had she hidden so much of her own childhood from herself? She could understand why Silvia might need to do it, but why had she, April, suppressed the one thing that she must, must have known all along? It was as if she had somehow understood what her mother and father were doing, and colluded.
‘Crazy,’ she whispered. But it was just one of the questions she would have to find answers for later. Right now, she needed to find Gabriel. Right now, that was all that mattered.
April drew back further into the shadow of a tree as headlights swept around the corner and a car pulled in through the school gates. She watched as the doors of the black Mercedes opened and two men in suits climbed out – she could hear their voices and laughter; they certainly sounded like they were going to a party. Just then Ravenwood’s wide front door opened, briefly spilling yellow light across the steps before it closed behind them.
At least I know that something’s going on, she thought, taking a deep breath. Here goes nothing.
April slipped through the gates and around the side of the school. Keeping the dark building to her left, she ran along the wall, hoping no one was looking out. But then, why would they be? If there was some vampire mass rally going on inside, all eyes would be turned towards the stage or throne or wherever the King Vampire was holding court.
The King Vampire. April stopped, her hand over her mouth. How could she have missed it? How? But then she had managed to avoid seeing that her own mother was a bloody vampire, hadn’t she? If her reeling mind had refused to accept that, then it was only logical that she could miss the fact that the King, the very person she’d been hunting for so long had been right under her nose. April shook her head. She couldn’t let all that stop her now; if she thought too hard, she’d freeze. And then Gabriel would be lost.
She paused at the corner of the gym and peeked around the wall. At the back, the main hall looked out over the playing fields – light from the windows was flooding across the hockey pitch. That’s where the party is then, she thought. There was no way to sneak past those windows and besides, she needed to get inside. Retracing her steps, she padded down a set of stairs towards one of the side exits: the double doors she and Caro would go through on their way to their favourite picnic bench. Back when all this had been only an idea, when they had just been playing at detectives. But now it was deadly serious, wasn’t it?
‘Got a light?’
April darted back behind a bush as two men stepped into view. Please, don’t let them have seen me, thought April, not daring to breathe. The two stood at the foot of the stairs, smoking. April could smell the rich tobacco in the air: cigars. Typical, she thought as a cloud wafted over her. She hated cigars; they made her feel sick. She pulled her coat over her mouth. Now was not a great time to have a coughing fit.
‘What are we going to do about the other Royal family?’ said the first man. He had a high-pitched voice and April could see his silhouette: skinny and tall.
The other laughed. ‘I’ve been wondering about that too,’ he replied with a deep Scots accent, ‘Maybe they’ll join up – they wouldn’t like the alternative.’
‘On that note, we’d better get back. We don’t want to be missed.’
They threw their cigars towards April’s bush and went back into the building. April let out a silent breath, her pulse racing wildly. She stayed where she was for a count of thirty, then quietly stepped back onto the stairs. Yes! The men had left the door slightly ajar; she slipped inside. April felt the familiar thrill of being somewhere she shouldn’t, only this time she wasn’t just rifling a library for books. This time, if she were caught, the vamps would almost certainly kill her.
Better not let that happen, then, she thought, turning away from the hall and taking the stairs down towards the basement. Logic told her that if Gabriel was here, he had to be captive somewhere and April had seen enough bad horror movies to know that prisoners were usually kept in the basement, rattling at the bars and yelling for their lawyers.
But this isn’t a movie, is it? mocked the voice in her head. It’s real.
‘Oh, shut up,’ she whispered.
She turned into a dark corridor: the laboratories. Each of the labs had a window cut into their doors and April peered gingerly through the first, labelled ‘Chem 104’. Nothing. Just a dark room and a few Bunsen burners. She tried the next and the next; still nothing, just empty rooms and strange equipment. At the end of the corridor, April finally found an unlocked door. Damn, only a store cupboard. She was just about to turn back when her phone buzzed in her pocket. April had switched it to vibrate, but it still made her give a little squeak of surprise. Looking around anxiously, she closed the cupboard door behind her and clicked “Accept”.
‘April,’ said Caro breathlessly. ‘I’m at the hospital and ...’
‘Caro, not now,’ she hissed. ‘I’m ... I’m busy.’
‘Where are you?’ her friend asked suspiciously.
‘In the basement of Ravenwood, surrounded by a million vampires, so I can’t really chat.’
‘The school? What the hell are you doing there?’
‘Chessy told me the vamps are making their big move – tonight – and they’re having some sort of council of war right now. Here, at Ravenwood.’
‘Is Gabriel with you?’
‘I was actually hoping to find him down here.’
Caro was silent for a moment. ‘A?’
‘What?’
‘Don’t get caught.’
April pulled a face and hung up, then, easing the door open, she tip-toed across the corridor – another lab, this one labelled ‘Audio Vis 108’. It was too dark inside to make much out, but it all looked pretty high-tech. There was a row of computers under the windows and a large whiteboard in the far corner – hang on, what’s that?
A flurry of moving colours, like a reflection on glass. Squinting, April could make out wires attached to the wall and one of those old-fashioned microphones you see crooners singing into. A radio studio? But there was definitely something flickering in the corner, just out of sight – and a dark shape in the middle.
> ‘What the hell?’ she whispered, her nose pressed against the glass. It couldn’t be – could it?
She tried the door, but the handle wouldn’t move. Of course not, that would be too easy.
She turned and went back to the store cupboard looking for a way to get into that room. A broken office chair – wrong shape, she thought, too heavy to pick up anyway. Behind that was a mop and broom – not heavy enough.
‘Bingo,’ she said, pulling a long pole from the shadows at the back. It was a roll-up viewing screen, the sort used with projectors. The long heavy metal tube was perfect for what April had in mind.
This’d better work, she thought, hoisting it over her shoulder. Steeling herself, April ran towards room 108 and slammed the end of the tube into the window like a battering ram. The centre of the glass cracked into a spider’s web, bending inwards, but it held. Dammit, it must be safety glass. She glanced up the corridor. The sound of the impact in such an enclosed space was like a pistol going off, but she couldn’t stop now. She backed up and tried again, her arms shaking with the effort. This time the tube crashed straight through, taking the frame and the glass with it. April had surely been heard, but she couldn’t worry about that now. She hoisted herself up and slithered head-first through the hole, landing in a twisted heap.
‘Gabriel,’ she called, scrambling to her feet. ‘Gabriel, are you there?’
And then she stopped, transfixed by the bizarre scene in front of her. Gabriel was strapped to what looked like a dentist’s chair. One arm had tubes running to a hospital drip and there were wires attached to his temples. He was staring straight at a large flat-screen TV on which was playing what looked like a home-movie of a dog fight – pit bulls tearing bloody chunks out of each other. But it was Gabriel’s face that made April catch her breath. It was blank, literally blank, as if all trace of personality had been removed. His eyes were open, but there was no other sign of life. He looked like a waxwork in Madame Tussauds.
‘Gabe,’ she said softly, taking a step closer. ‘It’s me, April. Can you hear me?’
She reached out to touch his hand – and suddenly he moved, grabbing her wrist, squeezing.
‘Please Gabriel,’ she said, trying to twist away, ‘Gabe, you’re hurting me.’
He turned to face her and April recoiled. His eyes were fierce, his lips drawn back, just like the snarling dogs on the screen. It was the same vampire face she had seen that morning on top of Primrose Hill when he took the Dragon’s Breath and turned back into a vampire, but this time there was no recognition, no trace at all of the Gabriel she knew. The creature straining against the straps of his chair wanted to kill her.
There was a sudden crash and the room was filled with people, hands pulling her backwards, as a figure in black bent over Gabriel with a large syringe.
‘No!’ she screamed, ‘Leave him alone!’
‘I don’t think that would be a good idea, April.’
Whoever was constraining April twisted her around and she saw Charles Tame standing in the doorway.
‘Bring her,’ he said with a malevolent smile. ‘There’s someone I think will want a word with her.’
April’s arm was twisted behind her back and she was frog-marched out of the lab and back along the corridor. As they got to the steps, she looked back and saw Gabriel being hauled from the room, slumped between two men, his head hanging forward, his toes dragging along the floor.
‘What have you done to him?’ she yelled. ‘If you’ve hurt him, I’ll kill you!’
Tame stepped in front of her and grabbed her face. ‘No, April, I think not,’ he said, his fingers pressing painfully into her cheeks. ‘You will do exactly as you are told.’
‘Do you know who I am?’ she hissed. ‘Do you know who the King is?’
Tame laughed. ‘Of course I do. I’ve known since I came to Ravenwood, we’ve been working side by side, you could say.’ He looked over at Gabriel.
‘You did that to him? What have you done to his head?’
‘It’s my speciality, April, you knew that. The mind is a surprisingly simple thing when you know how to re-programme it.’
‘What did you do?’ screamed April.
Tame stepped forward and slapped her. April’s head jerked back, her mind reeling.
‘Tonight is too important to let your hysterical teenage nonsense get in the way. Either you cooperate, or your boyfriend has an unpleasant, and fatal, accident. Is that clear?’
Tame’s eyes were sparkling in the light, his mouth a fixed grin. He’s mad, she thought.
‘Is that clear?’ he repeated.
April nodded. We’ll see who has an unpleasant accident, she thought. Her defiance must have shown on her face, because Tame slowly shook his head.
‘Oh no, don’t think you’ll be getting special treatment,’ he said. ‘The King has been very clear on that from the beginning. You will see our point of view and fall in line, or you will be joining dear Gabriel in his shallow grave.’
He stood watching her, that grin still there, clearly waiting for a reply. April nodded again.
‘Fine, then I think it’s time for your reunion.’
In front of her, the double doors to the school hall were opened and April was pushed through. April had been expecting a party, perhaps something along the lines of the reception at the Crichton Club, but this was different. A long wooden table had been placed in the centre of the floor, surrounded by perhaps two dozen high-backed chairs – and sitting in each of them were serious-faced men and women. April didn’t have time to recognise any individuals because Tame pushed her elbow, causing her to stumble to her knees at the foot of the table.
‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ said Tame, ‘may I introduce Ravenwood’s Head Girl, Miss April Dunne? Miss Dunne, it seems, has been on a rescue mission,’ he said. ‘And I suspect she was also planning to disrupt our little meeting.’
April had expected an angry shout or at the very least a hum of discussion, but instead the hall remained silent, as if everyone was waiting for someone to give them a signal.
‘Pick her up,’ instructed a low voice. April felt hands behind her, and she slowly straightened up, her stomach turning over.
‘Hello Princess.’
April looked up into the face of her grandfather.
‘Come, April,’ said Thomas, gently lifting her chin with one finger and looking into her eyes. ‘You will sit next to me. As you were always meant to.’
But April could not move, she could only look at him, her mouth open. All those months, looking everywhere, searching for clues, she had missed the glaring truth, the thing that had been right in front of her. |Her mother, her grandma, Uncle Luke – her whole family were vampires. And Grampa Thomas, her rock, her protector, he was the most dangerous of them all.
‘You’re the King?’ she said. ‘The King Vampire?’
She had to ask, had to hear him say it.
Thomas just smiled, not the twisted smile of a tyrant, but the warm smile of a doting grandparent.
‘Yes April, I am the King. Now join me.’
He led her to a chair next to him at the head of the table. April noticed to her horror that all eyes in the room were focused on her. Did they expect her to say something? But instead Grampa Thomas began to speak.
‘This, you will have gathered, is my granddaughter, April,’ he said.
To April’s surprise and bewilderment, the group began to clap. They were all smiling at her!
‘This means a minor deviation from the plan, but now I see that fate has brought her to our meeting. April is the last of my line and my natural heir.’
This snapped April out of her daze.
‘What? No!’ she said. ‘Gramps, I can’t, I don’t ...’
He laid his huge hand over hers and bent his mouth to her ear. ‘Don’t rush it, Prilly, I know this must be strange for you, but this is the future. Our future.’
Thomas looked down the table with pride. April could now see David Harper, DCI
Johnston and a few other faces she thought she recognised from the TV news or perhaps from the meeting at the Crichton Club. They were all looking at her expectantly.
‘Are they the governors?’ she said.
A twitter of polite laughter ran around the table.
‘No darling. This is the Council of Light.’
‘Light? I thought it was all about darkness.’
‘This is not a Hammer Horror film, April,’ said Thomas. ‘Look for yourself, these people are just like you – they’re humans not vampires. But they are forward-thinking humans, people who simply want the world to be different, who want society to finally recognise and accept that vampires live among them and wish to share in the government of the land.’
‘No! I’m not like any of these people.’
She pushed herself up, away from the table, as if to distance herself from them.
‘Don’t you realise what you’re doing?’ she cried. ‘Do you realise who you’re dealing with?’
‘April, please,’ began Thomas.
‘No, Gramps,’ she said. ‘Tonight I saw exactly what your people are capable of. I saw an innocent schoolgirl savaged, her blood drained by a monster.’
‘We are not monsters, darling,’ said Thomas, his demeanour calm, but his eyes betraying annoyance. ‘Vampires simply have a different physiological make-up. We need plasma to survive and it is society’s inability to accept our difference that has forced some into such desperate acts.’
April laughed incredulously. ‘So now you’re presenting vampires as some sort of oppressed minority? Crap, gramps! That Sucker didn’t need to feed, she did it because she could, because she liked pain and suffering and terror. That’s your idea of a bright new future?’
She saw Thomas glance towards the watching faces around the table.
‘No, that is my idea of a dark past which we must distance ourselves from and control. We cannot allow that perception of vampires as skeletal ghouls lurking in the shadows to hold us back.’
There were a few more claps.
She shook her head. She still couldn’t believe what she was hearing. ‘It’s not a bloody PR problem!’ she shouted towards the people the table. ‘These people are going to destroy your world!’