Her Vampyrrhic Heart

  ‘The heat wouldn’t have caused much damage. After all, he’s no longer human.’

  ‘You used the word “vampire”.’

  ‘To be more accurate, vampire-like. Those things out there don’t run away from crucifixes or garlic, their reflections can be seen in mirrors. But they do avoid daylight, and they do use blood. I say “use”, because I don’t believe they ingest food like any other—’

  ‘Of God’s creatures?’

  He nodded.

  June gazed at where those bare feet had slammed down into the fire. ‘What if he comes back? What then?’

  ‘My feeling is that your father … if that was your father … needed confirmation of what he saw out there in the forest before he tried to drown me.’

  ‘You mean he wanted to take a second look? To make sure it was me?’

  Tom nodded again. ‘Did you recognize him?’

  ‘Not with all those flames rushing up over his face. Besides, I’ve never actually met him. He’d gone before I was even born. All I’ve got are photographs.’

  ‘Did you have at least an impression that it might be your father?’

  June gave a shudder that went down to the roots of her bones. ‘His eyes … my God … I might have recognized those, because they’re as blue as mine in the photos. But his eyes were white, completely white, apart from the pupil.’ Her chest heaved as if she were close to having a panic attack. ‘I’ve never seen anything as terrifying.’

  In an attempt to appear reassuring, he said, ‘I’ll check the windows are secure. We don’t want any more of those things trying to get in.’

  ‘Vampires,’ she said with feeling. ‘Don’t be shy about calling them vampires. We need certainty about what we’re dealing with here.’

  ‘So you believe what I told you?’

  ‘Yes, I do.’ She gave a faint smile. ‘Now go and check the windows. I’ll feel better if I know that those vampires aren’t creeping into the bedrooms.’

  Tom Westonby soon confirmed that everything was secure. He took a peek out through the blinds – all he could see were trees.

  When he returned to the lounge June Valko asked bluntly, ‘How long have you known that there are vampires in this forest?’

  ‘Five years.’

  ‘You said they’ve never bothered you before?’

  ‘Frankly, they always struck me as being ineffectual … in fact, completely harmless. If I caught a glimpse of them they simply stood there without moving. Like bizarre statues.’

  ‘If they never attacked you before, what’s changed?’

  ‘As I said, the answer is simple. It’s because of you.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Those things out there were once members of the Bekk family. As far as I know, you’re now the only person alive … genuinely alive, that is, not a vampire … who is a living descendent of the Bekk bloodline.’

  ‘I live over a hundred miles away in Manchester. You said that any Bekk who left this valley would become a vampire. Why am I not a vampire?’

  ‘You were born in a different part of the country. Maybe that changed your biology to prevent the transformation.’

  ‘But I have Bekk blood in my veins. Viking blood?’

  He shrugged. ‘To be honest, I don’t know what rules apply to the transformation. What governs those vampires out in the forest aren’t natural laws. As far as I’m concerned, they’re walking mysteries, wrapped up in even more mysteries.’

  ‘Is this what happened to your wife? Did Nicola Bekk change?’

  He couldn’t even bring himself to say ‘yes’, the memory of seeing the blue fade out of her eyes still hurt with such a furious intensity. A lump formed in his throat. After a moment he managed to nod. ‘Then she was taken away.’ He took a deep breath. ‘It was the night the village was flooded. He took her.’ He nodded at a slab of rock set into the wall.

  ‘He?’

  ‘Helsvir.’

  She followed the direction of his gaze. When she saw the slab with its carving of a strange creature she looked dumbfounded. ‘How could that take your wife?’

  ‘That’s Helsvir, guardian of the Bekk family.’

  She went to examine the image, and ran her finger over the legs etched into the stone. ‘You’re telling me this monster is real?’

  ‘Monster? The Bekk family referred to it as a dragon.’

  ‘Dragons and vampires.’

  ‘Fortunately, there’s only one Helsvir.’

  ‘Being attacked by vampires is bad enough. Being attacked by a dragon might be more than I can handle in one night.’ She tried to smile but she was clearly afraid.

  ‘I’m sure Helsvir is never coming back.’

  ‘Then I only have to be terrified of vampires.’

  ‘Something tells me you don’t have to be worried about being attacked. The vampires will protect you. You’ve Bekk blood in your veins. I’m sure that was your father in the forest. Like I said, he probably thought I was hurting you; that’s why he attacked me. And earlier, when he climbed down the chimney, he wanted to check that I hadn’t imprisoned you here. Even though he might not be human, he’s still a Dad hell-bent on protecting his daughter.’

  ‘You can’t really be sure about that. How does he know I’m his daughter?’

  ‘The vampires will know alright.’ Tom spoke with conviction. ‘Imagine these stone walls are as transparent as glass. Now imagine that you are a brilliant, blazing light. Picture your body firing off enormous flashes that can be seen for miles around.’ He looked her in the eye. ‘That’s how the vampires see you. Especially your father. I’m certain of it. You, June, are a huge, brilliant light shining in the darkness. That’s why the vampires came rushing to the house. Your presence here is a siren and beacon rolled into one. The vampires now know that the last living Bekk has come back to them.’

  ‘But I haven’t come back to them, have I? I came to find my father.’

  ‘And now they’ve found you.’

  ‘Don’t, that’s scary.’

  ‘What’s more, you’ve changed the dynamic. By coming here you’ve made them behave differently. For the first time they’ve become aggressive …’ He rubbed his aching neck. ‘Violent.’

  ‘The change might be temporary?’

  Tom shook his head. ‘Your arrival here is as dramatic as this house being struck by lightning. Things are going to happen. And we’re going to have to be ready when they do.’

  TWENTY

  While Tom and June talked through the night in the depths of the forest, Kit Bolter lay in bed four miles away, staring up into the darkness. Earlier, Jez and Owen had watched the footage captured by the automatic camera. The device must belong to a wildlife enthusiast, he decided, or one of the countryside rangers. Both Jez and Owen had left to catch the bus, talking about what the footage had revealed.

  Kit lay there, turning those images over in his mind. The automatic camera had been triggered by the arrival of a huge creature. Surely it had been bigger than a horse. Much bulkier, too. Almost a whale-shaped thing that bulldozed through the forest, shoving aside trees, snapping branches. Probably the creature had dislodged the camera, and that’s how it came to be damaged. After all, there’d been no more footage of other animals after the arrival of the behemoth. But what was that thing? All they’d been able to make out was the hulking great silhouette. The infrared shooting mode of the camera had picked out glistening spots of light on its flanks. They had resembled eyes – though that had to be some optical illusion, surely?

  Kit decided to visit the place where Owen had found the camera. This warranted closer investigation; perhaps take casts of footprints, and check for animal fur caught in branches. Heck, even search for its droppings. He grinned. ‘They’ll be the size of elephant poo.’

  This would be terrific practice for a career in forensics. If he found some unknown animal roaming the woods it would look great on job applications. Kit Bolter, the amazing monster finder. He chuckled.

  ‘What’s
so funny?’

  The voice startled him so much he nearly jumped clean out of bed. ‘How long have you been there?’

  His mother switched on the light. One eye was so bloodshot it had turned crimson. ‘I needed the bathroom. I noticed you were lying there awake.’

  ‘I’m just thinking about things.’

  ‘Were you thinking about what I told you earlier? That Tom Westonby murdered your uncle?’

  He remembered only too clearly what she’d told him. ‘There’s no proof Tom did anything.’

  ‘Oh? Proof? Is it that you’re needing? You want to be one of those forensic scientists, don’t you? So why don’t you find proof that Westonby is a murderer?’

  ‘His brother’s my best friend.’

  ‘Then you best be careful, son. Watch out that Tom Westonby doesn’t try and do away with you.’

  He sat up in bed, his scalp prickling as he shivered. ‘Why did you say that?’

  ‘Because he’s got a taste for killing. He didn’t just kill your uncle. There are rumours he murdered his girlfriend, too. It all happened when the village got flooded way-back-when … He was with Nicola Bekk when she vanished. Nobody’s ever seen her since.’ She fixed that crimson eye on him. ‘People who are near Tom Westonby wind up either dead or missing. That’s why you’ve got to watch out that he doesn’t do the same to you.’

  With that, his mother switched off the light, leaving him alone in the dark.

  TWENTY-ONE

  The night seemed endless. Every so often Tom left his armchair to patrol the house, just to make sure that the vampire siege had been lifted. The sure way to find out would be to unlock the door and step outside. That would be reckless beyond belief, of course. If they were still out there, he’d either be killed, or he’d become a vampire himself. Doomed to haunt the forest for ever.

  With the power out and no electric light, he lit his way using a candle, feeling like a character out of a Charles Dickens novel. ‘Tom Westonby: the Hermit of Skanderberg House’ – now there’s a title for a twisted little horror story, he thought with a splash of tomb-dark humour. If I’m the hero of the story, then June Valko must be the heroine. She has the right characteristics – a beautiful, exotic woman in search of her father, because she hopes to cure her mother’s broken heart. All it takes to do that is for June to reunite her mother with her father. The problem is that her father has been transformed into a vampire. Bundling a bloodsucking monster into a car and driving him to visit June’s mother is going to be a humdinger of a job. He laughed softly as he headed towards the kitchen.

  ‘Are you going to share the joke?’

  He glanced back at June on the sofa.

  ‘I’m sorry.’ He smiled. ‘Maybe a mixture of sleep deprivation and shock.’

  ‘Could be low blood sugar. I’ll make you something to eat.’

  Although he wasn’t hungry he thanked her, and said something about finding cold roast chicken and salad in the fridge. June followed him into the kitchen to conjure up a tasty snack out of leftovers. With it being quiet outside he sensed that the danger had passed for now. Taking a brush from the larder, he swept up the glass from the broken door pane.

  June buttered the bread. ‘You’ve told me about vampires and the other creature.’

  ‘Helsvir.’

  ‘But there must be more I need to know.’

  ‘Lots more.’

  ‘Then you’ll come to the hotel in Leppington, so we can talk?’

  ‘You plan on sticking round? After all this? Seeing me almost get drowned? A vampire coming down the chimney?’

  ‘What do you think?’

  ‘I thought you’d get out of this valley and never come back.’

  ‘If you think I’m quitting now …’ she ripped the chicken apart with her bare hands ‘… then you don’t know me.’

  ‘I’m starting to. After all, most people would have run like hell when that thing attacked me in the wood. You stayed and fought.’

  ‘And I plan to stay here and keep fighting until I get what I need.’

  ‘And what’s that?’

  She looked him in the eye. ‘You must have guessed.’

  ‘You actually want to meet up face-to-face with your father?’

  ‘Yes. I’m going to talk to him.’

  ‘You don’t know what kind of monster he’s become. He might not want to attack you, but his instincts might override what’s left of his human mind. That thing could rip you apart, just like you’ve done with that chicken.’

  ‘That thing is my father.’

  ‘For the want of a better description that thing is a vampire. And as such will be unpredictable and therefore dangerous.’ Tom did not raise his voice: he simply wanted her to understand.

  June spoke with calm certainty. ‘For the sake of my mother, I’m staying. I’m going to learn whatever I can about my father and what he’s become. Then I will do whatever it takes. After all, although this might sound melodramatic, it is a matter of life and death.’

  ‘But I don’t understand how you can use your father to … what? Snap your mother out of her depression? How will you bring them together?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ Her eyes glittered with tears. ‘But I’m going to find a way. I have to. I won’t stand by and do nothing while she fades away. I won’t let her die without a fight, Tom, I won’t.’

  Three o’clock in the morning came and went. They ate the chicken salad in silence. Tom realized that this petite woman had a backbone of steel. When the vampire had tried to drown him she’d fought it off and saved his life. Though in truth, her fists would not have driven the creature away – it could easily have killed them both – rather the vampire had somehow understood that the woman was its child, and had simply left to avoid harming her, either accidentally, or if its monstrous nature took over and it couldn’t stop itself seeing her as prey.

  Later, the clock chimed four. Everything appeared quiet outside. Tom kept the fire blazing. Although whether the flames would deter another visitor using that particular mode of entrance had to be doubtful.

  Five o’clock. He showed June photographs of Nicola Bekk, told her that they’d married in an unconventional ceremony. Then he sat alone for a while in the kitchen, wondering if Nicola would ever return to him as June’s father had returned to her.

  Six o’clock. ‘Light in just over an hour,’ he told June as he handed her another mug of coffee.

  To be certain of their safety, he waited until it was fully daylight. Red sunlight glowed against the treetops when he finally unlocked the front door. After that, they walked quickly along the woodland path. Even though they hurried, it took fifteen minutes to reach the main road where June had parked the hire car. Tom had often wondered whether he could create a track through the forest that would allow him to drive a car right up to his house. After what happened last night the benefits of getting vehicles to and from Skanderberg were screamingly obvious. However, that wilderness would be difficult to tame. He’d be forced to cut down dozens of trees and dynamite outcrops of rock.

  When they reached the car June said, ‘That was quite some night, wasn’t it?’

  ‘Memorable.’ He shot her a tired smile. ‘Definitely memorable.’

  ‘So we’re going to meet up at the Station Hotel in Leppington?’

  ‘Sure.’

  ‘This afternoon?’

  ‘I’ve got a diving job this afternoon.’

  ‘A diving job?’

  ‘I make my living as a diver.’

  ‘Oh.’

  ‘I can make it over to Leppington tomorrow.’

  ‘Shall we say three o’clock, then? In the hotel bar?’

  ‘Three it is,’ he said.

  ‘After what happened, will you leave the house and find somewhere else?’

  ‘No. I have to stay there.’ He shrugged. ‘Call it my destiny.’

  June seemed to understand that he had important reasons to remain at Skanderberg, because she nodded. ‘Tom, keep safe.
Goodbye.’

  A moment later, the car headed away along the narrow road.

  For five years Tom had lived the solitary existence of a hermit. Life had been passing him by. Now he felt he’d finally woken up after all these years. He’d rejoined the flow of life.

  ‘And this is the start of something big,’ he murmured to himself. ‘Lives are going to change for ever.’ Then he shivered, as if he’d just caught a glimpse of a gravestone with his own name written on it.

  TWENTY-TWO

  Saturday morning began bright and cold. Kit Bolter made his mother’s breakfast and took it up to her on a tray. He noticed she’d worn the yellow cardigan for bed.

  ‘Don’t look at my hair.’ She sounded drowsy. ‘’S a mess. I’m going to get it cut off.’

  ‘I’ve opened the marmalade that Mrs Kenyon made. You said it was your favourite.’

  ‘You treat women well. Which means you’re nothing like your father. Uh, my head.’

  ‘Do you want me to get you a painkiller?’

  She waved his offer away. ‘It’ll pass. What’re your plans today?’

  ‘I need to buy some food for the weekend. This afternoon I thought I’d go for a walk up the valley.’

  ‘I don’t see any harm in that. Thanks for the breakfast, son.’

  Kit returned to his bedroom where he ran the footage that had been recorded on the automatic camera. He’d watched it for the first time yesterday evening, then saw it again in the company of Owen and Jez. Once more he watched the bulky creature with what appeared to be dozens of eyes studding its body. Now that was one weird animal. Fascinating, too. He longed to find out what it was. Although logic suggested that he must be seeing a stag, perhaps, or an escaped cow, and the odd sparkling points of light on its flanks were just an effect of the camera’s infrared setting. Kit also wondered when he should hand the camera over to the police. Perhaps give it until after the weekend? That way he’d have more time to search the area where the camera had been discovered.