Revelations, page 13
“Are we nearly there?” I said.
“About a minute away,” the driver replied.
I didn’t have a penny on me; the promise of double fare had been a complete lie. But I couldn’t wait until we’d arrived to tell him that—
getting mixed up with Etienne’s bullshit might cost the poor guy his life. That only left one choice.
I threw open the door and bolted.
“Get back here.” The driver’s voice roared after me, but I was gone before he’d undone his seat belt.
I found Canon Street by peeking at street names from under the blazer draped over my head, and though I couldn’t see the faces of the few people I passed by, I could imagine the strange looks I was getting. At least no one tried to stop me.
Canon Street was a narrow strip of road flanked on both sides by terraced redbrick houses. It was mostly cast in shadow, and I crossed to the darkest part of the street, trying to get some relief from the itching on the backs of my hands.
At the end of the road, a dark-gray car was parked by the curb.
Two human men stood by it—one was of average height and build, with thinning hair that formed a wispy island above his forehead; the other was large and bearded, shifting his weight from foot to foot.
He nudged the balding man when he saw me, and my steps faltered.
The balding man checked his watch. “You got here quick. Etienne will be pleased.”
The thought of pleasing him made me want to throw up. “What happens now?” I said.
The bearded man opened the door and gestured to the back seat.
“Get in.”
“Why are you helping Etienne?” I asked. I could guess why he hadn’t turned them into vampires—he needed minions who could go out during the day. But what was in it for them?
“Do you want to play question time, or do you want to get to Etienne before he hurts anyone you care about?” the balding man asked.
Rage boiled in my chest, the predator inside me surging to life.
My hands curled into fists, and I felt the ache of my fangs sliding out.
There was nothing menacing about either of these men, and neither of them stood a chance against me now that I was a vampire. But they held the power here, and we all knew it.
I approached the car.
Part of me still desperately hoped that Edmond would suddenly charge in to save me, even though I’d have to run from him if he did.
But no one came.
The bearded guy moved without warning. I saw his arm flick in my periphery, and something encircled my neck. I didn’t feel the pain at first, and then it suddenly hit, white-hot fire racing through me and turning my blood to acid.
A silver chain was looped around my neck, sucking the strength out of me. I clawed at it, but the metal corroded the tips of my fingers, which were already raw and peeling under the light of day.
I didn’t know if being a new vampire meant that silver hurt more, or if this was what Edmond had endured while he was locked in Belle Morte’s cells—all I knew was that agony was eating me alive. I couldn’t even scream; it was as if my voice had been cauterized.
I fell to my knees, helplessly scrabbling at the chain with bloody fingers.
Someone threw a coarse sack over my head, muffling me in darkness. Metal cuffs were clamped around my wrists and ankles, and fresh fire flooded me—the monsters had chained me head to foot with silver, and it was scorching like acid. My stomach heaved and churned, but vampires couldn’t be sick. Blood streamed down my neck and pooled between my breasts.
Two pairs of hands lifted me off my feet and tossed me into the back of the car. The doors slammed and the engine started, softly rumbling through my bones.
I had no idea where they were taking me or what the hell would happen next.
It was almost a relief when unconsciousness sucked me under.
Edmond
“We should get back in the van,” Ludovic said, looking up and down the street. There were only a couple of people about, and they were too busy hunching over their phones to pay any attention to their surroundings, but that could quickly change.
Edmond didn’t want to take his eyes off the pub where Renie was, but if they were trying to keep what had happened at Belle Morte quiet for now, they couldn’t risk anyone spotting them.
Ysanne swayed suddenly and braced her hand on the van’s back doors, still hanging open. Edmond moved to her side.
“You need blood,” he said.
A muscle twitched in Ysanne’s jaw. “It’ll have to wait until we get to Fiaigh.”
“We don’t know how long that will be,” Edmond cautioned.
Andrew appeared around the side of the van. “I can feed you,” he said, holding up his wrist.
The offer was for Ysanne, but Edmond’s fangs slid out, straining to bite Andrew, to drink his warm, delicious blood.
Ysanne shook her head, but Edmond touched her arm. “You should do it. We have no idea if we’ll reach Fiaigh without running into trouble.”
Ysanne stared at him, and for just a moment, Edmond felt catapulted back in time, hundreds of years ago, to the night he’d met Ysanne. She’d been stabbed then, too, after being attacked by robbers on the road, and after killing them, she’d turned to the frightened peasant boy hiding nearby, and had asked to drink his blood so she could heal her wound. Edmond had fed her then, but he couldn’t feed her now.
Andrew offered her his wrist again, and Edmond sensed rather than saw her relent.
“We should do it in the van,” she said. “We don’t want to draw any attention to ourselves.”
She climbed into the van, Andrew following, and they sat on the left bench in the darkest corner.
“You need blood too,” Ludovic said to Edmond.
He tilted his head in the direction of the pub. A middle-aged man had stumbled out and, judging by the way he was leaning on the wall and struggling to light a cigarette, he was already very drunk. The drunker someone was, the less likely they were to remember being bitten by a vampire.
“Before you protest, consider that the stronger you are, the more you’ll be able to protect Renie,” Ludovic added.
Edmond allowed a rueful smile. Ludovic knew exactly how to get to him.
“Stay here and keep an eye on the pub,” he said.
Ludovic nodded.
As the drunk man headed down a narrow side street, Edmond went after him. It felt strange to be doing this again. For centuries he’d hunted humans from the shadows, taking as much blood as he could without hurting them and then disappearing until it was safe to hunt again. The donor system had changed all that. He’d grown used to donors offering up their veins in the luxury of Belle Morte, and there was something very jarring about suddenly being forced to revert back to how things used to be.
The man moved slowly ahead of Edmond, his feet shuffling over the ground, cigarette smoke wafting over his shoulder.
Smoking was banned at Belle Morte because it affected the taste of the blood, and most vampires didn’t like feeding from drunk people for the same reason, but Edmond couldn’t afford to be picky.
He waited until the man stopped to stub out his cigarette, then slipped up behind him, silent as a ghost, and sank his fangs into the man’s neck. His blood was bitter and unpleasant, but Edmond gulped down as much as he could without hurting the man. It wasn’t enough to heal his injuries but it gave him a much-needed boost of energy. He’d be strong enough to fight if it came to it.
The man leaned against the wall, his eyelids fluttering with the unexpected ecstasy of Edmond’s bite, and Edmond slipped away as quietly as he’d come.
As soon as the pub and the van came back into view, he realized that something was wrong. Roux and Jason stood by the van, Roux frantically gesturing while she told Andrew something. Ysanne was still in the van with Caoimhe, but there was no sign of Ludovic or Renie.
Edmond’s blood ran cold.
He ran to the van and grabbed Roux’s arm. “What happened?”
he said.
Roux’s face was pale, her eyes huge and shocked. “I think Etienne has Renie’s mum. She phoned home but someone else answered, and whoever it was freaked her out, but she seemed to know them, so it has to be Etienne, right?”
“How could Etienne have got to her house already?”
“Southampton isn’t that far away from Winchester. If he went straight there after we escaped the mansion . . .” Roux trailed off.
Ludovic jogged toward them, his face grim. “Renie got in a taxi. I don’t know where she went, and I couldn’t catch up. I’m sorry.”
Edmond struggled to control the icy wave of fear rising inside him. “If Renie thinks that Etienne has her mother, she’ll go home.”
But Roux shook her head. “We couldn’t hear his side of the conversation but Renie definitely said that she didn’t know where somewhere was, and she asked what would happen when she got there. I don’t think Etienne was telling her to come home.”
“Where the hell else would he send her?” Edmond’s hands curled into fists.
“I don’t know.”
Edmond punched the side of the van, and Roux jumped. “This is my fault. I shouldn’t have left her,” he said.
He should have learned from the last time—when June had killed her. But apparently he hadn’t learned a damn thing, and now she’d slipped through his fingers.
“Hey,” said Roux, pointing at him. “This is Etienne’s fault, not yours, and there’s no time for a pity party. We need to decide what to do.”
“We have to go to her house,” said Jason. He slumped against the van, staring at his feet.
“But she’s not there,” Roux said.
“Her mum is, though, and so’s Etienne. He’s already killed June; we can’t let him kill Renie’s mum too.”
Roux bit her lip, her eyes bright with unshed tears. “But that means we can’t go after Renie.”
Edmond resisted the urge to punch the van again.
“We already can’t go after her,” said Caoimhe, poking her head out. “We have no idea where she is, and no way of tracking her.”
“I’m not abandoning her,” Edmond growled.
“I didn’t suggest you should. But Etienne knows where she is.”
Roux’s expression cleared. “And we know where Etienne is.”
A grim sort of calm settled on Edmond, quieting the surging waves of fear and anger. “Then I’ll make him talk.”
“You think this could be a trap?” Jason asked.
“Etienne almost took Renie from me a few days ago. If he thinks he can do that again, he’s wrong. I’ll peel the skin from his skull if it means finding her,” Edmond said.
Jason swallowed. “Okay then.”
“Does anyone actually know Renie’s address?” Roux said.
Ysanne climbed out of the van. “I do. I memorized the addresses of every current donor.”
“Then let’s go,” said Edmond.
As everyone climbed into the van, Edmond looked back at the pub where he’d last seen Renie. “I’ll find you,” he whispered. “No matter what it takes, I’ll find you.”
Chapter fifteen
Renie
My senses trickled slowly back to life. I was being dragged along a hard floor; the cloth sack was still over my head, the coarse fibers scraping my face. I could hear two heartbeats—I guessed from the guys Etienne had sent to kidnap me—and when I strained my ears even further, I detected the faint sound of running water.
Was I still in Winchester or had Etienne’s minions taken me somewhere else? How much time had I lost while I was unconscious? Enough for Edmond to realize I’d gone. My heart twisted sharply.
My captors hauled me into a chair, and the pressure of the cuffs around my wrists and ankles momentarily eased as someone undid them. Then they cuffed them again—my ankles to the chair legs and my wrists behind the chair so I couldn’t move my arms.
Maybe I should’ve pretended that I was still unconscious, but when the bag was ripped off my head, I couldn’t keep from reflexively gasping.
I was in a small wooden structure with boarded-up windows and an uneven concrete floor, broken here and there by clumps of weeds.
Etienne stood in front of me, flanked on either side by my kidnappers. Rage boiled through me.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I cried. “Do you know what this sick son of a bitch has done? Why are you helping him?” They’d removed the silver chain while I was unconscious but my voice still felt ravaged.
The bearded man swallowed, drawing my eyes to his throat. My stomach throbbed with the sudden need for blood.
“Because he’s going to help us,” Beardy said, gazing at Etienne with what I could only call hero worship. It was the same expression I’d seen on Vladdicts as they cooed over their latest vampire crush, on the faces of every single person who’d got swept up in the vampire mania of the last ten years.
“Help you? He’ll kill you,” I snarled.
“Yeah, and then he’ll turn me.”
My eyes shot to Etienne but his face gave away nothing. Bastard.
“He’s going to make us immortal,” said the balding man, and his face suddenly twisted with anger. “All my life I’ve been a loser, and pretty girls like you never even look at me, but when I’m a vampire, that will change. People will notice me. They’ll respect me.”
“Of course they will,” Etienne said.
I stared at the man I’d thought was my friend, and something else surfaced among the hunger for blood and the burning anger—the bitter sting of betrayal.
“I trusted you,” I said softly.
Etienne glanced at his human lackeys. “Give us a moment,” he said.
They all but bowed to him before hurrying out of the building.
Etienne fetched a chair from a corner and positioned it in front of me. Then he sat, not close enough that I could reach him if my arms had been free, but close enough that we could look into each other’s eyes, read each other’s faces.
“Renie, please believe me when I say this isn’t personal. You’re a nice girl, and if there was another way around this, I really would take it.”
His voice was sincere, and I hated him for that. I’d rather he was a cackling Bond villain, rubbing his hands together in gleeful anticipation of my death, than sitting there with a sympathetic stare, telling me that he was sorry I had to die.
“Why did you kill my sister?” Even if I was going to die here, I had to know.
“Because she asked me to.”
His answer was the last thing I’d expected, and the words hit me like a punch; I actually recoiled.
“What did you say?” My voice came out in a whisper.
“June is not some blameless victim in all this. She wanted to be turned.”
“She didn’t want to be a monster!”
“No,” Etienne agreed. “But I didn’t know that would happen. It really wasn’t my intention.”
“Then what was?”
Etienne’s eyes bored into me, and I hoped that every ounce of the hatred I felt for him was reflected in my own stare.
“I needed her,” he said.
“Why?”
“Because the vampire world needs to change, and I can’t do it alone.”
I struggled to think back to that night in the snow, when June had killed me. “You said a revolution was coming.”
Etienne nodded.
“What the fuck does that have to do with June?”
“The donor system isn’t working, and the only way we’ll ever change it is to tear it all down. I couldn’t do that under the Council’s iron grip, nor could I overthrow them without help. June was my accomplice inside Belle Morte.”
“You’re lying. Belle Morte was June’s dream, she’d never do anything to hurt the House.”
“Yes, she would, if there was something she wanted more.” Etienne waited a beat. “June was in love with me. When I told her that I’d grant her greatest wish and make her immortal so we could be together forever, there was nothing she wouldn’t do for me. But first we had to overthrow Ysanne. The Lady of Belle Morte, with her rigid rules and antiquated ideals, would never have let us be together.”
“No.” I shook my head so fiercely that my hair whipped against my eyes. “June wouldn’t do something like that.”
“June would have done anything for me.” Etienne’s voice was strangely neutral—he didn’t sound regretful or smug, and that made me angrier.
“You’re lying,” I shouted, my eyes burning with unshed tears.
“Wouldn’t you do anything to prove your love for Edmond? Or is there a limit?” Etienne asked.
“Of course there is.”
“What is that limit? What would you not be willing to do to be with him?”
Words died on my tongue—how the hell did I know?
“Exactly. It’s very easy to pass moral judgments when you’re not in that position.”
“It’s easy to pass judgment on a guy who kills people to get what he wants,” I snapped.
“Really?” Etienne leaned back in his chair, looking amused. We could have been in any feeding room in Belle Morte, except that I was chained and bleeding. “How much judgment have you passed on Edmond? I’m willing to bet he killed plenty of people during the three wars he fought in. Or are you going to tell me that’s different?”
“It is different.”
“Why?”
“Edmond didn’t fight those wars for his own benefit. He was trying to help make the world a better place.”
“That’s exactly what I’m trying to do—for vampires. Unfortunately, that means some sacrifices have to be made. Edmond has plenty of blood on his hands, and you’ve overlooked that because of your feelings for him. You have no moral authority here, Renie, and neither does Edmond.”
“You never loved June, did you?” I knew the answer but I had to hear him say it.
“No. We needed her, and I used her accordingly.” His voice was soft now, talking to me like he thought I’d understand.
The emotion inside me was like a tornado, a surging force of rage and grief and confusion, but in spite of that, my ears pricked up at the word we.
