There's Always a Morning, page 8
“I’m sorry,” Mathew said ruefully. “It seems we’ve been misinformed.”
They were at the inn, Ramsey saw and the constable was standing outside, waiting for them.
“The inspector wishes to see you,” he told Ramsey. “He’s in the parlour, waiting for you.”
“I shall go to my room,” Mathew said, still red,
Ramsey stared at the open parlour door. “Looks like the inspector doesn’t believe in privacy,” he said.
The man was standing at the window, looking out, his face partly turned towards the room so that his profile was visible, the angle of the door hiding them from his view. Mathew sucked in a breath and caught Ramsey by the arm, pulling him away from the open doors,
“He’s one of them!” He hissed. “Which means he’ll know your story is a load of hogwash! He’ll know that you couldn’t have taken Hugh down unless you’re a vampire or a hunter, and he probably knows all the hunters, including me.”
Ramsey stared at the door. “That complicates things,” he murmured.
“A
ll right,” Ramsey whispered. “Even if he realises who I am, he cannot do anything here, with so many people around. Even his constable knows that Hugh was a wanted criminal. So I think that I should go and talk to him, stick to the story. If he meets you, he’ll know we’re working together, and I think we should avoid that at the moment. So, go out and get yourself fitted for some clothes, or visit the physician, or something. I’ll come and find you once he’s gone.”
Mathew nodded. “If my people find out I’m working with you, even if it is to bring those miscreants down, they could well send someone after me, and I’m keen to avoid that.”
“Okay then, leave. Here, take these coins.” Ramsey thrust the small bag into Mathew’s hand. “The constable doesn’t know you, so he won’t be trying to stop you. I’ll find a way to get rid of the Inspector.”
Mathew left and Ramsey went into the parlour, the Inspector turning around at the sound of his arrival.
“You’re the man who killed that criminal?” The Inspector asked.
Ramsey could feel no anger or hostility from the man, which was strange considering what Mathew had said. But then, humans were strange.
Ramsey nodded, appearing nervous. “I didn’t mean to,” he said in a whiny voice. “I just... he jumped me and I was trying to escape.”
“Why did you go over there when you knew that someone has already been attacked?”
Ramsey fidgeted, shuffling his feet and looking away.
“Well?” the Inspector asked, an edge to his voice as Ramsey sought for and discarded stories, his brain working furiously to come up with something to throw this man off, even if for a short while.
“I dropped something there,” Ramsey said finally, looking at the Inspector with a half-ashamed, half-defiant look, forcing his body into a rigid posture.
“Dropped something?” the Inspector asked. “And my men didn’t find it when they searched the area?”
“I don’t know if they did and hid it, do I?” Ramsey asked, the tiniest hint of belligerence creeping into his tone as he looked at the inspector with a slight glare.
“Are you accusing my men of stealing?” the Inspector’s voice was like whiplash.
“I’m not saying they did, and I’m not saying they didn’t. I daresay someone else would have taken my ring, but I had to check, didn’t I?” Ramsey was sounding sulky.
“My men did not find anything!” the Inspector said. “And there was nothing on the corpse either. Do you mind telling me how it happened again?”
Ramsey repeated the story he had concocted, punctuated with shudders and sniffles, concluding with, “It was awful.”
“I daresay,” the inspector said, not looking impressed. “Just to satisfy my curiosity, you look like a small man, and that criminal was much larger, so how is it that you were able to not only break free, but to push him with enough force to make him fall and hit his head hard enough to crack it?”
“How do I know?” Ramsey asked sullenly. He had anticipated the question. “I only know it happened. Maybe he wasn’t so strong, maybe he was drunk. All I know is I struggled and pushed and he fell.”
The Inspector took out a bulging bag which tinkled as he dropped it on the table. “Your reward, for killing him. Where’s the man you saved? I need to talk to him.”
“Must be in his room,” Ramsey said as he took the bag. “He was when I went out.”
“And where did you go?”
“Searching for a pawnshop, looking to see if my ring turned up in any.”
“And did it?”
“I couldn’t find any shops.” Ramsey allowed indignation to creep into his voice. “The men I asked directed me to some boarding school!”
“Probably because there is a pawn shop tucked into the corner next to that school,” the inspector said in a bored voice. That eased Ramsey’s mind somewhat. It did seem as if the hunter wasn’t aware of the Centre yet. He would still need to warn Arianne, though. “It tries to keep itself inconspicuous, knowing that those who need it will find it. You seem to be going into a lot of trouble for a ring.”
Ramsey snorted. “You ever been married?”
“Can’t say that I have.”
“Then you won’t get it. How can a man go home and tell his wife he lost his wedding ring, trying to help some chance acquaintance? She’ll kill me!”
“Can you call your friend, please?”
Ramsey shrugged. “I’ll see if he’s there,” he said as ungraciously as he could and went out only to find the Inspector trailing behind him.
“I think I’ll come with you,” the inspector said.
“Suit yourself.” Ramsey shrugged.
Ramsey knocked at the closed door of the room and then turned the handle, and opened it.
“He isn’t here,” he said. “But the door’s unlocked.”
He was pushed into the room and the Inspector entered after him, closing the door with his foot and bolting it with one hand while drawing a large blade with the other.
Ramsey made a whimpering sound, holding out the bag of coins.
“Don’t kill me!” he begged. “Take the money! I won’t tell anyone! My wife and little baby will starve! Please don’t kill me!”
“Stop!” the Inspector said, sounding both tense and angry. “Stop with the acting. Who are you? How did you kill Hugh? Who helped you?”
“I told you what happened!” Ramsey whined. “He jumped me, and-”
“Liar!” the blade slashed and Ramsey jumped back, holding his arm that was grazed by the blade. “Hugh was a teetotaller, and there is no way a whining quivering mass of flesh like you could have even hurt him, let alone killed him!”
The man sounded demented with fury and Ramsey knew that he had to be careful. He wasn’t worried about the man hurting him. If he wanted it, the graze on his arm would already be healing, but he allowed the blood to flow to maintain the illusion that he was human. But if the man attacked again, he might need to defend himself and that could blow his cover and potentially make him a wanted man. Killing an Inspector in his own town was not an ideal situation by any means.
“There was a man!” he croaked, moving back towards the window, and still holding his arm. “He said his name was Mathew! He killed him, and he told me to say I did it, that there was a reward on him, that I could get it. He said not to tell anyone about him or he’ll kill me too! I’m sorry!”
The Inspector stared at him, consternation and fear alternating on his face. “This man. Will you know him if you see him again?”
Ramsey nodded, cowering.
“Is this him?” The Inspector produced a crumpled paper from his pocket. It was a poster showing a man who was not Mathew and Ramsey shook his head.
“No, not him, he was younger.”
The Inspector asked. “Did he say anything? Where he was going?”
Ramsey shook his head.
The Inspector nodded in satisfaction. “Keep the money. You’re lucky to be alive.” He put the blade back inside his coat. “See a physician about that graze, and be careful handling broken glass.” He knocked over a glass vase on the shelf near the door. “They have sharp edges.”
Ramsey waited till he was gone from the building before leaning back against the window and heaving a sigh of relief.
R
amsey found Mathew loitering outside the Centre, probably wondering where it was that Ramsey had disappeared to earlier.
“We’ll need to leave,” he said in a low voice.
“Why?” Mathew asked.
Ramsey told him all that had transpired and Mathew nodded. “I see what you mean, but isn’t he likely to get suspicious if we leave so soon?”
“I think I’ve convinced him enough how scared I was,” Ramsey said. “I do feel he’ll get suspicious if I stay.”
“It was quick thinking on your part to put it all on me,” Mathew said. “Very clever. He knows the hunters would have sent someone after him, and now he knows it’s me. It does put me in grave danger, but your identity is safe.”
Ramsey could hear the bitterness in his tone. “Would you rather I had killed him as well?” Ramsey asked.
“That’s not what I mean,” Mathew said. “You’ve put me in danger just to maintain your cover with a man one of us is going to kill anyway.”
Ramsey considered Mathew’s words, and he had to own that there was justice there. But he still couldn’t get why Mathew had to be so worried.
“As long as you’re with me, you’re in no danger,” he said. “And I thought we were planning to stay together till all the rebel hunters were killed?”
Mathew stared at him strangely. “Are you that confident about your abilities and skill? These are all hunters with many years of training.”
“They’re still only human,” Ramsey said.
Mathew chuckled without humour. “You are arrogant, aren’t you?”
Ramsey couldn’t understand why Mathew was determined to be disagreeable.
“I don’t get you,” he said. “You’re simply being argumentative and disagreeable, why?”
“Because you just told that man that I was the one responsible for killing his friend!” Mathew said through gritted teeth. “You made me a target for the rebels, and I don’t even know the identity of all of them! If my people find out I’m working with you, then I become their target as well. I can’t just keep working with you indefinitely. So all this talk of teaming up till we’ve finished them off and being safe as long as we’re travelling together is just talk!”
“You’re afraid,” Ramsey said.
It felt like a revelation, but he should have guessed. Mathew had nearly been killed by the first rebel hunter he’d encountered. It was natural for him to be afraid. Mathew said nothing, but lengthened his strides. They walked in silence till they reached the town borders and beyond lay another wood. Ramsey looked back at the town. He hadn’t told Arianne or the children he was leaving. He hadn’t warned her or given her the money as he had promised her. Right now, the money was the least important thing, though. Perhaps he could send her a message later. She knew about the rebels, so she would be careful, but he ought to warn her about the Inspector, just the same.
“What’s the plan?” Mathew asked.
Ramsey shrugged. “There was a constable near the gates. One of the men who interrogated you. So, now the Inspector will know that when I left, I took my injured companion with me.”
“He’s going to be suspicious about that,” Mathew said.
“Let’s hide out in the woods,” Ramsey said. “Let him come after us. Perhaps he could also tell us about the rest of his men.”
“I don’t think we can get it out of him,” Mathew said. “Your mind tricks won’t work on him, and I don’t think I can be so inhuman as to torture someone.”
“Good thing for you I’m not human,” Ramsey said.
Mathew stared at him, looking flabbergasted. “You’re going to torture him?” His voice was high.
Ramsey said. “We need information. As you’ve already said more than once, if your people learn you’re working with me, you’re in danger. Since I’ve all but told the Inspector that you are after him and his people, again you’re in danger. To me, the best way to keep you safe appears to be to get as much information as possible from the Inspector.”
“I won’t be a party to torture!” Mathew said, his face pale. “I would rather take my chances.”
Ramsey couldn’t understand Mathew. He did have moments where he behaved like a sensible man, but they appeared to be so rare nowadays.
This is why I shouldn’t be spending time with humans. They are just too stupid.
“All right,” Ramsey said. “We’ll just kill him, but how do you propose to find the others? I hope you’ve a plan.”
Mathew flushed. “We can ask him,” he said at last.
Ramsey couldn’t help but scoff. “You think he’s going to just tell you?”
“Look,” Mathew said. “I... I get that you’re trying to help me, but... I can’t do things that the rebels might do. We don’t... we don’t torture, all right? Not even vampires, whom we’re trained to hate and kill! I can do that... killing I suppose, though I’ve never killed another person before...but... I can’t just...”
“You hunt my kind like animals,” Ramsey said thoughtfully. “You kill even our children, and yet you baulk at the thought of torturing a man who wouldn’t hesitate to do the same to you or anyone else. Because of what?”
“Because I’m better than him!” Mathew yelled. “As you said, he and the other rebels would torture anyone, kill anyone, and if I start torturing and killing people, what is the difference between them and me?”
“You do realise that in my eyes you’re no better than them,” Ramsey said. “You’ve killed children, Mathew. I don’t really see how you claim to be better. If you think about this logically, the faster you can kill the rebels, the faster we can stop them from hurting more people which seems to be your intention. But if you refuse to extract information from this one out of some secret code of morality that only you seem to understand, all you do is ensure they’ll hurt more and more people while you and I flounder in the dark searching for them. These are men who know how to hide, and you’re too young to have had much experience in tracking men like that.”
Mathew looked even more pale and even a little green. Perhaps his wound was hurting him?
“You have experience,” Mathew said. “You’ve been alive for what? Centuries? Won’t you be able to find these men?”
“I’ve not spent my centuries wasting my time amongst humans,” Ramsey said drily. “I’ve hidden amongst you, but I’ve never involved myself with your kind, except when I needed to feed which isn’t often, so no, Mathew. I wouldn’t know how to track down a bunch of hunters who decided they were tired of rules.”
“I don’t know what’s worse,” Mathew said. “What you’re saying or how you’re saying it, as if... as if you don’t even care that I’m someone you despise.”
“Oh, I don’t despise you,” Ramsey said. “I might even like you if you weren’t so stupid. We live for centuries, you know. It’s very exhausting to hold grudges. We’re far more concerned about keeping ourselves safe from your kind than in taking revenge. We may fight back when cornered, but we don’t go looking for fights.”
“Then why are you here?” Mathew asked, sounding belligerent.
“Because from what you said of these rebels, it looks like they need to go if my kind are to be safe,” Ramsey said.
Mathew gave him a hard look before walking off, his shoulders stiff. With a sigh, Ramsey followed.
T
hey made good time out of town. Mathew stayed silent and sulky, but Ramsey wasn’t bothered. He had never even imagined that the hunters would set up a whole organisation without knowing the first thing about vampires. How could they even believe all that nonsense? All it needed was common sense to know how impossible what they were suggesting was. But then, humans couldn’t understand magic or accept it, so they tended to demonise it. Now they had these rebels who believed that vampires were evil incarnate and who probably wouldn’t hesitate to kill even the children.
“What’s your plan?” he asked Mathew as the sun was high up. “Do you have one? Or is it just to keep walking? The Inspector may not even come after us.”
Mathew stopped and glared at him. “What do you suggest we do?”
“Stop and rest,” Ramsey said. “I thought you humans needed that.”
“And vampires don’t?”
“We do, as a matter of fact,” Ramsey said. “We also don’t allow our reason to be overpowered by our emotions. We need to allow him a chance to catch up with us if he’s indeed following us. Otherwise, we need to find a way to lure him out.”
“We can’t rest in the middle of the woods,” Mathew said.
“There’s a village a few miles to the east,” Ramsey said. “I can get us there quickly, but you will need to trust me.”
Mathew looked at him curiously. “I’ve heard vampires were fast, but can you cover a few miles that quickly?”
“It’s not speed,” Ramsey said. “It’s magic, actually. We’re born with it. Our abilities are part of us, and we would have them even if we never take a drop of blood.”
“Why do you drink blood then?” Mathew asked, sitting down beneath a tree.
“Why does a mosquito or a leech drink blood?” Ramsey shrugged. “That’s how we are, and most of us don’t kill to eat.”
“No, you just drain them to the brink of death,” Mathew muttered. “I’ve seen the pattern.”
“The young sometimes kill,” Ramsey said. “They haven’t much control, especially when they haven’t been taught. But the adults... true, we do drain to the brink of death, but they can still be saved even if they’re found within a few hours after we’ve left them.”
