Eddie Lancaster Box Set 2, page 10
part #4 of Eddie Lancaster Series
‘To them,’ Ashley said. It wasn’t a question.
His face reddened. ‘Yes,’ he whispered. At least he felt shame for his actions.
‘You’re selling our family home to go to them? I’m not surprised. It was pretty obvious who you loved more.’
‘Don’t you dare,’ Pete said, eyes wide, glaring at her. ‘I have never loved them more than you. You were always my firstborn.’
‘That doesn’t mean anything,’ said Ashley.
‘You were always my favourite.’
‘Prove it.’
‘How?’
‘I want to meet them, introduce me.’
Pete’s mouth dropped open. He looked at me at last as if I might actually help him. I just shrugged. ‘I can’t… No, Ashley.’
‘I have every right to meet my siblings.’
‘No, you don’t. Not if they don’t want to,’ he said.
‘Have they said they don’t want to?’ she demanded.
‘It’s not really…’
‘Tell the truth, Peter,’ said a new voice. It was deathly quiet but carried more weight than any other voice in the house. We all looked over at the fireplace in the living room and saw Margie’s face looking out at us like a big fiery Zordon.
‘My god, what have you done to my wife?’ Pete said in horror, staring right at me.
‘Don’t blame me!’ I said indignantly.
‘Are you saying it wasn’t you?’ He said as he pushed past me to get a closer look. ‘Because I find that very hard to believe.’
‘Well, no,’ I said. ‘I didn’t intend it to be permanent, though.’
‘Why did you do it, Peter? Why did you cheat on us?’ she asked. There was no anger, only hurt. I really didn’t want to be in the room but I knew that Ashley would never allow me to leave.
‘I… I just wanted… You know why,’ he said in exasperation as he sunk down to his knees.
‘How could you?’ Margie demanded.
‘What? Why was it?’ Ashley asked.
‘Margie, don’t,’ Pete pleaded.
‘I won’t tell her. It’s for you to do that. But if you don’t tell her…’ Margie’s yellow eyes finished the sentence off for her. Pete swallowed and looked around nervously.
‘Why? What did I do?’ asked Ashley, deducing that it was something to do with her. How she could be responsible for her dad’s affair was a conundrum I couldn’t get my head around.
‘Not now, Ashley,’ said Pete.
‘He’s right, darling,’ Margie interjected. ‘Meet them first. Then get the truth from your dad. Pete, introduce her to them. If she wants to meet them then you have to let her. You know Eddie will just take her there anyway.’
Pete shot another filthy glare at me. Now, sometimes I deserve this sort of treatment but this guy hated me before he’d even met me. ‘I can arrange a time for you to come if that’s what you really want,’ he said in defeat.
‘I’m doing it today,’ she said.
He pulled out his phone and started fiddling. ‘I’ll text you the address.’
‘You do have my number then. Funny how you couldn’t be bothered to text me since I left.’
‘I knew you didn’t want to hear from me. Come over for dinner tonight.’
‘Not tonight,’ I said quickly. We couldn’t be out on a dinner date during vampire time.
‘I’ll come for lunch.’
‘Ashley that’s in an hour,’ he said, his shoulder slumping.
‘Lunch,’ she repeated stonily.
‘I won’t give you the address if you’re not going to be reasonable.’
‘I already have the address,’ she said stonily.
He sighed in resignation. ‘Alright, I’ll let them know,’ he said. ‘But this won’t go as well as you’re hoping.’
‘Now that’s sorted,’ Margie said. ‘You kids leave us. We need to talk.’
We exchanged a glance and then wordlessly left the room. If Pete wasn’t such an arsehole I might’ve felt sorry for him but as it was, I was enjoying the idea of him receiving unbridled fury from a fire-ghost. He deserved it.
Chapter Sixteen
We got back in the car and I exhaled loudly. I’d known that this point would be coming but I’d been holding out hope that something might come up that would put a stop to our excursion. ‘Should we really do this now? I kind of think we should hold off on this and concentrate on Sebastian is right now. If we strike him during the day we’ll have a better chance of winning,’ I said.
She fixed me with a hard stare. ‘We don’t know where Sebastian is right now,’ she said coldly. She knew what I was up to.
‘We could spend the day finding out,’ I suggested. In all honesty, I did think it would be a better use of our time.
‘What is it about Cedarstone?’ she said suddenly. ‘Tell me the real reason. Not just that it’s dangerous. You’ve gone charging into danger before. There’s something more to this story and I want to know what.’
‘Ash, come on,’ I squirmed.
‘Total honesty. That’s what we should have, Eddie.’
I looked up at the ceiling of the car. ‘I went there a couple of years ago. A chap called Arthur Winters hired me for a job,’ I started.
‘Winters?’
‘Clara’s dad. Not that I knew that back then.’ I’d never heard of Clara then and even when I had heard of her I still didn’t put them together. Silly of me really.
‘What was the job?’ she asked with an accusatory tone.
‘Nothing bad. There was a member of Arthur’s coven, he’d gone through some bad times. He was being consumed by inner-darkness. Arthur needed me to help bring him back from the brink.’
‘Pretty ironic,’ she muttered.
‘Yeah,’ I laughed. ‘Although he wasn’t cursed like I was. He was just… messed up. He was so disturbed. Distraught. And full of magic.’
‘And that magic…’ said Ashley, narrowing her eyes.
I wiggled my fingers. ‘In here now. It took a fair few sorcerers to keep him down though. He nearly killed me in the fight.’
‘Did you…’
‘Kill him? No.’ The first person I’d ever killed was Killian Myers and I did that for Ashley. The kill count had gone up considerably since then.
‘That doesn’t sound so bad, Eddie,’ she said with a confused look.
‘That wasn’t. The town was a mess back then. Evil warlocks everywhere. A super-jinn trying to kill people. The government had military there trying to exterminate the supernatural population.’
‘Jesus,’ she gasped.
‘Yeah. It was pretty out of control. So, I was on my way out when Arthur asks for one more thing. He needs to get everyone in town on the same page so they can fight the jinn who’s causing trouble. The problem is the vampire leader.’
‘This sounds familiar.’
‘Oh yeah. Just another reason I didn’t want to get involved this time around,’ I said with a grimace. ‘The leader wasn’t playing ball, but the former leader would. Problem was, the former leader was a prisoner of the new leader.’
‘Arthur wanted you to help free the former leader?’ Ashley deduced.
‘Exactly. Arthur didn’t want to do it himself in case he got caught. The coven had enough enemies without adding the vampires to the list.’
‘So, what did you do?’
‘He offered me a lot of money so I said yes. Made sure he transferred the funds first, of course. Then he told me where I could find the prisoner. I snuck into the place and got caught. Arthur failed to tell me that the new leader was Ramsay Aramaya.’
‘Wait, not—’
‘Yep,’ I nodded. ‘One of the first Osirian vampires. I have never encountered a stronger vampire. He’d make Sebastian look like a little boy. He wasn’t impervious to magic, so I managed to hold him off with a shield spell but he was breaking through it. Luckily, the human soldiers chose that moment to attack the vampires. A small army came charging in, guns blazing. Wooden bullets. They barely affected Ramsay, though they did take out his men. Ramsay killed over half of them before they managed to subdue him. I was going to leave him there but then they attacked me too. All the magic I’d just taken was still in me and it was more than I’d ever felt before. I sent out a massive blast of magic and knocked them all out. Ramsay finished them off.’ I shook my head to try and remove the image of Ramsay tearing the soldiers limb from limb and draining their blood.
‘How did you get away from him?’ she asked.
‘When he was finished he said because I helped him escape he wouldn’t kill me. But he told me if I ever returned to Cedarstone he would cut me open and feed me to his minions. So, naturally I’ve stayed away. The worst part was I had to return the money to Arthur.’ I’d actually only returned half, I did attempt the job so I deserved something.
For a good minute or so Ashley said nothing. She stared ahead, absorbing my story. Finally, she spoke. ‘Okay, you can stay behind.’ She nodded her head to reiterate her words. They were the words I’d wanted to hear but I couldn’t accept them. That’s the problem with relationships. Once you let people get close to you, you stop being smart. You start making stupid decisions that don’t have your best interests at heart.
‘Just start the car and take us there before I change my mind,’ I grumbled.
There wasn’t too much risk as long as we got out of Cedarstone before nightfall. Even if Ramsay could walk around in the day time, on his own we stood a chance at escaping him. Since it was only lunchtime I was confident in our chances. Still, I couldn’t stop myself from glancing over my shoulder at regular intervals.
When we arrived at 25 Crimson Road, Ashley spent a good ten minutes sitting in the car staring up at the semi-detached house. It was a nicer house than the Sheridan house in Maidstone. I wondered if that was something she’d noticed.
She took a deep breath and then marched up to the house. She was muttering reassuring things to herself under breath. Usually I would have found such a thing funny but instead I felt the need to comfort her. See what I mean about relationships changing you? I can’t even laugh at a person anymore. I’m broken.
She rang the doorbell and it chimed merrily. Too merrily for my liking. I gave her hand a squeeze whilst we waited and she flashed me a nervous but excited smile. I smiled back. I could see how eager she was to get on with these mystery siblings and I really hoped it went well for her. But I’m a bit of a naysayer when it comes to these things and I expected it to go badly.
The door opened and a girl no older than nineteen looked out at us. She had straight blonde hair and a petite frame. Her eyes were green and looked just liked Ashley’s but that was the only similarity they shared.
‘I knew you’d come,’ she said gently and smiled. ‘You’re our half-sister, aren’t you?’
‘Yes,’ Ashley replied when she managed to get her voice working again.
‘I’m Eddie. We’re not related,’ I said with a small shake of my head and a smile.
She turned to me and smiled warmly. ‘Yes, I know who you are too. I’m a seer.’
My smile disappeared. ‘The last seer I knew turned out to be a murderous maniac,’ I told her before I could stop myself.
‘Eddie!’ Ashley said in horror.
‘Sorry,’ I said and mentally vowed to remain silent going forwards.
The girl giggled. ‘It’s fine. I’m Annabelle. Come in.’ She led us into the spacious hallway. It had a white decor and was stuffed with too many tall plants. It was like a sodding jungle. ‘I saw that you would arrive—’
‘About an hour ago when Dad called Mum and told her,’ said a harsher voice. We all looked to the stairs and saw a chubby dark-haired girl stamping her way down them. ‘Has she told you she’s a seer yet? She tells everyone at least five times an hour.’
‘I…’ Ashley tried to reply but could think of nothing to say.
‘This is Clarabelle, my sister. Or I suppose our sister,’ said Annabelle. I silently laughed at their names. Annabelle and Clarabelle. In case you never watched Thomas the Tank Engine, his carriages were called Annie and Clarabelle. Also, they rhyme.
‘This is not our sister,’ Clarabelle hissed at Annabelle.
‘She certainly is not,’ said a third voice. An older fatter woman came out of the door at the end of the hallway. She had a floral apron on and was holding a spatula. Her blonde hair was short and curled making her look older than she probably was.
‘You must be the mother,’ I muttered.
‘Must I be?’ she said with snark. I’d clearly made another friend.
‘Well you look too old to be another sister.’ I know I said I’d be silent but it just fell out. Annabelle smirked but the other two looked deeply affronted.
‘Who do you think you are?’ the mother said in horror.
‘Look, I just wanted to know my siblings,’ Ashley said with a weak shrug. I could feel the pain of her disappointment and it made me want to hurt the two bitches who were ruining this for her.
‘My daughters are not your siblings. You are nothing to us. Do you know why your father wanted us? Because you are weak. A weak sorcerer. You disappointed him. So, he came here and started again.’
‘Please, I just…’ Ashley’s voice broke off as the pain choked her.
‘He started again with me. A sorcerer worthy of his attention and he produced—’ she suddenly found herself unable to speak. She looked about in panic, trying to figure out why. Not everyone was so slow on the uptake.
‘Eddie?’ Ashley said quietly.
‘I was checking,’ I said and released my spell. ‘I only used a very weak spell to shut you up there,’ I told the mother. ‘If you had even a hint of strength in you, you would have fought me off. You aren’t a great sorcerer. You aren’t even a good one and Margie would have flattened you without blinking. The real reason Pete chose you was location. You live in Cedarstone, a naturally magical place. Any children born and raised here would be twice as powerful than if they were born elsewhere. He wanted your property, not your power.’
‘I thought I heard your trouble-making voice,’ Pete growled as he came in behind me.
‘Yeah, I’m the trouble-maker here,’ I replied sarcastically.
‘Dad, I—’
‘I tried to warn you, Ashley,’ he said harshly, cutting her off. ‘You wouldn’t listen.’
‘Bad genes,’ the mother said and I resisted the urge to squash her rotund face.
‘Is it true, Dad? Did you start again because you thought I was weak?’ she asked.
He said nothing but looked down at the rug red-faced. That was all the answer Ashley needed. ‘You should go,’ he said.
‘Fine,’ Ashley said. She no longer sounded so meek. She was more angry than anything. She pulled back her fist and punched Pete right in the face. I stepped aside to allow him room to crash onto the thin rug. The other three gasped and took an instinctive step back. Annabelle hadn’t seen that coming. ‘I never want to see you again,’ Ashley said and stormed out.
I followed her out into the garden but then I went back. I had something I wanted to say.
‘She isn’t weak,’ I told Pete as he lay on the floor clutching his face pathetically. ‘She’s stronger than you’ll ever be. The only bad genes came from you. You pathetic little scrotum-sniffer.’ Before I left I delivered a swift kick to his groin. Then whilst the mother shouted at me, I casually departed the house.
Chapter Seventeen
I found Ashley back in her car, clutching the steering wheel, her knuckles white with rage. I slipped into the passenger seat and tentatively slid my arm around her shoulders. She released her grip from the steering wheel and fell onto my chest, letting her tears out in jagged sobs. She didn’t cry often which made the few times when she did that much more horrible.
‘I just wanted… to meet them…. That was all,’ she sobbed.
‘I know,’ I replied gently. What else was there to say?
‘I never want… to see… that man again,’ she said. ‘He’s…’ Apparently she could find no words to describe him.
‘You never have to,’ I promised, stroking her hair. I wasn’t used to comforting people but I thought I was doing a pretty good job. ‘Listen, you know you’re not weak, right? You could run rings around them.’
‘Maybe around him. I don’t know about the others. You said this town makes them stronger.’
‘They might have strength but they don’t have skill. If they were as great as they made out then why didn’t any of them use magic against us?’
She pulled back and her puffy wet eyes met mine. ‘Good point,’ she sniffed.
‘They couldn’t even stop a weak silencing spell.’
‘That’s true.’
‘And hey, they weren’t all bad. Annabelle was alright.’
‘Yeah. Just Clarabelle who was awful.’
‘Yeah. And what kind of name is Clarabelle anyway?’ I said and Ashley laughed.
‘A bloody atrocious one,’ she said, smiling.
‘Clearly your mum had better taste in names.’
Ashley laughed again. ‘Come on, let’s get out of here. Back to the vampires I suppose,’ she said as she started the engine.
As soon as we crossed the town line I relaxed and closed my eyes. I was still tired from being up most of the night running from Sebastian. I didn’t get the chance to nap, though, because Matt phoned me.
‘What have you got?’ I said, answering the call.
‘Nothing for Aldric. No number. No email address,’ Matt said. He didn’t sound disappointed so I knew he had something. He never came back empty-handed.
‘What do you have then?’ I said.
‘A phone number for Joshua Ward.’
‘Aldric’s assistant,’ I said.
‘That’s him. He should be able to hook you up with his boss.’
‘Awesome. Listen, Matt, I want you to sort of lie low for a while. Things are getting pretty dangerous and my enemies have a habit of going after people close to me,’ I said. Matt and Emma had been dragged into my messes too many times in the past.
