Eddie Lancaster Box Set 2, page 37
part #4 of Eddie Lancaster Series
Chapter Twenty-Three
‘I need to…’ I lifted my mobile to indicate I was going to make a call and then turned away from Nick. I had to use my left hand because my right was covered with blood. ‘Gabe… hanky?’ I asked, showing him my bloody hand. He produced a white linen from his inside pocket and held it out silently. He wouldn’t usually have needed prompting. He was unhappy because of how I’d executed Sabrina. Truth be told I wasn’t thrilled myself. I’d only done that to impress Nick and now that the buzz of having achieved that had waned I was realising how barbaric the whole thing was. I should have let Gabe handle it. Clara would never have done something like that. But then my days of wondering how Clara did things were done. It was Clara’s fault that Sabrina had been sentenced to death in the first place.
I wiped up my hand and dropped the hanky on the floor. My sleeve was still coated in blood almost to the elbow but there was nothing I could do about that. I walked away from the group, pulled up Aldric’s details and hit call. He answered on the fourth ring.
‘Edward, what can I do for you this evening?’ he said in a velvet voice. This was not going to go well.
‘I’ve got a bit of bad news,’ I said. Might as well just bite the bullet and repair the damage after. He waited silently for me to continue. ‘So, I got kidnapped by Clara and a few of your enemies came into town and my guys made a deal with them to rescue me.’
More silence.
‘They did their end, so I had to honour mine. I gave them a stake.’
This time his silence was agonising. It stretched on for eons. Several times I wanted to break it, but I really didn’t know what to say. Then finally he spoke.
‘You will die screaming.’ He ended the call. All things considered that went rather well. I put my phone away and turned back to face the others. ‘Definitely gonna need extra security from here on out,’ I said with false cheeriness.
‘Rubbish,’ Nick said, stepping forwards. ‘No blood of mine needs to fear a bunch of dark-dwelling blood-suckers. You have my protection. For tonight at least. Come, have dinner with me and let’s talk things through.’
‘Technically, Aldric isn’t a dark-dweller, but sure. Dinner sounds good. Let me get changed.’
Gabe provided me with a set of his clothes. They weren’t what I’d normally wear. I like casual stuff like jeans or chinos. Gabe only seemed to wear proper suit trousers. I was thankful that he owned a long sleeve t-shirt and I wasn’t forced to wear a shirt.
I told Gabe to meet me back at my place and then me and Nick left. He didn’t teleport us anywhere this time, we walked. That was fine with me even though I’d got used to teleporting now. I wondered if I could get him to teach me how to do it. I’m not sure it’s something I could even learn to do, I imagined it took an awful lot of power. We walked into town and I expected him to take us to a fairly nice restaurant, maybe the Embankment. I’ve always wanted to go to the river restaurant but never actually got around to it. Tonight was not the night either. To my incredible surprise he took me to a kebab shop on Union Street where he bought each of us a meat and chips. He didn’t actually pay for it, instead he made the poor bloke believe that we had paid in full. Nick even seemed to have some kind of vampire-like compulsion ability.
We walked down the road to the little graveyard that lay at the end of an alleyway and sat down on a bench to eat. I was looking at John Larkin’s grave and wondering who he’d been, whilst stuffing the meat into my mouth. I wondered how the graveyard even ended up here. There was some company head office in the yard and the nearest church was on the other side of a carpark.
‘They probably moved the graves in order to build the carpark,’ Nick said, looking at me keenly.
‘Can you read my mind?’ I asked in horror. I tried to think back to all the things I’d thought around him. Had he read something I wouldn’t want him to?
‘No.’ He shook his head. ‘I saw you looking around and assumed that was what you were wondering. I was wondering the same thing.’ He gave me a half smile which I returned. I was relieved that my thoughts had not been compromised.
‘Thanks for helping to rescue me,’ I said. I figured I should probably throw that in at some point before he got offended by my bad manners.
‘You’re welcome. I could hardly let you rot in one of Clara’s cages,’ he replied. He was sitting with his kebab in his lap, looking out across the car park as if it was some sort of nice landscape. This is Maidstone, there’s not much to look at.
‘Because you need me.’ I was a popular guy these days. Being fought over by the warlocks and the witches. If only I had some sort of value to Aldric, but now he only wanted me dead. I suppose he did still want me technically.
‘No. Your ability makes you incredibly useful. With you on side it would accelerate my plans. My plans will happen either way. I rescued you because you are my family.’ He closed his Styrofoam box and placed it down on the floor at his feet with all the discarded larger cans. He turned to face me, his arm resting over the back of the bench. His eyes were mesmerising, and I wondered if this was some kind of compulsion. I brought up a shield just in case, but I felt no resistance and assumed he wasn’t doing anything. He just had naturally entrancing eyes. ‘I only found out about your existence a few months ago. Until then I believed I was alone in the world. Then I discovered that was not so. I knew that I needed to seek you out. I needed to know you. I want you by my side not because of your usefulness but because of your blood. I hope that that is enough to make you want to be by my side too.’ He turned back to the car park, a longing look in his eyes. ‘After all, you are like me. Alone. We’re all we have.’
He was right. I was alone. I’d never realised how important Ashley’s company was to me. I never knew how alone I’d be without her. When she died my whole world died with her and now here I was plodding through almost on autopilot. Could Nick fix all that? Could he fill the gap she’d left? Would I finally feel like there was a point to everything again? Surely it was worth finding out.
‘Ask yourself this,’ Nick said, after I failed to respond to him. To be fair he didn’t seem to mind, he didn’t even seem like he was waiting for a response. ‘Do you agree with Clara’s cause?’
‘I don’t agree with anything to do with Clara,’ I said angrily. Just her name was enough to provoke a boiling rage in me.
‘Put your personal feelings towards her aside for the moment and think about what she’s trying to achieve. Ignore her methods and consider her motives. Do you agree with them?’ he said in a strangely reasonable way. Why was he tempting fate? He had me against Clara already. He was risking changing my mind by making me think logically.
‘No,’ I said after some consideration. ‘I do not want some sort of magical government that we’re beholden too. Especially not one with her at the top of it.’
Nick nodded. ‘Well then. Join me and we can bring her scheme crashing down. The Alliance of Covens is already strong. We cannot let it get any stronger. We need to teach Clara that she cannot treat us all as lesser beings or subordinates.’
His words rang true and I agreed to stand by his side there and then. With one simple handshake I entered into the most powerful and perhaps most lucrative alliance of my life. One thing was for certain, things were about to get a whole lot messier.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Nick teleported away and I made my own way home. Gabe was waiting with Marty and Charlene. I didn’t even protest Marty’s presence. I was just glad to see some security on my house now that Aldric was after me and pretty soon Clara would recognise me as a full enemy. I only hoped that an alliance with Nick would provide enough protection. They all seemed to be scared of him, maybe that alone was enough to keep them away.
I took myself straight to bed as soon as I got in. Gabe still seemed upset about Sabrina though he didn’t say anything. I could tell by his pouty expression. He’d get over it. It was hardly the worst thing I’d ever done. And let’s be honest, she deserved it. The more I thought about it the more I came to the conclusion that banishment wasn’t good enough for her betrayal. If I let traitors walk free then there would be no deterrent. Disloyalty had to be answered with death.
As I climbed into bed I noticed the dresser with Ashley’s products scattered messily all over it. Maybe I should tidy that up. Tidying it up would mean saying goodbye forever. There was still a chance that I didn’t have to do that. It was possible to resurrect people. Nick knew how. I just had to ask him. As my eyes closed and sleep took me I decided that I would ask him when he came back.
When I woke I saw that Gabe had laid out some clothes for the day. I should probably tell him to stop doing that. It wasn’t a habit I needed him to get into. It was convenient when I was a bit more helpless, but I was more myself these days. I showered and dressed and then made my way downstairs. Alison and Sharon had replaced Marty and Charlene. Gabe was waiting in the dining room for me. He was dressed smartly as usual, but he looked tired. I doubted he’d slept much. Las night had seemed like the longest night in memory.
‘Eggs and toast,’ he said, indicating the plate of food on the table for me.
I sat down and pulled the plate towards me. ‘You know,’ I said through a mouthful of eggs. ‘You’re not my butler. You don’t have to lay out my clothes and make my breakfast.’
‘People often do things they don’t have to do.’ His voice was literally oozing with attitude.
I put down my fork and looked up at him. ‘You got something to say?’
‘No. I’m sorry.’ He didn’t look sorry. He looked pissed off.
‘Say it,’ I said sternly. I couldn’t let him hold a grudge, it might compromise his ability to protect me.
‘You didn’t have to rip her heart out. She acted out of fear, not malice,’ he said angrily. He snatched out a chair and joined me at the table. ‘I can understand why she had to die but you should have let me do it. She was a good person despite what she did, and she deserved to die with more dignity than you allowed her.’
He was right. There was not arguing with him. I’d been angry and eager to impress Nick, but I could hardly tell him that. ‘I was angry,’ I admitted, omitting the other part. ‘She’d betrayed me and… I should have controlled myself better.’
‘Rubbish,’ said Nick as he walked into the room. Gabe jumped up ready to intercept an attacker and stopped when he saw who it was, though he still looked like he wanted to attack him.
‘You don’t knock?’ Gabe asked with snark.
‘I go where I like,’ he replied affording Gabe the smallest glance before returning his attention to me. ‘People like us don’t need to control ourselves. Others simply need to learn to show a little loyalty. What befell that vampire girl was a consequence of her own actions. You hold no blame.’
‘What a load of crap!’ Gabe snapped.
‘Gabe,’ I said sharply. I took a deep breath and spoke more calmly. ‘Why don’t you leave us to discuss things.’ He looked at me in disbelief before storming sulkily out of the room.
‘Kids,’ Nick said jovially as he lowered himself into Gabe’s seat. ‘So, still ready to join the winning team?’
I nodded, trying to figure out how to bring up the resurrection issue. Should I just come out with it? Should I say it was a condition of me joining? No, because then he might refuse, and I’d have to turn down his alliance and frankly I wanted to be on Team Nick regardless.
‘What’s on your mind?’ he asked softly, providing me with the perfect opener.
‘Ashley.’
‘Ah, your former girlfriend. Still grieving. Of course, it hasn’t be that long.’
‘You brought someone you loved back from the dead,’ I said. It wasn’t a question.
‘I did. But I told you, it isn’t possible anymore.’
‘There’s always a way,’ I said desperately. He was family he had to help me.
‘Not always. Olivia was the only woman I ever loved. I lost her at the start of my immortality. I’d never felt such pain. It was like somebody had ripped a part of me away and hidden it where I could never find it.’
I nodded. I knew that feeling all too well.
‘For six-hundred years I worked towards one goal. Reuniting myself with Olivia. Everything I did served that purpose. And finally, just a few years ago I did it. I brought her back from the dead. And it was so… disappointing.’
That was not what I’d been expecting. I knew that his story didn’t have a happy ending or else he wouldn’t be alone now, but I wasn’t expecting that. ‘How could you be disappointed by getting something you’d spent six centuries working for? How could that be anything less than pure bliss?’ I demanded.
‘Because…’ he paused. ‘Death changes people. The Olivia who came back was not the same as the one who had died. I didn’t love the resurrected one. She’d had six-hundred years on the other side. It was naive of me to think she’d be the same person I’d lost. Bringing her back only tarnished my memory of her and ruined what I felt.
‘She tried to change me. She wanted me to do things her way. I could never truly be myself. When I finally let her go I was liberated. I could finally release my full potential. Six-hundred years I wasted on bringing her back. Think of what I could have done with that time. It did teach me a very valuable lesson, however. Love is a waste of time.’
I shook my head. Ashley wasn’t a waste of time. He was wrong. ‘Ashley’s only been dead weeks. She cannot have changed already,’ I argued. The pitying expression he gave me made me feel so pathetic, like a junky begging for a fix.
‘It cannot be done, Eddie. It would take twelve willing sacrifices from incredibly powerful beings. Even if you could find that, the key ingredient is still missing. We don’t have any ambrosia.’
‘Ambrosia. What is that? How do we make it?’
Nick laughed. ‘In all my time in this world I have never discovered how to make ambrosia or even where to find it. It could be a manmade potion, or it could be natural resource. I really have no idea.’
‘There must be a way,’ I said quietly.
He sighed. ‘I’ll tell you what. You get some ambrosia and I’ll solve all your problems. Ambrosia has two functions. It can bring back the dead and make true immortals. Like me. You get hold of some and I’ll bring back Ashley and make you immortal and then you won’t have to worry about that pesky prophecy.’
‘You’d make me immortal?’ I said, stunned. I’d only just met him, and he was willing to give me one of the greatest gifts possible.
‘Eddie, you’re all I have now. I’m hardly going to let my last living descendent die.’
My cheeks flushed. I don’t know why I felt embarrassed, but I did. I felt like a girl who’s being proposed to in a public place. One who wants to be proposed to. I’d be feeling a very different kind of embarrassment if not.
‘Now, if we can put all that to the side for the time being we have other matters to attend. We need to bring down the Alliance of Covens.’
‘Alright.’ It was hard to push aside my hopes to resurrect my girlfriend, but he’d given me the best answer he could. All I had to do was obtain an unobtainable potion and he would do the ritual for me. I pushed that to the back of my mind and tried to concentrate on his plan to destroy Clara. ‘How?’
‘It’s simple enough. We need to break the spell protecting that building Clara is hiding inside. You are the key.’
‘Yeah, I’m not going back there.’
Nick smiled and nodded. ‘Oh, yes you are. But don’t worry, you’ll have my power to protect you.’
‘Even your power can’t overcome that spell.’
‘Actually, it can. When coupled with your ability. Your ability will work despite the spell. You just need to boost it. I’m going to link you to me, so my power will give you a boost and you’ll be able to siphon the magic through the building and out of the sorcerers.’ He made it all sound so simple.
‘Except that all that power will kill me,’ I pointed out. I had no plans to be reunited with Ashley by dying myself.
‘Maybe that’s what the prophecy foretold?’ he said with a very annoying grin. Was that where I got it from? ‘Joking,’ he added. ‘They’ll break the spell before they let you take much power. So, don’t worry.’
‘I’ll be honest, I am worrying a little bit,’ I confessed.
‘Don’t you want to face Clara again? Get her back for what she did to you?’ he said. His words worked at me perfectly. I wanted to hurt her just like she’d hurt me. Betrayal deserves revenge.
‘Yes.’
‘Then trust that I know what I’m doing.’ Nick was a very persuasive man. I wasn’t sure how he pulled it off, but it was another of his talents that I wanted to learn.
‘Okay,’ I said, convinced. ‘Tell me exactly what I need to do.’
‘Gladly,’ he said with a sly smile and then he began telling me the plan. It wasn’t complicated at all but was incredibly risky. It all relied on Clara being stupid enough to think she could still talk me round to her cause. We both agreed that she was that naive.
When Nick was finished telling me the plan he stood up and planted his foot on his chair. I looked at him, wondering if there was going to be an explanation to this sudden gesture. He said nothing. He lifted the hem of his jeans and revealed tucked within his boot a dagger which he drew out. The blade was long and looked like it was made of solid gold. The tip looked so sharp it could cut with the smallest of touches. Along the golden surface were black etchings forming what looked like several rivers that stretched across the metal. Or maybe they were roots. Or veins. The hilt was black and pentagonal, each of the five sides was encrusted with glimmering rubies. I gasped. I knew what it was. The Ambrotos Dagger. It made sense that he would keep the one weapon that could be used against him on his person. Clara really was deluded if she thought she was going to get it off him.
