Eddie Lancaster Box Set 2, page 50
part #4 of Eddie Lancaster Series
‘Who the hell are you?’ Joshua asked. He moved to the side of the room so he had both her and me in his sights.
‘Hell. That’s about right,’ she said, with a small snort. ‘Eddie’s doing a favour for Lucifer so if you keep killing him you might just piss the big guy off enough to make him come up here. Trust me, you don’t want that. Now tell him what he wants to know, or I’ll just kill you both right now.’ The last bit she said casually with a small shrug of her shoulders.
Joshua glared down at her and seemed to decide that she was not bluffing. ‘Get out of here. Both of you. And don’t come back,’ he snapped, pointing rigidly at the door.
‘My things?’ I said pointedly. I’d come here for my things so I could hardly leave without them.
‘I don’t have them. All your things will be with the Master.’
‘And where can we find him?’ the girl asked. She slid her feet off the desk and stood up. She wasn’t very tall, although her thinness made her seem tall.
‘Canterbury. Farrand Road Church,’ Joshua said through ground teeth.
‘Thank you,’ I said with extra sweetness. I turned to Duncan. ‘If you ever touch me again I will—’
Before I could finish threatening him the girl snapped off the arm of the chair and tossed it across the room. The jagged end pierced his skin right in the centre of his stomach. He howled in pain as blood gushed out and he fell to his knees. He stared up at her, eyes bulging, lips drawn back in a vicious snarl.
I looked at the girl in alarm. ‘Well, we’re on the clock,’ she pointed out. She’d kind of made my point for me so I had no reason to complain.
I shrugged and then left the room with her right behind me. Other vampires eyed us suspiciously as we made our way back outside, but none tried to intercept us. Getting out of the house was a relief. The cool, fresh air of freedom washed over me and I smiled as I put as much distance between myself and the house as possible. I didn’t have anything to smile about since I’d achieved nothing. I’d gone to the house to get magic and left empty-handed. I had lost my heart but that could hardly be considered a good thing. I placed my hand over my chest and stood still.
‘What are you doing?’ the girl asked, looking at me like I was nuts.
I held a finger up for her to be quiet for a moment. ‘There we go,’ I said once I’d felt the steady beating of my ticker. ‘Just wanted to make sure it was still there. I don’t want to be a zombie or anything.’
‘Yeah, that wouldn’t be too great,’ she agreed. ‘I’m Lydia, by the way. Malek sent me to keep you alive and help you find the Ambrotos Dagger. Whatever that is.’ I noticed that everything about the look on her face screamed she didn’t want to be here.
‘You don’t look too interested in this job,’ I said, raising an eyebrow.
’Naah,’ was the only reply I got.
‘Uh… Care to elaborate?’
‘I have to do as Malek says but I don’t like him and I don’t like working for him. I’ll help you, but don’t expect me to be all happy-chappy about it,’ she said. She folded her arms and leaned back against the wall behind her.
‘Okay,’ I said slowly as I considered my response. I had so many questions I wanted to ask her, but I wasn’t sure she’d be all that willing to answer them. ‘So, are you another angel?’ Why do you have to work for him, can’t you just quit?’
Ignoring my questions, she stepped towards the road and threw her hand up to hail down a passing taxi. I’d never actually seen anybody do that in England before. I thought it was just an American thing.
Apparently, I was wrong, because the taxi screeched to a stop. She pulled open the door and ushered me inside. I complied like a good little sheep and once I’d scooted across, she slid in beside me. ‘
‘Farrand Road in Canterbury,’ she told the driver. Once the car was moving she turned to me. ‘I’m not an angel. I’m a Nephilim.’
‘A Nephi-what?’ I asked. I’d never heard the term before and I thought I’d heard of most things.
‘Nephilim. Half human, half angel. Angels pop to Earth every now and then and get jiggy with the common folk,’ she explained.
‘Surely there’s a rule against that?’ I said. It didn’t seem like something God, or Yahweh, or whoever was actually in charge, would be cool with.
‘In Heaven there is, but occasionally the angels still break it. In the Underworld, not so much. Exiled angels can shag who they like. The children have to obey their angel parent. Those are the rules.’
‘And what if you disobeyed your angel parent?’ I asked.
‘Then I’d get carted off to the Underworld to work for the big fiery guy. It’s kind of magically impossible to disobey though.’ She said it so casually as though it wasn’t much of a consequence to have to go and work for Lucifer. Obviously, she didn’t think that otherwise, she wouldn’t obey Malek. The pieces clicked in place as I thought that.
‘So, you’re Malek’s daughter?’
‘You’re fast,’ she scoffed. ‘He’s a dick, I know. My mum doesn’t like him much either. He told her a lot of shit about loving her and then after she opened her legs for him he buggered off. Until I turned sixteen, anyway. Then he came back for me.’
‘Wow,’ I said, as I processed the information she was giving to me. ‘So, you just have to work for Malek forever?’
‘Well, no. Just until I die. Then I get judged the same as everyone else.’
‘Well, that sucks.’ It was all I could think of saying.
‘Yep. Sucks big fat donkey dick,’ she said. ‘And now you work for him too. So tell me how to help and I will.’
‘Do you have magic or any kind of powers?’ I asked. ‘I know that the exiled angels lose their abilities when they come here.’
‘I was born here so I keep my abilities. I mean, you did see me teleport right into that vampire’s office, right?’ She pointed out as if I were dumb. It was kind of a good point on her part.
‘Why are we in a taxi if you can teleport?’
‘I can’t take passengers.’
‘Well, that’s a shit power,’ I muttered.
‘Oh yeah? How much teleporting can you do?’ she demanded, turning on me. I noticed that she had pretty big eyes. Not in a bad way. Just big.
‘As it happens, I used to be able to teleport, but then…’
‘But then blah blah blah. You can’t teleport now. So, I win,’ she said decisively. I grumbled to myself but didn’t bother arguing any further.
‘So, what’s the plan?’ she asked after a while of silence.
‘I need to get some magic. Hoping this vampire will have some that I stashed away,’ I explained.
‘I thought you could suck the magic out of people?’ She accompanied her words with a crude hand gesture that I assumed represented a blowjob.
‘Not. Like. That,’ I informed her. ‘But, yeah I can siphon magic from people.’
‘So, let’s find some sorcerer and I’ll knock ‘em out for you,’ she offered. Considering how thin Lydia was I doubted that she could knock anyone out. But then she wasn’t completely human. Maybe she had some super-strength stashed away inside her slender frame.
‘No. I’m not taking magic from some poor innocent person. Besides, this vampire might know where an old friend of mine is. I want to make sure he’s okay.’
‘Fiiiiiine,’ she said with a long sigh. ‘But if you run out of time and end up dying without that dagger it’ll be because you did everything the long way. The long way’s the wrong way.’
‘Believe me, if I could do it the quick way I would. But I want to be a good person. I don’t want to be the bad guy, the warlock who steals magic.’ I’d made bad choices my whole life. I’d always taken the easier option. In my brief second life I wanted to do things right. The way I would’ve done things if Rachel hadn’t come into my life and corrupted me.
‘I don’t know why. You’ve got a blank cheque to do whatever you want,’ she said. She was barely paying me any attention and was instead looking out the window.
‘Lucifer might not judge me but Ashley will,’ I said quietly. I’d done enough to upset Ashley in the short time I’d known her. I didn’t want to taint things any more.
‘Who’s Ashley?’ Lydia asked. ‘Actually, nevermind. I don’t care. We’re here.’ She handed a couple of banknotes to the driver and then pushed open her door. She was halfway out of the car when she turned back to face me. She flicked her eyes over my body which at first I thought was her checking me out, then her words clarified that she was looking at my outfit. ‘By the way, you look like a cock.’
Chapter Eight
It only occurred to me as I was getting out of the taxi how cliched and creepy it was that the vampire who was in charge of Kent had taken up residence in an old church. Not just any church either, a church in the religious capital of England. Canterbury was the Vatican City of the Church of England.
It wasn’t a huge church, not like the cathedral. Just a simple, small, grey stone building. The kind of thing you might find in a village somewhere. Despite being old, the building looked to be in fairly good condition. It was hard to tell in the dark, though. A small cobbled wall ran around the perimeter of the church and its grounds. The little, rusted gate squealed like an alarm as Lydia pushed it open. The grass was overgrown and weeds had risen up to claim the path that led up to the doors. No light showed through the windows and I was starting to suspect that Joshua had actually just sent us to a disused church. There was an old wooden sign on the wall, but it was so aged and faded that the words were no longer readable.
Lydia put her hand on one of the great iron rings that served as a door handle and I quickly grabbed her forearm to stop her. She looked up at me quizzically and then glanced down at my hand. I retracted it sharpish.
‘If things get nasty in there, do you have the juice to get us out safely?’ I asked. She’d given a good talk back in Maidstone but for all I knew that was all bluster.
‘Don’t worry, mate, I’ve got the spunk,’ she said with a wink. Then she pushed open the door and we stepped inside.
There was a small lobby that smelled of damp. We passed straight through into the main church. Lines of wooden pews were on either side of the church hall, facing the stone altar, which stood above the church on several stone steps. It looked like the Holy cross had once been engraved in the front but now it was old and eroded. Once white walls stood high above us, now they were brown with rainwater and age. There was a hole in the ceiling at the back of the room and several buckets had been laid out to catch any falling water. Stained glass windows were grimy with dirt, blocking any light that might have shone in from outside. That was pretty handy for a group of vampires. It was cold inside the church but vampires didn’t get cold so it wasn’t a problem for them. It probably wasn’t a problem for Lydia either. I was the only powerless one in the building. I pulled my blazer closed and did up the button, not that it did much good.
There were a few vampires milling about in the pews and two were conversing at the altar. One was a tall guy with a shaved head, and the other had his back to me. One of them had to be the Master.
‘Hello!’ I called out to the small congregation as I began striding up the nave with Lydia at my side. All eyes turned to me. None of them were particularly friendly.
‘Who are you?’ The big bald guy asked.
I walked into the chancel where two rows of pews were positioned to the side so they could face the pulpit. A long-haired man was lying with his head resting in a lady’s lap. He barely even noticed me going past, though the lady watched me keenly.
‘I’m Eddie Lancaster. I’m here to see the new vampire boss,’ I informed him. I respectfully stopped at the bottom of the steps and did not climb up to the altar.
‘Eddie Lancaster is dead,’ the bald guy said. I sighed, preempting the fact that I was going to be having this conversation a lot over the next few days, or however long it took me to find the dagger.
‘I was dead. Now I’m back. Are you in charge?’ I asked a little impatiently.
He glanced over at the side pew which was now behind me and then shook his head. ‘No. They are.’ He nodded at the couple in the chancel. I turned to them and rose my eyebrows in surprise. They seemed too casual to be in charge. They were the first vampire rulers who didn’t carry themselves like monarchs. No fancy seating, not pompous posture. They seemed ordinary.
‘You’re in charge?’ I asked, looking at the woman uncertainly. Her cheekbones sat high on her perfectly angled face. Her plump red lips stretched into a warm smile that creased the skin around her dark eyes.
‘We both are,’ she said. Her voice was smooth. Silky. Seductive. She raised a hand gracefully and brushed her auburn hair from her face. ‘I am Amara, and this is my husband, Howard.’
I tried my best to smother my laughter but a little snort slipped out all the same. Lydia glanced my way, her amusement plastered unashamedly on her face.
‘Yes, yes,’ Howard said, as he sat up, shaking his long black hair from his face. ‘People have been sniggering at my name for centuries. Howard is not the kind of name one associates with a vampire. Especially not one of my stature.’ He stood up to get a better look at Lydia and me. He was short for a man, less than 5’8 for certain. ‘Thanks to modern media, Howard is usually reserved for dweeby characters.’
‘I can assure you, my husband is no dweeb,’ Amara added.
‘I would never have suggested that he was,’ I replied, wishing that I’d controlled my laughter just that little bit more. Why could I not walk into a room without upsetting someone?
‘It’s interesting to meet you, Eddie,’ Howard said. He did not speak in any grandiose way. He had a normal voice. He seemed in all ways to be a normal guy. ‘Who is your friend?’ His gaze shifted to Lydia as he stepped out of the pew and came around to stand before us.
‘This is—’ I started but Lydia cut in.
‘I can speak for myself,’ she told me sharply. ‘I’m Lydia. I’ve been sent to babysit him.’ This time it was Howard’s turn to snigger.
‘I don’t need a babysitter,’ I mumbled. I could feel my cheeks reddening from embarrassment.
‘Before I turned up he got his heart ripped out. He does need a babysitter,’ she said. Then she looked at me and shook her head as if I was a toddler who’d crapped himself.
‘Forgive me,’ Amara said, also standing and joining Howard in front of us. ‘Did you say he had his heart ripped out?’ She looked at me curiously.
’It’s kind of a long story,’ I said. ‘And an unusual one.’
‘My favourite kind of story,’ said Howard. ‘Come. Tell it.’ He beckoned us to join them in the pews in the main hall. We sat in one row and they sat in front, turning to face us with keen interest. Then I told them everything that had happened from the moment of my first death, right up until Lydia and I walked into their church.
‘Fascinating. Just fascinating,’ said Howard as he took it all in. ‘I do wonder what stopped Joshua’s compulsion from working on you.’ He rubbed at his goatee as he thought about it.
‘That’s easy. He’s got angel grace in him. Makes any form of mind control impossible,’ said Lydia.
Howard smiled gratefully. ‘You learn something new every day. Even at my age.’
‘Can I ask a question? Why did you set up in a church? Seems a bit on the nose, doesn’t it?’ I know there were more pressing things to get on with, but it was really playing on my mind and I needed to know his reasons.
Amara chuckled sweetly. ‘You asked if you may ask a question and then proceeded to ask it anyway,’ she said. She shook her head and then continued. ‘We’ve been in this church since the Middle Ages. We thought that a house of God would be the last place any hunters would think to look for us.’
‘Were hunters a big problem back then?’ I asked. I wasn’t very clued up on my vampire history. The race had been kept secret until my incident in Cedarstone so there wasn’t exactly a whole load of history books to read up on.
‘For us, yes. The older you get the more attention from hunters you attract. We are secure from such things now,’ said Amara.
‘So, you’ve been here this whole time? I mean, how did you not end up fighting the Syndicate when it was taking over as much of Kent as possible?’
This time Howard laughed. ‘Sebastian Redvers never stood a chance against me. I’m almost two-thousand years old. There are few vampires this side of the Channel who can match my strength. Sebastian understood that and we came to an agreement. He left Canterbury out of his plans, and I left him alone. When Aldric Ashworth took over he honoured the agreement. Thanks to your hocus pocus he would have been a far tougher adversary to beat.’
‘We would have beaten him all the same,’ said Amara. She ran her fingers through Howard's hair and he closed his eyes, nuzzling his head into her hand. ‘Howard and I never wanted much. Just our own corner of civilisation. This town was always enough for us. But since the Exposure, everything changed.’ I leaned forwards, more interested in where the story was going. I’d been gone a year and a half and I wanted to know how much things had changed. I needed to know that I hadn’t ruined everything for everyone.
‘The government created a new department. The Department of Supernatural Affairs.’
‘Conveniently it doesn’t have any supernatural persons working in it,’ Howard interjected.
‘Not yet. But that will change one day, I am sure. They rolled out a new system for governing the supernatural races. Each race was to elect a leader for each county who would answer to the department.’
‘Elect,’ scoffed Lydia.
‘Things didn’t quite go to plan. What happened was a free for all. Everybody fighting for supremacy. We realised that if we didn’t take charge then Joshua Ward would and I for one had seen enough of the Syndicate’s disastrous rule,’ said Howard. ‘We stepped up and ended the Syndicate. What’s left of it now works for us. We appointed each town a head vampire who answers to us.’
