Eddie Lancaster Box Set 2, page 9
part #4 of Eddie Lancaster Series
Sebastian chuckled as did his followers. Then Adrian ran. He ran head on at Sebastian who raised a hand and hit him in the sternum. As Adrian bounced away across the road I threw the potion. Sebastian turned and caught it just before it hit him. Fast bastard.
‘My, my, what is—’ Ashley thrust out her hand and the container shattered sending the liquid all over his hand. More importantly, all over the ring. The ring shone brightly again just as it had the night I’d tried to attack him. Then it dulled again. The ring remained intact. The potion had failed. Whoever had made that ring was more powerful than Clara. That was a wee bit frightening.
‘You have got to tell me who made that thing,’ I said as the colour drained from my face.
‘Perhaps when I’m feasting on the blood of your girlfriend,’ he replied and for the first time he actually seemed angry. This time Leon ran at him and his death gave us just enough time to get away. As Sebastian was tearing out Leon’s innards I ran to the nearest house with the others right behind me. I blew the door off its hinges and Ashley and I charged inside.
‘What on earth!’ the elderly male occupant said as he toddled out of his living room.
‘Invite my friend in now or I’ll kill you!’ I screamed in his face.
He looked at Adrian in terror and then said, ‘Please come in!’ Adrian shot into the house just before Sebastian reached him.
‘Go upstairs now,’ I told the old man and he went without question. He looked as though he was about to wet himself.
‘Eddie, Eddie, Eddie,’ Sebastian said from the doorstep. ‘I admit, I am impressed by your resourcefulness.’
‘A lot of people say that.’
‘I can imagine. How though, do you think you will survive this? I have you trapped in this house. Aldric is on his way with reinforcements. This house will be surrounded within the hour.’
‘Well, I think we can probably hold out until sunrise. Can you?’ I asked with just the right amount of annoying.
He smirked and then turned and walked back into the road. He muttered something to his goons. They then proceeded to rip out something from two cars making an awful lot of noise. Those somethings turned out to be the fuel tanks which they then poured from where Sebastian was standing, right the way up to the house before they threw the two tanks in through the front windows.
‘Shit,’ Ashley muttered.
‘Eddie. You and your friends have twenty seconds to come out of that house before I burn it to the ground,’ he said in an annoyingly calm tone. He pulled a lighter from his pocket and lit it. ‘Twenty. Nineteen.’
‘Anyone got anything?’ I asked the others as Sebastian continued to count.
Ashley said nothing but nodded ever so slightly across the road. I followed her gaze to where Aldric was standing on the other side of the road. Nobody but us had seen him yet. He was pointing at a car and making some weird turning gesture with his hands and pointing at Sebastian. It took a while but I suddenly cottoned on. I’d used a lot of magic during the chase but I still had enough for one more flip. I reached out and commanded the car to move. It went up into the air and flipped over. Sebastian had time to look up before it landed on him. Unfortunately, he dropped the lighter which connected with the petrol. Adrian grabbed Ashley and I and whisked us out through the back door.
Once he dropped us at the bottom of the garden, Ashley ordered him to go back for the old man.
‘Are you insane?’ he demanded.
‘You go back or I’m out. No more fighting Sebastian,’ she said hotly.
‘We have a deal,’ he reminded her.
‘Not for long, if that old man doesn’t get out of that house.’
Adrian looked at me for support but I shook my head. ‘I’m not getting involved.’
Adrian sighed and then was gone. Three seconds later the old man was on the grass and we were zooming away in Adrian’s arms again. He got us to a car, stole it and then drove us to safety.
We made it safely back to my house where we all crashed down in the living room, exhausted from the escapades of the night. It didn’t take long for the fire place to roar to life. We all jumped when it did. I will admit that I had forgotten all about Margie. I should have been more concerned after her disappearance from Sittingbourne Road. I didn’t feel too bad, though since she was already dead. Be honest, you’d forgotten about her too, hadn’t you?
‘Mum! What happened to you?’ Ashley said as she hurried over to the fireplace.
‘They had some sort of enchanted jar that sucked me in. I couldn’t get out again,’ she explained. She was trying to sound casual but there was definitely a shaken quality to her voice.
‘How did you get out then?’ I asked.
‘The one who trapped me let me out again. He didn’t say why.’
‘Was he a snooty looking man?’ I asked. She nodded.
‘Aldric Ashworth,’ Adrian said quietly. ‘He is definitely helping us, Eddie. No doubt about it.’
‘It certainly looks that way,’ I replied thoughtfully.
‘But why?’ said Ashley.
‘He must have some sort of interest in our survival. What that might be is a complete mystery to me,’ said Adrian.
‘Why don’t we ask him?’ Margie suggested.
‘We don’t have a way of contacting him,’ I said glumly. He’d phoned me earlier in the night but he’d withheld his number.
‘He will make contact with us if he truly does require us for some purpose. But I warn you it will not be savoury,’ said Adrian with apprehension. ‘In the meantime, we should make plans assuming it is still just the four of us. Unfortunately, all the vampires who stood with me died at Sebastian’s hand tonight.’ He looked down at the floor and stood in silence. I didn’t say anything for a while because it seemed like he was giving them a moment’s silence.
‘I’m sorry about your friends,’ I said awkwardly. It was all I could think of to say.
‘I barely knew them,’ he said dismissively. ‘I think the first thing we should do is acquire some guns with wooden bullets. Sebastian may be immune to magic but he won’t be immune to all the usual vampire weaknesses.’
‘Let’s get some UV lights outside the house as well,’ I said. ‘It will keep them away in case they decide to attack.’ Sebastian had already proven he was more than willing to attack us whether we were in a house or not. This house was magically protected so he’d have a hard time burning it down.
‘We could carry UV torches too,’ suggested Ashley.
‘The most they’d do is cause a bit of pain. It isn’t really worth it in the long run,’ Adrian said. Ashley glowered at him. ‘You are welcome to do so if you think it will make you feel safe,’ he offered.
‘So, we get the weapons. Then what?’ she said.
Adrian shook his head. ‘Go after Sebastian, I suppose.’
‘That’s not good enough,’ I said. ‘We need a proper plan. The last two times we went after him we ended up running away again. We need to draw him into a trap this time. We know he’s strong, we know he’s impervious to magic and we know he’s got an army behind him. What we need is to draw him out on his own and take him down that way.’
‘But how?’ said Ashley.
‘The only way to do it is if we have help on the inside. We need to get in touch with Aldric, as much as I hate the idea of working with him. I think we can arrange some sort of deal with him,’ said Adrian.
‘I thought you wanted to make plans assuming he wouldn’t help us?’ said Ashley.
‘I can think of no such plans,’ he replied. ‘We need a man on the inside.’
‘You could always join them,’ I said. ‘He did offer to make you governor.’
‘No,’ he said flatly. ‘It would take me too long to earn his trust, anyway.’
‘I think we’ve had enough for one night,’ said Margie in her authoritative tone. She was sending us to bed. ‘We need to sleep on it and regroup in the morning.’
‘Evening,’ Adrian corrected. ‘I’ll get going.’ He rose to leave.
‘You will not,’ Margie said sternly. ‘None of us are leaving this house now. The only way to be safe is to stick together. All of us are targets, all of us stay in this house.’ She spoke as if it was her house. She was right though.
‘I’ll show you to a room,’ I said.
I showed Adrian to Gavin’s room and gave him some clean sheets. I couldn’t let him sleep in Gavin’s skanky bed. When I returned to my own room I found Ashley sitting on the edge of the bed waiting for me.
‘I know you thought you were doing the right thing,’ she said quietly. I closed the door gently and went to sit next to her.
‘I knew it was wrong. But I wanted to protect you,’ I said honestly. ‘I didn’t want you to have to go through the confusion when you’d just managed to start moving on.’
‘I know. I’ve been giving you a hard time about it and I’m sorry,’ she said in a horribly submissive voice.
‘It isn’t you who should be sorry. It’s me.’
‘It’s both of us. But I know you’ve always looked out for me, Eddie. Even when you make stupid choices it’s out of a good place. You are the one person I know I can really depend on.’
‘Yes, you can.’ I placed my hand over hers and squeezed. I couldn’t believe we were making up. I’d been so sure that our relationship was done, that there was no going back.
‘I’m going to need you tomorrow,’ she said looking up at me.
‘Why, what’s happening tomorrow?’ I asked in confusion.
‘We almost died so many times today and I realised that there are things I still need to do. Things I’ve been putting off. I have siblings in Cedarstone that I know nothing about. So, tomorrow I’m going to meet them and I want you beside me.’
‘Is this the time to be doing that?’ I asked as gently as I could. I didn’t want to upset her again and there was a chance that this other family might not want anything to do with her.
‘If I’m going to die getting muddled up with all this vampire stuff then I want to do this first. Now could be the only time.’
I nodded. ‘Alright. We’ll do it in the morning when we don’t have to worry about the vampires,’ I said. Already I was trying to find a way out of it. I was in enough danger without walking into Cedarstone.
Chapter Fifteen
Once again I was woken up by my phone ringing. I looked at the screen and saw that it was a blocked number. At first I hoped it was Aldric, calling to explain what he was playing at and hopefully to offer us some help, but then I remembered it was daytime and he’d be hiding in a dark hole somewhere. I don’t mean that literally, as far as I know vampires haven’t hidden in holes since the middle ages. Anyway, I answered the phone and immediately regretted it.
‘Circles of fire, Eddie!’ Clara screamed in my ear. ‘Exploding car chases through town! Cars flipping all over the place! Do you have any idea how much shit you’ve dumped on my plate? Do you?’
I yawned rather loudly before answering. I wanted to show her that if she was going to be rude to me then I’d do it right back. ‘I thought you weren’t supposed to be in contact with me?’
‘Your actions could hardly be ignored, Eddie.’
‘As I recall, you pretty much begged me to get involved in this. Don’t start having a go at me because you don’t like my methods,’ I said calmly.
‘Your methods?’ she said in a furious whisper. ‘Your methods endangered countless lives. Do you know how many civilians ended up in hospital last night?’ she asked.
I actually had not thought about that and I did feel a little guilty now that she was pointing it out. Not much, but a little. Since losing all the darkness my conscience had grown somewhat. Kind of like when the Grinch’s heart grew, only not as much. ‘No. No I do not,’ I replied.
‘Seventy-eight. As far as I know none have died so far.’
‘I didn’t—’
‘Do you know how hard it is to convince people that gangs are responsible for this level of crime?’
‘To be fair, it must be easier than convincing them it’s vampires,’ I said. People are far more willing to believe a story grounded in reality even if the supernatural story makes more sense.
‘But it wasn’t vampires, was it? It was one annoying little warlock,’ she snapped.
‘First of all, I’m not little, I’m average height. And second, Ashley helped. She’s as responsible as I am. And third, if Sebastian wasn’t being a massive dick then there would have been no chase at all.’ Suddenly I was irate and I let it all flow out. ‘And actually, you know what, I don’t much care for this telling off. You begged me to get involved. You knew how I worked before you asked me. Hell, you even trialled me with the whole gnome-slash-imp thing! So, don’t you dare now lecture me about my methods! If you don’t like my methods get your fucking arse down here and take care of Sebastian yourself!’ I threw the phone down in a huff and then fell back on the bed. It felt good to throw some anger down the phone at her. She deserved it too. How dare she call me and give me a lecture about my methods when she was the one who told me to stop Sebastian. If she really…
I noticed that Clara’s voice was still in the room. That’s the thing about mobile phones. Putting them down doesn’t end the call and she hadn’t even noticed that I’d thrown the device away and could no longer hear her. I picked it back up and raised it to my ear.
‘…Know why I can’t get involved. A war between my people and the vampires would destroy Maidstone as well as a lot of other places. As I have explained to you several times now,’ she said.
‘In that case the damage I caused is pretty minor in comparison,’ I said, proud of myself for pulling off pretending to have heard the whole speech.
She huffed down the phone at me. ‘Did you get the potion I made you?’ she asked, obviously coming to the conclusion she wasn’t going to win. Everyone I talk to comes to that conclusion eventually.
Ashley woke up next to me and I mouthed the word Clara. She nodded and then got up to brush her teeth. I was surprised she hadn’t woken up sooner with all the yelling.
‘Uhm, no actually. His ring absorbed the potion right up,’ I told her.
‘What?’ she said in disbelief. ‘So, whoever made that ring is more powerful than I am. This is bad.’
‘Well, it would be if this warlock was involved in this but he’s not so we don’t need to worry about it,’ I said and shrugged. I don’t know why I shrugged when she couldn’t see me.
‘He might be working behind the scenes, though.’
‘I don’t think so. If he was involved then Sebastian wouldn’t keep trying to hire me. Plus, he would have used some sort of magical attack by now. I think Sebastian just got the ring from him and that was that,’ I said confidently.
‘I hope you’re right,’ said Clara. ‘No more car chases.’ She ended the call without a goodbye. People seem to do that a lot. Rude.
I called Matt and asked him to get me a contact number for Aldric Ashworth. If he really was on our side — and it seemed an awful lot like he was — then it was time to actually arrange something with him. It was all very confusing considering how horrible he’d been to us so far, though. Adrian believed it had all been a deception to fool Sebastian. I wasn’t so sure.
When Ashley was washed and dressed, she reminded me of her proposed plans for the day. I tried to think of a way out of it, but there just wasn’t one. Even Margie was no help. She told me that I had to support Ashley no matter what. I was surprised to find that Ashley took us to her old house rather than the address in Cedarstone.
‘What are we doing here?’ I asked. If the other family had moved here, then great, because it meant not going to Cedarstone. However, it seemed wrong for Pete to move his second family into his first families’ former home.
‘I don’t just want to turn up at their door. I think it would be better if Dad introduced me to them,’ she said. She made no move to exit the car.
‘That seems like a good plan. You know you have to go inside if you want to ask him,’ I told her. She was obviously too scared to face her dad. Last time we’d seen him, I’d been filled with darkness and had very nearly killed him. It had been then that I’d outed his double life. I didn’t actually know that he had another family, I was just theorising as to why he was never home. I was more surprised than anyone when I learned that I was right. Naturally, Ashley’s whole world had crashed down round her and her relationship with her father was extinguished.
She took a deep breath and then climbed out of the car and marched up the short garden path. I followed. She pulled out her key and opened the front door. The house was very different on the inside. Last time I’d been here I’d left it in a bit of a mess. I’d had a massive fight with an imp which had destroyed one whole wall and left the hallway and living room in utter ruin. Now, the wall was rebuilt, redecorated and the hallway looked as if nobody had ever even been in it. New paint, new carpet, new furniture.
‘What the…’ said Ashley as she walked through the living room door. That room too had been completely refurbished. It looked better than ever. I saw Ashley’s face contort as she realised the same thing I had. Margie’s chair was no longer there. The furniture had all been replaced. Also, the room was full of boxes. Everything that wasn’t furniture had been packed. Ashley turned to leave the room but almost walked right into Pete, who had come investigating the noise.
‘Ashley,’ he said in surprise. ‘I didn’t think you’d be back.’ He was making a very deliberate effort not to look at me. Hardly surprising really, he’d hated me even before I’d almost killed him.
‘You didn’t want me back you mean. Didn’t want me to see what you’ve done,’ she said accusingly.
‘I had to do something after your boyfriend destroyed the place,’ he said, still not looking at me. He was really quite rude.
‘Why is everything packed?’ she demanded. We all knew the answer but it was clear that nobody wanted to say it out loud.
‘I’m moving,’ Pete said at last, puffing his chest out defiantly. He knew an argument was coming. ‘I’m selling the house and going… somewhere else.’
