Her Vampyrrhic Heart (16 page)

‘Maybe we should leave you to get some rest?' Kit suggested.

Owen tapped his friend's foot where it was covered by the sheet. ‘You're looking groggy, pal.'

‘Nobody believes me,' Jez repeated. ‘I banged my head. They're keeping me in for observation. That's standard procedure. Just in case I go:
aaargh
.' He pretended to go into convulsions.

‘Did the woman tell the police what happened?' asked Kit.

‘Yep. Said I saved her life. Said the monster got everyone in the bus. It was going to get her, too, but I arrived and,
POW!
Smacked the truck into it.'

‘What did the police say about this woman's story?'

‘They don't believe her, either. They say she's confused. Out of her head … gaga.' He sighed. ‘Prunes. Who feeds a sixteen-year-old prunes?'

‘We should be going,' Owen said. ‘We'll come and visit you tomorrow.'

‘Tomorrow might be too late. I might be gone …' He chuckled. ‘I'm going home tomorrow morning.'

Kit patted his friend's uninjured arm. ‘Take care, mate.'

‘Kiss some nurses for us.' Owen saluted. ‘That's an order.'

Jez laughed then winced. ‘Ouch. Forgot about my arm. They had to pin the bone. Snappy-doo.' With his good hand he waved at the bedside table. ‘There's a pen. Write stuff on my cast.'

Five minutes later Kit and Owen stood outside the hospital.

Kit said, ‘Will you come with me to see Jez when he's back home tomorrow, or will you be fondling Eden Taylor?'

‘What's eating you, Kit?'

‘Because you only came to see Jez as an afterthought. I could tell that you didn't want to be there.'

‘That's not true.'

Kit's voice rose, ‘OK, you were in the room with us, but you were thinking about that girl.'

‘You piece of shit.'

‘I'm not the shit! You are!' Kit shoved Owen.

Owen, the bigger of the two, pushed back, slamming Kit against the wall.

Kit's face burned. ‘Is that the Westonby way, huh? If you get into an argument, you start pushing people around and causing some pain!'

‘Why are you behaving like this, Kit? What have I done to you?'

‘That girl's got into your brain. I can see what's happening: you're turning your back on Jez and me.'

‘I know your problem. You can't get a girlfriend – that's why you're behaving like a cock-head!'

Kit stormed off. After ten yards he stopped, turned on his friend and yelled. ‘I know what your brother did! He killed my uncle!
Tom Westonby is a murderer!
'

T
om Westonby and June Valko checked out of the hotel. Tom suggested she leave her hire car here in Leppington. They could return to the cottage in his van. At this time on a Sunday the streets of Leppington were quiet. A man, carrying a newspaper, walked with a black dog at his side. A mechanized street cleaner ambled along, sucking up rubbish left by Saturday's shoppers. Meanwhile, a pair of crows picked at a beef burger that lay on the pavement.

Tom and June had decided to eat lunch in the hotel. That way they could talk about their plans for this evening. Although the plan lacked finesse, Tom knew that June would be powerful bait. There would be a result tonight. He was certain one or more of the vampires would come to the house again. What happened next was anyone's guess. He knew June was hopeful she could communicate with her father – or rather communicate with the creature he'd become. Meanwhile, Tom gambled that Nicola would appear: the woman he'd loved, and who he'd seen transform into one of those vampire-like creatures.

Tom had also been thinking hard about the news report he'd seen on television. A minibus carrying seven people had been found torn apart in a stream not far from where he lived. After he and June climbed into the van, he sat staring into space, the ignition key still in his hand.

‘What's the matter?' June asked.

He glanced across at her. The woman's electric blue eyes were sparks of fire.

‘I keep thinking about the accident last night.'

‘The one involving the bus?'

They'd spoken about that, too, and he'd explained how he believed that the tragedy was no road traffic accident. What was more, he believed it tied into what had been happening in the Lepping valley for centuries: specifically, that there were supernatural creatures in the valley, which were capable of causing harm.

He said, ‘The more I think about the accident, along with the fact that most of the passengers are missing, the more I'm convinced that those
things
are responsible.'

‘Vampires.' She spoke with conviction. ‘We said we wouldn't be shy about using the name to describe them.'

‘OK, vampires. I think either they attacked the bus, or it was Helsvir.'

‘If they're killing innocent people then we must do something.'

‘No. They're not killing – they're recruiting.'

Those blue eyes widened. ‘What do you mean?'

‘Until you arrived, those creatures – the vampires and Helsvir – had done nothing for years. Like I said, they haunted the forest like ghosts. They were harmless. They weren't seen by anyone. They didn't interfere in human lives. All that's changed now.'

‘You said that my arrival triggered the change.'

He nodded. ‘I'm sure that's the case.'

‘Then I should leave.'

‘But once a finger pulls a trigger and the bullet leaves the gun it doesn't matter about the trigger. It's been pulled, the bullet's on its way. There's no stopping it.' He sighed. ‘Sorry. I've lived alone for so long that sometimes when I talk it sounds peculiar even to me.'

‘No, I understand. You're saying that when I arrived at your house I set some change in motion.'

‘I believe so. It's like the vampires and Helsvir were harmless germs. For some reason, however, those harmless bugs have mutated into a killer disease.'

He watched two crows sweep down on their black wings. They'd seen a dead rat on the ground. One bird snipped off its tail. The other went for the eyes.

June paid no attention to the feasting birds. Instead, she rested her hand on his arm. ‘You still haven't explained what you mean by
recruiting
.'

‘For years the vampires have been harmless. Now they've become active. In fact, they're downright aggressive. On Friday night one tried to drown me in the river. After that, they laid siege to the house, and even tried to break in. When that failed, one climbed down the chimney so it could get a good look at you. But …' He took a deep breath as the realization grew teeth, so it could gnaw at his peace of mind. ‘But they've decided they need to be stronger. So they've started to increase their numbers. Although I'm not sure yet if it's the vampires doing it, or whether it's Helsvir.' He gave a grim smile. ‘You'll need a strong stomach when I describe Helsvir in detail.'

‘Helsvir is this dragon creature? The one created by the Viking god?'

Tom nodded. ‘He's an ally of the vampires. And he's powerful, vicious and extremely dangerous. He makes himself bigger and even more powerful by attacking people and incorporating their bodies into his own body. Somehow he can glue limbs and heads to himself. I told you that you'd need a strong stomach. He makes those birds cute and cuddly in comparison.' Tom nodded in the direction of the crows that were now using their beaks to tug out the rat's wormy intestine.

‘So, why do they want to become more powerful?'

‘They've got big plans. They're building up their army.'

‘Why?'

He started the engine. ‘Are you sure you're not a reporter, June? You can't stop yourself asking questions.'

‘I'm asking them,' she said firmly, ‘because I believe you know more than you're telling me.'

‘I've had a long time to speculate, and guess, that's all. The vampires and Helsvir are mysteries bundled up in yet more mystery. No living person knows exactly what they are or how they think.'

‘But you suspect they're building an army. So why are they doing that?'

‘Armies exist to protect a country's citizens.'

‘So, who will this vampire army protect?'

‘You, Miss Valko. They will protect you, because you are the last of the Bekk bloodline. Your DNA is valuable to them, and must be preserved.'

‘Then they only want to safeguard my blood, not me?'

‘Of course, armies exist for reasons other than protecting national borders and people.'

She nodded. ‘Sometimes they're used for invasion, too.' She bit her lip as the realization sank in. ‘So will I be responsible for starting a war?'

‘For all our sakes, June, I hope it won't come to that. Because I don't know if it's a war that the human race can win.' With that, he drove away from the hotel, and joined the road that would take him home.

H
er eyes were open. There appeared to be no light entering the cave. She could still see, though. To her, darkness wasn't darkness any more. How she got inside the cave she didn't know. Tree roots had burst through the rock above her – a deadly tangle of witch hair.

‘I'm …' she whispered. ‘I'm … my name is …' For a long time she lay on the floor, gazing up at the witch hair … that's how that tangle looked to her. At last she remembered. ‘My name is Clarissa Prior. I'm not dead … am I?'

There were others in the cave, too. Gleaming white bodies, dressed in faded clothes. They lay on the slab of rock that formed the floor. They didn't move. They lay there as if dead. Not a trace of colour appeared in those wide eyes. In each eye was a pupil – a fierce black spot. Those eyes stared into infinity.

Clarissa didn't move … couldn't move … yet somehow she managed to whisper. ‘Why am I in a cave? How can I see when there's no light?' But see she did. She no longer had need for light.

Something like a stone altar stood at one end of the cave. Animal skulls covered a block of stone. There were swords, too, leaning against the block; they were all rusted. Above the altar, a figure of a powerful, bearded man had been carved into the rock.
A sacred place
, she thought.
Sacred to pagans.

Slowly, she managed to tilt her head sideways. In that silent tomb there were perhaps ten men and women. She was struck by their similarity; they could be members of the same family. Nearest to her lay the man who'd attacked her in the village.
And made me one of them …
Her blood had left brown smears around his mouth.

‘You all look like vampires,' she whispered softly. ‘You look just like vampires waiting for the night to come.' Her eyes returned to the cave's ceiling. At that instant, Clarissa seemed to look through the very atoms of the rock into a face that gazed down at her from above. In the face: a pair of eyes that burned with the fires of hell. They gloated over Clarissa.

She murmured: ‘And I'm lying here in the dark … just like a vampire, too.'

T
ony floated over boulders. A light came from above; he knew that the sun shone down through the surface of the river. The boulders were the size of beach balls. Fish darted away in terror from what swam through the depths. He glimpsed the bones of a stag on the riverbed. Green weed flowed from its antlers, rippling in the current. The coldness of the water had no effect on him. Even though logic dictated he could not breathe and must drown he did not. He lived. Sort of.

What he did feel, and what filled him with total dread, was a pressure inside his skull. How could he describe the sensation?
This feels like a metal skewer being inserted through my neck, before being pushed deeper and deeper into my head.
How he could describe the frightening sensation in such a calm way, he just didn't know. Nor did he know how he understood what was happening to him. But he did. He knew that something extraordinary happened to the flesh at the bottom of his neck – the flesh that was left all ragged and torn after his head had been wrenched off. That flesh gradually fused with the body of the creature that had dragged him from the minibus. The stubby remains of his spinal column that jutted down from the back of his skull had become embedded in the monstrous carcass. He knew the arteries inside his neck were being fused with those of the monster.

But that sense of a cold skewer being inserted into my brain? That's the worst sensation of all.
Somehow he realized that the ‘skewer' was, in fact, a tough, worm-like nerve invading his skull. The creature's nervous system gradually merged with his brain tissue. Slowly, relentlessly, he was becoming part of this monster.

The
thing's
nerves would also be invading the brains of Luke, Anita and the others.

With that cold, probing root came new emotions and thoughts. Sometimes he thought like Tony had always thought. The next moment, a flood of alien ideas roared through his head. They were so violent that his jaw opened and snapped shut with a savage ferocity.

He glanced at Luke. His friend turned to him. Luke's eyes stared out from a mess of raw meat that was his face now that the actual face had gone. The eyes glittered with excitement.

Tony turned his head the other way. Heads budded all along the flanks of the creature. Mouths twisted into savage grins as the personalities of his friends were transformed by the beast. New thoughts cascaded into their minds. When Tony recalled his neighbours in Danby-Mask a brutal anger erupted. Those men and women were vile, hateful creatures. They were the enemy. They had no right to be here in the valley. They were dangerous. Better to destroy them than run the risk of them destroying him.

The cold nerve that penetrated the core of his brain suddenly burned with a great heat. It became a living cable down which a single word rushed to inflame his mind. His lips mouthed the word. All the other heads furiously mouthed the same word, too. And though they were underwater, and though he could not hear the word, it seemed to pulse through his very flesh with such enormous power it made the rocks in the river tremble.