Vampire State of Mind (20 page)

We put in possibly the least effective working day ever, mostly consisting of picturesque brooding on Sil's part, half-heartedly monitoring the tracker programme on mine and fiddling with the pencil sharpener on Liam's, but six o'clock eventually rolled around. ‘Better go home.' I shut down the computer and eased my back. ‘No callouts, Liam, so we can all leave.'

‘Great! I'll get a takeaway and sit around the house in my pants. What? Sarah's at her mother's, there have
got
to be
some
perks …'

‘I'll buzz Zan to expect us.' Sil took out his mobile.

‘Uh-huh. I need to go back to the flat tonight. Just tonight. It's all right, I've given in to your macho demands that I come to your place. But, you know, I need to pack.'

‘Oh God, not all of it,' Sil groaned. ‘Not the cuddly toys as well.'

‘Only for tonight, while I … how do you know about the cuddly toys?'

Sil sighed. ‘I have been in your flat, remember.'

‘Only when Malfaire …'

‘And I had to change my clothes.'

‘You changed in
my bedroom
?' Indignation made me shrill.

‘I'm not sure. It was either your bedroom or a small offshoot of Hamleys' toyshop, with an option on Cadbury's best-selling chocolates and photographs of girls in school uniform … I really don't think that this is important right now.'

Liam sighed. ‘Just one more night, Sil.' He put on his coat. ‘And I shall see you both back here tomorrow morning, bright and shiny and probably wearing each other's jumpers.'

‘Shut up, Liam.' If I'd had my mobile to hand I would have thrown it at him, but it was in the pocket of my coat, which was hung up by the door. ‘Do you really have to come everywhere with me, Sil? What about last night; you let me go home alone then.'

Sil looked as if he was about to say something, then changed his mind. ‘Yep, everywhere.' He pulled his soft black coat around himself like a cloak. ‘It might prevent Malfaire from harming you, if he's got an audience.'

‘Oh yeah, 'cos that always stops the bad guys,' I said sarcastically, dragging my coat down from the door and over my shoulders. Liam made a face.

‘You two should
so
get it on.'

This time both of us spoke in unison. ‘Shut up, Liam,' and Sil held the door open for me, taking my arm as we marched out in pretended umbrage. At least, my umbrage was pretend, I couldn't speak for Sil's, but he was walking fast and unevenly, which was usually a sign that the vampire was pissed off.

‘Slow down!'

‘Why? You're in danger, or haven't you heard?'

‘Because at this rate, Malfaire won't need to attack, he can wait for me to catch fire from the air friction. I'm not vampire, Sil. If you want to keep belting around like that then you're going to have to let go of me first.'

Slowly he released me. ‘Sorry.'

‘Wow, you're apologising again? Call the
Guinness Book of Records
. Anyway, why don't we take a taxi?'

‘Because I can't guarantee that a taxi-driver hasn't been glamoured to drive straight into the river with you.' He then muttered something which sounded like ‘merciful relief for us all' but I charitably ignored it.

We headed down the main tourist area, now empty of all but the most determined sightseer, and towards the river. As we reached the walkway which led down the side of the bridge, I touched his arm. ‘Sil, I'm sorry, too.'

‘What?' He swung round towards me.

‘About – you know. Everything. I never meant us to be enemies.'

‘Enemies. Is that what we are?' His hair was escaping, one wisp at a time, from the ponytail behind his head, the locks joining to form a flopping straggle that made his cheeks look thinner and paler than usual.

‘I'm scared,' I finally confessed. ‘I don't know what to do. I don't need any more people with grudges against me. Can't we go back to how we used to be when you first came to work for me?'

His eyes softened, running to that almost blue-grey that they turned when he was being nice. ‘Oh, yes?' He took a step towards me. ‘And how was that again?'

I couldn't help myself. I wanted to but I felt so shaky, so confused, and Sil was standing there all nicely rumpled and, well,
there
. I stepped in, and his arms came around me and pulled me close until I could feel the solidity of his body against mine. As he tilted his head forward, I lifted my chin and moved towards his mouth as though he'd become magnetic.

There must have been mere millimetres of air between our lips, when I was hit a massive blow from the side and sent tumbling on to the cobbles with a wight on top of me, its white-sheeted, skeletal form pinning me to the ground. Sil made it two steps before another wight grabbed him around the neck and pulled him backwards down on to the flagstones beside the river.

The wights fought like Schwarzenegger on crack. I saw Sil's head slam into the pavement just before I was dragged under the bridge by the wight which had me. It used my hair as a handle to hold me down whilst its bones were everywhere, striking out at me. Every blow connected, every blow hurt and with each impact my hair was pulled a little tighter. I kicked out at the legs but there was no flesh to impact on, no muscles to bruise, only a hawser-like strength.

The lipless face came in close, grinning obscenely with the mouth open for a bite which would remove half my cheek. I summoned all my hatred in one solid, leaden ball, twisted around, ignoring the pain from my head, then flung myself down on to the ground with the unbalanced wight underneath me.

There was a satisfying snapping sound as part of the ribcage gave way, shards of bone stabbing into the palms of my hands, with the wight making a noise like a hurricane trapped in a lift shaft and struggling to bring its legs underneath it. I sat on its damaged chest, one of its arms pinned under my knee, and tried to peer out of the gloom to see what was happening to Sil, but the wight took the opportunity to bring its free arm up and elbow me in the side of the head. My vision swung so that the lights across the river dipped and appeared to fall into the water for a few seconds. Without thinking I struck out sideways, catching the arm on the downswing and giving it such momentum that it bounced off the flagstones with a sound like a whip-crack. ‘You
bastard
!'

I didn't think, I reacted. Leaned forward further into the shattered ribs and grabbed at the skull with both hands, which freed the wight's arms. It closed them around my body, grabbing my waist and squeezing until it felt as though my kidneys were being forced into my windpipe, but I didn't let go; I pulled at the skull and twisted. Kept on pulling, twisting until with one final crack the skull came free of the spinal column and the body collapsed back.

I slowly became aware of the splinters of bone piercing my legs and my face dripping blood; my hands were peppered with tiny slices from the broken ribs. But I was
alive
.

There was no noise from the walkway beyond the black cavern. Nothing but the distant cries of revellers heading home, a muted traffic whoosh from the bridge above. I disentangled myself from the remains of the wight and dragged myself on shaky legs to the corner of the steps, where I could grab on to the stonework for support and move hand-over-hand until I was in the open air. ‘Sil?'

He was braced against the brick wall, hands on thighs, bent nearly double and was gasping for breath, but, like me, alive. Head raised at my voice. ‘Jessie?'

His eyes were swollen and there was a bite out of his neck. ‘You okay?' I couldn't move to get any closer; it was taking all my energy to hang on to the step in front of me.

‘Yes.'

‘Where is it?'

He flicked his head at the water. ‘Threw it in the river.' Coughed deeply and retched. ‘Yours?'

‘Pulled its head off.'

We hung in our random positions for a few moments, then caught each other's eye and started laughing, the breathless, hysterical laughter of people who hadn't expected to survive. Hiccupping, ridiculous laughing, until tears made my face sting, and Sil had a coughing fit which brought him to his knees on the cobbles.

‘I think I peed myself.' I held my arms around me to ease the ache in my stomach, blood from the bone-cuts smeared across my T-shirt. ‘Ow, that hurts.'

Sil had to climb up the side of the building to get upright, ending up facing the brickwork with his forehead resting against it. ‘We need to get out of here.'

‘Let's get back to the flat. Although I warn you, Rach might ask some very pointed questions about your presence. Either that or flirt with you, but I think her blood might be ninety per cent soya.'

‘Not sure I can walk, Jessie.' Sil flicked a hand towards his leg. ‘Got a bit … bitten …' The giggles threatened again briefly, but he managed to contain them.

‘You'll have to lean on me.' Cautiously, because I wasn't completely sure of my own roadworthiness, I slid my way over to him and got an arm around his waist. Sil put his arm across my shoulders and we began a strange, limping process along the river walk. I tried to ignore how our bodies moved in rhythm and how he felt so cool and hard against me.

‘Bloody hell man, don't you ever
eat
?'

‘Jessie, I'm trying
very, very hard
not to notice the fact that you are bleeding from at least three places. This is no time to bring up the subject of food!'

‘All right, forget I mentioned – '

And we stopped. Five strides ahead of us stood Malfaire, a Shadow at either side. He was watching us come, a quizzical eyebrow kinked and a half-smile on his impeccable lips. I wondered how long he'd been working on that expression.

‘Good evening,' he said. ‘And how are the love-birds flitting tonight, hmm?'

‘Piss off.' Not exactly a quip to be proud of I know, but not bad for someone as beaten-up as I was.

‘Just heading home, are we? Are you finally intending to indulge our young vampire in his darkest desires, Jessica?'

Sil hissed. I could feel his demon rising, but it couldn't help him. His body was too weak to sustain another attack.

Malfaire was looking us up and down so insolently, so
knowingly
, that I felt myself blush. ‘What do you want?'

‘Want? Well, I want you, Jessica, did I not say?'

‘And the wights?'

He made a dismissive gesture with both hands. ‘A courtesy detail. Flowers seemed inappropriate. And less lethal.' He took a step closer and the Shadows came with him. ‘You're my daughter, a chip off the old block, as I think you proved. Despatching a pair of wights was very impressive.' Still coming. ‘I am giving you a final chance to listen to reason and come and fight alongside me, because the alternative will not be pleasant. But,' he shrugged, ‘there you go, some people need a lot of persuasion.'

I stepped back and stumbled over a metal hook, the kind of thing the rivermen used to pull the boats to shore. It banged my already bruised ankle and tears came into my eyes. ‘You want me dead.'

‘Baldly put, but – yes, if you refuse to fight
with
me, then you must be
against
me.' Another dismissive wave. ‘Although I think simply killing you would rather spoil the fun, don't you?' His gaze flickered over Sil. ‘I can do that at any time. But there are so many that you care for, I think I might enjoy reducing their number a little first. While you watch, and appreciate their pain.'

The Shadows moved a step closer and I bent down and snatched up the rusty metal hook. ‘Get those things away from us, you arrogant git.'

Malfaire stared at me for a second, then grinned. ‘My dear, I don't think for one second that you mean me harm. After all, you're a council employee, so you keep telling everyone, as though by denying your heritage you can make it cease to exist.'

By now there was only a couple of feet between us, and I could feel the chill air coming from the Shadows. If I'd leaned forward I could have kissed him. ‘You're willing to gamble?'

Sil hissed again. ‘Your vampire knows more about killing than you do, Jessie.' Malfaire's voice was silky. ‘Why don't you let him threaten me? It would be far more convincing.'

‘He's
not
“my vampire”.' The metal was chilly, rough under my fingers. ‘And he couldn't kill you; it has to be me. Your own flesh and blood, Malfaire. That's what it would take to kill you. And that's me.'

There was more space between us now. Without my noticing, Malfaire had pulled back, although the Shadows were still way,
way
too close for comfort. ‘You – ' was all Malfaire had time to say, before I raised my arm and waved the metal hook and Malfaire was standing close enough that the razor-sharp tip caught in his impeccable clothing, tangled in his beautiful coat and ripped through it like tissue paper. Malfaire looked down in shock. I, equally shocked, tried to pull free but somehow he took an inadvertent step towards me and the coiled iron dug deep. As I flailed, feeling the resistance of his body, the hook snatched upward.

His hands fluttered. Bright blood fanned from the wound as he staggered under the impact and the stain began creeping from behind his clothes. I just stood and stared. Firstly at Malfaire, who was grappling with both hands in the air, as though he was trying to force breaths in, and then at the stained metal in my hand.

‘For fuck's sake let's get out of here.' Sil half-turned, but I couldn't move, watching Malfaire pumping blood over the pavement and his impeccable suit. He leaned forward, struggling for air and I took half a step towards him, wanting …
needing
to help.

Sil tugged at me. ‘Jessie! There's no
time
,' and I simultaneously felt the brush of a Shadow at my back and Sil's bodyweight hitting me sideways on. I grabbed at him but he kept moving and we both fell, hitting the river tangled together in a slowly rotating heap of coat and limbs.