Vampire State of Mind (25 page)

‘Will Zan be all right?' she surprised him by asking. ‘I suppose he's got Liam but … God, Liam …'

‘Hey.' Sil touched her, the car swinging alarmingly as he took his hand off the wheel. ‘They'll be fine. Malfaire might just be winding you up, he might be nowhere near York by now. Might even have decided to let you be, since you can't seem to do him any damage.'

He saw the hope flash momentarily through her tawny eyes and then fade. ‘He wants me dead,' she said, and the awful finality of the words made him shudder.
I'll keep her safe. I promised.

I tried to ring Liam from the car, but his mobile went to voicemail every time. Then I tried Rachel, home and mobile, and my sister on
her
mobile, with the same results. I tried again, but my hands were shaking too hard for accurate dialling. ‘Do you think they're at the house? Has Malfaire …?'

Without looking, Sil reached out a hand and stilled my trembling fingers. ‘Almost certainly,' he said, eyes on the road. ‘But he won't have killed them, Jess. Not if you aren't there to see it happen. He's taken them to force you to do something, and bodies are no use for blackmail.'

I took a deep breath. ‘Then he's going to try to kill you, too.'

The car wobbled a bit as he allowed his eyes to meet mine for a brief moment. ‘Yes. And I really do not want to sound self-interested here, but
that
is why we need a plan.'

We spent the rest of the journey trying to come up with one, but we weren't natural co-operators. Sil's plans always consisted of smashing our way in and trying to cause Malfaire as much damage as possible, while mine consisted of trying to talk our way out of things. When we eventually pulled up in the York square next to the house, we were still arguing.

‘If he can't be killed, there's no point going in guns blazing.'

‘Talking will do nothing. He won't listen to anything you have to say.'

I stopped, halfway out of the Bugatti. ‘He might,' I said slowly. ‘If it's something he wants to hear.' The very beginnings of a kind of plan were starting to form. I had no idea how far I could take it, and still no idea how we were going to actually defeat Malfaire, but I thought I could at least hold him for a while. ‘Sil.' I put a hand on the vampire's arm. ‘Whatever is going on with us, whatever we decide to do afterwards, split up or go back to the way we were before … you will help me now, won't you?'

He stood rigid. ‘Jessie. Do you really think this is the time and place for a big “Where Is This Going?” relationship talk?'

‘Er, no, I suppose not really. But that wasn't where I was heading. Listen.' I whispered my sketchy idea, all the while aware of the feel of him under my hand, the flexing of his muscles as his fist bunched and the occasional slip and glide as his demon freewheeled on the tension.

‘It will never work, Jessica. It depends on your friend being here.'

‘Look, Rach isn't answering her phone. I cannot get it over to you strongly enough, what with you being a bloody nineteenth-century Dorian-Grey-alike, that, short of some of the more extreme forms of death,
nothing
stops Rachel from answering her phone. She lives in constant hope that Damian Lewis is going to come for her, and, besides, she's got the vet on speed-dial. If she's not answering, something is very, very wrong, and Malfaire is kind of the definition of very, very wrong.'

‘But …'

‘Got a better idea, plotmeister?'

A pause. ‘I suppose it is the best we have. But you … he could harm you.'

‘Sil, the entire
world
could be at stake here. If the Treaty goes tits-up, we've all had it anyway, pretty much. It'll be back to the guerrilla warfare and hiding in burned-out cars and baiting traps with designer footwear.' Sil gave me a sideways look. ‘I know, I know, my view of the Troubles all comes from films and some of them were comedies, but you know what I mean. If I stand any chance of stopping him, then I have to take it.' We stared at the front of the house for a moment. ‘So, we ought to go in then.'

Sil pulled a face. ‘Yes.'

‘No point standing around out here.'

‘No.'

‘Are you scared?'

He rolled his eyes. ‘Let's just bloody do it, shall we? Rubbish plan or no, we can't stand out here all day debating.' His long, thin fingertips closed around the handle of the huge front door.

‘Wait! What happened to the element of surprise?'

‘I live here and Malfaire knows it. I rather think the element of surprise burned itself out at that point, Jessica.' Sil gathered himself to full height and stalked in through his own doorway. I tiptoed along behind, cautiously staying in his shadow. The hallways and landings were chilly, hushed places at the best of times and, right now, with my skin dread-clammy, they felt positively mausoleumic.

‘It shouldn't be this quiet,' I whispered as we slid like an ill-matched pair of Charlie's Angels around corners. ‘At least if people were screaming I'd know they were still alive.'

Right on cue a sudden scream filled the corridor. It was a female scream of fear and horror.

‘That was Rach!'

Without thinking, I headed towards the sound. Took the stairs two at a time, spun around the top landing and stopped outside a bedroom door. ‘They're in here.'

The vampire and I stood and contemplated the bedroom door for a couple of seconds. Finally I muttered, ‘Oh, what the hell,' and opened it. Inside, the room stank of magic. It was thick with spells, enough to cast mutant silhouettes across the floor and furniture. There, on the bed, sprawled Rach, rubbing at a sore-looking forearm, with Abbie huddled against her. Liam was attempting to keep himself in front of both women which, considering Liam could have stunt-doubled for a pipe-cleaner, was an heroic effort. In the middle of the green, greasy smoke of the magic lay Zan, Harry and Eleanor, trussed with invisible ropes. Only their eyes moved.

Malfaire stood in the centre of the room. The magic rolled and boiled around him and completely ruined the toning effect of his autumnal ensemble.

‘Let them go.'

He jumped. If that was to be my only triumph this evening, it was worth it. ‘Ah. Hello, Jessica. I had hoped that you would be joining us. And now the fun may truly begin.'

‘For a given value of “fun”.' I stared into Malfaire's face. ‘Let them go. This has nothing to do with them; what you really want is me, so, here I am.'

The magic billowed as he turned to face me fully. ‘Actually, Jessica, what I really want is you to watch them die.'

I looked at Liam. ‘What did he do?'

‘I called Enforcement as soon as you'd gone. Thought we might need back up, but I was too late.' Liam sounded breathless, desperate to impart information. ‘He turned up just after, with your sister and your friend in tow and when Harry and Ellie got here, he … We tried to call you but …' His voice broke. ‘I'm sorry, Jessie. We wanted to fight …'

Malfaire inclined his head in agreement. ‘This one put up quite the struggle.' He nudged Zan with one, immaculately booted foot. ‘But ultimately I am the better man. As you will discover.' His eyes flicked uninterestedly over Sil and then away. He was so certain of himself, so smug, he made vampires look positively self-deprecating.

‘What will it take for you to let them go?' Rach and Abbie were boggling at me as though they'd never seen me before. Eleanor had her eyes fixed on me as though she was memorising my every move for the court case, and Harry had his eyes shut. There were occasional twitches around his mouth, and I wondered if he was praying.

‘You have already declined my offer, Jessica. More than once. It should hardly be necessary to repeat it.'

‘You still want me to fight at your side?' God, what was it with everyone? Apart from work I'd gone thirty-one years without being involved in so much as a scuffle outside a nightclub, and suddenly everyone and his dog wants me armed.

‘You are prepared to reconsider?'

‘If it means saving these people, then yes, I'll reconsider.'

Sil moved a little closer to me. ‘Here we go,' he whispered on an almost inaudible outbreath.

Malfaire gave a triumphant grin. ‘Ah, my daughter. I knew you would come around to my way of thinking, in the end.'

‘Hard not to, when you've got everyone hostage. Let them go, and we'll talk.'

The magic threw little golden sparks off the edges of the furniture. Pretty. Lethal, but pretty. ‘Now, I would be a fool indeed to release everyone, wouldn't I? Do you consider me a fool, Jessica?'

I folded my arms. ‘Let them go or I won't say another word.'

‘Promises, promises,' Liam cut in.

‘I'm
so
glad you're on my side, I'd hate to think of you bitching for the opposition,' I said without looking at him.

Malfaire pounced. Took me by one hand and moved me to a corner of the room. I rolled my eyes at Sil, hoping he'd take this as ‘try to get everyone out of here', but he just frowned. We really needed to work on our subliminal signalling.

‘Be with me, daughter, and everyone will be safe.' Magic whispered across my skin like a fresh breeze. ‘Together we may protect whomever we wish. And
destroy
whatever stands before us.'

I breathed as calmly as I could. ‘You're immortal,' I said.

He looked absurdly proud. ‘Yes, it does seem that way, doesn't it?' he agreed. ‘No hard feelings about the whole – ' A hand wafted along his torso. ‘You had to try, after all. I would admire you less if I'd thought you were unable to kill.' His hand gently squeezed mine. ‘But what's made you reconsider your position? I thought that you and this –' a hand waved towards Sil – ‘were playing happy families.'

Eleanor's eyes narrowed even further and I might not have telepathy but I'd be willing to hazard a guess at what she was thinking right then.

‘Since I found out about the whole demon thing, I'm not so sure where I fit in any more. Now I've had time to think … my whole
life
turns out to have been a lie, I'm in –' Whoops. Managed to catch myself in time there – ‘in deep with a vampire who can't stop himself from screwing around and living on the edge, so there's no happy-ever-after for me there either. If I'm enough of a demon to have something to offer you – well, that's starting to look like a better bet, from where I'm standing.'

I could see Eleanor was taking mental notes. I was probably
never
going to be out of the frame for any crime now, as far as she was concerned; if I so much as dropped a crisp packet in the street I'd probably be looking at ten years to life. Abbie and Rach were holding hands. Harry was still praying silently.

I let myself look at Sil. Our plan was little more than rudimentary and there were many fine details that we hadn't had time to work out but it was all we had, and now was the time to put it into action.

Sil hurled himself across the floor, meeting Malfaire's magical shielding with the noise of a thousand tin cans falling. His fangs were down and he was halfway to demon by the look in his eyes. They stood grimacing, face to face, as the magic streamed over and past them; Malfaire's cheeks were rattling with the force of it and Sil's dark mane of hair was flapping like a flag. Sil punched out, slashed at the pale- green shielding and Malfaire stepped back, his face tight, nose wrinkled against the metallic stink of impact. When the blow failed to penetrate, Malfaire's mouth started to curve in a little smile which broadened with each attempt Sil made. ‘Vampire,' he said contemptuously, as though the word was synonymous with rubbish. ‘Don't you know that I can't die?'

If you can't die,
I thought, with a sudden, rising hope,
then why bother shielding? Even you aren't quite sure, are you?
Zan seemed to be conscious in the middle of all that magical rope-stuff. ‘Are you okay?' I mouthed around the edge of the glam-rock combat.

He twitched an eyebrow.

‘Is that yes or no?' I mouthed back.

He rolled his eyes, and I concluded that if he was capable of silent sarcasm he was probably all right. It made me feel a bit better.

‘Aren't you going to do something?' It was Abigail. Ghostly pale, she'd used Malfaire's inattention to take the chance to stand up and face me. ‘This all seems to be something to do with you, Jessica. Don't you think you ought to make these monsters stop?'

‘Monsters' was a bit rich coming from someone who'd had Zan's picture tacked up on her bedroom wall throughout her formative years. ‘It will be over soon,' I said. The magic was blazing around them now; Sil was outlined in a livid green while Malfaire stood, seemingly unmoved, in a yellowish glow. But Sil was weakening; the green was tightening, closing in around the vampire and, as I watched, it formed a noose-shape in the air, drew down around the flailing form and snared him, binding his arms to his sides.

Sil rolled, or rather, the magic rolled him, until he lined up next to Zan and the Enforcement pair, eyes flaring. He'd probably never been this helpless in his entire, long, life.

Abbie sat down again. She and Rach resumed their pallid, silent staring while Liam merely sat, hands in his lap. He looked defeated and hopeless, as though he was waiting to die.

‘All right,' I said to Malfaire. ‘You're more powerful than the vampires, I get that.'

It was Sil's turn to be poked with the toe. ‘Now, where were we?' Poke, poke. ‘Ah, yes. You were telling me that you felt more demon than human, I think.'

‘I'll be on your side,' I said quickly, before I could change my mind. Knew I sounded like we were picking school-yard football teams, but couldn't think of any other way to phrase it. Malfaire gave me a long, slow look. It was hot and hungry. ‘If you're so powerful, then what's the point in me sticking with the vampires? If I can protect the people I love then I'd rather be on the winning side.'

Malfaire's look intensified; you could have fried eggs on the air between us. Eleanor and Zan were giving me joint evils. I quite liked them trussed up and silent.

‘Mmmm,' Malfaire said slowly. ‘But I'm not sure I trust this sudden turnaround, daughter.'

‘What do you want me to do to prove it?' I tried not to let my eyes stray over to Sil. This was such a big gamble that it made the whole of Las Vegas look like a ‘just for pennies' pontoon evening at the local Senior Citizens club. ‘I could kill one of them – would that do?'