Chapter Thirty-Two
April was trying her
best to be brave, but it was breaking her heart to see Fiona load
her suitcase into the taxi. It had been wonderful to have her to
stay, even if she had spent most of her visit talking about
vampires and notebooks and impossible goings-on, but it was still
term-time and Fiona’s parents wanted her to get back. April was
glad they had let her come at all; she knew she wouldn’t have got
through the funeral without her; it was like having a piece of her
old, sane life to lean on, one last scrap of normality to cling to,
but now April knew she had to let her go. Much as she hated to
admit it to herself, April Dunne had become a jinx. More than that:
people around her were dying, and after last night, she couldn’t
risk the vampires getting any closer to Fiona. She couldn’t lose
her too. Not ever.
‘Do you really want
me to go?’ said Fiona, pulling April in for a hug.
‘I wish you could
stay honey, I really do,’ replied April, ‘but I can’t hang on to
you for ever. I’ve got to start doing things on my own now. And
anyway, you’ve a first-class ticket - you don’t want to miss out on
that free pastry, do you?’
Fiona smiled and
hugged her friend tight. ‘You call me every day,
okay?’
‘Are you kidding?’
said April. ‘I’ll be on the phone every hour!’
She wanted to say
more, but she was afraid if she did she would burst into tears
again.
‘You be safe now,’
said Fiona. ‘Seriously, it’s dangerous around here. No running into
haunted houses without at least one good torch.’
April giggled, but
Fiona’s expression turned serious.
‘And watch yourself
with Gabriel, okay?’ she said, lowering her voice. ‘I know he’s
gorgeous and everything, but he’s still a boy and they’re only
after one thing. All right?’
April felt a flare of
excitement at Gabriel’s name, which was immediately quenched by the
memory of her conversation with the police.
‘I’ll be careful,’
said April as Fee got into the taxi. ‘I promise.’
And then Fiona was
gone, waving from the back of the cab as it turned the corner and
disappeared out of sight. April stood in the road, staring at the
place where her best friend had been standing. Now her last anchor
to her old life was gone and she was left drifting in this bizarre
fantasy world of beasts and bats. She didn’t know what to
do.
She felt a buzz in
her pocket and pulled out her phone: one text message - Fee. She
clicked it up and there were just two words: ‘Be Strong.’
April smiled. It was
good advice; she only hoped she could follow it. She was just
turning to go back inside when she saw him. Gabriel was standing
across the road, looking at her, just like on that first
night.
April looked quickly
around the square. She didn’t want the police to see
him.
‘Come inside,’ she
said. She led him in through the front door and into the living
room, shutting the door. She turned and stared at him, anger making
her shake.
‘Gabriel, if I ask
you a straight question, can you give me a straight answer for
once?’
‘Of course,’ he
said.
‘What did you do to
those men who were hassling me last night?’
He looked away. ‘I
did what I had to.’
‘A straight answer,
Gabriel!’ she said.
He stared back her.
His eyes were fierce. ‘What do you want me to say, April? That I
tore off their heads and drank their blood? Is that what you think
of me?’
‘Did you kill them?’
she shouted. ‘Tell me!’
‘NO!’ said Gabriel in
surprise. ‘Of course not! What on earth makes you think I would do
such a thing?’
‘What on earth?’
mocked April. ‘Just your being some sort of bloodthirsty creature
of the night.’
‘I’m not a
creature!’ he yelled, anger making his
pale cheeks flush. ‘And I did not kill those men.’ He grabbed her
arms and looked into her eyes. ‘On everything I hold dear,’ he said
in an even, measured tone, ‘and on everything you hold dear, I swear to you, I did not kill
them.’
His gaze was so
strong, so intense, April felt her heart pounding. She looked into
his dark eyes and she saw no malice, no evil there. He was so
genuine, so earnest, she knew in her heart he was telling the
truth.
‘Oh God, I’m sorry,’
she whispered. ‘After last night, I so wanted to believe you, but
it’s so hard. And then the police came this morning and told me
those men were killed.’
Gabriel’s face
softened and he pulled her closer. ‘I know, I know it’s hard,’ he
said. ‘But I need you to believe in me because …’ He broke off and
turned away.
‘Why? What is
it?’
‘Because … you’re
important to me, April—’ He stopped and took a deep breath. ‘I want
to walk away, but I can’t help myself, I haven’t felt
this—’
‘APRIL!’
It was her mother’s
voice.
‘Oh crap,’ said April
and ran to the bottom of the stairs.
‘What’s all that
shouting?’ snapped her mother. ‘I’m trying to get some sleep
here.’
‘Sorry, we were just
… I’ll keep it down.’
‘Don’t make me come
down there,’ said Silvia, shuffling back into her
room.
April took a deep
breath and walked back into the living room.
‘Okay, so who did
kill them?’ she asked.
Gabriel looked at her
warily. ‘Is that what the police were here about?’
‘Yes, they said the
details were similar to the murders in Highgate.’
Gabriel frowned,
thinking. ‘Someone else must have been following you,’ he said,
almost to himself. ‘Someone I didn’t see.’
‘What? You mean
another vampire?’ said April, a cold feeling coming over
her.
‘Yes. If the murders
are similar then it must have been. I was worried this might
happen.’
‘Worried about what,
exactly?’ she said. She was scared now. ‘Is someone trying to kill
me too?’
‘I don’t know,’ said
Gabriel.
She grabbed his arm.
‘Tell me! I need to know!’
He carefully took her
hand from his arm, but kept hold of it. ‘I don’t know, April.
That’s the truth,’ he added in response to her disbelieving
expression. ‘But what I do know is that something’s going on here,
something bad. The vampire clans have almost always been at war,
but this is something different, something new.’
‘So what’s going
on?’
He looked at her. ‘We
have rules. And someone is breaking them.’
April snorted.
‘Vampires have rules?’ she said sceptically.
‘I know it sounds
insane,’ he said, ‘but over the centuries, we have found that they
keep us hidden, and for vampires remaining hidden is
everything.’
She pulled a face.
‘So what are these rules?’
He looked away. ‘You
won’t like it.’
‘Big
surprise.’
‘No children, no
families, no one famous, never more than one kill per moon - per
month. All these things draw attention. All the deaths in Highgate
break the rules.’
‘So what does that
mean?’
Gabriel shook his
head. ‘Either the whole ceasefire is breaking down, maybe the
Regent is orchestrating these attacks, perhaps both. And there’s
another possibility - that it’s a rogue vampire acting on their
own.’
‘But why would they
do that? What about the hunting thing? I mean, why attract so much
attention?’
Gabriel shrugged.
‘Maybe they’re not in control of their urges, or they’re killing
for the sheer pleasure of it. Or perhaps they have a plan of their
own, because they feel threatened in some way.’
‘And if that vampire
killed my dad …’
Gabriel looked grave.
‘That’s what worries me. If a rogue vampire thought your dad was a
threat, he could see you as a threat, too.’
April sat down hard.
As if she didn’t have enough on her mind without a killer stalking
her.
‘But how does the
thing in Covent Garden link in?’
‘He was obviously
following you, waiting until you were alone.’
‘No, I mean why is
that against the rules?’
‘Never kill more than
one at a time. And never before midnight.’
April laughed
nervously. ‘Before midnight? Now that does sound like something
from the movies.’
‘No, it makes sense.
After midnight people are more likely to be on their own, there are
less likely to be witnesses, and you’d be surprised how few police
are on duty.’
‘Is that why parents
always tell us to be home by midnight?’
Gabriel smiled
grimly. ‘Always be home by midnight, April,’ he said. ‘That’s one
of the few vampire myths that is true.’
‘Or was
true.’
‘Exactly.’