“Not panicking isn’tan option when I had you going on all night, stressing that if Igot caught by the Vampires, they would kill me, so would wolves,and getting killed by either would be Heaven compared to what itwould feel like t’be burnt t’death by the sun.”
“Just laying outsome home truths,” she replied with a shrug. “Besides, wefound you somewhere nice and safe.”
“I don’t really classbreaking and entering into the first unoccupied house we cameacross as safe.”
“You’re stillalive, aren’t you?”
“Alive?”
“Excuse me, MrSensitive, mobile.” She shook her head. “Jesus, you’re sotetchy.”
“You would be, too, ifyou were the living dead.”
She angled a look atme. “I’m not even real.”
Which was another keypoint added to my list of new superpowers ... I appeared to havegone mad because I was talking to an imaginary teenage Elle. Hadbeen talking to her for weeks, and even though part of me was fullyaware she wasn’t real, I was still able to see and hear her.Although, could you still be classed as insane if you were awareyou were seeing things, if you knew you were talking toyourself?
“Yes.”
“Oh, hush you.” Beingundead had another perk: the ability to not feel the cold, whichwas a blessing considering I was still topless and barefoot.
“Even if we foundyou a top, how would you have put it on? Your shackles are in theway.”
“Yeah, I realizethat.” Apparently, I had the strength to bend metal, but thatdidn’t include silver, which was what my cuffs were laced with. Ivaguely remember Elle mentioning such allergies to me ...
“Plus, it wasmentioned at the facility.”
“Knowing I have a newallergy doesn’t help me. What I need is a spare set of hands and achainsaw t’get me out of these damn things.” And my only hope wasthe real Elle who I was praying would have some form of tools tofree me.
“Guess we will findout shortly.”
My feet knew the wayto Elle’s family home, and without having to concentrate on asingle step, I found myself there in no time, but I wouldn’t stepany further than the large, black, iron gate that marked theentryway to their estate. Guarded by six-foot walls, the place wascompletely cut off from public view, not that I imagined manypeople would travel down this back road. The next house was atleast five miles away, the Renauds’ nearest neighbours separated byfields and woodland.
It was crazy. Aschildren, I wasn’t allowed past this point. I wasn’t allowed downthat drive or in the house at the end of the long garden. Elle’sparents knew me, knew we were friends, knew my parents, but it wasa no-entry zone for anyone who wasn’t family. Her father was a veryprivate man, though Elle had once admitted the reason they neverallowed guests in their home was because none of them wanted tohave people associated with them, that it was for everyone’ssafety. If Vampires caught scent of me, they could come after me toget to them ...
I didn’t understand.Apparently, it was mainly to do with her cousin Heather. Somethingwas wrong with the younger girl, not that there seemed to beanything physically wrong with her, but Elle never went intodetails about it. I knew Heather’s father had died before she wasborn and that her mother was ill which lead to her taking her ownlife when Heather was eight. Heather hadn’t had an easy life, andif she was mixed up in all this Vampire hunting bollocks also,well, no wonder she always seemed so ... aloof.
It was annoying. Icould never quite see the entire house from the gate, not throughthe structure of hedges and trees, but it always looked big andexciting. I guess it was because my house was small and ordinarycompared to the manor house that hid behind these walls. Mainly itwas because Elle had told me her family were Vampire Hunters andthat she had to train in the basement. I used to have all thesewild ideas that they had cool equipment down there, swords andarrows, maybe even a stray Vampire locked up in a cage ...
“Like you?”
“No, not like me. Likea bad Vampire, one that actually deserves t’be locked up.”
“And you didn’tdeserve t’be?”
“Why would you evensay that?” I scowled at her. “I was on holiday, minding my ownbusiness. I didn’t deserve what happened t’me.”
“Just wanted tomake sure you knew that before you started comparing yourself tothose original, cool ideas of yours.”
Elle had confessed herfamily secret to me when we were twelve. At the time, I had thoughtshe was joking about being a Vampire Slayer. I’d thought she’d madeit all up because things at home had become so bad—her cousinAlexis had committed suicide—and she couldn’t escape, couldn’tcope, so she made up stories and creatures to amuse herself.Pretending to have another life always seemed like a good idea whenyou hated the one you had, when you felt there was no way out or todeal. I accepted all the little facts and details, the descriptionsof the creatures, the fact she had started her training at eight,but she never let it go. She was adamant that her world was real,and I continued to amuse her, even after I had moved toSwitzerland.
“And now, you knowbetter.”
Now I knew thetruth—that she wasn’t mad, or over-imaginative. It was real. Allthe facts were true. One being that now I was a Vampire, I couldn’tenter her house without an invite. I could push the gates open andwalk down the drive, something I had wanted to do for years, but Icouldn’t move. Fear kept my boots planted before the iron gate.
“Well, you can’tstand out here forever. Best t’get in there and get this donewith.”
“Say I go in there andI get to the door and ring the bell. Then what? What am I supposedt’say t’her? ‘I’m sorry I haven’t seen you in years, that Istopped writing. I know you’re probably pissed about it and that Iam no doubt the last person you want t’see, but you’re right,everything you ever told me about Vampires ... it’s all real, whichmeans you probably are a Vampire Hunter and funny story, I’m now aVampire. Please don’t kill me, I need your help.”
“Sounds
