“As teenagers, we used to dare each other to run up to the castle doors,” Beth adds. “Until a classmate of ours came out here one night to meet her boyfriend and was never seen again.”
“That’s terrible!”
“Baskin Gobbins was never charged with any crime.” Isis makes a face. “But that says more about the incompetence of our local bobbies than his innocence. I bet if Inspector Hayes looked in Babel Gibberwort’s dungeon, they’d find human bones with fang marks in them.”
“Vampires don’t eat flesh,” Arabella snaps.
“And you’re the expert, are you?I’mthe one making anti-vampire charmsso we can stay safe?—”
As they bicker about supernatural creatures, I stare at the house. It does give off a creepy, menacing vibe – so different from Black Crag, which, beneath all the dust, is beautiful in its own gothic, broody way.Kind of like Alaric?—
A shape moves by the castle, a white blob stumbling between the trees.
“There’s something out there.”
Mina squints at the window. “I can’t see a thing.”
I glance at Mina, not sure what to say.
Komal rolls her eyes. “Mina.”
“Sorry, Winnie.” Mina elbows me in the side. “Blind girl joke. What do you see?”
“A white shape moving towards us. It looks like a person running.” I fling open the door, straining to listen. A faint voice reaches me through the dark wood. “Someone’s crying for help.”
Before I know what I’m doing, I’ve unbuckled my seatbelt and flung myself over Mina to climb out of the van. “Over here!” I yell, stepping into the trees and turning on my phone’s torch.
“… on’t let him …” the voice calls faintly back. The white shape stumbles and goes still. Dark shadows dance in the trees, and a cold terror creeps up my spine.
It’s just the leaves moving in the wind.
But there is no wind.
Behind me, I can hear the book club ladies calling my name. But I can’t shake the feeling that whoever’s out there needs our help. I suck in a deep breath and pitch myself into the gloomy trees.
“Don’t move,” I yell. “I’m coming to you.”
Branches scrape my arms. My shoes skid over slippery roots. The creeping sensation grows worse the closer I get to the keep. The white shape is moving towards me again, and I can make out the outline of a girl limping?—
“Bloody hell, woman.” Arabella huffs as she jogs alongside me. “Itoldyou I don’t run in these shoes.”
I glance at her, my heart soaring with relief tohave her beside me, even though I’m worried she might break her leg stomping around in the woods in those heels. But Arabella moves with the grace of a swan, which is an apt description because she also has the temper of a swan?—
Just then, the girl bursts out of the trees in front of us. She grabs her knees, her whole body heaving as she fights for breath. She’s young, probably early twenties, wearing a skintight white miniskirt and a single white platform trainer. Her skin is almost as pale as her clothes. Blood streaks her neck and shoulder and stains the front of her dress.
“Are you okay?” I ask, steadying her arm. She’s trembling, and her skin is cold and clammy. “Did someone hurt you? We’ll call the police.”
“Are you … friends of his?” she gasps out.
“We’re no friends of Baylor Godson,” Arabella snarls, moving to the girl’s other side.
I swipe back to my phone’s call screen. “I’ve got one bar of reception. That should be enough to call?—”
“No police. I just need to a ride back to the village.” The girl’s voice is hollow and strange. She straightens up and rubs her neck. When she draws her hand away, it’s smeared with blood. “I met that freak bastard at the pub. He’s buying the fanciest cocktails going and I think I’m in luck, right? He invites me back to his and I think right, here we go, I’ll get some toff plonk and suck him off and I’ll steal a gold ashtray while he’s in the shower, right? But then we get back here and I must be pretty rat-arsed because I swear, he didn’t even have a bed, just a bloody coffin! I tell him I ain’t into no kinky shit and to take me back to the village but he chases me and bites my neck. I’m bleeding everywhere and he’s laughing like a maniac and going on about how he wants to drain me, whatever that means. So I spray him with mace and make a run for it. I lost a shoe somewhere back there …” She grins absently. “I’m glad you two are here, because I feel all strange-like …”
Arabella holds out her arms as the girl collapses.
“What the hell?”
