Great, we’re going to be ripped to shreds,I groan to Sadie.
‘But’, Charlie continues, ‘I do know someone who might be able to help. An older vampire. Hester Everill. I believe she can shield, though I never saw her do it. I ran with her back in the early 1900s, and we had a lot of fun tearing up the town—and each other.’ Charlie waggles his eyebrows. ‘That is, until I started falling apart. Then she dumped me like a hot potato.’ He scowls. ‘Come to think of it, she’s a bitch, and I hate her guts.’
‘Oh no!’ we chorus.
‘Please, Charlie, just tell us where she is. And we’ll both give you a drink,’ I plead.
He licks his lips. ‘Well, last I heard she was moving to Edinburgh. Said London wasn’t big enough for the both of us. But as I say, that was a couple of decades ago now. She might not even be there.’
‘Whereabouts in Edinburgh?’ Sadie enquires.
He shrugs. ‘How should I know? But it shouldn’t be too hard to find her. And you can’t miss her: tall, red hair, green eyes—a pretty piece of pussy.’ He smacks his lips. Sadie growls at him, and Charlie looks slightly disconcerted.
Sadie:I’m starting to change my mind about giving him blood ...
Me:Relax. He’s given us what we need. All we have to do is let him have a drink, head to Edinburgh, and locate this Hester Everill.
Sadie:I hope she wants a couple of cool unholy friends.
***
‘I can’t believe that arsehole,’ Sadie grumbles, yanking thecurtain across the window so the first-class carriage is dimmed. She leans back against the headrest, rubbing her wrists, which have healed but still bear the imprint of Charlie’s fang marks. He decided that two feeds from Sadie and one feed from me would be a fair trade for giving us the information about Hester.
‘I suppose we should be grateful he didn’t want to fuck us too.’
‘Yes, we should be,’ I tell her, rubbing my own wrist and putting my boots up on the empty opposite seat. ‘We got off lightly, and now we have what we need.’
The carriage sways, and my hand rests protectively on the suitcase of Alexander’s money lying between us. It’s a mere drop in the ocean of what’s in our London bank account, but it will set us up nicely in Edinburgh.
‘It’s been over twenty years since Charlie last saw her. This Hester woman may not even be in Edinburgh. And if she is, why would she help us?’ Sadie says, putting her boots up next to mine. We’ll be told off if the conductor catches us and be given the ‘Ladies, don’t do that please’ speech. But I don’t feel much like a lady anymore, and I’m sick of men telling me what to do.
‘We have to try. Otherwise, we’re going to be running from Alexander for a good while longer. He’s really angry at me.’
Sadie grunts, ‘You should have staked him.’
‘I told you, I couldn’t,’ I reply tersely. She pats my arm, knowing that it’s a subject that causes me angst.
‘All right. I don’t blame you.’
It’s one thing to get rid of a serial killer terrorising Whitechapel, but quite another to murder my own master, even if the intention is there. I haven’t forgiven him for not letting me go to Aunt Ivy on her deathbed, and I never will.
I visited her gravestone in Spitalfields before we left London and laid a red rose on it. Then I gave into my tearless grief as Sadie waited for me by the gate, giving me privacy.
Oh, Aunt Ivy, how could you have sent me to that man? I wish I’d refused to go and stayed with you.
Our conversation back in 1888 flits into my mind as it has been lately, and I smile wryly. She was so adamant that the job was going to be the making of me. Now here I am, immortal and on the run with a vampire friend.
I glance at Sadie, who still has her hand on my arm. But her eyes are closed, dark lashes fanning her pale cheeks: she’s resting, preparing for whatever lies ahead when we reach Edinburgh because we’re going to have to find accommodation and then feed.
No one would believe this is my life if I told them.
Maybe I should write a memoir and pretend it’s fiction?I muse. My Life in Blood—an innocent girl turned against her will by an evil vampire doctor.I could be the next Bram Stoker.Grinning to myself, I drum my fingers softly on the suitcase and attempt to come up with a cracking first line as the train snakes onwards to Scotland.
Chapter 35
Florence | Edinburgh, present day
Fortunately, Damian didn’t seem to mind that I sucked his blood and gave him a partial memory wipe when we first met. But we couldn’t discuss it further as his root canal appointment was nigh. Pity we got cut short as I was still feeling in the mood after my almost orgasm. But he kissed me hard on the lips before I left his exam room and said he’d message me after work. Plus he said ‘I love you’ again and shot me a misty-eyed look before he started disinfecting his chair. Feeling on top of the world, I practically skipped home to do some work on my memoir.
