‘Why wouldn’t your girlfriend want you? What do you mean?’ asks Lucy curiously, and I realise she’s surreptitiously read my thoughts. Shit.
‘Nothing,’ I say hurriedly, not wanting to be emotionally vulnerable around her. I trust her somewhat, but not entirely. I try to read Lucy’s thoughts too but pick up on exactly ... zero. Whatever mental power she has doesn’t extend to me. Don’t tell me I’m one of those vampires with no special powers at all! That would be a bummer.
Sadie told me all about how she and Floss visited Alexander’s son, Charlie, in London in 1921. She said that not only was he a poor excuse for a vampire, but that he’d started ageing as well. She sounded so scathing of him. I felt a bit sorry for the dude. It makes me worried that I’m going to be like him—a pathetic vampire. Sadie will kick me in the shins with her stilettos, and I’ll probably let her.
I’m tramping along behind Lucy, attempting to keep my self-deprecating thoughts from her, when she stops in her tracks, head tilted. Listening.
‘What is it? Alexander?’ Don’t say he’s been following us all along!’
‘Shhhh, can you hear that?’
I strain to hear and pick up on a faint squelching noise coming from the depths of the forest on the right of us. Gosh, Lucy’s got great hearing too. Lucky cow. But my supersensitive nose twitches as the distinct scent of blood reaches it. My mouth starts watering. I drift towards thesmell, like a cartoon character transported on a food aroma.
‘Elliott, wait. It could be dangerous.’
‘I don’t care.’ Suddenly, my appetite is too ferocious to tamp down, and I understand exactly what Sadie has been trying to deal with all these years.
Lucy shakes my arm, rousing me, and I blink at her. ‘I know, it smells great. I get it. But let’s go over there slowly and quietly,’ she says, placing a finger to her lips. ‘So we don’t startle whatever it is.’
I nod. ‘Makes sense.’
We tiptoe through the undergrowth, being careful not to rustle trees or step on branches. Difficult to do when you’re five foot eleven with size 10 feet.
The squelching sound gets louder. Lucy tugs me behind a fallen log with moss growing out of it. ‘Look, straight ahead,’ she whispers urgently in my ear.
At first, I can’t see anything. My eyesight doesn’t seem as good as hers either. (Is that because I wore glasses as a human? I would’ve thought turning into a vampire would have given me 20/20 vision. Obviously not!) Then the longer I peer, my night vision slowly adjusts, and I see a snuffling shape bent over a larger darker form on the ground.
‘What is it?’ I whisper back.
‘It looks like a man.’
‘What’s he doing?’
Lucy makes a sharp shrugging motion, and her shoulder pushes against mine. As I’m teetering in a crouch, I overbalance and clutch at the log. But it too is teetering, and it topples forward to the sound of splintering wood.
The figure stops snuffling and snaps its head up, looking straight at us. Blood drips from its fangs. Lucy gasps in terror, but I know who it is.
‘Damian?’
He grins and leaves off from whatever he’s been doing; and in a flash, I’m lying on mulch, being enveloped in a bone-crushing hug. I shake with relief at being one step closer to Sadie. Iknewit. I knew she’d come after me!
There’s a hiss, and I remember Lucy. I extract myself from Damian’s arms, and we scramble to our feet, brushing off dirt and leaves.
‘Lucy, this is my mate Damian,’ I tell her with a smile. ‘He’s a dentist but now seems to be afucking vampire?’ I thump him on the shoulder delightedly.
‘Yeah,’ says Damian, looking a bit embarrassed at my announcement. He wipes his mouth with his hand. ‘I am.’
‘So Floss decided to turn you!’
‘Not quite, but she was involved.’ He averts his vivid green eyes from mine.
Huh, maybe Floss chickened out and asked Hester to doit?
But Damian’s attention turns to Lucy before I can find out more about his transition. ‘Nice to meet you.’
‘Likewise,’ she says.
‘I assume you both escaped from Alexander’s clutches? We’ve been searching for you, Elliott. Sadie is out for blood. If Alexander’s around, he’d better watch out.’
