The Vampire Gene (11 page)

"What happened to Lizzie?" Julia asked sharply.

"Who knows?" he shrugged. "She rejected me a few too many times, so I removed her limbs and left her to die. How was I to know they'd grow back. I went back a few weeks later to fetch a few things and she'd disappeared. Haven't seen her since." He looked disgruntled. Julia smiled widely at the news that her younger sister had escaped Jack's clutches.

"Where's Anne?"

"She's probably at home, mobilising the troops. You have no idea how powerful I am, do you?" He laughed before continuing. "My army will destroy you all." Then he paused as if considering something.

"If you let me go I could call them off," he offered, smirking at Julia. "Give you a head start."

"You'd come after us again," Julia said expressionlessly.

"Probably," he admitted. "But I could give you a week. Better than the hours you have now. Or is it minutes? I can't recall." He looked at each and every one of us in turn, his expression taunting and smug.

Julia stared at his face as if trying to discern some truth in what he was saying.

Oliver broke in. "He's not lying. There are dozens of them. But he didn't tell them where he was going, so they can't find us. Not yet. But they will eventually come for us when they figure out what has happened."

Jack looked livid with rage.

"He's lying!" he snapped.

"No, he's not," Angus said firmly.

"So your offer is really worth nothing, isn't it?" Julia asked, smiling. "Tell you what, we will consider our options as a group, and we'll get back to you." She turned to us.

"What do you think we should do?"

Oliver spoke first, his gaze fixed on Jack. "Kill him." Jack flinched almost imperceptibly at those words.

"Angus?"

"I agree," my beautiful vampire said. "We have nothing to lose, and much to gain with his death."

"Fergus? Marcus?"

"Kill him," said Marcus coldly.

"Yep, he needs to be put down like the dog he is," Fergus nodded.

"Rebecca?"

I paused, and Jack's icy gaze settled on me.

"Kill him," I said with all the finality that I felt.

Jack shrugged, feigning indifference. "Whatever," he drawled. "You'll be joining me soon anyway."

Julia gripped the axe in two hands, and a beatific expression settled on her face.

"Goodbye, Jack." And that axe swung in a deadly arc for the last time that day, cleaving Jack's head from his neck in one clean blow.

Angus

Marcus and I decided to handle the cleanup, along with Fergus who came along to supervise and
helpfully point out all the bits we'd missed. We used the power hose to wash away most of the blood, and decided to rely on the good old British weather to sluice away the rest. The disposal of the bodies was a bit tricky, but Fergus located a meat works two miles away with a handy offal pit. We removed all the clothing and carried the bodies in groups of four or five across fields and farm tracks to the works, where we unceremoniously dumped them in the sludge at the bottom of the pit. It was hard to tell which smelled worse, the bloodsuckers or the offal, but in the end they blended together to form a whole new stench. I doubted any normal human could tell the difference, though. The reek was so overpowering that their sense of smell would probably just shut down completely, if it hadn't already.

Jack's headless body joined the rest in the pit. Marcus had decided to keep the head, as well as sundry other bits and pieces from the bloodsuckers. I
had decided that Marcus would use the van to transport his gory cargo back to the estate, while I drove Fergus and Rebecca in the Bentley.

After a couple of long hot showers, Marcus and I joined the others at the dinner table. Julia and Rebecca had made supper, and the others were all hungrily devouring it. They had all washed and changed - all the blood splatters and torn clothes had disappeared, and everyone looked very civilised again. Oliver lounged comfortably in his chair, the pain completely wiped from his features. It was almost as if his evisceration hadn't even happened.

Julia had a new kind of peace about her. She and Oliver and Simon had decided to bury Bill Colborne under one of the old trees. Lucy had come out of hiding in her bedroom to help them say goodbye to her father, and her tearstained face showed how much she had lost today. But she had joined everyone for supper, and although she seemed subdued, she looked as if she was making an effort. I felt sorry for her. Her life was about to become a lot more complicated.

As if she read my thoughts, Julia asked, "What now?"

The million dollar question. We knew they'd be coming for us. What we didn't know was when, or how or even how many. We also had no idea how much they knew.

Marcus spoke first. "Come with us to Russia. We're leaving tonight. We have a large base there, and you would be welcome to stay as long as you wanted. Jack never knew about it."

The safety was implied in that statement, and I could see that it appealed to Julia. Lucy seemed less certain, but I sensed her fear of what would be coming after us. She and Simon were the most vulnerable. They were both still human, and we had no idea if that would be changing in the future. Oliver must have sensed the essence of my speculation, because he glanced across at my brother.

"Marcus. Did you ever finish running those samples you took from Simon?"

"They should be done by now. I can check the results if Fergus will lend me his precious laptop."

"Ask nicely, brother," Fergus said dryly.

"I though I just did," said Marcus, grinning at him.

"You can use mine," suggested Simon.

"Thanks for the offer, Simon, but he'd better use mine. It's already been programmed to retrieve all his data. Trust me, there's a lot of it. You wouldn't want it cluttering up your system too." Fergus smirked.

"I'll fetch it, then," Simon offered.

"I have it right here, actually." Fergus reached under his seat and hauled out the laptop case.

"Hand it over, then."

Marcus took the laptop from his brother's slightly reluctant grasp, and started tapping away.

"Mum, is there any way I could stay here?" Lucy wanted to know.

"I don't think so, love," Julia told her. "We know that Jack knew about this place, and his progeny will eventually find it. We have no idea how long that will take." She paused, then continued. "If we went to Russia with Marcus and Fergus, we would be safe. We could stay there for a while and see what happens."

"The only way we can ever guarantee everyone's safety is to exterminate the blood feeders," I decided it was time to lay my cards on the table, so to speak. "We should spend a week or two regrouping and planning, and then we should return here to obliterate the lot of them. Fergus will be able to use Jack's mobile number to track their whereabouts. We could rescue those that want it. The rest will die."

Oliver was nodding. "I agree. We move to Russia for a couple of weeks. Fergus' arm needs to grow back, and we need to plan this thoroughly. It's not going to be easy."

"So we could maybe move back here when they're all dead?" Lucy looked hopeful.

"Absolutely."

"Let's go then," she said, looking a lot happier. "I've never been to Russia before."

Julia smiled. "Simon?"

"Oh, yes, I'm coming with you. I'm not missing out on all of this!"

Just then he reminded me of Mark. I remembered that the Hardings would be returning the following afternoon, and looked at Rebecca. "How do you feel about your family prolonging their holiday?"

"Ecstatic," she said. "I just remembered they're supposed to be coming back tomorrow. Oscar knew how to find me, and I am sure they'll be able to target them too. They wouldn't be safe here."

"I'll sort it out," said Fergus.

"Thanks, big brother," Rebecca smiled gratefully at him.

"Ah, there it is," Marcus interrupted, oblivious to the conversation around him. "Hmmm."

"What?" Simon asked urgently.

"Well..." Marcus appeared to enjoy prolonging the tension.

"Marcus!"

Marcus spoke carefully. "Looks like you're going to be undergoing some changes soon, Simon."

"He's an iron metaboliser?" Julia asked eagerly.

"He's got the vampire gene. DNA never lies."

"Yes!" Simon punched the air. Oliver grinned.

Marcus frowned slightly. "There's more." He looked up at Julia apologetically. "I, er, appropriated some DNA from your daughter's hairbrush too. I probably should have asked first."

Julia laughed. "I wouldn't have expected anything else from you," she told him fondly.

"You tested my DNA?" Lucy wanted to know.

"Yes, I did."

"And?"

"You'll be experiencing some changes too. I wonder if this is normal for iron metabolisers whose parents are not both iron metabolisers themselves? It seems that the gene manifests itself a little later than it did with us..." he subsided, frowning slightly, into deep thought, not noticing the joyful expression on Lucy's face.

Fergus' phone rang then. "It's Mark," he said, glancing at the screen.

"Answer it then," said Rebecca, half laughing at him.

"Fine," said Fergus, and he put it on speakerphone. "Hello Mark. How's Barbados?"

"Hot!" came the unequivocal reply. "I am sick to my heart of this hellish place. But never mind that. I am actually phoning to find out if Angus will be fetching us from the airport tomorrow."

"You might have to stay there a little longer," I said.

"Forget it. I'm coming home tomorrow. Mum and Joe can stay here and boil their bodies in this sun, but I'll be damned if I am staying here a moment longer than I absolutely have to."

"Mark, Jack's dead. But he's got an army that's going to be looking for us. It's not safe back here."

"I don't care. I'll hang out with Angus. I bet even Attila the Hun would be scared of him." I grinned at the endorsement.

"OK, Mark," Fergus interjected. "I will book your family in for another week or so, and you can fly back tomorrow. Angus will sort something out. You could come stay with us in Russia for a while."

"Now
that
sounds like a good idea. Russia's cold this time of year, isn't it?"

"Freezing."

"Fine. Russia it is then. See you guys tomorrow."

"Before you go, Mark," Marcus seemed to emerge from his reverie.

"Hey Marcus. What's up?"

"Do you remember when you gave me that blood sample?"

"Sure. You can have more if you want."

"No, no, that's not it. Well, I might need some more actually. You've got the vampire gene, Mark."

"
What
?"

"You're going to be metabolising iron sometime soon, Mark. That's probably why you don't appreciate Barbados as much as normal people. It's too hot for a vampire," I tried to explain.

There was dead silence from the phone.

"Alrighty, then
," said Mark slowly. "See you tomorrow."

Rebecca

Mark seemed to take the news well. I thought of how my life had changed in the past few days and shuddered. Mark would go through similar changes, although hopefully he wouldn't end up being abducted every five minutes like I had been.

I was looking forward to having him back, though. He had a cruisey disposition I had always envied, and I missed his company. I was also secretly and selfishly pleased that he was also going to turn into an iron metaboliser.

The discussion at the table turned inevitably to the events of the day. Angus wanted to know all about the fighting, and Oliver was only too keen to relate all the gory details, slice by bloody slice. Fergus interrupted every now and then to add some overlooked aspect of the fighting. He was full of praise for Oliver, and even suggested that he might just be as good as Angus. Marcus shook his head, but admitted that Oliver was indeed an excellent fighter. Oliver seemed slightly overwhelmed by all the praise.

I lay back in my chair watching Angus from underneath my lashes. I was thinking what a shame it was that he had put a shirt on again when Oliver suddenly laughed out loud. Angus looked puzzled, and then understanding dawned on his face as he sensed what Oliver had picked up from my thoughts. He grinned wickedly at me, his eyes glinting. I blushed.

I decided to change the subject, so I started telling of how I'd been shot, and what it had been like to wake up in the boot of a moving car, and how it had felt when the power generated by those shotgun pellets had surged through me. Angus seemed surprised by the effects that being shot had on us, and explained that Marcus had never actually got around to shooting him or Fergus in his many experiments. Marcus looked perturbed by this omission, whereas his brothers looked relieved. Everyone had a good laugh at that.

It was surprising how swiftly the time passed that night, as we sat around that table recounting the events of the day. When we stood up as one to go to bed it seemed almost as if we had known each other for years. It was obvious that Marcus and Julia had become a couple from the glances they exchanged, and the way they moved together.

I was exhausted that night. Angus must have been shattered too, because he climbed into my bed, curled an arm around me, and fell fast asleep within seconds. I remember wondering fleetingly what the next day would bring just before sleep claimed me.

Anne

She knew that night that Jack wasn't coming back. Somehow she could feel him, even when he wasn't with her. Tonight there was nothing.

She looked at the ragtag collection of vampires assembled in front of their matriarch, their queen.
She
had the power now. And there were going to be a few changes around here.

She looked with disdain at the blood feeders in front of her. Jack had decreed that only the males would feed on blood. And look at them, she thought, her stomach curling in disgust. Yes, there were definitely going to be changes. She was queen now, and she would avenge Jack's death as he would have expected her to do.

And then she was going to go out and get herself a new king.