Blood Inheritance (The Lazarus Hunter Series Book 1) Page 14

  Luckily, David turned out to be difficult to embarrass and the whole thing wasn't too awkward. She was just glad that they managed to get it done before Garth arrived. Unfortunately, by the time they sat down the painkillers from Monica were wearing off and she could feel the full extent of her injuries kicking in once more.

  'So, Garth?' began Elizabeth, when they were all settled down with drinks and staring warily at each other. 'First things first. Are you going to share with us just where you learned to fight like that? I'm guessing it wasn't in the playground.'

  'I just picked it up somewhere,' he replied gruffly, looking every inch the teenage boy he was, and not the man he soon would be. Elizabeth suppressed a smile. Her question had a bigger purpose, not just idle curiosity.

  'Look, Garth. We went out last night as a team. And if a team is going to be a good team, then it needs to know things about each other. Last night, you were pretty impressive. You weren't fazed by three full-on vampires and when you saw them coming for me, you defended me like a champ. I want to say thank you for that. So, I'm impressed, very impressed, and I just wanted to know what your story was. I'm sure David's told you ours?' She looked back at Garth and he nodded. He was staring into his cup of cheap hotel coffee like it was the most interesting thing he had seen in his life.

  'Some shit happened. When I was younger. Toughened me up real quick.' He shrugged. God, it was like getting blood from a stone.

  'I'm guessing that was the 'in-a-nutshell' version?'

  'Okay, okay, quit hassling me. I'll tell you. It's not that easy. I've not told many people. Only one other person – my friend who works in the coffee shop,' he said as an aside to David, 'and I only told him because I knew he'd believe me. I knew he wouldn't think that I was crazy or some messed up kid living in some sicko fantasy world.'

  'Sounds serious.'

  'It is, okay? My Dad left us when I was really young. Probably about four. I kinda remember him but not really. Mainly just from a couple of pictures Ma had. I don't really remember him ever being there, you know what I mean? When he left, we couldn't afford to carry on living on our own, so we moved in with my Grandma. That way she could look after me while Ma went out to work two jobs. It was tough and I didn't see her as much as I would like, but I didn't realise it at the time. As a kid you just don't understand what your parents are sacrificing for you…' He trailed off, sounding more like he was thirty than eighteen.

  'Anyway,' he continued, taking a deep breath as he recalled the painful memories, 'one of the jobs was working the late shift at the diner. She'd get the subway home those nights and would never get in before eleven-thirty. I was only ten at the time, and as far as my Grandma knew, I was tucked up in bed sound asleep. But I could never sleep until I knew she was home. So I used to sneak out of my bed and up into the attic room. From there you could see all the way down the street to the subway station, and I used to watch her come up, then walk along the street to our house. When I heard her come through the front door, I used to run down from the attic, and crawl back into bed, and pretend to be fast asleep when she came in to kiss me good night.

  Then one night, I was watching and when she came up from the subway, a man sort of fell in step with her. He put his hand on her arm, nothing forceful, at least not as far as I could tell from that distance, but I knew that something was wrong. I couldn't explain it then any more than I knew how to understand anything at that age, but my intuition told me that something was very, very wrong. And when she turned around and he led her back towards the subway, I knew that he was leading her to the alley that ran alongside. And I knew that it was wrong, and that whatever he was going to do was bad.

  I didn't even think about telling Grandma, I just ran out of the house in my pyjamas and slippers, and just ran down the street as fast as my legs would carry me. I remember feeling as though my chest was going to explode, and I ran faster than I'd ever done in gym class at school. I didn't know where she was. By the time I got out the front door she had already disappeared off the street and out of sight. I think it was the first time in my life that I was really acting on instinct. Perhaps what I saw that night, the way I reacted to it, was the thing that shaped how the rest of my life was going to turn out.

  Anyway, I knew that the first place I should look was the alley. It was the most obvious place to go if you were going to hurt somebody. It was somewhere I'd always been warned not to go after dark, because it was dangerous, and bad things could happen there. Those bad things were never really explained to me, but by the time they were, I'd already lost any innocence about what bad things were.

  It was the first time I saw a vampire. The man who had been standing with my mother, who had led her back to the subway, he was long gone. Instead there was a monster there, wearing his clothes. That was what confused me the most.

  And he didn't look anything like those vampires who jumped out on us last night. Nothing at all. And nothing like your friend who came to help us out. It's more than the teeth that makes them different than us, you know? Everyone who was there last night looked normal compared to that man. I know my mind has probably made him scarier than he was. Fear and not understanding what the hell is going on can do that to you. But there was a definite difference. I've seen vampires that look like him since then, so I know there are more who look that way. Anyway,' he paused and took in another deep breath, only this one was much more ragged than the first, 'he killed her. I saw him do it. I watched him do it. And there was nothing I could do to stop him.'

  'Garth,' said Elizabeth gently, placing a hand on his leg in sympathy, 'you were ten years old. There was no way that you could have stopped him. The only thing you could have done differently that night was end up dead yourself. And I, for one, am really glad that you didn't.'

  'I couldn't do anything that night, but it doesn't mean I never will. I know what they are like now. I know where they hang out and how to find them. One day I'll find him. I'm going to kill him twice over, and make him pay for taking my mother away. For killing her in the most horrible way that I could imagine. No one should be allowed to get away with that unpunished.'

  'I agree. I'm supposed tell you there is no satisfaction to be had in getting your revenge. But the only difference between your story and mine is the age we were when we had someone we loved taken away from us. My revenge came sooner. And that part of me that knows that on the day you get your revenge, it will help you heal some of the wound. Not all of it, but some of it. Especially after all this time.'

  'So you don't think I'm crazy for spending all my time hunting down vampires to get my revenge?'

  'That depends. I don't think you're crazy for doing it, but you have to choose your targets. Perhaps not all of them are monsters. Sometimes whole families are mostly decent. And yes, they all drink blood, human blood, but they don't all kill to do it.'

  'I didn't care that any of them were prepared to do the decent thing. Not until your friend last night.'

  'Yeah, we also need to talk about that.' Elizabeth noted that David was looking increasingly uncomfortable. She thought the whole caring and sharing thing was probably hard enough, but the fact that Monica had saved their asses was something he was not happy with.

  'What is there to talk about? She saved our lives last night,' Garth shrugged. 'You may think I'm just a kid, but I'm man enough to admit we couldn't have done it without her. They were onto us, and they were twice the size of you. She knew that they were going to kill you if they got the chance. So she killed them first. Killing them was the right thing to do. I just wish I could have done it myself.'

  Elizabeth realised what a tough guy Garth was. Okay, so he was softly spoken, and didn't look like he packed a lot of muscle. But it was more than just physical strength that made you tough. Garth also had attitude. And he had it in spades.

  'Well,' began Elizabeth, wondering how to continue without making either of them offended or suspicious. She could tell already that David had not changed his position on
Monica. Even though she had stayed the night at her apartment and come back without a single bite mark on her – she had noticed David looking as he had strapped up her ribs – it still wasn't enough for him to change his mind. His line in the sand was clearly defined. But they would not have made it without her, and if someone wanted to keep you alive, then that was not such a bad thing. 'We have to be careful about what she did for us last night.'

  'Careful?' Garth looked surprised. 'Careful in what way?'

  'Monica is more than your average vampire. She's pretty high up in one of the families. As high as you can go in fact. So if they find out she saved us, it would start a turf war like none any of us have ever seen. So we have to be really careful. The last thing we want to do is make things even worse.'

  'If it's that dangerous for her to help us, then why is she doing it?'

  'Only she can really answer that question, and I'm not sure I should answer it for her. But I can have a guess, if you want? She knows my father discovered some things that would be dangerous in the wrong hands. She has told me that if we all work together then we are stronger. We will have more of a chance of getting my father's journals back.'

  'But what happens once that happens?' muttered David, barely concealing his animosity, and Elizabeth could see Garth becoming increasingly confused by the divergence in attitudes.

  'Monica has promised me that I can have the journals back. As far as she's concerned, they belong to my father, and therefore they belong to me. No one else, and that includes her. She's happy for me to have them back.'

  'I still don't like it.'

  'I get the feeling you're never going to like it.'

  'It took your father years to build up trust with them.'

  'Perhaps I'm just a better judge of character.'

  'Don't say that.' David's jaw twitched.

  'Or perhaps we don't have time. On either side.'

  'We'll have even less time if you do things that could get us all killed.'

  'You mean like your little adventure last night? Your hot tip that was a trap to get us wiped off the face of the earth? That was the thing that was going to get us killed. Monica saved your bloody life, and the least you can do is be grateful for that, even if you can't be anything else.'

  'I don't have to listen to this crap,' said David, standing up to go.

  'You know what David, yes you do.'

  'Trust me, I don't. You can't just swan into my town and expect to take your father's place. You don't know shit. And I don't owe you anything. I certainly don't have to do what you say.'

  'No, but if you want to carry on living you should probably think about getting that chip off your shoulder. Don't you think that this is a crappy situation for everyone else as well? When vampires decide to have a turf war, innocent people get killed. Innocent humans. You don't want that any more than I do. If the balance of power gets shifted, that is exactly what is going to happen. If you don't want that to be the case you had better get used to listening to what other people have to say. Like I said to Garth earlier, we can be a team, we are a team, but we play on the same side for that to happen. We have to want the same thing, and we have to trust each other to get the job done.’

  'You make it sound so damn simple.'

  'Did you not see my rib cage earlier? It's not going to be simple. But the principle that we have to follow can be simple. At the very least, we don't have to make it any more complicated than it already is. There's no point David. I want you to be on my side. You've been doing this for much longer than I have. But you have to see that I feel some responsibility for this whole situation.'

  'Why on earth should you feel responsible for it?'

  'Because without my father, there wouldn't be this mess in the first place. It was because of him that you got dragged into this, and I got dragged into this. Garth is the exception, but now he's with us, so I feel responsible for him too. Without my father, he wouldn't have made the discovery of whatever it is that the vampires think is important enough to start killing again for. Whatever is in those journals could change the face of the social landscape. He's gone now, and left me to fill in his shoes. That also means to clear up the mess that he never knew he'd leave behind.'

  'God, how did it get so screwed up?' David's bravado deflated as suddenly as it had flared.

  'I'm not sure.'

  'Do you really trust her that much? How can you be sure that she isn't using you?'

  'I'm as sure as anyone can ever be when you have only known someone for a few days. She could have taken advantage of my weakness a dozen times last night and it never even crossed her mind. She got herself pretty beaten up too.'

  'She'll recover faster than we all will.'

  'Oh, I know that. But the beating she took last night, she must have wanted to feed to heal. And there I was, one time I passed out completely, and she didn't feed from me. She knew I was off limits. There was no way last night I could have fought her off.'

  'Don't think I'm not grateful for what she did for us last night. I really am. And I'm glad that she looked after you. She was right to think they would come after you here. I had a quick word at the front desk and some suspicious looking guys were here a couple of hours after the fight.'

  'A couple of hours? Could he be more specific?' Elizabeth sat upright, her interest piqued once more, and then as the pain kicked in, she forced herself to relax into a more natural position.

  'He said around five thirty. He was starting at six and got in early. That was why he remembered the time.'

  'That's good.'

  'Why is them coming here to look for you good? There is nothing I can see in that situation that I think of as good.'

  'Well, obviously, that part of it is not good. Not good at all. But the fact they didn't turn up until five-thirty is.'

  'I'm sorry, you're going to have to help me out here. I'm still struggling to see the good part.'

  'I'm not naïve enough to think they don't know I'm in this city, and they must all know that I'm staying in this hotel. If they didn't come here to kill me until five-thirty there's a good chance that they didn't find the bodies until four-thirty at the earliest.'

  'That makes sense. As soon as they found them, killing you jumped even higher to the top of the list. Oh, wait, you already were at the top of the list. Perhaps you made it onto a list all of your own?'

  'You're really not helping here. And I think that you're missing the big picture still.'

  'Well stop talking about it, and tell me exactly what it is.'

  'It was something that Monica pointed out to me last night. It's good for her and good for Garth.'

  'But not good for us?'

  'Well, they already know about us. We're already in the shit. And you're going to make some serious progress up that list yourself soon Mister, if we don't get this sorted out. Monica pointed out to me last night that it was starting to rain towards the end of the fight. Not too badly while it was going on, but it certainly got a lot worse afterwards.'

  'She's right,' piped up Garth. 'When I ran from the car to the subway I got soaked. Admittedly, I wasn't able to move as fast as I normally do, but I still got wet.'

  'The longer it took for them to find the bodies, the greater the chance any smell washed away. Hopefully, any trace of Monica or Garth will have been completely gone and they won't know they were there.'

  'What about the security cameras?'

  'Monica said she tried keep her back to them. Which means all they have for certain is someone who looks like it could be Monica. And a look-a-like is a lot to go out on a limb for if you're talking about taking on one of the other, much more powerful, vampire families in the city.'

  'Why is Garth so special?'

  'Monica said she knew nothing of him. Which means he's kept off the radar, even with his activities over the years. And there must be a thousand kids in the city who look like him on a dark night through some fuzzy grey-screen CCTV. It means he could have managed to have come out
of last night on the other end just as safe as he was when he went in.'

  'Well, lucky him.'

  'David,' Elizabeth said in a warning tone.

  'You know what I mean. Sorry Garth.'

  'That's okay. I'm kind of relieved. Last night I was more scared than I have been for a few years.'

  'You're not the only one,' agreed Elizabeth. 'I think all three of us have seen some pretty horrible things, but last night was the closest I think I've ever come to looking my own mortality in the face.'

  She sat back in her chair, a sinking feeling it wouldn't be the last time. For any of them.

  32

  'Are you okay?' was the first thing Dennis said as he walked into Monica's office. He had been suspicious enough when she said that she would be working from home for most of the evening, and then when she did decide to turn up, it was clear that she had been waiting for everyone else to leave.

  He had been working late and had been surprised when he received an email saying she was in the office now and that he should come and see her. And not to mention to anyone that she was here. She wasn't up to seeing anyone.

  Despite the dim lighting, and the inventive use of make-up, the bruises on her face were the first thing he noticed as he walked through the door. 'Right Monica, you are going to tell me exactly what the hell is going on. Where did you go last night? Did you go after her? Was it you?' It was the last question that was the most dangerous.

  'Please don't ask me any questions Dennis. Please.'

  'Why? I've been worried to death about you. I had to stall Ivan last night. Big time. It caused quite a stir. You know he thinks I'm way beneath him. So trying to stop him in his tracks was not the easiest trick to pull off. Then I hear word on the grapevine that the stunt he was talking about with Elizabeth Hastings all went horribly wrong. From our point of view. From hers I suspect it was just dandy. And I'm guessing you could tell me all about it.'