Guildhall Guardian: Thamesian #1 (Thamesians) (7 page)

Roydon looked slightly...different. Ruffled. His stubble was out of control, his face rougher and therefore, hum, sexier. His white shirt was open and his face less pale.

No distraction! I got back to my plan.

Opening the auction webpage, I turned the screen toward Roydon.

  "I thought you would like to see this."

Suddenly he stood behind my shoulder and I briefly closed my eyes, fighting against the gravity which seemed to make me lean back against him.

  "And what's that?" he breathed into my ear.

  "This dear Mr Thamesian is a private auction taking place in one week. The thing is very secret" I emphasized the word, delecting in beating around the bush. Ahah, who was the know-it-all now?  "very mysterious. The webpage is locked and aimed toward a very specific kind of people."

He didn't fidget. Not a single twitch.

I faced him "What do you think?"

  "In fact, I have a question for you. Does your curiosity, no your inclination to probe into dangerous things, have bounds?"

I watched him innocently. ''Nope, no bounds.''

*

Roydon assessed the black and red website. Was it connected with the attacks. Gioia had done something short of genius here. She knew what he was. She had remembered, damned he knew how, and she knew he knew she knew.

Terribly funny little games.  How could have thought the humans could be such fun? Brand,of course!

  "What do you want to eat for lunch Ms. Di Terzi?" he asked.

  "I won't have what you have that's for sure.''

Roydon touched her hair.

  "Witty scoundrel, you."

She looked at him with  delighted surprise.

  "I like..."

  "The way I say this word, yes."

So she didn't remember everything.

  'Don't mind me if I repeat myself. My memory has been a little defunct lately'' she said.

  "I know a nice place, nearby. Come.''

*

  It was the restaurant just around the corner of the Olde pub. Nice ethnical food  I had already noticed. The weather was warm for September in the UK.

I looked at Roydon, walking beside me, graceful and unbothered, looking every inch the movie star with his sunglasses.

  ''Isn't it a little bit too sunny for you today?'' I asked.

  "In fact I can stand the sunlight as well as any of my fellow Englishmen, if not better''.

Table for two. It was a very beautiful place, one I wouldn't have entered alone but surely admired. The menu had me drooling too.

  "If we just agreed to speak plainly, Ms. Di Terzi, we might save time." he stated.

  "And spoil the fun? You disappoint me Mr Thamesian."

Aside that he was potentially a real vampire, that I was the weak player here, I really enjoyed the situation.

I put down the menu, dramatically.

  "Okay. As you could have guessed, I finally picked up the truth. You know it, I know it. Will you admit you're...not...human?' I said in a hush-hush voice.

Roydon looked at me from behind his sunglasses, his lips curving into a grin.

What happened to his poker face? The man seemed to have undergone a serious meltdown.

  "So you want an official statement? And no need to whisper, almost everyone in the Quarter is well-aware of what I am.''

So it was worse than I had initially thought.

A whole supernatural Quarter, nested in an hard-working British city which could have been designed by Maggie Thatcher herself.  Hard to believe.

  "Allright, got it. Human, I am the minority here.'' I was craving a glass of water.

I was sweating.

Roydon elegantly gestured the waiter and called '' Can you bring me a bottle of Stonehenge, Mike?"

  "But you handle all of this very well, Ms. Di Terzi.''

Was he kidding me?

Within the last days I had : Been drunk, been chased by swords-arrows,been psyched out, Wept and hide in the bathroom, wanted to book a one-way flight home, remained shut at home talking to myself and compulsively eating then puked, obssessed over vampires on the internet, then turned up at the Guildhall ready to expose the one I was insanely attracted to.

  "Doing my best.'' I shrugged.

*

  Gioia had ordered a Jamaican pastry and still water.  She was waiting to see if he would eat something. Cerebral little thing, she never relinquished an opportunity to analyse him.

He asked for Scottish eggs and bacon.

Gioia blinked. "Sun-tanned and eating. Clearly I've been mistaken. Thank you for going along my deliria, Mr Thamesian.'' she then said.

She was clearly heading toward some kind of sunburn with her pale skin and the unusual heat.  Roydon fanned her with his napkin.  She blushed harder. Exquisitely.

  ''How can I put this, to spare your inquisitive soul? I am not a
full blood
vampire."

Gioia coughed. "Full blood? What do you mean?''

  "To begin with, the population of the Medieval Quarter is made up of hybrids."

  "Sci-fi is not of one my strong subjects."

  "It's simple as that: I am bound to the Vampires by blood, they turned me and passed on some of their abilities like longevity, speed. Minimal bloodthirst, and theorical immortality are the divergences."

  "Theorical, as in, you could die if someone tried very hard to kill you?''

Roydon took off his sunglasses and in broad daylight his eyes were sizzling like liquid sulphur.

  "I am afraid that would be a yes.''

*

  Wow.  I was beginning to seriously patched it up now. My brains were thinking on steroids.

Roydon was attacked. He was not fully immortal. He was a Guardian.

Clearly someone was after him and a missed shot would not be enough to them.

The most dangerous man  I had ever met was in serious danger.

  "These true blood vampires, they are here aren't they?'' I asked.

The grave ajar. Something was going on all over the place. I didn't know how good a Guardian Roydon was but it screamed with a lack of attention to me. 

Because of course, me, Gioia, the twentyish human would do better, would I?

  "Full blood. To speak very plainly, I am their bodyguard. My job is to prevent their bodies from being found out while they sleep.''

I thought of Tennys.

  "And so the bodyguard has a bodyguard?" I teased him.

  "Seems justified.''

Speaking of arrows, did it not alert him in the least?

  "I think we can find out who wants you down."

  "We, Ms. Di Terzi?"

  "Yes. As a team. I want to break into this secret auction website, my mind will never be at rest otherwise."

Roydon poured himself a glass of this strange beverage, Stonehenge beer.

Come on, I knew it was no one of my business but it was the first time since a hell of a long time that I found excitement somewhere. Exciting someone, if I was to speak the truth.

  "I don't do teams. Thank you for your discovery though."

I crossed my arms, my face sinking in.

  "Don't take it personally, Gioia. I am a Thamesian, I deal with things my way."

*

He had walked her back to the Olde Pub.  Gioia Di Terzi was the liveliest, most luscious young woman he had met since becoming the Guardian. 

She was also a brainiac little snooper. He admitted he was eager to get back to his own computer and check the auction website she had so cleverly unearthed.

It might be just a niche auction sale restricted to draw in the highest bidders. a marketing ploy riding on the coat-tails of most collectors's sense of entitlement.

The best Gioia could do was to avoid his company while he was off the wine.

The Stonehenge had made him painfully unable to contain his arousal when he had leaned to watch her laptop screen, or at the restaurant's table.  It made it impossible for him to resist her, his signature coolness was severely thwarted.

Even now, he felt the iron-hot burning need through his veins, Gioia Di Terzi, whispering insanities in his mind, finding a way to his bed, gloriously bared, her long hair barely hiding her breasts. This kind of team would work for him he thought shamelessly.  He had had a few mistresses over time, no one he had desired like this blue-eyed, mouth-watering human.

*

  So I had been turned out, so what, life went on.

I was sure of one thing: Roydon Thamesian was caught in a crossfire and I had a little less than 4 days left to unlock the website.

If I only knew what the private auction sale was really about.

All began and ended with the graves, the answer must be found six feet under.

Roydon, an hybrid as he had said, lured me and made me look foolish for it.

Those real, ensepulchred vampires he had spoken about, his bosses, not so much. Everything about them gave me the creeps. Nice lack of consistency here, Gioia.

My relatives, the neighbours or even random people had warned me about Britain: ''Be prepared for the cold.'', ''Be prepared to starve.'', ''Be prepared for the beer.", "Be prepared for the accent.'', yet no one of them had said '' Be prepared to dig''.

Which was exactly what I was readying myself for.

Okay not exactly dig, but open at least one of the tombs.

It sounded totally sensible, after all. I just wanted to have a look. If Roydon was not bothered, I was.

In theory, I could do it. Just had to supress my very genuine fear of everything dead, or more accurately here, undead.

I took a deep breathe, there were still many hours until sundown to prepare myself.

First, it was only old stones and old bodies. Relics. Like the relics of Saints Peter and Paul in Rome. 

Relics with fangs and a predilection for fresh blood. 

They were  taking a siesta, blissfully dead to the world, I just had to be very careful not wake them up.

Brilliant!

Or utter madness!

After centuries of ongoing debates on Genius vs Folly, I wouldn't settle it anytime soon, so I just had to go with it.

Relics. The word would not stop nagging my mind.

Money, it was always part of the equation. The Art world was always on a hunt for some extraordinary antiques. Artifacts. Auction sale. Vampires.

The most audacious and brilliant heist which could take place in the supernatural world.

Happening right before our eyes.

*

  After going his thorough examination of the website which had kept mum, Roydon had sent the irksome link to Brand's Cantabrigian genius hacker. He was not very fond of involving people into this but his brother trusted the lad.

Then, he had gone to his private gym for a session of fighting. If the hunter had the guts to came to him face to face, he would reduce him to shreds.

The Guildhall's basement ,with padded walls, was his place for extreme training.

The Stonehenge effects akin to amphetamine different in that instead of increasing the efficiency of the cortex, it caused short circuit in the cerebral network and a memory black out over a long period of time.

The side effects on humans were euphoria,reduced pain reaction.

The wine was safer of course but it gave him stamina.

As he compulsively ran on the treadmill, the machine went on overdrive and broke down.

Roydon smashed the equipment.

No he wasn't part of a team.

A true Thamesian he stood single-handedly as a watchman.  Had always been. Would always be. 

*

  I put the silver cross necklace around my neck. Just in case.

Though if Roydon Thamesian could walk under the sun undamaged and kiss without a single bite, I wasn't sure superstition applied anymore.  I had dressed myself with a sweater and a hoodie and sneakers, clearly aiming for urban graverobber look.

I had stolen the biggest knife of Mrs Pickle's kitchen. No way I could brought myself to search for a stake, I ain't that mad, am I?

Come hell or high water, I was ready.

Although I would prefer for hell to be delayed.

It was ten forty. Night had settled over the city. 

I silently exited the house, half- thrilled, half-frightened.  With my sporty outfit I looked no different than the young people in the streets, sipping beers, smoking weed and hanging out late with their mates.  Gangsta Gioia on her way to vamps. How Lovely.

I jogged through the shut down city centre, my right hand firmly grasping the knife hidden in the pooch of my sweater. My parents would have been proud of me, not even a month in the United Kingdom and I had gone from brilliant Art graduate into vampire hunting scoundrel.