The Four Realms (33 page)

Cassidy parked outside a large door in the centre of the back of the building.
 
Darwin went to help her with the handbrake, but she swatted his hand away and with both hands and a lot of effort managed to engage it.

He sighed.
 
Why was it always so hard to do the right thing?

"Are you coming in?" he asked as he unfastened his seatbelt.

She ignored him at first, staring out the front window, her brow furrowed.
 
But just when he was about to ask again, she turned to him and shook her head.
 
He sensed sadness in her eyes but decided against deteriorating the situation between them any further.

He reached for the door handle. "I won't be long," he said half hoping for a reply or acknowledgement.
 
None was forthcoming.

He sighed to himself as he got out the minibus and made his way to the entrance.
 
He'd rather she shout at him than the silent treatment.
 
At least then he'd have something to respond to.
 
He decided to push it to the back of his mind and concentrate on finding D'Toeni.

The back door had long since come off its hinges and hung open at an odd angle, graffiti covering the cracked turquoise paint.
 
It opened into a hallway that dissected the house, running from the back door where Darwin had entered through to the front door.
 
A large wooden staircase ran up one side and along one wall, many of the treads rotten, many of the balusters broken, presumably by the same people who had tagged the back door.

It looked like their destruction extended beyond the staircase as the hall was littered with splintered chairs and other furniture.
 
Darwin's first thought was that someone might have been breaking it up for firewood, but it was far too wet to burn. A large hole in the ceiling dripped water into the hall at a constant rate, covering the tiles of the hall in a good half inch of water, Darwin looked up through the hole and saw it extended all the way to the sky.

It certainly wasn't the most glamorous of places but the minimal graffiti seemed to suggest it was remote enough not to draw too much attention.
 
A perfect place for a vampire to hide out.

"D'Toeni," Darwin called out.

The only response came from the water dripping into the hall.

"D'Toeni.
 
We've come to get you out."

Darwin had wanted to say the word 'rescue' but he stopped himself.
 
Vampires like D'Toeni didn't get rescued, they got assisted.
 
The last thing Darwin wanted to do was upset him.
 
That was the trouble with the traditional vampires, there was such a sense of protocol that if you broke it, they considered it a big deal.
 
This is what happens when you get to live to hundreds of years old and are allowed to get stuck in your ways.

Darwin tentatively tried the first step on the staircase.
 
It creaked, but appeared to support his weight.
 
Slowly, Darwin began to make his way up the stairs.

"D'Toeni.
 
It's Darwin."

Perhaps he shouldn't have shouted his name.
 
D'Toeni hadn't been the nicest of people to Darwin. The insults were only half-remembered, buried somewhere they could no longer hurt, but those old feelings of fear and sadness now washed over Darwin.

No
, he told himself.
 
That was then, this is now.
 
He needs you now
.
 
Despite no longer being that scared little boy, he still wouldn't like to get into a fight with the old vampire.
 
D'Toeni was a ruthless killer, even by vampire standards.
 
They said he was the only person Metzger ever feared, although Darwin wondered if that was true.
 
He'd never find out now.

Darwin took a deep breath to try and calm himself, partly from the worry of a tread collapsing underneath him, and partly to stop those old childhood fears and memories from resurfacing.
 
Instead, he focused on what people would be saying about him.
 
Darwin the saviour, no, Darwin the deliverer, he liked that one.
 
It had a certain ring to it.
 
They'd build a statue of him staring up into the sun in defiance.
 
Paintings would show him with a flock of vampires all praying at his feet for him to save them.
 
Or better still, he would be part of a group of marauding vampires through a line of Mr Easts, him at the front, soaked in the blood of his enemies.

He stopped and sniffed.

There was no blood
.

He had one foot on the landing, when he realised that there was something wrong about this place.
 
D'Toeni would bring his prey here.
 
He wouldn't be so coy as to worm his way into someone's house, that wasn't his style.
 
No, he'd entrance them and bring them back here.
 
He'd play with them for a while, seduce them until they groaned with ecstasy and then he'd feast.
 
He'd tear great chunks out of their neck and let the blood flow freely.

There would be blood and Darwin could smell none.

Darwin turned and made his way back down the stairs as fast as he could without making a noise.

Of course there was the possibility that he'd not feasted since coming here but this was D'Toeni.
 
This place was the sort of place Darwin and Cassidy would hide out, not D'Toeni.
 
He would never live off pigeon and rat.
 
No, he'd have to feast every day, hungry or not, and this place was too far from civilisation.

He ran out the building and jumped in the minibus beside Cass.

"Drive.
 
It's a trap."

Cassidy turned and looked at him with an intensity that confused Darwin.
 
Was she still angry at him?

"Jesus Cass, we can argue later.
 
Will you just..."

He heard the click of a gun behind his head.

"Well, well, well.
 
What have we here?"

Darwin tried to turn to see who had spoken, but felt the barrel of the gun press against his neck.
 
Instead he had to make do with what little information he could glean from glancing at the rear view and wing mirrors. He could make out stubble and a baseball cap but little else.
 
He was about Darwin's age, although in Darwin's mind this made him a boy, when he considered himself a man.
 
He might have been wearing a football shirt but Darwin couldn't be sure, let alone which team it was for.
 
He had no intention of moving his head.
   

"This is a turn up for the books," the boy said.
 
"Cassidy Mulligan, disappears without a trace, and now here you are.
 
Why I should..."

"Don't you..." started Darwin.
 
If he could get the gun pointed away from him for a second, he could possibly take the boy.
 
He'd make him piss his pants and then he'd rip him in two.

"Don't I what, mate?
 
Ways I sees it, I'm the one holding the gun."
 
As if to enforce the point, the boy pushed the gun's muzzle hard against Darwin's neck.

"Ryan, don't," said Cassidy.

"Oh so you remember my name then?"

Darwin instinctively turned his head toward Cassidy in shock.
 
She knew this boy?

"I thought..." the boy started, "I thought with you disappearing off the face of the planet and all for a couple of years, you might have forgotten it."

"Ryan, I can explain."

The lad ran a tongue along his teeth, "Yeah, I bet you can.
 
And since when did you start wearing glasses?"

Cassidy touched her frames.
 
"I'm not the person you remember."

Ryan was looking at Cassidy and not his gun.
 
Darwin could grab it, disarm him deal with him.
 
But as if reading his mind, Cassidy gave him a stare that told Darwin not to try anything.

Ryan waved the gun at Darwin, a wasted opportunity if ever there was one.
 
"This bozo with you then, Cass?"

Cassidy nodded.

Darwin watched as the boy started to well up, the back of his gun-wielding hand going to his forehead.

"Ryan, it's not like that."

"I didn't know what had happened, I thought, you know, after..."

"You left me for dead."
 
There was a coolness to Cassidy's voice, almost devoid of emotion.
 
"You saw me take a bullet, and you left me there."

"I was scared.
 
I didn't know what to do.
 
I was in way over my head.
 
I regretted leaving you, Cass.
 
I've regretted it every day since."

"Class move... bozo," Darwin chided.
 
He couldn't help himself.
 
He was getting bored of this little cocksucker.

"Shut up," Ryan screamed, his face turning red with rage.
 
"You weren't there.
 
You don't know."

Ryan span Darwin around and thrust the barrel of the gun against Darwin's forehead, pushing so hard it started to hurt.
 
Darwin just looked passively up at the boy, thinking of all the ways he was going make him suffer before he killed him.

"I've cleaned myself up.
 
Ain't doing that shit anymore."

"Yet here you are with a gun."

"I'll put a cap in your ass."

"I'll shove that gun up yours in a minute," Darwin responded.

"Stop it!" Cassidy screamed.
 
"The pair of you, stop it!"

Darwin had never heard Cass shout like that.
 
She sounded tormented, like she was at breaking point, about to burst into tears.
 
It seemed Ryan hadn't heard her like that either, as he also stopped his bickering.

There was silence from both men as Cassidy took a deep breath and regained her composure.

"Ryan, what are you doing here?"

"Got a job, didn't I?"

Darwin went to make a comment but he caught a glimpse from Cassidy, as if she was anticipating his comment; a glimpse that said with uttermost seriousness, “don't you dare, Darwin.”

"Why are you here, Ryan?" she asked with authority.

"I was told to come and meet two people here."

"And you often come to meet people armed with a gun?"

Ryan stifled a laugh.
 
"Yeah, you got me there," he shrugged. "I was told there could be a little bother."

"Why were you to come and meet people?"

"I gotta take them to some guy called Tony."

"D'Toeni?" Darwin asked.

Ryan nodded.
 
"Yeah.
 
Friend of yours?"

Darwin flashed Cassidy a worried look.
 
She registered it and communicated her own concern with a little nod of her head.
 
What were the chances that someone Cassidy knew would be employed to bring them to someone Darwin knew?
 
It was beyond coincidence by Darwin's reckoning.
 
Someone knew they were coming.

If that was the case, did they also know about Walthamstow?
 
Were the vampires there still alive or had they met the same fate as the rest of their race?
 
Darwin silently cursed himself for being distracted.
 
Was D'Toeni worth all their lives?
 
Possibly, possibly not.
 
But in trying to rescue him, Cassidy and he had walked into a trap.

Maybe he could overpower Ryan.
 
If he could disarm him, the boy wouldn't stand a chance.
 
That was the problem, though, it was a question of 'if'.
 
What if the gun went off as they fought for it?
 
What if a shot hit Cassidy?

No, he couldn't risk it.
 
Best to bide his time, wait for the right opportunity.
 
If D'Toeni was still alive, perhaps he could be rescued and... well, two vampires were better than one.
 
Then there was the little matter of the praise he would command.
 
That was, if anyone was left.

He turned to look at Cassidy, hoping for a sign, some piece of body language that would tell him he was making the right decision, but if she was giving anything he was unable to notice it.

"Right then, Ryan," he sighed.
 
"You'd better take us to D'Toeni."

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO - Bed Rest

Maureen awoke in her own bed, and for a second she thought everything had been a nasty dream.
 
But then her head started to throb, and raising a hand to it discovered it wrapped in bandages.
 
She winced at the touch, memories of the previous day’s events emerging from the fog in her brain.
 
She decided against trying to make sense of it just yet.

It was daylight and in one corner of a room an electric room eater spat out hot air.
 
How different this room felt with heat.
 
Maureen felt warm, almost snug.

How had she got here?
 
The last thing she remembered was collapsing in the snow outside Sally's house.
 
She lifted the blankets and looked down at her clothes.
 
They were hers all right, but not what she had been wearing last night.

She felt a mix of feelings.
 
On one hand, Sally had obviously penetrated Maureen's bastion of solitude.
 
She'd been in her house and seen what a dilapidated state it was.
 
She felt shame and slight anger. But on the other hand, she was alive and warm with her wound tended to.