The Vampire Gene (6 page)

"I don't know what you are talking about," she whispered.

"You lie." Oliver spoke calmly, but he was clearly furious. "I can feel your twisted little thoughts. You were jealous of Rebecca, weren't you." It wasn't a question. Lucy just sobbed.

"She's a vampire, and you're not. You thought you were nothing special, and she was, and you hated her for it," he continued, his tone biting. She shook her head. "Well, now you're an accomplice in the kidnapping of an innocent girl."

"No I'm not!" Lucy protested. "I didn't like her, but I didn't mean for her to be kidnapped. You have to believe me!" she cried hysterically.

Oliver pulled his phone out of his back pocket, and started dialling. "We'll let the police decide, shall we?"

"Nooo!" shrieked Lucy, clutching at my hand which was still wrapped around her throat. "Mum, you can't let him!"

Julia Colborne gazed at her daughter impassively, her arms crossed. She said nothing.

"OK, OK, it was Uncle James! He said he just wanted to talk to her about a proposal he had for her, something to make up for a deal that had gone bad a while back. He said it was very important it be a surprise..." she broke off, and started sobbing.

"So where is she now?" I rasped, enraged at the actions of this selfish little girl. She had endangered my Rebecca, and I wanted to destroy her. I felt her pulse thrumming under my hand and swallowed reflexively.

"Where has he taken her?" Oliver asked, his voice level and cold.

"I don't know!" Lucy wailed. I sensed her thoughts as I stepped back and released her. We were wasting our time with her. She had no idea where Rebecca was. She slid down the wall and sat on her heels with her face in her hands. I turned to Fergus, but he already had his
Mac Book Pro open - he'd retrieved it from the Bentley - and was tapping away. He looked up at Julia.

"Does Uncle James have a second name?" he asked dryly.

"And a third," she replied. "James Richard Michael Colborne. He has a house a few miles from here, but other than that..."

"No problem. He owns a few other properties too, mostly industrial. The closest is about twenty miles from here. I suggest we start there."

"There's a GPS tracker in one of her shoes," I told him, annoyed with myself that I'd momentarily forgotten about it, and handed over my mobile phone. "You direct me while I drive." I was impatient to get going.

"I'll come with you," said Oliver.

I regarded him pensively. "OK." There was nothing else to say.

"I'
m coming too," Julia spoke, steel in her voice. Marcus looked captivated. What the hell, the more the merrier. I just nodded.

"Let's go."

Rebecca

I lay back on the cot and let the rage flow through me while I readjusted my jumper with my free left hand. Anger was a great suppressor of fear, and this fury I felt for that filthy bastard who'd taken advantage of my unconsciousness made me feel powerful, and almost invincible. I remembered the look of terror on his face and his screams, and smirked with satisfaction. He would think twice before he tried that again. And if Angus ever found him...

I thought of my gorgeous vampire striding through this dump, his dark eyes flashing as he shattered and shred all obstacles in his path, hu
man and vampire, and I smiled grimly to myself. He would raze this place to the ground. And with how I was feeling now, I would probably cheer him on.

I was sick of people kidnapping me, and I had no place in my heart for sympathy for anyone involved. This James person must know exactly what Jack intended to do with me - I
knew
that he knew. I had read it in his eyes before he drugged me. And I was ready to give him some pain of his own. I wanted to dish it out, and watch as he squirmed and cried.

A
nd as if on cue, he strolled in then, frowning.

"You hurt Eric quite badly. Looks like he can't use that hand at all. He's had to go to to hospital," he said accusingly. Like I had done something terribly wrong, and he couldn't understand why I would want to do such a thing. I knew exactly why, but I didn't feel like explaining to this moron.

"Good," I said shortly. It summed up most of what I felt about Eric and his plight right now.

"Jack will be here soon. You had better tidy yourself up a bit. You wouldn't want your lover-to-be to see y
ou like this." He sneered mockingly, and went to fetch a packet of wet wipes from the table, which appeared to be cluttered with random junk. I glared at his back, and let the rage build again, until I could feel it fizzing through my limbs. Sick bastard. He knew what Jack would do to me.

He turned back to me, and I made my face impassive. He approached me carefully and extended hi
s arm. Something, a sense of danger perhaps, made him hesitate. Instead of coming closer, he tossed the wet wipes at me. I batted them away, and they landed on the floor just beyond my reach. I looked at him as if to say,"Really?" and he gave me a filthy look and edged closer to pick them up.

I waited until he was just within reach and then
I lunged forward and closed my hand around his wrist and jerked him towards me. I was stronger than I would have been if I were only human, thanks to the daily iron tablets and Eric's surprisingly tasty blood, but he was a grown man, and he resisted with all his strength for a few seconds. Frustration made me clench my hand tighter and the fury I had constructed around me fizzed through my arm and into his wrist. Next thing he jerked and fell at my feet, unconscious and twitching. I could smell burning, and when I let go of his wrist I saw charred flesh in the shape of my hand encircling it.

Well,
that
was new.

I leant over him, and searched through his pockets, and found some car keys, and the handcuff keys. I dropped them a couple of times before I could get the slippery little suckers into the lock, but I managed to free myself eventually. I felt for a pulse at James' neck, and it was there, but faint. He would live. Kind of a shame really, but I had no use for his blood.

I remembered the hired thug who had helped kidnap me last time. I'd technically killed him when I drank all his blood, even though he was probably going to die from his gunshot wounds anyway.

I was no murderer, but I would kill if I needed to.

I just didn't need to today.

Angus

We were halfway to the first of the industrial properties Fergus had mentioned - driving along a
relatively deserted country road - when an oncoming vehicle started hooting at us and flashing their lights. Fergus looked at the screen of my phone and gasped. I glanced at the driver of the other car and slammed on brakes, and I was out of the Bentley and across the road in seconds with Rebecca in my arms.

There is no way to describe my enormous relief and joy at having her back safe with me. I could have stood there holding her body against mine for ever
, my face buried in her hair, but Fergus had found the horn on the Bentley and was more or less sitting on the damn thing. Rebecca started laughing, and pulled away just enough to stick her tongue out at him. He started tapping it instead, which was even more irritating. I held up my hands in capitulation and tucked Rebecca under my left arm, and we crossed the road to where I had parked the Bentley. Well, not parked as such. More like abandoned. Fergus sat grinning in the front passenger seat.

"Bex!" he leaned out of the window. "Good to see you again, love. Let's get going now?"

I nodded my agreement, and opened the rear door. Marcus and Julia looked up at me.

"Can you drive a Bentley, Julia?"

She grinned at me. "Absolutely," she said, and clambered out of the back and into the driver seat. Rebecca and I squashed into the back with Marcus and Oliver.

"What about the car
?" Rebecca wanted to know.

"We should bring it with us," Oliver suggested. "It could contain valuable information. I'll drive it back to our place. Do you have the key?" he asked Rebecca.

"I left it in the ignition," she smiled apologetically at him. He grinned back, and scooted out of the car. Julia waited until he was in the van, then she did a beautiful three point turn, and drove us back the way we had come.

Rebecca

We drove back to the Colborne house in silence. I wasn't ready to talk yet, and everyone seemed to respect that. We pulled up in
front of the house, Oliver and James' car a short distance behind us. Martin complimented Julia on her driving, and then hurried off to scrutinise the car with Fergus. Julia led us into the house, and set about organising things. Within thirty minutes I had had a shower, and had put on a fresh set of clothes - my old ones were splattered with Eric's blood. Julia and I were about the same size, and her clothes were pretty trendy for an older person - jeans and hoodie of the softest light blue wool I had ever felt.

We all gathered around a large dining table
- not the one in that old stone room - I wondered how many dining room tables the Colbornes had. Lucy had disappeared into her room as soon as we'd arrived back, and hadn't been seen since. Somehow Julia had rescued the lunch that had been abandoned a couple of hours ago - roast chicken with all the trimmings, and we all tucked into it as if we were starving. It was delicious.

The ordinariness of everything suddenly struck me and
reluctant tears started dripping from the corners of my eyes. I suddenly hit me that I had become a monster briefly today, someone I never thought I could ever be. I felt normal again
now
, but I was afraid of the creature lurking within me, and of what that creature was capable of.

Angus reached out and took my hand as it lay on the table, and I turned to smile at him through my tears.

"I hurt them both," I told him. "And the worst part was that I
meant
to hurt them. I wanted to. And I enjoyed it." I whispered the last phrase, afraid to say it out loud, to acknowledge the madness. "I was so angry. That's not
me
, Angus! I have never been like that. I rescue drowning bugs from puddles. But hurting those two men felt good, it felt right. And now it doesn't anymore." I looked around at all the sympathetic eyes and felt even worse. Sympathy always does that to me.

His beautiful face hardened, his eyes with their d
ark lashes gazed at me, compassion in their depths. "You did what you had to do to survive, to get out of there," he told me slowly, squeezing my hand reassuringly. "You cannot think that that is who you are. It is who you had to be for a time. You did not choose to be that person - you
had
to be them. Do you understand?"

I nodded, but the tears still fell
. I so desperately wanted to believe him.

"Have you heard of the warrior gene, Rebecca?" Julia spoke now, her gaze gentle as it rested on me.

"I've heard of it," I replied vaguely, sniffing. "I'm not sure what it is exactly, though."

"It's
actually a group of genes that occur in some people, that are associated with an increase in criminal and risk taking behaviour. Those people are genetically predisposed to being evil. It doesn't excuse their behaviour, obviously, and they still definitely belong in jail, but it helps to explain how they are and the things they do."

She paused, as if considering her words. "Being an iron metaboliser is much, much harder. Each and every one of us have to constantly fight the power and dominance and rage within us. The fact that you are sitting here now, regretting what you have had to do, tells me that you have won, and that you will continue to win.
"

She smiled wryly. "I have done some terrible things in my two hundred years, but I'm still fighting, and most of the time, I still win."

Her words washed over me like a soothing balm.

"As long as you acknowledge the vampire in you, and you keep it buried when you don't need it, you too will win," she continued. "My brother Jack never bothered to fight it. He embraced it." She spoke deliberately, her eyes expressionless. "I had hoped he was dead, but it seems he's not." She turned to Angus. "I would like your help to make him so."

I looked at Angus, and allowed my gaze to linger on the planes of his striking face as he contemplated the request, frowning, his eyes black and unforgiving under his dark brows. Marcus and Fergus watched him too. It was Oliver who broke the silence.

"We're not as civilised as we look," he grinned. "My mother fought Jack many years ago, and she's still here to tell of it. And she's been practising her skills
every time a war comes along." He paused, and his grin widened. "And I know how to handle a few weapons myself."

Angus considered him thoughtfully,
and then he nodded. "It needs doing. And it will be easier and less risky if we work together."

Julia smiled, her eyes bleak. "Excellent."

Angus

It broke my heart to see her anguish. I knew how she felt - I had felt it myself many years ago, but the passing of time had made the fear of the monster inside less acute. My iron control had also helped. But even now, as we discussed killing Jack, I felt it rejoice in me as it anticipated its imminent release.

"We can use this place as a base of operations," Marcus began, "with your permission, of course," he glanced at Julia. She nodded. I saw something pass between them,
both anticipation and regret in their expressions.

"Absolutely," she said firmly. "Bill and Lucy and Simon can go to London for a few days."

"I'm staying," said Simon, his mouth set in a stubborn line. "I can man the computers and the communication equipment from here. We have a safe room, so I'll be fine. Even if Jack decides to attack this place. Which he won't."

"I think that's a good idea," added Fergus. "We need someone back here, and I will be needed in the front line. We have no idea how many bloodsuckers Jack has, and we need every vampire out there fighting."

"So I'm coming too," stated Rebecca flatly

Silence fell heavily on the room. Everyone looked at me. I looked at Rebecca.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" I asked her. I knew she would resent any interference from me, and I had seen how she had handled the situation the first time she had been taken. If she wanted to do this, I would not stop her. But I would ensure that we fought together, and I would protect her. I waited for her answer.

"Yes. I should probably tell you guys what happened today..."

She broke off as the door to the dining room where we all sat was suddenly flung open and an angry Bill Colborne strode into the room.

"What is going on here!" he demanded fur
iously. "I have received a phone call from my brother. He's at the hospital! He says you put him in there," he looked at Rebecca incredulously. "He says you
electrocuted
him!"

She looked straight back at him. "I did," she said flatly. "But he kidnapped me."

"Nonsense! You expect me to believe your version of events over my own brother's?"

"We don't expect you to believe anything." I told him flatly.

Bill seemed to be flabbergasted by my words, and stood there with his mouth opening and closing, looking for all the world like an angry, hairy fish.

Julia
pushing her chair back, and stood up.

"Your brother kidnapped Rebecca to sell to Jack," she told him
, her voice icy. "And Lucy helped him."

"Oh, nonsense!" he exclaimed, his face red with rage and a touch of guilt. I wondered how much he knew. "You would trust the word of a vampire freak over that of your own daughter
and brother-in-law. I thought Jack was dead, anyway!"

Julia just looked at
him and sighed. She spoke carefully, as if to a small and recalcitrant child. "James is guilty of kidnap and assault at the very least. He deserves everything he got, and more."

She watched him, her hands on her hips, as his disbelief and contempt declared themselves on his face. Then she took a deep breath and spoke, her tone measured.

"That is the last time you refer to us as freaks, Bill. Get out of my house. Take your daughter if she wants to come with you, and leave. Go to London, if you want. This does not concern you."

"I'm warning you, Julia. You push me too far!"

"I would push you further if I could," she told him, and she tilted her head to one side, her gaze cold and considering.

"Actually, I think I must. My attorney will deliver the divorce papers to you tomorrow. And if you breathe a word to anyone about iron metabolisers, not only will they think you insane, but I will ensure that you are penniles
s too. The children stay with me." She paused, as if she had run out of things to say. "Now, leave."

He glared at her and ground his teeth for a few seconds,
while the vein on his forehead pulsed, and then he turned abruptly and stalked out. Julia sighed again and sat down. Marcus smiled reassuringly at her, his eyes shining with admiration and what could have been hope. I was pleased for him.

"I was meaning to tell you about that," Rebecca spoke hesitantly. "I think I may have electrocuted that James person." She stopped, reluctant to go on.

"What do you mean?" Marcus asked eagerly, his attention focusing suddenly on Rebecca.

"I was very angry with him, and I reached out to grab his wrist and I felt a fizzing sensation and then he collapsed and started twitching. His wrist had a burn in the shape of a handprint around it. My handprint..."

Marcus was nodding rapidly, and speaking even faster. "It's possible. You could use the strong emotion generated by neurons firing in your brain, which is basically electricity anyway, and you could amplify it somehow, and conduct it through your tissues, which contain loads of iron, which as you all know, conducts electricity..."

"Breathe, Marcus," Fergus said dryly.

Marcus ignored him. "We need to do a few experiments, just to see what she's capable of."

Rebecca looked worried. I decided to put a stop to the inexorable force of Marcus' quest for knowledge.

"No, Marcus." He looked at me, bewildered.

"Why?" he wanted to know. "We need to know what she can do."

"He's right," Rebecca interjected. "I'd also like to know. Probably more than everyone here."

"Not more than Marcus," chuckled Fergus.

I shrugged. "OK then. As long as she's happy with it. And nothing risky," I added. I knew what it was like to be under my brother's microscope, and I remembered participating in several experiments myself. "Or painful."

"Slightly painful?" Marcus asked hopefully.

"No!" Fergus and I spoke at the same time. Julia burst out laughing.

"I'll keep an eye on him," she promised us. "We will design the experiments together, and Rebecca will be fine."

I saw the relief on Rebecca's face, and thanked Julia.

"I feel I should tell you about Jack," she started, then paused, and looked around the table at us, her gaze resting briefly on her sons. "Simon."

"Mum?" he looked up from his second helping of lunch.

"I don't have to tell you that what we say here needs to be kept secret," she smiled at him.

"Always, Mum. I might be a vamp one day too, you know."

"I could test you if you wanted," suggested Marcus. "I have most of my portable equipment here, and I have a mini lab set up at our place in Aberdeenshire. I could run your DNA through the analyser and we could look to see if you have two sets of the gene, or just one. You could know tomorrow."