Thicker Than Blood (Marchwood Vampire Series #2) (27 page)

The other girl prised Aelia’s hand off her
friend’s arm.

‘
Well if you won’t tell
me, I’ll go and find out for myself.’

The girls both grabbed at her, but Aelia
broke free and began to run down the passageway.

‘
You can’t leave!’ one of
the girls called after her. ‘They’ll find you and punish
you.’

Aelia kept on running. She knew she was at
least six floors down from the room she had originally been held
in. But if it was true and this place was big enough to house
twenty thousand people, she would never find her family. And anyway
she still needed to infect more demons. What should she do? What
should she do? If only Widow Maleina was here to advise her. She
slowed her pace and finally stopped, sliding to the floor with her
back against the sharp rock wall. Tears rolled down her cheeks.

‘
Why so sad?’

Aelia looked up to see Mislav standing above
her. She didn’t care. Just lowered her eyes and stared at her lap.
His hand curled around hers and she let herself be pulled to her
feet. The demon led her back along the passageway. Back to the
beautiful room of silver and blue where the bobbing boats sailed
away into a never-ending night.

Chapter Thirty Two

Present Day

*

Maddy was out of options. She didn’t know
what else she could do. She didn’t have Alex’s mobile phone number
or any of the others’ numbers and she couldn’t get through to Ben
at home. She was in a stranger’s house, stuck in a foreign country
being pursued by vampires. She hadn’t eaten for hours, was freezing
her ass off, had no reserves of energy left and all she felt like
doing was sinking her head into her arms and crying. But she
wouldn’t let herself break down in front of these people, no matter
how nice they seemed.

‘
You call England?’ the
man said.

‘
Yes. Yes, I tried to call
England, but it’s not working.’

‘
You have number for UK?
You have code?’

Code? Of course! She’d forgotten to put the
UK code in. The man’s wife started talking again and the younger
woman and the boy, who were sitting on stools near the fire, stared
at Maddy with open curiosity. The man shouted at his wife and his
wife shouted back. Then Maddy had a thought. She took the rucksack
from her back and reached in, groping around until her hand closed
around a few rustling notes. She thrust the money towards the
woman.

‘
For the call,’ she said,
pointing at the phone.

The woman smiled and took the money in her
fist. The man went mental, shouting and pointing at Maddy and then
at the money. Maddy turned to him.

‘
Yes,’ she said. ‘Just for
the phone call to England.’

‘
No money,’ he said. ‘You
make call. No money.’

‘
What’s the code for
England?’ she asked. ‘The number for the UK?’

The man took the phone from her and punched
in some numbers.

‘
You call now. No zero. No
zero.’

Maddy called home, leaving out the zero as
instructed. After a couple of clicks, she heard a dial tone. It
wasn’t a normal ring, but it sounded more promising than before.
Behind her, the couple were arguing again, but she tried to tune
them out, willing Ben to pick up.

‘
Hello.’

‘
Esther!’

‘
Madison. They got you out
then? You alright, love?’

‘
Listen, Esther. I need
Alex to come get me. I’m being chased. Have you got his
number?’

‘
Hold on a
minute.’

‘
Esther?’

No reply. She’d obviously gone off to get
his number. She should’ve asked to speak to Ben; he’d have Alex’s
number in his phone. Oh hurry up, Esther. Any minute, she expected
to see vampires crashing through the door. Her bike had left
tracks. She’d be easy to follow. She hoped the snow would start
falling again to cover them over.

‘
Right, here we are.’
Esther was back.

‘
Is he in England
still?’

‘
Who? Alex?’

Of course, Alex. Who else do you think I
mean? ‘Yeah, Alex.’

‘
No. He and the others
have gone to Turkey with Morris to get you back. Me and Ben are
holding the fort here.’

Maddy exhaled and gave the
faintest glimmer of a smile. Alex
was
here.

‘
Is Ben okay?’

‘
He’s been moping around a
bit, but I got him helping me out with the housework to take his
mind off things.’

‘
Oh, hang on.’ Maddy
turned to the man who was glowering at his wife. ‘Do you have a pen
and paper?’ Maddy asked, miming a scribbling motion.

His wife beat him to it and handed a small
pad and pencil to Maddy. The woman was all smiles now.

‘
Okay, Esther, go on.
What’s the number?’ Maddy scrawled it down. ‘I’d better take Isobel
and the others’ numbers too, just in case.’

Esther read them out. ‘Do you want to talk
to Ben? I can fetch him. He’s upstairs.’

‘
I’d love to talk to him,
but I can’t. I don’t have time. Tell him hi and I’ll be back as
soon as I can.’

‘
Right you
are.’

‘
Esther, can you take this
number down too, in case you need to get hold of me here?’ Maddy
asked the man for his mobile number and relayed it to Esther. ‘You
won’t forget to tell Ben I said hi … and that I love him.’ Her
voice cracked as she spoke and she willed herself not to start
wailing in front of these strangers and especially not in front of
Esther.

‘
Course I will,
love.’

Maddy ended the call. She took a breath to
calm herself. At least she’d stopped shivering now.

‘
I need to make another
call,’ she said to the man.

‘
Yes, you make. My wife
bring you food. Hungry yes?’

‘
Thank you. Only if it’s
no trouble.’

‘
Trouble. No.’

‘
Where are we?’ she asked
the man as she punched in Alexandre’s number with trembling
fingers.

He frowned at her, not understanding.

‘
This place. What is your
village called?’

‘
Ahh. My village
Akarsuli
’

Alex’s voicemail kicked in and Maddy’s chest
constricted with disappointment.

‘
Alex, it’s me. It’s
Maddy. I’ve been in the underground city but I got away. They’re
chasing me, Alex. I need you to come. I’m in …’ She turned to the
man. ‘What’s it called again? Your village?’

‘
It Akarsuli.’

‘
Alex I’m in Akarsuli. In
someone’s house halfway down the valley. Please come as soon as you
can.’

Maddy ended the call. Maybe he just hadn’t
got to his phone in time and he’d call her straight back. But she
couldn’t wait. She punched in Leonora’s number. A delicious smell
permeated the room. If that food was for her, she couldn’t wait to
eat it. Leonora didn’t pick up either. Nor did any of the others.
She left messages for all of them, but this was hopeless. What was
she going to do? The phone rang in her hand. She answered it
straight away with a breathless, ‘Hello?’

‘
Maddy, that you?’ It was
Esther.

‘
Yeah.’

‘
Thought I’d better let
you know that Morris and the others, they’re staying in the Vadi
Hotel in a place called Ayvali.’

Maddy asked Esther to spell it for her and
she wrote it down, thanked Esther and said goodbye.

As Maddy raced through the possibilities
left open to her, the wife brought her a bowl of some kind of stew.
She took it in both hands, the pottery warm and smooth.

‘
Thank you so much. This
smells amazing.’

The woman smiled and so did her husband. It
looked like they’d got over their argument anyway.

‘
I name Eren,’ the man
said. ‘This my wife, Derya.’ Then he pointed to the other woman and
the boy. ‘My sister and my son.’

Maddy smiled at them. ‘Hi, my name is
Madison.’

‘
Nice to meet you,
Madison.’ They all smiled and laughed.

Maddy spooned in a small mouthful of the
stew. It was as delicious as it smelled and she savoured the warmth
as well as the taste.

‘
Amazing.’ She turned to
Derya. ‘This is so good. Thank you.’ The woman beamed. ‘Where is
Ayvali?’ she asked Eren.

‘
Ayvali very far. You want
go. I take you tomorrow. You stay here now. Food, sleep. In morning
we go to Ayvali.’

‘
I have to go now. I have
to.’

Eren spoke rapidly to his wife. Obviously
telling her of Maddy’s plans. She let forth a torrent of words,
some aimed at her husband, but most aimed at Maddy.

‘
My wife too, she say, no.
You not go tonight. Weather not good. More snow coming.’

‘
I know, but I’m in
danger.’

‘
Yes. Is danger in
snow.’

‘
No. I’m in ... Never
mind. I have to go.’ Maddy slurped down the rest of the stew. ‘Do
you have any water please?’

Eren translated and his wife fetched a
glass. Maddy downed it and stood up.

‘
Thank you so, so much,’
Maddy said again. ‘You saved my life, but can you point me in the
direction of Ayvali? I have to find my friends.’

They protested again, but Maddy wouldn’t
take no for an answer. Eren told her to keep his phone, just in
case and she said she would return it as soon as she could -
hopefully tomorrow or the next day. Derya gave her a thick hat and
an extra jumper and put some more food and water in her rucksack.
Maddy was overwhelmed by the generosity of these strangers she had
only just met. She couldn’t imagine this happening back in England.
She’d be told to bugger off.

Soon she was back outside, more warmly
dressed this time, Derya’s stew heating her from the inside out.
The woman was still protesting, but Maddy couldn’t worry about that
now. She had to put as much distance between her and the
underground city as possible and try to reach the hotel. Eren
walked with her to the main track and pointed her in the direction
of the closest petrol station, several kilometres away. She would
have to hope the bike would get her there and then she would ride
on to Ayvali. She must’ve been in Eren’s village for at least an
hour, maybe more. That was plenty of time for the vampires to track
her.

‘
Thank you so much, Eren.’
She hugged him, swung her leg over the bike and started the engine.
Then she set off, alone again, back into the night.

*

After a while pacing the cavern, Alexandre’s
skin had finally healed from the UV burns but his heart was still
sore and angry. He didn’t even know if Maddy was still alive or
whether they had recaptured her? He couldn’t think like that.
Knowing Maddy, she’d be halfway back to England by now. And what
about Jacques and Isobel and the others? What would they do when he
didn’t return by sunrise? He couldn’t believe had he had allowed
himself to be locked up like this.

Suddenly, he sensed someone outside the
cavern. The millstone rolled aside and Alexandre backed into the
furthest corner to escape from the deadly UV light outside. But the
light had gone and instead, a vampire stood at the dark cavern
entrance. Alexandre didn’t stop to think. He hurled himself at the
figure and they both flew backwards, crashing into the passage
wall. He grabbed the vampire by the throat. However, it was not
fighting back as anticipated and appeared to be scared. Good.

‘
If you don’t want me to
break your neck and throw you into the sun, you’ll tell me how to
get out of this place,’ Alexandre snarled.

The vampire stared back at him, a mixture of
fear and anger in its eyes. It was a young woman. Alexandre relaxed
his grip a fraction.

‘
My name’s Zoe,’ she said.
‘I came to free you. I helped Maddy escape.’

‘
You did?’ He didn’t let
her go just yet.

‘
I saved her twice. And
now I’ve diverted the guards to get you out. Told them Sergell
wanted to see them. They’ll know I lied soon enough. We have to
leave.’

Alexandre didn’t reply. At this moment, he
had no choice but to trust her, so he let her go, inclined his head
and followed her through the corridors until they reached a
ventilation shaft which led outside.

‘
What happened? Where is
she?’ Alexandre asked, looking around. They were standing on a
snowy plain which seemed to stretch for miles in every direction.
Far in the distance, lay a small mountain range.

‘
There’s no time to
explain,’ Zoe said. ‘She’s in danger. Follow me.’

Alexandre didn’t need to hear anything else.
They left the city behind them and swept along the snowy ground
towards the cliffs.

Chapter Thirty Three

Cappadocia, 575 AD

*

When they reached the blue and silver room,
Mislav gestured Aelia over to one of the floor cushions. She sat
with her feet tucked under her and watched as he made himself
comfortable on a carved wooden chair in the corner. He observed her
with a frank gaze and she lowered her eyes. What did he want? Why
was he not drinking from her?

‘
You are an interesting
human,’ he said.

She didn’t reply.

‘
Why don’t you tremble and
scream?’