Where Loyalty Lies (15 page)

I nodded my understanding. “And his name is Soul?” I asked.

“Yes, spelt S-A-U-L, but pronounced Soul.”

I nodded again.

“Now back to my story. We were in France in 1371 and we’d been stuck in the most boring town I’ve ever had the misfortune to stay in. Our intention had been to stop there overnight but, as we spent the evening in the bar that was adjoined to our inn, Saul noticed one of the women who worked there. I knew it was bad news right from the start but he wouldn’t listen to me.  He spent the whole evening making a complete prat of himself trying to impress her, but she was having none of it. Don’t get me wrong, she led him on in that way you women do and the Attraction made her like him but, every time he thought he was in with a chance, she’d give him the cold shoulder. I told the stupid bugger that he should just leave it, but he’s always been the type who has to get what he wants. Any lesser vampire would have resorted to using their Influence to convince her, because this was back before that law came in as well...”

“What law?” I interrupted.

“The law that says vampires can’t use their Influence to get humans into bed.”

I arched my eyebrows. “Sounds like a damn good law to me.”

“Yes it is, but people like Saul and I have morals and so we would never have done that anyway, law or no law. Anyway, Saul spent the best part of two months chasing this damn woman and then finally one night she relented. She whisked him off upstairs and I bought the whole damn place a round of drinks to celebrate the fact that I’d finally be able to move on. Not fifteen minutes after they’d gone upstairs, the door bursts open and a beast of a man storms in and starts heading up the stairs. Now this was back before I had my ability to sense emotions but even I could see that this was trouble. I tried my best to slow the beast down without making a scene but he wasn’t having any of it, so the best I could do was raise my voice and hope that Saul would hear and get the hell out of there.” Henry stopped and resumed his fidgeting. I threw a cushion at him.

“Stop milking it and get on with the story.”

Henry grinned and propped himself up on the cushion.  “Well, despite my best efforts, it was too late. The beast barged into the room and caught Saul and the woman half-dressed and desperately trying to pull their clothes back on. Turned out the woman was the beast’s virgin daughter. Needless to say, all hell broke loose. The beast’s friends turned up and, even though we were well out-numbered, it was still pretty much a fair fight. At some point we realised that a candle had been knocked over and we had to abandon the fight to get outside before the flames got us. We were about to get out of town when someone told us there was a family stuck in one of the rooms. Of course we went back in and got them out; it was only right seeing as we’d started the damn fire in the first place. But as soon as all the people saw us appearing unscathed from the flames, with the missing family in our arms, we were considered heroes. Then Saul gave the innkeeper enough money to rebuild the place and to cover all the losses. It took five more long hours before they calmed down enough to let us leave and the beast, who’d tried to beat the living daylights out of us, actually offered Saul his daughter as a wife.”

I squinted my eyes at Henry as he finished his story. “That’s really true?”

“Every word of it and, in case you ever decide to stop in France, just let me know and I’ll give you directions to a delightful old pub called
‘The Two Brothers’
.”

“You’re lying. That can’t be true.”

“I assure you that every word of it is true and there’s even an inscription on a stone in the wall that tells the story of the two heroic brothers who saved a family from certain death.”

I laughed. It was an outrageous story but I could tell it was true.

“Right, now it’s your turn.” Henry gave me an expectant look.

“No way, I don’t have any stories even as remotely interesting as that. I’ve never burnt a place down, saved a life or had somewhere built in my name.”

“Oh, come on, there must be something.”

I racked my brains to try to think of something.

“That!” Henry said. “Whatever you’re remembering right now, that’s giving you that sense of total embarrassment; I want to hear about that.”

I shook my head. “No, I’m not telling you that, it’s the worst thing I’ve ever done.”

Henry grinned. “Now I’m going to insist on hearing it. Here, have another couple of shots to ease the pain.”

I knocked back three and then cleared my throat in preparation. “Okay, here goes and I’ve never told this to anyone so you should consider yourself privileged. It was about five years ago and I was on the bus on the way home from school. When I got off at my stop, a man got off as well. I didn’t think anything of it at first but, the closer I got to my house, the more noticeable it became that he was following me. I don’t know how much Holt has told you but the Attraction vampires have, well it hit me in my teens and it was really strong. But I’d never been followed before and I began to panic. I lived up one of those twisty country roads that only have a couple of houses on it and so, when I turned the corner, I hid in a bush. I told myself that, if he came up here, it was because he was following me. After a moment he showed up. I saw him turn the corner, look around for me and then start heading up the path towards where he thought I must have gone.” I stopped, but unlike Henry, I wasn’t doing it for suspense, I was cringing. “By this point, I’d convinced myself that he was stalking me and that he wanted to attack me, so I picked up a branch and, when he got level with me, I ran out at him, screaming, and smacked him so hard in the ribs that he fell down. When he tried to get back up, I smacked him again in the face and, this time, he crawled away before getting up and running full pelt back down the road.”

“Okay,” Henry said. “Interesting story but I’m not sure why you feel so guilty about it.”

“Well the guilt came four days later when I went to church on Sunday morning. I was sitting there in my usual seat and the vicar told us he wanted to introduce us to our new vicar who’d be replacing him.” I stopped, not wanting to finish the story, but one look at Henry’s shocked face told me that I didn’t need to. I felt my cheeks heat as he stared at me in shock. Then he erupted with a howl of laughter.

“Oh my God, you attacked a vicar; abused a man of the church.”

“Stop it!” I shrieked. “It’s not funny, it was terrible. He had a huge black eye and every time he moved, he winced and grasped at his ribs.” This only seemed to amuse Henry further. “You should have seen his face when he saw me sitting there, three rows away from him. I thought he was going to scream.”

“Did he ever explain why he was following you?” Henry asked.

“No, he never spoke to me. But, on the way home, Mary was frantic because the new vicar had personally been round to the homes of all the long-time church goers, so he could introduce himself; she thought we’d been deliberately snubbed because he’d never showed up at our door. He was a good man, though, to my knowledge he never told anybody about what I’d done. I think he must have already been told about the slightly odd girl that Mary looked after and he just assumed it was normal behaviour for me to leap out of bushes and attack people.”

By the time I was finishing off my second bottle, and Henry was halfway through his third, I was well and truly sozzled. Henry had told me numerous stories of the trouble he and his brother had caused and I was beginning to wonder if there was any country they hadn’t visited to wreak their havoc.

“Come on, I want to know what you think of all this.” Henry held up his hands and motioned around the room.

“Well, it’s beautiful. Blue just happens to be my favourite colour and I’ve never lived anywhere that’s so...”

“No, no, no,” Henry interrupted. “Not this.” He made the same sweeping motion as before. “I mean this.”  He made the gesture again, only faster and more frenzied. I laughed as I understood.

“Well, if I’m honest, I’m not too sure what to think yet. I mean the place is just incredible but I haven’t really had a chance to look round it. As for people, you and Holt are the only guys I really know, except for my examiners, who I really don’t like. All the other people I see just assume I’m staff and they completely ignore me.”

“Well, make the most of being invisible because after the Autumn Ball when everyone sees you, you’ll be the centre of a whole lot of attention. The supposed half-vampire girl who’s living here is all anyone can talk about.”

“What’s the Autumn Ball?” I asked, feeling like it was probably quite self-explanatory.

“It’s the event we have at the beginning of October. You know dancing, drinking, all round fun.”

Worry sobered me up a little. “But I can’t dance.”

Henry got up and heaved me to my feet. “Well, it’s easy, I can teach you. Here, you stand like this.” He pulled me into position. “And then you go, right foot back, step to the left, then together. Left foot back, step to the right, then together.”

Ten minutes later he stopped. “Well, I guess it’s good we have time to practise.”

I shot him a look of mock scorn but knew that his assessment of my dancing was spot on. I was crap. Hopefully, if I attempted it when I was sober, I wouldn’t look so much like Bambi on roller-skates.

When I woke the next morning, the only evidence that I’d been drinking the night before was the fact that I was fully dressed. I climbed out of bed, grateful that the vampire part of me meant I didn’t suffer from hangovers.

I showered, dressed and brushed my teeth but then wasn’t sure what to do with myself. Holt was due back today but not until later. I decided to start with breakfast and ordered scrambled eggs and bacon. When I went to sit in the living room to wait for it to arrive, I found Henry sitting on the sofa, looking as immaculate as ever.

“Well, finally,” he said. “I’ve been waiting for ages. Always forget just how much sleep humans need.”

I frowned as I perched on the back of the armchair. “How much sleep do you need?”

“Oh, we vampires only really need a couple of hours a night, tops.”

“Two hours? That’s amazing; you have so much more time to do stuff,” I said.

A wistful look crossed Henry’s face. “Yes, that’s true, but I do envy you for being able to just pass out for nine hours at a time.” Then he seemed to snap out of his memories. “So what do you do now? Breakfast?”

“Yep, it’s already on the way.”

“Good, because I have plans for you today.”

I raised my eyebrows. “More scientific research?”

Henry grinned. “Nope, I just have a couple of people I’d like you to meet.”

“What? Who?” I gave Henry a wary look.

“Do you have to look so suspicious? I merely thought that, after what you said last night about not knowing anyone, I could introduce you to a couple of Henry-approved people.”

“Henry-approved?” I asked. “What exactly does that mean?”

“It means they’re people you’ll like. No judging or dull conversation. Just good people. They’re enforcers like me.”

I raised my eyebrows. “You’re an enforcer?”

“Yes,” Henry replied. “May I ask why you seem so surprised at that?”

I took a few moments to work out why I was taken aback. “Well, I guess I assumed that enforcers would be tough guys; you know the type, built like a bear and about as talkative as one. You just seem too friendly, not at all like cold-blooded killer material.”

“That’s exactly the reason why I’m good at being an enforcer. Nobody suspects me until it’s too late.”

I was saved having to find a response by the intercom buzzing. I answered the door to find a girl holding a tray. When I thanked her, she nodded and scurried away. I’d already got used to how uncomfortable the staff were about bringing food here. The first few times, I’d tried being friendly to put them at ease, but it only seemed to make them more uncomfortable. Once I’d tried to make a joke and the poor guy had looked shocked for a few seconds before forcing out a laugh that cut off in an odd strangled sound as he apologised and scuttled out the room. So now I just tried to make the encounter a brief as possible.

I wasn’t a slow eater but, by the time I’d finished my last mouthful, Henry was fidgeting like an impatient two year-old. I left the empty plate on the tray outside my door in the hallway. I hated doing it because it felt so lazy, but Holt had told me that somebody would be by to collect my empties and, if the tray wasn’t there, they wouldn’t knock, they’d just keep coming back to see if it had emerged. I would have just taken it back to the kitchen myself but I hadn’t yet found out where it was.

I was more than a little surprised at the place Henry had chosen for our gathering. It was a shooting range. Targets were lined up at one end of the room and, at the other, there were separate booths, two of which were occupied. I braced myself for the sound of shots but both occupants had heard us coming and had stopped.

Henry jumped straight into introductions.

“Faine, this is Thomas,” he indicated to the bulkier of the two. “And this is Roy.”

I nodded, smiled and tried my best not to look too uncomfortable. Luckily, Henry broke into chatter and I had a chance to asses my two new acquaintances.  

Thomas was probably around five foot nine with wide shoulders and a very masculine frame. I would have put him in his mid-thirties. His hair was rich auburn and fell to his shoulders.