The Vampire Gene (2 page)

It couldn’t have been easy going back to school so soon after all the strange things that had happened to her recently, but she had insisted in true Rebecca-style, and so she had gone. I had capitulated - I really had no business telling her what she should or shouldn't do.

Later that afternoon,
when I picked her up from school, it seemed as if she had been right to insist on going. It appeared as if the normalcy of being back at school again had helped her to regain her equilibrium. But once we had been to town and she had chosen her ring, it all seemed to crumble a little, and she looked shattered, as if the effort to be normal had been an exhausting ordeal. I sent her to sleep on my bed, resisting the fleeting but fierce temptation to join her, and remembered something I needed to discuss with Fergus. I had just picked up my phone to contact him when there was a knock on my door. I opened it to reveal a worried looking Mark standing on the step.

"Have you seen my cat?" he wanted to know. "I think she got out this morning, before we went to school, and now I can’t find her anywhere." He looked almost frantic.

I grinned at him. “She’s upstairs sleeping with your sister. I found her loitering outside your house this morning, and brought her back here.”

His relief was almost palpable. "Thanks. I was really worried. She hasn’t been out much. So," he changed the subject, "are you going to offer me coffee or what?"

I chuckled, and held the door wide for him. He stepped inside, and looked around. "Where’s the safe?" he wanted to know.

"It’s upstairs in a wardrobe."

“Cool.” Nothing seemed to surprise Mark. He’d barely registered any astonishment when he’d found out that Rebecca was a vampire, or, come to think of it, that I was one of a family of vampires. I think us using the term iron metaboliser helped, plus the fact that there was a very rational and scientific explanation for what could euphemistically be described as a very unusual condition.

I was making the coffee when my mobile rang. I pressed speakerphone, and Fergus’ voice filled the room.

"Angus. I tracked down the YouTube video footage that those vampires used to find Rebecca. I’ve deleted it off the internet, but the person who loaded it up might find out that it’s gone and try to upload it again. I will send you the details of our perpetrator in a few minutes. You might want to pay him a visit."

I thought about what Rebecca had had to go through recently as a direct result of the actions of one of her fellow students, who had robbed her of her privacy and endangered her life all in one go. I might indeed want to pay him a visit. I looked across to where Mark stood, serenely sipping his coffee. He appeared not to have heard, but I was sure that he had. It didn't worry me very much that he had, though. I knew that he would want me to protect his sister in whatever way I could. Sensing my attention, he looked up at me, and I held my finger to my lips in that age old ‘shhh’ sign. He grinned and nodded.

"Another thing. Marcus has run a few preliminary DNA tests on those samples we took from the vampires you, er, butchered."

"Don't hold back, brother," I said dryly. "Tell it as it is."

"Well, we could say executed, if it would make you feel better."

"Come and say it here," I told him, grinning.

"Ha! No thanks. Anyway, it appears that the blood drinking vampires have the same father, and six different mothers between them. That father is likely to be Jack, and if it is, he’s at least two hundred years old. Oscar, the one you smelled outside Rebecca’s school is about one hundred and sixty, and he’s not even the oldest of the sons."

"There seems to be quite a lot of inbreeding going on too," Marcus interrupted. "Jack appears to have fathered more vampires with his daughters."

"Gross," said Mark.

Fergus laughed. "Hey Mark, did you get the package?"

"Yes, thanks! I was going to drop you a line tonight."

"Looking forward to it. Keep an eye on those two for us." As if I wasn’t even in the room. Click.

"One day I’m going to educate them about hello and goodbye," said Mark.

"Yeah, go
od luck with that," I said wryly. He chuckled.

"Thanks for the coffee, Angus. I’d better go and set up my new laptop so I can actually email Fergus tonight. I wouldn’t like to have a vampire mad at me!" He laughed loudly and long as he walked out of the door.

Rebecca

I woke up with a face full of white fur. The kitten had migrated up to my pillow as I slept, and was curled around my head like some kind of weird hat. I noticed an unfamiliar but somehow comforting weight around my left ring finger. Angus walked in then, carrying a steaming mug of coffee. I dragged my hand out from under the covers and gazed at the ring encircling my finger.

"Like it?" Angus smiled at me and placed the mug gently on the bedside table.

"It’s beautiful," I sighed. "Mum’s going to do her nut."

"We can keep it a secret if you want," he suggested slowly.

"Nah. I'd better man up and confess. They will find out about it eventually, and Mum will be hurt that I kept it from her. What time are we going across?"

"Ten minutes. That supper that I ordered has
just arrived - vegetarian lasagne. We can carry it across and pretend we made it ourselves..." His voice trailed off as he grinned at me.

"She'd never buy it," I told him flatly. "She's tasted my cooking far too many times, poor woman. I'll get dressed and be down in a few minutes," I hinted.

"OK, OK, I'm leaving. Nice hat, by the way." He ducked out and shut the door behind him as I picked up a pillow and laughingly hurled it at him. The kitten woke up and stretched nonchalantly, while I sat sipping my coffee and contemplating the evening ahead.

Yup, Mum was definitely going to do her nut.

Angus

Rebecca’s mother took the news of our impending nuptials remarkably well. It was turning out to be something of a habit of hers. She just seemed to absorb the most astonishing and improbable news with uncharacteristic calm.

Joe looked a bit bewildered, and Mark just grinned like a maniac throughout, clearly enjoying the show. Rebecca,
who resembled a deer in the headlights for the first few minutes, seemed to relax as she realised that nobody was having hysterics at the news. The food I had ordered from a nearby catering company was delicious, and we polished it off, the boys going back for seconds and even thirds. I left them just after nine. I had a few things that needed doing tonight, and the Hardings were all starting to yawn in earnest. Cat included.

I walked back to where my car was parked on the road outside. Fergus had texted the details of the person who had posted the video of Rebecca's altercation on YouTube, as promised; name, age, address. It was more than enough - I had often had to work with much less. I locked up the house and armed the security system Fergus had had installed a few days ago. I had a couple of handguns and a sniper rifle of very dubious provenance in the safe, and I didn’t want anyone getting their hands on them. Finding the thieves would be easy enough, but it would take time, and I didn't need any distractions now.

I drove to within a mile or so of my destination. I didn’t want my car to be seen anywhere near the vicinity of an assault. Although I wasn’t absolutely certain that there would definitely be an assault, I knew that it was pretty likely. People nowadays seemed to regard filming other people in various situations to be a harmless activity. That footage often made it onto the net, and to me it was an unacceptable breach of privacy. I would try to explain how wrong it was to do something like that for fun, but words don't always suffice.

This particular individual lived with his mother and older sister in a small, detached bungalow near a small river. There were open fields on either sid
e of the river, and the house faced out onto one of those fields. Nice area, nice home. Poverty was obviously not going to be an excuse here.

There was a pub nearby, and as I walked past it in the direction of my target, half a dozen drunk teenagers stumbled out of the doorway. I stepped around them, and continued walking, hoping they wouldn't decide to try and cause trouble. The young people in the UK had a reputation for random viciousness, and although the majority of youngsters were pleasant enough, the reputation was not undeserved. These kids milled around outside the pub for a few seconds, appeared to come to some sort of decision, and then started walking purposefully behind me. I sighed. Just what I needed.

I turned abruptly onto one of the public walkways that hugged the river, and started walking purposefully towards a derelict barn that was situated in one of the open fields. The river lay between the bungalow and the barn. Once I had dealt with these idiots, who, true to type, had turned to follow me along the pathway, I would return to the road, cross the bridge and resume my mission. But now I needed a quiet place to persuade these youngsters that attacking a solitary, unarmed man was not always a good idea. I grinned in the dark.

The first attack came just as I reached the doorway of the barn. My assailant was one of the bigger lads, with spiky hair and numerous facial piercings. He tried to rush me from behind, and swung a fist at the back of my neck. I ducked the blow easily, and trotted into the barn. I didn’t want anyone witnessing what I was about to do.

They misconstrued my actions, as I had known they would, and hurried in after me, taunting me and laughing in eager anticipation of what they thought they were about to do. Yeah, right. What they were about to do was get a nasty surprise.

I turned to face them, my arms hanging loosely by my sides. The spread out in a semicircle opposite me, grinning and laughing.

"Gonna teach you a f***ing lesson, pretty boy!" The spiky haired thug grinned, showing a mouthful of yellowed teeth. Potty mouth in more than one way. Charming.

Niceties over, he lunged at me, his right hand balled into a fist and aimed at my belly. I sidestepped lightly, grabbed his fist, and punched him in the ear as I pulled him past my right side. He went down. His friends roared their rage and came at me. I grabbed the first to arrive, twisted his right arm up behind his back until I felt the tissues in his shoulder straining. He screamed in defiance and pain. I increased the pressure until felt his shoulder pop as it dislocated, and then I pushed him at the remaining four. He went down, taking two more with him.

The two remaining on their feet charged at the same time. I charged back, slamming my shoulder into the belly of the one on the right as I reached out with my other hand and snapped the nearest ankle of the one on the left. The one on the right sat down abruptly, obviously winded. I broke his nose.

The last two struggled to their feet, looked at their fallen friends and tried to run. I caught them before they even reached the door. I held them lightly by the throats. They could breathe, but only just. I wondered how many times these young thugs had gotten away with similar attacks. I lined them up in a row against the crumbling wall of the barn, and hurt each one of them just enough to slow and stutter their thoughts, so that I could slam home that silvery cognitive wedge that I had used on Rebecca’s hit-and-run driver. It had served me well in the past, and I knew its effects. They wouldn’t hurt another living thing ever again, and they would have no memory of what had happened here. I had left the one with the broken nose with two unbroken legs to walk on. He would be able to get help for the others when his brain eventually unscrambled itself.

I left them in the relative shelter of the barn and walked back up to the road. It was deserted. I crossed the bridge, and strolled down the walkway that meandered alongside the other bank of the river. I picked out my target’s bungalow, closed my eyes, and reached out carefully into the building with my mind. There were two female minds inside, and they were both thinking about the same thing. The other member of their household, the target I sought, was missing. He had gone out for drinks with some friends tonight and was not yet back. An image flickered in my mind, and I knew that the son and brother that they were worrying about would be home eventually, broken nose and all.

Once he remembered how to walk, of course.

Rebecca

Angus dropped me at school the next morning again. There were fewer stares directed at the car, but a lot more at Angus. Once again he had climbed out of the driver’s seat, and walked around the car. He stood in front of me, his hands curled around my upper arms, his dark eyes watching mine intently, his brow furrowed slightly with some hidden concern. God, he was beautiful, this man of mine. I smiled up at him and reached up to touch the pale smooth skin of his face. His lips curled suddenly, the furrows disappeared, and he leaned down to kiss me. I closed my eyes, shutting out the world so
that there was just him. He pulled back too soon, his eyes burning black, nostrils flaring. I knew that he was fighting to control himself, and I shuddered with the secret thrill of having so much power over this formidable man. I was feeling dizzy again, obviously not immune myself.

“People are staring,” he murmured.

“I don’t care,” I said, but I blushed anyway. He grinned, clearly pleased with himself.

“I’ll pick you up this afternoon
.”

I nodded, knowing that it was going to be a long day without him. I wondered if I would ever not feel like this. It seemed impossible.

School was a lot less tedious today. People seemed to have stopped regarding me as some sort of victim, for which I was profoundly grateful. One of my classmates, a girl called Susie, had taken it upon herself to extract as much information as she could about Angus. He appeared to have made an impression. I wasn’t one bit surprised, and answered most of her questions as evasively as I could without being rude.

I had debated long and hard this morning over whether I should wear my engagement ring to school. Logic had suggested that I leave it at home, or run the risk of creating a mild furore. But logic had very little to do with how I felt about Angus, so I wore the ring. I did wear gloves for most of the morning, but I had to remove them in biochem just after lunch, and, yup, it did cause a stir. You’d think people wouldn’t notice a simple ring in amongst all the bling flashing around the classroom, but they did. I fielded a few more questions, and then finally admitted that I was engaged to the good-looking man who had dropped me off that morning. I sidestepped the question of when the event was going to be held by saying that we hadn’t set a date yet. I smiled. Nine days and counting. I was getting better at lying all the time.

Then someone dropped the bombshell.

"Hey Becky, you know that there was someone asking around about you this morning?" The speaker was one of the creepier guys in the class.
He had greasy black hair and little dark piggy eyes. There was always a revolting innuendo in every single word he said. It was no different today. He grinned at me lecherously. “You a bit of a slag now, or what?”

I ignored the insult, forcing myself to stay calm. “What did he look like?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” he taunted me. I thought briefly about mashing his nose against his face. I could do it too, easily. I’d increased my iron intake to seven hundred milligrams of pure elemental iron per day. Seven tablets. I was starting to feel a big difference in my strength and energy levels. Things were even starting to smell stronger, and I heard more.

“Shut up, Shaun, you toe-rag.” One of the other girls spoke now. She was a decent sort, and kept to herself quite a lot. Nobody bullied her much – she had a vicious temper, and a biting wit. I had liked her because she never bothered me, and now I liked her even more. She clearly had taste.

She looked at me. “Nice looking guy,
really
nice looking. Hot. Big too, like your chap.”

“Yeah, he was
well
fit!” interjected somebody else.

I felt sick. I didn’t know what Jack looked like, but I had a bad feeling about this. I pretended to be intrigued and tried to get as much of a description from my classmates as I could, but they were rubbish witnesses. The mystery man was alternately tall, and really tall; built, whatever that meant; he had longish hair like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible 2, except that it was brown or blonde or maybe something in between. There was one consensus – he was very good-looking. Well, that sure sounded like a vampire to me. Crappity crap.

I spent the rest of the day nervously looking over my shoulder, waiting for the end of the school day when Angus would fetch me and I could feel safe again. I was really starting to think that maybe finishing my A levels was not such a good idea after all. School was a weak spot for me, a place where I was vulnerable and exposed. I would have to talk to Angus about this. Maybe we could move somewhere else after the wedding. I thought about my family and how I would miss them. Fine. We’d take them with us. Poor Mum. Life was certainly becoming even more chaotic for her, and I knew it was going to get worse before it got better.

The final bell rang eventually, and I walked cautiously towards the main gates, looking for Angus’ car. Next thing Angus was standing next to me, his hand laid protectively on my elbow.

“There’s trouble,” he said briefly, as he escorted me to the car, glancing around all the time, his eyes scanning the sea of faces around him.

“I know,” I said glumly. He looked at me sharply.

“You know?”

“Yes. Someone was asking about me this morning, apparently. They described him. Sounds like a vampire,” I said sourly.

He nodded, and opened the passenger door, waited until I had slid into the seat and buckled up, and closed it again. It looked like he wasn’t taking any risks. Good. He climbed into the driver’s seat, started the engine and pulled off smoothly.

“So what does a vampire sound like?” he wanted to know.

“Oh you know. Tall, unbelievably good-looking. Like you.” I grinned up at him. He chuckled.

“Do you think I’m good-looking?” he asked, glancing sideways at me.

“I think you’re the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen.” Well, he did ask.

He seemed slightly stunned by this, but he recovered his equilibrium after a few moments.

“I could smell him.”

“Was it Jack?” I don’t know why I asked. Angus had never smelled Jack, even when he’d destroyed his little band of vampires up in Scotland.

“I don’t think so,” he said speculatively. “Jack is most likely a blood-drinking vampire. This one smelled different, like he eats normal food and takes iron supplements. Like us,” he added.

“What?” I had been so sure that it was Jack that had been asking after me. Or one of his minions.

“I know. A little over a week ago, my brothers and I thought we were all alone. Now it looks like this place is crawling with vampires.”

Oh, boy. Fun and games.

Angus

I phoned Fergus as soon as we got home. That same vampire smell was here too, but more so at the Harding’s house than mine.

“Fergus. We have a problem.”

“Shoot.”

“There’s another vampire been asking around about Rebecca. He was over at her school this morning, and he’s been at her house too.”

“One of Jack’s?”

“I don’t think so. This one smells like one of us.”

“I knew it!” Marcus was jubilant. “There had to be more like us out there!”

“This is not necessarily a good thing, Marcus,” I told him. “He’s probably after Rebecca.”

“Hmmm.” Fergus sounded thoughtful. “He’ll be different to Jack and his lot, though, won’t he? It might be worth speaking to him.”

“No.” I wanted none of it. There was too much at stake here, and I wasn’t about to risk trusting someone who was potentially as strong as I was to be
reasonable
. I glanced over at Rebecca. She sat curled in her favourite spot on the sofa, listening intently.

“Well, I can’t think of anything else we can do, brother. The wedding is in nine days time, and we can’t move it any closer, because she’ll still be underage then, which makes it all very complicated.”

“I don’t like this situation, Fergus. I can protect Rebecca, sure, but her family are vulnerable, especially when they’re at work or school.” Rebecca frowned.

“You’re right. You’re going to have to move them
out of there. You’ll have to come back for the wedding, unfortunately, but I could organise a family holiday in a nice isolated spot, where you can spot someone coming from a mile away.”

“Sounds
like a good idea. But I was thinking of staying here. We are going to have to confront these monsters eventually, and with her family safe out of the way, I’ll be able to be more on the offensive than defensive. And I am very good at offensive."

"No need to tell me that, brother. I know exactly how offensive you can be." There was the sound of raucous laughter for a few seconds, as Fergus appreciated his own joke.

“I’m staying too,” Rebecca said firmly when he finally stopped chuckling.

“
Hello
Hello there
, little sister,” Fergus sounded pleased that she was here.

“Hello Fergus,” she said, blushing slightly. “I’m staying,” she repeated, her jaw set stubbornly.

“That’s a good idea, actually. Angus will be less savage with you around, plus he’ll be able to keep an eye on you. We don’t want you to kill
all
the vampires, Angus.”

“Yes,” interjected Marcus. “We’ve been trying for years to find some fellow iron metabolisers and here Angus wants to wipe them all out!” He humphed.

I smiled. They were probably right, but it was difficult for me to think rationally when there was a risk that Rebecca would be taken from me. I glanced at her again, at that beautiful face that radiated strength and innocence, and I knew I could never survive losing her. Lots of people wouldn’t be able to survive me losing her.

“OK.”

“Good. Later, brother.” Fergus hung up.

I went and sat in my armchair. “You’ll have to stay here. Or I can stay over at your place.”

“I’ll say here. I can change at home or bring a few things over here. You have a spare wardrobe, oh, no, wait, that’s a gun safe,” she teased me, grinning. I grinned back.

We sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes, until s
omeone knocked at the door. We both froze. I took a deep breath, sifting the air through my nose.

“It’s Mark,” I said. Rebecca sighed with relief. I went to open the door, and there was her brother with the kitten draped casually over one shoulder, apparently one of her favourite places to be.

“We’ve come for coffee.”

“I think you’re becoming addicted to the stuff.”

“Absolutely. It gives me quite a buzz.”

He stepped past me into my house, and greeted Rebecca with a casual, “Hi, Sis.” He put the cat down and it trotted over to Rebecca and launched itself onto her lap, where it sat purring and blinking at us.

“Her name’s Mina, by the way. You know, as in Mina Harker, the woman who hung out with vampires.” He chuckled at his own joke, and Rebecca smiled.

“I like it,” she said.

“I’ve also come to tell you that we appear to have won a holiday in Barbados, of all places. Mum just phoned from work. Her boss told her about it; he said it was some kind of company raffle thing that they did every year. Only thing is, the tickets expire at midnight tonight, so we’re leaving in a couple of hours. Mum didn’t want to go but her boss said she had to or the board would take it personally. How weird, being told to go on holiday. Typical Mum.” He grinned. "I wonder if this kind of thing happens a lot, or if Fergus had something to do with it..." his voice trailed off.

“Anyway, Bex, you’d best get packing. And I’ve come to ask Angus here if he will look after Mina while we’re away.”

Fergus was terrifying. It had taken him, what, five minutes? And he’d organised all this.

“I’m not going.” Rebecca was adamant.

“Are you mad, Sis?” Then he looked at me and grinned. “Oh, I get it.”

His sister blushed. “Barbados is by the equator, Mark. I’m a vampire, remember? It’s too hot?”

Mark nodded but didn’t appear convinced. He still glanced at each of us in turn, smirking.

“What are you going to say to Mum?” He continued in a squeaky falsetto, “Sorry, Mum, I can’t go because I’m a vampire now, see.” He burst out laughing. I smiled. Rebecca was pulling a face at him, but she laughed too.

“A-levels, remember?”

“Good thinking, Batman! Batman, get it?” he chuckled again at his own joke, and escaped into the kitchen to make coffee. Rebecca shook her head, and I nodded my agreement, though I couldn’t help thinking that I was going to miss Mark. But he would be out of harm’s way in Barbados, as would the rest of the family, and I would be able to concentrate on keeping Rebecca safe.

Rebecca

Angus insisted on walking across the road with me so we could tell Mum I wasn’t going with them. I was grateful. I’d been jumpy since I’d found out about that vampire asking about me this morning, and then when Angus had told Fergus that he’d smelled him outside our house, I’d almost had a heart attack. That’s one of the reasons why I’d told Angus that I would stay at his place. I just felt safer there. The other reasons I would keep to myself.