By Midnight (53 page)
‘Or was true.’
‘Exactly.’
Chapter Thirty-Three
‘Okay, so you’re telling me that garlic is useless?’
April was sitting in the kitchen getting a crash course in the finer points of vampire lore.
‘Not if you’re talking about pasta sauce,’ said Gabriel. ‘But if you’re talking about killing a vampire, then yes.’
‘So where did the garlic thing come from then? Why not parsley or coriander or something?’
‘It’s because garlic was used in medicine - it’s like an ancient antibiotic that could “magically” cure people. If left untreated, some diseases can give you delusions, so administering garlic became seen as a way to drive out demons.’ He saw April’s raised eyebrow. ‘Hey, I’m in the business, I know these things.’
‘Holy water?’
‘Nope,’ said Gabriel. ‘And we can go into churches too.’
‘Sunlight?’
‘There’s a degree of truth to that. We can go out in the sun but we don’t like it much, it irritates our skin, hurts our eyes. That’s why some days we don’t go into school - we don’t want to be sitting in the refectory in direct sunlight. That’s why vampires love nightlife and hate early mornings. We prefer the night and winter in the same way bleeders - sorry, humans - prefer the sunshine.’
April put up a hand. ‘Wait, you call us “bleeders”?’ she said incredulously, feeling both insulted and disturbed that vampires could talk about people as if they were just livestock.
‘Sorry,’ said Gabriel.
‘Okay, so what about crossed candlesticks?’
‘Now that’s just silly, and so is the thing about not being seen in mirrors. We’d never be able to walk around a town centre for fear of walking under scaffolding or being reflected in a shop window.’
‘So why does everyone believe it?’
‘Because we want you to. All those myths were started by vampires.’
‘What? Why?’
‘It’s simple, really. If anyone ever started to suspect someone was a vampire, all they had to do was turn up during the day, or eat some garlic or something. It’s just another way to stay hidden.’
April paused for a moment, trying to take it all in. ‘But if you’re so good at hiding, can you spot another vampire?’
A troubled look crossed Gabriel’s face. ‘It depends. Turned vampires - the ones who have been turned by a bite, like I was - are easy to spot: they’re too perfect. I mean, seriously, how often have you seen a teenager without spots? But true vampires are much trickier.’
‘What’s a true vampire?
‘The offspring of two vampires. They’re much more powerful because they’ve always been this way, it’s a natural part of them. Manipulation and ruthlessness come effortlessly, they can kill without a second thought. Plus their powers of recovery are much greater, so it’s almost impossible to kill them.’
‘But why are they “true” vampires?’
Gabriel pulled a sour face.
‘Arrogance. They believe they’re pure-bred, superior to both humans and turned vampires; the ultimate predator at the top of the food chain.’
April shivered. ‘How do you spot a turned vampire then?’
‘Like I said, we’re hunters, so our eyesight, hearing and sense of smell are much better than humans’. A true vampire looks and smells the same as a bleeder, but I would be able to smell a turned vampire.’
‘Why? What do they smell of?’
‘Death.’
‘I shouldn’t have asked.’
April looked down at her hands, trying to make her next question sound as casual as possible, but feeling butterflies in her stomach as she spoke. ‘So what about feeding? What about blood?’ she asked, torn between a morbid fascination and a flaming jealousy at the thought Gabriel licking some other girl’s pretty neck. Gabriel seemed to pick up on her thoughts and grimaced.
‘You’re really not going to like this part,’ he said softly.
‘Try me.’
‘Well, we can eat - our heightened senses of smell and taste make excellent food one of our great pleasures. But blood? We have to feed on human blood at least once a week, otherwise we start to get sick.’
Gabriel was right, April didn’t like it, not one bit. She thought of Ling weeping in the toilets, blood seeping from her wrist, and felt her anger rise again.
‘Who are you feeding from?’ she asked tersely, unable to disguise the distaste in her voice.
‘Feeders. People who allow us to drink a little of their blood. We don’t need much.’
April put her hands around her throat. ‘Don’t even think about it,’ she said.
‘I wouldn’t dare to presume,’ he said with a smile. ‘But seriously, that’s part of the reason for the recruitment at Ravenwood - they have more humans to feed from and the more a vampire feeds, the stronger they will become.’
April took a deep breath. She hated what he was telling her, but knew there was no point in getting worked up; it was the way he was, he had to feed. And she knew she had to focus on what they could change, how she could help stop more innocent people becoming victims.
‘So how can we stop them? A stake through the heart?’
‘Yes, that would work. One of the few things the movies get right. Vampires can be killed by destruction of the body - of anything you can’t do without, basically. So a pierced heart, suffocation or drowning, crushing of the body, decapitation, burning, anything serious like that, but smaller wounds can be regenerated and healed pretty quickly. As you saw last night.’
Gabriel pulled up his top to show her the wound. It was red and raised, but it was almost healed. April looked up into Gabriel’s eyes and couldn’t believe she had been so frightened of this boy that she had stabbed him. He was so beautiful and kind and gentle and ... she reached out and touched the wound, her fingers lingering on his skin.
‘I’m sorry, Gabriel,’ she said softly.
‘April,’ he whispered, placing his hand over hers and moving towards her. But suddenly, almost involuntarily, April pulled back.
‘I ... I’d better go and check on my mum,’ she said quickly and grabbed the door handle.
What are you doing? she thought furiously as she ran up the stairs. He’s totally hot and you had your hand on his skin and now you’re running away?
Cursing herself, she stuck her head around the door of her mother’s room.
‘Mmm, darling?’ moaned Silvia, turning over sleepily. ‘Is that you?’
‘Yes, Mum,’ she said.
‘Could you be an angel and pass me my pills? Got a splitting headache.’
Sighing, April did as she was told.
‘Thank you, sweetie,’ murmured Silvia as she pulled the duvet over her head. ‘And could you turn the TV down? I keep hearing voices.’
‘Yes, Mum.’
She gently closed the door and padded back downstairs. She found Gabriel sitting on the sofa in the living room, a book on his knee.
‘Sorry, I hope you don’t mind,’ he said, holding up the cover which read:
Beneath The Dark Waves: The Loch Ness Monster Mystery.
Beneath The Dark Waves: The Loch Ness Monster Mystery.
‘One of my dad’s,’ said April proudly.
‘Looks pretty good,’ he said. ‘I was just reading that there is more water in Loch Ness than all the lakes in England, Scotland and Wales put together. Twenty-two miles long, one and a half miles wide. That’s a hell of a hiding place.’
‘My dad didn’t find Nessie,’ said April, sitting down next to him and peering at the photos, ‘but we had a nice holiday up there. I remember there being an ice-cream van permanently parked outside our cottage, but that might be rose-tinted spectacles.’
Gabriel looked across at her. ‘I wish I’d met your dad,’ he said softly. ‘But I promise you I will do everything in my power to find out who murdered him.’
April could only nod. ‘I miss him,’ she said finally.
‘Why don’t you tell me about him?’
April looked away. ‘Nah ...’
‘Come on, I’m serious,’ he said. ‘Tell me about Scotland.’
‘Okay,’ she said, secretly glad to be talking about happy times. She leant back against the sofa head-rest and began to tell stories, her fondest memories. The time on holiday in Skye, when they had found a boat washed up on the shore and he’d lifted her up to get inside and find pirate treasure but all they found were old nets. Or the time he’d tried to teach her to fish and she’d fallen over and got her wellies full of frogspawn. And the birthdays and the pantomimes and the bike rides. And as she talked, she felt safer and more relaxed than she’d felt in weeks, maybe years. She slid slowly down the sofa until she was resting her head on his shoulder and it felt good, it felt right. Gabriel slowly, gently began to stroke her hair, pushing it back behind her ears, and April felt a warm tingle spread all the way through her.
Kiss me,
she urged, closing her eyes,
for God’s sake, kiss me.
Kiss me,
she urged, closing her eyes,
for God’s sake, kiss me.
Suddenly Gabriel jumped in the air, hissing, as April’s head fell back against the sofa cushion.
‘What’s the matter?’ she said urgently, sitting up and looking at him. His face was a mixture of shock, fear and something else.
Revulsion
, that was it. April’s heart was hammering in her chest.
Am
I that horrible?
Revulsion
, that was it. April’s heart was hammering in her chest.
Am
I that horrible?
‘What is it? What have I done?’ she asked.
Gabriel ran his hands through his hair in an agitated manner and paced around in a circle.
‘Gabriel! What’s going on? Tell me.’
He shook his head.
‘What is it?’
He looked at her and there was a new expression there: pity. ‘I shouldn’t be the one to tell you,’ he said.
‘What? Tell me what?’
April’s heart was pounding now because she had recognised the expression on Gabriel’s face: it was the one her mother and her grandfather always had when they were talking about her family heritage, the face they pulled when it was obvious they had something they wanted to tell her but could not quite bring themselves to utter. Her stomach was on a spin-cycle now. What if all this wasn’t about vampires at all? What if it was about her?
‘Please, Gabriel,’ she said, desperate now. ‘What’s wrong with me?’
He stepped over and took her hands in his. ‘Okay, April, try not to freak - promise?’
‘You’re not making that easy,’ she said, her voice shaking.
He nodded and took a deep breath. ‘You have the mark.’
April put her hand to her face. ‘What mark, where?’ She jumped up and peered in the mirror above the mantelpiece. ‘I don’t see anything.’
Gabriel came up behind her and gently pulled the hair back from her neck. ‘It’s here, just inside the hairline, level with the top of your ear, do you see?’
April peered closer.
There was something.
There was something.
‘What is it? A birthmark?’
Gabriel nodded and touched the brown mark. ‘It’s the north star, the sign of the regeneration, the bringer of light.’
She squinted. It looked more like an ink blot than a star to her, but she could see from Gabriel’s face it was important. He looked stricken and hurt, like someone had just diagnosed her with cancer. She was getting really scared now.
‘Does this mean something? Am I ill? And don’t start with that “it’s complicated” rubbish again.’
Gabriel shook his head. ‘Okay,’ he said, gathering himself. ‘I know this sounds crazy, but it’s a part of vampire lore. I suspected something when I heard about Milo, but now ...’ He looked at her. ‘But now I can see it’s true.’
‘You can see what?’ shouted April. ‘You’re freaking me out, Gabriel, just tell me!’
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