The Four Realms (48 page)

The second thing was equally as bemusing and referred to earlier in the day.
 
Since when did Sally and Simon have a cellar?

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE - Fight On The M25

If there was one positive to D'Toeni's tall stories, it was that it helped re-enforce the urgency of getting to Venefasia.
 
They'd been busy in Darwin's absence, sourcing blankets, scraps of clothing, anything to cover them up.
 
.

Looking down on the cargo bay from the safety of the one of the upstairs conference rooms, Honest Tom slapped Darwin on the back.
 
"You were right, Darwin.
 
Rescuing D'Toeni was a good move."

Darwin bit his lip.
 
He desperately wanted to tell Honest Tom the truth but if it came down to it, who would they believe: him or the fellow vampire.

"Still," Honest Tom laughed, "I'm not sure who rescued who."

He walked off, leaving Darwin alone.

Darwin would just have to put up with the jibes.
 
Surely they would die down after a time, maybe when they were safely in the other realm.
 
He sighed, disappointed that things weren't turning out the way he imagined.

He thought he'd better go and help Cassidy, so turned to make his way down to the Cargo Bay.
 
He encountered Brian and Jules talking to D'Toeni at the top of the stairs.

"It's so good to finally have a real vampire here," Jules was saying.
 
"I tell you this place has been like a nursery with all the fucking
Die Neuen
running the show.
 
Do you know Honest Tom wouldn't let us out to feed?
 
I've not had blood for nearly a week now."

D'Toeni took Jules' hand and kissed the back of it.
 
"My dear, I feel for you."

Brian watched his partner's hand carefully.
 
"It's just ridiculous.
 
Who put them in charge?"

Darwin pushed past, ignored by the others.

"I mean," Brian continued.
 
"You've got Monk who openly admits his allegiances are with the werewolves, Honest Tom is a Negro, and then there's..."

"Don't you worry," D'Toeni said, raising his voice as if to make certain Darwin heard.
 
"Once we get to Venefasia, we'll sure we reinstate a more... traditional hierarchy."

Darwin could only roll his eyes.
 
He guessed old prejudices died hard when you were several hundred years old like Brian or D'Toeni.
 
Jules had no excuse though.
 
And technically, wasn't she
Die Neuen
also?

Still he had enough on his mind to worry about.
 
They had to get to Venefasia first.

Cassidy had finished loading the blankets by the time Darwin arrived.
 

"Nice of you to come and chip in," she jested.

Darwin looked up to the skylights and the grey sky beyond.
 
"Do you think it'll work?"

"They'll have to stay covered up the entire journey.
 
We couldn't paint out the windscreen."

Darwin nodded.
 
It would have to do.

"How you doing?" he said as an afterthought.

Cassidy shrugged.
 
"Well...
 
You know..."

At least she's talking now, he thought to himself.
 
That was an improvement.

She looked over his shoulder to Metzger's ornamental sword he had strapped to his back.
 
It was so large that even at an angle the tip of the sheath was down by his ankles.

"Still got your sword, then?"

"I thought it made me look cool."

Cassidy considered it for a second.
 
"Possibly a bit overstated," she concluded.

A smile broke out between them, a joke shared and for a second it felt like old times again.
 

#

Darwin opened his eyes and realised he must have dosed off.
 
He'd not slept for several days.
 
Bleary eyed, he looked toward Cassidy.

"Aren't you tired?"

"Very.
 
Can you hold onto the wheel for ten minutes, while I get in a quick nap?"

Darwin blinked, trying to bring the world back into focus. They were on the motorway, Cassidy driving, Darwin beside her and the vampires hidden beneath the blankets in the back.
 
He cast her a worried look.
 
She smirked back and he let out a sigh of relief.

"Thought you were serious for a moment."

"You snore."

"Do not!"

Cassidy raised an eyebrow at him.
 
"Whatever you say, bozo."

"How touching," came a voice from behind.
 
Darwin automatically recognised it as D'Toeni's.
 
"You two were just made for each other."

He was sitting with his back against the front seats.
 
Darwin looked over and saw he wasn't covered.

"You might want to watch the light.
 
I hear you can get an awful tan this time of year."

D'Toeni huffed.
 
"My dear boy, I’ve been burned by the sun so many times, I'm almost as resistant as you are."

"Want to put that to the test?"

"My.
 
Someone is very bitter today."

"I wonder why?"

D'Toeni laughed.
 
"Well yes.
 
You were made to look a bit foolish today."

"Foolish?
 
I saved your life."
 
Darwin refused to let himself get riled by the vampire but the way D'Toeni had seemed to ruin everything ate away at him.

"What do you want?
 
Gratitude?"

"I should have left you down that tunnel.
 
They all think you are a hero when I know you're not."

D'Toeni waved the comment off as if he was swatting a fly.
 
"Say what you like.
 
They're all asleep and can't hear you.
 
Not that they would believe you even if they were."

"Leave him Darwin," Cassidy commented.
 
"He's just trying to wind you up."

"Yes, Darwin.
 
Listen to your little girlfriend.
 
She's all yours now her beau Ryan is offal."

Cassidy tutted.
 
"You'll have to do better than that if you want to try and get at me."

"You're such a strange one, Cassidy.
 
You're not scared when you really, really should be.
 
I haven't worked out if that is down to stupidity or bravery."

There was silence whilst D'Toeni seemed to be waiting for an answer, but Cassidy did not grace him with one.
 
Instead she offered Darwin a little wink and focused on her driving.

After a while, realising that Cassidy wasn't succumbing to his little taunts, D'Toeni let out a massive sigh.
 
"I'm so bored.
 
Why aren't we there yet?" he said loudly.
 
"Are you deliberately driving slowly?"

"Can you keep it down," a voice mumbled from under a blanket.
 
"Some of us are trying to sleep."

The voice was unmistakably female and so had to belong to Jules.

"I'm sorry, my dear," D'Toeni said, brightening up at the prospect of a new playmate to spar with.
 
"But the conversation here has been so droll without another vampire to talk with."

"Are we there yet?
 
Is it night yet?"

"No, on both counts I'm afraid.
 
If our driver was any slower, it would be faster to get out and walk."

Cassidy looked over to Darwin and raised her eyebrows.
 
Darwin didn't share her amusement.
 
Were it any vampire other than D'Toeni, Darwin might have been tempted to sort this out the old fashioned way.

Jules let out the type of laugh people do when they are looking to impress, an over-enthusiastic guffaw.

"You do realise how stupid you look sat there with a towel over your head, don't you Jules?"
 
Darwin sniped.
 
Cassidy flashed him a glare but it was too late.
 
Darwin shrugged back at her.

Jules pulled away her blanket. They were travelling so that the sunlight was shining against the side of the vehicle and hence blocked by the painted windows.
 
But even so, Jules must have been pretty annoyed to risk the light.
 
"Fuck you, Darwin," she called back. This brought a smile to Darwin's face.

It was D'Toeni's turn to turn the other cheek.
 
"Ignore him, Jules.
 
We don't have to put up for his kind for very much longer."

"Can't come soon enough, D'Toeni.
 
Those two make my skin crawl."

"Well rest assured that as soon as we cross into Venefasia.
 
I'm going to make a meal of our driver."

Jules guffawed again.
 
D'Toeni did not seem to share the joke.

"What's so funny?"

"You're going to feed on Cassidy?"

D'Toeni nodded.
 
"What's funny about that?"

"Can't you smell her?"
 
Jules' tone was slightly condescending and Darwin saw D'Toeni visibly stiffen.
 
See how you like it
, Darwin thought.

"I lost my sense of smell back in the Napoleonic Wars.
 
Long story."

"She's Fallen, D'Toeni.
 
You won't be able to feast on her."
 
Jules was obviously finding this funny but D'Toeni’s face was turning bright red..

"You what?" he spat.
 
He twisted to look up behind him as Cassidy and sniffed really hard.

He turned back to look toward Jules.
 
"You stupid fucking bitch!" he yelled.

Jules stopped laughing.

"You let a Fallen into your group," he screamed.
 
"Are you fucking insane?"
 

The other vampires started to stir.

"She came with Darwin," Jules protested.
 
"I had nothing to do with it."

"But you never did anything?"

Jules started to stammer.
 
"I... I wasn't in charge."

D'Toeni stood up.
 

"What's going on," another sleepy voice called out.
 
"What's wrong?"
 
Darwin thought it might be Monk but the blankets muffled any certainty.

"What's wrong?
 
What's wrong?
 
It's no fucking wonder you lot are almost extinct."

"Go back to sleep" another voice called out.

"This is what happens when you put the nigger and half-breed in charge.
 
Her kind have been trying to eradicate us for hundreds of years."

"I've never heard of angels with tentacles," Darwin commented.

"Yeah," Monk called out.
 
"You said they were like giant octopi.
 
Not like any angel I've heard of."

Had the situation not been so fraught, Darwin might have used this situation to undermine the vampire and get back some of his credibility.
 
But D'Toeni looked genuinely incensed.

"You're all fucking mad," the vampire muttered to himself.
 
"Well, if you lot aren't going to do something about it..."

He made a lunge for Cassidy, grabbed her around the front of the neck and pulled back.
 
Cassidy resisted, gripping firmly on the steering wheel.
 
But the force was enough to cause her to jolt the wheel.
 
The minibus careened into the next lane.
 
There was the sound of horns and a thump as it banged into the side of another car.

Darwin lent over the back of the seat and tried to make a grab for D'Toeni.
 
In response the vampire stepped out of reach, tugging at Cassidy's head again.
 
The minibus veered again, this time to the opposite lane.
 
A cacophony of horns blared, and there was another thump and the sound of breaking glass.

D'Toeni wobbled slightly with the bump, but his grip remained firm. "Move closer," he told Darwin, "and I'll break her neck."

"D'Toeni,
 
Have you gone mental?
 
She's driving."

"Take the wheel from her if you're so worried."

Darwin pointed to the blacked out side windows. "If we crash and the sun gets in.
 
You're all going to die."

D'Toeni scoffed at this idea.
 
"As if I care.
 
Better to die at our own hand than at the... tentacles of those things."

Darwin felt a fire ignite in his belly.
 
Anger rose up from within, filling him, consuming him.

"Let her go, D'Toeni"

"Who are you to give me orders, boy?"

"I said let her go."

Darwin was shaking now, he was so angry.
 
He knew that if it came to a fight, D'Toeni would beat him, probably rip his limbs off.
 
But that didn't matter right now.

"Ooo look," mocked Jules.
 
"The little bastard's trying to grow some balls."

D'Toeni sneered at Darwin.
 
"And what are you going to do if I don't?"

Darwin looked D'Toeni in the eyes, something he'd never been able to do before now.
 
It had been fear of the vampire that had kept his eyes downcast, but no longer.
 
He was no longer afraid of D'Toeni.
 
He no longer admired the vampire, no longer wished he was more like him.
 
That had all been replaced with anger, not only at the vampire for threatening his friend, but at himself for being taken in by the vampire's bullshit.