The Twilight Circus (19 page)

Woody was in the stable with Titus when Nat arrived, out of breath and running scared.

In his mind, he saw Woody and the bull lower their heads toward each other, as if they were having some sort of silent conversation. Nat wasn't able to pick up any stray thoughts, so he had to be patient. At last, Woody jumped out of Titus's stable and turned to Nat.

NAT! OPEN IT
!

“I hope you know what you're doing!” muttered Nat grimly as he opened the stable door. The great black bull walked hesitantly to the open doorway, and Nat stood behind the door as Titus blew steam through his impressive nostrils. He looked mad and bad. His eyes gleamed blackly and his great body trembled as he waited.

What's he waiting for
? thought Nat, as he peered into the distance. Then suddenly Titus started to paw the ground. Woody raced off into the darkness. Titus bellowed loud enough to make Nat leap into the air, and
then shot off after Woody. Nat followed just in time to see Titus run amok, scattering and confusing the remaining vampires—he was taking no prisoners. With the vampires outsmarted again, they weren't quick enough to morph into their wings. As Titus chased them down and gored them with his devastating sacred horns, they exploded until they were nothing more than splatters of black, undead gore. The ones that managed to get off the ground flew off-course, straight into the electric fence, perishing in a flash of blue fire and black guts.

“D'you want some
more
?” screamed Fish at the retreating vampires. They were off the ground, flying up again into the trees, apparently beaten for tonight.

“They'll be back,” she said grimly to the exhausted Twilighters. “We need to find the hive, and quick.”

Agent Alex Fish wasted no time in organizing a special vampire-slaying workshop in the candlelit black tent.

“So, what have we found out about our vampire friends?” asked Fish, thoroughly enjoying the tutorial she was giving with Maccabee Hammer.
This is more like it
! she thought to herself as she addressed the sea of weary faces before her.
What a blast
! She was only sorry that the boss would be oblivious to her triumph, as she had no way of contacting him.

It wasn't over, though. There was only so much string and onion soup that would keep the vampires away, and eventually everyone would be defenseless against them.
And that—
Fish shuddered—
would be the end
.

“What we know about real, undead vampires is that they aren't like the ones in the movies,” said Fish to her pupils. “The undead in movies are usually middle-aged
guys in dinner jackets and shiny shoes, or hip, drop-dead gorgeous ones—no offense, Mac,” she added hastily to the vampire magician. He raised a skeletal hand as if to say,
None taken
.

“We outsmarted them.” Fish grinned. “They suffered all the casualties. The only injuries our side suffered were minor. Apart from Del, of course, who is showing some unfortunate signs of vampirism. If I'm right and we destroy the entire hive, he'll soon go back to being a normal faun again.”

“Come on, people,” said Maccabee Hammer impatiently. “What did we learn from the vampire hive?”

“They were butt ugly?” Scarlet shivered.

“Apart from that?” asked Fish. “What else did you notice about them? Did they give any clue as to where they might be holed up?”

Everyone looked at each other, hoping that someone would come up with the answer.

“They had
really
bad hair?” piped up Natalie.

Crescent was strangely quiet. She appeared to have nothing to suggest. She hadn't spoken to Nat to apologize
for her wimpy behavior, and was keeping a low profile, probably for the first time in her entire life. She listened to their plans intently, her hand unconsciously stroking the plastic snow globe in her pocket.

“Nat? Woody?” barked Fish. “Anything unusual about them?”

Woody, now back in human form, pondered this for a second, then grinned wolfishly.

“They stank,” he said. “They stank really,
really
bad.”

“OK,” said Fish wearily. “So we've got a bunch of smelly bloodsuckers with bad hair, anything else?”

“I've got a question for Mac,” said Nat suddenly.

The vampire magician got to his feet. His face was whiter than usual, his sad expression sadder. “Nat, what can I tell you?”

“C … can you do that thing …,” stammered Nat, “the changing into a monster thing?”

“What do you think?” asked Mac softly.

“I mean … are all vampires the same?”

Mac's face was expressionless. “It's a part of me I am ashamed of,” he said. “Like Scarlet said, it's ugly.”

Scarlet looked at the floor, slightly embarrassed. No one had ever seen Maccabee Hammer look any different from how he did tonight.

“I guess we could turn this into a show-and-tell session,” joked Mac halfheartedly, “but I warn you, it won't be pretty.”

Oh my God
, thought Nat,
he's going to show us
! His friend Mac was going to turn himself into a monster for the sake of their education! They had all seen the vampires roosting in the trees above camp. The red eyes, strange skeletal faces, how they could morph into their wings when they needed to.

The night seemed to grow colder, if that was possible. It was freezing already. A thin mist had appeared from nowhere. Mac stood in the middle of the clearing, half hidden in shadow from the trees. It was dead quiet. No one spoke; everyone watched as the mist grew denser, rising up, twisting and weaving around Mac's skinny legs. Nat could see Mac's eyes were closed as he concentrated on his monster metamorphosis. The mist was clinging to the vampire's body, and Nat's eyes watered as a sulfurous smell hung in the air. When the mist reached the vampire's
head it turned a dirty yellow, and then black. Mac's body seemed to grow and expand. Then, shocking in its speed, the mist disappeared, leaving behind something else.

The thing that stood before the scared Twilighters bore no physical resemblance to Maccabee Hammer, vampire magician, who, although not the most handsome individual in the world, possessed a certain lived-in charm and raffishness. The figure that stood beside the fire had made everyone back away from it in undisguised horror, and Nat was sad about that; Mac didn't deserve to be treated with revulsion. The blackened countenance of the vampire was strange, like a primitive bird. It—
he
, Nat tried to tell himself—reminded him of some sort of flying reptile. Its body was bound with thick, ropelike muscles, no doubt formed to be able to bear the weight of its wings when it flew. As if the vampire had read Nat's mind, a pair of wings spread from its shoulders and shone blackly in the light of the fire. Nat heard everyone take a deep breath. Although undeniably scary, the vampire's wings were beautiful, like those of a dark angel. And when Nat made himself look at his friend's face, he saw that Mac was not like the others. His face—
if you could call it a face
,
thought Nat—was turned slightly away, as if ashamed. Nat could see his eyes were red, but not with the greedy malice of the hive. Everyone else had noticed, too, that although he was different, he was still Mac.

Nat was the first to move closer again. He put his hand up and touched the space below the vampire's eyes. Mac flinched away, but Nat had felt how cold and unyielding it felt beneath his fingers, like stone. Then Mac faced them properly, gazing at them with his ruby eyes, and tried to smile.

Mac's show-and-tell was over. The mist enveloped him again and the vampire magician was back to his old self.

Nat broke the silence. “
Wow
. That was
awesome
!”

Woody was curious. “How d'you get to hang on to your cloves?” he asked. “I spend most of my time trying to find mine when I change. How come you're not naked?”

“Vampires transform by dark illusion and magic,” Mac explained. “The change from man to wolf, or vice versa in your case, Woody, is supernatural, but physical. That's why it looks so uncomfortable. I guess I'm just a big old freak.”

Woody grinned. “I guess you're in good company.”

Snug and smug in his cave den beneath the snow-covered ruins of Helleborine Halt, Lucas Scale rubbed his misshapen paws together with hectic glee
.

What a turn up for the books! The she-werewolf had been an unexpected triumph. She was perfect as a host for his sight: resentful, angry, and frightened; her senses had been ripe for the taking. Lucas Scale leaned back in his chair, congratulating himself on his cleverness. The female werewolf was the perfect spy. His powers were growing. He no longer needed the plastic snow globe. He could see through her eyes now
!

Back in the Carvers' cabin, Nat was trying to rest. If there was to be another vampire attack tonight, as Alex Fish had predicted, he would need all his strength again.

“Nat,” came his mum's voice from the tiny kitchen,
“how about a sandwich? I think we need to have a chat.”

Oh great
, groaned Nat to himself,
here we go
. His body ached with the exertion of the previous night's slayings, and he was so far down in the doldrums that he didn't want any lunch, but he couldn't sleep, either. In Wolven form, Woody could sleep anywhere at any time, as he was now, dozing at Nat's feet.

This wasn't supposed to happen
, thought Nat gloomily. He had accepted the fact that since he had met Woody his life would never be quite the same again, but this vampire thing was taking over their entire holiday! Not only that, but it had been hard work fighting them off, and he wasn't looking forward to another session tonight. And now his mum would want to ask him loads of questions about what he had dreaded: his Wolvenness.

He pulled himself from his bunk and forced a wan smile.

“Come on, Nat,” Jude prompted. “You must eat, especially after all the slaying you've been doing lately.”

Nat met her blue gaze with his own and suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to confess everything. “Sorry I didn't tell you,” he said awkwardly. “I didn't know how to start. I
mean, about the changes and peculiar stuff I can do now.” “Can you stop it?” asked his mum softly. Nat shook his head.

“Do you want to?” asked Jude, her face white and strained.

Nat shook his head again, almost ashamed. “No,” he said simply. “I guess not. I … I'm sorry.”

Jude took his hands. “You've got nothing to be sorry about,” she said. “I suppose it must have been difficult.”

“You
think
?” said Nat with a tiny smile. “I wish I'd told you and Dad, but I thought it would worry you a bit.”

It was his mum's turn to smile. “Just a
bit
,” she agreed. “I … I can't imagine how it must have been for you. But no more secrets, Nat. Not after all we've been through.”

“OK,” said Nat, his face solemn now. “But I don't know how far this is going to go.”

Jude's face went even paler. “You mean …?”

Nat nodded slowly. “What if it goes all the way?”

Jude swallowed. “You … you mean if you change into a wolf?”

There, it's out in the open
, thought Nat, strangely relieved. “Yeah,” he said.

“Then,” said Jude bravely, “I'll deal with it.” “Bit freaky.” Nat grinned.

“No,” said his mum softly, “there was nothing freaky about you last night. I wanted to tell you how proud we are … how you fought alongside Woody—it was kind of incredible.”

“The worst part was …” Nat shuddered, remembering. “The worst part was when they came out of the dark … the vampires, I mean. I saw how dead they really are. I never noticed with Mac.”

“What do you mean?” asked Jude gently.

“In the dark, with my new vision—it's like infrared, you know?” said Nat. “Living creatures like me and you and Woody and Del, our hearts glow red in the dark. Those things … those dead things … there was nothing there … just
black
.”

Jude pulled him close. “We showed 'em, didn't we?” she said. “And we'll do it again. Now eat.”

Suddenly ravenous, Nat accepted the enormous mound of sandwiches gratefully. He felt a whole lot better now that he didn't have to pretend anymore.

As he munched, he thought about the previous night's
work. His thoughts turned once again to the vampire hive. Although the Twilighters had suffered a couple of casualties during the fighting, no one had actually been bitten. But the news from Marais was grave. Two more children had been taken, whisked off into the night, which meant the vampires were increasing, the hive becoming stronger. Nat was trying to tune in and spot something—
anything
—that would give them a clue to where the hive roosted.

His nose wrinkled.
Ugh! There it was again! That stink
! Just by focusing on them, he could smell the vampires. He turned around slowly, worried that there were a couple of bloodsuckers waiting to jump on him, so ripe was the smell. He looked down at his plate of sandwiches with a quizzical expression on his face.
Blimey! It was the cheese
!

Cheese
. The cheese in this sandwich.
Ugh, did it stink
! His appetite vanished again. Nat loved cheese normally. When he stayed with Mick and Apple in Somerset, he'd eat Apple's homemade cheese, “Gurney Stinker,” by the ton. It was strong enough to make your eyes water and your tongue itch, but this stuff was
waaay
stronger than
Gurney Stinker. It smelled of rotting vegetables, dirty rabbit cages, sweaty gym socks … and, well,
vampires
!