The Vampire Gene (3 page)

Mum was in a state when we got there. Her boss had sent her home early, and she was frantically packing and looking for passports. Joe and Mark sat in the sitting room, watching the news, and Angus went and joined them. Their bags stood just inside the door, packed and ready to go. Mum clutched three passports in her hand, and was desperately searching for the fourth.

“Rebecca, do you know where your passport is?” she asked.

“I’m not going Mum. I have too much work to do for my exams. I missed a lot of school this week already. I can’t afford to miss any more.” I was impressed at how glib it all sounded. I was becoming an accomplished liar now. Amazing how good it didn’t feel.

“Are you sure, baby? I think you need a holiday.”

“Definitely Mum. And I’m getting married in just over a week. I’ve got a lot to do.”

Her eyes glazed over slightly at the mention of it, as if she was expecting the whole event to just disappear out of my future. Poor Mum.

“I’ll help you pack, though. I’ve got a new bikini that you can borrow too.” She smiled gratefully at me, and I felt bad again about lying to her. And then I thought about what could happen to her if she stayed and one of those vampires got hold of her, and I knew this was for the best. She’d be safe in Barbados, and she needed a holiday.

We went upstairs together and spent a pleasant half hour giggling and packing what few summer clothes Mum had. We supplemented her wardrobe with a few of my things; Mum and I were more or less the same size. For a few minutes she looked quite excited about the trip, and I knew that once she’d arrived there and settled in, the sunshine would eventually start to dissipate the stress that cluttered my mother’s life.

We eventually finished packing Mum’s suitcase, and went to join the others in the sitting room. Angus looked up from his usual armchair, and smiled at me.

“Mrs Harding,” he said. “Do you have a lift to the airport?”

Panic crossed Mum’s face. “I knew I’d forgotten something!” she wailed.

“I’ll take you,” he offered. “I’m sure Rebecca would like to see you off at the airport.”

“Thank you so much!” Mum was looking flustered again.

“What time is your flight, Mum?”

“Nine thirty. We’re supposed to pick up the tickets there. Virgin airlines.”

Angus looked at his watch. “If we leave now we should get there with a few minutes to spare.”

“Right.” For a few moments it looked like Mum was about to spin out again, but she took a couple of deep breaths and managed to calm down. Angus meanwhile had taken her suitcases outside and was packing them in the boot of his car. Mark and Joe stood next to him, handing him their bags as he asked for them. Within ten minutes he had managed to get everyone into the car, and was driving smoothly in the general
direction of Heathrow.

We arrived with twenty minutes to spare, and stood in the queue with Mum as she waited to book in. That done, we said our goodbyes, and they walked through the various metal detectors and into the belly of the airport. Mum looked like she was abou
t to cry, but I knew she’d feel a lot better as soon as she arrived at her hotel, and there were no more sudden surprises waiting for her. They would be back in time for the wedding, hopefully relaxed, tanned and in one piece.

We were just about to head back to the car when Angus froze. I looked up at him, at his black eyes and his stony expression, and I felt my stomach lurch with fear.

“Vampire,” he hissed. “The same one that’s been sniffing around your house. What the hell is he doing here?”

We stood still, waiting, while people walked past us, pushing trolleys piled high with suitcases and bags. Next thing he stood in front of us, five feet away, as motionless as we were, while the world flowed around us.

He was devastatingly good-looking. His hair was a golden blonde colour and hung loosely around his perfect face in a shaggy, expensive looking haircut. His eyes were a piercing blue, and were framed by dark eyelashes and eyebrows. They were watching Angus cautiously, but he must have sensed my scrutiny, because those beautiful eyes glanced over at me appraisingly. Angus stiffened, and growled threateningly, and the vampire reluctantly turned his attention back to him.

“Congratulations,” he said in a silky voice. “I see you found her before we did.” He sounded annoyed.

Angus smiled tightly, and replied, “Yes.”

Anger flashed across the blonde vampire’s face, but he composed his features. “My mother sends her greetings and extends an invitation to you and the rest of your family to visit us at our residence just north of Dundee. This is the address.” He extended his hand, a small card between his index and middle finger.

Angus reached out and took it. “Thank you.” He spoke through gritted teeth, as if even this small courtesy cost him dearly. I could tell that he was furious about something.

“I will not touch her unless she wants me to.” The blonde vampire smiled bitterly. “I sense your mind, just as you sense mine, you see. I also know that you have two brothers, and they would wish to meet us. Sunday will give them plenty of time to travel out here. You must know that we mean you no harm.”

Angus nodded. “I will contact them tonight. Until Sunday, then.” He inclined his head in an old-fashioned greeting. The blonde vampire did the same, and then he was gone.

Angus stood for a few moments after he’d left, breathing carefully, and then the tension seemed to flow out of his body. He looked down at me and smiled. “Let’s go home, love.”

Angus

It was clever of him to meet us at the airport. He must have known that I would never have risked attacking him in front of all those people.

When he looked at Rebecca and I sensed his thoughts, his hunger; it was all I could do not to rip his throat out there and then. And then I felt his disappointment when he sensed Rebecca’s lack of response to him, and I felt intense satisfaction. He sensed that too, and it infuriated him.

It was strange to meet someone with the same ability to delve into people’s minds. I couldn’t feel him touching mine, but I could sense his response. It was intriguing and unsettling at the same time. I wondered if I would ever become accustomed to it.

Marcus and Fergus would definitely want to meet them. The vampire had allowed images of his family to flash across his mind as we stood there. Five in total: mother, father, two brothers and a sister. And as far as I could tell, their intentions in seeking us out were peaceful. But I mistrusted this one. I didn’t like the way his mind lingered on Rebecca.

We drove home in silence. I wondered what she was thinking, this young woman that sat so alluringly close to me, but I resisted the temptation to probe her mind. So I asked her instead.

“What are you thinking?”

She was quiet for a few seconds. “Can you really read minds, like that vampire said?”

“Yes. I can’t hear thoughts like they were spoken out loud, but I can sometimes pick up images and emotions, and get the general sense of a person’s character.”

“Can you read mine?”

“Yes.”

“So why did you ask me what I was thinking?”

I smiled. “Because that night that I rescued you, when I was waiting for Marcus and Fergus to arrive from Russia, I decided that I would no longer read your mind unless there was some life threatening emergency.”

“Why?”

“Respect for your privacy. I won’t read my brothers’ minds either.”

She was silent again for a while, as she digested this.

“But you read his mind.”

“Yes.”

“What was he thinking?”

“Lots of things. He showed me images of his family, and their house. He seemed to be honest about them wanting to meet us all, and about them meaning us no harm. He thought about you a lot.”

She blushed. “Is that why you were so angry?” She asked softly, shyly, peeping up at me through her lashes.

“Yes.”

She smiled, pleased. “Well, I didn’t like him much. He’s seems cold and superficial.”

It was my turn to smile. She looked at me thoughtfully.

“Angus,” she started, and then faltered.

“What is it, love?”

“Well,” she hesitated again. I waited.

“Tell me,” I said gently.

“It’s just that I can’t help but wonder if you’re maybe regretting this whole marriage thing.” He voice tailed off, and she stared down at her hands in her lap.

“I would never, ever regret that,” I told her emphatically. “Ever.”

"So why don’t you ever touch me?" She glanced up at me anxiously. "Apart from the occasional kiss, of course."

I looked down into her lovely face, and smiled wistfully. “Because, my beautiful, irresistible girl, I may not want to stop. I’m barely managing to control myself when I’m in the same room as you.”

“Gosh.” She looked at me speculatively. “And you’re not reading my thoughts right now?”

“No.”

“Good.”

I suddenly felt very suspicious. I glanced down at her, but she was looking out of the window with a thoughtful smile on her face. I was again sorely tempted to touch her thoughts, but I resisted. I wondered if I was going to regret my decision.

Rebecca

It had been quite a surprise meeting that vampire, sorry, iron metaboliser, at the airport. He seemed so civilised. Too civilised, in my opinion. Like he was all veneer and not much else. Angus didn’t like him, I could tell.

I had been worrying about the lack of any contact between us for a couple of days now, apart from when he'd kissed me outside school. He even avoided touching my hand when he gave me coffee. It was no big deal, I suppose, but I’d been obsessing about it. I remembered that first time that he’d kissed me, and how it had felt, and I was concerned that he’d stopped being interested in me in that way. I was relieved when he told me that he still wanted me. Overjoyed really.

The problem was, I wasn’t sure I could handle another eight or nine days of this strict no touch business. All I wanted to
do
was touch him; and a lot more than that too. A
lot
more. It was driving me crazy, now that I wasn’t so distracted by being abducted and going to school and suchlike. It was Friday night, and the weekend stretched out ahead of us, with no interruptions on the horizon, no Mark popping in whenever he wanted coffee, no school.

I thought about trying to seduce him, but in my head it didn’t go well. In my head he patiently rebuffed my amateurish advances, and I was left feeling crushed and humiliated.

Oh, well, another week or so of this ever-present tension. Maybe I’d make it. Who could tell.

The street was dark when we got home. Most of the lights in the houses had been extinguished as people had made their way to bed. Angus accompanied me across the road to my uncharacteristically deserted house, where I filled an overnight bag with jeans, shirts and jumpers. I stuffed underwear and clean socks in a side pocket, and threw in a set of pyjamas on top of my clothes. I hastily packed a toiletry bag, and then I was ready. We walked back to his house, and were greeted at the door by Mina the white kitten. She wailed hungrily. Angus went to find her some food, while I dragged my bag upstairs and started getting ready for bed. I was exhausted by all the drama of the day. I called down to Angus to let him know that I was going to take a shower, but there was no reply, so I just got on with it.

I dressed in my clean but scruffy looking pyjamas and wandered downstairs to say goodnight, and ask where I should sleep. Angus stood in the kitchen, watching the cat gulp down food from a bowl on the floor, his phone in one hand. He looked up at me as I entered the room, looked me up and down, and smiled.

“What?” I demanded, suddenly acutely aware that my pyjamas were covered in bunnies.

“You look beautiful,” he said sincerely, and I blushed.

“Did you phone Fergus and Angus?”

“Yes. They will be here tomorrow evening, and we’ll all travel up to Lancashire on Sunday morning. They’re very excited,” he said, and sighed.

“I’ll bet,” I said dryly. He grinned at me.

“You sleep upstairs. I’ll take the sofa tonight. Fergus is ordering a new bed for the spare room, and that should be here in the morning.”

“Are you going to be OK down here?” I wanted to know.

“I’ll manage,” he smiled at me. “I need to contact Fergus and Marcus about Sunday. You look tired. Go and sleep.”

“OK.” I hesitated briefly, and then “Goodnight.” I waved awkwardly, and turned and walked back up those stairs.

Angus

I couldn’t sleep. Not with her in the house, in my bed. So I eventually got up and made coffee, and tried to ignore her presence. I could hear her breathing as she slept, and that didn’t help at all.

And then she screamed.

I sprinted up the stairs and into the main bedroom, images Rebecca wrestling with Jack or even that new vampire blazing through my head, and burst into the room.

She lay in a crumpled nest of duvet and sheets, still fast asleep, but sobbing as if her heart were breaking. I stepped softly across the plush carpet and reached out carefully to lay a consoling hand on her tearstained cheek. She reached out and held my hand to her face, and the sobbing subsided, and her breathing steadied and became regular again as she slept.

I looked down at my hand still clutched in hers. She wasn’t letting go, even as I tried to extricate it from her grasp. If anything, her grip tightened. I smiled and sat down next to her, waiting for her rhythmic breathing to lengthen, signifying a deeper level of sleep where her hand would relax and I could make good my escape.

But I was bone-tired, and listening to her hypnotic breathing was having the same effect on me as a lullaby on a baby. Giving in, I stretched out next to her, careful not to let our bodies touch, and fell asleep.

Rebecca

I woke up just as the weak dawn light was shimmering through the gap in the long pale curtains. Angus lay asleep next to me, flat on his back, with his arms at his sides. His flawless face looked even more youthful and strangely untroubled as he slept.

I reached out to touch his face and hesitated, not wanting to wake him. Instead, I leaned over and breathed in his intensely male scent, closing my eyes as I inhaled. Hmmmm…

I opened my eyes to look down at his face again, and was startled to see that his eyes were wide open, and blazing black, and almost glaring up at me. I tried to pull away slightly, but he had already curled one hand around my neck and was pulling my face down to his. I closed my eyes as our lips met, and that sensation overwhelmed me. There was a tightening rush in my abdomen, and I gasped at the sudden intensity of desire that swamped me.

He groaned, and his hands found my shoulders and tried to push me away. His eyes were tightly shut, his face looked as if he were being torn apart by some agonising pain.

It was incredibly difficult to let him push me away, but I managed somehow. Satisfaction grew inside me as I appreciated the depth of his desire, but it seemed wrong to force the issue when he was fighting so hard to be a good man. I rolled over onto my side and watched as his breathing became less harsh and erratic and his eyes eventually opened and he turned to lay on his side, his head propped up in one hand. He watched me with a gentle smile on his beautiful face.

"Thank you," he whispered.

"I can't say it's a pleasure," I grumbled, blushing slightly.

He reached out and touched my face, running his fingers from my temple to my jaw. I smiled back at him, this man who had become so achingly precious to me.

The kitten chose that second to leap onto the bed and start wailing for her breakfast. Angus shook his head ruefully.

“Mina, you are becoming something of a pest.” I laughed at the incongruity of this large, powerful man talking to a white scrap of a kitten.

The cat mewled pitifully. Angus sighed heavily.

“Breakfast?”

“Please.” Mina wailed in unison. “Kitten says yes, too,” I translated.

"Right, then. I'll see you downstairs." Mina trotted after him, while I hopped out of bed and made my way to the bathroom. Ten minutes later I stepped out of the shower and wrapped myself in a big fluffy towel, and padded through to the bedroom, where I dug jeans and a shirt out of my bag and dressed hurriedly. Mina was still eating when I walked into the kitchen, and Angus was stirring scrambled eggs in a frying pan. He looked over at me and smiled. I blushed and smiled back.

“I’ll make toast,” I offered, and he pointed to the toaster with a spatula.

“Bread’s in the fridge.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. It’s as good a place as any, I suppose. Keeps it out of the way.”

“Weird,” I teased him. “Even for a vampire.”

He grinned at me. The phone rang then, an intrusion in our little scene of domestic bliss. Angus pressed the answer button and then the speakerphone function, and turned back to stirring the eggs.

“Hello?” It was Mark.

“Hey Mark, how is everything out there?” It was good to hear his voice again.

“Bloody hot. How’s Mina?”

“Your cat’s fine, Mark,” Angus said dryly.

“Good. Well, this is just a courtesy call to let you guys know that everything’s fine here, and that Mum is as happy as a pig in poo. She’s being hit on by some greasy chap and she’s loving it.” He chuckled. "Who knows, we might end up with a stepfather called Pedro."

"That's just wrong," I told him. "On so very many levels." I shuddered. "How are
you
liking it?" I asked him, changing the subject.

"Not so much, to be honest. It's a hot sweaty place, filled with hot sweaty people, all lying around turning pink in the sun and boozing up a storm. The only book I can find is a wrinkled old Robert Ludlum with the last ten pages missing. And their coffee is just gross. On the bright side, the air conditioner is top notch, and I've ordered a few books and some DVDs which should be arriving this afternoon. Until then..."

His voice trailed off and then there was silence.

"Why don't you download some books onto your
iPhone?" Angus suggested.

There was more silence.

"Mark, you still there?"

"Yes. Feeling like a complete idiot, though. I should have thought of that. Well, I must go now. Books to read, lying around to do, you know."

"See you in a couple of days. I'll give Mina a cuddle from you." There was a click as Mark disconnected. "He's been hanging out with your brothers too much. Goodbye obviously happens to other people now," I told Angus dryly.

Angus shook his head but he was smiling. I fished the bread out of the fridge and made toast, and smeared the butter thickly over the slices. Angus found two plates and dished up the eggs, and we ate while we discussed the meeting with the vampire family tomorrow. Apparently Marcus and Fergus had been over the moon with the news - big surprise there - and were already on their way to their family estate, which was eerily close to the home of the vampires that we would be visiting. Marcus had apparently started wondering about whether or not they were related. I bet he'd packed all his blood testing equipment. Those new guys were going to get, and probably give, a lot more than they bargained for tomorrow. The thought made me chuckle.

"What?" Angus wanted to know.

"I was just imagining their expressions when Marcus bears down on them clutching a needle and syringe. They're going to regret inviting us."

Angus grinned. "That reminds me, Marcus suggested we meet up at the family estate in Aberdeenshire tonight. It's going to take us most of the day to get there, so we had probably better get going. I have arranged for Mina to vacation at the vet for a few days while we sort this out."

"She's not going to like that..."

"I know, but she'll be safe there, and that's what counts. Your brother would not be happy if she went missing."

I smiled at the idea of the big strong vampire caring about the safety of a small, noisy ball of fur.
I had seen the detritus he'd left in his wake when he'd single-handedly annihilated a group of blood drinking vampires a couple of days ago, and here he was arranging accommodation for the kitten, who was still loudly munching her breakfast. I gulped down the rest of my coffee, and went to throw some clothes into a bag again.