Dark Heart Surrender (30 page)

Olivia said nothing, but the tremor in her heart was taking over her whole body now.

‘We don’t want you in our family,’ Polly continued. ‘Nobody wants you – not even your own mother. Certainly not mine.’

Olivia whimpered as the image of a woman’s face flashed into her head. A face she had only seen once.

‘She didn’t want you. And you come back here, asking to be loved,’ Polly sneered. ‘And you start to tell tales about us. We don’t like that, my brother and I. We don’t take kindly to that.’

Olivia managed to nod, though suddenly memories were tumbling fast. As though they had been loaded, stored, and on release couldn’t get out fast enough. She had come back here to find her birth mother, come to Polly’s house and asked. Only Polly and her brother were home and she had never got further than the doorstep.

The next thing she knew she had come to in that stinking cave.

Polly and Ade had tried to kill her – they had tried to bury her alive.

’You tried to kill me!’ Olivia stated, clarity hitting her. ‘You and your brother.’ She felt calm all of a sudden, from the relief of her memories returning – and her sanity. She was surprised to realize she wasn’t scared. Not any more.

Polly’s nose quivered. Her eyes were like ice. Emotionless.

‘And we didn’t succeed,’ she said then, in a bored tone. ‘Because here you are, kicking up a fuss. Again.’

‘I came here to find my family – to find my mother,’ Olivia went on, as much to prompt herself as anything. ‘Because that woman you live with – she’s my aunt. My mother’s sister. But you—’

‘We didn’t want you in our family,’ Polly said matter-of-factly. ‘We didn’t want someone else ruining things. Ade and I have managed very well over the years making sure that your Auntie Lydia never quite catches on to who we are. What kind of “monsters” she adopted. And then you come along – little homeless waif, Olivia. We couldn’t take the risk that mortal blood would prove to be thicker than ours.’

‘Mortal blood?’ The calm that Olivia had been feeling was pricked. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘Never mind.’ Polly shook her head. ‘We had to get rid of you. We had something important we needed to do – and you would have been a serious distraction.’

‘Well, do it,’ Olivia said quickly. ‘I’m not here to bother you. I’m here to try and find out where my mother is. Lydia would know – she must know.’

‘Forget it,’ Polly snapped. ‘Lydia is insane, or near enough. More so now that her father is dead. And that’s the way we want her to stay – sedated, living in her own little world. Oblivious.’

‘My grandfather died?’ Olivia said sadly. ‘I didn’t know I had one.’

‘Oh boo hoo.’ Polly puffed out her cheeks. ‘What you never knew you can’t miss.’

‘What’s wrong with you?’ Olivia gaped at her. ‘You’re inhuman.’

Polly stared at her, a look of mild amusement on her face. ‘Sharp as a tack, aren’t you, Olivia?’

‘I am not going to let you treat my aunt like that,’ said Olivia, not picking up on this. ‘And what have you done to her – are you drugging her or something?’

‘In a way …’ Polly said cryptically. ‘But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that you are in our way.’

‘I don’t care,’ Olivia said, using every bit of courage she still had. ‘She’s my family. Not yours. Not really. And she can tell me how I can find my mum.’

At that Polly let out a kind of sneering laugh. ‘I doubt that,’ she said.

‘Because you’ve totally brainwashed her?’ Olivia was disgusted.

‘No,’ Polly said, looking directly into Olivia’s eyes. ‘Because she is clueless. She doesn’t know that your mother is dead.’

Olivia took a second to digest this, realization slowly dawning. ‘You killed her,’ she said slowly. ‘You killed my mother?’

‘So you see,’ Polly said, ‘we simply can’t have you hanging round like a stray. It’s far too messy.’

Olivia stepped back. But there was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Not in this bleak, empty countryside, for sure.

‘I just wanted to find my mother,’ she gasped. ‘I never meant to get in the way.’

‘Well, you did,’ said Polly nastily. ‘And you’re going to regret that, Olivia. You’re going to wish you’d never been born.’

A
de was driving again, out of Bale. I sat helpless in the back seat.

‘Ade,’ I said quietly, ‘please. Can’t we talk about this?’

‘I offered you that opportunity,’ he told me, picking up speed. The sign for Bale flashed past us as he drove out of town. ‘But you haven’t exactly been cooperative.’

‘I told you. Luca left of his own volition.’ I kept my voice steady. ‘There was nothing I could do.’

‘Because he isn’t safe here.’ Ade half turned to me. ‘Yes, I get that. But he would never leave you with us – he will come and get you.’

‘No, he won’t. He doesn’t know—’

‘Whatever. One way or another we will have him,’ Ade said acidly. ‘You see, Luca is our only hope of righting a great injustice done to our family. Once upon a time, a member of his breed behaved very badly. Very ungratefully. And it was nearly too late. Polly and I are the only remaining members of that family. We have a quest passed down to us over centuries. We will not fail in that quest.’

‘But Luca is innocent. It isn’t his fault!’

Ade laughed, low and dark. ‘You have no idea, do you, Jane, of what you’ve got yourself mixed up in?’ He picked up speed, as though to reinforce the danger.

‘Slow down!’ I leaned forward. ‘You’ll get us killed.’

‘Not me!’ Ade laughed. ‘I don’t die – didn’t you know that?’

My lip curled at his recklessness. ‘Where are you taking me?’ I was amazed at how calm I sounded, because my heart was beating double time.

‘In time. We need to do a pit-stop first.’

Ade slowed as he approached a crossroads. As he turned left it took a minute for me to figure it out. This road was horribly familiar to me. All because of one fated night. We were heading for the training ground.

‘My family will worry,’ I told him, pointlessly, ‘if I’m not home soon.’

He shrugged. ‘They’ll be doing more than that come tomorrow morning.’

My mother’s face flashed into my head, then Dad’s, and finally Dot’s. I blinked away frightened tears. I couldn’t cry, not now. If there was any way out of this situation, I needed to stay strong. I leaned back in the seat, my heart still pounding, and stuck my hands in the pockets of my jacket. Looking down at it, I felt a crashing sadness as I remembered I was wearing Luca’s old leather jacket. I told myself that if I was going to die, then I’d die wearing something of his. It was a tiny comfort.

In my left pocket, my hand encountered what felt like a box. I drew it out and stared at it. Just a box of matches Luca must have picked up from Pete’s yard. I was about to stuff them back in when a light went on in my head.

A box of matches.

I quickly pushed them back into the pocket, wincing at the rattling of the matchsticks inside. But Ade hadn’t heard, he was intent on driving, his face in profile looking less human by the minute. Distinctly bestial, in fact.

The sky was pitch-black, not a star to be seen. I craned out of the window to find the moon, finally seeing it, a sliver slicing through the darkness. I thought of Luca. I would never see him again.

Don’t think about it
, I told myself,
just don’t think about it
.

Ade slowed the car down and ahead of us I saw two figures at the side of the road. Hopefully I thought about winding down the window and yelling for help, but as the car drew closer, I could see that familiar long, Titian hair and pale gamine face.

Polly had her bike with her, leaning up against her as she stood with another girl I didn’t recognize. I looked back at Ade.

‘What’s happening?’ I asked.

Ade raised a hand in greeting at Polly, who nodded back, before giving me a supercilious look.

‘My sister’s coming along for the ride,’ he said. ‘If that’s all right with you?’

‘Who’s that with her?’ I craned out. The girl with Polly looked terrified. Her short blonde hair revealed a pretty, open face – at this moment a pretty, scared face. She was woefully underdressed, wearing only a thin dress and a denim jacket. She was shaking, I could see that even from a distance.

‘Ah. Our local celebrity,’ replied Ade, leaning over the passenger seat and opening the door. ‘That’s very convenient.’

Polly climbed into the front seat, glancing cursorily at me in the back seat. She flicked her hair back.

‘I found her,’ she told her brother. ‘In the nick of time it looks like. The idiot was on her way to see Lydia.’

The door next to me opened and the girl bent to get in. She looked at me as though I were the enemy. As I shuffled along to make room for her, she clutched her bag tightly to her and looked as though she were doing breathing exercises, slowly in and out. I recognized those; I used to do them when I was being terrorized at school. I stared at the side of her face. I wanted to tell her that everything was going to be all right. But I couldn’t.

‘Jane, meet Olivia. Olivia, Jane,’ Polly introduced us crisply. Olivia and I exchanged a look and I smiled faintly at her. She looked so thin and wretched I wanted to hug her. Her eyes met mine in understanding for a second, before she twitched away, studiedly staring out of the window as the car pulled off again.

‘Isn’t this nice?’ Polly turned back, fixing her eyes on me. ‘Going on a little road trip, the four of us.’

Beside me, I was aware of Olivia’s body shuddering and when I looked she was crying softly, tears rolling down her cheeks. Deciding it didn’t matter any more, I spoke up.

‘What the hell is going on?’ I glared at Polly. ‘What has this girl done to you?’

‘I’d better fill you in,’ Polly said chummily. ‘Olivia came looking for her mother at our house, because Lydia Ellis is her aunt. But Ade and I weren’t happy about that. Not least because we got rid of Olivia’s mother a while ago. And we didn’t want any awkward questions. Not to mention some freeloading little hobo girl wheedling her way into our family.’ She glanced at Olivia, who was still crying quietly. ‘Anyway, we kind of botched up killing Olivia – ’ Polly paused to frown at Ade ‘ – and she kind of escaped, went to the police, and … well, the rest you know from the news. She’s still hanging around like a bad smell. And that has to stop. You understand?’

Olivia and I locked eyes. In hers I saw fear and pain combined. I felt overwhelmed by helplessness. In my pocket I gripped the matchbox – our only salvation.

But then something else happened. Something so gloriously simple occurred to me that it was all I could do not to laugh in relief.

‘You’re actually going to kill us?’ I said. ‘What good will that do?’

Polly sighed melodramatically. ‘We’re not going to do that – not yet.’ She gestured at Olivia. ‘Well, maybe her. But not you, Jane. We have something much more productive lined up for you.’

I bit my lip, waiting. Beside me Olivia shifted in her seat, her small thin hands gripping her knees. I sneaked out a hand and closed it over one of hers, trying to signal to her that it might be OK. It just might be OK.

A miracle could happen.

Ade started to drive off again, as Polly left me hanging.

‘Well?’ I prompted.

She laughed, a low, dark sound. ‘You’re going to take us to what we really want, Jane. You’re going to take us back.’

‘Oh,’ I said, understanding. All hope fizzled out. ‘I don’t think I can do that,’ I said lamely. ‘It’s not possible …’

‘Of course it is,’ she countered briskly. ‘We know how it works.’

‘Forget it,’ I said blankly. ‘Even if I could take you back to Nissilum, I wouldn’t do it. My link isn’t strong enough.’ I paused. ‘And why have you waited till now? You could have cornered Luca at any time.’

‘We like the slow approach and to play with people,’ she said lightly. ‘It’s much more fun. Though in this case possibly a bad idea.’ She turned to Ade. ‘We misjudged that rather.’ She sighed. ‘It would have been fairly straightforward, too. We would never have just killed him. That wouldn’t have got us anywhere. Instead we worked our “mental magic” on the two of you – on Luca particularly. But it turns out he’s a little brighter, a little more sensitive, than we thought.’

Ade was very quiet, but his profile seemed to be altering by the minute – the down on his face first, then, as I looked at his hands on the steering wheel, the coil of his fingers, like claws digging into the plastic.

‘I can’t do it,’ I said. ‘I won’t.’ I looked at Olivia. ‘You can do what you like with me but Olivia has done nothing – except turn up when you didn’t want her. She doesn’t deserve to die.’

‘Shut up!’ Polly whirled round and I gasped at the sight of her face, narrowed down to a tip at the chin; her eyes were dark – no longer blue, but a greeny-brown colour, and her long red hair seemed to have merged with her body. She stared at me, opening her jaw just enough for me to see the sharp teeth inside her mouth.

I tried very hard to conceal the extent of my shock – my terror. I kept to the mantra playing inside my head. Stay calm. Whatever you do, stay calm.