Hidden (Marchwood Vampire Series #1) (50 page)

Alexandre
turned back to Madison and gave her one last look before he left
the room.

‘
You may be more comfortable in another room. One where you
can’t see what’s happening,’ Vasey-Smith said to her. ‘Alexandre
will be fine, but it may not make very pleasant
viewing.’

Madison did
not reply. She just sat down on one of the swivel chairs and leant
back crossing her arms across her chest.

‘
Very well,’ he said. ‘But please let me know if it gets too
much and someone will take you next door until it is over.’ Blythe
turned to Vasey-Smith. ‘How long will they take to prepare
him?’

‘
Shouldn’t be too long. His skin will have to be cleaned
first, as well as the others.’

Madison felt
small and alone, like an unwanted child. A feeling that over the
years had become all too familiar.

Chapter
Twenty Nine

*

Madison sat in
the viewing gallery biting her nails down to the skin. Everybody
else acted like she wasn’t even there, which suited her fine. She
had nothing to say to these people anyway. She was so scared and so
angry. There was a whooshing in her ears and she hoped to God she
wouldn’t pass out.

If anything
happened to Alexandre what would she do? And if anything happened
to her, what would happen to Ben? No, she had to try to stay
positive. It was the only option left. Alexandre was doing what he
had to do and she respected that decision, she honestly did. She
just wished he wasn’t doing it.

She remembered
how badly the daylight had affected him all those months ago, when
she’d dragged his crate outside under the setting sun. He’d gone
through excruciating agony, feeling weakened and half-dead, but
then he’d recovered almost immediately. The sun had acted like an
electric shock to his system, kick starting him back to life and
killing the disease in his cells. Would it really work on the
others?

She looked and
saw there must have been about twenty people down in that room now,
but still no sign of Alexandre or the others.

*

Alexandre
followed the French woman out into the hall and down the corridor.
They descended a set of steps and turned right into a small room
where two men waited.

‘
These men will wash you,’ she said in his native
language.

‘
I think I am capable of washing myself.’

‘
I’m sorry. It’s a necessary part of the preparation. You must
be cleaned thoroughly.’

‘
Very well.’

‘
Your clothes,’ she said.

‘
What, here?’

She
nodded.

He stripped
off his clothes and let the men lead him into a large shower
cubicle. He stood, feeling humiliated and slightly ridiculous. One
of the men pressed a round chrome button and about twenty jets of
hot water hit his body from all angles. The men stood at a short
distance with long brushes. They squirted some foul smelling liquid
onto the bristles and scrubbed at his steaming body. The jets were
powerful and the brushes were coarse. His body tingled as hot water
ran down his face and body in soapy rivulets.

When he was
done, he stepped out of the cubicle and the men pointed to a small
chamber. Alexandre hesitantly stepped inside. He heard a loud
humming whoosh and warm air swirled around his body, drying his wet
skin. After a minute or two, the dryer stopped and he left the
chamber.

The two men
had gone, but the French woman still remained. She handed him a
cotton robe. He heard a male voice behind him.

‘
Good evening. I am Dr Rasheed.’

He turned
around to see a Middle Eastern man in a white coat. ‘I just need to
take a few measurements from you,’ the man said.

Alexandre
could sense fear from the man. He spent the next few minutes being
weighed, measured, poked, prodded and tested by the young doctor.
He grew impatient. Surely this was not necessary. But he did not
speak, he was too wired.

He felt the
thirst come over him and thought how wonderful it would be to drink
from this white-coated man, in such tantalisingly close proximity.
Perhaps he should have taken Blythe up on his offer to feed. No, he
would be fine. He was just unsettled by all this detached
examination of his body, worried about the pain he was about to
endure, but most of all, terrified that his brother and sister
might not make it. That they might leave him to face his
immortality without them.

At last the
testing appeared to be over and Alexandre followed the doctor
through a thick metal door into the brightly lit theatre. He
squinted up and saw the dark glass of the viewing gallery, but he
could not see through the window into the unlit room. He knew
Madison would be watching closely and he hoped, for her sake, he
would not have to endure too much pain.

The doctor
removed Alexandre’s robe and asked him to lie on the raised metal
bed. He was completely naked and his hard muscled flesh looked like
marble. He lay down in one graceful fluid movement and thought of
his family. His wonderful family whom he would see shortly.

The white
lights in the room clicked off one by one until there was just an
echoing silence in the darkened room. A small single spotlight
highlighted Alexandre’s face and torso. He was connected up to all
sorts of monitors, his arms and legs strapped down to keep him in
place. He stared up at the dark ceiling.

The other
staff had left the room and now just four doctors surrounded his
bed. Their faces looked eerie in the reflected light, as they
fiddled with the illuminated dials on a large square machine. The
red light on a video camera glowed up high in the corner of the
room.

He had never
felt so vulnerable in his life. A combination of being naked in
front of strangers in an unfamiliar place and knowing he was about
to experience insanity-inducing amounts of pain.

‘
We are about to begin,’ Dr Rasheed said to Alexandre. ‘Are
you ready?’

‘
Yes,’ he replied, clenching his fists and curling his toes in
preparation for the onslaught.

He heard a low
hum and pop and the innocuous metal light was switched on casting a
luminescent blue wash over the area. The effect was instantaneous.
Alexandre’s white flesh began to glow and steam. He cried out in
agony and tried to curl up into a ball to protect himself, but they
had strapped him down too tightly and the pain had sapped his usual
strength.

Almost
immediately, the light was switched off and his body began to heal
itself, the blistered skin instantly regenerating before the
doctors’ eyes. They frantically made notes, viewed monitors and
readjusted equipment.

‘
Ready to go again?’ Dr Rasheed asked.

Alexandre
nodded, but he felt far from ready. His body was on fire. It had
been worse than he had remembered. Last time he had been
unconscious and only half-aware of what was going on, half-aware of
the pain. But this time he was fully awake and all too conscious of
every burning fibre in his body. It felt like being set alight from
the inside.

He tried to
focus on images of his brother and his sister, but all thoughts of
them were obliterated by the next white-hot bath of fire. He
screamed, not caring about anything other than the need to make it
stop. He was surely about to die. Then the blissful coolness came
as his body regenerated once more. Raw weals returning to marble
white skin. Charred flesh healing, knitting itself back
together.

Up in the
viewing gallery, Madison was hysterical. She banged on the glass
with her fists and screamed at them to stop.

‘
Do something!’ she yelled at Vasey-Smith. ‘They’re killing
him! How can you just sit there and watch? This is worse than when
he woke up at home. The lights are too powerful.’

‘
Look,’ said Blythe. He came over to her and put his arm
around her shoulder, pointing down into the theatre. ‘Look at your
Alexandre. He is fine. See.’

When Madison
looked, she saw the UV lamp was now off and his flesh was indeed
healing.

‘
Is that it then?’ she asked hopefully. ‘Have they finished
with him?’

‘
Nearly,’ Blythe replied. ‘You may wish to look away now,
child.’

She ignored
his advice and looked down once more as they switched on the lamp
for the third time. This time his body looked like it was
disintegrating and they turned off the lamp almost instantly.

‘
Alex! Alexandre!’ she sobbed. She banged on the glass, which
just flexed uselessly under her fists. ‘No more! He can’t take any
more. You’ve gone too far. He won’t survive.’

‘
Madison, look,’ Blythe said. He was smiling in amazement and
Madison hated him for it. She looked down again and saw Alex’s body
had almost returned to normal.

‘
But that is incredible,’ Blythe exhaled. ‘Remarkable. If I
hadn’t seen it with my own two eyes I would never have
…’

‘
Oh shut up!’ Madison turned to him. ‘Yes,
remarkable, incredible
,’ she
mimicked him. ‘That’s somebody’s life you’re playing with. He’s not
here so you can get your rocks off.’

Vasey-Smith
spoke. ‘Madison, Alexandre knew the risks but he wants to do this
for his family. We aren’t forcing him.’

‘
I know that,’ she replied. ‘But
he
doesn’t have to get so excited
about someone else’s agony!’ She jerked her head angrily in
Blythe’s direction and looked down into the room again, as they
finally released Alexandre from the straps. He sat up, dazed but
intact. Dr Rasheed draped his robe around his shoulders and led him
out of the room.

‘
Where are they taking him?’ Madison asked. ‘I need to be with
him.’

Vasey-Smith
pressed a button and a young man in a suit came into the room.

‘
Take Miss Greene to the prep room.’

Madison
followed the man along the corridor and down the steps to the small
room where Alexandre sat on a plastic chair in his robe.

‘
Oh, Alex. Are you okay?’

‘
Now I am,’ he said and opened his arms to her. She approached
him cautiously.

‘
Is it okay to touch you? I mean, your body must still be
sore.’

‘
My body is as good as new,’ he smiled. ‘But my mind is in a
more delicate state. Please come to me. I need to feel your body.
To feel something good.’ He lifted her onto his lap and buried his
head in her hair. ‘You smell so wonderful. I hate the synthetic
stink of this place.’

‘
Alex,’ she whispered into his neck. ‘I thought they were
going to kill you. I was going crazy up there.’

‘
I did not want you to witness that. I am sorry.’

‘
Don’t you dare apologise. You were so brave. Did it work? Did
they get whatever they needed to help the others?’

‘
They are very optimistic, yes. But I am still so frightened
for my family. I would gladly suffer that again if it meant they
did not have to endure it. My poor little Isobel. And it is my …’
He broke off and looked so upset Madison thought he was going to
cry.

‘
What?’ she asked. ‘What is it? Is there something
else?’

‘
You know,’ he said. ‘I never really admitted it, not even to
myself, but this whole thing is entirely my fault.’

‘
What’s your fault?’

‘
Everything. It was my fault we all ended up going to
Cappadocia in the first place and it was I who found a way into the
underground city. If I had not been so selfish and arrogant, none
of this would ever have happened. I would have died a normal human
death a long time ago with all my family and friends.’

‘
No.’ She cut him short. ‘No, I’m not having that. You can’t
start thinking
what if
. That’s a short cut to a shit life. You’re gonna get your
family and friends back in a few hours time, then we’ll go home and
everything will be fan-bloody-tastic, okay?’

‘
I love you, Madison Greene.’ Alexandre kissed her hair and
stroked her cheek with his forefinger.

‘
Sorry to interrupt.’ It was Dr Rasheed. ‘Mr Blythe asked me
to enquire whether you wish to proceed with the others now, or
would you rather wait a few hours?’

‘
We will proceed,’ Alexandre said as he and Madison stood up.
‘Let me first get dressed and then we will most certainly proceed.
I want this over with.’

Madison sat in
the viewing gallery. Alexandre wanted to be in the theatre whilst
the others were being revived but the white coats advised him this
would be counter productive as he would still be affected by the UV
even at a distance. But he knew nothing would stop him getting into
that room if anything went wrong.

Winston Blythe
asked him which of the vampires should be woken first, but
Alexandre refused to choose. He could not do it. Any choice he made
would be wrong so he asked Blythe to randomly select the order in
which they were to be awoken.

Minutes later,
Alexandre gritted his teeth as he saw Jacques being lifted onto the
bed and strapped down. He was naked and looked like a beautiful
alabaster statue with unnaturally golden hair that shone like a
halo around his head.

Please God,
Alexandre prayed.
If you can hear me, please give my brother back
to me. He is a sweet boy. His condition is not of his choosing, he
is …
Then suddenly, the UV lamp was
switched on. Alexandre leapt out of his seat and tore at his
hair.