Hidden (Marchwood Vampire Series #1) (51 page)

‘
Non!’ he shouted. ‘I cannot watch this.’ He paced the room as
Jacques’ body smoked and charred under the UV. Great red bubbling
blisters appeared on his skin and his hair began to scorch and
frizz. He flailed and jerked like a puppet on strings being pulled
violently up and down. His eyes opened and he grabbed at his skin,
trying to cover his face against the light and the pain.

And then,
suddenly, he was no longer there. The bed was empty, the straps
undone. The doctors switched the UV lamp off.

Alexandre
disappeared from the viewing gallery and went straight to Jacques
who cowered under the bed like a wounded animal. Alexandre draped a
robe around his brother and led him out from his hiding place.

‘
Jacques, do not fear. It is I, your brother, Alexandre. You
are safe now, Jacques. You are safe.’

‘
Where am I?’ Jacques voice was hoarse, scared. ‘What is this
place? I feel strange, I was in terrible pain. I do not understand
what I am seeing.’

‘
I will explain everything, Jacques. Come, you are
safe.’

Alexandre led
his brother through the door of the little antechamber and sat him
on one of the plastic chairs. Jacques’ body was already fully
healed, his skin restored to its beautiful unblemished state. He
looked around in fear and bewilderment, but Alexandre crouched in
front of him and took one of his hands in both of his.

‘
I will explain everything as soon as the others are awake. I
cannot believe it is really you, little brother.’

‘
Are we vampires still?’ Jacques asked in a croaky
voice.

‘
Yes.’

‘
I was in such pain. It was terrible, Alex. It will not happen
again, will it?’

‘
No, no. Never again. You are safe, Jacques. My little
Jacques.’ Alexandre took his face in his hands and kissed both his
cheeks. ‘I thought ...’ Alexandre’s voice was breaking and he could
barely speak. ‘I thought I would never again talk to
you.’

‘
Why would you think that?’

‘
You have been ill. But you are healed now.’

‘
This place is so strange. Where are we?’

‘
We are still in England, but things have changed greatly. Do
not think about it now. Just sit and rest.’

‘
And your clothes are odd, Alex,’ he said, looking at his
brother’s modern-fitting suit.

‘
These are not the only things you will find strange, but I
will tell you later.

‘
The others? Isobel and ...’

‘
They will join us shortly. Brother, I have missed you so
much. I love you, Jacques.’

Alexandre
could not quite believe it had worked, that he had his little
brother back. He would no longer be without his family, he was sure
of it. They would all be returned to him very soon.

And sure
enough, one by one, the others were brought out under the
life-giving, death-giving lamp and each in turn, burned and woke.
Like chemotherapy that attacks the disease but also attacks the
body, so the ultraviolet rays ate out the sickness from each of
them, leaving them weak, but alive and awake.

The last to be
revived was Isobel and she was now screaming hysterically. Once the
UV lamp was extinguished the others stumbled dazed into the room to
try to calm her down. But Alexandre was there, calming, soothing
and reassuring, so full up with happiness he barely knew
himself.

It had worked.
It had actually worked and he was here in this awful sterile room
with his beloved family and friends, his nineteenth century
lifelong companions.

Madison had
watched from the gallery, horrified at their agony, but amazed at
the transformation of these once inanimate creatures. She felt like
an outsider as she joined them in the operating room. Leonora put
her arm around Isobel who had curled up into a ball whimpering,
trying to hide her nakedness.

‘
For shame! I am unclothed. Please hand me something to wear.
Who are these strange people and what are these things around me?
Am I dreaming?’

Madison came
into the room and gave Isobel a robe.

‘
Thank you,’ Isobel said, putting it on.

Alexandre led
his newly awakened family across to the door that led to the
antechamber and found to his surprise that he couldn’t open it. He
tried the handle again, but the door was most definitely locked. He
smiled up at the dark glass of the viewing gallery and called
out.

‘
Mr Blythe! We are all well, but the door is locked. Please
open it so we can come and thank you in person.’ He tried the door
again, but was still unable to open it. ‘Mr Blythe! Sir! Can you
hear me?’

‘
What’s going on?’ Madison asked.

‘
This damned door is locked. There must be some problem with
...’

Suddenly, a
set of overhead lights flashed on. They were all ultraviolet and
the five vampires cringed down onto the ground, screaming in pain.
Madison had to cover her ears to block out the piercing sounds of
agony. Alexandre was burning again, but he managed to get up and
throw himself relentlessly against the heavy metal door. It buckled
and dented, but his body was weakening under the deadly glow of the
rays.

Madison’s
screams joined the others’ as she saw all the vampires’ bodies
scorching and bubbling. The pain must have been incredible. Madison
yelled up at the gallery for them to do something. Alexandre
channelled the excruciating agony and used every ounce of power
left in his melting body to hurl himself at the door. Finally, the
locks snapped like wood and the door opened.

Alexandre
dragged the others to safety. Madison could only watch helplessly,
as their bodies were too hot for her to touch. They collapsed
through into the little antechamber and she followed them, shocked
and horrified by what she had witnessed. But even as Madison
entered the little room, she saw the vampires had almost
healed.

‘
There must have been some kind of malfunction,’ Alexandre
exhaled. ‘Those lights! They were everywhere. Is everybody well?’
He looked at them. They all appeared dazed, but physically were
completely recovered. ‘We need to return to the gallery to see
whatever could have happened. Is everybody alright to come
now?’

But before
anyone could reply, UV flooded the small room. They cried out in
shock and pain. Madison ran out into the corridor and saw yet more
ultraviolet pulsating down its length.

‘
We have to find you somewhere safe!’ Madison yelled over
their cries. ‘Follow me!’

They ran and
stumbled down the corridor, pushing open each door they passed,
only to find UV shining down from every ceiling in every room. At
the end of the corridor, they saw another door, but it was locked.
They ran, crawled and staggered down the deadly luminescent
corridor.

‘
Open this one!’ Maddy screamed. ‘Here! Over here!’ She was
crying at the sight of them so consumed in flames she could hardly
make out who was who.

The mass of
glowing red vampires hurled themselves against the locked door and
thankfully it soon gave way. They tumbled into a bright space, but
the lights were blissfully ordinary and it was cool and free from
the UV’s torturous beam. Leonora and Isobel were sobbing, but
Madison heard an angry cry followed by a crashing noise behind
her.

Alexandre was
going crazy. He pulled over filing cabinets and hurled desks at the
wall so they cracked and splintered. The room was completely
destroyed. The others sat on the floor in shock. Alexandre now
stood in the midst of the chaos he had created with a murderous
stare in his eyes. His skin had rapidly repaired and he looked
almost normal.

‘
I am going to kill those two men,’ Alexandre said, his eyes
glinting with fury. ‘I am going to rip their heads off and smash
their bodies to pieces.’

Madison
realised it hadn’t been an accident. Blythe had tried to kill them.
Alexandre was so angry he could barely talk. His eyes glittered and
his muscles tensed and flexed. He looked ready to explode at the
slightest provocation.

The others
were bewildered and scared. Everything they had seen so far was
alien to them. They did not understand any of what had happened or
where they were. All they knew was that Alexandre and Madison were
trying to help them, to save them from the hellfire that pursued
them, that tried to scorch their flesh and visit such brutal agony
upon them.

Madison peered
out of the door and saw the UV lights still pulsing throughout the
corridor. She closed the door and took in her surroundings - it had
been an office of some sort before Alexandre destroyed it. She
noticed another door at the back of the room and tried the
handle.

As the door
opened, she felt a chill. Madison now stood in a vast, clinical
room which stretched away into the distance. Everything was white,
except for a wall of large grey filing cabinets. The harmless
overhead lights hummed, but Madison saw grids of black tubes
running alongside the normal ceiling downlights – ultraviolet.

They were
currently turned off, but she knew potentially they could come on
at any moment. In the centre of the room she saw a high table
covered with a sheet and Madison realised there was probably a body
under the sheet.

Alexandre
followed her in and she pointed to the banks of UV. He looked up,
nodded in acknowledgement and walked straight over to the table.
Lifting up the sheet he saw the naked body of a young man. But it
was no ordinary man. Alexandre knew instinctively that he was
looking at a vampire.

Chapter
Thirty

*

Alexandre
stared at the beautiful young male vampire lying on the slab. He
was overcome with a strange creeping sensation. The feeling he knew
its face from somewhere, but it was as if his brain didn’t want him
to remember. Looking around the rest of the cavernous room, he saw
a wall lined with deep metal drawers. Alexandre pulled one open. It
slid back a long way, revealing the unconscious form of another
vampire.

Even though he
was one of them, Alexandre did not consider himself to be the same
as these creatures. He still thought he and his family were
intrinsically human and did not believe these others bore any
relation to him.

Alexandre had
the chilling realisation this drawer was only one of many. The wall
of drawers towered up to the ceiling and stretched off down the
vast room into the distance. There must have been hundreds. He
opened another drawer, then another and another. They all contained
the bodies of dormant vampires. What were they doing here? Why had
they been kept alive? And why had Blythe revived him and his family
if he was going to kill them in the end anyway?

He went back
to the naked creature on the table and examined it more closely. It
had that statue-like quality which characterised the sleeping
sickness. Madison came up behind him, staring nervously at the
body.

‘
Why’s there a dead bloke in here?’

‘
Madison, I think you should go back into the other room. This
is not a dead body. It is a ...’ Before he could finish speaking
the vampire sat bolt upright and opened its eyes.

Madison gave a
short scream of fright and realisation hit Alexandre like a knife
through his gut. He did indeed know this creature but the last time
he saw it had been over one hundred years ago, when they had both
been deep in the belly of the earth. The creature had not been
naked, but magnificently clothed in an elaborate golden headdress,
robes and shimmering cloak.

All those
years ago it had hissed viciously at him before draining the blood
from his human body. Alexandre remembered how it had felt to know
he was about to die, and he put his hand up to his throat, to the
place where his human skin had been punctured. This was the ancient
Cappadocian vampire who had stolen his life and turned him into one
of them. He realised he had come face to face with his maker.

Alexandre and
Madison stood, shocked.

‘
Get out,’ Alexandre whispered to her. ‘Back out of the room,
slowly.’ Madison felt the chilling numbness of terror. She didn’t
know how she managed it, but she got out of the room, making it
back into to the wrecked office where the others were huddled
together in the corner, trying to recover their
strength.

Alexandre
stared in fascination at the creature which followed his every move
with its dark vacant eyes. It was an ancient being with no remnants
of humanity left in its cold soul. Alexandre knew that if it wasn’t
sick, it would have crushed him like rose petals.

‘
Quickly!’ he heard Madison calling from the other room. ‘The
UV lights have gone out in the hall. Alexandre! We have to go now
while it’s safe.’

Alexandre was
momentarily torn. Here was his chance for revenge. He could easily
despatch this creature in its weakened state, but he had to
consider his family. He had to get them to safety.

‘
You will see me again,’ Alexandre spoke to the creature. ‘And
it will be right before you breathe your last breath.’

It continued
to stare at Alexandre. Its head turning slowly to track his
movements, but there was no light of comprehension in its eyes.
Nothing to reveal whether it had understood Alexandre’s threat.

He leaned in
close to the ancient creature. ‘Do you want to know how you die?
You will find out soon.’

Alexandre left
the mortuary. Madison was halfway through the outer door, waiting
for him. The others looked to Alexandre for direction.