Vampire State of Mind (7 page)

Sil edged himself gently away from his date and rubbed the centre of his chest.
Jessica. You can't feel it, can you, that impenetrable net that encases us both, that unknowable, indefinable essence that binds us. You look at me and you see – what? An enemy of the kind that only a friend could become?
He turned to watch her as she stood sulkily, both hands bunched down by her sides, talking to the chunky girl she'd arrived with. Despite everything, he had to force himself not to grin at the sight. She'd still got that aggressive out-thrust jaw, still kept her head up so that all that wonderful, curly hair sprang from its restraint, coiled around her face and made her look … innocent. Was that what attracted him, her innocence? Or just the body? Was he really that shallow?

He breathed carefully and fixed his eyes on the dull carpet until the incipient erection subsided. Yep. He
was
that shallow.

So. She was still Jessica. And someone had entered her into the draw. She'd never have come over so aggressively if she'd put herself in; besides, as she said, humans didn't run – it wasn't the point. Vampire versus zombie versus ghoul … that was how it went; putting a human in the mix was like entering a chicken in the Derby.

He ran his tongue over the tips of his fangs, descending now as the anger burned its way through his bloodstream. His demon shifted, feeding on the rising adrenaline, pushing its way towards the surface and making him ride the situation in a way no human could understand. She couldn't run, of course she couldn't. She'd be a laughing stock. Or, more to the point, she'd annoy the other entrants until everyone started fighting everyone else and in that other dimension he wouldn't be able to wade in and stop it. Hell, there must be some way that he could pull her out or rearrange the Run, something.
Because if anything happened to her – what would happen to me?

Rach came up, panting. ‘Wow, quick work there, Jessie! He is
gorgeous
, did you get his number?'

‘I've had
his
number for years,' I said, sarcastically, watching covertly as Sil stood surveying the crowd. ‘A difficult man, our Sil. I hope that hag knows what she's doing.'

‘Oh, so
that's
Sil? The guy you used to work with?' Rach stopped wrestling with her gusset for a second. ‘Wow. I thought you said he was a complete bastard?'

‘He is.'

‘He doesn't
look
like a bastard.'

And there's everything you ever need to know about Rachel in a nutshell. ‘Don't let the looks fool you,' I said, my upper lip curling as though I'd bitten into something delicious only to spot the mould when it was too late.

Rach fiddled with her underwear again. ‘And you're being very hard on his date. I thought she looked quite sweet.'

‘I meant it literally. She's a hag. Like, you know, a kind of witch.'

Rach's mouth fell open. ‘What, really? Wow!'

Yeah, wow. And she'd better not cross
me
one dark night, quota or no quota. ‘Look, I'm going to have to run, Rach.'

‘But I thought you said humans didn't run? And anyway, you're not dressed for it. Remember that time at school when they made you do the hurdles and you hadn't got your kit and you tucked your uniform into your pants and one of the boys said …'

‘Yes, I remember.' I thought about Sil's offensive dismissal of my chances. ‘But I reckon I know more about the streets of York than anyone else who's running out there. I just might be able to sneak ahead – and what will it say about humans if I can actually
beat
even just one Otherworlder?'

‘So you will run?' A familiar, soft voice beside my ear made me jump.

‘Malfaire!'

‘The very one. Hello.' He'd carefully subverted the whole evening dress thing and was wearing a ruffled shirt with no tie, a tail coat and a pair of exquisitely cut trousers. I couldn't see his feet, but I'd take bets he wasn't wearing Jesus sandals and grey socks. I introduced Rach but Malfaire's eyes kept swinging back to me, almost as though he couldn't believe I was actually here. They were the clear gold of syrup tonight.

‘I will, yes.'

‘Good.' I felt the brief pressure of his hand on my shoulder. ‘Someone needs to show these vampires that they are not as supreme as they think.'

‘I'm not sure that they do, actually.' And besides, my chances of beating a vampire were less than remote, more like non-existent. My only real hope was that I could cut off some corners unknown to the others and maybe get home before the zombie. They weren't fast but they didn't let a little thing like a leg half-off slow them down.

‘We'll have to see, won't we? I am sure that you have hidden depths, Jessica.' And, with a scalding smile, Malfaire let the ebb and flow of the crowd take him across the room, leaving me wondering where on earth he'd got his opinion of me from, because it certainly wasn't the local press, with their sarcastic taglines and peculiarly angled shots of my nose.

‘So, he's going to try to get you out of it?' Rach had stopped yanking at her tights and was staring after Malfaire.

‘No, I'm running,' I said, still wondering about Malfaire's faith in me.

‘Ooh, Jessie, your
face
! Are you in “luuuuurrrve” with the luscious Malfaire? Or is it something a bit more – primitive?' And Rach did a lewd dance, with much recourse to her rapidly lowering gusset.

‘No!'

‘Mmm. Think I'd rather have the other one, Sil. Malfaire's a bit smooth for my liking; give me a bit of the scragged-up rough stuff any day.'

I let her words flow over me as I performed the metaphorical equivalent of tucking my skirt into my knickers. Malfaire seemed very keen on my performing well and I wondered why – there had never been a human runner in the history of the Dead Run. The whole
point
of the Run was supposed to be for the Otherworlders to show each other their individual prowess, not for some poor outclassed human to get stomped into the mud. They can stomp on us any time.

The restaurant was so crowded that at first I didn't notice what was happening. There was a general current of people moving towards the corridor which led, via the toilets, to the kitchens, funnelling out so that they passed through the doorway in single file.

‘Where's everyone going?' Rach popped up at my elbow.

‘Dunno. Maybe they've all got cocaine habits.' I tried to smile at her, but my mouth wasn't cooperating.

‘The doorway has opened.' I twisted my head to the other side and found myself gazing at Zan, dinner-jacketed and with his hair slicked back, looking establishment for all he was worth. He was very tall, at least six foot three, and quite slender, so he should have looked like a well-dressed broom handle, but there was something eerily imposing about him. ‘They are heading down to the viewing point. Jessica, are you all right?'

‘What's going on, Zan? Sil said he thinks something is happening …'

Zan looked at me directly. ‘I don't know,' he said, and normally Zan knew everything; like I said, he's run the paperwork for this area for sixty years. ‘But Sil thinks you are at the centre of it.'

‘Where is he?'

‘Trying to stop the Run.'

‘So, do we go now, or what?' Rach stepped forward and Zan put out a hand to stop her.

‘I'm afraid you cannot join us, Miss Marwood. Humans are forbidden from entering the portal. Even Otherworlders will not be actually
present
for the race but will watch through a special scope device. I'll see that you are escorted home safely, however.' Then, catching my glance, ‘Honestly.'

‘Not even a tiny nip, Zan.'

‘You truly believe that
I
would break the Treaty? That it would be
I
who would bring back the warfare and the times of fear?' His smooth, impeccably handsome face creased into lines of horror at the thought.

‘Joke, Zan.'

Rach looked from me to Zan. ‘You mean, he's a – ' Her eyes widened. ‘Gosh. Really? You look perfectly normal to me.'

‘She doesn't mean to be rude.' I soothed the vampire, who was looking rather taken aback. ‘She's a bit over-excited.'

There was a smooth movement at my elbow. ‘Obviously.' Sil appraised Rach, who, with her shining eyes and blue satin dress, looked a bit like a hyped-up nine-year old at her first sleep-over and was gazing at him as though waiting for something to happen.

‘Is he another one?' Rach whispered but, since she was amplified by the loud hailer of overexcitement I think the bus queue outside Tesco's heard her. ‘You never told me he was a vampire, too!'

‘Oh yes.' I heard the tone in my voice and even though I was using it, I didn't really understand why it was there. ‘He's a vampire, too.'

‘Would you like me to prove it?' Sil addressed Rach directly, drawing back his top lip to let his fangs descend. It changed his whole face; rather than the slightly untidy, casually sexy young man he had appeared, he was now a predator: marble-hard eyes and a sense of coiled elasticity.

Rach squeaked. ‘Don't tease her!' I said, rather more sharply than I would have done if I hadn't been facing an ordeal that sounded less fun than painful surgery, and Sil moved away from Rach to stare directly into my face.

‘You would give
me
an order?' His fangs were still down and now locked into striking-position, his expression and voice cold enough to blister skin. ‘Jessica?
Really?
You think you still have the right to tell me what to do?'

Sil's demon was moving inside him. I could sense it scratching and scrabbling its way to the surface, eager for confrontation, resolution – anything which would provide it with more of the hormones it was currently getting off on. Anger, stress, sex, it's all the same to demons. They're like little chest-dwelling junkies. And Sil's was driving him to the edge. I'd seen him let loose, I'd even seen him close to killing before, but I'd never seen him in danger of losing control like this.

‘Sil, steady.' I put a hand out, but he flinched into the new silence as if I'd been about to hit him. Flinched, then shuddered, as though somewhere deep inside himself he'd forced his demon back. I was quietly impressed. Sil had obviously learned a new level of self-control. ‘Of course I'm not trying to tell you what to do, I'm just saying …' I nodded towards Rach, who had a look of horrified fascination on her face, ‘ease up a little.' Then I added, ‘
Pas devant les humains
,' because I knew it would break his mood, make him smile.

He gulped a sharp breath of air and swallowed hard, clenching his teeth, then shook his hair away from his face and grinned. Fangs were gone, I was pleased to see. He made a little bow in Rach's direction. ‘Miss Marwood, I apologise.'

‘Aren't you going to apologise to me?'

I saw Zan give a tiny smile which he tried to hide.

‘No. You I am going to yell at.' Sil took my elbow and steered me into a corner. ‘Jessie, you have to pull out of this. I can't stop it, the Committee won't allow it, but you can't run.'

I could feel his grasp as though he held more than my arm. I'm immune to the whole vamp glamour thing, although I've seen it at work on several people and can testify to its efficiency – they'd burble around the streets like people who'd gone shopping and forgotten what they came out for, bearing at least one double-pinprick and a look of blissed-out stupidity. But here something else seemed to be at work. Something harder, something deeper. ‘Sil?'

‘What?' He pushed his hair away again as though it irritated him.

‘I'm not that pathetic, you know. I've got a bit of a game plan. All right, I know I'm never going to win but I can at least keep my end up; not disgrace my entire species.'

‘Like that time you ran the London Marathon?'

‘Er, yeah, I suppose. Only with less breaks for cappuccinos and Kit Kats.'

Sil gave me a look. His eyes were flipping between two colours, the metallic grey and a softer, bluer shade. Apart from that he looked almost human. ‘Well. If you're sure.'

‘I'm sure. Besides,' I lowered my voice so that the general hubbub around us covered my words, ‘if something is going on, the best way to find out what it is, is to go along with it. Don't you think?'

‘Jessie …' But he didn't follow this up with anything, just shrugged.

‘Zan, will you take Rachel home, please?' I turned to the tall, skinny vampire. ‘There's a lot of things here for the Run and I'm not sure I trust Enforcement at the moment.'

Zan hesitated, then looked to Sil. ‘Hey, go ahead,' Sil said. ‘I only run the city. Jessica is clearly pulling rank on me tonight.'

I glared at him, but he turned away.

‘Miss Marwood?' Zan held out his arm, still hesitantly. I half-expected him to request a HazMat suit. ‘I shall escort you to your door.'

‘Oh!' Rach looked at him and at the proffered arm. ‘Gosh. I mean … so polite!'

‘Yes, well we don't all behave like something out of an Anne Rice novel,' Zan said, dryly.

I stood, buffeted by the crowd for a moment. Zan and Rachel left, joining the humans outside in the street, enjoying their evening, wandering around between the pubs and clubs of central York. Sil smiled at me and there was a complicity in it that left my heart thumping uncomfortably. Being so close to him again was raising ghosts I thought I'd laid a long time ago.

‘Ah, there you are.' The crowd seemed to part, everyone else fell into black-and-white as Malfaire moved smoothly across the floor towards me.

‘Oh, there's … have you met Sil, Malfaire?' To annoy the vampire I leaned a little closer in to Malfaire until our hips jostled, and the grey eyes went nearly black.

‘We were introduced,' Malfaire said shortly.