Chapter Thirty-Two

Chapter Thirty-Two

She was lighting fast, she grabbed the stake and ran, smashing doors open in the process, banging loudly against the tiles. For a few seconds all anyone did was stare after her, until my brain kicked back in and a realised what had happened.

‘Lisa!’ I shouted out, springing to my feet. Shortly after Doctor Stewart followed me out of the room, we sprinted towards the moving blur that was Lisa, armed with her wooden stake.

She came to a crashing holt at Mark’s room, the brown stinking water had formed a larger pool now, an employee was nonchalantly cleaning it away, a scarf covered their lower face. I stopped so suddenly that Doctor Stewart bumped into me and almost knocked me to the floor. The thought of falling into that sludge almost made me scream.

There was a metallic jangle and I saw Lisa jam a key into the lock of Mark’s door. ‘No!’ Doctor Stewart cried out as the door shuddered open. I wondered how long she had had the stolen keys for, had she just been waiting for a moment like this? Had she been waiting to know how to kill them, threaten them.

Mark made no move when Lisa stormed into his room. He wasn’t screaming or crying anymore, and Tony Calliser’s corpse had slid to the floor, I tried not to look at it. The smell from the opened door made me giddy and sick, I pulled my T-shirt over my nose.

Lisa grabbed the limp staring Mark at the T-shirt hanging baggy around his skinny frame. He didn’t react, he didn’t even blink as she pulled him towards her, gritting her teeth. His limbs fell about him like lengths of rubber. She pushed the stake against his chest, the point making a dent on the material. He looked so tiny and narrow next to the large chunk of wood. He briefly glanced up though his wet fringe, his brown eyes cold and dead.

‘What do you know about Angelica Taylor?’ Lisa hissed at him. He turned his head to stare at the wall again.

‘Lisa, please,’ Doctor Stewart bust through the door, I followed. ‘Help me,’ he motioned as he took one of her arms and tried to wrench it away. She completely ignored him.

‘Tell me what you know.’ She hissed again. He didn’t move at all, he might have been dead he was so still. Lisa pushed the stake further into him, a trickle of thick blood ran over the filthy grey T-shirt.

‘No!’ The Doctor’s cry almost came out as squeal.

Mark Glanced at the blood but his eyes moved so slowly you wouldn’t notice unless, like me, you were paying attention to every detail. ‘What do you know about Angelica Taylor?’ Lisa shouted this time. Again, nothing, not even a flicker, the stake slid in further. Doctor Stewart didn’t even talk this time, the grunting sound he made was like a stuck pig.

‘What do you know about Angelica Taylor?’

Nothing.

‘What do you know about-’

‘Do you really think killing me will make any difference?’ His lips barely moved, he was still staring at the wall. ‘Do you really think I care if I die?’

The stake came out of his chest with a wet popping sound. The Doctor stopped trying to pull Lisa away. I was too numb to do anything but stand in the corner of the room, trying to breathe through the stink.

‘Please,’ she whispered. ‘I just need to know what happened to her.’

He shrugged, the most physical movement I had ever seem him make. ‘Is she one of Alex’s whores? Then she’s dead already.’

She raised the stake again, the Doctor let out a guttural grunt. ‘I know she’s dead, ‘ Lisa spat at him, ‘she was my sister, I loved her.’ Mark went back to staring at the wall. ‘I loved her,’ Lisa repeated exasperated. She glanced at the sickening sight of Tony Callister’s corpse. ‘I know you loved him.’

Marks head cracked around fast as a whip. ‘You know nothing about it,’ he hissed, his lips back against his teeth.

I edged closer to her, though Mark looked as if he were dying, his sin tight on his bones, I knew he was still a vampire and still dangerous. I wasn’t sure what I could do to help though. ‘I know she was my best friend, that I miss her every day. I know this is how you felt about Tony.’

He put his bony hands over his ears. ‘Stop it,’ he said. ‘I’ve never heard of her.’

‘Maybe not,’ Lisa smirked, ‘but you know a vampire called Jarl.’

He leapt up, in her surprise, Lisa let go of him in her shock. In one lighting fast fluid movement he had crawled into the corner of the room, flattening his body against the wall. ‘Never, never…no…I can’t.’ He muttered wildly.

Lisa made a move towards him but Doctor Stewart held out his arm to stop her. ‘Haven’t you done enough,’ he croaked, he looked pale and shaky.

‘Why are you scared,’ Lisa persisted.

Mark’s eyes were fixed again on the ruined body of his one time lover. ‘He’s really gone isn’t he?’ the young man wailed. He looked at Doctor Stewart. The Doctor nodded slowly. ‘You lied to me.’

‘I didn’t lie,’ He replied sympathetically, ‘I just didn’t tell you the truth. You would’ve walked out into the sunlight there and then if I told you the truth.’

‘I should’ve done,’ Mark shot back gloomily, ‘you made me believe I could save him.’ He held his skinny wrists towards us. They were covered with hundreds of pale scars. ‘I kept trying, every day.’

‘You drained his blood Mark,’ Doctor Stewart sighed. ‘There was no saving him.’

Mark started wailing again. ‘WHY DIDN’T YOU LET ME DIE!’ He shouted so loud the door rattled on its hinges. ‘I was about to walk into the sunlight! Why did you stop me?’

‘You’re special Mark,’ Doctor Stewart began calmly, ‘different from the others, I had to keep you alive.’

Mark looked halfway between fury and despair. He never got to scream again however, because two men with serious faced approached solemnly. They didn’t appear to be bothered by the smell, dressed in the grey uniform of Project 45 they didn’t even flinch as they entered the room.

‘What are you doing?’ Mark snapped. The men took Tony Callister’s corpse by the arms and legs.

‘NO!’ Mark screeched.

‘He’s long gone,’ the Doctor tried to sound diplomatic.

Mark let out an angry snarl and made a grab for the man hoisting up Tony’s half rotted arms. It was too quick for me to follow, but a long bloody gash appeared on the man’s cheek. Mark had his lips pulled back from his teeth like an angry dog.

‘Go! Go, get out!’ Doctor Stewart cried to me and Lisa and we rushed from the room. The door slammed heavily, Mark was throwing his body against it and growling. The whole wall was shaking.

The smell of fresh human blood make it’s way around the corridor, other doors started rattling, other deep and pained growls rumbled from within.

Lisa was standing firm and strong. ‘He doesn’t know anything,’ she said calmly and sadly.

‘You think so?’ Doctor Stewart started, over sarcastically, his eyes bulging. ‘Look at what you’ve done!’

‘Hey,’ I rushed to Lisa’s defence, finding my voice for the first time since we had stepped into that room. ‘It’s not her fault, you were the one who lied to Mark.’ Another loud crash verbrated around the walls, Doctor Stewart winced.

‘You acted selfishly,’ he wagged his finger at Lisa, ‘you’ve destroyed my best, both of you. You,’ he turned to me, ‘with sweet Elizabeth, and you,’ he turned back to Lisa. He didn’t say anything this time, just gestured exasperatedly.

Lisa didn’t seem threatened at all, she remined me of Mark, her eyes hardly moving, almost bored. Where I was shaken and slightly shivering, she was coldly ignoring the growls and screams all around her.

‘I need to talk to Alex.’ She said perfectly calmly.

The Doctor snorted, then he looked into her eyes and saw that she wasn’t joking. ‘Never,’ he hissed in shock.

‘I have to speak with him,’ she went on, speaking evenly, standing her ground. ‘And I will wait here until I can. I’m not going anywhere until I can see him.’

Chapter Thirty-one

Chapter Thirty-one

I slammed my fist down on the table, blank and white like everything else in this awful place. The table shook violently, I felt a little giddy with rage, a little proud of my indignation. Doctor Steward didn’t bat an eyelid, as usual he was smiling, the smile was tired now though, more forced. There was woman by his side, another Doctor, short and Hispanic with a scattering of worry lines across her forehead. She jumped a little as my fist banged down, the small sprawling plant rang against the plywood.

‘Calm down,’ Doctor Steward said, some of his own calm had left his voice.

I glanced at Lisa, she was biting her lip, her eyes didn’t leave the Doctor’s face. I shook my head violently. As I began to talk I was so angry my voice was shaking, it was like an acid running through me, busting through my throat. ‘I saw his Mother,’ I mashed my finger against the table, ‘I heard her crying, screaming out for him.’

‘With all due respect,’ Doctor Stewart’s voice took on a smug undertone, ‘you also heard Mark’s high emotions.’

‘But I heard his mother,’ I sneered, ‘it’s different.’ I stopped for a breath. ‘What exactly are you doing here?’

‘I told you,’ now he was exasperated. ‘We’re trying to help these people.’

Now Lisa stood up. ‘How do you help the families of their victims?’ She said, ‘did you send a fruit basket to Tony Calliser’s parents?’ She snorted. ‘These are not people, what person would do what this,’ her voice turned ugly, ‘Mark, has done?’

‘You don’t understand,’ He shook his head. ‘You can only see them as monsters.’

‘You’re a monster,’ I spat at him.

His chair scraped loudly on the floor as he stood up to face me. ‘Mark was one of our greatest students,’ he said, outraged, his face red. ‘You destroyed all our work with him when you decided to have a cigarette.’

‘I didn’t know that would happen,’ I snapped, ‘I didn’t know you let your students keep rotting corpses in their rooms.’

‘Mark was different,’ the Doctor shot back, ‘our work with him was so important, you just don’t-’

‘Don’t tell me again that I don’t understand, you clearly don’t understand the pain of losing a child.’ I breathed deeply in an attempt to calm myself. ‘Tony Callister was Seventeen Doctor, Seventeen.’

‘But we’re doing this to stop that from happening again,’ he banged his fist down on the table, equally as violent as mine. ‘Doctor Garcia, please explain.’ He turned away from me and waved at the woman in the room, feigning indifference.

I was wrong to think that this woman, Doctor Garcia, was nervous and scared. As soon as she stood and smoothed down her skirt, short though she was, an air of authority beamed from her. She was stony faced, serious and unmoved. She nodded to us, ‘I see you’re frustrated.’

Lisa snorted, but one swift glance from Doctor Garcia, seemed to quiet her. Doctor Stewart sat still as a statue with his head in his hands.

‘I know you’ve had a lot to take in recently,’ she didn’t give us a moment to agree or disagree. ‘Now there are some things you’ll want to listen to.’ We didn’t have a choice.

‘I’m a leading specialist in Vampire Society,’ she went on.

‘Vampire what?’ Lisa raised her eyebrow. Doctor Garcia raised an eyebrow back and Lisa lowered hers, I had never seen her chastised before.

‘Yes, Vampire society,’ she paused. ‘Now, there are a few common practises when dealing with creation. That’s what they call making new vampires.’ She paused again, to check if either of us were looking sceptical or like we might argue. ‘The vampires they create are referred to as their children, and those vampires become brother and sister to each other.’

‘A happy family,’ I snorted, I couldn’t help myself.

Doctor Garcia ignored me. ‘There’s something we’ve discovered recently. In some cases the creator, or father, helps the new vampire, guides them through the first few weeks of their new life.’

‘Teaching them to ride a bike, patching up a grazed knee…’

‘Mr Duncan we quiet or I will remove you from the room.’ I shrank into my chair.

‘There’s the popular belief that the humanity in the new vampire needs to be wiped out, the compassion, the feeling that life is sacred, you understand?’ We nodded, neither of us dared say anything. ‘So on the first kill, they’re instructed to take someone who they’re attracted to, someone they’d desire if they were an average human. The point of this is a test of strength, a test that they’re beginning to lose their compassion.’

‘Tony Callister?’ I asked in a deep exhale, ‘that’s why Mark was special, because he couldn’t lose his humanity.’

She nodded curtly, ‘he didn’t attack when he was supposed to, he kept a relationship with him, even slept with him, and didn’t kill him. But, when the pressure got too much he gave in.’ She sighed, but she didn’t look particularly sad.

‘And stole his body?’ Lisa asked sceptically.

‘Yes, eventually. You see, he thought he could change the boy, turn him into one of his own. But it was much too late.’ She looked uncomfortably at the floor, it was the first time she had shown a weakness. ‘He’s been holding onto the belief that he can do it, he hasn’t drunk a single drop of blood since Tony Callister.’

‘But he can’t do it,’ Lisa shot at her. ‘It’s far too late, that,’ she shuddered, ‘thing, that’s never going to be anything, is it?’

‘Of course not,’ Doctor Garcia said with a sly smirk which made my stomach lurch.

‘But you let him believe it was,’ Lisa started back. I stared at her in return, she had never shown any of these sympathetic feelings before, especially not to these creatures. ‘Why?’

‘We’ve told you before,’ Gave Doctor Stewart’s groan, ‘we’re trying to help.’

‘By letting him die?’

‘It’s not him,’ Doctor Stewart said desperately, ‘it’s the others. All of them, and all the ones who might be, we’re trying to rehabilitate them. We lose Mark but we learn so much from him.’

‘If he’s more human than the others, then what you’re doing is wrong.’ I realised Lisa was right, though I was still surprised by her.

‘He was always going to die!’ Doctor Stewart shouted back at me. His sudden anger made me jump. ‘He heard a rumour,’ he started again more softly. ‘A rumour that vampire blood would sustain a vampire, the wound heals and no one dies. He was going to feed from his lover exclusively.’

‘But that rumour isn’t true?’ I guessed.

Doctor Stewart broke into a sarcastic grin, more like the wide smiles he had first greeted me with. ‘Have you ever smelt the blood?’ He asked me, ‘it’s rancid, it’s a poison, a killer, which is why it spreads the infection. It’s dead blood, they cannot live on it.’

‘But you let him believe he could, just like you told him he could bring a month dead corpse back to life.’

‘No,’ Doctor Garcia cut in sharply, her tight thin eyebrows contracting, she was looking at me like a stern teacher. ‘We did not, we do not influence the creatures, in any way. We leave them to create and feel and learn, alone. Progress is not the same if it is forced.’

‘Then where did he hear these rumours?’ My head had started to thud painfully. I began to doubt everything I was being told.

The Doctors looked at each other with caution. ‘From his brother.’

‘And by brother you mean…’

‘A vampire with a shared father,’ Doctor Garcia nodded. ‘I believe you’ve met the father.’

‘Jarl,’ Lisa breathed slowly. ‘What are you doing about him?’

‘We’ve been tracking him, of course,’ she said curtly, ‘there are authorities stationed in Cuba to try and contain him.’

‘Just like you contained him from Marietta Benavente,’ I snorted. ‘Just like you contained Al-’ I stopped myself. ‘Its Alex, the brother is Alex?’

‘They were easy to track,’ Doctor Garcia smiled shallowly. ‘Jarl has a calling card.’

‘In death we love,’ Lisa repeated, stony faced, her voice thin.

‘Alex likes to do these things, create chaos, spread rumours,’ Doctor Garcia started, ‘as a case study he’s fascinating, as a vampire, he’s very dangerous.’

I thought about Robert Thompson. ‘I know,’ I shuddered.

‘For his first kill,’ she continued, ‘he chose his ex-girlfriend.’ She paused, ‘he ripped her throat out with his bare hands, he didn’t even drink from her. He laughed and moved on to the next.’

‘The children in Norway,’ my voice shook.

Doctor Garcia nodded again, ‘he liked the idea of a pack of feral children, haunting the cold northern towns the way wolves used to, that’s what he told me.’

‘Alex looked at me,’ I confessed, ‘he looked at me like he hated me. Are you sure he’s safe here?’

Again the Doctors looked at each other like they shared a common secret. ‘Alex has escaped from here twice.’ Doctor Stewart said with a careful sympathetic smile. Flashes of Robert Thompson’s mangled body splashed like blood splatter across my thoughts.

‘We try to help them,’ Doctor Stewart continued, ‘but sometimes there is no helping them, they’re past being wild hungry animals and have developed this deep malicious intelligence which Alex has. It’s a disappointment for the research but in cases like these there is only one thing we can do.’

‘And that is?’

‘Keep them heavily sedated, and when we’re sure they can’t defend themselves.’ He reached into a desk drawer and pulled out a length of dark wood, pointed sharply at one end. ‘We terminate the vampire.

‘A wooden stake? You’ve got to be joking.’

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty

The corridors were chaos. All the doors had unlocked except those holding in the monsters, so they were all banging against their doors and giving long anguished screams. Staff were handing out more blood calm them down, but the water came still, the trolleys they were pushing waded through a developing stream.

Down at the far end of the corridor, the black starless sky could be seen through heavy double doors as people tried to sweep it out. The employees were trying to act as if this was a minor inconvenience, but painted too plainly on their faces was the look of panic as they fought against the torrent. It was too easy for two people to slip about the chaos unnoticed.

Mercifully, the water stopped flowing. I could hear someone screaming about smoking in the building and I felt mildly guilty. I turned out my upturned shirtsleeves and water poured out, without the constant flow I began to shiver. I looked over at Lisa clutching her arms tightly to herself.

‘You know why they’re so scared of fire don’t you?’ She whispered as we ducked into an empty corridor to avoid being seen. I shook my head, distractedly, not really caring. ‘The old legends and that, fire kills vampires.’

I rolled my eyes. ‘Where do you think her room is?’ I asked. I was still fevered with the image and the memory of her, her casual gaze on me still replaying over and over.

Lisa looked troubled, she took my hand and squeezed, as if trying to comfort me. She believed I had been bewitched, maybe I had, but it didn’t make the need to see Teresa any less powerful.

‘That’s not what I was looking for,’ she whispered back, she pointed down the corridor we had been hiding in, dull outraged screams still echoed through the doors, but there were no employees here.

Then I caught the smell, it was even worse now because it was damp, the smell of dirty wet mud had crept into the mixture of rotting matter and public toilets. My eyes started to water, it was a smell that got inside you, like petrol or paint, only much, much worse. It was giving me a thumping headache. I stumbled blindly as Lisa drew me towards the smell. The floor was dotted with dead flies, soaked and swimming in the pale brown water that oozed out from under the door. Lisa gave a dry retch and straightened herself before moving closer.

The cries and screams died down, all except one, and that was coming from the room we were approaching. It wasn’t an indignant cry like the others, and as soon as I heard it alone I wondered why it hadn’t stuck out before.

It was such a human sound, so full of despair. It was as if the screamer had forgotten they were a sophisticated creature and had given into instinct. Something has been lost to them, that was clear from the cry, but it was something so basic, like food or water, something they couldn’t exist without.

Lisa looked into the glass partition in the door. She backed away slowly, made it walking backward to the other side of the corridor, then promptly vomited a pearly liquid all over the floor.

I made my way through the heaving smell, so bad it was like a living thing. ‘Don’t’ Lisa croaked as she knelt, clutching her stomach.

I would’ve pretended that I was the man here and that women are more delicate than us stronger folk, but when it came to Lisa, I knew that wasn’t true. I will never forget what I saw, and I have reminds in my dreams too often.

That black haired skinny man who hadn’t moved or even reach for his blood, the one who had just stared blankly at me out of a sea of flies, he was crouched on the floor making this wail of despair. His brown eyes were red and dry, they no longer sparkled , they were dull and dead, his face screwed up into an animal snarl.

His arms were clutched around a body; dry and shrivelled body with sparse black hair around a brown cracked face. The flesh had been eaten away by maggots and flies so that it was sparse and stretched over the teeth and empty eye sockets. Clothes were hanging limply from a shrivelled body, soggy skin clinging tightly to bone. Beneath the body seeped that foul smelling liquid, oozing under the door. The wails continued painfully, harsh and unending like a car alarm.

I felt Lisa’s hand on my shoulder and I jumped. She was stony and pale, I looked on the floor and the stream of vomit was meeting the stream of brown fluid. My head was swimming, I was dizzy with the smell and that awful siren.

‘Do you think?-’

‘I don’t think, I know.’ Lisa’s shaking voice cut me off, ‘that’s Tony Callister’s body

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Twenty-Nine

If left alone, I probably would’ve died in that place. I was still naive about this world and these animals, despite everything I had gone through over the last two months. It was quite lucky then, that I had no idea where I was. It was another white room with no windows and hideous strip lighting, nothing to mark it out. I was still wrapped in the thick blanket and I was till shivering slightly.

Was overcome with a need, like those few times I had tried to quit smoking, my foot started to fidget and I needed something to occupy my mind before I reached for the lighter. My fingers felt numb, I kept squeezing my fingers together to relive some non-existent pressure while trying to focus on my surroundings but finding nothing solid to look at.

Lisa, leaning against the wall, watched me with the same detached sadness you use to look at the terminally ill. Someone in a coma, unable to listen to you or interact with you in anyway, to Lisa, I was already a lost cause. I wondered if she would ever get over her high expectations of other people. She expected everyone to be as resilient as her, dust themselves off and move on.

‘They’ve locked us in,’ she hissed, ‘you do know that?’

This was all my fault, of course I should’ve forced my way into Teresa’s room, and we had been locked up as a result. It didn’t matter anymore, I didn’t want to leave now. I spared a glance to the door, it was hard to see the join around the wall, everything was so painfully white.

‘I don’t want to go,’ I said, and my voice sounded dreamy and far away.

She snorted. ‘Doctor Stewart said he would let us go once you calmed down.’

‘Maybe he was right,’ again I didn’t sound normal, ‘there’s so much left to learn.’

‘I know all I need to know,’ she shot back.

A memory clicked into place. ‘The Doctor told me something about you.’ I almost whispered, my eyes fixed on the floor, because I was too scared I would see Teresa’s eyes in Lisa’s.

She blushed, it was so brash and obvious against the wall. ‘Not now,’ she said, and her voice was almost a whisper too.

‘He said you knew more than you were letting on.’

‘Please,’ her voice cracked. ‘That woman has done something to you, lets just wait until it passes.’

I blinked several times to clear my foggy head. ‘I know I’m acting crazy,’ I shook myself, ‘but Doctor Stewart is lying, I know her.’

‘Or she made you think you knew her.’

‘No, I knew before she looked into my eyes,’ I shivered again, remembering her eyes.

‘He said she’d been here or thirty years,’ Lisa sighed, ‘she’s the oldest one here, over a hundred apparently.’

‘How could they possibly know that if she won’t talk to them.’

‘She wrote it down,’ her eyes rolled.

‘She’s lying.’

Lisa paced about the room breathing heavily and huffing. I watched her, her hands fists, she looked determined again and I felt my heart jolt despite everything. Something had clicked back into place, she was excited, ready to solve a problem.

‘I have to talk to one of them,’ she said with her fist against her head. ‘One of the creatures.’

‘So do I,’ I had turned dreamy again, picturing all that dark blonde hair cascading down Teresa’s back.

Lisa growled slightly. ‘When they bought you to that room, did you walk past a room which well,’ she wrinkled her nose, ‘it stunk.’

‘With the flies?’ I sat upright.

‘I was bought to be questioned in the daylight,’ Lisa went on, ‘all the others were asleep. But he was sitting there, staring at the wall. I thought I recognised him.’

‘Me too,’ I was brought out of myself for a moment.

‘Then I remembered,’ she said, ‘in Glasgow, Tony Calliser.’

I thought about the goth kid I saw in the pictures, the shocking blue hair and an expression like the world owed him. ‘It can’t be,’ I shook my head.

‘No,’ Lisa continued, she looked impatient, ‘there was a poster, it was an obituary to a young man who’d died of a drug overdose.’ I remembered glancing at it vaguely, there was a similarity, in the smiling face of that poster and the tired, lost look on that man behind the glass.

‘You think he killed Tony?’

‘Finally he gets it,’ she rolled her eyes at me. ‘I’m sure it’s the same man, positive. It can’t be a coincidence.’ Then she fixed her narrowed eyes on me, ‘but because of you, we’re stuck in here.’

‘I thought you wanted to go home,’ I retaliated sharply.

‘That’s not important anymore,’ she shrugged, ‘we’re not going home are we. I don’t think we ever were.’

‘You mean, we know too much?’ I almost laughed.

She frowned, thoughtful, ‘maybe they showed you into that room because they knew what would happen, how you would react to her.’

My chest burned ferociously, ‘I need to see her,’ my voice croaked out.

Lisa snorted, ‘no you don’t, the feeling will go in a few hours.’

I shook my head, ‘it feels like I can’t breathe, Lisa.’ I wasn’t being melodramatic, I couldn’t breathe, it felt like I was being crushed, like I was bent too far and my insides were squashed together. I was almost gasping, taking in big panic breathes whenever those clear eyes crossed my mind.

Lisa got up and grasped the door handle, again and again, as if our situation had changed over the last few minutes. She turned away, huffing, as if expecting locked doors to open before the very presence of her. I noticed something shimmering in her pocket, a cigarette packet.

‘Thank-you Jesus,’ I said and reached into her pocket with my shaking hands. As I lit up she screamed something insubstantial at me, something lost in that first blast of nicotine.

But as soon as the smoke ran down the back of my throat and almost reached my lungs, a downpour erupted. The heavens opened and gallons of water drenched me. Except it wasn’t the heavens, it was a sprinkler system in the ceiling. I coughed and spluttered on my one drag as the clear water began to pool beneath me.

When I looked up to Lisa, she was smiling beneath the limp curtains of wet hair. She was holding the door wide open.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Eight

My mouth hung open.

‘Oh yeah,’ Lisa snorted somewhere that seemed light years in the distance. ‘That was his big plan to keep me here, he’s probably going to try the same thing on you.’

‘Wha…’ I began foolishly, slurring because I couldn’t close my mouth.

‘That girl, that creature, Lisa shuddered, ‘she was his big reveal.’

My brain closed in on itself and instinct took over. I banged on the glass, ‘Teresa!’ It sounded like someone else’s voice.

‘What are you doing?’

Lisa’a voice was lost on me, hidden behind smoke. I banged on the glass again, Teresa turned distractedly towards me, her cold eyes even more intense than I remembered. Her dark blonde hair long and tangled around her thin shoulders and her large lips slightly parted.

I tugged at the heavy knob and head a shout behind me. The door crashed open and I ran into the room. I didn’t care what she was, I knew she wouldn’t hurt me. She hadn’t been like the others, she was something else.

‘Teresa?’ The distant shouts followed me into the room. I grabbed her white hand and she didn’t move, she just stared at me.

‘Teresa?’ She didn’t speak, there was no recognition in her face. ‘Teresa please,’ I implored her stone eyes.

I was vaguely aware of strong hands dragging me away, but there was only her eyes on mine. Strange curiosity passed over them, I prayed for recognition.

The door was slammed shut behind me and I heard a lock clicking. I fought to get away from the men holding me, kicked and flailed out. I had the same beautiful creeping feeling, I knew it was The Touch again, the sweet bliss of her hold on me.

‘Teresa,’ my voice was now quiet, broken with the pressure against me. I needed to get back to her, I needed to see her know me. Then I felt the cold sting at my neck and my body fell limp and my eyes swayed closed.

*

‘Whatever came over you?’

My brain came drowsily back into focus, sharp white light erupted as I opened my eyes. I heard Doctor Stewart’s voice crash into my muffled ears. There was a blanket around my shoulders, Lisa’s disapproving frown came into view. Then I remembered.

‘Teresa,’ I whispered.

‘He keeps saying that,’ Lisa said from the corner of the room.

‘You’re lucky to still be alive Lawrence,’ the Doctor shook his head in disbelief.

I tried to stand up and my legs failed me, I slumped back down into the chair, but the two heavyset men at my side made to move again.

‘I just have to talk to her,’ my coarse voice croaked out.

‘She’s obviously done that thing to him,’ Lisa’s anger and contempt ringing out, ‘The Touch.’

My eyes were still heavy, they kept falling closed and I shivered uncontrollably, grateful for the blanket, I pulled it tighter around me. It still seemed like they were talking in a different room, but things were slowly becoming clearer. All I could see was her eyes, they replaced the screaming images I had dealt with over the last two months. I shivered again when I thought about her hair hanging over her face. I had to see her.

‘Please,’ I whispered, but no one heard me.

‘It seems that way,’ Doctor Steward’s unusually frowning face peered intently into my eyes. His dull grey eyes were replaced with her bright blue ones and I screamed, a scream disconnected from my throat. His frown deepened. ‘It’s no unlike her though.’

Lisa snorted again, I kept my head down, I didn’t want to look into any more eyes. ‘It’s like them all,’ she said, ‘nice try Doctor, but we’re leaving now.’

‘He can hardly go anywhere like that.’ He tried to look into my eyes again but I closed them. ‘Are you able to listen?’ I nodded through clenched teeth. ‘What were you thinking?’

‘Teresa,’ I said again.

‘What’s wrong with him?’ Lisa’s voice was harsh and high pitched.

‘Who’s Teresa?’ The Doctor said calmly.

‘That-’ my voice failed me, I didn’t know what to call her and I didn’t understand why he was asking me. ‘That girl, the vampire.’

‘Elizabeth?’ His face was a mess of lines and confusion.

‘No,’ I said, irritated, ‘Teresa.’

‘Her name is Elizabeth,’ Doctor Stewart repeated. ‘She’s my brightest student.’ I saw something bright twinkle in his eyes, I looked into them long enough until the turned pale blue again. I shuddered and closed my own.

‘No,’ my voice was becoming more firm, ‘I don’t know if she lied to you or to me, but I know her.’

‘That’s impossible,’ he laughed mockingly. ‘She’s been at this facility for thirty years.’

‘Then she escaped or something,’ I was impatient.

‘What is he talking about?’ Lisa bit her lip.

‘I assure you she hasn’t,’ the Doctor smiled his stupid grin again. ‘She was the first case we ever dealt with. At the hospital where we found her, she was referred to as Patient forty-five. It became a nickname for our facility, but eventually it just stuck. I know her better than anyone here.’

‘No you don’t,’ I hissed, ‘I know her, I mean, in the biblical way, I know her.’

He laughed, ‘of course you don’t,’ he dismissed me.

‘What did she do to him?’ Lisa sounded so angry I shivered again.

‘It just doesn’t fit with what I know about her.’ He narrowed his eyes.

‘What do you really know about any of these creatures,’ Lisa snorted. ‘You’re playing around with something so old, so powerful, and you have no idea what you’re doing.’

Doctor Stewart stood up to face her. ‘With all due respect miss, I have been with these creatures for my entire professional life. I didn’t stumble upon the truth, it’s taken many, many years to get to this point.’

‘You told me she was almost harmless.’

He nodded enthusiastically, ‘she is. She doesn’t need to feed as often, can control her instinct better than any other case I’ve seen. This incident just proves that further. He was in the room with her, touched her even and she didn’t attack him. She wasn’t even restrained.’

‘Because she knows me,’ I repeated firmly.

‘Shut up,’ Lisa shot at me.

‘Just ask her,’ I hissed, ‘talk to her and you’ll see.’

‘That can’t be done,’ now the Doctor’s eyes were sad, ‘Elizabeth can’t talk, she’s completely mute.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Seven

The building had burst into life. Employees were everywhere, all wearing grey uniforms with that garlic symbol embroidered on their breast pocket. They all had that same look, business as usual. I heard screams from somewhere, not frightened, angry, in front of me a pale man banged furiously on his glass door, eyes darting about, cheeks sunken like a drug addict. I jumped back a step.

The men carried my attacker away laughing silently at me, smirks barely concealed. I was left alone, a woman was pushed past me on a stretcher, at breakneck speed, there was blood dribbling down her throat and she was forcibly restrained with iron grips.

It was all real, no one had lied to me. There were vampires, and they were here. I giggled madly to myself as medics ran in the direction the woman on the stretcher had come from.

I saw the corridor had glass doors all down it, I saw more sets of hands pounding. The air became thick with screams. A harassed looking young man pushed me against a wall as he ran past.

‘First feeding,’ he shouted back as if I should know what that meant.

I had been abandoned and I could’ve walked out of the door then, but I hesitated, because of Lisa. I low sigh escaped my lips, what was it with that family? Those girls would end up killing me, I was certain of that.

I grabbed the next person I saw who was running at me, it was a short woman with mousy brown hair, she was just a little older than me.

‘I need to find Doctor Stewart,’ I said loudly, above all the screams.

She began jabbering in French in harsh panicked tones.

‘Doctor Stewart,’ I repeated slowly.

As if by magic, the Doctor appeared behind her. There was something sinister about his smile, his calm steady movements while the rest of the building was in panic. I let the woman go and she darted off quick as a lizard.

‘I heard my name,’ The Doctor’s sinister smile widened.

An employee ran up to him and stuttered something, the doctor’s calm response seemed to steady the young man’s breathing. Whatever Doctor Stewart’s intensions, his method certainly worked.

‘Is it like this every night?’ I asked.

‘Mostly,’ he waved an airy hand. ‘Stand aside please.’ He held up an arm to stop me as two trolleys clambered past, their wheels squeaking. Hanging from pegs on the trolleys were bags filled with blood. I gulped and the Doctor laughed at me, not unkindly.

‘I hear you had a run in with dear Chastity this evening?’ He said, still smiling. ‘She’s new here, an athlete in another life, very strong.’

‘Yes,’ I raised my eyebrow. ‘Have you ever thought about just letting them starve?’

‘Of course not,’ he said as if the suggestion was ludicrous.

I didn’t say anything. The trolleys wheeled past me right into the heart of those screaming, begging voices.

‘Shall we move along?’ Doctor Stewart smiled broadly as he looked out over the scene. I felt sick.

‘Where does it come from?’ I had to ask.

‘Donations,’ He smiled like a Cheshire, too many teeth.

‘Donations from who?’ I could feel the anger rising in my voice. Cat flap sized holes were unlocked by the workers, thick sets of keys hanging from their waists. A bag of blood was pushed into the slot, and then closed again. Grateful hungry groans surrounded the air.

‘Who do you think?’ He said, ‘The P.V.R of course.’

‘But-’

‘You don’t think the idea of feeding a hungry Vampire is appealing to them?’ He went on, as I stared out at the carnage. One creature reached their thin hand through the slot as the same mousy woman I had seen before slid in a blood bag. The Vampire grabbed her wrist and she screamed, sharp nails scratched against her skin and she snatched back her bleeding arm.

I flinched, ‘I thought they wanted to bring you down?’ I asked suspiciously, ‘destroy this place.’

‘Mostly they do,’ he sighed, ‘but the chosen few, they feel lucky, special. They will never speak out against it, and the superior members who know what goes on, but they’re planning to use it as fuel for the fire when the truth comes out.’

‘They feel special?’ Now sounds of slurping came through crashing through the walls, almost sexual cries of relief.

The Doctor widened his smile even more, ‘they’re romantic, see these animals as fantasy, their dreams made real, all those long nights they spend wishing for that beautiful unobtainable being.’

‘But here-’

‘They’re biological oddities, fascinating, impossible,’ he shrugged, ‘but that is all.’

From the way he smiled I knew he loved these beings more than he let on. ‘I’d like to leave,’ I said quietly. I was scared that he wouldn’t let me, my hands were shaking again from the drama of the morning’s events.

‘There’s a front door,’ the Doctor said, ‘no one’s stopping you.’

‘Lisa,’ I said under my breath.

‘Is fine,’ he waved it away airily.

‘I’d like to see her though,’ I gritted my teeth.

‘Lawrence,’ he sighed deeply, ‘you’ve stumbled into this exciting new world, a closely guarded secret,’ he placed a hand on my shoulder, ‘wouldn’t you like to know more?’

‘I know enough,’ I shot back, I grabbed my hand with the other to stop it shaking so hard, but then the other hand started to shake. ‘I want to get Lisa out of here too.’

‘Very well,’ his face sprang back into the bright smile.

He finally, thankfully drew me away from the corridor. All along the walls there were more pouches of blood being delivered into cat flap slots. Through a cell with thick wood boarded over the window a dark hand shot out to grab the blood. My heart skipped a beat as I recognised my attacker, I was never going to forget even an inch of her skin.

Then the smell hit me. My nostrils stung and my eyes watered from the rush of stale air which attacked every sense. It wasn’t the same dead smell I remember from the boys in Norway, that sickly sweet smell of decay. That was there, but it wasn’t the same, this was deeper, more natural, it smelt animal, like rotting meat. The smell of a slaughter house floor. It was old, almost ancient, a dry smell, it caught in my throat as I wheezed through it. It seemed to seep into my skin, into my pores, making me feel dirty and impure.

I glanced in the direction of the smell, it deepened and I was so knocked back I stumbled. There wasn’t a white box in this room, like in all the others, there was a bed, a plain hospital cot. There were flies squashed into the corners of the glass, they were buzzing and swarming over each other. The bag of blood rested untouched in a tray under the same cat flap, a few flies had escaped the room.

On the bed, amongst the flies, a young man was staring at the wall calmly. A strange lingering smile played about his lips, dark hair fell over sparkling brown eyes and hollow cheek bones. He looked contented, his hands folded in his lap. His skin was sallow and waxy, a heavy jacket hung over wasted shoulders. Yet his face retained something handsome, and I was sure I recognised him from somewhere.

‘The flies?’ I choked out a half spluttered question, afraid to breathe in the air.

‘They carry many diseases,’ Doctor Stewart spoke in a patronising tone, like an angry parent, he grabbed me firmly by the shoulder, and for once he wasn’t smiling.

‘But I know him,’ I coughed painfully.

‘Come along before you suffocate,’ the Doctor’s voice was angry and I followed him, but I watched the young man, he was so still he might be dead, but his lips were moving with that restless smile.

We trudged on down the corridor, I tried not to look at the blank and staring faces shining through the glass windows. Mostly they were too preoccupied with their meal, but sometimes they caught sight of me and sniffed their air, remembering my sent. I shivered, they mostly looked human, if had seen any of them in the outside world I would’ve have thought about them, but there was something here now that I couldn’t call human. It was unexplainable, but something in their eyes marked them as different from me and Doctor Stewart.

He was where we left him. An empty blood bag lay beside him, blood splattered down his white shirt, his thick lips reddened. He saw me, and his eyes narrowed. I had never felt such hate stream from one individual, especially not towards me. Alex looked not only like he blamed me for his incarceration, but like he wouldn’t stop blaming me until I was dead.

An employee moved in front of the door and I almost laughed with relief, when I couldn’t see those eyes, it didn’t matter. He was locked away, and once I found Lisa I would be long gone. This situation was almost manageable when I wasn’t face to face with one of them.

Lisa was in an empty room, exactly like the rooms the vampires lived in, a smooth white box lay here too. Lisa was perched on top of the box with her arms folded. She had a long scratch down her cheek, but otherwise looked unharmed, pissed off and impatient, but unharmed.

‘Lisa,’ I gasped, happy to see her unsmiling face again. I ran to her and to my surprise she embraced me. She was even thinner than she had been and her hair against my neck was dry and brittle.

‘Have they really just been questioning you?’ I asked, eyeing her scratched face.

‘Yes,’ she said, her voice was croaky. ‘They said they needed to keep us apart, to make sure our stories match.’

I bit my lip and tried to swallow what Doctor Stewart had told me, that she knew more than she had let on. I wondered what she knew, if she had knowledge of those creatures, of this place. As I hugged her tight I tried hard not to speculate about how much she had lied to me.

‘Can we leave now?’ I asked the Doctor, who stood at the door smiling at us.

‘Of course,’ he said, ‘thank you both so much for your contribution.’

‘Do you want to leave?’ I asked Lisa cautiously.

For once she bowed her head humbly and replied in a quiet voice. ‘Yes.’ All thoughts of revenge and Alex and Jarl seemed dissolved. It was hard to except that all her determination and hate had gone.

‘Are you sure?’

I hadn’t anticipated a fight, he had so much he could threaten us with, and we had nothing. We could tell people the truth, but who would believe us? We had no evidence except what we had obtained illegally, and even then we didn’t have anything solid. Telling the police that this facility lay somewhere in France, really wouldn’t cut it.

‘Again I wonder,’ the Doctor’s voice didn’t sound threatening, but there was something faintly dark. ‘You’ve discovered an incredible secret, surely you’re hungry for more.’

‘I just want to go home and forget this whole episode of my life.’

‘Very well,’ he sighed. ‘Lisa I will collect your things.’ And he left.

‘Are you sure he’s not going to give us any trouble?’ I asked.

She shrugged, ‘I had expected him to try and keep us here,’ she said. ‘Maybe he has something else up his sleeves.

I noticed that a large blind covered one wall of the room, I fiddled with the handle. ‘What is this for?’ I asked idly. I pulled hard and the blind released, it shot upward with a swift whipping noise.

A shadow, a demon maybe, or perhaps they had been feeding me drugs in the air, without me even knowing. Behind the glass, quietly sitting, was Teresa. The girl I had slept with all those lifetimes ago.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Six

I woke small conference room, a long shiny desk ran down the middle with white padded chairs pushed in underneath. A movie projector was raised high and attached to the wall. There were no windows and the hard strip lighting was off so I had no idea what time it was, only that I had been asleep for a couple of hours. I had that vague awareness that I had had very little sleep, but still that significant time had past. My eyes felt sharp and prickly as I fought to keep them open.

Awful dead silence rang around me until my head started to thud dully. The silence made me anticipate something, I remembered where I was in the hazy waking process and I started to shiver. I was sleeping on the uncomfortable tiled floor in a sleeping bag. I had been too tired to care before, but now my back ached. I suppose the sum of all this was that I wasn’t in a good place, emotionally or physically, as I hung between sleep I imagined waking up in my little messy flat with regretful longing.

It was the first time I had thought about it, but Doctor Stewart was the only person I had seen since I got here. How did I know he was being honest, this could all be an elaborate trick to keep me from knowing the truth. Was Lisa really fine, being questioned somewhere, was she here at all? There was no way of knowing. I remembered Maria’s screams, the closed door in my face, could that all have been false? Something told me that this was really happening, the things I had been told were not lies. This something, this unexplained feeling, was numbing and chilling. I couldn’t keep my thoughts from becoming head aches, complicated and twisted as they were.

The door swung open. My heart beat furiously and quickly as insect wings as the door hit the opposite wall. There was no one there, the room still softly grey in the darkness. As my heart started to calm I lay back into my sleeping bag, until a black smudge raced across my eye line. I’ve never sat upright so quickly, I wasn’t foolish enough to call out, whatever was in here wasn’t human. I knew that from the speed at which I had registered that the black smudge was a creature. Maybe it was only a cat, even so, I retreated silently into the corner of the room, pushing my feet along the tiles with my hands.

I was sure that whatever was there had heard my heart already, it seemed to echo through the room. What if it was one of them? what would they imagine hearing my blood rushing through me? Then I remembered, it’s not just blood. I was overcome with cold panic when I realised I didn’t want to die, I didn’t want to be torn apart and spread across the flood like Robert Thompson. It seems like an obvious thought, but as I rolled my hands into fists my will to live pulsed through me.

Then I saw her, she blurred past my vision again, but this time I was sure it was a woman. She was crouched in the opposite end of the room now, curled up like a panther. Her skin was dark, so dark I could only make out curves and indistinct shapes, but she was definitely naked. I felt no shame or arousal in looking at her, the way she moved so quickly and the way she was holding herself, she was more an animal than a human and somehow it made sense.

She was deathly silent, not breathing, she didn’t even make a sound when she moved. I could see her hair was a wild matted tangle and her dark lips were slightly parted, but her eyes, were shimmering white and hungry. They glinted like light bulbs in the black room.

She moved towards me. She was still crouched, her shoulders arched, again like a wild cat. Slowly stalking towards me, her eyes fixed on the prize, her gaze unwavering and hungry. I saw her nostrils flare, she was smelling me, smelling the sweat sliding down my temples. I couldn’t run, I knew she would catch me if I tried, and I was fascinated by the way she moved. I was almost happy, that my last moments would be spent watching her and studying her.

I looked at her hands like paws making no sound or impression on the tiled floor, at the knees bending with a gymnast’s skill. I looked anywhere but those eyes, the only part of her not animal like and controlled, but too human, too much longing and need in them. I waited for ‘The Touch’ that’s what Doctor Stewart told me it was called, the moment when your mind goes blank and you’ll give in to anything. It would be better that way, if I was relaxed, ready to give in.

It never came. I waited but it didn’t come, I began to shake as she moved ever closer. I skipped a gaze and she was only a metre from me, the way she crawled was now grating on me, she was toying with me because she knew I wouldn’t run. I felt a dribble of saliva run over my lips and realised my mouth had been open and my throat closed ever since I had seen those white eyes.

Please let it come, I begged someone, anyone. Her hands closed around my feet, even through my sleeping bag I could feel how warm they were, so warm I almost thought it had come, The Touch. She pulled hard and my head slammed against the tiles, dizzying, instant pain spread through me and I felt sick. She was on top of me, she didn’t smell of anything, but I could smell my cold sweat seeping through my clothes.

Her naked body was pressed against mine, I could feel her hard nipples, her muscled thighs, her hands worked up my body and those horrible human eyes were inches away from mine. Her lips pressed against my cheek and her hands slid up my throat. I closed my eyes. My final thoughts before the blow were of Angelica, I wished I had seen her again, I wished I had got to touch her.

Phlorescent tubes burst into life over my head, though my closed eyes I could feel their warmth. The woman gave a horrible throaty cry and I no longer felt her weight on top of me. I gingerly opened my eyes to see three men holding her back.

In the bright light she was a terrible vision, her white eyes wide and straining from their sockets. The men were holding her upright and she seemed so strange that way, like a cat standing on its hind legs. Her arms were flailing at me and her hands were turned into claws, and she kept screaming a low rattling wail of frustration and disappointment.

The three men holding her were struggling against this one thin woman, sweat glistening on their heads, but their expressions were bored and tired, they had seen it all before. One of them took out a syringe with a cloudy white substance contained within. He drove it deep into her thrashing arm and almost instantly she was subdued. Her eyes were still open and her brain still functioning, but she had stopped moving, stopped caring about me. Her eyes drifted off into another corner of the room.

I grabbed my chest to try and calm the pain at my heart trying to escape.

One of the men snorted at me, I must’ve looked ridiculous to these jaded people.

He grunted in a thick French accent, ‘be careful, door unlocked.’

Chapter Twenty-Five

please read everything that comes before this or it won't make sense.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Doctor Stewart motioned me to sit in front of his office desk. The office itself was like everything else I had seen so far in this place, white and lacking in natural light. There was nothing there except the doctor’s large white swivel chair, a shiny white iMac and the desk. I was sat in a fold away plastic chair. There were no pictures of his family, no personal artefacts, not even a dismal looking plant like so many offices I had been in. I was beginning to get sick of all this mind numbing white.

‘What do you want to know?’ He asked conversationally with his hands folded on the desk.

‘How long has this been here?’ I asked looking around me pointedly.

‘This building?’ He asked, ‘was an early eighteenth century manor house, it’s been here for quite some time, this facility has only been operational for thirty years.’

‘Why?’ I asked.

He raised his eyebrows at me, ‘we’re not entirely innocent in our motives,’ he said, ‘you must understand how incredible the possibilities are here, to study and examine something which cannot age or die.’

‘So it’s true,’ my voice shook again, I looked into Doctor Stewart’s honest eyes and tried to believe him. ‘They’re immortal?’ The word hung in my mouth like a bad aftertaste.

‘I’m not sure,’ he rubbed his face, ‘we’ve never encountered one older than two hundred.’

‘Two hundred?’ I felt my mouth fall stupidly open. ‘How does it work?’ I was shivering a little bit, I realised they were here, sleeping, all looking as innocent as Alex.

‘It’s an advanced form of cell mutation,’ doctor Stewart said. I was waiting for him to finish the sentence but he didn’t.

‘Hang on,’ I raised my hand in protest of his explanation, ‘I saw someone get shot in the head, I saw brain matter spilling on concrete for fuck’s sake, a few hours later he’s sleeping like a baby, no scratch on him. You can’t tell me that’s advanced cell mutation?’

Doctor Stewart nodded enthusiastically, ‘you see, the body is technically dead, you’ve smelt how rancid the blood becomes when it’s not needed.’ I didn’t need reminding of that smell. ‘The only thing needed is several basic brain functions, movement and speech and so on, so many organs are rendered useless, the lost energy of these functions goes into the amazing healing ability.’ He shrugged, ‘ordinary humans only use ten percent of our brain capacity.’

‘In thirty years that’s the best explanation you can come up with?’ I asked.

He shrugged again, ‘we’re working on it,’ he said, ‘but there’s enough evidence for that theory, considering The Touch.’

‘Excuse me?’

‘The Touch,’ he smiled, ‘we’re almost there ourselves as humans in research, we’ve developed machines which can put direct pressure on the pleasure centre of a rat’s brain, we know how the brain works and how to control certain impulses with electrical currents. This is very similar, they can reach those impulses and manipulate them. They can make you feel safe and happy, or sexually aroused, make you forget things or trust people you shouldn’t’

The silence hung over us like a weight while I tried to understand. ‘You’re talking about magic,’ I finally forced out.

‘Not exactly,’ he smiled warmly, ‘it’s simple as illusion, slide of hand, smoke and mirrors, making you see and believe things which are not true.’

‘No,’ I repeated, more firmly this time, ‘it’s mind control.’ I was thinking of Teresa, how I hadn’t been in command of my own thoughts and body, I hid my shiver, had she been one of them?

He sighed deeply and folded his hands together on the desk, his wristwatch cast a tiny golden circle on the wall. ‘If you stop thinking about the mystical and concentrate on the scientific it will be a lot easier to cope with.’

I snorted heavily, ‘you’re asking me to believe in immortal vampires,’ I almost laughed. ‘They drink blood.’ I stated it as fact to prove my point.

Doctor Stewart gave me an eerie smile, the look of a greedy journalist sucking up gruesome details. ‘A common misconception,’ he said, relishing in my ignorance. ‘why only blood? All internal bodily fluids are beneficial.’

I felt my mouth slide open like some kind of ugly and slippery shellfish. ‘I don’t understand,’ but I did, images flashed through my mind, Heimlaug Gunderson torn apart; Angelina’s arm, poor Marietta’s head tied to the rocks by her hair. No neat pin pricks in the neck.

‘Of course blood is the most easily available, and the most historically Romantic,’ he sighed as though the idea of Romanticism offended him. ‘Younger vampires will hunt for the more, shall we say, exotic, liquid that the older creatures. When they are younger they will need more sustenance. I hear Cerebrospinal Fluid is a particular delicacy.’ Doctor Stewart smiled wickedly.

I didn’t know or want to know what Cerebrospinal Fluid was, it made me gag just to imagine it. ‘Why liquid?’ My racing mind pictured scenes from every zombie film I’d ever seen.

‘Like I explained, many higher brain functions are lost, to digest solid food is beyond them, but they need replacements for the cells which are constantly dying. They need human fluids to survive.’

‘And you provide them?’ I had to ask, I couldn’t understand how this place could function.

‘donations,’ he sighed with an airy wave of his hand.

The subject seemed glossed over pretty quickly, his dark eyes told me I’d better not ask any more questions., though I was itching to. I wondered who gave the donations, nurses, doctors? Or corpses.

‘What are you doing with Lisa?’ I asked defiantly.

‘Questioning her,’ he said, he reclined in is chair. His tone had gone from excited and animated to dull, like he was no longer interested in me or my curiosity. Suddenly the white office seemed too white, and thinking about the rest of this place made bile rise to my throat. I wondered, if there was a vampire here now would he put a straw inside my liver to suck it out? I clamped my hand over my mouth to stop from vomiting. The urge was so strong I leapt from my chair.

‘It’s going to be sunset soon,’ Doctor Steward smiled warmly, though he watched me leap from my chair with no interest, bored and closed off eyes. ‘You need to rest.’

‘Not until I know Lisa is okay,’ I said, even though I understood that this situation was all her fault. I wanted to run from this awful prison full of dead things, but here I was accepting the news I would have to stay here, without even blinking.

‘She is fine,’ the Doctor reassured me. I thought about Maria and her horrible screams, screams beyond any pain I had ever felt. ‘We needed to be certain she’s not a threat, she has more reason than you to be so.’

‘If you mean the P.V.R,’ I strained my exhausted and baffled mind to remember the name, ‘we’re not a part of it, I never heard of it before now.’

He laughed loud and throatily. ‘The P.V.R,’ he sneered, ‘have read too many Anne Rice novels, don’t worry about them.’

‘But Lisa knows as much as I do,’ I tried to explain, ‘she’s only trying to find out what happened to her sister.’

He laughed again, darker this time, almost sinister. ‘You and Lisa need to have a long talk about how much she knows,’ he smiled with his eyes twinkling.