An Immortal in London: Corruption (17 page)

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, “I’m sorry.”

He kissed my cheek softly and held me. Gabriel had been all that I had left when it happened the first time and he was all that I had in that moment. George shouted over to us, a black figure within clouds of smoke. We ran to the car and got into the back beside Jesse.

“Where to?”
George asked as he fastened the passenger seatbelt around the unconscious Oliver.

I looked to Gabriel and he closed his eyes to think. “Back to your place, we can settle our minds and rethink the plans.”

I struggled desperately with my next decision, but I had to make sure that she was safe.  I searched through Jesse’s pocket and took out his phone. I found where he had stored Francis’s address and I ran out of the car faster than either of them could stop me. After I had turned the corner of the street I heard the car start and take off in the opposite direction.

My legs ached for me to stop, but it wasn’t far
, I had to carry on. I ran harder than I had ever thought possible through the rain. My cuts from the glass had healed and the only trace of my night was the dried blood on my shirt.

I came to the turn leading into Francis’s dri
veway and spotted Levi’s car sat hidden in foliage with the passenger door open. I walked around to it and I had to hold back a cry. Clarence’s body was lying across the seat, heartless.

I looked up at the house and then back to Clarence. Levi had gone in
to get her heart.

I crept around and was grateful to find a back patio door unlocked. The lights were off in the room, but I could see perfectly.

I could hear voices in the room to my left and it was when I looked to the other side of the room that I saw a trail of blood that stopped by a small glass box. Within the box was a steadily beating heart.

To get to the box I would have to pass
an open doorway. Through the doorway I could see light and hear voice. I crawled around the cabinet that sat in the centre of the lightless room and looked into the open doorway as I reached it. Imposter Francis and at least a dozen security personal were gathered in the room.

“What are you doing here?”

I jumped back, luckily not making a sound as I fell into a crouching Levi’s arms.

“Clarence. How did you know where she was?” I asked.

He made a phone gesture with his right hand and I nodded in understanding.

“How do we do this?” I asked.

“I will run around to the front and make a distraction, you grab the heart when you can,” he said slowly, and asked quietly, “You got that?”

“Be careful,” I whispered.

He kissed me silently before he crept back out into the night.

I waited for what seemed like forever. Suddenly the men in the room darted out and ran right past where I was crouching. Imposter Francis followed closely behind, however she paused when she reached the door and turned around, inhaling into the darkness. I held my breath and controlled my light as best as I could. She shook herself and ran out after the men.

I waited to make sure that she was gone before I stepped over to the table and as I took a hold of the jar. For a second I hesitated. Oliver’s heart might have been in that house, but there was no way of knowing for sure. Imposter Francis’s security also weighed heavily on my mind. I crawled to the open patio doors and ran out.

I checked around the grounds and then ran for my life, and Clarence’s. When I reached Levi’s car I took off my shirt and used it to pick up her heart, I pushed
it down into her chest and dropped my shirt onto the car floor. I took out my pen knife and spilt my blood over the heart, my light fused the arteries together and my blood began to heal her. She wouldn’t wake up, not yet. My heart hadn’t been taken and such a wound took days to heal.

I fastened her body into the car and watched her for a while. I sat in the passenger seat and waited. An hour or so later Levi wandered past the bushes alone and walk
ed right on by without even glancing at the car. A few minutes later he climbed through the foliage and into the driver’s seat.

His eyes locked with mine and he brushed my hair from my face, his eyes flickered over my topless chest and he wrapped his jacket around my bare shoulders. I wiped my hands
on my jeans and gently caressed his cheek. A tear rolled onto my hand and I pulled him into my arms. In his car we sat and held each other. I pressed my lips hard against his cheek and he turned to meet my lips with his.

In that moment, our lights were forcibly intertwined by the darkness of death; we only cared for the love that we shared there and then.

I pulled my lips from our impatient kiss and hung my head against his, our noses touching. His breath was rigid and hungry, mirroring my own inner most desires. “Drive,” I whispered. “Just drive.”

He did as I said. 

He didn’t say anything until we were outside of George’s house.

“Is
the mortal okay?” he asked.

I nodded, “only just, if it
wasn’t for Clarence…” I sighed and shook my head, “If he’d have died I would never have forgiven myself.”

He cupped my face and smiled, he dropped his hands and unbuckled my seatbelt for me, “
he’s safe now, and that’s all that matters.”

“
Safe,” I whispered, “Safe, right.”

I was covered in my own and Clarence’s b
lood, my knees were bruised, but the biggest pain was in my own chest. I sighed and closed my eyes.

Levi took my hand and squeezed it tightly. “
What’s immortality without a little action every now and then?”

I leant my head on his shoulder and kissed his neck lightly, “I’ll drink to that.”

He opened the car door and walked around to let me out, “let’s get her inside, and I’ll get you that drink. This is about the only place in London imposter Francis doesn’t seem to know about.”

“It won’t be long until she notices Clarence’s heart has gone,” I said as we waited by the door.

George opened the door and stared in wonderment. We hurried in with Clarence propped up between us, his eyes betrayed him as they passed over my almost bare chest. We turned to him and asked where we could take her. He told us that Jesse was resting in my bedroom and that he had started to wake on the journey, but was incredibly weak.

With George’s directions we took the servants stairs to the quarters that were beneath the house. Jones was stood outside of the door.

“Good evening Jones,” I said as I waited for the door to be opened.

He blushed furiously as he battled his own eyes to pull them from my chest, “Good evening Miss Jewels.”

Levi laughed as we walked in and uttered, “I think you better zip that up before all of the men in this house explode.”

I
pulled his jacket tighter around me and waved out to Jones before he shut the door on us. Looking across to the bed next to Clarence’s I sighed as I looked upon Oliver’s lifeless body and I asked, “They will be ok, won’t they?”

Levi put a heavy hand onto my shoulder and I moved from
their bedsides as Gabriel crept into the room.

I stormed to him and whipped my fingers across his face as he had done to me. “You promised that she would be okay,” I said, fighting my pain, my tears.

He stood stock still as I beat against his chest like I had done on the day of my undoing.

“You promised! You liar, liar, liar, liar! I hate you,” I said, my words skittering to a stop as I heard myself. I turned from him and stepped back into Levi’s open arms. I rested my head against his chest and
squeezed my eyes shut, my chest pulsing beneath my borrowed jacket. I let out a breath as Gabriel slammed the door behind him and I collapsed onto Clarence’s bed and wept on her shoulder, praying that she would wake.

“Are you going to say it or am I?”

              “You were right.” I opened my eyes and looked up to him.

             
He thrust his hands into his pockets and turned around. “A Pyrrhic victory,” he uttered.

             
“You have given up already?”

             
He span on his heel and frowned down to me, “What?”

             
“You said that you would fight for me.” I stood and walked to him, placing my hands onto his chest, “Does your heart not beat for love?”

             
He took my hands and shook his head. He ran his fingers through my hair and I kissed his scared arm as it graced my cheek. “You would betray Levi?”

             
“Would you?”

             
He smiled and kept his eyes on mine as he put his hot lips onto mine. “Need you ask,” he whispered, his breath taking mine.

             
“Roseanna.”

             
The closer I pulled him to me the further away he fell.

             
“Rose.”

             
I called out to him, but he couldn’t hear me.

             
“Roseanna.”

             
My arms were fixed to my side and my cries were unheard by the silent Victor.

             
“Rose, wake up you’re having a bad dream.”

             
I took a sharp breath as I opened my eyes and saw that I was lying in Levi’s bed, his hands were holding my arms to my side.

             
I looked up to him and stole my arms back. I pulled up the white sheet over my chest and held it to me. He frowned and placed his cool fingers onto my cheek for a brief second before he left his bed and walked from the room.

             
I closed my eyes and fell back onto my pillow.

             
“Leave me alone,” I whispered.

             
“Who, me?”

             
I looked across the room and a half dressed Jesse stood in the doorway.

             
“Are you ok? I heard you calling in your sleep.”

             
I sat up and patted the bed. He sat down next to me and pushed my hair from my face.

             
“Nightmare?”

             
“Something like that.”

             
“Who is Victor?” Jesse asked, his eyes searching in mine.

             
I closed my eyes and rested my head onto my knees. “Was that what I was calling?”

             
“Calling, shouting? Yeah. V, what am I missing?”

             
“Victor is the reason why Gabriel is still alive, but Victor himself is dead.”

             
“Oh,” he said quietly.

             
I laughed hopelessly and pulled my hair. “When did you wake up?”

             
“Not long after they brought me here. I don’t know what happened. I just felt something in my chest and keeled over. I thought that I was dead until I heard your voice and felt your blood.”

             
I looked around and put a finger to his lips. “Not here.” I sighed and pulled him into my arms. “Don’t ever do that to me ever again, ok?” He nodded and laughed. I rested my head onto his shoulder. “Has Levi left the house?”

             
He shrugged, “I haven’t heard the door. Do you want me to find him?”

             
“No, I’ll go after him.”

             
Jesse left and I prepared myself to chase after Levi.

             
After what he had just endured I had no idea what state I would find him in. He would be angry, I would be. He would be sharp, who could blame him? He might lash out, he would never hit me I knew that, but if I was him I certainly would.

             
“Levi, are you out here?” I asked, as I crept out into George’s courtyard garden.

             
I wrapped my arms around my body and walked further into the darkness.

             
“Levi, please, I…” I stopped and sighed. “I don’t know what to say, I’m not good at this. It was just a dream, a nightmare.”

             
“You’re in the doghouse already?”

             
I walked deeper into the shadows and there he sat. My torturer. My plague.

             
“Victor, what are you doing here?”

             
“We were having a wonderful dream, why’d you leave?”

             
“You did that?”

             
He laughed and walked over to me. “Please, you flatter me.”

             
“How did we share that dream?”

             
“Punishment.”

             
“Punishment for what?”

             
“For loving each other,” he said, taking my arms and pulling me into his chest.

             
Roberta had said that we were one, the living and the dead. And in his arms I felt it, the joint power of the light and dark, the most fearsome force known to man.

             
I put my hands to his chest and bowed my head. “No.”

             
“What are a few dreams,” he whispered, mirroring my own words to him.

             
“Victor…”

             
“You can’t deny your feelings forever.”

             
“I can’t, you’re right.”

             
“Why are you fighting so hard?”

             
I relaxed in his arms and he let his hands fall to my waist. I kept my eyes on his as his lips came down to mine. My hands glided to his neck and with one foul snap he collapsed at my feet.

             
“Do you believe me now?” I asked to the shadow that I knew had been watching and listening.

             
Levi stepped out of the darkness and looked down at his ancient enemy.

             
He pulled me into his arms with all of his force and punished me with his passion.

The next day I sat in George’s garden and watched a red and orange butterfly flutter from flower to flower, without a care in the world. Its delicate wings carrying it through its careless life, free to go wherever it wished.

             
“Mr George has requested an audience with you,” Jones said as he stopped before the bench on which I was sat.

             
“Thank you Jones, tell them I’ll be with them in a minute.”

             
He slipped away and I sat for a minute more contemplating life without duty, without care, much like my own life once upon a time.

We sat together in the library
, George, Gabriel, Levi and I, each waiting for the other to talk.

“Jones!”
George called, breaking the silence, “Jones!”

Footsteps hurried up the servant’s stair case and
we waited silently as he composed himself before entering the room. “Yes sir?”

“I think that we could all do with a cup of tea. Organise that for us in the dining room if you would,” he said
, before dismissing him and turning his attention to us.

“After recent events the ball clearly can no longer be held
at Gabriel’s place. Considering the enormity of the event I propose that as Levi has the greater sized home, the ball should take place there this year, if that is ok with the host?”

Levi looked across to Gabriel who was watching me with a lost expression in his eyes. I nodded and Gabriel reluctantly agreed to host his party in his least favourite master’s home.

After discussing several other arrangements Gabriel left the room and I could feel Levi relax instantly beside me, all tension evaporating from the room.

George lit up a cigarette and offered the pack to me. I took one gratefully and lit up much to Levi’s dismay. I found it odd how
an old soul could have such a sour attitude towards the habit, during most of my life smoking had been the thing to do.

“Will you not take one my good man?”

Levi shook his head and smiled softly, “I’m afraid the habit disgusts me.”

“Well then, Vickie, we must take our dirty habit outside. Jones will call you when the tea is ready. Don’t feel you have to wait for us.” He stood and offered me his arm which I gratefully accepted.

I rested against the back wall of the house and looked up at the ever darkening sky, “Where has it all gone George?”

He laughed and paced before me, “with the wind,”
he said lazily. “To think I was living alone mere days ago, and now I have a houseful of everything!”

“Do you wish I had never come for you?”

He shook his head, “Do you want the truth Vickie?”

I nodded and watched as he jumped up to sit on the window ledge.

“My life has been rather stale.”

I laughed, “Oh George,
it can’t have been that bad?”

“Sure I have the money, the worldly charm, and undeniable great looks, but I don’t feel I have a purpose. The second you showed up it was as if the fates gave me a kick in the behind.”

“I miss your ramblings,” I said whilst my mind faded into nostalgia.

1955

We lay wrapped in Egyptian cotton sheets with the moonlight casting shadows of our bodies against the red silk which hung from his four poster bed.

              “George,” I whispered.

             
“Vickie?”

             
I rolled onto my stomach and kissed his lips lightly. “Do you think that we’ll remember this? When the world has aged and we have new lovers, will you remember me?”

             
He laughed freely and pulled at my hair, “How could I ever forget such a beauty as you?  One day, my love, I will find you and ask you the same question, may it be fifty years from now or more. I will find you and ask, now that the world has aged and we have new lovers, do you remember me? And what will you say?”

             
I laughed and said lightly, “How could I ever forget such a beauty as you?”

             
“Exactly,” he said with weightless laughter, “you see, we will never forget nor regret any of our past. It is who we are. We are creatures of forever. Our past is our present and we have no future to speak of because we have nowhere to go! Oh don’t pull your face like that, I promise you that I speak only the truth!”

He pinched my cheek and wrapped his arm around me as I settled on his chest.

              “No, you will never forget me, and I will never forget you. No matter how the world changes we will remain the same. You might leave tonight and never come back, who am I to know? I won’t be bitter and neither will you when I don’t call, because that is who we are. We are selfish through and through.”

              I kissed his chest and waited at hip lips. His smile tortured me as I said, “When you ramble on as you do I get the most impossible urge to kiss you.”

             
“Kiss what you wish my love. We are gods after all with the freedom to do,” he uttered as he kissed me faintly, “whatever,” he whispered with a harder kiss, “we,” he laughed lightly as my lips clung to his.

             
“Damn well want,” I said, finishing his sentence and stealing his breath.

Later that day Levi left with George to carry out the daily patrol of the surrounding city streets. Although George’s house had been the safest there was no guarantee that we were still hidden from the mass of the dead that served the corruption’s army.

             
With little to do I sat beside Clarence and Oliver and looked over them both, wondering for a brief second, what it might feel like to completely lose my heart.

             
“It would be damn painful.”

             
Victor was standing in the doorway, his magnificent beauty overwhelming me for all but a second.

             
“That was rather unnecessary, don’t you think?” He said, rubbing his neck and smiling like the devil.

             
“You knew that he was there.”

             
“Is that the only reason why you did it?”