An Immortal in London: Corruption (7 page)

             
“You think it’s really her?” I asked, not wanting the answer.

             
He shrugged and let out a breath as I stood, I could see that he wanted to comfort me, but just like me he had no idea what to say to make it right.

             
“I have to go,” I said, panic ensuing within me, “tell Oliver to keep looking, there has to be another reason, another name… I’ll call around later and you better have a reason as to why her name is on that paper that I can believe.”

             
Jesse stood and nodded; he walked to the door with me and watched as I ran from his house.

             
I didn’t stop running until I reached Levi’s home. He was stood outside nailing something to a tree. I stood by the gate to his driveway and called over to him, “What are you doing?”

             
He rested his hammer onto the small shelf that he had fixed onto the tree and walked over to me, pulling his shirt sleeves up over his elbows, “Trying to get rid of my headache, why are you here?”

             
“I need to tell you something,” I looked over to the hammer and swallowed, “But you have to promise that you won’t kill me, or anyone else for that matter.”

             
He frowned and opened the gate for me, “It’s that bad?”

             
“Like you wouldn’t believe.”

             
Clarence poured wine into our glasses and sat down next to Levi, who was sat opposite me in his drawing room.

             
“I accidentally found Oliver,” I began, waiting for his response. He sat back into the sofa and nodded for me to continue, his patience surprising both me and Clarence. “I nearly killed him, but I didn’t, instead we made a deal.” I paused again, I could see anger building up inside of him, but he was fighting to keep it at bay.

             
“What sort of deal?” Clarence asked, almost on the edge of her seat.

             
I closed my eyes and smiled tightly, waiting for the blow as I spoke, “He has been
undercover,
if you will, to try and find a name, to find Katelyn’s killer, the leader of the corruption.”

             
“And has your dead lover found us anything of any use?” Levi asked with his dark cutting eyes fixed hard onto me.

             
I held my hands out on my lap and clenched them into fists whilst I told them what Jesse had told me that very morning, not mentioning him by name or matter. Clarence was dumbstruck. Levi slammed his wine glass down onto the table shattering it into hundred of tiny pieces, his red wine spilled onto the cream carpet. He stood and walked around to the back of the sofa.

             
He paced back and forth and shook his head, “There has to be an explanation for this. Francis wouldn’t do that to you, would she?”

             
I stood and walked around to him, I took his hands in mine and he seemed to calm almost instantly, “I have told Oliver to find another name. Francis would never do this; she always understood the importance of the balance.”

             
“Who else knows what you have organised with Oliver?” Clarence asked.

             
I told her that Gabriel only knew that I had found him, and that he didn’t know about our arrangement.

             
“It has to stay between us,” Clarence said, “If there is a living immortal in league with them we can’t risk it getting out that we’re onto her.”

             
“Clarence, will you come to George’s with me?”

             
“Sure, Levi will you be ok here until I’m back?”

             
He nodded and sent us on our way.

I knocked on an oak door which held a memory from many years ago. When it opened George stood back in shock and laughed. I smiled and waited for him to welcome me in.

             
“My, oh my, have I stepped into a time machine? What has it been, fifty years?”

             
“Fifty seven in January,” I said quietly. Clarence followed me in and we sat as he sent his help out of the room.

             
His house was an ultra modern box, but it was fortified stronger than any other building in the city, there were hidden rooms filled to the brim with artillery, weapons of every calibre, and there was a panic room on every floor of the house, he was either insane or a genius. His interior decoration on the other hand was more
evil
genius; everything had a sharp edge and was either black or chrome with the occasional splash of red or green.

             
“I like what you’ve done to the place.”

             
“Right,” he muttered offering us both a drink, “You hate it,” he laughed, “you always were an old fashioned girl.”

             
I nodded and met his dark blue eyes, “when I said that I’d call…”

Clarence
laughed under her breath and I heard her mutter, “
typical
”, or something of the sort.

             
“Don’t worry yourself about it, when the eighties came I forgot all about you,” he took a sip of his wine and looked at my hair, “I prefer it short. So,” he said, putting down his glass, looking between me and Clarence, “I doubt that you’re here for another round?”

             
Clarence laughed again and I shook my head, “I’m afraid, George, that we’re all in mortal peril. It’s a rather terrible situation.”

             
“I have noticed, but what can I do for
you
?”

             
“As many hunters as we have on side the fewer repercussions we will face when we take them out.”

             
“So, no love making at all?” he asked.

             
“Not this time, George.”

             
“Does Gabriel have you this time around?”

             
I bit my lower lip and shook my head. It was at times like that when I regretted ever looking upon a man. Over the years I had my fair share of lovers. Who wouldn’t after two hundred years? Most of them were to pass time, numb senses, or just because that was all I knew.

             
He laughed and mused, “The virginal hero has become rather clichéd I suppose.” With a sigh he sat back and opened his arms, “I will join you in hunting; I’ll see you out on the field old girl.”

Clarence and I left and set out together back to Levi’s. The clouds were threatening rain as they often did. I had never been one for the winter. I much preferred the warm breeze that would accompany an English summer.

Flowers in full bloom, reds, pinks and blues were everywhere you looked. No garden would be without a tree or some kind of shrubbery. Children would don their white dresses and cotton trousers. Men would leave behind their jackets and their braces would hang lazily from their waists.

I would fan myself delicately and feel the light puffs of the welcome cool air on my powdered face. My golden hair would be pinned up, but whispers of it would fall around my neck and my ears. I would walk bare footed, but no one would see as my dress would run along the grass. My underskirts would be lying on my bedroom floor and I wore only two layers. The top layer being my favourite light pink simple cotton dress, the sleeves would stop around the tops of my arms, but I would wear an open jacket. The only flesh visible would be the top of my breast leading up to my long slender neck.

“You look a million miles away,” Clarence said, as she hooked her arm through mine.

I opened my eyes and smiled to her. “I miss the summers here.”

“Levi,” Clarence called into the house.

              Levi emerged from one of his back rooms. He pulled his shirt on over his head as he walked towards us. “I didn’t expect you back so soon,” he said, running his right hand through his hair, a thin light sheen of sweat on his forehead.

             
“Sorry,” I said, clearing my throat, “If we’d have known you had company we would have gone back to Gabriel’s.”

             
He frowned and a smile crept onto his face, “Company? I was in my gym.”

             
My lips parted and Clarence laughed as my cheeks flushed red, “Come on you,” she said pulling my arm. “We have girl stuff,” she said to Levi.

I couldn’t help but notice a look that they shared as I turned from him and entered the drawing room.

              “Do you have something you want to tell me?” Clarence asked, as she sat down opposite me.

             
I shook my head, “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

             
“Oh come on, you were jealous as Hell just then.”

             
“Clarence, why would I be jealous, he can do what he wants.”

             
“Sure,” she said, lowering her voice to a whisper as she continued to question me, “Have you seen Victor recently?”

             
I frowned and worried that she had somehow seen into my thoughts and witnessed my memory of our meeting in the alleyway. I shook my head and fixed a smile onto my face, “No, why would I?”

             
She didn’t believe me; I could see it within her accusing eyes, “Whatever you think you feel for him, it isn’t real Vic, trust me.”

             
“Ok, if I see him again, I’ll bring his heart back for you, just to prove to you where my loyalties lie.”

I had meant what I said; I would kill him, I had to. His death would free me from my insanity, or at least I had hoped that it would. Victor, although he felt like the missing fragment of my life, had to die, whether it was by my hand or another’s. No matter how much I longed to hold him in my arms again.

              Clarence’s phone rang out and I used it as an excuse to leave the room. I wandered outside and took out a
homemade
cigarette from my inside pocket, as I placed it between my lips Levi held out his lighter. I closed my eyes and smiled, the tree that he had been working on earlier caught my eye and I laughed as I realised that he had fixed onto it an ashtray.

             
“Smoking that stuff is a terrible habit Rose.”

             
“You’re not doing much to discourage me.”

             
He shrugged and stood tall before me, “I know that it helps.”

It did help; if I had been mortal I would not have touched them in a million years, but having forever to avoid the consequences of the habit I took respite in their mind numbing side effect
s.

He laughed and looked up into the tree that I was leaning against, “Do you think that we’ll ever just be normal?”

“As long as immortal blood runs through our veins we will never be
normal
, our lack of human feeling doesn’t go a long way to help.”

“
We both know that’s bull, you feel just as you did before, you’re just better at masking it.” His eyes were hot on mine, but I shrugged and took a drag, closing my mind to the troubling thoughts.

“That’s what loneliness will do to a person,” I uttered, my voice laden with bitter regret and sarcastic cruelty.

He took a step closer to me and took my cigarette from my mouth and stubbed it out. “You don’t have to be alone Roseanna.”

“Victoria,” I said quietly. “Meet you later for the hunt?”

When I returned Jesse was waiting by my townhouse’s door, without his usual briefcase.

“Have you been waiting long?” I asked, taking out my key and unlocking the door.

He stood back and shook his head, “Not long, no. I’ve not come about business.”

“Oh, come in.” When he sat down I leant back and crossed my legs. “So, what did you want to talk about?”

“I
hope you weren’t upset this morning. When I have my business head on I tend to forget that people have emotions.”

“I’m a big girl. I forgot to mention earlier that you’re looking really good.”

His sparkling eyes glinted and he shot me a smile promising trouble. “Five years can change a man.”

“How old are you now?” I asked, pulling my shoes off and sliding them across the room.

“Is that yours?” he asked, pulling my copy of Wordsworth’s Lyrical Ballads across the table, avoiding my question. I nodded as he asked, “So you’re a fan of Wordsworth?”  He was watching me with fond curiosity as I became lost in my memories. “Oh it has an inscription,” he uttered, opening it gently, mouthing the words as he read, and as he read them silently I recited them aloud.

“My darling Victoria,

…Imagination, which in truth

Is but another name for absolute power

And clearest insight, amplitude of mind,

And reason, in her most exalted mood…

My love forever…”

I sat back. I ran my index finger across my father’s script and smiled softly. “You still haven’t answered my question.”

“Twenty five,” he uttered flicking through the pages of Wordsworth’s poetry.

I took the book from him and lifted
his chin with my index finger. Our eyes were locked, our connection seemed to go into over drive and the bond that we had forged five years ago grew to immeasurable heights. “I have to go,” I said quickly as I stood and pushed my feet into my shoes and threw him his coat.

“I
’ll call if I get any more news.”

“Goodnight Jesse,” I said as I locked the door behind us and ran to my car through the light rain that had begun to fall.

That night something woke me in the night. A door slammed and a glass smashed. I sat up in my bed and a sharp pain seared through my left arm. I searched for the lamp’s switch and when the light doused my skin I saw the end of a needle buried in my arm. I pulled it out and cursed as my skin tore and blood dripped lightly down my arm. I walked across to my bathroom and cleaned the wound, by the time I dried my arm it was healed.

              I crossed my room to the window, but there was no one around. Quietly I searched through the house to find one of Gabriel’s glass figurines by the front door smashed across the wooden floor. The door was locked and there was no sign of forced entry anywhere.

             
I tapped lightly on Gabriel’s door and he wandered out to me groggily, “What’s wrong?”

             
I pulled him closer and could smell the pungent sweet smell of chloroform; the level that they would have had to use to take Gabriel out would have killed a mortal man. “Chloroform!” I barked.

             
“What?” Gabriel sniffed the air and stumbled forward. I caught him and his eyes opened wide with realisation.

I walked him to his bathroom and washed his face. With the cold water his senses were revived.

              “What happened here Victoria?”

             
I held out the needle head and bit my lower lip before I said, “I think someone has been taking my blood.”

             
“How did they get in?” he asked standing at the top of the stairs with me.

             
“Your keys?”

             
Gabriel dropped his head, but as he saw the broken glass on the floor he turned to me and uttered, “I loved that fish…” He shook his head and frowned as he asked, “What are we going to do?”

             
“You are going to go sit down and I’ll get you some tea to wake you up.”

             
He nodded sleepily and wandered down into his library. As I made my way to the kitchen I picked up the house’s phone and called the one person in the entire immortal universe that could help me.

             
“Rose?”

             
“I’m in big trouble Levi.”

             
“Talk to me Rose.”

             
I told him everything, everything that I knew anyway.

             
He didn’t hesitate in his action. Within ten minutes he was on his way over after instructing me to pack an overnight bag. He was going to bring Clarence with him so as Gabriel wouldn’t be left defenceless if anyone else tried to get in, considering the culprit still had a copy of Gabriel’s keys if my theory was right, he needed her.

             
I was reluctant to tell Gabriel what was going on, but with only ten minutes before the problem arrived and took me away I had to tell him.

             
“Gabriel,” I said softly, handing him his cup of tea, “I have to tell you something.”

              He yawned and nodded for me to continue.

             
“Levi is on his way, he’s bringing Clarence so that you won’t be on your own. Okay?”

             
“Where will you go?”

             
I smiled and took his hand in mine, hoping that in his drowsy state he would react calmly. “I’m going to stay with Levi.”

             
The effects of the chloroform wore off instantly and he shouted, “No, Victoria, I won’t stand for it!”

             
I shook my head and sighed. I walked to the door, and said quietly, “I have no choice; I’m not safe here anymore. You should probably leave too. George has plenty of spare rooms; I’ll call him for you tomorrow. Now are you going to sit there like a boy who just lost his puppy or are you going to help me?”

He reluctantly followed me upstairs to my room and sat down on the end of my bed. He watched on agitated as I packed a bag with a few things to keep me through my temporary stay at Levi’s.

              “I can’t believe that you’re doing this,” Gabriel said. “I will get the locks changed in the morning…”

             
“Gabriel, stop,” I said, fighting not to raise my voice, “I am going to Levi’s and that is that. I was here to protect
you
, but I can’t even look after myself. I am the biggest danger to you out of everyone. Just let me go, please.”

             
“But, Levi?”

             
I rested the case against the banister and turned to him, all of my calm rested in my eyes. “I don’t blame you for being
worried
and I understand why you don’t like me being so close to him,” I began, before I suddenly realised that I didn’t understand, and I never really had. Sure, Levi was arrogant, obnoxious… But he was caring, kind and had looked out for me more than I even knew at the time. “I love him,” I started, but was silenced by the furious hand that crossed my face. I didn’t stumble. I stood tall and shook myself as I brought my hand to my cheek. “Gabriel…”

             
Gabriel stood before me silent. Levi was stood at the foot of the stairs, looking up at us both. How long he had been stood there I didn’t know. Gabriel stood back and shook his head, anger welling up within him with a fresh douse of guilt.

             
Levi slowly walked up the stairs and looked from me to Gabriel. He stood before his soul creation and before I could think to move he took my creator’s wrist and with one sharp twist snapped the bone. Gabriel stumbled back and let out a yell. I fell forward and put my hand onto Levi’s arm. He looked down to me and turned from Gabriel.

“If I am a monster you are just so, my son.”

As Levi spoke and said the name that Gabriel had often given to him I looked up into the furious eyes of the monster. I saw all of him; I saw every day that we had spent together, every smile, every cruel and kind thing he had done. Levi would never have put a hand to me, no matter what I did, he proved as much when I told him about Oliver.

“Just go,” Gabriel uttered, as he held his wrist in place.

“Gladly,” I said, turning from him, disappointment and fury in my heart.

“Victoria...”

As Gabriel reached out for me Levi stepped in his way, “if you so much as look at her again I will not have to think twice about killing you,” he uttered with darkness radiating from his every word.

             
As he took my hand and led me down the stairs and out of Gabriel’s house I could feel his darkness pulse through him. I found comfort in the shadows and clung to them to take away the pain that I felt in my chest as I was torn between both of my creator’s, the man who’s blood ran through my veins and the man who’s heart rested besides mine.

             
“Are you ok?” he asked as I sat staring blankly ahead in the passenger seat of his car.