Camdeboo Nights (29 page)

He slowed, dashing from bush to thicket. The half-dozen police officers spoke quietly around the shrouded corpse. A spreading crimson flower bloomed through the white blanket where the figure’s throat should have been.

Damon burst out onto the driveway and cast about wildly. “Etienne!” he yelled.

Etienne didn’t hesitate. The police looked toward the gasping Damon and Etienne rushed across the remaining distance that took him through the gates and into the road.

Get the car going, Trystan, please!
He willed these words, hoping that they’d be able to make a clean getaway.

Voices rang out behind him. Why did the Hudson look so far away? The car’s rear lights blinked on and the engine sputtered into life on the second attempt.

“Don’t go without meee!”

The Hudson reversed a little then the front wheels twisted as the vehicle nosed out into the street. Etienne’s lungs seared from the effort of running. More shouts clamored behind him. He daren’t look back for fear that the sight of his pursuers would freeze him in his tracks.

Etienne clasped the chrome handle, wrenched the door open and threw himself onto the seat. The car lurched forward and he got a mouthful of leather.

“Close the door!” Trystan shouted.

Etienne complied. “Drive! Please! Get us the fuck out of here!”

With a burning squeal of rubber, the car swung around the corner. Etienne lay gasping until he no longer felt as if he’d puke up his lungs.

“What the fuck was that about?” Arwen asked.

Etienne drew himself into a seated position. “Things didn’t quite go according to plan.”

“No shit.”

Trystan spoke, his voice quiet. “Now you’ve got the cops on our tail.”

“How do you know?” Arwen asked.

“Well, I’m not exactly driving the world’s most inconspicuous car, girl.”

“Oh, that. All right, Etienne, can you tell us what’s going on?”

The car took another corner with enough force to throw Etienne against the door. Trystan’s reflection in the rear view mirror bore a fearsome scowl.

“I walked in by the driveway and there was a dead fat woman underneath a blanket. I went round the back and spoke with Damon...”

“You didn’t tell him about–” Arwen started.

“Do I look stupid? No, I told him we ran away with the fucking tooth fairy.” He drew a deep breath. “They’d gone out and Helen stayed at home, she was upset. When they came home it was to find the gates open and the body. No Helen.”

“Mantis isn’t with her,” Trystan said. “She’s closing in but hasn’t succeeded so far. When I
reached
there was another, like Helen, with her. She’s somehow suppressing her Essence but I’m pretty certain they’re headed to Emmerentia. They’re almost there. Not quite sure what they’ll do there but I think they’re going to try to hide. There’s a lot of unbound Essence there.”

“What in hell’s name are you talking about?” Etienne asked. “What’s this talk of reaching and essence and stuff?”

“Nothing you need to concern yourself with, Etti. You probably shouldn’t have gone to look. Damn.”

Etienne wanted to say something about hating it when his best friend acted patronizing toward him but Trystan spoke before he could form the words.

“There’s more. Something else is there by the dam and I don’t think it’s a vampire. It’s too big.”

Somehow, asking “Can we go home now, please?” made a hell of a lot of sense. Only problem was, home was no longer an option. They were in too deep.

Chapter 33

In the Dark Park

Bijou stole a car way too quickly. They’d paused by a silver Golf Polo parked down a side street, and Bijou had walked up to it as if it were hers, held out her palm and the alarm chirped off cheerfully even as the doors unlocked.

Helen shook her head, preferring not to think too much how this had happened. It was better to climb in and shut up as the engine purred into life and Bijou moved them away from the growing threat.

“Where are we going?”

Bijou drove like a maniac, the car’s rev-counter in the red every time she pushed the engine to its limit. “A place I know. We’ll be safe until morning.”

“Why’re you doing this for me?”

“You’re too good for them. They’ll want you. Hell, they’ll want me too after this night.” Bijou’s laugh sounded harsh, with a bitter edge to it.

“Too good for what?”

“Vampires.”

A memory of the raven-haired woman’s bloodstained mouth sent a shiver through Helen. Two days ago she would have laughed at the idea. Today she was not so sure.

Next to her, Bijou sniffed and wiped at her eyes, squinting at the road. Only one headlight worked and not well, at that.

“Mama Ruthie was your mom, wasn’t she?”

“Yeah. ‘Was’ is the operative word. I jus’ knew this was a bad idea, coming all the way here. But no, we couldn’t afford to let you fall into the wrong hands, oh no.”

“If I may ask, what would they do to me? Eat me? Drink my blood?”

“Any number of things. Most likely make you one of their own, a very powerful slave. This world already has too many of their kind. The balance is wrong. There are too many people and things sucking the life out of the world. Not enough sources. As you an’ me are right now, we are agents for change an’ stuff. They seek to control things, make them the same. Predictable.”

“So, now what?”

“We run. We hide. We try to get back to the DRC.”

“But there’s all that fighting up there.”

“That’s jus’ the stuff you read in the papers. Truth is, the DRC’s a big place. Not all of it has gone to shit like you see on TV and there’s plenty more places to hide.”

“But I don’t want to go to the Congo.” Helen tried to force air out of her stricken lungs while she considered the implications of Bijou’s plans.

“Well, where else do you suggest we go?”

“There’s Cape Town. I grew up there and know my way around. I’ve got friends there.”

Bijou snorted. “You really know nothing, Helen Ashfield. Cape Town’s one of the worst places you can go.”

“Why?”

“The same reason why Joburg’s a bad place. Vampires.”

“They never bothered me before.”

“Well, you hadn’t sent off that flare for a million miles right then. You first gotta learn to hide it before you can even think of setting foot inside a large city.”

“And for that I need to go to the Congo?” The chick was quite mad.

Bijou made a low sound that wasn’t really a laugh. “I know you must think I’m crazy but getting you out of the country right now is the best I can do for you.”

“Why me?” A big, helpless anger welled up inside Helen.

“Why indeed anyone? Sometimes it’s something that is passed down from mother to daughter. Sometimes it lies dormant to skip a few generations. No one knows save for the fact that once in a while some people are born who can bring magic into the world.”

“Now what? What am I supposed to do?”

“We get you someplace where the leeches won’t get you until such time as you’ve figured out how to protect yourself. Then you’re on your own. Or, you can join us an’ try to get rid of the vampires before they suck the last of the magic out of the world.”

“What if I don’t want to?”

Bijou shrugged. “Not sure. Maybe we’ll hunt you down an’ kill you so the vamps don’t get to turn you into one of them. You’d make a good vampire, Helen. You’d be very powerful. Almost as powerful as being magic.”

“I just want my old life back.”

“Sorry. No can do.”

“This is hardly fair.”

“Since when was life fair? Do you think I asked for this life? Do you think I wanted to grow up the daughter of a magician? Do you think I wanted to run around trying to save your sweet cheeks?”

“No, but–”

“No buts. Either you’re with us or you’re against us. They’re not going to leave you alone, either. You’ll end up some old vamp’s personal power supply or they’ll use you to do things you never ever considered you’d ever do.”

The conversation was going nowhere, so Helen shut her mouth and glared out the window. Bijou switched the car’s radio on to some African station that played a clamor of kwaito rhythms and said no more.

She kept checking the mirrors, never letting the car slow to a complete halt when they reached intersections. Eventually she took a side road that led to a large–and very dark–botanical garden.

“They’ll be closed,” Helen said.

“There’s always a way in.” Bijou pulled the car into a space near the exit.

“Shouldn’t we try to get out of the city instead?”

“You ever seen those nature documentaries about hunting dogs?”

“Yes.”

“Think on it a bit. It’s still early. We’ve quite a few hours of darkness ahead of us. If we run now, they’ll herd us to where they want us to run. Best we choose the territory where we’ll make our stand, where we have some form of advantage.”

“It’s a park, for fuck’s sake!” Helen hated the tears prickling at the corners of her eyes.

“Exactly! And there’s magic here that will confuse your scent and help hide us.”

“Oh,” Helen answered. More of this magic shit and she was going to puke. If it weren’t for the weird stuff going on these past few days...

“Gods, girl, you got a lot to learn. In the cities there are always spots where the magic is strongest. Sometimes the people are aware of this so they plant gardens or put up monuments. Before we go in, I want you to close your eyes for just a moment an’ try to feel out with your magical self.”

“This is stupid.”

“It may sound stupid now but it’s going to save your life someday. Trust me, okay?”

“Sure.” Helen laughed. She shook her head and closed her eyes. Okay, so she’d play along.

Of Bijou standing next to her, who breathed deeply and evenly, she was immediately aware. Then the incessant scream of insects. A low rumble of cars passed about two hundred meters to her left. The following presence she felt was the sense of not one but numerous predators closing in, single-minded in purpose, to find
her
.

Helen gasped and opened her eyes to stare at Bijou in shock.

“Don’t worry about them. We’ve a few minutes before we need to move.”

Bijou gestured for Helen to close her eyes again. Helen complied and tried to shove down the growing sense of desperation, of being singled out.

She must try not to panic. Breathe evenly. Do what Bijou says and she might stay alive to see the dawn.

The power was like a butterfly brushing against her cheek and Helen turned her face toward the tickling sensation.

“Good.” Bijou spoke as if from far away. “You’re a natural. You feel that? That’s inside you, too. Those dead things on our tail have the same but they’ve twisted it so that they always have to keep taking an’ taking.”

Now that she’d identified the sensation, like a balmy evening wind across her skin, Helen doubted she’d forget the feeling. Bijou blossomed into flame next to her. Helen did not need to look to feel the buzz radiating off her unlikely savior.

Bijou snapped her fingers and Helen jolted out of her reverie. “Okay! Now we go. If we get separated, for whatever reason, I want you to stop long enough to feel where the magic is pulling at you the strongest. Chances are you’ll find me there an’, as long as we don’t move or speak an’ we remain hidden, they shouldn’t be able to find us.”

“They’ll know we’re here, right?”

“That can’t be helped.” Bijou grasped Helen’s hand. “Now, let’s run!”

Under any other circumstances, it would have been lovely to visit the dam and its surrounding waters during less trying times but since she hadn’t been harmed yet, Helen trusted Bijou to lead her farther into the vast landscaped area.

They ran up a gradual slope, Helen knew not where, until they were hemmed in on both sides by a hedge. Were those dogs baying in the distance or was it the wild whooping of something unspeakable?