Hidden (Marchwood Vampire Series #1) (46 page)

‘
Who was he? You sure he
was telling the truth?’ She pulled the vehicle over to the side of
the road.

‘
I am certain of it. He
was too scared to lie.’

‘
But this is too freaky.
Do you think someone’s watching us? Is someone following us
now?’

‘
There are no vehicles
behind us and I do not sense anybody in the vicinity.’

‘
You know,’ Madison said.
‘It could’ve just been a stupid prank. His mates might’ve got him
to ask you for a dare or something.’

‘
No. It was more than
that. Much as I would like you to be right. It was something else.
He was being truthful. But I will find out who is behind
this.’

When they reached home Alexandre was on
heightened alert and they both found it hard to relax. They felt
invaded and uncomfortable and there seemed to be nothing they could
do to find out who was behind it. Madison still wasn’t entirely
convinced there was anything sinister at all behind it.

‘
How could anybody know
anything about what you are?’ she asked. They sat at the kitchen
table, the shopping still unpacked. Alexandre’s expression was
grim. ‘I mean, I haven’t told anyone about you, neither has Ben.
The only other people who know you’re here are Esther and Morris,
and they don’t know what you are. I wouldn’t think anything like
that would even cross their minds.’ She thought for a
minute.

‘
Quite a few people in The
Glasshouse saw you that night. Maybe that’s it. Maybe it was
someone from the club and they thought you were too strong to be
normal. But the bloke in the supermarket asked if you were a
vampire. How would he have known … Oh, I don’t know.’

‘
All we are doing is
guessing,’ Alex said. ‘We are at a disadvantage. We do not know
anything. I will go out every night. I will scour the area and keep
my senses sharp. I will find out who is so interested in me. I only
hope they do not know of the others.’

Madison felt mild panic.
Whoever was behind this (if anyone at all), they were taking
Alexandre’s attention from her, spoiling their time together. She
had just enjoyed the best days of her life and tonight he was so
preoccupied he couldn’t concentrate on anything else, let alone
her.
Please
let all this crap die down.
She hoped it was just a stupid dare that meant
nothing; that in time it would be forgotten and they could just go
back to living their lives in peace.

The following evening, Alexandre kissed
Madison briefly. ‘I will see you tomorrow,’ he said.

‘
But where are you
...’

He disappeared into the dark night.

‘
... going?’

*

Alexandre was angry with
himself for being so shaken up by the encounter in the car park. He
knew he could take care of himself and was not scared by any threat
to his
safety, he was just livid someone had tried to do something
so underhand. He did not understand such cowardly behaviour. He
abhorred it.

Just as those two men in the
nightclub had not mattered one jot to him, conversely, this
supermarket episode had crawled under his skin. He circled the
house and satisfied himself there was nobody watching or lurking
around the grounds. He visited the local villages and towns and
listened to chatter in the bars, alehous
es and streets. He walked along the
busiest routes and lingered on park benches. He returned to the
supermarket. He sensed nothing. All was silence. But still he could
not rest.

Madison watched some television
with Ben, she c
hewed her nails, she sat out in the garden and then she
came back inside. She made herself a snack, but didn’t eat it. She
snapped at Ben and then she finally went upstairs to bed, but she
didn’t sleep properly.

Some time in the
early hours of the
morning, Maddy dreamed she was flying. It felt wonderful, she was
free and unfettered and then suddenly she fell, plummeting down to
earth. The wind rushed past her and she knew she wouldn’t make it.
She tried to scream but no noise came out. She fell backwards,
looking up at the black starless sky and then, as she was about to
hit the ground, she woke up.

Maddy lay there staring up at the ceiling,
uneasy. She worried about Alexandre. He had been badly affected by
the man in the supermarket, much worse than the nightclub incident.
She padded down the stairs to check on him. He lay on his bed,
hands behind his head.

‘
How you doing?’ she
asked.

‘
I found out nothing. I
heard nothing. Nobody tracked me and nobody approached
me.’

‘
Well that’s a good
thing.’

‘
I know something is not
right. I know.’ He continued to lie there and Madison felt like she
was intruding.

‘
Do you want to be on your
own?’ she asked in a small voice.

Alexandre did not reply. He just pulled her
to him and she lay with her head on his chest as he brooded in
silence.

That night he went out again.
And the following night.
And the following night. Maddy felt like she would
go mad with longing for him. She was at a complete loss, annoyed
with herself for feeling like this and annoyed with him for
abandoning her. She thought he was on a wild goose chase and
resented his attention being elsewhere. She hoped he’d soon realise
no one was out to get him and that he would finally relax and enjoy
his life with her once more.

*

‘God, Mads, why are you so moody?’ Ben
asked.

‘
Not moody.’

‘
Whatever you say, sis.
I’ll be back lunchtime. Last day of term today.’

‘
Have fun,’ she said in a
monotone voice.

‘
Sounds like I’ll be
having more fun than you anyway. See ya later,
alligator.’

‘
Whatever,
crocodile.’

Alexandre had been out every night that week
and was becoming more and more withdrawn, shrinking into himself.
She felt like they were losing their connection. The easy closeness
they had shared was unravelling and it frightened her more than any
outside threat.

Alexandre came into the kitchen. He still
looked fresh and unblemished, but Madison noticed the tension
behind his eyes. He sat next to her and kissed her hand, but it was
more an automatic gesture than anything romantic.

Esther walked in with the morning’s post and
laid it on the kitchen table.

‘
Lovely day outside,’ she
commented. ‘Only you’d never know it in here. God only knows why
you never open them shutters, but I’m sure you got your reasons.
Hangover is it? Underage binge drinking I shouldn’t
wonder.’

Madison ignored her as usual and picked up
the letters on the table.

‘
You alright this morning,
Alexandre?’ Esther asked.

‘
I am very well, Mrs
Foxton. And I must thank you for pressing my clothes
yesterday.’

‘
You’re very welcome young
man. Nice to see someone with manners.’

‘
Creep,’ Madison said to
him, half-joking, half-not.

‘
It’s not a matter of
being a creep,’ Esther said. ‘It’s about showing appreciation. He’s
been brought up with nice manners.’

‘
Not like me, you
mean.’

‘
Now, now. I didn’t say
that and I’m not comparing or complaining. I’m just complimenting
him on his manners is all.’

‘
Bloody hell!’ exclaimed
Madison. ‘What’s this?’

As she was flipping through the post she had
come across a cream envelope. She stared at it in disbelief. ‘Who’s
this from, Alex?’ She showed him the envelope. On it was written in
beautiful inked copperplate lettering:

~

Alexandre

~

It had no stamp which meant it had been hand
delivered. He looked at the front of the envelope with a frown.

‘
I do not know. Nobody
knows I am here. I know nobody who would send me a letter. Come.’
He held out his hand to lead her downstairs into the privacy of his
lounge. They sat together as he tore through the thick envelope. He
shook out a note, written on a piece of stiff cream card. It
read:

Sir,

I
would be grateful if you would meet
with me tonight.

We may be able to help
one
another.

Stinchcombe Hill,
11pm

A friend

~

‘
Who’s it from?’ Madison
asked.

‘
I have no
idea.’

‘
Do you think it’s
something to do with what happened the other night?’

‘
It could be.’ He nodded
slowly.

‘
It might be some kind of
trap though. It could be dangerous.’

‘
It will be more dangerous
for them than for me,’ Alexandre said, looking up at her. ‘I will
have to go Madison.’

‘
I really don’t think you
should. You don’t know what kind of nutter wrote that note and I’m
scared for you.’

‘
I will be perfectly
fine.’

‘
And what do they mean by ‘we
may be able to help one another’?
Help one another with what?’

‘
I do not know. But there
is only one way to find out.’ He stared at the piece of card until
the swirling words blurred in front of his eyes.

Chapter
Twenty Seven

*

Ben came home
at lunchtime with two of his mates and they were going to spend
their first afternoon of summer holiday freedom, mountain biking in
the woods. Maddy gave them some sandwiches and waved them off
absentmindedly, too distracted and upset to talk properly.

The day went
by too quickly. The hours felt like seconds as she tried to keep
her panic under control. She had lost too many people in her life
and she felt physically sick at the thought of anyone trying to
harm Alexandre. She knew he was strong, almost indestructible, but
if this person knew he was a vampire, they might also know his
weakness. She had to try again to talk him out of it.

Just as she
had made up her mind to go downstairs and see him, the cellar door
opened and his brooding face appeared. He smiled at her, but the
smile stopped before it reached his eyes.

‘
You looked so stressed,’ she said. ‘Why don’t you just ignore
that stupid letter? It’s not even worth thinking about.’

‘
And if I ignore it, do you think that will be it? Do you
think they will leave me alone?’

‘
Yeah. I do actually. I think if you ignore it, they’ll go
away. They’re obviously too scared to come and see you
face-to-face. What makes you think they’ll even be there tonight?
They might have paid someone to try to hurt you, or worse
…’

‘
This kind of talk is not helping, Madison. I am going to go
and see what it is all about and then hopefully we can return to
what normality we have.’

‘
What if I
beg
you not to go?’ Madison asked jokily, but she heard the edge
of desperation in her voice.

‘
Please do not worry so.’ Alexandre’s voice softened and he
led her out of the kitchen into the dark lounge. He switched on a
table lamp and they sat together on the sofa. ‘Nothing is going to
happen to me. It is just a meeting.’

‘
Okay,’ she replied, unconvinced.

That evening,
Alexandre dressed sharply in a dark navy suit, white shirt and tie.
He still could not get used to the casual style of clothes that
Madison insisted was perfectly normal. She said people only wore
suits for office jobs, weddings and funerals. But the scheduled
meeting had unnerved him and he felt more confident in this attire,
more himself.

‘
But it’s only just after nine o’clock,’ Madison said. ‘The
meeting isn’t till eleven.’

‘
I need to survey the area first. I want to see if I can spot
anything untoward.’

‘
That’s a good idea I suppose. I feel so useless. I wish I
could do something to help.’

‘
It would help me a great deal if I knew you were not at home
worrying about me.’

‘
That’s like asking me not to breathe.’

He laughed and
kissed her. She responded urgently, wrapping her arms around him
and burying her face in his neck. He peeled her away from him,
kissed her one last time and disappeared.

*

Stinchcombe
Hill was a large grassy promontory on the edge of the Cotswolds,
looking out over miles of hills, forests and rivers. A winding road
led up from the valley below and several cars had parked on the
top. People walked their dogs and a gaggle of youths sprawled on
the grass, chatting. A middle-aged couple sat in their car,
drinking from a flask and an old gentleman sat alone on a wooden
bench.

Alexandre was
already familiar with the place and he followed the spine of the
hill, looking and listening for anything unusual. Still only a
quarter past nine, he did not expect to see the person he was
meeting until a lot later. He heard a couple of cars leave, but no
one else arrived. He quickly circled the woods that crouched in the
hollow below the hill and then he returned to the car park.