Thicker Than Blood (Marchwood Vampire Series #2) (38 page)

‘
Wait a minute, Freds,’
Leonora said.

‘
What?’

She sighed. ‘They’re wrong to say I betrayed
you. But I did go to see the Cappadocians.’ She paused.

‘
Go on …’ he said, his
smile faltering.

‘
I thought … I think that
if we join them …’

‘
What!’ Jacques said.
‘What do you mean, ‘join them’?’

‘
Are you mad?’ Isobel
hissed.

Disbelief clouded Freddie’s cherubic
features.

‘
Just listen for a
minute,’ Leonora said, getting into her stride. ‘If we join them,
we’ll be safe from them. We can live without looking over our
shoulders all the time. We can finally be what we are –
vampires.’

They stared at her like they didn’t know who
she was anymore.

‘
I’ll be back later,’ Zoe
whispered to Madison. ‘I won’t go far. I’ll just give you all some
space … to sort things out.’

‘
Okay,’ Maddy replied and
squeezed her hand.

‘
Leonora,’ Alexandre said.
‘Have you lost your mind? ‘Join them’? You would really consider
living like that? Killing mortals and striking terror into everyone
you meet?’

‘
Oh, don’t be so dramatic,
Alexandre.’

‘
I’m not being dramatic.
I’m downplaying it if anything. You would be agreeing to become a
monster.’

‘
I would be no such thing! But I
wouldn’t be agreeing to become anything if it wasn’t for
her
!’ Leonora turned and pointed a finger at
Madison.

Maddy looked shocked, like she’d been hit.
She took a step backwards. Alexandre looked from Leonora to Madison
and back again. He didn’t understand what Leonora was talking
about.

‘
What do you mean?’ Maddy
stuttered. ‘What did I do? How is this my fault?’

Leonora looked away from Madison and stared
at the others. ‘I always seem to be the villain,’ she said. ‘I’m
only trying to look out for all of us. I want us to be safe and my
name has been sullied before I’ve even had a chance to put forward
my side of the story. That video condemned me before I had a chance
to speak.’

‘
We’re listening to you
now,’ Alexandre said.

‘
I know, but it’s all
coming out wrong. And it looks like I’m conspiring against you but
I’m not. I’m really not.’

‘
You said it was my
fault,’ Maddy said. ‘I’d like to know why.’

‘
Alright,’ she fixed her
eyes on Madison again. ‘If you must know, I was looking for a way
out. And I thought that by contacting the Cappadocians, I could
negotiate a place for us in the underground city.’

‘
A way out of what?’
Alexandre asked.

‘
A way out of
Marchwood.’

‘
But Marchwood is our
home,’ Freddie said.

‘
It doesn’t feel like my home
anymore,’ Leonora replied. ‘That was
our
home, Freddie.
Ours
. We grew up there with mother and father. But now
I feel like some kind of interloper. Shoved down in the basement,
like a … like a … refugee, or a servant. And
she
,’ Leonora pointed at Madison,
‘
she
is sleeping in our
parents’ bedroom like she has the right. It is
outrageous.’

‘
So why didn’t you say
anything?’ Freddie said.

‘
But what could I possibly
have said that would sound reasonable? Could I have asked Madison
to move out of that bedroom? Could I have spoken to you, Alexandre?
Or you, Isobel? Would you have listened? No. you would have thought
I was being petty and small-minded. And all the while my guts were
churning with the wrongness of it. Having to watch while Madison
Greene played at being queen of all she surveyed.’

‘
Shut up, Leonora!’ Isobel
said. ‘How can you say such hateful things?’

‘
Exactly,’ Leonora
replied. ‘I knew you wouldn’t understand.’

Maddy’s expression had gone from anger to
shock to something else – humiliation? Alexandre put his arm around
her.

‘
She is crazy,’ he
whispered in her ear. ‘Do not listen. She doesn’t mean it. She
doesn’t know what she is saying.’

But Leonora had not finished talking:

‘
No. If I said those
things, it would not go down well at all. You would think I was
being unreasonable. Freddie, why do you not mind that she has taken
over our house? Why can none of you see how wrong it is?’ She
turned to face Madison again. ‘How can you not see how selfish you
are … with your whoreish behaviour.’

Maddy felt a tear slide down her face. She’d
had no idea Leonora felt this way. And how could she have known she
had chosen Leonora and Freddie’s parents’ bedroom as her own. She
would never have been so insensitive if she’d realised. Why hadn’t
the others said anything? She felt like an idiot.

‘
I’m so sorry, Leonora,’
Maddy said. ‘I didn’t know. I’m sorry. I never wanted to make
…’

‘
Do not apologise for her
rudeness, Madison,’ Alexandre said. ‘She has no right to talk to
you that way.’

‘
Don’t you feel
claustrophobic at Marchwood?’ Leonora asked her brother. ‘Like it
isn’t ours anymore? Doesn’t it feel just a bit stifling to you? As
though we’re guests in our own house?’

‘
No.’

‘
Really? You’re happy
having the Greenes take over our home?’

‘
They haven’t taken over,’
Freddie said. ‘And it
is
their house. Madison and Ben are family. The only family we
have left. They own it. Legitimately.’

‘
And morally?’

‘
Look, Leonora. I love it
there with them and with you. And I thought you did too. And
anyway, it’s a big enough place for all of us.’

‘
I’m not talking about
square footage! All I know is I can’t stay there anymore. If I go
back, I might do something I regret.’

‘
I think you already
have,’ Isobel said.

‘
I thought that if I
helped the Cappadocians to get us all to come over here, we could
see how they lived and what sort of life we could have with
them.’

‘
What sort of life?’ Freddie
almost choked. ‘Leonora, I think you’ve lost your mind. And how
could you plan all that without telling us? Without telling
me
?
I’m your brother. We could have talked about it.’

‘
You would have tried to
change my mind.’

‘
Yes I would, because it’s
a terrible idea … And please tell me it wasn’t you who arranged to
have Madison kidnapped.’

‘
That was not my
suggestion.’

‘
But you didn’t speak out
against it. You helped them plan it?’

Leonora didn’t reply.

‘
My God, you have become a
monster.’ Freddie ran his hands through his hair, a look of horror
etched into his face.

‘
You put me … us through
all this?’ Alexandre said. ‘… Taking Madison away from me. Letting
me worry myself sick about it and you knew all along. You planned
it!’

‘
Leonora,’ Jacques said.
‘You do realise none of us would even be alive if it wasn’t for
Madison.’

‘
And Maddy is your blood,’
Alexandre said. Have you any idea what you’ve put her through? No
matter what you say, she is your family.’

‘
Madison is nothing to
me,’ Leonora spat. ‘She is a common child with no breeding or
class.’ She took a step toward Maddy who was now crying freely.
‘You had the good fortune to be sired by a distant relation, but
there is nothing of the Swinton family in you. Nothing.’

‘
That’s enough, Leonora!’
Alexandre shouted. ‘You have gone too far! Listen to yourself! I
think you’d better leave.’

‘
So you would send me
away?’

‘
God, Leonora! No one
wants this, but you’ve gone too far. You said yourself you do not
want to stay at Marchwood. And as for blaming all this on Madison,
you are too harsh. You have let things become distorted in your
mind. Maddy loves you like a sister. She is always telling me how
happy she is to have found you and Freddie. She is the image of
you. She has your spirit.’

‘
She is obviously a more
worthy image than I am,’ Leonora said. ‘She won your heart –
something I was never able to do.’

‘
That is because you kept
your heart hidden from me.’ Alexandre had no wish to talk about
this in front of everyone. He and Leonora had never discussed their
‘almost’ relationship before and he had not realised she still even
thought of it.

‘
You must have known that
I loved you,’ Leonora said, stiffly.

‘
I did not,’ Alexandre
replied.

Maddy stopped crying. Leonora was in love
with Alexandre?

‘
Back then,’ he continued,
‘when we first met, I was enchanted by you, Leonora. I had
sleepless nights with thoughts of you.’

Leonora shook her head and bit her lip.

‘
But you were cold to me,’
he continued. ‘You spurned my advances time and time again. I could
say nothing. Do nothing.’

‘
That is not
true.’

‘
You know it is, Leonora.
And then, after we were turned, things went beyond that. We became
friends, like brother and sister. That is why this betrayal is so
shocking to me.’

‘
I did not betray you. I
made a hard decision. You would never have agreed to come here
willingly. We would have had to fight them. This way, no one gets
hurt.’

‘
Except we did get
hurt.’

‘
You are fine.’

‘
And do not pretend you did this
for
us
.
You did it for yourself. Anyway, it was not your decision to
make.’

‘
Well, Alexandre, you are not
the head of our household. In fact, Marchwood is
my
house. You are
there as a guest.’

‘
So it is to be like
that,’ Alexandre replied. ‘Very well, I can see our friendship has
come to nothing. I will leave Marchwood House if that is what you
wish.’

‘
No … No, I didn’t mean …
I’m sorry. Of course you must stay at Marchwood. I am leaving
anyway. I hoped you would all join me here willingly, but I can see
I expected too much. Freddie is my brother and I hope he at least
will change his mind and come and join me.’ She turned to look at
him. ‘Come with me, Freddie and I’ll prove I’m right. Come to the
city and see for yourself. It’s going to be amazing. They’re
restoring it to its former beauty. It’ll be an adventure. A new
life for us.’

‘
I know this is nothing to
do with me,’ Aelia interjected, ‘but you will find nothing but pain
and misery in that city.’

‘
You are right,’ Leonora
replied. ‘It is nothing to do with you.’

‘
Thank you, Aelia,’
Freddie said. ‘I believe you.’ He turned back to his sister. ‘There
is no way on earth I would want to live there, Leonora. And if you
had heard Aelia’s story you would agree with me. I can’t believe
you’re even considering it. And after what I’ve just heard, I’m
ashamed to call you my sister.’

‘
Don’t say that, Freddie!
Of course I’m your sister. I’ll always be here for you.’

He turned away from her.

‘
Freddie! Don’t be like
that.’

‘
You need to leave,
Leonora,’ Alexandre said.

‘
No,’ Maddy interjected.
‘She has every right to be angry. Leonora, I’m sorry. I had no idea
you were going through such a crap time. We can sort it
out.’

‘
No we can’t,’ Alexandre
said. ‘I don’t know if I can look at your face again, Leonora. You
have made me so angry and so sad.’

‘
You’re not sad. You’re
humiliated and disappointed because things did not go your way as
usual.’

Alexandre stared at her and she had the
grace to squirm slightly under his gaze.

‘
Who are you?’ he said. ‘I
do not know you anymore.’

‘
Then come with me,
Alexandre, and you can get to know me. The real me. I will not hide
my heart from you any longer. It is not too late …’

‘
Get out!’ Alexandre shook
with rage.

Leonora looked at the other vampires, but
they either shook their heads or turned their eyes away from
her.’

‘
Don’t send her away,’
Maddy said to Alex. ‘She’s my family.’

‘
But she almost had you
killed.’

‘
She loves you, Alexandre.
That’s why she did this; her heart is broken.’

‘
I don’t need your pity,’
Leonora hissed. ‘… or your condescension.’ She cast a final look
around the cavern and then was gone.

Maddy ran outside into the snow. The moon
still shone brightly, but there was no trace of Leonora. She
shouted for her, but her voice fell away into the night. How had
she misjudged the situation at home so badly? Strangely, she didn’t
feel angry at what Leonora had done to her. She felt sympathy. She
understood the burn of emotions that must have been building and
festering inside her, leading up to this massive outpouring. Maddy
recognised the loneliness and helplessness trapped inside her
ancestor. If only Maddy had realised earlier, they might have
avoided all of this and reached a happier outcome.