Witchblood (9 page)

         ‘No!’ my voice croaked, as my throat had suddenly dried up, but as I stumbled backwards, trying to fight off the built-up emotions, they exploded, and suddenly the room was erupting.

         The mirror over the antique dresser exploded into a thousand tiny shards and as I swivelled round to see it, I saw all the items from the dresser – hairbrush, pots of cream and make-up bag – hovering in the air as if attached to invisible strings. When I looked at the items they shot through the air towards Eva and the boy. Gavin had retreated several paces and appeared to have come out of his trance, as he looked extremely confused and terrified.

         Eva, get the boy out of here and fix his memory. I will deal with Jessica,’ Daniel shouted over the noise as his arms once again wrapped around my body, this time from behind. Eva simply nodded, and pushed the dazed Gavin ahead of her through the door and into the corridor.

         When the door slammed behind them a sudden stillness fell on the room and I didn’t even try to escape Daniel’s hold. Both of us simply stood and stared. I couldn’t process the fact that it had come from me. I was shaking uncontrollably. I’d smashed a mirror with my own mind and furthermore directed the shards of glass towards them. I whimpered slightly and shook some more in Daniel’s tight, silent grasp. My world had been turned upside down and now I knew I’d no hope of returning to the normal girl I once was.

         ‘Well Jessica, it would be useful if you could do your thing and whiz all these shards of glass into the bin for us,’ Daniel said, as he surveyed the devastation in the room.

         ‘It’s not funny Daniel. I haven’t got a clue how I did it. I really don’t know what, or how I did what I did,’ I whispered.

         ‘So nothing like this has ever happened to you before. You really didn’t know you were capable of doing this?’ he asked, as I moved out of his grasp and turned to look at him.

         ‘No! Never. It would’ve been a pretty good party trick, and useful tactic for ending rows with my dad I admit, but
no,
I never knew I was capable of this. As for repeating it, I wouldn’t know where to begin.’

         ‘Right, we’d better call the cleaners then and get it sorted.’ Then, almost reluctantly he added, ‘I suppose we should take a little trip back downstairs while it’s being done and see if Sebastian’s found anything out about your family history.’

         He picked up the phone, requested some cleaners and had a general chat, as if cleaning up exploding mirrors was an everyday occurrence. Meanwhile I turned back to the dresser and tried to tidy the various items into a neat pile, wondering what Sebastian would have to say about my latest trick. I shuddered and hoped he still felt affectionately towards me. I didn’t fancy burning at the stake, and I was sure that vampires had no morals, when it came to disposing of an unwanted newborn who didn’t know how to control her wild side.

         ‘Well Jessica, I didn’t expect to see you again quite this soon, although I should have known after tasting your blood you’d be trouble,’ Sebastian said, some ten minutes later as I entered his office.

         When I dared to finally meet his eyes relief shot through my body as I realised he was smiling, with one eyebrow arched high.

         ‘Eva popped in on her way past, and I must say you’ve upset her. I believe she’s never witnessed such a violent display in return for a simple meal!’ he went on.

         ‘I’m sorry Sebastian. I truly didn’t know I could do that, and even now I don’t know how I did it. I just felt angry. I was being pushed to do something I di….’ I was about to say ‘didn’t want to do’ but I wondered how that might sound to him and quickly changed tack, ‘didn’t feel ready for.’

         Daniel stepped forward as he obviously felt I’d done enough talking  and said, ‘Sebastian, I believe the witch blood in her has allowed her body to keep hold of her human soul, and it is this soul that the vampire in her is battling with internally.’ Sebastian nodded his head.

         ‘That all sounds very plausible, apart from one small detail. I’ve tracked her family back a couple of hundred years and so far found nothing. Her father’s family go all the way back to typical British Anglo-Saxon heritage, with no pagan names jumping out. If anything they were war-mongering Vikings.’

         ‘But I believe witchblood usually runs stronger on the mother’s side.’ Daniel interrupted.

         ‘Yes, but there is nothing to be found there either. If her mother is indeed Mary Collins, there is no trace of witch in her family either.’ Sebastian turned back to me and smiled. ‘Yet it’s undeniable that you
are
a little witch. Could you be keeping something from us?’ His smile hardened and I froze. I’d told them all I knew. Could it be that I had a different mother? It was inconceivable.

         ‘No! Mary Collins was my mother. She died a couple of years ago, and I have photos going all the way back through my childhood, sitting in albums in my dad’s house,’ I retorted, regretting the last half of the sentence immediately.

         ‘She’s telling the truth. She’s not hiding anything,’ Daniel said quietly.

         ‘OK, we will send someone over there to recover the albums and then we might be able to shed some more light on the issue.’

         ‘You can’t, what about my dad. I…’ I was interrupted suddenly by Daniel, and I realised I’d overstepped my mark as Sebastian’s face darkened.

         ‘Jessica, Sebastian is your leader. You must show him respect. Never tell him what he can or cannot do. You must apologise.’ He then faced Sebastian and continued, ‘I am so sorry Sebastian, she’s not yet had time to understand all of our ways.’

         I swallowed my modern pride as I realised that he was somewhat dangerous, and in control of my new life, so I managed to stammer out an apology.

         ‘I’m sorry Sebastian, I didn’t mean to sound rude. I was just worried for the welfare of my father.’

         ‘I realise that Jessica, but you must take Daniel’s words very seriously. There is no crime more punishable than disrespecting an elder. We take it very seriously, and regardless of your unique little quirks, you will be punished if you do not respect your station.’

         I looked down at my feet and felt like a little girl, which was incredibly strange as both men standing in front of me looked no more than ten years older than me. The twenty-first century girl in me found Sebastian’s words old–fashioned, and I fought desperately to hide the smile threatening to break out, so biting the corner of my lips I glared at the floor until I'd recovered. When I met Sebastian’s eyes again he carried on, ‘Your father will never know we've been. You don’t need to worry Jessica.’

         After another thirty minutes, it was decided that Daniel and I should return to his house in Manchester, but I was still under strict house arrest.

         ‘You realise Jessica, that if you were to have a decent feed your transformation would be quicker and your life could regain some normality. However, if you insist on drinking banked blood all the time, your transformation will take much longer and you’ll be stuck inside Daniel’s dingy house until then,’ Sebastian explained with a wry smile as he handed me a glass of the usual dark red stuff.

         ‘It all depends on what a persons view of
decent
is though, doesn’t it, and I don’t feel that feeding from some poor infatuated guy is decent,’ I answered a little too sharply.

         ‘Daniel, you need to take her away before she pushes my patience too far and I decide to teach her some manners, because if she steps out of line again I will surely teach them to her, and my teaching may not be so nice!’ With that Sebastian glared at me, as Daniel removed the glass from my hands and quickly herded me from the room.

         ‘Do you have a death wish, you stupid girl?’ Daniel whispered.

         ‘No, I…’

         ‘You don’t realise, but he’s been the leader of the Northern Vampires for more than four hundred years. He has very particular views on how his subordinates should behave and speak to him. He’s been exceptionally lenient with you, I suspect because he thinks he may be able to use your talents at some point in the future. He’s always on the lookout for vampires with special talents, and it’s always useful to have extra resources in the clan, especially if war breaks out with the Southern clan again,’ Daniel said, without stopping for breath.

         ‘Subordinates! I just can’t get my head around this language. Not once throughout my whole life has anyone called me a subordinate, or anyone else I know of for that matter, and since I was murdered only two weeks ago it now seems to be the regular buzzword. It’s just not right!’ I stressed.

         ‘But Jessica, it
is
right. He’s at least five hundred years older than you, probably much more. To him you’re very much his inferior, a child that has to be educated, that has to show respect. He’s seen more with his own eyes than you have read in your history books at school, and he comes from a world that is so different to yours in every respect. To him you are a child, a servant and a woman – his subordinate in every way.’

         ‘Fantastic! Well he should have seen the women’s suffrage movement in the early twentieth century, or did he conveniently forget that? It’s all very well you spouting history at me, but history has moved on and you vampires need to move with the times and stop talking as if you have something stuck up your …’

         ‘Jessica stop!’ Daniel interrupted me. ‘Some of us do move forward and take on new views, but then I’m a comparatively young vampire, and it
is
a lot harder for the older ones. More to the point, they don’t need to, as they have the power to keep things the way they want them. If you disrespect them and they decide your talents are not worth the back-talk, they will simply dispose of you. No discussion. No jury. Talking of which, this discussion is over. Now let’s go home.’ 

         During this whispered conversation, Daniel had been quickly steering me back through the corridors to the back of the club. We exited through the rear service door we’d arrived through and found his car waiting for us. With my new vampire hearing, I could hear the shrill voices of the young, drunk girls queuing for entrance to the club, and found that if I zoned in on a particular group I could pick out specific words, conversations. I could hear two guys talking in low slurred voices about the voluptuous assets of the women in the queue ahead of them, who in turn were sniping about the woman with a cute boyfriend.

         ‘Jessica, get in.’ Daniel’s voice interrupted my eavesdropping and I reluctantly climbed into the passenger seat of the car.

         ‘So where do you live? Where are we going? I hope it’s not up near Piccadilly and my old student accommodation; that would be a little close for comfort!’

         ‘No. I live in Didsbury. Do you know anyone there? Not that it matters, as you won’t be going out anyway,’ he said, grinning at me again. He had visibly relaxed now he was back in the driver’s seat and we were zooming away from the infamous Sebastian.

         ‘No I don’t know anyone in Didsbury, all my friends live in the city centre or Rusholme. Why do you live in Didsbury? Is it because of the students?’ I asked.

         ‘Yes partly. It’s ideal for us to live there, because the neighbours change every year and no-one notices if you don’t grow any older,’ he answered. Students don’t generally notice or care what their neighbours get up to,’ he answered.

         We drove in silence for a while and I noted with relief that at least his music tastes had moved with the times, as he turned the volume up on my favourite band’s latest album.

After only twenty minutes or so we’d pulled off the main road and turned onto a quiet suburban street flanked with huge Victorian houses; typical student houses all spilt into flats or simple bedsits. Half way along the street, Daniel turned off the road into the short drive of a huge old detached house with a high pitched roof and leaded windows which shone in the moonlight.

         As the car stopped outside the house, Daniel clicked a remote, a garage door started lifting, and we drove down into a converted cellar. As the garage door closed behind us, an automatic light came on and lit our way from the car and into the house, through the cellar door and up into a spacious hallway which I gazed around eagerly.