Sleeping Angel (Ravenwood Series) (18 page)

‘So? Why should I worry about them?’ said Simon, ‘They never worried about me.’

‘
Yeah, right
,’ spat April, her anger returning. ‘Do you want me to slap you again?
I
worried about you. And
Caro
cared for you – if you’d ever taken the time to notice.
We
were your friends, real friends.’

‘I don’t want friends, I want a purpose,’ he said, his eyes glittering. ‘I want to be part of something. You must feel it, April – the start of this movement. We’ve got a chance to be part of an amazing new world.’

‘Jesus!’ cried April. ‘Listen to yourself. You sound like one of those door-to-door religious nuts you used to laugh at.’

She grabbed his wrist and twisted it, seeing the tiny scars on the inside. Feeding scars, the same ones April had seen on Ling that day when she was crying in the school toilets. ‘Is this the amazing new world you want to be part of? Even when you know what these people – these creatures – are like?’

‘They understand me,’ he said sulkily, pulling his arm away. ‘They know what I want. They
give
me what I want.’

‘And what’s that?’ said April, ‘Booze? Drugs? Sex?’

Simon gave her a nasty smile. ‘For starters.’

‘Christ, Simon, is that really enough for you?’

‘It’s all I ...’ he began, and then April understood.
It’s all I deserve,
was what he was going to say. The vampires were clever – horribly clever. Like any predator they knew how to separate the weak ones from the herd. They preyed on their insecurities: loneliness, doubt, greed, and with Simon, they had found an ideal candidate, a super-sharp brain with one flaw: a lack of self-worth. He must have known how much Caro cared for him, yet didn’t feel he deserved such strong unconditional love. April didn’t know Simon quite well enough to guess why and she supposed it didn’t really matter. However they had done it, the Suckers had managed to get their hooks into him and had dragged him down to their level.

‘Simon,’ said April, fixing him with a steady gaze. ‘You
are
loved. You
do
have friends. I think, deep down inside, you know that. And I think you also know how you’ll end up if you keep on –’ she gestured towards his scars – ‘like this.’

She clambered to her feet – no easy task in those high heels – and brushed off the back of her dress. ‘But you can always come back. We’ll be here, whatever happens. And I think you know that too.’

She walked away, knowing she couldn’t say any more.

‘What was all that about?’ said Caro, falling into step beside her as April walked through the party and down to the swimming pool. ‘What did you say to him?’

April pulled a face. ‘I got a bit Fury on him, then I told him the facts of life about the Suckers and then told him you were in love with him.’

Caro’s mouth dropped open. ‘You
didn’t
?’

April smiled. ‘Not quite, but maybe I should’ve done. Sorry Caro, I wanted to shake a bit of sense into him, snap him out of this trance he seems to be walking around in. I’m not exactly sure I managed it.’

Caro touched her arm. ‘But you tried,’ she said. ‘That’s the main thing. Thanks, A. You’re a good friend.’

             
April turned to look back at the bar – Simon was again propping it up. ‘I’m not sure that’s going to be enough.’

They each took a bottle of beer from a cooler by the pool and sat down on some cushions by the edge, staring into the water. The music was still hammering and the air was thick with shouts and laughter, but the girls sat in silence, both lost in their thoughts.

‘Hey, why so glum?’

April twisted around, a smile on her face. ‘Gabriel!’ she said. ‘When did you get here?’

‘Just arrived,’ he answered, sitting down next to her, kissing her shoulder. ‘But it looks as if I’ve come to the wrong place. I thought this was supposed to be a party, not a wake.’

‘Sorry hon,’ said April, ‘I’ve just had a run-in with Simon. Tried to get him to see sense, but ...’

‘But the idiot is too far gone,’ finished Caro, looking back towards the bar.

‘Ah, I see,’ said Gabriel. ‘All the more reason to keep going, isn’t it? If we find the King and eliminate him, there’s a good chance ...’

‘This isn’t some bloody fairy tale, Gabriel!’ snapped Caro. ‘It’s not like killing the evil witch. It won’t break the spell and make everyone wake up and live happily ever after. We have absolutely zero idea what will happen even if we find the King Vampire and cut off his head. Even if you drink his blood, we don’t know if it’s going to cure you, do we?’

‘Caro, it’s not his fault,’ April intervened.

‘I know!’ Caro cried, then shook her head. ‘I know. Sorry, Gabe. Didn’t mean to bite your head off.’

‘It’s okay, and you’re right. We saw this happen with the Regent, didn’t we? Sheldon died in the fire, but if anything the vampires got stronger. Yes, we could kill the King, but maybe there will always be another vamp waiting to take over. God knows, kids are always going to be drawn to this –’ he gestured towards the bar – ‘because it’s cooler than ping pong at a church youth club.’

‘It’s more than that,’ said April, remembering what Simon had said. ‘All this stuff Dr Tame has been spouting at school about his new world order – though we make fun of it, some people are taking it seriously. The fact that they can be in at the start of something, in on the secret before everybody else, that’s going to be attractive, isn’t it?’

They went quiet, all feeling deflated. ‘So what should we…’ Gabriel was interrupted  by the sound of breaking glass and a loud cheer. It was followed by more smashing glass and another cheer.

‘I’m going to see what’s happening,’ said April.  She turned to Gabriel. ‘Can you get me a drink? And while you’re at the bar, see if you can talk some sense into Simon?’

She walked back towards the house and saw that a crowd had gathered. Another smash followed by a cheer. April elbowed her way to the front to see two boys, both stripped to the waist. April recognised one – his name was Calvin, wasn’t it? – the boy she’d seen in the toilets in Ravenwood, the one Tame had let off scot-free. Calvin was standing there with a beer bottle balanced on his head, while the other boy was holding what looked like a child’s cricket bat. As she watched, the boy with the bat took a run up and swung it at the bottle, shattering it, showering Calvin with broken glass. A whoop of excitement went up.

‘What the hell are they doing?’ April said to one of the bystanders. The boy’s eyes were wide, clearly in awe of these mad creatures.

‘Calvin bet the other one – Danny, I think his name is – he couldn’t stand still while he smashed the bottle. Now they’re taking it in turns. Crazy!’

‘Yes,’ said April, ‘Yes, it is.’

She could see that Calvin was bleeding from a number of cuts on his shoulders and chest, but he didn’t seem to feel it. In fact, as she watched, he ran a finger through the blood and licked it off, laughing as he did so. She wondered if these were boys who had come out as the dark blurs on her photo, or whether, like Simon, they had just been caught up in the twisted glamour of it all. As she stepped away from the crowd, April was suddenly very aware that the buoyant circus atmosphere of Ling’s party theme had evaporated and been replaced by a darker undertone. An uncomfortable tension now seemed to grip the party. The flare of a match made April turn towards the alleyway where she had talked to Simon. A group of figures stood there in a tight circle doing – what? Smoking something? She didn’t know and wasn’t about to ask. And that couple up against the wall ... Suddenly April just wanted to find her friends and had turned towards the bar, when she walked straight into Chessy.

Her long hair had been pulled back into a plait and she was wearing a one-shoulder Grecian dress in bottle-green.
If she hadn’t been radiating spite from every pore, Chessy might have been genuinely beautiful
, thought April.

‘Head Girl,’ she mocked ‘We must stop meeting like this. You all on your lonesome, or is Gorgeous Gabe with you?’

‘He’s here,’ said April, attempting to move away. ‘I’d better go, I think he’s got my drink ...’

But Chessy blocked her way. ‘And where’s your other little friend? Davina, I think her name was.’

‘I don’t think she’s coming,’ said April, reminding herself that she was supposed to be joining in with the “bash Davina” consensus – at least when she was talking to the Suckers.

‘Not surprised,’ smiled Chessy. ‘I think it will be a while before she wants to be seen out in public.’

April looked towards the bar again, hoping to see Caro or Gabriel, all the time feeling Chessy’s eyes burning into her.

‘Why
you
, Head Girl?’ she said.

‘Why me what?’

‘Why did Tame choose you as his pet? Does he have some special plans for you? Have you played the same trick on him you played on Sheldon?’

April looked at Chessy, wondering what she knew, what she was trying to imply, but all she saw in that face was malice. She wondered why Chessy had suddenly turned against her. It wasn’t so long ago that they had been out on the town in London, getting their nails done together and sharing in-jokes.
She’s a vampire, remember,
she thought to herself.
She’ll do or say anything to get what she wants.

‘What trick would that be?’ said April as casually as she could.

‘That’s what I want to know, Head Girl. That’s what I’d like to know.’

Chessy moved closer to April, invading her personal space, making her skin prickle. ‘What was it Sheldon thought you had? What did he want from you? And why did poor little Benjamin go off the deep end that night? Why did he try to burn you?’

April forced herself to meet Chessy’s icy gaze. ‘Because he had fallen in love with me,’ she said. ‘And who can blame him?’

Chessy threw her head back and laughed. ‘Oh, you’re good,’ she said, pointing a wagging finger at April. ‘You’re very good. I’m really going to have to watch you.’

As Chessy walked off, April let out a long breath. She supposed it was inevitable that the Suckers would be suspicious of her, especially after the mysterious blaze at Hawk’s house but she was surprised that any of them would bring it up directly. Maybe Gabriel had been right – perhaps their greatest weapon against the vampires was to make them feel uncertain, off balance. They had to be thinking that if vamps like Sheldon and Benjamin could be killed, then perhaps none of them were as invulnerable as they thought.

Caro came running up. ‘A – we have a situation,’ she said, taking April’s hand and leading her towards the swimming pool.

‘What is it?’

‘Ling. I saw her going into the tents with a guy and I think she’s bitten off more than she can chew.’

As they approached the pool, April could immediately see what was happening. Each of the Moroccan tents next to the pool had their canvas doors tied back with gold ropes revealing their cushion-filled interiors – all except one. The last tent had its flaps firmly closed and there was a boy standing outside, as if on guard. Inside, April could hear muffled voices, one of which sounded like Ling, her voice raised in protest.

April and Caro exchanged glances.

‘What’s going on?’ said April, walking up to the guard.

‘None of your business,’ smiled the boy. He had a shaved head and one gold stud in his ear. He was also about three stone overweight. ‘Not unless you want to
make
it my business, sweetness, know what I’m sayin’? There’s plenty of room in one of these tents for you and your friend.’

He sucked his teeth and raised his eyebrows in what he clearly imagined was an appealing way.

‘Yeah, in your dreams,’ said Caro, ‘Now why don’t you get out of our way. Our friend is in there and she doesn’t sound very happy.’

Gold stud stepped forward. ‘Yeah, but she’s making Cal happy, and when he’s finished, she’s gonna do the same for me.’

‘Why don’t I show you what makes me happy, huh?’ said Caro, moving over to the boy.

‘I knew you wanted some of this,’ he grinned, but his smile froze then turned to a look of comic surprise as Caro brought her knee up, slamming into his groin. He doubled over and crumpled to the floor groaning.

April stepped past him and pulled the tent’s curtain back to find Ling sprawled on the floor, her genie costume torn and spotted with blood. There were wounds on her wrist and her neck, her face twisted with misery and terror. Standing over her was Calvin, the boy from the sideshow by the house, the one who had licked the blood from his own wounds. He looked at them and grinned – and April knew without a shadow of a doubt that he was a vampire.

‘Evening, ladies,’ he said. ‘Is there a problem?’

April looked down at a cowering Ling, then back at Calvin. ‘Yes, there’s a problem,’ she said. ‘And it’s you.’

The boy tilted his head to one side. ‘I know you from school, don’t I?’ he said. ‘You were at the witch’s shop, weren’t you?’

April’s heart jumped as a million questions ran through her head –
how did he know about that? Had he been watching her? Was he something to do with Jessica?