Sleeping Angel (Ravenwood Series) (27 page)

‘So you’re saying Sheldon wasn’t the leader? There’s someone else?’

Davina gave a thin smile, as if she was deciding whether to tell her something. ‘Yes, there’s someone higher up the tree,’ she said. ‘But Sheldon was arrogant, thought it was time he got rid of the old guard, thought he was better suited to the job and he used Ben as his loyal little soldier.’ Her words were bitter and angry, but also sad. She looked down at the table, running a fingernail through a droplet of blood she had missed.

‘He wasn’t my brother, of course.’

‘What? Ben?’

Davina shook her head sadly.

‘I’m surprised you hadn’t worked that out. No, we are – were – made vampires. But Sheldon was born and you could tell. Arrogant and impatient, you tend to get that with born vamps. But Ben and I, we chose this. We asked to be turned.’

‘How long have you been ... when were you turned?’

‘Does it matter? Far too long ago. I’m a classic case; I wanted the glamour, the eternal youth. I wanted to be at my prime forever.’ She gave a bitter laugh and poured out the rest of the bottle into her glass. ‘Everyone does. You see the soft skin, the silky hair and the late nights and assume this life is one long party.’

She sat forward and grabbed April’s hand.

‘It. Is. Hell.’ She said, enunciating each word. ‘We live in the shadows, constantly on the run, cowering like animals, risking our lives every time we feed, having to live from hand to mouth, stealing, lying ... worse. Much worse.’

‘I thought you all lived a glamorous life.’

‘How?’ spat Davina, the anger sparkling in her eyes. ‘I mean, think about it: where can you live? A sixteen year old schoolgirl on her own? How do you pay your way? You can’t hold down a full time job – you’re too young, too many questions. And who can you trust? Not other vampires – they have their own problems. Not Feeders – that’s what we call the humans we tap for a little blood every now and then, the ones who shelter us, pretend to be boyfriends, husbands, families – the ones who hide us.’

‘Why can’t you trust Feeders? Don’t they help you?’

Davina’s lip curled. ‘They always want something from you – sometimes the most vile things. That’s why we haunt the clubs and the streets; we don’t have anywhere else to go.’ She looked up, her eyes full of pain now. ‘It’s the loneliest life imaginable.’ She sighed. ‘So, along comes Robert Sheldon and offers you a Get Out Of Jail Free card. Two years without having to worry about where you’re going to live, what your cover story is, who you can talk to. Ravenwood was bliss. Utter, utter bliss. Hawk set us up in a lovely home, gave us freedom, security, status and all he asked in return was a few souls; just convince the unsuspecting Ravenwood egg-heads that playing with the vamps was the coolest thing ever. Not exactly hard, darling.’

‘So if your mum and dad aren’t ... who are they?’

‘Recruits. It’s not just students at Ravenwood who are dazzled by “The Life”. There are always plenty of adults who want to be a part of it. What’s not to like? Daddy – Nicholas, I suppose I should call him – got a high-powered position in a vamp-owned company. Agropharm is a real-life billion-dollar powerhouse, but it just happens to be owned by us. Not hard to see how it became so big – aggression and ruthlessness is what makes Wall Street and the City tick and no one intimidates a vampire, do they? On top of this almost unlimited wealth and the beautiful house in Highgate, mummy and daddy got connections and the mother of all guard dogs. All you have to do is turn a blind eye to where your “children” go at night.’

She gave a short laugh. ‘You can imagine the dynamics of that family unit when the doors were closed. Dysfunctional doesn’t even begin to cover it.’

‘But Ravenwood made up for it all. Suddenly I had a purpose – we all did. It was fun, building up Sheldon’s little robot army, picking out which of the brains and the geeks to promote, who to turn. But it couldn’t last, could it?’

‘So what happened?’

She twisted her mouth into a smile. ‘
You
happened, darling.’

‘What?’ said April, her heart hammering.

Davina waved a hand at the ceiling. ‘All this because of your family. Before you arrived, it was all going swimmingly, but I fear the
great
William Dunne’s investigation into Ravenwood put the cat among the pigeons. ’

‘Really? It was my dad?’

‘Overnight, Robert Sheldon’s whole attitude seemed to change. It’s only a guess – Hawk didn’t exactly include me in his planning meetings – but I think the governors were worried about getting exposed too soon. Vampires like to stay hidden at the best of times, but it was especially important as your dad was poking about. They were planning a big move, you see.’

‘What big move?’

‘To take control, of course,’ said Davina casually. ‘Isn’t that obvious? They had already spun a spider’s web over business, finance, banking and so on, now they were going to move into government. Slowly and subtly, of course, no big revolution, just greasing the right palms, whispering in the right ears, one little corruption after the next until they had control of all the people they needed in Downing Street, the Mayor’s office, the Met, wherever anyone had real power.’

April knew this, or had at least suspected it, but it still felt strange to hear a vampire say it out loud.
Play dumb, April, don’t let on how much you know,
she reminded herself.

‘I thought it was just Ravenwood.’

‘Ravenwood
s
, plural,’ said Davina. ‘They were going to open them all around the country. But it obviously wasn’t happening fast enough for some people.’

‘Who? The money men?’

Davina shook her head. ‘For Benjamin. He worshipped Sheldon – for the same reason I did, I guess. Sheldon had found Ben feeding on foxes in the cemetery. |Do you know how low you’d have to be to eat fox?’

‘What do you mean?’

Davina curled her lip in disgust. ‘Don’t you find those over-grown rats revolting? I don’t know what it is, but the vamps have always loathed foxes – it’s a bit like Bleeders and spiders. Can’t abide them, they make my flesh crawl.’ She shivered at the thought. ‘Anyway, after that, Ben would have done anything for Hawk.
Anything
. But Ben was impetuous – he didn’t want to wait for someone to hand him power, he wanted it right now. We used to argue about it, but there was no talking to him. “Robert Sheldon should be leading us”, he would say, with this crazy light in his eyes. I think Ben’s adoration made Sheldon even more ambitious, actually. Clearly they both got a little too ambitious in the end.’

Davina looked down at her empty glass, her face sad and tired. ‘I do miss him. I know it sounds crazy, but we
were
like a family.
I mean, I know it was completely artificial, everyone thrown together for what were basically selfish reasons, but you can’t live together like mother and father, brother and sister without having some of that bond rub off. Ben was obviously the craziest of all of us, but ... he was the closest thing I ever had to family. Does that sound stupid?’

April shook her head. In many ways, it was one of the easiest parts of this whole situation to understand. Why shouldn’t the Osbournes have come to care for each other? There were a lot of “real” families with less in common.

‘So what now?’ asked April.

Davina threw up her hands. ‘You tell me. No job, no family, back to square one. But there’s something I need to do first. A few things, actually.’

‘What?’

‘Revenge, sweetie. Revenge. No one screws with me and gets away with it. They have
no
idea how pissed off I am.’

‘But who are “they”? Whoever’s giving Dr Tame his orders?’

Davina grinned and wagged a finger at April. ‘Are you fishing for information, April Dunne? You
are
your father’s daughter, aren’t you?’

‘Well, why not?’ said April. ‘If the men behind Ravenwood were worried about my dad’s investigation, then I have to assume they killed him.’

‘Fair enough,’ shrugged Davina. ‘That’s why I said we’re on the same side now. You want to find out who killed your father, I want to find out who destroyed my family.’

‘The King?’

‘You
have
been doing your homework, haven’t you?’ said Davina with a crooked smile.

‘Do you know who he is?’

‘If I did, believe me, I would already have killed him.’

The look on her face as she spoke made April shiver.

‘No, no one’s ever met him,’ Davina continued. ‘Not at my level, anyway. There are all sorts of rumours: he’s in the Cabinet, he owns an airline, he’s a member of the royal family, but one thing’s for sure – he has managed to stay hidden, while simultaneously organising a large-scale vampire takeover. That’s pretty impressive, no?’

‘You admire him.’

Davina sat forward, her eyes narrowed, nostrils flared. ‘No, April Dunne, I do not,’ she hissed, ‘I hate him for what he did to Ben and Nicholas, and I will make him pay. But never underestimate him. He’s clever, resourceful and he’s pure vampire through and through.’

Davina picked up April’s knife and ran her thumb over the blade.

‘But born or turned, they all die when you cut off their heads.’ With a movement so swift it was a blur, Davina flipped the knife over and stabbed it into the table. It stood there, slowly rocking.

‘Oh God,’ said April. ‘Silvia’s going to go berserk.’

She watched as the chink of sunlight slowly crept across the ceiling, willing it to stop. But still it moved, inch by inch. They were never going away, were they? They were just going to keep coming. Until someone stopped them.
If
anyone could stop them.

After Davina had gone back to bed, April had crept back in with her mother, but her mind was so full of new information and the endless, endless questions, she hadn’t been able to close her eyes, let alone sleep. So instead she lay staring up at the roof, trying to make sense of everything she had heard.

Could she trust Davina? No, of course not. But it was tempting. Davina had inside information and more importantly, she was motivated and snarlingly angry. She wanted to find the King just as much as April, and that could be a powerful incentive. The trouble was, Davina was a vampire. Who would be stupid enough to trust a vampire?

She felt her mother stir and groan.

‘What time is it?’ she mumbled. ‘Is that sunshine? Any chance of a cup of tea, darling?’

April smiled to herself. It hadn’t taken Silvia long to get used to having April back at home, had it? April hadn’t even told her mother she was coming back – officially she was only staying in Pond Square as long as Davina needed a place to stay and a shoulder to cry on – but privately April had liked being here, close to Silvia and to whatever passed for normality in the Dunne family. April clambered out of bed and padded downstairs to find Davina already there, fully dressed, her hair immaculate.

‘You haven’t been there all night have you?’ said April, self-consciously trying to smooth her own hair down.

‘No, that last bottle of Silvia’s did the trick,’ said Davina, holding up a cup of coffee. ‘Out like a light as soon as I got back to your bed.’

‘I’m glad you’re so perky, I feel like I need another five hours,’ said April.

There was a double thunk from the passage behind her – the morning paper.

‘I’ll get it,’ said April. ‘Could you pour me some of that coffee? Make it strong.’

She stooped to pick up the paper – and froze.

‘HIGH SPEED SMASH HORROR’ read the headline over a picture of a mangled overturned car.

Nicholas Osbourne, prominent businessman and Chairman of Agropharm, the international chemicals producer, was killed yesterday when the car he was driving ploughed into a North London landmark. Mr Osbourne was driving his Maserati sports car at speed through Highgate yesterday evening when he overturned the vehicle on the Archway roundabout. Medical staff from the nearby Whittington hospital battled to save him, but he was pronounced dead at the scene. Mr Osbourne was reported to be intoxicated and weaving wildly across the road before the crash.

There had been rumours that he had been removed from his £1.5 million a year position as head of development at Agropharm. The controversial British-based chemicals giant published record profits last year, despite repeated claims that it was ‘poisoning a generation’ with its aggressive marketing of over-the-counter drugs.

Davina was waiting as she walked back into the kitchen.

‘Let me see,’ she said, her hand outstretched.

‘I don’t think that’s a good idea, ’Vina,’ said April, pulling the paper away. ‘You’re already upset enough.’

‘Oh, I’m nowhere near as upset as I’m going to be, believe me.’

Reluctantly, April handed the paper over. She watched as Davina read it, scouring the report silently, her face impassive.

‘Remember what I said last night?’ she asked, without looking up.

‘Davina, you were drunk last night.’