Chapter Seventeen
Midnight
The boy was walking quickly. He had a
backpack slung over his shoulder full of supplies and the fruits of his
gambling stuffed into the back pocket of his black jeans. Kate caught up with
him and flung her arms around him.
He kissed and hugged her in return.
‘I was going to wait for you, here,’ he
said. Kate looked closely at his face. The skin around his right eye was
turning black…
‘The police officer did that?’
‘He wasn’t a policeman. Just a thug
Harrison hired,’ Heath said bitterly.
‘I’m so sorry. We should have left sooner,’
Kate said, kissing him. His lips were still warm. ‘It was foolish of me to try
to find the good in Harrison where there is so little.’ Kate added regretfully.
They hid behind the shelter of the bus
shed as the weather turned and rain spat from the dark sky. Soon it would be
midnight and they’d have to hide until morning. They were together now and
immune to the outside world.
‘This is all that matters,’ Kate said as
she hugged Heath for warmth.
‘C’mon,’ the boy said, releasing her. ‘There won’t be any buses until
morning. We must find warmer shelter. Harrison is probably in an alcoholic
stupor by now so there’s no need for us to freeze to death.’
They trudged across the ground in the dark.
It was almost midnight when Heath began to
feel a stirring in his arms. Exhausted, they rested at the base of an oak tree.
The muscles in Heath’s legs tightened and he was woken by the strong and sweet
scent of human blood. Kate was bundled up in her coat next to him. She had
scratched her arm, climbing down the side of Hareton Hall and Heath had a
strong desire to lick the scratch. He stretched, resisting the almost
irresistible. He knew he had to get to his vampire specialist in London, today
if possible. He felt sure Kate would understand. The muscles in his body
thumped and tightened. The need to drink blood overwhelmed him.
He quickly grabbed a packet of Magenta from
his backpack. It was the new product his specialist had urged him to take a
sample of during his last visit. This liquid sated him, momentarily, and he
fell asleep again next to Kate as the snow began to fall on the glass roof
above them.
They’d had no choice but to wait out the
storm in the glass house, the place where he and Kate had once loved to visit,
loved to be together, just seated side by side, barely bold enough to touch.
Heath remembered best those moments of wonder and they only added to his love
for her. Meanwhile, his desire to plunge his fangs into her neck was becoming
more intense by the minute.
‘Heath?’ the girl asked sleepily.
‘Kate?’
He nudged her awake. The blue coat she hid
under was long and heavy, made for stronger weather and travel.
Kate
opened her red eyes. He could see she had cried herself to sleep. ‘We can never
go back,’ she whispered. ‘He threatened to tell everyone about you or worse…
have you framed for some fake financial crime… and he’d be capable of doing it,
you know. He can forge your signature on documents…’
Heath looked away.
‘I doubt he’d go through with it. He doesn’t
want to publicly besmirch the family name. Wipe away your tears, Kate. We have
each other.’
Kate put her arms around him, but for the
first time, he pushed her back.
‘Don’t Kate,’
‘Why not?’
‘I can feel a change tonight. I need to go
to Harley Street…’
‘We’ll go together,’ Kate said.
They huddled on the bench as Heath started
to sweat. The girl spread her coat over the boy.
‘You should leave me Kate; I don’t know
what is going to happen next. I want you to be safe. Safe… from me.’
‘You can’t be serious. You can’t seriously…
I could never love anyone as I have loved you… all my life you are the only one
for me.’
‘And you for me.’
‘What has happened? What did Harrison say to
you?’
Heath looked away.
‘He told me I’m a…freak. That he didn’t
want my blood tainting this family…’
‘That’s not true! I love you. If you are a
freak then I’m one too and I don’t care what the world says…’
‘Kate, listen to me. On the street, being
pursued, we are nothing. Give me time. I shall get my antidotes, supplies, a
job, make some money and…come for you.’
‘No. Don’t…’
Heath got up.
‘No. I will come to you. I’m writing down
this address, in London. It’s a little café where I once visited with father in
Covent Garden when I was small, before he brought me home that night to meet
you. I went there once a few months ago with Greta. I kept the business card.
Here, I’ve written all the details. Meet me there, eight am in three months on
the twenty-eighth. The day you turn eighteen, you will be free of him. We will
meet there and be together, forever.’
‘Promise me…’
‘I promise…to find you again, if we are
ever parted. But we are not going to be parted.’
The lovers embraced.
Heath’s hearing had sharpened. ‘I sense
they are near…’
‘No… I cannot let you go,’ Kate said. ‘I
cannot live without you.’
‘Kate!’ He whispered, his desire to fang
her was stronger than ever. Heath whispered softly as his knees fell to the
ground ‘I love you.’
A shout could be heard in the distance,
then a whistle and a voice, ‘She’s in there!’ Headlights shone in through the
glass.
‘Careful officer, he’s got a gun,’ Harrison
said. ‘He took it from the stables. He tried to kill me and he’s abducted my
sister…’
Momentarily, Heath slumped from the light
which imitated the sun. Heath had his arm around what looked like Kate’s neck
and the police officer must have misconstrued what he saw.
‘Don’t shoot…’ Kate yelled.
It was too late.
The shot ran out in the cold night air
and went right through Heath’s chest, barely missing his heart.
He shuddered and writhed in pain. It was
a shot no human being could survive.
Kate was stunned. Motionless, she barely
made a sound.
The police officer stared in horror at
the lifeless young male. He was speechless as he bent over Heath’s ashen
body. The policeman checked the packet
in the boy’s lifeless fingers. His fist contained nothing but a water bottle
inside a brown paper bag. No weapon existed on his body.
Kate screamed hysterically and placed
her head upon her loved one’s chest as she sobbed.
‘Heath, Heath!’
Moments passed.
Harrison took Kate’s arm and dragged her
to her feet. She fought him all the way to the car and finally broke free of
him, turning and running back to Heath’s body.
The police officer, chilled from the night
air and the shock of what he’d done, began dialling emergency from his car
radio.
Kate screamed again as Harrison took a
swipe at her. He forcibly dragged her back to the car but she punched Harrison
and kicked him twice as hard. She ran back to Heath and flung herself upon him.
In that moment, he was cold and still as she sobbed in the shadows. There was
not another human in sight of the distraught girl.
‘And then,’ Greta added casually, ‘the
bullet holes started to heal. The flesh grew upon itself until not a mark could
be seen through the holes in his shirt. Heath’s chest began to rise and fall,
his fingers moved, his warm, brown eyes opened.’ Greta looked at me as she
finished her tea. ‘The last words from Heath before he got up and fled were, ‘I
will pay Harrison back for what he’s done.’
Greta sighed. ‘And sure enough, he did.’
