The Dark Side of the Road

Nine

I glanced thoughtfully at Penny as we made our way down the long curving stairs to join the others in the drawing room. I thought she was taking things rather well, all things considered. In all my time on planet Earth, I’d only revealed my true nature to five people. And four of those hadn’t gone at all well. So when we got to the foot of the stairs I stopped Penny and looked at her steadily.

‘We can’t tell the others about me,’ I said.

‘Oh good,’ said Penny. ‘Because I wouldn’t know where to start.’

‘But,’ I said. ‘We do have to tell them about the vampire.’

‘Let’s think about that for a moment,’ said Penny. ‘It’s all right to tell them our killer is a supernatural creature of the night, but not that you’re a little green man from outer space? Why?’

‘Because I don’t want them getting distracted,’ I said. ‘They’re going to have a hard enough time believing there’s a vampire in their midst, without adding me to the mix.’

‘I do get that,’ said Penny. ‘I’m still having problems accepting what you are, and I saw the evidence.’

‘The others have a right to know what’s really threatening them,’ I said. ‘If only so we can work out how best to defend ourselves.’

‘I’m not arguing,’ said Penny. ‘It’s just … how are we going to explain the whole vampire thing to them?’

‘With our mouths,’ I said.

‘Ho ho ho,’ said Penny. ‘Alien humour.’

‘One of them already knows,’ I said. ‘So the one who objects most …’

‘Is almost certainly the vampire!’ said Penny.

‘See how easy this is?’ I said.

Penny smiled widely. ‘I can hit you from here.’

I looked at the closed door to the drawing room, halfway down the long hallway. Inside, people were arguing loudly and angrily and borderline hysterically. None of them seemed sure what to do for the best, but that didn’t stop them arguing about it. So I stayed where I was and listened in.

‘We should just get the hell out of here!’ Sylvia said tearfully. ‘Leave the house and make a run for it. I don’t like it here, and I want to go!’

‘Then go,’ Melanie said coldly. ‘No one’s stopping you.’

‘I don’t want to go on my own,’ said Sylvia. ‘I’m scared of the storm. Of getting lost. Won’t anybody come with me?’

‘It’s not safe, Sylvia,’ said Khan, clearly struggling to sound sympathetic. ‘We all understand how scary this situation is, but the storm is far more dangerous. Leaving the house now would be suicide.’

‘Melanie?’ said Sylvia.

‘Don’t be silly,’ Melanie said immediately. ‘I can’t leave Walter. And he wouldn’t last ten minutes, out in the cold.’

‘Nobody would,’ said Jeeves. ‘I took a look out the front door a few minutes ago, and the storm’s cold enough to kill any of us, long before we could reach safety or shelter.’

‘I still say we should all barricade ourselves in our rooms!’ said Melanie. She was trying hard for self-control, but only hanging on by her fingernails. ‘Why won’t anyone listen to me? It’s the only way to stay safe until help arrives!’

‘Help is on its way,’ said Jeeves. ‘My people are coming, but there’s no way they can get here before morning. At the earliest.’

‘Locking himself in his room didn’t work out too well for Roger,’ said Leilah. ‘Did it?’

‘We should all stay together,’ said Khan. ‘Stay in one place, watch each other’s backs. Safety in numbers. Ishmael was right. He may be irritating, and overbearing, but he was right. If we’d listened to him, Roger might still be alive.’

‘Ishmael, darling,’ said Penny. ‘Please tell me what you’re doing, because you haven’t moved a muscle in quite a while, your face is entirely empty, and I am starting to freak out big time.’

‘Sorry,’ I said. ‘I was listening to the others talking in the drawing room.’ I gave her the gist of what I’d just overheard.

Penny looked down the hall to the drawing room. ‘You can hear everything they’re saying? All the way down there? Through a closed door?’

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘It’s a gift.’

I threw open the door to the drawing room, and everyone immediately froze where they were and fell silent. They relaxed, just a little, when they saw it was only me, and Penny, but they only had to look at our faces to know something had happened. And that whatever it was, they really weren’t going to like it.

I looked at Jeeves. ‘You should have locked the door.’

‘I did,’ he said. ‘But then I had to unlock it, because people insisted on coming and going, so …’

‘Not a good idea,’ I said.

‘I will not be held prisoner in my own house!’ Melanie said loudly.

‘Would you rather be dead?’ I said.

‘Well, really …’ said Melanie.

‘What’s happened?’ said Leilah, looking at me narrowly.

‘Diana is dead,’ I said, as kindly as I could. ‘Murdered, in her room.’

‘No!’ said Sylvia. She had both hands at her mouth again. ‘She was sleeping, so I locked the door behind me when I left. And then, after Roger, I came down here … How could I have left her up there, on her own? What was I thinking?’

Penny shot me a meaningful glance. I’d already had the same thought. Could Sylvia’s mind have been affected by the vampire? To make her abandon her friend, and then forget about her? Like we all had, outside Roger’s room?

Sylvia turned to Khan, looking for him to comfort her, as he had before. Only to find he wasn’t ready to do that, this time. He just stood there and looked at her. Not actually suspicious, but not ready to trust her, either. Sylvia turned away, crushed by his rejection, and hugged herself tightly, as though to stop herself falling apart.

‘You’re the only one here we don’t know, Sylvia,’ Khan said slowly. ‘Diana brought you here. We knew nothing about you before this weekend.’

‘You bastard!’ said Sylvia, rounding on him. ‘You’re the one with motives for murder! James is dead, and Roger is dead, and you had arguments with both of them! We all saw you! We all heard you! What did you have against Diana? Did she get in the way, when you were trying to pressure Walter?’

Melanie glared coldly at Sylvia. ‘I never wanted you here. Never wanted Diana here. Conniving little bitch. If you’d both stayed away … I only let Diana come because Walter insisted. He thought we could all be good friends together … He’s always been too sentimental for his own good.’

‘Where is Walter?’ I said.

Everyone stopped and looked around the room, only now waking up to the fact that Walter wasn’t there with them.

‘No …’ said Penny. ‘Please, Ishmael, no; not Daddy …’

‘He popped out, just a minute ago,’ said Khan. ‘Didn’t he?’

‘He went back to our room,’ said Melanie. ‘To take his pills. He hasn’t been gone long …’

‘Hasn’t he?’ said Khan.

‘How long?’ Penny said fiercely. ‘How long has Daddy been gone?’

They all just looked at each other, not knowing what to say, surprised they hadn’t noticed Walter was gone and confused they hadn’t noticed before.

‘It’s been some time now,’ said Khan. ‘Hasn’t it?’

‘He promised me he’d only be a minute,’ said Melanie, looking around her for reassurance and not finding any. ‘He didn’t even take his walking stick.’

She gestured at it, still leaning against the wall. There was something very significant, and very sad, about the abandoned wooden stick.

‘The client,’ said Jeeves. ‘We have to check on the client, Leilah.’

But I was already out the door.

Only to come crashing to a halt, as I realized I wasn’t sure which room belonged to Walter and Melanie. I sniffed at the air, ready to follow my nose.

Penny was quickly at my side, staring at me anxiously. ‘Are you smelling blood again, Ishmael?’

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘And a lot more than before.’

‘Does this mean Daddy’s dead?’ Penny said steadily.

I was ready to say yes, but I held it back. As long as there was a chance …’Let’s find out,’ I said. ‘Which is your parents’ room?’

By now Jeeves and Leilah had caught up with us. They both had guns in their hands again.

‘Everyone please stay put in the drawing room, while Leilah and I investigate,’ he said firmly.

‘Yeah, right,’ said Penny.

‘Where are they?’ I said.

She gestured at her parents’ door, and immediately we were both off and moving again. Jeeves and Leilah hurried after us, Leilah growling and swearing under her breath. I could hear the others bringing up the rear. They wanted to know what was happening, and none of them wanted to be left behind. And then Melanie went right past me. Running to the room she shared with her husband.

She called out loudly: ‘Walter! Walter! Are you all right? Answer me, Walter!’

‘Please, Mrs Belcourt!’ said Jeeves immediately. ‘We don’t want to alert anyone we’re coming!’

She ignored him, calling out her husband’s name again and again, until she came to the door to her room and stopped abruptly, because it was open. Just like Roger’s. Melanie stood very still, staring into the darkness before her. She started shaking and whimpering. Jeeves and Leilah quickly took her by the arms and moved her gently but firmly to one side. Melanie was stiff as a board, staring into the dark with the wide eyes of a frightened child. I’d let Jeeves and Leilah get ahead of me, just so they could do that. Partly because I’m not good at comforting hysterical people, and partly because I wanted them all out of the way, so I could be first through the door.

But in the end I hesitated, because Penny was with me. I could have asked her to stay back, but I didn’t see the point. I knew what she would have said. Jeeves glared at me as I stood before the open door, staring into the darkness beyond.

‘I should go in first!’ said Jeeves.

And I nodded, in agreement. This close, I didn’t need to enter the room to know what had happened. The thick coppery smell of spilled blood was heavy on the air. Jeeves and Leilah handed an unresisting Melanie on to Khan and moved forward, holding their guns out before them. They each took one side of the open door, peered into the gloom, and scowled at each other when they couldn’t make anything out. Inside, there was only an ominous quiet. I stepped forward, reached round the door and turned the light on.

And there was Walter Belcourt, pinned to the far wall of his bedroom with one of his own family weapons. A bear-hunting spear had been rammed right through his chest, leaving him hanging high up on the wall. Like some ancient butterfly on display. He hung limply, like a rag doll. His face was entirely colourless, drained of blood. No effort had been made to hide the true cause of death, this time. The savage teeth marks stood out clearly, against the torn and ragged flesh. Blood had spilled all down the front of him and was still dripping slowly from his dangling feet. The vampire had made a real mess of him. A feeding frenzy? Or just a sign that the killer didn’t care any more? That it wanted us to know what it was …?

I stood very still, looking around the empty room. There was a gap on one wall, an empty plaque that had once held the boar spear. The killer had come here, done its work, and left, and no one noticed.

Jeeves and Leilah moved quickly round the room, looking at everything … and finally lowered their guns as they realized they weren’t going to find anything useful. Jeeves leaned in close to study the bite mark on Walter’s neck. He looked simply … disbelieving. Leilah looked sullenly angry, as though their client had let them down by going off and getting himself killed.

And then Melanie came forward, to stand before her dead husband. We were all so taken up with what had happened, no one had given a thought to her. She took in what had been done to her husband and cried out, once. A loud, horrified, almost animal sound of grief and loss. She sank to her knees before the impaled figure on the wall, put out a shaking hand to the dangling feet, and then pulled it back again as blood dripped past her fingertips. She shook her head in silent denial, her shoulders rising and falling as she sobbed.

And part of me wondered: Is she overdoing this?

Penny moved slowly forward, to stand beside her mother, staring up at what had been done to her father. Her face was pale, but controlled. ‘Oh, Daddy …’ she said.

She looked back at me, as though she didn’t know what to say. I put out a hand to her, and she grabbed it with both of hers, squeezing it tightly. Like someone drowning, hanging on to the only lifeline.

Penny shook her head, looking at her father. ‘Daddy and I never did get on, but … he had been trying harder, just recently. I should have tried harder too, but … I wasn’t pleased at the thought of James coming home again. I was jealous of him, you see. For getting Daddy’s attention so easily. Even though James was the one who left and I was the one who stayed. Or, at least, I came home at regular intervals. Now, I’ll never know whether Daddy and I might have worked it out. Oh, do keep the noise down, Mummy! All that weeping and wailing isn’t helping anyone! I’m sure you’ll find another meal ticket, soon enough.’

Melanie broke off from her weeping. She lurched to her feet and glared viciously at Penny. ‘You don’t care. You never cared about him! Unnatural child!’

‘Maybe if I’d had more natural parents,’ said Penny.

Melanie wasn’t listening to her any more. She’d already gone back to staring pitifully at the body pinned to the wall.

Jeeves and Leilah exchanged a look, took Melanie by the arms again, and led her kindly but firmly out of the room. She didn’t want to go, and tried to fight them, but Jeeves and Leilah were professionals. They had a job to do and weren’t about to let anyone get in the way. Even the client’s widow. Jeeves spoke sharply to Khan and Sylvia, put Melanie in their care, chased them out of the room, and shut the door firmly on their faces.

As the door closed, I could hear Sylvia saying, very shrilly, ‘I’ve got to get out of here! I’ve got to get out of this house!’

I looked at Penny. ‘We have to work the room. Gather what evidence we can. The vampire must know you and I know. It’s not bothering to hide its tracks any longer.’

‘Give me a moment, Ishmael, please,’ said Penny. ‘I can’t do the detective thing. Not just now.’

I gave her hands one last reassuring squeeze and moved away to join Jeeves and Leilah.

‘Thought it best to close off the crime scene,’ said Jeeves. His gaze was steady enough, but his voice was just a bit shaky. ‘There’s got to be hard evidence here, somewhere.’

‘We’re beyond clues, now,’ I said. ‘I know why Walter was killed. And how.’

Leilah looked at me sharply. ‘You do? You know why somebody stuck a bloody big spear through him?’

‘That wasn’t what killed him,’ I said.

They both looked at the bite mark in Walter’s neck, even though it was something they clearly didn’t want to do.

‘Of course it wasn’t the spear,’ said Jeeves. ‘The blood only came from the neck wound. Nothing from where the spear went in. And there’s blood splatter on the wall, right there, at neck height, from where he was standing when he was attacked. The killer pinned him to the wall after he was dead. How much strength would it take, to lift a man that high and then drive the spear home?’

‘What the hell happened in here?’ said Leilah.

‘We need to get everyone back into the drawing room,’ I said. ‘I don’t think it’s safe for any of us to be out of sight of the others for long.’

‘Hear that,’ said Jeeves.

Back in the drawing room, Melanie sat slumped in an armchair, staring blankly ahead of her, lost in her own grief. At least she’d stopped crying. Penny started to go stand with her, and then changed her mind. She stood alone, Khan stood alone, Sylvia stood alone. No one wanted to be too close to anyone else. Jeeves and Leilah closed and locked the drawing room door and put their backs against it. And then, everyone looked at me. Because it was clear to everyone that I knew something.

I took my time looking round the drawing room, making sure everyone was there. I even counted them up twice, just in case the vampire was messing with my thoughts. ‘All right,’ I said. ‘Who left this room, after Walter did?’

There was a lot of people clearing their throats, and then not saying anything. It was obvious none of them were sure. They all looked confused and didn’t know why.

‘I suppose,’ Khan said slowly, ‘we were all arguing so much that no one noticed. I think most of us stepped out, at least for a moment, at one time or another. For various reasons …’

‘I left the room, for a while,’ said Jeeves. ‘I went down the hall to open the front door and check on the weather. See if it had let up any. But I told Leilah I was going to do that. And I was only gone a minute or two.’

‘That’s right,’ Leilah said immediately. ‘I can confirm that.’

‘The storm was just as bad,’ said Jeeves. ‘So I came straight back. Leilah was in charge here, all the time I was gone.’

I looked at Leilah, who shrugged, uncomfortably.

‘I let Sylvia leave, to use the toilet.’

‘I wasn’t long!’ said Sylvia. ‘I had to go!’

I looked at Melanie, but she was still too upset to respond. I looked at Khan, and he shrugged helplessly.

‘I don’t know, Ishmael. I didn’t go anywhere, and I don’t remember anyone else going anywhere. I know people came and went, but I wasn’t paying any attention. Which is odd. You would think, under the current circumstances, that I would be watching everyone like a hawk. Why didn’t I notice Walter was missing for so long?’

‘There is a reason for that,’ I said. Everyone looked at me then. Even Melanie. ‘The killer has been messing with our heads,’ I said. ‘Interfering with our thoughts. There is no easy way to say this, so I’ll give it to you straight. The killer is a vampire.’

I braced myself for loud arguments and angry disagreements, even a blunt refusal to believe, but in the end they all just looked at me. As though I’d made a stupid and very inappropriate joke. They’d all been through too many shocks and losses and emotional upheavals. And then Jeeves nodded, slowly.

‘I saw the bite marks on Walter’s throat. Human-sized.’

‘You mean … our killer is one of those head-cases who gets a kick out of drinking blood?’ said Leilah, scowling hard as she considered the idea.

‘No,’ I said. ‘Unfortunately, this is the real thing. A vampire. Blood-drinker. Undead.’

‘Oh, come on!’ said Leilah. ‘There’s no such thing as the real thing! There is no such thing as a vampire! It’s just a fairy tale, a horror movie … What are you trying to pull here?’

‘All right, that’s it!’ said Jeeves. ‘No more theories, and no more discussion. Leilah and I are the professionals here, so we are taking charge of the situation.’

‘Damn right!’ said Leilah. ‘No more deaths on our watch. And no more superstitious bullshit!’

‘I don’t know,’ said Khan. And just like that, everyone was looking at him. Because there was something in his voice. He realized all eyes were on him, and he shrugged uncomfortably. ‘Weird shit does happen. Strange things do exist. I know that because I have encountered them before. I used to work for Black Heir.’

Jeeves and Leilah reacted to that name immediately and looked at Khan with something very like respect.

‘We worked a case with two Black Heir field agents, once,’ said Jeeves. ‘A Muti black magic case, in the East End of London. They were … scary types.’

‘Very professional,’ said Leilah.

‘What’s Black Heir?’ said Penny.

‘You know all those secret departments that don’t officially exist?’ said Khan. ‘Well, even they don’t have high enough security clearances to know about Black Heir. It is an organization specially tasked to deal with … weird shit.’

‘Are we talking X-files?’ said Penny.

‘Very definitely not,’ Khan said firmly.

‘So … you’ve had experience with vampires?’ said Sylvia.

‘Of course not!’ said Khan. ‘Never met one in my life. Don’t know anyone who has. And I haven’t worked for Black Heir since the eighties. With Ishmael’s father.’

Melanie had been sitting slumped in her chair, only vaguely following what was happening, but suddenly she was sitting bolt upright, to stab an accusing finger at me.

‘You! It’s you! You’re the vampire! Has to be you … Because you’re an outsider! No one here knows you. What kind of a name is Ishmael Jones, anyway? Has to be fake … And besides; you’re different. I can tell. Everyone can tell!’ She glared around the room. ‘You must have noticed! The things he says, the way he acts …’

‘This is no time to be vindictive, Mummy,’ said Penny.

‘You like him, don’t you?’ said Melanie, smiling unpleasantly. ‘Unnatural child …’

‘Mrs Belcourt does have a point,’ said Jeeves, looking at me steadily. ‘Too many unusual things have happened around you, Ishmael. I don’t think we can trust you any more.’

‘Do you trust anyone here?’ I said.

‘No,’ said Jeeves. ‘But you stand out more than most. I’m not taking any more chances. I think the safest thing to do is to lock you up somewhere. Until my people arrive in the morning. Somewhere safe, and secure.’

‘No,’ I said. ‘That’s not going to happen.’

Jeeves and Leilah both turned their guns on me. Leilah was nodding quickly. ‘Has to be done, Ishmael. You’re the one trying to distract us, with all this nonsense about vampires. And saying you could smell blood … That’s not suspicious, at all.’

‘I’m the only one here who can save you from the vampire,’ I said.

‘Yes, well, you would say that, wouldn’t you?’ said Jeeves. ‘I think Leilah and I are perfectly capable of dealing with this. We are, after all, professionals. Now, be a good boy and do as you’re told, Ishmael. Or I’ll have Leilah shoot you somewhere painful.’

‘Love to,’ said Leilah. ‘Never did trust you, Ishmael.’

‘You’ve got a bloody nerve!’ Penny said loudly. ‘Where were both of you, when four people died? Including the one who hired you to protect him? My father trusted you … and what have you done to find his killer? At least Ishmael’s been doing something! I trust him more than I trust either of you!’

‘No surprise there,’ said Leilah, not taking her eyes or her gun off me. ‘You’ve been sniffing round Ishmael ever since he turned up. And with your stepbrother and your father dead, you’re the only one left to inherit all this … If something was to happen to your mother …’

‘Unnatural child …’ said Melanie, slumped back in her chair again.

‘I swear, if you say that one more time, Mummy, I will slap you a good one,’ Penny said coldly. ‘And it will hurt.’

‘I think we’d better lock you up with Ishmael, Miss Belcourt,’ said Jeeves. ‘Just as a security measure. If we’re all still alive come the morning, there will be plenty of time for apologies then.’

‘Lock me up and you won’t live to see the morning,’ I said.

‘Shoot him,’ said Melanie. ‘Shoot him! He murdered my Walter …’

I stepped forward, to say something reasonable, and Jeeves shot me twice. Except I wasn’t there. By the time the bullets slammed into the wall I was already somewhere else, heading rapidly for Jeeves and Leilah, ducking and dodging bullets as I closed in. They both fired with professional speed and accuracy, but I was faster. My eyes work better than most people. I can see bullets travelling through the air. It’s all a matter of concentration.

I grabbed the guns out of Jeeves and Leilah’s hands, careful not to break their fingers in the process, and then stepped back and covered both of them with their own guns. James and Leilah looked at each other incredulously, then at me, and decided to stand very still.

I glanced quickly round the room. Khan and Sylvia were staring at me open-mouthed. Penny was grinning broadly. Melanie wasn’t looking at anything. I smiled at Jeeves and Leilah, and then stepped forward and gave them their guns back, again.

‘Really,’ I said reproachfully. ‘How many times do we have to do this dance? If I wanted you dead, you’d be dead.’

‘I never saw anyone move that fast in my life,’ said Leilah.

‘What are you, Ishmael?’ said Jeeves.

‘Busy,’ I said.

‘All right …’ said Leilah. She hefted the gun in her hand uncertainly, as though I might have somehow substituted a fake, and then looked at me squarely. ‘Maybe you aren’t the killer. But we still have to work the evidence logically. The killer made a real mess of Mister Belcourt, so they should have blood all over them. No one here has had time to change their clothes. But I don’t see blood on anyone …’

Everyone in the room looked at everyone else, took in the complete lack of blood and actually started to relax a little.

‘The killer can’t be one of us!’ said Sylvia. ‘The lack of bloodstains proves it!’

‘Unfortunately not,’ I said. ‘Things are a little more complicated than that. I’m pretty sure the vampire has the ability to mess with our minds, make us see what it wants us to see. To hide its true look behind a glamour; a pleasing illusion. The killer could be standing right here, in this room, soaked in the blood of its victims, and we still wouldn’t know it. Because the vampire wouldn’t let us know it.’

‘Oh, that’s just marvellous!’ said Sylvia. ‘First you tell us the killer is a creature of the night, and now we can’t trust our eyes, either?’

‘I’m not buying any of this,’ growled Leilah.

‘I’m not sure I do either,’ said Jeeves, frowning deeply. ‘But something weird is going on here. Hiding behind a pleasant illusion … You mean, like hypnosis?’

‘Something like that,’ I said. ‘I think that’s how the vampire takes down its victims so easily. It hypnotizes them, overpowers their mind temporarily, holds then in place unresisting, and then attacks them. That’s how it was able to take down a seasoned old fighter like the Colonel. He literally never saw it coming. That’s why the vampire only attacks one victim at a time, so there’s no distraction to break the trance.’

‘So there are some limits to this thing’s power,’ said Jeeves. ‘That’s something …’

Leilah looked at him. ‘You’re buying this …?’

‘I’m … going along, for now,’ said Jeeves.

I looked around the room, studying everyone, taking my time. Jeeves and Leilah were standing close together, still guarding the locked door. Still holding their guns, though they didn’t seem too sure where to point them. Penny was right there at my side, looking hopefully at me for an answer. Or at least some idea of what to do next. Melanie was leaning forward in her chair, staring sullenly at me, and Penny. Sylvia stood alone, hugging herself tightly, lost and scared and confused by what was happening. Khan stood off to one side, studying one face after another, trying to spy out the real face beneath the mask, through sheer concentration.

‘Someone in this room has to be the killer,’ I said. ‘Can’t be Penny, because she was upstairs with me while Walter was being killed down here. Can’t be Jeeves or Leilah because they’ve been working as a team, and what evidence there is suggests a single killer.’

‘What evidence?’ said Leilah.

‘The single set of bite marks on each neck,’ I said.

‘They could be killing separately,’ Penny said eagerly. ‘Providing alibis for each other!’

‘That would mean two vampires operating under one roof,’ I said. ‘How likely is that?’

‘How likely is one vampire?’ said Penny.

‘True,’ I said.

‘Wait just a minute,’ said Leilah. ‘Following your logic … you say Penny was upstairs with you all the time, but how can you be sure? How can you be sure she didn’t just hypnotize you into believing she was there, while she nipped down the stairs and killed her father? And then hurried back, before you came out of your trance?’

‘You are a deeply cynical and suspicious woman,’ said Penny.

‘Just doing my job,’ said Leilah.

‘I don’t think it works like that,’ I said. ‘It’s clear the vampire can overpower human minds, but only when we don’t notice. Most of its strength must go into maintaining its cover illusion; keeping us from seeing it for what it really is. Any further mind control must be a real effort, or I’d never have been allowed to work out this much. It kept you all from noticing Walter’s absence, but only until I pointed it out. And once the spell was broken it couldn’t keep you from noticing any longer. It can’t stop us from discussing its existence, not now I’ve got you all thinking about it. It’s probably reaching its limits just hiding from us, now we’re looking for it.’

‘You keep using the word probably!’ said Jeeves. ‘I need a hell of a lot more than probably, if I’m going to try and take down a vampire!’

‘What’s it going to take, to bring down a vampire?’ said Leilah. ‘I’m guessing bullets won’t do it.’

‘Silver bullets?’ said Sylvia.

‘That’s werewolves,’ said Khan. ‘With vampires, you must drive a wooden stake through their heart.’ He smiled briefly. ‘I used to love Christopher Lee, in all those old Hammer horror movies.’

‘I don’t think we can trust what they say in the movies,’ I said.

‘Wooden stakes feature in all the old stories and legends,’ Khan said firmly.

‘What else would work?’ said Leilah. ‘Fire?’

‘I’m not an expert in this field,’ I said. ‘If you’ve got Van Helsing’s home number, feel free to call him. I’m working this out as I go along.’

‘Maybe we should start sharpening some wooden stakes?’ said Khan.

‘You go right ahead,’ said Leilah. ‘I wouldn’t know where to start. How do you sharpen a wooden stake?’

‘No one here has an alibi for the Colonel’s murder,’ I said loudly, to draw everyone’s attention back to me. ‘Or for Roger’s, because we can’t be sure of when they were killed. And Diana could have been killed before or after Roger. And we can’t be sure who was and wasn’t in this room when Walter was killed. So; we have to face the fact that we can’t rule people out through alibis. That just leaves deductive logic. I wish the Colonel was here; he was always so much better at this than me. But he did do his best to teach me the basics. And I do notice things, even if it takes me a while to realize.’ I turned slowly, to face Sylvia. ‘Why did you scream, when you looked through the open door into Roger’s room?’

‘Because I saw what had been done to him!’ said Sylvia. ‘You saw the state he was in!’

‘But how could you see that?’ I said. ‘The room was in complete darkness. I couldn’t see anything; none of us could, until I turned on the light. It was an obvious question that didn’t occur to me till later. Perhaps you were interfering with my thoughts, or perhaps I was just being slow. After all: a pretty woman, screaming at a gruesome sight? We’re conditioned to accept such a scene, from seeing it in so many movies.’

‘Look,’ said Sylvia, very reasonably, ‘if I did kill Roger, why would I leave the door open, and scream, and draw everyone’s attention to the murder?’

‘To distract us,’ I said. ‘While we were all concentrating on the awful thing that had been done to Roger’s body, we weren’t thinking about how else he might have been killed. And, we weren’t thinking about Diana not being there with us. Almost certainly already dead. And finding the body did help to clear suspicion away from you. Poor shocked little thing that you were.’

Everyone was looking at Sylvia now, with growing suspicion and horror. Khan backed away from her. From the look on his face, he was remembering holding Sylvia in his arms and comforting her … Melanie rose shaking from her chair and moved unsteadily back to hide behind Khan. Penny glared at Sylvia, her hands clenched into white-knuckled fists. Jeeves and Leilah turned their guns on Sylvia, who stood very still.

She gave them her best appealing look. ‘You don’t believe any of this nonsense, do you? You’re professionals! I mean, vampires? Really? In this day and age?’

‘I let you leave this room to go to the toilet, unaccompanied,’ said Leilah. ‘Why can’t I remember how long you were gone?’

I walked slowly forward, to stand before Sylvia. And then I sniffed, hard. ‘My, what strong perfume you’re wearing,’ I said. ‘Strong enough to hide your true scent from most people. But I’m not most people. Now I know what you’re doing, you can’t get inside my head any longer. My thoughts are my own, and I can smell blood and decay. Go on, Sylvia; show us. Show us all what you really are.’

She smiled at me, and her grin seemed to grow wider and wider and wider.

She dropped her glamour, and just like that we could all see what she really looked like. The others all cried out, in shock and horror and disgust, at the sight of what had been moving unknown among them for so long. Sylvia was just a rotting corpse, with bright shining eyes and huge teeth, dressed in the old-fashioned formal clothes she’d been buried in: spotted with grave mould, and soaked in old and new blood. I fell back despite myself, and Jeeves and Leilah immediately opened fire on Sylvia.

She just stood there, smiling her horrible smile, as her undead flesh soaked up the bullets. She didn’t even shudder under the impact. Jeeves and Leilah only stopped shooting when they ran out of bullets. It had been an instinctual thing; like stamping on a spider. Leilah was making shocked, almost feral noises. Jeeves’ face was twisted with disgust. And when their guns fell silent, they just stood where they were, unable to deal with something so far outside their experience. Sylvia’s smile widened even further; the rotting flesh of her cheeks split apart to reveal even more teeth. She laughed, softly, and there was nothing human in the sound.

‘Why are you here?’ I said loudly, and her attention immediately switched to me. Looking into her brightly burning eyes was like being hit by a malign spotlight. I met her gaze unflinchingly.

When she finally spoke, in her true form, with her true voice, what issued from the torn and decaying lips was just a liquid, gargling rasp. Something I heard with my mind, or my soul, as much as my ears.

‘It’s what I do, Ishmael. I go from place to place, striking up friendships with powerful and influential people, using my glamour and charm to get invited to isolated gatherings just like this. So I can feed and move on. Usually just a nip here and there, from everyone present, and they never even notice. Though afterwards they are just that little bit more … susceptible. So if I ever need a favour, or a get out of jail free card …’

‘Why don’t they become vampires?’ said Penny. ‘Why don’t all your victims rise again, to become like you?’

She was trying to sound reasonable and inquiring, but couldn’t quite bring it off. The tremor in her voice showed how scared she was. We were all scared. It was the only sane reaction to the horrific thing in front of us.

‘Because that’s not how it works,’ said Sylvia. ‘It takes a lot of effort on our part, to make another of our kind. And I’ve never really seen the point. Who needs more competition?’

‘What are you doing here?’ I said. ‘Why here, and now?’

‘Your Colonel thought he recognized me for what I am, at some dreary Ambassadorial reception,’ said Sylvia. ‘Don’t ask me how he knew. He was only human, after all. Not like you, Ishmael. So I struck up a friendship with his mother, poor lonely old Diana, just so she would invite me here. To the Colonel’s family home. I let him know, through certain channels. I thought I could ensure his silence by threatening his family. But he wouldn’t play. Came all the way down here to stop me and protect his loved ones. So I killed him. No one defies me and gets away with it.’

‘And then you were trapped here, by the storm,’ I said. ‘And you had no choice but to stay and play along, pretending to be human. You didn’t know the Colonel had sent for help.’

‘But if James was the only one who knew about you, if he was the only real danger to you,’ said Penny, ‘why did you kill all the others?’

‘You know how it is,’ said Sylvia. ‘You get a taste for something, and you just can’t stop. You have no idea what it’s like, to be undead. There’s more to blood than just the feeding. Blood … is better than drugs. Better than sex. And there’s no conscience to trouble you any more, nothing to hold you back from doing absolutely anything you want. From being a red-mouthed wolf in a world of sheep. I love it …’

‘That’s not why you started killing again, after the Colonel,’ I said.

‘I never leave witnesses,’ said Sylvia. ‘The world likes to believe things like me don’t exist any longer. Except in safe, romantic fantasies. It makes things so much easier for me.’

‘Oh my God,’ said Jeeves. ‘That thing’s going to kill us all. It has to, to prevent anyone from telling what happened here.’

‘Hold it together!’ Leilah said harshly. ‘There’s just one of it! We can still stop it!’

‘How?’ said Jeeves.

‘You hold it down; I’ll hammer the stake through its heart!’ said Leilah.

Jeeves almost smiled. ‘Sounds like a plan. Where’s your stake?’

‘I’m working on it,’ said Leilah.

Sylvia ignored them, her bright hellish gaze fixed on me. Her hands opened and closed slowly at her sides, pale as death, caked in dried blood, ending in long filthy claws.

‘I didn’t know the Colonel had sent for another monster. I can tell you’re not really human, Ishmael. I can see things most people never even dream of … and I’ve never seen anything like you, Ishmael. What are you really?’

‘Not from around here,’ I said.

‘Why do you side with them?’ said Sylvia. She sounded honestly curious. ‘You’re no more like them than I am. They’d kill you in a moment, if they only knew …’

‘You prey on them,’ I said. ‘I protect them. It’s what I do. I still have my … humanity.’

‘Ishmael?’ said Jeeves. ‘What is she talking about?’

Sylvia and I ignored him.

‘It doesn’t matter what you are,’ said Sylvia. ‘You’ll die just as easily as the others.’

I could feel her reaching out to me with her mind, trying to trap my thoughts inside my head. Hold me in place, as she had with her other victims. But they were human, while I was just a little bit more than that. I could feel her influence, drifting across my mind like cobwebs; I blew them away with no effort at all.

Sylvia snarled, and threw herself at me, moving impossibly quickly. Just a blur on the air, all bared teeth and reaching hands. I went to meet her, moving just as fast. We slammed together in the middle of the room, with an impact that would have killed anything human. We grabbed on to each other, and lurched back and forth, smashing any furniture that got in our way. Everyone else scattered, crying out. I dodged the claws that would have opened me up like scalpels and the fanged mouth that snapped shut near my neck like a steel mantrap.

She was stronger, but I was faster.

Sylvia suddenly broke away from me and sprang up on to the wall, clinging there like some impossibly large insect. She scuttled up the wall and on to the ceiling, hanging upside down. And then she dropped back on to the floor, in front of Jeeves and Leilah. They’d had time to reload their guns, and both of them opened up again. The sound was deafening in the enclosed space. Sylvia surged forward, into the blaze of bullets, and took no harm at all. It was like shooting into water. Her clawed hands reached out for them.

I grabbed her from behind and hauled her away. She spun round in my arms, grabbed my head with both hands, and jerked it round hard, to break my neck. But my head turned all the way round, and my neck didn’t break. I’m built better than that. I’m flexible. I grabbed her wrists with both hands and almost cried out with revulsion. It felt like plunging my hands into a mess of maggots. Her undead flesh seemed to squirm inside my clasp. She broke my grip easily and backed away, hissing angrily.

Khan advanced on Sylvia, holding out two silver candlesticks, crossed to form a crucifix. Sylvia laughed at them, entirely unaffected. I hit her in the side of the head with my fist, putting all my strength into it. I felt her rotten flesh spatter under the impact, heard the bone in her skull crack and break, but her head didn’t move an inch, soaking up the impact. If I’d hit her any harder I’d have broken my hand.

While Sylvia was distracted by all this, Leilah grabbed up Walter’s discarded walking stick, from where he’d left it leaning against the wall. She broke it in two with a single savage blow, to give herself an improvised sharp stake, and then she lunged forward, aiming her stake at Sylvia’s chest. And Sylvia grabbed Melanie by the arm and hauled the poor shrieking woman in front of her. Leilah’s stake slammed into Melanie’s chest and punched right through, protruding from Melanie’s back.

She died without making a sound. Sylvia let her go, and Melanie dropped bonelessly to the floor. Leilah cried out in shock and horror.

And while everyone was distracted by that, Sylvia ran across the room impossibly quickly, hauled the locked door open, and ran out into the corridor, laughing happily. By the time I got to the door and looked out after her, Sylvia had already reached the far end. She pulled open the front door and ran out into the cold and the night. Still laughing.

Back in the drawing room, Jeeves was comforting Leilah, who looked like she wanted to cry but didn’t know how. Penny was kneeling beside her dead mother looking much the same.

Khan stared at me, his eyes wide with shock and disbelief. ‘It’s you!’ he said loudly. ‘You’re him! Not your father. You’re the man I worked beside, all those years ago … except, you haven’t aged a day. I still remember watching you fight that Baba Yaga clone in Moscow, back in ’eighty-eight. I never saw anyone who could fight like you …’

‘Save the reunion for later,’ I said.

‘But aren’t you going to explain?’

‘No,’ I said. ‘Not now. Sylvia’s gone outside. We have to find and destroy her.’

‘She won’t leave the grounds,’ said Penny. She rose unsteadily to her feet. I went to offer her my hand, and then pulled it back as she looked at me. She was trying hard to hang on to her self-control. To concentrate on what mattered. She took a deep breath. ‘If Sylvia could have left, in this storm, she would have right after she killed James. So she can’t. The storm traps her here. She’ll try to hide in one of the outbuildings. The tithe barn, or the cottages.’

‘If we go outside, she’ll kill us,’ said Khan. ‘She’ll have all the advantages out there.’

‘We have to go after her,’ I said. ‘Or she’ll just sneak back in and pick us off one at a time. Or hide out in one of the buildings, till the storm drops off enough for her to escape.’

‘She kept saying she wanted to leave,’ said Jeeves, just a bit shakily, ‘if only someone would go with her …’

‘Someone had a lucky escape there,’ I said. ‘If anyone had volunteered, she would have fed on them to keep her going. Used their strength to get her to the nearest village. We can’t let her get away. We have to find her.’

Leilah went over to stand before Penny. ‘I’m so sorry. I killed your mother.’

‘That’s all right,’ said Penny. ‘We weren’t close.’