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“I must have lost them somewhere. Thanks for your concern, but you needn’t worry. I’ve just had a little too much to drink. It was my friend’s birthday, you see …” My voice trails off. I’m so weak, so drained, it’s a struggle for me to form conherent sentences.
“Are you definitely sure you’re okay?”
“Yes!”
Finally, he takes the hint and focuses back on the road.Thank goodness.
Turning my head, I gaze out the window at the cold West London streets. It’s started to rain again, transforming everything into a coloured mosaic. As the taxi rolls along, I relive the evening’s shocking events, trying to convince myself that it isn’t true. How can Nick Craven, the man I love, the man I wanted to marry only a few short hours ago, be a bloodsucking vampire? It’s utterly inconceivable.
Everytime I close my eyes, I see him; I can’t shake him off, no matter what I do. In the air, his silky voice follows me around like a distant melody. I feel the softness of his fingers against my skin, stroking me, caressing me. He’s so close I can almost taste him.
Nick made me love him more than anything in the world, and now he’s completely destroyed me. If what I saw tonight was real, if that horrific apparition in the kitchen reallywasa vampire, then I really don’t know where to go from here. I remember his chalk-white skin, red sunken eyes and razor sharp teeth; the murderous expression on his face as he held the burning crucifix. How could that have been real? How could my perfect husband-to-be have turned into a monster before my very eyes? Ithasto have been a hallucination—a weird delusion caused by the Thurlax or the wine I don’t remember drinking.
“We’re not far from Battersea now.” The cabbie’s deep voice brings me back to my senses. “Where do you live? Do you have the postcode and house number?”
I tell him the address and he programs it into his Sat Nav.
A little after four am, we pull back into my street. The rain has stopped, but the air retains an ominous chill.
“Okey-dokey, that will be fifteen twenty, but let’s call it fifteen,” the cabbie says as he parks up.
For a moment, I sit silently, my hands folded in my lap. “What did you say?”
“I said, that will be fifteen pounds, please.”
I stare dumbly at him. Then I suddenly get his meaning.Shit!How am I going to pay the fare? Absently, I reach for my handbag and freeze when I remember that I left it back at Nick’s house, along with my phone.
I slap my hand across my forehead. “I’m so sorry, but could you hold on a second? I just need to run inside and get some money.”
He nods stiffly. Clearly, he’s getting a little hacked off with me.
Throwing open the door, I race across the street toward my house. As I march up the gravel drive, I notice that all of the ground floor lights are off.Great.My dad’s asleep and certainly won’t appreciate being woken up in the middle of the night, but what choice do I have? My keys are in the bag I left at Nick’s.
Bracing myself for a barrage of questions, I ring the doorbell and wait.
A minute passes.
Two.
I ring the bell again, and this time hold my finger down on the buzzer. No reply.That’s strange.I call through the letterbox. “Hey Dad! It’s me, Carly. Can you let me in, please?”
Still no response.
Chewing my bottom lip, I glance back at the taxi. The cabbie rolls his eyes and shakes his head. Crouching down, I look through the letterbox and gasp when I see my father slumped on the hall floor, his arms contorted at a weird angle.
Fuck!
“Dad!” I yell. “Wake up, wake up!”
His body remains rigid.
“What’s the matter?” the cabbie shouts. “Are you okay?”
“Something’s happened to my dad!” I shout back. “We need to call an ambulance.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Panic
