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“Will, you tried once and failed, do you expect you can do it now?” Horris asked cautiously.
“Of course,” he replied, squaring his shoulders. “She only narrowly got away. Come, gentlemen, look at how she’s made our lives hell, she murdered my wife and my child. She’s made it impossible for me to live any semblance of a normal existence for the last five hundred years, and we cannot let her get away with it any longer.”
“You do not have to join us,butif you will, we cannot fail. I know she is your Maker as well, Filip, and you may be incapable of—”
Filip stood, “We are with you, always.”
Elated, I jumped to my feet, embracing him tightly. To know that this vampyre would go against his instincts to help us succeed was more than enough to fill my head with a wild buzz.
“Thank you, Filip. Thank you!” I cried, turning my attention to Horris. He was sat, smiling, legs causally crossed and resting on the table much as he had been nights before.
“What of your brother?” William asked, resting himself on the arm of the sofa. I could feel my face fall, the constricting pain that always accompanied his memory held tightly around my heart. Filip gently rubbed my arm, his eyes sympathetic.
“I don’t know that he would abandon her,” I muttered.
“He watched her torture you,”
“I have vowed to kill either of them if I saw them again,” I pondered aloud, “and that includes Adam.”
“Shall we, then?” Horris inquired, rising.
***
We spent the evening discussing past patterns of Noel and Adam, moments when we had encountered them and anything that may have been of use for our mission. They always trailed behind William, it seemed, giving him a glimpse of their presence in some sick and twisted game.
The map of England was spread over the table in the living area and we poured over it for what seemed like ages. William had been in England nearly as long as I had and it was surprising to learn he had yet to see them.
Filip paced the room, never uttering a word as Horris and William recounted previous visitations. The sun had long since set, empty glasses of wine and brandy scattered throughout the room.
Filip suddenly slapped the map with inspiration, his face lit brightly with optimism.
“You haven’t seen them because you have been spending the majority of your time in London!” We looked at him quizzically.
“Should they not be here then?” William asked, his expression was dumbfounded.
“Your cottage is in the Cotswolds.” Horris pieced it together as William and I were still several steps behind. His smile spread wider and wider as he and Filip exchanged some clairvoyant thought.
Filip traced his finger around the region, “They don’t know you’ve been traveling so far from your base.”
“They think you’re in eastern England!” I exclaimed suddenly grasping what they were alluding to. Filip nodded, proud as he crossed his arms over his chest.
“Given that you often will meet with them in a city, I would wager they are in Bristol or Bath.” Filip surmised.
A smirk spread on William’s lips and he shook his head in astonishment. The excitement building in the room was tangible, all of our muscles ready and waiting to expend the energy to destroy another of our kind.
“To Bath we go,” he declared, clasping his hands together. Filip and Horris whooped, agreeing to search in Bristol while William and I would comb through Bath.
I rolled up the map, placing it back on Horris’s bookshelf as he and Filip packed a few things and left. I packed a small bag of clothes myself to stay at the cottage with William, a place I hoped could be my home with him… permanently. We opted to run in the dark of night, along the riverway and through the fields under the shimmering gray moonlight.
It was nostalgic, running with him in the dark like this. A sense of longing for times passed, for a time I would never get back. It seemed so much simpler then but every time William would gaze at me, my heart echoed that same forlorn thought.
When we arrived at William’s cottage, I dropped my spare clothes in his room and immediately set out toward Bath. William clasped my hand tightly as the sandy stone buildings appeared in the distance.
The windows were lighted in the night, and the quiet country lay all around.
We slowed to a normal pace when we crossed the River Avon, eyes keenly scanning the area and noses on alert for a familiar scent.
I felt my body charge with electricity, and a sense of knowing wracked my mind. Something was going to happen tonight.
