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He pauses and looks me over very carefully, taking his time about it. I wonder what he’s thinking. For a long moment, we stare at each other, the air thick with tension. I fold my arms protectively across my chest. I need answersnow.
Finally, Nick resumes: “For five years, my life was blissfully uneventful. I took a job at a law firm and hoped to put the past behind me. Then one day, my father received a very strange letter. It was written in German…” He wets his lips.
“Go on,” I say.
“The letter was from Count Karlock, telling my father that he would be seeing us both very soon. He said he despised us and wouldn’t rest until he’d avenged the murder of his seven wives in Romania. He told us to prepare for a bloody retribution.”
I gasp. “Oh my God! What did you do?”
“What could we do but watch and wait? I kept Veda and Coppélia close to me at all times; we rarely ever left the house and had to have all of our amenities delivered. For two weeks, we sat on tenterhooks, waiting for something to happen, but nothing did. Then I received a telegram from my father asking me to meet him in Bishop’s Park. The message didn’t say why, just that it was very urgent.” Nick shakes his head and draws in a sharp breath. He speaks so quietly I can barely hear him.
“At midnight, I reached Bishop’s Park and found my father waiting for me on a bench. The instant I saw him I knew something wasn’t right. There was something feral about him; wild, almost deranged. I sat beside him and he calmly informed me that my mother was dead. She’d been raped and someone had…tornher throat out.”
My blood runs cold. “Jesus!”
“I was beside myself with grief,” Nick continues. “I think I started crying, and my father… well, he put his arms around me to comfort me. And that’s when I saw the blood on his hands, and I knew, I justknewhe was the one that did it. I knew he had murdered my mother.”
I get a sickish feeling in my throat. “Oh my gosh!”
Shaking his head, he walks slowly over to the sofa and sits down next to me. His whole body is trembling. Gently, I reach out and slip my hand into his. He gives me a small, weak smile. I can’t begin to imagine how hard this is for him.
Quietly, he resumes his story. “I told my father I knew he’d murdered my mother, and he didn’t even try to deny it. Then he started laughing at me; I’ll never forget it. He laughed and laughed and laughed. Called me a fool. Then he pulled off his scarf to reveal two puncture wounds in his neck, and I realised then that it was too late—Karlock had already got to him.” I cover my mouth with shock. “I tried to fight him off, but he was too strong for me, Carly. The last thing I remember is an excruciating pain in my neck, and then I must have blacked out.”
“You mean you died?”
Nick swallows and licks his lips. “Yes. I don’t know who found my body or anything about the funeral. Everything just went…blank. The next thing I know I’m waking up in a coffin, buried six feet under.”
“Jesus!”
“It was horrific. I think I must have gone crazy down there. I felt so claustrophobic… I just needed to breathe fresh air again. Eventually, I punched a hole through the coffin and clawed my way back to the surface. My father was waiting for me in the cemetery. He was laughing, smiling, like it was all a big joke. He told me I was now a vampire, like him, and that London was ours for the taking. He took me to Soho, to the opium dens, and we fed recklessly. I’m not proud of what I did that night, but you must understand that this was all new to me, so I didn’t know how to control my urges.”
There’s a long, dark silence.
“Did you kill anyone that night?” I whisper.
“I don’t remember,” he admits. “I might have done, I don’t fucking know. Everything we did that night was a terrible blur and the next morning I woke up in a strange woman’s bed, despising myself for what I’d become. I decided then and there that I couldn’t live with myself. I didn’t want to be a vampire and realised that there was really only one ultimatum: I had to kill my father to stop him spreading this terrible plague.”
I squeeze his hand tightly. “What did you do?”
Fighting back tears, Nick sucks air through his teeth and focuses on the floor. “For the next two days, I played along with him; made him think I enjoyed what we were doing. Then I got two stakes and hid them in my coat—one for him, one for me. I went back to the opium den and found my father in one of the upper rooms. He was in bed, asleep with a prostitute. I took out one of the stakes and prepared to strike, but he woke up just in time. A terrible fight ensued…” Nick breaks off and points to the scar on his face. “That’s when this happened.”
“Fucking hell,” I gasp.
“Eventually, I got the better of him. I pierced his heart with the stake and watched him die a slow and painful death. I was inconsolable. Despite everything, I still loved my father and didn’t blame him for the evil things he’d done. No, I laid the blame firmly at Count Karlock’s door.” He hesitates. “After I’d killed him, I planned to take the other stake from my coat and end my own miserable existence, but one thing prevented me: I needed to see Veda and Coppélia one last time before I died, just to say goodbye properly. It was biggest mistake of my life.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Confession
The silence pulsates through the room like an electric current. “What happened when you went back home?” I whisper.
Nick chews his knuckles, his face twisted with pain. “Veda was beside herself. She was absolutely terrified of me. Remember, my funeral had taken place only a few days earlier, and everyone thought I was dead. She couldn’t understand what had happened. She had no idea about vampires because I’d always kept that side of my life a secret from her.” He hesitates, his eyes straying from mine. “Once she got over the shock, Veda wanted to make love to me. And I… let’s just say I couldn’t resist. I needed to feel wanted, so I gave into my urges, and damn the consequences. I fed on her.My God, I fed and fed, sucked her completely dry. It was the worst thing I’ve ever done.”
My arms go rigid. I can’t believe what I’m hearing.
“Do you hate me?” Nick whispers.
“No, I don’t hate you. You… couldn’t help yourself.” I pause. “Tell me what happened next.”
