The Progeny: Chapter 24

While Alexander was still dressing up Caius, Varsee and Evie waited for them in the living room. They had both folded themselves into the two stiff armchairs in front of the telly. Surprising no one, Lady Sylvia was on the screen. She was currently being questioned about the whereabouts of the two vampire bank robbers and why the money had been returned.

“Why so many questions? Shouldn’t you be happy? You’ve got your money back,” she said, looking cool and collected as always. Evie had watched her expertly work around the questions that followed similar cases to the bank robbery but she hadn’t really taken much notice. Now, knowing what she knew about her being linked to the Vampire Court and the Court’s involvement with all these unsolved cases, Evie could detect the hidden coy smirk underneath Lady Sylvia’s business-like façade.

“But the vampires are still out there,” retorted a man, speaking to her from an off-site location. The split screen showed the flushed face of the police officer and the bright-eyed and proper vampire.

“How can you be so sure about that? And even if they are, they are clearly no threat. They stole and brought it back. No harm done.”

“No harm done?! Why don’t you say that to those petrified members of the public who were unfortunate enough to be there when the robbery occurred?!”

Lady Sylvia’s padded shoulders sagged. “I am not saying that it was not a frightening experience for them. As you said, they were very unfortunate. But what I meant was that this no longer needs to be an investigation. The people no longer need to fear these men. You are wasting police time by continuing the search. What’s done is done. It’s over.”

Yes it is over, thought Evie with an inward shudder, they’re dead.

Varsee picked up the remote and turned the telly on mute. When Evie turned to ask her what she was doing, she noticed Alexander walking down the stairs.

“Okay, I take back my ‘hobo’ remark. He actually looks pretty hot,” he said, walking into the living room. He gestured back to the tall form that was making its way down the stairs behind him. Evie’s eyebrows rose in awe as Caius silently walked over and stood beside Alexander, looking slightly awkward.

His hair flowed down to his shoulders in soft waves instead of a knotted mess, and his face was lily-white. Evie smiled softly when she noticed he had shaved. Without the stubble, his thin, pink lips looked striking against his pale face and dark hair. Instead of his usual hippy style smocks, he was wearing a fitted slate grey shirt that accentuated his firm torso underneath. The sleeves were rolled up to his elbows and the first few buttons were undone. She figured he must have felt very constricted in such formal attire so that was his was of loosening it up. Fitted black pants hugged his legs and as a finishing touch, his feet had been slipped into a shining pair laced up shoes.

Evie coughed and spluttered when she tried to speak, her dry throat making her realise she had been openly gawking. “Wow,” she managed to get out. “Caius, you look amazing.”

“Thank you,” replied Alexander with a flick of his blonde hair. “It was all my doing. He just looked at me like he’d never seen a suit before.”

Evie sank into the chair with a slight frown. When he had first Turned her, back in 1934, Caius had never been out of a suit. But then he had been sucked into a void of self-loathing and guilt and keeping up with the latest trends was the last thing on his mind.

A silence fell over the room and suddenly Varsee swept to her feet. “Right, we’d better let you two…catch up.” She walked over to Alexander and gestured to the kitchen door. He pouted. “C’mon.” She grabbed the back of his neck and steered him towards the door. “We need to give them some privacy.”

Even through the wall, Evie was well aware that they could still hear everything clearly with their vampire hearing but she figured Varsee was thinking more about a physical imposition.

Caius just stared at Evie, his eyebrows drawn up in that helpless, pained expression of his. She got to her feet and manoeuvred around the chair so they were opposite each other with a stretch of rug between them. For a moment, the world seemed to draw its breath. But then Caius let out a choked gasp and swooped over to her. She lifted her arms with a relief-filled smile as he scooped her up into his and held her close. She buried her head into his neck and made a sound between a sob and a laugh.

“I’m so sorry,” he mumbled against her, burying his face into the curve of her neck. “I’m so sorry.”

Tears threatened to bleed from her eyes and she held him closer, her nails digging into his back. “It’s okay. It’s okay.”

He set her dawn back onto the floor carefully and untangled his long arms from around her. She pulled back, releasing her grip on him. A ghost of a smile crept onto his lips but then they set into a harsh line. His forehead creased with worry as he lifted his hand and grazed the backs of his knuckles against her cold cheek. Evie closed her eyes and leaned into the touch.

“How are you? You…you didn’t want to be Turned back.”

She shrugged, biting back a sob. “I didn’t want to be dead, either.”

A quaking gasp made her eyes shoot open. Caius’ face had scrunched up as if he was on the verge of exploding into tears. “I should have been there for you. You were so scared. So defenceless. At mercy to those…fiends. I’m so sorry I left you.” He pulled her close again, wrapping his arms around her and resting his chin on the top of her head. “I should have been there.”

“You tried but Milah wouldn’t yet you go. It’s fine, Caius. You did all you could,” she replied, but her heart sank a little. Bitterness attacked her from the inside, hot like acid. If he hadn’t have left her, he could have saved her and she’d still be human. She’d still be alive. Instead of this…unending state of purgatory. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to ignore her spiteful thoughts because she knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that Caius had done everything he could.

He had walked out in sunlight for her. Nearly burst into a pool of goo for her. Fought the day sickness for her. She knew he would do anything in his power for her. And being there when she was attacked by three blood-hungry Nest vampires…just wasn’t one of those things.

“What did Milah want anyway?” she asked, hoping the clip in her voice was muffled by his shirt.

Caius shushed her, swaying them from side to side gently. “Don’t worry about her. She felt my pain when I was out in the sunlight. Just wanted to see if I was okay. That’s all. Forget about it. I’m here with you now.” He kissed her forehead and Evie’s smile wavered. That didn’t sound like Milah. She didn’t usually care that much about Caius. If she did care, where had she been when he was locked up in a cell with God knows what being pumped into his system?

But maybe she was wrong. She had only met her a handful of times and even then Milah had pretty much pretended like she wasn’t there.

So Evie did what Caius told her to and forgot about it. He was here with her now, that was what was important.

She soaked him up, curling her fingers into his new, crisp shirt and inhaling the fresh smell of coconut shampoo. “Did Alexander treat you okay?”

He laughed a little, making her head rattle against his hard chest. “Yeah, he was alright. Wandering eyes aside…” he replied. “How’s Varsee?”

Evie tried to detect the resentment or bitterness underlying his tone but, to her surprise, there was none. Part of her felt a little disappointed. She was now another vampire’s progeny and he wasn’t jealous. “She’s okay. Quite nice actually.”

“Good.” He pressed another heavy kiss to her forehead. She started to lean out of him and his grip on her loosened, allowing her to look up at his face. “Are you happy about staying with them? About me being her progeny? Even though you and I still have some sort of…link. It’s going to get very complicated.”

He just smiled down at her and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. “You’re alive and you’re safe. That’s all I care about.”

Suddenly, she had a jolt of realisation and her grip on Caius’ shirt tightened. “Nico. His men.” She looked up into his eyes, wide and frantic. She let out a shuddering gasp and clung to him, burying her face in his chest. “I thought you were dead.”

“Dead?” He tried pushing her back and she released her grip rather reluctantly. “Why would you think that?”

“Alexander.” She peeled herself from him and stood back, hugging herself as a cold wave swept over her. Caius watched her, concern filling his eyes. “He said that the Vampire Court are still out there. That they punish any vampire that does anything to jeopardise the Equal Rights. And Caius…” She gulped. “You killed thirteen of Nico’s men. Thirteen humans. The Court…Guardian…he could find out and you’ll-”

He pulled her into a hug and held her close once more. “Forget about the Court. It’s just there to scare us.”

She laughed, a forced sound. “Yeah. And it’s doing an excellent job.”

She pushed back but he kept his hold of her loosely around the small of her back. Her eyes were casted down to her hands which were flat against his chest. “We can’t let our guard down, though. Before all of this happened, we were on the run. Nico’s men had found me. They were ready to take me back. And if the Court does find out how those men died because…well…we didn’t even hide the bodies. Never mind the Court, the police will find them. They’ll take one look and know that it was a vampire attack. They won’t care that it was provoked. Vampires are always the bad guys. They are always the ones that get blamed.”

“Evie, have you looked out of the window?”

Furrowing her brows, she looked up at him. “No. Why?”

He nodded to the drawn curtains by either side of the fireplace. He dropped his arms and she walked to one of the windows. She slipped open the thick curtain and netting underneath and saw nothing. Complete solid darkness. As if the glass had been painted black.

“We really are in the middle of nowhere,” she murmured.

“Yes, we are. When I felt your pull, I was driven in this direction. This was the only house I saw for miles. I think we’re as safe as we can be here.”

“Mrs. Braverman really did like her privacy.”

“What?”

Evie let go of the floral curtain so it dropped back into place, and turned back to Caius. He looked so out of place in the room of porcelain Yorkshire Terriers and fringed rugs. “This was her house.”

“Ah,” nodded Caius. “That explains the décor.”

“Yeah.” Evie smiled and took in the room. “It’s actually growing on me.”

He smiled back but then placed his hand on his stomach. “My hunger is stirring. I haven’t drank since-”

“Me?” finished Evie when he broke off.

Caius’ lips formed a grim line and his eyes casted to the floor. “That was a risky move you pulled.”

“So was charging out in sunlight.”

His eyes flicked back up to her. “I did it to save your life.”

Evie smiled. “Ditto.”

“See.” He raised his head, standing tall. “This is why I am not fretting about all this.” He gestured around the room. “Because the most important thing hasn’t changed. I still love you more than anything.”

Evie didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the swelling feeling inside her. It was if her cold, dead heart was actually responding to his words. “I love you, too.”

A smile began to creep onto his face but was wiped away at the squeak of a door opening. He turned and Evie saw Varsee over his shoulder, stepping out from the kitchen door with a glass of blood in her hand. “We couldn’t help overhearing…” She lifted the blood, gesturing to Caius.

“Because we were trying,” added Alexander, squeezing through the small gap between his sister and the doorjamb.

Varsee gave a guilty shrug and crossed the room, holding out the glass for Caius. He took it from her with a nod of thanks and gulped it down. They all watched as the last drop disappeared and Caius lowered the empty glass with a bright-eyed, sheepish grin.

“Well.” Varsee clapped her hands together, bringing everyone’s attention to her. “Now that everyone is clean and revitalised, I think it’s best if we got to know each other better and laid down some ground rules before the sun comes up. Sound good?”