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Chapter 29

Chapter

Twenty-Nine

I t didn’t take long to agree a plan; truth be told, it would have been even faster if Hugo and I hadn’t kept pausing to touch each other. There was nothing kinky in it – we didn’t have time for anything like that – but his fingers repeatedly brushed the back of my hand, and I found several opportunities to touch his knee. We sat as close as we could; the presence of fiends made me itch, but the presence of Hugo made me shiver. Deliciously.

We rested and refuelled our bodies then, as soon as the sun slid down across the Edinburgh rooftops, we started. We would only get one shot at this so we had to make every second count. Athair was stronger, possessed better magic and was much, much more experienced than we were. I couldn’t begin to fathom how old he was – but all those details that made us the obvious underdogs would drive us to success.

‘David beat Goliath,’ I said to Hugo.

He grinned. ‘In 480AD, three hundred Spartans held off thousands of Persian soldiers.’

Otis squinted. ‘Didn’t they all die in the end?’

Hugo shrugged. ‘Yeah, but I’d argue they still won. ’

The brownies frowned, clearly still dubious about our plans.

‘What about that cat video?’ I suggested to them. ‘Where the cat fends off an alligator?’

‘Or Liverpool versus AC Milan in the 2005 UEFA Champions League final?’ Hugo added. All three of us turned to stare at him. ‘What?’ he asked. ‘They were the underdogs. They pulled off an amazing victory.’

‘Do you know any football results from 1994?’ Hester asked, speaking in a deliberately casual tone.

Hugo’s brow creased. ‘Brazil won the World Cup.’ He paused. ‘Actually, I think the FA Cup Final is tomorrow.’

‘Who wins?’

‘Manchester United, of course.’

Hester examined his face. ‘Uh-huh.’

‘What about horse racing in 1994?’ Otis asked.

Hugo didn’t hesitate. ‘Miinehoma won the Grand National. Go For Gin won the Kentucky Derby.’

‘And tennis?’ Hester demanded with a side look in my direction.

‘It’s not my sport,’ Hugo admitted. ‘But I’m sure that Pete Sampras and Conchita Martinez won their respective Wimbledon finals.’

Hester folded her arms and glared at me; even Otis looked slightly put out.

‘How on earth do you know all this?’ I asked.

Hugo suddenly seemed faintly embarrassed. ‘I like sport. When I was younger and had more time on my hands, I used to study past sporting events. I wanted to learn about form and history so I could hold my own with the old guys down the pub on a Saturday afternoon. And you know I love competition of any sort.’

Hester shook her head mournfully. ‘What could have been,’ she muttered to herself. ‘I wish you’d had a misspent youth, Daisy.’

‘I did,’ I retorted. ‘It’s just that mine involved drugs.’

I looked to the right and spotted an unnatural looking shadow loitering down a side street. Thank goodness: now I could change the subject. ‘There’s one,’ I said with overly bright cheeriness. It was probably the first time anyone had been pleased to see a vampire.

I glanced down at the glassy eyes of the plastic doll in my arms. She was missing an arm and some enterprising child with an artistic bent had drawn all over her face with permanent marker, but that didn’t present a problem to our plans.

‘We are running away, right?’ Hester asked.

‘Yep.’ I swung my head away from the lurking vamp. ‘Act casual. And get ready.’

I cradled the doll. We were all tense, but even if the bloodsucker noticed our simmering anxiety it wouldn’t make a difference. Anyone would be tense in our situation. I licked my lips, tugged at the blanket covering the doll, and snapped irritably and loudly at Hugo. ‘We have to find shelter. It’s already dark – it’s far too risky to stay out here.’

He responded in kind. ‘That damned fiend won’t still be in Edinburgh. He thinks we’ve left, remember? He won’t find us.’

‘It’s not only Athair we have to worry about! There will be vampires all over the place!’

Hugo hissed, ‘Relax, will you? I know where we’re going. It’s not that far. Now stop yelling. If that baby starts crying…’

‘She won’t.’

‘She’s a baby. Crying is what they do.’

We exchanged glances and moved faster down the cobbled street. I had no idea how Athair communicated with the vampires or how powerful his control was over them, but I hoped his link with them was strong; in fact, I was counting on it.

I didn’t look behind us, I left that to the brownies who were perched on my shoulders. I held my breath and waited, exhaling only when Otis whispered in my ear, ‘She’s following us.’

I kept my voice low. ‘How many?’

‘Just the one.’

That was both good and bad. I nodded, rocked the doll and kept moving quickly. Come on, you cumbubbling bitch, come after us. Don’t stop .

As soon as we got to the bottom of Calton Road, with the grand shape of Holyrood Palace in front of us, I heard heavy breathing. There was more than one vamp behind us now.

I tapped my fingers on the doll.

Hester murmured, ‘Four now.’ She sounded scared. ‘They’re keeping their distance but they’re definitely on our trail.’

Satisfaction flickered in my chest. Good; that was very good. ‘Which way?’ I asked Hugo loudly.

‘Right,’ he said.

‘How much further?’

‘Fifteen minutes. Stop stressing.’ He still sounded annoyed. Damn: he was a far better actor than me.

We continued on our way. It was strange to pass the site of the Scottish Parliament when the proposals for its construction were a few years away. Most of Edinburgh city centre was old and the buildings had been erected long before Hugo and I had ever been thought of. They’d exist long after we were remembered, but it was good to realise that there would be innovation.

Nothing was set in stone, not even the existence of Athair. Whether he beat us or not, one day he would also cease to exist because not even a fiend could last forever. It was a minor epiphany, for sure, but it was more than enough to buoy my spirits.

It was just as well, because I needed something to keep me going. The gnawing hunger inside my belly was getting worse, though it wasn’t for food: my body was craving spider’s silk. I was already on half the dose I’d allowed myself a week ago, but I dared not reduce it any further – not without professional help. I didn’t want to give into the temptation to swallow down more pills, either. It would be easy to use our plans as an excuse to take as much spider’s silk as possible but I refused to do that. I could be strong in more ways than one.

My footsteps slowed as we drew closer to our destination. We didn’t know where Athair was; if he was miles away, it could be hours before he got here, assuming he chose to take our bait. But that wasn’t the only reason I was no longer hurrying. I didn’t have a vast, all-encompassing desire to enter the five-hundred-metre tunnel that ran underneath Arthur’s Seat. It wasn’t as bad as venturing into a network of deep, dark caves, but it was far from my ideal hangout.

‘Are you sure that this is a good idea?’ Otis asked, not for the first time.

Hester tapped my cheek with taunting insistence. ‘It’ll be very easy to get trapped.’

‘Can we agree not to use words like trapped?’ I whispered.

‘How about darker than a seemingly bottomless chasm inside Smoo Cave? How about those words?’

Hugo sprang to my defence. ‘Enough, Hester. There are lights inside the tunnel. You know that.’

She stuck out her tongue at him, but at least she stopped baiting me. Now all I had to do was not think about the many tonnes of rock that would soon be above me. Perhaps she was right: perhaps walking blithely into the Innocent Railway Tunnel was a truly terrible idea .

Originally built to haul coal, the tunnel had been underneath Arthur’s Seat for almost two hundred years. Even in 1994 it was decades since the railway was last operational; as in the future, the tunnel was used by walkers and cyclists seeking a quick route past the extinct volcano that overlooked the city.

I’d wandered through it many times but always during the day when daylight had been visible at either end. I’d never walked through it at night time – and I’d certainly never walked through it while being followed by a posse of thirsty vampires desperate to guzzle on my blood.

Hugo sensed my thoughts. ‘If they weren’t under Athair’s control, they’d already have attacked. This will work, Daisy. I’ll be right by your side all the way.’

It wasn’t the vampires that worried me; at that point, it wasn’t even Athair.

Hugo recognised my fear. ‘Arthur’s Seat won’t collapse on top of us,’ he added. ‘Neither will the tunnel. In thirty years’ time it’ll be completely unchanged.’

If only phobias could be vanquished through rational thinking. I nodded. ‘I’m fine. We’ve got this.’

He took my hand. ‘We definitely do.’

I stared at the gaping hole in front of us. Hugo had been right about the lights: they lined the roof of the tunnel, illuminating it from one end to the other. The sight of them made me feel considerably better.

‘It’s not too late to back out,’ Hester said.

A smile curved my mouth. This was for Rose, wherever she was. ‘Yes, it is,’ I said.

I released Hugo’s hand and unsheathed Gladys; we didn’t know what else might be lurking in the tunnel and I had to be ready for anything. From the expressions on Hugo and Otis’s face, and the sudden, determined tilt to Hester’s chin, we were all ready .

‘At least I’ll die a hero,’ she said.

‘Nobody’s dying,’ I told her firmly. Then we plunged inside.

Although the engineering and the history of the Innocent Railway Tunnel was impressive, in 1994 it wasn’t a particularly pleasant place. Graffiti, none of which was artistically impressive, lined the walls; a stale stench of urine combined with damp earthiness tickled my nostrils.

And there were rats. Not hundreds – this wasn’t an infestation of plague proportions – but enough to make Otis squeal aloud several times. The sound echoed down the long tunnel. Even Hugo looked queasy at the sight of the sleek, furry bodies darting along the edges of the tunnel. I couldn’t recall spotting any rats here in the future, so Edinburgh Council must have conducted a thorough clean-up at some point, probably around the time Tracey’s vamp spray took off and people were no longer afraid to walk around at night. Still, I was thankful that the rats were the only other creatures inside the tunnel besides us.

About fifty metres in, I turned and checked on the bloodsuckers who were following us. What I saw gave me further hope: not a single one of them had entered the tunnel. Their shifting, twitching silhouettes were clustered at the entrance, hungrily watching us, but they weren’t taking a step inside. They were waiting, and we all knew who they were waiting for.

I smiled coldly, then I turned and kept walking.

The tunnel led to Holyrood Park, which we already knew wouldn’t contain many lurking vampires. It was a calculated risk on our part that any would appear at the other end because if the bloodsuckers were acting on their own impulses, it wouldn’t occur to them to block both ends of the tunnel. Undead creatures weren’t capable of thinking strategically. However, we needed to give every indication that we were trapped, so Hester and Otis zipped ahead. When they returned, they were bobbing their heads in fearful unison.

Less than a minute later, I saw several of the fanged fuckers hovering outside. Now there were vampires to the left of us and vampires to the right. Everything was in place, and the sooner Athair also showed up the better. The wait had begun.

An hour passed, then two. Although it was early summer and I was wrapped in warm clothes and a good coat, I still felt cold. It didn’t help that every minute ticked by with an inexorable lack of speed: every second felt like a minute, and every minute felt like an hour.

I huddled next to Hugo, trying to ignore my deep craving for more spider’s silk, while Hester and Otis dozed on my shoulders. The vampires stayed where they were.

‘It’s gone midnight,’ Hugo eventually whispered. ‘No sign of him yet.’

I glanced up and nodded. Time for a little nudge.

I pulled out my mobile phone; there was very little battery life left but it had been turned off for almost the entire time I’d spent in 1994 so there was enough charge to serve our purposes.

I pressed the button to bring it to life and shielded the screen so that its glare wasn’t obvious. The recording was ready and waiting to go; without ceremony, I pressed play and made sure it was on repeat.

Within seconds the sound of a baby crying filled the tunnel, amplified by the low ceiling and curved walls. It wasn’t Baby Daisy because the plan hadn’t occurred to us until after we’d left her at Freemark Hospital, but we reckoned that one baby’s cry sounded much like another’s. It hadn’t taken long to find another baby to record so that our bait was well and truly on the hook.

I put my phone on top of the one-armed plastic doll and tucked it into the blankets. Then I crossed my fingers very tightly.

Less than ten minutes later, all my fiendish wishes came true.

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