Uprising

Chapter Fifty-Five

Not long returned from his journey, Gabriel Stone was still fresh with the memory of his meeting with his Masters as he paced his subterranean study.

All seemed to be going well. All, that was, but for one thing that continued to plague his mind: the cross, and the accursed human who claimed he’d found it. Finch was supposed to have been giving him a report. Where was he? There was no sign of him, and that made Stone uneasy.

That question was still burning in his mind when the phone rang. He hesitated to pick it up. He was expecting no calls. That meant that to answer the phone could mean having to converse with a human, something he only did for one of two reasons: either because that human was useful to him in some way; or because that human’s blood was shortly to become a meal. The rest was trivial and distasteful to him. Such things were Finch’s duties.

He hesitated a moment longer, then picked up the phone. ‘You may speak,’ he said stiffly. The human protocol was alien to him, and he had no time for it.

There was a second’s surprised silence on the end of the line, followed by a voice that told him they were calling from Thames Valley Police.

‘What seems to be the problem?’ Stone asked cautiously.

‘I’m afraid I may have some bad news, sir. You have an assistant called Seymour Finch?’

‘I have.’

‘The body of a man has been recovered from the Isis River earlier this afternoon.

He had no papers on him and so far we’ve been unable to make a formal identification, but one of our officers called out to a previous incident at your home thought he recognised the deceased as Mr Finch.’

‘I see,’ Stone replied slowly. ‘Tell me, officer, what was the cause of death?’

‘I’m afraid we are treating it as suspicious, sir. A firearm was involved in his death. I’m very sorry.’

‘As am I,’ Stone said, without a trace of emotion.

‘We’ve been unable to locate any next of kin for Mr Finch. I’m afraid that means I have to ask you, as his employer, to identify the body here at the police morgue before we launch a full criminal investigation. We can send a car to collect you if necessary.’

Stone turned to read the antique clock on the mantelpiece. A few minutes after five. ‘Is it dark yet?’

‘Beg your pardon, sir?’

‘I said, has night fallen?’

‘Ah, I understand,’ the stupid human said. ‘We appreciate how busy you are, sir.

No, the facility will be open until late. We can send the car for you any time.’

‘I will telephone you back,’ Stone said.

But he wouldn’t be doing it on that particular phone, because he slammed the receiver down so hard that it shattered into a thousand pieces. He raised his face to the ceiling and his scream of rage filled the flickering shadows and reverberated off the stone walls. He paced furiously up and down, grabbing anything that lay in his path and dashing it violently against the wall. He seized a priceless Ming vase from a pedestal and hurled it like a missile through the centre of the gilt-framed Florentine mirror that hung over the fireplace. A shower of broken glass rained down, snuffing out the flames of the silver candlesticks. He screamed again.

Lillith came rushing into the room, hearing the noise.

‘Gabriel—’ She stopped and looked at him. ‘He’s dead, isn’t he? Our servant?’

There was a tremor in her voice, and she was watching him with round eyes. He’d never lost his temper in her presence, not in all the centuries they’d roamed the earth together.

He stopped smashing things and turned to glare at her, reading her expression.

There was more than just fear and outrage in her eyes. There was a tinge of guilt there, too, that she was trying hard but failing to hide. He stepped towards her, and the way she backed off told him he was right.

‘What have you done?’ he demanded.

‘Nothing.’

‘What have you done, Lillith? Lie to me, and I’ll destroy you. I will end you.’

‘Don’t hurt me,’ she pleaded, cowering. ‘I only did it to help us.’

‘Explain yourself.’

‘Seymour found out who the policeman was. His name’s Solomon, Joel Solomon.

He’s an inspector. And he was bluffing you. He doesn’t have the cross.’ As she spoke, the fear in her eyes was changing shade to a spark of defiance. ‘You could have taken him that night, Gabriel, but you were too afraid.’

‘You’re telling me that this Solomon has murdered our most trusted of servants, because you ignored my specific commands? You sent Finch there to kill him, didn’t you?’

‘How was I to know the human would get the better of him?’

Stone drew back his hand to slap her. He could tear her head off with a single blow. But before he could deliver it, the door burst open and he spun round to see Zachary entering the dark study. He glared at him in fury at the interruption.

Zachary was clutching a small silver mobile phone in his giant fist. Through his rage, Gabriel recognised it as the one they used to communicate with their main contact within VIA.

‘A text message has arrived,’ Zachary said urgently. ‘The Federation leaders have called an emergency conference in Belgium. We have all the details. Venue, date, time, and who’ll be there. All of them in one place.’

‘Perfect,’ Gabriel said. His rage suddenly subsided. This was exactly what he’d hoped for.

‘There’s more,’ Zachary said. ‘And you won’t like it.’ He coughed nervously, glanced down at his boots. Not even a huge and powerful vampire wanted to be the bearer of bad tidings to someone like Gabriel Stone.

‘What?’

Zachary swallowed hard and came out with it. ‘Our informant says that the Federation agent Alex Bishop and a policeman called Joel Solomon are travelling to Venice to find the cross.’

Solomon and VIA working together. It was humiliating enough to have been duped by the human but to hear that he was conspiring with the hated enemy was unendurable. The enormity of it made Gabriel grind his teeth.

He ordered Zachary harshly out of the room, and began pacing again. His mind was working hard on a counter-strategy. With Finch gone, he would need a whole new plan.

Lillith came up to him and clasped his hands. ‘Let me go after them. I’ll destroy the VIA scum before she finds anything. I’ll tear the human apart and feast on him and bring you back his head on a platter.’

‘No, sister. It is my wish that they find the cross.’

She frowned. ‘You would allow this to be brought on us? Our kind has long wanted the cross to be suppressed. It’s too dangerous. This is madness.’

‘It’s precisely because the cross is dangerous that we cannot afford to ignore it,’

he told her. ‘The time has come to unearth it, so that it can be properly dealt with.’

‘But who can we rely on to take care of it, now that—’ Lillith stalled in mid-sentence, not wanting to say Finch’s name.

‘You’ve trusted me for many years,’ Gabriel replied softly as he stroked her hair.

He ran his hand down the contour of her neck, down her shoulder. His touch lingered on the curve of her breast. She half-closed her eyes, let out a small gasp.

‘Trust me now,’ he said.