Fear of the Dark by Tim Lebbon

Author:Tim Lebbon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 2010-05-14T16:00:00+00:00

9

LEE FOLLOWED ROSE DOWNSTAIRS, glancing at Marty’s closed door, itching to get back to his office. There were more weapons in there. And even though some of what he thought about vampires had proved to be hopelessly wrong, a dumdum bullet to the face would stop anything for a while.

Wouldn’t it?

But he followed Rose instead, because he knew that they were right. For now, he and they were on the same side. Grotesque though it was, these vampires—these Humains—had aims similar to his. To a degree, at least. Once that degree was reached or passed, their aims would polarize rapidly. They’d want to survive, unknown and covertly, and he’d want every one of the fuckers dead.

It was saddening, and he even had to try not to get too cut up about it: he’d thought of Rose as a friend. But now that he knew the truth, so much fell into place. They’d only ever come at night, for a start. They’d rarely come close to him, and even more rarely touched him, other than that time a few years back when he’d made his one and only move on Rose. She’d turned away and knocked him aside with more force than he’d expected, and the one brief contact had been cold. Bloody freezing outside, she’d muttered as she walked away, and, thinking about it now, Lee couldn’t recall whether that had been in the summer or winter.

But five years … and before that, he’d dealt with Francesco, more distant and aloof but still seemingly with an identical agenda.

“Weren’t we friends?” he asked softly. He felt like a prick even bringing it up, and as the words left his mouth he cursed himself. It was weakness, it was foolish, and she’d turn around and grin and show him all those teeth she’d never shown him before.

But instead she answered without turning around, and unless this vampire was a very good actress, he felt a weight of regret in her words.

“Yeah, we were,” she said. “Pity that can’t go on.”

At the foot of the stairs, Rose turned left, then left again, opening the door that led down into Lee’s basement. He hadn’t even been aware that Rose knew about it, and that got him wondering how many times one of the Humains had been in his house without him being aware. He decided not to ask. Rather not know.

Francesco was down there. The lights were on and he was walking slowly around the room, fingering the heavy chains that hung from sockets in the wall, chuckling as he tried to prick his finger on the ends of sharpened stakes held in a wire basket. There was a steel table in one corner with a rack of cutting implements on a magnetic rail above. Cloves of garlic hung from the ceiling and walls, giving the air a hint of their scent, even though none had been peeled. Lee had even fashioned crosses for each wall, taking time over them, enjoying the workmanship that

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