only assume were their partners. Not one of them looked a day older than twenty-five. Once I had taken in the newcomers I lowered my head to stare at my lap, feeling like a fish in a fishbowl.
Kaspar cleared his throat and I looked up to see him holding a phone in his hand, which he offered to me. ‘Two minutes, no more.’
I stared at it in disbelief.
‘Go on, knock yourself out,’ Fabian murmured, a small smile crossing his lips. ‘You need it.’
I looked down at the phone, uncertain, not sure of whether I wanted to do this. What if it made me hurt more?
Oh, but you want to, don’t you? my voice taunted and I knew it was right. I snatched the phone from his hand and hurried from the room, working the stiffness out of my hands as they gripped the phone like a newborn child.
‘Remember we can hear every word you say,’ Kaspar called as I closed the door of the living room behind me, settling on the staircase. I didn’t really listen and dialled my home number, listening to it ring with baited breath. My heart peaked and stayed there as two rings became three, and three became four. I was nervous. I didn’t know why.
‘Hello?’
My heart fell through my gut and I made a whining sound, and choked out, ‘Dad?’
‘Violet?’ the all too familiar voice replied, astonished.
‘Yeah,’ I murmured in a feeble voice, words failing me.
There was a crackling down the line as though he was covering the mouthpiece and I thought I heard voices at his end, talking heatedly. Then there was another crackle and he came back, speaking with an unnerving urgency.
‘I’m going to assume you’re being listened to, so I can’t tell you much. I know it’s the Varns who have you and I know what they are. It must be a shock to you to discover about all of this and I never intended for you to know about it at all. I know your situation must seem impossible, from what I’ve heard from these bloodsucker ambassadors.’ He spat out the last sentence with such venom, even I was shocked – and I had heard him angry. ‘But it’s really important you don’t give up. Don’t turn, whatever they say or do. Do you understand, Vi?’ When I didn’t answer because I was trying to absorb his hurried words, he pressed the question: ‘Do you? Promise me you won’t turn.’
I stared at the marble floor. Do I understand?
‘I promise,’ I murmured. I heard the door open in front of me and glanced up to see Kaspar slipping through. Leaning against the wall, he folded his arms and eyed me. My two minutes were running out. Meanwhile, my father carried on.
‘We’ll get you out of there, Violet, but it’s going to take time and I need to know some things. Have they bitten you or taken any blood at all?’
Kaspar’s eyes flickered up and met mine. I hesitated and stared. He stared back.
‘No,’ I lied. The tiniest crease of surprise appeared on his brow. Why did I lie?
‘Good,’ my father said. ‘Make sure they don’t try and give you any of their blood whilst taking your blood. That will turn you.’
I shook my head and a few more tears pricked my eyes, which I wiped away, conscious of the fact Kaspar was still frowning at me. ‘You can’t leave me here, Dad. You can’t,’ I muttered, jumping as a small sob escaped. ‘They kill people!’
I heard him sigh – it wasn’t much, but I clung onto it, savouring the sound. ‘I have to, Vi, for the moment, anyway. But we won’t give up, I have contacts and—’
I cut him off as Kaspar started walking towards me. I clutched at the phone with two hands, as though that might stop him taking it and asked the most burning question I had, realizing it was my last.
‘How’s Lily? Quickly,’ I added, trying to put across the urgency.
He picked up on my panic and didn’t hesitate. ‘Weak, but the doctors say she’s doing well and should make a recovery by—’
Kaspar whipped the phone away from my ear, pressing it to his own. As if my hands were nailed to it I followed him, refusing to let go until I found I was clutching at thin air: he had flitted back into the living room and rejoined the rest of his family.
The door was slammed in my face before I could follow him and when I tried the handle, it was locked. Falling against it I tried to listen, but heard nothing.
I didn’t even get the chance to say goodbye.
TWELVE
Kaspar
‘I think that’s enough time talking, don’t you, Lee?’ I spat, closing the door to the living room behind me and shutting Violet out.
‘Put her back on, Varn.’
I chuckled, aware that my father was stood back, scrutinising my words. ‘I don’t think so. We have to talk business.’
The sound of his breathing down the line stopped: I assumed he pulled the phone away from his mouth. In the background, I could hear him discussing what to say, presumably with one of his poisonous advisors who were so determined to make our life difficult as government policy.
‘I refuse to speak directly with anyone other than your ambassadors or the King,’ Lee eventually replied, coolly.
‘Well, you are out of luck then, Lee. I’m heir and any business of my father’s is mine too. If you have a problem with that, take it up with my father’s advisors. Oh, wait, that’s me.’
I imagined the cogs turning in his head. Sky’s wife, Arabella, took both their children, the eldest only two, into her arms and out of the room, muttering something about disliking the politics. She had made her stance on Violet quite clear – she disapproved of the whole thing; so much so, she had initially refused to visit with Sky from Romania.
‘Then you will do,’ he mocked. He sounds like the girl. ‘You know of John Pierre, I presume?’
John Pierre? Yes, I know him all right.
‘Of course.’
‘And I will assume you are aware that it was his son you killed in Trafalgar Square?’
‘Clearly.’
‘Then I am sure it will not come as a surprise to you to hear that he is not particularly pleased.’
No shit, Sherlock. ‘No surprise whatsoever.’
‘Men fuelled by revenge are the most dangerous. Watch out, Varn,’ Lee snarled.
The whole room stared at me, my father’s gaze the most prominent, listening, waiting for my reaction. ‘That’s not much of a threat, Lee. You are aware that our Kingdom could halve the population of this country in a day, aren’t you?
Tick, tick went the human mind. ‘You might be a leech, Varn, but
