Tim Lebbon - 30 Days of Night - Fear of the Dark

“It wasn’t me, it was…”

Who’s a vampire? Lee was mouthing into his rearview mirror. He could’t have heard Rose’s initial greeting. Oh, Lee, you’ve been strung along for so long, she thought, and the idea of telling him actually made her sad.

“It doesn’t matter,” Olemaun said, voice crackling in her ear. “ Your problem sounds like it does, however. D’you know the identity of the vampires in London?”

“I was hoping you might know. They came here two days ago, went after my brother. Human brother. Killed our parents instead.” Rose expected some expression of surprise from Stella Olemaun that she was still aware of what had happened to her human family, but there was none. I wish she and I could talk about other things, she thought, but there was no time. And Olemaun seemed to understand that.

“You mentioned the Bane.”

“It’s what they’ve come for. You know of it?”

There was a pause, the uncomfortable hiss of static, and Rose thought the connection had been broken. In that silence, she heard the same distance that seemed to inform Olemaun’s voice, an infinity of emptiness. She wondered what the woman had been through and seen, and, as if prompted by the thought, Stella started to tell her.

“You sound sheltered. I’m sure you and your Humains are aware of the outside, but do you interact? I don’t think so. There’s so much more to the vampire existence, Rose Volk. I’ve seen a lot of it. There are some like me, vampires who believe that staying in the shadows is the way to survive. Some, like you Humains, take that a step further… a step further away from vampirism, some would say. Existing alongside humans, not feeding from them.”

And how do you feed? Rose almost asked. But she didn’t want to interrupt, and she thought to ask that would be… impolite.

“There are also those who crave dominance. There’ve been conflicts. Ongoing, brutal. Attempts to thrust vampires to the fore, and conflicting efforts to hunt and destroy us once and for all.”

“And you’re in the middle?”

“I’ve been involved. Through it all, I’ve maintained my stance. And I have to tell you, Rose, that from what I’ve heard of the Bane, and if it’s actually for real, you have to find it before those vampires. You have to. The balance is being challenged all the time, and that thing could tip it either way.”

“Give them power to rule,” she said.

“Or destroy everything altogether.”

“Destroy?” Rose frowned, confused. The Bane was allegedly an artifact from the first vampire, that’s what they knew. Something that would bestow great power on its vampire bearer. What that power was seemed vague, as did how it would work, but…

“It’s an old, old thing,” Stella said. Her voice was low and quiet, as if tired by everything she had seen. “Stories get confused. It’s either the greatest power for vampires—or the deadliest weapon against them. Its maker was the first vampire, or the first vampire killer. I’ve heard both versions. Who knows anymore.”

“I haven’t heard anything,” Rose said.

“Well, be careful, girl. Either way, in the wrong hands, the thing might be the end of us all.”

“ Might be?”

Olemaun laughed, but it sounded like someone crying. “Who’s to say there’s anything to the stories?”

“So this might all be for nothing?”

“Maybe,” Olemaun said. “But it can’t be worth the risk even considering that.”

“What have you done?” Rose blurted, surprising herself with her frankness. “What have you seen? Where have you been?” She was aware of Francesco watching her curiously, and Lee kept glancing at her in the rearview mirror. She’d have plenty to tell them both, if she chose to do so. Right then, she wasn’t sure of anything.

“Enough for a dozen lifetimes,” the woman said. “Now it seems it’s your turn.”

“Is that… ?” Lee asked at last, and as Rose nodded, the connection broke. Lee was reaching around in his seat, eyes still on the road but arm stretched back for the phone. But Rose shook her head.

“She’s gone. And I’m not sure you’d be her friend anymore.” She almost felt sorry for him, but when he asked what she meant, she couldn’t find it in herself to tell him. “Nothing. She’s gone Lee. Connection broke.”

“So, what did she say?” Francesco asked.

Rose glanced at him, and she saw his understanding instantly. His lips pressed together and the corners of his mouth twitched a little. So he could see the humor in this as well. All of Lee’s friends are vampires . She was glad. Humor was something they found so little of now. Sometimes she thought vampires were equivalent to the basest form of animal with the finest brains, possessed of a desperate need to endure that shoved aside the possibility of anything else.

“She said we can’t let the bastards get the Bane.”

“That might be overstating the obvious.” Francesco frowned and looked ahead, over the empty passenger seat and along the road they were following toward the museum. The London streets were busiest at this time of night, a crush of people still traveling home from work, meeting those coming out for the evening. Cars jerked forward thirty meters, then stopped again, motorcycles weaved between vehicles, cyclists risked broken bones darting across junctions and wheeling along pavements. Everyone was in a rush to be somewhere else, and for once so were they.

“What?” she asked quietly.

“We’re at a disadvantage to begin with,” Francesco said. “These things know what they’ve come for, and they’ve already assessed our strengths.”

“And we kicked their butts.”

“You think?” he asked.

Lee pulled one of his cannons, flicked off the safety, and nestled it between his thighs. “Every one of my bullets has a vampire’s name on it, or, if not, my own. And I plan on seeing the sunrise.”

I hope you do, Rose thought, remembering the sun, the warmth on her skin, and the promise of what the new day might bring. Now the night only promised more darkness.

She shook her head, because it all suddenly seemed so hopeless.

“They’ll beat us there,” she said. “We’ll get there just in time to—”

“But they don’t know exactly where it is,” Lee said softly. A car horn blared; he glanced sideways at a man gesticulating wildly in the car beside them. Slowly, he gave the guy the finger.

“And you do,” Francesco said.

“I have a fair idea.”

“Where?”

Lee drove on silently, and no one said anything else. Tension in the car grew. The air thickened with potential. And Rose suddenly realized how hungry she was.

THEY EMERGED INTO A basement piled with barrels, shoving the wooden door aside and entering silently, quickly. The place smelled of stale spilled beer, and Marty’s stomach rolled. If I puke now, they’ll probably kill me, he thought. He had no idea why they’d brought him along and didn’t care. Five minutes alone in that darkened room with Duval and he’d been screaming, telling everything the vampire wanted to know and more, pissing himself again, wishing only for light or the true darkness of oblivion to take him away.

“I hear nothing,” Kat said. She and the other humans had carried lights, and for that he was glad. At least with them close by there were splashes of light. The brief journey through tunnels and sewers had been nightmarish, with him catching only brief glimpses of Duval and three more vampires. But anything was better than total darkness.

Stoner and the other human stood beside Kat, pressed against the closed door exiting the basement. The other vampires stood back amongst the barrels.