It wasn’t until he was an adult that he realised that the sort of wealth Nicholas possessed had nothing to do with money. It was down to an ingrained habit, a willingness to take things, to feel like you deserved them somehow. Nicholas was rich now for the same reason his ancestors had been rich: he’d taken what he thought should be his all along.
Ben nodded and smiled and made small talk through the rest of the dinner. When it was time to leave he kissed his mum and Cora and shook Richards hand. He was glad to get into his little boat and row back home.
The village was lit by dozens of candles that floated in metal trays on the river which reflected and multiplied their light. He had no trouble navigating the short journey back to his boat, he had done it so many times now that he could have made it without any light at all, but, even so, he didn’t see the boat tied up outside him home until he was almost on top of it.
He recognised it as Mary’s but he couldn’t see her. With some reluctance he tied up his raft and went to look for her. It really wasn’t that he didn’t like Mary, because he did. He just wasn’t ready for the whole family thing which he knew she wanted.
Back in the old world, not settling down in your early thirties wouldn’t have been considered anything unusual. In fact quite the opposite. But in this new world the human race was dying out and people were settling down and starting families while they were still in their teens. Granted, not many of those families actually lasted, but the offspring did. Ben had spent enough time living in the old world to still feel its effects but Mary was a few years younger than him. He knew from a logical position that starting a family with her was the right thing to do but he couldn’t push himself to take that step.
He found her on the open porch at the back of the boat as it was parked — what would have been the front if it was moving — reclining on the bench. He looked at her for a long time. She was wrapped in a blanket and he could see her bear shoulders and legs. He was left with the impression that she was probably naked beneath the sheet.
“When you’re done staring come and join me,” she said.
Ben hadn’t thought she knew he was there and now felt embarrassed about being caught. He climbed down from the side of the boat and sat down opposite her.
“Care for a drink?” she said.
There were two plastic cups on the table, one half-full, the other empty. “Sure,” he said with a sigh.
She reached over the side and pulled a bottle out of the water. It was an old trick they had discovered as teenagers to keep things cold and hidden from their parents. She filled his glass with champagne. Even now, twenty years after the old world had ended, its alcohol was still readily available. The vamps had no interest in it.
“How was your evening?” she said.
Mary had straight dark hair down to her shoulders. Full lips, big brown eyes and a narrow nose that was slightly turned up at the end. “It was alright,” he said.
She smiled at him. “Want it to get better than ‘alright’?”
He didn’t know what she meant for a moment but then she stood up and the blanket dropped to the floor. As he had guessed she was naked.
Ben took in the site of her. Mary was a curvy girl but as far from fat as he could imagine — no one was really fat anymore. Her stomach was flat but soft, her hips flared out in a way he found exciting.
“What do you think?” she said.
While Ben didn’t feel ready for the commitment of a relationship and the pressure to start a family he was still a man He took a step towards her and she made up the rest of the distance. Then they were kissing.
Ben woke hours later, while it was still dark, and looked at Mary, asleep beside him in the moonlight. He watched her chest rise and fall with each breath that she took. The memory of her still fresh and exciting. Suddenly the idea of giving up his wandering ways and starting a family no longer seemed so terrible.
Death
1
Ben climbed off the raft. The island thudded beneath his boots. He ignored the messenger that Nicholas had sent for him and walked directly to the Village Hall.
He found Nicholas and his advisors sitting down to breakfast. To his credit Nicholas did not seem alarmed by his arrival. He stood up and dismissed the other men with a nod. They left through a back door and he walked around to greet Ben.
“I’m so sorry for your loss.”
Ben ignored the hand being offered. He felt like punching something but he held his temper. “Where is she?”
“I don’t think you should…”
He grabbed the General by the collar, choking off his words. “Tell me where she is.”
Nicholas nodded and removed himself from Ben’s grip. “Of course,” he said, quickly recovering his composure. “I will find someone to take you.”
“You take me,” he said. He wanted to see Nicholas’s reaction.
“I don’t have time to…”
“You take me,” he said again.
Nicholas nodded as if he understood why Ben wanted him there but if he did, thought Ben, there was no chance he would have agreed to it.
“Very well,” said Nicholas. “Lets get on with it.”
They left the Village Hall and walked around to the Hospital. The messenger was still waiting by his boat and several of the advisors were talking beside the Market. Mary was standing outside the hospital with Libby. As they approached she rushed over to him.
“Ben are you okay?”
He nodded, glad to hear her voice and feel her take his hand. But it weakened his resolve and he pushed her away.
The Hospital now had two floors. The second reached by a step ladder while the stair case was being built. He walked to the back of the building. It was quiet, whispering voices buzzed around like insects but it was white noise and he ignored it all.
At the back of the hospital there was a wooden door. It led to an annex that had been added two years earlier. Ben opened it and led Nicholas inside.
There was a narrow corridor of bare wood and several doors leading off it. In the silence Ben’s boots clunked heavily on the floor boards. He walked to the end of the corridor and through a door which really should have been locked. Behind him Nicholas crossed himself in the old way and then followed him in.
Cora lay on the wooden table. Her skin was so white it was almost translucent. Her lips were red and moist. The nurses had folded her hands across her chest to hide the wooden spike that must have been driven through her heart. Her neck was red and starting to peal around the bite mark.
“Tell me what happened,” said Ben, turning away from his sister so he could watch Nicholas’s reaction. The door was still open behind him but no one would disturb them.
“She went mushroom picking this morning.”
“And that’s all you know?”
Nicholas shook his head. Ben could see tears in his eyes but he would not, could not feel sympathy for this man.
“She went to the Back Field. You know there has never been a sighting of a vamp there. I wouldn’t have let her go if…”
“Who found her?”
“She was with March and Flora Hinckley. They saw it all.”
“But it didn’t get them?”
Nicholas shook his head. “They ran.”
It wasn’t possible to outrun a mature vamp but a mature vamp wouldn’t have been out after sunrise anyway. Their strength and photo sensitivity seemed to increase as they matured. “A juvenile then,” he said.
Nicholas nodded although it had not been a question.
“Has my mother been told?”