I let out a pained cry as Aubrey inadvertently stepped on my heel, the edge of his shoe biting sharply into the flesh of my ankle. I spun round and glared at him.

“Idiot.”

His eyes filled with tears again.

“Oh, don’t bloody start that again. Although the least you could do is apologise.”

He stared at me mutely.

“Well?” I put my hands on my hips, feeling slightly like some old school headmistress waggling her finger at a recalcitrant child.

Aubrey opened his mouth and then closed it again.

My eyes narrowed. “Are you fucking sulking?”

He still didn’t answer. Hold on a minute. I thought back to the last words I’d said to him and considered. “Okay, you can speak if you want to.”

“Oh, thank goodness,” he wailed. “I’m so terribly sorry, Mack, I didn’t mean to hurt you. It’s just it’s dark and I’m not used to this kind of place. The path is all bumpy and there are things on it like roots and shit. I used to have no problem with that. Vampires have got great night vision,” he added mournfully.

Everything was suddenly becoming clear. I’d been right the first time around. I peered at him. “What else have I told you to do?”

“You said that I have to call you Mack and that I must never leave you no matter what.”

“What? I didn’t say that!”

“Yes, you did,” he stated seriously. “You said I had to stay by your side and never leave you again.”

“I was being fucking sarcastic!”

He shrugged.

Sweet Jesus. He’d better bloody hope that I was going to be able to supersede that instruction or I’d probably end up ripping his head from his body. I watched him curiously. He didn’t appear to be unhappy. It was a strange sensation, knowing that I could compel someone to do whatever I instructed. I wondered if it was permanent or whether it would wear off as my blood left Aubrey’s system. It had to be as a result of the amount that he’d taken from me. He’d had a taste months before and clearly hadn’t been following my orders then as he’d done the exact opposite to what I’d wanted him to. That went for Anton also, who’d tasted my blood when we’d fought for Corrigan and the rest of the Brethren back in Cornwall. Just that tiny lick had made Anton practically addicted to my blood however. I hoped that meant that Aubrey wasn’t now the same because, even without him being a vamp, the quantity that he’d drunk could create a need in him that would outweigh almost any other desire.

“Are you hungry?” I asked carefully.

He thought for a moment before answering. “No.”

I eyed him. “Okay then. “ I turned back round and continued heading up the hill, now very aware of him at my back. “Actually, Aubrey, you take the lead.”

He nodded agreement and then moved in front of me. “I don’t know where to go though.”

“That’s alright. Just keep going straight and I’ll tell you where to go. Don’t say anything until I tell you to either. I need to listen out in case there’s anything out here.” And I didn’t want to have to listen to him either.

He complied, continuing up the trail as I followed. It was a rather broad flat hill so the slope was easy to navigate. We picked our way up, somewhat slower now that Aubrey was leading, but making steady progress nonetheless. I tried not to worry too much about what he might end up doing and instead listened out hopefully for any bats. Unfortunately I couldn’t hear or see any. Still, before too long, we emerged out at a decent sized carpark. I knew from my research that towards the east and slightly behind us were the ruins of an old abbey, and that just up ahead was a quarry. This meant that the area Atlanteia was worried about had to be more to the west, where there were areas of dense trees. There were several clearly marked and well labelled paths to follow so, choosing the one that would allow us to cover the largest area, I crooked my finger at Aubrey, gesturing in the direction I wanted to head, and we began to veer left.

I wasn’t entirely sure what I was expecting to find. Obviously the development hadn’t started yet and it was the middle of the night so there was no-one around to question. I was hoping that the dryads who lived here would make themselves known so that I could ask them a few questions. It was possible that Aubrey’s presence might scare them away of course. As tempting as it was to leave him behind in the car park, in the event that there was something out there he might come in handy. His supernatural vamp strength had no doubt abandoned him, but he had to have some lingering traces of ability that would prove useful.

We spent thirty minutes or so wandering along, the moon high in the night sky and the stars sharp and clear, before I noticed it. One of the lessons I’d had back at the academy had been in the art of Illusion. The cackling mage who’d been my tutor had found it funny to use her art to hide from me the very building in which the lessons were meant to be held. I’d found it immensely irritating at the time, but it was proving its worth in terms of learning as I now realised that even in the darkness there was something odd flickering at the edge of my vision, alerting me to the fact that some kind of magic had been woven here to conceal something. Feeling immensely satisfied that I’d noticed it, while wondering how on earth mages could be involved in this, I tapped Aubrey on the shoulder, quietly telling him to wait, then backtracked, keeping the flicker within my periphery vision.

When I was sure I knew where to look, I stopped. The glimmer was right in front of me, indicating that something wasn’t quite right. Slowly, and oh so very carefully, I bent down and picked up a twig, poking at it. There was a quiet whoosh, as if a gust of wind had suddenly announced itself into the silent night air, and then the spell unravelled before my eyes. I heard a gasp from Aubrey further up the path and my mouth dropped open in horror as I registered what had suddenly been revealed.

Chapter Ten

The area uncovered by the unmasking of the spell was perhaps only about ten metres squared. The ground was empty and black, as if it had been scorched by fire, and in its centre stood a large tree, completely absent of leaves or any other sign of life. Its branches had a grey brittle appearance, highlighting that it was as completely devoid of life as the earth and the pale figure of the dryad hanging from it. She appeared to be bound there by her wrists, in a pose eerily reminiscent of a crucifixion. I tried to take a step forward, as if to see whether I could still rescue the tragic tree nymph, despite the fact that her shrunken flesh made it clear that she had been there for some time. However there was some kind of invisible barrier in my way, preventing me from moving into the dead space. I pushed forward with every ounce of strength that I could muster, but it was clear that I wouldn’t be able to break through by sheer physical power alone.

Aubrey moved silently to my side and stared up at the dryad’s body.

“Any ideas?” I asked.

He glanced at me mutely. Oh yeah. “You can speak.”

“It’s so elegant,” he breathed. “This is a masterpiece.”

I couldn’t help myself. Reaching over, I slapped him hard across the cheek and gave him a disgusted look.

“Owwww!” He clutched his face with his hands, the wounded expression in his eyes clear even through the darkness. “You don’t have to resort to violence. What did I do?”

I didn’t know why I’d ever thought that vamps were smart. I supposed that I’d assumed that living for so long afforded enough life experience to understand at least some of the nuances of polite society. Clearly I’d been completely wrong.

“One minute you are like a puppy dog at my feet, begging to be brought along and gushing at how wonderful I am,” I spat at him, “not to mention the constant fucking tears, and the next you’re making some kind of sicko comment like that. She’s dead, Aubrey. She died a horrible death and you’re talking about her as if she’s a piece of fucking art.”

“I was a vampire for a long time, and I was a bloody good vampire too. We’re undead, Mack. I might not kill many people these days but death really is what I know, and I know that whoever did that,” he jerked his head towards the tree, “did it very deliberately and very carefully. Look at the way she’s strung up. You say I’m talking about her as if she’s a work of art, well, that’s artfully done. Bodies are heavy, and not all that easy to manipulate into different positions. She’s hanging there, from those dead branches, by her wrists. There’s nothing holding her up; she’s been arranged that way.” His voice began to rise suddenly. “You’re acting as if I’m more than evil than whoever did that. Bitch!”

I guessed that angry Aubrey was suddenly making a return. The guy was like Jack the Ripper, a Disney princess and Niagara Falls all combined into one. I felt a flicker of bloodfire. “Go round the back and see if you can get through that way,” I told him. “Keep trying to find a weak spot.”

He snarled at me in rage but, good little servant that he was, his feet were already moving him away before he could finish. He circled round the edge of the blackened patch and began throwing himself at the edges of the barrier, over and over again. I watched him for a moment, part of me hoping that he’d do himself some permanent damage, and then turned my attention back to the tree.

I thought about Aubrey’s words and examined the way the dryad had been displayed. He had been kind of right, actually. She was definitely positioned as if to gain maximum effect from a viewing audience. And yet, whoever had done this had then hidden her from sight. What was the point in creating a piece of ‘art’, and then never letting anyone see it? I fervently hoped it wasn’t part of some sick master plan by some nasty Otherworld monster. Atlanteia hadn’t so much as breathed that any dryads had already died as a result of the upcoming development. Unfortunately I now very much doubted that the planned tree clearance had anything to do with some luxury holiday homes. Not unless the target market was psychotic serial killers anyway.