Alexandre turned back to Madison and gave her one last look before he left the room.
‘You may be more comfortable in another room. One where you can’t see what’s happening,’ Vasey-Smith said to her. ‘Alexandre will be fine, but it may not make very pleasant viewing.’
Madison did not reply. She just sat down on one of the swivel chairs and leant back crossing her arms across her chest.
‘Very well,’ he said. ‘But please let me know if it gets too much and someone will take you next door until it is over.’ Blythe turned to Vasey-Smith. ‘How long will they take to prepare him?’
‘Shouldn’t be too long. His skin will have to be cleaned first, as well as the others.’
Madison felt small and alone, like an unwanted child. A feeling that over the years had become all too familiar.
Chapter Twenty Nine
*
Madison sat in the viewing gallery biting her nails down to the skin. Everybody else acted like she wasn’t even there, which suited her fine. She had nothing to say to these people anyway. She was so scared and so angry. There was a whooshing in her ears and she hoped to God she wouldn’t pass out.
If anything happened to Alexandre what would she do? And if anything happened to her, what would happen to Ben? No, she had to try to stay positive. It was the only option left. Alexandre was doing what he had to do and she respected that decision, she honestly did. She just wished he wasn’t doing it.
She remembered how badly the daylight had affected him all those months ago, when she’d dragged his crate outside under the setting sun. He’d gone through excruciating agony, feeling weakened and half-dead, but then he’d recovered almost immediately. The sun had acted like an electric shock to his system, kick starting him back to life and killing the disease in his cells. Would it really work on the others?
She looked and saw there must have been about twenty people down in that room now, but still no sign of Alexandre or the others.
*
Alexandre followed the French woman out into the hall and down the corridor. They descended a set of steps and turned right into a small room where two men waited.
‘These men will wash you,’ she said in his native language.
‘I think I am capable of washing myself.’
‘I’m sorry. It’s a necessary part of the preparation. You must be cleaned thoroughly.’
‘Very well.’
‘Your clothes,’ she said.
‘What, here?’
She nodded.
He stripped off his clothes and let the men lead him into a large shower cubicle. He stood, feeling humiliated and slightly ridiculous. One of the men pressed a round chrome button and about twenty jets of hot water hit his body from all angles. The men stood at a short distance with long brushes. They squirted some foul smelling liquid onto the bristles and scrubbed at his steaming body. The jets were powerful and the brushes were coarse. His body tingled as hot water ran down his face and body in soapy rivulets.
When he was done, he stepped out of the cubicle and the men pointed to a small chamber. Alexandre hesitantly stepped inside. He heard a loud humming whoosh and warm air swirled around his body, drying his wet skin. After a minute or two, the dryer stopped and he left the chamber.
The two men had gone, but the French woman still remained. She handed him a cotton robe. He heard a male voice behind him.
‘Good evening. I am Dr Rasheed.’
He turned around to see a Middle Eastern man in a white coat. ‘I just need to take a few measurements from you,’ the man said.
Alexandre could sense fear from the man. He spent the next few minutes being weighed, measured, poked, prodded and tested by the young doctor. He grew impatient. Surely this was not necessary. But he did not speak, he was too wired.
He felt the thirst come over him and thought how wonderful it would be to drink from this white-coated man, in such tantalisingly close proximity. Perhaps he should have taken Blythe up on his offer to feed. No, he would be fine. He was just unsettled by all this detached examination of his body, worried about the pain he was about to endure, but most of all, terrified that his brother and sister might not make it. That they might leave him to face his immortality without them.
At last the testing appeared to be over and Alexandre followed the doctor through a thick metal door into the brightly lit theatre. He squinted up and saw the dark glass of the viewing gallery, but he could not see through the window into the unlit room. He knew Madison would be watching closely and he hoped, for her sake, he would not have to endure too much pain.
The doctor removed Alexandre’s robe and asked him to lie on the raised metal bed. He was completely naked and his hard muscled flesh looked like marble. He lay down in one graceful fluid movement and thought of his family. His wonderful family whom he would see shortly.
The white lights in the room clicked off one by one until there was just an echoing silence in the darkened room. A small single spotlight highlighted Alexandre’s face and torso. He was connected up to all sorts of monitors, his arms and legs strapped down to keep him in place. He stared up at the dark ceiling.
The other staff had left the room and now just four doctors surrounded his bed. Their faces looked eerie in the reflected light, as they fiddled with the illuminated dials on a large square machine. The red light on a video camera glowed up high in the corner of the room.
He had never felt so vulnerable in his life. A combination of being naked in front of strangers in an unfamiliar place and knowing he was about to experience insanity-inducing amounts of pain.
‘We are about to begin,’ Dr Rasheed said to Alexandre. ‘Are you ready?’
‘Yes,’ he replied, clenching his fists and curling his toes in preparation for the onslaught.
He heard a low hum and pop and the innocuous metal light was switched on casting a luminescent blue wash over the area. The effect was instantaneous. Alexandre’s white flesh began to glow and steam. He cried out in agony and tried to curl up into a ball to protect himself, but they had strapped him down too tightly and the pain had sapped his usual strength.
Almost immediately, the light was switched off and his body began to heal itself, the blistered skin instantly regenerating before the doctors’ eyes. They frantically made notes, viewed monitors and readjusted equipment.
‘Ready to go again?’ Dr Rasheed asked.
Alexandre nodded, but he felt far from ready. His body was on fire. It had been worse than he had remembered. Last time he had been unconscious and only half-aware of what was going on, half-aware of the pain. But this time he was fully awake and all too conscious of every burning fibre in his body. It felt like being set alight from the inside.
He tried to focus on images of his brother and his sister, but all thoughts of them were obliterated by the next white-hot bath of fire. He screamed, not caring about anything other than the need to make it stop. He was surely about to die. Then the blissful coolness came as his body regenerated once more. Raw weals returning to marble white skin. Charred flesh healing, knitting itself back together.
Up in the viewing gallery, Madison was hysterical. She banged on the glass with her fists and screamed at them to stop.
‘Do something!’ she yelled at Vasey-Smith. ‘They’re killing him! How can you just sit there and watch? This is worse than when he woke up at home. The lights are too powerful.’
‘Look,’ said Blythe. He came over to her and put his arm around her shoulder, pointing down into the theatre. ‘Look at your Alexandre. He is fine. See.’
When Madison looked, she saw the UV lamp was now off and his flesh was indeed healing.
‘Is that it then?’ she asked hopefully. ‘Have they finished with him?’
‘Nearly,’ Blythe replied. ‘You may wish to look away now, child.’
She ignored his advice and looked down once more as they switched on the lamp for the third time. This time his body looked like it was disintegrating and they turn
ed off the lamp almost instantly.
‘Alex! Alexandre!’ she sobbed. She banged on the glass, which just flexed uselessly under her fists. ‘No more! He can’t take any more. You’ve gone too far. He won’t survive.’
‘Madison, look,’ Blythe said. He was smiling in amazement and Madison hated him for it. She looked down again and saw Alex’s body had almost returned to normal.
‘But that is incredible,’ Blythe exhaled. ‘Remarkable. If I hadn’t seen it with my own two eyes I would never have …’
‘Oh shut up!’ Madison turned to him. ‘Yes, remarkable, incredible,’ she mimicked him. ‘That’s somebody’s life you’re playing with. He’s not here so you can get your rocks off.’
Vasey-Smith spoke. ‘Madison, Alexandre knew the risks but he wants to do this for his family. We aren’t forcing him.’
‘I know that,’ she replied. ‘But he doesn’t have to get so excited about someone else’s agony!’ She jerked her head angrily in Blythe’s direction and looked down into the room again, as they finally released Alexandre from the straps. He sat up, dazed but intact. Dr Rasheed draped his robe around his shoulders and led him out of the room.
‘Where are they taking him?’ Madison asked. ‘I need to be with him.’
Vasey-Smith pressed a button and a young man in a suit came into the room.
‘Take Miss Greene to the prep room.’
Madison followed the man along the corridor and down the steps to the small room where Alexandre sat on a plastic chair in his robe.
‘Oh, Alex. Are you okay?’
‘Now I am,’ he said and opened his arms to her. She approached him cautiously.
‘Is it okay to touch you? I mean, your body must still be sore.’
‘My body is as good as new,’ he smiled. ‘But my mind is in a more delicate state. Please come to me. I need to feel your body. To feel something good.’ He lifted her onto his lap and buried his head in her hair. ‘You smell so wonderful. I hate the synthetic stink of this place.’
‘Alex,’ she whispered into his neck. ‘I thought they were going to kill you. I was going crazy up there.’
‘I did not want you to witness that. I am sorry.’
‘Don’t you dare apologise. You were so brave. Did it work? Did they get whatever they needed to help the others?’
‘They are very optimistic, yes. But I am still so frightened for my family. I would gladly suffer that again if it meant they did not have to endure it. My poor little Isobel. And it is my …’ He broke off and looked so upset Madison thought he was going to cry.
‘What?’ she asked. ‘What is it? Is there something else?’
‘You know,’ he said. ‘I never really admitted it, not even to myself, but this whole thing is entirely my fault.’
‘What’s your fault?’
‘Everything. It was my fault we all ended up going to Cappadocia in the first place and it was I who found a way into the underground city. If I had not been so selfish and arrogant, none of this would ever have happened. I would have died a normal human death a long time ago with all my family and friends.’
‘No.’ She cut him short. ‘No, I’m not having that. You can’t start thinking what if. That’s a short cut to a shit life. You’re gonna get your family and friends back in a few hours time, then we’ll go home and everything will be fan-bloody-tastic, okay?’
‘I love you, Madison Greene.’ Alexandre kissed her hair and stroked her cheek with his forefinger.
‘Sorry to interrupt.’ It was Dr Rasheed. ‘Mr Blythe asked me to enquire whether you wish to proceed with the others now, or would you rather wait a few hours?’
‘We will proceed,’ Alexandre said as he and Madison stood up. ‘Let me first get dressed and then we will most certainly proceed. I want this over with.’
Madison sat in the viewing gallery. Alexandre wanted to be in the theatre whilst the others were being revived but the white coats advised him this would be counter productive as he would still be affected by the UV even at a distance. But he knew nothing would stop him getting into that room if anything went wrong.
Winston Blythe asked him which of the vampires should be woken first, but Alexandre refused to choose. He could not do it. Any choice he made would be wrong so he asked Blythe to randomly select the order in which they were to be awoken.
Minutes later, Alexandre gritted his teeth as he saw Jacques being lifted onto the bed and strapped down. He was naked and looked like a beautiful alabaster statue with unnaturally golden hair that shone like a halo around his head.
Please God, Alexandre prayed. If you can hear me, please give my brother back to me. He is a sweet boy. His condition is not of his choosing, he is … Then suddenly, the UV lamp was switched on. Alexandre leapt out of his seat and tore at his hair.
‘Non!’ he shouted. ‘I cannot watch this.’ He paced the room as Jacques’ body smoked and charred under the UV. Great red bubbling blisters appeared on his skin and his hair began to scorch and frizz. He flailed and jerked like a puppet on strings being pulled violently up and down. His eyes opened and he grabbed at his skin, trying to cover his face against the light and the pain.
And then, suddenly, he was no longer there. The bed was empty, the straps undone. The doctors switched the UV lamp off.
Alexandre disappeared from the viewing gallery and went straight to Jacques who cowered under the bed like a wounded animal. Alexandre draped a robe around his brother and led him out from his hiding place.
‘Jacques, do not fear. It is I, your brother, Alexandre. You are safe now, Jacques. You are safe.’
‘Where am I?’ Jacques voice was hoarse, scared. ‘What is this place? I feel strange, I was in terrible pain. I do not understand what I am seeing.’
‘I will explain everything, Jacques. Come, you are safe.’
Alexandre led his brother through the door of the little antechamber and sat him on one of the plastic chairs. Jacques’ body was already fully healed, his skin restored to its beautiful unblemished state. He looked around in fear and bewilderment, but Alexandre crouched in front of him and took one of his hands in both of his.
‘I will explain everything as soon as the others are awake. I cannot believe it is really you, little brother.’
‘Are we vampires still?’ Jacques asked in a croaky voice.
‘Yes.’
‘I was in such pain. It was terrible, Alex. It will not happen again, will it?’
‘No, no. Never again. You are safe, Jacques. My little Jacques.’ Alexandre took his face in his hands and kissed both his cheeks. ‘I thought ...’ Alexandre’s voice was breaking and he could barely speak. ‘I thought I would never again talk to you.’
‘Why would you think that?’
‘You have been ill. But you are healed now.’
‘This place is so strange. Where are we?’
‘We are still in England, but things have changed greatly. Do not think about it now. Just sit and rest.’
‘And your clothes are odd, Alex,’ he said, looking at his brother’s modern-fitting suit.
‘These are not the only things you will find strange, but I will tell you later.
‘The others? Isobel and ...’
‘They will join us shortly. Brother, I have missed you so much. I love you, Jacques.’
Alexandre could not quite believe it had worked, that he had his little brother back. He would no longer be without his family, he was sure of it. They would all be returned to him very soon.
And sure enough, one by one, the others were brought out under the life-giving, death-giving lamp and each in turn, burned and woke. Like chemotherapy that attacks the disease but also attacks the body, so the ultraviolet rays ate out the sickness from each of them, leaving them weak, but alive and awake.
The last to be revived was Isobel and she was now screaming hysterically. Once the UV lamp was extinguished the others stumbled dazed into the room to try to calm her down. But Alexandre was there, calming, soothi
ng and reassuring, so full up with happiness he barely knew himself.
It had worked. It had actually worked and he was here in this awful sterile room with his beloved family and friends, his nineteenth century lifelong companions.
Madison had watched from the gallery, horrified at their agony, but amazed at the transformation of these once inanimate creatures. She felt like an outsider as she joined them in the operating room. Leonora put her arm around Isobel who had curled up into a ball whimpering, trying to hide her nakedness.
‘For shame! I am unclothed. Please hand me something to wear. Who are these strange people and what are these things around me? Am I dreaming?’
Madison came into the room and gave Isobel a robe.
‘Thank you,’ Isobel said, putting it on.
Alexandre led his newly awakened family across to the door that led to the antechamber and found to his surprise that he couldn’t open it. He tried the handle again, but the door was most definitely locked. He smiled up at the dark glass of the viewing gallery and called out.
‘Mr Blythe! We are all well, but the door is locked. Please open it so we can come and thank you in person.’ He tried the door again, but was still unable to open it. ‘Mr Blythe! Sir! Can you hear me?’
‘What’s going on?’ Madison asked.
‘This damned door is locked. There must be some problem with ...’
Suddenly, a set of overhead lights flashed on. They were all ultraviolet and the five vampires cringed down onto the ground, screaming in pain. Madison had to cover her ears to block out the piercing sounds of agony. Alexandre was burning again, but he managed to get up and throw himself relentlessly against the heavy metal door. It buckled and dented, but his body was weakening under the deadly glow of the rays.
Madison’s screams joined the others’ as she saw all the vampires’ bodies scorching and bubbling. The pain must have been incredible. Madison yelled up at the gallery for them to do something. Alexandre channelled the excruciating agony and used every ounce of power left in his melting body to hurl himself at the door. Finally, the locks snapped like wood and the door opened.
Alexandre dragged the others to safety. Madison could only watch helplessly, as their bodies were too hot for her to touch. They collapsed through into the little antechamber and she followed them, shocked and horrified by what she had witnessed. But even as Madison entered the little room, she saw the vampires had almost healed.