Chapter 4.16 – Safe Haven

After she’d used his friend’s sister as bait to lure a serial killer, Faith thought it probably wasn’t wise to return to dorky Clifford in Britechester. She instead hitched a ride back to the city where she took refuge in an abandoned factory.

She really hated being stuck inside, waiting for the sun to go down, especially when she had bugger all to do. She passed the endless hours by whacking any spider that came within three feet of her with her boot, drawing lewd images in the dust with her fingers, doing other things with her fingers, and also… imagining.

It was weird, amusing herself with her imagination. But eventually she ran out of spiders, her fingers got tired and sleep wouldn’t come so she had no choice. Her brain would come on and she’d imagine herself somewhere grand and opulent with a hoard of people to interact with and feed off.

Exactly what Kitty had been offering, she realised with an angry pout.

It is a beautiful mansion, vast and luxurious. You will have people to share it with. Beautiful people. Powerful, interesting, immortal people.

She didn’t want that. Who would want a fancy mansion, vampire friends, blood on tap, sex on tap…

Caleb; he talks about you so fondly, Faith. I am sure he would be delighted to see you. All of you.

Faith chewed her bottom lip. She had always fantasised about her own dashingly handsome vampire lover, and Fringey’s whole cold and pale vibe definitely matched the vampire aesthetic she’d originally dreamed of. Imagining him mute and mysterious surrounded by old furniture in a creepy mansion… he did seem more appealing, she had to admit.

Not to mention that April had implied that he was a brute in the sack. She could get on board with that.

No, this time she wouldn’t chase fantasy as the easy option. This time she’d go back to Mel and April and, provided they hadn’t really become a pair of heartless bitches, she’d beg them to forgive her and have her back.

She’d unlive a chaste existence on blood bags and she’d never be hurt, or fooled, again.

As soon as it was unsunny enough for her to stick her arm outside without it sizzling, she ditched her hideout and ventured back into the folds of the city, scouring alleyways and back streets for a meal.

She’d usually hunt late at night where there was always a bounty of people wandering about from various bars and clubs, many only too happy to see her saunter up to them.

At sunset there were slim pickings, at least of her favourite kind of meal; the hot and horny kind. She’d settled on a stressed-out commuter she’d found having a frantic phone call in an alleyway, but had regretted it immediately because his stress and agitation was contagious.

Instead of ambling like she had all the time in the world, she was almost running through the city because what if she didn’t make it to Melinda’s cottage before sunrise? What if Melinda wouldn’t let her in and she needed to go find refuge elsewhere?

She hadn’t really considered before that point what she’d do if Melinda wouldn’t let her in. She was sure that Melinda would never turn her away and this time, unlike most of the other times, Faith really was sorry for what she’d done. And maybe it was the stress hormones from Mr. Businessman back there, but Kitty’s little warning kept ringing in her head.

“The darkness changes us, Faith,” Kitty explained. “We can be easily blinded to our morals, to our true selves, as we both painfully understand.”

She tapped her foot impatiently, waiting for the train that would take her to the outskirts of the city and praying that no one would recognise her while she got more and more nervous.

Faith didn’t know what to make of Kitty. She wasn’t as terrifying as Seth had made out, but no surprises there as everything he’d said was bullshit. She seemed kinda cruel, yes, but at least she was open about it, and there must be some kindness in her to want to take Caleb in and to feed him his favourite kind of prey. She seemed to be loyal to her kind, something Seth clearly wasn’t. But she was offering Faith, a relative stranger, the moon on a stick. What did she want in return?

Faith wasn’t sure she could trust her. But then again, could she trust anyone?

With a sharp intake of breath, Broof awoke, with no shoes and no bearings.

Sun was shining through the open doorway. He was enveloped in a blanket of dizzying heat, surrounded by the heady scent of moss and unfamiliar flora. The fronded plant in this room and the canopy net above his bed reminded him of his holiday in, or rather the time he’d accompanied Sandy to, Selvadorada. They didn’t stay long after the meet and greet where only Sandy’s most diehard fans turned up. Turned out that the Selvadoradians didn’t really care for overhyped Del Sol Valley actors, regardless of how many community projects they’d rolled up their sleeves to pose for photos for. 

Broof shifted on the bed, trying to piece together how he’d gotten there, wherever ‘there’ was.

He’d been trekking with Lilith. He’d been caught in some sort of trap. There was a child…

A noise from balcony distracted him.

He stumbled his way towards the light from the balcony, taking momentary pause at the tree canopy and murky waters that surrounded this cabin he’d awoken in. A raven-haired woman was standing before him, staring out over this unfamiliar landscape. 

“Lilith? Where are we?”

At the sound of his voice, the woman jumped to face him. It was definitely not Lilith. If the flush of her cheeks and her green eyes weren’t a giveaway, the flash of energy from her fingertips definitely was.

Broof’s reaction was swift. He’d had to dodge a number of Wyatt’s ‘magical farts’ over his life and had learned not to sneak up on a witch. He leapt back, but he needn’t have bothered. Whoever this woman was, she clearly had much better control over her magic than Wyatt did.

“You’re awake!” she gasped. “How are you feeling?”

“Confused,” he admitted, watching warily as the woman expertly cast off her charge. “Who… uh, where… where is the little girl…?”

“Little girl?” the woman repeated softly as she stepped closer.

Broof nodded; his head felt like it was full of lead. “About ten, pigtails, freckles… had a missing tooth…”

“Oh,” the woman sighed, suddenly very close, her warm hands on Broof’s arm. “Brodie, yes. At this hour, likely down at the jetty, baiting crocodiles.”

“Crocodiles…” Broof repeated, trying to see straight. “Right. And you are…?”

The woman laughed. “Come on you; come and sit down. I’m Leyla,” she said as she ushered him to the bed and settled him upon it. “How are you feeling?” 

“Like I’ve been hit repeatedly in the head.”

“That’ll be Brodie’s over-enthusiastic attempt to subdue you. I’m sorry about that.”

Broof rubbed his temples as the room came back into focus. “Where am I?”

“Exactly where you wanted to be, Broof Hogwash. The Village of the Free. Or, as we call it, the village. Welcome.”

“Thank you for hosting me, Leyla,” Broof replied automatically as he processed his surroundings and steadied his head enough to focus on the woman before him. “You know my name?”

She nodded. “Bruno told me, but I already knew…”

“Bruno?”

“The long-haired fellow who found you in Brodie’s rabbit trap. Do you remember that?” Broof nodded and she smiled. “I’m sorry that you had such an eventful journey to here. You are most welcome but your travel companion? Not so much.”

Broof swallowed back a lump in this throat as his memory of the events, and Bruno’s reaction to Lilith’s condition, fell back into place. “Lilith,” he whispered, a sinking feeling in his chest stealing all his breath. “Uh.. is she?”

“She’s fine. For now.”

“…For now?”

Leyla sighed. “Bruno and I went to look for her after he’d dropped you back here, to subdue the threat—”

“She’s not a threat.”

“She threatened us,” Leyla frowned. “We looked for hours and found her waiting for us in the spot he found you in, looking through your discarded belongings, swearing at the sky, swearing at us.”

Leyla narrowed her eyes slightly then looked away. “Had Bruno not been with me I wouldn’t have taken it; however, he has always had a soft spot for dangerous beasts.” She sighed. “He convinced me to bring her here, to let her calm down.”

“So she’s here?”

“Yes. She’s got her own secure room in the dock house, for now.”

Broof made a mental note to thank Bruno when he next saw him. “Can I see her?” he asked.

“No,” she replied. “Not until after the hearing.”

“Uh… hearing?”

Leyla shifted on the bed. “Yes. She must meet with the village elders tomorrow to plead her case for staying. As part of that, her story must align with yours so therefore, you can’t see her… yet.”

Broof swallowed hard, remembering the garbled story he’d told to Bruno while he’d been dangling by his foot. He hoped that in any way aligned with Lilith’s version of events.

“Will I also have a hearing?”

At this question Leyla, who had been pretty cold, warmed to him. “No, Broof. You don’t. You’re almost family.”

“I’m… what?”

Leyla smiled. “Oh, you’re just like her. From your features to your streak of dark magic—“

“Like who? My streak of dark magic?” Broof repeated moronically. She could sense that?

“Oh, I realise that where you’re from that’s not a compliment, but no judgement from me,” Leyla said softly, “What I mean to say, is that you’re Marigold’s relative through and through. And Marigold’s family is our family.”

“You… you knew my grandmother.”

“Yes, she was a regular visitor here. She and one of our village elders, Bo, were lifelong friends. She brought you here a few times, as a small boy. Do you remember? We fished for pennies in the little lake, we made mud ice cream—”

Broof shook his head. He had no memory of ever being here before, or of ever meeting Leyla. He also couldn’t imagine himself playing in the mud.

“—we ate far too much rhubarb pie and drank nothing but sugar tea.”

All right, that he could believe.

At his blank look, Leyla deflated a little. “I suppose you were too little to remember.”

“I guess so.”

“No worries,” Leyla shrugged. “I always looked up to her, you know. There are many stories going back centuries,” Leyla continued. “Marigold’s unconventional ways and all her mishaps. She was the one who taught me how to maintain the village shield, but first she tricked me into thinking I’d broken it.” She laughed a little. “She really was quite the character, wasn’t she? I bet she taught you a lot.”

Broof agreed, as always. He’d always felt overshadowed by the sheer might that was his grandma. Her legacy was a lot to live up to and, even though she had taught him a lot, he was never as good at any of it as she had been. Especially not in recent years.

Leyla was still glowing in her reverie. “I can’t wait to see what you can do, Broof. Once the vampire’s hold is broken, of course.”

The vampire. Broof felt his palms burn at the thought of Lilith, locked in a room somewhere, treated like a criminal because of what she was. “Her name is Lilith and she doesn’t have a hold on me.”

“Hm,” Leyla muttered, unconvinced. “That may be true, it may not. It’s been a long, long time since we had a vampire in the village, and none of the stories are kind. It ended badly. People died. You can understand my -our- hesitation, can’t you?”

“But she’s not dangerous. A little feisty, sure, but she’s been living peacefully with humans for centuries.”

“Then she’ll have nothing to worry about, will she?” Leyla seemed quite annoyed and Broof was getting there.

“All the waifs and strays that end up here and yet you’ve got no sympathy for a woman who was cursed against her will?” He had no idea if it was true of Lilith, but it was certainly true for April. Although, he assumed that it must have been true to Lilith also; a young, beautiful woman like Lilith in the 1600’s wouldn’t have had a choice about being turned, would she?

“Why would I?” Leyla challenged. “Because we’re all monsters here, right? Beast-sympathisers and necromancers doing the devil’s work?”

“Is that why you’re here?” he dared to ask.

“I’m here because of a misunderstanding.”

Broof was reminded of his stint in prison; how no one there was guilty. He must’ve been smirking because she scowled at him and then turned away. “Traditional covens can be woefully unforgiving. Terribly narrow-minded. Mine, for instance. If you must know, I was cast out because I foresaw something the High Priest didn’t like.”

“Foresaw?” Broof said with some disbelief. “You can divine the future?”

“Benji is about to fall in the bog,” she said softly.

“What?” Broof asked as outside the window there was a scream followed by an almighty splash and a shout of “I’m OK!”

Broof felt like he was in the presence of royalty. No one in his coven had that ability. From what he understood it was very rare, almost sacred. He couldn’t imagine a situation where true insight into the future would ever be a thing worthy of banishment. 

“So what did you see? What upset your High Priest, if you don’t mind me asking.”

She sat back on the bed and heaved a huge sigh. “I was at the wedding of my High Priest, surrounded by my fellow witches as we danced and celebrated the union under the summer moon. As I took the hand of the High Priest to congratulate him, I had the ‘offending’ vision; a blossoming belly growing heavy with his child.”

Broof didn’t know what he was expecting, but it wasn’t that. “That doesn’t seem so bad.”

“Had it been his new wife I saw in my vision, yes, it would’ve been fine.” Leyla said. “It wasn’t. I was a dumb kid, I didn’t have the tact or subtlety that I do now, so I was just standing there eyes aglow, mouth agape. Clearly seeing something. The coven had gathered round us, eager to hear the details of my latest vision and I was too naïve to weave a lie.”

“He accused me of slander, of gossip and of being deliberately antagonistic. He had once taken great pride in my ability, putting great stock into everything I foresaw, but from that point, he began to undermine me, going out of his way to disprove everything I saw. And, when the baby I’d predicted was not born, the coven stopped believing in me. So, I left.”

“There was no baby? Your vision was wrong?”

She looked at the ceiling. “They are never wrong. There are many ways to make someone disappear.”

Broof nodded and allowed her a moment.

Leyla smoothed down the bedding she had ruffled during her story, and shrugged. “It’s not inaccurate, you know, what people think of this place. There are people here who are cursed, who have cursed others. There are people here who have taken lives. But we are not a lawless place of disorder and chaos, Broof, and those that come here seeking that are not entertained. Despite what the outside world thinks, we are not a safe haven for all those who are evil, or inflicted by evil. We simply believe that good people can do bad things – or be woefully misunderstood – and allow them a chance to put that right.”

“Lilith is woefully misunderstood. Will she get a fair chance?”

“That’s up to the elders.”

Broof nodded. He hoped that Lilith wouldn’t jeopardise her chance with her temper. He didn’t know how he’d cope if she was made to leave… or worse.

“I had better go,” Leyla said and began to rise. “You should get some rest. Try not to worry, all right?”

“I don’t need to rest; I feel fine.” He insisted, rising but leaving his head behind. “Ah, right, perhaps I’m a little light-headed… Brodie can really cast a tranquilizer, can’t he?”

“Yes, although I don’t think the blood loss, dehydration and heat exhaustion you’ve experienced is helping anything.” She patted his hand. “Try to relax, read a book, gently take in your surroundings, don’t push yourself. I’ll have Brodie bring your supper up, and we can introduce you to everyone tomorrow. Okay?”

“And Lilith?” Broof asked. “What about her supper?”

“All taken care of,” Leyla assured him.

Ugh! Why was the countryside literally so full of shit?

The route that Kitty had given her had started at a country pub just off a main road, but had quickly diverted into wilderness. Faith had been trudging down winding paths and through streams and covering her fancy boots in fuck-knows-what-else in the process. She could totally understand why Melinda and April would choose to hideout somewhere so remote but ugh! Faith fucking hated nature. Why was everything so fucking slimy?

The stress effects she’d got from that downtrodden commuter had all but gone and now Faith was just feeling sorry for herself and angry at everything, as per usual. She was annoyed that she’d rushed out here to the arse-end of nowhere instead of taking her time travelling through civilisation, maybe having one last proper meal and a good time before she committed herself to being a good vampire again.

This route didn’t look like it had travelled by any people, ever. She had wondered a few times whether this was some sort of trap and that actually this wasn’t a route Kitty had ever travelled, but maybe one stolen from someone unfortunate who met a sorry end. She wondered if this was a trap, but why would Kitty want to trap her?

Faith stumbled through some plants that snagged her tights and stung her legs, and on to a more open path that ran adjacent to the river, just like she’d expected. It was so bloody weird going somewhere she’d never been before and yet knowing where she was.

There was a picnic area and fairy lights draped from the trees which Faith might have paused at and found quite pretty had she not been totally fed up and ankle deep in yet more fucking horseshit.

Kicking off what she could from her boots, she carried on down the path to the crossroads.

This was it, the last milestone. She just had to hike up a huge hill and then she’d be there, at the cottage where her friends were.

Why was she so nervous? Was she worried that Melinda wouldn’t forgive her? No. Not really.

Was she worried that Melinda and April were now so exclusive that they’d not want her there? Maybe.

Was she worried that she was making a mistake? Possibly…

She’d often felt like the ‘spare friend’, never really contributing anything. Melinda had her smarts; April had her money. All Faith was ever good for was unsubtly trying to hook them up, and being their front to the cruel, cold outside world. Now the pair of them were officially a couple, and living in hiding, would they have any use for her at all?

Faith?

“What the—?”

Faith spun on her heel. She could’ve sworn she heard someone call out to her. But there was no one there.

There was nothing behind her except green shit and actual shit for as far as the eye could see which, admittedly, wasn’t very far without her glasses, but the day she wore those ugly things again was the day she truly gave up on life.

It was probably just a fox in heat or something.

Thanks to Gina for donating Leyla!

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