Beatrice looked conflicted, I knew she wanted to help but she was also battling the urge to finish what David had started. I was too; the monster in me loved the sight of Sarah on the ground, barely conscious and bleeding. Easy pickings.
"Jade" Jamie's voice entered my head, distracting me from the bloodlust. "You can do this come on."
Steeling myself I nodded. "Beatrice, help the guys put David back in the trailer. Make sure he can't escape if he wakes up, tie him up if you have to." That would get the three of them out of the way of temptation at least. I knew Chris would be especially suffering, and I had never seen Felix demonstrate anything more than limited control. It would be better for them to stay with David.
With the way cleared, Jamie hurried towards Sarah and helped her as she tried to stand. She appeared to be past screaming. Her face was a silent mask of horror and shock and her breath was coming in short gasps.
"We'll take her in the tent," he said, "It's too cold out here."
I agreed, I didn't want her to go into medical shock. I held the tent door open as Jamie half carried her through and gently put her down in one of the chairs. Leaving them I rifled through the items Beatrice had left at the side until I found a small green box.
"First aid kit." I said to Jamie. He held out his hand for me to pass it to him.
I stood a little way behind him, not breathing as he checked her wounds and began bandaging her up. "It's not as bad as it looks," He said reassuringly, "you have a couple of small wounds on your neck, but they are very narrow and not too deep. I have stopped the bleeding already. There might be quite a lot of bruising though."
"Beatrice, if you can, could you find some ice?" I called, knowing she would hear me from the trailer. "Ice will help." I said to Sarah.
"How are you feeling?" Jamie asked her. She blinked and stared at him, seeming confused. "Would you like us to take you to the hospital?" He asked her slowly, seeming a little worried. "Did you hit your head?"
She blinked again and then slowly shook her head. "No... I will be ok." Her voice came out small and frightened, it was a long way from the cool and confident presenter I had met earlier.
I felt a lot clearer headed now that she had been bandaged up and there was no longer fresh blood flowing in front of me. Although, I could still smell its lingering scent. I took a step forward, stopping immediately when Sarah flinched away from me.
"It's ok," I told her soothingly, "I am not going to hurt you." She stared at me with wide eyes, analysing my every movement. I crouched down to her sitting level slowly, not wanting to loom over her. "Do you understand what happened?"
She swallowed, taking a moment to speak. "I... I opened the door... it was so fast I didn't see him coming at all. Suddenly I was falling and then pain and then umm..." She blushed a little; I knew she was remembering the effect of the endorphins produced by David's fangs. "I still feel a little woozy now."
I nodded, "That'll be the endorphins and the blood loss. I am sorry I couldn't get him off quicker."
"Why-?" She stuttered a little, "Why did he do that? I don't understand, I thought you were more... controlled."
"You have my most sincere apologies" I told her, "I cannot say being around a vampire is ever completely safe..." Her heart rate sped up as she recognised the full danger, "However... it is true we are not usually like that. David is not himself at the moment. When we were in the facility, he was put under torture which has quite literally driven him out of his mind. He is reduced to the very basic qualities of a vampire, without any of the humanity to temper him. All he knows right now is pain and hunger. There is no thought, no higher emotion behind it."
"Why is he here then? Surely it is not safe?" She said, a note of alarm creeping into her voice.
"We didn't have a lot of choice, to be honest." I told her. "Technically he is my responsibility, but I haven't been in the greatest shape myself. We were actually working on plans to move him today, but it is difficult as you saw to contain him. At first, we weren't sure how he was going to be when he awoke, he was unconscious for a long time, so I hoped perhaps it would be healing for him."
"Why is he your responsibility?" She asked, a small crease of confusion appearing between her eyebrows.
"Because I am the one who turned him." I told her honestly, "Which makes me in charge of his wellbeing so to speak. Almost... like a parent I suppose."
"Oh, ok." She said, seeming a little surprised.
At the sound of the door zipping open, we all turned to look. Beatrice stuck her head in. I gave her a warning look but she smiled, "its ok don't worry; I have it under control now. I have brought ice." She slipped into the tent and sealed the door again to keep in the limited warmth. On one arm she carried a bag, presumably of ice and under the other she had a folded blanket. She handed both to Jamie who helped Sarah wrap the blanket around herself, before giving her the ice packs to place on her neck and bruised knee.
I waited until she was settled again before I spoke. "Anyway," I said, folding my arms. Now we had made sure she was ok, another concern was bothering me. "What exactly were you doing, sneaking around? You have no right to do that, we did your interview, you have your story."
Sarah shook her head looking mortified, "It's not like that I swear."
"What is it then?" I asked, not believing her for a moment.
"Ok, so I was sneaking around, but it wasn't for a story! I just..."
"You just what?" my voice turned venomous.
"I- I just wanted to... know more about you."
It was worse than I'd thought. "So you were stalking us?" Said Beatrice, sounding extremely unimpressed.
"No, no! Not like that."
"Well what then?" I snapped, ignoring Jamie's comforting hand on my shoulder.
To my surprise, Sarah put her face in her hands. "I didn't want to tell you like this."
"Tell us what?" I was growing impatient; I hated people with unknown motives.
She let out a sigh of defeat. "I think that we might be related."
Dumfounded, I blinked at her in surprise. That was not something I was expecting. I was instantly sceptical. "That is not possible. We don't have any family."
Now her statement was out, she seemed determined to convince us. "My grandmother had our whole family tree done a few years back. My great great- times by about 10- grandfather was Alfred Garyson Montgomery, born in 1586."
A loud crack ran through the tent. We all looked at Beatrice in alarm. She slowly withdrew her fingers from the camping table she had gripped too hard.
"Alfred Garyson?" She croaked.
Garyson Montgomery was our father, born far before 1586 as he had died in 1587. The name Alfred meant nothing to me. It was a common name in those days. I stared a Beatrice, mystified.
"How did you link this to us?" I asked Sarah suspiciously.
"I heard your names mentioned a lot in the news and at the station. They were familiar to me but I couldn't think why, especially the surname. My surname is Robinson from my father, but there are still Montgomery's in the family on the male side. After a while it clicked, and I checked the family tree." As she spoke she pulled out her phone and tapped the screen a few times. "I found your names on there, and I thought... what are the chances?"
"What are the chances indeed..." I murmured, still doubting her story.
I took the phone she held up to me, staring at the screen. It showed a long family tree, dating back to the 1500's. Zooming in on the first section, I saw my name next to Beatrice's underneath those of our parents. Unexpectedly, a single line extended below Beatrice's name, to that of Alfred Garyson Montgomery, 1586-1651. He had married someone by the name of Edith, and had produced seven children of his own. The tree extended from there.
"Beatrice?" I asked, speechless.
She was staring fixedly at the ground in silence.
"I couldn't be sure of course," Sarah cut in, "I didn't know how old you really were or anything. That's why I was trying to find out more about you in the interview... sorry about that by the way."
"It's true." Beatrice finally murmured guiltily. "I had a child."
Everyone in the room stared at her in shock. The possibility of living relatives made my head spin. Sarah gasped, "So it's true? You really are over 400 years old?"
"That's the part that you have difficulty with?" I asked her a little sarcastically.
"It's one thing to be told immortality is possible, but another entirely to have your 400 year old relatives standing there chatting to you." She retorted.
"Well I see she's inherited the wit." Jamie muttered.
Beatrice sunk down into a chair and put her head in her hands. I went to her and put my arm around her. "Beatrice? Are you alright? Why didn't you tell me about this before?"
She shook her head, still keeping her face covered. "I wanted to forget."
I exchanged a worried glance with Jamie, but he looked just as mystified as me. "Do you want to talk about it?" I asked her gently.
"I told you before, about how I went to London in search of vampires?" She asked me. I nodded, encouraging her to keep going. "I was there for a long time," She said. "I was just a girl then, young and naive. I spent a lot of time wondering in unsavoury areas, convinced I would find you or William or some other evidence. I was obsessed with finding out what had happened to you."
She referred to the days when she was still human, after I had selfishly run away with William, leaving her to mourn the loss of her sister. Only she didn't mourn for long. She had told me before about how after finding out from our father what had become of me; she had set out to search.
"It was quite early in the year, but unseasonably warm. In the evening, people were out in the streets everywhere, enjoying the weather." Beatrice continued with her story. "I was headed back to the place I was staying after another unsuccessful day of looking. I passed a group of young men. They followed me along the street laughing and shouting, clearly drunk." She swallowed and I put a hand to my mouth, anticipating where the story was leading. "I was walking through the richer part of town, so I had mistakenly assumed I would be safe. Little did I realise, that was where the real monsters were. The ones who thought they could do anything with no consequence. Their father's money would get rid of anything deemed to be unsavoury or embarrassing."
I could feel Jamie's trepidation growing. Sarah was staring at Beatrice with rapt attention, waiting to hear the rest. The tent was silent aside from a faint breeze blowing the material.
Beatrice continued; "Before I realised what was happening I was cornered. I had taken a wrong turn in my anxiousness to get away from them, leading me into a narrow alleyway. It was dark by this time and everyone else seemed to have disappeared from the streets." She paused and I sensed she was editing the story a little, "They did things to me, terrible disgusting things that I never would have believed possible of them. When it was over I thought I would die, I wished I would die... but I didn't. I don't know how long I lay on the ground, but eventually I picked myself up and left. The thought of them coming back for me kept me moving."
"Where did you go?" I asked her gently.
"Back to the place I was staying." She answered, "I was too ashamed to seek help or go to the authorities. You know things were different back then, such matters were not spoken about so easily."
I nodded, "Yes, we live in much more open times now."
"I tended my injuries and recovered, I hoped to forget the entire ordeal. However, a short time after I discovered that I was with child."
"You were pregnant?" I gasped.
Beatrice nodded sadly, her gaze a hundred miles away, "Yes. I stayed in London for the pregnancy, I could not go back to father; the dishonour would have been unbearable. However, as it was I was alone, penniless and without a permanent dwelling. So..." she sighed softly. "When I gave birth to a little boy, I took him to an orphanage. It was the best thing I could do for him. I stayed just long enough to name him and give them my name before I left."
"Then shortly after you became a vampire." I realised, adding up the timelines.
"Yes, there was no question of me being able to return after that. You know what happened with father."
I nodded and pulled her into a tight hug, sorry for her centuries old pain. As a young and uncontrolled vampire, she had killed our father. It would have been impossible for her to be anywhere near a helpless infant.
"You never checked up on him or his decedents?" Sarah asked curiously, unaware of our father's fate.
Beatrice shook her head slowly. "It was too painful to consider. My first years as a vampire were wild and out of control. By the time I was really myself again, it seemed selfish of me to find him. I did not want to damage his life more than I already had. I just wanted to forget all of it."
"I'm sorry for bringing all of this up now," Sarah said with regret in her voice, "I didn't realise it would be painful for you."
"No... I'm glad you did." Beatrice spoke softly, "As much as I tried to forget, there would always be a tiny part of me that wondered. Now, at least I have some resolution."