London Under Midnight Read Online Free PDF Page A

sheet of green paper. 'Expenses form. Receipts please. Now do it. Go vampire hunting.'
        

FOUR
        
        That moment of waking… which sense comes alive first?
        This time smell. Wet soil.
        Second: Sound. A rustle. Paper? Leaves? A dry whisper.
        Third: Touch. A pressure on the side of her jaw.
        Another sound; this one liquid in motion. A bath?
        Where is this? Am I in bed? Have I forgotten to empty the bath?
        Look for yourself.
        For a moment she willed her eyelids to slide back. She tried again. For some reason she couldn't open her eyes. Come to that, she couldn't move her arms. She sensed she was lying on her stomach with her head to one side.
         Why can I hear water, and smell wet soil, if I'm in bed?
        Then without planning to say it she asked out loud: 'What's your name?'
        The question blazed through her like lightning. This time her eyelids flew back. A light of such brilliance shone into her face she gasped. Even though she couldn't move her head her eyes darted in panic trying to see her surroundings, but all they did tell her was that a retina-searing light filled her world. Only now she couldn't close her eyes again. All she could do was stare into what seemed the heart of the sun.
        'What's your name?' she whispered. Vertigo tugged at her because the only fact she was certain of was this: I don't know my own name…
        Noises, sensations, smells jostled for attention. There were more of them. The pungent tang of oil. A subtler odour of pond water. She heard her own breathing. It suddenly seemed over-loud; its rhythm all wrong. Abrupt intakes of breath followed by a long exhale. What's more she realized that she whispered as she breathed out, yet she couldn't make sense of what she was saying. With an effort she managed to move her tongue. Particles of grit scratched against her teeth. Her mouth tasted bitter, as if she'd taken a mouthful of mouldy bread.
        'What's happened to me?'
        Reaching deep inside of herself, she clutched at the strength to close her eyes. They slid shut blocking out the awful intensity of daylight. For ten seconds she kept them closed. Her lungs sounded like some weird pneumatic apparatus. Spasmodic inhalations followed by a long whispering release. Overlying that, a persistent rustling alongside liquid notes. Strange music…
        The next time she opened her eyes it was easier. The violent blaze of light had gone. It had been replaced with a flood of tungsten brilliance. Okay, still very bright but no longer painfully so.
        'What happened to me… what's my name?'
        The only reply was the dry rustling close by. She found she could blink easily now. As she did so, what she gazed at swiftly resolved itself into sharp focus. There, in front of her, just inches away, was a ruffled expanse of little stones. The area had been formed into ridges, each one no more than an inch high at the most. Beyond those, moving in an eerie dance, were slender green limbs.
        'I know what you are,' she murmured at the green dancers. 'Just need the right word.' She licked her lips. They tasted bitter, too. 'You are…' The effort of remembering ran through her with all the force of a painful cramp. ' Reeds… . you are reeds.' She sighed with relief at recalling the word. The relief was brutally short-lived.
        Reeds? Stones? With another supreme effort she moved her head so she could look down along her body. She was wearing her black dress. The bottom half of her body lay in water. In this light the water resembled liquid platinum. What had been a numb sense of bewilderment backed off before savage jabs of panic hit her.
        'Oh, please, God… what's happened to me?'
        Panic threatened to become a deluge of horror. Her mind swam with vertigo once more. At that moment it seemed preferable to retreat back into unconsciousness in the hope that when she