Shrill Dusk (City of Magic Book 1)

by Helen Harper

  ‘What are you doing with that wolf?’ I demanded.

  ‘Burying him,’ answered the younger woman, shooting an angry glance at her companion. ‘It’s the least we can do.’

  Nobody would be out here digging a grave for a wild animal because they felt like it. There was no chance that these two weren’t mixed up in all this – whatever this was.

  ‘I think Monroe might take issue with that,’ I said, my voice ringing out with surprising clarity. ‘After all,’ I added, taking an educated gamble, ‘that is his werewolf.’

  Neither woman masked their reaction. The older one, whose shock was visible in every line of her body, carefully laid down her end of the dead wolf and faced me. ‘You know Monroe? And his … wolves?’

  ‘Very well,’ I lied. I peered at her. Suddenly I realised why she looked so familiar. ‘You’re that actress,’ I said. ‘From the soap opera that’s filmed around here. You’re Julie Chivers.’

  She raised her chin. ‘What if I am?’ she asked coolly.

  I blinked, my mouth going dry as I got a better look at her face. It wasn’t that she was famous that held my attention – I’m not the starstruck kind. It was that her skin was ridiculously pale, her eyes were red and her teeth…

  ‘Say it,’ she said.

  ‘You’re a…’ The word wouldn’t come out. It seemed too crazy.

  ‘Vampire,’ finished the younger woman. ‘She’s a vampire.’ She sniffed. ‘Before you ask, I’m human.’

  My gaze moved from one to the other. Both of them looked shell shocked and it didn’t appear that I was in any immediate danger from them, but that didn’t mean I was about to let my guard down. Especially given what Julie Chivers had revealed about herself. Under any other circumstances I’d have laughed in her face, but there was no humour in this situation.

  I found my voice. ‘I suppose being a forever-young vampire is cheaper than Botox.’

  The actress managed a weak smile. ‘Indeed.’ She arched an eyebrow. ‘I don’t suppose you have any gin, darling?’

  The younger woman rolled her eyes before dropping the werewolf’s body. She walked over to me. ‘I’m Jodie,’ she said. ‘How do you know Monroe? Have you seen him? Is he alright?’

  Until I knew more about them, I wasn’t giving much away. ‘Oh,’ I drawled, ‘we’re old friends. In fact he was round at my house yesterday for tea with Madrona.’

  Jodie’s head jerked. ‘You know Madrona too?’ Her eyes narrowed. ‘You’re not a faery. If you were, you’d have disappeared with all the others.’ She snorted in derision. ‘Bloody typical. They show up, almost cause the end of the world and then vanish back to their homeland leaving us to clean up their mess.’

  ‘What do you mean “vanish back to their homeland”?’

  Jodie laughed coldly. ‘You don’t know as much as you’re pretending to, do you? There was a sphere, a magical sphere which—’

  ‘I know about the sphere,’ I interrupted. ‘What happened to it?’

  Jodie’s lip curled and she pointed at Julie in disgust. ‘She set it off. We were all a whisker away from being blown to magical oblivion when Madrona swallowed it. Then all the damn faeries vanished. I doubt they’ll be back.’

  I swallowed. ‘So Monroe was right? There’s no more apocalypse?’ I released a long breath. ‘We’re all going to back to normal.’ No more dragons or werewolves or vampires or crazy magic shit. Praise be.

  Unfortunately, Julie was shaking her head. ‘The magic is still here. Obviously there’s not enough of it to destroy the world but it’s all around us. I can feel it.’ She rubbed her arms. ‘I still have my power.’ There was a quiet satisfaction in her tone, despite the anguish in her expression.

  Jodie glared at her. ‘Congratulations. The world is ruined but we can all rest easy because you’re still strong.’

  There was a flash of anger in Julie’s eyes. Before the pair of them came to blows, I stepped in. ‘Actually, I’m almost certain that only Manchester is affected. Everyone has been evacuated by the army but there are still helicopters hovering overhead.’

  ‘The magic is still here,’ Julie said. ‘It’s staying, no matter what else happens.’

  ‘Great,’ Jodie replied sarcastically. ‘Well done you.’

  Julie flinched.

  ‘Why did you … set off the sphere?’ I asked.

  ‘Because,’ Jodie answered for her, ‘she’s a selfish bitch who decided she liked being an all-powerful vampire instead of a weak-arsed woman who needs to drink blood to survive. She wanted there to be magic. She didn’t care if the rest of us died in the process.’

  Huh. When Julie didn’t answer immediately, I figured that Jodie must be telling the truth. It was no wonder I had a headache coming on.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Julie said eventually. ‘I know it sounds feeble but it’s true.’ She waved a hand in the air. ‘Call it bloodlust or insanity or sheer nastiness. People have been hunting my kind of centuries and for once I decided to fight back.’ At that, Jodie snorted derisively. Julie flinched. ‘I was wrong. I…’ her voice faltered. ‘I’m sorry.’ Then she sniffed. ‘Besides, things aren’t so bad. The worst of the magic is safely down that well in the Arndale Centre. Manchester will be okay.’

  ‘Does it look okay to you?’ Jodie snapped.

  ‘What do you mean?’ I asked. ‘What well in the Arndale Centre?’

  Jodie glanced at me. ‘All the freaky shit started happening because faeries like Madrona were using too much magic and it was building up in the atmosphere. They forced the magic in the air down an old wishing well in the Arndale Centre to get everything back to normal. It would have all been fine if Julie hadn’t grabbed the sphere, set it off and made everything ten times worse. If Madrona hadn’t taken the sphere when she did and swallowed it, the whole world would have imploded. And it would all have been Julie’s fault.’ Her voice was rising. Given what she was telling me, I wasn’t surprised.

  I bit my lip. ‘Did you kill all the werewolves?’

  Julie blanched. ‘No. Bloody hell, darling, no. That was another mad faery. The wolves were trying to stop him from using the sphere, so he stopped them first by killing them. Their deaths were nothing to do with me. You have to tell Monroe that.’

  I absorbed her words, matching them against everything I already knew. ‘So if I’ve understood everything correctly, there were all these faeries who happened to drop by Manchester. They were using too much magic, and that’s why there were rats and fiery rain and crazy-arse trees. Then there was some kind fight between a bunch of these faeries that involved magic and the sphere thing. If it had gone badly, we would have died – but it didn’t. The fight’s over and the faeries have gone. Instead of normality, however, we’re still left with all this magic hanging around.’ Not to mention the other supernatural creatures that were appearing all over the place.

  ‘You’ve got it in a nutshell,’ Jodie said tiredly. ‘Madrona stopped the worst of it but she didn’t stop it quickly enough for Manchester not to be affected. Right now we’re trying to tidy things up here and bury the dead.’ She pointed. I saw several more dead wolves lying in an incongruously neat row. ‘After that,’ she shrugged, ‘who the hell knows?’

  I blew air out between my teeth. ‘Who indeed?’ I murmured. I took my backpack off and reached inside it. Jodie and Julie stiffened and Julie actually bared her fangs. I’d never seen her do that on television.

  ‘Muesli bar?’ I enquired, taking them out and holding them towards the women. It was a strange peace offering but it might do the trick.

  ‘No thanks, darling,’ Julie said. Her eyes drifted towards my exposed neck. ‘I’d take a quick sip of you though.’

  Although I had no real fear that she’d carry out her wish, I reacted instinctively, putting out my hands to ward her off. She staggered backwards, letting out a small cry, then she stared at me. ‘That’s a werewolf. I’m a vampire. She’s a human.’ She blinked. ‘But what the hell are you?’

  Jodie reache
d out and took one of the bars, unwrapped it and started to munch. ‘Someone I want to get to know better, that’s for sure.’

  Chapter Twelve

  Jodie and I took the rest of the muesli bars and headed out beyond the trees to eat them while Julie remained under the leafy cover, apparently afraid of the sunlight.

  ‘So what you’re saying,’ Jodie mused, through a mouthful of raisins and oats, ‘is that you spent the night with the sphere. You slept with it.’

  I shrugged. ‘Yeah.’

  She eyed me. ‘The magic contained within it must have rubbed off on you. Got inside your system or something.’

  ‘That doesn’t make sense.’

  ‘What about any of this makes sense?’ She was making a fair point.

  I pondered her theory; right now, it was the only thing that fit. ‘So I’m like a witch now?’

  She wrinkled her nose. ‘That sounds too much like a Halloween game.’

  ‘A wizard.’

  ‘Too much like Harry Potter,’ Julie called from where she was sheltering. ‘I bloody hate Harry Potter. I auditioned three times for it, you know. Not even one call back.’

  Jodie ignored her and wrinkled her nose. ‘A magician?’

  I thought about it. ‘Nah. I’m not about to start pulling rabbits out of top hats.’ I considered further. ‘I’m an … enchantress.’

  ‘No.’ She grinned. ‘You’re the enchantress. No other human is like you. No other human slept next to that stupid sphere like you did.’

  I looked at her warily. ‘How do we know there aren’t more of these spheres around?’

  ‘A dragon created it. I’m pretty certain it was a one-off.’

  I kept my eyes away from Liung’s body. ‘A dragon like him?’

  ‘A different one.’ She shrugged. ‘I don’t think there are many of them.’

  I thought about what Liung had looked like when he was in dragon form. It was probably just as well they weren’t all over the place. Given the other creatures I’d met recently, though, maybe I’d prefer to have more dragons around.

  I finished my last mouthful and screwed up the wrapper as the whomp-whomp of another helicopter reverberated through the air. Jodie stiffened, her head craning back. I put a reassuring hand on her arm. ‘They’ve been flying overhead all morning. It’s a good thing, it’s how we know the rest of the world is alright. I think they’re checking up on the city. They’re not doing anything much.’

  Famous last words. We both jumped as a disembodied voice boomed down from a loudspeaker that surpassed even the noise from the helicopter’s blades. ‘Remaining citizens of Manchester! Please be aware that, as of midnight tonight, the city will be in lockdown. Anyone who wishes to leave must do so before then. From tomorrow, in order to contain the situation and isolate the problem, no one will be permitted to leave for the foreseeable future. Exit points are currently located at Eccles, Prestwich, Denton and Stretford. All other routes are closed. I repeat, all remaining residents must vacate the city by midnight tonight. Anyone staying after this time will not be permitted to leave until the area is deemed safe. Supplies will be dropped at various points across the city today, but from midnight the city will be a no-fly zone.’

  The helicopter hovered above us for another few seconds, as if waiting for us to respond. I leaned back and gave it a friendly wave; whether anyone waved back or not, I couldn’t tell. It eventually zipped away, moving over the trees and out of sight. We heard the same announcement again, albeit slightly more muffled this time.

  ‘Shit.’ Jodie’s eyes widened. ‘They’re really stepping things up.’

  ‘They can’t do that,’ Julie huffed from her hiding place. ‘They can’t cut off an entire city from the rest of the world.’

  I reckoned they could – and they would. This was unknown territory for everyone and the government needed to be seen to be doing everything it could to save lives, if not actual cities. Almost three million people lived in Manchester, though; that was a huge number to have to re-house. I was glad that wasn’t my problem.

  I ticked off my fingers, calculating. ‘I could be wrong but, even by conservative estimates, at least ninety percent of the city’s population must have already left. If there are more helicopters doing the same thing, another five or six percent will also evacuate. That will leave, at most, only fifty thousand people.’ That was good. There would be less fighting for supplies – and less chance that Max’s plans to control all the food in the city would work. But we still needed to prepare.

  I checked my watch, stood up and dusted myself off. I was covered in an extraordinary layer of dark ash and all I’d been doing was having a brief, impromptu picnic.

  ‘There’s over twelve hours to go. I’m going to have to get a move on and head off.’

  ‘You’re leaving Manchester?’

  I snorted in amusement. ‘I’m the enchantress. I can’t leave. And anyway, I’ll now be counted as being wholly contaminated by magic.’ The Army had probably set up quarantine zones. I was damned if I was going to be locked away for several months – or years – until I was deemed safe.

  I grinned. ‘Whatever the rest of the world might think, Manchester has become the world’s coolest place. I didn’t want to leave before and I definitely don’t want to leave now. You guys seem confident that the worst of the magic has been contained, so hopefully there’ll be no more plagues of rats or locusts or burning rain. Staying here is going to mean a life less ordinary – and who doesn’t want that?’

  Then I thought of Monroe and grimaced. ‘I might know one or two people who need to leave, though. And I want to get my hands on some of those supplies that are being dropped.’

  Jodie’s gaze shifted and she twitched in discomfort.

  ‘Go on then!’ Julie yelled. ‘Say it!’

  ‘Say what?’ she mumbled.

  ‘You want to go with her. Ask her! I don’t care what you do, darling. It’s not like we’re best buddies or anything. I don’t care if you leave me here!’

  I raised an eyebrow. Julie Chivers could be remarkably melodramatic; I supposed it came with the territory of being both a soap star and a vampire. ‘You’re very welcome to come with me if you want to,’ I told Jodie. ‘I’ve got plenty of space.’ I shrugged. ‘In fact, all the houses on my street have been abandoned so you could have one to yourself. But we have to leave now. Yes, I know those werewolves deserve a decent burial but they’re not going anywhere.’ I hesitated. ‘Unless they turn into zombies. Are there likely to be zombies?’

  Jodie chewed her bottom lip. ‘I don’t think so. I think the only undead creatures are vampires like her.’ She nodded towards Julie.

  That wasn’t very reassuring. If you’d asked me three days ago, I’d have said it was impossible that dragons and werewolves and faeries existed. I supposed that until it was proven otherwise, I’d have to hope that zombies were not one of the new denizens of the mostly empty city of Manchester.

  ‘Let’s hope you’re right.’ I glanced over towards the trees. ‘You can come with us too,’ I called to Julie.

  Jodie hissed slightly, while Julie was so surprised that she apparently forgot it was daylight and poked her head out from behind a tree to look at me. ‘Perhaps something got lost in translation,’ she said. ‘I’m a vampire. I’m responsible for the near destruction of the entire world.’ She sniffed. ‘I want to drink your blood. All of it. In one long gulp.’

  Well, I figured, at least she was honest. ‘Are you going to drink my blood?’

  ‘No, darling. Not if you have gin to hand.’

  ‘Are you going to drink anyone else’s blood?’

  This time there was slightly more hesitation. ‘No,’ she said slowly. She pursed her lips. ‘Not if they don’t want me to.’

  Jodie folded her arms. ‘She can’t be trusted.’

  She was probably right. Who would trust a vampire? Especially a vampire with excellent acting skills? But I was certain that it was better to have Julie Chivers, with her
fangs extraordinaire, under my nose where I could see her than have her roaming around the city and preying on the vulnerable people who were left behind. And we all fucked up from time to time, maybe not on such an epic scale as almost causing the apocalypse, but still— The woman deserved a second chance. I’d killed my little brother and people forgave me. Well, some of them did. Giving Julie a safe berth, even temporarily, could be good thing. It was a calculated risk, my favourite kind.

  ‘If she wants to come with us,’ I said firmly, ‘she can.’ I wagged my finger at Julie. ‘But the first time you try to bite anyone I’ll do my enchantress voodoo shit and I won’t hold back.’

  ‘What exactly are you capable of, darling?’ Julie enquired, all smiles now that I’d made her my new BFF.

  How the hell did I know? Then I reminded myself that it wouldn’t do much good to look baffled or incompetent in front of an actual vampire. I pasted on my best poker expression and waved my hand airily at the devastation in front of us. ‘Believe me, darling,’ I drawled, matching her luvvie tone with my own. ‘You ain’t seen nothing yet.’

  ***

  It took far longer than I’d anticipated to get back to my warm, familiar house. Jodie and Julie bickered the entire way and Julie spent more time than we could afford darting in and out of shadows to avoid any sunny sections of the streets. I marched ahead, my arms swinging as I tried to maintain a brisk pace. It didn’t do much good.

  I tried to remind myself that my two strays had been in a battle for the survival of the world; maybe I should cut them some slack. It was about the only thing that stopped me from knocking their heads together when they continued to argue and snipe.

  If I’d thought I could relax once I was under the relative safety of my own roof, I was sadly mistaken. The sour stench of desperation was palpable when I pushed open the front door.

  I checked the downstairs rooms; they were all empty. Directing Jodie and Julie to the kitchen, and hoping they wouldn’t destroy too much of my paltry crockery collection by flinging it at each other, I headed upstairs. Cath and Lizzy were outside one of the bedrooms, their ears pressed against the closed door. They hadn’t even heard me come in.