by Richard Amos
How much did he know about this case?
His eyes opened, looking straight at me. “Protect us in the presence of the Bringer of Doom, the evil one. His tongue is vicious, but we stand firm. The time for the blessed fire is near. He will burn, he will be cleansed from your garden like the demonic weed he is, and then the earth will be free of the pain he has wrought. Give us the strength to see this through. We will take him.”
Dean bristled beside me, the glow of his pink fae magic igniting in his curled fists.
One of the young men noticed. “Elijah!”
“He is only fae,” Elijah responded. “Stand strong. The fae are—”
Flashes of pink, then tendrils of rose light danced across the room, interconnecting, weaving a net above our heads.
Someone let out a whimper.
“God will protect you!” Elijah cried. “This fae cannot harm us.” Didn’t stop him keeping a solid lock on the weaving magic above his head. “We are full of God’s love. This creature is a demon, not from the seed of our lord.”
The net fell, smothering them. Light sliced through bodies, not hurting them, absorbing into flesh. Just like that, the prayer was broken.
Elijah blinked at me. “Jake Winter?” Then he looked around, confused, as were his dickhead followers.
But not all of them. Those unaffected by Dean’s memory magic out in the corridor came rushing in.
“Elijah!”
“What’s wrong?”
“Snap out of it?”
“We need to go to the hospital,” Elijah said. “To pray.”
The fae magic didn’t touch me or Lou—not that it’d affect me. It never had done. It’d also missed Dr. Calis.
“You are in the hospital,” a woman said to him, taking him by the shoulders. “We’re here. We have control. We can stop the badness here, show the world what we can do!” She turned to Dean. “What have you done, fae scum?”
Dean was unsteady on his feet, so I took hold of him, letting him put his weight on me. He was hurt. Using his fae power wasn’t good when he wasn’t feeling a hundred percent. Lou was right behind us, sitting on the bed, silent.
“Get out of here!” I spat.
“We’re not going anywhere. Once we take power, you’ll see, you’ll learn that we’re the real nightmare for the nightmares.”
She was British, a Birmingham accent, and her rosy skin scarred badly with what looked like knife cuts. The same on her hands. Her brown hair was scraped back into a ponytail, her features hard and pointed, her eyes an icy gray.
“I can be your nightmare,” I said. “More than you can imagine.”
“Don’t make me laugh. You’re pathetic. A heathen. Elijah is the chosen one, the true holy father. He’s bigger than any pope or bishop. He’s bigger than anything else. He is the way to God. He is touched by our lord.”
“Amen!” the followers not hit by the fae net joined her.
“Just piss off.”
“We have work to do. Don’t look so scared, Jake. We’re not ready for you yet, though you might want to watch your back. You’re not safe from a roughing up.”
“Neither are you.”
“Is that a threat?”
“Are you thick? Wait, yeah, you’ve already proved that.”
She licked her thin lips. “I wouldn’t fuck with me, Jake.”
“Oh! You swore! Tut tut! Not good for you to swear, is it? Devil tongue! Devil tongue!”
“Don’t fuck with me!” She charged at me, then froze.
She wasn’t even looking at me, but behind me.
At Lou.
I turned, ready to kill this woman if she made even the tiniest hint at laying a hand on my daughter.
“Dean!”
He turned too. “Oh, God!” He almost fell over, but I steadied him.
Lou’s eyes were pure pink, her hands glowing just like her papa’s did whenever he summoned his fae magic. That magic pulsed but didn’t leave her open palms. She was as still as stone.
“Lou?”
I caught Dean looking back and forth. “Something…Jake?”
“What?” I glanced over my shoulder. “What the fuck?”
The scary woman had frozen. Literally. She wasn’t moving at all. Neither was anyone else in the room. Not even the doctor.
“Statues,” Dean said. “She’s…how is she doing this?”
Dean was half-fae, Lou’s mum was human. That made Lou a quarter fae. She’d never shown any signs of her fae side, and Dean had told me we would’ve seen something when she was a baby. The magic was there straight away in fae babies, albeit as tiny as they were.
But this…this was…I didn’t know what to think.
“Lou?” I touched her small arms. “Honey? You can stop now.”
Her head titled, her eyes not changing. “I wanted it to stop. Too much swearing and horrible things, Daddy. I want to go home.”
“We will, honey. We will.”
“Are you okay, darling?” Dean asked.
“I want it to stop. They want to hurt Daddy and you, Papa.”
Dean sat on the bed and pulled her into his lap. She was rigid, unbending, only her head tilting back and forth. “You can stop, darling. They won’t hurt us.”
To say I was flabbergasted was an understatement. Were we knobheads to not expect this, to assume that she wouldn’t have any power of her own? I mean, we were running on facts, not assumption. I didn’t know loads about the fae world, but I knew what Dean knew and his knowledge was peachy for me.
But this…
“Come on, darling,” Dean soothed, “you can stop now.”
The magic died in her hands and then she slumped against her papa, immediately snoring.
“What the fuck?” There weren’t any other words.
Dean stroked her hair as she slept. “We need to get out of here.”
I turned back to the scary woman, who was pinching the bridge of her nose, groaning.
Commotion. “Get back!” a woman’s voice boomed.
“What—”
Men in white wrestled the stunned Conclave members to the ground out in the corridor.
“Jake Winter?” Elijah said. “Where are we?”
“I said get back.” I saw the woman, brandishing a wand, dressed all in white herself.
A supernatural council solider. They wore white these days, not like the black of a few years ago, as if they were trying to prove they were a force for good, angels we could count on.
Complete bollocks on the whole, but I was glad to see them. They must be super-pissed to be involved. I mean, they should be. The Conclave wrestling control from the police like they just did? Not right. And the Conclave were a big threat to the council and government. They couldn’t be allowed to slither into power, because that’s what they were aiming for.
The soldiers overwhelmed the Conclave and had broken the police free too—who were now back to doing their job.
“Nice to see you again, Ana,” Elijah said.
“Can’t say the same for you, Elijah.” She pointed the wand in his face, the crystal buzzing with deadly power. “Try anything and I’ll blow you apart.”
“Get away from him, bitch,” the scary woman hissed.
A male solider stuck a wand in her face. She didn’t look scared at all, but still didn’t move.
“Keep your mouth shut too, Izzie.”
Izzie. I made a note of that.
“Now,” Ana said to Elijah, “what’s going to happen is this. You’ll walk out of here and keep going until I can’t see you anymore. Go home, or to wherever you waste your time, and don’t ever try and pull this shit again. Next time you do, I’ll use this wand. You know I can without any consequences.”
“God’s judgment will be your consequence,” Elijah countered.
“Will it now? Start walking.”
“Not our fault the police are pussies,” Izzie added.
“That’s enough,” the male solider said. “Walk.”
T
hey marched but started chanting some prayers again. I didn’t listen, didn’t care. My daughter had just displayed signs of fae magic and frozen the whole room.
Another soldier took over with the wand-pointing at Elijah, and Ana came over to us.
“Ana,” she said, offering her wand-free hand.
We both shook it.
She had skin like white marble, blue eyes, and a serious expression I guessed never really left her face. Guess that came with working for the council as a solider.
“Thanks for the help,” Dean said. “Big move by them, isn’t it?”
“They’re arseholes,” she replied, “thinking they can overthrow the police like that. Those officers will need some better training to deal with these type of situations.”
“There were a lot of them,” I added.
“Doesn’t matter. We can’t have them ruling the roost. Anyway, are you both alright? Your daughter?”
“Fine,” I said. “Thanks.”
“I can escort you home if you like. Just to be safe.”
“What about the situation in the hospital?”
“The necromancers have it under control.”
I took a deep breath, needing the safety of home. “We’re ready to go home.”
“Great. Come with me.”
ELEVEN
DEAN
I sat propped up in bed, Louise between me and Jake, still snoring. I’d scanned her, checked her thoroughly. Nothing out of the ordinary. Didn’t lessen my worry for her, though. This power of hers had been a complete bolt out of the blue.
“What’re we gonan do?” Jake asked. “Who can we talk to about this?”
It had to be someone fae, but who? I didn’t want to visit Faerie, or even call my dad. But I knew it had to be my father. My power was from his blood, Louise’s mine. But the idea of it made my blood run cold.
We weren’t on the best of terms because he had no interest in being a dad or a grandad. Still, I’d need to contact him, bite the bullet and send him a letter via Faerie Post.
The sudden manifestation of my daughter’s magic was terrifying. It never happened. And for her to freeze a room like that? We had to get her seen to, in case there was more. What if there was more? What if she was a sudden leap in fae evolution, the beginning of the next stage of our species?
My head swam, the pain from my injuries an irritating reminder of what that guy in the hoody had done. I needed sleep. It’d clear my head, help me focus better.
“You look exhausted,” Jake said gently. “Let’s just not do this now.” He turned off his light and plunged the room into darkness. “Sleep, Dean. We’ll figure this out in the morning.”
I was gone before I knew it.
SUNLIGHT WOKE ME UP, glowing along the fringes of the drawn curtains.
It was Thursday.
I sat up, head still sore, cuts stinging. It was eight in the morning, and I could smell something good wafting into the room.
Jake and Louise weren’t in the bed.
I went to the bathroom to pee, which never seemed to end, pulled on my dressing gown and padded downstairs.
“Morning,” Jake said over his shoulder, busy at the stove.
“Hallo, Papa.” My daughter was swinging her legs, sat up at the table. “How you feeling?”
I took a seat next to her. “A bit sore, darling. How are you? Something smells good.”
“I decided we’re having a full English,” Jake said. “The works. Sausage, bacon, eggs, hash browns, beans, tomatoes, fried bread, toast, mushrooms.”
“A feast.”
“Yep.”
“Can’t wait.”
He blew me a kiss over his shoulder. “You looking forward to a day of rest?”
No. “Yes. At least we can still have our day,” I said to Louise.
“Ja, Papa.”
“And I’ve decided there’s no schoolwork today.”
“Yay! Really, Papa?”
“Yes. This is a day of movies and popcorn and fun.”
“Yay!”
“Ah, I’m jealous,” Jake said.
“Wish you could stay, Daddy.”
“There’s a few things I need to do first, honey. But save that movie about the talking cats and dogs for me. I’m dying to see it.”
“Will do, Daddy.”
“Thanks, Lou.”
We hadn’t discussed anything last night. “What are your plans for today?”
“We’ll have a chat after breakfast, yeah?”
“Okay.”
He popped a plate of food in front of Louise. It looked bigger than her.
“Gotta to get my carbs in,” she said, and Jake howled with laughter.
“Looks delicious,” I said.
What were these plans of his? I needed to know now but knew better than to push.
It was my turn for food. How many calories were on this plate? To hell with it. I loved a Full English, and I think we’d all earned it. He placed a coffee beside it.
“Enjoy.” He bent and kissed my cheek, then did the same to Louise.
“Are you having anything?”
“Of course.” He sat down with his own plate and a cup of tea. “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Ain’t that right, Lou?”
She nodded enthusiastically while filling her mouth with baked beans.
“It’s certainly the greatest today.” I picked up my cutlery and tucked in, lost in food thoughts for a little while.
AFTER THE HEARTY MEAL, a dose of healing potion which we had stored in a bathroom cabinet, and three cups of coffee, I felt a lot better than when I’d first woke up. Now I was sitting in the living room, Jake standing by the TV.
“I got an email this morning from Mr. Z about that thing that was outside.”
I’d seen it when we’d arrived home. Ana had spotted it too and had taken it away in a protective chest, sealing it with runes. We had one back at the office, using it as a trap sometimes. I really needed to get another one for the house now. They were expensive, but worth it, and we needed to be better prepared in case anything like this happened again.
“The council found necromancy in it,” he added. “So they sent to it to Deathwell and they’re convinced it’s a charm.”
“A charm?”
“Yeah, some death charm. But wait for it. Guess what?”
“What?”
“There was one in the morgue with Merel, and with that guy killed outside our office. His name was Nick, by the way. Anyway, he was brought into the morgue too and ended up joining in the reanimation party. There was one of those charms in cold storage with him. He’d been banging to get out, even without a head.”
“Wait, what? How didn’t anyone see these charms? I was there and saw nothing on or around Merel.”
He shrugged. “It was stuck to her back.”
How was that possible? “But she was checked. That makes no sense.”
“Mr. Z is looking into it but thinks that the charm is what caused the bodies to get up and attack. With everything contained in the hospital, it had a wider effect than with Sander being outside. They reckon this new necro is leaving them behind, but not straight away—like they’re an after-effect of the magic.”
“They’re made during the reanimation?”
“That’s one theory. They also think these charms are blocking ghosts. The whole hospital was blocked out, so none of the recently dead could talk to a necro.”
“That’s incredible to have that much power. Is that wrong for me to say?”
Jake shrugged. “It kinda is, but it’s also fucking annoying.”
Charms of death. Or was that charms of reanimation? I’d never heard of anything like it. As far as I was aware, necromancy was used via a magical spell—a transference of that specific magic to the corpse which gave the necromancer dominion over the body. Most of the time it was used to get rid of bodies or talk to ghosts of the dead if they were still around.
“Really annoying,” I replied. “So, what
are these things you’re doing today, baby?”
His intense cobalt eyes locked onto me for a moment, which made me squirm in my seat. It was a mixture of unnerving and sexual energy. Heat flushed to my groin. He had a ‘will he fuck me or kill me or both?’ vibe to him. It was hot most of the time. But not now. He had something to tell me.
“I’m going to Thomas’s house,” he said. “You can’t, so I will. We have to know more about him.”
“No, Jake.”
“Dean, I wouldn’t. I’m going.”
“It’s too dangerous.”
“What, so for you to go is okay, but not me? I’m supposed to let you walk into danger?”
“That’s—”
“That is what you’re saying.”
I knew when I was beaten. “You’re right.”
“Look, I’ve called Lars, he’s coming with me as backup. I wouldn’t go in by myself. Anyway, the place is under surveillance, right?”
“It is.”
“He probably won’t be there,” he added, “but there might be something else. Also need to look more into Merel and Nick.”
I wasn’t happy, but he was so right. I curled my feet inward so they were tight balls in my slippers—my way of hiding my anxiety. The rest of me I kept as cool as I could muster.
“I’ll also try and talk to the goblins tonight. Kind of got lost last night.”
“I can do that if you want.”
He shook his head. “You’re staying in today. That’s an order. You need to rest up, conserve your energy for Friday.” He winked.
I smiled. “I guess I do. But I can help lighten the load.”
He bent, cupping my face in his hands and kissing me so softly on the lips. “Nope,” he breathed. “I want you here and safe. Please, Dean. Just for today, stay inside with Lou. It was supposed to be your day anyway. Let me get on with this without thinking about where you are.” He let my face go. “Promise me.”
God, the way his gentle kiss made my lips tingle. “I promise, baby.”
“Thank you. I love you.”
“Love you too.”
“Okay, Lou!” he called. “Daddy’s leaving in a minute.”
She bundled into the room for a cuddle.