by Steve McHugh
“Fucking hell, look at all of this shit,” he exclaimed and grabbed a handful of files. “Jack was right; this bastard had shitloads on us all.”
“Burn it. Felix won’t be needing it again where he’s going.”
“We should leave it ’til last though, just in case we don’t find those two.” The second man glanced around the room. “I saw them come in. Where could they be hiding?” He drew his dagger and walked around the room, looking behind the cabinets and in any place that someone could possibly hide.
“They ain’t here,” the first man said. “This old place probably has secret tunnels and stuff. They could have left. They could be watching the house, waiting for us to leave.”
“So that we lead them back to Jack? That’s very clever. These two are devious little bastards.”
“It’s just a theory,” the first man pointed out. “They could also be hiding under the beds upstairs.”
The second man picked up some of the files from inside one of the cabinets and flicked through the paper, before throwing it up into the air. “Maybe we should bring Felix back here to watch his world burn before we kill him.”
“That’s up to Jack, not us.”
“Yeah, well, maybe Jack should let us have a bit more freedom.”
“And maybe Jack will cut your bollocks off if you ever let him hear you say that.”
The second man mumbled something I couldn’t hear, but he didn’t sound too thrilled about being threatened. “We’re all Reavers here. Jack’s no better than anyone else.”
“Except he is in every single way better than us. If you don’t see that, your life is going to be a lot shorter than mine.”
“He does let us cut up those women.” The second man’s smile could have been seen from the front door. “I enjoy that.” He absentmindedly played with the blade on his knife. “When do you reckon he’s going to let us get more? It’s been a few weeks since the last one.”
“You brought a lot of trouble our way with that last murder. Too messy.”
“What about that bloke who’s always with Jack? He sent a fuckin’ kidney to the coppers. A kidney. Who does that? Who goes out of their way to piss off the fuckin’ coppers? He’s fuckin’ nuts. Scares me more than Jack ever did.”
“Well it’s up to Jack who does what,” the first man said, without looking up from the file he was reading.
“What’s that?”
“It had a note on it for that Nathan bloke. Apparently they put him through the Harbinger trials.”
“Like us?”
The first man nodded. “Looks that way.”
“Did he fail too?”
“Doesn’t say. He was thirteen years old though.”
“Thirteen? And they say that we’re monsters for killing folk. Putting a thirteen-year-old through those is . . . well, it’s inhuman.”
“I’m surprised you know what the word means.”
“I’m surprised I haven’t cut ya fuckin’ throat.”
The first man chuckled, although there wasn’t any humor in it. “Just go search over there by the stairs, I’m reading.”
The second man appeared irritated at being told what to do, but he did it anyway. He walked toward us, looking under the staircase. “There’s no one here,” he declared.
“I know, I just wanted your stink away from me,” the first man said with a genuine laugh.
The second man stood still, glaring at his companion. “That wasn’t funny.”
He took a step back, ending only a few inches away from where Fiona and I hid. Fiona motioned with a slight move of her head, for me to glance down, where she held up three fingers. She dropped one finger, so only two remained, and I nodded for her to go ahead. She didn’t bother dropping more fingers.
Fiona exploded from a standing position, launching herself up toward the man in front of us, who had no time to react before she’d rammed his head into the staircase. The first man turned at the noise and tried to run, but slipped on the papers at his feet, giving me ample time to throw a ball of air at him, which threw him back into the open cabinet behind.
He responded by grabbing several of the files, and throwing them at me, making it rain paper. He darted forward, the glint of a blade the first I knew of his plan before it swiped up at me through the paper haze.
I dodged aside, grabbed his wrist, and smashed my forearm onto his elbow. He shrieked out as the joint broke, but didn’t drop the blade, so, keeping hold of his wrist, I stepped around him, kicking his legs out and putting all of my weight on the broken joint as he crashed to the floor.
He finally dropped the dagger after I broke his wrist, before a kick to the head sent him into the darkness that comes with being unconscious. I left one man and moved quickly to the other, who was straddling Fiona on the dirty floor, his dagger still in one hand, while he used the other to pin her arm to the floor. He noticed me, and for the briefest of seconds his concentration wavered. That was all Fiona needed. She grabbed the dagger from his hand, and plunged it into his thigh. He screamed out, and Fiona punched him in the jaw. I heard it break and he fell back to the floor.
Fiona stood and grabbed the dagger. “This is your femoral artery,” she explained to him. “If I remove this dagger, it won’t end well. It’s silver, yes? I saw you at Mister Baker’s place of business. I know that you’re an alchemist. I know you’re involved with the Jack the Ripper murders. I know that you’re a Reaver. Are we clear on what I know?”
He mumbled something.
“Good, because I’m going to ask you some questions, and I want answers. I know your jaw is broken, but you can just answer with a yes or no, if you’d prefer.”
I glanced over at the first man, who was groggily getting back to his feet. A blast of hardened air at his temple took him back to the ground with a crash. “I’m going to take him upstairs,” I told Fiona. “You okay down here?”
Fiona grabbed the dagger hilt and twisted it slightly. The killer on the ground whimpered slightly. “I’m fine.”
“Answer her questions and you may get out of this in one piece,” I told him.
“No,” Fiona told him, “you’ll die here. The only question is how bad that death will be.” She twisted the hilt again. “Shall we begin?”
I took the first man up to the same room that Felix had taken me to when I’d first arrived at the house with Alan and Diana, what felt like years previously, but had in reality only been a few days.
While the man was unconscious, I used the time to prepare for what I was going to need to do. When I was ready, I threw a pitcher of water in his face. He woke up with a start, and immediately struggled.
“I found some old chains when I was searching the house,” I told him, pointing to the chains that ensnared him, tying him to a large metal ring that had been put into the floor. “They’re pretty worn, but shouldn’t be easy to break. You were out for a bit, so you can’t be all that powerful.”
“You have no idea what I am.”
“You’re fae,” I said. “I noticed the wings when I carried you upstairs.”
The façade evaporated from the man’s face, replaced with a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth and larger than normal ears. Fae only changed their appearance when losing control, or hunting prey.
“What’s your name?” I asked, ignoring the snapping of his jaws.
“I’m going to tear you—”
I punched him in the nose. “Shhh,” I said softly. “Be nice, or I’m going to remove those teeth for you.”
The façade slipped back over his face. “You’re Nathan Garrett. You should be helping us, not fighting us.”
“That’s an interesting idea. Why should I be doing that?”
“We’re doing this for Avalon, for all of us. We’re doing this because of what we want Avalon to become.”
“The only thing I want Avalon to become is devoid of deluded little animals like yourself.”
The man tugged at the chains again. “What did you do to me?”
“Nothing,” I admitted. “The chains though, well that’s different. You see in one of these rooms, Felix has an arsenal. Seriously, dozens and dozens of weapons all lined up and on one side I found two ordinary looking chains. The links are a bit bigger than usual, but that’s it. But then I discovered a link in the floor here to put chains. So, I said to myself, why would Felix want to hold people with chains?”
“Rune-marked chains, I’m glad he’s under the watch of Jack. He deserves it.”
“No runes. It wasn’t until I picked them up that I realized what I was looking at. There’s something about fae that not many people know. A dark fae and a light fae cancel one another out. If they come into contact, even from a few inches away, they nullify one another. Would you like to guess what’s inside that chain?”
“A fae?” he said with a nervous laugh.
“Sort of. It’s the hair of a light fae. I’ve seen these kinds of chains before; a blacksmith in Camelot makes them. One who several friends of mine spent a lot of time around as children. He once taught me about these. So, as long as that chain is near you, you’re pretty much a human with some occasionally serious facial issues and wings. And I’m not sure if you’ve ever been told this, but translucent wings aren’t scary.”
“What do you want?”
“Where is Felix?”
“Whitechapel. You want the address?”
I didn’t even bother to try and hide the shock.
“What? I give you the address, you rush over there and get yourself killed. Hopefully that gives me enough time to scarper, because I don’t want to be the person Jack gets mad at. Jack killed a werelion because he fucked up. No magic, no powers, just knives. We weren’t meant to let people know we aren’t human, and the werelion bit some girl. So, yes, I’d really rather not be found having fucked up. Actually if you could kill my comrade, that would help. I could just tell Jack that he’s the one who blabbed it all. Where is he anyway?”
“Indisposed. You’re a Reaver?”
“Yes. I am a Reaver. Was BOA, took the Harbinger exam, and then wallop, no longer capable of becoming a Harbinger. Apparently it’s my temperament. In my unconscious state I murdered a bunch of people. Shame it wasn’t real.”
“Must have been a real heartbreaker.”
“You have no idea. I saw your name downstairs. Thirteen years old, eh? That’s pretty evil. I assume it worked, because you’re still with Avalon, and you’re not dribbling every other word.”
“What do you know about it?” I demanded.
“Nothing. I guess you want to find Felix and ask him. I guess, if you’re nice and all, Jack might give you some time together. Probably not, though. He’s not very nice.”
“So, you and your partner downstairs, along with Jack and a fourth man, were Jack the Ripper?”
“There were five of us before the werelion was killed. But yes, we were Jack the Ripper. Well, him and about half a dozen other murderers. I guess you heard me downstairs. That buffoon I came in with started writing shit on walls, and hacking at the women. Two in one night, taking pieces of them, he wanted to make a name for himself.”
“And this fourth man sent the kidney to the police?”
He nodded. “His name is Enfield. He’s . . . he’s a wrong ’en. I’ve met some seriously deranged individuals in my life—hell, one of them entered this house with me—but Enfield, he’s a different level of twisted.”
“Tell me about Jack.”
“Jack’s in charge. He’s our captain . . . of sorts. The one with me tonight thought it funny to use Jack as the name of the murderer. Jack was livid, I thought he was going to kill the stupid bastard, but he didn’t . . . obviously. He’s not a man to cross.”
“Who attacked me in the alley in Whitechapel? They wrote From Hell on my forehead. It would have been a few days ago, they killed two SOA agents.”
“Oh shit, they killed Avalon agents? Wait a second, mate, that wasn’t in the deal. That’s why you’re looking for us? I thought you were just mad because we left too many bodies around. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”
“Who did it?”
“Enfield. He’s the only one fucking crazy enough.”
I’d known it couldn’t have been either the man in the chair or the one Fiona was currently talking to, both were the wrong size and neither had the same resonance about them as the murderer in the alley. “What are Jack and Enfield?”
“Sorcerers, both of them. Never seen Enfield use anything but knives though. As for Jack, no idea what magic he can use apart from fire.”
“How many did you kill?”
“What, this time? Four or five. Got some nice souls for Arthur to feed on. You do know we’re giving these to Merlin, that he’s approved this?”
I nodded.
“Made you sad to know that the big guy was allowing the murder of innocents? At first it was hard to get my head around too, but you soon get used to it. You’re just cutting away the chaff so that the wheat can grow strong or something like that. Who gives a shit if a bunch of whores, homeless, and lowlifes vanish? That’s why everyone was so angry with the idiot for drawing attention to things.”
I grabbed a pen and paper from the table. “The address where Felix is.”
He told me without needing to be asked again.
“If this is wrong—”
“You’ll kill me?” he chuckled. “It’s right, I swear. You’re going to die a horrible death for getting involved.”
“Who killed Baker?”
“Baker? Oh, that was all Enfield. He knew that Baker was going to get found out sooner or later. He decided to keep watch on things, just in case. We threatened Felix too, made him give you up. The second you all turned up, Baker was a dead man. Enfield used you to deal with the troll. He’s crazy as a box of cats, but he’s not stupid.”
“Doesn’t matter how crazy or smart he is, he’ll be dead soon enough.”
“You think you’re going to kill Enfield. Mate, unless you happen to have the Hellequin in your pocket, you’ve got no chance.”
I smiled, and ignored his taunt. He had no way of knowing I used to go by that name. No one did. I had buried it long ago, but it still resurfaced every now and then, usually with some more fantastical tale attached to it. Hellequin was the boogeyman for the Avalon world. I was surprised people still remembered it, or that it had continued to grow in mythology.
“We’ll see. What did you drug the trolls with?”
“Jorōgumo venom,” he said. “Perfect venom for trolls. Give it to anyone else and it kills them slowly, give it to trolls and they fall asleep for a few hours. Felix betrayed you, you know that, yes? He betrayed you because we took the troll’s kid. He agreed to help us if we brought the ugly little shit home. We had to drug the trolls to get close to them, but Jack didn’t want to have a troll about the place, so we brought him home. We’re nice like that.”
“You kidnapped a child, threatened its life, and you also have a jorōgumo? Quite the list of accolades to add to the murder of innocent people.”
He shrugged. “I don’t know about us owning the spider thing. I’ve never seen one, which is a good thing; because they’re nasty bastards I’ve heard.”
He’d heard right.
Fiona appeared in the doorway covered in blood. “I got an address.” She passed me a piece of paper; the address was the same as the man in the chair had offered.
“Well, it’s nice to know you were telling the truth.”
“Of course, like I said this is the quickest way for you do get dead.”
Fiona walked around the back of the man. “And this is the quickest way for you.” She rammed the blade into the top of the fae’s skull. “Told your friend he was going to die. You die too.”
When the fae was dead, Fiona went to the kitchen to wash her hands. I followed and stood a little away from her.
“You got a problem with what I did?” she asked.
I shook my head. “Just surprised.”
“I’m undercover SOA; we have to do a lot of nasty things that surprise people.”
“Did yours tell you about Jack and Enfield?”
Fiona scrubbed her hands and then set about drying them. “Yep. We’re going to need Diana and Alan. Enfield sounds like a real problem.”
“They’re both problems.”
Fiona threw the towel into the sink. “Let’s go eliminate our problems, then. You can carry him; I just got my hands clean.”
I carried the body of the fae down to the basement, laying it next to his murderous friend while Fiona threw file after file around the room, until the basement was awash with pieces of paper.
When she was done, Fiona passed me the file that contained my name. “You should keep this. Take it to Merlin. Maybe he can give you some answers.”
“Are you sure about burning all this?” I asked.
“Felix has information on Avalon employees. If it ever got into anyone else’s hands, there would be pandemonium. We can’t risk it. Jack will have to give us the answers we need. He knows who was involved with these Reavers.”
“I don’t think Jack will be too forthcoming.”
“Then Felix will have to be alive when we’ve finished dealing with Jack and Enfield.” She removed several of the files from the remaining cabinet and passed them to me. “Hopefully something in there will help. It’s just too dangerous to leave it as is. Too dangerous to leave this house here at all. Felix knows too much.”
“You’re not going to kill him,” I said.
“My orders are to keep Avalon safe. Felix goes against those. You should have killed him when you were sent to.”
I shrugged. “Maybe, but he’s not going to die now either. I’m not going to help further the Reavers’ aims by removing one of their obstacles.”
Fiona’s eyes never wavered from mine. “Fine, I didn’t want to kill him anyway. I’m not in the habit of killing people who haven’t deserved it. But we’ll have to think of something else. He’ll need to be hidden, and hidden very, very well. Also, these files still need to go.”