Then Millie’s hands were searching for me.
“He’s here. I saw him. He’s come for the girls.”
I remembered the man’s voice on the phone.
“He just walked in. There were four of us. Pranav had a gun but Kohl just laughed. The next thing, Pranav was pointing the gun at Joel. He shot him, Bronte. He shot Joel.”
I lowered my face towards hers. “What about you? What happened to you?”
Her eyes were closed as she spoke. “I tried to muster a Spell of Protection. But he gets into your head. Switches things around. I thought he was on our side. I really did.”
“What did he do to you?” I looked across at the other two bodies lying on the grass.
“All I remember was the light.”
Her eyelids started to flicker and I realised she was drifting in and out of consciousness. The one good thing was that she seemed to be breathing steadily but I wasn’t sure what else to do for her. I needed help so I took out my phone to ring Carlotta. That was when I realised that I didn’t have her number; only Silas’. I gave that a try but it quickly reverted to Voicemail.
I rang Marcus and got the same response so I left a quick message explaining the situation and where Millie and the other survivor could be found. I couldn’t move either of them without help and I didn’t know what else to do. I was also becoming more and more concerned about what was happening with the Novices.
What did he want with them? They hadn’t even been mentioned in the Vatican’s statement. Yet Millie had been very clear.
‘He’s come for the girls.’
What to do? Did I stay with Millie or did I try and help the others? While her breathing was normal her pulse was elevated and I was worried she might go into shock.
Then I heard screams coming from the direction of the Secure Unit and took the two spheres from out of my bag. It made sense to use one to protect Millie but then I couldn’t very well leave the other man unguarded. But with both spheres gone what protection would I have if I did run into Kohl? It was an impossible situation.
More screams from over by the Secure Unit pressed me to make a decision.
I threw the first sphere at the ground in front of Millie. As it shattered, I was knocked backwards onto the grass. When I sat up I saw that she was encased within a dome of light, the colours splitting into blues, greens and pale purples. They glimmered and swirled, seeming to grow in size. I watched, fascinated, as the tints shifted into one another like a rainbow glimpsed in an oily puddle. It was gossamer thin and yet, when I tried to push my hand into it the bubble resisted. It wasn’t an unpleasant sensation but it left my fingers feeling numb.
Then I started second-guessing myself. I should really have put her in the recovery position before I’d broken the sphere. What if she started choking?
Calm down, I told myself. Just calm down.
Then I went over to the first guy, checked his vital signs and smashed open the second sphere. What else could I do? I took one last look at Millie - who seemed to be sleeping peacefully – and started across the grass.
The Secure Unit was about fifty metres away, partly shielded by a group of trees. The front entrance had been breached, the glass fronted doors displaying spider’s webs of cracks. Though the glass had held the hinges hadn’t, the doors having been struck with great force. I stopped just short of the entrance in order to consider my options. There were no signs of the Novices and I had no idea where they might be. It would be better for them if they’d stayed in their rooms but I thought that unlikely. The obvious place for them to congregate in a crisis would have been the Sports Centre but I couldn’t allow myself to think like that.
I turned around, trying to think where else they might have gone. The campus looked so different at night.
My gaze returned to the entrance of the Secure Unit. The whole place had been trashed. I had an overwhelming urge to find out what had gone on inside. It wasn’t even a conscious decision. I just found myself stepping through the wreckage of the two front doors.
The interior was cloaked in shadow and I hesitated, not knowing how to proceed. I didn’t want to use magic just to light my way but I didn’t feel that I had much choice. Yet I was filled with a strange determination I couldn’t explain and so pressed on.
The security pods which had delayed our entry the last time had been completely destroyed, the shards of plastic which littered the floor being their only reminder. Considerable force had been exerted in breaching the Unit’s formidable security measured. Whoever had organised this breech had come prepared.
I kept telling myself that I didn’t need to go any further but some hard imperative kept driving me on: I had to know what had become of Stahl. It was vitally important that I knew. I made my way towards the second security gate all the time expecting someone to leap out of the shadows and attack me. This premonition of violence made little sense, the place appeared to be totally deserted, yet that did nothing to slow my heart-rate
I walked past the desk where we’d been warned about carrying religious symbols and kept on going. Further along the corridor, there was a heavily reinforced door hanging from its hinges. A set of security lights were flashing red and green. I was entering the area where the two women had been held.
The light in the corridor came on automatically as I approached revealing a room on my right which I hadn’t noticed on my first visit. Taking a deep breath, I pushed open the door. Inside there was a single bed and some rudimentary shelving. The bedding was the type you’d typically find in a budget hotel. It looked like it had never been used. There were no personal touches to identify who it belonged to though I was pretty certain this was Stahl’s room.
There was a second room, virtually identical but with clothes piled on the bed and a number of paperbacks on the shelves. Anathema’s room.
Along the corridor and past the disabled toilet was another, smaller room. It might have been called a kitchen if it had been stocked with any kitchen implements, only it hadn’t. A food preparation area then: a sink and a couple of work-surfaces. In the corner was a stack of Styrofoam cups and a tray of plastic cutlery. There were overhead cupboards containing packets of convenience foods but no jars or tins. The big refrigerator in the corner looked like it would have been more at home in a Pathology lab. There was no oven, not even a microwave. They had a small, plastic kettle which had been chained to the wall. Nothing that could be used as a weapon.
What a bizarre half-life they’d been leading. It reminded me of looking inside a doll’s house.
Along the corridor I came to the Games Room where I’d spent most of my time on my last visit. The glass reflected my own dark silhouette, leaving the interior swathed in shadow.
I was just about to try the door when I stopped. I stood instead with my forehead pressed against the toughened glass, my breath blossoming.
After a while shapes started to coalesce.
Melissa Stahl was stretched out on the table. The same table Anathema had used to lay out her puzzle. Stahl’s head hung over the side, her left eye bulging out of its socket. There was a missing chunk of skull where her other eye should have been, white glints of bone framing the ruin. From the peculiar way that she was lying it appeared that her back had been broken. Her dress was badly mangled and there were lacerations up and down her arms.
Clustered about the floor were the broken bodies of her attackers. Demons. Three of them by my reckoning though it was hard to be accurate with so many body parts strewn about the place. One of them was still alive and scrabbling to get away, though it was missing one of its back legs and oozing a trail of stiff, white liquid.
I made a conscious decision to look away, but it was too late. A strange sort of paralysis threatened to over-take me but I somehow managed to resist. After a moment, I slowly began retracing my steps. There had been no sign of Anathema - Stahl’s staunchly loyal second-in-command - and that worried me.
I had gone inside the Unit looking for answers
but now that I had them I didn’t know what to do with them. Stahl was dead and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. I’d expected some sense of relief but there was nothing.
The light at the end of the corridor was still blinking red and green. Red and green. I focussed on that and just kept moving.
CHAPTER TEN
I was on route to the showers when I felt the draft. The urge to leave the building as quickly as possible was pressing but, at the same time, I felt that I had to know where that draft was coming from. Kinsella had told me at length about how Eco-friendly the place was, fitted out with the most energy efficient insulation. I couldn’t see them just venting heat through an open window.
I held a hand aloft, fingers quivering in an attempt to locate the breeze. It was coming down one of the side-corridors. I followed it along to an internal fire-door which had been propped open. Once through the door I came to a hallway with its own flight of hardwood stairs. I could feel the breeze as I stood at the bottom but it wasn’t that which was making my skin freckle with goose-bumps. A shaft of moonlight illuminated a series of footprints ascending the stairs. When I looked closer I saw that the footprints were made in blood. They were still wet.
“Oh great!” my voice sounded faint and faraway.
Anathema had come this way, but why? If her intention had been to escape then the front door would still be her best option. I stood there for a while wondering what I should do. Really, I needed to go and find those girls, that should have been my priority now.
Instead, I started up the staircase, taking special care not to step on the footprints. I don’t know why - just superstition, I guess. I kept going until I reached a landing which led up to a second flight and then on to a third heading towards the roof. The draught got stronger as I climbed until eventually I reached the top. Solid black rafters rose all around me, in the middle of which was an open sky-light.
My eyes had grown accustomed to the lack of light allowing me to spot thin metal ladder attached to the far wall. I’d be totally exposed if I climbed it, both from above and below. But what were the alternatives? I couldn’t skulk down here while Anathema made good her escape. I had to check whether she was up there.
In order to achieve this I had to have some simple rules: I would climb the ladder as quickly as possible. I would not look down. Once at the top I would check out the whole roof top before climbing back down.
A number of supplementary questions presented themselves as I climbed. How long should I wait at the top of the ladder? What would I do if Anathema was up there - engage her in combat?
As my head cleared the sky-light I discovered that the roof area was more complicated than I’d envisaged. It was split into two sections, for a start. There was a second V-shaped section of roof beyond the flat-roof I currently found myself on. It was good five metres higher than mine with no obvious point of egress.
I pulled myself through the hatch and stood up. There was a commanding view of the entire campus from up there, the shadowy university buildings contrasting starkly with the bright lights of the surrounding streets.
“You get a better look from over here.”
It was Anathema. She stood on the corner of the roof too far away to pose any immediate threat. I started to relax enjoying the feel of the wind on my face. After having been so pent-up for so long it was a relief just to see someone else, even Anathema. There was a solid metal platform directly in front of the hatch leading onto a metal walkway. The walkway had its own hand-rail which I used to steady myself as the wind slapped at my clothes and tugged at my hair. The cold felt cleansing
She was standing on the far edge of the roof, her back to me. A simple spell would have been enough to push her out into oblivion and yet I still felt wary of her. As a Spoiler she could absorb magic yet couldn’t wield it. A skill and a curse. She would have mastered a wide range of protective wards. It would be foolish to under-estimate her.
“I take it you saw what went on downstairs?” she asked.
“Stahl? Yes, I saw.”
“That was his work. The priest. He sent those things in to kill her, one after the other. He watched it all. It amused him.”
“What about you? How did you manage to escape?”
She regarded me over her shoulder. “I hid in the toilet. I’m not proud.”
“You didn’t try and stop him, then?” my tone dark, accusatory.
Her lips curled in a sneer. “You’ve got to pick your battles in this life. Haven’t you learned that by now?”
I clambered down off the walkway, stepping over thick trusses as I moved towards the outer wall.
She was fixated on a square at the southern end of the campus, about a hundred and fifty metres away. Sometimes when you peer into the dark, your eyes make you see things that aren’t there and at that moment I was having just that experience. I could have sworn that the whole campus was swarming with moving shadows. Yet, when I looked again I could see Kohl standing with two demons. He appeared to be communicating with them using a series of hand gestures. They In their turn seemed to be listening, responding with intricate bobbing movements.
“He can’t find them,” Anathema said. “Your girls. I’m shielding them from him.”
“You’re protecting them?” I asked.
“For the moment, yes.”
That surprised me. “Why?”
“To frustrate him. They’re over there: in the Common Room.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“You can’t see it?” she looked at me doubtfully for a moment. “No, I suppose not. But they’re the real reason he’s here.”
“I thought he was after Stahl?”
Anathema dropped her head, her dreadlocks wafting across her face. “You’re right, of course. The Church wanted her dead. But the girls are his reward.”
I tensed at the bitter truth of that.
I said, “What does he intend doing with them?”
She pointed at a group of demons over to our right.
“How do you think he’s controlling those things? They don’t do well in this environment unless they’re well fed.”
“Fed?”
“Yes. They need sustenance. Blood. Of the human variety.”
My sense of dismay was so immediate that I was forced to sit down.
“We have to stop him, somehow.”
“Then we’ve got to work together.”
She turned, her braids swinging free, a mischievous look in her eyes.
I felt nothing but revulsion for the idea. Yet I didn’t see that I had any other alternative.
“What do you want me to do?”
*
I looked out over the square, trying to get a sense of the distances involved.
“That’s an awfully long way,” I said.
“Then it’s a good job I’m here to guide you.”
She held out her hands to me and frowned when I failed to take them.
“I don’t think I can do this.”
“Of course you can. You must have practiced with distances like this in the past.”
“It’s not that.” I held up my hands. “It’s this. If I touch something. An object, say. I have to be careful not to pick up an emotional signature. And with people – especially strangers – it can be a lot worse.”
“I know. I was there when you identified the Iron of Fortitude, remember? That’s what drew Melissa to you in the first place. But it also makes us similar in some ways.”
I didn’t like the idea of that. Didn’t want to be linked with Anathema in any sense.
She continued. “In the same way that I can draw power from another witch then so can you.”
“But that’s impossible.”
She held her hands out again. “Not for you. Here, give it a try.”
Her hands were much bigger than mine and very warm. Other than that, there was no particular sensation at all.
That was until I tried to pull away and realised I couldn’t. Now t
hat she had me I found I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t speak. Blood was rushing around my head, a roar filling my ears. It was like standing under a waterfall. All the time I was looking into Anathema’s coal black eyes it was as if the rest of the world didn’t exist. Nothing else seemed to matter.
I could feel her nails cutting into my palms and yet it all seemed to be happening to someone else. Some other Bronte Fellows. A flutter of excitement went through me with this sense of disassociation. Normally, any act of intimacy with another person would be repellent to me, but not now. This felt strangely normal. This felt good.
When she finally released me I experienced a sudden rush of vertigo but, otherwise, I felt no ill effects. My hands were warmer but that was about it.
“Now,” she said. “Let’s see what you can do.”
The spell came to me as readily as if I’d been prepping it for days, the words flowing out of me. Words from my childhood that I thought I’d forgotten. Words my mother had taught me. The rhythm of it building a strength that was all of its own.
As I held out my arm a feeling of calm assurance came over me. Like how Dr Frankenstein would have felt when he threw the switch, bringing life to his creation. An itch started to build in the tips of my fingers and I knew instinctively how to alleviate it.
A powerful wind which swept dust and leaves before it, covered the distance to the south square in a matter of seconds. The demon nearest us was hurled against a tree with such force that two of its limbs were torn off.
The one in the centre took the full force of the spell and was pitched into the air. It hit the wall on the far-side with some violence before falling, broken, to the ground. Kohl was blown sideways into a bush. It amused me to watch him struggling ineffectually to get to his feet.
The cloud of dust hit the far wall and dissipated. Slowly the leaves began to settle, scraps of paper wafting towards the ground.
Anathema tilted her head to one side, her green eyes appraising me.
“Well, that was … good.”
Bitter Moon Page 13