“Was she all right, and is anybody coming?” It was probably rude to shout the questions out like that, but I was hoping that the good father would understand.
“I couldn’t get through to Dana either. I don’t think that she’s just screening out your calls, my son. On a more positive note, I did get through to my colleagues, who are looking after the book, and they’ve agreed to leave it where you requested, though that seems like a dangerously exposed place, if you don’t mind my saying so.” His blue eyes looked rheumier and more sunken than I’d ever seen them before. He seemed to have aged ten years in the last couple of days, and it was clear that the situation was taking its toll on him too. That made me feel even guiltier about what I was going to ask him to do next.
When I finished telling him, I thought that he was going to say no. Any sane person would have, but the last few days had told me that fewer people than I would have expected were entirely sane. The old man nodded his head and went back into the church.
I still had four hours before I was supposed to meet Ena at the restaurant, and I needed to hurry to prep everything. I’d like to say that I sprang into action, but given my litany of injuries—including but not limited to: a bruised stomach, cracked ribs, black eye, and alien parasite growing out of my back—it was more accurate to say that I lurched into action.
One thing that I love about living in London is that you can find anything that you want at virtually any time of day or night. A short journey on a bus let me assemble all of the items that I needed to effect my plan, and I did it without any further interference from Derrick and the Dead-Eyed Gang.
That’s why seven o’clock saw me walking across Ealing Common clothed in a trench coat that was completely conspicuous in the sweltering evening. The coat was as close a fit to the one that I’d spent years imagining every night as I could find and amazingly, it was the first time that I’d ever owned one in the waking world. It might not have any of the protective properties that its dream version had, but it had the same power in real life to hide weapons, as evidenced by the replica gladius that I’d picked up from a memorabilia store that afternoon, banging against my hip. And it looked good.
The cloud cover was heavy today, and the storm that had been building for the last couple of days seemed like it was finally going to break as the air hung heavy with humidity. A suspiciously high number of people were loitering around the small family restaurant where we’d agreed to meet. As I opened the door, a single drop of rain hit my face. It was like the universe was already weeping for what was to come.
Ena smiled brightly as I entered the small hallway that served as the restaurant’s entrance and offered me one bare arm without betraying any of the emotions that I suspected were hiding just below the surface. I glanced about and was glad to see that her hired thug was nowhere in attendance. Derrick was almost certainly lurking in the vicinity, but not having him around was one less distraction as I put my play in motion.
The waiter pulled out her chair, and as she sat I couldn’t help but notice just how low cut her silky green dress was and how tightly it clung to her ample curves. I was still staring when she spoke. “Mr. Adler, a pleasure to see you. I don’t often get out into the suburbs.” Her false smile as we were seated managed to convey condescension and polite forbearance. From what Kelly had told me, she wasn’t any kind of a city girl, and as much as I wanted to pop her little bubble of pretension, it wouldn’t do anything to advance my agenda. So I swallowed my pride, smiled, and replied politely.
“Ms. O’Brian, thank you for taking the time to accommodate my schedule. If I understand the situation correctly, though, this puts you closer to Heathrow anyhow, doesn’t it? You are leaving tomorrow, aren’t you?”
Her green eyes widened slightly, and she inclined her head fractionally to indicate that I’d scored a point.
“Julian, I’ve already told you before to call me Ena but indeed, after such a stressful negotiation and following the sad…disappearance of my partners, I really will need some time to relax. I understand that your wife and daughter are undertaking a similar period of relaxation—without you—in Florida, at her parents’ house? I have a lovely picture of your daughter with her grandparents here. Would you like to see it? It was taken just half an hour or so ago,” she said, still smiling.
I felt gorge rise up in my throat, but I choked it down with an effort. Before I could reply, the waiter showed up, and I ordered a brandy old fashioned, and Ena asked for a glass of red wine.
When the waiter went away, I continued, “You’ve pulled off this deal, Ena, but how well is your next venture going to work out without your book? I’m assuming that you can put together a few new ‘partners’ to help you with the rituals? If you want the book back, then you’ll make a deal with me.” I was hoping that she’d think I was ignorant of Kelly’s infestation by the puca. If so, then she’d assume that I was overplaying my hand.
“I’m listening, Julian,” she said. Her laconic gaze told me that she was confident. I was clearly playing directly into her trap.
“You have some of my friends and colleagues enthralled. I am in possession of a ritual that, if carried out by one of the participants in the original binding, will snap the bond and free anyone so bound. Kelly can—”
The curvy, auburn-haired woman cut me off in midsentence.
“Let’s be open here, Mr. Adler.” I noted her switch back to a formal title. “We both know that Kelly isn’t in a position to help you with anything.”
Shit. I covered my momentary loss of initiative by taking a sip of my drink. As the warm fire of the brandy trickled down my throat, I inclined my head gently in her direction in a mirror of her earlier gesture.
She stayed on the front foot by continuing the conversation. “Are you also aware that I don’t need the book anymore, Mr. Adler? If I did, how would I have set the creature on Kelly’s trail? You had the book well before I would have had a chance to arrange the binding ritual.” She leaned forward with a predatory glint in her eyes.
Shit. I was shaken, but I still had something that she wanted. I could still make this work; it was just going to require a bit of creative interpretation of the truth.
I shrugged and put on my best smile. “I’ve still got the contract.”
She laughed then. It tinkled out like the amusement of a pageant queen, crystal clear and well trained.
“Why would you think that I still cared about that thing?”
There was a small thumping noise, and I spilled a bit of my drink. I glanced toward the window, and my breath caught in my throat—there was a ring of people around the outside of the restaurant, pressing black-eyed faces against the glass.
“There’s only one thing I really care about, Julian. I care about you,” she said, leaning forward and displaying her décolletage.
“Huh?” It’s that kind of insightful comment that has made me a fast-rising star in the field of procurement.
“Well, to be more accurate, I care about your body. Oh—not like dear Kelly probably did at the end. It took me years of work to prepare her and Tara, convincing them that they were actually playing a part in that silly sham of a ritual, telling them that the memory loss was part of the necessary sacrifice, and downplaying their personality shifts. I did all of that while pretending that I was subject to the same symptoms,” she sighed in a put-upon way before carrying on.
“The doted-on daughter of a filthy banker and the shepherd girl—they never even realized that they were in the presence of royalty. I was molding them, working with the puca to shape them into the perfect vessels for its being—honed to peak fitness, emptied of self, and full of primal urges.” She was speaking quickly and looking around the restaurant in excitement as she continued her monologue, and I used the opportunity to search for a way out. There wasn’t any, and if I was trapped then…screw ’em, Angus.
“You had no right,” I growled and dropped any veneer of civility, letting all of my disgust with the woman c
ome across in my voice. The wait staff were casting surreptitious glances at us, and normally I would have been mortified to be causing a scene, but screw it.
“Ahh…but I had every right, Mr. Adler, and now you’ve destroyed or damaged beyond repair the vessels that I spent so long preparing and forced me to move years early. So you can replace them.” She cocked her head strangely and examined me the way that you would some exotic animal in a zoo.
“It’s not really a precise thing, communicating with the puca, but the creature made it very clear that of all possible vessels, you were the most suitable. Apparently, it’s wanted you since the moment that it sensed you. Once the others were gone…let’s just say we came to a fuller meeting of minds.” She smiled again and sat back in her seat, draining the glass of wine. When she spoke again, her teeth were stained red. “I’ll make you a deal, Mr. Adler. If you come with me quietly, then your family will be safe.”
I’d spent weeks fighting things that were stronger than me, from possessed coworkers to giant shadow monsters, and every one of them had pummeled me senseless. It had all apparently been because of Ena O’Brian. Now she was threatening my family.
Her tongue flicked sensuously from between her lips as she licked off the wine, and she grinned like the cat that had gotten the cream. She was sure that she had me and that there was nothing I could do: no clever retort, no cunning plan, no last-minute escape. That’s probably why she looked so damned surprised a moment later when I sucker punched her right in the nose. Evil never expects that.
Unfortunately, my pleasure was short lived, as that punch set off the watchers that ringed the restaurant in the gloaming of the day’s last light. They let out a horrible cry, like an echo of the soul-shattering howl that I’d been assaulted by several times before. Weak though any of the individual voices were in comparison to the puca’s full presence, together they sent the wait staff running down the stairs to the basement and shattered the windows. Directed at me without any preparation, I was knocked off my chair, tears streaming down my face as a scourge of fire ran up and down my spine where purple growths tore at the flesh of my ruined back.
A shard of glass tumbled across the floor to me. I had a momentary thought that I could use it as a weapon, so I wrapped my hand around the jagged, four-inch-long splinter, ignoring the relatively inconsequential line of pain that it etched into my palm. I tried to rise, locking a baleful gaze on Ena’s cursing and bleeding form. She was only a couple of feet away, and if I could only get up…but as I rose to my knees, a wave of dizziness hit me, and I crashed back to the floor, mashing my nose against a chair leg.
“You filthy peasant! Now your family will suffer.”
I didn’t know if she could actually make that happen or not, but I considered the situation and realized that I had one last possible way of thwarting her. If she wanted me as a vessel for the puca…I only had a few moments to act before the creature’s victims were on me, but I could still make use of the shard of glass. Blood trickling down my fingers, I pressed it to my throat…
CHAPTER 48 2000–2050, Thursday, August 6, 2015
***Julian***
The car must have been traveling at thirty miles per hour when it impacted with the plate-glass door at the front of the restaurant. I say that it impacted with the door, but actually it swept through the door, blasted apart the brick frame, reduced a pair of tables to kindling, and sent two black-eyed thralls pinballing across the room. Brick dust exploded throughout the room. I was only able to see three inches in front of my face, but luckily my injuries kept me from taking deep breaths so that I didn’t get a lungful like the people I could hear hacking in the gray dimness.
“Julian!” It was only my name that rang out from the direction of the sedan, but there was no way that I could mistake that voice for anyone else.
“Dana!” I wanted to sing out with joy, but my voice wasn’t much more than a croak as I dug my fingernails into the floorboards and floundered toward where I thought the car must be—its headlight must have broken while it entered, so I could only aim for the most solid-looking blob. The next thing I knew, a pair of hands hooked underneath my armpits. I checked an urge to struggle just in time as I smelled my wife’s perfume even through the miasma of brick dust and smoke. With her help, I got back to my feet and squeezed out of the hole that the car had made where a door used to be. Grace Kelly, eat your heart out.
“Run…” I managed to wheeze out the single word and then tried to fit action to advice by shambling down the sidewalk as quickly as I could. Dana caught up to me in about half a second, and I got a good look at her. She was covered in powdery white dust, her eyes were red like she’d been crying, her dark-brown hair was greasy, and her nose oozed a trail of blood that stained her mouth red. She’d never looked more beautiful.
“How?” As much as I appreciated my rescue, I just couldn’t understand how she could be here, and my elation at having gained a temporary reprieve was fading as I realized that she was once again in immediate danger; especially given that I’d just punched Ena for threatening my family. She shushed me as her arm went around my waist, trying to help me pick up a bit more speed. I glanced back and saw a flicker of flame coming from the restaurant but didn’t spot anyone else making their way out yet. I thanked myself for setting the meeting up at such a familiar venue. Nevertheless, we needed to get out of sight and couldn’t count on having much time to do so.
If you’ve ever been to Ealing Common, then you’ll know that the ground is pancake flat for the best part of five acres, split by a branch of the North Circular and ringed by hoary old chestnut trees that thrust up like sentinels along the Uxbridge Road. We hurried as much as we could, and by ducking alongside cars we were able—just—to get behind the nearest tree before Ena or any of the puca’s slaves managed to clamber out of the restaurant.
While my wife and I clung together, pressed up to the tree trunk, I counted nine dark-eyed minions clustered around the impressively proportioned redhead when she eventually exited via the side entrance. The whole group was only twenty-five yards away, and there was no way that Dana or I could move without being seen. She pressed even closer to me, and I could feel her shivering, though I didn’t know if it was from fear or excitement.
I leaned in and whispered in her ear, “How?” This time, she didn’t have an excuse, so she put her lips next to my head and provided the explanation that I needed.
“You’re a good liar, Julian Adler, but when was the last time that I bought any of your bullshit?” Dana said, her tone surprisingly good-natured for the situation, if you ignored the small sob at the end of her sentence. “I knew you weren’t screwing around on me with any of those women, but you were right about getting Olivia to safety. I dropped her off at my parents’ house and hopped on the next flight back to London…” She trailed off with a look that might have been slightly abashed. I cocked an eyebrow and was happy to find that there was at least one part of me that didn’t hurt. She sighed and continued, “That was a rental car…” She looked so worried that I let out a chuckle. Her face screwed up in annoyance and unfortunately, that only set me off more.
“You just drove through a wall doing thirty to pull me out of the fire, and you’re worried that it’s a rental car!” There was a reason that I loved this woman. I watched her eyes roll in exasperation, but I never got to find out what she would have said in return because the sun dipped below the horizon—and all hell broke loose.
I’d seen the puca manifest in daylight several times, but it had weakened quickly, running out of energy in minutes in Burger King and dissipating after less than sixty seconds in my office. The puca was a thing of nighttime, shadows, and darkness, so as the sun dipped below the horizon, I felt the air crackle with energy. Each of the people in its power swiveled as one to face to the east, in the direction of Ealing Common station, at the exact moment that the thing’s torturous cry rent the air in the distance.
I knew where I had to get to and had been
debating the exact route in my mind, but the puca’s considerate appearance made the choice for me. As much as I wanted to stay hidden behind the concealing trunk of the two-hundred-year-old tree, I was aware that time wasn’t on my side.
“We have to get to Ealing Hospital, and if we get separated, then I need you to meet me there.” I gripped Dana’s small hand and pulled her out from behind the tree. Given my recent conduct, it couldn’t have been for my benefit, but perhaps Dana had been saying her prayers because two things broke at the same time; first, my wife and I broke cover, and second, the oppressive heat that had blanketed the city for weeks finally broke. A wall of rain struck, instantly drenching Dana and I as a bolt of purple lightning seared the air. Visibility dropped to less than a dozen feet, and I thought that we actually might get out of the situation unnoticed.
I couldn’t hear anything over the rumble of thunder, but we ran up the side of the Common hand in hand as rain torrented down. When we reached the Uxbridge Road, we dashed left toward the Broadway, sheltering for a second underneath a big chestnut while a car turned sharply in front of us and threw up a spray of water in its wake. I ducked my head into the collar of my jacket to avoid the dirty runoff, and that move probably saved my life.
I couldn’t hear anything over the thunder, but splinters of wood ripped into my cheek as a line of bullets stitched into the tree next to me. I hadn’t thought that I could run anymore, but it turned out that being shot at had a surprisingly positive impact on my health, and I took off like...a shot.
After a summer almost entirely without rain, Londoners weren’t prepared for driving in a cloudburst, but as we made our way down the Broadway, the puca spent the lives of its remaining human vessels freely to slow us down. We came up on the first car crash just outside of the shopping center; there were two SUVs and a truck scattered across the road and onto the pavement in various states of damage, while a single pedestrian lay on the road, covered in blood and twisted to face almost directly backward.
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