by Steve Feasey
Trey shrugged his shoulders, and returned his gaze to the dancing flames in the fireplace. ‘I guess so.’
‘What happened to him?’ Lawrence asked. ‘How did he get like that?’
‘He got it into his head that everyone was against him,’ Marcus said. ‘None of us were safe from him any more.’
When they’d finished their drinks they’d given Lawrence the keys to the car, with instructions on what to bring back with him.
After he’d gone the other three had sat in silence, nobody wanting to be the first to try and piece together the events that had led to three deaths that day. But eventually they began to talk, going over everything that had happened and filling in the gaps for one another.
Trey got up and stood by the window, listening to Marcus as he unfurled the terrible story of how Jurgen had beaten and tortured his uncle, and how Frank had convinced Ella to find the amulet. The old man must have known that it would come down to a confrontation with Jurgen, despite his assertion to Ella and Marcus that he’d simply planned to give the chain back to Trey and persuade him to leave. He stared out at the bodies lying next to each other outside Ella’s cabin. They’d moved them there and covered them with blankets. In the light that spilt out from the cabin’s interior they looked like strange mummified forms. There was a big clean-up job to do, and none of them relished the idea of burying their friends and loved ones. That was when Trey remembered Galroth and the demon’s offer of help if it was needed. The stone that the demon had given him had been in the pocket of the jeans he’d been wearing before the three of them transformed and faced down Jurgen. He moved towards the door.
‘Where are you going?’ Ella said, getting up from her chair.
‘I need to find something.’
He left the cabin and moved off towards where the car had been. He easily spotted the torn remains of their clothing and bent down, tossing remnants to each side until he found what he was looking for. Thankfully, the pocket was still intact, and he fished around inside it, sighing with relief as his fingers met the smooth surface of the small red stone. He removed it and headed back to the cabin.
When he walked in, he sensed an atmosphere and could see from the irritated looks on Ella and Marcus’s faces that they’d been arguing about something. He closed the door and waited.
‘I want to burn the cabins,’ Ella said. ‘I’m the sole pack Alpha now and my one wish before I disband it would be to remove any trace of the LG78 – both past and present incarnations – from this place forever.’ She looked at Trey as if to suggest that he had the final say in this.
‘Fine by me,’ he said. He paused a second. ‘I think my uncle’s place should go too.’ He looked out of the window for any sign of the Land Rover’s return. ‘I’ll have Galroth do it.’
Ella frowned over at the teenager, unsure of what he meant and wondering who, or what, Galroth was. She was worried about Trey. When he spoke, his voice was flat and toneless, as if he were battling to control the emotions that were churning away inside him. She got up out of her seat and moved over to stand by his side. ‘None of this is your fault,’ she said, placing her hand on Trey’s arm.
He toyed with the silver fist that hung beneath the blanket, his fingers tracing the shape of it as he thought of the things that his uncle had told him before dying.
‘Maybe not,’ he said finally. ‘But I wonder if any of this would have happened if I hadn’t come here.’
37
Trey had changed into the clothes that Lawrence had fetched for him, and he now stood in front of the fireplace, taking in the three expectant faces staring back at him. Ella, Marcus and Lawrence watched him hold the bright red stone in front of his eyes, fascinated by the swirling and eddying nature of the crystal’s interior. He placed its smooth surface on to his forehead, holding it there with the tip of his index finger.
‘Galroth,’ he said in a low voice, feeling more than a little foolish and closing his eyes so that he wouldn’t have to look at the others.
At first nothing happened, and he was about to open his eyes and shrug when he felt his body go rigid, the muscles all locking, anchoring him to the spot. The sudden feeling of weightlessness that followed was unsettling, and if he hadn’t been vaguely aware of the floor through the soles of his feet, he would have sworn that he was floating. He had the odd sensation that some part of him had left his body, and that that part of him was now somewhere else altogether.
‘Mr Laporte?’ Galroth’s voice filled Trey. The sound wasn’t received by his ears, but seemed to pulse through each and every cell of his body.
‘Galroth, I need your help,’ he said, unsure if it was his mouth that was making the sounds or if his thoughts were being unconsciously translated into the words.
‘You are in danger. I will come.’
‘No, wait,’ Trey blurted. ‘I was in danger, but I’m not any more. But I need you to help me with some things here – at the lake by my uncle’s place. You don’t need to get here using magic; I remember how exhausting you said that that would be for you. You can simply drive here. But you might need to bring some people with you – people that can help dig.’
There was a pause. ‘I see.’
The demon was silent again, and Trey thought that it had gone when its monotone drawl filled him once more.
‘Your timing is impeccable, Mr Laporte. I heard from Tom today. He told me that if I had not heard from you by this evening, I was to come by and check on you. Shall I contact him and tell him that you are safe?’
‘Yes. Thank you.’
‘And you are safe?’
‘Yes.’
‘I will be with you in about two hours, Mr Laporte. Shall I bring excavation implements? Spades, pick-axes, shovels?’
‘Yes, bring them. And bring some canisters of petrol – sorry, gasoline – too.’
‘Very good.’
He felt the demon’s presence disappear and he was left all alone in the void. ‘Galroth?’ He was on his own.
‘Galroth?’ he repeated. Fear began to steal up on him as he realized that he had no idea how to get back to his body. ‘How do I switch this thing off? How do I—’
He was standing back in the room. He blinked his eyes open and looked at the others. ‘He’s on his way.’
The demon came with two helpers. Unlike Galroth, the others had adopted human disguises that were unremarkable, and Trey wondered again why his Canadian escort had chosen such a strange mantle with which to camouflage itself in this realm.
The demons worked quickly, taking over the entire operation and asking the humans to stay in Ella’s cabin until they were ready for them to come out. The way in which they went about the task suggested to Trey that this was not the first time that Galroth and its friends had been involved in a clean-up operation of this sort. When they finally called Trey and the others outside, the bodies were wrapped in sheets of tarpaulin that had been secured with rope. The unmistakable sight of the human bodies beneath the material caused Ella to issue a sharp cry, and Marcus pulled the girl to him, hushing and talking to her in a low, comforting voice.
Trey looked at a bag of white powder that Galroth had brought along. ‘What’s that?’ he asked.
‘Quicklime,’ the demon responded in a slow monotone. ‘It helps with the decomposition. Are you ready?’ it asked.
Trey nodded.
They buried Jurgen and Luke first. They’d dug their graves by the lake, next to a willow tree that hung its branches out over the water. Nobody had any words to say as they lowered the bodies down into the holes and began to cover them, first with the lime and then with the excavated soil. When the demons had finished their task they moved back to the cabin to fetch the other body.
‘Goodbye, Jurgen,’ Ella said in a small voice.
Trey reached out a hand and Ella held it in her own, squeezing tightly. He shook his head at the waste of these two young lives – young men who, like him, had become enslaved to the beast that lay dormant i
nside them; an inherited curse. They had not been given the chance that he had to control their powers and impulses and eventually the beast had consumed them and destroyed their humanity forever.
Frank was buried a little further away, under a small rise in the ground that commanded a view out over the surface of the water. Trey had sent Lawrence back to his uncle’s house again, this time to fetch the body of Billy. He came back with the dog’s body in one of the empty whisky crates, and Ella had berated him for his crassness.
‘It’s OK, Ella,’ Trey said, waving away Lawrence’s apologies. ‘My uncle wouldn’t have minded.’
Ella found a purple blanket to wrap the little dog in, and they buried the creature with its owner.
Ella came over to Trey as he stood by the grave, mirroring his earlier action, and taking his hand in hers. ‘He would have liked to be here at the end,’ she said. She nodded towards Jurgen’s grave, ‘They both would.’
Trey nodded, letting the tears roll down his cheeks, struggling to pinpoint how he felt right now. He had lost his only living relative, a man who had admitted to terrible things before his death – things that Trey found impossible to forgive. And yet Frank had saved him. Saved his nephew’s life, knowing that it would almost certainly cost him his own.
He stood and watched the demons finish their work until the final grave had been filled. When the earth had all been packed down, Trey stepped forward and, at the head of the mound, placed the picture frame that he’d bought his uncle on that first day. He stood looking down at the people in the picture, realizing for the first time that the photograph must have been taken not far from here with the same lake in the background. His parents and his uncle all looked so happy.
‘What will you do now?’ Ella asked.
‘Go home. There’s nothing for me here.’ He glanced up and caught the hurt look on her face. ‘I’m sorry, Ella. I didn’t mean …’
‘It’s OK. You’re right. There’s nothing here any more.’
‘I came here to try and find someone who would understand me, understand what I am and how I feel. But my uncle wasn’t like me. Neither were you or the other members of the pack.’ He shook his head, a short, humourless snort escaping him. ‘For a moment I thought that I could be happy here, that I could join you all and live with other creatures like me.’ He fingered the amulet beneath his T-shirt. ‘But now I realize that there are no creatures like me. I’m alone, like my father and his father were. I can’t run from what I am and what I’m supposed to do.’
‘You’re talking about this destiny that your uncle mentioned?’
Trey nodded.
‘None of us have to do something because other people say it’s so, Trey. You have choices. Free will. You mustn’t think that you have no say in your own destiny.’
He looked at her, a sad smile on his face. ‘Maybe.’
Once Ella, Marcus and Trey had packed all their belongings, Galroth and the helpers burned to the ground every building that stood on Frank’s land.
Ella, Trey and Marcus had stood in front of the burning house and said their goodbyes. ‘What will you do now?’ Trey had asked Ella.
‘Go somewhere and make a fresh start. I have some money, so I think that I’d like to live somewhere hot. I’ll have to take a leaf out of old Frank’s book, and get used to being locked up once a month, but I guess it won’t be that bad.’
Trey looked at Marcus, who shrugged his broad shoulders. ‘Move back in with my dad, I guess.’
They’d all hugged and then Trey climbed into the front seat next to Galroth. As the car pulled away, Trey leaned out of the window and waved goodbye to the three surviving members of the LG78, knowing that he would never see them again.
38
Lucien Charron turned off Charing Cross Road, which was still busy even at this time of night, and walked past the now abandoned nightclub on the corner. The exterior of the building was festooned with peeling adverts and notices pasted there by enthusiastic fly-posters, but Lucien ignored all of these. He focused his attention on the entrance to the small, dark alleyway at the back of the former nightspot. Despite the fact that the club had been shut for some time now, the reek of stale urine still wafted out from the alley, no doubt used by the establishment’s former late-night revellers as a place to relieve themselves at throwing out time. He glanced behind him to check that he was not being observed, and then stepped into the blackness.
The buildings climbed steeply on either side of the alleyway, and the lack of any lighting would have made it difficult for anyone else to navigate their way through the space that was strewn with rubbish of every sort. Lucien had no problem seeing. A huge black rat paused its scavenging atop an open wheelie bin, turning to regard the vampire with glassy eyes the colour of coal. The creature issued a little warning squeak before continuing to rummage through its treasure.
There was a slight bend in the passageway and when Lucien rounded it he could see the demon up ahead. The huge creature was leaning against the wall looking about it in a bored fashion, but when it caught sight of the vampire it stood up, raising itself to its full height and flexing its taloned hands in front of it. The Grell was huge, standing at least eight foot tall and made of great slabs of muscle that rippled and bulged with every movement that it made. Lucien walked right up to the nether-creature, nodding his head in greeting.
The Grell glared back, a less than friendly look on its face. It opened its mouth to reveal huge ebony-black teeth which it snapped together theatrically.
‘You managed it then?’ the vampire asked.
‘Do you have any idea how difficult it was to locate her?’ The creature’s voice was a terrible sound – like rocks being ground against each other.
‘If it was easy, I would have done it myself.’
‘And this is it?’ the Grell said. ‘I am no longer in your service?’
‘You have my word on it. You get me to the Netherworld tonight and put me in contact with the battle-angel and I will forget that I ever knew your true demon name. You’ll be free.’
‘Free,’ the demon said, leering down at the vampire through bulbous red eyes.
Lucien held his finger up, halting the demon. ‘Free of any obligation to me,’ he said. ‘But if you should start to have any ideas of coming back to this realm and helping yourself to human flesh again, I’ll enter your name into the Book of Halzog and he will come to claim you for his own.’
The demon stared at him in wide-eyed fear.
‘Think of it as a probation period – an eternal probation period,’ Lucien said with a wink.
The demon mumbled something under its breath and looked at its feet like a naughty schoolboy.
‘I’m impressed,’ Lucien said, nodding towards the door behind the demon. ‘How long can you hold a portal like that open?’
The demon shrugged its massive shoulders, still sulking.
‘Shall we go then?’ Lucien said, stepping forward.
‘How come you need me to do this?’ the Grell said with a gesture of its head towards the door. ‘I hear that your halfling daughter is growing in power all the time. Why didn’t you ask her to create a portal to the Netherworld for you?’
The vampire stared at the demon, his eyes unblinking in their ferocity.
The demon knew better than to antagonize the vampire – even a defanged one like Lucien Charron – and mumbling under its breath again it reached forward and opened the door, holding it ajar. The space behind the door looked like nothing more than a shifting, swirling mass of grey, and Lucien calmly stepped into and through this, closely followed by the Grell. When the door slammed shut behind them, the entire thing simply disappeared, leaving nothing in the stonework of the wall to suggest it had ever been there.
39
Alexa came out of the kitchen carrying a croissant in one hand while thumbing a text message into the keypad of her mobile phone with the other. Tom had just called her to tell her that Trey was on a flight home and she was excit
ed at the prospect of his return. She finished the message she’d written to Trey and hit the send button. She was about to call a florist to arrange for some flowers to be delivered when she felt that she was not alone. She looked up to see Philippa standing in the centre of the lounge. Forgetting all about the flowers, she ran over to her friend, throwing her arms around her.
‘Where’s Lucien?’ Philippa said with a frown, prising Alexa away from her.
‘I’m so glad that you’re back,’Alexa said. ‘Trey’s on his way home, you’re here, and we can—’
‘It’s not Philippa, it’s me,’ the Ashnon said, cutting her off and moving in the direction of the door that led to Lucien’s office.
Alexa stepped back, frowning at her friend, unable to get her head around what she was saying.
The Ashnon paused with its fingers on the handle, turning to face her. ‘Philippa’s gone.’
Alexa shook her head, deep frown lines creasing her forehead.
‘When I got back to the Netherworld I found out that she’d left the environment that I had placed her in to keep her safe. She ran out of the envelope of magic and was taken by something. Nobody knows what it was or where she’s gone.’
Alexa looked at the creature in horror. ‘But you said—’
‘I said she was safe as long as she stayed within the confines of what she perceived as the hotel. I don’t know how many times I – no, we – explained that to her.’
‘Oh my God!’
The Ashnon shook its head. ‘I don’t think He’s got her.’ It pushed at the door.
‘My father’s not here,’ Alexa said.
‘Where is he?’
The girl was no longer listening. Her eyes had a slightly glazed look and she stared off into the distance, her mind still trying to come to terms with what the Ashnon had just told her.
‘Alexa?’
Alexa looked up at the duplicate of the girl that she had become friends with – the girl who she had personally promised would be in no danger if she trusted them.