Secret Lives

by Gabriella Poole

  A harsh voice broke in, scornful. ‘You offered yourself willingly. You attended a Congress to be interviewed.’

  ‘I never heard there was a vote. I wasn’t told.’

  ‘There was no vote.’ Richard sounded uncomfortable. ‘The proposal was vetoed from on high, so this Congress is … ah, an unofficial one. But you’ve been favoured by a very influential member of the Few. That’s more than enough.’

  ‘Despite any petty school rules,’ someone added.

  Unofficial? What was that supposed to mean?

  ‘And once you are Few, you will always be Few. There’s nothing Sir Alric can do about that.’

  Cassie caught her breath. ‘You mean Sir Alric doesn’t know?’

  ‘You are very privileged.’ Another cool voice spoke from the circle. Again she couldn’t put a face to it. It was infuriating, but trying to work out their identities made her a little calmer. ‘Membership of the Few has never been a func—’

  ‘A function of scholarships,’ spat Cassie, trembling. ‘So what is their function, then?’

  ‘Once you are Few, you’ll know all there is to know. You won’t regret it.’

  ‘I get the feeling I will,’ muttered Cassie.

  The first hooded figure nodded at someone behind her. Suddenly Cassie remembered Alice lying helpless, too weak even to cry, feet and fingers jerking as her veins stood out on her skin …

  ‘Richard,’ she whispered. Tears sprang to her eyes, and Cassie hated herself for looking so weak in front of the Few. ‘Don’t let them do this. Please. Whatever it is. Please.’

  His fingers tightened on hers. ‘Cassie, darling! Hush! I know you’re scared. I was too!’

  She stared at him, dumbstruck, then licked her lips. ‘This is what happened to you?’

  ‘Of course. It’s happened to all of us, Cassie. It’s not so bad. Hah!’ He laughed out loud. ‘Not so bad? Oh, it’s so much better than that!’

  ‘But I don’t want this!’ she screamed hoarsely.

  ‘That’s what I thought. I thought I didn’t want it, but wait till you feel it inside you! There’s nothing like it!’

  ‘What the hell is IT?’

  He hesitated. ‘Don’t worry. Accept it! Enjoy it, darling!’

  Don’t trust him, Jake had said. He’d use you, you know that. She gave another fierce jerk on her hands, though it took all her energy. Richard tutted and leaned closer to dab at the blood on her wrists. With as much effort as she could manage, she focused and spat.

  Spot on. Right in the bastard’s eye. She smiled.

  Wiping his cheekbone, Richard stepped sadly away.

  ‘She has no manners,’ drawled another, all-too-familiar voice. ‘None at all. I can’t think why—’

  ‘Now, Katerina. It is agreed.’

  Painfully Cassie rolled her head round. Katerina wasn’t hooded either, and she was loving this, the cold-blooded cow. At the sound of footsteps, the chill of a draught from an opening door, Katerina turned.

  The line of Few moved, parting as if letting someone enter, and when the circle closed again it had shrunk a little. Again they drew closer, then again. The ring was tightening like a noose. Cold terror gripped Cassie’s gut. Which one was Ranjit? Which of them had killed Jess?

  She couldn’t see behind her, but she could feel the new presence. However she strained her neck, scraping her scalp on the stone, she couldn’t tilt her head far enough to find out who was there. Her breathing grew faster, and she tried not to whimper. Don’t give them the satisfaction …

  ‘It’s time.’ Lifting the gold key from around her neck, the hooded girl unlocked the manacles, freeing Cassie’s hands. It didn’t do her any good. Straight away Richard and another of the Few took a wrist each, holding her as tightly as any chain, their fingers like steel.

  ‘Please,’ said Richard nervously. ‘Try to relax.’

  Oh, sure.

  Someone was loosening the chains on her feet, though they weren’t removed altogether. As soon as the tension was released, Richard and his colleague tugged her so that her head tipped off the end of the stone table, and her shoulders rested on the edge. Her neck hurt crazily now, but she could at last see the presence behind her, even if it was upside down. A thin, stooped figure, crooked with age. Upswept white hair, fragile porcelain skin, and a kind smile distorted by the angle.

  Madame Azzedine.

  The old woman sat in a gilded chair, her face close to Cassie’s. Her frail hands slipped under Cassie’s head to support it, easing the ache in her neck. Cassie stared up into the blue crinkled eyes, only inches away. The old woman seemed almost overcome with joy.

  ‘Thank you for this, Cassandra, my dear.’ Dry wrinkled thumbs stroked her temples. ‘I liked you the moment I met you, do you know that?’

  ‘No! What are you—’

  ‘Look at me, Cassandra. I’m old. I’ve had all from this body I could possibly have expected. It’s time for Madame Azzedine to … bow out. It’s time for me to take a new body. A young body.’

  She smiled down lovingly at Cassie. ‘Your body.’

  Frozen with terror, Cassie searched the woman’s face. Something moved behind those pale old eyes, and she couldn’t think why she hadn’t seen it before. Maybe she had. Something swirling, roiling. Whose eyes had done that too: boiled with life and an animal glow? Didn’t matter. Somehow she knew what was coming now. No way to stop it: only delay it. Talk. Talk.

  ‘What are you going to do when you’re finished with me?’ She breathed hard, smothering her fear with anger. ‘Shuck me off like an old snakeskin? Just like with Madame Azzedine?’

  ‘Come, come –’ she laughed that tinkling laugh, ‘I’ve had a long, good life. I’ve been strong, and powerful, and beautiful. You can expect the same! You have nothing to lose, Cassandra. Nothing.’

  ‘Except my soul!’ yelled Cassie. ‘Right? Except myself.’

  She could no longer see any face but Madame Azzedine’s.

  ‘Now, Cassie. Do you think your friend Richard has lost himself? Ranjit, Ayeesha, Katerina? Do you think Sir Alric has lost himself?’ A girlish giggle. ‘Certainly not. We are still ourselves. We have given the spirits corporeal presence, that’s all. They have not overwhelmed us. They have joined us.’

  ‘Spirits?’ Cassie tried to breathe properly. Madame Azzedine’s scent was overwhelming, and the stone was painfully hard against her back.

  ‘Ancient spirits, so ancient,’ mused the old woman. ‘A new life with every generation. You cannot expect us to fade away and die for the convenience of a few mortals. Especially when those mortals have so much to gain.’

  ‘Like what?’ Terror was starting to choke her again. Who was talking to her? Madame Azzedine, or the thing inside her? Maybe even the old woman didn’t know any more. The wrinkled lips were closer to Cassie’s own now, the aged face dreamy.

  ‘Everything, scholarship girl.’ Katerina’s cold tone was merciless. ‘There is everything to gain! We hosts are not lost souls. The spirit merely adds its essence to our own.’

  ‘Spirit? Is it a demon or what?’

  ‘Don’t be so rude.’ The Swedish girl sounded more amused than Cassie would have thought possible. ‘With the spirit we are stronger, crueller, more ruthless. More beautiful. Better equipped for today’s world, in other words.’

  ‘You’re sick!’

  ‘No. Personally, I’ve never felt better. What would you like to be, Cassie, when you grow up?’ Katerina sniggered. ‘A prime minister? A president? Head of an international corporation? An A-list celebrity? Some of us are, you know. Though for you, perhaps we should talk D-list.’

  ‘I want to be myself!’

  ‘But you will be,’ soothed Madame Azzedine. ‘That and more.’

  ‘No!’

  ‘Too late, my dear.’

  Dry lips fastened over hers, powerful, irresistible. The smell of death and perfume swept over her so that she almost gagged, but it was impossible to make a sound, let alone vomit. Cassie squirmed, wa
iting to feel what Alice had felt, waiting for the life to be sucked out of her. Did it hurt? It had looked as if it did. A tear trickled to her hairline. She tried one last time to struggle, but the grip on her wrists was too strong. From the circle of the Few came a low howl of collective excitement.

  Then the worst bolt of pain yet shot through her head, her heart leaped in her chest like an animal trying to escape, and the whole world went blinding white.

  And somebody, somewhere, screamed.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  It wasn’t weakness. It was strength.

  Cassie was suddenly alert, completely alive. Madame Azzedine’s scrawny neck was so close she couldn’t focus properly, but she could see purple veins bulging and throbbing, could feel the old body beginning to jerk and tremble, could taste rotten flesh. Their mouths were still locked together but she no longer felt sick.

  She felt strong.

  The distant shriek came again, and Madame Azzedine released Cassie’s head abruptly, clenching her fists until the knuckles showed bone-white through thin skin. Cassie expected her head to smack down into the stone table, but it didn’t. There was power in her neck; it didn’t even hurt to keep her head up. Nor did she lose contact, even as the ancient body squirmed and the woman tried to twist away.

  Another agonised wail, as if it came from very far away, and Cassie knew that Madame Azzedine wasn’t making this racket out loud, only inside Cassie’s head. The grip on her arms loosened a little, and Cassie strained hungrily upwards. For an instant, Madame Azzedine broke the contact, and Cassie had a glimpse of her white, tortured face. Katerina snapped out a word, and her arms were released.

  Cassie lunged up and grabbed Madame Azzedine’s head. Yanking the old mouth back down to her own, she twisted her fingers into the white hair.

  She needed it. It needed her. No problem …

  Something was burning her shoulder blade, a concentrated, intense pain, but she didn’t mind. What she had to do was keep contact. Keep the old woman close. Nothing else mattered. Hot needles in her shoulder. No, no. Didn’t matter …

  Another scream. Not in her head, though. It was real and close, and it seemed terribly familiar. Irate. Tempestuous. Drama-queeny.

  Latin American …

  Something hard whacked into the side of Madame Azzedine’s skull, snapping it away. Cassie grabbed at the old woman as she slumped silently to the side, but with her own legs still restrained she couldn’t catch her. As the body crumpled to the floor in a dry, dead heap, a twist of translucent white drifted from the old woman’s lips, spiralling towards the ceiling with a high, squealing wail.

  Katerina snatched at the escaping wisp. ‘Fools!’ she howled. ‘What have you done?’

  Cassie’s sentiments exactly. Her fingers clawed at the fleeing mist as well, until with a cry of frustration she curled up, tearing at the chains. Then she froze, breath caught in her throat.

  There he was.

  Ranjit stood in front of her, cold and still, facing the rest of the Few. His back was to her but she clearly heard his grim murmur. ‘You bitch, Katerina. What have you done?’

  Katerina hunched, spitting with rage, but didn’t reply.

  So Ranjit wasn’t in on this unofficial ceremony? As if Cassie’s head wasn’t spinning fast enough already … Did this mean he was on her side?

  In which case, what the hell had kept him?

  To her left, Cassie caught a glimpse of Jake slashing Keiko’s weird knife in a broad warning arc at the snarling Few. Isabella had clambered on to the stone table and now stood above Cassie, threatening all comers with what looked like a very long, very whippy hammer.

  ‘Where did you get that?’ shouted Cassie, rubbing her temples fiercely, fighting to focus.

  ‘This?’ Isabella swung at a hooded figure as it made a lunge for her, cracking her weapon into its head. The figure dropped like a stone. ‘I bring this to school every term, Cassie! I knew it would come in handsome.’

  ‘Handy,’ said Cassie, shaking her head clear at last.

  ‘I told you,’ Jake called over his shoulder, his focus still on the semicircle of malicious Few, who eyed his knife with extreme wariness.

  ‘Yeah, yeah,’ said Cassie. ‘I know. Killer with a polo mallet.’ Wrapping one ankle chain round her fist, she strained at it, but it was hopeless.

  Ranjit’s voice was low but clear. ‘Jake. The chains. Use the knife.’

  Jake threw him a mistrustful scowl. ‘Like that’s going to—’

  ‘I said, use the knife!’

  With a last suspicious glower, Jake backed up, then turned and slammed the knife down on to the chain. The links shattered, but he had already turned to warn off two more of the Few, who had sprung forward to within striking distance. They hesitated, snarled, retreated one step. Then another.

  Jake glanced down at the knife in shock. ‘That’s some blade.’

  Ranjit took no notice. He stood perfectly still, and none of the Few dared to approach him. His focus was all on Katerina, something crackling between them. Lust? Fury? Hatred?

  Oh, who the hell cared.

  ‘Jake!’ yelled Cassie, tightening the other chain. ‘Again, quick!’

  One more swift strike, and stone chips erupted in a puff of dust from the table. Jake swore.

  ‘Missed. Do it again!’ screamed Cassie.

  Once more, and three links on the second chain disintegrated. Right. Cassie jumped down from the table in time to punch one of the hooded figures hard as it finally leaped at Jake. Cassie’s fist connected with what must have been a jaw, making a satisfying noise, and the attacker reeled back.

  ‘Nice timing,’ said Jake, who looked embarrassed about ducking.

  ‘You too. How’d you get here?’

  Isabella was whirling the polo mallet above her head. ‘Tell you later. Can we go now?’

  ‘Yeah. Back off!’ Jake yelled, as a figure slunk out of the shadows on his left. Katerina was pale and immobile with fury.

  ‘You have the blade!’ she hissed. ‘You.’

  ‘I’m really sorry,’ said Jake. ‘Is that against school rules?’

  ‘Don’t do the banter thing,’ moaned Isabella. ‘Let’s run. Cassie. Go!’

  Cassie shoved forward between Isabella and yet another hoodie, who was stalking murderously towards the Argentinian. Drawing back her lips, Cassie growled. Funny how naturally that came …

  Ranjit and Katerina were still all wrapped up in each other, as if they were fighting some sort of psychic duel. He obviously wasn’t concerned with the other Few. He was as motionless and menacing as stone, but his eyes blazed.

  This could get bad, Cassie knew it in her bones. ‘Isabella! Jake! Back to the door, come on!’

  But Isabella was hesitant now. ‘Ranjit’s in trouble.’

  ‘He can look after himself,’ yelled Jake. ‘Go, Isabella!’

  But Cassie hung back too. Ranjit still stood deathly quiet, facing down the Few, but now they were regaining their courage, circling him. Cassie started towards him, despite Isabella dragging on her arm.

  ‘Cassie, come on! Please!’

  Richard stood at the far side of the table, sorrow and disappointment in his beautiful eyes. Cassie hesitated, read on his lips the word, Please … She didn’t answer as they slipped into the archway beneath the writhing snakes. A stone tongue flickered out, almost touching her shoulder, and she winced.

  ‘Cassie!’ shouted Richard again. ‘Please!’

  Her lip curled. ‘Go play with the traffic, Richard.’

  She shoved Jake. ‘Get out of here!’

  Isabella was holding him back. ‘What about Ran—’

  ‘Come on,’ shouted Jake. This time he pulled Isabella with him.

  Cassie lingered. Katerina was snarling orders at the hesitant Few as they surrounded Ranjit.

  ‘Leave, Cassandra,’ he said, cold as marble. ‘I’ll follow.’

  Stupid to argue. Stupid, too, to feel this terrible fear for him. He knew what he was doing. Di
dn’t he? Reluctantly, she turned on her heel, and ran after Jake.

  Jake and Isabella were both fast runners, but she caught up with them easily. ‘How did you find me?’

  ‘When you didn’t come back to the room at the time we agreed, we went looking for you,’ explained Isabella breathlessly. ‘We looked all over the Academy. Eventually, we went to the Few’s common room.’

  ‘Obviously you weren’t there,’ Jake added, ‘but neither were half of the Few. Ayeesha was, and Cormac, and a couple more, but they said that Katerina and the others had gone to meet Richard. That’s when we knew you were in trouble.’

  ‘And then Ranjit came in,’ said Isabella.

  ‘Yeah. And he knew where they’d take you,’ spat Jake. ‘Funnily enough.’

  The passageway seemed terribly long and winding, snaking uphill at an increasing gradient, but Cassie ran effortlessly; she must be fitter than she thought.

  ‘Jake, that is unfair!’ protested Isabella breathlessly. ‘Ranjit did not know about the – the ceremony!’

  ‘He says,’ muttered Jake grudgingly.

  ‘He only guessed what had happened, Jake! And he brought us to the Arc, didn’t he? Showed us the secret door?’ Panting, she threw Cassie a wicked grin. ‘So he does have the hots for you! See?’

  Turning once again to focus on the way ahead, Isabella gave a shocked gasp. As she skidded to a halt, Jake almost fell over her.

  ‘What the hell—’

  ‘Hello, Jake, sweetie.’

  Ahead of them, blocking their way to the door, stood a slender figure, long pale hair gleaming. Katerina was smiling at them.

  Sort of.

  ‘Jeez,’ muttered Cassie, ‘that girl really is all teeth.’ And such long, sharp ones too.

  ‘You ought to know what you’re truly up against,’ Katerina murmured throatily. Very throatily.

  The girl didn’t look herself any more, to put it mildly. The eyes were red, the skin grey, the lips pulled back in a rictus grin. And yet somehow it was still Katerina. Through and through.

  ‘I should’ve known!’ exploded Jake. ‘It’s a trap! Singh brought us here and now he’s sent her after us.’