‘Gods, Gen, I’m sorry. If I’d realised you’d been that badly hurt’ - he brushed a strand of hair away from my face, remorse darkening his eyes - ‘I wouldn’t have been so angry, or stupid. You know I’ll help you all I can, don’t you?’
A tense knot I hadn’t known was there loosened inside me and I realised now I wasn’t feeling quite so scared, or alone. And what about Helen? said a snide little voice in my head. It’s pointless bringing her up again, I thought, and silenced it.
‘Thanks, Finn,’ I said. ‘I appreciate it. And I’m okay now’ - I gave a rueful smile - ‘other than all this ...’ I waved at the monitors. ‘I’m hoping there’s some clue to be found on the recording.’
He hesitated, as if he was going to say something, then smoothed his hands over my shoulders. ‘Okay.’ He straightened, lips quirking in a half-smile. ‘I’ll watch with you.’
‘I didn’t realise you and Tavish knew each other,’ I said absently as I turned back to the screens. ‘You never mentioned it.’
‘I’ve known Tavish since I was a kid.’ Finn’s voice was quiet, thoughtful.
I leaned over and hit the rewind symbol on the monitor and the recording zoomed backwards. Time to see if anyone got to the bakery before me.
‘Where is Tavish, anyway?’
‘Probably playing with his food,’ he muttered. ‘There was a jumper two nights ago, off London Bridge. The body’s not surfaced yet.’
The hand clutching at my ankle when I’d been in Tavish’s sea came back to me. I frowned up at Finn. ‘Tavish abides by River Lore; he only takes those who want to die. You know that.’
‘Is that what he told you?’ His mouth turned down with derision. ‘Don’t be naïve, Gen. River Lore is just a nicety for the humans, and all he truly agreed was not to actually charm them into the water. He’s never given up his first claim on whoever he finds in the river. And anyway, he’s a kelpie; it’s part of who he is.’
‘What?’ I snorted. ‘Like you’re a fertility fae and I’m sidhe so it doesn’t matter what we want or what we care about, we just succumb to the magic?’
‘Of course not.’
‘Then why should Tavish be any different?’
Finn shoved a hand through his hair. ‘He’s spent centuries being different, Gen. He can’t change that.’
‘Is that why you were throwing Stun spells at him? You thought you were saving me?’ I huffed in exasperation. ‘Will you stop doing your white knight thing, Finn - there’s no way Tavish would hurt me!’
‘Hell’s thorns, Gen, River Lore says he can take someone if they’ve killed, doesn’t matter whether they want to die or not. He won’t make allowances for you; he’s not going to care that it was a sucker and that you had no choice.’
‘Of course I had a choice, Finn - I just didn’t like the other option; being a vamp’s blood-bond for eternity isn’t my dream lifestyle.’ At least not since I was fourteen, I added silently to myself. I swung back round to face the monitors. ‘Anyway, it’s not like I haven’t been in the water with Tavish before ... and that vampire wasn’t the first I’d killed,’ I finished quietly.
He didn’t say anything, just crossed his arms and withdrew into himself. I sighed, staring down at the diamond-chipped cuffs. Arguing with Finn wasn’t getting either of us anywhere, and we couldn’t seem to stop arguing either. The magic kept sparking between us, but something, Helen or my vampire parentage probably, was holding him back. Worse, I didn’t know why I just couldn’t resign myself to the fact there wasn’t going to be anything more between us than me working for him at Spellcrackers. Though even that looked like it wasn’t going to continue much longer. Snuffing out the little flicker of hope of something more I’d foolishly kept alive, I reached out, stopped the recording and set it playing forward again.
‘I don’t know what to say, Gen,’ Finn said, his voice soft, uncertain.
‘I’m not asking you to say anything, I was just telling you.’ I swallowed past the constriction in my throat. ‘It happened years ago, so it’s not important now.’ I’d been the stereotypical runaway, straight off the bus, and the vamp had been the clichéd predator, thinking he could use me as bait for a bigger prize, except, at the risk of another cliché, he discovered he’d bitten off more than he could safely swallow—Maybe we needed a change of subject. ‘Why would you think I’d be here with Tavish, anyway?’
‘What? Oh everyone knows that you and Tavish are ... courting.’
‘Tavish and I aren’t courting,’ I said, surprised, watching as I ran past the bakery, the florist’s lad turning round to stare after me. ‘We spent a bit of time together a while back, but I hadn’t seen him for at least six months until now.’
‘Gen, six months is nothing to a fae, and it doesn’t take much for gossip to start. The witches’re bad for tittle-tattle, but the fae are ten times worse. There’s not that many of us in London: the dryads, the naiads in Lake Serpentine, my own herd and the few solitary fae that hang out at the dragon’s eerie. They’re all as interested in what goes on with each other as anyone. You’re the only sidhe’ - yeah and look how that was turning out - ‘and you might not know any of them, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to ignore what you do.’
‘Aye, that’s true, doll.’ Tavish’s voice sounded behind me.
I glanced over my shoulder as he strolled towards me. The wound across his muscled chest had healed to no more than a faint shadow. He was dressed, sort of, in a long pair of orange silk harem pants, the beads in his hair coloured to match. He looked like he’d just walked off the set of The Arabian Nights.
‘Why are folk talking about us courting,’ I asked, wondering exactly what sort of mischief he’d been up to, ‘when we’re not and never have been?’
‘Which is what I told the Lady Meriel yesterday,’ he grinned, ‘when she was asking after you and wondering whether I’d seen you recently.’
I stared disbelievingly at him. ‘What’s it got to do with her?’
‘She’s a might bothered about the human’s death.’ He took a pair of surgical gloves from the box and snapped them on. ‘Understandable, really. She and her naiads are the easiest of London’s fae tae find.’
I frowned, puzzled. ‘What’s us courting or otherwise got to do with the human’s death?’
‘Nary a thing, doll.’ He leaned over me, his peat-whisky scent curling round me and causing my own magic to rise and heat to pool inside me. The diamond-chip cuffs flared, cutting it short. I squirmed slightly in my seat, wondering if he’d done it deliberately. He gave me an innocent look and I knew he had. Damn kelpie. I glared at him, but he just grinned, reminding me of the sharks swimming lazily through his screensavers. Then he punched a couple of keys on one of the keyboards; a monitor to the left switched to a local news programme. ‘But take a wee watch o’ this.’
The news showed a crowd held back by a row of human police in riot gear, some sort of protest. A group of Soulers, their long grey tabards emblazoned with red Crusader crosses, gathered to one side; the rest were mostly women, some with kids in tow, all jumping up and down, shouting and waving handmade placards.
The camera zoomed in on one placard: HANDS OFF OUR MEN, then panned along the rest: GO HOME FAIRY FREAKS. SOUL STEALERS. MAKE BRITAIN A FAERIE FREE ZONE.
Tavish pointed at the screen. ‘Lake Serpentine. The humans started throwing salt, then pouring bleach and petrol intae the water and setting fire tae it, until yon police came along and stopped them. There were a few casualties on both sides, but it’s mostly peaceful now.’
I leaned forward, hugging myself in disbelief. ‘This is insane.’>
‘Aye, doll, insane it is. The newspapers sensationalised the human’s murder. It doesnae take much tae inflame a few bigoted people and the rest all follow like sheep,’ he muttered, almost echoing my thoughts of a few days previously. He pointed to another screen; it showed a load of naked men running into some water. ‘This is the other side o’ the coin: while one crowd screams and
shouts tae banish us, this lot are up for partaking o’ some faerie sex themselves.’
It was more than insane. I pressed my fingers to my temples - my headache was beating against my skull now - and stared at all the screens. The florist’s boy came out and put out some buckets, stuck his lip out again and peered at himself in the shop window, then turned sharply to look down the empty street. The Soulers and the women waved their placards. Naked men splashed into the water. On another screen was a fire engine in some sort of park.
‘What’s that about?’ I pointed at the fire crew hosing down some trees.
‘A gang took a torch to the trees in Green Park,’ Finn said, and I looked over my shoulder at him. ‘Luckily none of the dryads were in residence.’ His lips pressed together in a grim line.
And something hovered at the edge of my mind—
‘And you being nae around hasnae helped, doll,’ Tavish added, derailing my thoughts. ‘Then the police-witch wouldnae hae been askin’ everyone tae look for you.’
And now I was found.
I looked across at Finn. He frowned back at me, but didn’t say anything. If I gave myself up, would it stop all this? Or had it already gained too much momentum? Even if giving myself up did stop the unrest, who knew how long it would be before Malik was well enough to testify? And while I was sitting in jail - or worse - no one would be looking for the real murderer.
What if it wasn’t all a set-up, but just a coincidence?
What if, despite Tavish’s assurance no gate had been opened, there was another sidhe in London?
Set-up or not, what if they killed again?
I waved at the screens. ‘You’re showing me this for a reason, aren’t you?’
Tavish swivelled the chair round so I faced him, as Finn had done. He braced his arms on the armrests and leaned over me, his eyes serious, his dreads swinging down over his shoulders. ‘Aye doll, you cannae hide away much longer. This needs tae be brought tae a close. There’s the usual solution being proposed tae appease the human justice. You offer up an Ùmaidh tae take your place. Mayhap it’ll mean a few years spent in the Fair Lands—’
‘Seriously, that is not an option, Tavish,’ I sniffed. ‘No way am I sundering flesh, let alone part of my soul, to animate a temporary changeling just to get its head chopped off, and in case you haven’t heard, I’ve got 3V, so I’d be out of my mind within six months, not to mention I’ve never even been to the Fair Lands.’
‘Or,’ Tavish carried on as if I hadn’t interrupted him, ‘you could stay in Between.’
I dropped my head back. ‘Still the same problem, Tavish.’
‘No, there’s not, Gen,’ Finn butted in. ‘You’re not the first fae to have salaich sìol; that’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.’
‘Dinna fash yersel’ aboot that now, lad.’ Tavish waved a dismissive hand at Finn, but kept his eyes on me. ‘T’would only be a solution if you’d killed the human as they think you have. But there’s nae human death darkening your soul.’
I looked at him suspiciously. ‘What?’
He grinned, teeth sharp and white. ‘Well, you dinna think I wanted tae swim just for my aen pleasure, did you?’
Crap. He’d been testing me. ‘You could’ve asked,’ I scowled.
‘But there’s nae joy in just askin’, doll, not when I could hae a wee taste o’ your soul.’
‘Fuck you.’ I glared back at him.
‘Any time, doll, I’ve told you. An-y time!’
Movement drew my attention back to Finn; he was staring at me, surprise on his face, and I realised he’d thought Tavish and I had been doing more than just courting. All around him the monitors reflected ghost screens in the glass ... and the memory of the florist’s boy admiring himself came back to me. I swung the chair back round, dislodging Tavish’s hold, and reversed the CCTV film, starting it from where I was racing by on my run.
‘Look,’ I said, excitement sparking inside me, ‘see how the boy uses the window to check out his appearance? And then when I run by he sees my reflection and turns to watch.’ I fast-forwarded on. ‘Now look: he’s admiring himself again, and then he turns round because he’s seen someone, but there’s no one there. The street’s empty. See how his head whips back to check the reflection.’ I paused the recording and squinted at the screen. ‘There is someone else there, look.’
Tavish leaned over my shoulder. ‘Aye, doll, seems so, and they’re using magic tae hide, but whatever spell they’ve used, they’ve nae cast it correctly. They’ve nae remembered their mirror image.’
I smiled in triumph, pointing at the screen. ‘Any chance you can zoom in on the reflection?’
‘Maybe.’ Tavish swung the chair back round and grasped my arm, pulling me onto my feet. ‘I’ll work at it.’ He sat, staring intently at the screen, fingers flying over the keyboard. ‘Only thing is, doll, it may not be enough tae clear your name.’
‘Clearing my name can wait,’ I said, determined. ‘I’m more interested in finding the killer before they go on to their next victim, and that footage might tell us who it is.’
Chapter Ten
‘If you do me a copy of the recording I’ll take it into the police and get them to have a look at it,’ Finn said, leaning over Tavish’s shoulder.
‘I doubt the police will do better than me, lad.’
‘They won’t,’ Finn agreed, ‘but if I show them where to start, they can compare it with the original. Then at least they won’t think you’ve tampered with the evidence.’
‘Aye, you’re right.’ Tavish nodded, reaching down to snag a new storage stick from the shelf below. ‘T’would nae take much to falsify something, and the humans tell their own falsehoods too often to believe that others dinna follow suit.’
I leaned on the back of the chair and pointed at the florist’s boy. ‘It’s not just what the recording shows; the boy must know something.’ I turned to Finn. ‘Do you think you can get Helen to interview him again and find out?’
‘Yes, I’ll ask her,’ he said as he ran a hand through his hair and rubbed his left horn.
‘Thanks.’ I gave him a quick smile, then I mentally crossed my fingers. Time for the next part of my plan: the one that had been slowly forming in the back of my mind. I needed to summon the phouka and I wasn’t sure how either of them would react. Or maybe they wouldn’t, maybe I was just being paranoid. I decided to ease into it in bite-sized stages; though thinking of biting and the phouka at the same time wasn’t necessarily healthy.
‘Um, Finn,’ I said, ‘before you go, any chance you could call something from my flat for me?’
A line creased between his brows. ‘It depends what it is. The magic only works if you can picture what you want and where it is exactly. I’m not sure I could do that with someone else’s things.’
‘Okay. I was hoping for some clothes.’ I sighed, looking down at the T-shirt. ‘But if not, the other thing I wanted was one of those shiny black pebbles I’ve got, the ones I keep in the white dish shaped like a leaf.’ I tilted my head in question. ‘Do you know the ones I’m talking about?’
‘Yes, I remember them,’ Finn said, thoughtfully. ‘They’re in your bedroom.’
‘That’s right,’ I agreed, keeping my voice even. Finn had only been in my bedroom a couple of times, but the pebbles were on my bedside table and hard to miss. Next to me Tavish stopped hitting the keys and swung his chair round, an intent expression on his face. My heart missed a beat. This was going to be tougher than I thought.
‘The ones you keep on your side of the bed,’ Finn said with an edge of mischief to his smile.
‘Both sides of the bed are my side, Finn,’ I said drily. Did he really have to make it sound as though we were sleeping together, the bastard? Still, better they get distracted by jealousy than figure out the real reason I wanted the stones. Finn started flicking the fingers of his right hand and relief filled me; he’d had his bit of fun, now he was calling for them. Then he frowned. ‘On the side nearest the door
, right?’
‘Yes,’ I said, giving him a get-on-with-it look. Tavish gave a soft snort and Finn’s gaze shifted to meet his eyes. Something passed between them and this time my heart sank. Crap. Then Finn looked back at me, his face lighting with some emotion I couldn’t decipher, and his fingers stopped moving.
Crap. What had Tavish just told him?
‘So, doll,’ Tavish said quietly, ‘what’s so important aboot these stones?’
Briefly, I closed my eyes. ‘A friend gave them to me. They’re just something I think can help me, that’s all.’
Tavish looked at Finn. ‘What are they?’
The Cold Kiss of Death Page 12