Uncanny Kingdom: An Eleven Book Urban Fantasy Collection (Uncanny Kingdom Omnibus 1)

by David Bussell

  ‘Now this,’ she said, ‘is a real knock-down, drag-out bar fight.’

  ‘Eva, he’s going to kill him! He’s going to kill David and there’s nothing I can do!’

  ‘Yes there is,’ said Anya, dropping in beside us. ‘L’Merrier has made an enemy of my family with his actions, but that is for another time. Right now it is my priority to subdue and reclaim my sister, and I will. But this is not your business. Not your fight. You familiars leave here and go and take care of what is yours.’

  ‘Anya, I… thanks. Thank you.’

  She nodded and turned, charging down one of the Lorna’s that was rushing towards us.

  ‘Come on,’ I said, grabbing Eva’s coat sleeve and yanking her towards the exit.

  ‘Leaving then,’ said Jake.

  ‘Looks like it,’ replied Jack.

  ‘This is a fun one, too.’

  ‘You’re missing out.’

  A Lorna struck Jake across the face, leaving his cheek a bloody mess. Jake smiled, spitting blood, and fought on.

  ‘You know, I think I bloody love that pair,’ said Eva, as the bell tinkled and we got the hell out of there.

  25

  We paused a few streets from L’Merrier’s to catch our breath.

  ‘Okay,’ said Eva, ‘Time to get out of London town.’

  I reached out and pulled her back, fury rising.

  ‘Get out? We have to go and help David! L’Merrier is going to kill him!’

  ‘I get the feels, love, I do, but that’s Giles L’Merrier, if he wants someone dead, the worst place to be is at their side. It’s time to get smart and see if we can get far enough away before your pal goes boom.’

  She tried to pull me after her.

  ‘No!

  ‘Going after a succubus for a bit of a ruck is one thing, but this is suicide.’

  I pulled my arm free of her grip and rounded on her, furious. ‘Go! Run away then, that’s what you’re good at, isn’t it? That’s what you’ve twisted your life into, one long useless escape. I am Stella Familiar of the London Coven, brought to life by my witches to protect the people of this city, no matter what.’

  ‘Even if it kills you?’

  ‘Of course! I was born to protect this city until the last breath is knocked out of my lungs. And David… David is my friend. He’s my friend and none of this is his fault. ‘I’m going to spend every second he has left trying to stop him. Trying to save him. Because I have to.’

  Eva looked at me. For the first time since I met her she seemed truly surprised. The mask of indifference, of inebriation, fell for a moment.

  ‘Help me, Eva.’

  She seemed to waver for a moment, then: ‘Good luck.’

  She turned and ran from view. If I’d stopped to think about how furious her running away made me, I’d have given chase. Have taken her down. Have punched some sense into her. Made her her join me. Help me. Help David.

  But there was no time for that. I alone would have to be enough.

  I turned and ran with the wind at my back.

  Streets flew past, traffic, people, buildings, all a blur. I only saw one thing: David. Had it started? Had L’Merrier reached him? Was he already dead?

  No, he was alive. He was still there inside of me, I could feel him. Feel his life still burning bright.

  I realised with a burning certainty something I’d been dancing around. I loved him. Loved him fiercely and totally. The idea of him dying was beyond terrifying. It made me dizzy just to contemplate and threatened to turn my legs to rubber and drop me to the ground.

  I loved Detective David Tyler.

  Whatever that meant to me. Whatever it could mean for a familiar. Whether it was romantic, whether it was the kind of love I had for my witches, whether it was the love of true friendship, the first true friendship I’d ever had, I just didn’t know. But it was true. It was real. And it burned.

  There was no fast way to reach him. Every eaves’ safe house is the centre of the maze for those who know the right paths to take, the right turns to explore. It took time. There was no short cut. And so on I ran. Ran through doors that should open into shops but through which I found ourselves on a rooftop a mile away.

  And on.

  And on I went.

  Down ladders that should have led me into the fairy-infested sewers, but instead delivered me onto grass in the middle of a park.

  And on, and on.

  A kaleidoscope of places. Of London. Flashes of places swirling past me in a seemingly random order with each new turn taken, each new door stepped through.

  Had L’Merrier found it as easy to locate the safe house as he’d said he would? I could only hope he was bluffing and that it would have taken him longer than he’d like to unwind the tangle and find the true way there.

  I knew I was lying to myself, but I had to hope.

  Finally, I stopped, the safe house in front of me. The green door hung off a single hinge, some of the paintwork scorched back from the magic that had blasted it open.

  I was too late.

  L’Merrier had found him.

  ‘David!’

  I barged through the broken door and it crashed to the ground as the force of my entrance tore its remaining hinge from the frame. The air felt strange inside, like static crawling all over my skin.

  I pushed on into the house. ‘David, where are you?’

  The house was silent, but the signs of L’Merrier’s arrival were clear enough. Broken furniture, the smell of fire, scorch marks on the walls, on the carpets, broken glass and splintered wood crunching underfoot with each new step. A huge fight had taken place in the time it had taken us to get here.

  Was it over already?

  Would I step into the next room to find L’Merrier stood over David’s broken corpse?

  And then I found them.

  L’Merrier was on his knees in one of the bedrooms, his eyes rolled back into his head, trembling.

  David was stood in front of him, though his feet didn’t quite touch the floor.

  ‘David…’

  He turned his head to me, his eye sockets leaking a burning, white light.

  ‘An assassin,’ he said, his voice echoing as he gestured to L’Merrier, who was now frothing at the mouth like a mad dog.

  ‘David, it’s me, it’s Stella, your friend.’

  He tilted his head to one side. ‘I see you inside my head.’

  David’s body rippled, impossibly, bulging horrifically. The room shook, cracks appearing on the walls.

  ‘David, please, you’ve got to try and calm down.’

  The room shook again, the house complaining, coughing up dust that stung my eyes.

  David turned back to L’Merrier. ‘He came to murder. I do not like him.’

  He waved a hand and wounds opened across L’Merrier’s face.

  ‘Maybe I will remove his skull. That will be a lesson learned.’

  ‘David, stop! Just listen to me!’

  The magic in the room was strange – tainted by the energy David had coursing through him. It stung to use, it was like breathing in sand, but I needed it. I pulled the power into myself, body shaking with the effort.

  ‘David!’

  He turned to me again, the fire in his eyes wreathing his head in a white hot tongue of flames. I needed to subdue him. Maybe if I could knock him unconscious, whatever switch had been flicked would turn off again. Would give me a new chance to find a way to stop this.

  I circled him, throwing volley after volley of magic at him, hoping to knock him off balance, to take him down—even to make his face twitch would have been something—but it was like I was an ant attacking a mountain.

  ‘Enough,’ he said, and the floor beneath me opened like a hungry mouth and I fell, crying out in shock as my stomach lurched and I dropped hard onto the floor downstairs.

  I could see L’Merrier across the room, he’d fallen too, but remained silent.

  The air began to crackle and down, gently, floated David.
He emerged through the hole he’d created in the floor, descending with a small smile on his face. He was in no rush, and there seemed to be no anger in him. He was calm, comfortable, and ready to rip me to pieces.

  ‘David, I know you’re in there, I know you can—’

  The words were cut off as I found myself flung through the air, head cracking against brick as I struck the wall. I didn’t fall, he kept me there, pinned and helpless.

  David did his curious head tilt again, then stepped slowly towards me. ‘I am new. I am born. Why do you fight my creation?’

  ‘David, listen to me, you have to hear me—’

  ‘I can hear you.’

  ‘No, please, I know you can fight this! I know you’re in there, I can feel it!’

  He was in front of me now and I strained with everything I had to move my hand, just an inch or two.

  I touched his shoulder.

  David stopped and the flames in his eyes sputtered, then disappeared. David sagged, face in his hands, as his grip on me disappeared and I fell to the floor.

  David lifted his head, looking at me with his own eyes. He looked terrified.

  ‘He came for me. The wizard came for me, would have killed me, and then… it just happened. It just swamped me, pushed me out of the way.’

  ‘It’s okay, David, I’m here.’ I placed my hands on his arms, he was trembling.

  ’No, it’s not, I can’t—’

  The room shook.

  David wasn’t back, he’d just bubbled up for a moment, dragged back by my pleas, by my voice, by my touch. But the monster was pushing its way back.

  ‘David, you’ve got to fight it!’

  He staggered back, fingers digging into his scalp as he screamed and thrashed from side to side. The house shook, walls cracking, windows breaking.

  ‘David, don’t go!’

  He looked at me, eyes wide, and then he blinked and white flames erupted from his sockets. He was gone.

  David came at me slowly, reaching out his hands, palms up, pure white energy dancing above them.

  ‘David, please don’t. Please.’

  But there was no pity in his eyes. No understanding. Just fire.

  A sonic boom, air rushing past, bright red flames erupting, knocking me sideways as David was lifted off his feet and smashed through the door into the next room. I looked up, head dizzy, to see the last thing I expected.

  ‘Well, who wants to live forever, anyway?’ said Eva Familiar.

  26

  Eva stumbled over the wreckage from the ceiling that littered the floor and came towards me.

  ‘How are you here?’

  ‘You think an eaves can hide its home from me, love? I’m Eva fucking Familiar of the Cumbrian Coven, bitch. I’m hundreds of years old, this nose can pin down a fart in a hurricane.’

  ‘I thought you didn’t do this anymore.’

  ‘I don’t. I didn’t. But... Maybe I changed my mind a bit, okay? Because of you. Turns out I have a conscience; who knew?’

  Relief coursed through me. Relief that I wasn’t going to have to face this alone, relief that maybe, at last, Eva was truly acting as what she was. A familiar. A protector.

  ‘Oi,’ she said, pointing at the smile on face, ‘Don’t think I’m happy about it. I’m pretty sure I very much don’t like you anymore.’

  A hulking shape rose behind Eva: Giles L’Merrier. He looked shaken, but otherwise unhurt.

  ‘Watch out,’ I said, putting myself between Eva and the mighty wizard.

  L’Merrier pulled a piece of chalk from his pocket and sketched a circle large enough to fit several people inside of.

  ‘Now’s not really the time to practice your doodles,’ said Eva.

  ‘Silence your foolish nattering.’

  ‘You are a very rude gentleman.’

  The house shook again and a white glow began to enter the room through the doorway. David was on his way back.

  ‘Inside the circle,’ L’Merrier commanded, and I found myself pulled towards it by invisible hands, Eva too.

  ‘What are you—?’

  A rush of magic detonated around us as David shot back into the room. It should have hurt, maybe even killed us, but instead it roared around us, repelled by an invisible bubble that L’Merrier had created.

  ‘That’s a neat trick,’ said Eva.

  L’Merrier grimaced and turned to me. ‘The circle will not hold for long, he is too powerful and growing ever more so with each breath.’

  ‘He’s too much even for you,’ I said, finding the idea strangely satisfying.

  ‘Nevertheless, we must stop him. We will stop him. Either we do it or we die. Or everyone in London dies, Detective Tyler included.’

  I looked at David, his eyes burning fiercely, his body twitching, distending, then snapping back into place as more and more of the Uncanny poured into him, filled him up, readied him to go critical and take us all with him.

  ‘What can we possibly do?’ I asked.

  ‘Besides shit our pants,’ added Eva.

  ‘There is a war going on inside Detective Tyler. A fight for ownership of his mind that he is currently losing. I could sense it when I fought him, and I saw it when you, Stella, broke through to him for a moment. When his submerged self bubbled up to the surface. I believe you are the key.’

  I pictured how his face had looked in that moments. The confused terror. It made my stomach hurt.

  ‘You used the black arts to restore him to life, did you not?’ L’Merrier asked.

  ‘How could you…?’

  ‘I am Giles L’Merrier, the man the devil calls, “Sir”, I can taste black magic when I am in its presence. You are a foolish, small thing to play with such darkness.’

  ‘He was dead! Mr. Trick had killed my witches and I couldn’t let him murder David, too. I couldn’t.’

  I looked down in surprise as L’Merrier rested one of his meaty paws on my shoulder.

  ‘I know,’ was all he said.

  ‘Well, this is all very heartwarming,’ said Eva, ‘but we still have a normal turned magic-godzilla-bomb knock-knocking on our door, and the way this bubble is looking, I don’t think it’s gonna stand up to much more punishment, do you?’

  She was right. The field L’Merrier had created with the chalk circle was starting to become visible as it took more and more damage, David relentlessly throwing magic towards us as the safe house tore itself apart around his now grotesquely bulging body. He was no longer popping back into his normal shape, and glowing cracks were appearing across his skin, the magic burning to be released.

  ‘What do we do?’ I asked.

  ‘As I said, I believe you to be the key. You are the one who was able to reach him. You will help Detective Tyler fight.’

  Eva stumbled and grabbed onto me for support as another volley of magic pummeled against the barrier.

  ‘How’s that?’ asked Eva.

  ‘Stella, he knows you, trusts you. He is lost and afraid, cowering inside of his own mind as the thing he is becoming takes ownership. Of his body, his memories, his history. If I can project you into his consciousness, you can find him. He will trust and accept you, and you can help him fight back.’

  ‘Couldn’t you just pop inside and grab him yourself?’ asked Eva.

  ‘His mind neither knows me well, nor trusts me,’ replied L’Merrier. ‘The memories would not accept me, but they would accept Stella.’

  He was talking about a form of astral projection, something beyond my powers, or Eva’s, but not his. The ability to leave your own body behind and enter another state. To explore other realms, other universes, other people’s inner worlds.

  Another volley of magic hit and I felt heat lick my skin; the protection spell was almost dead.

  ‘How will that help stop this happening again? Why won’t the power overtake him again later?’

  He clicked his fingers and a small box appeared in the palm of his hand.

  ‘What’s that for?’ asked Eva, almost fallin
g as the floor beneath us quaked.

  ‘When you use the dark arts, there is always a price. A splinter of hell has embedded itself inside of Detective Tyler. I can see it within him now. After you locate his true self, you must find the splinter. Remove it. Place it within this box and bring it to me.’

  I nodded and took the small box, sliding it into the inside pocket of my leather jacket.

  ‘Okay, let’s do this,’ I said.

  ‘One small problem,’ he replied.

  ‘Only one?’

  ‘The circle will not allow you to pass through. When I release your astral form, I must break the circle.’

  ‘Hey,’ said Eva, ‘wouldn’t that, sort of, be bad news for those of us hoping to see tomorrow?’

  ‘Time moves differently when in the astral form. For Stella, inside of David’s mind, a second for us will be like minutes for her. She must move swiftly, or else he will turn us to ash, and London soon after. This is it familiar, the only chance we have left. This is all upon you now. The life of this city rests upon your shoulders.’

  ‘I think what he’s saying is: No pressure, love.’ Eva winked, and I found I couldn’t help but admire her attitude. She could have gone on her way, enjoying her traveller’s life as best she knew how, rejecting the life she’d been born to. A life that had, apparently, treated her so badly. Instead she was trying to save someone she barely knew, but still facing it with a wink and a smile.

  I grabbed her by the arm. ‘Thanks. Thank you, Eva.’

  ‘You can do it,’ she replied. ‘You’re Stella Familiar of the mother-shitting London bloody Coven.’

  I smiled. ‘Yes I am.’

  ‘The spell is almost dead, are you ready?’ asked L’Merrier.

  I looked at David, swollen to almost three times his normal size, his entire head engulfed in blinding white fire.

  ‘Do it.’

  I felt L’Merrier’s hand grip the back of my head as he waved his free hand in front of us and the circle was broken.

  David was screaming. Screaming in a voice I didn’t recognise as his. Death shot towards us from his hands as L’Merrier leant close and whispered in my ear. ‘Go....’