Deadly Portent: An Uncanny Kingdom Urban Fantasy (The London Coven Series Book 3)

by M. V. Stott

  David dropped into the final seat on the bench, his leg pressing against mine and making my stomach do a strange whirly thing. Nothing else had happened since the strange almost-kiss from a few weeks back. The strange almost-kiss that I’m pretty sure he didn’t actually notice anyway, and I’d blown up in my head out of all proportion. I’d been drunk. Worse than drunk, hanging off his neck with our faces too close for too long.

  ‘Is no one else going to notice that then?’ asked Eva, derailing my train of thought.

  ‘Notice what?’ I asked.

  ‘You seriously haven’t noticed?’

  ‘What is she talking about now?’ asked David.

  ‘Who’s “she”, the cat’s, you know… what is it? Cousin? Or…? What were we talking about again?’

  ‘We haven’t noticed something,’ I replied impatiently.

  ‘Oh right, yeah. So no one has noticed? I’m the only one, and I wasn’t even paying attention.’

  ‘Noticed what?’ I cried.

  ‘Lady muck over there! In the doorway of the boarded-up chip shop. She’s only been stood watching crime alley for the last fifteen minutes. Keen eyes, you two, this city is in really safe hands.’

  I leaned past Eva to see what it was she was looking at. There was a person slouched in the doorway about fifty-metres away. She was wearing a floor-length, purple cloak with the hood up, which was a strange thing to have on, but not for this person.

  I could only see a little of her face, but that was enough. I recognised her. It was one of Anya’s family.

  It was a succubus.

  11

  The succubus was fast, moving swiftly and with little effort as I sprinted after her, David panting at my heels. What we were going to do if we actually caught her I didn’t know. My best current plan was: try not to die horribly. I already saw a lot of holes in that plan.

  Just David and I against a succubus was bad, having Eva help out would’ve been a safer bet, but as we made to chase she’d just shrugged and said, ‘I make it a rule not to run unless I’m being chased.’

  I didn’t have time to argue with her, or tell her she was shaming familiars everywhere with her cowardice, instead I just ran, pulling in the street’s magic as I went, readying for attack.

  ‘She’s ducking out!’ said David, pointing towards the succubus as she slipped past a group of passers-by and disappeared down an alley. I knew the succubus we were chasing – I’d spoken to her a few times over the years. Her name was Lorna, one of the younger sisters of the family. She’d always seemed one of the more restrained and approachable of Anya’s kin; at least you didn’t worry quite so much that she’d turn suddenly and try to drain the life out of you. As we turned sharply into the alley to continue the chase, I had to wonder what she had been doing near the crime scene. Had she broken ranks from the family and turned feral, murdering normals for her own satisfaction? Or was she just keeping an eye on the investigation on Anya’s behalf? Trying to find out who was really behind the murders.

  Well, it looked as though I was going to get the opportunity to ask.

  As we reached the end of the alley it opened up onto a little courtyard area with no exit. The succubus was down on her haunches at the far end of the courtyard, her back to us, dark purple cape pooling out around her.

  ‘Lorna! It is Lorna, isn’t it?’

  The hood covering her head twitched a little, but she didn’t turn or answer.

  ‘Lorna,’ said David, ‘we’d just like to ask you a friendly, non-violent or in any way threatening question or two.’

  ‘Lorna, we have two people dead. Two people drained dry. And now here you are. What are you doing here Lorna? Are you just keeping an eye on things? Looking for clues just like us?’

  ‘Or maybe you got a little tired of being on Anya’s short leash,’ said David. ‘Of Stella’s pain in the arse rules about what a succubus can and can’t do. Hey, I can relate, my mum never let me go further than the end of the street when I first got a bike, but I did anyway. So. This is kind of the same.’

  I gave him a look.

  ‘Well, it is kind of. Minus all the murder.’

  I indicated for David to hang back as I took a step or two towards the still motionless Lorna. I dragged the surrounding magic into myself, cords of multi-coloured energy whirling around my clenched fists.

  ‘Lorna, the more you don’t answer me, the more nervous I get. The more I think you’re not here doing detective work. The more I think maybe it’s you doing the killing. Persuade me that I’m wrong.’

  Things moved fast then. Too fast for me to do much of anything besides tense for impact.

  There was a flash of purple as Lorna turned and stood, her cloak whirling past my eyes and its hood falling down to give me my first clear glimpse of her.

  It wasn’t pretty.

  She was in full beast mode.

  Her eyes were unbroken pools of black, her face a stretched, razor-tooth-filled gargoyle scream. Before I knew what was happening, she’d swept the back of one elongated, clawed hand across my face and I was airborne, a wall breaking my flight painfully.

  There was no time to check for broken bones or open wounds. I hopped up onto my feet instantly, my fists boiling with magic, and found Lorna stalking towards David, who happened to still be blocking the only exit.

  ‘Halt in…. the name of the law?’ said David.

  He wasn’t going to just get out of the way, the stubborn, brave idiot, which meant unless I did something fast he was going to end up face down in a puddle of his own brains.

  So I did something fast.

  I clapped my hands together then pulled, creating a long, magical whip of crackling, bright orange energy, which I swung, striking Lorna across the back.

  CRACK.

  She hissed and twisted back to me, fury in her ink-black eyes.

  ‘Where do you think you’re going, succubus? I haven’t even started with you yet.’

  All thoughts of escaping by way of a dead David had now clearly deserted Lorna. All she wanted now was to do some very bad and potentially very fatal things to me.

  I struck out with the whip again, hitting her across the face, opening a livid cut across one cheek. She screeched and sprang towards me, claws out, ready to sink them into my chest. I dove left, rolled once, then hopped back to my feet, lashing out with the whip again, only this time she was wise to it and caught it before it struck home.

  ‘Oh shit,’ I said, and really, really meant it.

  Lorna yanked on the whip, sending me flying towards her. I landed in a pile at her feet, the whip no longer in my hand, the world tilting as my brain jarred on impact. I looked up to see Lorna above me with murder in her eyes. As she loomed over me, face twisted with fury, claw raised and ready to strike, I pictured my dead witches and wondered if I’d be seeing them again sooner than planned.

  That’s when the metal bin bounced off her head and sent Lorna sprawling to the ground.

  ‘Well,’ said David. ‘Get the up and twat the cow!’

  He didn’t have to tell me twice.

  I leapt to my feet, soaking up the magic in the air like I was breathing in smoke, my fists throbbing with energy.

  ‘My turn,’ I said, and punched my fist forward with a scream, unleashing a wave of energy that caught the still-downed Lorna flush and smashed her back against the wall.

  I didn’t wait for her to gather her senses.

  I punched forward again, and again, one fist after the other, the magic surging into me and then exploding out, crashing into Lorna like breaking waves. Taking on a junior member of the family had been a lucky break – she still had enough strength to rip me to shreds given the chance, but if this had been Anya, the chances of me walking out of this alley would have been next to zero.

  ‘Lorna,’ I said, unleashing another wave of energy, trying to keep her from gaining her footing and fighting back. ‘You know why I’m doing this. You’ve stepped outside of the pact.’

  I looked
at her as she squirmed, still in full beast mode, and wondered what could have—

  —I blinked, the world swimming back into sharpness, to find myself on my back and looking up at the sky. What the hell?

  ‘Hello, Stella.’

  ‘Hello there, Stella.’

  I sat up to find Jack and Jake, The Den’s doormen, stood before me with David in their clutches. We were in the courtyard still, but there was no sign of Lorna.

  ‘Hey, Stella,’ said David, ‘Jack here told me to tell you that if you try anything funny he’ll… what was it?’

  ‘Snap your neck like a twig.’

  ‘That’s it. That thing he just said. About my neck.’

  ‘And stomp your skull into a bloody paste,’ said Jake.

  ‘Oh, yeah,’ said David, ‘that too. Forgot about that.’

  I stood, my fists clenched, ready to fight.

  ‘Which one of you fuckers knocked me out?’

  Jack raised a hand. ‘It was this fist here.’

  ‘That one there,’ agreed Jake.

  ‘One punch.’

  ‘Back of the head.’

  ‘And down she went.’

  I looked around, but she’d definitely gone. Lorna had escaped.

  ‘If you’re looking for Lorna, we couldn’t let you carry on with that nonsense.’

  ‘Not with that nonsense, I mean, you were being very rude.’

  ‘Rude is the word for it.’

  I’d had enough.

  ‘David?’

  ‘Yup?’

  ‘Sorry.’

  ‘About?’

  I swept my hand across him and he lurched out of Jake’s grip, sprawling on the ground a few feet away.

  ‘Like that is it?’ said Jake.

  ‘Oh, like that, then?’ said Jack. ‘Oh goodie.’

  I threw a fist forward, then another, striking both in the chest with a ball of crackling power. The bouncers flinched and slid back, like rhinos nudged by a couple of shopping carts. They didn’t go down.

  They looked at each other and smiled, then back to me.

  Christ, I hated fighting this pair.

  They charged towards me as one.

  I punched out more and more magic, but they were quick on their feet for their size, ducking and weaving as they approached, causing me to leap and roll to avoid their massive bodies crushing me against the wall.

  ‘David, away,’ I ordered.

  ‘I’m not leaving you to these lumps,’ he replied. ‘Christ, why am I so noble?’

  ‘Stella, stay still so we can hurt you,’ said Jake.

  ‘Yeah, stay still, Stella, we only want to hurt you,’ agreed Jack.

  I soaked the magic into me, willing as much of it inside of me as I could. So much that I could see a dim aura glowing from me.

  ‘Come on then,’ I said, and began to charge.

  Jack and Jake smiled and came to meet me. At speed.

  There was a collision. There was a release of magic. There was a lot of pain. And then I was on the ground again, struggling to right myself as Jack and Jake, breathing heavily, helped each other to their feet.

  One hand against the brick wall for support, I wrenched my complaining body back up, my head throbbing from the impact, vision swimming.

  ‘Had enough yet?’ I asked, my voice wavering.

  ‘Enough?’ said Jack.

  ‘We can do this all day,’ said Jake.

  ‘Ha, all bloody day!’

  They hunched their shoulders and turned to face me, ready to charge again.

  I pulled the magic into me, my legs still threatening to drop me back to the ground.

  ‘Enough,’ said a voice I recognised. Smooth, commanding, and above all, seductive.

  Jack and Jake relaxed and stepped aside as Anya, head of the succubus family of London, slinked into view.

  12

  Anya’s hands caressed the chests of her two doormen, tracing the scorch marks on their starched white shirts.

  ‘Has she been playing rough?’ she asked.

  ‘Very rough,’ replied Jake.

  ‘But we don’t mind that, boss,’ said Jack.

  ‘Oh no, don’t mind that.’

  ‘We like it rough.’

  Anya smiled and licked her lips as she turned and looked at me. ‘Go and wait for me by the car, would you, boys?’

  Jack and Jake nodded, gave me a cheery wave, then lumbered away.

  ‘Well, isn’t this an awful mess?’ she purred.

  ‘You lied to us,’ I said.

  Anya pulled a mock-hurt face and shook her head. ‘No. I did not.’

  ‘She’s the killer, isn’t she, Anya? Lorna, your sister, she’s gone feral, broken ranks, and you’re here to try and pull her back. Am I wrong?’

  She turned towards David, who had his back pressed against the wall, trying to be invisible. ‘Detective Tyler, what a delight to see you again so soon.’

  ‘Oh, hey there.’

  ‘When will you come back to my club, alone?’ she asked. ‘I see such… fun in you.’

  ‘Pfft, I have such a busy slate at the moment. Otherwise… well, I still wouldn’t come as you and that place terrify me. A lot. A lot of terrified.’

  ‘Anya, I represent the London Coven, and you will answer my questions now. Truthfully.’

  She turned to me, her mouth twitching momentarily into a grimace. ‘Oh, will I now? Are you really the coven, or just all that’s left? A remnant clinging onto something that’s already dead?’

  I can’t pretend that didn’t sting. That it didn’t ring a little bell in my head. Eva popped into my mind’s eye briefly. Eva, who was just like me, but had given up her purpose after her coven’s destruction. Did she have the right idea after all? Maybe I was holding onto something that was over. I wasn’t a witch. What right did I have to try to act as though I were?

  ‘As things stand, I am the coven, Anya. And that means I can’t just stand aside. I can’t let people in this city die at the hands of the Uncanny, no matter which family that Uncanny might belong to. You know that.’

  Anya stared at me a little too long, and I felt a chill caress my skin. I wondered what would happen next. If she’d turn feral and leap at me, sink her teeth into me, gouge my heart open with one claw.

  But instead she smiled.

  ‘Yes. I know that. And again, I did not lie.’

  ‘The murderer, it’s Lorna.’

  Anya bowed her head once.

  ‘So you’re telling me you didn’t know?’

  ‘That is what I am telling you.’

  ‘The powerful Anya of The Den, head of the succubus family of London, didn’t know when one of her own was breaking the agreement and indulging in a murder spree?’

  ‘I won’t tell you again, Stella,’ she replied.

  I shifted, hands clenched, I didn’t like the way Anya spoke to me. L’Merrier was one thing, but Anya got under my skin.

  ‘Where is she then? Where’s Lorna?’

  ‘We will find her,’ said Anya.

  ‘Sorry,’ said David. ‘Does that mean you let her escape? You let the murderer get away?’

  Anya turned her head in his direction, her eyes suddenly black, causing David to hop back in not the most manly of fashions.

  ‘No offence, just trying to get the facts down. It’s the copper in me.’

  ‘Why did you have your pair of idiot doormen stop me if you were just going to let her run away?’

  Anya turned her attention back to me, the black in her eyes fading. ‘Because she is my sister. My family. She is mine to deal with. She is not yours to bat around or judge, familiar. Is that clear?’

  ‘No,’ I said, trying to sound braver than I felt.

  ‘No?’ she replied, arching an eyebrow. ‘One of these days your bravery is going to be your undoing.’

  ‘Anya, I can’t just allow Lorna to carry on killing and wait for you to clean up the mess.’

  ‘Is that so?’

  ‘Yes, and you know it is. I co
uldn’t just step aside even if I wanted to. It’s my job to take out whatever’s threatening this city.’

  ‘You know, Stella, I really must question that fiercely stated manifesto, considering your current company.’

  She turned to face David again.

  ‘Tell me, Detective, how are you feeling?’

  David looked past her to me, a little confused, ‘I’m good. Well, pretty good. Good with a side of fear, which is pretty much my default setting these days.’

  ‘You’re different than you were the first time we met.’

  ‘Anya—’

  ‘I am? I parted my hair differently this morning, but—’

  Anya turned back to me, a humourless smile on her face. ‘A little hypocritical, familiar.’

  She turned and strode towards the street. ‘Lorna is my family, I will deal with her.’

  ‘Not if I find her first, Anya.’

  She paused briefly. ‘Get in my way, and it will not end well, regardless of your affiliation.’

  As she left, David crouched to catch his breath. ‘You know, she is really very stressful to be around.’

  Anya knew about David. About what was happening to him. L’Merrier was right, the news was spreading. How long before someone decided to try and do something about it?

  13

  I placed a pint on the table in front of David and dropped onto a stool opposite. We’d retreated to The Beehive to lick our wounds and consider our next move.

  ‘Cheers,’ said David, raising his glass and gulping down a few mouthfuls.

  I now knew two things for sure. Firstly, the killer was indeed a succubus from Anya’s family gone rogue, and secondly, people were starting to find out about whatever it was that was happening to David.

  ‘I’m not going to lie, Stella,’ said David, ‘I really hope Anya finds that black sheep of hers before we do, because those succubi are not my favourite Uncanny peeps.’

  I smiled and took a drink. I can’t say I disagreed with him. If Anya managed to get to Lorna first and pull her back into the fold before she committed any more murders, that would be fine with me. You could argue she should have to face some sort of justice for the murders she’d committed, but unless the family agreed, it would mean going to war. Justice couldn’t always mean punishment, not in this Uncanny world. It would be up to them how she was reprimanded. Stopping her would more than likely have to be enough. I touched the side of my head and winced a little; a painful reminder of my rumble with Jack and Jake.