Bound

by Sue Tingey

  I padded upstairs to my office, and stopped dead in the doorway. ‘Oh crap!’

  ‘Problem?’ Jamie appeared at the bottom of the stairs.

  ‘They’ve only gone and taken my PC and laptop,’ I called back.

  ‘Will you need them?’

  ‘I was going to google me to find out if I’ve been mentioned in the news or anything. And I was going to look for unnatural natural disasters …’

  ‘If you can find your credit card, maybe you should get a new laptop.’

  ‘I’m not made of money—’

  ‘And they’ve probably stopped all your cards anyway, or put a watch on them,’ Kayla supplied.

  ‘Not if they don’t know I’ve got it,’ I said, pulling out the bottom drawer of my desk and running my fingers along the underside. ‘Here we go!’ And hey presto, I had a card.

  I ran downstairs to find Jamie. ‘Remember, you can probably only get away with using it once, so buy what you have to, and then try drawing out cash.’

  ‘Don’t worry about it.’

  ‘I don’t want you getting yourself arrested.’

  ‘He’ll be all right,’ Kayla said with a sniff. ‘There’s a reason he can mesmerise people.’

  Within an hour my kitchen was overflowing with daemons. Shenanigans and Kubeck were so big they took up most of the space – and neither Jamie nor Vaybian were what I’d call small. Despite the circumstances, I had to stifle a slightly hysterical giggle as I looked at them all. If the police had walked in at that moment, they’d’ve had a blue fit, and doubtless arrested everyone on sight.

  ‘What?’ Jamie asked. He at least looked human.

  ‘I was just thinking what the police would say if they walked in and saw you all!’

  ‘I think you should make that all of us, mistress,’ Shenanigans said, and I looked down to see that my hands were still shimmering pink.

  I lifted a strand of my mahogany and aubergine hair and gave him a rueful smile. ‘You’re right. I think I’d have more to explain than just having disappeared for a few weeks.’

  ‘You’ve got to think yourself human,’ Jamie said.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Concentrate on looking like you did before: you covered yourself in a disguise without even knowing you were doing it, so it shouldn’t be difficult to do so again.’

  I took a deep breath, closed my eyes and tried to think of how I had once looked. Even after such a short time it was hard. The human me had shoulder-length dark chestnut hair, and that me definitely didn’t have violet and garnet eyes, just boring old hazel. Pointed maroon fingernails were also a no-no – although they’d probably pass as manicured if I needed them to. It suddenly occurred to me that I didn’t really want to be that person any more. I quite liked the daemon me.

  I heard Jamie chuckle, and when my eyes snapped open he was grinning at me. ‘It shouldn’t be that hard.’

  I didn’t need to look in a mirror to know I hadn’t changed. ‘Won’t I need my daemon strength if we’re to take on Amaliel?’

  ‘Now you know what you are and what you’re capable of, I think you’ll find your human persona will just be a façade, like when Shenanigans and Kerfuffle change.’

  ‘It’s easy, mistress,’ Shenanigans said, the air about him shimmered and gone were my two daemon friends. Instead, I was looking at a tall man of about six foot four in a dark suit looking like a Mafioso hit man and a short elderly gentleman, similarly dressed, who could have been his diminutive crime lord boss.

  ‘They make you look underdressed,’ I remarked to Jamie.

  ‘Whatever makes them feel comfortable.’

  ‘You have a go,’ Kerfuffle said to Kubeck.

  Kubeck looked him up and down, then with a slight disturbance of air he too shrank to a more reasonable six foot or so. His skin took on a slightly olive tinge, while his hair, which remained short and curly, turned chestnut. He too was dressed in a dark suit, white shirt and black tie.

  ‘Your turn,’ Kerfuffle said to Vaybian.

  ‘This I must see,’ Kayla giggled, and I had to admit I was interested to see how her green captain would look in human form.

  The result wasn’t half bad. Obviously he was no longer green, and he’d lost the twisted ivory horn from just above his hairline, but otherwise he was pretty much the same: his hair, tied in a ponytail, was now a long, glossy black and his skin was tanned. He looked a bit like a Native American and had opted for the more casual option of jeans, T-shirt and a hoodie.

  ‘Wow,’ Kayla said as she slowly circled him, licking her lips like the cat who got the cream.

  ‘Where’s Pyrites?’ I asked, suddenly noticing my little drakon was missing, then I felt something warm and furry rub up against my legs. ‘Pyrites?’ Crouching down, I found a small black, white and tan Jack Russell terrier. Pyrites hopped onto his back legs and dropped his paws onto my knee. I picked him up and he turned in my arms to give my face a good licking. His unreserved love made me feel a damn sight better than I had been.

  ‘Pyrites,’ Jamie said, and my drakon swivelled to look at him, ‘you’re here to guard Lucky – and under no circumstances are you to take to wing during the hours of daylight. Do you understand?’ Pyrites made a grumbling sound, and when he said firmly, ‘I mean it!’ my drakon barked.

  Jamie obviously took this as a yes. Then his attention turned to Shenanigans and Kerfuffle. ‘And remember, no humans are to be harmed.’

  ‘What are you looking at us for?’ Kerfuffle grumbled, glowering up at Jamie.

  ‘You know very well why.’

  My smallest guard grunted. ‘We have been charged with protecting Mistress Lucky and protect her we will and you’d be lying if you said you’d have it any other way.’

  Jamie’s own frown softened. ‘All right, but only use reasonable force.’

  Neither guard replied. Jamie obviously took that as a yes as well, as he smiled at me and said, ‘If you give me the card I’ll go and get some petrol and any other stuff we might need.’

  ‘All right,’ I said, and told him my PIN number. ‘I think we probably have enough food for the moment.’

  ‘Oh, there’s another thing,’ Jamie added. ‘You’re not overly attached to your car, are you?’

  I gave him a puzzled look. ‘Why?’

  ‘We’re going to need something bigger.’ He gestured around the room at the others.

  ‘I guess not,’ I said with a sigh. ‘All the paperwork is in the filing cabinet in my office – under “V” for “vehicles”.’

  ‘Right, I’ll just pop upstairs, then we’ll be off.’

  *

  I couldn’t help but think what an odd pair Jamie and Kerfuffle looked as they walked down the path to where my car was parked. Then I panicked – would it be there? My keys had been on the hallway table, but what if the police had taken it?

  They didn’t immediately return, so I was hopeful they’d found it. Back in the kitchen, Shenanigans had already emptied most of the contents of my fridge into a bin bag being held open by an unsmiling Vaybian, and Kubeck was scrubbing the worktops.

  I left them to it and wandered out into the hall to check the answering machine. There were only six missed messages: two from Philip Conrad’s office and four from the police; the last was the day before yesterday, so the search must have happened some time over the last forty-eight hours. There was nothing of interest in the pile of post the police had kindly stacked on the hallway table, but several envelopes had been opened, so they might have taken some away with them. Most of my important correspondence came by e-mail these days and I wasn’t going to be able to check my account any time soon, there was no point worrying about it. Rather than sit and wait and slowly go mad, I fetched a duster and some furniture polish and started cleaning up.

  ‘Shouldn’t you leave that?’ Kayla asked as I set to work in the living room.

  ‘It looks terrible.’

  ‘The police will notice if they come back.’

 
I pulled a face at her. ‘I think it’s a bloody disgrace that they didn’t clean up after themselves in the first place.’

  I had more or less finished by the time Jamie and Kerfuffle returned, laden down with carrier bags; Shenanigans was preparing a quick meal.

  ‘Here,’ Jamie said, handing me a newspaper, ‘I thought you might like to see this.’

  I sat down at the kitchen table and unfolded the paper to find my own face staring up at me from the front page. It was the picture from the back cover of my last book, and not the most flattering. My publisher had wanted me to have a serious, academic demeanour, but I just looked stern and school-marmish.

  The piece wasn’t very long, but it explained the police tape: it turned out no one had seen fit to report Philip or his two goons missing for more than two weeks, and bearing in mind his wife had been murdered and his daughter abducted, that made no sense at all. It did explain Jamie’s emphatic instructions to Shenanigans and Kerfuffle; I never did find out what they’d done to Philip’s bodyguards. When someone finally did report him missing, the police discovered that the last time he and his companions had been seen was at a golf club with a mysterious woman and three other men. Further investigations by the boys in blue led them to the dinner I’d had with him at The Riverview – but by the time they’d discovered this, I’d already returned to the Underlands.

  When I turned the page to read the rest of the story, I found out why no one had reported him missing: he’d told his staff he was going on holiday for a couple of weeks, no doubt to enjoy whatever he had been promised for betraying me, so no one took his disappearance seriously until he didn’t show up at his office for what was in fact eighteen days after he’d been taken.

  At first the police had wanted to question me because I was probably the last person to see Philip before he’d disappeared; now, according to the report, I was a possible victim to whatever fate had befallen Philip.

  ‘This is a bit of a mess,’ I said when I finished reading.

  ‘I think it’s best if we move on from here first thing tomorrow,’ Jamie said. ‘The last thing we need right now is for you to be taken in for questioning. It would waste time we don’t have.’

  ‘We’ve already wasted several hours,’ I said, starting to panic all over again: we’d been cleaning and shopping while we were counting down to Jinx’s possible demise.

  ‘No, we’ve been preparing.’ Jamie gestured with his head to Kerfuffle who trotted off, only to return with a couple more bags from the hall. ‘This will help us keep an eye on news of any natural or unnatural disasters, plagues or pestilence,’ Jamie said, taking a box out of the bag and placing it on the table in front of me: a tablet. I’d always wanted one, but I’d thought it a luxury I could do without.

  He dug out six smaller boxes: new mobile phones. ‘So we can keep in touch if we need to separate,’ he told us.

  ‘But—’ Shenanigans started to say.

  ‘No buts; when in the Overlands we do what they do.’

  ‘We got on well enough without this newfangled technology before,’ Kerfuffle grumbled.

  ‘Before your most recent visit to protect Lucky, when was the last time you visited the Overlands?’

  Kerfuffle frowned at him.

  ‘Did they even have cars?’

  ‘It wasn’t that long ago …’

  ‘Well, things have moved on, and if you don’t think Amaliel and his people will be using today’s technology, you’ll be mistaken. Remember, he’s been using a human conduit, and if he or she is anything like Philip Conrad, they’re going to be pretty powerful.’

  With that happy thought in mind, we put all the devices on charge and sat down to dinner. There wasn’t much room around my kitchen table, so we moved into the living room and sat on the floor like we would have done at home – which shocked me: I was thinking of the Underlands as home now.

  ‘Hadn’t you better try to at least look human?’ Jamie said to me. ‘Just in case someone comes to the door?’

  I closed my eyes and tried to remember what I’d looked like before. ‘It’s not working.’

  ‘Try harder,’ Jamie said with a laugh.

  I wrinkled my brow and concentrated very, very hard.

  ‘It’s still not working,’ I grumbled.

  ‘You’re still not trying,’ he said in a singsong voice.

  I gritted my teeth, and the picture of me on the front page flashed into my head, the air about me gave a little quiver and with a shudder I felt myself change. I looked down at my hands. Yep: all human.

  ‘What now?’ I asked.

  ‘We get a couple of hours’ sleep and set off before it gets light. The fewer people who see us leave the village the better.’

  ‘Did you manage to get us a bigger car?’ I said suddenly; I’d completely forgotten about that, until the memory popped into my head of poor Shenanigans folding himself almost double to get in the back of my little Ford Fiesta.

  ‘Yep. It’s probably not your usual cup of tea, but it’ll do for the time being.’ Jamie gave me what he obviously thought was a winsome smile, and Kerfuffle started to giggle, which was a disconcerting sound at the best of times. ‘You’ve still got a Ford.’

  ‘Will it be big enough?’

  He nodded. ‘For all of us, and Jinx when we get him back.’

  ‘We will get him back, won’t—?’ And once again I was struggling to breathe – it felt like I was drowning in the bath again. I was gasping for air, but my mouth was opening and nothing was happening.

  ‘Lucky!’

  ‘Mistress, what’s wrong?’

  I got up onto my knees, my hands to my throat, still unable to catch my breath. I could sense Jinx was still trying to fight Amaliel, but his mind was in turmoil. I could feel his desperation, his panic, his fear that he had no control. He couldn’t draw breath, not because he was choking or being smothered, but because Amaliel wasn’t allowing him to breathe. He was showing Jinx how powerless he was, even over his own bodily functions.

  Then as we both slipped into unconsciousness, Jinx gasped a word, an image flashed into my head and we could both breathe again.

  Five

  When I opened my eyes I was still on my knees. Jamie’s face was filled with fearful worry.

  ‘Lucky?’ he said, reaching for me.

  ‘I think I know where he is,’ I said, ‘or at least where he’s going.’

  ‘The woman’s crazed,’ Vaybian said.

  ‘I’m going to give him such a smack in a moment,’ Kayla snarled.

  ‘Go on,’ Jamie said, ignoring Vaybian.

  ‘Before he passed out he showed me an image: a pyramid.’

  ‘He’s in Egypt?’

  ‘It was weird, though. I saw chariots and …’ I thought for a moment about exactly what I had seen. ‘It was like the buildings were still under construction.’

  ‘Was it a memory?’ Jamie asked. ‘Maybe from the last time he was there?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘He whispered the word “Exodus”.’

  ‘ “Exodus”?’ Jamie and Kayla said together. Jamie looked particularly thoughtful. ‘Do you have a Bible?’ he said.

  ‘I thought you didn’t do religion?’ I said.

  ‘I don’t, but humans used to have the tendency to turn any unusual event, particularly if it was catastrophic, into one of religious significance. Your Bible is full of such events, and the Book of Exodus particularly so. If my memory is correct, the ten plagues of Egypt appear in Exodus.’

  ‘But it was only a story,’ Kerfuffle said.

  Jamie shook his head. ‘Some of it was probably based on historical facts. It might not have happened exactly as the Bible said, and the events could have been hundreds of years apart, but it wasn’t like today, when something happens thousands of miles away and the rest of the world knows about it within moments.’

  ‘These plagues,’ I said, knowing my question would probably get me an answer I really didn’t want, ‘was it Jinx last time? The
plague of locusts, the rivers turning to blood, the deaths of the firstborn?’

  ‘It was before my time,’ Jamie said, ‘but some of it, yes, maybe. The locusts are a possibility, but I doubt he would have turned the rivers to blood – too theatrical for our Jinx. As for the killing of the firstborn’ – he blew out through pursed lips – ‘I don’t think so. That’s far more Amaliel’s style than Jinx’s.’

  ‘But he could try and make Jinx do that sort of thing?’ I asked.

  ‘If Amaliel has gone to the trouble of binding Jinx, he’s done it for a reason, and whatever that is I would say it doesn’t bode well for humanity. Though if Jinx is still fighting him, that’s something, at least.’

  ‘Do you think Amaliel is trying to make people think he’s some sort of god?’ Kerfuffle asked.

  ‘Why would he?’ Kubeck asked.

  ‘To get a human following, perhaps,’ Kerfuffle said.

  ‘You mean like starting a Sicarii sect here in the Overlands?’ said Shenanigans.

  ‘Possibly,’ Kerfuffle said.

  ‘Damnation,’ Shenanigans said, which was nowhere near close to the profanity that’d sprung into my mind.

  This was terrible. Amaliel had been successfully running the Sicarii in the Underlands for who knew how long; I doubted it would be particularly difficult to persuade a group of fanatics to follow him here, especially if he’d brought a few of his creepy daemon followers with him. All he needed to do was find any old group of would-be Satanists and they’d be hanging onto his every word.

  ‘I don’t think we can afford to wait for morning,’ I said with a sigh.

  ‘But where would we start, mistress?’ Shenanigans asked. ‘The Overlands is a huge place.’

  ‘The ten plagues were in Egypt,’ I said. ‘Do you think he could be there?’

  Jamie took a deep breath and raised his eyes to mine. ‘I suspect Jinx was trying to send you a message: I doubt if he knows where he is, but he would know what Amaliel is trying to make him do.’

  ‘No, it wasn’t like before,’ I said, my voice cracking. ‘Jinx wasn’t sending me a message; he thinks I’m dead. I think Amaliel is close to doing it, Jamie. I think he’s close to binding Jinx – or at least, Jinx thinks he is.’