by Sofia Grey
“Kathy!” I turned, slowly. Tristan. “She’s my friend,” he argued with the policeman holding him back. Not much of a friend, the way he’d stuck me with Nash, but any port in a storm. I rubbed my grimy face and walked up to the cordon.
“Can you give me a lift, please?”
16.2 Dante
At some point between leaving the basement and getting outside, Kitten vanished. I’d been on the verge of passing out, only upright because Nan shored me up, but when my head finally stopped swimming, and I looked around, she’d gone. I was frantic. The paramedic tried to walk me to a waiting ambulance, but I refused.
I called out to Josh, standing there with Suki in his arms. “Hey, did you see where Kitten went?”
He lifted a dirt streaked face from Suki’s neck. “No. I thought she was with you?”
The paramedic tried again. “You’re bleeding, sir. We need to get you to the hospital.”
“Not without my girlfriend.” She wouldn’t have walked away. Please God, not Alistair.
Josh placed a hand on my arm. “Go and get patched up. We’ll find her and then come and get you.”
“I’m fine, I don’t need–”
He stuck his face in mine. “I said, go. You need stitches. I’ll find her.”
* * * *
Hours later, I emerged from my cubicle complete with eight stitches. Christ knows how bad it would have been without my leather. The nurse gave me a polite smile, dispensed a little bottle of antibiotics, and then shooed me back to the waiting room. Stitching tattooed bikers would be a regular pastime for the hospital night shift, and her frosty attitude reinforced my conviction that Kitten had been right. I belonged in the gutter. What had Alistair shown Kitten when he played with her memories? Had they made a deal before I arrived with Josh? Did he have her now? Fear twisted my guts.
When I saw Josh and Suki waiting for me, without her, my heart plummeted to my boots.
“I’m sorry, mate.” Josh gave me a sympathetic smile. “She’s gone with her friends.”
Suki touched the back of my hand. “I asked everyone near the cordon, and two separate people told me she went off with a couple. They called her ‘Kathy’, so I’m guessing they were the friends she went to the club with. Have you tried ringing her?”
I shook my head. “My phone’s dead. Can you?”
“We did. It keeps dropping to voicemail, and she hasn’t replied to our texts.” Josh held up his car keys. “I know where some of them live. We could go and try there. It’s nearly six in the morning so we should catch them at home. What about Nanette? Is she coming?”
I gave up trying to ease into my leather and draped it over my shoulders instead. Looking up, I met Josh’s steady gaze. “Nan went to talk to the police. She saw who knifed Ash.” I closed my eyes for a moment. “She’s in pieces over this, especially since the blame had been loaded onto me.”
The darkened city streets passed in a blur of shops and houses with me paying little attention. How would I complete the deal with Alistair, now that Armageddon was just a crumbled heap of bricks? I’d try the Jeweler first, but before I handed myself over, I had to know Kitten was safe. If she hated me and never wanted to speak to me again, I could handle it. After all, I only had a couple of days left at most.
The car stopped, and I dragged my attention back to Josh. “This is it.” He gestured to a terraced house, a light shining behind the front curtains. “I guess that answers the question about them being up.” He climbed out of the car, and after a moment’s frozen hesitation, I followed.
He rang the doorbell. I swallowed hard and scrubbed a hand over my face. I knew I looked rough, but I’d never matched up to her glossy friends anyway.
Tristan answered the door and scowled when he saw me. “What the fuck are you doing here? I told Kathy she’s better off without you.” He crossed his arms and blocked the open doorway. “You broke Nash’s nose.”
Who? Oh, the prick on the dance floor. “Is she here? I need to speak to her.”
“Give me one good reason why I should give a fuck.”
Josh took a step forward. “I want to thank her for saving my life.”
Tristan pursed his lips. “You’re too late. She’s gone.”
“Gone where?” My hands itched to grab him by his T-shirt and punch the information out of him, but I held back.
“Dunno, she wouldn’t tell me. I dropped her at Piccadilly Railway Station a few hours ago.”
16.3 Josh
After an hour of searching the railway station, we drew a blank. Katherine clearly didn’t want to be found. Dante fretted that she’d gone to her godparents’ place in Cornwall, but there was no way I would be driving halfway across the country until I’d had some sleep. Equally, I dismissed his suggestion to ride there on his bike. I took his bike back to the hotel, while Suki drove him in the car.
He ate some breakfast with us, but declined to take a room. He buzzed with a nervous energy I found exhausting. I sprawled on the bed, Suki dozing beside me, and watched him pacing up and down.
“That was some weird shit, Dante. Are you going to tell me what was going on?”
He paused and turned haunted eyes to me. “I’m not sure I can.” He fiddled continuously with his Talisman. I’d soaked them in soapy water to clean off the fuel, and they were safe on our wrists again.
“Okay. I get that you’re upset about Katherine, but can you blame her for being less than pleased with you?”
“No. She has every right to hate me.” He started pacing some more.
“You need to talk to her. Give her a few days—”
“I don’t have a few days.” He clamped his lips shut, and I stared at him.
“The police don’t want you any more, so what’s the problem?”
He tugged at his hair and stared out of the window.
“Dante.” I softened my tone. “What’s wrong?”
He slumped onto the sofa and sank his head into his hands.
I waited.
Eventually he peeked at me through his fingers. “I made a deal with Alistair. He’d write off my debt, but I had to give myself to him. He gave me five days, and I reckon that’s up tomorrow.”
Another time I might have laughed, but after seeing what Alistair could do, I took Dante seriously.
“What will he do to you?”
“I don’t know. But it won’t be pretty.”
He sat up straight and fixed me with an intense gaze, his eyes so pale they were almost translucent. “This is important. Eve told me there are seven Talismans and Alistair already has two. He wants them all.”
I frowned, remembering the bizarre dream, the man who claimed to be my father. He wore a Talisman.
“You need to be on your guard in case he comes looking for you. Alistair brokers deals so I guess you need to be careful of signing up to anything.”
Another flash of memory. Dream-Suki offering to do a deal with me. I shuddered. “What about your Gran?”
A crooked smile in return. “He’s wiping out my debt for her. She should be okay.”
I nodded, unsure how to proceed. Glancing at the sleeping woman by my side, I felt a surge of protectiveness. “I had a dream, while I was unconscious. There was a guy with a Talisman, and he claimed to be my father.”
Dante narrowed his eyes, his body vibrating with tension. “I bet that’s one he’s already got.” He hesitated. “What did he look like?”
“Like me, but older. He called me Raphael.” I ran a gentle hand over Suki’s hair, needing the reassurance of her presence. “He said I have brothers and a sister. A family.”
I watched his fists clench on his knees, his face paling. I took a quick breath. “He also told me that we’re brothers.”
Silence hung.
“Just a crazy dream, huh?”
“No.” Dante spoke gruffly. “Alistair told me the same.”
16.4 Katherine
My phone didn’t work any more, and I didn’t want any of the numbers on it so I threw it in t
he trash can at the station. My arrival there was perfectly timed. I caught the first train to London, changing there for Exeter, and then took a series of bus connections to Sam and Ellie’s farm.
I finally walked down their drive in the darkness of early evening, footsore and weary. I’d bought a new jacket, but I still felt cold. I was chilled from the inside, and I didn’t think anything could thaw out my heart.
Rapping on their door, it struck me how much had changed in just one week. That’s all it was. I met Dante at the first séance on Thursday. Eight days later and my life was in pieces, my heart trampled into the dust of a collapsing nightclub.
Ellie took one look at my face and pulled me into a giant bear hug. “Oh, Katie. What have you done?”
I didn’t know how to answer. Battled a demon? Talked to a dead man’s spirit? Nearly been crushed alive? Had a crazy bitch holding a knife to my throat? Fallen in love with someone who doesn’t want me? I took refuge in her warm embrace and stayed silent.
“I’ve been so worried, love. Marina rang and said you left home days ago. I had visions of you sleeping on the streets. Why didn’t you just come straight here?”
I almost laughed. The fight with my father was unimportant in light of everything that had happened since. I realized she waited for me to speak, and I cleared my throat. “I, uh, stayed with friends.”
“Well, you’re here now.” She pushed back and looked at me intently. “You look thin. I don’t suppose you’ve been eating. Why didn’t you ring us? We’d have come to pick you up, you know that.” A look of alarm flitted across her face. “Please don’t tell me you hitchhiked down here… do you know how dangerous that is?”
Dangerous? After everything I’d seen this week? A hysterical laugh erupted, and Ellie stared at me, clearly worried.
“I’m really tired,” I managed to say. “Would you mind if I went straight to bed?”
Ellie exchanged a look with Sam, and he wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “Is this something to do with that Dante?” His gruff voice threatened to make me crack. “He seemed nice enough, but is he worth throwing everything away for?”
I held back a sob. He’s a two-timing, drug-dealing, knife-wielding thug. Maybe. “He’s trouble.”
“Katie.” Sam ruffled my hair. “You’re hell bent on following in your poor mother’s footsteps, aren’t you? Do you think he might come looking for you?” I shook my head, but he continued. “I’ll leave my shotguns out. If he comes round here again, he’ll leave with buckshot in his arse.”
“Sam.” Ellie glared at him. “Marina is desperate to talk to you, Katie. She’s rung three times now.”
“She probably wants to talk me into going back. But I can’t. Not now.”
They exchanged another weighted look. “You get some rest, love. We’ll talk about this tomorrow.”
16.5 Dante
I stared at Josh some more. He stared back. Neither of us seemed capable of handling this. Josh’s lips turned up at the corners. “Guess I’d better add you to the Christmas card list.”
I shook my head. “Won’t be here.”
He took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. “It’s so fucking random. One minute I have family I never knew about, and the next, you get wasted by that thing.” He hugged Suki tighter. “Can’t you do anything about it? Hide?”
“You’ve seen what he can do. What do you think?”
“I think we don’t give up without a fight.”
I smiled at his fierce tone. “We tried that. You nearly got killed. Remember?”
We talked a little longer. Josh told me about the man who claimed to be his—our—father, and something fell into place.
“That’s who I summoned at the Grey House.”
“You never did tell me how that came about?”
I watched him idly caressing Suki and thought about Kitten. I took a long slow breath and launched into my story. “I’d been doing some protection training with a psychic in the area, and she told me about it, how all the local mediums went there. One described it as a hotspot, and I was curious.”
He nodded. “Why call for Raphael, though?”
“There’s this story that some powerful guy called Raphael sacrificed himself in an upstairs room and how the door never opened again. I’d tried to summon him a couple of times, but just had glimpses. Man, he looks so much like you.”
I yawned, tiredness sweeping over me, and Josh noticed. “Why don’t you get some sleep on the sofa. We’ll head down to Cornwall this afternoon.”
“Yeah, maybe.” I stared at the floor and tried to order my thoughts. There was something important I wanted to ask him before I lost my nerve. “Josh. Did you see how the staff behaved at the club? How they didn’t seem, well, normal?”
He gave a short, unamused laugh. “They were like zombies. Definitely lacking in brain cells.”
“Yeah.” I stood up and walked to the window, to finger the blind. “That’s exactly what I mean. I think they were being controlled by Alistair.” I turned to meet his gaze. “I think that’s what he’ll do to me. Eve said he’d most likely use me for errands.” My heart raced. “And I’ll tell you what freaks me out the most.”
“Go on.” His intense stare gave me courage.
“I think he’ll send me after the Talismans. Yours. The others.”
He frowned and rubbed his nose. “You think you’ll have to threaten me.”
Nausea had taken up residence in my gut. I wanted to run to the bathroom and hurl the scant contents of my stomach, but I knew it was just nerves. “I want you to stop me, Josh.”
“What?”
“I might come after you. Suki. God help me, even Kitten. I have to keep my end of the bargain by giving myself to Alistair so I want you to make sure I can’t actually do anything after that.” I held my breath. There. My latest crazy plan out in the open.
“For God’s sake, Dante. You might be my brother. I can’t hurt you.”
“If I came after Suki?”
I saw pain in his eyes. “If you threatened Suki… I would stop you.” He gathered his sleeping lover close to him. “I hope it doesn’t come to that.”
16.6 Katherine
I had a long shower, ate an omelet, and then lay on Ellie’s spare bed and gazed blankly at the ceiling. Physically I was wiped out. Every muscle ached, but I couldn’t switch off my brain. I still wanted Dante, more fool me.
I heard a car arrive, doors banging, the murmur of voices. Ellie called through the door. “You have a visitor, can I send him in?”
Dante.
He lurked in the open doorway. Pale and battered, but infinitely desirable. My heart did a little flip at the way his eyes roamed over me, hot and hungry. I stood up and shoved my shaking hands in my pockets. “Well. I didn’t expect you here.”
He mirrored my move. “I can’t stay. I just wanted…” He took a quick breath. “…to see if you were okay.”
“Yeah.” I made my voice hard. “You can see I’m okay. Okay?” I glared at him. “Nanette come with you?”
“No…”
I didn’t let him say any more. “So why did you come? Really?”
He moved forward, and I made myself look at him properly. Eyes flashing, piercings glinting, he oozed danger.
“It scares me, Kitten, that you might have done a deal with him. With Alistair.”
My heart flipped some more at his use of my nickname, and hope surged. “No, I didn’t.”
He blinked and then ran one hand over his face. “Good.” He sounded hoarse. “That’s good.” I watched as he fiddled with his bracelet. “I’m sorry for everything.”
All my words were stuck in my throat. There was so much I wanted to ask. Before I could say anything, he lifted one shoulder in an awkward shrug. “Look after yourself. You won’t see me again.” He turned to leave.
What? “Wait.”
He froze.
“You came all this way to talk to me, and you’re leaving already?”
&
nbsp; He didn’t move.
“What happened, Dante? What was he?” I wrapped my arms around myself, shivering at the swell of memories.
“Your godfather is pointing a shotgun at me, Kitten.” He sounded amused. “It’s okay, Mr. Corbett. I’m leaving.”
Oh for God’s sake. I strode to the open doorway to stand beside him. “Sam, please don’t.”
“Dante, she deserves an explanation.” Josh stepped forward, Suki following. “You might want to tell her.”
My heart sank. What other horrors were there?
Sam hitched his shoulders. “I’ll give you ten minutes, lad. Then it’s up to Katherine if you stay or not.”
Another long pause. “It’s going to take a bit longer than ten minutes.”
16.7 Dante
I told Kitten everything. Every detail, every sordid transaction I could remember. Why Eve had told me to pick Nan. What was the point in hiding anything? I didn’t want her to mourn me. I talked until I had no voice left, and she sat on the bed, all curled up, listening to the train wreck that had been my life.
I’d been tempted to ask Sam to unleash both barrels at me, but I didn’t want to saddle him with that burden. I’d made a deal and I’d stick to it.
I sagged into the chair and let myself feast on her image. The way her hair caught the light and gleamed a dozen different shades. Her strong, determined chin. Soft, full lips. Lush curves that I knew intimately. One week was nothing… I wanted a lifetime with her.
Stiff now, with my shoulder aching and tired beyond all reason, I pushed myself out of the chair.
Tears glistened on her eyelashes.
I’d made her cry. Again.
“Wait, please.” She rubbed at her face. “There are things I need to tell you.”
I slumped back.
“You seem to think I’m some posh girl a million miles from you, but we’re not so different.” She licked her lips as though unsure what to say. “My mum left my father when I was a baby. She fell in love with a biker and moved in with him, and I grew up on that estate in Salford. Mum worked odd jobs, and Stan, my stepfather supplemented his benefit money with bare-fist fighting in the local pubs. We were happy though, at least until he left Mum for another woman.” She stared into the distance. “We stayed there and we managed, but money was tight.”