They’d spent hours in the room. Here Balin had taught them Latin. They’d read the old Templar diaries and imagined what it must have been like to be heroes. The stories read like fairy tales and were full of battles, monsters and heroic death. But the tales lied. Battle was stomach-churning terror and no death was glorious or noble. It was lonely, frightening and brutal. She looked at Kay and suddenly she felt fear creeping in her heart.
‘Quit, Kay.’ She looked down at her hands. They were stark-white clean. She’d finally got her dad’s blood out from under her fingernails. ‘Quit the Templars.’
‘I can’t.’
‘Why not? Gwaine doesn’t want you. Elaine’s gone. You can leave.’ The more she thought about it the better it sounded. Both of them with her dad, out of the Order.
Kay shook his head. ‘I’ve duties to the Order. With or without Gwaine.’
‘They’re your priorities, are they?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then why did you come to the tower? That sounded personal.’
Kay faltered. He looked up at her, then quickly away, as if he was worried she’d see something.
‘It doesn’t matter,’ he said.
‘What did Michael say in the text?’
Kay stood up suddenly. ‘I said it doesn’t matter.’
‘Did you miss me, Kay?’
He stalked about the room, glancing at the door handle. He ran his fingers through his hair, pulling at the knots.
‘It’s too hard.’ He shifted uneasily, his back to her, and shoved his hands in his pockets. ‘An Oracle can’t have emotional attachments. It clouds our judgement. That’s why Michael tricked me. I wanted to… believe.’
‘What?’
‘I can’t think clearly with you around.’ He spun round. His face was centimetres away and his partially open lips let his warm breath tickle her eyelashes. He didn’t touch her, but Billi sensed his closeness and it paralysed her. This was Kay. They’d grown up together. She didn’t think of him like… this.
Did she?
He stepped away.
‘I can’t, Billi.’ The pain was obvious as he spoke. ‘I can’t care about you.’
Billi stood there, stunned.
‘It’ll destroy me,’ he whispered.
The door opened and Percy entered, carrying a tray. His sleeves were rolled up on his tree-trunk thick forearms, and he wore an apron, though it barely covered his stomach. He put the tray down on the desk, then eased himself into one of the armchairs, mug in hand.
Billi sank down in her dad’s chair, an old leather-bound seat. How could Kay say that? Not him too – he’d chosen the Order over her. Just like her dad.
‘Any news on Elaine?’ Kay asked Percy, his voice strained. He couldn’t look Billi in the eye.
Percy shrugged. ‘Nope. Art must have told her to hide in case he didn’t beat Michael.’ He looked towards Kay. ‘Couldn’t you, y’know, pick her up?’
‘No. Elaine’s not one of the gifted, but she knows a few tricks. She’s off any radar. If she’s got the Mirror she’s probably in some protected location. There’ll be wards and charms all over it.’
Percy checked his watch. Just gone midnight. He pointed at the phone on the desk. ‘Let’s give Berrant a call. He’s on duty at Crow Street Hospital. Find out how your dad’s doing.’
At least I have Percy. She’d seen her father after school, and Percy had just been there. The big West African, for all his strength and determination, was soft-hearted when it came to her dad. He was probably the only true friend her father had. The only true friend she had.
Percy dialled. ‘Berrant? Everything OK?’ He nodded. Then froze. ‘What d’you mean he moved you? Who’s looking after Arthur?’ Billi jumped up, knocking the mug on to the floor. Panic set in and she stared at Percy’s horrified face. Percy slammed the phone down. He stared at it for a second then ripped off his apron.
‘Gwaine’s moved the watch on Art. Berrant thought I was meant to replace him.’
Billi tried to steady her shaking hands. ‘Where’s Berrant, then?’
‘ Kent. Gwaine’s sent him down there tonight to look into some haunting.’
‘Where are the others?’ asked Kay.
‘Not bloody near enough,’ cursed Percy. There was no one guarding her dad.
18
They took Arthur’s old Jaguar, but were forced to crawl along. A dense fog had descended over the streets, cutting visibility down to a few metres. Shrouds of ghostly white mist rolled over the windscreen as they made their way towards Crow Street Hospital. The car park was filled to overflowing so they went round the back to the secluded loading bays and ‘PERMIT ONLY’ areas. Percival parked up near a fire exit. Kay and Billi clambered out.
Percival reached in and unhooked the hidden latches beneath the rear seat. It tilted upwards revealing the weapons cabinet. Tightly packed in foam and plastic to stop them from rattling, he picked out a wakisashi, a single-edged Japanese short sword. He adjusted the sheath behind him under his jacket, and slid the blade in. Billi took a pair of hiltless bayonets and a chest holster, shortening the straps in well-practised moves, then clipped her two daggers in place. She threw on her coat, and by crossing her arms across her chest, drew out her weapons once, twice, three times so eventually they could pop into her hands in an instant. They divided up a set of holy water vials and crucifixes each, then she slammed the seat back down. It clicked shut.
‘What about me?’ asked Kay.
Percival laughed. ‘We get into a fight, Oracle, I want you to run.’
‘That’s not fair! I can fight.’ He reached out a hand. ‘C’mon, give me something.’
Billi and Percival glanced at each other. Their reply was simultaneous:
‘No.’
Kay muttered something under his breath, and Percival put his hand on Billi’s shoulder.
‘Nothing flash, OK? If it all goes pear-shaped go for the easy kills: chest, throat, stomach, in that order. Understood?’
Billi nodded. She sincerely hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
Percy looked at the building ahead. ‘We’ll go up, I’ll lead. We grab Art and get out of here. The Canterbury preceptory has medical facilities. We’ll look after him there.’
‘What about Gwaine?’ said Billi. The bastard had abandoned her father.
Percy zipped up his jacket. ‘I’ll worry about Gwaine. Kay, you with us?’
Kay was staring into the fog. If anything, it had got thicker. The dim, hazy street lamps barely penetrated the heavy blanket of cold, white mist; it seemed to surround them like a ghostly army. He shuddered, then looked back at Billi and gave a wan smile.
‘Ready,’ he said.
The rear of the hospital block was open twenty-four hours a day with minimal security. There were two large roller shutters, wide open, and a lorry backed into each. Bright lights shone out from the loading bay, and two laundry men were pushing overloaded laundry trolleys into the back of the vehicles. The driver leaned against the cabin, smoking. Percy ducked under the short barrier and made his way towards one of the rear delivery doors. He acted casually, waving at the guy smoking, and went in. Billi and Kay were a few footsteps behind.
More trolleys lined the corridor, some stuffed with soiled sheets and stained towels, others fresh-smelling and neatly stacked. But the laundry smell gave way to the stinging odour of strong antiseptic. Arthur was up on the sixth floor, but they didn’t take the lifts. Kay groaned as Percy pushed the doors to the stairwell open. The stairs rose up the entire building and were only lit on alternate floors, leaving dark shadowy bands. Billi gazed upwards. The steps were two-man wide, wrapped round an open well. One wall was glass, with vents every other level. Percy took two steps at a time, surprisingly lightly given his size. Billi followed with Kay stumbling behind, cursing. They stopped on the sixth, and Percy gave them a minute to catch their breath. He gently turned the handle – it wasn’t locked – then faced the two of them.
‘You wait here
. I’ll grab Art.’ He pointed down the stairs. ‘Keep the escape route clear. Give me five minutes.’
‘And if you’re late?’ asked Billi.
‘Wait some more.’ With that he pushed the door open, winked at Billi, then left. Billi paused at the door, staring down the dark corridor until the door finally closed.
‘Gwaine’s done this on purpose,’ she said. Just wait until Arthur found out.
‘Maybe he had his reasons.’
‘Yeah, getting Dad killed so he could stay Master.’ Billi checked her pair of daggers. She flipped one out and held it over the balcony, trying to catch some light from the bulb on the floor above.
Kay shuffled. He put his hands in his pockets, then out again, then crossed them. Then back in his pockets. All in the space of about thirty seconds.
‘Relax,’ Billi said. She was used to this, the waiting. She didn’t like it, but she knew there wasn’t any other choice. But, of course, Kay never went out on Hot Meets. He looked embarrassed.
‘Sorry, not used to all this,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry. About… us.’
‘There is no us,’ Billi snapped. She didn’t need him to ‘care’ about her. She could look after herself. Let Kay stay with the Templars. More fool him.
She checked her watch: three minutes gone. She pressed her ear against the door. She couldn’t hear anything. ‘What d’you reckon, should I -’
Kay jerked his hand up. He took two steps down, moving silently, and slowly turning his head, scanning. Suddenly his eyes widened. ‘They’re here.’
Billi’s heart skipped a beat. She touched Kay’s hand; it was stone cold. He pulled away, going to the floor below. She hurried after him, and grabbed him just as he reached for the door knob.
‘Wait, Kay! Who?’
Kay closed his eyes, sighed deeply and pressed his palms over his face. ‘I can’t tell. Two of them, but I can’t pick anything up except anger, rage. And hunger. A terrible hunger.’ He dropped his hands and went for the door. ‘They’re… oh no. It’s the children. They’re after the children.’
Billi pulled Kay away from the door before he did something dumb, like run in and fight. She held him close. ‘Listen to me, we go and get Percy. Now.’ This was no time for stupid heroics.
‘This is no time for cowardice,’ he snapped back.
Billi stared into his eyes, blazing blue, and she couldn’t hold his gaze. He was stupid, but he was right. She pointed up the stairs. ‘Get Percy.’ Then she creaked the door open. ‘I’ll look.’
‘Be careful,’ he said.
Oh, he cares now, Billi thought.
It was cold, much colder than it should have been. It wasn’t like the heating had failed; it was like someone had left a fridge door open. Frosty mist formed out of her mouth. She didn’t need to be an Oracle to know something was way wrong. Most of the lights along the corridor were out, so she moved slowly, keeping low and her stance wide. Her skin prickled as she passed along the silent route. Ahead was a pair of partially opened double doors. The sign above read: PICU.
Paediatric Intensive Care Unit.
Where the hell was everybody? Shouldn’t there be nurses out and about? She reached the doors and drew out her a dagger, tightening her fingers round the hilt until they hurt. She pushed the door open with her foot.
A body lay collapsed on the floor: a nurse. A row of deep bite marks along her neck oozed blood made black by the moonlight. Her chest still rose and sank, so Billi ignored her for the moment. Instead she scanned the room.
Six incubators were parked along two sides of the room. Above each was a monitor. Glowing patterns and lights flickered on each screen and a multitude of cables ran from the monitor’s control unit to the screen and to the small body within the transparent box. The curtains were open, and above the fog there was enough moonlight pushing through to give the room a strange pearly luminance. But beyond the cast of the moonlight the darkness was intense. Billi focused in the blackness, fighting the urge to shiver. She stared hard into the inky shadows that surrounded the small, fragile baby in the furthest incubator.
It was as though the darkness around the incubator trembled. Slowly the shadows peeled back like dripping oil, slick and thick, revealing them moment by moment until two women stood in the centre of the room, almost identical sisters. With ivory limbs and curling black hair, they were inhumanly perfect until their red lips parted too wide, almost splitting their faces apart, revealing mouths grotesque with jagged fangs.
Ghuls.
‘Templar,’ said the first. She ran her nail along the edge of the incubator. The baby inside began to cry. ‘Hush now, little one. Soon we’ll sing you to sleep.’ The other giggled.
‘Get out,’ Billi said. Where the hell were Kay and Percy? Billi backed away, watching the two women. They seemed to glide, and each movement was controlled and purposefully small, as though huge energies were barely being held in check.
‘Why, Templar? Why deny these innocent ones our kisses?’ The woman fluttered her hand high above her head. ‘To carry them into eternal bliss.’
She needed to use her wits. She backed towards the door; they’d have to come one at a time. Nothing flash. Suddenly she was painfully aware of the steel in her hand.
‘Don’t be scared – there’s only one of me,’ she said, goading them.
It worked. There were four metres between Billi and the two sisters, but they crossed it so fast they seemed to fly. In their eagerness to be first they collided trying to pass through the door opening. Startled by their speed Billi stumbled back before instinct took over. Instinct and training.
Nothing flash. Just quick kills.
Billi jabbed with the blade, making one of them flinch away from the weapon, only to tangle herself with her sibling. Billi slammed the doors shut and heard them crash into the heavy steel panels. She jammed her dagger through the handles and ran out towards the staircase door, not daring to look over her shoulder. She was so close.
It flew open. Percival grabbed her and pulled her in, almost ripping her arm off. She just had a chance to glimpse her dad, arm slung over Kay, already half a level below her when something crashed into her back, hurling her into the steel banisters and smashing the air out of her lungs. She slipped to the ground and all she could see was a tangle of legs and limbs as Percival grappled with one of the sisters. The woman screamed and clawed and snarled. She looked so slight and frail against the giant Ghanaian, but her blows sent Percival reeling. One punch caught him in the temple and he stumbled down the stairs, legs loose and wobbling. He still held on to the woman’s arm, and Billi couldn’t believe she didn’t fall, instead she balanced at the top of the stairs, feet braced against Percival’s weight.
Billi kicked out, sweeping the woman’s legs away. She half turned, grabbed at the banister rail and missed.
The ghul screamed as she fell down the five levels of the stairwell. She turned over and over, arms wheeling madly and legs kicking. Billi watched in horror as the woman tumbled like a doll and smashed on to the bare concrete twenty metres below. She lay there, terribly still. Her beautiful limbs bent unnaturally. A black pool of blood spread from her head.
Billi pushed herself away from the edge, from the view.
‘Come on!’ ordered Percy. He caught up with Kay and slung Arthur over his shoulder. Billi got to her feet and followed, still shaking from the fight. The others were already well ahead of her.
She heard the door at the bottom of the stairs slam open.
‘Billi!’ shouted Kay from ahead. Billi dropped to the ground floor to see him run out into the car park. She was a few paces behind, but she couldn’t leave, not yet.
She couldn’t help it – she had to look.
The landing light shone cruelly bright on the woman’s shattered body. Her torso and limbs were grotesquely twisted and distorted. Her face was turned away, but her hair was a black sodden mess. Billi covered her mouth to hold down the bile.
Then the woman’s hand twitched. There
was a sickening sucking as she turned her crushed and blackened face towards Billi. The woman’s face twisted into a grin. A few teeth fell out.
‘Praise God!’ she croaked through a crushed windpipe. Billi screamed and ran.
Outside Kay was dropping her dad in the back seat then diving in after him. Percival crossed over in front and waved frantically at her. ‘Get a move on!’
She shoved the door shut behind her, then saw an abandoned trolley nearby. She pulled it against the door, tipped it over and wedged it in place. She turned.
They came out of the mists. Ripples of fog broke apart and they crept towards the car. Five, six, a couple near the gate, she couldn’t tell how many. They didn’t rush, didn’t shout or yell, just approached with steady confidence, their fierce eyes glowing with some atavistic killer’s desire. Just glancing at them, they could have been anyone off the street. Except…
Except for their predatory grace and their too-wide hungry smiles. Despite the darkness, they seemed lit from some unearthly source.
Billi lowered her head and raced towards the others. The engine revved and she dived in through the passenger door. Percy shoved the gears and the wheels screamed as he squeezed the pedal down. In the furious glare of the headlights she saw the strange figures step warily apart as Percy put his palm on the hand brake.
‘Let’s go.’ He pressed the release.
The car rocked, just gently. A pair of bare white feet landed softly on the bonnet, and a silhouette covered the front windscreen as a large dark coat spread over them. A sliver of light caught the bright, terrible edge of a broad-sword, one with a hacking blade and so familiar, then the windscreen shattered.
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