by Zandria West
I sputter, trying to think of a suitable insult to respond with but my voice comes out in a kind of low purr instead. What the fuck was that?
‘Of course, if you really wanted to make the most of the night…’ Alex runs his fingers over my forearm and I feel the Bondmark respond with a searing heat that burns so pleasurably that for a moment I think I’m losing my mind.
Then I hear a terrible noise like a sledgehammer being driven into concrete – a ringing thud that rattles my bones. It happens again and again: the whole world seems to be shaking.
‘What’s that?’ I say, terror coiling like a serpent in my spine. Any trace of desire is gone, burned out of my bloodstream by a hit of pure adrenalin.
‘That,’ Alex says, ‘is the demon horde trying to get in. Worst fucking timing ever.’
9
GABRIEL
I knew the first blow was coming, but I had not expected how powerful it would be. I had not accounted for the sorceress.
The voices of the demons are rising now. They’re calling and jeering as though they have already won. I close my eyes and keep whispering the words of the incantation. The protection must hold. I cannot afford to let it drop. Even if it kills me, the protection must hold.
I grit my teeth as another blow falls, stronger than the first. They’re using a hell-hammer, some huge, terrible tool wielded by the strongest of the demons. As I shudder with the impact, I sense that it has been enchanted with a deadly magic. When they break the protection I have woven, they will break me too. Then I hear a whisper in my thoughts.
This will be too easy Gabriel... After all these years I expected more from you…
I open my eyes in shock.
Her voice is in my mind. How could her voice be in my mind? The ward should keep her out and it is not broken yet. She must have done something, I realise, when she killed Ruark; she supplanted herself into the bond that I had with my familiar. She is toying with me. I shudder, a feeling of utter violation growing within me.
I cannot let myself despair.
I hear another heave and then the hammer strikes again. My left shoulder just above my chest shatters. I cry out, the pain too terrible to contain. I stumble, almost fall.
You will lose, Gabriel. You will lose and you will fail. Why go through so much pain when you have already lost? Let me in…
I shake my head and pull myself up to standing, narrowing my eyes as though to fend off the agony.
I begin to say the words of the incantation once more, closing my eyes, extending my power.
I have been preparing for this day for centuries. The work began the day the Great Witch appointed me her second. I did not watch her die so terribly, protecting the magic she had made, only to have the walls of my house blown in around me like the little pig from the children’s story.
She never loved you, Gabriel. She only used you. And now, imagine her disappointment to see you fail at even this small task…
I block my ears, close my eyes, but I cannot shut out the voice. For a moment, I feel the flow of my power falter. There’s a tremendous noise outside as the demons strike again, a blow so forceful it knocks me across the room. All I see are sparks in blackness. I cannot breathe. My heart does not beat. I try to cry out, to warn Alexander. It will all come down to him. He will have to protect Lana, to keep her safe until the others reach her. But if I do not live to complete the binding…
You have lost, Gabriel. How many times do I have to tell you?
And then, I watch as the handle turns, and the door slowly opens.
She steps into my home.
She is even more beautiful than I remember, and I hate her even more than I thought possible.
‘I brought you a present,’ she says smiling, and tosses the body of my familiar onto the ground beside me. I try not to look but cannot help myself. Ruark’s neck is broken, his head lolls at a strange angle. His feathers are torn, one wing flopping loosely. He who has been my anchor in this world seems so small in death.
‘I will kill you for this,’ I groan through gritted teeth.
She laughs. ‘Oh my dear, the delusion is almost admirable. Now tell me where the girl is, and this will all be over. I believe she has something that I want…’
I feel a sharp pain in my chest, every breath hurts. I taste blood in my mouth. So much blood. The world seems to be moving strangely, all around me is dissolving.
My enemy stands over me, waiting.
Alone, I suddenly realise. She is alone. She has broken through the protection enough that she has been able to enter, but none of the demons outside have followed.
‘As if I need the assistance of those oafs to complete my task,’ she says, shaking her head. And then she crouches down beside me, looks me in the eye, and places a finger on my chest. The pain of her touch is unbearable. ‘Tell me where she is…’
I groan but don’t say anything. I need to think, I have to think. There must be something I can do. At least to buy Alexander time, so he can better fortify the entranceway to the cellar.
‘Bingo,’ she says, grinning and standing. ‘The cellar. Thank you for that useful piece of information, Gabriel. I think I have what I need,’ and she strides towards the cellar door.
I groan. I’ve fucking done it. I’ve given them away, even as I was trying to protect them. The magic she wove from Ruark’s death left me too open… Even as I curse her for it, an idea comes to me. Either it will work, or it will kill me. There’s no time to figure out which. I must act, now.
I close my eyes. I force myself to put aside all pain, all doubt, all fear, and concentrate.
My first sensation as I make contact with her power is revulsion. She is purely evil: grasping and vindictive and cruel. But she is powerful. If only I can draw on that power, perhaps we still have hope. It was easy with Ruark. We had known one another so long, and Ruark always gave willingly, joyfully. Not so with this woman who is a stranger and an enemy. I need to give Lana and Alex a chance to escape. The protection of the house is broken, so some stronger and more destructive magic is required, something that will disable our enemy.
I draw my mind to the darkest corners of my craft until I find what I seek – a spell so deadly that it is not written in any book, a spell that requires so much power I never imagined, when I learned it from my mother, that I’d ever be capable of using it.
I hear voices: Alexander yelling, Lana screaming. For a moment, my enemy’s mind is turned entirely away from me, and in that moment I know she is vulnerable.
I hook into her power, as I would with Ruark, and begin to draw. It comes in a rush, choking and feverish and unpleasant, but strong, so, so strong. I begin to chant and envisage the symbols that are associated with the chant. I feel the magic stir. I consume her power, drawing it into myself as quickly as I can; I cannot risk her breaking the connection between us now. The enchantment rises, a dark, hissing, shivering thing, angry and hard. I feel her pausing. For a moment she’s confused, then she starts to panic. She’s growing faint as I draw more and more from her. And then, as the enchantment reaches its apex, I direct and release it.
The spell goes off like a bomb, and even here, huddled on the floor with my eyes closed, it is as though I see everything. The demons that are lurking close to the house are thrown back by the force of the blast – some are dismembered instantly, others are knocked out. I feel heavy, so heavy I do not know how I can move, but I know I must.
I sense Alexander by my side, Lana with him.
‘Get up! Get up, come on!’
I cry out from the pain as Alexander almost drags me from the house, shoving me into the waiting car. The last thing I am aware of before the blackness claims me is the sound of doors closing and the engine firing.
10
LANA
I sit, shaking in the front passenger seat while Alex drives like – well, a demon. He’s white-knuckled from gripping the steering wheel and I can see that his jaw is clenched. Darktown passes in a blur of speed
and shimmering lights. I feel like I’m looking at the world through a thick pane of glass. Everything seems distant.
How the hell did I end up here?
In the back, Gabriel moans. I twist in my seat to check if he’s okay. He looks terrible. His face is smeared with blood from where his nose and ears are bleeding. His eyes are flickering, half-open, half-closed, and he’s slumped in the corner of the car. He hasn’t spoken a word since the explosion, whatever it was.
‘Is he going to be okay?’ I ask Alex.
He has to be okay. I’ve only known him for a matter of hours, but he’s already saved my life twice. He knew my parents. My father asked him to protect me. I feel safe with Gabriel, even here, in the middle of Darktown. He has to survive.
‘I fucking hope so.’ Alex doesn’t take his eyes from the road. ‘But whatever he did back there, he blew a whole lot of power. And he’s lost his goddamned crow. I have no idea what that means for a warlock. We’ll find someone who can help and then we’ll see…’
As we drive, I realise how little I know about Darktown. The old city stretches on and on, wide and grey and ancient.
‘Darktown is a human word, you know,’ Alex says, glancing at me. ‘It’s not actually a town. It’s a whole world that exists parallel to the human one.’
‘Are you reading my mind?’ I frown.
He shrugs. ‘A little. Sorry. Can’t be helped. It’s a vampire thing.’
I shiver. I’d almost forgotten for a few minutes what he is. The reminder just makes me feel even more lost and alone. ‘When can I go home?’ I ask.
‘That depends.’
‘On?’
‘Gabriel mostly. He can pass the Barrier freely. I can’t. At least, not without consequences. And believe me when I say, after what just happened, you’re not going anywhere alone.’
I think of my little apartment – of Meow-Meow getting hungry, waiting for me to feed him. I think of the jar of ashes on the windowsill. I can’t just leave the Dad-Jar there untended. I need to go home. I’m being driven through a strange city by a vampire, with a gravely injured warlock in the back seat, leaving behind a bloody scattering of demon-parts. Still, there’s part of me that hopes if I could just go home, lay down on my bed and close my eyes, I’d wake in a few hours and everything would have returned to normal.
‘Not going to happen, angel. Sorry.’
I frown. Alex slows and takes a turn onto a road that leads out of the city. Ahead are darkly forested hills and towering behind them is a mountain range that stretches to the horizon.
I close my eyes and try to let my body relax. I’m still holding myself as tense as if we were about to be attacked. It’s all a blur now, the terrible sounds of the demons outside, the chaos as they unleashed a barrage against Gabriel’s house. I was so certain they’d break through. And someone had: the figure who’d stood at the top of the stairs. They’d cast a spell and the barrels that Alex had placed with so much effort had just splintered into nothing. I couldn’t make the figure out in the dim light, but I could tell, with every fibre of my being, that they were dangerous in a way I’d never even encountered before, and that they meant me harm.
Alex reaches across and takes my hand. He squeezes. His touch is warm and comforting.
‘I thought vampires would feel cold,’ I say. ‘Being dead and all.’
‘I have a fast metabolism.’ He gives me a crooked grin that makes my heart do a strange flutter in my chest. Stupid heart. This is not the time or the place.
I look back out the window. The landscape we’re travelling through is like nothing I’ve seen before. The trees are enormous, thick-trunked and wide-branching. The branches are hung with moss and vines, so the overall effect is a deep, dense, tangle. Now that we’re out of the city, the only light other than the headlights of the car is cast by the moon, which is a sliver in the sky high above.
Alex turns off the main road onto a narrow, dirt track, and eventually pulls off and parks. I peer out the window but can’t make anything out.
‘Where are we?’ I ask. And then I spot it – set back from the track, so it almost looks like it’s part of the forest, is a small cottage. I can just make out the warm shifting glow firelight casts on the windows.
‘Somewhere that I hope will be safe, for tonight at least.’ Alex gets out of the car and before I can even unclick my seatbelt, he’s on the passenger’s side opening my door. Damn, vampires are fast. I climb out and then watch anxiously as he helps Gabriel out from where’s he’s lying on the back seat. He’s supporting one of Gabriel’s shoulders, so I take the other side, duck under Gabriel’s arm so it drapes over me and loop an arm around his waist. Gabriel groans at my touch and I flinch. I don’t want to hurt him.
‘You could never hurt him, angel,’ Alex says gently.
I swallow and settle back in to supporting Gabriel. Slowly, ever so slowly, we make our way towards the cabin.
Before we’ve even reached the porch, the front door opens, and a small, sparrow-like woman peers out. Her hair is a bundle of white curls and she barely comes up to my shoulder – and I’m not tall. She’s so petite I imagine a gust of wind might blow her away.
‘Look what has washed up on my shores tonight,’ she says, frowning.
I’m surprised to see that Alex bows his head as he speaks to her. ‘Gabriel is injured. We need your help.’
‘Who’s your little friend?’
I freeze. I don’t know who this woman is or whether she can be trusted. In fact, I’ve decided I don’t trust anybody in Darktown, with the exception of the two men beside me.
‘This is Lana,’ Alex says.
‘You brought a human girl this far into demon territory? Well that is novel…’
I feel myself bristling. Gabriel is growing weaker by the moment. There’s no time for chit-chat.
‘I promise I’m really not that interesting,’ I say. ‘Gabriel might be dying. Alex says you can help him. So, let’s finish the introductions and get to the healing. Please.’
The woman throws her head back and laughs. ‘Fiercely spoken, young Lana. You must be keeping Alexander entertained. Well… come in. You may call me Freya.’
The cabin is small and smoky, and the walls are covered with floor to ceiling shelves containing rows of books, jars, bottles, dried herbs, and strangely-shaped dessicated objects which I don’t recognise and whose origin I probably don’t want to know.
Freya moves around the room, humming gently, clearing a space on a low couch and then directing Alex to lay Gabriel there. Then, completely unhurried, she pours some water from a barrel into a small black kettle, adds a few pinches of herbs, and places it on the fire to heat.
I sit beside Gabriel and take his hand. He doesn’t return my grip but his eyelids flutter at my touch.
‘Ruark is dead,’ Alex tells the woman and she stops a moment, clicks her tongue and shakes her head.
‘Warlocks and their pets. It’s a weakness, I always told him, resting too much of your power in any one creature.’ Then she sighs, and I see that despite her harsh words, she looks saddened by the news.
I lean back against the couch, and run my fingers through Gabriel’s hair, so long and dark and smooth. I wish there was more I could do for him – he’s injured because he was protecting me. I owe him my life.
‘Gabriel has bound Lana to us,’ Alex says in a low voice to the woman. ‘Might she use that binding to assist with his healing?’
The woman raises her eyebrows. ‘Indeed she might, if she has the will for it. It may not be entirely comfortable for her though.’
‘I’ll do anything,’ I say. ‘Please, I just want to help.’
Freya comes closer to me, and at Alex’s encouragement I show her my arms where the symbols of the crow and the snake are formed.
‘The magic is on the skin, but it will work its way to the heart,’ she says slowly, as though pondering. ‘The touch of your skin may be the greatest balm to the injuries young Gabriel has borne.’
‘Tell me what to do,’ I say.
‘Take your clothes off and lay with him.’
I swallow, feeling the blood rush to my face. ‘You mean… here? Now?’
‘I believe it would be very beneficial,’ Freya says. ‘Since you’re bonded, your essence can heal essence. It would work better without clothing in the way.’
‘I bet it would,’ Alex mutters, a wicked grin twisting his lips.
‘May I… have some privacy?’ I ask.
‘Of course. Alexander here and I will retire to the conservatory. There is a blanket that you may pull over yourself. Loosen whatever of his clothing you can, the more contact the better. I will give it a little while, then will return and clean his wounds.’
She gestures to the kettle that she set on the stove, which is starting to steam, filling the cabin with a strange, partly-sweet and partly-peppery scent.
‘Are you sure you don’t want company, Lana?’ Alex says. ‘I’m more than happy to stay.’
I narrow my eyes at him. He widens his eyes in return. ‘Oh, dear, I’m not feeling well. I think I might have sprained something, Lana. My ribs hurt, Lana. I’m having trouble breathing…’ He puts a hand to his head, feigning faintness.
‘Get out,’ I say.
‘Alright, alright,’ he grins, and allows the woman to lead him from the room.
I take a deep breath and look at Gabriel where he lies, so silent and still. My longing to help him is stronger than the awkwardness I feel at what I’m about to do.
Well, here goes…
11
LANA
It’s not cold, but I still feel my skin rising with goosebumps as I remove my jacket, then pull the t-shirt up over my head and take off my jeans. I stand for a few moments in my underwear. Okay, so this is really not how I imagined my day would go when I left the house this morning. I think of what Freya said – the more contact the better. I close my eyes, unhook my bra and slip it off, leaving only my amulet hanging against my bare chest. The panties are staying on. That is my one concession to dignity and common sense.