Angel Falls (Cassandra Bick Chronicles Book 3)

by Sinclair, Tracey

‘Will they come today?’ I asked, eventually, my voice small.

  ‘Tonight. They’ll want Laclos to witness it. He was my… accomplice, after all. They believe us sharing blood means more than it does.’

  I thought of the way he’d taunted the angels.

  ‘You want them to think that. You both do.’

  He shrugged, his attention focused – a little too much – on his bagel. It took him a while to answer.

  ‘Both Laclos and I would rather any ire was directed away from you, Cass, yes. It’s the supernatural way. I know it annoys you, but it’s how Others think. There’s a relationship hierarchy. Fascinated as all Others are by humans – it’s in their very nature to be so, I don’t know why – they also see relationships with them as transient, fleeting, and so… worth a lot less than relationships with Others. I might not love the fact that they believe that because I have him, you mean little to me, but that’s the way they see things. You’re a toy that we share. It’s insulting, and it’s outdated, and I know it drives you mad and I’m sorry about that, but the fact is the less people know how much I… how much we… value you, the safer you will be.’

  I wasn’t particularly thrilled by that – the ‘protect the feeble human girlie for her own good’ routine wasn’t one I was overly fond of – but now seemed like a tiresome moment to argue. Besides, we had other things to talk about.

  ‘You can ask me, you know,’ I said.

  ‘I’m pretty sure I don’t need to,’ he replied, but then he sat down, and frowned at me. ‘But you can tell me, anyway. Aeylith didn’t help me out of the goodness of her heart, did she?’

  And there it was. I was crying, now; silent, unstoppable tears.

  ‘I had to promise I wouldn’t try to find you. I wouldn’t let Laclos try to find you. That we would just… let you go. I’m so sorry, I didn’t know what else I could…’

  ‘Hey, hey, it’s OK.’ He reached for me, taking me in his arms, and held me until I managed to stop sobbing, cradled in his lap, my head against his chest. We sat like that for a while, until I pulled myself together, and straightened up, forcing a smile.

  ‘Right, so we just… what, wait?’

  He smiled back at me, a hint of mischief flaring in those green eyes.

  ‘This could be the last time I see you in an awfully long time, Cass. I was hoping we could do more than just wait.’

  Chapter 33

  We spent the day in a haze of sex, sleeping and sandwiches. I was so exhausted I would have happily slept in his arms for hours on end, but my nerves were frazzled with fear, so even though I dozed periodically, I was determined not to nap through what could be our last day together. Our desperation made us alternately fierce and tender – we clawed at one another like animals, clinging to each other in brutal, bruising sex that left us spent and sweating, then we would doze gently in one another’s arms, or sit up and eat bacon and bagels and chuckle over reminiscences of previous meetings, happier times, before easing into gentle, hazy lovemaking where we traced patterns on one another with our fingers and tongues, as if committing our bodies to memory, as if our lassitude could slow down time itself and delay the inevitable. I slept more than he did, lacking his superhuman stamina, and while part of me thought any second spent asleep was wasted, part of me revelled in it, the familiar safety I felt in his arms, the peace that eluded me elsewhere. But night had to fall, and fall it did. And when it came, it found us ready.

  ***

  We’d texted Laclos during the day, asking him to join us. My suggestion that, if the angels were so keen to have him here for this, we should send him away and so delay their retribution, was nixed on the not unreasonable basis it broke my promise to Aeylith – which would have consequences – but also that the angels, if thwarted in whatever little piece of theatre they had planned now, might be driven to greater vengeance, which would defeat the whole point of his surrender. I wondered if, had we accepted Val’s help, we could possibly have won. But what would it have cost us? I couldn’t imagine my city would be unscathed by such a battle, and I had no right to barter the lives of others for one I cared for.

  Laclos arrived just after sunset. He was dressed sombrely, all in black, his hair tied up, his face bare of make-up, the rock star guy-liner gone. I let him in and poured him some wine and the three of us sat drinking, oddly formal, in my battered little kitchen, Cain and I freshly showered and recently dressed. Cain had packed up all of his stuff, though he’d left me a stash of weapons that would be enough to land me a nice little prison sentence if anyone ever found them. I pondered, idly, if the angels would let him take his bag.

  ‘I cannot recall if I thanked you sufficiently, this morning,’ Laclos said, eventually, when the silence started to weigh.

  ‘Do you think it’ll work?’ I asked.

  He looked thoughtful.

  ‘I believe so. Josephine has no appetite for war, and although I believe Amalthea would have embraced one – and she certainly bears no love for me – she obviously prefers to work from the shadows. Josephine is too clever to be manipulated, and with Alastair gone, Amalthea may struggle to find another shield. The bounty on me has been dropped, by whoever it was who raised it, which is a question for another day. Providing I show no actual inclination to rule any of my nominal subjects, I believe the truce will hold.’ He looked at Cain, suddenly forlorn. ‘I have been the cause of so much. You must believe me that none of it was intended.’

  Cain shrugged.

  ‘I was the one who didn’t think it through. No use crying over spilled blood.’

  ‘Even so, I…’

  ‘Cass, put down your wineglass,’ Cain interrupted, sharply. I looked at him, surprised, and he snatched the glass from my hand.

  ‘They’re…’

  I didn’t hear the next word. The world went white, my Sense was overwhelmed and when I came to, Laclos was holding me up in my seat, his expression concerned. He held my wine to my lips, closing my trembling hands around the stem of the glass, and I tried not to look up at the disdainful visitors. Aeylith stood tall, her expression taut. I think she was embarrassed by our agreement, but Baelam looked fed up of the whole sorry mess, desperate to get it done with, and it was he who spoke.

  ‘We have come to hold you to your bargain.’

  ‘One I intend to keep,’ Cain said, calmly, standing up.

  ‘But we fixed it!’ I protested, tearfully. I didn’t care how stupid I sounded, or if this went against my own arrangement with them. ‘It was a mistake, he did it to save a life, and we fixed it!’

  Baelam looked at me with utter disgust. We were all standing, now, albeit slightly shakily on my part. He turned a disdainful gaze on Laclos.

  ‘It was not a life worth saving.’

  ‘But…’

  ‘Cass,’ Cain said, softly, pulling me into his arms. ‘It’s OK, Cass. Just let me go.’

  ‘But… but I love you!’ I blurted, sobbing now, and he leaned down and kissed me, gently.

  ‘I know.’

  Which of course made me snort out a deeply inappropriate, snot-filled laugh, thereby ruining the romantic moment for ever. But instead of being annoyed, he smiled at me, softly chiding.

  ‘Come on, I finally make a movie reference and it’s the big one. You have to appreciate that.’

  OK, well that did utterly break me. He pulled me back into his chest, where I wept like a child. He looked over my head to Laclos.

  ‘You know what I’m going to ask you.’

  Laclos nodded.

  ‘I shall, of course, endeavour to keep her safe, though I fear it is beyond even my considerable abilities to keep her out of trouble. I shall also, at every opportunity, exhort her to console herself in my bed, but I assume you expected that.’

  Cain chuckled.

  ‘Yeah, I figured.’

  ‘I am here, you know,’ I grumbled, tearfully, pulling away from Cain’s embrace. Laclos smiled, nodding to Cain.

  ‘I don’t suppose I get one of those, do I
?’ he grinned, a gesture aimed at the other angels, I suspected, because he looked as surprised as I was when Cain let me go and stepped towards him with open arms.

  ‘You’re not going to bite me again, are you?’ Laclos asked, genuinely nervous, as Cain enveloped him in a fierce – and fiercely uncharacteristic – bear hug. Laclos stared at me over Cain’s shoulder in open alarm, and the angels twisted their faces in displeasure. Cain put a hand to the back of Laclos’ head and pulled him in closer; it really was a very tight embrace. Then I saw Laclos’ eyes flash wide as I Sensed rather than heard Cain murmur something into his hair. Laclos looked startled, but then something in his face hardened, and he gave the tiniest of nods, his gaze fixed on me. As he did so, Cain slid one hand down Laclos’ back in what clearly looked to the disgusted angels like a gesture of inappropriate inter-species affection, but as they turned away in distaste at all this fondling, Cain’s hand slid into the back pocket of Laclos’ jeans. Then he let him go, stepping back with an almost-embarrassed gruffness.

  ‘Don’t let anyone kill you, vampire. That’s still on my list.’

  Laclos smiled, smoothly, though I could see he was slightly rattled by whatever Cain had just told him. He opened his mouth to respond but Aeylith, sick of all this emotion, stepped forward sharply and laid a hand on Cain’s shoulder. Sensing what was about to happen, Cain reached out a hand towards me.

  ‘Cass…’ he began, then all three of them were gone.

  ***

  Stunned by the force of their disappearance, I stumbled backwards, and Laclos moved to catch me. I sobbed against him, his cool, lean body so different from Cain’s solid heat, even if that first infusion of Cain’s blood had taken an edge from his natural chill that, all these days later, he still seemed not to have regained. He held me, gently stroking my hair and making soothing sounds, even though I could Sense his own distress and, yes, his fear, though I couldn’t tell quite what he was scared of.

  ‘I am sure he will find his way back to you, Cassandra,’ he murmured, when I finally managed to stop crying. I moved away from him, turning my back to him as I gulped down a glass of wine.

  ‘So what did he say to you?’ I demanded, turning to face him.

  Laclos looked startled by the ferocity of my tone.

  ‘He… ah, nothing. He merely offered some creative violence if any harm should befall you, including at my hands. I believe he did not want the angels to overhear how much your safety was a concern to him.’

  He smiled, holding out his palms in placid surrender, and I was utterly certain he was lying to me.

  ‘Now, I am afraid, much as I would stay if I could, my darling girl, I have urgent affairs of my own to attend to. Can I have Mariko take you to Medea? She is in the car outside.’

  I paused, fighting the urge to argue. But I didn’t have the energy for a row, and it was clear he wasn’t going to tell me the truth without one. He looked relieved at my acquiescence, and I gestured for him to lead the way and he did so, happy the matter was settled.

  But the one thing you can count on more than a vampire’s complacency is his vanity. Laclos likes to dress like a rock star, and sombrely as he was attired tonight, this was no exception; his clothes were still cut tight to emphasise that impressive physique. Which meant that when he turned to go to the door I could see in his back pocket, squeezed in those snugly-fitting, arse-hugging jeans, the perfectly defined outline of a key.

  Chapter 34

  I spent much of the few days after Cain’s departure alternately raging and crying, drinking wine and eating ice cream on Medea’s couch, but after a while even her patience started to wear thin, and as she was now a fully-fledged partner in the business, she thought that it would be a good idea to get back to work.

  Jonesy had gone, picked up by his slightly stunned but reassuringly attentive husband, who was so young and ridiculously good looking I was glad that it had been Jonesy who’d been the one to come to us, or I suspected Laclos would have been fatally distracted by having another smoking hot hunter around. We had no idea what the long-term repercussions of his injury would be, but he was alive, he still had his arm and it appeared to work, at least at a rudimentary level, which seemed positive. Both he and Smith took the news of Cain’s departure with the stoicism of hunters, though when Jonesy hugged me goodbye (carefully, as his arm was still in a sling), he echoed Laclos’ assurance that Cain would be back. I nodded, wanting it to be true far more than I believed it.

  ***

  Medea, Katie and I had spent hours talking about what had happened: Medea’s magic coming back, Val and her mysterious movements, the angels, the key Cain had left Laclos and what it could mean, as well as Cain’s reasons for sharing it with Laclos instead of me. If it was something as innocuous as one of his safe houses, why the secrecy? It had to be more than that, and it was an itch I couldn’t stop scratching. Alone, Medea and I talked of more sensitive subjects – of Katie’s increased need to shift, which was still in evidence, and what that might mean for both of them. We drank coffee and ate cake, distracting ourselves by planning out my new, Laclos-funded kitchen, and dealing with clients, who were more plentiful than ever. But I felt like I was watching a TV show rather than living: that I was experiencing everything at one remove. I barely slept, tossing and turning as I went over Cain’s departure, wondering where he was, what was happening to him, hating how helpless I had felt, how unable I had been to stop it.

  Whatever questions I had, Laclos wasn’t around to ask. He’d transferred the money to repair my flat, and sent yet more wine to both my home and office, but I felt that he was avoiding me and, curious as I was, I simply didn’t have the energy to seek him out and ask for explanations. They would come, or they wouldn’t, and I would deal with whatever that meant for our relationship when that happened.

  ***

  ‘Well,’ said Medea, as she showed out a client – human, of course, at this time of day, because it was just after lunchtime and the sun was out in an almost cloudless sky, the air crisp and autumnal, though winter felt just around the corner. ‘It feels nice to be getting back to normal, doesn’t it?’

  She looked at me hopefully, her voice brittle with forced cheer.

  ‘I’m not sure I know what normal looks like anymore,’ I said, glumly, not looking up from my work. Then my Sense buzzed and I lifted my eyes, frowning. Because what I was Sensing was impossible. It simply couldn’t be here.

  ‘Ah,’ said a voice, and we both turned, startled, to the doorway, where a man stood, a shadow outlined in the brightness of the afternoon. Then Laclos stepped forward, uncertain, frowning. ‘I think we may have a bit of a problem.’

  ENDS

  Acknowledgements

  Thanks to my beta readers, Kathryn Allen, Lori Frecker, Caroline Goldsmith, Laura Harris and Pat Olver, and also to Caroline Goldsmith for the formatting and cover design.

  I have as ever taken some liberties with London geography (including Tower Bridge), and though the theatre mentioned is clearly loosely based on the wonderful Wilton’s Music Hall, please be assured that you are safe to attend there without risk of falling masonry or undead assailants. The bar is really nice, though, I wasn’t lying about that.

  All characters are fictional and any similarities to any real person, living, dead or undead, are entirely coincidental.

  About the author

  Tracey Sinclair is a freelance editor and writer, a published author and performed playwright. She is a regular contributor to the theatre site Exeunt and the magazine Better Business, and has been published widely in both print and online magazines, as well as being included in a number of published anthologies. Her play Bystanders was produced at Baron’s Court Theatre in 2011, and at the White Bear and Tristan Bates theatres in 2015. Dark Dates: An Audience with Cassandra Bick, which she co-wrote with Zoe Cunningham and Peta Lily, has been performed at the Tristan Bates Theatre London and the Brighton Fringe. A Northerner by birth and temperament, she nevertheless bailed for sunnier c
limes and now lives happily by the sea in Brighton, with only occasional yearnings for a stottie sandwich or a macaroni pie.

  You can follow her on Twitter under the profoundly misleading Twitter name, @thriftygal, or keep up with Dark Dates via darkdates.org or facebook.com/darkdates

  Other books by Tracey Sinclair

  Doll (Kennedy & Boyd)

  No Love is This (Kennedy & Boyd)

  The Cassandra Bick Chronicles

  Dark Dates

  A Vampire Walked Into a Bar – Short Story

  A Vampire Christmas – Short Story

  A Vampire in Edinburgh – Short Story

  (These are available also in paperback as A Vampire in Edinburgh and Other Stories)

  Wolf Night

  A Vampire in New York – Short Story

  Plays

  Bystanders

  An Audience with Cassandra Bick (co-writer)

  Copyright 2016 Tracey Sinclair

  Cover design and photography copyright 2016 Caroline Goldsmith