by Lisa Swallow
Ava watched them until they were engrossed. Time to get her bag.
Cursing her big boots for making sneaking impossible and wishing there were still more bodies around to disguise herself amongst, she wondered if Keir would sense her before she got close enough to hear them. She paused, near someone clearing a table, catching a snippet of Dahlia and Keir’s conversation.
“That’s another one - they seem to be converging here,” said Dahlia, finger on the screen.
“So we deal with…” Keir’s head snapped up and he looked directly at Ava, setting his mouth in a hard line. As she met his gaze, she saw the Keir she’d met by the fountain, no trace of the pretend Keir in his eyes. His look was a challenge - asking her what the hell she thought she was doing.
“Forgot my bag!” said Ava, slapping her forehead.
She ducked under the table and grabbed her backpack.
“Sorry, carry on - if it’s about the test tomorrow can I borrow some notes?” she said, straightening and smiling innocently at Dahlia. She couldn’t look back to Keir.
Slamming the lid shut, Dahlia rested her hand on the laptop and glowered at her. “It’s not.”
Ava held her hands up. “Okay, okay. For fucks sake… what are you? Secret agents?”
A smile pulled the corner of Keir’s mouth up. “You’re funny,” he said in a low voice.
She looked back at him, reflecting his challenging expression.
“Apparently so.” Ava turned on her heel and headed to class, aware two sets of eyes bored into her back.
*
Ava threw the book across the bed. Where was the information about Dahlia? She wasn’t getting any further with Dahlia glued to Keir’s side and Ava wondered if she might have to take Dahlia out of the picture. Somehow. Soul-hunters killing humans was frowned on but not out of the question. If she killed Dahlia, her death might spur Keir into action and they could get this over with. No. She needed the upper hand but his earthbound powers eclipsed hers. A furious Keir hunting Ava down to kick seven shades out of her wasn’t the best course of action.
So what was?
On her past assignments, the thrill of chasing demons and the adrenaline surge as they fought against her was only surpassed by the high of succeeding - capturing the soul. But this… She had misjudged the fear in trying to catch a Nephilim soul. The task wasn’t frightening - it was excruciatingly boring.
She wasn’t being proactive enough. Following her weird encounter with Keir by the fountain, Ava had backed away. Procrastinating, brooding, because she’d hit a stumbling block. Pretending she was using the time to get close to them.
She sat up.
What the fuck had happened to her? The soul-hunter who goes in, gets what she needs then leaves? Allowing her plans to be thrown by a weak human girl? Get a grip.
Ava grabbed her phone from her desk and stormed out the room.
*
Keeping tracks on the friends was surprisingly easy as their daily routine remained the same. Dahlia rigidly followed her timetable and Ava sat and watched the two people walk by the same spot, at the same time, every night. Next they would disappear into Dahlia’s room. Every night Ava waited for Keir to reappear. He never did. She dismissed the thought they were engaged in steamy sexual encounters, betting she wasn’t the only girl on campus who wondered about their relationship. Tall, impossibly gorgeous man with eyes to drown in and a body to hang onto, somehow enchanted by a plain girl who nobody would notice if she weren’t with him.
Catching him as he left Dahlia’s late at night would be the opportunity she needed, give her the element of surprise. So she waited.
The crunch of their footsteps on the fallen autumn leaves alerted Ava to their arrival. Right on cue. Keir and Dahlia passed Ava as she sat on the bench, fiddling with her iPod. As usual Dahlia tried to ignore her, despite Ava’s cheery hello. Keir didn’t look at her, his movements stiff, striding ahead of Dahlia.
Unable to catch his eye and intrigued by Keir’s determined attitude, she set the timer on her iPod for an hour, leant back and listened to her music.
An hour later, Ava crossed to the dorm building and clomped down the tiled hallway. She reached Dahlia’s room and banged on the door.
No answer. She checked the carefully written name glued to the frame. Dahlia Jameson. So she had the right room. Ava pulled at the door handle but it didn’t budge. No light from the room filtered under the door. They hadn’t walked back past her. She pressed her ear to the door but heard nothing. How? There was no other way out, no second exit. Where were they? She flicked a look from right to left, checking for others walking down the hallway.
No one.
Cursing her lack of magic ability, Ava rooted around in her pockets for a something to help her open the door. A hair pin. Ava smiled at the cliché as she used the pin on the lock. Answers had to lie in this room. She turned the handle and stepped inside, closing the door quietly behind her.
Flicking the light switch, a bulb illuminated the room with a soft green glow, shining through the large printed throw pinned beneath the light. The length of the wall by the neatly made bed was plastered with maps, print outs and newspaper cuttings, interspersed with red ribbon and bright yellow post it notes. Ava moved closer. The random mess made no sense. The city map had pins inserted into streets and the news cuttings depicted recent events, a mixture of disappearances and celebrity gossip. Nothing to connect them.
Dahlia’s laptop was charging on her desk, stationery and pens arranged neatly around. She pushed a key hoping for an extra clue but the screen was locked.
So where were they?
The open window answered her question. Ava leant out. Dahlia’s room was on the ground floor at the opposite side to where Ava watched them. Clever. Thick grass grew below Dahlia’s window and beyond that, trees. No light shone nearby, the building in the shadows.
Keir and Dahlia knew she watched them. They were suspicious and one step ahead of her. She gritted her teeth. She was dealing with a Nephilim here, one who had used Ava’s own beguiling tricks and stunned her into inaction.
Ava toyed with the idea of waiting for them to return, but she needed to think, figure out what to do. Spur of the moment never ended well for her. The room returned to darkness as she flicked the switch and back snuck out, gently closing the door behind her.
There wasn’t anything gentle about the way she stormed down the hallway, knocking pinned paper notices off the walls as she left.
Chapter 5
The next evening, Ava waited in the shadow of the trees, near the dorm building instead of on her bench. She wished the leaves remained on the branches and didn’t crunch beneath her feet. Thankfully, grey clouds darkened the night sky and gave her extra cover. Unable to get too close in case Keir detected her, Ava waited. She shuffled from foot to foot as she considered the extent of Keir’s powers. Keen senses were a Nephilim trait - she had to ensure she kept her distance from the pair. Or things could go very wrong.
Dahlia and Keir passed by as usual, Keir glancing at the empty bench Ava normally sat on. Dahlia tried to keep up with Keir as he strode ahead, hands buried in his pockets. Opening the door to the dorm, Keir waited for Dahlia and they both walked inside. Ava smiled.
The heavy curtains in Dahlia’s window illuminated as a light was switched on inside. Ava couldn’t make out any shapes moving in the room, and the curtains remained still. Worry filtered into her mind. Perhaps tonight wasn’t the same as the previous evening, and they studied the weird collection of paper on her wall instead of sneaking out the windows. Maybe Keir was aware, and knew Ava waited.
The adrenaline subsided as the hours passed, and boredom set in. Ava yawned, twisting her hair round her fingers into ringlets. A movement caught her eye, and the light in the room went out. She straightened, hopeful. A figure slid onto the grass below. Keir. He was far enough away to not notice her, but she shrank back. Shrugging on a leather jacket, he turned to help Dahlia out, lifting her to the groun
d as if she weighed no more than a child.
Ava’s fingers traced the handle of the knife sheathed inside her inner jacket pocket, hoping she wasn’t following them into danger, prepared if she was. In her other pocket, the soul crystal nestled against her hip. Just in case.
Keir and Dahlia moved silently through the grounds, avoiding the fallen leaves, their footsteps barely audible on the footpath. The campus was located on the city’s edge, amongst the student ghetto of crowded housing, cheap restaurants and trendy coffee shops. Dahlia and Keir headed off campus, and slipped onto the backstreets many students avoided. Students were rich pickings for the disadvantaged who lived amongst them and certain areas were a no-go. Keir and Dahlia continued along the rubbish-strewn streets, heads down, hands in pockets, occasionally leaning across to say something to each other. Ava cursed the inferiority of her hearing in this world.
Eventually, they arrived in the quieter streets, the part of the suburb sensible people avoided. Keir and Dahlia passed a group of teenagers standing in a darkened corner, hoods around their faces. They watched the two friends pass by before turning away. Ava straightened her shoulders, her stride becoming a confident gait, head held high. She could take them all on if she needed but didn’t want the inconvenience. Tonight she would find out Dahlia and Keir’s secrets.
Ava’s wary eye on the gang caused her to lose sight of Dahlia and Keir who rounded a corner. Ava turned the same corner and stopped. Keir had disappeared, and Dahlia waited alone by the road edge, coat pulled up around her neck.
Ava sidestepped into the doorway of a Chinese restaurant and swore under her breath. When did that happen? They were together a minute ago. From her hidden vantage point, she monitored Dahlia, wondering whether she should look for Keir or follow her. A double-decker bus pulled into a stop near Dahlia, and she jumped aboard, not looking back as the bus pulled away again. At least she only had Keir to deal with now. When she found him.
The appetizing smell drifting out from the restaurant kitchen tempted her to go inside. People sat at tables, chatting over noodle bowls and her stomach rumbled, reminding her she hadn’t eaten. The restaurant, adorned with hanging lanterns and golden dragons, beckoned her. She shook the thought from her head. That wasn’t why she was here.
Keir couldn’t have gone far. She stepped out the doorway to retrace her steps.
A noise in the nearest alleyway startled her, and she spun around, squinting through the darkness. The brick buildings overhung, practically touching, the narrow alleyways between them stacked with skips and refuse. A shadow crossed the alleyway and she cocked her head to one side, listening. In the darkness, Ava couldn’t see who but two low voices argued, one sounded panicked.
She looked up at the roofs around her, wondering if she could get to a better vantage point. A ladder, half-rusted but intact, ran down the restaurant wall. Ava scaled the ladder and stepped onto broken roof tiles, close to a large metal chimney releasing more mouth-watering temptation from the restaurant below.
She crouched and held her breath, listening. Creeping along the rooftop, one eye on her footing, the other on the alley below, she tried to locate the voices.
There they were. In the alley’s dead-end darkness, hidden from the few passers-by, two figures fought.
Keir rained blow after blow into a man’s stomach and Ava gasped, watching the man doubling over, struggling to fight back. Despite being comparable in size, Keir overpowered his victim who fell to the floor, covering his head in protection. Ava knew Nephilim had demon blood - and shared their contempt for human life - but the brutality of Keir’s attack horrified her.
She had to stop him.
Ava edged along the roof, carefully stepping over broken tiles, lining herself up with Keir. She could only see his leather clad back leaning over the screaming man on the ground, continuing to kick him. Pushing away her horror, Ava leapt from the roof onto Keir’s back, yelling at him to stop.
Keir shouted in surprise, twisting his body from side to side trying to dislodge Ava but she wrapped her legs tightly around his waist, arms gripping his neck to restrict his breathing.
The man on the floor uncovered his head and turned to look at Ava, yellow eyes wide. A mocking grin crossed his face as he took his chance, pulled himself to his feet and sprinted into the night. In surprise, Ava loosened her grip on Keir’s neck. With a growl he flung her backwards. She landed spread eagled on the floor, breath knocked from her.
“What the fuck are you doing, you stupid bitch?” shouted Keir.
An invisible force lifted her and slammed her into the wall opposite, knocking the breath from her lungs. Keir strode over to her, held his fist back and she flinched, convinced he would hit her. The wall next to her received the blow as he leant toward her, his eyes shining blue and furious.
“I thought you were killing someone,” she shouted back.
“I was - a demon - and now he’s gone. It took us weeks to track that one down. You stupid…”
Ava kicked into his stomach, wishing she had her heavy boots on. “Don’t fucking talk to me like that, Nephilim, how was I to know? It’s not as if you have a history of being the good guys.”
Like killing a demon. Why? Nephilim were part-demon.
Keir stood back, allowing her to sink onto the cardboard boxes littering the floor. “What do you know? Really? Soul-hunter.”
Ava jumped to her feet, spun round and kicked out harder, foot colliding with his chest; Keir caught Ava’s leg and tipped her back to the floor. She landed heavily, breath knocked from her.
“Don’t be so fucking stupid, you know I could do the same to you as I did to him. I know you’re weak.”
“Really?”
Ava pushed herself up and to her feet, ignoring the pain in her limbs as she launched at Keir sending him into the opposite wall. She pinned her arm across his neck. Keir stared back, his blue eyes searching hers and she waited to be thrown backwards again. Breathing heavily, Ava became overwhelmed by an awareness of his hard, muscled body pressed against her. Ava had sometimes imagined him pressed to her since the inexplicable attraction to him at the night by the fountain. But not like this. Their faces almost touched, hearts thumping against each other’s chests. Something passed between them as they looked at each other, an imperceptible spark of connection.
Ava’s head snapped back as he caught her hair and pulled. She let his neck go, and tried to dislodge his hand. Keir spun Ava round and held her in a headlock from behind.
“Beautiful Ava,” he said, breathing heavily in her ear, “you’re wasting your time trying to steal back my soul. They know what I’m doing and they want to stop me. You won’t be the one to do that.”
“Not quite the meek and mild guy you make yourself out to be, are you, Keir?” she growled back, tearing at his arm around her neck.
“And you’re not the tough girl you make yourself out to be, are you, Ava?”
He released his arm and turned her to face him, gripping the tops of her arms. “Don’t mess in things you don’t fucking understand. Anybody who gets in the way of what we’re doing doesn’t survive very long.”
She winced as his grip tightened, forcing herself to continue looking into his face. Dark pupils obscured his blue irises, and she looked back with widening eyes. Was he going to kill her? Keir threw her backwards across the alleyway, Ava landing on the floor in a heap. She dragged herself to her feet and stumbled, black dots behind her eyes. Reaching inside her jacket, the dagger’s hilt pushed hard against her palm. She would lose if she didn’t act soon.
Ava leant against the wall and tried to focus. Fight to the death was the code; don’t let them walk. Is this how the other soul-hunters failed? Memories of the Fated world spilled into her mind, and tears sprang into her eyes. Death here was better than that. Ragged breaths hurt her chest, and she slipped the dagger from its sheath.
Keir’s mouth twisted. “If you want me to use that on you, go ahead.”
He didn’t move, arms folde
d across his chest as he regarded her with a victorious smile. The dagger glinted as she charged toward him, knowing he wouldn’t expect her to. Keir’s eyebrows arched in surprise for a moment before he casually reached out for the dagger, took the weapon and knocked her to the floor. He pushed his knee into her chest and held the metal point against Ava’s cheek.
Ava stared up at the pinprick stars above his head, the refuse odor behind her mingled with the smell from the restaurant. He looked back, glacial eyes furious.
Would she die here? Fail so spectacularly? Fear coursed through her - nausea welling in her stomach.
She would fail.
A hateful tear spilt from her eye and she blinked it away. Keir wasn’t going to see her fear as he killed her, he couldn’t have that triumph. If Keir wanted to kill her she would look into his eyes as he did. She locked her gaze with his, willing the teardrop sliding down her face to disappear.
The point of the dagger pressed into her cheek, and pierced her skin. Dizziness started blacking her vision.
Keir shifted his gaze to the unwanted tear running down the frightened girl’s dirt-covered cheek. As the teardrop touched her ear, he hesitated.
The dagger clattered onto the floor. Keir stood and ran into the night.
Chapter 6
Ava winced as she sat on her desk chair, and rubbed her sore head. Darius’s book lay open in front of her and pages from Keir’s file were spread over the floor. She hadn’t studied his file properly, didn’t think she needed to, deluding herself she’d be done and dusted in a week. Her muscles ached from the night before, the night that raised so many new questions she had no answers to.
Demons. A Nephilim wouldn’t fight or kill demons, they were allies.
Keir. He could have killed her but he didn’t.
