by Peter McLean
“Thank you,” he said. “There’s my truth, right there. I’ve got the truth I was looking for.”
“You’ve got fuck all,” I said.
“I’ve got you, Burned Man,” he said. “I knew it, I fucking well knew it back in Glasgow. There you are, you odious little piece of shit. There you are, stuck in this poor bastard’s head.”
We have been fucking had, I thought at the Burned Man. Or rather you have. You fell right into his fucking lap, didn’t you?
Shut up, it muttered, which told me all I needed to know.
“Jesus Christ, Davey,” I said, and that was me talking now. “Who are you, really?”
“Oh don’t you worry about me, Donny boy,” he said. “You’ve got your own fish to fry. You’ve got obligations, haven’t you? Your precious mad goddess for one. She’ll be wanting her pound of fucking flesh afore long, don’t you worry.”
Oh dear God, how the hell did he know about that? I had to admit that if Davey was clued up enough to have recognized the Burned Man just from hearing it speak then he probably knew pretty much everything. I supposed I might as well try to make the best of that.
“What, though?” I asked him. “What does she even want?”
I looked inside myself and I could feel the Burned Man sulking, somewhere deep down. I didn’t think it would interrupt me again, and Mazin was still looking stunned and useless. Christ knows what Davey had done to him but it had obviously worked. I had no idea who he was supposed to be, for all that the Burned Man had called him famous. All the same, the Burned Man obviously knew who he was so he must be someone, if you know what I mean.
“What does she want, besides war and destruction you mean?” he asked. “Worship, I imagine, but she’s got a fat fucking chance of that now. There are computer game characters with more worshipers than Menhit these days. No, I think the main thing on her mind is revenge. That Dominion who dragged her back to Earth is still rampaging around in Hell and I can’t see her resting until it’s done for, once and for all.”
I stared at him. Trixie and I had been close to coming to that conclusion, but all the same. How in the world did she think she could kill it now?
“You think she wants to attack Hell?” I asked him, keeping my voice as low as I could.
He might be ghastly but he obviously knew things, and I wanted to know what. All the same, there were people staring at us as it was and the last thing I wanted was anyone overhearing that sort of talk.
“Menhit would attack fucking Mount Everest if she thought it had insulted her,” Davey said. “She Who Massacres, they used to call her. The Slaughterer. That Dominion thought it could order her around, thought it could use her as a weapon for its own ends. Do you have any idea how much that fucked her off, Donny boy?”
I reached for my beer and drained most of it in a long, shaky swallow. How the holy fuck did he know any of this? Who was this horrible old wanker?
I kicked the Burned Man for an answer, but it was either sulking or hiding and I got nothing back. Mazin was staring at Davey now, the mention of his goddess’s name having obviously pulled him out of his trance. He didn’t look best pleased, but I knew the poor bastard had no idea how far out of his depth he was with Davey. Hell, I knew I was out of my depth, come to that.
“Right, well,” I said, before Mazin could say anything we might both regret. “That’s my daughter’s head wetted as much as it’s going to get I think. We ought to be off.”
Davey gave me a long look, and chuckled.
“Aye, I think you did,” he said. “Maybe have a wee chat with your pet angel, eh Donny boy? Give some thought to what you’ve let yourselves in for. And remember, my wheel is always waiting.”
I resisted the urge to give him a sour look. Whoever he was, I was damn sure Davey was a far stronger magician than I was. That, or he was something else entirely, which would probably have been even worse. That splinter in his aura was still nagging at me, making me wonder what exactly I’d find underneath if I picked at it.
Don’t do that, the Burned Man said. Not now. He’s not kidding about his wheel.
I had no idea what this wheel even was, and I had a strong suspicion that I really didn’t want to ever find out. If the Burned Man said I didn’t want to know then… yeah. It had to be bad. That, and there was something in the Burned Man’s tone that made me take it very seriously this time. It obviously took Davey seriously, and that was good enough for me.
Actually, come to think of it that was bloody worrying. The Burned Man didn’t take anyone seriously except for Menhit, and maybe Trixie. That meant Davey must be a very big deal indeed.
What wheel? I asked it again, but I got nothing back this time. Sometimes the Burned Man could seem to disappear for hours on end and I had no idea where it went or what it was doing while it was gone. I shudder to think.
“Come on, Mazin,” I said. “Time to go.”
Mazin stood up and nodded at me, that nod that was almost a bow. Davey snorted like he thought the whole bowing thing was ridiculous, but I ignored him. I had to really, considering that I completely agreed with him. About that, if probably nothing else.
I led the way out into the freezing night air, and we headed back towards the flat. We got maybe three hundred yards before it all went to shit.
“Lord Keeper!” Mazin said as six blokes turned a corner in front of us.
I looked at them, and saw that each one of them had a dark red aura.
“Oh fuck,” I said.
They were Soulless, I knew that much. Their leader was fair-haired and wearing a battered leather bomber jacket, and as far as I could tell he was the one who had pissed Trixie off so much in the pub yesterday. Mikael, I remembered he said his name was. He’d had a mate with him, a more reasonable one who had given Trixie a business card. It didn’t look like that one was with them tonight.
“Diabolist,” Mikael said as he stepped towards me. “It is time to fight.”
Oh fuck me, was it?
Chapter Twelve
I’m no good at fighting, I never have been. The Burned Man was still sulking, and Mazin might have had good shoulders but he didn’t look like he could punch his way out of a wet paper bag all the same. The six Soulless advanced on us, and I saw the glint of knuckledusters on Mikael’s hands. Oh joy, a steel fist in the face was just what I fucking needed after everything else I’d been through that day. I grabbed Mazin’s arm and half-dragged him down an alleyway after me. I heard the sound of boots on pavement as the Soulless broke into a run and pursued us. The alley gave out into a small yard behind a row of grand terraces, the area lined with dustbins and parking spaces. It was a dead end, and there was nowhere left to go.
The Soulless followed us out of the alley and spread out, looking moody and dangerous. Mikael took a threatening step towards us, a shark’s smile on his face.
Oh bugger it, what’s the point of having a guardian angel if you don’t let her do her job?
“Trixie!” I shouted. “I need a hand here!”
Thank God there was no one about, that’s all I can say. When you call on a Sword of the Word for help you have to be prepared for what you get, you know what I mean?
A burning sword exploded out of the chest of the rearmost of the Soulless, and then Trixie was amongst them. She danced her steel ballet as though they weren’t even there, the flaming blade cutting and thrusting and sending blazing corpses to the pavement almost too fast to follow.
“Angelus,” Mazin whispered in awe.
This was the first time he had seen Trixie in action, after all, and I knew exactly what he meant.
She was angelic and she was terrible, a burning whirlwind of fire and steel that took the Soulless apart with joyous ease. Trixie really did love her work, I had to give her that.
Mikael was the last one standing now. He turned on her with a growl of furious hatred. His knuckledusters flared with unholy light, turning both of his fists into fizzing balls of lightning. He smashed them together
and a bolt of wild electricity shot towards Trixie. Her sword came up in a blur, too fast to follow, and deflected it harmlessly into a stone wall at the back of one of the properties
“You silly little boy,” she said. “You really have no idea what I am, have you?”
Mikael snarled and leaped at her, one hand high and the other low as he sought to crush her between his two crackling electric fists. Trixie pivoted like a dancer, sweeping one foot out behind her as she spun in a full circle and brought her sword around in a blazing arc. The blade took him in the side of the neck and sent his head spinning away into the side of a parked car. Mikael’s body collapsed at her feet, smoke rising from the dry stump of his neck.
“Never call me a bitch again,” she said.
“Fuck me,” I muttered. “That never gets old.”
Mazin bowed low to Trixie, a worshipful look on his face.
“Madam Guardian,” he said.
“Never mind all that,” Trixie said, “we should be going. Their bodies will dissipate in an hour or so but I’d hate to be found with them before they do. That would be… difficult to explain to the police.”
I looked at the six dead bodies on the pavement around us and found I had to agree. This wouldn’t end well for anyone if the Old Bill turned up.
“Thank you,” I said to her.
She gave me a small smile and twisted her hand to make her sword disappear back into whatever dimension she pulled it out of when she wanted it.
“I’ve probably missed the end of my television programme now,” she said, “but there we are. You’re welcome.”
I couldn’t help but smile, and also wonder what on earth a Sword of the Word liked to watch on the telly when she was on her own. We hurried back the way we had come and out into the street again, trying hard to look like three normal people just walking home from the pub.
“Eventful night,” I commented.
Trixie glanced at me.
“Yes,” she said. “Apparently so. I really shouldn’t let you go out without me, should I?”
“I’d be fine if bloody Adam didn’t keep setting his dogs on me for no good fucking reason.”
“Adam is… well, I don’t really know what he’s doing,” she said. “This seemed unnecessary, even for him.”
“I’m not sure that was him, to be fair,” I said, thinking about it. “I reckon that Mikael twat was just holding a grudge from yesterday. You showed him up, after all. Anyway, he’s done and gone. Davey isn’t.”
“What does Davey have to do with anything?” Trixie asked me.
“He invited himself along for a drink with us,” I said. “We got to talking, and he realized I, um, I had another friend with me.”
I was having to be careful to phrase things in a way that she would understand and Mazin wouldn’t, of course. She frowned.
“That friend we had our disagreement over, you mean?” she asked.
“Yeah, that’s the one,” I said, ignoring Mazin’s bewildered look.
“Oh,” she said. “Oh, that’s not good. I didn’t want anyone else finding out about your little problem until I had worked out what to do about it.”
If by my “little problem” she meant the fact that I was possessed by a fucking archdemon then I’m afraid I thought she was being a bit optimistic thinking she could do anything about it. I sure as shit couldn’t, and God only knew I had tried.
“I don’t know who he really is,” I said, “but my friend obviously takes him seriously. That’s got to tell us something.”
“Mmmmm,” she said. “I suppose it has.”
Mazin unlocked the front door to our building and we trooped up the stairs together to the apartment. I really was utterly sick of the sight of the place. Posh though it was, it wasn’t home.
I sighed and went into my bedroom to be alone for a few minutes. Where the hell was home, these days? I supposed that home was still in London, although I didn’t know what the fuck I would find waiting for me if I went back there now. It certainly wasn’t in Edinburgh, that was for sure. Not bloody likely, but… what is it they say? Home is where the heart is. Well my heart belonged to Trixie, but she was right there with me so that didn’t really help. I thought about Debbie for a brief, mad moment, but I knew I didn’t love Debbie. I wasn’t really sure I ever had, to be honest.
Oh I had thought I loved her at the time, sure, but until I met Trixie I don’t think I even really knew what that word meant. I had treated Debbie like shit, after all, let’s not pretend otherwise. I knew I would never treat Trixie the way I had Debbie. Except of course that in the last six months I sort of had.
I sank onto the bed and put my hands over my eyes. Jesus, what the fuck was I turning into? I had been bloody awful to Trixie, hadn’t I? Yeah, I really had. I mean all right, I hadn’t cheated on her like I used to run around on Debbie, but as we didn’t have sex anyway I wasn’t even sure if that counted.
That was the least important thing though, wasn’t it? The point was that I had betrayed her trust, first over the Burned Man and then in running away and leaving her to Menhit’s tender mercies. It was a wonder she was still there at all, guardian or no guardian. I had to get my fucking shit together or I would lose her, I realized.
Of course the other reason, the main reason I had to get my shit together was for Olivia. Trixie had asked me if I knew anything about being a father and no, of course I bloody didn’t. But… well, nor does anyone until they do it, do they?
I sat up and stared at the wall, swallowing in a dry throat. Olivia was my little girl, and I was her dad. Whether Debbie liked it or not, I was her dad. I was six months late, yes, but for once that wasn’t my fault.
I’d say leave it be, Trixie had told me.
Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen. It was like I had told myself after Menhit healed me, I was all out of excuses now. It was time to get my life together and fix my shit. The biggest thing I had to fix, the thing I really had to atone for, was the death of Calum McRoth.
I couldn’t undo what was done, of course. I couldn’t bring the poor little lad back, I knew that. But I could… I didn’t really know. I could look after my own child, I supposed. I could be there for her, if nothing else. I could finally try to actually be the sort of father that I had spent my whole life looking for.
* * *
The next morning I waited until Trixie was having her bath, then hustled Mazin out of the flat and down to the car.
“We’re going back there,” I told him once we were safely inside.
“As you say, Lord Keeper,” he said as he started the engine. “Although if I may venture a comment, I had thought your visit to the lady yesterday, ah, perhaps went poorly.”
I gritted my teeth. Yeah, of course he had seen Debbie slam the door on me hadn’t he? He had been sitting in the car at the end of the drive waiting for me, after all. Fuck it, it was none of his sodding business. He was just a fucking flunky, just… I took a deep breath and made myself calm down. He was a decent bloke and he was only trying to be helpful, I knew that really.
Damn, but my temper was getting short these days.
“Yeah,” I said after a moment. “Well, let’s hope today goes better than yesterday did, shall we?”
“There is always hope, Lord Keeper,” he said.
I nodded and let him drive me to Debbie’s house. I could only hope he was right about that.
We only made one stop on the way and it was still fairly early when I rang the doorbell, about half nine or something like that. Debbie opened the door wearing a faded pink dressing gown and a scowl.
“What the bloody hell are you doing back here?” she demanded.
“Look, I’m sorry, all right?” I said, holding my hands up in what I hoped was a peaceful gesture. Debbie had a pretty decent right hook and I really didn’t want her sticking one on me in full view of all her posh new neighbours. “I fucked this up yesterday, I know I did. I… I hoped maybe I could try again.”
“Try what again
, exactly? Turning up out of the blue and royally pissing me off? Because if so, you’ve just tried it again and it still works.”
“Please Debs,” I said. “I was hoping I could see Olivia. I, um, I brought her this.”
I reached into my coat pocket and produced the fluffy toy bunny that I had stopped to buy on the way over there. I held it out towards her, suddenly feeling very, very stupid indeed. An eight quid fucking toy rabbit from the supermarket, that was supposed to buy my way through this door, was it? Oh God, that was never going to work. Only it did.
Well, sort of, anyway.
“You’re such a bloody idiot,” Debbie grumbled, but she stood back and held the door open for me. “Come on then, just for a minute. You’re here now, you might as well give it to her yourself, I suppose.”
She led me into the living room where Olivia was sitting up in a playpen surrounded by fluffy toy animals. Big, expensive looking ones. I sighed. She was chewing on some sort of rubber ring thing, and had a nice little stream of dribble hanging from the corner of her mouth.
“Oh come here,” Debs said, and bent over her with a tissue in her hand.
She gave Olivia a bit of a wipe then picked her up in her arms and carried her over to me.
“There’s someone here to see you, sweetie,” she said.
I looked at Olivia’s big, pale blue eyes, and I have to confess I sort of melted a bit.
“Um, hi,” I said. “Hi, Olivia. I’m, um…”
You don’t get to walk in here and be Daddy, Debbie had told me, and I had to respect that however much it hurt.
“I’m Don,” I finished, a bit lamely. “I brought you a new bunny.”
I held it out to her and to my amazement she reached out and fumbled it into her arms, and promptly started to chew its ear.
“Sorry,” Debbie said. “She’s just started teething. She’ll chew anything at the moment, but at least if she’s chewing she’s not bawling. There’s only so much of my tincture I can give her at this age so… yeah. I haven’t had a lot of sleep for, well, six months…”
