by Matthew Roys
“Damn it Ailia! That is the last time I let you use my damn phone!” he hissed mid swing, quickly silencing the song. He glanced over to the lycan then bounded to his feet, breaking into an instant sprint.
The sound of an engine rose up quickly, growing from a whisper to a roar in the space of a few seconds. From the narrow lane that led through the forest to Aife’s Lodge burst a shadowy shape. Flames reflected across a matte black SUV that looked more suited to battlefields than British roads. It was huge and bore armoured plates. Black tinted windows blocked any view of the interior. It mowed down any goblin that could not dive to the side in time then skidded to a halt beside Déaþscúa.
KT and Kai were still beside the lodge, their position almost overrun as the goblins ignored Déaþscúa to swarm the easier prey. He could see them crawling over the building, clambering down the walls like spiders to take the teens from above.
“Shit,” he said through gritted teeth. The lycan was charging him again but he didn’t have time to waste on it. He ran towards KT and Kai with the lycan chasing behind. It was rapidly gaining on him. He threw his sword, spearing one of the goblins to the wall just above KT’s head. The lycan swung at him and he leapt up, landing on the beast’s back as he grabbed its arms and forced them backwards into a tight lock.
Kai dove aside as the lycan crashed past him into the wall. Déaþscúa sprang up, grabbing his sword from the wood and landing beside Tara.
“Get in the car!” Déaþscúa ordered. He snatched the revolver from Kai and slid home another six bullets before passing it back to the young man. He effortlessly picked up Tara with one arm and began the run back towards the SUV. KT and Kai followed closely behind him. Few of the goblins dared to get close now that Déaþscúa was so near. The lycan had no such issue and was storming across the mud after them.
Déaþscúa made it to the car first and put Tara into the passenger seat. KT whipped one more goblin across the knuckles with the belt buckle then threw herself into the back seat. Déaþscúa and Kai barrelled in after her, Kai emptying the pistol’s chambers before shutting the door. Even as the door slammed shut, the car’s wheels screeched and it shot off back down the lane.
There was a howl of rage then the entire vehicle shook as something thudded into the roof. Metal screeched as claws punctured the roof and began to work jagged grooves into its surface. Déaþscúa muttered angrily then grabbed the gun from Kai. He reloaded then began firing up, wincing at every hole he made. The gunshots rang out like thunder within the confines of the car.
Through the messy gaps above they could see the lycan, wounded but undiminished in its movements. It snarled, baring glistening fangs at its intended prey below. Its good arm struck out again, tearing another set of lines into the roof.
“Open the door!” yelled Déaþscúa.
KT looked at him unbelievingly. “Open the door? We’re driving at max speed down a forest lane with tightly packed trees on either side and a pissed off werewolf on the roof wanting nothing more than to get inside with us. Why the hell would I open that door?”
Déaþscúa growled angrily. He leaned over KT against her complaints and yanked at the handle. The door opened and Déaþscúa scrambled across KT to swing himself out, deftly pulling himself up onto the roof beside the lycan.
Déaþscúa and the lycan stared each other down, both braced against the car's movements, their muscles tensed to leap into action at a moment's notice.
"Care to stop smashing up my car?" Déaþscúa asked. The wolf snarled and sprang at him. Déaþscúa ran to meet it and jumped with unnatural power. He landed upon its shoulders and shot at its head, blowing a large section of skull away. Another flip saw him back onto the vehicle's roof.
Despite the horrendous injury, the lycan only staggered around the roof howling, struggling against the pain to get a focus on the man before it. It shook its head, flecking blood everywhere, then bared its teeth ready for one final attack. Déaþscúa simply waved goodbye and stepped to the side.
A stout tree branch smashed into the lycan's ribs. The sound of breaking bones was all too apparent. As the SUV drove on, the lycan slid from the branch and hit the ground limply. Déaþscúa watched silently as the great mass of muscle and fur shrivelled and shrunk, receding and rotting until only a battered human body remained. His naked skin was ragged and blood soaked and his overgrown brown hair was tangled. Scrubbed up and healthy, the man would have been considered handsome.
Kneeling, Déaþscúa leant down and knocked on the window. It opened and he hopped down through it almost casually.
No sooner had he seated himself Kai grabbed him by the shirt. "What the hell is going on? Monsters burn down the lodge and kill everyone just when you're coincidently strolling through the area! Why did this happen? Who the hell are you?"
"They aren't dead," replied Déaþscúa calmly. "Think logically, boy. Did you see any bodies? Any blood? We didn't get there before they had chance to hide so many bodies."
"But mum-"
"Is still alive as well," Déaþscúa interrupted. "I suppose you could see it as a message."
"Will she survive?" KT asked in a weak voice. "I mean, you said you couldn't heal her."
Déaþscúa nodded. "I can't. I do know someone who can though," he said before tapping on the black glass that separated the back of the car from the front like a limousine divider.
The window slid down to reveal the cluttered area beyond. Their mother was still unconscious in the passenger's seat but around her was a mixture of gadgets and fast-food wrappers divided messily along with a wealth of other miscellaneous crap. Magazines were arranged across the dashboard that varied from nude women, comic books and cheap gossip prints.
Leaning from the driver’s seat to see his passengers was a lanky man with messy brown hair and a long, blemished face. He wore a black chauffeur’s suit that was too baggy on him. It was creased and the jackets buttons were all undone. Its collar was up and the whole outfit had a very lived in look. KT could almost believe that the messy style could be attributed to some strange, niche fashion circle.
The man took a look at the destroyed roof and tisked to himself. His gaze slid over to Déaþscúa after they had rested several moments upon KT. Kai was completely ignored.
“Where to, boss?” he said in a cockney accent.
“Get us to Glasgow as quickly as you can,” Déaþscúa told him as he pushed himself forward to check on Tara. “We need this woman healed or she’ll likely die. These kids don’t want to lose their mother and I don’t want to lose a possible source of information.”
“Got it,” nodded the other man assuredly. He turned back and the divide began to rise again.
“What do you mean by ‘source of information’? Doesn’t a human life mean anything to you?” Kai snarled.
Déaþscúa watched him passively. “I saved both of you didn’t I? You serve no purpose to me but I still protected you and have brought you along with me. I also have enough information to not need whatever your mother could tell me. I helped her because she needs it and not because I need her. If she can even think logically when she wakes, the most that she could tell me would only confirm my suspicions.”
“And what are those suspicions?” KT asked. She looked into Déaþscúa’s bottomless eyes, determined not to look away until he answered. He had skirted too many of their questions for her liking. “Why did the goblins attack the lodge? Where is our dad? And Aunt Susan and all of the others? Why was everyone taken alive if you're right? None of it makes any sense.”
He stared right back for a few seconds, the ice blue of his pupils seemingly slicing into her brain like a cold wind. “Exactly,” replied Déaþscúa with a frown. “The goblins should have kept well away from any human settlement. They only ever fight humans if they're starving or have been rallied to war. Neither really fits here. Added to that, the lycan hate goblins and will hunt them as readily as any human. The lycan are hunters and will go after single targets. Only frenzied
werewolves or those who still control their own actions would ever attack a group of people. Our fur-brain was neither. No goblin or lycan would take a captive, especially a whole host of them.”
“That doesn’t answer anything then!” Kai said, clipping each word out angrily. Now that the adrenaline was fading, his emotions had started to tear through his numbness.
Déaþscúa shook his head. “You have to look around the answers you know to see the shape of what you don’t know. If you open up a hundred piece jigsaw and only count ninety nine, which is easier, looking through each piece individually to try and guess what isn’t there or assemble what you do have in order to see the gap? I know that a building that I’ve recently been around was attacked by unlikely allies in circumstances that do not fit with their natural behaviour. This suggests they were attacking because of me and that a higher authority was guiding their actions. Running through the list of people that want me to suffer who're near enough to know my movements and has the power to pull the strings of these creatures leaves only one name. Black Annis.”
Silence descended within the car as it raced over the dark roads. Kai clearly had no idea who that was but recognition sparked in KT’s eyes. Her eyebrows furrowed.
“Wasn’t Black Annis a mythological witch who lived in Leicester? Why would she be hunting you in Scotland?”
Déaþscúa removed a leather wallet from the back pocket of his trousers and routed through it for a moment before removing a folded piece of paper. He showed it to the twins. It was a pencil drawing depicting a twisted woman in black with blades for fingers. Water colour paint had been used to give the woman a bluish tinge to her skin.
“It is me who's hunting her,” he told them slowly. “As I have been for longer than I care to remember. She did have a den in Leicester but I hunted her from there long ago, with the aid of urban expansion anyway. You have to consider, when your diet consists mostly of human children, you can’t stay in one place for too long. She was known up and down the British Isles by one name or another. Scotland is still wild so provides a good place for her to hide. She fled here and I followed.”
“Why burn down the lodge?” asked Kai. “You never went inside. We were the only ones you had spoken to and there were no children for her to take, just a load of gristly old folk who probably taste of bitterness and disappointment.”
“Annis enjoys suffering. Or at least the strong emotions that come from it. She knows that in an open fight against me she can’t win. Instead she wages mental war on me. For years everyone I was ever close to were killed by her. Then when I stopped making bonds she murdered anybody who I even spoke to. She made me pick between social isolation or the death of innocents. That is why I warned you not to go near me.” Déaþscúa sighed. His eyes held a distant look to them as he spoke.
Kai raised his voice. “You said they were all still alive. Dad, Aunt Susan, everyone.”
“And they probably are,” Déaþscúa replied simply. “Annis is a smart, treacherous woman. She’ll use them as bait to lure me into her trap. She thinks that the second innocents are in danger then I’ll just recklessly rush in and save them.”
“You have to save them!” yelled Kai. Tears brimmed in his eyes.
“First we save this one.” Déaþscúa said, indicating their mother beyond the divide.
“Then what?” asked KT, nervous of the answer.
“Then I’ll just recklessly rush in and save them,” he smiled. “Now get some rest. Even with Jearl’s gung-ho driving it’s a long way to Glasgow.”
Chapter 5.
Water lapped gently against the prow of the boat as it glided through silver waters. It had been a long journey but it was nearing its intended shore. People crisscrossed the deck agitatedly, anxious to be back on dry land after their long confinement.
One man stood alone against the railing. He stared at the water below as though in a trance. His skin was a dark black and he wore a leather jacket that looked to have been patched many times. He tore his eyes from the sea to look at his phone. A callous finger tapped the screen a few times and he raised it to his ear.
"We're due to dock within the hour,” he said with a faint African accent. “Do you have confirmation of his location?”
“The bad blood has moved north,” answered the voice through the phone. The accent was thicker in the speaker and the voice was of someone much older. “Be cautious, Arteeru. It would seem that our quarry has joined forces with the black witch. This complicates your mission. I would advise you to coordinate your efforts with local groups.”
Arteeru showed no reaction to the information. “No need. Part of our creed is to not involve others in our redemptions. I have the situation in hand.”
The line was silent for a moment. “I have word that Déaþscúa may be in the area too. There is a good chance that your paths may cross.”
“Understood.”
The phone call ended. Arteeru placed the phone back into his pocket and returned his gaze to the water. His hand idly stroked a long scar across his throat. He had always found the waves peaceful. They reminded him of happier times.
Land was visible on the horizon now. Arteeru grabbed a duffle-bag from the deck beside him. He paused for a moment then took a white rose from the inside pocket of his jacket. The flower was starting to wilt but it was the last of many that he had brought with him. He held it out and dropped it into the water where it floated like a pale face in the dark abyss.
Shouldering the bag, he turned from the railing and made his way down to the cargo hold. His feet were drawn to a large, covered object that stood alone. The object beneath the cover seemed to call to him. He pulled off the sheet to reveal a sleek black motorcycle. He ran a hand along its surface then sat down on the leather seat.
“Come, Darian. We have tainted blood to spill. An arrogant fool who would use our curse to kill others for his own amusement. We must be redeemed.”
The bike roared as the engine came to life. Arteeru smiled grimly at the sound, canine-like teeth glittering in the glow of the headlight.
Chapter 6.
Finding rest was something easier said than done for KT and Kai. Fear, worry and doubt forced out any hope of sleep despite the heavy weariness that hung over them both. The rugged landscape raced past beyond the dark windows, the moon and stars lighting up the terrain in a gentle white glow that highlighted the silhouettes of trees and hills in a veil of silver. Normally it would have been a serene scene, but now countless demons seemed to lurk in the half-light.
Unable to find peace, KT turned with the full intention of questioning the mysterious Déaþscúa further. His blue eyes appeared translucent through the gloom, hypnotic almost. They seemed to flash as they rested upon her own, bringing a strange tiredness over her that she couldn’t explain. Before she even realised what was happening, her eyelids drooped closed and conscious thought slid from her head.
Troubled dreams plagued her, making any rest she found superficial at best. She woke up in what looked to be the small hours of the morning. Kai had also drifted into sleep, either by spell or nature but unlike his sister, seemed in a calm and deep sleep. KT looked past him to see Déaþscúa staring absently out of the window.
“We’re nearly in Glasgow now,” he said without moving, his sudden voice startling her. “Ten more minutes and we’ll be entering the suburbs. Another twenty from there to get to where we need to be.”
KT forced the tiredness from her head and tried to place her thoughts in order. It proved to be harder than it should have been. “Where is that?”
“The house of a friend. It was the closest place I could think of to take your mother. Hospitals ask too many questions and don’t have the same skills that come with magic.”
“How is she?” KT asked, lifting herself up to peer into the passenger’s seat. Her mother was as pale as death and sat unmoving.
He shook his head slowly. “Not good. I’ve done all that I can but she is still slowly fading. It’s onl
y a matter of time. We’re just lucky that we got back to the lodge so soon after the attack. An hour later and you’d have returned to find a corpse. Elizabeth is the only chance she has.”
“Is that your friend?”
“Yeah. A witch gifted in the arts of healing. Probably the strongest witch in Scotland who doesn’t work directly for our government. We just have to hope that we reach her in time.”
They both fell silent. Kai snored loudly between them and thin, barely audible breaths rattled from Tara. KT shivered and tried to huddle further into her corner. Nothing in the world made sense anymore. She was in a car with a strange man, fleeing from the scene of a goblin attack, and was now heading to visit a witch.
“Is this everything that you wanted it to be?” Déaþscúa asked. “Does magic and adventure live up to your expectations?”
KT didn’t answer him. She wasn’t sure that she could. She kept her eyes firmly on the world beyond the window.
Houses began to dot their surroundings more and more until they fully entered into civilisation. Streetlights lit their way and filled KT with a sense of safety. It was hard to feel the same fear of monsters when surrounded by the painfully normal. They drove through the outskirts of the city and the houses seemed to grow increasingly dilapidated. The SUV finally pulled up at a rundown estate that was made up of old, cramped buildings and cracked pavement.
“We’re here,” Déaþscúa announced before exiting the vehicle. He opened the passenger door and scooped up Tara gently.
KT nudged Kai but he didn’t stir. She shook him awake then watched as confusion worked its way across his face as his mind pieced together the previous day’s events.
“We’re at the witch’s house,” she said, indicating to Déaþscúa who was carrying Tara towards the tired buildings. He looked like he had no intention of waiting for them.
“Witch? What witch? Black Annis?”
