by Kelly Goode
‘How would you know? You’re never here. You just dump your weird kid on me and fuck off.’
‘I’m working, Roger. Working to put food on our table. Maybe if you contributed once in a while instead of sponging from me, I wouldn’t have to-’
The sound of Roger striking her mother’s face seemed to bounce off the walls, and the little girl cried out in fear. She scrambled to her feet, cradling her injured hand. Tears streamed down her blotchy face as she felt a surge of heat ricochet around her body.
‘Stay there, Ember.’
Her mother’s tone gave no room for argument. Roger’s eyes were filled with such hatred that the little girl’s legs began to shake until she lost control and felt her bladder empty on its own accord.
‘Oh, fucking hell. She’s pissed herself again.’
‘I’ll clean it up.’
‘You’d better. I’m going down the pub.’
Roger grabbed the car keys from the sideboard and stomped from the room, slamming the front door as he left. The little girl continued to cry silent tears as her wet trousers clung uncomfortably to her skin. She prayed Roger wouldn’t come back.
But he always came back.
‘Come on, Ember. Let’s get you changed into your pyjamas.’
The little girl allowed her mother to lead her upstairs and into the bathroom where her wet clothes were removed while she waited for the bath to fill up. Her mother added sweet smelling bubble bath before lowering her into the shallow water.
‘It’s cold, mummy.’
The little girl watched in fascination as her mother put her hand under the water. It seemed to glow beneath the surface, and then the water instantly warmed up.
‘Is that better?’
The little girl nodded. She closed her eyes as her mother sang to her. The sweet melody chasing away any remaining fear. She loved her mother’s warm hands soaping her skin and washing her hair, and just for a moment, things felt better.
Then her mother turned her head, and the red bump across her pale cheek came into focus. It was a stark reminder of how much Roger liked to hurt people.
Especially little girls who defied him.
He would make her pay for this. When her mother went to work tomorrow, she’d pay. She had to do something…she had to think of a way to protect herself.
The little girl lifted her hands from beneath the water and was surprised to see her own skin was now glowing. Little sparks of orange danced between her fingers.
‘Don’t do that, Ember.’
Her mother’s voice was sharp as she covered her small hands with her own larger ones, making the orange flames disappear.
‘Why not, mummy?’
‘If anyone saw you, they wouldn’t understand. They’d take you away from me.’
‘I don’t want us to ever be apart from each other.’
Her mother’s eyes filled with tears.
‘I know, Ember. That’s why this needs to be our little secret. Don’t ever show Roger. Promise me that.’
‘I promise, mummy.’
Her mother kissed the top of her head, and the little girl smiled as the flames reappeared, this time between their joined fingers.
83
Carter shifted around in the small chair. The squeak of the wooden legs sounded loud in the darkened room. He looked over at Ember’s small, sleeping form. She’d been restless for the last ten minutes, constantly grabbing the duvet and murmuring in her sleep. Whatever events occupied her dreams were enough to make her suddenly cry out. The emotion behind her whimpers cut him like a knife.
‘Ember, are you ok?’
She didn’t respond to his question, so he got up and moved closer to the bed. Ember’s eyes were closed, but she was shaking her head from side to side.
‘Are you ok?’
Carter repeated his question, this time sitting down on the edge of the mattress. He smoothed her red hair away from her clammy forehead, wishing he could take away the pain etched on her face.
Ember must have sensed his presence as she opened her eyes.
‘Carter? What happened? Is something wrong?’
‘You were having a bad dream,’ he replied as justification for why he was leaning over her while she slept. Ember blinked a few times, as if trying to focus on her surroundings.
‘Oh, right. I’m sorry if I woke you.’
‘I wasn’t asleep.’
She took a deep breath as if steadying herself. Her eyes slid shut again, and Carter stared at her dark eyelashes and then at her pursed lips.
‘Want to tell me about it?’ he asked, trying to switch his focus onto anything but her mouth.
‘I can’t remember much,’ she said. ‘Only that I was very young, and my mother and father were arguing.’
‘Did they argue a lot?’
Ember shook her head.
‘I don’t think so, but there was this one time when I said something, and I probably shouldn’t have…’
Her voice trailed off as if the memory was too much for her to recall.
‘Do you remember the night of your father’s death?’ Carter asked gently.
Ember shook her head again.
‘No.’
‘Did they argue that night too?’
‘I said I don’t remember. What’s with all the questions?’
She pushed the duvet away and got out of bed. He’d made her cross with his intrusive questions, but her history intrigued him.
‘I read your father’s file,’ he admitted.
‘You did? Why?’
‘You told Marilyn Quinn that your mother was innocent, yet she’s been locked up for over a decade without an appeal. I wanted to get a feel for what happened. See if I could find something S.P.T.F. missed.’
Ember started pacing the small room, clearly agitated by the conversation.
‘They missed everything.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘S.P.T.F. had only just been set up. They didn’t have the resources to investigate the scene properly. My father’s murder happened just after the new millennium. The dawn of the supernaturals as some called it and people were scared. My mother was made an example of without even a proper trial.’
‘Was your mother a fire-witch like you?’ he asked.
Ember pushed her hands through her long hair.
‘Yes, but she hid it well. Told me to hide it too. That’s why I can’t control my powers very well. I spent the first half of my life, pretending they didn’t exist.’
‘It must have been difficult.’
‘It was. Roger wasn’t exactly father of the year, but neither of us wanted him dead.’
Carter recalled the details of the murder. Roger’s throat was slit while he slept alone on the sofa. He’d been drinking, but there was no sign of a struggle. The weapon had been a kitchen knife, the same one found in Ember’s mother hand when the police arrived. A teenage Ember had been asleep in her bedroom and heard nothing until she came downstairs and saw her mother covered in blood.
‘Are you sure there’s no reason for your mother to have hurt him?’
Ember nodded, but he noticed she didn’t meet his eyes when she spoke. She was hiding something.
‘Someone else must have been there that night. I just can’t remember.’
‘Maybe if you saw the crime scene photos again, it might jog your memory.’
‘I don’t know about that. It’s been such a long time.’
‘It’s worth a shot. I have the file,’ Carter said then corrected himself. ‘Had the file. It’s back at HQ.’
‘Well, there goes that idea.’
‘Not necessarily. I’ll go back and get it.’
‘You can’t do that.’
‘Why not? It’s probably the last place Chief Andrews would expect me to go.’
Carter retrieved the duffle bag he’d taken from the van and rifled through the contents.
‘What’s in there?’ Ember asked.
‘Every van has a basic
supply kit in case an agent is stranded during a mission. I’m going to freshen up.’
Carter pulled out a washbag and headed into the bathroom where he washed his face and brushed his teeth.
‘There’s a spare set of clothes in the bag and more toiletries,’ he said to Ember when he came back out. ‘Get changed while I’m gone. I have the room key so if anyone knocks just ignore it.’
Ember reached out for him.
‘Be careful,’ she said, her green eyes searching his face for reassurance. Carter leaned down and kissed her cheek, inhaling the scent of her skin.
‘Don’t worry. I’ll be in and out before they know it.’
84
After Carter had left, I locked the door and went into the bathroom to get ready. I showered and washed my hair, massaging the shampoo into my long red locks.
I recalled the shower I’d taken after Harvey’s proposition on our first day at the unit. He’d been so self-assured, so aware of the effect he had on me that I’d run a mile. What a difference a few weeks made. I’d do anything to have him join me now.
To feel his arms around me again.
Tears burned my eyes, and I washed them away along with the shampoo. I switched the shower off and grabbed one of the large towels from the rack. After drying and brushing my teeth, I searched through Carter’s emergency stash for some clean clothes.
Naturally, they were all too big, so I wore my old trousers and made do with one of the clean t-shirts. I tied the cotton into a knot at my waist to make it smaller and went downstairs for breakfast.
Carter still hadn’t returned, and my stomach bubbled with nervous energy. I drank too many cups of coffee and only managed to eat a slice of toast before returning to the room.
As I unlocked the door, I felt something brush against my arm. I turned around, ready to attack if need be, but nothing was there. I noticed the window at the far end of the corridor was ajar and convinced myself that it was the breeze I’d felt.
I lifted my hands, trying to conjure a fireball, but there was no response. Not even chanting a spell brought flames to my palms. Touching that toothstone had been a mistake. I didn’t know how long I’d be without my powers and didn’t like feeling unprotected.
My thoughts briefly turned to Darrick. He was a vampire so couldn’t come out in the daytime. Although there were more and more hybrid supernatural creatures appearing so nothing could be taken for granted.
There was no reason for Darrick to pursue me. The only thing he knew about me was my name. Sasha was the only link between us, and she was dead. He hadn’t suspected I was working for S.P.T.F. He still had his original stone so was none-the-wiser as to why I’d come into his life.
I doubted he’d even given me a second thought. I was just some random woman he’d been mildly attracted to that turned into a fire-wielding loony after he’d killed a rat. He was probably glad I’d run away.
I opened the door and walked into the room, but stopped dead when I saw what was waiting for me on the bed. A single red rose sat on my pillow.
Had housekeeping left it there?
I moved closer, checking for a note, but there was none. I stood motionless for a moment, listening for any noises that might indicate I wasn’t alone, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
To be on the safe side, I raided Carter’s bag again, extracting a small handgun, which I loaded with bullets. After checking the bathroom and not finding any hidden intruders, I went back to the bed.
I picked up the rose and inhaled against the petals. Beneath the sweet floral perfume, there was another scent. A subtle smell that I recognised and my heart filled with hope.
Harvey.
85
Harvey floated through the air, safely hidden within his smoke cloud. He couldn’t move any quicker as the pain in his hip increased each time he teleported. He was lucky to be alive, and knew he should be resting, but the desire to see Ember again had been too strong to ignore.
He’d remained concealed as he watched her barely eat her breakfast and then he’d followed her back to her room. He’d managed to get inside seconds before her to leave the rose. It had been a stupid gesture. A stupid, sentimental gesture that he would usually have scoffed at, but he’d wanted her to know he was alive.
Hurt but alive.
Chief Andrews’s bullet had hit him directly in the heart but as Harvey didn’t have a human heart to damage, the wound hadn’t been fatal.
It was the electro-tag that almost killed him. Designed to detonate if he teleported, Harvey owed his life to the vampire doctor who’d come out of nowhere to save him. He’d removed the tag from Harvey’s hip before it could engage and then they’d both teleported to safety without anyone knowing what had happened.
The fact the vampire had removed the tag through his skin, blood and muscle using only his bare hands and not surgical tools, had hurt like a bitch, but Harvey was too grateful to complain. He was alive.
Alive and out for revenge.
Harvey left Ember smelling the rose and teleported to HQ, directly into Chief Andrews’s office. The safety measures only prevented him teleporting out, not in, which was a grave error on the chief’s part.
An error he was going to come to regret very soon.
‘I should have shot you in the head,’ Chief Andrews said, the second he saw Harvey emerge from the smoke cloud.
He made a frantic grab for a weapon, but Harvey moved faster and intercepted the letter opener.
‘Yeah, you should have,’ he replied, grabbing the old man’s head and jerking it backwards.
Harvey’s inner-demon rejoiced as the sharp blade made contact with the chief’s exposed throat, severing the jugular and causing blood to erupt like a volcano across his desk. The chief gurgled as he suffocated in his own blood.
Harvey felt no remorse as he roared, releasing his demon who punctured the old man’s ribcage with his clawed hand. The snapping of bone was a sound to be cherished and he laughed as he reached inside the chest cavity and squeezed the pumping heart until it burst.
86
Carter had lied to Ember earlier. There was no easy way back into HQ. The only admittance was using his palm print, and if the chief had already revoked his access, then he was screwed. Fortunately, he knew the positions of the CCTV cameras, so managed to duck and dodge their prying lenses.
Carter drew his gun when he reached the main entrance, and pressed his free hand to the scanner beside the door. It slid open without sounding an alarm.
So far so good.
Nobody rushed him as he stepped inside. There were no gang of soldiers waiting for him, ready to take him on, so he continued quickly and quietly up the stairs to his room.
Once inside, Carter grabbed the copy of Roger Lane’s murder investigation file from where he’d hidden it beneath his mattress and shoved it into a bag. If Ember was right about S.P.T.F. making mistakes, there would be something in the original handling of the case that would prove questionable and lend weight to the case being reopened.
Carter would help Ember put together her mother’s appeal. It sounded gallant, but he had a purely selfish motive. This way he could spend more time with her. He had the feeling she would need a friend and he could be her friend. A plutonic relationship would suffice.
For now.
Carter packed a few more clothes into his bag and headed towards the door. As he unlocked it, he found a familiar figure waiting outside.
‘I didn’t think you’d be the one Chief Andrews sent after me,’ Carter said, staring at John Alvis and wishing he hadn’t put his gun back into its holster.
Not that a regular bullet would be a problem for a vampire.
‘I’m not,’ the doctor said, ‘and be grateful that’s the case, or else you’d already be dead. Super-speed and all that, I’d have severed your spinal cord the second you opened the door.’
‘Thanks for that gruesome image. If you’re not here to kill me, what do you want?’
‘I need t
o tell you something. Can you invite me inside, please?’
Carter contemplated the vampire’s request but agreed that if he were going to attack, he would have done it already.
‘Sure, come in.’
Alvis crossed the threshold and scanned the room as if looking for something.
‘How’d you know I was here, doc?’
‘I caught a whiff of your scent and followed my nose. Where are you going?’
‘Back to Ember.’
‘Is that wise?’
‘I haven’t figured it all out yet, doc, but I will.’
Carter tensed as the vampire picked up the framed photograph from the bureau.
‘Don’t forget this.’ he said.
Carter took the photo and stared down at his sister’s smiling face. It had always been the last thing he saw before he left his room to start a new mission. He’d done that on purpose so it would be a constant reminder to him of why he joined the First and Only team and why he took the drastic actions that he did.
It was the only personal item in his entire room and probably the most precious. How could he have forgotten to pack it?
He carried so much guilt regarding his sister’s death that it was almost like a second skin to him. Cradling Beth’s battered body in his arms; he’d sworn revenge on the supernatural criminals who plagued London’s streets after the millennium. The missions that he and the other men carried out, whether by dubious methods or not, helped save other people’s sisters. So they wouldn’t know the heartache he and his parents had endured.
‘What did you want to tell me, doc?’ Carter said, placing the photograph carefully inside his bag.
‘I don’t expect you to be happy about this, but Harvey is alive.’
‘He is?’
‘Yeah, I saved him.’
‘What did you do that for?’
‘Call it my professional obligation or a desire to play God. He was in trouble and I reacted. I just wanted you to hear it from me first.’
