by Steve McHugh
Layla couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Not only did Chloe lie to her all these years, but her mother had practically arranged it, and her father wasn’t a human. If her father was an umbra, and she was an umbra, maybe she was becoming her father in more ways than she’d ever imagined. Maybe that was how it started with him, and how it would start with her. She’d lose control and hurt people she loved.
“Anyway, back to Chloe. She was just meant to watch and report. That’s it. But she grew to like you. And you formed a deep friendship. The only problem was, she was lying to you. She asked me a dozen times if she could tell you the truth, but we weren’t sure what you’d do if you learned it. So she got deeper and deeper into her new life, and all it took was Elias to come along for her to be put in an awful place.”
“What awful place?”
“She’s an umbra. Like you. Like your father. She wanted to be the one to talk to you about her power, about your power, about how to control it. About the demon. But we said no. We weren’t convinced that having someone so close to you reveal her true self would pay off. We thought it might trigger the demon.”
“Why tell me this now?”
“Because we can’t have you running off to look for information, and we can’t have you thinking we’re keeping things from you. This won’t work that way.”
“Chloe has lied to me all these years? Pretending to be my friend?” A memory clicked. “She told me about Kase. They’re friends.”
“No. She doesn’t pretend. She doesn’t really have it in her. And yes, they are friends. Have been for a long time.”
“I trusted her,” Layla shouted. “She knows how many people have lied to me my whole life. She knows that everyone I trust lies. They take that trust and twist it for their own purpose, and she’s done the exact same thing.”
“If you really think that, you’re wrong. She worked for me to help me keep you safe. To help me keep others safe from you. Because when you’re not sure if the person with no training and a psychotic father is a monster themselves, you tend to want to find out.”
Anger bubbled up inside of Layla and she wanted to lash out, to hit something. To hurt someone. “All these years, I’ve been terrified of hurting someone, of becoming my father, and you all knew that I might. And you didn’t tell me?”
“We had no idea, Layla. That’s why we had Chloe keep an eye on you. Your mother told us that you had some issues with your anger. That you were capable of hurting people. She was worried you’d inherited it from your father.”
The anger vanished, replaced with a feeling like she’d been punched in the gut. “My mom told you about those thoughts?”
Tommy nodded. “You beat a kid into semi-consciousness. You bet your mum told us. She said you were a good kid, but that your father had instilled some . . . lessons in you as a child. Fighting, weapon use, explosives. Quite the childhood. He turned a child into a weapon, and he did it without his wife having a say in the matter. He was a bad guy, your old man.”
“Chloe should have told me. She should have been honest with me. How can I trust her now?”
“You should trust her because it’s Chloe. No matter what she did or didn’t do, she’s still Chloe. She knows I’m telling you this, by the way. She’s not happy about it, but she knows. She wanted to be the one to tell you.”
“Anything else?” Layla’s voice was cold and hard. She wanted to talk to Chloe, to find out how her friend could lie to her face over and over again. They might have only been friends a few years, but Layla didn’t have many friends and anyone she let in, even slightly, was someone she believed was worthy of her trust. To discover that she was wrong hurt more than she’d imagined.
“Lots of things. We went back to the underground compound you were kept at, but if anyone had been there, they’re long gone now. We found a few bodies, though. We ID’d them as some of the people who worked at the depot. I’m sorry.”
Layla had hoped some of them would still be alive.
Tommy waited for a few seconds before continuing. “I want to keep you alive, Layla. I’m going to be as open as I can about everything, but you don’t have to like me. You just have to realize I’m not the bad guy.”
“I thought I did. I thought I trusted Chloe, but she betrayed me.”
“You have a black and white view of the world. She didn’t betray you. Yes, she lied, but she did it to protect you, she did it because it’s her job. And she’s exceptionally good at her job. But she’s not much of a liar when it comes to her feelings. She can’t hide those. She’s your friend because she wants to be. No one ordered it; no one said it would be a good idea if you became besties. She’s your friend because she cares about you deeply. If you can’t see that, then I’m sorry.”
Layla thought about Tommy’s words for several seconds. She would need to talk to Chloe. “So what happens now?”
“I can’t force you to come with me.”
“I think you probably could,” Layla argued.
Tommy stood and nodded. “Yes, I could. I could force you in a hundred different ways. But I won’t. I’m not that person. You want to know how to control the spirits in a place of safety? Come with me. You want to know how to control the anger inside you, so you don’t have those thoughts of hurting people? I can help with that too.”
“How?”
“I’m a werewolf, Layla. Deep inside my soul is a monster the likes of which makes your father look like Foghorn Leghorn. The beast that lives there wants out. Always. It wants to hurt and feed and kill. And it is a constant battle not to let it. I’m hundreds of years old, and it’s still hard work. My daughter Kase is your age, and she let it out once. Almost lost control and killed people. That voice you hear that tells you how much you like fighting, I have one like it, except mine tells me to bathe in the blood of everyone I know.
“We all have our monsters, Layla. But you’re not one. You’ve lived with that voice your whole life, probably think it’s part of your father’s gifts he passed on to you. It’s not. It’s just something you need to learn to ignore. You’re so terrified of becoming your father, you don’t realize you’re nothing like him.”
“Have you ever met my father?”
“No. I know people who have, though. I’ve read about his crimes; I’ve seen what he’s done. Trust me, you’re not your father.”
“I’m an umbra just like him.”
“You think that means you’re going to become him, that this was how he started?”
Tommy’s words were almost exactly what Layla had just thought, and for a moment she wondered if he could read minds too. She smiled, but only for a second.
“I just said what you’d been thinking, right?” Tommy asked.
Layla stared at him for several seconds before nodding.
“That’s not how it works. You don’t inherit evil. My father was a drunk who liked to beat me for having the audacity to breathe. Some people are assholes, doesn’t mean you’re anything like them. I’m not my father. I’m nothing like him. And you’re nothing like yours. You need to learn that. This world will crush you if you think you’re a monster when you’re not. There are enough actual monsters out there already.”
Tommy crossed the floor and picked up the box next to the safe. “Can I?”
Layla nodded, hesitantly.
Tommy lifted the lid off the box, exposing several thousand pounds’ worth of notes, three passports under various names, along with birth certificates and other documents, and a small yellow journal. He opened it and showed it to Layla. “This is the number your father is at, along with the address of the prison, yes?”
Layla nodded.
“Tabitha was in charge of him. She made sure that no one knew the location who didn’t need to know.” Tommy closed the book. “Do you know it by heart?”
Another nod.
He held out the journal to Layla, who took it, staring at it as if it might be poisonous. “Good. Destroy it. No one but you needs to know how to con
tact him. I certainly don’t.”
Tommy looked back in the box. “This is a gun, Layla. A Glock.”
“My mother got it after we moved here. Cost her a lot.”
Tommy ejected the magazine and found it empty, but discovered a box of bullets. He opened it and immediately closed it again. “Silver-tipped. These will kill most things in our world.”
“I don’t want them.”
Tommy placed them on the sofa. “We’ll dispose of them, if you like. The money is yours to do with as you please. The IDs . . . well, I hope you don’t need them. What are you afraid of, Layla? This isn’t just because you think you’ll become your father, so what else is it?”
Layla took a deep breath. “I’m alone, Tommy. My father is gone, my mother is dead. I don’t let myself get close to people because . . .”
“What if they go too?” Tommy finished for her.
Layla nodded. “It’s easier to not make attachments. But . . . the last few years, I’ve wanted to try. I want to live a normal life, where I can have friends and love and enjoy normal everyday activities. Where I don’t have to worry that the person being confrontational over something stupid will end up dead because I lose control.
“And every time I think I’m okay, those little voices come back and tell me that I should hurt someone, or I get into a fight and I enjoy it. I liked hurting those neighbors of mine who attacked me. I liked hurting Rob when he grabbed me. I’m not afraid I’m becoming my father, I’m afraid I’ll be worse. What if that’s what the demon inside of me does? What if it turns me into an even worse monster?”
Tommy looked up and saw tears roll down Layla’s cheeks. He walked over and hugged her. “Demons, beasts, monsters . . . nothing that can’t be tamed, or killed. We’ll tame your demon, Layla. We’ll make sure of it. You just need to fight, and never stop.”
Layla nodded, as somewhere in her mind Terhal laughed as if the idea of fighting her was the funniest thing in the world.
19
Elias had spent several hours trying to figure out a way to find out exactly which hospital Layla had been taken to. Eventually, he’d resorted to calling the hospitals pretending to be a concerned relative, but no one told him anything. It was infuriating.
Fortunately, Shane and Reyes had better luck locating Layla’s home address. Unfortunately, it was swamped with people Elias didn’t really want to deal with.
“Thomas Carpenter is there,” Reyes told him.
Elias rubbed his eyes with the heels of his palms. “Damn it. That man is beginning to become an irritant. No matter. It’s unlikely Layla would go back there, which means they’re keeping her holed up somewhere secure.”
“Well, I have much better news.” Shane opened a notepad and began reading through it as he spoke. “We tracked two of her friends. The first is Chloe, who works at a coffee shop in Ocean Village. She seems to own it, although I couldn’t find her there. I spoke to the woman behind the counter—a pretty blonde I would love to see again in a more personal way—who explained that Chloe owned the place. She was out visiting a friend. I then found another of Layla’s friends, Harry, who lives with several others in a house across town. I talked to one of them, and they explained that he was going to the hospital to see a friend.”
“Can we grab either of them?”
“Not Harry. Some of Tommy’s people were watching the place as I left. They didn’t follow me, but I’m sure they notified Tommy I’d been there. Chloe is a better bet, though.” Shane passed Elias the notepad with the address of the coffee shop on it.
“Why?” Dara asked. “Why is she the better bet?”
“More chances to grab her, and I didn’t see any of Tommy’s people watching the shop.”
“So, Layla’s probably at a hospital?” Dara said. “There are, what, four in Southampton?”
“And a few not too far from here as well.”
“Get me an address,” Elias told Shane and Reyes. “Good work. Dara, you’re with me, we’re going to go pay Chloe a visit. Get some of the blood elves to accompany us. She’s going to tell us where Layla is, and then she’s going to help us get Layla to agree to our terms.”
Elias and Dara gathered the blood elves and drove into Southampton in the Range Rover, parking it in one of the many car parks that sat around Ocean Village.
“I’m going in alone,” Elias said, and turned to Dara. “You know what to do.”
He exited the car and walked along the marina toward the coffee shop. He continued to look out for Tommy or any of his people, but saw no one watching him, or following. He wondered why Tommy would put people on Harry, but not on Chloe. There had to be a reason. Over the last few years, he’d grown to almost admire Tommy, a man with a singular vision to find Elias and those who worked with him. Tommy had been close on several occasions, had even managed to capture several blood elves who hadn’t escaped in time and had executed them in an unexpectedly ruthless manner.
Nergal had been less than impressed with Tommy’s actions and had wanted to send a death squad after the man, but Elias had managed to talk him out of it. If Tommy was killed, people who Elias didn’t want to deal with would become involved. Tommy was a known entity, but some of his friends were the kinds of people you ran from and never stopped. Nergal might be incredibly powerful and dangerous, but even he would have trouble against some of those Tommy considered friends. It was best to just let Tommy think he was getting close before the end goal was snatched away from him.
Keeping a dog on a leash was easier than getting it back on once you’d let it have free rein. Elias smiled at the metaphor; he thought it summed up Tommy well.
He reached the door to the coffee shop and pushed it open. The aroma of freshly ground coffee assaulted his senses. He didn’t dislike coffee, in fact he loved it, but the way it had permeated so many people’s lives made him feel as if it was more and more something people bought because they were supposed to, not because they actually enjoyed the taste. Over the years it had become cheap and easy to buy, and not the luxurious commodity it should be.
He walked past several patrons—all on their phones, or in one case, a young woman reading a book—and took a seat at the far corner of the shop. It allowed him a full view of the place and he could see all of the comings and goings of the staff and visitors.
There were eleven people in the shop, and a further two behind the counter. A third member of staff was busy wiping down tables and exchanging pleasantries with some of the customers. The customers themselves didn’t concern Elias. All but two were in their twenties or thirties, and those two were well over fifty. They sat beside each other on one of the three chocolate-colored couches, though they didn’t talk, apparently completely at ease with the idea of silence. Elias presumed they’d been together a long time and were simply comfortable in each other’s presence. He wondered for a second if he’d ever get that, but quickly pushed it aside.
The nine others were made up of four men and five women, three of whom sat around one table. They were wearing designer clothing, carrying designer handbags, and occasionally flashing their expensive, and probably new, phones.
A man and woman, probably a couple from the way they were occasionally touching hands on the table, sat opposite one another by the window.
The remaining customers were either alone, or might as well have been for all the attention they were giving their friends or partners.
Elias looked over at the two baristas, who were busy talking to each other. He didn’t care what about; he had no interest in eavesdropping. He got up from his seat and walked over to the counter, where one of the two, a young blonde who Elias was sure was the same one Shane had discussed, walked over to him with a smile.
“Can I help you?” she asked, the happiness in her smile traveling into her words, something Elias hadn’t been expecting.
“Hi. Can I have a latte, and do you happen to know if Chloe is about?”
The girl’s smile faltered just a little bit, but not en
ough for Elias to be concerned. “She should be in today; she’s been away for a few days. Are you friends?”
Elias passed her a five-pound note, and returned the woman’s smile. “We have a mutual friend, the one in the hospital. I saw Chloe at the General yesterday, and she told me to come see her here.”
“Oh, isn’t it horrible? I heard about Layla. She’s such a lovely person, and it’s so sad what happened to all of those people. I’m so sorry. I’m sure the doctors and nurses at the General will do everything they can to help her, though.”
Elias nodded, while inside he knew he had the information he wanted. He’d contact Shane and Reyes and tell them to get over to the General. He’d guessed it was this one because it was the largest hospital in the city. “It’s a sad thing. I’m hoping Layla will get better soon. She’s a fighter.”
The woman passed the changed to Elias. “She really is. I took a few classes with her, and she’s tough.”
“Classes?”
“The MMA stuff that she goes to with Chloe.”
“Ah, right, sorry, I wondered what you were talking about.” He chuckled. It was forced, but he’d had enough practice over the years to make it sound almost genuine.
The shop door opened, making a small chime that Elias hadn’t noticed when he’d first come in. He turned and saw a young woman take a step into the shop and freeze as she laid eyes on him. The smile on her face melted. Elias wondered how this person knew him.
She walked over to Elias and nodded to the woman who had served him.
“A friend of Layla’s,” the barista said.
“Thanks, Sam,” Chloe said, with every appearance of happiness. “Hello, Elias.”
“Do you have a few minutes?” Elias asked. “It’s about Layla.”
“I know.” She glanced around her at the other patrons. “Let’s go out the back, we won’t be disturbed there.”
“Glad to hear it. Lead the way.”
Chloe turned to Sam. “Can you deal with everything here? We’ll only be a few minutes.”
Sam nodded, and Chloe walked off, pushing open a door at the far end of the coffee shop and walking down a small corridor. Elias followed close behind, until they’d left the shop and walked out onto a footpath behind the building. The path was next to the water, where several boats moved gently on the waves. A wooden bench overlooked the serenity of the area, and across the marina was a construction site. There would be no one around to see what happened next.
