I replied with a curt: “Nope.”
“Then why can I hear his voice?”
“Because this is a conference call.”
Michael threatened Andreas: “If you put your hands on her, I’ll kill you,” and Andreas shot back: “You’ve been trying to do that for months. Melanie, come to me, I can keep you safe.”
Pigheaded men! If I didn’t bang their heads together and make them see reason, they would end up killing each other. “I’m not safe with either of you, and now shut up, both of you, and listen to me. Don’t you see what’s happening here? Someone is trying to pit you against each other. Michael! It’s exactly the same thing as with the werewolves!”
I wanted to quickly drive by my apartment and pack a few necessities, before heading out to my parental home. When I came around the bend and pulled into the parking lot, I spied six men who were obviously waiting for someone. I stopped the car. “Guys, whose people are waiting in front of my place? Could you please call them off?”
“Melanie, they’re not mine, they must be Michael’s goons.”
“Clear out, quick, they’re not mine either!” Michael yelled. I quickly put the car in reverse. Before I could step on the gas, I heard a shot ring out, then three more in quick succession. The car shook and slumped. They had killed all four tires. I flinched in panic and felt the adrenaline course through my body. Almost hyperventilating, I crammed my phone into my pocket. The door was jerked open and four big, strong arms dragged me from the driver’s seat and out into the street. The men were human. I defended myself, hitting one of them in the face with my fist and kicking another in the groin. It was a brief fight, they were too many, and I was soon bound in fetters. They hit me a few more times, but thanks to my motorbike jacket and pants I didn’t feel any of it – only the one blow that hit me in the face.
“A strong bitch, that one,” one of the men said while they were dragging me into the back of their van. Two of them got in there with me and closed the door behind them. One was a dark-haired guy with a mole on his cheek, the other a shorter, pudgy, older man. “And they’re paying such a sum for her? Who is she; does she have a rich daddy or what?” The older one asked.
“I have no idea, but I’m only interested in the money, I don’t care about the reasons.” So the younger one was the pragmatist of the lot. The older guy was more sympathetic. “She’s so young. What are they going to do to her?”
“Who cares? The better question would be, what am I going to do to her?” That didn’t sound good.
“Nothing,” the other one warned.
“You know, we were hired to kidnap her before. It was a different client, but the same girl. My brother and three other men were sent to do the job. They disappeared and we haven’t heard from them since. I’m going to find out what happened to them. You had better not stand in my way.” He pushed back my motorcycle jacket so it hung from my fettered arms. Then he pulled a pocket knife from his pants pocket and cut my upper arm without warning. I suppressed a scream and breathed heavily against the pain.
“Valiant, I see that you and I will have a lot of fun together,” he jeered. He proceeded to push his finger into the wound and gave me a satisfied look. “Does that hurt? What happened to my brother?” I glared back at him, silent. The pain wasn’t making me compliant but defiant. He waited for several beats, and then added: “You’re pretty. They had some fun with you, didn’t they?” I didn’t answer, and he broke the little finger on my left hand, again without warning. This time I couldn’t suppress a scream. As soon as I was able to form words again, I spat: “They’re all dead!” There was no point in keeping silent anymore. Tears welled in his eyes and he grabbed me by the shoulders, shoved me across the back of the van. I crashed into the side wall and fell to the floor, where he started clobbering me while swearing under his breath. I tried to block the blows with my legs, but one hit me hard in the chest. Since I was no longer wearing my protective jacket, one of my ribs cracked under the impact.
“Ouch, you fucking asshole! You know what your brother was? He was a pig! He deserved to die!”
He attacked me again, but the older one held him back. “Stop it! If you kill her, we’re not getting any money.”
My tormentor yelled and ranted, hurled a barrage of insults at me, and threatened to kill me. When he had gotten a grip of himself again, his pal slowly let go of him, still wary. He approached me calmly. “Who killed them?”
“My ex.”
“My brother and his men were pros. Don’t try to tell me they were killed by one man. No single human being could take out four professionals.”
“Who said he was human?”
Baffled, he shook his head and swallowed. “You’re one beer short of a six-pack, girl.” He played down his fear, but I could see it anyway. “Don’t you want to follow it up with a threat? Something along the lines of: ‘My ex is going to tear your apart; you’re going to wish you were dead already!’” he demanded after a brief pause. When I didn’t react, he added darkly: “Our client, I think she’ll kill you.” So he did know what his client wanted to do to me after all. “I hope your ex still loves you. He should get to feel what it’s like to lose someone, too.”
Michael still loving me? Suffering because of me? Fat chance. The idea seemed ridiculous now, and I couldn’t help a burst of hysterical laughter. “He does not love me; my death wouldn’t leave him sleepless. Maybe he’d miss my abilities or my … oh, whatever. But he will kill you anyway, if only to make a point.”
It was apparent that the two men were no longer so sure of what they were doing. “What’s your ex’s name?” the older one asked. He sounded scared. I smiled at them but didn’t say a word. The younger one gave me a menacing stare and came closer. “His name. Come on, spit it out!”
In the meantime the vehicle had come to a stop, and the door behind us was being opened. The man was about to hit me again, when a woman’s hand wrapped around his head and broke his neck with a swift jerking motion. Apparently she had already put the other men under a spell, because they did not object to the death of their pal. A few seconds later, the same applied to the second man from the back of the van.
“I’m thrilled to finally meet you. Don’t get my little interference wrong, you’re still going to die, but not at the hands of a mere mortal. That would be a shame.”
I recognized her immediately: She was the female Peri from the spa in Germany. She grabbed me by my collar with one strong hand and dragged me from the van. The men watched her with their mouths hanging open. The van was parked in some sort of warehouse. My kidnappers were heavily armed, lined up next to a car with its driver’s side door open. If I was about to die, at least I wanted to know the reason why. “What did I do?”
“You exist.”
“Is being a dragon really that bad?”
“Oh no, you’re not a dragon. You’re something far, far worse. An unacceptable threat.”
Apparently I had found my sense of gallows humor, for I couldn’t help it, I burst out laughing. “A threat, me? Are you really scared of me?”
“Michael never found out what you are? He should be ashamed of himself. It was so obvious. But the point is, you kept thwarting my plans. I was pretty angry when you freed Jeremeia from our carefully crafted control. And then you had to raise the stakes and do the same thing to the other vampire. See what I did there? Seriously, do you have any idea how much time and effort we’d put into getting the vampires under our spell? Oh, right, and then you had to save the werewolves, too. It’s really ironic that the weakest person in the supernatural world managed to frustrate my plans. At least now you can’t avert the final confrontation between Michael and Xavier.”
“So it was you. You pitted everyone against everyone else. Why?”
“What a question; to weaken them, of course. Xavier, Michael, and Jeremeia are all formidable in their own right, and as allies, they were practically untouchable. But in a weakened position, they will have to negotiate with more
accommodation for our wishes. Maybe we will even end up taking over their territory. You probably have no idea, but–”
“If your plans come to fruition, many creatures will die. I know you don’t care. But if you have to kill me, at least tell me what I am,” I interrupted her.
She ignored my plea, knelt next to me, and made my golden lines appear. “Melanie, Melanie, your father built you a pretty cage. You know, when he was lying weakened on the ground, I was the one who dealt him the final blow.”
I refused to believe her. “You did not. My father’s alive. He’s disappeared, but he’s alive. You did not kill him.” I looked at her ugly mug. What if she was telling the truth? I could not deal with the possibility of his death. I no longer cared about the pain in my body; I cracked. My hands still bound, I ran at her, stumbled and kicked at her from the ground. Paradoxically, she and the armed men backed away from me as if in terror.
She quickly recovered and laughed. “Finally the monster is coming out to play. Isn’t it ironic? Without your father’s help I wouldn’t be able to kill you.” She indicated the golden lines that ran all over my body. I caught my reflection in one of the car windows. My eyes were glowing. The yellow circle around my pupils was golden and bright. Why didn’t that frighten me at all?
I had an intuition that we were being watched. I could hear a motorcycle approaching. She frantically made the lines disappear again, put a hand over my mouth to gag me, and turned me around so the rider couldn’t see my unnatural eyes. It was a man, a Peri, who slipped from the seat with a quick fluid motion only a Peri could pull off. When he loomed over me and pointed his finger at me, my eyes had stopped glowing. “Why are you bothering with her at all? She’s nothing but a human with a little extra. Sure, the boss wants to possess her, but everyone knows that she’s Michael’s human. If the boss could simply take her from him, he would have done so a long time ago. You never had a knack for politics, so heavy-handed, it’s typical.”
“Go ahead while I clean up here; I’ll be there in a bit,” the woman placated him.
“Stupid cow; I know this will cause trouble.” He was still muttering when he got back on his bike and drove off. As soon as he was out of sight, she took her hand off my mouth. “If only this moron knew that in reality he and the boss are the stupid ones. Nobody was smart enough to figure out what you are. I was the only one, me!”
“Maybe you could stop telling me how great you are, and finally kill me.”
“I wouldn’t be quite so cocky if I was in your situation. I won’t be the one to kill you; you’ll take care of that yourself. I will need a plausible excuse, just in case the boss should ever find out what you were.” She put both her hands on me and I felt an onslaught of white-hot pain. It rushed through me, scorching every inch as if I was being burned alive. Where did this unbearable pain come from? I screamed and twitched, until she finally pulled away. She licked her lips with a dreamy smile. “What a delicious energy. It’s no wonder Michael is crazy about you. Almost a shame to see you die.”
I lay on the ground, crying. Now I knew what had just taken place. She had taken my energy and fed on it. Michael had told me that the Peri can decide whether to make it painful or pleasurable. She touched me again and asked: “How does this sound? ‘I’m sorry, but how could I know that she was so sad about losing Michael. I only realized she was grieving when she shot herself.’ Sounds good, doesn’t it?”
Then it hit me again, the searing pain. This time I knew where it came from. I didn’t know why or whence, but I knew I could fight it, that I could prevent her from taking my energy, so that’s what I did. I gathered my energy in a tight ball, so she would believe I was exhausted. Then I tried to project a depressed attitude, which wasn’t too hard, considering the events of the last few days. She needed to believe that I had nothing left to give, or to lose.
She studied me with a condescending sneer and tore away my fetters. “If you had even the slightest reason to go on living, you probably wouldn’t pull the trigger, not with your heritage. But honey, you don’t have that. Your parents are dead. Michael couldn’t care less. He doesn’t love you, he doesn’t even genuinely like you. He’ll probably be glad when you’re finally dead. As far as I know, you don’t have anyone left in the world. So what should keep you from doing it? Here, take the gun. Once you pulled the trigger, there will only be peaceful oblivion.”
I looked down at the pistol in my hand, making a sad face. I rose to my feet. Pretending absent-mindedness; I slowly approached one of the vehicles. The key was not in the ignition, but I could see that it was different with the van. The armed men were between me and the cab. I needed a pretext to go there. I turned the gun in my hand with a clueless expression. “How do you use this thing?” I asked stupidly. As I had guessed, the Peri woman had no idea how to shoot a modern weapon. She’d never needed one; she was dangerous enough on her own. She motioned to the men and one of them volunteered: “Come here, I’ll show you.” He stood close to the front of the van. I wiped the tears from my face with my arm and trudged over. He released the safety catch for me and explained: “Now all you have to do is pull the trigger.”
I sat down sideways in the driver’s seat, my legs dangling out the open door. Then I slowly put the muzzle in my mouth. The Peri bitch watched my every move expectantly. I pulled the gun from my mouth again and stared at it dumbly.
“Go on, do it,” she hissed, getting impatient. I raised the gun again, but halfway up I aimed it at her face and mouthed a silent, ‘Die, monster!’ before I pulled the trigger, again and again, in quick succession. It was a terrible spectacle: Her face was shredded and slashed, and blood was splattering in all directions. Without the adrenaline coursing through my veins, I would have been sick at the sight. I swung my feet inside and thus turned my back on the armed men. It had taken them a few seconds to process what had just gone down, to shake off the shock, and to train their guns on me. The man who had helped me with my pistol was the quickest to react. His bullet hit me in the left shoulder. I tumbled from the cab of the van and stared up at the shooter. My phone had fallen from my pocket and shattered into pieces. I saw it happen in slow motion, and then stared right into the eyes of the man who had shot me. Stunned, he returned my gaze. He would probably never forget me. Blood was flowing from my wound, quickly forming a puddle at my side. The bullet had severed an artery. Even if someone tried to save me now, it would probably be too late. Although that was clear as daylight to me, I was not ready to give up yet. Suddenly the armed men were flying through the air, but it wasn’t my doing. It didn’t matter who was responsible for this, and it didn’t matter whether I was going to live or die – what mattered was that I wanted to get away from this place. I braced myself on my right arm and tried to get up. I slipped and fell again, but I kept trying. Wracked by excruciating pain and feeling the cold creep into my very bones, I slumped to the ground and could no longer move. Somebody approached me. I could see his feet in front of my face. He gingerly lifted me up and laid me down in the backseat of yet another car. Before my eyes closed of their own accord, I saw a figure clad in a dark hooded sweater. I couldn’t see the face, for it was hidden in the shadow of the hood. Maybe it was the woman’s boss, who had chosen the politically incorrect path after all. The last thing I felt was my shoulder getting hot.
24 THE STRANGER
Where was I? It was a small, narrow room. I was lying on a bed tucked into yellow sheets. There was a mirror on the wall, and next to the bed was a narrow table with food and a glass of water. My shoulder hurt and even the slightest movement was sheer torture. I gingerly tried to get up. Someone supported my arm and said: “You should be careful; it was a serious injury.” A male voice. I had thought that I was alone in the small room. Taken by surprise, I lost my balance and stumbled backwards, but two arms caught me and helped me stand upright again. “Don’t be afraid; I won’t harm you. Your father was a good friend for my entire life. I owe it to him to save you.”
“What
am I?”
“Your father did not want you to know. I will honor his decision.”
“Am I really a monster?”
“What do you think?” he asked, genuinely curious. I shrugged weakly. I had not yet seen the man who was holding me, but now I could sense him smile. “As far as I know, you spared two vampires who had bitten you, and saved three people – all that just yesterday. Whether you’re a monster or not is a matter of definition. From the viewpoint of a lot of humans, all supernatural creatures are monsters. If you want to hear my opinion, I know that you inherited your father’s heart, so I don’t think you’re a monster.”
“Why did this woman want to kill me?”
“She’s part of a group of radical Peris. They’ve made it their mission to ensure the extinction of creatures of the old magic.”
“But why?”
“They think that nothing should be this powerful. Why were there no more bears and wolves in Austria for a long time?”
“Because they were perceived as posing a danger for humans. And they were.”
“Correct.” He sounded commendatory.
“What are you going to do with me?”
“I’ll let you make a decision. You have two options. Either I’m going to help you fake your death, and then you can lead a simple human life somewhere else, or I’ll take you back to your apartment and you’re on your own again.”
“I want the human life, but first I have to warm Michael and Andreas.”
“You didn’t understand me correctly. If we’re staging your death, you can never go back to Michael, not even to warn him.”
The price for my freedom was steep. It might spell Michael’s death. “I can’t let Michael and Andreas go to war. That would mean many deaths.”
“They’ve been fighting their wars and doing their politics without you for centuries. They will continue to get by without you.”
I should have taken hours or days to make my decision, but I had made it within seconds. “Then I’ll go back. I won’t let them kill each other; their quarrel is unfounded. And even if Michael has only been using me, I still love him.”
Peris Night: Terakon (Secret Language) Page 36
