by Peter McLean
She pointed towards the big black American car. The back door opened just then and a high-heeled shoe emerged on the end of a long, nylon-clad leg. The leg was followed by a flash of short black skirt, which was followed by Ally.
“Oh shit,” I said.
“Shut up,” Meg snapped, and kicked me once again.
Ally stalked towards me, her high heels clicking on the concrete.
“Don, sweetie,” she said. “How did you enjoy last night?”
“I didn’t,” I snapped. “You know fucking well I didn’t, you mad bitch. I don’t know why the bloody hell I left Debbie to go off with you.”
“Ah, well to be fair you didn’t have a lot of choice, sweetie,” she said. She wound a lock of her red hair around her little finger and smiled at me. “Not a lot of choice at all.”
I’d been right then – she had been doing something to my head. I was fucking sure she had.
“Don’t look at her like that,” Meg snarled. “Don’t look at her!”
She stamped on my left knee, and I howled.
“Oh don’t be such a baby,” Ally said. “From the look of you today, I’d say you heal suspiciously quickly.”
“I can hurt him faster than anything can heal,” Tess assured her.
“Why do you want to hurt me at all?” I protested.
“Why darling, it’s what we do,” Ally said. “My sister Meg gets very jealous when I’ve been with a man, I’m afraid, and Tess, well… Tess just enjoys hurting people like you.”
“People like me how?” I said.
“Oh come on sweetie, don’t play innocent with me,” Ally said. “I know what you did. We all know what you did.”
“That little boy,” said Tess.
“That poor child,” said Meg.
“That was an accident,” I protested, wondering how in the world they could possibly know about that. “I’m sorry!”
“He’s sorry,” Tess said in a low, flat voice.
Ally pouted. “He was so sorry he got blind drunk, took me home and fucked me,” she said. “That’s how sorry he was. Going to bed with me was a bad idea, I’m afraid. Once I’ve had you, sweetie, I’ve got you. I’m in your head and you’re mine now, whenever I want you. You didn’t have any choice but to come with me last night and you know it. I own you now.”
“You set me up from the start, didn’t you?” I said. “That night creature attacking you, everything. It was all a fit-up, wasn’t it?”
“Oh yes,” said Ally. “Dear me, did you only just work that out? Are you so used to total strangers leaping into your bed that you didn’t stop to think that perhaps it was a teensy little bit unlikely?”
I had to admit she had a point there. I mean I had wondered, but whatever spell she had put me under had left me too foggy to really join the dots until now.
“Well…” I started.
Tess grabbed my hair with one hand and yanked my head up, and slammed the inside of her other forearm into my throat. I choked and gagged, and Meg landed a solid kick to my guts.
“You’re no fun tonight, sweetie,” Ally said. “I liked you better when you put up a bit of a fight.”
“I tied your hands in front of you for a reason,” Tess said. “You’re supposed to at least try to defend yourself.”
“It’s more fun that way,” Meg said. “You try, and we show you that you can’t.”
“Like this,” said Tess, and booted me in the face.
Pain and brilliant white light exploded in front of my eyes. I rolled helplessly across the concrete, skinning my elbows and knees in a largely pathetic attempt to get away from them. Tess had a point of course, but with my ankles tied how they were I was stuck on my knees at best. I struggled up into a kneeling position and raised my bound hands in front of me, and just about managed to fend off the next kick Meg sent towards my face.
“That’s the idea,” Tess said encouragingly. “That’s much better.”
“Yes, much better,” said Meg, and deftly hooked a roundhouse kick around my guard and into the side of my head.
I crashed sideways into the concrete, seeing stars all over again. This was bad, I knew it was. The two of them were knocking lumps out of me and showing no sign of stopping, but I’d been beaten up enough times before for that not to be the end of the world. I hate to admit it but it was Ally I was really scared of. She was somewhere behind me where I couldn’t see her, and I was getting increasingly worried about what she might be doing back there. Those fears were all too soon justified when her bullwhip cracked violently over my head.
“Oh, fuck me,” I whimpered.
“Oh no, sweetie, I don’t think so,” she said. “Not again. You’re really not that good.”
The whip lashed down my back in a searing flash of pain. I shrieked. I know, I’m not proud of it, but for fuck’s sake have you ever been bullwhipped? No, I didn’t think so. The force of the blow threw me to my face on the concrete, and it was all I could do to roll desperately sideways before she struck again. The whip cracked against the concrete where I had been sprawled, and I heard Tess laugh.
“There,” she said, “he’s starting to get the hang of it now.”
I whimpered and spat, feeling hot blood trickling down my back. I struggled onto my knees, my bound hands held defensively in front of me as they started to circle. I was trying to keep all three of them in sight at once but it was hopeless. Ally with her whip was the most terrifying, but every time I swivelled on my torn and bleeding knees to keep my eyes on her, one of the others would blindside me with a kick or a punch. Meg’s feet were quicker, I soon decided, but Tess punched like a professional boxer.
Bruised and bleeding, I sobbed as Meg knocked me off my knees yet again with a kick I never even saw. I fell heavily onto my side and Ally’s whip flicked over my head, then lashed down to open a long red gash across my left shoulder.
“Please!” I screamed.
“Please, he says,” Tess said. “Please don’t hurt me. Please don’t kill any more children. Please, Don, please.”
“Please us,” Meg snarled.
“Please me,” Ally chuckled.
The whip hit me again, and I screamed until my throat was raw.
“I’m bored. I’m going to get my knives out of the van,” Tess said. “Back in a tick.”
“No!” I sobbed. “No knives!”
“She’s good with those knives,” Meg assured me. “Really good. Have you ever seen one of your own bones?”
She yanked me up by the hair and kicked me in the kidneys so hard I actually pissed myself a bit.
“You dirty boy,” Ally laughed, and cracked her whip so close to my head that she sliced my right ear open.
I threw myself sideways as hard as I could, blood from my torn ear streaming in the air like a ragged red banner as the whip lashed after me again. I don’t know if it was the pain or the humiliation or the sheer fucking terror that made me do it, but right then I was desperate enough to clutch at any straw I could think of, however unlikely it might seem. I reached up to my throat with my bound hands and yanked the amulet off over my head. I grunted as I hurled it as far away from myself as I could. I heard it bounce off the concrete and skitter away into the distance. It was no wonder Tess hadn’t wanted to take it off me, all things considered.
“Meselandrarasatrixiel, I undo thy bindings,” I screamed. “Trixie, help!”
“You worthless little fucker,” Tess snarled, jumping down from the back of the van with a glittering blade in each hand. “She won’t come for you.”
But she did. Mother of all that’s merciful, she came. I didn’t know how or why or from where, but right then I couldn’t have cared less. All I knew was I could suddenly smell Russian tobacco. I dragged myself up onto my knees and gaped.
Trixie stalked out of the shadows on glossy black low-heeled boots, her long leather coat open over jeans and a tight brown jumper and the glow of her unnatural white aura. She had one of her black cigarettes in one hand, and a swor
d in the other.
“Now we’re talking,” she said.
“You just wait a minute,” Ally started.
Trixie smiled. “I don’t think so.” She took a drag on her cigarette and dropped it to the concrete. Ally, Meg and Tess stared at her as though they had forgotten me altogether. Trixie ground the cigarette out under her foot and took a two-handed grip on her sword. The long silver blade burst into roaring flame. “Come and dance.”
Tess sprang like a leopard, her knives flashing in the air. Trixie sidestepped and brought her burning blade up and around almost too fast to follow, leaving a glowing afterimage of fire in the air behind it. Tess howled and spun away, both her knives gone and smouldering blackened cuts across her arms and eyes. Meg charged in after her as Ally cracked her whip savagely at Trixie’s face.
Trixie’s sword struck again and sliced cleanly through Ally’s whip. Meg was in midair by then with a flying kick hurtling towards Trixie’s head. Somehow Trixie twisted away at the last instant, the movement so lithe and graceful she appeared almost boneless. She spun her sword into a reverse grip and drove the point between Meg’s shoulderblades.
Meg howled like a banshee and disintegrated. Her whole body crumbled to charred and broken pieces as Trixie’s burning blade exploded out of her chest. Trixie turned on one heel and brought the sword back up into a guard position in front of her, her eyes flashing arctic blue in the gloom. Tess was crawling helplessly on her hands and knees, burned and blinded.
Ally stood with her hands on her hips and faced Trixie down. She had discarded the end of the severed whip, but there was no hint of fear on her face. I had a nasty feeling that she was by far the most dangerous of the three.
I really do need to be more careful who I go out with in future, I thought.
“I never liked you,” Ally said. “You do know that, don’t you?”
Trixie snorted laughter. “You’re not supposed to like me, dear. This is what I’m for.”
“Fuck what you’re for,” Ally snapped. “I’m not having it. He’s ours.”
She held her hands up in front of her face, and those long red nails that I was so intimately acquainted with began to grow. Ally grinned. Her nails extended, the nail varnish sloughing off as they became steel claws a good two feet long. It was uncomfortably reminiscent of the talonwraith, but so much worse. I had been to bed with her, after all.
“You’re not the only one who can play with swords,” Ally said as she slashed the air in front of her.
“Oh, I don’t play,” Trixie said.
She hadn’t moved a muscle, I realized. Her flaming blade was still held perfectly upright in both hands in front of her, making her look like some medieval illumination of a knight of the Round Table or something. Now I know absolutely fuck all about sword fighting, but I’ve seen bare-knuckle prizefights. The blokes who jump around and punch the air and beat their chests are all well and good, but it’s the coldeyed bugger who just stands there and waits to kill the other one that you want to bet on. Trixie was like that, right then.
Ally dropped into a crouch and started to circle, snarling as she whipped her claws back and forth through the air. Trixie held her sword steady, just moving her feet when she had to in order to keep Ally in front of her. I hardly dared breathe.
“You deluded bitch,” Ally spat. “Do you really think you can make good now?”
Trixie ignored her. Her sword didn’t move.
“It’s too late by far,” Ally snarled.
She struck high with her right hand, claws slicing towards Trixie’s head. Trixie turned her wrists and her sword knocked Ally’s talons away, the hilt moving maybe three inches in total from its position in front of her sternum. Ally hissed and took a step backwards, and I realized I had the privilege of watching a master swordswoman at work.
“Be quiet,” Trixie said.
“I won’t,” Ally said. “Why the fuck should I?”
Trixie said nothing, tracking Ally with her cold blue eyes.
“You’re pathetic, you know that?” Ally went on. “Ridiculous. You’re not fooling anyone except yourself and maybe this idiot here, and I’m not even sure about him.”
Still Trixie didn’t speak, but I could see a hard line of irritation along her jaw. Something caught my eye, moving. I glanced quickly sideways and saw Tess crawling towards one of her knives.
“Tess is still alive!” I yelled.
Trixie’s attention flickered for a split second, and Ally sprang at her with both hands extended. The flaming sword cut high then low as Trixie stepped back and pivoted on her right heel, slashing through the claws then turning into Ally’s leap and sweeping the blade across her exposed side in a long downwards cut. Ally screamed and rolled, slamming into the side of the van, her torso opened and on fire. Trixie kept moving, her other foot stepping out behind her, turning the move into a graceful figure of eight with her sword now extended at waist height. It took Tess in the side of the neck as she was rising with her knife in hand. Her head spun away into the darkness, trailing char and ashes. Trixie came back to her guard position with her blazing sword held upright before her, facing Ally once more. The whole sequence of movement had taken perhaps half a second.
“Fucking hell!” I gasped.
“Shhhhh now,” Trixie said.
I watched in horror as Ally slowly got up. The whole left side of her body was sliced open, but instead of blood, slow drops of molten gold flame dripped from the hideous wound. The claws on her left hand had been sheared off by Trixie’s burning sword, leaving twisted stumps of semi-molten metal. She raised the blades of her right hand in front of her face in a form of salute, and bowed from the waist.
“Next time, bitch,” she said.
Chapter Ten
I have no idea what happened after that.
The next thing I knew I was waking up in my own bed, somehow still alive. My wounds had closed and my bruises healed, and from what I could see of myself when I peeked under the sheets, I had no more than some faint white scars to show for any of it. If the Burned Man had healed me that thoroughly I’d have been pretty much in a coma, I knew, but I felt fine. Well, I say that but fine might be stretching it a bit. I was shitscared for one thing, and my head was again full of more questions than answers. Who the hell Ally and her sadistic sisters really were, for one thing. And then there was Trixie. The whole question of Trixie was another thing altogether.
I have to confess, I had pretty much already admitted defeat when I called her. I hadn’t been remotely sure that she would come at all, or whether she would even be on my side if she did. As it turned out she had been, but I was left with even more questions about who and what the hell she was. Magic knights with burning swords don’t cross your path every day, after all, and that was without all her other various weird quirks.
“Well that was fun,” I muttered as I dragged myself out of bed.
According to my bedside alarm it was ten o’clock in the morning. I made myself take a shower, then slipped on a dressing gown and went to speak to the Burned Man.
It listened quietly while I told it the story, I suppose I have to give it that much credit. It waited until I’d finished until it started to all but cry with laughter.
“Ally, Meg and Tess? Are you fucking kidding me?” it snorted. “Just how stupid are you?”
I sighed. I knew that look it had on its face, like I was some schoolboy who was the only one in the class who hadn’t read the homework before the test.
“Enlighten me,” I said through gritted teeth.
“I believe it was Virgil who first recorded their names,” it said. “Aleto the Unresting, Megaera the Jealous and Tisiphone the Avenger. The three Furies. Ally, Meg and Tess. Ring any bells, you thick twat?”
I stared at it. The Furies? Seriously?
“You’re having me on,” I said.
It shrugged. “It’s no skin off my cock if you believe me or not,” it said. “Can you perhaps think of anything you might have don
e recently to bring the Furies down on you?”
I saw his face again, and grimaced. That little boy. That poor child.
“Shit,” I said.
“Shit, you say,” said the Burned Man, “but that’s not the half of it, is it?”
“Isn’t it?”
“At least the Furies won’t kill you,” it said. “They never do. Oh sure, they’ll torment you relentlessly and persecute you until they drive you to madness and suicide, but they never actually kill a victim themselves.”
“That’s a huge fucking consolation,” I said.
“Well cling to it then, and look at what you could have won,” the Burned Man said, “because you’ve probably made it a shitload worse now, haven’t you?”
“Have I?”
“You un-bound Blondie,” it said. “You begged her for help, and what’s even worse than that is she actually came and helped you. And we still don’t even know what the fuck she is!”
“She saved me from those three bitches,” I said. “That’ll do for me.”
“Oh will it now?” the Burned Man scoffed. “You don’t think there’s even the tiniest chance she might want something in return?”
“Oh,” I said. I coughed. “I, um, I suppose she might. What, though?”
“How the fuck do I know?” it snapped at me. “But listen, she comes to you out of the blue for no apparent reason, she sees me but doesn’t run a mile, she puts up with being banished, accepts being un-banished again when you feel like it because you need her help, she turns out to be hard enough to get rid of the Furies for you and then heals you of a kicking that I’d have had to put you under for a week to sort out… Whatever she wants, it’s not going to be to borrow a fucking fiver is it, you understand me?”
I groaned, and put my head in my hands. “I was desperate,” I said. “I wasn’t thinking straight. I mean, seriously, what the hell else could I have done?”
“Been a man?” it suggested. “Put up with it? Had enough of a fucking clue to realize who they were, and enough education to know that they weren’t going to kill you? I’ve invested a lot of time in you, Drake, and right now I’m seriously starting to wonder why.”
