Bound

by Sue Tingey

  I thought my lungs were likely to burst as Jinx finally struck upwards. It was darker here, and I realised he’d brought us up under the bridge, where we couldn’t be seen from above, a good way from the northern bank.

  I could still hear the cries of birds above us, and the whomp, whomp, whomp of helicopter blades – they must have come around to find us. I wondered if Vaybian and Pyrites had seen us drop into the river through the mass of birds; I just had to hope they’d got safely off the bridge and let Shenanigans know what had happened.

  Jinx didn’t let go of me until we reached one of the walls supporting the bridge, and we hung there, treading water and gasping for breath.

  ‘We wait,’ he said.

  ‘Here?’

  ‘If you want to live. They want to kill you—’ He stopped. Grimacing, he raised his hand to his temple. I made a grab for him, but he began to struggle, trying to escape the pain.

  ‘Jinx, let me help you,’ I said, but he thrashed away from me and cried out, then disappeared beneath the surface.

  I began to panic: he’d been right next to me – and now he was gone? ‘Jinx!’ I upended myself and dived down, searching for him, but in the red soup shadowed by the bridge I couldn’t see a thing. I bobbed to the surface and took a couple of breaths, then dived deeper, but I still couldn’t see him. I screamed his name under the water, and then thrashed to the surface, where I coughed and spluttered, trying to spit out the vile liquid, even as I looked around, hoping against hope I would see him bob to the surface. It couldn’t end like this; it just couldn’t.

  When I’d got my breath back I dived back down, letting my weight take me deeper, fighting against my own natural buoyancy to force myself downwards to the river bottom – but there was nothing. My panic was fast turning to despair: he was gone. He could have been hanging there a foot away and I couldn’t have seen him. He might have taken that last breath, sucking in water until his lungs were full, and even now be sinking into a blood-infused watery grave …

  I stopped swimming and hung there for one last moment before I started to slowly float back up, admitting to myself that I really had lost him.

  Then out of the corner of my eye I saw something dark – I needed air, but if I went up to breathe, I might never find that shadowy outline again. I started to swim towards it, and spotted a maroon hand – I propelled myself forward and grabbed hold of it, then made for the surface, pulling him along behind me.

  We were still under the bridge, but we’d drifted a good few yards from the concrete supports; I thanked our lucky stars that neither of us had been caught in the Thames’ dangerous currents. I pulled Jinx onto his back. His eyes were closed and his skin had a slightly purplish hue. He looked …

  No, he was the Deathbringer, he didn’t die. He couldn’t die.

  I needed to do CPR – but I needed a solid surface beneath us. So if I couldn’t do chest compressions, at least I could force air into his lungs. Treading water, keeping us afloat, I opened his mouth, pressed my lips against his and breathed out, once, twice, three times, then so many I lost count. I spread my hand over his chest and the ring on my finger flared. The creature inside my head cried out, and I almost broke down.

  The ring flaring must mean something – but it didn’t matter, not now. All that mattered was that Jinx—

  ‘Don’t leave me,’ I whispered, and pressed my lips against his one more time, forcing as much of me into him as I could.

  It didn’t work.

  I stroked the cheek that still bore the scratch marks where I’d raked it with my fingernails, and the human part of me began to cry. I felt like letting myself sink down into the river’s murky embrace – but no, I had to be strong. Amaliel still had Kayla, and I had to find a way of getting her back, and my mother too.

  I cupped Jinx’s chin with my hand and on my back, dragging him with me, began to swim to shore.

  I kept close to the bridge, not that it mattered any more, and when I got to the final support I took a breather, clinging to it while I studied the bank. I kept one hand under Jinx’s head to keep it above water, but I guess that didn’t matter much either.

  I spotted a flight of steps on the left; I’d make for that. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply, suddenly feeling bone-weary, like all my energy had been leeched from within me. I felt myself change back to human.

  I put my hand under Jinx’s chin once again, lay back into the water and pulled his head up so it rested on my chest, preparing for that last lap—

  —and icy fingers grasped my wrist, the shock sending me floundering. In a frenzy of bubbles I sank beneath the surface before managing to right myself and get my head above water. I gasped for air as I swiped sodden hair from my eyes. My right wrist was still encircled in an iron grip.

  ‘You,’ he said, as if surprised to see me. ‘You.’

  ‘Yes, it’s me.’ And I started crying, and this time I couldn’t do anything to stop the tears.

  Jinx let go of my wrist to run his fingers down my cheek. ‘Don’t cry,’ he said. ‘Please don’t cry.’

  ‘I thought you were dead—’

  His lips curled into a smile. ‘And now so do they.’

  I stared at him for a moment trying to take it in. ‘What?’

  He cupped his hand to his ear and looked up, as if telling me to listen, and when I twisted my head and stared up at the bridge above us I realised I could no longer hear the sound of rotor blades, or the cawing of a thousand birds.

  ‘Persephone thinks you’re dead?’

  ‘She does.’

  ‘But the Deathbringer can’t die—’

  ‘Yet you thought I was dead.’

  ‘You were pretending?’

  ‘I was disconnecting myself.’

  ‘You can do that?’ I wasn’t sure whether to punch him or kiss him.

  ‘It would appear so. I didn’t know until it came to it, or I would have done it earlier.’ He looked at the riverbank. ‘Come on,’ he said and began to swim for shore, keeping under the bridge for as long as he could.

  ‘We need to get out of these clothes,’ I said as we climbed up onto the Embankment. ‘Apart from being wet, they stink.’

  ‘The least of our problems I’m sure.’

  ‘Jinx,’ I said suddenly, ‘do you remember me? Do you remember who you are?’

  He took my hand when we reached the top of the steps. We were on a long walkway – if it hadn’t been for the locusts, it would doubtless have been crowded with people going about their daily business. Lucky for us it wasn’t, but I doubted this would last for long; now the bugs had gone Heaven knew where, the people would quickly return – tourist or local, I was betting everyone would want to take a look at the Thames the colour of blood. Even if it did smell pretty vile.

  ‘I have been here before,’ Jinx said, looking around and totally ignoring my question. ‘I can feel it – although I recognise none of this.’

  ‘When you were last in London this bridge wasn’t here. The old bridge was about a hundred feet upstream and probably quite different. I think it’s changed a couple of times since the Great Fire.’

  As we started to walk along the Embankment I thought we must have looked a very odd pair to anyone who might be looking out of their windows. We were soaking wet, our clothes stained red with blood, and the man gripping onto my hand so tightly was bare-chested and maroon, with long black hair and rather cute little dark maroon horns peeping out just above his hairline. It was a shame he’d lost his coat; it had at least made his strange body colour not quite so obvious. Then of course there was his tail.

  As we passed a block of offices I looked up and as quickly looked away again, keeping my head down. As I thought, the windows were quickly filling with people pointing their mobiles at us: within thirty seconds images of Jinx and me would be going viral. The wicked part of me was tempted to change into my daemon self – that would really give them something to chew on – but one of us looking like a comic-book character was quite eno
ugh.

  I rummaged in the pocket of my jacket for the mobile Kerfuffle had given me. I wasn’t holding out much hope that it’d be working after its soaking, but thought I should give it a try. Sadly, it was completely dead – I doubted even a techie genius would be able to get the thing working again. I stuffed it back in my pocket; maybe it was covered by my credit card insurance.

  Then I wondered what on earth I was thinking.

  ‘We really should get away from here,’ I told Jinx, and the words were hardly out of my mouth before I heard sirens in the distance and the thumping of rotor blades. ‘Come on.’ I tugged on his hand, drew him down a side road and started to run.

  ‘Where are we going?’

  ‘Anywhere but here.’

  ‘But why?’

  ‘Because we don’t want to get ourselves arrested.’

  ‘We have done nothing wrong.’

  ‘I’m not sure about the legality of bringing down plagues of locusts and ravens upon London, but I’m sure there must be some sort of bylaw – and as for polluting the River Thames with blood’ – I blew out through pursed lips – ‘they’ll probably throw away the key.’

  I know sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, but I was at a very low ebb.

  He frowned at me, obviously thinking the same. ‘The blood is dispersing.’

  ‘I thought it might be.’

  ‘The locusts have gone.’

  ‘Somewhere.’

  ‘And the ravens have returned to the skies.’

  ‘Whose side are they on, yours or Persephone’s?’

  ‘The ravens are mine – crows, not so much; they are the lesser bird.’

  I dragged him along the road by the hand as the sound of sirens got louder and the helicopter drew closer. I hoped it wasn’t Persephone, back for another go – although I supposed we could hitch a ride until we were out of trouble with the police.

  We were coming up to a junction when a police car swerved around the corner with a squeal of tyres and slithered to a standstill, shortly followed by two more.

  ‘Shit!’ I skidded to a stop and glanced back over my shoulder to see two motorcycles with blue lights flashing appearing at the end of the road, blocking the other exit.

  Policemen jumped out of the cars ahead and one shouted, ‘Stop right where you are!’ His electronic megaphone made him sound like a Dalek. ‘Hands on your head and on your knees!’

  ‘I kneel for no man,’ Jinx said, going all haughty.

  ‘I think we might have to,’ I said.

  ‘This is your final warning: put your hands on your heads and give yourselves up.’

  ‘If you have some kind of trick up your sleeve to get us out of this mess, now would be a good time,’ I said.

  He gave me a puzzled look. ‘I am wearing no sleeves.’

  ‘Jinx,’ I said, before we had a repeat of last time, ‘we need to get out of here without getting shot or arrested.’

  He raised my hand to his lips. ‘Your wish is my command, my lady.’

  Still holding my hand he took a step forward, threw back his head and with his free arm outstretched, he cried, ‘Omnes dormieris!’ His voice echoed through the street and then there was silence all around us. I could still hear the sounds of the city up ahead, but not a thing stirred in the immediate vicinity.

  Policemen locked in time crouched behind cars or stood mid-step, rifles in hands. The motorcycle cops had frozen mid-dismount. I looked up at the windows of the buildings above us; the onlookers were the same, standing motionless, some with mobile phones glued to their ears, some pointing them down at us, no doubt videoing the excitement going on below to Tweet or post to YouTube, Instagram and Facebook.

  Jinx gave me a self-satisfied smile. ‘Good enough, milady?’

  ‘Great! At least you’ve remembered something useful,’ I said, tugging on his hand. ‘Come on, let’s go before they wake up.’

  We ran past the police cars, around the corner and onto the main road. Cars were driving by and pedestrians were beginning to venture out, but as soon as they saw us coming they darted back inside shops or offices to get out of our way. I caught a glimpse of our reflections and I could see why: Jinx, with his long hair plastered to his head, looked like some very horrible demon from an old Japanese painting, and even my human self looked as scary as hell covered in drying bloody water.

  ‘Jinx, could you at least try to look human?’

  ‘You think it would help?’

  I took another quick glance at myself in a window. ‘Probably not,’ I admitted with a sigh.

  At this rate everyone within sight would be ringing 999 before we’d even moved a hundred yards – and sure enough, I soon heard the high-pitched scream of more sirens heading our way.

  ‘Come on,’ I said, dragging him into the next doorway. I pushed open the heavy glass door and the woman behind the reception desk glanced up with a welcoming smile – which immediately turned to a grimace of horror as she grabbed for the phone.

  ‘Jinx,’ I hissed, ‘do something.’

  ‘Omnes dormieris,’ he said, and the woman froze.

  ‘Will everyone in this building be out for the count?’

  ‘Probably; certainly this floor and the next.’

  ‘We need to find the bathrooms.’

  ‘You intend to take a bath?’

  ‘No, I intend to wash some of this crud out of my hair and off my face, and if we can find a coat for you to wear, that would be good too.’

  ‘This is your plan?’

  ‘It’s the best I can do for the moment, but if you have any better ideas please feel free to share them,’ I snapped.

  He gave me another of his puzzled looks. ‘Are you for some reason vexed with me?’

  I rubbed the bridge of my nose between forefinger and thumb. ‘It’s not you; I’m pretty much angry with everyone at the moment.’

  I took him through a door which opened onto a stairwell going up and down. I doubted there’d be much for us in the basement, but upstairs there would be a loo somewhere, and maybe even a cloakroom; we really needed to nick a couple of coats.

  Some god or other must have been smiling on us for once. We found the bathrooms, and this turned out to be a particularly swanky office, because they included a shower cubicle.

  ‘Right – you get in the shower and I’ll find us some dry clothes,’ I told him.

  I think he was about to argue, then he thought better of it. ‘Will you be joining me?’

  Had it been my Jinx, the old Jinx asking, my stomach would have given a little flip, but his expression was so guileless I assumed he was just asking the question.

  ‘In a mo,’ I said.

  ‘Don’t take too long,’ he said, making me think again, but when I glanced back, he was busy pulling off his boots.

  I hurried out into the hallway and started opening doors and peering into each room. In the last office I got lucky: a young woman with glasses perched on the end of her nose was sitting at a desk, one hand poised over her keyboard, the other grasping a coffee mug. She looked to be about my size – and even better, hanging from the handle of a cupboard behind her were a couple of dry-cleaning bags.

  ‘Sorry,’ I said, snagging the top bag off the door and hoping it wasn’t a favourite outfit.

  I’d really lucked out for once: it was a skirt and jacket; if the lapels weren’t cut too low I might even get away without wearing a shirt underneath.

  I pulled open the other bag and grinned. ‘Well, hello!’ It was a man’s suit, though hopefully not her boss’, otherwise she’d be looking for a new job pretty soon.

  I had a quick look at her shoes to see if they’d fit, but they had six-inch heels and, as I really didn’t fancy breaking my neck, I let her keep them. I was surprised at how felonious I was becoming. Kayla used to call me ‘Little Miss Goody Two Shoes’, but it looked like when the chips were down, I wasn’t quite so good as either of us thought.

  I hurried back to the bathroom and was greeted by hot steam c
oming out from the shower cubicle. I quickly stripped off, rinsed my boots inside and out and propped them upside-down in a sink, then did the same to Jinx’s. I pulled a load of paper towels from the dispenser and put them in a pile just outside the cubicle, ready for when we got out – perhaps not ideal, but better than nothing.

  It didn’t look like Jinx was coming out anytime soon, so I opened the door a crack. For a moment all I could see was steam, but when it cleared a bit he was standing with his back to me, hands pressed against the tiles, the water pounding directly onto his head. The scars across his shoulders and back were fading at last; when I had first touched them they had been puckered ridges and now they were dark pink lines. I wondered if this might mean her power over him was fading too. I hoped so.

  I tentatively reached out and ran my finger across where two lines met and I felt his body go rigid. His head whipped around, his expression softening when he saw it was me. He slowly turned to face me and reached out to touch my face. My breath caught in the back of my throat. Despite his earlier guileless expression I knew exactly what was on his mind – did this mean my Jinx was coming back to me? It was for this reason I couldn’t deny him, I told myself, but it was a lie. I wanted him so badly; I wanted him to be mine again.

  ‘My lady,’ he said, sliding his hand around the back of my neck and drawing me to him.

  His other arm snaked around my waist and his lips pressed against my throat and my chin and then my cheek and when they finally kissed mine I wondered how many times a woman could have that ‘first’ time with the same man.

  Then he lifted me up and everything else that was going on – all the bad stuff – was swept away and all that mattered was the touch of his skin against mine and his lips against my lips and my body sinking onto his. I couldn’t let myself think that this could be the last time. If I did I thought I might just die.

  Nineteen

  Except for the long leather coat, I’d never known Jinx to wear anything other than boots and leather trousers, so seeing him in a dark grey suit was odd. As well as the jacket, there was a pale grey shirt and a navy and grey tie wrapped around the neck of the coathanger.