by Sue Tingey
I saw a flash of white feathers as Jamie swooped down, disappearing into the smoke behind him, and as the two angels dragged me back, a plume of flame shot up out of the centre of the volcano to screams from the people about us.
‘No!’ As I started to fight the two angels, crying, ‘Jamie! Jinx!’ the creature within my head threw back her head and shrieked in pain and sorrow.
The sky that had been so blue turned purple then black as dark clouds raced across the sky, and it began to rain: big, fat, unnatural drops of rain like the tears I wished I could cry. Within seconds my hair was plastered to my face, but I continued to stare at the crater, hoping they would come out, but they were gone: I knew they were gone. And if Jinx was gone, Kayla was gone too. And now I began to sob: the dry, tearless sobs of a daemon, and then above the roar of the storm I heard rotor blades …
The pilot was having trouble controlling the helicopter; I could see it bucking and rolling as it was buffeted by the storm. My eyes narrowed and my inner daemon flexed her muscles. It had turned as black as night and I could barely see for the clouds of smoke being thrown up from the crater, but I could still hear.
I felt a pressure building up inside my head, then a gust of wind cleared the mist for a split-second and I could see the helicopter. It was directly in front of us.
I smiled.
‘Don’t do it,’ Peter warned. ‘If you kill a human—’
I peered through the mist until another gust cleared it away and I could see Persephone’s eyes were wide and panicked: she understood that her immortality was about to be wrenched from her grasp. Amaliel sat rigid beside her, but it was the man flying the craft, doing a heroic job of keeping it aloft, that I was interested in. Could I snuff out his life?
Of course I could!
—and then he looked up from his instrument panel. Joseph was flying the machine.
The fight drained out of me. I couldn’t kill Joseph; he might not be one of the good guys, but he had helped me escape. And if I hadn’t been there to greet Jinx, maybe he wouldn’t have been able to stop himself from doing Persephone’s bidding.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. As the rain began to ease I opened them again to see the sky was beginning to clear and the helicopter was disappearing from view.
Twenty-Three
Peter and Charles reverted to men in black suits, rather incongruous for a mountainside, but I don’t think they were thinking straight either. Peter walked me down the slope, a bit away from the gathering crowd, and we found Kerfuffle making his way up. Charles drew him to one side and after some murmuring my little daemon guard came and sat down on the grass next to me and patted my hand. He didn’t say a word, and I didn’t want him to. He was there and he cared. That was enough.
I wanted to search for Psycho Bitch and Amaliel, but Pasqual, my least favourite angel – who noticeably turned up after all the hard work had been done – made it clear that I should let the professionals deal with them, not that they’d done such a good job so far, always turning up when the trouble was over.
Pasqual was an arrogant dick, and so full of himself that even in my distressed state I wanted to punch him. As I watched him strutting around giving orders, telling his troops how they were going to deal with ‘the situation’ I got more and more upset, and Kerfuffle was so bristling with rage I thought he was going to leap up off the grass and throttle the little prick.
‘Let me get you away from all this, Mistress,’ he said, just as I was in real danger of either breaking down or blowing a gasket, but I shook my head. I needed to know what they were doing about finding Amaliel and Persephone.
As grief washed over me in waves, it was followed by darker, baser feelings: I really wanted to hurt someone, but as satisfying as it would have been to punch Pasqual in the face, I knew it wasn’t him I really wanted to hurt.
In my head I kept seeing Persephone stroking Jinx’s hair, touching his face. I saw him shivering at her touch – and I saw him snogging her face off. I saw him … I saw him launching himself into the volcano, and my angel following.
Why weren’t the Guardians searching for Amaliel and Persephone?
I couldn’t bear the inactivity; I had to do something, anything. ‘Kerfuffle, I need to go,’ I whispered. ‘There’s something I need to do and I’m quite sure they’ll try and stop me.’
He looked up at me, his expression understanding. ‘Maybe it’s something I should also be stopping you from doing.’
‘I need to do this, Kerfuffle. I have to …’
He patted my hand. ‘I know.’ He scrambled to his feet. ‘I’ll get you a head-start, but I can’t let you risk your life, so I’ll be right behind you.’
‘Thank you,’ I started, but he was already stomping up the slope to where Pasqual was still giving it large. As soon as Kerfuffle reached the top I jumped to my feet and began to stride towards the car park. I heard raised voices, and couldn’t resist peeking back, only to see Kerfuffle swinging a punch at Pasqual. I began to run.
When I reached the car park I slowed to a walk. It was busier now, with laughing, chattering tourists milling about everywhere. Small groups of people were talking in hushed tones, and more than once I caught the words Diavolo and Angeli as I passed – they must have seen everything …
The battered little red car was right where I left it, and as I strode towards it, the tourists quickly moved out of my way, several crossing themselves. Being a strange colour was probably enough to make most nervous, but I imagined my expression was pretty dark, too. Jamie had always said my face was an open book.
My drive down Vesuvius passed in a blur. All I could see was Jinx and Jamie disappearing into a pool of smoke, which made me think of the three of us at play in the lake, with Pyrites warming the water and turning it into steamy clouds – and my already broken heart was in danger of shattering.
I focused on turning my sadness into anger; until I had my revenge I would not grieve.
Never had I driven so fast or so recklessly. Amaliel and Persephone might have risked returning to the villa but they wouldn’t be there for long, and I couldn’t lose them now. I dumped the car where I’d found it and set off running along the dusty lane. This time there was no thought of sitting to enjoy the aroma of the orange blossom or to admire the beautiful flowers in the walled garden. I was on a mission.
When I reached the back door it was slightly ajar. I pressed myself against the wall and edged close, and I heard the drag of a boot against marble, then I caught a whiff of something familiar and deeply unpleasant. I shuddered: it was the odour of the creature – the same smell that had been in Philip’s apartment.
‘Do hurry up,’ I heard Amaliel say. ‘We haven’t got all day.’
I peered inside just in time to see a robed figure disappear down the stairs to the cellar. As I pushed the door open and slipped inside I was tempted to follow Amaliel, knowing I’d probably find Vaybian down there, but as I reached the stairs I heard a tinkling laugh from further along the corridor. Persephone.
I didn’t hesitate. I was going to kill that bitch if it was the last thing I ever did. I ran down the hall and pushed the door open. Persephone was seated on a long couch while Joseph stood across the room, leaning against the mantelpiece of a huge marble fireplace. If they were surprised to see me, they didn’t show it – but I felt as if all the breath had been knocked out of me.
Jinx was on one knee, his head bowed as she petted his hair with long pale fingers tipped with glossy blood-red nails. Jamie was standing opposite me, his usually immaculate snow-white feathers dishevelled and blackened with soot. Four of Persephone’s goons were crowded around him with guns drawn; one had the muzzle pressed to Jamie’s right temple, another to the back of his head.
‘How nice of you to join us,’ Persephone said, and Joseph laughed.
I couldn’t quite get my head around the scene – I’d been so certain they were dead. I’d seen them die.
Jamie eyes met mine. ‘Save your
self,’ he mouthed.
My eyes returned to Jinx; I’d thought he was free of her – how wrong could I have been? She ran her fingers through his hair and touched his face, and he rubbed against her like a cat.
Something inside me froze, and I felt worse than when I’d thought he was dead.
‘Now, what should we do with you two?’ Persephone said, smiling from me to Jamie and back again. Evil, conniving bitch. My feelings were obviously written all over my face, for she began to laugh. ‘Poor little Lucky. How long will it take you to understand that I am the one with the power? I am the one who owns his soul?’
She caressed his head and he kissed her fingers. ‘Now, Guardian, you have a choice: you can join me willingly or I can let Daddy dearest play with you for a while before I make you mine by force. To be quite truthful, I think you will be the easier nut to crack. Your inherent goodness makes you weak.’ She fondled Jinx’s hair some more. ‘The Deathbringer has the shadows of death staining his soul – that made him a real challenge, but you can see I managed it anyway. Why put yourself through all that?’
‘I would rather die,’ Jamie said.
She gave him a bitchy smile. ‘There is always that option, of course, but it would be such a waste’ – she turned to glare at me – ‘but then again, maybe not, when Daddy has been so looking forward to getting his hands on your Guardian. It will give him such pleasure to make you watch as he takes him apart piece by piece, extremity by extremity.’
‘You are vile,’ I spat at her.
She laughed that tinkling laugh of hers. ‘Actually, as it happens, I have a better idea.’ She paused, tapping her finger against hers lips, then nodded towards Jamie. ‘Take him downstairs. Daddy can start getting him ready for me.’
‘You can try,’ Jamie said, flexing his muscles, and two more guns swung upwards to point at his head.
‘What good will you be to her or me with your brains splattered all over my very expensive carpet?’ She strode over to me, grabbed hold of my arm and pulled me to the sofa, then rested a hand on Jinx’s head. The nails of her other hand bit into my upper arm.
‘Now, Jinx my dear, I want you to show everyone what a good little boy you are.’ She smiled as Jinx climbed to his feet. ‘Kill her.’
Jamie went to step towards me, but the butt of a gun hit him on the temple and another smacked him across the back of the head. ‘Down on your knees,’ one of the goons said.
‘Jinx,’ Jamie said, ‘don’t do it. Fight her – fight her.’
Jinx stared at him for a moment, his expression unmoved, then his eyes returned to Persephone. ‘You ordered that I turn the river to blood, and I did. You ordered that I bring down a plague of locusts, and I did. You ordered me to cause molten rock to spew forth from this world’s core—’
‘And you failed me,’ she whispered. ‘Don’t fail me again, because if you do I will have to think up a special punishment for you.’ Reaching up, she caressed his cheek. ‘And you wouldn’t like that.’
‘Omnes dormieris,’ he whispered.
‘What?’ she asked.
My heart jumped for joy: he was my Jinx. She’d thought she was so clever, but she had played straight into his hands. She’d been touching him and holding onto my arm when he’d uttered his words of magic and now everyone in the room except us was frozen in time and Jinx had her right where he wanted her. He smiled his dangerous smile as he grabbed hold of the wrist of the hand that was touching his face.
‘What do you think you’re doing?’ she asked, letting go of me to try and prise his fingers from her arm. ‘Joseph—! Bruno—!’
‘There will be no help to be had from those quarters,’ he said, gesturing to the men surrounding my angel, all frozen in a bizarre tableau.
‘Let go of me now, or I’ll make you really sorry.’
‘Once, not so very long ago, you ordered me to make her rot,’ Jinx said.
My mouth went dry. Was he mine after all? The expression on his face scared me; that look usually preceded violence.
‘Yes, I did, my darling. Will you do it for me? Will you do it for me now?’
‘Did you know that when someone calls upon a daemon and orders him to take a life, the life of he who calls becomes forfeit if the order cannot be fulfilled?’
‘Then fulfil it, Jinx! There she stands. Kill her – take her life.’
Jinx very slowly shook his head, ‘I cannot.’
‘Why ever not?’ she said, pouting at him.
‘By taking her life I would be destroying two others whose lives you did not bid me to destroy; therefore, I am unable to fulfil your demand.’ He grabbed her other arm and stared down at her. ‘You ordered me make her rot, and rot you shall, in her stead,’ he said.
Her expression went from angry to confused to scared in the blink of an eye.
‘Let go of me, let go of me now!’ she cried, then she looked down at the wrist he was holding and began to scream.
I almost joined her. From beneath his fingers black lines were tracing their way up her arm, leaving behind flesh that was fast mottling and blackening. The air shimmered around her, and she finally dropped her human guise.
She took after our mother more than she did Amaliel: like Kayla, snakes wove in and out of her hair, which was an aubergine colour, similar to mine. Her eyes were so dark they looked black, and the skin that had not yet began to putrefy was a shimmering lilac. But as soon as the tendrils of black reached her neck, they blossomed like ink dropped into a bowl of water. Her body was rotting before my eyes – and still she screamed.
The blackness was creeping up her face when she finally gave one enormous wrench and staggered away – then her screams turned into high-pitched shrieks for her arm remained in Jinx’s grasp, leaking gore onto her expensive carpet.
She staggered around the room looking for help where there was none. Then her eyes alighted on me and she tottered towards me, her remaining arm outstretched as though imploring me – but her expression said something entirely different and I was in no doubt that if she could reach me, she would try to kill me, even as she breathed her last.
I backed away. The flesh was already beginning to rot from her fingers, ivory bone peeking through the tips. Her lips had cracked and receded, exposing pointed teeth and white jawbone. Her cheeks sank in and the skin across her cheekbones split as her shrieks became gurgling sobs. Black tar oozed from her mouth and down her chin.
Her snakes fell limp, withered and dropped from her head, along with her lank hair, leaving a fast-mouldering scalp that was little more than dry flaps of skin attached to a yellowing skull. And just when I didn’t think it could get any worse, one of her eyes flopped out onto her cheek and ran like a glutinous tear down what was left of her face.
With a bestial wail her legs gave way beneath her and she fell down onto her knees and remaining hand – but even so, she carried on trying to reach me, dragging herself across the floor in a lopsided crawl. It was horrifying to see, but even as I edged away I was unable to tear my eyes from her, watching her decomposition in terrible, fascinated horror.
Finally her bones could support her no more and she fell flat onto her face, what was left of her body collapsing in on itself. Then with a cry that was more of a sigh, she was gone – but it still wasn’t the end: her yellowing bones grew darker until they were a dirty brown and began to crack and split. The back of her skull caved in, and within moments her bones had disintegrated to dust.
All that was left of Persephone was a dress and some discarded jewellery amongst ash.
I turned away, struggling to get my stomach under control. Waves of relief, followed by nausea swept through me: it was done. She was gone. And although I’d loathed her and wanted her dead, this was a far worse fate than I would have wished upon anybody.
‘It is what she wanted for you,’ Jinx said, as though reading my mind. ‘Do not for one moment think that she didn’t get what she deserved.’
He stretched out his hand to me and I stared
at it for a moment, then took it and let him pull me into his arms.
‘I thought you were dead,’ I whispered against his chest.
I felt his lips on the back of my head. ‘I’m sorry, but we hoped if we struck out against Amaliel and Persephone before anyone realised we were alive we’d have more chance of success. Of course we should have realised you’d come here—’
‘You planned this?’
‘We improvised.’
‘Hadn’t you better bring Jamie back?’ I said, glancing across at my other lover, who was frozen, still surrounded by Persephone’s four henchmen and Joseph.
Jinx smiled down at me, the corners of his eyes crinkling. ‘I suppose so, though a little more time to ourselves would be nice. But we have yet to find Amaliel.’
‘I’d almost forgotten about him,’ I said.
‘Well, I have not.’ And from the rapid change of his expression, I had a feeling that when Jinx got his hands on Amaliel, Persephone would look like she had got off lightly.
Jinx gave me a swift peck on the lips and released me to stride over to Jamie. He pressed a fingertip against Jamie’s forehead and my angel’s eyes fluttered and he looked around him, a frown clouding his face.
‘What in the name of—?’
‘There was a chance you were going to get yourself shot, so I had to slow things down a bit,’ Jinx said.
‘Persephone?’
Jamie followed Jinx’s eyes as he looked at the pile of clothes and ash on the floor. He took in the sight for a moment, then he nodded once and moved on. ‘Where’s Amaliel?’
‘Downstairs,’ Jinx said. ‘I think we should take care of him now; Persephone didn’t have a quiet death.’
‘What about Joseph and the others?’ I asked.
‘I should kill him,’ Jinx said, pointing at Joseph.
‘No,’ I said, laying my hand on his arm. ‘If it hadn’t been for Joseph, I wouldn’t have got to Vesuvius in time to stop you.’
‘Then I shall leave them,’ Jinx said, and headed for the door. ‘They’ll awake in an hour or so. For now, I suggest we hurry.’
