Boss Fight (Beyond the Aura Book 1)

by Helen Adams

  But, ow.

  The lifts were out again. I eyed them with resentment and thought about kicking the sliding doors, but the only thing that would achieve would be more pain.

  “Another piggyback?” Raz suggested. I shot him a murderous look and we climbed.

  Inside my flat I changed, dumping the damp clothes for fresh. I put a sweater over an Anthrax T-shirt and grubbed around for another pair of jeans. Then I flopped onto the sofa. Napping in the back of the van had done me good, but I was exhausted. And starving. I cooked – eggs, bacon, sausages – while Raz made coffee. Christ, fried food twice in one day! (Technically it was three times, but friends didn’t let friends count calories). The effort of standing was almost enough to wipe me out.

  “We need to talk about Lukas,” Raz said as we ate.

  “No, we don’t.” I wolfed down my eggs, already sensing where he was going.

  “Isn’t Lee coming over this afternoon?” he asked around a bite of bacon. “And you didn’t cancel that appointment with the nurse, did you?”

  “Shit. No.”

  A flood of guilt made the eggs restless in my stomach. Missing an appointment with the nurse was the least of my problems, though if I wasn’t careful people would start poking their noses where they didn’t belong. I wanted to see Lee. But at the same time I didn’t.

  “You need to talk to him –”

  “Since when have you thought it was a good idea to give me dating advice?”

  “Since I became your friend. Daphne, you knew it would happen eventually.”

  “I did not!”

  Lee was the best boyfriend I’d ever had. He was funny, sexy, muscled…

  … and had high-level fighting skills that I’d known nothing about.

  A pit opened up inside. Raz was right – there were too many secrets between us, too many unanswered questions. That night with the bull troll had been an eye-opener for us both.

  This was fucking crazy. Raz had me questioning my own boyfriend.

  I was going to demand answers. If I wasn’t satisfied, that would tell me all I needed to know, and it would be over. I’d be alone. I’d lose that stability – the picture of a normal life – that I’d always wanted. Never mind the fact that I’d always known it was an illusion.

  What’s normal? I wondered. Isn’t ‘normal’ just what you decide it should be? Raz knows more about your past than anyone, and he’ll always be family. If anything, that is a normal relationship, and what you have with Lee is the aberration.

  Raz ducked into the bathroom for a shower. I appreciated that he was giving me the space to have a private conversation – probably followed by an almighty row – without leaving me alone, just in case a pack of trolls decided to rock up to my front door.

  A moment later I head the tinny sound of the bathroom radio, loud enough to drown out talk, not so loud that Raz wouldn’t hear a golem or troll knocking down my door. Lorl and Ques had gone off hunting, leaving me well and truly alone.

  The doorbell rang while I was flicking through a magazine. It was Lee. Who else was I expecting? Mahatma Ghandi?

  “Missed you, babe.” He eased me into a gentle hug and brushed his lips over mine.

  “I missed you, too. Come in.”

  I closed the door behind him, trying to find the words – any words – that would make this easier, but when I turned around he’d cocked an ear. Listening.

  The shower. The radio. He’d known Raz was staying the night, but a casual friend would have gone home by now. Shit.

  “Your shower’s running.”

  His voice was tight and hard. I stepped back from him, wary. A quick ‘hey, how do you feel after getting beaten up?’ would have been nice.

  “Points for observation –”

  “Got another bloke in there?”

  “Jesus, can you hear yourself?”

  My ankles ached, but I didn’t dare sink back on to the sofa. I needed whatever advantages standing brought.

  “So tell me it’s not a man!” he exploded, face twisting with unexpected fury. “Tell me it’s Alice, or one of your stupid friends!”

  “I think you’d better leave,” I bit out. I was angry at him and angry at myself. I should have thought this through, rather than just burying my head in a magazine.

  I turned away, feeling a tight knot of tears build in my throat. Great. Any second now I was going to start crying. I could arm wrestle fully grown trolls, but the minute my heart took a beating the waterworks started. Fantastic.

  “Don’t turn away from me when I’m talking to you!” He grabbed my arm.

  Time moved with peculiar slowness. Everything was happening through a veil; my instincts, already on high alert, kicked in with a vengeance. With a liquid shimmer I’d have been proud of under any other circumstances, I broke Lee’s grip and put some proper space between us.

  Time poured back.

  “What the hell was that?” he demanded.

  “You put a hand on me. No one does that.” Not anymore.

  “Did you think I was going to hurt you?” he snorted, derisive. “When did you get so paranoid?”

  He was hurting me right now. And he hadn’t even hit me.

  “Maybe when I realised that you fight like a soldier.” I sounded calmer than I felt. “Maybe when you lied to my face. I don’t think I’m being paranoid.”

  And just like that, everything crystallised inside me. Raz had been right all along. Lee was a dewdrop; he’d never understand me. How could he comprehend the creatures I fought, the dangers I faced, when he couldn’t see them as they truly were? He was blinded by his own aura. Though it hurt to admit it – to finally admit it – our relationship could never work. I wouldn’t tell him my truths, and neither, it seemed, would he.

  “You wanna talk about fighting like a soldier?” he snarled. “Where’d you get so good with a blade? You could have knifed that guy in the head!”

  “It doesn’t matter.” I shook my head, breathed, and tried not to cry. “This isn’t going to work. We’re not going to work.”

  He stilled. I don’t mean he stopped fidgeting; I mean he froze, absolutely still, not even a hint of movement. His chest barely rose. I knew then that I’d made the right decision. It took training, discipline, years of self-control and conditioning, to maintain that level of stillness. I knew because I’d had to learn. Whatever his secrets, I realised that they were bigger than I’d ever imagined.

  “You want to break up?” he asked.

  “You don’t trust me. I don’t think I trust you anymore, either.”

  That stillness melted away. He tugged his jacket down and straightened the hem.

  “That makes my job easier.”

  “Your – your job?” Had I just heard him right?

  “Shut up and sit down.”

  “Who the hell do you think you are?”

  “Sit down or I put you down,” he growled.

  “You and who’s army?” I glared at him with chin raised, eyes defiant.

  “Army of one, babe.”

  Everything about him had changed now. The look on his face, his stance, even his tone of voice. He was cold and poised. What had happened to the man I’d known?

  I wanted to hit him. He’d changed before my eyes, turned into someone that I didn’t recognise anymore. Was this his real persona? I was naïve to think that I’d ever really known him, stupid to think that I could trust him. Hadn’t prison taught me anything?

  “I could wipe the floor with you,” I spat.

  “You’d try.”

  There was no condescension on his face, no boasting in his voice – he genuinely thought that he could take me on. Well, despite what I’d seen when he’d scrapped with the troll, I knew that I could drop him.

  I still couldn’t quite believe that it had become an option.

  “I know everything there is to know about you. I know what you are. I know why you were in hospital. You never had any idea that I was spying on you, did you?”

 
I shook my head. Bang went my theory that he’d talked to Alice in the library. Bang went my perfect boyfriend, my perfectly constructed lie.

  “And I know the real reason you went to prison. I know you killed your dad. And I know that you’re a berserker. So sit down and listen.”

  I felt as if he’d struck me. Pain radiated across my chest, emanating from my heart, swelling so much that it hurt my ribs.

  My knees unlocked and then I was moving. Falling forward. Only I wasn’t falling, I was leaping; my fist sailed through the air and planted itself square on Lee’s smug, lying jaw.

  He reeled back from the blow, dazed, and I tried to drive my fist into his gut. He recovered fast and twisted away. My punch caught his hipbone.

  “Sit the fuck down or you go back to prison!” he barked.

  “You don’t have that power!”

  I lunged for him again, aiming a chopping sidekick at his knees. He dodged and made a neat grab for my arms. I ducked and wheeled away.

  “One call,” Lee said. “That’s all I have to make. One call and the boys in blue will come roaring up here to arrest you. Then it’s bye, bye freedom.”

  Dark spots danced in front of my eyes. He was lying. He had to be lying. No one would threaten me with that, no one.

  I could call Raz. The two of us would tackle Lee, bring him down, and figure something out.

  But prison…

  He used my distraction to hit me. Pain exploded through my already-bruised face. My legs felt soft, like cheese-sticks, and I collapsed onto the sofa.

  “That’s better.”

  He didn’t sound smug. He wasn’t gloating. In a way, this whole shit storm would have been easier to bear if he had been gloating.

  “How…?” I couldn’t get the words out. They were stuck in my throat, choking me.

  “I am a soldier.” He was all brisk business now; I didn’t know this man. I didn’t know him at all. “Part of Operation Aura, a taskforce set up by a division of the British Army called the Supernatural Investigation Unit. The SIU are studying the substance known as ‘aura’ that shields supernatural entities from full human view.”

  “You’re a dewdrop!” I growled. Pain leapt across my face like an electric shock. I tried to block it out. “You can’t see magic! You can’t see the Mythic Races! So what’s the fucking point?”

  “Mature my aura.” He made it sound as if we were making cheese. So simple, just stick it in a dark room for a couple of months until the damned thing’s ripe.

  “Not possible.”

  “We both know that’s bullshit.”

  I felt sick. I wanted this to end. How could I possibly think when he was standing there? He’d just ripped my life to shreds and put his fist in my face. I could kill him.

  “I can’t do it.” There was a ritual, but it was dangerous, and I wasn’t giving him jack.

  “Did you know that maturing an aura, turning into a berserker or a witch or a druid or whatever, is dependent on your genes?”

  “That’s bullshit.”

  “We’ve done our homework.” He was so smug I could throttle him. “Our test subjects told us a lot without even opening their mouths.”

  “You had test subjects?” I said, revolted and horrified in equal measure. “People?”

  “You can’t make omelettes without breaking eggs. Those experiments told us a lot, except how to make our own supernatural soldiers.” His voice was cold and hard. “That’s what I want from you. The ritual.”

  “You could die. Horribly.” My lips stretched over my teeth in something like a smile. “Maybe I should do the ritual.”

  “I’ve got berserker genes.” But there was something in his eyes… something that he wasn’t telling me. “That’s why I was picked for this mission. I was hoping that one day soon you’d trust me enough to tell me the truth, and then I could persuade you to give me the ritual.”

  My eyes burned, hot and hard. “How about you take that trust and shove it up your–”

  “So I’ll lay it on the line,” he interrupted, voice cracking out like a whip. “Mature my aura and you stay out of prison.”

  “I could just kill you. Right here. Cut your throat and dump your body.”

  I glared at him with sore, hate-filled eyes. As he already knew, it wouldn’t be the first time that I’d killed a human being.

  My father’s death had been an accident. Lee’s wouldn’t.

  “If I fail to check in with my CO you still go to prison.”

  What got me was how he sounded so fucking reasonable, as if he were making an ordinary offer. Imprisonment or servitude, yeah, perfectly normal. Nothing to worry about here.

  “You bastard. You’re bluffing.”

  “Bluff against a berserker?” He shook his head. “Would you bluff a tiger? No. You threaten them. You make sure that they can’t turn around and bite, because if they do their world will end.”

  I covered my face with my hands. This was unreal. It was a nightmare. It couldn’t be true… but here was the proof, standing cool and aloof in front of me. Where had my boyfriend gone? Where had my warm, teasing Lee gone? This wasn’t him. This man was a monster.

  “Perform the ritual,” he said. “I’ll survive. Your freedom is guaranteed. You never see me again.”

  “It’s not as simple as that.” Rage pulsed behind my eyes. “When your aura matures, you attract taufrkyn. Know about them?”

  “They’re real?” He tried to mask the flare of excitement in his eyes, but he wasn’t quick enough. “I’ve heard stories, but I always thought it was just rambling after we…”

  ‘Tortured’. He’d been about to say ‘tortured’

  “They’re real.” My mind was becoming numb. “But your aura’s too weak to see them.”

  The SIU would take the taufrkyn apart. They’d fall over themselves to conduct more experiments. And it wouldn’t stop there. I pictured a beautiful mermaid child strapped to an operating table, masked and gowned men hovering around her with wicked knives. In my mind they cut her, over and over, and she bled. Her blood overflowed the table and pooled on the floor. And all the while she was screaming.

  “There’s another risk,” I said, wracking my brains for something, anything to stall him. “You know about taufrkyn, but do you know about splitters?”

  When auras matured, we became more than ourselves. Different. But if they grew too much – became more than our human brains could handle – our minds broke in two. Split down the middle. We became unstable, knowing that we’d lost something, desperate to get the missing parts back. Splitters always died. Sooner, rather than later.

  “Yeah. That’s how the SIU got started. They were already crazy, already left their lives behind. Nobody noticed when we took them.”

  “You fucking…” Nausea made my head spin. “You make me sick.”

  Never mind my nightmare vision of mermaid children. The SIU were experimenting on people now, hurting people now. Probably killing them. If I helped Lee I’d be a party to that.

  “What’s your decision, Daphne? Prison? Or freedom?”

  I was damned if I did and damned if I didn’t. There was no right choice.

  I can’t go back to prison. I can’t be inside those walls, knowing that I’m trapped, knowing that I’ll never get out…

  I tried to smile. It felt wrong on my face.

  “I’ll do it.”

  “Excellent.” The satisfaction in his voice was unmistakable. It made my skin crawl. “Grab your gear. We’re going now.”

  “Now? Right now?”

  “No time like the present. I don’t want you to renege on our deal.”

  “But Raz…”

  My mentor was still in the shower. What would he think if he came out of the bathroom and found me gone?

  “So it is Raz in your shower! Are you sleeping with him?” He shook his head, holding up a hand to forestall my angry denial. “No, don’t tell me. It doesn’t matter.”

  Doesn’t matter… Fire raged in my chest.
This guy was supposed to care for me. But now all bets were off.

  “Grab your gear.” His voice was flat. Not conversational, not ‘we’re still mates even though I’m a lying bastard’. Maybe Raz being in my shower did matter to him, just a bit.

  I got up and shoved my feet into trainers. This whole situation was a fucking mess. The ache in my ankles had eased, but not vanished, and my face throbbed. My heart hurt. I wanted to cry. I wanted to hurt Lee.

  I picked up my duffel, made sure the Mark Two was tucked into my jacket pocket, and left. k`1`2

  TWELVE

  “Raz taught you the ritual, right?” Lee asked as he drove.

  I ignored him, didn’t even look at him. Raz had taught me the ritual, but I’d been too busy staying alive to give it much thought. I’d had no idea that the survival rate was governed by genes, but the knowledge was something I could pass on… if I stayed out of prison.

  I didn’t want to do this. Lee would be watching me, watching what I did, and he’d want to learn. He’d want me to teach others.

  I saw a long future stretching ahead of me. A long, painful future, where Lee – or men like him – would ask me questions, and blackmail me into answering them. I’d never see him again? Yeah, right.

  I wondered if prison might have been the better choice.

  I needed space. And nature. The best place for both those things in Basingstoke was the Crabtree Plantation, a big place up near the motorway. Rolling fields, dramatic hills and woodland. Perfect.

  We rolled into the gravelled car park. I hoped that Lee would hit a pothole and wreck his car, but no such luck. He parked at the rear, away from the two other vehicles, and we got out.

  I led him across the car park and into the trees. I came up here sometimes to run, and walking this trail in the past had always calmed me; Lorl liked it, too, being close to all that nature. I was glad she wasn’t here now.

  Today the trees were bare, stripped of their summer leaves and standing naked. I felt like them. Stripped of my illusions, I was unclothed and shivering.