The Silver Cage

by Mathilde Madden

  ‘Why?’

  Divinia looked slightly surprised. ‘So we can rise. So wolves can rise. It was written.’

  Alfie rolled his eyes. ‘I’m starting to get awfully tired of things that are written.’

  46

  IRIS LED THE way with Blake behind her. The sun meant Vikram had to stay behind in the SUV. Blake didn’t say much as Iris led him upstairs, which was odd, as Iris would have thought this was a prime position for smart remarks.

  On the first-floor landing he said, ‘So, you reckon Alfie’s still got tenancy of this place.’

  ‘I think he might have. It’s not been a month yet. He might not even have missed a rental payment.’

  ‘Well, that’s good. The last thing we need is for the landlord to have come round here and cleared the place out.

  ‘Yeah,’ said Iris vaguely, ‘we’ve been lucky. Lucky with Tobias’s house too. Imagine if he’d left it to some long-lost child of his and we hadn’t been able to get at any of his stuff.’ She walked halfway down the hall to the narrow doorway which hid the flight of steps leading to the large attic bedroom that had always been Alfie’s.

  Blake followed her. ‘Actually, Iris, there’s kind of something I should tell you about that . . .’

  Iris turned with her hand still on the open door. ‘Yeah?’

  ‘Oh, well, maybe now’s not a good time.’

  Iris shrugged and started up the stairs. And the nostalgia came over her like a wave.

  If the spare bedroom in Dr Tobias’s house had been a trip to way, way back in her past, climbing the stairs to Alfie’s bedroom was like a return to yesterday. To memories still so fresh she could taste them.

  This bed. This room. She’d let Alfie chain her down to this bed. Just to prove she trusted the man with the wolf inside. She’d used his same magical chains to hold him when she made love to him without the magical collar that kept him from changing when he reached orgasm.

  Matthew – her dead brother’s ghost – had been here when she did that. Remembering that, Iris realised that she hadn’t seen her over-friendly ghost for quite a while.

  Of course, the chains were special. Every bit as magical and powerful as the collar they’d treated as sacred. Somehow Alfie seemed to think of them as a lucky find.

  She was frozen at the top of the stairs, unable to think of anything but Alfie’s stubble-surrounded lips on hers.

  Iris?

  At first she thought it was Blake, but then she realised it was Alfie. Alfie in her head. She’d made a connection through the conductor.

  Blake, standing a couple of stairs below her, looked at her quizzically.

  Iris held up her palm to stop him saying anything. ‘I’m connected. I’m connected to Alfie again.’

  Iris just about made out Blake nodding before she closed her eyes. ‘Alfie?’

  Iris, damn, you have no idea what she’s planning. This is going to be bad. Terrible. And I have no idea how I can stop her.

  ‘Alfie, calm down. You need to tell me where you are.’

  You can’t come here, Alfie sort of screamed.

  ‘OK, OK. Just tell me what you know. Leon said something about summoning.’

  Just before moonrise she can use summoning to pull lycans to her. It’s like you saw when I summoned the Beast. It’ll pull the lycans through the air.

  ‘OK,’ Iris said softly.

  And then she’s going to use some kind of potion that she’s made from me. It’ll change them. Make them all close to the skin like me. All conscious when they change. They’ll be an army of monsters under her control.

  Iris swallowed. ‘How – how many?’

  Who knows how many she’ll be able to call. Depends how strong the lines are. Hundreds. Maybe thousands.

  ‘Right. Well. I have a plan to trace you. The collar, the cage and the crowns are all Sacred Silvers. So are the chains you had on your bed. If I get hold of one of the items, I can trace the others, follow the signal they give off and find you. And when I find you – I don’t know – there must be a way to stop it.’

  You can’t kill her. You’d die.

  ‘That’s not important.’

  Iris, no!

  ‘I’ll fix it, Alfie. There has to be a way.’

  God, Iris, I miss you so much. My hand is broken and my cock hurts so much, but I’d still give anything to lie with you right now.

  ‘I know. I know. I’ll be there soon.’

  You won’t, Iris. You can’t find me.

  ‘I can. The Sacred Silvers, the chains. I’m in your bedroom right now. That’s why I think our connection is so strong.’

  The chains? You’re in my bedroom looking for the chains . . .?

  ‘Yes, I . . .’

  And then Iris saw it so clearly. Alfie, sitting on the floor in a sparkling Silver Cage. He was naked and his legs and torso still bore the burn marks from the torments the Silver Crown had subjected him to. And she saw what he was looking at. His left wrist, tangled up and chained to the bars of the cage, by an all-too-familiar metal cuff and chain. She knew even before he said, Iris, the chains are here with me.

  ‘The chains are with Alfie,’ Iris said, opening her eyes, looking across Alfie’s attic room, seeing the bed. There were no chains attached to the legs any more.

  ‘Fuck it!’ said Blake.

  47

  THEY TROOPED BACK down the stairs. ‘It’s like you said,’ Iris said to Blake. ‘Breeding him. She’s going to reverse summoning just before full moon. Draw the wolves to her then she’s going to use a potion that I’m pretty sure she’s made from Alfie’s semen to change them all and make them like him. Unstable, human conscious in their wolf form.’

  ‘Jesus,’ said Blake. ‘That’s the most horrible thing I’ve ever heard.’

  ‘I know. An army of Ancient Beasts. Able to change any time.’

  ‘Not that. A potion made of Alfie’s semen. Gross!’

  ‘Oh, did you say you were going to tell me something?’ Iris said as she followed Blake through the door on to the landing.

  Blake turned. ‘Tell you something?’

  ‘Yeah. Something about Tobias. That house. His leaving it to you.’

  ‘Oh, yeah. I was . . . Iris, are you OK.’

  Iris realised her mouth was hanging open in sudden shock. She was looking past Blake down the landing where the door behind him had opened up. At first she thought the figure who stood there was a ghost.

  She was so pale, long limp hair like straw, tall and curvaceous. Her face was the colour of milk, and she was wearing a lilac dress, utility, a nurse’s uniform. Iris recognised her.

  ‘Pearl?’ Pearl was one of Alfie’s pack. Somehow it hadn’t occurred to Iris that any of them would still be here. Of course she knew what had happened to Leon. But it wasn’t until this moment, staring at Pearl, that she thought for a second about the rest of the pack Alfie had left behind.

  Pearl said, ‘Have you come to take more of his things?’

  ‘Whose things?’ said Blake.

  ‘She must think we’re whoever came and took the chains. You think that was the Divine?’ Iris whispered.

  ‘Could’ve been,’ Blake hissed back. ‘If she’d got Alfie locked up somewhere – why not?’

  ‘Are you doctors?’ Pearl said, her voice sounding shaky.

  Iris said, ‘Pearl, I’m Iris. Iris from the Vix.’

  ‘You were locked in the cellar. How did you escape? I thought they were going to kill you.’

  ‘Well, they didn’t,’ Blake said.

  When Iris looked at him, she saw he had pulled his gun and was holding it loosely at his side. ‘Don’t, Blake. Look at her. She doesn’t know what’s going on.’

  Blake sniffed. ‘Is your line to Alfie intact?’

  Pearl blinked. ‘My what?’

  ‘Zac bit you, right?’ said Blake. ‘Is Zac here?’

  ‘He’s – he’s in the bedroom,’ Pearl said.

  ‘It won’t work,’ Iris said, looking at Blake. ‘The li
ne passes through Leon. And Leon’s at Cobalt.’

  ‘We could get him to summon Leon.’

  ‘But Leon won’t summon Alfie. If there was a chance of that, Cobalt would have made him. Leon wants the Divine to carry out her plans.’

  ‘Can’t summon Leon anyway,’ Pearl said. ‘Zac got bit by him in Texas. And we can’t move him.’

  ‘Can we speak to Zac?’ said Iris. ‘I mean to both of you. There’s some rotten stuff going down.’

  ‘Iris,’ Blake hissed. ‘They’re lycs. Not on our side.’

  ‘The chains are gone. It’s over. Right now they’re all we’ve got, Blake.’

  Pearl said, ‘I don’t know. Zac’s not well. I don’t want Vix near him.’

  ‘I know how you feel,’ said Iris. ‘But Alfie’s in trouble. He’s your pack alpha, right? Please. I know you hate us. I know you hate Vix. But we have to stop the Divine.’

  Pearl shook her head slowly. ‘I don’t know.’

  Iris saw it out of the corner of her eye. She went to say, ‘Blake, you don’t need to –’

  But too late. Blake was pointing his gun at Pearl. ‘Come on, darling. I’ve not forgotten you. Let us see Zac.’

  And then, from behind the doorway, where Pearl was standing, a soft American drawling voice said, ‘Let them in, Pearly. I want to hear this.’

  48

  THE BEDROOM AT the back of the house was a tiny, strange wood-panelled room. On the bed lay Zac. Only the top part of his body was visible under the thin white sheet, but he seemed to be naked.

  Iris had met Zac before. He was a young black American guy, and Alfie had explained more than once that he was Leon’s cub, bitten by Leon. And he had a cub of his own, Pearl.

  ‘You’re Vix,’ said Zac, his voice sounding laboured and low. ‘What do you want?’

  Iris spoke carefully. ‘I know you’re a good guy, Zac. I know you know it doesn’t have to be you versus us. Alfie understood that. I think you do too.’

  Behind Iris, Blake said, ‘That’s one hell of a chest wound.’

  Iris looked at Zac’s chest. The red furrow on his chest was visible through the sheet, not so big, but it was surrounded by nasty blistering.

  ‘Yeah,’ Zac said, looking at Blake.

  ‘Is that why your girlfriend asked if we were doctors?’

  ‘My girlfriend is taking care of me just fine, thank you.’

  Iris was looking at Blake now, resting in the door-frame. He reached under his overcoat into the top pocket of his white coat and pulled out his familiar packet of tobacco and rolling papers. He began to roll a cigarette. ‘That blistering, I can see it through the sheet – it’s silver isn’t it? You were stabbed by a silver, blade, mate. You’re a lyc – you ought to be dead. How come she saved you? Could it be anything to do with that beauty?’ Blake pointed at a large white machine next to the bed.

  Pearl said, ‘Yeah. So what if it is? Nothing to do with you two.’

  Blake had the cigarette rolled and he flipped it into his mouth. He spoke with it stuck to his bottom lip. ‘I’m just interested. If you’ve done what I think you’ve done, well, wow, you’re the smartest motherfucker in this room and I want you on my team.’

  ‘Really?’ said Pearl sharply.

  Blake pulled a scrappy book of matches from his pocket, bent the cover back and struck the entire thing against the door frame. The whole row of cardboard matches lit up, a little fireball in his hand. It danced orangey magic over his face as he drew it in and jabbed the end of his roll-up into it.

  Iris shook her head at this not unfamiliar piece of showmanship. ‘What is she meant to have done?’

  ‘She cleaned his blood. Got all the silver out. That right, doll?’

  Pearl nodded.

  ‘It’s a type of cancer treatment, right? Blood filtering or something. Amazing.’ Blake was talking to Iris now. ‘To kill a lyc you need to get silver in a wound that would be fatal on a human. She took the silver out of his blood and the stab wound didn’t kill him. Never seen anything like it. Never read . . . What beats me is where you got that machine.’

  Pearl shrugged, tugging at her grubby lilac utility dress. ‘I’m a nurse – was a nurse. I knew what favours to call in.’

  ‘Ha!’ Blake said in an explosive exhalation of smoky breath. ‘Knew what dicks to suck more like.’

  ‘Actually, I didn’t have to do that. I have friends. Not that I wouldn’t have. To save Zacky’s life.’

  ‘Either way, sweetheart, it’s a stroke of fucking genius.’ Blake reached into his pocket and pulled out a pen and a notebook, still smoking his roll-up by moving it around his mouth. ‘So how did you keep him alive while you were getting the machine?’

  Pearl cocked her head. She was looking more confident by the minute. ‘I gave him some basic meds,’ she said. ‘It seemed like a lycan body treated silver as a cross between an antigen and a virus. I gave him a big dose of anti–viral drugs and some anti-allergens. Talked the nearest chemist into it.’

  ‘Fuck. OK, baby, you have got a job when we get this mess sorted, which, er, may never happen. Actually, we should tell you about that. Big old coup’s coming. Humans versus lycans. I reckon you too can look forward to being on the winning side though, baby.’

  49

  BLAKE EXPLAINED ABOUT the Divine and Alfie to Zac and Pearl. ‘I don’t think she can summon every werewolf – I’m not sure how far down the line her power will reach. But you two are part of Alfie’s pack. It’s bound to reach you.’ Meanwhile, Iris looked at the equipment in the small room. The machine was still pumping Zac’s blood in and out of his body. Pearl explained that there still seemed to be some silver seeping into his body from the wound, so she was testing it periodically.

  When Blake finished talking to Pearl, he turned to Zac, still with his hand on the machine and said, ‘I need to know everything you can tell me about summoning.’

  Iris said, ‘Why do we need to know about summoning now. We already know about summoning.’

  Blake shrugged. ‘Maybe there’s something we don’t know. Always learning, Iris. Always learning.’ He tapped the side of his head and turned to Zac. ‘So, look, when you get summoned, can you take stuff with you through the pull. Objects? People? How about your clothes?’

  Zac said, ‘I don’t know. I’ve never been summoned. When Leon came through, he came through naked. But I think he already was naked.’

  ‘When Alfie summoned Tobias, he came through fully dressed,’ said Iris.

  ‘Could you give us a demo?’ said Blake idly.

  ‘A demo?’ said Zac. ‘How?’

  ‘Well, minxy here is your cub. Where’d you bite her?’

  ‘In the cellar downstairs.’

  ‘So how about she goes down and summons you so we can see how it works?’

  Zac looked horrified. ‘Summoning is a sacred werewolf rite. I would never ask Pearl to do it just to call me to her? Anyway I’m pretty sure you can’t take objects. I think you can’t take anything. If Alfie summoned his sire, well, that would be different. Alfie’s sire is a Beast . . .’ Zac started to cough.

  ‘OK. Hang on a minute,’ said Blake.

  He grabbed Iris by the arm and pulled her out of the room on to the landing. ‘Are you thinking what I’m thinking?’

  ‘Kind of yeah, kind of no,’ said Iris. ‘I am thinking that when the Divine does her reverse summoning thing just before moon rise, it’ll pull these two to her, and, if we can find some way of following them, we’re laughing. But, you know, Blake, I know you, and what I’m not thinking is about how to strap a bomb to one of them.’

  Blake rolled his eyes. ‘Yeah, yeah, baby. Wouldn’t work anyhow. Too risky. We don’t know where they’re going to end up. Mind you, I reckon your self-sacrificing little brain has got some idea about getting them to bite you and turn you so you get pulled through as well.’

  ‘I considered it,’ Iris said. ‘It wouldn’t work. I need a wolf-form bite and the Divine is going to summon them before moon rise.’


  ‘And you’d be fucking thralled by the Divine when you got there. You should have heard the way you were rambling about the power she’d had over Alfie, making your big loyal puppy chain you up in that cave. If there’s one thing that would be like raising a bloody white flag, it would be trying to switch sides.’

  ‘Well, you’d know,’ Iris muttered darkly.

  ‘And what’s that supposed to mean.’

  Iris moved close to Blake. ‘Dr Malcolm Tobias. Remember him? The Ancient Beast, the most dangerous werewolf in Oxford, the creature who killed my brother deliberately in order to recruit me to his werewolf-slaying taskforce. A purely selfish operation that was about keeping away the warrior wolf destined to kill him and all the other Ancient Beasts, all the members of the Silver Crown. And you knew. You knew what he was all along and you never told me. What was that all about, Blake? I understand you’ve taken this binding to Lilith for me supposedly as a way of showing you’re sorry about it all, but what you’ve never really explained to me is why.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Why you were so loyal to Tobias in the first place.’

  Blake bristled. ‘There are things you don’t know, Iris.’

  ‘Evidently.’

  ‘And this isn’t the time. Look, can’t we just concentrate on one super-powered werewolf at a time? Look, they’re going to get pulled through to the Divine – we need to follow them somehow. What if we tagged them? Like we did to ourselves when we were in the cellar here. Have you got a coms set?’

  Iris dug in her pocket. ‘I have but it’s Cobalt issue, an MCD – almost the same as a coms, but the back’s welded on. No way of getting the tracking chip out. Have you got a coms?’

  ‘I’m playing how not to be seen, remember.’ Blake shook his head, slow and thoughtful. ‘Fuck it. We’re going to have to do the bomb.’

  ‘Blake, do you even have a bomb?’

  But suddenly they both started as, downstairs, the doorbell rang.