What the poor thing must have gone through and how she had survived he didn’t know. It was impossible, really, to speculate. He delved lightly into her mind to see how she had done it, but she quickly began to cry, so he backed out immediately. He’d seen enough, though. She’d survived by eating a packet of sweets the babysitter had put on the dresser and eating the snow. She’d kept warm by snuggling up under all her teddies and the thick winter duvet on her bed. He’d also felt a lot of fear in her, but for some reason, she trusted him. Just like her mother, she trusted him. He felt something in his heart. He was a cold, calculating bastard, and here was this tiny young being, who was comfortable around him. Maybe it was because at this moment, until he found her mother, he was all she had.
“I’m going to find your mama, little one. I promise.” It was the first promise he’d ever made that he intended to keep. “Can you tell me your name?”
She looked at him with those wide eyes but didn’t speak.
“I’m Joe,” Oh, how he hated that name. It was the name he’d cast off so many years ago, but he could hardly tell her his name now. “Joe!” he said again, pointing to himself and then pointing to her with an expectant look on his face. “What’s your name?”
“Kitty.” She pointed to herself too and smiled.
Of course, from a Kat, came a Kitty.
“Kitty, I’m going to find your mama,” he said again.
He was surprised she ate as much as she did. He knew she must be starving, but he thought it would take her a while to get up the stamina to eat. As it was, she wolfed down the child-sized portion of cottage pie and then an adult-sized slice of apple pie and custard.
“Got quite an appetite on her, hasn’t she?” asked the waitress as she collected their plates. He ordered himself a coffee and picked Kitty up out of her highchair to go and play with the other children. She put her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. He had to put her down quickly to stop himself from bawling. What had she done to him?
He was amazed by how quickly she had recovered from her ordeal as he watched her toddle off into the play area with a grin on her face. He must have somehow passed some of his energy over to her in the shop earlier. Looking at her now, you’d never know what she had just been through.
He sipped on his coffee and deliberated about what to do. He needed to find Kathryn, and he had a good idea where to look now. Archie might not have known about Kitty, but there was every chance he knew what had happened to Kathryn. What on Vanatus could he do with Kitty, though? To take her with him would be madness. He thought back to all the women he’d known. There had been one not so long ago, that been a pre-school teacher. He ended it by walking out on her when he was bored just as he had done with every other woman. She wasn’t going to be particularly happy about him turning up on her doorstep, but he hoped her love of small children might just let her see past how he had treated her.
He drained his coffee and called out to the little girl, who came toddling up to him. He picked her up, and leaving money for the food on the table, transported them both out of the coffee shop and up into the Diamondlands.
Kitty hadn’t noticed when he’d transported them the last time, perhaps she was groggy with sleep, but this time, she looked amazed by the cafe disappearing and a beautiful street with white buildings appearing around her. She turned her head this way and that, eyes wide with this new scene in front of her. He couldn’t blame her. Not many people could transport themselves in a blink of an eye, certainly not Spades or Hearts.
“It’s ok, Kitty,” he assured her. “I’m taking you to see a friend of mine.” Ok, so he was using the term friend in the loosest possible sense. He just hoped May didn’t throw something at him as soon as she saw who it was.
He knocked on the door of one of the white buildings. Like all the others on the street, this door was painted sky blue. It opened to reveal a pretty woman in her early thirties. Her smile quickly turned into a scowl when she saw who was at the door.
“Franklin!” (He’d not told her his real name.) “This is certainly a turn up for the books.”
“May, I’m sorry, truly but I need your help.”
“Are you f...” She caught sight of the little girl in his arms. “Flipping kidding me?”
“It’s not for long. I just need you to look after Kitty here for a couple of hours…four, tops. I’ve got nowhere else to turn.” He hated pleading. It was not something he usually had to do, but now, he had no other recourse.
“So you have a kid. Well, that explains everything. Couldn’t you have, at least, dressed the poor child?”
He realised she was right. He’d cleaned up Kitty’s onesie, but he’d not thought to dress her for the daytime. “She’s not mine. Please, May!”
“Ok,” she sighed and held out her arms for the little girl. “I’m sure I’ve got some spare clothes from work you can borrow.”
“Thanks, May.” He kissed her cheek and transported back to Cerce.
The nightclub would be closed at this time of day, but he didn’t want to hang around waiting for it to open. He’d promised May he’d be back within a few hours, and he’d broken enough promises to May in the past.
The Hearts were the masters of technology, and if he knew anything about men like Archie, he’d have some way of knowing if someone was tampering with his safe. He barged into the back door of the nightclub, using a little magic to supplement any shortfall in strength and ran straight to the safe. He didn’t want the money, but he did want Archie to think he wanted it. He noticed a camera up on the ceiling with the tell-tale red light showing that it was on. He hoped it was a live feed and not being recorded. He wanted Archie to see this now. The safe was easy to crack. If he’d wanted to, he could have got the money out in seconds, but instead, he twisted and turned the knob, pretending to be figuring out the code. Within two minutes, Archie appeared at the door, knife in hand and two oversized buffoons flanking him.
“I knew you’d be back,” he spat. “This time, there is no escape. I could have guessed you wanted my money. It was never about the girl at all, was it?”
“I’ve already got Kathryn,” he replied. “I can come back for the money later.” Ok, he wasn’t planning to, but he may as well scare the little shit.” He transported himself out into the street before any of the men lunged at him and turned himself invisible, watching them from the outside.
“Where’d he go?” one of the lugs asked.
“He’s a fucking Diamond!” Archie replied.
“Wrong!” he grinned. He was going to enjoy this. He watched as Archie opened the safe to check his money and cursed himself for not actually taking it. It would have served the bar owner right.
When Archie was satisfied that the money was still there, he shouted out to his two henchmen.
“Go and check that the girl is still there. She’s been paid for already, I can’t afford to lose her now.”
Watching as the henchmen lumbered back out onto the street, he followed them. At the end of the street, they took a right, and he followed a few paces behind them. They walked the cobbled streets for a good twenty minutes before coming to an archway in the outer wall. Two muscled security guards let them through the archway that took him out of Urbis and into The Heartlands. In the distance, he could see a canal with a number of steam barges moored at a dock. To one side of the canal, was a row of smart houses and to the other, some industrial buildings and warehouses. They passed the first, which had a sign saying, H.Lovebody and Sons, Manufacturers of Fine Furniture and carried on another mile or so until they got to a dilapidated warehouse. It was unusual for anything to look dilapidated in the Heartlands, which just showed that people didn’t come here very often, not unless they had to. The houses on the other side of the canal had ended, and all he could see now was trees. This place was in the middle of nowhere, perfect for housing kidnapped women, who could be easily transported on the canal.
He watched as they put their hand to a plate next t
o the side door and was just about to follow them when he felt something slice right into his back, making him fall to the ground. He looked down to see rivers of red blood leaving his invisible body and dripping onto the snow, turning the white to crimson. The knife had come all the way through his body.
“I knew it!” He heard Archie’s voice behind him. “You might be invisible, but your footsteps aren’t.”
He stood up and with every ounce of strength he could muster, reached behind him and pulled the knife out. Because of the angle of his arm, it caused more damage coming out than it had going in, but he couldn’t heal himself with it still embedded in his body.
He turned and made himself visible. He wanted to be the last thing that Archie ever saw. He held up the blood-stained knife and looked Archie right in the eye.
The fear in Archie’s face was obvious. He turned to run, but he was too quick for him. He put a spell on him, locking his body completely. Archie’s momentum coupled with the sudden stop caused him to fall flat on his face.
Bending down so that Archie could see him, he said, “I could be kind and kill you with your own knife, but for some reason, I’m not feeling particularly charitable.”
Sensing the smell of fear, he stuck his boot into Archie’s side and slowly pushed him until he rolled into the canal.
He didn’t like to kill people, but sometimes it was the only way. He dusted himself down, magically changed his blood-stained shirt and threw the knife into the river. Perhaps one day, someone would find it and run fingerprint testing on it. If by some miracle, the fingerprints were still viable, they weren’t really his fingerprints anyway.
He ran into the warehouse to find an empty cavernous room. Whatever it had been used for in the past, it was not being used for that now. He scanned the room, to find the two men. They were both having a leisurely smoke in the far corner. Behind them was a cage. It was too dark to see what was in it, but he had a fair idea. He really couldn’t be bothered with starting a fight with the two men. Yes, he’d easily win, but it was much easier just to transport the pair of them away from here so he wouldn’t have to.
“Hey, fellas.” He waited until they were both looking at him and then transported the pair of them into the canal at around the same spot their boss had fallen in. If he was lucky, they might get to him before he drowned.
“Help!” A voice came from the cage. He ran over to find her laid out on a few rags on the floor. She looked in no better state than her daughter had just twelve hours before. The cage was way too small for her. She would have been able to kneel up, but not stand. A plate of stale bread was on the floor beside it.
He used magic to unlock the cage and helped her out. She was unsteady at first, but it didn’t take her long to stand and look at him. He literally wasn’t the same man she’d met on New Year’s Day, but would she recognise him?
He thought he saw a glimmer of recognition, but it quickly turned into a look of fear. “My daughter! You need to get me out of here. I need to get home.”
He saw that she was shaking, whether from the cold or fear, he didn’t know, but he warmed the air up around them in much the same way he had done for Kitty. Then he did something else he’d not done before this week. He put his arms around her and hugged her.
“I have Kitty. She is safe. Your apartment was destroyed, but she survived. She’s warm, she’s fed, and she’s missing you. I’ll take you there now.”
He could feel her sobbing onto his shoulder, and it was with great difficulty he transported her back to May’s doorstep. He wanted to hold her and comfort her for as long as she let him, but he knew her need of seeing Kitty was much greater than his. He pulled back and looked into her tear-filled eyes.
“She’s here.”
Kathryn looked around her, and her eyes widened.
“How did you...?”
He smiled and knocked on May’s door.
The door opened, and a tiny little person, now wearing a cute pair of jeans with pink flowers embroidered on them and a pink sweater, stood before them.
“Kitty!” Kathryn ran forward and scooped up her daughter, spinning her around and peppering her with butterfly kisses.
“Mama wet!” Kitty brought her small hand up to her mother’s face and wiped away a tear.
“I think you’d all better come in for a coffee,” said May, ushering the strange party into her house. “You look like you might need it.”
He was so utterly grateful for May’s kindness that he kissed her on the cheek and vowed to himself never to hurt her or anyone else ever again. It meant that he could not see either Kathryn or Kitty again. It broke his heart into tiny fragments, but he wouldn’t be good for either of them. It was not possible for him to live a normal life, not with who he was. Besides, Kathryn was a young woman with her life ahead of her. She would accomplish great things; he was sure of it. He closed his eyes and performed some magic that would only become apparent later on. People in Cerce would wonder how only one building on a certain street had somehow managed to repair itself and where the grave with all the flowers in the local graveyard had come from. It took only a little probing into Kathryn’s mind to find out the name of the babysitter, and that she had no relatives.
When Kathryn went home, she’d find a decent wedge of money in her bank account, thanks to Archie (not that he’d know where his money had gone if he’d survived the canal).
“Aren’t you coming in?” enquired May?
“Not this time, May. I appreciate your help more than you could know. I’ve stocked your fridge for you. I was hoping you’d give them both a good meal. They will need it. I’ve also fixed that leaky pipe you were always complaining about. It’s not enough, I know; but it’s a start.”
She leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek.
“You really are a sneaky bastard, aren’t you?” She smiled. “What am I supposed to do with my new house guests if you are leaving?”
“Here.” He handed her two Urbis Express airship tickets to Mahdlo. “I think Kathryn will appreciate these.”
“Ok, bye for now.” She said it, but they both knew they’d never see each other again. Over the years, May would find things that broke in her house would magically fix themselves, and she’d smile and say a silent thank you to him. She shut the door leaving him alone on the doorstep. It was time to go.
He’d closed his eyes, ready to transport when he heard the door open again. There she stood—Kathryn.
“It’s you, isn’t it? The man from the Bar on New Year’s Eve?”
He smiled in answer.
She leaned forward. “You never did let me finish that kiss.”
She kissed him slowly, and this time, he let her. It was singularly the most beautiful and most unbearable moment of his life.
“It was worth waiting for.” She grinned.
“Goodbye, Kathryn. Look after that little girl of yours; she’s an angel.”
“Goodbye...” She paused. “I don’t even know your name.”
“They call me The Joker.” And with that, he closed his eyes and disappeared, almost as if he had never been there at all.
The End
All books by J.A.Armitage
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