‘Kay knew something was coming, something terrible. And he knew only you could stop it.’ He struggled out of bed and leaned heavily against the bedpost. ‘But I would have to die.’
Oh my God. Of course. All to try to stop the tenth plague.
‘That’s why I’ve trained you the way I have, Billi. I had to. D’you think I’d wish this life on anyone, most of all you?’
Kay had tried to tell her. You’re wrong about your father. He knew, he could see, Arthur did love her.
‘But I couldn’t let it show how much it hurt being… cruel. I had to harden your heart. Towards me. Make you ruthless enough to do what was necessary.’
It was sick.
‘So I’d kill you when I had to.’ Billi closed her eyes; her head spun with all this. Her dad had brought her up to kill him. And the other Templars, even Percy, they must have known. She’d been lied to by everybody all her life.
‘Say something, Billi.’
‘Jesus, I never knew how completely insane you were, until now.’ She backed towards the door. She felt trapped and suffocated. ‘You sick, sick bastard! How could you have done this to me?’
Kay opened the door. His hair was tangled, half covering his face, and he looked more dead than her dad. He tried to say something, but instead just stared at the pair of them with bewildered fear. Billi turned on him.
‘And Kay? Did Kay know?’
Arthur shook his head. ‘No. Those visions were driving him beyond madness. Elaine worked endlessly to draw him back. But the power of prophecy was lost.’
She covered her face, not able to cry, not able to scream; trapped between hate and pity. Arthur went to wrap his arms round her.
‘Don’t you touch me.’
He lowered his hands and backed away.
Lies, lies, lies.
The Knights Templar.
Bastards.
***
They migrated into the lounge. Elaine had pulled the curtains back, letting in the grey pre-dawn light. Arthur shuffled in behind her and Kay just stared.
She should be exhausted, but the trembling energies from the Silver Sword still surged through her, settled deep in the marrow of her bones.
‘Tell me, from the beginning,’ said Arthur.
Billi stared at them. There was a subtle change in each of their faces. Her father looked almost softly at her. The burden of his secret gone, she could see a lightness, only a slight lightness, but something new instead of that mask of iron. But Billi’s fury still bubbled. She couldn’t forgive him for the way he’d treated her. The way they’d all treated her.
Kay, still weak from the ritual, leaned against the wall, away from her. He was afraid.
‘Satan,’ he said. ‘You met Satan.’
Arthur stiffened. He’d pulled the knife out of the head-board and put it on the table. ‘Where?’
‘He’d been waiting for me at Temple Church.’
‘But why didn’t he just come through when I was performing the ritual?’ asked Kay. Billi wasn’t sure if he was pleased or disappointed.
‘He said that Ethereals are weak when they first enter the Material Realm.’ Billi checked the window; the Devil was long gone. ‘He offered me a Silver Sword, but only if I killed you.’
‘To fulfil Kay’s prophecy,’ added Elaine.
Kay suddenly moved. ‘I’ve never made any prophecies. You know I can’t.’
Elaine shook her head. ‘Not now, Kay. But when you first came to us. Should have bet on the horses back then.’ She laughed, but it withered as a poor joke. The sense of fear was thick in the room.
Arthur spoke. ‘Young psychics have an extraordinary potential. But it’s wild and will drive them insane. You were already in a bad way when we found you.’ He looked at Kay. ‘You’d been moved from foster home to foster home. Father Balin made you a ward of the Temple and that’s when Elaine began looking after you. But you’d made your prophecy. Something deadly and terrible was coming, and you said “she will sacrifice the one she loves to save them”.’ He turned to Elaine. ‘We argued about what it meant. Prophecies, especially ones looking well into the future, are dangerously ambiguous.’
‘And you thought it meant you?’ asked Billi.
‘Who else could it mean?’ he asked.
Billi closed her eyes. She wanted to shut off from everything. It was too much. Because of a boy’s vague prediction she’d spent the last five years being beaten, tested, trained and taught how to do terrible things. All so she’d be ready to kill her father. She struggled with her breathing. It was as though a giant invisible vice was crushing her from all directions.
‘I never wanted this for you, Billi,’ said Arthur. He sounded sincere, but so what? This was the life he’d given her.
Kay touched her hand. She looked up at him and there was such softness in his eyes, their blue light reflected his gentleness, and if Billi had been anyone’s child except Arthur’s she would have wept. His fingers wrapped round hers and Billi felt how smooth they were against her own, hard and calloused by years of weapons training.
Elaine cleared her throat. ‘What do we do next, Art?’
Her dad looked at her, then at Kay. He smiled, but it was sad. He was beaten.
‘You run.’
They were leaving. Elaine and Kay would take the Cursed Mirror to Jerusalem. Among the Sufis, rabbis and priests they hoped there might be someone who could stop Michael. Meanwhile Arthur would organize a feint, an attack that would distract Michael, hopefully preventing him from discovering the Mirror was long gone. Billi would go into hiding. With the prophecy proving a failure, Arthur wanted Billi far away from the oncoming battle.
Billi helped Kay pack. Elaine had grabbed two bin bags full of Oxfam clothing and dumped them on the bedroom floor. Billi picked up a brown polyester shirt with orange stripes and held it up against the light. Did Elaine pick these vile things on purpose?
It looks absolutely -
‘Don’t swear,’ he said.
‘I didn’t say anything.’
‘But you thought it really hard.’
Billi found a packet of thermal pants. She didn’t want to know how Elaine had guessed their size. She swiftly stuffed them in the suitcase.
‘You’re leaving, again,’ she said. ‘We could go together, if you want.’ And she would. No matter what her dad said. If Kay wanted. He shook his head.
‘No. It’s safer this way.’ He didn’t look at her; he just kept his attention on the clothes. ‘I had missed you, you know.’
Billi nodded. ‘If you’d told me that at the beginning things would have been a lot less complicated.’
‘You’re the only friend I’ve had, Billi.’ He paused. ‘Maybe more than friends?’
Billi thought about how she’d felt when she’d kissed him at Trafalgar Square.
She smiled. ‘I was hysterical then. It doesn’t count.’
Kay put the last of the jumpers in the suitcase then closed it. Billi could hear Elaine and Arthur getting supper ready. There were plates clattering and cutlery banging against each other. A kettle whistled.
‘You can do it, Kay.’ Billi held his hand. ‘You’ll beat Michael. I know you will.’
Kay frowned. ‘Then what?’ He spoke quietly. Billi remained silent. Even when he did return they wouldn’t be together. She wasn’t a Templar – he was. The Order meant everything to him.
‘It doesn’t, Billi. Not as much as other things.’
Billi raised her eyebrows at Kay. He’d been reading her thoughts again. But somehow it didn’t seem to matter so much now. ‘Then maybe we’ll be like normal people?’
Neither of them said any more. They both knew that was never really going to happen.
Elaine banged on the door. ‘Dinner’s ready.’
***
They gathered at the table as the food was served. Arthur said grace, then Elaine began ladling out the vegetable hotpot. Billi watched the way Elaine and Arthur worked, he passing the food around as Elaine
filled the bowls.
‘Y’know what this reminds me of?’ Elaine looked about the table. ‘Passover.’
The meal held to commemorate the night the Angel of Death delivered the tenth plague on the firstborn of Egypt. Billi glanced over at Kay. See? She did pay some attention in her Templar lessons. Kay smiled. He didn’t look great: the effects of the ritual had left him badly depleted. Billi touched his hand under the table, gently linking fingers with him for a moment.
‘I don’t think smearing lamb’s blood over doorposts will stop Michael this time,’ Arthur retorted dryly.
‘I know that,’ snapped Elaine. ‘It’s what the blood symbolizes that’s important: the blood of sacrifice. The most powerful magic there is. Just killing a lamb wouldn’t mean anything now. The sacrifice -’ she glanced at Billi – ‘needs to mean something.’ Elaine took a tray of spinach and handed it across the table. ‘I used to love getting the food ready for the Seder meal. The horseradishes, all the chopped nuts and apples floating in the wine.’ She laughed suddenly. ‘Do you know what we used to do? Do you know about the Elijah’s Cup?’
Billi nodded. ‘You fill an extra cup, in case he should appear at your door.’
Elaine clapped her hands. ‘Exactly! When I was a child we would pour the cup, then wait. But as we waited for the prophet all eyes would be turned to the front door. It’s an old trick, but the best. When no one was looking my dad would knock on the table! You should have seen the way we’d jump!’ She laughed and raised her fist above the table -
Bang.
Bang.
Bang.
Someone was knocking at the door. Hard, firm and steady. Kay stared towards the direction of the noise, his face ashen. Billi got up and in the silence left the room and entered the stair landing. A hot film of sweat ran down her back, clinging to her blouse.
Driven by an irresistible dread she descended, turned the doorknob and slowly pulled it back.
He smiled at her, waiting in the doorway. No threats, no sudden movements. He didn’t need to. With shocking, sudden clarity Billi knew she had lost. Truly, utterly and completely lost.
It was Michael.
29
He smiled at her, one foot on the threshold. ‘May I come in?’
She wanted to run. Her hand was frozen to the door-knob. Legs trembling, unable to respond. It took a few seconds to force her mouth to open and a huge effort to speak.
‘No.’ It was all she could manage.
Her eyes focused on the mezuzah in the wall.
Could it stop him? Elaine’s dwelling was guarded by dozens of wards, the mezuzah one of the most powerful. Maybe -
Michael smashed the box with his fist. He pulled out the small, delicate scroll and held it between forefinger and thumb. The paper spontaneously combusted. It was ash within seconds.
Like all Billi’s hopes.
‘You couldn’t stop me at the reliquary. What makes you think this -’ Michael shook the ashes away – ‘would stop me now?’ He stepped into the corridor.
She backed away slowly. A trickle of icy sweat rolled down her back, and every inch of her skin shivered with Michael’s oncoming steps.
‘Who is it?’ Elaine shouted from upstairs.
Run. She had to run. They all had to run. Run! She couldn’t get the shout out. Her throat was dry, tight.
She backed up the stairs, towards the open door. She didn’t dare take her eyes off him as he came in, matching her, step by step. But when she came through the apartment door she shot a look over her shoulder. Her terror-filled eyes were all the warning necessary. She turned and ran, stopping between her dad and Kay.
Michael paused by the entrance. He surveyed the room.
‘Hugues de Payens would surely be disappointed to see the Knights Templar sunk so low.’
‘Sometimes we enter the filth to find our enemies,’ said Arthur. He held a carving knife; Billi didn’t think it would do much good. Kay stared at Michael, his face pasty and sickly. He looked ready to collapse, leaning heavily on the table. Elaine had her hand on the biscuit tin. Michael moved into the centre of the lounge, savouring his victory. Billi had no doubt he’d kill all four of them with little effort.
‘It’s best this way, firstborn. Give me the Mirror and I’ll finish you fast and painlessly.’ His eyes didn’t leave the tin. ‘The plague’s not pleasant. Not pleasant at all.’ His eyes shone with anticipation. ‘At dawn, with the crowing of the cock, all those infected by it will die and I will watch the world reborn. From up on high.’
‘You can take your offer and shove it where the sun don’t shine,’ Billi snapped. Her dad slipped his hand into hers. Michael saw it and laughed.
‘How sweet, Arthur. I didn’t think you were that sort of man.’
He wasn’t. Billi felt him squeeze with his first two fingers. Once, twice, three times. A charge. She would break left, distract Michael and he wanted to charge him. With a bread-knife. Suicide didn’t even begin to describe it.
‘No,’ she said. Her dad tensed, but didn’t move. Billi stepped forward. ‘Look, Michael. You know it’s wrong. You can’t bring people back to God like this. This isn’t what it’s all about.’
He laughed. ‘Ah, is this the appeal to my better side? To my humanity?’ He pushed himself off the wall. Heat and light radiated from his body. Waves of hot air trembled between them. ‘You forget, mortal, I have no humanity.’
Kay lowered his head, groaning. The plates and cups on the table shook and jumped about, spilling tea over the yellowing tablecloth. Billi, still holding her dad’s hand, stepped away. Then Kay screamed.
The dining table catapulted across the room smashing Michael against the wall. Plaster tumbled off the ceiling as the wood exploded, sending jagged splinters across the room. Billi caught a few across the face before diving behind the sofa. A moment later that too flew into the air and crashed into Michael.
‘Run!’ shouted Kay. He stood in the centre of the room as chairs, plates, knives, spoons and practically everything that wasn’t nailed down flew like leaves in a hurricane around him. Even the floorboards creaked and groaned; their nails rattled and shook as they dragged themselves out of the floor, summoned by his will.
Michael rose, brushing off the dust then turned to face Kay. Heat erupted around him and Billi gasped as though she’d been pushed against an open furnace. Flames flickered along the wallpaper and the edges of the flapping curtains.
Kay glanced at the kitchenette. The drawers flew out and a shower of steel knives, forks and skewers burst across the room into Michael. He stumbled as the blades tore into his body, sprinkling the walls with his blood. But he did not fall.
She wanted to help, but Arthur grabbed her arm and fled, ripping Billi off her feet and through the door, Elaine a second behind her, biscuit tin clutched to her chest. Their ears popped with an implosion of fire and wind. The floor rippled and the walls slid half a metre sideways. The entire building shook violently.
Billi covered her head as chunks of plaster tumbled down. The stairs lurched and cracked. The front door at the bottom was ahead, but the building seemed to be sucking them in. The ground tilted and she fell forward, only grabbed by her dad a moment before tumbling headlong down the flight of stairs. Broken chips of brickwork spat on her face, stinging her cheeks with minute cuts. She didn’t know which way was up. Elaine rolled into her, knocking heads. A deafening wind howled down the staircase as though they were downstream of a jet engine.
Get up!
She threw herself at the door, which was already half out of its frame, and it crashed open with a jolt. Half crawling, Arthur and Billi lifted Elaine from under the armpits and together they fled out on to the street.
Elaine’s apartment was a blinding white inferno. The roof was a frame of black skeletal ribs, and half the walls had fallen.
‘Kay!’ Billi shouted. She’d thought he’d be right behind them, but she couldn’t see him. He was still in the apartment! She turned, but her dad grabbed her.
‘It’s too late, Billi! It’s too late!’
‘No!’ She fought him, screaming and swinging her fists at him. She had to save Kay. Arthur ignored the blows and wrapped his arms round her. ‘It’s too late.’
He pulled her away from the blazing building. Half a dozen people, dressed in pyjamas, dressing gowns or hastily tossed-on coats, stood in the road staring at the flaming building. Some took photos.
The final explosion threw them all off their feet. The ground rippled underfoot, breaking the black tarmac into thousands of chunks. The air filled with a blaze of white fire and Billi couldn’t get up. All she could do was try to gaze into the awesome light.
He walked down the street, stepping over the bodies writhing in pain. His clothes smouldered and ribbons of smoke twisted off his body. The light dimmed and there he was: Michael. Blood caked his body from hundreds of cuts and there were still knives jutting from his body, like some hideous St Sebastian.
The biscuit tin lay a few metres away where it had rolled out of Elaine’s grasp. Billi tried to stand, but even the air seemed too heavy. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t stop him.
Michael picked up the tin and tore off the lid. The glow from within bathed his face.
‘At last.’ He ripped off the bubblewrap and lifted the Cursed Mirror above him. ‘At last!’ Golden light poured out, brighter than the sun and he bathed in it. First, they whispered. Then they sang. Then the Watchers trapped beyond screamed as they poured their energies into the Material Realm. The heat doubled, then trebled, multiplying second by second as the portal to Limbo opened. Billi covered her ears before her eardrums burst from the devastating noise of the countless choirs. The light was unbearable and she buried her head under her arms. The tarmac beneath her began to melt and steam.
A thunderclap ended it. The heat was so intense that the air just exploded. The final shockwave passed, and Billi realized she wasn’t dead. The sky rumbled and the first spitting drops of rain landed on her face. She raised her head cautiously.
Devil’s Kiss Page 18
