“Why haven’t you?”
“I don’t know. Maybe because I tried to get there and have been obsessing about it. It’s held it in my memory.” He decided not to mention the weird hole in reality and crossing into another realm. He wasn’t quite ready to have Emma decide he was nuts. But that was the real reason, he suspected, for his retained memories. The horrible sickness had also stopped happening whenever he thought about the missing area. Other people didn’t seem to be getting sick or disoriented now either. It was definitely evolving, whatever this phenomena was.
“That makes sense. What happened when you tried going there?”
“I couldn’t get there. I got dizzy and turned around. I couldn’t even get close enough to see what was there.” That was half true. Before he had forced himself to press on up the alley, when he had got magically transported back to the previous street he hadn’t been close enough to see what was there in the place of the missing streets. He had to assume that other people were experiencing the same thing as him.
“What are you going to do?”
“I have no idea.” He dropped his head into his hands and ran them through his thick hair. He stared down into his almost-empty cup. Emma’s cool fingers wrapped around his forearm and squeezed. He looked up into her big eyes. “Why are you being so kind to me? You hardly know me.”
“Because it’s the right thing to do.” She released his arm and gave a shrug. The waitress reappeared with their coffees and Felix eagerly drank, feeling the hot, bitter liquid wash down his tense throat. Emma added sugar to hers and sipped slowly, her eyes glancing over at him from under her long lashes. Felix hated the conflicting feelings raging inside him. Why had he had to meet Emma now? Amid all of this madness? He was hardly making the best impression. That said, he had been an utter mess before all of this started and in some ways had been able to pull himself together.
“Thank you,” he said, a slight lump in his throat.
“Don’t get distracted, my dear boy,” his passenger said softly. “You have a mission.”
“Where would you start if you were looking for a lost part of the city?” he asked Emma.
“I honestly have no idea. I guess I’d try to get there, like you did. I’d try to contact people who live there, like you did. I guess there’s no point calling the police.”
“No,” Felix replied with a snort of laughter. The police would be useless in this situation, it was hardly their remit. Felix had shot a man, so it probably wasn’t ideal to get the police looking into his life. He didn’t imagine that the thing he had shot last night would report the incident. How could it be explained? “I’m going to go back there. Will you come with me?”
“Okay, sure. I have to work later though.”
“No problem. It won’t take long. Where do you work?” He chugged back his coffee, eager to get going.
“At a call centre. It’s the dullest thing I’ve ever done.” She let out a chuckle. He cracked a smile in response. Her laugh was sweet. “Come on, let’s get on with this.” She finished her drink quickly and Felix went to the counter to pay the bill. They left the café together and stepped into the cool street. Traffic rushed by on the busy road. Felix looked over his shoulder and saw a number six bus approaching. He grabbed Emma’s hand and ran to the bus stop. Emma gasped when he tugged her along and he heard her giggling behind him as they ran. They got to the stop where a small queue waited for the bus. He released her hand and gave her an apologetic smile. She laughed and gave his shoulder a gentle shove. The bus pulled up at the kerb and people began to mount it. On the front, its destination was a street in Old Town. Felix knew that wasn’t where it ought to be going, he knew he had caught this bus many times and gone right into St. Catherine’s. As he stepped up onto the bus he caught the driver’s eye.
“Has this route changed recently?”
“Nope. Same as always,” the driver said, her voice unconcerned.
Felix glanced beside him at Emma and cocked an eyebrow.
“Two returns, please.” He paid for their tickets and Emma led the way up to the back of the bus where there were a couple of empty seats. It was otherwise full.
“This is so strange,” Emma whispered.
“It really is. Wait until we get there.”
The bus rumbled away up the street. It left the city centre and crossed the river into Old Town. It wound its way off the main road and up a couple of smaller streets before reaching its final destination. Everyone that hadn’t already left the bus got up to disembark. Felix led Emma onto the street, and they waited while the little crowd dispersed. The bus sat idling at the kerb for a minute, before the doors closed and it moved away slowly towards a large turning circle at the end of the street. It sped past again on its way back to the city centre.
Felix crossed the road and led Emma towards where he had found the hole. It was a short walk and the streets were quiet. They walked in uncomfortable silence. Felix didn’t know what he could possibly say. He was curious to see if they would both get turned around, or just her. He glanced down at her hand and took hold of it again, more gently this time. “Is this okay?”
“Fine with me,” she replied, not looking up at him. They walked briskly, crossing a busier street and heading up the side street that led to the hole. This was about where he had got turned around yesterday. He felt the rise of pressure on his head but kept a tight hold of Emma’s hand. He looked at her and saw her squinting and scrunching up her face.
“Are you okay?”
“No! What is that?” She stopped and released his hand, pressing both of her palms to her temples. She staggered backwards and then disappeared.
“Emma!” Felix felt the colour drain from his face. He ran back the way they had come and searched the street for her. Cars sped by, people rushed about their business. “Emma!” He set off across the road and back to the narrow street that ran down the back of the museum. That was where he had reappeared the previous day. Sure enough, just past the back door of the museum, Emma stood shaking her head and rubbing her eyes. He sprinted towards her and grabbed hold of her shoulders. He pulled her close to him and she didn’t protest.
“I’m all right.” Her voice shook slightly. “Where are we?”
“At the back of the museum.” He glanced towards the closed fire door and gently led her away from it, wary of being spotted by those creatures. “You vanished right in front of my eyes.”
“What? I don’t understand.” She shook her head and looked vaguely past him up the alley.
“It happened to me yesterday. You’re okay. I’m right here with you.”
“Felix, I don’t like this.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know if that would happen or not. It didn’t affect me this time. I still got the crushing pressure in my head, but I didn’t disappear and ping back. Come on. Let’s try again. I’ll keep hold of you. You have to really fight it.” He took her hand again and jogged back to the vanishing point, stopping just before where the weird stuff started. He looked up the street and saw only more street, no hole, no blank space. “What do you see up ahead?”
“Just the street.”
Felix gripped her hand tighter and walked slowly away from the busy road. He could feel her pulling back and he stopped and took hold of her shoulders. On an impulse he leaned down and kissed her hard on the lips. She tensed up with the shock of it at first but as he intensified the kiss, moving her lips with his she softened and sank into it. Her hands went to his shoulders and their tongues met. Felix’s hands drifted up into her wild hair. She smelled like strawberries and tasted of coffee. He was crazy about her. He pressed his body against hers and kept kissing her, even though he could feel the world spinning around them. He didn’t know what would happen when they opened their eyes, or where they would be, but in that moment he didn’t care. All he cared about was showing her how he felt about her. He lifted her off her feet and held her tight as he took a few steps backwards, towards where he had found the hole i
n the world. He wasn’t thinking about it, but the other consciousness inside his head was.
Chapter Two
The small office was crammed full of half unpacked boxes, shelves of peculiar artefacts and a cluttered desk covered in papers. Not to mention the six shifters crammed into what little space was left. Warden-of-Stones was perched on the edge of the desk, her arms folded tightly across her chest.
“Have any of the other packs had anything to say about this?” Ragged Edge asked.
“The Blue Moon are as tight-lipped as ever. No one else has a clue.”
“Did you reach out to Theodore?” Ragged Edge had to ask, even though he knew what the answer would be. Warden scoffed and rolled her eyes. She and Theodore didn’t speak if they could help it. He had his answer. “Right, so where are we?”
“The veil is holding. People are still getting turned around. Most people have no clue anything’s wrong and don’t have any memory of St. Catherine’s.” Mjolnir rattled off the status report as if it were a shopping list.
“And the intruder from last night?” Warden scowled.
“No word yet. I’m due an update in a few minutes.” Ragged Edge reported. “I wish there was a pack over there. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that it was an unclaimed area that vanished, but if it had happened to a claimed area then it would be someone else’s problem.” He let out a gruff bark of laughter. A small ripple of chuckles ran around the pack. All except Warden, who still stood there scowling at the floor.
“This couldn’t have happened if—”
“Don’t finish that sentence.” Warden cut off Black Rat. He shifted his weight and held his tongue. “You’re not wrong,” she said, a little more softly. “But we can’t dwell on that.”
Ragged Edge patted Black Rat on the shoulder in an effort to reassure him. Mercury and Two-Doors-Down were their other pack mates, both had stayed quiet throughout all of this.
“I need to head to the park now, boss,” Ragged Edge said, pushing himself away from the shelves upon which he'd been leaning. “Doors, lend me a hand, will you?”
“Sure.”
“Let me know what they turn up. Can you try Shadow’s Step again, please?” Warden stood up straight and made a show of shuffling papers around on the desk.
“Roger.” Ragged Edge opened the door and the pack filed out of their Alpha’s office, taking her entirely obvious hint. They made their way out through the back corridors of the museum, not passing any staff on the way. Warden’s staff were used to seeing the pack come and go, but not usually quite as frequently as over the last two days. They stepped out through the back door into the alleyway. It was a brisk day, and Ragged Edge found that he felt the cold more now than in his younger days. “Come on, lad. Let’s go see what our friends are saying. Mjolnir, I’ll catch up with you later.”
“Good luck.” Mjolnir embraced Ragged Edge and they patted one another on the back. The pack parted ways and Ragged Edge led his young pack mate away towards the park that surrounded the castle ruins.
They strode into the park and followed a sweeping path downhill away from the castle. There wasn’t much left of it. It was an old Norman castle but only the outer wall and some crumbled remnants of buildings remained now. It was still a tourist attraction, though, it had a little shop and guided tours. Ragged Edge remembered there being a lot more of it when he was young, but it had been bombed during the Blitz. Those memories always sent a shudder through him, even after so many decades.
He stomped down the path, his trusty staff clunking against the paving. He shook away the thoughts of long-past wars. The two shifters approached the tree line at the foot of the slope, and they stepped across the veil as soon as they were out of sight. They couldn’t contrast one another more. Doors was young, his skin smooth and his eyes untouched by war. He was of Korean descent but had never left Britain. Neither of his parents had been shifters. He was on his own when he changed for the first time and The Watch had found him and taken him in. He was green but had an aptitude for the ritual side of pack life, so Ragged Edge had taken him under his wing.
On the other side of the veil, the woods were deeper and darker than in the human world. Behind the shifters rose a smooth slope of pristine white quartz. It was tricky to climb up without slipping. That was deliberate. They had shaped it that way many centuries ago and each generation kept it smooth as a defensive measure. Ragged Edge stepped further into the woods, treading carefully in the gloom. Little sunlight penetrated the thick canopy above.
He pushed his staff into the densely-packed earth and got carefully to his knees. He didn’t need to summon his fae allies. They appeared before him, little shoots rising out of the ground. He beckoned Doors to come closer. The youngster squatted beside him and smiled warmly at the bizarre sight.
“What did you find out?”
“He is hidden. Something is masking him. He left Hepethia last night and he had help with him.”
“Hmph,” Ragged Edge huffed. “A demon? Did he conjure it?”
“We do not know,” the little plants whispered. “The constructs who see everything say he emerged from Hepethia and promptly vanished as if cloaked.”
“Interesting.”
“How will we find him? He knows about us. He’s a security risk.” Doors sounded mildly panicked. Ragged Edge glanced his way and saw his wide eyes.
“He might be. We don’t know that yet.”
“He shot Black Rat,” Doors said, glaring at Ragged Edge.
“He did. He was terrified. Didn’t you smell the fear on him when we caught his scent?”
“Not in this form, I can’t get as much detail as in wolf form.”
“I suppose not.” He chuckled. He forgot sometimes how powerless young cubs were. “My guess is that he stumbled over here by accident, somehow, and saw us. He was scared, alone and trapped in that building. He did what he had to do to get away. I’m interested to know why he had a gun, though. You don’t see those much around here.” He shook his head and got to his feet. The little sprouts disappeared back into the earth and Ragged Edge gave them a little nod of appreciation as they went.
“What if you’re wrong? What if he’s hunting us?”
“Then we’ll deal with him, and whatever demon is cloaking him. Trust me, this is not the disaster. St. Catherine’s is the serious issue. That’s what we should focus on.”
“What can we do to bring it back?”
“I’m not sure. Our investigation was cut short by the shooting.” Ragged Edge pulled his staff out of the ground and crossed the veil back into the woods at the foot of the hill. Doors followed him, still looking worried. Ragged Edge pulled a small pocket knife from the inside pocket of his long, weather-beaten coat and cut into the pad of his thumb. He reached out and smeared the blood that oozed from the cut onto a low-hanging branch nearby.
“What are you doing?” Doors asked, his voice light and curious.
“Calling another ally.” He looked up into the canopy, which was rapidly growing thin with the falling of the golden leaves. A black shape fluttered among the branches and moved down with a rustle of wings. A big, black raven landed on the branch right where he had smeared his blood. “Greetings. Could you ask Shadow’s Step to meet me at the southern border of his territory in twenty minutes, please?”
The raven bobbed its head as if nodding. It gave a rough squawk before taking flight again. Ragged Edge watched it soar away across the open field and over the castle ruins.
The two shifters set off back up the path towards the road. They crossed the main road and strode across the bridge, into the city centre. They followed the river north, into China Town where a vibrant street market bustled with mid-day shoppers and tourists. The mild, October sun filtered through the thin clouds and took the chill out of the air. Ragged Edge remained vigilant as they walked, his eyes darting from one side to the other, taking in the movements of people around them. It was a deeply ingrained habit that he would struggle to break even if h
e tried.
The city all seemed normal, which saddened him in one way, but was probably for the best. Humans were so easily hoodwinked. They were fragile in both body and mind. A whole area of the city had vanished overnight and no one now was any the wiser. Except maybe one man. But this was exactly why it was a good thing that humans didn’t often notice the supernatural elements around them. On the rare occasion that someone did get a glimpse of the truth it never ended well for them or others. Whoever this mysterious shooter was, he had done something that no other human in the city had done in the middle of this crisis - he had not only overcome the barrier around St. Catherine’s, he had crossed into Hepethia and taken a shot at a shapeshifter. It was unprecedented.
The city centre and China Town were both unclaimed, so passing through them was no problem for members of The Watch. However, when they reached the edge of China Town, Ragged Edge felt the familiar tingle down his spine that told him to go no further. It was a primal instinct that told him the way ahead was claimed by another. He knew this, of course, but that didn’t stop the instinct from kicking in. The northern district of Caerton, St. Mark’s, was claimed by The Blue Moon. The river formed a border between St. Mark’s and St. Catherine’s. The Blue Moon claimed everything from the east bank of the river across to Redfield Park over in the east of the city. He halted at the border and Doors stopped alongside him.
“Are you expecting Shadow’s Step to have news?”
“Hoping, rather than expecting.” Ragged Edge began to pace back and forth across the wide path that followed the river. People rushed past, muttering in frustration at having to change course to avoid him as he paced. He ignored them. Doors stood still, keeping a watchful eye on their surroundings. Ragged Edge allowed him to practice the habit, even though he was still on high alert himself. In the mid-distance he had a clear view of Red Bridge, the impressive suspension bridge that spanned the river and connected St. Mark’s and St. Catherine’s. It was deserted, most unusually.
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