Quiver of Cobras

by Helen Harper

  The screen asked for a password. I inputted Rubus’s name and gained access to the machine’s contents on my very first attempt. Yes, I was a pure genius; either that or Lunaria was entirely too predictable. I didn’t waste too much time congratulating myself; instead I opened her recent documents. Something had to be here.

  The last three files that Lunaria had opened up were videos. Maybe she really was just looking at porn. I clicked on the first one, more out of prurient curiosity than anything else, but when I saw what was there I frowned.

  It appeared to be CCTV footage. I glanced at the date in the corner. September 21st. That wasn’t all that long ago. An uneasy feeling drifted into my stomach.

  The footage was taken at night and, as far as I could tell, it was from some sort of park. Then the angle changed and I was watching a small flag fluttering in the night breeze. With a sick feeling in my stomach, I opened up the next file. This video was of somewhere similar. I peered, noting the tall bag with the golf clubs sticking out of it that was propped against a nearby wall. I quickly opened the third one. There was no doubt now: Lunaria was retrieving footage from various golf clubs around the city – footage from the night when I’d woken up with amnesia.

  I’d told Rubus that I’d found myself on a golf course but I hadn’t told him which one. He was sending Lunaria out to get evidence about what I’d really been up to. Except even I didn’t know what I’d really been up to. This didn’t bode well for me.

  I checked the names of each golf course. None of them were the one I’d been at but if Lunaria was visiting every course in the city and its surroundings, it was only a matter of time before she found the right one.

  I cursed. If there was indeed a video of my pre-amnesia self wandering around the eighteenth hole, it was vital that I got my mitts on it before Rubus did. Because whatever else I’d been doing, and whether I’d killed Charrie or not, I’d definitely taken Chen’s magical little sphere from the bogle’s body. If Rubus discovered that I’d had it in my possession, even briefly, then all hell would break loose.

  Chapter Eight

  My first inclination was to speed out of the building and run for the hills, or at least the proverbial hills where the real golf course and scene of the crime were located. But that wouldn’t be smart. I calmed my beating heart and tried to think. I had to get hold of the CCTV before Lunaria did – and I had do it without raising any suspicion.

  I returned the laptop to its original position and swept a quick glance around Lunaria’s room to make sure I’d left nothing out of place. Then I pressed my ear up against the door and listened. There was no sound of anyone in the corridor outside. Stepping out and shaking myself down, I hastily exited and made a beeline for my own room.

  There were no handy sycamore messages, nor any sign that someone had been rummaging through my things, let alone sneaking a peek into my room to spy on me. All the same, my anonymous friend had warned to be careful and, after his second more specific message concerning Lunaria, I was more likely to trust him. Or her. But without an identity for my friendly would-be saviour, I’d have to rely solely on myself. And perhaps a couple of minions of my own.

  I delved into my pocket and pulled out Morgan’s shell. I could work alone or I could take advantage of my dire situation and spend more time with his green-eyed gorgeousness. There was no choice to make. I flipped the shell over in my hands, not entirely sure how the thing was supposed to work. Then I lifted it up to my mouth and shrugged.

  ‘Ring ring!’ I sang. ‘Ring-ring! Ring-ring!’

  Morgan’s disembodied voice appeared. ‘Madrona?’ he asked, sounding concerned. ‘What’s the problem?’

  ‘Ring-ring! Ring-ring!’

  Even across the shell sound waves, I heard him sigh. ‘I’ve picked up. What’s going on? I wasn’t expecting to hear from you this quickly. If this is just you playing around…’

  I sobered up. As much fun as it would be to mess around with the shell, there wasn’t time. I quickly outlined my unpleasant discovery – and what I planned to do about it. At least Morgan did me the favour of listening.

  ‘How do you know Rubus hasn’t already discovered the golf course in question?’ he asked.

  ‘There were only three files on Lunaria’s computer and none of them was from my place. We have to strike quickly though,’ I said. ‘We can’t afford for Rubus to realise that you have the sphere.’ I paused. ‘Unless you’ve managed to destroy it?’ In that scenario, all that would happen was that my secret identity would be unmasked. I’d suffer – which of course would majorly suck arse – but at least the world would be safe. And I could breathe a sigh of relief because that was the kind of fabulously selfless person I was.

  ‘No,’ he said. He sounded pissed off. ‘I’ve tried and Artemesia has tried but the damn thing was created by a dragon. It’s been forged with magic and techniques that are unknown to us. If we knew another dragon, we could quiz them about how to get rid of the fucking thing once and for all. But we don’t know any dragons.’

  ‘We could travel to Mount Doom and throw it in,’ I suggested.

  Morgan’s response was swift. ‘We don’t have a Gollum to help us.’

  I beamed. Clearly we were on the same wavelength. It was fate, I decided; we were obviously meant to be together.

  ‘The best we can do,’ he continued, ‘is hide it – and hide it well. For now, I’ve put it in—’

  ‘Shut up!’ I screeched, then clamped my hand over my mouth as it occurred to me that half the damned hideout had probably heard me. ‘What I mean,’ I hissed, ‘is that you can’t tell me where it is. You can’t even hint at its location. I’m still with Rubus. If he pulls out one of his freaking Truth Spider things and asks the right questions, we’re all screwed.’ I shuddered. Frankly, Rubus wouldn’t need to wait until one of the Truth Spiders bit me and I gave him everything I knew because of the pain. Just the sight of hairy spider legs would give me the wobbles enough to spill all my secrets.

  ‘You’re right.’

  Of course I was right. I was always right. Almost always right, anyway. Over fifty percent of the time, which was almost always in my book. ‘Will you be able to get enough Fey to help out?’ I asked.

  ‘Please,’ Morgan scoffed. ‘I don’t even need to ram pixie dust into their veins to do it either.’

  I winced slightly. ‘Great. Finn won’t want to leave Julie alone, you know.’

  ‘Stop worrying. I’ll leave a few people in his place. Anyway, there’s been no sign of any more vampire hunters. I think Rubus has killed them all.’

  I supposed the slimy Fey bastard had to be good for something. ‘Excellent.’ I rubbed my palms together. ‘I’m going to hang up now.’

  ‘Okay.’

  I waited for a few seconds. ‘Are you going to hang up?’

  ‘I’m already putting the shell away.’

  ‘Bye, then.’

  ‘Goodbye.’

  Silence filled the air. ‘You’re still there, aren’t you?’ I enquired, crossing my fingers and hoping that he was.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘You hang up first,’ I said.

  ‘Technically, it’s a shell. It can’t be hung up.’

  I pursed my lips. ‘You know what I mean.’

  ‘I do. I’m putting it away now.’

  I nodded. I could still hear him breathing. I squeezed my eyes shut and cupped my hands over the delicate shell. ‘I’m sorry,’ I whispered. ‘I’m sorry I asked you to marry me and then dumped you. I don’t know what I could have been thinking.’ With my heart in my mouth, I unfurled my fingers. ‘Morgan?’

  There was no answer; this time he’d definitely gone. I sighed and shoved the shell into the pocket of my jeans. It was probably for the best.

  ***

  Morgan mustered his troops faster than I’d have thought possible. I was just settling into a curry-flavour Pot Noodle when a breathless Fey appeared in the doorway to the kitchen.

  ‘Have you seen Rubus?’ h
e gasped.

  I forked a mouthful of salty goodness into my mouth and chewed thoughtfully. He blurted out the question again, tripping over his words in his haste. I held up my finger to indicate he should wait then took my time finishing my mouthful. When I eventually swallowed, I tilted my head and looked at him. ‘Actually,’ I said and paused for a moment, ‘no.’

  He hissed out an angry breath and spun round, ready to depart.

  ‘Can I help with anything?’ I asked.

  ‘There are faeries all over Chen’s place!’

  I raised an eyebrow. ‘Isn’t that where everyone went this afternoon? I told Rubus about the fire so I’m assuming he sent a bunch of us to go and investigate.’

  He wrung his hands. ‘Not our faeries. Morgan’s faeries! They’ve pitched up with shovels and metal detectors. They’re demanding that we get out of the way and allow them access to the site.’ His eyeballs writhed from side to side in a comical fashion. ‘There are more of them than there are of us!’

  ‘Oh no,’ I murmured. ‘Disaster.’

  From out in the corridor there was the sound of a door opening, followed by Rubus’s unmistakable gruff tones. The Fey in front of me sped out. Reluctantly abandoning my Pot Noodle for now, I ambled after him.

  ‘Sir! Rubus! There are at least twenty of Morganus’s faeries over at Chen’s place. They’re demanding access and causing a real scene!’ The Fey’s bottom lip quivered – I hoped he wasn’t about to cry. We could all do without that embarrassment.

  Rubus looked unimpressed. ‘So? Tell the lot of them to get lost. We were there first.’

  ‘They’ve got some kind of council-sanctioned piece of paper. They’re saying they’ll get the police involved if we don’t vacate the site.’

  That was interesting. Morgan clearly had friends in high places who were prepared to jump to his every whim. It paid to be a barman with access to good alcohol, I decided. I squared my shoulders and stepped up, moving past several concerned Fey and planting my feet directly in front of Rubus.

  ‘I’ll go and sort this out,’ I drawled. ‘I have a history with Morgan. He’ll listen to me.’ I smoothed my hands down over my corset and sashayed my hips for effect.

  Rubus’s face suffused with dark anger. ‘He’s my brother. I’ll deal with this.’

  I saluted. ‘Lead the way then. I shall follow and back you up to the hilt.’ I allowed the faintest dreamy expression to cross my face. ‘Morgan will—’

  ‘Morgan will listen to me. You will stay here,’ he snapped.

  I did a good job of looking crestfallen. ‘Oh come on, Ruby baby. I can’t just sit around here and twiddle my thumbs. I have a new outfit to show off.’

  He glared at me. ‘Then go out and find my fucking pixie dust that you lost! You’re not going anywhere near Morganus. The rest of us will stop him. He has no right to go rooting through Chen’s place. I don’t know what my brother thinks he’s playing at by involving the humans. The man’s a fool.’ He flapped his arms at the cluster of faeries round him. ‘He’ll do anything to stop us getting back home to Mag Mell,’ he spat.

  The whole group murmured in shocked agreement. Sheep.

  I widened my eyes. ‘Do you think he’s looking for something specific? Is it that magical sphere thingy? Do you think it’s there?’

  Rubus muttered something inaudible under his breath. He turned round and started marching out again. I watched him go while the Fey who’d brought the supposedly terrible news looked anxiously at me. ‘I don’t think Morgan is there,’ he confided in a worried whisper. ‘I didn’t see him.’

  I shrugged. ‘He might be on his way,’ I said. Or he might be planning to meet me beside a certain golf course now that Rubus was suitably occupied for the next couple of hours. ‘I wish I could be there,’ I said. ‘But I guess I’ll have to go out and scour the city for a cache of missing pixie dust instead.’

  The Fey grimaced. ‘Rather you than me.’

  I offered up a melodramatic sigh. ‘Life’s a bitch.’ Unless you are one already.

  ***

  Night had fallen by the time I made it to the rendezvous point. Both Morgan and Finn were waiting there, stamping their feet to keep out the cold. Finn appeared particularly unhappy. The antsy expression on his face immediately worried me.

  ‘Is Julie alright?’ I asked, as I emerged out of the tree cover to join them.

  ‘She’s fine,’ he said shortly.

  I glanced askance at Morgan. He raked a hand through his hair. ‘There’s a website,’ he said. ‘Her name is being touted about.’

  ‘She’s a famous soap star. Surely her name is going to be bandied around. You said there had been no sign of any more vampire hunters.’

  ‘No physical sign,’ he answered heavily. ‘But in the last couple of hours there have been suggestions on a few online forums that she’s not all she seems. So far the gossip has been limited to a discussion about how she manages to look so young when there’s no evidence that she’s been to a plastic surgeon. The internet is a rabbit warren of conspiracy theories. All it takes is one enterprising hacker to go looking for information on her, though.’

  ‘Google is hardly going to tell the world that she’s a vampire,’ I scoffed.

  ‘No,’ he replied. ‘But it might tell the world that her birth certificate is fake. Plus, there’s a photo.’

  ‘It’s her,’ Finn grumped. ‘In 1903. Right now it’s a joke: Julie Chivers has a lookalike who’s long dead. Except…’

  ‘It’s not a lookalike. It’s her,’ I finished.

  He nodded grimly. ‘We haven’t been able to tell whether these are more vampire hunters who are on her trail and have decided that they’ll just expose her if they can’t capture her. Or whether it’s just shitty luck and it’s entirely innocuous.’

  ‘What can I do?’ I asked.

  ‘You’ve got your hands full with Rubus. Focus on him,’ Morgan said.

  ‘I’m capable of multi-tasking. I can chew gum and walk all at the same time.’

  ‘I’m dealing with it,’ Finn said. From the way he was bunching and unbunching his fists, he wasn’t dealing with it very well. Still, I reflected, at least looking after Julie’s wellbeing would take his mind off his dead brothers – although part of me was waiting for the Redcap to snap and try to take off my head for being involved in both their deaths.

  He gave me a derisive sniff. ‘You stick to running around and panting after Rubus.’ He threw a scornful glance at my clothes. ‘Clearly you’re more suited to being a honey trap than helping people. Stay on your knees and keep that mad faery occupied.’ He raised his hand and gestured a crude mimicry of a blowjob.

  I didn’t need to look at Morgan to know he was furious. ‘Gee,’ I drawled to Finn, ‘I didn’t realise you were such an expert on my life and how I should live it. Please continue with your wonderful insights. I’ll take notes.’ I paused. ‘Arsebadger.’

  A rumble sounded in Finn’s throat and a moment later he sprang at me. I saw Morgan lunge to pull him back. I frowned at him and shook my head in warning just before Finn’s fist connected with the side of my head.

  I staggered slightly. That hurt. ‘Is that the best you’ve got?’ I taunted.

  Finn flung himself at me again, knocking me to the ground. His fists flew. I dodged a few of the punches by jerking my head from side to side but he still landed several. Feeling woozy, I writhed underneath him then rolled to extricate myself. As soon as I was clear, I jumped back to my feet. Finn kicked out, his boot slamming into my stomach. Winded, I doubled over.

  ‘They’re dead!’ he screamed at me. ‘They’re both dead!’

  I squinted, raising my eyes to look at him. His expression crumpled almost as if I’d hit him and his knees seemed to give away. He collapsed to the ground, his shoulders shaking with heartfelt sobs.

  I spat out a thin stream of blood, wiped my mouth and hobbled over. I thought about touching him but decided it would be wise to leave him be. I limped over to Morgan, who wa
s watching us both with a stony expression. He lifted one hand to my stomach, pressing it against the bruise that was already forming. The pain eased almost instantly and I groaned with relief. He moved his hand up to my face but I shook my head. The visible bruises would come in handy later.

  After what seemed like an eternity, Finn’s crying subsided. He hiccupped and straightened up, shooting me one more viciously angry glare. Then he ignored me completely and addressed Morgan. ‘We’re here for a reason.’ His voice was thick with unspent tears. ‘We should get a move on.’ He turned and headed up the hill, his heavy footsteps trudging towards the clubhouse less than half a mile away.

  I grimaced slightly, wincing at the throbbing pain in my jaw and my left cheek. As I turned to follow him, Morgan grabbed my elbow and stopped me. ‘You did that deliberately,’ he said quietly. ‘Finn’s insult about being a honey trap didn’t bother you but you still goaded him into becoming even angrier.’

  ‘I’m not sleeping with Rubus,’ I told him. ‘He wouldn’t turn me down if I offered and he’s come close to inviting me into his bed, but I don’t think he’s really that interested in me. He’d only do it to piss you off. I get the impression he thinks he’s too pure for such base instincts.’

  ‘I know,’ Morgan answered, surprising me. ‘If you were having sex with Rubus, Finn’s comment would have angered you.’

  ‘Score one for the amateur psychologist,’ I said tiredly.

  ‘I’m not the only one.’ He kept his eyes on mine. ‘You wanted Finn to get angry because you knew he needed to let off steam and you didn’t mind being a convenient punch bag. You didn’t once try to hit him back.’

  ‘You’re reading too much into it,’ I dismissed. ‘How was I to know that moronic Redcap would attack me? Pah.’ I rolled my eyes. ‘You ought to keep him on a tighter leash.’