Blood Dark (33 page)

F
ortunately daylight was always
the best time to catch an angel – always had been.

They mainly moved around when there was less chance of their glows being picked out by the third species. The only other clear indicator from a distance was their rucksacks – the backs taken out, their sheath-like wings folded inside.

The biggest risk was a mugging, mainly from the cons. But if a con got close enough to look, that said con wasn’t going to survive long. The wings indicated two things above all else: the carrier was not only tough but merciless.

Angels were also the most intrinsically selfish of the third species, doing whatever they could to guard the secret of their blood and tears – that their blood had temporary healing qualities just like that of the Higher Order, and that their tears created super-humans. So, since the regulations, they’d kept themselves to themselves more than ever, laying low to protect themselves whilst casting their eye over the rest of the third species’s plight with a cold and indifferent eye.

And their wealth allowed it. The angels had a
lot
of wealth. Unfortunately, even that couldn’t pave their way permanently out of Blackthorn or Lowtown (and their equivalents in other locales) without them subsequently risking exposure. But the fact they needed no one or anything to survive made them an even more awkward and uncooperative clan.

Ziel was his best bet though. They’d had a couple of run-ins in the past. As a rogue, no one had his back. Once you were ousted from the parliament, you were ousted – unless you still served some purpose. Ziel was a runner when they wanted him to be. The rest of the time he mooched around Blackthorn alone.

Kane sat perched on the roof ledge, his feet dangling over the edge as he exhaled a pensive stream of smoke, watching from the flat roof opposite the run-down apartment-block opposite. Ziel lived in the attic space, coming out only occasionally for supplies.

And he was just leaving.

His rucksack was plastered to his back, his one functional wing folded and stuffed inside. He’d had the other cut off by his parliament, his power and strength reduced with it. Ziel had overstepped the mark somewhere along the line, but Kane had never managed to get out of him how.

As Ziel headed down the alley, Kane cast his cigarette aside and exited the roof via the external fire escape. He crossed the street and closed in to fifteen feet behind Ziel until the angel clocked him.

Ziel kept going at a steady pace for a moment.

Then he ran.

As well as selfish, aloof and intolerant bastards, angels were also, unfortunately, nimble, fast and extremely quick thinkers.

Kane hissed under his breath, before breaking into a sprint behind him.

Ziel navigated the back alleys like the familiar territory it was to him. He knew he had no chance of circling around back up to his apartment, his warded apartment, before Kane got to him, so he was taking his chances.

And he was running for his life.

The bins, the discarded rubbish, the metal frames of long-rusted and abandoned objects were all easy hurdles for him – his speed one thing that hadn’t been slowed down by his semi wing loss. If he’d been fully functional, Kane would have had his work cut out. Contrary to legend, they couldn’t technically fly but gliding was an art form to them. For the most adept, their speed and mid-air acrobatics could be lethal to anyone caught in the crossfire.

But Ziel no longer had that advantage. So instead of heading upwards, onwards was his only option.

Kane simply needed a clean shot and Ziel knew it, which is why he zig-zagged with perfection, taking corners and getting as many obstacles in the way as possible.

For the sake of inevitable delay, it was an option Kane hadn’t wanted to take or he would have fired from the rooftop. Now he had no choice. He pulled the bow from his back; slid an arrow from his quiver.

Running targets were one thing, but running targets whilst running yourself was a whole other skill-set. But, like when faced with the nilkim, he couldn’t afford to fuck up.

They were approaching a straight stretch, something Ziel knew by his increase in pace. He was going to dive through the nearest doorway, that much was obvious.

Kane drew back his bow and shot.

The arrow skimmed Ziel’s shoulder the split-second he rammed sideways into the doorway.

Kane cursed under his breath and picked up pace again.

Except he didn’t pursue through the building. He turned on his heels and circled the outside. Each alley he passed he caught a glimpse of Ziel a second ahead.

It was a punt but a calculated one. If Ziel had any sense, he too would have double-backed on himself, or hidden, but that required not letting survival instincts take over. Ziel had one key weakness beyond his reduced physical strength: when cornered, he panicked.

Kane broke out into the fastest speed he could muster. He skidded into position at the open end of the alley. He removed the second arrow from his quiver, drew it back to anchor point and braced himself.

Ziel burst into the alley. He looked across his shoulder to clock Kane stood braced. His eyes flared.

‘Sorry, buddy,’ Kane whispered.

The arrow hurtled through the air, caught Ziel clean in the thigh and took him to ground instantly.

Kane hooked his bow back into place as he marched down towards the angel. Ziel was already weakening, the concoction Kane had coated the arrow with bringing on a state of delirium.

‘What the fuck, Kane …?’ Ziel hissed, just as Kane looped his arms under his, dragging him back into the building.

‘You should know by now not to run,’ Kane declared. ‘It never ends well.’

‘I haven’t done anything.’

Kane pulled him back against the rotten sofa. ‘I didn’t say you have. But I need you for something.’

‘Not again.’

Kane bent down on one knee in front of him and held up the small vial. ‘This will take the edge off. We can get this over quickly or we can wait until you’re too delirious to care.’

Ziel sighed with impatience. ‘What?’ he snapped.

‘I’ve got a job for you.’

‘It always makes me uneasy when you say that, Kane.’

‘This is a simple one,’ Kane said. ‘Just a little blood-letting.’

‘
Voluntary
blood letting?’

‘You bleed willingly or I make you bleed,’ Kane said, with a shrug. ‘That’s the contract.’

‘Good to see your negotiation skills are as adept as always.’

‘Only because we don’t have time for this.’

‘And what exactly is this in relation to? I take it I’m allowed to ask that much?’

‘Closing the fourth dimension.’

‘
What
?’

‘Don’t tell me you haven’t picked up on the fourth species activity.’

‘Hardly our problem, Kane.’

‘But it could get that way. It’s going to get that way.’

‘You know I’m supposed to have nothing to do with you. If the parliament find out …’

‘They won’t.’

‘They find out
every
thing. A wingless angel in Blackthorn? That’s what I’ll become. Come on, Kane, don’t do this to me.’

K
ane led
Ziel through to the back of the lock-up. He knew more than ever what Leila meant by the epicentre. The air felt even more charged than the last time. This time, a static crackling was detectable even beyond the tomb-like enclosure where the prophecy was drawn.

The corpses of the vybers still lay dead on the floor. If they weren’t sent back to the fourth dimension they rotted in their corporeal state. The stench was already pungent.

‘Did they not want to bleed voluntarily either?’ Ziel asked, stepping over a limp limb.

Kane sent him a fleeting glance before looking back ahead. ‘What is it with people trying to be funny today?’

Leila, Jessie, Jask and Eden turned to face them as they joined them in the darkened space of the inner room.

As soon as Jessie and Ziel locked gazes, his eyes flared. Whatever it was, it was a glint of recognition. Even more interestingly, his eyes flashed with anxiety. But it was that he froze – as if he didn’t know what to do with himself – that was even more troubling.

Jessie frowned. She took a step towards him. ‘You know me,’ she said quietly.

Ziel dropped his gaze. ‘No,’ he said, a little too sheepishly for Kane’s liking, and seemingly for Jessie’s too.

Eden’s eyes narrowed as he stepped alongside Jessie, his lips parted to confront him.

But Kane stepped between them. ‘Not now,’ he said, already feeling the intensity of the vibrations through the soles of his boots. ‘We sort it later.’

When he
would
get the truth out of Ziel.

Seemingly as keen to press on, Leila knelt down in the centre of the concrete floor, crawling to various parts of it, her hands locating the vibrations too.

‘It’s strong here,’ she said, standing again. She removed the chunk of chalk from her pocket. ‘Just to warn you, there might be a bit of opposition.’

Kane frowned. ‘Specify “opposition”.’

‘Once the locking spell has begun,’ she said, drawing the first of the markings on the floor, ‘there will be some still on their way through – trapped in the tunnel so to speak. As they feel the dimension closing, they’ll try to run for it.’ She looked back up at Kane, at Jask, finally at Eden. ‘In
this
direction. Once the spell is underway, us three won’t have a clue what’s going on. We’ll be in the eye of the storm. That means it’s down to you three until it’s closed.’

Kane exchanged glances with Jask, with Eden.

They both nodded back at him.

Leila knelt at the core of where she had drawn the five-foot wide infinity symbol, markings etched all around it. She indicated for Jessie to kneel at the outer loop to her right, Ziel to her left.

She looked back up at Kane. ‘Ready?’ she asked.

He nodded, removing an arrow from his quiver as he stepped into position to protect Leila. Jask stepped into position to guard Ziel. Eden flipped open his knife as he took Jessie’s back, but not before he’d placed a tender kiss on her forehead.

Leila handed the knife to Jessie first. Without hesitation, she did exactly as Leila had explained, slicing through both palms before handing the knife to Ziel.

It took Ziel a few deep breaths, but eventually he did the same before handing the knife back to Leila.

Leila looked once more up at Kane. ‘Here we go.’

She took her own steady breath, closing her eyes before slicing through her own palms, wincing as she did so, her jaw clenched. She held her palms over where they were going to be placed, Jessie and Ziel following suit.

‘We go on three,’ she said to them, meeting their gazes in succession, ‘and you don’t remove them until I say. Whatever happens, you
don’t
remove your hands.’

Jessie nodded, Ziel reluctantly doing the same.

‘Worst-case scenario?’ he asked.

Leila met his gaze. ‘If you retract too soon, it reverses, and we get sucked in.’

‘So
keep
those hands grounded,’ Kane warned him.

Ziel exhaled tersely. ‘Believe me, I’ve got the hint.’

Leila took a slow and steady breath. ‘On three …’ she said. She looked from Jessie to Ziel. ‘One … two … three!’

Their bloodied palms all hit the concrete simultaneously.

C
aitlin sat at her desk
, opting for the glow of the lamp rather than the harsh overhead light. She stared at the folder as the minutes scraped by, her fingers locked around the elastic band that contained the Pandora’s box laid in front of her.

But she couldn’t open it. Like sensing that monster in her bed that Morgan had described, she needed to keep the sheet over her head and pretend nothing was there.

She needed a reason not to look. A reason to not want to know.

She wanted the confidence to push it aside like it didn’t matter.

Fingertips on her chin, her elbow on the arm rest, the queasy sensation in her stomach intensified as she looked up at where the rain smattered against the window, the transparent rivulets glistening against the night sky.

She could hear it breathing: that metaphorical monster laying beside her. She could feel the pressure of its presence. She could feel it watching her, waiting for her next move.

She closed her eyes.

She needed to turn her head.

She needed to finally look it fully in the eyes – whatever the outcome.

She reached for the folder. She held it as if it was a fragile piece of glass. She stared at the CONFIDENTIAL emblazoned across the front of it. ORIGINALS. NO COPIES PERMITTED.

She removed the elastic band that bound it all. She pinged back the additional elastic on each corner.

And opened the folder.

A
t first there was nothing
.

Kane stood braced as he warily watched his surroundings. Amidst Leila’s mutterings and the static charge in the air, the vibrations were now pulsating beneath his feet as if Leila’s presence alone was generating an escalation of energy.

He sent a wary glance across his shoulder at Jask, at Eden. Jask sent a shrug back. Eden didn’t lose a second of vigilance.

At first it was subtle. The walls were pulsating, breathing almost, something crawling through them like subterranean worms.

Kane held an arrow in position in his bow but kept it lowered, confident he could hit whatever target he needed to within a split second if anything came at any of them.

Leila’s spell continued, all three blood-letters knelt there with their heads lowered.

Whatever it took, he’d make sure she’d succeed. Whatever he had to do, that dimension was going to be closed before they left. He knew as much as he had seen it confirmed in Leila’s eyes: this was their one chance.

The crack from beyond the door nearly threw him, Jask and Eden off their feet, the ground thundering and shuddering like a tonne weight had been dropped through the roof.

All three regained their balance in quick succession.

‘Keep watching them,’ he directed over his shoulder as he lifted his bow and arrow into position and approached the gaping doorway.

Beyond, a sinkhole had swallowed the pool table as well as one of the dead vybers. Smoke erupted from the pit – a cyclone of smoke that burst up through the splintered roof.

‘
Shit
,’ Kane hissed slowly, his gaze snapping from the damage above down to the abyss below.

Deathly silence rained down.

He kept his bow and arrow poised as he scanned the room, waiting for something, anything, to appear.

The cyclone eased, dissipated, leaving nothing but a low, grey mist lingering on the ground.

Kane took a few cautious steps forward, the mist coiling around his feet and ankles, subtle hints of sulphur lingering in the air. Attention switching between the sinkhole and remaining guarded of the room around him, he pulled his arrow back to anchor point.

This time the ground jolted like an earthquake, throwing Kane clean off his feet onto his back the arrow hitting the ground.

The creature burst up from within the sinkhole, splitting the ground around it upwards at a forty-five degree angle, its head stopping less than a couple of feet from the gaping ceiling of the lock-up.

It let out an ear-piercing screech, necessitating Kane to slam his hands over his ears to protect his refined eardrums.

As more ceiling fell down around the creature, Kane pulled himself into a partial abdominal crunch and tugged a fresh arrow from his quiver. Holding himself in position, he drew the arrow back to anchor-point. Having no idea what the hell it was, how to tackle it, he went with the safest option and pointed it at the creature’s head – and released his arrow.

The creature grunted at the impact before batting the arrow away.

It stilled.

It looked downwards.

Behind folds of dense, wrinkled, charcoal skin, its amber eyes locked instantly on Kane.

‘Ah,
fuck
,’ Kane cursed.

From within the sinkhole, tens of little creatures scampered out of the abyss, all making a bee-line for the vybers’ corpses, ripping at their rotting flesh with territorial fervency.

As arms coiled out from beneath the creature’s skin, its eyes still locked on Kane, Kane clambered backwards, before getting to his feet.

Jask was behind him, the door held open ready.

As Kane cleared the threshold, they simultaneously slammed the door shut behind him.

But it was immediately shunted open.

Eden flew forward to slam his back against the door alongside them.

‘What the
fuck
?’ Jask hissed.

The door was shunted again.

Kane put his full weight side-on to the door, Jask doing the same as Eden retained his back flat against it.

Their boots scraped against concrete, the strain clear in both Eden and Jask’s clenched jaws.

‘I
think
it might know we’re in here,’ Eden exclaimed, his boots sliding another foot forward before he retraced his steps again with fervent determination.

Kane looked across at Leila, Jessie and Ziel sat on their haunches on the floor, Leila still uttering the spell, Jessie and Ziel’s eyes squeezed shut.

Kane looked back at Eden. ‘You think?’

Eden flashed him a smile. ‘I never miss a trick.’

And, this time, Kane couldn’t help but smile back.

The creature, or whatever else was trying to get in, shoved the door forward again.

‘Can we take it?’ Jask asked him, ramming his shoulder back against the door.

‘If I had a fucking clue what it is,’ Kane said, slamming his whole body weight back against the door as it was jolted forward yet again.

‘Three of us,
one
of it,’ Jask said. ‘Even if they close the dimension, that bastard’s here to stay unless we do something about it. And it is the only way out.’

Adrenaline pumping, jaw clenched, determination focused, Kane looked back at Jask and Eden. ‘We hit it anywhere the fuck we can – agreed?’

Jask and Eden gave a single sharp nod.

‘From five, four, three, two …’

And there was silence.

Kane’s gaze snapped to Jask, to Eden, before he looked across at Leila.

She lifted her palms from the floor, eased back on her haunches, looking dazed, but coming round.

Jessie and Ziel sat back too.

Beyond the door was stillness.

Beyond the door was silence.

Cautiously Eden pulled back the door to peer outside.

Whatever the creature was, it now lay face down on its front.

The air had turned putrid.

Kane replaced an arrow in his bow. Keeping it fixed on the creature, he edged closer to the sinkhole.

Except it wasn’t a sinkhole anymore. Now it was no more than ten-foot deep basin. Whatever the creature was, it had been cut off at the abdomen as the dimension had closed, leaving half of it there, and half of it back in the fourth.

Kane looked over his shoulder to where they all stood around, taking in the state of the floor, of the roof, at the little creatures that still worked their way through the corpses – those that hadn’t scurried off elsewhere.

He hooked his bow over his shoulder, placed a cigarette between his lips and ignited the tip before exhaling a steady stream of smoke.

‘One problem down, two to go,’ he said as he stepped over the corpses on his way across to the door. ‘I swear this job doesn’t get any easier.’