Halton Cray (Shadows of the World Book 1) (34 page)

Death looked to roughly where Thom stood, though
not exactly. ‘I know you’re there,’ he whispered chillingly through my father’s
beard. ‘You scavenge off my table regularly enough. I know you’re there.’ He
looked back to me. ‘On one condition will I agree to reward him his soul as
part of your proposed bargain.’

‘Name it!’

‘An end must come to the one who made him, who yet
interferes with my work; let him make and take no more from my list.’

‘Tell him,’ said Thom in angst, ‘to consider it
done. If he swears he’ll return my soul, I will find a way to stop Johan! –
Alex, whatever it takes.’

I turned my eyes on Death and told him.

I expected a response of some sort, to seal the
deal. Not another sound issued from him. Death pulled up his hood, reburied those
hands in his pockets, and walked backwards as if he was on a slow rewind
setting. I stared after him until he disappeared back into the fog across the
road from where he’d emerged.

Thom turned and pulled me against him. ‘I thought
I’d lost you!’ He stroked my face and gazed into my eyes. ‘But in true Alexian style,
with a death-defying love for me, you chose to stay by my side!’ He smiled and planted
rapturous kisses on my lips before adjoining, ‘You argued with Grim for me,
Alex – fearlessly – and suddenly I have a chance to walk amongst the living
once more. Come on!’ He led me by the hand.

‘Where to?’

‘To get my car. I’m driving you home and then I’m off
to see Seth, to convince him to help me. I need to leave the country
immediately.’

‘I thought you went to Manhattan already?’

‘And I suppose, Cassandra, you found that out by
divination?’

‘I got an email from Stacey.’

‘And do you know what I went there to do?’

‘To find Johan.’

‘And I saw him, Alex, in the dead-flesh.’ He set
his teeth.

‘You really saw him? And you went there to–?’

He seemed reluctant to say more.

I stopped still and folded my arms.

‘I’d lost you, Alex. My world was turning
backwards once again. I was like a boat without an anchor; I felt as lost as I
had in Ireland years ago. For all the misery Johan caused me, the time had come
to execute my revenge. I had Seth’s assurance at where he was living. The
timing was right to take action. So I told Seth I was going, as he was still
building the courage to go back. I told him my purpose and promised to
accompany him home. I wasn’t in a mood to be gracious about it. I told him
bluntly –

‘“There’s a reason you’re involved in all this. I
would have liked to do it without involving others, but I’ll be a stranger in
your city, and there are certain things I will need. I can try to do this
alone, but if I fail, you will likely never feel safe again. Will you help me
destroy the monster who would have killed you? Who does kill others at random and
at will?”

‘Seth’s young but he’s no coward, Alex. He agreed,
even as he shook with anxiety and perhaps a pinch of excitement.’

‘And what happened?’

‘Nothing! Nothing happened. Seth’s nerves got the
better of him. It’s not his fault. He’s mortal; I asked too much. But without
his assistance I couldn’t execute my plan. He froze up and I had to bring him
back.’

‘So what will you do now?’

‘I’ll ask him again. Not much else I can do. I
offered to compensate him, of course. Though I find it insulting to put a price
on risking his life. Still, I couldn’t expect him to do it gratis!’

Thom noticed how I panted in trying to keep up.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said remorsefully, before scooping
me up effortlessly into his arms. I knotted my hands at the back of his neck.

‘What terrified Seth so much?’ I said after a few
minutes of looking into those powerful dark eyes. ‘What do you need him to do?’

‘I need him to risk his life, Alex. I need to put
him in mortal danger.’

‘How? – In what way?’

‘You know I can’t enter onto consecrated ground. I
believe the same applies to Johan. Everybody has a conscience, even those with
limited access to it. I mean to prove my theory, as a way to permanently end
him. But to do it, I need to put Seth in such a place alone with a ruthless killer.’
He stopped still. ‘I don’t blame him for losing his nerve.’

‘Then what makes you think he’ll change his mind?’

He shook his head and walked on, his grip firm on
me. ‘He loves his city and wants to go home. But he won’t feel safe until Johan
is finished. I can do it, but I need Seth to put him in the dirt. I cannot even
glide above that ground, nor climb any tree that sprouts from it. Even if I
should try, much good I’d do him. I’d sink in a quicksand to purgatory.’

He fell silent in thought.

We reached the crest of Bourne Hill. From here
Halton Cray would have been visible if the sun was up or the bright moon out.

‘Thom?’

‘Yes, fruitcake?’

‘You know what I’m going to say.’

‘Yes. The answer is no.’

‘You don’t have anyone else to help you. I can go
anywhere Seth can. This benefits me too and you know it.’

‘Except that I’m not willing to risk your life,
Alex. I lost you once already and nearly again tonight. I won’t risk–’

‘But you’d risk Seth’s?’

‘Seth’s life is already at risk and remains so while
Johan is at large. You, Alex, have nothing to do with that. Risking your life
is just utter selfishness on my part. You taught me all about that.’

‘But this is for us both.’

‘Alex, I do not intend to put you in danger.
You’re not to carry out any perilous work. When it comes to finishing Johan,
you’re not going to be present, understand?’

‘Thom, I am involved – with you! That involves me
in everything else concerning you. I’m coming to New York. I’ll follow you if I
have to! Perhaps Seth will agree to try again if he knows he won’t be
completely alone. So tell him I’m willing to help in whatever capacity is
necessary. Tell him,’ I said, even as my nerves set ablaze, ‘that he won’t be
alone when it comes to burying Johan.’

Thirty-one

‘In my end is my beginning.’

– Mary I of Scotland

I sat in one corner of Seth’s
hotel room at The Horseman’s Inn. It was six in the morning. The passé
wallpaper and miniature plastic kettle had me wondering how anyone could stay
here for more than a fortnight. Thom sat at the foot of Seth’s bed while Seth
paced the room. I stared at his slim face openly, thinking back to the first
time I’d seen it, all bloated and sallow. To when those mud-brown eyes, now so
full of life and feeling, were vacant windows before.

His New York accent reverberated off the walls. ‘More
than anything, Thom, I wanna go home. Second to that, I want to help you.’

‘I know, Seth, and I’d like to make it possible
for you to return. But I can only do so much. I understand it’s a huge service to
ask of you, and I completely accept you saying no. But’ – Thom leant forward,
resting his forearms on his thighs – ‘the truth is, I can’t leave this to Alex
alone. Look at her.’ He half-smiled, gazing over to me. ‘She’s flipping tiny. I
can’t imagine that girly frame supporting much more than a shovel.’

Seth laughed, but it was the nervous kind.

‘But what she lacks in mass she makes up for in
determination, amongst other things.’ He paused a moment and then added, ‘I
would never send either of you in with Johan conscious.’

‘I know you wouldn’t.’ Seth sighed heavily,
squeezing his temples between finger and thumb. ‘Guess I gotta go home some
time. And I’m
not
going back with Johan still around. So the plan is?’

‘The same, Seth. I need you to play the part we
primarily agreed on, if you’re up to it.’

‘That first part is easy work, in comparison,’ he
responded. ‘I’ve no problem with that. It’s being alone with Johan that
concerns me.’

‘Well’ – Thom looked at me, his jaw tightening –
‘Alex here will help you with the most dangerous task.’

‘She’s not afraid, huh?’

‘I’m terrified,’ I spoke up, quite honestly. ‘But more
than that I am willing,
very
willing, to stop him at all cost.’

‘Is he after you too?’ asked Seth.

‘No.’ I shook my head. ‘Far as I know, he doesn’t
know I exist.’

‘But you’re willing to risk your life?’

‘For Thom, yes I am.’

He nodded slowly and rubbed his face.

‘This is crazy, but count me in. You did save my
neck after all.’

‘I appreciate it,’ answered Thom, standing to
shake his hand. ‘It was – it
is
– too much to ask of you. I wish I had
another way to stop the bastard, but I don’t.’

Seth smiled both nervously and excitedly. ‘Looks
like I’m going home. If you wanna get going tonight, it’ll probably take me an
hour to pack up my things here.’

In which time Thom drove me home to pick up my
passport, other essentials and a package containing my errant mobile phone.

After collecting Seth, Thom tore through veils of
his own fog accelerating along the M25 to London Gatwick, looking annoyed the
entire time.

‘Why don’t you like driving?’ I asked, squeezing
the rim of the black leather seat.

‘Frustrates me. It’s restricting.’

‘Is it?’

‘It is to me, because I can move so much faster
and off-road. I don’t suppose you’d understand. You can walk at a decent pace,
Alex, and run twice as fast, right? Would you choose to use a Zimmer frame to
get from A to B? How long would it take you, do you think? Call that
invigorating!’

‘Hmm. I never thought about it like that.’

Seth was practically green skinned when we
arrived. Thom approached the American Airlines desk to get us on the next
available flight to JFK. He handed over our passports and a credit card to the
ticket agent, who eyed him like the dangerous dog he looked to everyone but me.
I didn’t like it and so deliberately kissed him to quash her misgivings.

‘There are hundreds more people to pass before
boarding our plane, Cassandra,’ said Thom, as we walked away. ‘You’ll wear your
lovely lips out trying to soften them all to me.’

‘Then try smiling,’ I teased, taking his hand.
‘Are we not going through security yet?’

‘We’re going to that internet café first’ – he
pointed – ‘to make some hotel reservations. Seth and I stayed in one before, on
Manhattan’s Upper East Side.’

‘Are you okay to book that up, Thom?’ asked Seth.
‘I need to call my buddy to arrange picking up my car. And I’d like a break
from you two for five minutes. You’re either holding hands or making out, or
something. I’m feeling like a fifth wheel here.’

He took out his phone, smiling.

‘See you back here in five,’ joked Thom.

Once seated in the café with the hotel’s website
open before us –

‘So, fruitcake, what shall we do about sleeping
arrangements?’ He was bold as brass. ‘A single for Seth, of course. And you and
I–’

‘–Would do well to stay focused on what this
journey is about.’

‘I thought it was about
us
spending the
rest of our natural lives together?’ He pulled me from my chair to sit on his
lap.

‘On the whole, yes, but–’

‘So then let’s get a double.’ He circled my waist with
his arms and began typing with a rising grin.

I put a hand over the keys. ‘We’re going to stay
focused. Three singles and no distractions.’ I went to move from his lap.

‘Provoking cuckoo!’ He pulled me back and corrected
the booking.

‘Thank you,’ I said, combing his hair with my
fingers. His eyes stole to mine where they softened. He went to say something;
something I expected would be thoughtful and intimate. But on scoping the café
and the many strangers it contained, he hesitated and whispered, ‘Later.’

He could tell I was nervous at the thought of
sleeping with him. Perhaps he knew why, perhaps he didn’t. If I could find the
words to explain it to him, I would, when we were alone.

Seth met us outside the café.

‘Okay, we can pick my car up just as soon as we
land. He’s been storing quite a few things for me. I really owe him. Hotel
good?’

‘We have rooms, yes.’ Thom jeered, tweaking my
ear. ‘Although I didn’t get the exact one I was after.’

I hid my smile.

On boarding our flight, the air steward directed
me to the left. ‘Business class, ma’am, is this way.’

I glanced at Thom behind me, who was oblivious to
anything at this moment. His mood took a turn the moment we began boarding, and
he probably wouldn’t relax until we landed.

Seth took his seat across the aisle.

I looked out the window and found it easy not to
think about the dark work awaiting us on the other side. New York felt unaccountably
like a make-believe place, because I only ever saw it on TV, and never imagined
actually going there.

‘I’ll close my blind when the ocean’s in view,
Thom, if it’ll help?’

‘Thank you,’ he said solemnly, laying his hand on
mine.

‘Will you still get sick?’

‘Unquestionably. But I hope not much. I’ve nothing
to throw up presently.’

‘What? You
throw up
?’ I whispered, ‘what, blood?’

He looked at me. ‘What did you think I meant?’

‘Just that you feel nauseous, not that you get
physically sick.’

‘As if nausea isn’t enough.’

Thom had ordered an inflight meal for Seth and I,
but obviously nothing for himself.

‘When was the last time you ate?’ I asked him.

‘Almost three days ago.’

‘Is that okay?’

‘It’s longer than I’d like.’

‘We’re on an eight hour flight, Thom. Is – umm –
Mr Hyde going to grace us with his presence?’

He turned to me and for the first time since boarding,
he smiled.

‘No, Cassandra, I definitely would not have
boarded this flight if I thought it was remotely possible. I will though need
to go out soon after we land. I don’t want to risk aggravating my demon.’

He looked over to Seth, who was sound asleep. ‘He’s
so much more relaxed this time round, thanks to you. Now why don’t you get some
sleep, too?’

Surprisingly, I found that quite easy. With Thom
so close, his scent so powerfully available, I slept the remainder of the
flight.

It was dark and misty when we arrived. I inhaled
the foreign air as we exited the airport, finding it slightly colder, crisper
than back home. Seth went ahead of us to order a taxi. We were the only ones at
the deserted pickup point. No queues, no quarrels for a yellow cab, as I always
saw in films. Then again, it was 1 A.M. Eastern Standard Time.

The profundity of our undertaking still hadn’t gotten
its claws into me, as it had both Thom and Seth. They had dread of every kind written
on their faces. But I understood that they’d been here before, desperate to see
it through, yet the sheer terror of it made one flee and left the other thwarted.

‘Okay,’ said Seth, holding a yellow slip of paper
in his hand, ‘got our taxi coming. We’ll pick up my car, then head to The Poole
Hotel. It’s a nice hotel, Alex, and the parking isn’t too expensive. My new
home until after… you know.’

Thom laid a hand on his shoulder. ‘Hopefully,
it’ll take no more than a few days. A week at most. Seth, I need to ascertain
Johan’s still in the city, so once you and my little assistant here are checked
in, I’m going to ensure he’s still around.’

‘No problem. Hey, this is our cab.’

Seth ordered the driver to an address in Woodhaven,
Queens.

We exited the expressway and took a turn onto Atlantic
Avenue, which despite the hour was quite busy. The farther we went, the smaller
the streets got, and the houses with them. Straight runs of terraced houses boasted
some unmistakable American features, such as door screens and wire fenced front
yards.

‘This is it.’

The taxi stopped in front of a blue mid-terraced
house with a large white door. Seth pointed to a dark four-door boxy vehicle,
sitting on the drive. Thom unloaded our cases from the trunk and paid the
driver, while Seth went to retrieve his car keys from under a doormat.

‘We might as well go straight to Johan’s,’ I said,
‘before checking in.’

‘I’m going alone, but nice try,’ said Thom, before
telling Seth to drive to the hotel first.

‘Sure,’ he replied, ‘but since I slept on the
plane, I’m gonna check in and then run a few errands myself. Let me drop you on
the way, Thom. I have a few things on my list to double-check with you.’

‘Whatever you need.’

Seth pulled up on the one-way street within view
of the hotel’s front entrance. It was a modest, clean looking establishment,
next to a café on the street corner. They shared the same shade of green on the
entrance canopy, which displayed the hotel’s name in gold spidery lettering.

The completely bald desk clerk muted his TV set
when Seth rang the doorbell. Thom asked for our passports again, before going
forward to request our rooms.

‘Three singles on the second floor, sir,’ muttered
the clerk nervously. ‘May I take your bags?’

‘That won’t be necessary, thanks.’

Seth took the room farther down the hall, while
Thom installed me in the apartment next to his. He wanted to check on Johan immediately.
I knew he would put up a fight, but I had to insist on going along too.

‘Absolutely not!’ he said, knocking on Seth’s open
door to hurry him.

‘I’m involved, Thom. Take me along.’

‘Too dangerous.’

‘I need to see what he looks like, just in case.’

‘Seth?’ he called quietly, breaking away from me a
moment, but gripping my hand meanwhile and rubbing his thumb along my fingers.
‘Seth, are we going?’

‘Yeah,’ he shouted back. ‘Two ticks.’

‘Alex, don’t, please. I’m thinking of your
safety.’

‘What if Johan has been watching, or had you
followed, and comes knocking at my door the minute you leave?’

‘Don’t answer your door to anyone.’

‘What if he accosts me in the street? I won’t know
what he looks like.’

‘Don’t leave the room!’ he insisted, ushering me
back to it now.

‘I’ll follow you,’ I threatened.

‘At your peril!’ He smirked, backing me in the
doorway. ‘Get in there and stay in there, or I’ll cancel my own room and share your
bed tonight. I mean it.’

‘Thom?’ I whispered, angling my head. ‘Seth isn’t
going to tell me to wait on the picket line while he carries the danger alone.
And it wouldn’t be fair if he did. It’s not going to happen any other way than
how we’ve discussed.’

He said nothing, just stared into my eyes, as if
trying to unlock some great mystery.

‘I know that’s what you’re hoping,’ I said. ‘You
think I don’t know your designing mind. I know you only let me come to keep
Seth happy, and perhaps me too. But I am going to help Seth all the way, so
you’d better start accepting it
and
preparing me for it.’

Thom sat in the backseat,
in shadow, so that I could sit up front next to Seth. Dark-bricked apartment
blocks lined the tree-flanked streets, their fire escapes zigzagging up each of
them. Presently, beneath a cloudless black sky, we were the only car on this
stretch of road, which filled with Thom’s mist.

‘How does it work with the numbered streets here?’
I asked Seth, as he turned off Third Avenue onto East 97
^th
Street.
‘You’ve got small numbered avenues next to large numbered streets, with that
one called “Lexington” between them.’

‘It’s only the most famous grid.’ Seth grinned proudly,
sticking some gum in his mouth. ‘Basically you don’t need a map to get around. If
you’re on Third and you want to get to Fifth, just head west, which counts up.
If you want to get from 92
^nd
to 96
^th
, you go four blocks
north and boom! You’re there! You count your way to where you wanna go. It’s
impossible to get lost, unless you suck at basic math.’