Halton Cray (Shadows of the World Book 1) (38 page)

Presently he tied himself down to the chair,
roping his lap to the seat. He left his arms free, where he plucked up the
violin.

‘If you don’t play,’ he said, ‘I’ll put you to bed
now.’

By that I knew what he meant. So I picked up the
nearest dolly. She was missing an arm and both legs. Her eyes blinked, one
slower than the other. I rocked her back and forth. It was all I could do.

Johan began to play the instrument, but far from
well, it was a torturous sound. He moved in strange ways as he played. A dull
ache pulsed at my temples and I felt disorientated watching him. His face began
to change as he scratched out the cacophony of noise. The cheekbones and chin
lengthened, the eyes became gaunter, sallower. His hair lightened before my
eyes.

‘He’s almost here! Shall we all play together?’

I knew then what he was doing – what he’d done.
He’d been starving himself. It made sense now why the expert killer took his
time. He looked for a type, and then kept them until his demon exchanged places
with him. Getting some additional kick out of it.

He laughed suddenly, psychotically, and threw down
the instrument. He couldn’t speak. His demon began switching places with him. My
heart thumped hard, as I prepared to see the Thing I most feared and abhorred –
not in the mirror, but in the flesh!

Johan no longer resembled a man, but that gaunt
white sabre-toothed monster. Its black fiery eyes drilled into mine. The Thing
gave off its unhuman cry. I clamped my hands over my ears. It was somehow
uglier than Thom’s demon. Cowering at the sight of it, I edged my way back.
Johan’s rope wouldn’t hold the beast. He simply wished to tease the fiend with
fresh blood. He tormented it. I imagined that would make the attack more
brutal.

The two women uttered muffled squeals and writhed
uncontrollably nearby. The bloodlust in its eyes, I saw it wanted me first. The
rope gave way. The demon plunged towards me with its eyeteeth bared. Its long
grey tongue licking the air.

I looked to the door hoping to hear Thom.

Nobody.

I shut my eyes and froze. The Thing fiercely
grasped my shoulders. I had no time to whisper or think, or do anything but
whimper and cringe.

Thirty-four

‘O Death, rock me asleep, bring me to quiet rest,
let pass my weary guiltless ghost out of my careful breast.’

– Anne Boleyn

I felt its long, bony, spider-leg
fingers tightening on my shoulders. As yet, nothing happened. Did it wait for
me to look upon it? I opened one eye, and flinched at the close-up I got. It had
frozen. Though not completely still, it wavered slightly. Its jaws were open impossibly
wide, the huge mouth ready to feast. The stench from its gullet resembled
rotten meat.

I looked to the women. They’d both fainted.

I tried to wriggle free, but the demon gripped me
harder. Its eyes reddened and– I heard the apartment door burst open!

‘Alex! Alex?’

‘Thom! In here!’

The door flew off its hinges. Thom was at my side.

‘What the hell?’

‘Don’t touch me!’ I yelled.

He looked crushed. ‘Alex, I–’

‘No! – It’s the dirt! Don’t touch me! The soil on
me. I think it’s still blessed… even offsite?’

Thom looked me over, and then Johan.

‘It must be because you dug down a few feet. It
must be the original soil that was blessed.’

‘Look at him, Thom. He’s in purgatory.’

‘I want him off you, now!’

‘
No
! Get the blood down his throat first!’

Thom glanced at the unconscious women bound and
gagged. He took out a bag of blood and bit into the top corner, tearing along
in a strip. He pulled it away from his own face fast as if the foulest smell
stirred under his nostrils. It was dead as dust to them both, and poisonous
into the bargain.

Grasping at the demon’s neck, he poured the thick
liquid back into its mouth as the creature yet clung to me.

‘Drink of this potion!’ whispered Thom. The blood
slid down its throat and dripped around its stretched jaws, some spilling into
my lap. Still clamping my shoulders, the demons face began to exchange back
with the human host.

‘Thom?’ I called out.

He was at the light switch flicking it in vain. He
shot out the room. The bathroom light came on – bright white, and Thom was back
at my side.

‘I’m going to prise his hands off you. Pull
yourself back and move away quickly when I say.’

I nodded. Thom grasped his fingers and yanked at them.

‘Go!’

I pulled back and shuffled that way, fast. Until I
hit a pile of worn-out clowns and puppets.

Johan became mobile again and snapped his jaws at
the air in front of him, as if I was still there. Thom seized his neck one-handed
and launched him out of the room. He then caught him in the entrance hall, and hurled
him into the bathroom. I heard the crack of ceramics.

I sprang to my feet and followed.

The bright light cast Thom’s shadow opaque against
the dirty white tiles. I looked round him to see that Johan had hit the toilet.
The back of his head smashed part of the cistern cover. He grinned at me. I
tried to hide my fear. By his expression he thought he drank from me!

‘What is she?’ he asked.

‘Don’t look at her!’ Thom growled.

‘Clever girl!’ He licked his grey lips.

Thom stood over him and prepared another bag of
blood. The fiend on the floor was laughing. His face contorted and that
viciousness I saw moments ago washed over it. His eyes full and black grew larger
before he repressed a snarl. Brushing powder and debris from his head, Johan
rose slowly to his feet, holding up a hand as if to surrender.

‘So we meet again,’ he said. ‘You always were too
set in your ways. I thought giving you the gift might free you of those
restraints. But I see’ – he pointed to the bagged blood – ‘you’re feeding in
other ways.’

Thom said nothing, but rested the bagged blood
above the washbasin. Johan caught a whiff of it and grimaced.

‘Have you come to teach me abstinence?’ He ground
his ugly teeth. ‘I’m not like you. I can’t get by on such garbage as that. I
get more out of the kill besides!’ He snarled at me.

Thom reacted, shoving him against the tiles. They
cracked behind his head on impact. Thom pushed his forearm against Johan’s throat,
lodging it beneath his jaw. Johan laughed and spluttered –

‘How thrilling to lose control. I did once on my
adventures upstate in mid-winter. I soon felt the switch to demon. Have you
felt it? Exhilarating isn’t it! Both killer and spectator at once. What sheer brutality
in which it delights!’

His nose twitched; he sniffed the air. ‘That
doesn’t smell right!’ His tone grew fierce. ‘I wouldn’t drink that! It’s not
fresh!’

‘You’ll drink it!’ swore Thom, backing off to grab
the bag. ‘Then you’ll feel your demon overcoming your flesh in that exhilarating
fashion you love so much!’

Johan spat on the floor and exclaimed something
heatedly in what sounded like his native tongue.

Thom responded in that same language, which
surprised me.

‘Where’s that traitor, Seth?’ hissed Johan. ‘I’ll
eat him alive!’

‘Seth’s dead!’ Thom retorted. ‘I caught up with him
tonight!’

‘Liar!’ snarled Johan.

Thom moved in on him.

Johan faked a move to his right, then dashed to
his left. Thom outsmarted him, catching him by the throat.

With the outstretched arms of his shadow, Thom
locked onto Johan’s ankles and dragged him to the floor. Johan had no shadow to
work with, but looked shocked to see how Thom used his. I realised Thom’s practice
with juggling the ball and pen were to train his shadow for a moment like this.
He’d been preparing for this fight a long time, exercising that disturbing
shadow of his. Building the ability to control it, so that when up against
Johan, he was like Vishnu, with two sets of arms. I saw how ordinarily he could
use his shadow haphazardly. To knock over an object or close a door. But Thom
had practised to give his strength and precision: to grip, attach, to prise, –
to rescue a hot cup of tea before it scalded my hand.

Nevertheless, Johan fought like a wild animal.
Thom being larger and stronger, Johan had little chance to escape. Goodness
knows how Thom would have subdued this monster if Johan had been feeding
regularly. Surely the poison would take a more potent effect because he was in
need of fresh blood.

Very suddenly Thom broke his neck in one swift
move. I’d held myself together well until that point. The bones cracking made
me flinch. He then did something to his jaw, maybe dislocated it. None of this meant
much to Johan, who wrestled in the same way. He spat and raved like a psychopath.
Still, Thom managed to force the blood down his throat. Johan’s eyes reacted as
they filled with poison. Soon the bag was empty. The effect of this second bag was
different. I knew it by the look in his eyes. He knew it. His demon knew it.

He was up, flying in a frenzy at Thom, who readily
nailed him back to the tiles, applying force of every kind. Johan stared only
at me, hoping to dilute the poisoned blood with mine. The Thing became that
desperate frantic ghoul for survival, clawing its way onto this plane once more,
to take full charge of the flesh they shared. Its cheekbones so sharp they
began slicing through its skin, as it struggled, snarled, and bit its own
tongue repeatedly. It slurred threats and gibberish. Its strength for once near-matched
Thom’s.

‘Get out of here!’ Thom yelled at me. ‘Go!’

I backed away slowly when I should have hurried. But
I couldn’t leave those women. I looked round. They sat huddled on the scorched
nursery carpet. Both awake, they watched me with wide petrified eyes.

Johan’s demon fought hard for its survival. But
Thom had him well-restrained in his God-like arms, pinning him down until the
poison took a hold. His frenzy, it seemed, was over.

After what felt like ten minutes, Thom poured the
third bag of blood down Johan’s throat. The demon began to withdraw enough so
that a mixture of both creatures lay on the broken blood-spattered tiles. Johan
and his demon semi-merged. The slight body was not as gaunt as the demon’s, nor
quite so clear white skinned. But its sharp eyeteeth yet intruded on the
lipless mouth of Johan.

Thom shook his head at him.

‘For all you’ve inflicted on others, your time is
finally come. I hope your visit to Hell, however, is short and that you’re
extinguished as sharply as a flame in this world.’ He stooped lower, to his ear.
‘I am not like you, you see. I have mercy! I have pity and everything you
lack!’

After about an hour, Johan’s eyes receded a
little, the pupils began to wane.

‘Tell Seth to bring up the chains,’ he told me.

‘What about the women?’

‘We can’t risk untying them just yet.’

I didn’t move for a moment. I knew he was right,
but it felt awful to prolong their suffering. He knew I lingered because of
this.

‘Alex, we’ve just saved their lives. If we fail
now, it will be in vain. Now go!’

I found Seth at the hotel having
gained entry discreetly by using its underground garage. Seth gasped at seeing
the blood on my clothes, before hugging me.

‘Thank God you’re alright – I was worried sick! Thom
was going insane! I never saw him lose it like that. Alex – he thought you were
dead. He was ready to tear the city to pieces. So, he found you in apartment 2b
I take it?’

‘I couldn’t think of another way to let him know.
He has Hamlet memorised. Besides,
to be or not to be
seemed an apt
reference to make. Come on, we need to hurry back with the chains. You can tell
me on the way what took him so long!’

‘Not a chance. Thom can speak for himself. I’m not
getting shot as the messenger. Tell me what happened to you instead.’

And so I did, once I’d grabbed some bottled water
from the minibar, and we headed out the door.

Back at Johan’s, Seth parked out front, close to
the fire escape. We found the women frantically trying to get loose while Thom
still restrained Johan. I crouched before the prisoners to reassure them their
safety, promising to release them soon.

‘Seth – put the chains here next to me,’ commanded
Thom. ‘Then move that coffee table off that rug, and Alex, help him would you –
clear everything off!’

‘Whatcha gonna do?’ asked Seth.

‘Get plastered and dance badly on it! I’m going to
roll him up in it, aren’t I!’

Well advanced was night when Thom conveyed the
corpse down the fire escape. He did this too quickly for anyone to notice. Then
he placed the body in the trunk and closed it. I watched from the window.

‘He’ll not break those in a hurry,’ said Thom, on
climbing back up.

He moved towards the women and I handed him the
water.

‘I’m very sorry for what’s been done to you both.’
He crouched before them. ‘I know how scared you must be. I’m barely easier to
look at, and therefore trust, but I’m not going to harm you. I’m going to untie
you in a moment, but I must insist on no screaming! That man is gone and I’m
going to make sure he never does this to anyone again. But to do that, I need
no screaming. I’m going to ungag you and give you water, okay?’

They both nodded, the younger woman sobbing as she
did. I ungagged her as Thom ungagged the other. Both had sores on their faces
where the restraints had rubbed.

‘Thank you,’ said Thom. ‘Now I’m going to untie
you. – Alex, untie her too. You may call the police if you wish but I warn you,
do not speak of the depravity you have witnessed if you value your sanity and
freedom. The authorities are only too ready to disbelieve what you have seen
and may continue your captivity at the behest of the state.’

‘Jees, Thom!’ I said, giving him a firm stare.
‘Don’t you think they’re frightened enough?’

‘I’m just trying to help.’ His shoulders rose to
his ears.

‘Therapy!’ insisted Seth. ‘It’s confidential and
you’re gonna need it. Hey, it’s gonna be okay. You’re free to go.’

Languidly the women staggered to their feet,
rubbing their wrists where their restraints had been. I didn’t know what
reaction to expect. After a few minutes of hesitating to pass us, they took
each other arm-in-arm and quickly headed for the front door.

Seth drove us to the ancient
and disregarded Blackmoore’s Cemetery, remarking, ‘I can barely breathe for
fear of a cop pulling us over with him in the trunk!’

He frequently looked round to the sound of
something that could be, he claimed, scratching or knocking from the rear.

Thom put him at ease. ‘The jittering is due to
your misfiring engine. Once it warms up, it’ll run more smoothly.’

Thom was right and when it did, Seth relaxed a
little.

‘I feel kind of sick,’ Seth confessed, as we
crossed at 59
^th
Street Bridge, east, for the third time. ‘I know
it’s not the case, but it feels like we’re burying someone alive.’

‘Wait until I open the trunk,’ Thom responded from
the backseat, subdued. ‘You won’t confuse that with a human, I promise you.’

I barely listened, looking out my window, because
a wave of emotion washed over me that I didn’t want Thom to see. It was the
idea of him finding me dead in Johan’s apartment. It would have driven him
insane.

I turned in my seat to face him, careful not to
get too close with the sacred earth still clinging to me. His face was full of
remorse.

‘Thom?’

‘I thought I was too late,’ he said immediately.

‘You weren’t.’

‘If not for the dirt, I was. When you shouted for
me not to touch you, I thought you were livid!’

‘I know. I wasn’t. I had to get your attention.
One vampire stuck to me in purgatory was enough.’

He went to lay a hand on me, but couldn’t. So
pulled it back.

‘So where were you?’ I said, hoping my annoyance
might provoke him into another mood, any mood but this. ‘I was convinced you
were behind me. I couldn’t imagine it would take you long to find us.’