The Medium (Emily Chambers Spirit Medium Trilogy #1) (31 page)

"Stay,"
Finch commanded them in between muttering the lyrical chant.

The servants
waited for their master to give an order. But any order to attack Finch would
only bring about my death.

I closed my
eyes.

An almighty roar
from Jacob had me opening them again, just in time to see him throw himself at
the demon. They toppled together. Finch gave a frustrated grunt and,
miraculously, his grip on my coat loosened. It was enough. Just. I delved down
inside my cloak and pulled the amulet up from beneath my gown.

I began the curse
that Celia had taught me to send the demon back.

"Bitch!"
Finch snarled. He snatched the amulet out of my hand, ripping the leather strip
from my neck. "What d'you think you're doin', eh?"

The
whack
of the demon’s head hitting the gutter forced us both to turn back to the fight.
The creature, still in human form but with shadows swirling where there should
have been a face, lay on the ground. It groaned and didn't get up. Jacob had
used Finch's break in concentration when he took the amulet to deliver a knockout
blow.

Finch growled
low in his throat then began his chants again in earnest. The demon groaned but
failed to rise. Finch swore and tried again. Still nothing.

Jacob glanced at
me. He neither breathed hard nor sweated like a live person would after a fight
but his hair was disheveled and his shirt torn. He stood there, fists pumping
at his sides, and watched me with an expression I couldn't make out in the
dimness.

Just watched.

"Jacob?"
He could be at my side in seconds. With invisibility on his side, he could
surprise Finch and snatch the knife away.

But he did not.

He didn't move
in my direction at all. He just looked at me. And then he let out a low, primal
wail like he was in pain. But he could not feel physical pain so—.

The demon stood up.

"Jacob,
look out!"

He swung round
and engaged the demon again. They tumbled together in the smudged edge of the
lamp's light, limbs tangled, the
smack
of fists and the grunts of
exertion the only sounds.

Behind me, Finch
chuckled. "Your ghost lover wants you to join 'im, eh?" he said
between chants.

I stared
straight ahead, not quite at Jacob, not at anything. My heart had skidded to a
stop in my chest. I felt hollow, empty.

Alone.

The notion that
Finch might be right...that Jacob had not tried to save me...it was too much to
take in. I couldn't even cry even though I was full of tears.

"You better
come wiv me," Finch muttered. His arm squeezed my waist so hard I thought
he'd snap me in two.

I gasped and
scrabbled at his hands, tried to dig in my heels and plant myself on the spot.

But he was too
strong. My attempts didn't even make him pause.

On the main
landing, Adelaide also gasped but smothered most of it with a hand over her
mouth.

Before I could
turn and follow her wide-eyed gaze, a loud
whump
echoed through the
night. Finch's grip slackened, he dropped the knife then slipped to the ground
with as much grace as a rag doll. Behind him stood Lady Preston, a brass
candelabra in her hand and angry triumph on her face.

I kicked the
knife away and stepped out of Finch's reach. A footmen descended on him and stood
guard. It all happened so fast. Adelaide ran down the stairs and wrapped her
arm around my shoulders. Her mother calmly handed the candelabra to a maid and
went to her husband. He folded her against his chest and rested his chin on her
head, the sword loose at his side. His gaze returned to where Jacob and the
demon fought.

But the demon
suddenly spun round and fled. With a roar of frustration, Jacob chased it. I
went to follow but Adelaide held me back.

"No,"
she said. "It's much too dangerous."

Behind me, the
footman gave a short grunt. I spun round, just in time to see him stumbling
backwards and Finch fleeing in the opposite direction to the demon and Jacob. The
thick fog enveloped him before I could react with anything more than a gasp.

"Fool!"
Lord Preston shouted at the hapless footman.

The servant
rubbed his knee where Finch must have kicked him and shrugged an apology to me.
I tried to reassure him but it was impossible to feel anything but a terrible
fear pressing down on my chest.

The pressure
eased slightly when Jacob returned. "Gone," he said. "It was too
fast." He frowned. "Where's Finch?"

"Also gone,"
I said. "And he has the amulet."

Jacob paused
then crouched down, the fingers of one hand on the pavement to balance himself.
He wiped his brow with the back of his hand. As I watched, his shirt mended
itself as did the small cuts on his lip and cheek. The skin simply re-covered
them. There had been no blood of course and the skin was neither new nor pink. If
his hair hadn't remained messy there would have been no evidence of the fight
at all.

"Are you
all right?" I asked.

"Don't come
near me." He rubbed a hand through his hair and studied the ground near
his feet. "Damn it!" He slammed his fist onto the pavement and a guttural
growl tore from his throat. It was full of desperation, anger, hurt and so many
more emotions I couldn't identify. It ripped through the blanket of night, shot
through my heart.

I pulled away
from Adelaide and went to him but he got to his feet and moved to the edge of
the light where I couldn't quite make out his features. "Don't," he
said again. His voice sounded raw, not his own.

Adelaide came up
beside me and held up her lamp. "My brother...he's here?"

I nodded. I
couldn't speak. I wanted to go to Jacob, wanted to hold him. But he didn't want
me near.

"Where?"
Lady Preston joined her daughter and together they looked at the bent lamp post
as if Jacob's ghost was there. "Where's my son?"

I waved in his
direction.

"Can we
speak to him?"

"I don't
want to talk," Jacob said. He moved even further into the shadows so that
only his silhouette was visible to me.

"Another
time," I said through a tight, full throat.

Lady Preston's
face crumpled, tears filled her eyes. Adelaide hugged her.

"He and I
have Otherworld business to finish," I said quickly. "We'll return
another day." It was the best I could manage when my thoughts were so
jumbled together I could barely think let alone speak.

"Leave us!"
It was Lord Preston, stomping down the stairs. As he spoke, two constables
rushed up and took in the scene, truncheons poised to strike. "Move her on,"
he said, pointing at me. "She's not wanted here."

"But
Father, she—."

"She's not
wanted!" His bellow would have been heard up and down the street, despite
the dense fog deadening it. The lights from the neighbors' lamps disappeared back
inside their homes. I could only imagine what they must think of the events of
this night and how it would be recounted in the clubs and coffee houses
tomorrow. How would they explain what they'd seen? How much could they see? Certainly
not the demon's changing faces.

"Jacob is
here," Lady Preston said in a quiet voice, so steady compared to the first
time we met but still small and thin like a child's. "He's busy now but
he'll return soon."

Lord Preston
took his wife's hand, looped it through his arm and patted it. "Go inside,
my dear. Both of you. I'll sort this out and join you soon."

Adelaide didn't
move as the constables approached me. "No, Father," she said, tossing
her long braid over her shoulder. "You'll not treat her like a criminal. She's
done nothing wrong."

"She can
see Jacob," Lady Preston said, still staring off in the direction of her
son. Jacob remained in the darkness but I could feel his presence as strongly
as ever. It was troubled. And so very angry.

"It's all
right," I said to Adelaide. "We have to go anyway."

"We." Lord
Preston snorted. "You're very good, Miss Chambers. A genius at theatre."

"Theatre!"
Adelaide cried, fists clenched at her sides. "Father—."

"Silence! Inside,
both of you."

Lady Preston
meekly climbed the stairs but kept looking over her shoulder into the shadows. Adelaide
sighed and touched my arm. I nodded at her to go. It wasn't her battle and I
didn't want her to be punished on my account.

"This is
not theatre, Lord Preston," I said when they were gone. It was difficult
to inject any real enthusiasm into the words. I just wanted to leave, with Jacob.

"You made
all this up," the viscount said, nodding at the bent lamp post. "You're
probably in league with that boy, the one who held the knife to you. And Forbes."

"Your
butler? Of course not. He was a victim—."

"I saw his
face!" he shouted. Even in the poor light I knew his cheeks were turning a
mottled red. "There." He nodded at the spot where Jacob and the demon
had fought. "Doing just as good a job of pretending as both of you degenerates.
I don't know why he'd want to hurt my family like this after so many years of
good service..."

"Forbes is
dead," I spat as I shook off the constable who reached for me. I'd had
enough. Enough of being doubted, enough of being ridiculed, enough of being
treated differently to everyone else. "A demon killed him and took on his
form. That's how it got into your house. Didn't you see it just now? It was
fighting your son's ghost. Jacob saved us by keeping it occupied. All of us."

"Forget it!"
Jacob hurtled out of the shadows and snatched at my hand. Despite all his
exertion, it was still cool. It always would be. "You're wasting your
breath speaking to him."

"Miss,"
one of the constables said. "Don't make this hard for yourself, miss."

Lord Preston
turned to go. I wasn't prepared to give up so easily but I had to back away
from the constables. "Didn't you see its face change? You must have."

"I saw no
such thing," Lord Preston said, his voice dripping with disdain. "It
was much too dark to make out anything clearly. You are a liar, Miss Chambers,
and a thief and perhaps worse. If I were you I'd leave before the police arrest
you. I think we can safely assume a judge would have you committed to a mad
asylum whether you were found guilty of these crimes or not, don't you?"

I should have
stopped. I should have chalked Lord Preston up as a disbeliever and left it at
that. But I couldn't. I was angry now too and there was nowhere for that anger
to go except out. One of the constables grabbed my arm but I barely noticed. Jacob
still held my other hand, strong and reassuring. "Finch is not my
accomplice! He tried to kill me. He's been controlling the demon all along."

As had someone
else. The person who'd left during the fight. My anger reduced to a simmer as
quickly as it had boiled over. I jerked myself free of the constable's grip. "I'm
going," I assured him then turned to Jacob. "We have to go to the
school. I think Blunt was here."

The constable
looked at me as if he thought I really should be in an insane asylum. I ignored
him. I didn't have time to worry about what he thought of me.

"In a
moment," Jacob said. He let go of my hand and picked up Finch's knife. He stepped
up behind his father then tapped him on the shoulder with the blade. Lord
Preston turned around, gasped then glared at me as if I'd somehow caused the
knife to be there even though I wasn't close enough. For one heart-pounding
moment I thought Jacob would stab him, but he simply drew the point down his
father's cheek. Lord Preston yelped and jerked away. He snarled at me—me!—and
smoothed down his moustache with his thumb and finger.

Jacob sidled up
close to his father and blew in his ear. Lord Preston glanced around. "Next
time you call her names I won't hold back," Jacob whispered barely loud
enough for me to hear. Despite the quietness of his voice, the malice in it was
unmistakable. I swallowed.

For the first
time since we'd met, I believed what Jacob had been telling me all along. He
was dangerous.

CHAPTER 14

The policemen
took me as far as the corner of Belgrave Square and warned me not to return to
Lord Preston's house or they'd arrest me. I thanked them and followed Jacob
into the night.

"We need to
go now, before Blunt escapes," he said.

Perhaps he
already had.

But it would
take time to get to the school, time we couldn't afford to waste. "You go
ahead," I said, pulling my cloak tighter at my throat. It brought back the
memory of when Finch had clasped it, right before he'd stolen the amulet. Without
it, we had no way of sending the demon back to the Otherworld. "Stop Blunt
leaving if necessary. I'll catch up."

Jacob shook his
head. He'd calmed down considerably since the confrontation with his father. He
could look at me now at least, although his gaze didn't quite meet mine. "You're
not walking alone at night."