Bound (25 page)

Blonde’s cold breath across her ear made Sparks stiffen again. She clenched her teeth lest a scream escape.

‘You know, you really have nothing to fear,’ Blonde whispered, still mere millimetres from her.

‘Really?’ Sparks cursed internally at the weakness of her voice.

‘You follow that hideous man, but you’re not to blame.’

Sparks laughed despite her fear. ‘Oh, I’ve done plenty wrong.’

‘No, you haven’t. You’ve survived, whatever the cost. The things you’ve endured, the things men have put you through, yet look at you now. Not only surviving, but thriving.’

‘How do you know what I’ve been through?’

Blonde’s breath was like iced water across Sparks’s neck. ‘I know everything Hood knows. I know everything you do for him.’

‘He saved me,’ Sparks said, her voice a strained whisper.

‘I know. And you’ve made it that way. It’s him who should be scared, not you.’

Sparks frowned, half turning to see Blonde. ‘What do you mean?’

The lift arrived with a metallic ring. Blonde gestured to the doors as they opened. ‘Shall we?’

Sparks stepped in, the Dark Sisters following. ‘What do you mean, he should be scared?’

Blonde ran one fingertip under Sparks’s chin, like the stroke of an icicle. ‘You’ll be all right,’ she said with a smile.

Sparks looked away, unable to hold the gaze of those terrible eyes. She swiped her security pass, pressed the button for the top floor. They rode through the Black Diamond tower in silence.

Sparks led the Sisters from the lift to Hood’s penthouse offices. Jackson sat opposite Hood. Sparks stood at the door, letting the Sisters through. She resisted the urge to turn and run away.

Hood rose, a forced smile splitting his face. ‘Welcome, welcome. Firstly, in future, please speak directly to me, rather than so publicly as you did before. I suppose you …’

‘This is him?’ Blonde asked, ignoring anything Hood had to say. ‘The keeper?’

‘Yes, this is Jackson.’

The Dark Sisters walked casually over to the old man trembling in the chair. A dark stain spread rapidly across his groin as he sat transfixed by their eyes. The Sisters crouched before Jackson, leaning in towards him. ‘We need to know what you know,’ Blonde said. ‘What your bird knew.’

‘I’ll tell you anything,’ Jackson said in a reedy, shaking voice.

‘You can’t tell us,’ Brunette said.

‘But we can take the knowledge,’ said Red.

Sparks’s fear surged again as tendrils of dark blue swam from the Sisters’ blackening eyes. She relived the terror of the children as those malevolent wisps writhed across Jackson’s face. Jackson cried out, his voice muffled, shifting like his seat was hot.

Jackson’s hands flew up, grasping either side of his head. He howled as his skin blackened and grew taut across his skull. He shrivelled to a black skeleton, slid to the ground. The Sisters stood.

Hood looked over his desk at what used to be Jackson. ‘Did you have to kill him?’

‘Of course not,’ Blonde said. ‘But we were hungry.’

‘He’s been with me for years.’ Hood’s face showed genuine regret.

Red shrugged. ‘He failed you, did he not?’

Hood looked at her, frowned. ‘Well, no, not really. It wasn’t his fault they caught his bird.’

‘Oh well, too late now.’

The Dark Sisters turned and headed for the door. Sparks pressed the button to call the lift.

‘That’s it?’ Hood called out. ‘You’ve got what you needed?’

‘We have a print of them now,’ Blonde said, without looking around. ‘We’ll find them.’

‘And you’ll contact me as soon as you know anything? Keep me informed? Privately?’

‘Yes, yes.’

‘No need to see us out,’ Red said to Sparks.

They entered the elevator and the doors closed with a slight hiss. As the lift headed for the ground, the chill in the air went with it.

Sparks let out a deep breath, thankful the hideous things had gone. Hood leaned on his desk, still looking at the blackened corpse of Jackson. ‘Fucking hell,’ he said, almost to himself. ‘I liked that man.’

Alex could see the opening in the old stone wall, but his new understanding of his skills told him he shouldn’t be able to. ‘Can you see the door?’ he whispered to Silhouette.

‘Only because it’s Kin magic. You shouldn’t. No one should who isn’t Kin.’

‘I can.’

‘I’m not surprised.’

Hundreds of people milled around them, gawping at the majesty of the Colosseum, of Constantine’s arch, heading for the boulevards of the Roman Forum. The man who had reluctantly answered Silhouette’s call, who had equally reluctantly introduced himself as Louie, reached the doorway and stopped. None of the hundreds of tourists and local hawkers paid him any attention. His face still showed nothing but disdain. ‘Your human …’ he began.

‘Can see your doorway clearly,’ Alex said, deciding to treat this man with respect equal to that which he was shown. ‘Take us to Lorenzo.’

The dark man growled, lips peeling back in anger. ‘Who the fuck do you think you are?’

‘Who I am is of no importance to you.’

Louie took a step forward, fury twisting his features. Silhouette stepped between them, putting a hand to Louie’s chest. ‘He’s with me and you will not threaten him.’

Louie sneered. ‘Who does he think he is to talk to me like this?’

‘He’s more powerful than you realise. And not really human. Take us to Lorenzo, please.’

Louie ground his teeth, staring hard at Silhouette for several seconds. He turned and stalked through the hidden opening without a glance back.

Silhouette leaned close to Alex, the wards dragging against them as they passed through. ‘What are you trying to do? You need to show some respect if you want help here.’

‘He pissed me off. I’m sick of being treated like the ignorant little human.’

‘A fine time you’ve picked to be all superhero. You’re deep in Kin territory. Very old Kin territory. Please, be a little humble.’

A haze seemed to shift from his mind. ‘Uthentia’s making me act like a fuckwit,’ he whispered. ‘Trying to get a fight started.’

‘Please, Alex, second guess every time you’re tempted to speak. The thing is wily. It can tell you’re getting stronger, that you’re closer to breaking its grip on you. You have to stay aware of it.’

‘I’ll try. Did you mean what you said to him?’

‘What?’

‘Not really human.’

Silhouette’s eyes were pools of sympathy. She leaned forward, kissed him softly. ‘Yes. I did.’

Alex walked on into the darkness of the passageway ahead of her. The entrance that looked like solid stone to everyone else led to a narrow passage that curved down and back on itself. Alex caught up to Louie. ‘Excuse me, I apologise. My business is dangerous, it makes me surly. I shouldn’t have been so rude to you.’

Louie looked over his shoulder as he walked, confusion distorting his brows. ‘A strange one, you are.’

‘You have no idea. Again, I apologise.’

‘Whatever. It makes no difference to me. Lorenzo will decide your situation.’

The passageway continued down, lit by small glowing orbs of light that hovered near the arched ceiling, magesign twisting around them. Alex tried to get his bearings. ‘So you guys were here before the Colosseum,’ he asked.

‘This Den has been here for millennia,’ Louie replied proudly. ‘We built the arena and fed on its human warriors for centuries. Now it’s a fucking tourist attraction.’ He spat the last two words out like they were poison.

‘The world changes,’ Silhouette said. ‘We have to change with it.’

‘Fuck that. We should take over. There are enough of us.’

Silhouette rolled her eyes at Alex. ‘No, there aren’t. The humans are tenacious and furious. Trying to take over would be suicide.’

Louie cast her a disdainful look. ‘Says you.’

Alex wondered how many other Kin thought like Louie. Kin, the nightmares, the bogeymen, the death in the darkness. They were real and they walked everywhere. And he was becoming more like them. But one thing he promised himself: he would never become like Louie. He would hold on to his self, defend his kind. He refused to descend into the depths of monstrosity that yawned before him. The power he did crave, but it would never cost him his humanity. Even as he thought it, he wondered how possible that was. Would he laugh at these thoughts at some future date? ‘How many of you are there?’ he asked Louie.

‘In this Den?’

‘No, I mean globally. How many Kin are there?’

Louie shrugged. ‘Fuck knows. That’s probably the biggest problem. Internecine wars and conflict, a complete lack of any kind of organisation. We just seem to lack the collective will.’

‘That’s the real sticking point,’ Silhouette said. ‘No one really knows how many of us there are and no one will ever be able to stand up and rally our various Clans. We’re as tribal as humans.’

A slight relief washed through Alex. ‘That’s good for us, I guess.’

Louie growled a noise of disgust.

They reached a heavy wooden door, crossed with iron straps held down by massive nails. Louie pulled a large iron key from his pocket, the lock making a heavy
thunk
as he turned it, and led them into a huge open space, marbled columns marching away from them, supporting striated marble slabs high above. Kin walked the rooms, stood talking, sat and read or conversed. It was reminiscent of Silhouette’s own Den in London, only bigger and smooth marble where Sil’s had been domes of rust-coloured brick. Orbs of arcane light hovered here and there throughout, up high near the ceiling, casting an almost daylight glow everywhere. They were led through rooms and corridors to a quiet area, eventually to large double doors. Louie turned. ‘Wait here.’

The rage of Uthentia was as evident as ever. Its desire for violence, death, blood. Alex suppressed the urge to turn back to the crowded main area and start brawling. The insistent desire to fight made his fingers twitch. He drew power from the Darak, to calm his muscles, soothe his mind. The more he used the stone, the more he was able to control it. The book vibrated in his jacket with fury. He could imagine the thing bursting out, pages thrashing like manic wings as it buzzed around, battering at him. He smiled. The almost-god was juvenile when it didn’t get its way.

The door opened and Louie beckoned them inside. ‘Lorenzo will see you.’

They followed Louie into an enormous chamber, brightly lit with dozens of untethered orbs, floating randomly around the high ceiling. All manner of sofas, divans, beds, chairs littered the floor, cushions and rugs scattered among them. Several people lounged around the space, many with vapid expressions, as if drugged. Alex probed for their shades. The inert ones were all human, mundane, enchanted somehow into insensitivity. Food for Lorenzo and his friends, presumably. The thought was too disturbing and Alex pushed it from his mind. He picked out a few Kin among them, alert, watching him from beneath hooded brows, suspicious.

At the back of the room a man lay among a mountain of silk cushions. He was strongly muscled, wearing linen pants and nothing else. His skin looked like the marble of the walls around him, smooth and somehow hard, impenetrable. He had long, dark hair and eyes that seemed solid black. He emanated an incredible sense of age and power. Alex saw shades around him unlike anything he’d experienced before. The man did nothing to conceal his true nature, exulting in his ancient strength. Alex had got used to seeing hundreds of years in people’s colours. Welby, Joseph, Isiah. But this set a whole new level. He saw millennia in this one, more centuries of existence than he could conceive, colours and shifts he had never seen before. The man idly chewed what looked suspiciously like a human finger. Silhouette dropped to her knees before him, elbowing Alex on her way down. He knelt beside her.

‘Lord Lorenzo,’ Louie said, reverence in his tone. He bowed and moved away, out of sight behind them.

Silhouette lowered her head, speaking very quietly. ‘It is an honour to meet you, Clan Lord. Joseph, of London, sends his deepest respects.’

Lorenzo looked from Silhouette to Alex and back again. ‘Must we speak in English? Such a foul tongue.’

‘My apologies, Clan Lord, my Italian is not good.’

Alex thought he should mention that his Italian was nonexistent, but chose to keep his mouth shut. He concentrated on using the energy of the Darak, kept it flowing through his body to suppress the urgent, insistent drive of the book. Images of himself leaping onto Lorenzo, driving fists of iron through the ancient leader, flooded his mind. Even without the stone quieting Uthentia, he knew such an action would be suicide. Clenching his teeth, he endured.

‘How is young Joseph?’ Lorenzo asked lazily, doing nothing to conceal the fact that he wasn’t vaguely interested in the answer.

‘He is well, thank you.’

‘And why has he sent you here?’

Silhouette took a deep breath. ‘We actually come of our own volition.’

‘Oh?’

‘We would request your assistance, Clan Lord.’

Lorenzo flapped one hand at her. ‘Forget the formalities, child. Call me Lorenzo. And why have you brought your pet?’

Alex bit down the surge of rage that pulsed through him. It wasn’t his, not his offence, but Uthentia trying to goad him into acting on an anger he didn’t own.

‘Not my pet, Lorenzo. My friend. This is Alex Caine. A human, yes, though only starting to come into his power. But he finds himself in quite a predicament and would ask for your help.’

Lorenzo turned his full attention to Alex for the first time. The ancient Clan Lord’s mind swept over him, probing deeply. Alex kept his wards tight, trying to stay private without seeming rude. Lorenzo smiled. ‘You do have something about you, don’t you, pet.’

Lorenzo’s seeking changed pace, feeling around for the source of power. He touched on the stone and his eyes widened. He sat up sharply. There was no finesse now as he stripped away at Alex’s wards, like a policeman patting down a suspect in a dark alley. His mind stopped at the book in Alex’s jacket and sudden intense motion swamped Alex’s senses. He lifted and flew back, hitting the stone ground with a breath-shattering impact, sliding several metres. Lorenzo stood among cushions, his eyes flashing fury. ‘How dare you bring that into my Den?’ he roared.

Alex raised both hands, staying down, vulnerable as a flipped turtle. ‘Please, I’m so sorry, but I can’t help it. I need your help to be rid of it.’ People moved, gathering around him, ready to pounce the moment Lorenzo gave the word.

‘You don’t get rid of it.’ Lorenzo’s voice was dangerously low. ‘It’s the price we paid a long time ago, before even my time, to be safe.’

‘Please,’ Alex begged. ‘I believe I can be rid of it, but I need your help to find the last piece of the Darak.’

‘The last piece?’

Alex pulled the stone on its cord from his shirt, held it up. ‘I have two pieces already.’

Lorenzo bent close. Alex hadn’t even seen him move. ‘Just what are you doing, human?’

‘When it’s whole I’ll have enough power to break free from this book.’

Lorenzo was mystified. ‘You really believe that?’

‘I do.’

‘A book now, is it? I’d heard that, but it’s been a long time since I bothered to follow the movements of that thing.’ He straightened, returned to his cushions. ‘You can’t be rid of it, human. Who knows how much damage you’ll cause before it kills you now you’ve bonded with that stone.’

‘I’m learning to use the stone. I can control it.’

Lorenzo tipped his head back and laughed. ‘No you can’t. No one can.
Nothing
can. I would annihilate you and take that stone for myself if I could, but that would only risk the book latching onto someone here, even me, perhaps. You’re lucky. That’s the only thing stopping me from destroying you right now.’

Alex cautiously stood, returned to Silhouette’s side. At least he wouldn’t be killed outright here. He did see the twisted irony in the situation. ‘Will you help me? I need to know where to find the last shard.’

‘Those pieces were scattered far and wide for a reason. Why would I help you restore it?’

‘I can be free.’

‘So what? What do I care whether you’re free or not? The most powerful Kin mages of the age were unable to banish that thing. What makes you think you could do any better? Death is your only freedom.

‘What selfish human weakness you show. You want to be free at whatever cost? Imagine, for a moment, that you could be. Then what? It moves on to someone else and the cycle is repeated, as it has done for centuries. It’s going to happen. Why would I make it occur any faster? You hold incredible power already. With the Darak complete you could be a new destroyer of worlds. The risk is too great.’

Alex clenched his fists in frustration, binding his mind down tight against thoughts that threatened to betray him. ‘I have a plan,’ he said, ‘but I need power. I need the Darak.’

Lorenzo just laughed, shaking his head.

‘You could benefit from this,’ Alex said.

‘Really? What would you have to offer that I couldn’t just take?’

Alex took a deep breath before speaking again. ‘Assuming I can’t defeat this thing, and I die like you suggest.’

‘Which you will.’

‘Then I would be dead, and the Darak would be whole and there for the taking by whoever happened to be nearby. That could be you.’ Silhouette flinched beside him.

‘You think I haven’t thought of that?’ Lorenzo tapped the side of his head. ‘This mind is very old, human. Very wise. Don’t presume to out-think me. Your plan bears the same flaw I mentioned earlier. The same reason I won’t kill you and take the stone now. The book would immediately latch onto someone else. That’s something even I won’t tangle with.’

Lorenzo flicked one hand, dismissive. ‘Enough. You’re talking in circles, human. You’re a child in an adult’s game and you have no idea what you’re about. You’re doomed. That’s the way it is. That’s the settlement the Kin mages came to all that time ago. It is inevitable.’

Desperate, Alex tried to keep him talking. ‘Is it true the Kin who exiled Uthentia were from here?’

Lorenzo looked bored. ‘A history lesson now?’

‘At least let me know the whole story if I have to die for it.’