Changeling (28 page)

The buildings climbed steeply on either side of the alleyway, and the lack of any lighting would have made it difficult for anyone else to navigate their way through the space that was strewn
with rubbish of every sort. Lucien had no problem seeing. A huge black rat paused its scavenging atop an open wheelie bin, turning to regard the vampire with glassy eyes the colour of coal. The
creature issued a little warning squeak before continuing to rummage through its treasure.

There was a slight bend in the passageway and when Lucien rounded it he could see the demon up ahead. The huge creature was leaning against the wall looking about it in a bored fashion, but when
it caught sight of the vampire it stood up, raising itself to its full height and flexing its taloned hands in front of it. The Grell was huge, standing at least eight foot tall and made of great
slabs of muscle that rippled and bulged with every movement that it made. Lucien walked right up to the nether-creature, nodding his head in greeting.

The Grell glared back, a less than friendly look on its face. It opened its mouth to reveal huge ebony-black teeth which it snapped together theatrically.

‘You managed it then?’ the vampire asked.

‘Do you have any idea how difficult it was to locate her?’ The creature’s voice was a terrible sound – like rocks being ground against each other.

‘If it was easy, I would have done it myself.’

‘And this is it?’ the Grell said. ‘I am no longer in your service?’

‘You have my word on it. You get me to the Netherworld tonight and put me in contact with the battle-angel and I will forget that I ever knew your true demon name. You’ll be
free.’

‘Free,’ the demon said, leering down at the vampire through bulbous red eyes.

Lucien held his finger up, halting the demon. ‘Free of any obligation to me,’ he said. ‘But if you should start to have any ideas of coming back to this realm and helping
yourself to human flesh again, I’ll enter your name into the Book of Halzog and he will come to claim you for his own.’

The demon stared at him in wide-eyed fear.

‘Think of it as a probation period – an
eternal
probation period,’ Lucien said with a wink.

The demon mumbled something under its breath and looked at its feet like a naughty schoolboy.

‘I’m impressed,’ Lucien said, nodding towards the door behind the demon. ‘How long can you hold a portal like that open?’

The demon shrugged its massive shoulders, still sulking.

‘Shall we go then?’ Lucien said, stepping forward.

‘How come you need me to do this?’ the Grell said with a gesture of its head towards the door. ‘I hear that your halfling daughter is growing in power all the time. Why
didn’t you ask her to create a portal to the Netherworld for you?’

The vampire stared at the demon, his eyes unblinking in their ferocity.

The demon knew better than to antagonize the vampire – even a defanged one like Lucien Charron – and mumbling under its breath again it reached forward and opened the door, holding
it ajar. The space behind the door looked like nothing more than a shifting, swirling mass of grey, and Lucien calmly stepped into and through this, closely followed by the Grell. When the door
slammed shut behind them, the entire thing simply disappeared, leaving nothing in the stonework of the wall to suggest it had ever been there.

Alexa came out of the kitchen carrying a croissant in one hand while thumbing a text message into the keypad of her mobile phone with the other. Tom had just called her to tell
her that Trey was on a flight home and she was excited at the prospect of his return. She finished the message she’d written to Trey and hit the send button. She was about to call a florist
to arrange for some flowers to be delivered when she felt that she was not alone. She looked up to see Philippa standing in the centre of the lounge. Forgetting all about the flowers, she ran over
to her friend, throwing her arms around her.

‘Where’s Lucien?’ Philippa said with a frown, prising Alexa away from her.

‘I’m so glad that you’re back,’Alexa said. ‘Trey’s on his way home, you’re here, and we can—’

‘It’s not Philippa, it’s me,’ the Ashnon said, cutting her off and moving in the direction of the door that led to Lucien’s office.

Alexa stepped back, frowning at her friend, unable to get her head around what she was saying.

The Ashnon paused with its fingers on the handle, turning to face her. ‘Philippa’s gone.’

Alexa shook her head, deep frown lines creasing her forehead.

‘When I got back to the Netherworld I found out that she’d left the environment that I had placed her in to keep her safe. She ran out of the envelope of magic and was taken by
something. Nobody knows what it was or where she’s gone.’

Alexa looked at the creature in horror. ‘But you said—’

‘I said she was safe as long as she stayed within the confines of what she perceived as the hotel. I don’t know how many times I – no,
we
– explained that to
her.’

‘Oh my God!’

The Ashnon shook its head. ‘I don’t think He’s got her.’ It pushed at the door.

‘My father’s not here,’ Alexa said.

‘Where is he?’

The girl was no longer listening. Her eyes had a slightly glazed look and she stared off into the distance, her mind still trying to come to terms with what the Ashnon had just told her.

‘Alexa?’

Alexa looked up at the duplicate of the girl that she had become friends with – the girl who she had personally promised would be in no danger if she trusted them.

‘Your father?’ the Ashnon prompted again.

‘He’s gone to the Netherworld. He said that he has some personal problems that he needs to fix. He’s seeking help from the Arel.’

‘The Arel?’ The Ashnon made a whistling sound through its teeth. ‘And he thinks that the battle-angels are going to help him? A vampire?’

‘He said there was no one else,’ she said, and the words caused a pang of guilt and fear in Alexa. Philippa didn’t have anyone else that she could rely on – Alexa and the
Ashnon were her only hope.

She returned her attention to the Ashnon. ‘What are we going to do?’Alexa’s voice had taken on a harder edge. ‘We
have
to find Philippa.’

The demon shook its head as if it thought the task futile. ‘If there is any way that you can contact your father, you need to let him know what has happened.’

‘Do you think that she’s still alive?’

The Ashnon looked back at her – Philippa’s face set into an unreadable expression as it took in the other teenager. ‘Oh, she’s alive all right. If she was dead the link
between her and this body would have been broken, and I wouldn’t be here like this.’

‘Thank goodness.’

The demon shook its head. ‘Not necessarily. In the Netherworld there are any number of things a whole lot worse than death.’ The nether-creature sighed. ‘I have to go. I have
to look for her.’

Alexa heard a fizzing sound accompanied by the unpleasant pulling sensation that she knew signalled the imminent disappearance of the demon. She transferred her weight on to her heels, leaning
her body back.

‘Wait!! she shouted over the din. ‘You can’t just go like this. We need to discuss the best way to try and get her back. We need to—’

But the Ashnon had already gone. There was a sudden blast of air that blew Alexa’s hair about her head and she was left staring at a blank space where Philippa’s doppel-ganger had
stood moments before.

She sank down on the sofa, placing the now forgotten croissant and phone on either side of her, and stared down at the cream carpet, trying to come to terms with everything that she had just
been told. The Ashnon was right – her father
would
know what to do, but he was not here and Alexa had no easy way to contact him right now.

The phone rang, the dial tone signalling that the call was coming from the offices downstairs. She picked up the receiver, holding it to her ear.

‘Hello. Can I speak to Lucien, please?’ an agitated voice asked before she could speak.

‘I’m afraid he’s not here right now.’

‘Tom?’

‘He’s out too.’

There was a pause on the other end of the line as if the caller were desperately trying to work out what to do next.

‘Can I help at all?’

Another pause and then, ‘We’ve had a tip-off from one of our people in the Netherworld. It’s a strange one, and we’re not quite sure what to make of it.’

‘Look, why don’t you just stop faffing around and—’

‘It’s regarding a demon lord that your father has asked us to keep tabs on. Its name is Molok, and it’s a collector.’

‘A collector of what?’

‘Of humans. Last year it was very active, making a number of sorties into the human realm and snatching people away. The thing is, since we’ve been keeping tabs on this particularly
nasty piece of work, the demon has ceased its visits. That’s why we can’t quite figure out what our source is telling us.’

Alexa was sitting bolt upright on the sofa, the receiver held in a vice-like grip.

‘Go on,’ was all she could manage.

‘Well, it would seem that Molok has somehow acquired a new specimen for its collection. We know for a fact that he has not opened a portal into the human realm recently, so we can’t
quite fathom out if the intel is right or not. We just need to know if Lucien would like us to look into the matter, or if he thinks that it’s probably some kind of hoax.’

There was no answer.

‘Hello? Hello?’

The caller was speaking to himself. The receiver was on the sofa cushion where Alexa had dropped it, and the girl was already racing downstairs to find out more.

Tom and Trey stepped out of the lift and into the apartment. The Irishman carried what little luggage Trey had brought back with him, allowing the youngster to bring in the
carrier bag full of gifts that he’d bought at the airport.

Tom had filled Trey in on Lucien’s departure and the successful elimination of the Necrotroph.

Tom had noted how quiet and withdrawn his young friend had been since he’d collected him at the airport, but he’d put this down to travel fatigue. Trey had not wanted to speak about
his trip and answered the Irishman’s questions with monosyllabic replies or long silences when he would stare out of the window at nothing in particular.

It wasn’t until Tom had spoken about Lucien’s strange behaviour and how worried he was about his vampire boss that Trey had taken an interest, asking questions about his guardian and
grilling Tom for details.

‘There’s something wrong with him, Trey. He wouldn’t tell Alexa or me what it was, but I’m guessing it has something to do with his vampiric history. He’s been
doing an awful lot of blood lately and when I asked him about it he turned on me in a way that was very unlike Lucien.’

Trey shook his head in disbelief. Lucien was always in control and he could not imagine him ever turning on his best friend in the way that Tom described.

‘He said that he’ll contact us to let us know he’s safe. Don’t ask me how he intends to do that from the Netherworld – some kind of magical mumbo-jumbo, no doubt.
It’s not like he can pick up a mobile now, is it?’

The elevator from the car park finished its ascent. Trey looked about him at the familiar surroundings of the Docklands apartment. His heart had done a fluttery little skip as the doors of the
elevator had slid open, and he realized that it was not just the apartment that he’d been looking forward to seeing again. He threw down the bags and walked towards the kitchen.

‘Alexa?’

He turned to Tom, one eyebrow raised questioningly, and was answered by a shrug of the Irishman’s broad shoulders.

‘Alexa?’

He walked into the kitchen, and saw the letter on the table.

‘What do you mean she’s gone?’ Tom said in a loud voice, pulling the letter out of Trey’s hand and scanning it himself.

Trey looked through the windows at the bright sunlit scene outside. A riverboat packed full of tourists was making its way up the river, everyone on board enjoying the weather and
sightseeing.

The letter explained how Alexa had taken it upon herself to go after the Ashnon to try and help it find the Tipsbury girl. She also told of the tip-off that she’d received from downstairs,
and ended her note with a simple line:

Philippa put her trust in me. I now have to repay that trust by going to find her.

Tom crumpled the letter inside a fist that he slammed down into the table, making Trey jump and look round. He swore in a long string of expletives and started to pace the kitchen, talking
loudly to himself and cursing anyone and everything that he could think of.

‘I’m going to go after her,’ Trey said eventually.

‘What?’

‘Alexa. I’m going after her.’

‘Ah no. If you think that you too are disappearing off into that godforsaken place like every other injudicious, cavalier, reckless eejit, you’ve got another think coming.
I’ll—’

‘What, Tom? What will you do? Because if you set one foot in the Netherworld, you’ll be dead in seconds. You might be the toughest bloke I know on earth but your guns and bombs are
not going to help you there. You’ll be killed. And what good will that do to me or Lucien or Alexa?’

The Irishman glared at the youngster and for a horrible second Trey thought that he was going to lash out at him.

‘I’m sorry, Tom, but I’m going to have to go after her. I’ve lost too many people that I care about to simply stay put here and let someone else try and get her back. And
the more time that you and I spend arguing about it, the more danger Alexa might be in.’

There was a pause, and then to Trey’s surprise the Irishman nodded his head, reaching over to grab Trey behind the head, pulling him towards him and ruffling his hair. When he finished he
held Trey at arm’s length, staring intently into the teenager’s eyes.

‘OK, lad. You’re right. Let’s go down and speak to some of our people about how to go about this. I’ll help you with whatever I can at this end.’

‘Thank you.’