Jelly Cooper: Alien (23 page)

Travis is talking, I notice.

“Sorry, what?”

“I said, that’s the reason I’m here.”

“What is?”

“To help you.”

I blink.

“How?”

“By telling you everything I know about the
bashrak.
”

Travis tuts.

“Engage brain please.  Because, Jelly Cooper, I’m hoping that my ramblings will give you a clue on how to kill one.”

“Oh.”

We stare at each other.  I can see that Travis’ earlier pallor has returned and my heart goes out to him.  Imagine finding yourself in such a barking mad
situation; your life in danger because of someone you barely know (even if she does love you with all her heart).  Insanity!

“We’d better get started.  The
bashrak
are –

“NO
!” I hold up a hand to stop him.  “No,” I say softly.  “Tell me about Thorn.”

“This is more important.  I’ll tell you about Thorn later, if we have the time.”

“Travis?  Look at me.  Good.  Now, tell me everything you know about Gregory Thorn, or I’ll fly off and leave you here.  You’re a good swimmer.  I’m sure that you’ll cope.”

“Damn it Jelly, this is exactly what we
don’t
need; a half-cocked alien running around with revenge on her mind. You’re going to get us both killed.”

“Mr. Jenson
!  How insightful.  And they said you were just a pretty face!”

I scramble to my feet, my eyes
huge in my white face.  I know my face is white because I just felt all the blood drain out of it.

Travis is on his feet
a second later.  We turn to look into the face of death.  Well, torture, pain and death.  Let’s just leave it at death shall we?

Gregory Thorn
’s hooded figure emerges from the shadows.  He smiles at me, his teeth gleaming, even in the dark.  They change shape before my eyes; elongating and growing pointier. 

Caught off guard, I stumble and, finding no support, fall to my knees.  

Thorn spins to face Travis, satisfaction gleaming in his yellow eyes.

“Too late, Mr. Jenson.
  Your kind always are.”

The Hunter clicks his tongue, his finger wagging
at Travis.

“Little busybodies like yourself would be well advised to keep their noses out of things that don’t concern them.”

Thorn has abandoned all efforts at appearing human and floats, inches above the ground.  He whips his arms out from the dark folds of the cape and points them at Travis.  His stiff fingers move together and curl.

Too late, I step forward just as Thorn squeezes his hands into fists.  Travis keels over without a sound and lands on the sand, his head
at the water’s edge.

Without thinking, I flick my hand and carry
his lifeless body up the beach, away from the sea.  I don’t want him to drown before I kill this scum.

I turn to face the
bashrak
.  Funny how concern for others can drive away fear-induced paralysis.

“Is he dead?”

Thorn says nothing.

I step closer.

“I said, is he dead?”

The Hunter smiles
a slow, evil grin.

“M
aybe, maybe not.”

Something inside me snaps. 
Something that can probably never be fixed.

“Don’t toy with me. 
You shouldn’t taunt others when you don’t know what you’re dealing with.  I thought you’d have learned that lesson yesterday.”

The
bashrak
blinks but quickly recovers.  “I know you Camille.  I know everything about you, although I can’t understand your concern for the pathetic human.”

I take another step forward.

“You know nothing about me,” I whisper.  “You had no idea that I would be able to stop you when you came for us at Rhiannon’s house.”

Thorn
wrinkles his nose at the memory and I smile.  “No, that shocked the hell out of you.”  I move closer to him, though the hairs on my arms stand on end.  “Please answer my question.  Is he dead?”

“Not yet.”
Thorn smiles, his yellow eyes flashing.

“Lucky for you.”

The
bashrak
claps his hands.

“Little Jelly Cooper, your scare tactics are pointless.  I know you now, I know the extent of your powers and they don’t amount to much.  How dare you think that you could challenge me!  You are no more a threat than poor unfortunate Mr. Jenson over there.” 

You couldn’t be more wrong
.

If it’s the last thing I do, I will see this
thing
die. 

He leans towards me and whispers, “I will crush you like I crushed Gregory Thorn, like I crushed your three friends back at the house.”

NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO…

My chest is
caving in.  I think I’m having a heart attack.

It can’t be true.  It mustn’t be true.

I stare at the evil before me, every minute that passes a minute closer to its painful death.

It
starts to laugh and the sound floats out to sea and echoes on the waves. 

“You threaten me, yet you have no ide
a what you’re dealing with.”  Thorn stares at me, zealous hatred burning bright in his eyes.  “I took your friends lives because they annoyed me; stupid little insignificant humans, thinking that they could stand against
me
.”  He leans even closer, his putrid breath invading my nostrils. 

He whispers
, “I took Thorn’s life to get at you.”

A moan escapes my lips and the thing before me laughs. 
He pulls back so that I can see the satisfaction on his face. 

“I used his body as a vessel.  I knew who he was, but the fool didn’t know me.  I watched him and waited, and then a couple of days ago I harvested all the information that I needed from his memory and sucked his soul clean out of his body. 
This body!”  He smiles.  “Everything I told you about Kavalrion, Cal, Maurice – all that was true.  There was even enough of him left to throw your intuition.  I projected his Javorian essence, to ensure that he
felt right
!  I could even feel his anticipation to meet you.”  He claps his hands with glee.  “Exquisite, don’t you think?”

He pauses,
triumphant.

“Thorn is the first of
Kavalrion to die by my hand, but he won’t be the last.  The idiot waited for years, hoping and praying that you would come in his lifetime and, in the end, he didn’t even have time to meet you before I took him.”  He shrugs.  “Shame, you would have liked him.”

He laughs.  “It’s no good shaking your head like that.  Gregory Thorn’s gone and there’s nothing that you can do.  Just like there will be nothing that you can do to save your family.”

Think again.

“Fine, you got me.  I suck at being a
Javorian and you got me, fair and square, but you really are deluded if you think that you’ll ever catch Crin.”

Thorn’s eyes gleam.  “I wasn’t talking about
him.”

With a flick of his wrist,
he lights up the small cluster of trees behind him.  Roped to the trees is Mum, Dad and Molly.  They stare at me with white, sightless, eyes.

The Hunter giggles.

“I was talking about
that
family.”

Chapter Nineteen

I can feel...

I feel…

Nothing.
  I’m empty.  Are my internal organs still in place?  Surely there’s nothing left inside me to take?  My friends, my family…

“What’s the matter?  Cat got your tongue?”

The Hunter whispers in my ear. 

“AAARGH
,” I jump a mile high.  I whirl, frantically searching the beach.

He’s vanished.

“Do you like it?”

“AAARGH
!”

Again, the whisper in my ear.
  I turn to my family, in their unnatural spotlight.

“Modern art can take such interesting turns, don’t you think?” 

Thorn appears at my shoulder and appraising the limp figures.

“It seems to me like you have a choice to make.  One, you don’t struggle and return to
Javoria with me and your family lives.  Two, you fight me, you lose, I take you back to Javoria anyway and I kill your family very, very slowly.  It’s up to you.”

Silence hangs in the air.

“I won’t lie to you,” the Hunter steps before me.  “No matter what option you take, you will die.”

There’s no choice, I have to go with him and save my family.  I hold out my hands.

From out of nowhere, Travis rugby tackles Thorn, knocking him to the ground.  He wrestles with the
bashrak
on the dimpled sand.  Managing somehow to pull the black cloak up and over the monster’s head, Travis yells,

“HE’S LYI
NG.  THEY NEVER SPARE ANYONE.  NEVER!”

And I see that h
e’s right.  The Hunter will secure me, then kill my family and Travis before leaving Earth.  Not because he has to, but because he wants to.

I lower my arms.

Thorn pulls the cloak off his head and hovers in mid air, Travis clinging to his back.

Without warning, the Hunter rockets into the sky.

Tucking my arms to my sides, I kick off.  Slicing through the air, I hone in on the two struggling figures.  The Hunter twirls in the air, zooming this way and that, trying to shake Travis off.  Travis knees Thorn in the back, once, twice.  He puts everything into it and his grip slips.  He grabs a handful of cape and wraps it around his wrist.

Hold on, hold on.

The Hunter rolls into a ball and the action sends Travis sailing over his shoulders.  The cape snaps tight and Travis’ body rebounds in the other direction.  Somehow, he keeps his grip on the cape, but he looks limp and dazed.  He can’t last much longer.

The wind whips past me
as I rocket through the sky, but not fast enough.  Willing myself on, I quicken my speed and draw level with them.  I reach out for Travis’ arm…

…his fingers are slipping…

   …if I can just get closer…

      …one last…

GGGGGGGLLLSSSSHHRRRRUUUUNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGRRRRRRRUNN!

Thunder.  A huge clap of thunder roars in the silence.  Travis flinches and lets go.  With a strangled cry he begins his fall to earth.

Instinctively, I barrel roll in the air, narrowly avoiding a collision with Thorn.  Swooping back towards the ground, I plummet.

I see Travis’ white face beneath me.  His mouth is stretched wide; a black cavernous hole in his head letting out his last scream.  The gap between us grows.

Oh God.

I’m not going to catch him.  He’s going to die.

He closes his eyes. 

I focus so hard and so fast that everything goes black for a second.  The pressure in my head sends darts of pain along my jawbone and they drill into my teeth.  I
zoom
towards the earth. 

Tears stream from my eyes as the wind hits me full
in the face.  The ground looms and blurs.

If he dies, I die:
I commit myself to Travis.

W
ith one last push I catch him and, with seconds to spare, stop.

We hang.

Inches above the ground.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH”.

I throw back my head and roar. 

Travis starts the second I stop.

“Jelly, thank you, thank…”

I let go and he drops, in a heap, onto the sand.  Looking up into the night sky, the fire burning bright in my eyes, I see
black robes rippling in the wind.

Revenge.

I take off.

Keeping my eyes trained on the hovering demon, I climb,
the wind tearing at my face.  My hatred has become a palpable thing; I can feel it, taste it.  I
savour
it.

“
Option one and two are out.”  I shout to be heard over the wind.

Thorn raises an eyebrow.

“Oh yes?”

“One and tw
o are out.  Option three is in.”

“And option three would be…?”

“Well, I’m not going quietly and you’re not leaving here without me.  Why don’t you have a wild stab in the dark at what option three is?”