Walking Shadow (The Darkworld Series Book 2) (11 page)

“Right,” I said. My heart started beating fast. I was on the cusp of confessing, there and then, why I was different.
Haunted
was a good word. But I said nothing.

Leo sighed and turned away from the window. “Ready to check out the cellar?”

After the tunnels under Blackstone, I wasn’t at all keen to venture underground once again, especially in an empty old house. But I quashed the feeling that we were asking for a horror-film scenario and followed him down the narrow stone steps into darkness.

Light flared as he flicked a switch. The cellar was empty, but the deep markings in the floor indicated where several heavy objects had been. Nothing suggested a hidden door or passage; I was about to say so when he hushed me.

Then I heard it. A footstep above. Someone else was in the house.

We had no time to do more than step away from the stairs before we heard the unmistakeable
thud
of footsteps against the stone steps.

“
Shit
,” Leo mouthed at me.

A figure appeared on the stairs, a shadowy silhouette like a puppet dangling from above. Each step echoed. Heart thumping in fear, I moved closer to Leo as the figure reached the bottom of the stairs, and the light.

For a heart-stopping second I thought the figure was headless. Then I realised they’d had to stoop under the low ceiling. And it was Jude, the boy receptionist from the Venantium.

Leo recovered first. “What the hell are you doing here?” he demanded.

“I could ask you the same question.” Jude’s face was so serious, it almost looked comical, like a caricature. “The Venantium have marked this place against access.”

“I used to live here!” said Leo. “In fact, legally, I still do. You, on the other hand, can bugger off.”

“I’m authorised to enter here. I’m under orders.”

“What the hell is there to see? Everything’s gone.”

“So why are you here, then?”

“Not that it’s any of your business, but I came to see if I’d left anything behind in case your people decided to run off with my things.”

“You know, I would believe you, were it not for the circumstances. I rather think you and your
friend
intended to make light of your guardian’s memory by defiling his house.”

“Huh?” said Leo, blankly.

“I think,” I said, “he’s implying we came down here to have sex.”

For a second, Leo gaped at me. Then he laughed. “Yeah, that makes perfect sense. It’s not like there are a dozen bedrooms upstairs or anything.”

I couldn’t help laughing at Jude’s bemused expression.

Leo said, “So, what the hell are
you
doing here? Looking for stuff to steal? There’s a nice cockroach over there. You can have that.”

“You really shouldn’t be so arrogant,” said Jude. “You are one step away from an official summoning by the Venantium, and besides, I don’t entirely trust their verdict on your standing in the Melmoth case.”

Leo narrowed his eyes. “Man, are you high? Melmoth made enemies of every sorcerer under the sun, and you think
I
killed him?”

“I think you and your brother are hiding something,” hissed Jude. “Why was I not informed that Melmoth was your guardian beforehand?”

“Because you were too busy sucking off the higher-ups?”

Jude gave him a condescending look. “Don’t assume that because I’m not in the Inner Circle I’m not aware of the secret discussions of the Venantium. It happens I know some rather incriminating information about your former guardian.”

“Like what?” Leo took a step towards him. My heart dropped. Jude was far bigger than Leo; in a fight, it was clear who had the advantage. And there was something frightening about him, too, like he had a hidden temper that he worked to restrain, although there was barely a hint of evidence of this on the surface.

Jude plainly had no intention to rise to Leo’s bait. “It’s classified. Ask the Venantium yourself.”

“Like hell I will.”

Leo advanced on him. I saw fire flare at his fingertips and a chill swept through me, not because I was keen to fight, but because I’d never seen Leo look so angry, and it scared me.

“Do you want to be arrested?”

“Do you want me to burn off your ear? I know you righteous pricks are afraid of a real fight.”

“Leo, stop it!” I said.

Leo looked at me. I blinked back inexplicable tears, wondering why it bothered me. Didn’t Jude deserve whatever he got?

“Ash? What’s up?”

“Nothing,” I lied. “Just… don’t start fighting.”

“I won’t,” said Leo, in a very different voice. He glared at the intruder. “You can go rot in hell, Jude. I’ll find out the truth either way. I’ll bet you don’t really know a thing. You’re just the front-boy.”

“I know more than
you
do, you insolent traitor. You’re a disgrace to everyone who fights against the darkness.”

“Dramatic, much?”

Jude stepped forwards, his face taut with rage. The two glared at each other for a good minute.

“When are you going to get out?” said Leo.

“When you do the same,” Jude retorted.

It was clear that no one was going to win the argument. Leo said, “Come on, let’s leave him down here.”

He started up the steps and I followed. Was he really going to lock Jude in?

Jude seemed to think so. A chill crept over my back, the unmistakable sign that someone had contacted the Darkworld.

“Don’t you even think about it,” he snarled from below the ladder. Leo sighed, and the chill went away. We climbed out into the hallway.

He waited for Jude to leave first, to make sure he didn’t sneak back in. Then I followed, and Leo locked the door behind us.

“Well, I believe I may be seeing you at Headquarters soon,” said Jude. “I look forward to it.”

“Get fucked,” said Leo.

Jude narrowed his eyes at him. Then he turned away. He strode off down the street without looking back.

Leo gave him the finger. “I really hate that guy,” he said.

“Same here,” I said. “So does Claudia. Is it true that he once dated Berenice?”

“Nah, even she has standards,” he said. “That guy’s a Class-A prude, anyway. He was always hanging about here when Melmoth was alive.”

“Really? Why?”

“We’re the same age – well, Jude’s a year older -, so he tried to pretend we were friends. I think he was about sixteen at the time, trying to get into the Venantium early―you normally have to be eighteen to join up. So he was sucking up to Melmoth in a really sickening way. And, um, I kind of set his hair on fire.”

I laughed. “No way. You didn’t.”

“I did. At a meeting where three of the Inner Circle were present. I doubt they ever forgot him.”

“Leo, you’re terrible.”

“I was even more of a troublemaker then than I am now. And yeah, Melmoth gave me a stern talking-to. I’m still not technically allowed into high council meetings―not that they normally let kids in anyway. It was only because Melmoth talked them into it, seeing as they needed to consult him on something. At the time, I think they wanted me to sign up when I turned eighteen, so they let me and Jude in. And then… yeah. I caused a scene and got us both thrown out.”

I shook my head. “Wow. I have no words.”

“That’s why Jude hates me so much. He has this hang-up about unregistered magic-users anyway, but he’s just parroting the more old-fashioned views. I’ve met some other
venators
who were almost human, apart from working for crazy despots.”

“So, what’s the plan?” I said. “I mean, we’re coming back, right?”

“Course,” said Leo.

“Today?”

“You’ve got it. Give it an hour, make sure he’s actually gone.”

he village’s centre was two main streets of little businesses, from old-fashioned sweet shops to second-hand book stores. Leo and I shared a bag of assorted sweets whilst traipsing around the shops and market stalls. Leo looked amused at my agonising over whether or not to buy a particularly tempting book of ghost stories.

“Thought you had enough of that in real life,” he said.

“Yeah, but it doesn’t stop me reading it, even if it gives me nightmares,” I said. “I seem to have an addiction to the macabre.”

“You know, I’ve never heard anyone use that phrase before.”

“Are you making fun of me?”

“No, I think it’s cool.”

“What, I’m cool because I’m an unashamed literary nerd?” I laughed. “That’d be a first.”

“There are worse things you could be,” said Leo. “So what else do you do in your leisure time, aside from reading gruesome tales of murder and ghosts?”

“Play Mario Kart and sleep,” I said. “I’m not exactly your typical student.”

“I think you’re like a lot of students, actually,” said Leo. “I for one value my sleep far more than early morning lectures. And Resident Evil is much more interesting than Wordsworth.”

“I’m with you on that one,” I said. “Have you made it to a single lecture all year?”

“You insult me. I’ve made every effort to
try
and get out of bed.”

I grinned. “That’s not very convincing.”

We went on like this for a while. It was the first time I’d talked to Leo about anything unrelated to the Darkworld or the Venantium, and, as it turned out, it was as easy as speaking to one of my ordinary friends.

“What do
you
do?” I asked him, when we were in a toy shop and he was examining all the Lego models like a kid unleashed in Legoland. “I mean, do you have any career plans? I take it you aren’t planning to join the Venantium?”

“Nah,” said Leo. “I’m looking into journalism, actually. I might go travelling.”

I nodded. I wanted to travel, too. I’d not been farther from home than Disneyland Paris, on a school trip five years ago, and I wanted to see the world. The only problem was being utterly skint. I could barely afford to look after myself on my student loan, and my parents weren’t exactly rich.

We’d reached the end of the street by now. The village more or less ended there, bordering fields that gave way to rolling hills. A low stone wall marked the entrance to an old graveyard, and I saw the house we’d seen from Leo’s bedroom window beyond. Close to, it looked abandoned and uninviting―a crumbling mass of moss-covered bricks topped with a slanted chimney. Roof tiles were missing, and the windows were boarded up.

Leo frowned. “That doesn’t look good.”

He pointed at an old tombstone. My heart plummeted as I realised it had been defiled by bright, neon paint. Almost without realising what I was doing, I moved in for a closer look.

The spray-painted message read,
The Ghouls Were Here.

“This one wasn’t on the news,” I said doubtfully. “Was it?”

Leo shook his head. “This is recent.”

I climbed over the wall. The graveyard was clearly abandoned. The graves were crumbling to pieces, covered with moss and lichen. Now neon paint covered several of them. Always the same message. The ghouls were here.

“I’m starting to think there’s something more sinister going on than grave robberies,” said Leo. “This place has been deserted for years. The last burial was in something like 1800.”

“Weird,” I said, my hand absent-mindedly moving to my pendant.

A sudden chill rushed through me, unmistakeable. I was near a dark space.