Wolfsbane: 3 (Rebel Angels) (42 page)

‘Hah!’ Jumping nimbly aside, the Wolf laughed in delight. ‘They taught you to use a sword, Laochan, but not how to shoot. You haven’t a clue, have you?’

‘I could get lucky,’ shouted Rory. I was amazed at how firm and level his voice was. Aiming the pistol once more, gripping it harder, he set his teeth and narrowed his eyes.

‘Or you could get very unlucky!’ The Wolf yanked Seth in front of him.

Rory blinked, lowering the gun a little, and we all watched each other in silence.

‘So who’s the redhead, you young rogue?’ The Wolf jiggled his eyebrows.

I gritted my teeth, took a breath and screamed: ‘It’s.
Strawberry.
BLONDE.’

Seth laughed so hard he winced, and the Wolf grinned. ‘Okay, Laochan, forget it. I’m glad you’ve had a little fun on the run. Now.’ He patted Seth affectionately on the
shoulder. ‘Call your boy down.’

Seth tilted his head at the Wolf, loathing in his eyes. Then he looked up at me and Rory.

‘Hello again. Little bastard of mine.’

Rory narrowed his eyes. ‘Hello, Dad.’

‘I’m your father, am I? Is that why you listened to feck all from me?’

Rory stared down at him, but said nothing.

‘Here’s the last thing I’m ever going to try and teach you.’ Seth blew lank hair out of his eye. ‘Did I ever explain to you about binding?’

Rory shook his head slowly. I felt my stomach turn over.

‘It matters more than anything, did you know that?
Anything.
’

I swallowed. Rory still didn’t speak.

‘
Indeed, a bound lover matters more than anyone. Certainly more than a half-breed spawn who couldn’t even be arsed to defend himself.’ Seth’s cold stare slewed
to me. ‘And your little girlfriend conspired to kill my bound lover. Why’s she still here?’

‘She wouldn’t leave me–’

‘You’re pathetic.’ Seth shook his head. ‘Can’t defend yourself or her. Well, she can die for all I care.’

Rory’s brow creased in a perplexed frown. The Wolf drew his sword over his shoulder and pressed the tip of it to Seth’s neck, edging him closer to the lip of the slope. Seth glanced
down and tensed a little, and his eyes brightened. Rory’s fists clenched hard enough to draw blood.

‘Dad, don’t! Stop!’

Alarmed, the Wolf shoved Seth away from the lip of the cliff. Seth opened his mouth to say something, but the Wolf jabbed the sword against his neck and he stumbled sideways, gritting his
teeth.

The Wolf grabbed Seth’s handcuffs, keeping him carefully between himself and the muzzle of Rory’s pistol. ‘You speak sense to this fool, Laochan! So come on down and speak some
more!’

Clenching his teeth Seth glared up at us both. ‘Get it through your worthless head, bastard.’ I thought for a moment there were tears on his cheeks, but it was impossible to tell,
really, among all the blood and the sweat. ‘I’m only here to tell you to bugger off out of my life. Out of my death, if it comes to that: you and her both. She as good as killed my
lover with her own filthy hands.’

I shut my eyes, unable to bear the look in his. ‘I didn’t mean–’

‘Shut it, you killer little bitch. The good news is, I don’t give a flying fuck about either of you any more. That’s what binding is, do you get it yet? It’s a pity this
batshit gob of spittle got hold of me, but that doesn’t change how I feel. So you can kill him and you can kill me too, if you’ve got the guts. And you can do it with a clear
conscience.’

My hand tightened on Rory’s arm as the Wolf flicked his sword tip across Seth’s cheekbone, drawing another bloody line in the network of cuts.

‘Shut up, Murlainn,’ he murmured. In the silence a look of puzzled anger had dawned on his face, but Seth only smiled a mirthless, hating smile.

Then Rory’s laughter drifted on the clear air. ‘Nice one, Dad. I love you too.’

Seth snarled. ‘That makes one of us, you little water rat. You’re
nothing to me
. Not any more.’

‘Ah, shut up. Give it a rest, Dad.’

Seth glared, breathing hard through his nose. Turning his face away, he uttered his first believable obscenity in five minutes, and my heart skittered and thudded with unbelievable relief.

‘Aw, sweet!’ The Wolf grinned, his equilibrium restored. ‘That was great, Murlainn! Now,’ he turned and looked up to the cave mouth again. ‘Back to business. Come
here, Laochan!’

Seth smiled up at Rory, the light back in his eyes. ‘Don’t you dare. Love you or not, lad, I’ll skelp your backside.’

The Wolf sheathed his sword. ‘Don’t you worry, Laochan. Remember your rights! Your father won’t be skelping you again. Think of me as your social worker!’ He punched Seth
hard on the side of his head. Seth reeled, but kept his feet, and the Wolf moved sleekly behind him.

Rory swore, high and furious. ‘
Dad.
’

Seth shook his head. ‘Don’t you move, Ro–’

The Wolf struck him viciously in the face and when Seth looked up, blood running from his nose and mouth, his eyes blazed silver with impotent rage.

‘I can make this very slow, Laochan!’ yelled the Wolf. ‘Don’t think I won’t enjoy it!’

‘Don’t listen to him, Rory. Listen to me. Stay where you…’

The Wolf lashed out with his forearm and this time Seth stumbled to the side and fell. ‘Laochan, you’ve been the bane of my life, leading me this dance. I haven’t been amused.
Don’t make it worse for your father now.’

Blinking blood and grit out of his eyes, Seth spat and tried to get up. ‘Do. Not. Move.’ Again he spat blood, and a tooth, and the Wolf kicked him hard in the ribs. He collapsed
again.

The gun shook in Rory’s hand as he swore; he clearly didn’t dare fire the gun again. Seth’s eyelight was so bright it almost crackled. He lay on his side, alarmingly close to
the edge again, and the Wolf’s foot was on his manacled arm, pressing it down hard against his ribcage.

‘Fine, save your rounds, ’cause when I’m dead you
must kill him.
’ Seth grunted as the Wolf’s foot lashed hard into his kidneys, and for a moment he was
speechless. He sucked in another breath. ‘Wait till he’s close and
SHOOT HIM.’

‘You know, the first thing I ought to cut off is your tongue.’ Furiously the Wolf unsheathed his dirk. ‘The
first
, mind you.’

Seth craned his neck to catch his son’s eyes again. ‘Rory.’ The Wolf snatched a handful of his hair and jerked his head viciously back, tugging him away from the edge the
better to get at him. ‘Rory! Don’t give him what he–’

He gasped as the Wolf kicked him savagely in the belly and rolled him over with his foot. Kneeling on Seth’s chest, the Wolf started to lever his jaw open.

‘Last chance, Laochan!’ screamed the Wolf as he scored the dirk blade down Seth’s face from temple to jaw. The flesh split like a ripe tomato skin and I looked away, pressing
my face into Rory’s arm but keeping my hard grip on him. I had no idea how I would stand this. I couldn’t watch. Couldn’t. I wondered if Seth would scream and if I could bear to
hear it. The Wolf forced open Seth’s jaw and poised his blade.

And smiled up at Rory.

Seth’s eyes locked on the Wolf, his rigid jaw aching. A disabling panic was turning his guts to jelly, and he tried to press his tongue against the roof of his mouth, but
that was futile. The Wolf fumbled for a good strong grip and his fingertips caught Seth’s tongue as tight as forceps.

Seth gagged as the Wolf dragged his tongue clear of his mouth. Christ, he couldn’t afford to be sick, couldn’t afford to choke. His terror might have frozen him, except that he was
more scared of Rory. Rory wasn’t going to take this and do nothing; he knew the boy better than that. Rory was already screaming his hate and Seth knew he was going to come out of the
cave.

N
o. No.

‘Watch this, Laochan!’ The Wolf was still grinning upwards. ‘Are you sick of your father giving you a tongue-lashing? I can help!’

Seth’s swollen tongue slipped from his grasp and the Wolf fumbled for it once more, slapping the knife impatiently to the ground. His fingers were right inside Seth’s mouth now and
his thumb was in the corner of his jaw. Seth danced his tongue frantically out of his way, nearly swallowing the bloody thing.

He tried to breathe, tried to twist his head away. The Wolf was loving this. He was spinning out the performance, playing to his audience; now how was that professional?

And Seth’s tongue was still in his mouth. And so were the Wolf’s fingers. It was a lousy gamble and he knew it, but it wasn’t as if he was going to get another chance.

Not ever.

Everything Seth had left, he put in his jaw muscles. His mouth snapped shut like a trap; sheer surprise broke the Wolf’s hold and Seth crushed his teeth into the Wolf’s hand, cutting
and gripping. He bit hard. He went on biting.

Seth’s teeth sawed through skin and flesh, severed nerves and ground into bone. He tasted blood and the gods knew what else – the man’s black soul, maybe – and held on,
biting, chewing, grinding. Someone was screaming horribly, but Seth didn’t care. Whoever that was screaming, he knew in a dreamy way that it was that one’s turn to scream. It was
his turn.
Let him scream.

B
ite.
A knife flailed at his face, but it only hacked his cheekbone and the bridge of his nose; then the Wolf dropped it again in panic and pain.
Bite. Keep biting
. He
sawed savagely till the man at last stopped his animal screaming and recovered himself. The Wolf ripped his hand free of Seth’s teeth, leaving long ribbons of flesh behind, and flung him
off.

Seth lunged up, easing the pressure on his own hands and spitting out his enemy’s. That was funny. He staggered, barely keeping his feet. There was blood all over his face, he could feel
it and taste it, but it was cheering to know it wasn’t all his own.

The Wolf looked down in disbelief at his blood-drenched hand. The skin of his thumb and his first two fingers hung in ragged tatters, inches of white bone showing, and his forefinger was sawed
almost through, the bone dangling by a flap of skin. Blood dribbled to the earth. As if impervious to the pain, he lifted his dirk defiantly in his mauled hand and ran his good thumb over its edge.
He lifted his head to gaze at Seth with ice-bright eyes.

‘Are you. The one.’ The Wolf was breathing hard, his voice high-pitched. ‘Who was worried. About me.
Scratching your CDs?’

Seth shrugged and grinned, and the Wolf gave a wild snarl of fury. For the first time, he realised, the Wolf had lost control: he’d flung Seth away with his mind.

Seth risked dropping his own block, just for a moment, and lashed his hate at the Wolf, who stumbled two more steps back with it, teetering on the brink. Not hard enough; but Seth blocked again
before the man could retaliate.

The Wolf’s shield was back up, too, but it had been long enough. The bronze alloy pin was out of Seth’s belt stitching and between his fingers. For a hideous moment he thought it had
slipped from his blood-slick grasp, but then he felt it cool and hard between his fingertips once more.

Seth twisted his wrists as the Wolf stalked towards him, slow murder in his eyes. The pin’s point found the lock and he worked it frantically. Bend. Back. Bend, twist. A few metres away
the Wolf casually moved the dirk from his wounded hand to his good right one, and drew it back for a killing blow.

The lock gave abruptly and Seth lashed out. The racking cramp in his muscles made him scream but the handcuffs cracked into the Wolf’s cheek. Oh, it felt good to draw that blood; and the
shock on the Wolf’s face was better even than split flesh.

The Wolf shifted his dirk to his left hand again, and put his good hand to his cheekbone. When he drew it away it too was wet with blood, and he stared up at Seth, who drew the still-handcuffed
wrist back for another strike.

‘How did you do that?’ The Wolf fumbled in his pocket and drew out the key. He frowned in bewilderment, shook his head. Then his face set hard again, and he smiled.

‘And now,’ he said, ‘I’m just going to have to gut you.’

In the cave Hannah stared at Rory, at the pistol trembling in his hands.

‘Give me that. What are you waiting for?’ He couldn’t be having moral scruples now. Not
now. ‘Give it to me!’

Rory turned, terror and helplessness in his face. ‘Can you clear a jam?’

Swearing, she grabbed the pistol, aimed and squeezed the trigger. Nothing, not even a click.
‘
No! I’ve
no idea.’

She snatched at Rory, panic-stricken, but he’d snaked out of her grip. He was already sliding down the slope towards Seth, who was edging warily round the Wolf. Raising her eyes to the sky
with a curse, Hannah bolted after Rory.

Seth put up his free hand in an unmistakeable gesture. Rory stopped, but his teeth were bared.

There was caution in the Wolf’s expression as he drew his sword, but he was smiling. ‘I could beat you if you had a sword, Murlainn, let alone a poxy pair of handcuffs.’

‘Poxy indeed!’ Seth snorted. ‘I think they’ve served you very well.’

‘But they’ve stopped being useful, now. Like you.’ The Wolf chuckled. ‘Tell me, Murlainn, how stupid did you feel when I caught you in your own house?’