Chapter 12
In the centre of the wall was a map of LA. It took Evie a while to figure it was a map at all because the whole thing was covered in red pins that obliterated most of the street names.
Beside her, Ash was busy snapping pictures on his phone, leaning in to take close-ups of the map, crouching down to make sure he got all angles. A piece of paper stuck at the top of the wall, near to the ceiling, had four words scrawled in large block letters on it.
BEVERLY HILLS
MULHOLLAND DRIVE
‘Do you think he’s trying to pinpoint their lair?’ Evie asked, pointing at the piece of paper.
‘Maybe,’ Ash answered, his fingers starting to run over the cluster of pins stuck into the map. ‘Look at how the pins are grouped.’
There were two larger clusters of red on the map around Beverly Hills, and another along Mulholland. Maybe that’s where Victor was right this moment. Tracking them. Maybe he was planning on killing them himself. Which was fine by her – she’d happily let him handle the situation alone. The only thing that concerned her was that he might not make it back alive so that she could then kill him.
‘Hey guys,’ Vero suddenly said. ‘Check this out!’
Evie spun around.
Vero was standing in the doorway brandishing a sword over her head. An enormous grin was splitting her face in two. Evie glanced upwards, her gaze settling on the silvery blue blade shimmering in Vero’s hands.
‘No way,’ Ash whispered.
‘It’s a shadow blade,’ Evie said, pointing out the obvious.
Vero let the blade fall, hefting it lightly in her palm and then running her finger along the flat.
‘It’s his. I mean, I found it out in the hallway by the coat stand. He must have taken it off a Shadow Warrior at some point.’
‘Well, it’s ours now,’ Evie said, brushing past Vero and heading back into the hallway, wanting to check what other weapons they might have overlooked. That’s when she heard the key turning in the lock.
Evie leapt backwards, swinging her sword up to chest height.
In the same second, Vero and Ash moved into flanking positions, Vero brandishing the shadow blade, Ash the nunchuckers.
The door fell open. Evie drew in a breath, the sword trembling in her hand. This was her moment.
Victor pushed open the door and stepped inside. There wasn’t even a ripple of surprise on his face at seeing them there. He just gave them a curt nod.
‘Good evening,’ he said, shrugging off his jacket.
The three of them were too stunned to say anything in reply.
Victor pulled the blue silk scarf from around his neck and shook it out. Evie’s focus fell to the thin pink scar running at a diagonal across his throat and for a brief moment she pictured Lucas kneeling on Victor’s chest, his blade pressed to his neck, about to slash through his windpipe. He would have killed him that night if Evie hadn’t intervened. She wished to hell she hadn’t.
She felt an elbow suddenly nudge her in the ribs and realised that Ash and Vero were waiting on her cue. Startled, she lifted her gaze from Victor’s neck and forced herself to meet his eyes.
He smiled at her. ‘I knew you’d find me eventually,’ he said. ‘I just wondered how long it would take. Longer than I expected as it turned out.’
In the thousand different scenarios Evie had played out in her head when she imagined this scene, she had always been the one doing the talking while Victor cowered speechless in a corner. In her fantasies she’d lifted her sword without any hesitation and swung it at him over and over.
They were veering quickly off script.
‘You must be Ash,’ Victor said, his attention switching from Evie. He held out a hand for Ash to shake.
Evie could feel the situation slipping rapidly out of her grasp. ‘Shut up!’ she yelled.
Victor turned to her with an amused smile. ‘I’m assuming this little break-in and sword-waving routine is your attempt at killing me?’
Blood roared loud as thunder in Evie’s ears and the edges of her vision blurred.
‘So are you going to get on with it?’ he asked in a bored voice.
Evie clenched her hands around the hilt of the sword and took a step forward. She wasn’t going to let him say another word.
‘This is for Lucas,’ she hissed. ‘And for my parents.’ She’d rehearsed these lines so many times, wanting their names to be the last thing Victor ever heard.
She brought the sword up over her head. This was it. This was the moment she’d been dreaming of for months. It all came down to this. Yet she couldn’t seem to gather the strength to swing.
‘Oh, Evie,’ Victor sighed impatiently. ‘You’re not going to kill me,’ he said. ‘Firstly, you don’t have it in you. And secondly, you need me.’
Evie’s sword arm wavered. ‘Why would we need you?’ she asked, incredulous.
‘I should think that would be obvious,’ Victor answered with a smile, gesturing to the room behind them – the one with the horror wallpaper adorning it. ‘We’re all trying to achieve the same goal. If you’re planning on killing all the Originals out there before they destroy this realm, then you need my help.’
‘We don’t need your help.’
It was Vero who’d spoken, snatching the words right out of Evie’s mouth.
Victor smiled thinly at Vero. ‘What if I told you I know where they live?’
‘I’d say, Congratulations, now tell us before I let Evie slice you into cocktail wiener-sized pieces,’ Ash replied coolly, swinging the nunchuckers in his hand.
Evie noted the beads of sweat popping on Victor’s temple. ‘Think about it,’ Victor blurted, a gratifying tremor entering his voice. ‘There are only three of you. These are Originals – unlike anything you’ve ever dealt with before.’
‘Actually, I think you’ll find we dealt just fine,’ Ash answered, winking at Evie.
Victor’s eyes flashed wide in surprise. He hadn’t known that Evie had killed one at the Bradbury and she felt a burst of triumph as he did a quick double take, reassessing her in the light of this new information.
Victor cleared his throat. ‘But against a dozen?’ he asked. ‘And all the other unhumans they’re gathering around them? I think you’ll find you do need me.’
Evie had heard enough. She took a lightning fast step towards him, switching the sword into her left hand at the last moment and smashing her right fist into Victor’s jaw. She ignored the pain that burst through her knuckles and slammed all the way up to her shoulder, and watched Victor stagger backwards and topple into the coat stand. His gaze flew to the umbrella stand containing the swords and he lunged for it, but in the same instant Vero darted forward, kicking it out of his reach.
Evie felt a calm descend over her. The blood rushing in her ears had dropped away, the adrenaline had crystallised inside her, bringing a clarity of vision and focus. The sword felt like it was part of her body, an extension of her arm – just like Victor had told her it should. And if she wielded it with true intent …
Suddenly Victor moved, a knife flashed silver in his palm as he dived straight at her. Evie spun sideways as the blade scythed the air in front of her. She used the momentum to throw all her weight at Victor, sending him slamming into the door. She followed it with a roundhouse kick that sent the knife flying out of his hand.
Victor clutched his bruised fingers to his chest and stared at her, breathing hard and fast, trying and failing to mask his fear. Evie stepped towards him, her heart slamming into her ribs.
‘You asked me once, didn’t I want revenge?’ she said softly, breathing fast. ‘Well, can you guess what the answer to that is now?’
She raised the sword once more. This time she was going to do it. Victor shrank back further against the door, his eyes fixed on the glistening edge of the blade.
Time slowed. Evie felt every pulse of blood charging through her body, feeding the rush of adrenaline. She readied herself for a final blow.
And then a hand circled her arm.
‘Evie,’ Ash murmured in her ear.
She whipped around.
Ash shook his head at her slowly, his fingers tightening even more around her arm, trying to tug it down. ‘Victor’s right. We do need him.’
Evie glared at Ash but he didn’t let go.
‘Evie, you deserve revenge,’ he said, ‘and I will happily stand aside and let you have your revenge after this is over, but only after this is over. We have to fight what’s out there first.’
Evie glanced at Victor as Ash spoke and saw the relief wash across his face.
‘We can find them without him,’ she hissed through her teeth at Ash.
‘Yes, probably,’ he admitted. ‘But Victor’s right, we can’t fight them all by ourselves.’
Evie took a deep breath, her whole body shaking with pent-up rage. Did Ash have a point? She thought of the map in the other room and of the photographs of all those dismembered bodies. She thought of all the people who were missing children or brothers and sisters, and she thought of all the innocent people who would die if they didn’t stop this army of unhumans from wreaking havoc on the city.
Finally she dropped her arm. The blade smacked against her side, its tip scraping the ground. Ash studied her for a beat, warily, before he released his grip.
Victor straightened up, lifting his chin, a smile creeping across his lips.
‘Just know,’ Evie said to him, anger boiling in her veins, though her voice stayed icy cold and steady, ‘that one day I am going to stand and watch you die.’