CHAPTER Fourteen
The molecules in the air snapped and bit. As soon as I registered the purple shimmer, I stepped forward, not hesitating further. I was too nervous to delay further. Whatever had done that terrible thing to the dryad was not the kind of being that I should take lightly.
Transporting through felt different to how it usually did. Clearly the ward was going to make things as difficult as possible, and it created the effect of feeling as if my body was being rent asunder. The world outside the barrier pulled at me, as if, with a magnetic urge, it was demanding my physical presence remain there. I couldn’t see what was happening to Solus, but I heard his cry of pain as I wrenched myself through, then collapsed panting, with pricks of tears forming in my eyes. My stomach lurched with devastating nausea, even worse than I normally experienced. I tried to force myself to face the tree, just in case my arrival had woken the Batibat from her sleep and she was already on her way to meet me, but the retching overtook me. My fingernails stabbed into the blackened ground, clawing in agony as my once pleasant breakfast deposited itself unceremoniously in front of me. I was dimly aware of the blur of frantic gestures from my little band of followers on the other side, but the effort to raise my head and acknowledge them to reassure them that I was alright was almost too much.
When the convulsions finally stopped, I collapsed, my cheek hot against the soot. I gasped for air several times, and had to force myself to take in deep heaving breaths to calm myself down. Eventually I was able to scramble back to my feet, where I stood trembling. I looked behind and saw Solus down on the ground. Lucy had managed to get round and was by his side, her hand on his arm. She mouthed something to me, but I couldn’t work out what it was.
“Is he okay?” I shouted over.
She looked puzzled and mouthed something again. Shit. Clearly the ward blocked out sound too. I pointed down at Solus to highlight my worry and concern. She blinked in sudden understanding, and nodded back, this time enunciating her words more obviously, stating what appeared to be ‘he’s fine’. I watched him carefully, relief flooding through me when he stirred and slowly sat back up. He pushed his hair away from his face and grinned boyishly. I rolled my eyes. Idiot. Then, however, his gaze fixed on something behind me and his pupils narrowed to tiny sharp pinpricks of glass. Lucy too was now frozen and staring beyond me. I guessed the Batibat was finally awake.
I concentrated on my hands, allowing my now familiar green fire to light up and flicker, then I slowly turned, every sinew of my body ready to launch myself at the she-daemon.
Aubrey had been right. The Batibat, standing heavily in front of the dead tree, and thankfully blocking the dryad from my sight, was indeed hideous. She was morbidly obese, virtually the width of a small car, with folds of greyish fat and loose skin hanging down from every rounded corner of her body. Her breasts were drooping enough to hit the centre of her stomach, and her dirty blonde hair was scraggly and limp. My mouth dried, but I forced myself to lift my eyes up to hers.
She looked down at my hands then back up to my face, with a complete lack of expression. For once in my life, I had absolutely no idea what my opponent was about to do.
I tilted my chin up. “Hello.”
The Batibat stared back at me, without so much as blinking.
I tried smiling. It didn’t reach my eyes, and I was well aware that I had the habit of looking like a maniacal psychopath when that happened, but I wasn’t quite sure what else to do. She still just stared at me.
Okaaaaay. I took a step forward. She didn’t move. I kept my arms by my sides, trying to show that I wasn’t going to attack her unless she struck out at me first, but I didn’t extinguish my flames, making sure that she knew that I was also more than ready to take her on if I had to. It occurred to me that maybe I should have thought this whole operation through in a little more depth first.
Just when I was starting to wonder if the Batibat was completely immobile, she suddenly let out a huge shuddering sigh, and turned her back on me, lumbering back to the tree that was just a few feet away.
“Hey!” I shouted out towards her, suddenly alarmed. The last thing I needed was for her to get back within the branches and completely conceal herself again. At least right now I knew where she was. “Where the f*ck do you think you’re going? I want to talk to you!”
She completely ignored me, continuing her shambling return to the tree. I so wasn’t in the mood for this. I outstretched my arm and extended my index finger to just beyond her body, zapping the ground with a line of green fire. Thanks to the already heavily burnt earth, however, my efforts immediately sizzled away into nothing. The Batibat didn’t even react, hooking one hand into one of the lower branches, and swinging herself up with a dexterity that astonished me. She clearly possessed some kind of affinity with trees, not least because the branches that looked dead enough to snap the second so much as a whisper of a breeze gusted by them, easily held her weight. Before I could so much as blink, she had completely vanished.
I remained standing in the same spot for a moment, utterly dumbfounded. I flicked a glance over to the mages and Aubrey who were still on the other side of the barrier, all their mouths gaping open, and gave an expressive shrug. So much for big old scary me, then. The seeming apathy of the tree daemon had me baffled. The entire point of forcing both Solus and myself to the point of physical pain to transport through the ward had been to confront her. And yet she just seemed as if she couldn’t care less.
I considered my options. I could of course climb the tree as she had done. But I was no tree spirit. I’d end up flat on my arse with a bunch of broken sticks around me. The Batibat’s very essence had been absorbed by the wood. The only thing that would be absorbed if I tried to do the same would be everyone’s recognition of my own stupidity. I kicked irritably at the ground, sending a cloud of black dust into the air.
Sighing deeply, I figured that the least I could do now that I was here was to disentangle the dead dryad from her dishonourable position. It wasn’t just that releasing her body from the hold of the tree might re-ignite the Batibat’s interest and encourage her to reappear, but also that the dryad bloody well deserved to be taken down and properly cared for. I’d promised both her and myself that I would do that. The thought of having to touch her dead skin and feel the weight of her against me, without anyone nearby who would be able to help and provide companionship through the horror, made me sick to my stomach. I had no right to that emotion though. What Mereia had gone through to end up in that position in the first place was far worse than anything I could experience by cutting her down. Once her body was safely removed then I was going to torch that f*cking tree with the Batibat inside it.
With a heavy heart, I walked round to the other side and looked upwards, avoiding spending too long gazing at the dryad’s sunken skin and dead eyes. Instead I focused on her hands, trying to work out how she was being held up. Aubrey had been right before: her wrists were somehow twisted into the very branches of the tree itself. I’d already surmised that I wouldn’t be able to climb up and reach her, so there seemed nothing else for it but to use shots of my green fire to bring her down. I’d have to do this carefully if I was going to give her the dignity she deserved.
Taking three steps backwards, I squinted up, trying to select the best place to aim. It was vital to be gentle. I closed one eye and pointed out towards one of the curving twigs and, oh so very carefully, sent out a soft small stream of fire.
When it hit the tree, the twig unravelled with a sharp hiss, loosening its grip on the dryad’s arm. Emboldened, I tried again, this time with slightly more power. My shot rang true, and yet another dead branch was loosened. It was difficult to tell from where I was, but it appeared that Mereia’s wrist was starting to pull away from the tree’s unhappy knot.
“He won’t be happy if you do that,” stated a raspy voice, with an air of unerring calm.
I was so surprised that I lost my footing and half stumbled, sending up more clouds of black dirt as I did so. I looked upwards and saw the face of the Batibat peering down at me implacably.
Forcing my heart to return to a normal rhythm, I injected a flat air into my tone. “Who are you referring to?”
Her expression looked puzzled. “Him of course.”
Seriously? I gritted my teeth. “I don’t know who you mean. Can you tell me?”
“He won’t like it.”
My fingertips tingled with dangerous embers of heat. “Yes, you already said that. Who?”
She blinked languorously down at me. “He left her like that for a reason. He’ll know if you take her down.”
Nope. I couldn’t do calm after all. I lifted my right hand towards her, green flames still flickering round. “F*cking tell me who you mean or I’ll destroy you now,” I snarled.
“He has no name. He is all there is.”
She began to draw back into the tree again, but I was determined this time not to let her disappear. I shot up one stream of fire, avoiding her face by millimetres. The Batibat hissed.
“Did he do this?” I shouted up at her. “Did he kill her?”
There was a loud creaking sound from the dead tree as she shrugged, shaking even the trunk into shuddering vibrations. The body of the dryad quivered in response. Screw this.
I turned back to the remaining snake-like branches that were clinging to the tree nymph’s arm and sent out a streak of fire once again. Having snagged exactly the right section, her arm swung free, and her entire body fell heavily down to the side, now just hanging to the tree by her one remaining wrist. Her head dropped down to her collarbone, tendrils of dark green hair falling limply forward like a sad shroud, and her left foot dragged along the burnt ground.
“Not long now,” I muttered, moving over to the other side to complete the process.
“He’ll come,” the Batibat stated obdurately down at me, although when I flicked a quick glance up at her there was a definite expression of fear across her heavy features.
“Let him,” I grunted, eyeing up the remaining branches that were holding the rest of Mereia’s corpse in place, in order to try and work out which point would be best to target. I had no time for mysterious evil-doers who couldn’t even be bothered to have names.
The Batibat moved again, the tree groaning as she did so, and her whole body emerged from within the grey branches as she clambered back down and planted her bare heavy feet onto the dark ground.
“You don’t understand,” she rasped, “you cannot beat him. “
I half-turned towards her. “Do you work for him?”
She laughed. At least I assumed it was a laugh; it sounded like much more of a grating shriek than a hearty chortle. “You make it sound as if I have a choice.” She leaned in towards me, a cloud of her foul breath wafting towards my face. “He has bound the trees that we live in. We either do his bidding or,” she cast a quick look at the sagging dryad’s body, “we suffer a similar fate to that poor creature.”
I squinted up at her. “So when you say ‘we’, who do you mean?” I wasn’t prepared yet to let her know that I was aware that there was another of her species in London causing problems, if not for the general population, then for the profits of a certain troll anyway.
“There are others like me.”
“And where are they?”
“All over.” Her voice was suddenly so quiet I had to strain to catch her words. I abandoned that avenue of questioning for now and switched tactics.
“Did he tell you to attack my, er,” I paused for a moment. Aubrey wasn’t my friend. “Companion?”
She half-cocked her head. “You mean the brown haired emotional boy? He’s a bit weak that one.”
I wondered what she’d say if she knew that until very recently he’d been a merciless master vampire. My eyes turned hard. “Answer the question.”
She allowed herself a small smile. “That one was just for me.” She licked her lips in a manner that turned my stomach. “I like young men.”
He wasn’t really all that young, I thought sardonically. I changed the subject. “So what does he want?” There was no doubt as to which ‘he’ I was referring to.
“What do all men want? Power. Control.” She shrugged. “The usual.”
“Most men don’t go around slaughtering innocent tree nymphs,” I commented, trying to keep my swirling bloodfire under control. I needed to keep it from consuming me so that I could get as much information out of the Batibat as possible. It was f*cking hard not to give in to the temptation to blast her into a pile of smouldering cinders, however.
“Most men are not like him.” She looked me up and down. “You have power of your own. I can sense it. It won’t be enough though. He uses the old ways and dark, dark magic. He cannot be defeated.”
I seemed to remember being told something vaguely similar about wraiths and look how that had turned out. Still, know thy enemy. “What does he look like?”
“Not as handsome as that one.” The Batibat jerked her head behind me. Assuming she was talking about either Larkin or Max and not wanting to take my eyes away from her, I didn’t bother turning around. “I might even keep that one alive for a while as a little toy. It can be rather dull waiting around here.”
I ignored her pointless threats. “What exactly are you waiting for? What’s he planning to do?”
Her lips turned down at the edges, fat heavy creases appearing in the folds of her cheeks. “How do I know? He wants the power of the land and will do what he can to get it. Many of these trees have been around for hundreds of years. He knows ways to take their life-force and use it. For what I have no idea. But you should be afraid.”
I ignored the implied threat. “So he’s behind the planned demolition? He’s going to cut down the trees to drain them of their natural power? Why bother pretending to build something in their place?”
“I would imagine he needs some kind of cover story for the humans. They can be annoying when they get involved.”
I thought about what Atlanteia had told me. “Has he done something to stop protestors from coming here? The humans who would stop the trees from being cut down?”
“Wards do many things,” the Batibat grunted cryptically.
I chewed my lip. “So break the ward here and break whatever magic he is using and that will stop preventing people from coming?”
She made her unpleasant version of a laugh again. “You can’t break the ward. He’s too powerful. You need to understand,” she said, leaning forward, “you cannot beat him. He knows too much and can do too much. And if you free her body, then he will come here and destroy you all.”
Bring it f*cking on. Whoever this guy was, he wasn’t going to know what had hit him. And when I broke his ward, he was going to get a tiny taste of exactly what I was capable of. I turned back to the dryad.
“If you’re going to continue with this foolhardiness, then let me have a little taste of your friend first,” the Batibat called. “The one who seems fixated on you. He looks angry. I’ll probably be doing you a favour.” Her voice deepened. “I like the strong ones. It’s more fun when they struggle.”
This time curiosity got the better of me and I flicked a glance over my shoulder. Oh. Corrigan was standing there, in a dark grey suit that looked completely out of place in the middle of a wood. His arms were crossed against his broad chest and he looked mightily pissed off. Even from this distance I could see the emerald green of his eyes flashing sparks at me.
Hey Corrigan. My Voice bounced against something that felt a bit like cotton wool. Corrigan’s expression didn’t change. Interesting. That meant that the barrier was blocking the usual shifter telepathy, which indicated why he’d not bothered announcing his arrival. It also meant that it was a f*cking strong ward. I gave him a little grin and a wave instead. His frown deepened.
“Is he your husband?” inquired the Batibat.
I let out a bark of laughter. “As if.”
She exhaled loudly and happily. “Then I can take him off your hands for you.”
“That won’t be necessary.” I watched as Solus, clearly completely recovered now, made his way towards the Lord Alpha. Whereas the mages were carefully keeping their distance from him, and Aubrey seemed to be hiding behind a tree, the Fae felt no such compunction. He reached Corrigan and punched him lightly on the shoulder as if to say ‘hey, buddy’, before turning to me and blowing a melodramatic kiss. Then he joined his index fingers and his thumbs together to form the shape of a heart and held it out in my direction. Corrigan’s arms dropped to his sides, his fists clenching. It was time for me to wrap things up before either of them created some other kind of stupid inter-species war.
I turned back to the Batibat. “I’m going to finish bringing her body down. Then I’m going to destroy your tree and break your nameless dude’s ward. It’s up to you if you stick around or not.”
She stared at me. “You can’t break the ward.”
“Watch me,” I growled.
I flicked out a jet of fire towards the remaining branches that were holding Mereia in place. This time practice clearly made perfect as I hit the right ones first time around, and her body immediately began to fall to the ground. I ran towards her, catching her corpse before it thudded down, and then carried her gently away from the tree and laid her down at a safe distance at the edge of the ward. I didn’t look at Corrigan or the others again.
“He’s going to be angry,” shouted the Batibat, her previously calm tones, now sounding panicked. “He’ll…”
Her shout drifted away as I returned back to my previous spot, lifted up both hands and sent out twin spikes of fire towards the tree, this time not caring what I hit. I was dimly aware of her jumping backwards and hissing, but I completely ignored her, concentrating instead on the total destruction of the scene of the dryad’s death. This, at least, I could do properly.
The dry branches, under the onslaught of all the fire I could muster, didn’t take long before they lit up and caught. The flames gnawed their way along the dead wood, turning it as black as the surrounding ground. Burning twigs and branches began to fall to the ground as if in slow motion. The heat coming off the now skeleton-like silhouette was extraordinary, and my eyes began to water from the smoke. I didn’t stop, however. The tree became a pyre, crackling and sending out sparks that made the Batibat yelp and back away further. I upped my fiery voltage and pelted out everything that I had. In the absence of the f*cking embodiment of evil that had done this, I was going to take out my vengeance on the already dead tree. Let the wanker come and see what I’d done. I wasn’t afraid of him.
When I was satisfied that I’d done enough to completely destroy the corpse of what had probably once been a magnificent example of nature’s goodness, I left it burning and looked over at the Batibat, satisfied. She was slumped some distance away, the heavy crooks of her arms folded over and around her body, hugging herself. I didn’t know whether the tree had originally been home to her or home to Mereia and I didn’t really care. The dryad no longer needed it, and I couldn’t give a flying f*ck whether the Batibat was now homeless or not.
I called out to her. “If your lord and master comes calling, tell him that Mackenzie Smith did this. I’ll be more than happy to deal with his complaints.” I stared at her, hard. “Did you get that?”
She sent me a sullen look, filled with hate.
“Mackenzie Smith.” I repeated. “And you can let him know that I’m not done, not by a long shot.”
I walked over to the edge of the ward, briefly examining the wound on my palm for a moment. I dug my fingernails into it, wincing slightly at the pain, but smiling grimly as fresh blood oozed out. Then I scooped up Mereia’s body, trying to ignore the cold feel of her dead skin, and gently cradled her almost weightless form against me, holding her in place with my free hand while I reached out against the ward with the other, smearing my blood against it. I was confident, given my past experience, that my Draco Wyr genes would be enough to break through it. There was a tiny part of me that doubted, considering the Batibat’s assertions regarding the strength of the ward, but I needn’t have bothered. As my blood came into contact with the barrier, the entire perimeter appeared to glow. Then there was a loud bang as it snapped open.
I stepped through, savouring the return of fresh, untainted air. Casting a quick glance behind me, it was clear that the Batibat had chosen to vanish to somewhere else. Suited me.
Lucy was standing by Corrigan’s side, staring. “I thought you didn’t want to break it in case it set off some kind of alarm? Is it not going to trigger something off?”
I felt all of the group’s eyes on me. I shrugged, my mouth set into a grim line. “Oh, it’ll have triggered something off. In fact, I hope it’ll have triggered a screaming alert to the f*cker that did this so that he comes running. Because I’m going to f*cking destroy him.”