CHAPTER Sixteen
Armed with the new, albeit scanty, information regarding the person behind the dryad’s violent demise, it seemed important to get in touch with Alex again. When I made it back to the others, I noted with a touch of satisfaction that Max and Larkin had, between them, managed to cast some kind of Illusion spell to hide the remaining burnt evidence from any prying eyes. They were sitting down on a small grassy hillock with Lucy some distance away. There was no sign of Corrigan. I told myself that I didn’t care and looked instead for Aubrey who, proving that the compulsion was still in play, remained in his previous position behind the tree.
Ignoring the others’ curious gazes, I stalked over to him. He was curled up unhappily on the ground, hugging his knees to himself and singing softly. He seemed to have given up on his ‘disguise’, as his trenchcoat, hat and gloves were in a neatly folded pile next to his feet. I knelt down and poked him.
“Hey.”
He didn’t respond. I poked him again, harder this time. “Give me your phone, Aubrey.”
The ex-vamp didn’t even bother to look up; he just squeezed a hand into his pocket, pulled out his mobile and held it out.
“Thanks.”
I turned it on and began to jab in Alex’s number.
Aubrey cleared his throat. I ceased what I was doing for a moment and looked at him.
“You’re really mean to me, Mack,” he whined.
“Not too long ago you told me I was really nice,” I commented.
He ignored my words and just glared up at me. “You left me here with those others. They won’t even talk to me. It’s like I don’t even exist.”
I tried not to give the ember of sympathy that stirred inside me any notice. “Yeah, well, maybe if you hadn’t acted like such a prick when you were a vampire, then maybe they’d be nicer to you now.”
“It’s not my fault. That’s like blaming a wasp for stinging or a mosquito for biting. It was in my nature to do those things. “
“You mean like now it’s in your nature to hang around on the ground and complain a lot?” I inquired.
He screwed up his face. “See! You’re just mean.”
I gave up and returned my attention to the phone.
“Mack?”
“What?”
“I’m hungry.”
“Then go and eat something.”
The phone began to ring.
“There’s nothing to eat.” He pouted at me, unhappily. I ignored him.
The ringing stopped and Alex’s voice filled the line. “Hey, Mack Attack.”
“Hey, Alex. What’s going on?”
“It’s been as dead as a grave here, dude. Not much happens around this place during the day. Not seen that fat naked woman again though at least.”
I was idly curious as to what relation Alex’s Batibat was to mine, but it was barely relevant to my needs. Batibats were entirely the wrong gender. Instead I turned to asking about the only thing that could potentially be of any use. “Have you seen any men go into the shop?”
“One or two.”
I chewed frustratedly on my bottom lip. “Can you describe them to me?”
“I can do better than that. I’ve got photos of them all so I’ll text them over. I don’t think any of them are your guy though. Most of them just looked like pretty ordinary customers.”
A strange sound reached my ears.
“What the hell is that?” asked Alex.
I glanced over at Aubrey. He was gnawing loudly on a twig, ripping parts off with his teeth and masticating wetly in a manner that any cow would be proud of. When he caught me staring, he gave me a look as if to say ‘what the f*ck is your problem?’ and carried on.
“Never mind,” I said dismissively into the receiver. “I just need to be more careful about what I say, that’s all.”
“Don’t we all, dude,” drawled Alex. “So, as not much is going on here, can I leave now?”
I thought about it. I had to admit that it didn’t sound as if he was going to have much success with his venture any longer. However, I needed to know who this mysterious man was, and not just because of my promise to Balud. There was no doubt in my mind that the dryad-killer and the shop owner were one and the same. I couldn’t quite work out what the connection between the two could be: what did selling some hardware and destroying trees to get a burst of extra power have to do with each other? It stood to reason that whatever the point behind the weapons shop was, it was something nefarious and nasty. I couldn’t believe the f*cker who had crucified Mereia side-lined in selling sharp and pointy silverware as a mere day job. There had to be more to it.
“Stick around for another few hours,” I advised him. There was an audible sigh. He was going to like my next request even less. “If nothing suspicious shows up and if those photos offer no clues, then you’re going to need to go in and talk to the Batibat.”
“The naked she-monster?” he screeched. “No way, Mack Attack, no way. She’ll eat me alive. You know I’m no good at confrontation stuff.”
“Alex,” I said patiently, “I’m not asking you to attack her or anything. Just see if you can get some information out of her. You’ll be good at it. I would just bulldoze in and piss her off and she’d clam up. You’ll go softly softly and be much more successful. I wouldn’t ask you if I didn’t have faith in you.”
“Aw, Mack Attack, I appreciate the vote of confidence but I’m just not sure…”
“You’ll be fine. And once you’ve done that then you can go back home.”
There was a moment of silence. Come on, Alex, I pleaded to myself. I need you to do this.
Eventually, he answered. “Okay, then.” There was a distinct lack of enthusiasm in his answer, but it would have to do.
“Thank you. I really do appreciate it.” There was a snap of a twig in front of me and I looked up to see Solus a few feet away. “I have to go, Alex, but I know you’ll do brilliantly. You’re more capable than you think.”
“A’right. I’ll text you those photos. Bye.” He hung up.
I hoped he’d be okay. I had no doubts that Alex could charm the Batibat into revealing at least something useful. His cheeky surfer boy grin was probably exactly what her species was looking for. I just needed him to believe that he could do it. Unfortunately I was worried that he’d spend the next couple of hours not building up the confidence that he needed, but instead working himself up into a nervous lather that would lead him to babble inanely when he went inside.
“Boosting up your little hippy mage, dragonlette?” inquired Solus with a hint of humour. “I can help you instead, you know.”
“I think this needs a more gentle touch than you can offer,” I answered. “Besides, I have a feeling I’m going to need you around here. Did you find Beltran?”
“That I did.”
Exasperated, I rolled my eyes at him. “And?”
He shrugged. “The tree huggers were proving rather difficult for him to manage. You would think that a Fae could merely glamour them into decamping here, but there was some kind of block. They all seemed completely incapable of believing that there was a problem here that they might able to solve. They were determined to hang around Wales and lie in the middle of a few roads to apparently stop the inevitable.” Amusement lit his violet eyes. “Humans really can be intractable creatures sometimes.”
My heart sank. Atlanteia had seemed convinced that getting the environmentalists on side would help to stop the demolition. I certainly didn’t have the faintest idea how to go about it. “So they’re not coming?”
He waggled a finger in front of me. “That’s not what I said. Somehow, round about the time that you busted the ward, whatever was preventing them from listening to Beltran completely evaporated.”
“I was right. The ward wasn’t just a physical barrier,” I breathed in relief.
“Indeed. Whoever created it was a clever bastard because it was a psychological ward too. They’re not easy to manage, you know.”
“You sound like you admire him,” I said, faintly disgusted.
“Just his work, my little dragonlette. Not him.” He dusted off an imaginary speck from his shoulder. “Anyway, to cut a long story short, hey presto and supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, they are on their way. Should be no more than a couple of hours.”
Thank f*ck. I beamed gratefully at him.
He bobbed his head in arrogant acknowledgement and opened up his palms, gesturing expansively. “Bring on the accolades.”
Aubrey took that moment to spit noisily on the ground. Solus’ lip curled in revulsion. I couldn’t help snorting out a giggle.
“Can I have my phone back now?” There was a high pitched plaintive note to his voice.
“He’s different,” commented Solus, eyeing the ex-vamp with detached curiosity.
“He’s not f*cking undead anymore.”
“You know what I mean.” Solus frowned. “The Aubrey I knew might have been unlikeable, even as far as vampires go, but he possessed considerable inner strength. This one,” he pointed at him with his toe, “is a pathetic excuse for a human. Why is he even with us?”
“I don’t really know,” I answered, honestly.
Aubrey scrambled to his feet, throwing away his half chewed stick behind him with an angry flourish. “I am here, you know!” he shouted. “It’s rude to talk about people as if they’re not there when they are! I didn’t ask to be turned into a human. She did it to me.” His voice continued to rise, and his right foot began stamping the ground several times in quick succession. “Now give me back my phone! It’s mine!”
As if on cue, the phone in my hands beeped. I looked over at Solus and raised my eyebrows slightly. “He’s having some adjustment issues.”
“I’ll say,” murmured the Fae, with a slightly impressed expression.
“Just let me use it for a few more minutes, Aubrey. Then I’ll give back to you, I promise.”
He folded his arms and wrinkled his nose, then sat back down and huffed loudly. I opened Alex’s text. There were three images. I opened up the first one, with Solus peering over my shoulder.
“Who’s that?”
“I’m hoping it’s the prick that’s behind all of this,” I said, staring down at the hulking figure that Alex had managed to capture.
“Looks pretty strong. No match for our dragon though.”
I gave the Fae a warning glance. Aubrey was by now no doubt starting to put the pieces together as to what I really was but that didn’t mean that Solus had to hand the information to him on a plate. Fortunately for me he was still sitting glumly on the ground and muttering away to himself, paying us very little attention. Solus was right however: whoever this was that Alex had managed to snap, he looked as if he was built for one thing and one thing only. And that was fighting. This one was definitely a contender. I opened up the next one. It was a young looking guy wearing a hoodie. Alex had only just managed to catch him in profile, but he still looked remarkably babyish to be carrying out a reign of terror. Still, appearances could be deceiving.
I flicked my thumb over to the final image. This one was rather blurry, but it was still possible to make out the features of a somewhat nondescript looking man, wearing glasses and a suit. I frowned down at the phone. There was something about him that was vaguely familiar.
“He looks like that actor,” commented Solus, “the one in that Hollywood film about a man murdering his wife and it all going terribly wrong.”
I stared up at the Fae in surprise. “You watch movies?”
He actually blushed. “What’s wrong with that?”
“Nothing, I guess,” I said, still somewhat nonplussed. “Just, I guess I thought that you faeries would be above all that.”
“Well, maybe you could come with me sometime.” There was a sudden mischievous gleam in his eyes. “We could sit in the back row, share some popcorn, let our hands accidentally touch and then…”
I punched him in the arm. “Sod off.”
Solus just laughed musically. I tutted at him and closed down the text. The Batibat’s man could realistically be any of them or none of them. Looking at pictures was pretty much a waste of time.
I sighed. I knew I should probably call Mrs. Alcoon and tell her that I might not make it back to London for the bookshop’s grand opening, but I didn’t want to let her down. Despite the fact that it was clearly foolish optimism to think that I would be there, I decided to wait. I still had the image of Corrigan’s frozen eyes in my head when I’d told him I wouldn’t keep our date. I wasn’t looking forward to doing the same to Mrs. Alcoon. I ignored the little voice whispering coward at me and decided I’d call her tomorrow, then threw the phone into Aubrey’s lap. He stopped his incessant muttering and his expression brightened immediately. I watched him carefully for a moment, trying to work out if he was up to something. He had been avoiding all of his vamp pals up till now, but I couldn’t help wondering if his sudden attachment to his phone was because he’d finally been in contact with them. Hadn’t he said something about knowing a few who could turn him back to a creature of the undead?
“Have you done something stupid, Aubrey?”
“Like what?” he asked, his face a picture of wide-eyed innocence.
“Oh, I don’t know,” I said, slowly, “like contact some vampires to come here and wreak havoc on the now approaching humans?”
He evinced melodramatic hurt. “No! If I called them it would be to help me out so I can go back to being what I’m supposed to be!”
“An evil night stalker?”
“Someone who gets the respect they deserve! Someone who isn’t ignored!” His voice faltered slightly. “Someone who doesn’t feel all this inner turmoil all the time.”
Oh, the existential problems of a cured vampire. I realised that I still didn’t really have an answer to why he was suddenly concerned about where his phone might be though. I stared at him, hard, and put my hands on my hips.
“Okay, so you’ve not been calling the bloodsuckers. But you’ve definitely been phoning someone. What’s going on?”
Aubrey looked guiltily away. A wash of concern filtered through me. I’d bloody kill him if he had done something to mess up my plans just as things were starting to look up. Why in the hell had I let him tag along? I should have left his sorry arse back in London on the streets where he belonged.
“I could compel you to tell me, you know.”
He sniffed. “Go on, then.”
At that very moment the phone in his hands beeped. Aubrey glanced down at it and his face lit up. My muscles tensed. Whatever he’d done and whatever he’d summoned, I’d dispatch it pretty damn f*cking quickly. Bloodfire lit up inside my belly and there was a shout from behind me.
“Mack! Someone’s coming up the hill!”
Giving Aubrey the dirtiest look I could muster, I motioned to Solus to stay and watch him, then turned round to face who – or what – was coming. I squinted downwards. The trees were masking the majority of their approach, but there were flashes of bright red and blue emerging from between the gaps in the leaves. I frowned. They clearly weren’t trying to camouflage themselves in any way. I took several steps forward to get a better look. Were they carrying something?
The mages were both on their feet, flicking anxious glances between me and the moving figure. Lucy jogged over in my direction, then took up position next to me, shoulder to shoulder.
“What is it?” she asked quietly, equal measures of concern and menace in her voice.
I shook my head to indicate that I didn’t know, and just watched, ready to defend our position of need be. It could be only one of two things: the Batibat’s master or a buddy of Aubrey’s. Both would be dangerous. Then a face appeared. Human. I cocked my head, still trying to work out what he was carrying.
Lucy sniffed. “Hold on,” she said. “I can smell that. Tomato, meat, some kind of herb…”
Her voice drifted off as a shout reached our ears. “Hey! Which one of you guys ordered pizza?”
I looked at Lucy and she looked at me. Then I turned back round to Aubrey.
He avoided my gaze. “I told you I was hungry,” he huffed.
I rolled my eyes and stomped irritably off to get things ready before the campaigners started arriving.