CHAPTER Four
I turned around slowly, not relinquishing my grip on the squirming shifter. So much for keeping out of his way then.
“My Lord,” I stated emphatically, injecting in as much venom towards Corrigan as he had managed for me.
For a moment, a flicker of surprise crossed the Lord Alpha’s face, then his jade green eyes fixed on mine, turning flinty and emotionless. I felt a tiny measure of satisfaction that there were dark shadows underneath them, but was beyond irritated at the fact he still managed to look so good despite the apparent lack of sleep. Until ten minutes ago, I’d have been thrilled to bump into him; right now, after witnessing the Batibat’s interrogation, my feelings weren’t quite so clear cut.
“Release him,” he repeated.
I raised my eyebrows. “Make me.”
Corrigan sighed and ran a tanned hand through his jet black hair. “Mackenzie, don’t complicate my life further. Let him go and get out. I will take things from here.”
I growled. “Take things from here? Take things from f*cking here? What does that mean? That you’ll break out the hot irons to make sure you squeeze every single bit of information you can from her? She’s as much a f*cking victim here as we are! How dare you send your minions here to treat her like an enemy combatant? What gives you the f*cking right? Oh, the majestic Brethren, sweeping in to save the day and torture innocents. Is that how you get your kicks?”
His eyes flashed pure fury before shutters came slamming down again, masking his thoughts. “So now you think we’re monsters again, do you? It didn’t take you long to change your mind.” His voice was soft, but edged with steely menace.
“What else do you expect me to think? You can’t go around acting as if you’re the f*cking Gestapo! You can’t treat people like that, Corrigan!”
“As a Batibat, she’s not technically a person,” he said mildly.
“You know damn well what I mean when I say that. What Endor has done, what he is doing, it’s not her fault!” I spat the words out, still appalled at what he’d sent his shifters here to do.
“She’s not entirely innocent,” he reminded me. “We know that he used this place to get the money he needed to begin his campaign. Right now she’s the best lead that we’ve got.”
“And beating that lead to a pulp is going to help?”
Wold let out a squeak from behind me. I didn’t turn around; instead, in return, I tightened my grip infinitesimally around the shifter’s neck. He gasped, but otherwise made no other sound, his eyes trained on his lord and master.
Corrigan took a step towards me and I caught the sudden scent of his aftershave. The familiar headiness of it momentarily made my senses reel. A swirl of heated bloodfire rose up from the pit of my belly. Damn him.
“I was unaware of what was happening.”
“Bullshit!” I exploded. “Every single one of these shifters knew to watch out for me and not let me in. And they’d been told to do that by you. They wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you.”
Corrigan’s fists clenched. “Get out of here.”
“I already told you I’m not going anywhere until I get f*cking answers! You can’t…”
I stopped mid-sentence as I realised he’d not been addressing me. The two shifters on the floor painfully pulled themselves up, eyes downcast, and scuttled out of the door. Corrigan raised his eyebrows at me. I sighed and loosened my grip on the wolf. He half fell down, letting out a small whine that belied his current human form, then bolted out on all fours.
Once he’d gone, Corrigan spoke again. “I didn’t know what was happening until I got a call saying that they were here and under attack. I just happened to be in the vicinity anyway.”
I should have aimed for the heart of the shifter hanging around outside. My face twisted. “Stop f*cking lying. I thought better of you than that. At least be honest with me, Corrigan.”
A tinge of red lit up across his cheekbones. “You mean like you were honest with me? F*cking me and leading me on one minute then discarding me the next?”
“I had my reasons!” I spat. “And stop the changing the subject. Own up to what you’ve done and what you are. Coming here and doing this makes you almost as bad as sodding Endor himself.”
For a moment I thought he was going to strike me, then his muscles relaxed slightly and he composed himself. “I had decided, in light of our,” he paused for a heartbeat, “relationship with each other, that it would be wise to withdraw myself from this situation with the necromancer. I instructed Staines to take the lead. He has exceeded his authority and, believe me, will be dealt with.”
The formality of Corrigan’s words lanced through me. Then his green eyes softened for a moment and he looked over my shoulder at the Batibat. “Ma’am, you have my apologies, along with those of the entire Brethren. This will not happen again.”
I opened my mouth, then snapped it shut, realising the shifters had only referred to ‘he’. They hadn’t mentioned Corrigan himself. He could very well be telling the truth. But Staines was still Corrigan’s henchman. He wouldn’t have done this if he’d thought that it would really piss his Lord Alpha off. My eyes narrowed slightly.
“Yes, but…”
Corrigan turned his attention back to me. “Not that I owe you any explanations.”
“I’m the head of the council tasked to bring Endor down. You owe me every explanation.”
A humourless smile crossed his face. “Ah, yes. Your new job.” He leaned in closer. “Tell me, how does it feel having all that power and control? Is it everything you wished for?”
I snarled at him. “F*ck. Off.”
He laughed sharply. “Why so moody about it? You got what you wanted.”
“I didn’t want this, Corrigan. I didn’t ask for this. There wasn’t a choice.”
“There is always a choice.” His eyes raked across my face. “So what happened? Was that one of my shifters?”
“Huh?” I asked, suddenly confused.
“Your face. There’s a rather conspicuous bruise and it appears that you can only see out of one eye. What happened?”
“Nothing.”
“Mackenzie…”
“I walked into a door.”
A muscle throbbed in Corrigan’s cheek. His voice deepened to a rumble. “What really happened?”
“I told you,” I said, exasperated, “I walked into a door.”
He leaned in towards me until I could feel his breath hot upon my cheek. My chest tightened. “Who’s lying now?” he whispered.
Just then there was a crash from out in the corridor. Both Corrigan and I tensed immediately and my hands reached back for my daggers. He tilted his head up, nostrils flaring, then took hold of my arms to stop them in midair. An expression of irritation flickered across his eyes, and a nervous looking face peered round the gap in the door.
“Dude! Sheesh! What happened here? And what the bejesus happened to your face?” He sent an accusatory look in the Lord Alpha’s direction.
“It’s alright, Alex,” I said, pulling away from Corrigan, and trying to ignore the burning imprint his hands left on my skin. “There’s nothing to worry about.”
“Are you sure? Because, man, it looks like a hurricane tore through this place.” He rubbed at his cheek worriedly. “Was it that Endor dude? Was he here? Did he take Wold?”
I started. “What? No, Wold’s here, she’s just…”
I turned around to the chair where the Batibat had been sitting. It was empty. F*cking hell. Had I really been so engrossed in Corrigan that I’d not noticed a three ton naked woman get up and leave? A window towards the back of the room gaped open, as evidence of my own idiot culpability.
I swivelled back to Corrigan. “Didn’t you see her get up and go?”
He growled at me, clearly pissed off. “Didn’t you?”
I glared. “You were the one facing in her f*cking direction!”
Alex held up his hands, palms facing outwards. “Whoa, should I go out and come back in again?”
“Set up a Divination spell, Alex,” I snapped, looking away from the Brethren Lord in self-directed disgust.
He nodded, and half closed his eyes, starting to chant. A snake of blue inveniora light curled up from his hands and etched its way through the clammy air of the room. I moved out of its path as it veered over to the empty chair where it hovered for a second before screwing upwards and out of the window. Without pausing further, I followed it, leaping out of the window and landing with a heavy clatter on the ground three feet below. Corrigan, right at my heels, arched out and hit the ground while barely bending his knees. Stupid cat reflexes. Then the pair of us took off in pursuit.
Alex’s blue tracking spell made a beeline for the end of the narrow street. Keeping up with the front of the trail, we followed it down.
“It’s heading for the main street,” I said, stating the obvious. “She can’t go there. A huge naked female Batibat is hardly going to go unnoticed at three o’clock in the freaking afternoon.”
Corrigan grunted his assent. As soon as we reached the sunlight of the crossroads that stretched back into the less shadowy manifestation of London, however, the blue inveniora arced upwards into the air and disappeared into one of the leafy green trees that edged the pavement. The light hung there for a second before it too vanished.
“F*ck.” I slammed my hand into the trunk of the tree, ignoring the answering shot of pain that I received back. “We’ll never catch her now.”
Corrigan’s eyes followed the street down, glancing from tree to tree. “She could jump from one to the other and we’ll never know where she is,” he agreed.
“This is your bloody shifters’ fault.”
“They might have a lot to answer for,” he growled, “but they’re not the ones who allowed her to disappear in front of their eyes.”
I had no answer for that. My shoulders sagged in defeat.
“Screw this,” I said. “I’m going to get Alex and go home.”
“Corr? Is everything okay?”
I stiffened, and glanced over at the owner of the voice. A pretty blonde was standing a few feet away, her perfectly manicured eyebrows raised in Corrigan’s direction. I instantly hated her.
“Everything’s fine.” He didn’t even look at me, but instead held out his arm for her. She took it and he smiled down at her. “Come on. Let’s go and get that late lunch that I promised you.”
Without so much as another glance, the pair of them walked off. I watched them go, mouth hanging open. Well, it didn’t take him f*cking long to get over me, I thought, brimming with unjust ire. “In the sodding vicinity, indeed,” I muttered to myself. “In the sodding vicinity wining and dining so that he can get freaking laid later on. Prick.”
Alex appeared by my shoulder. “Where’s Wold?”
“Gone.”
“His Lord Shiftiness?”
“He’s gone too.”
“Ah. What do we do now?”
I was still staring down the street in the direction of Corrigan and his new ‘friend’.
“Mack Attack? What do we do now?”
I chewed my lip. Fine. Corrigan could go off and live his life how ever he saw fit. I was going to do my job, preferably without the interference from the furry ones this time. “We’re going to see if we can’t get hold of a lot of money so that we can get make some weapons of necromancing destruction.”
Alex beamed. “Cool. You don’t need him anyway, Mack Attack.”
“Damn straight.” A sudden rip of roaring bloodfire lit through my chest. I ignored it. At least my headache seemed to have finally dissipated. “Let’s go.”