Thief: X (15 page)

“Not as far as I could throw him.” I took another puff and offered it to Marshall who shook his head,

“Are you cursed too?” I’d been waiting for him to ask,

“I suppose I am but not in the same way. I was born this way.”

“Even with the scars on your wrists?” I took one last puff and put the joint out on the log, placing it back in the tin.

“My scars have nothing to do with you!” Yes it was a sore subject and this was now the second time he’d mentioned it. This was the reason I covered them because I didn’t need the questions.

“No one has scars like that unless…” I’d never been so thankful for a Pixie arrow to hit me in the forehead, “What the hell?”

“Ha, Pixies! I suggest we run because their arrows are poisonous.” I could already feel the poison trying to attack me. All it managed to do was sting. It was better that Marshall didn’t know it should have been lethal, “I think we may have been sat on their home.”

With that we ran as tiny arrows flew past us. If the Pixies were really annoyed they would have aimed a lot better. This was just a show to illustrate their territory and the fact I wasn't collapsed dead, gave them a lot to think about. As we skidded to the road the Major’s lackey had pulled up and I looked behind me to tiny, little, men with wings shaking their fists at us. I flipped them the bird and strolled to the huge, black Hummer, which wasn’t conspicuous at all. I smiled at everyone else who had already made their way inside,

“Do I want to know what that was all about and why you’re both hot and sweaty?” Adram waggled his eyebrows at me and I threw my tin at his head,

“No, go hit on the driver!” I panted,

“As you wish.” He smiled and clambered onto the front seat next to the hot looking soldier in a black uniform. I think this was the first time the soldier had ever been scared in his life but then again Adram looked like his normal demon self.

I slammed my front door behind me. I was getting grumpier by the minute until Smidge rubbed against my legs,

“Are you hungry girl?” I had a meow in response and then a hiss as she caught sight of Cerberus. I was expecting a fight but after Smidge got over herself she rubbed up against Cerberus, who began wagging her tail. If I didn’t know better I’d say they knew each other.

I walked away because they could be sniffing each other all day and I really needed some sleep,

“Where do you want us?” I rolled my eyes at Wolfie,

“There’s the attic or the basement. Stay together or not, at this point in my life I don’t care.” I walked past them and Marshall, straight for the fridge. I grabbed the vodka bottle and pounded up the stairs. I was going to drink heavily and then sleep.

The second I drifted off I wished I hadn’t bothered,

“So, I’ve been quiet have I?” I was sat with Cain on the edge of a cliff, our legs dangling over like their wasn’t a chasm below us,

“Can’t a girl get a break even in her sleep?” I sighed,

“Now where’s the fun in that?” He chuckled. Cain was the perpetual pain in my arse but with his long red locks blowing in the wind and his billowing shirt he looked like a god. I suppose in a way he was and he’d been in my life longer than Adram. All be it in a weird and twisted way. Maybe I had Stockholm syndrome?

“What do you want?”

“Lots and lots of questions between us today. I don’t like your cowboy.”

“And there we go, straight to the point. One, he’s not my cowboy. Two, he’s married and three, it’s none of your bloody business!”

“Ah but
you
are my business.”

“This is getting old Cain. I’m really not in the mood for it today.”

“I saw and you’re so much better than that. I have to admit I’m a little disappointed. You have no clue about the whereabouts of those pretty girls or the reason why. Even though the answers keep staring you in the face! So, so disappointed.” Cain shook his head,

“You know, don’t you?”

“And we’re back to the questions again. This is something you have to figure out yourself and if you don’t do it soon you’ll lose everything. Just saying.”

“You’re
just saying
? Since when do you care?”

“My god, stop it with the questions! I knew I should have put that Y chromosome in your mix up. I wouldn’t have to cope with your lady issues.”

“They’re not lady issues! You drive me crazy, seriously crazy.”

“I’m not responsible for your crazy. I’m afraid that’s all you.”

“Every day I’m in fear you’ll just turn up to take me away and now I have all this Clockwork shit…”

“Oooooo don’t forget the cowboy while you’re having your little mini breakdown.”

“He’s not my cowboy!” I yelled and all he did was laugh,

“I’ll be getting out soon, so I suppose I should feel a little generous. I’ll give you a little clue; your cowboy is the key. In that respect your thinking, unbelievably, is on the right track. I know, I know, I’m surprised as well that you’ve got that far.”

“You’re a sexist pig!”

“That I am, now get to work before I have to disown you as my progeny.” I was about to go crazy on his arse to remind he that I didn’t
want
to
be
his progeny when he pushed me off the cliff.

I woke up spread eagled on the floor. I hated Cain. I looked at my bedside clock and it flashed 6 p.m. I’d been asleep for a solid ten hours and thanks to Cain I felt like I’d just fallen off a cliff. I heard screaming from the kitchen and sighed. Oh how I wanted my house to myself again. I needed to think. Cain had been unusually generous with his so called clue. All I had to do now was figure out what the hell he was talking about. There was no chance I was going to be able to think with all the commotion downstairs, so I put my running gear on, put my phone in my arm band, stuffed my earphones in my ears and jumped out the window. The things I did to avoid people.

It was a wonderful summers evening and I decided to take a tour around the village. It was hard to believe that the humans in the village had no idea what was right in front of their eyes. All they had to do was actually look and they would see the things I could. Fairies danced in and out of flowers, leaving a shimmer of fairy dust in their wake. They were beautiful this time of year as the sun shone through their pearlescent wings. Even the trolls were out rolling in the mud on the river bank. Not everything supernatural was bad, and not all humans were good. Maybe I was something in the middle? I didn’t exactly feel evil, but I didn’t feel good either.

Running helped me think, although most of the time I wallowed in self-pity and it was my own anger at myself that pushed me to run faster. I thought back to all the girls that had gone missing and were now a file on my table. If I wasn’t so shit scared to go back into my little Hell space, I’d be scanning through them again but I had chills at the thought of going anywhere near anything Hellish. The fact they all looked similar may have been me clutching at straws but I couldn’t help think that it was important. The American girls had all been grabbed at their proms. An easy enough thing to do as they were away from their homes and no one probably noticed until they didn’t return home. Madam Cassandra’s girl was the exception. The proms were used as a means to an end, an opportunity to kidnap without making a commotion and that was all. So the prom definitely wasn’t the motive and that led me right back to the girls. The odds of the girls in the files being the only ones were slim. Most sickos built up to their finale and the police missed things all the time. Clockwork was one sick and deluded clown, but why didn’t he stay in the States?

I was asking more questions than I was finding answers and it was frustrating. Maybe I should just let Cain be disappointed in me? It wasn’t like I actually wanted his approval for anything but I couldn’t help think I was being stupid. Why couldn’t I work this out? I was frustrating myself, when I suddenly stopped dead. Crap on a cracker!

“Stupid, stupid, stupid!” I yelled. I grabbed my phone out of the wrist band and dialled,

“What do you want? It better be news on my missing girl.” I rolled my eyes. Everyone wanted a piece of me over this,

“Well hello to you too Madam Cassandra…”

“Do you have news?”

“Not exactly. You have a file on all your girls, don’t you?”

“Of course I do! I look after them as if they were my own.” Yeah like you’d really pimp your own daughters out, I thought. But then again you never knew what a vampire was capable of,

“Does that include family history?”

“You know full well that I do my research. I always give them the option to go home if they want to, and in order to do that I need to know their family history.” She sighed, being her impatient self as always,

“Even their family tree?”

“Maybe…”

“I need that information for your girl that went missing. I also need that information for the others.”

“I know up to grandparents but that’s it and how the hell am I going to get it for the others?”

“I’ve seen your client list. There’s plenty of people to blackmail into getting the information for you.”

“How dare you think I’d use my clients in such an unscrupulous way!” By the way she hissed I knew her fangs were out,

“I’m running out of time Madam Cassandra, and if you want to see your girl alive again you’ll do it.” For a second I thought she’d hung up and then I heard her sigh,

“Ok. I’ll get the information by midnight.” And then she really did hang up. I had no idea how she was going to get the information to me but you don’t really argue with a vampire who you’ve just woken up before sunset.

Now all I had to do was tell Marshall he was a changeling. Cain was right, the answer had been staring me in the face. Oh the joys of my life.

I’d just turned the corner and was nearly home when I heard grumbling. Mrs Dalgoon had been a part of Havensbrook for as long as I could remember and yet again kids were giving her hassle. What was it with teenagers lately? Mrs Dalgoon was a force to be reckoned with in her mobility scooter. I had no idea how old she was but she always wore a dirty old woollen coat and a beanie hat with a bobble on top. If you could count her wrinkles like the rings of a tree she’d be extremely old. She didn’t care whose feet she ran over, but she didn’t really like confrontation. Usually I’d just walk past and let her deal with it but apparently in the last week I’d grew a conscience and didn’t that need a whole load of weed killer dumped on it before I got too soft for my own good.

“Why don’t you all leave Mrs Dalgoon alone and go play with something? Aren’t teenagers supposed to hate the outdoors now, what with your Xboxes and stuff?” They looked me up and down and sniggered. I wouldn’t have minded but I knew each of them and they knew I could be somewhat prone to hitting people,

“She’s a freak! Look at her.” That was Tommy. A pig nosed little creep whose dad owned the reclamation yard just out of town. He was sixteen and a little shit,

“Yeah man, why does she even bother leaving her house?” Now that was Lewis. His dad was friends with mine and just so happened to be a big shot lawyer. Prfft like I cared,

“Freaks shouldn’t be allowed out. We all know things are different in Havensbrook, but she’s just weird. All she ever does is run you over and grunt.”

“And I thought you’d know better than to call someone a freak Jason, what with your
affliction
.” His affliction being that he was a wolf shifter, with a dad who worked with the Forest Commission and part of the local wolf council. He wouldn’t exactly be very proud of his son at this second,

“I…er…I…I just think she should be nicer to people.” Jason stuttered for his friends to look puzzled at him,

“Oh you mean like you’re being to Mrs Dalgoon?” There was that damned sarcasm again. At the mention of her name Mrs Dalgoon spun around in her scooter and headed towards me. If I rolled my eyes once more I was sure an eye would pop out,

“Look, see what I mean?” Lewis was pointing, which really wasn’t helping.

“Gruff, stupid sgrrrrr kids, grrruffff.” Now Mrs Dalgoon was pointing and shaking her finger,

“I suggest you three go home…”

“Yeah, cause what you gonna do about it
Xan
!” See what I mean? Tommy was a little shit! I raised my eyebrow at him and added a visit to his dad on my ‘things to do if I don’t die in the next forty eight hours’ list,

“How about I sneak up on you when you’re all alone one night. Before you even take your next breath you’ll be tied up…”

“Sounds good to me, aye lads?” He laughed. I grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and pulled him closer to my face,

“I’ll leave you to fester for a couple of days in the old Havensbrook caves. If I’m feeling in a good mood I might give you a bucket, if not, well, pee’s a hard stain to get out.
Then
, once you’re cold, hungry and almost given up I’ll come back with a pair of pliers. First I’ll relieve you of your fingernails. One by one I’ll pull them off until your fingers are a bloody mess, then I’ll start on your teeth. I’ve always wanted to be a dentist but I was told I don’t have the patience. I like to yank them out rather than try and save them. If you scream too much I might even have to take your tongue. You see these straps I wear around my wrists?” Tommy moved his eyes to look as I had a tight hold on his neck and nodded, “Tongue. That’s what they’re made from. I could make a new set with yours.”

“Xan are you ok?” Damn Marshall. I was just getting into the swing of things when he had to turn up. I couldn’t even have a little fun anymore. I let Tommy go, who slumped to the ground and then scrambled to his feet,

“Yeah, these lads were just leaving and Mrs Dalgoon was on her way home.” The teenager looked at me and I stepped towards them. In a flash they were half way across the field and Mrs Dalgoon was muttering to herself under the sound of her scooter humming.

“Don’t you think you were a little hard on those kids?” Marshall Walker the perpetual pain in my arse,

“Nope,”

“You threatened to torture that pig nosed one?”

“Yep I did and...?”

“Would you have actually done it?”

“No.” Yes, and I’d have probably enjoyed it too, the little snot deserved it.

“What the hell’s wrong with you? They’re only kids.” Marshall looked disgusted, “I’m sure Mrs Dalgoon can look after herself and doesn’t need protecting.”

“You’re an idiot!” I pushed past him and began marching to my front door. He caught hold of my arm and spun me around to face him,

“You don’t have to fight every battle…”

“I wasn’t protecting Mrs Dalgoon, I was protecting those stupid brats. Sometimes the most innocent looking things are the deadliest…” Marshall gave me his dumb look, “…Mrs Dalgoon is a Ghoul!” I screamed in his face,

“What?”

“Exactly, you don’t know and shouldn’t judge!”

“You mean like a zombie?”

“Zombies are mindless dead bodies, usually risen by a necromancer or someone strong enough. No one knows why Ghouls rise. They just scramble out their graves one day and look for fresh meat. The more they eat the more they remember. Mrs Dalgoon has lived in this village for a very long time and remembers enough not to attack people. The butcher supplies her with enough fresh meat to sate her but she’s in that stupid scooter because her leg dropped off a year ago. She grunts and mumbles because she has no teeth. Those
kids
are lucky. They rattled her enough for her to turn around…”