Underbelly (74 page)

“
Still you lie! There is only us here, and you will kill me eventually. If you want my secrets admit this.”

“
Fine. I admit it,” Laura said.

“
Don’t. Don’t say it like that, like you’re only saying it to get me to open up. Admit the truth, witch. I do not claim to be righteous yet I can say I was always loyal to my friends.”

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Very loyal and caring, making them marry a frigid old crone and have no quality of life.”

“
She never aged.”

“
Some people are born old – I am one of them, and she sounds like another. He was winning, you were fading. I didn’t intervene and then you attacked his heart. He kept expelling you and that was when I stepped in. I was able to save you both. Your continued existence is down to me. I don’t require gratitude, only information.”

“
You prove yourself unworthy of being entrusted with my secrets by betraying the only friend you have in this world. You seek to be the greatest creature in the universe yet your actions prove you belong at the bottom of the dung heap!”

Octavius carped on about the same point until Laura finally snapped and said, “I find it hard to believe that I’m being sermonised by the great killer, a man so superficial that he had his great love regularly kill herself to be born into a more attractive body.”

“
It pleased her to serve me and it pleased her to be as beautiful as she could for me. She had bad luck with the bodies she was reborn in but as soon as she was born in a mildly attractive girl, even just a tenth as beauteous as her original form, I would have granted her eternal life in that form.”

“
That’s a strange definition of love.”

“
You have a strange understanding of friendship,” he said, aware that he’d struck a nerve, which he kept working at. Later that day he said, “I will tell you some of my secrets but they will avail you naught. The spells require backbone.”

“
There’s thousands of people in this city – I’m sure I can find a backbone. Go on.”

“
Has anyone ever laughed at your attempts at humour?”

“
Yes, I was a vaudevillian comedian for many years,” she said sarcastically. “What do you think? Go on, Octavius, I’m interested.”

“
I’m only telling you because these rites require risking body and soul, and not some unfortunate scapegoat’s but your own, and it amuses me to put you in that predicament. Your ugly ambition and cowardice will have to duel for dominance,” he said with contempt.

“
I’m listening.”

Laura jotted down all that he said over the coming hours, practices she’d never heard of but which sounded like exactly what she needed. She was not the coward that he thought she was and would try out some of the rites as soon as she felt she’d drained every drop from him. Octavius went quiet again and refused the food that she offered him and she grew impatient, desperate to try out the spells. Believing that she would get nothing else out of him she drew proceedings to a close.

“
I wish to thank you, Octavius, for the information you’ve given me. I would like more, though I accept that nothing else is forthcoming. Perhaps that’s how it should be, that we should have to put the pieces together ourselves rather than having everything handed to us in one sitting. You could have lived, easily. This man whose life you stole is nothing to me and you are no threat to me. Unfortunately, James Grey, whom you did almost kill, is a public figure and I’m too long in the tooth to be curled on his bed every night watching over him. And to make that prophecy come true, just like Dagulen did with Siena, I’ve already performed a spell ensuring that you never come back. This is the finale, Octavius. You deserved better, though this is how the greats always go out, ignominiously.”

“
I won’t beg or scream.”

“
I expect no less from you.”

“
Be honest and admit you do this for yourself and not for him. You do this because you are able to kill me now. If you hesitated you know that in the future I would not.”

“
If your fate wasn’t already sealed that would have confirmed it. Just think – the quivering insect, the snivelling cowardly witch hiding in the dark from the proud hunter Octavius – that’s the person who disposes of you and brings the prophecy to a close. Even I didn’t see that coming.”

“
Enjoy your moment. Creatures such as you...your time is running out.”

“
Perhaps. Regrettably, you’ll never know.”

Octavius smiled at the end. Laura assumed this was to show that his death meant nothing to him, a way of reducing her actions, as though they were insignificant. Unlike him she was not a sadist and she made his passing as painless as possible. Still, she couldn’t help but feel there was more to that smile.

Grey was in the home stretch now and expected to be discharged within the next couple of days. Conrad had needlessly paid for him to have his own private room, which Grey found made visiting time more enjoyable, the privacy invaluable at these times. Now that he was no longer wired up he sat on his bed in pyjamas as Germaine sat alongside him and lay out photographs on the bed. She had jokingly expressed her horror at her missing persons headshot and Grey, through Conrad, had organised a professional photo-shoot for her and the pictures were now ready. She had turned down the offer until the shoot was rescheduled for a morning – she wasn’t missing visiting time for anything. She loved the experience, which made her feel like a film star, and had attended with Dora who got a few shots for her portfolio.

“
What do you think of this one for the next poster?” Germaine asked, pointing to the picture which made her look thinnest, with her hand obscuring her chin.

“
I think my heart’s beating too fast again!” Grey said approvingly. “Not really, calm down. In fact I think it’s going too slow. It may need quickening,” he said, stealing a kiss.

“
You know what the doctor said,” Germaine said, remembering the mortifying chat he gave the pair of them regarding sexual relations and his condition.

“
They think there must be something seriously wrong with my lifestyle for a 20 year old fit buck to keel over with a heart attack. We know there was more to the tale. I understand why I’ve been fired for it, because they don’t understand that it won’t happen again.”

Germaine felt that was the one good thing to come out of the whole ordeal. She’d informed his bosses about his heart attack, and while they’d been sympathetic they still dismissed him, viewing his heart condition as too dangerous for him to be working so high up in case of a relapse.

“
This one’s my favourite,” Grey said, holding up the one Germaine thought was the worst of the bunch, showing off her weight gain in all its expanse. “When I do finally take you to Hollywood you’re going to be snapped up to a 10 year deal. I’m not sure I’d be able to handle sharing you with the world. Even with the posters, I felt very wary of sharing the image of my beautiful wife with the city. That’s not hogwash either, I was very protective of your image. Getting you back overrode that.”

“
It can be hard, sharing the one you love,” Germaine said knowingly.

“
Is that how you feel?”

“
I accept this is how it has to be. It’d be selfish to keep you to myself,” Germaine said devotedly. His gift, which made him a public figure, belonged in the public domain. “I’ll turn down the contract, James. One star in the household is enough.”

Grey took her hand in his and brought it to his lips, moved by her adoration. “I may retire for a while so you don’t have to share me. Well, there’s one person you’ll still have to share me with,” he said, stroking her bump. “I’ve had a lot of time to think about our future the last week. Now that we know that demon is dead that gives us the option of going back to your home for a while. The quiet life appeals to me, at least for a little while. I’d run the farm with Stuart’s help. He’d stay at Laura’s. What do you think?”

“
I don’t know. Maramont is a big change.”

“
I’m not talking about forever. We would see how things go. I’d still head back here a couple of times a year to see friends and perform. I can never go home again but you can. I know you’ve missed your friends.”

Germaine thought over the option and quickly realised that the idea was impossible. Her home had too many bad memories. The whole town did; there was more chance of James returning to Keokuk than there was of her returning to France. Selling up was the way forward, so that they could buy their own home in her adopted country.

“
Ignore what Laura used to say, I’m a good farm hand,” Grey said, trying to sway her, believing this option was best for them all.

“
The farm is freezing in winter. I’m very happy where we are, and I know you were too, before all of this. You don’t need to hide me away, James.”

“
I do. I hate that every man in the city now has a big yen for you. I’m sorry,” Grey sighed, realising that his jealousy was making him unreasonable. “If you want to stay, we’ll stay.”

“
I can’t take you away from your audience. My ‘fame’ has already faded. Nobody has tried to claim the reward.”

“
Blame that on my choice of photo. Your hair is much lighter now. Please try and understand...it’s my job to protect you and out there, in the hearts of men, lurk dark thoughts. I don’t mean to...”

Germaine kissed him and said, “You love me. I do understand. You’re the head of the house, it’s your job to worry. That’s another reason we shouldn’t live there. You call it my house – wherever we live, it will always be ours, not mine.”

Grey cuddled up to her and said affectionately, “Only you could understand and forgive me at my most irrational. I thank my lucky stars...”

Grey did not finish the sentence, as he was alarmed by Germaine’s sudden, sharp intake of breath. She closed her eyes and Grey laid her down on the bed as he crashed through the ward doors, stumbling to the floor in the process as he frantically located a doctor. A witch doctor would have been more use, as Germaine was beyond conventional medicine’s help.

The rabbit and the snake. The spell and the significance attached to it were lost on Germaine Grey. He had misled her as she had believed that the sacrificial spell was a method of hexing the people the rabbit and snake represented, whom he had identified as Grey and Laura. The snake represented Octavius and the rabbit that she pitied so was her other form. The spell linked snake and rabbit and linked Octavius and Germaine. He smiled as he had achieved what he had set out to do, and had liberated Germaine Grey from this depraved pair’s clutches. She was finally free.

Chapter 11 – Memento Mori