A Vision of Green (Florence Vaine #2) (36 page)

The marching of small feet and the ringing of bells echoes in the distance. Instinctively I know it's those man eating dwarves, the Elokos, coming for the people who've sought shelter inside the school. They're too far away for the music to have an effect on those present, but really it's only a matter of time before they find a way to get in.

The Nephilim shoot into action, and Frank drags me back over to where Hayley and the others are sitting. I listen to Sam giving orders to his kind, dividing them into groups to cover all the areas that the Elokos might use to try and breach the building. Only one Nephilim, the female who has been looking after Ingrid, and John are left behind to keep guard in the assembly hall. The rest of the Nephilim leave swiftly to go and investigate what's happening outside.

Once they're gone we sit there in eerie silence, punctuated by the musical ringing of bells. Some of the children present have started to cry, they don't understand what's happening, but I suppose they can sense the impending danger.

I'm still reeling from the revelation that my dad has an ability similar to my own, one he's kept hidden all these years behind the abuse of drink and drugs. I glance across the room at him, where Karen is now tending to his bleeding nose. Has he been able to hear my thoughts too? Even if he has he probably hasn't heard much, since it was a rare occasion that he was ever sober or reasonably clear headed.

My mind drifts away from thoughts of my dad when I feel an unnatural chill surround my body. It's icy cold in the assembly hall all of a sudden. It isn't the sort of cold that fear brings on, although I'm feeling a good deal of that as well right now. There's been an actual drop in the temperature. Looking around, I notice people rubbing at their arms, trying to chase away the chill. A single glassy snowflake falls past my nose and to the floor, melting on the cream coloured linoleum. It's like it fell from the ceiling, but when I glance up there's nothing there.

I see that John has noticed the cold too because his posture becomes rigid as he glances this way and that, searching for possible threats. He pulls the female Nephilim aside and begins whispering in her ear. I look up again. That's when I see that the big glass skylight in the centre of the ceiling has been frosted over, as if it's been snowing outside. But that can't be right, it wasn't exactly Summer hot today, but it certainly wasn't cold enough for snow.

The next thing I know there's a crunching noise as hundreds of tiny cracks form in the glass. Before I can react, the skylight shatters and a wailing gust of wind swoops into the assembly hall amid a shower of broken glass. The people who'd been sitting in the middle of the room rush to dive out of the way. A dark black shape crawls in through what is now a gaping open hole in the roof and slithers down to the ground floor. John's aura blazes and expands out from his body, a defensive reaction to the invasion. The female Nephilim pulls two swords of light from the holsters strapped across her back.

As my eyes adjust to the horror of the
thing
that has just gotten inside the school, my heart feels as though it has frozen over, literally. The cold is seizing me, spreading through me like an icy plague. It's not just me panicking either, everyone else feels it too. People stand staring at the monster with their hands clasped to their hearts and their lips turning blue. The
thing
turns to a man standing close by and screams into his face, causing him to fall helplessly to the floor. This monster is almost as tall as the room itself, with a gaunt, cadaver-like body and the face, oh God the face. It looks like a horror from the worst nightmare your brain could possibly think up. Its eyes and mouth are black gaping holes, staring into them is like staring into the abyss.

John's fire burns, as does the fire of all the boys. They go to stand by their foster father and the female Nephilim as they circle the monster, looking for a weakness, anything that they can attack.

“
What is it?” I whisper to Hayley.

“
A Windigo,” Hayley whispers back. “A cannibal forest monster. That's where the cold is coming from, legends say it turns human hearts to ice.”

“
It looks like Edvard Munch's
The Scream
,” Caroline puts in beside me, giving me a fright. I hadn't noticed her there.

“
Oh God, it really does,” I say to her, my voice barely audible.

There's a sort of steam coming off its horrible body, like dry ice. Now that there's a hole in the roof the Elokos' bell music is louder, and it's having an effect on the people in the hall. The Nephilim bolted the doors shut before they left and the people are clamouring at them in vain, trying to break free.

They're being called by the music, hypnotised into walking to their deaths like the people out on the street earlier tonight. Caroline and Hayley both move forward, but I quickly grab their hands and hold them back. I know that Josh is here somewhere too, but I only have so many hands to go around. None of these people are getting out of here anyway, the place is locked up too tight and the hole in the ceiling is at least fifty foot high or more.

“
You have to try and f-fight it,” I tell Caroline and Hayley. I can see by their faces that they're making an effort to stay where they are. Other people are clawing at the walls, trying to climb up to the roof so that they can get out and go to the Elokos.

I draw my attention back to the Windigo. The fire of John and his four boys combines and pushes at the cold of the monster. This incenses it and it singles out John for punishment, levelling the black pits of its eyes on him and opening its mouth to scream. I want to cover my ears with my hands, but I have to keep a hold on Hayley and Caroline. Hayley lets out a shriek and rushes forward, just as John drops to his knees on the floor. Somehow the Windigo's scream has a paralysing effect. John didn't drop as quickly as the other man did, but he doesn't look too good either. I run after Hayley and hold her back, while keeping Caroline's hand in mine.

The female Nephilim lunges at the Windigo with her swords, but she misses hitting her target by the tiniest fraction. Frank dives for the monster and it flies into the air, dodging him. Then it glides up close to John, its movements like a ghost's. John's eyes are agonised, his fire has almost gone out. He's dying. I can't watch this. But what can I do? The bells are still ringing, still making the people in here go insane with the need to get out.

The Windigo has John within its grasp now, and all of the boys are yelling at it, calling it every bad name under the sun. Their demons are black as the night as they strive to get through their auras, trying to break free and fight. It's an awful struggle to have to witness. That's when I see Frank again, and unlike the other boys, his demon
has
gotten out. Just like it did when he was fighting the manticore. It breathes fire at the Windigo, who has reached out towards John. The fire burns its long, gaunt fingers and it pulls back. Its retreat doesn't last long, as it turns around and screams at Frank's demon. That awful, paralysing scream.

The scream doesn't have the same effect on the demon as it had on John. The demon breathes another blast of fire, but this time the Windigo opens its mouth, releasing a stream of ice, ice that wraps around Frank's demon like a death shroud. The demon's fire goes out and the Windigo turns back to John. My brain feels too slow and too scared to properly process what happens next.

All I can hear is Hayley bawling and the boys shouting in anger, fear and grief. The Windigo reaches out violently with its thin, bony fingers. The fingers sink right into John's chest, into his flesh, and pull his red, bloody heart right out. His fire vanishes and he falls to the floor with a dull thud. The Windigo grins, its black hole of a mouth turning up at the ends. John's heart is still beating as it raises it to its lips and eats it whole.

Suddenly Frank's demon has retreated back into his body as he dives at the Windigo, screaming an echoing, “No!!” that fills the entire room. Going after this monster is a death sentence, I can't allow Frank to do it. So I let go of both Hayley and Caroline and rush to him. Despite the fact that the Windigo put out the fire of his demon only moments ago, Frank's aura is now blazing anew. Grief can do all kinds of things to people, inciting anger, hate, revenge. His fire isn't invisible like it normally is, now it's real, and I get burned when I reach out in an effort to pull him back and prevent this suicide mission he's on.

The searing hotness causes welts to instantly rise on my hands. The boys and Hayley have run to John's dead body, crying in unison for the man they've lost. Blood spreads across the Windigo's ghastly face as he munches on John's heart. I expect Frank to charge full steam ahead and attack the Windigo, but instead he's pacing a circle around it, muttering words I can't hear, words that sound sort of like a chant.

There's desperation and anguish in his aura, in his voice, it breaks me just a little bit. That's when I notice a familiar figure standing in the background, watching the scene, playing the role of spectator. Green George. He's standing there, all stoic, with not one single emotion on his face. It seems like he's invisible to everyone except for me. I can't speak, because the grief of those around me is drowning me. I want to say so much to him.
Take your creatures away, they belong to you, command them to leave, they're destroying this whole town
.

No words come, so I try to communicate all of this in the brief moment when our eyes meet. He looks away, surveying the scene and ignoring my silent plea. Perhaps those devil horns he wears so well really do represent who he is. A man is dead, a loving father and a partner, but that makes no difference to this ancient forest God who has probably witnessed thousands, millions of deaths in his time.

Frank is still muttering those unintelligible words, his voice getting louder now. What on earth is he doing? Has John's death caused him to crack up? His flames spread out, rising to the ceiling, and in this moment it seems as though he and his demon are no longer at odds, no longer struggling against one another, they are one and the same, they are whole.

A circle of shimmering light appears before Frank, and out of it steps a naked man. A man with old, old grey eyes and the body of Michelangelo's David. He looks more like a God than Green George ever could, and when he speaks his voice is like ambrosia for the ears, it's beautiful despite the fact that his tone simmers with rage.

“
You dare to summon me!” he reprimands loudly.

Frank gets down on his knees. “I need you to bring him back, just bring him back, please..” he begs. Who is this man who has appeared seemingly out of nowhere, seemingly summoned by Frank's maddened chants?

“
You assume that because I work in life and death magic that I would do this for you? Get off your knees and face me,” says the apparition.

Frank stands. “I'll do anything, anything, just please restore him.”

The apparition turns to peruse John's body, surrounded by Hayley and the other boys, who have now ceased their crying to stare open-mouthed at whatever magnificent being Frank has managed to bring here, to the school assembly hall of all places. The Windigo reels back and hisses at the naked man, so he must be something formidable.

“
I specialise in the rebirth of lost souls, I do not reanimate humans who are already dead, he might as well be rotting meat,” says the naked man, who I'm now putting two and two together about. What he just said tipped me off. This is Bune, the fallen angel, the one who makes a deal with the dead to give them a new life, a new life with a price tag. He's the reason why Frank and his brothers are demon cursed. Frank described him as a dragon with three heads, perhaps this is the most human form he can take. I always imagined him as being terribly ugly, but he's beautiful, so beautiful that I can hardly take my eyes off him.

“
I promise I'll do anything,
anything
,” Frank continues to plead.

Bune casts a slow glance again at John's body. “If I were to do this, he might not be the same man he was before, he could be –
changed
.”

“
I don't care about any of that, just make him whole again, I'm begging you.”

“
You would owe me. Are you prepared to be indebted to a being you will never have a hope of fully understanding?” Bune asks.

Frank straightens his shoulders and stands tall. “Yes, I'm prepared for that.”

No, no, no. He can't do this. If I had the strength to speak in front of this fallen angel I would tell Frank not to do it. Making a deal with the devil can never end well. My throat is clogged with emotion, my voice might as well not exist in this moment.