Drip Drop Teardrop, a Novella (11 page)

Caroline raised her
eyebrows questioningly and smiled. “Should I know something I
don’t?”

Avery blushed and shook
her head. “No, just hypothetical.”

“
Yeah right.
How bad are we talkin’?” Her New York accent thickened with the
query.

“
Well what do
you consider a bad boy?”

Caroline gave her a look
but conceded the question. “I dunno. A bum. A cheat. A drug addict.
An alcoholic. Abusive. Lazy. A commitment-phobe who pretends to be
otherwise. A thief. A criminal… should I go on?”

Those were all the
obvious, weren’t they? Avery stiffened, turning her back on
Caroline as she pulled on her stilettoes. “What about…
different?”

“
Different?
Different how?”

She shrugged, turning
back around but not really looking at her. She fiddled with her
earring nervously. “Maybe a little older?”

“
How much
older?” Caroline snapped up, showing a little of her old
energy.

Avery grinned. “Not that
much older. Early twenties.”

Caroline frowned.
“There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“
What if he
had money? A lot of it.”

“
Depends how
he came by it.”

“
Commercialism.”

Caroline grunted, “Honest
or not?”

“
Honest.”

“
Well it’s
not the best but it’s not a crime. Unless you like him for his
money, then we have a problem.”

“
No, no. No.
But what if your friends thought he was kind of creepy because… he
might not be the best looking guy in the world. What if he seemed
kind of harsh and cold but he wasn’t always like that?”

Her aunt was watching her
with narrowed, perceptive eyes. “What is he like?”

“
Kind. Warm.
Funny. Loving. Imperfect. Arrogant. Superior. But
right…”

Caroline smiled slowly,
her eyes suspiciously bright and shiny. “Then I’d tell my friends
to go to hell.”

Avery felt the breath
whoosh out of her body. “You would?”

“
Avery… stop
asking me what I would do.” Caroline shook her head. “I’m not going
to be here, sweetheart, and you need to make your own mind up about
things. Important things. And you need to do that without fearing
something bad is going happen because it was your
decision.”

Her aunt might as well
have shot a steel pipe into her backbone. Avery stiffened and
instead of crying like she thought she would, she felt heat. The
heat of relief.

“
I’d tell
them to go to hell too,” she whispered.

Her aunt’s answer was a
triumphant grin.

***

Now that her mind was
made up, Avery couldn’t wait to get to the club. Surely Brennus
would turn up this time. He had to be missing her as much as she
missed him. And it wasn’t just him she missed. It was his weird,
abstract world. It was fragmented. She was fragmented. But somehow
it fit. She liked who she was in that world.

Sarah and Jemima kept
tugging on her and asking her what was bugging her as she drew on
to her tiptoes and tried to see over the crowds. She wanted to tell
them but the truth was she knew they would never understand. Maybe
they were still too young. Maybe life needed to happen to them
more. Shrugging them off with a soft mysterious smile, Avery pushed
through the dancing throng on the floor and swept the room for
Brennus. Surely she would feel him if he was here. God, she wished
he’d come. She wanted to dance with him so badly.

“
Looking for
someone?”

Avery whirled around, her
heart stuck in her throat as she gazed up into the fiercely
beautiful face of Anonna. “What are you doing here?”

Anonna sneered at her.
“Correcting a mistake.”

Avery flinched as the
woman reached for her, her slender fingers wrapping around Avery’s
arm in a painful grip. The room blurred and spun around them and
Avery stumbled out of the sensation and into a dank basement. Her
heart was thumping so hard she felt sick.

“
What do you
want?” She backed away from Anonna. But the Ankou stalked her right
into the cold brick of the basement wall. Her chilled hand slid up
Avery’s throat, circling her neck gently but menacingly.

“
I was going
to let you live, you little fool,” she whispered, her eyes bright
with anguish. “But you had to change your mind. You had to come to
your senses…”

“
How did
you…?”

“
I’ve been
watching. Just in case. I knew you had to fall in love with him.”
Her eyes brimmed with emotion, her lashes growing damp with tears.
“He’s exquisite darkness.”

Remembering what Brennus
had told her about this woman, Avery glared at her. “You didn’t
used to think so.”

Anonna’s face sharpened.
“I was a stupid, shallow mortal. I know what love is now. I know
that you and Brennus can never be, because he and I are
linked.”

Avery shook her head.
“You’re wrong.”

“
You think a
silly little girl like you can have what we have? You can never
understand Brennus like I do.” She wrenched back from Avery and
Avery watched in confusion as Anonna turned, giving her, her back.
And then she lifted the hem of her black shirt and drew it up so
Avery could see her damaged flesh. Deep lashes, hundreds of them
crossing over one another, marred Anonna’s pale flesh. The lines of
those lashes reached down past the waistband of her trousers and
Avery could only guess that her body was covered with
them.

“
How?”

Anonna spun back around,
her eyes black with hatred. “I gave myself to a man who brutalised
me. Despite what I had done to him, Brennus came for me and saved
me from that existence. That’s the kind of man he is.”

Avery crumpled inwards.
“You really do love him.”

“
Yes.” For a
moment there only silence, and then a tear slid down Anonna’s
cheek. “When I first saw him, I was thrilled that’d he be mine.
Other girls, my so-called friends, had married old, fat, rich Roman
men and still Papa had not arranged a marriage for me. Instead he
took me away from Rome when I was fifteen. I despised Londinium;
but soon I began to enjoy the superiority of my high birth among
many of inferior origin. At first when Papa told me I’d be marrying
a non-citizen I was furious, the other girls would have sneered at
me behind my back, so happy to see my downfall. They’d always been
jealous of me. But my husband was young and handsome and rich. I
thought I loved him just because… we were beautiful together.” She
shook her head, a bitter smile curving her lips. “And then he was
attacked in the street by that mad man and I wasn’t even frightened
that he could have been killed. All I cared about was the hideous
scar that took my beautiful husband and replaced him with someone
people didn’t want to look at. I hated the thought of him touching
me. And Brennus… oh my sweet Brennus, he was so patient. And all
the while he pandered to my selfishness I was sleeping with his
father.”

“
Why?” Avery
asked hoarsely, trying to keep the anger out of her
question.

Anonna shrugged
pitifully. “Because… he looked very much like Brennus. The Brennus
I wanted. Not the Brennus that was. And then I fell ill and I
couldn’t remember what happened, only that I had awakened to find
Brennus was gone. I was angry. Angry and relieved. I was a hateful
person, Avery. Hateful. I made many more foolish mistakes after
that. And one of them brought me to where I am now. By the time
Brennus came to me and explained what he had done for me, who he
was, I was so damaged by what had happened to me I would have gone
anywhere to be away from that vile man I had given myself over to.
So I became Ankou. Brennus didn’t just leave me to stumble through
life as an Ankou. At first he visited with me, helped me come to
terms with what had happened to me. With it came perfect clarity,
and I could see past that scar and into the soul of a man who had
given everything for me. It took dying for me to finally love
Brennus the way he deserved.”

Avery could feel the
waves of pain rushing and undulating out of Anonna and hated the
pang of anguish she felt for her.

This woman wanted to take
Brennus from her.

“
I am sorry,
Anonna,” she whispered, “But I think for Brennus, it’s a little too
late.”

A strained silence fell
between them until Anonna made an odd choking sound. “This is
terrible.”

“
What?”

She shook her head, her
light brown hair seeming black in the darkness of the basement.
“You’re a sweet girl, Avery. It makes this so much
worse.”

With the same intuition
that had told her what Brennus was, Avery understood why Anonna had
brought her to this basement; that there would be no talking her
down.

The fear came back in
air-crushing floods. “Anonna…”

Anonna shook her head.
“He loves you. He’d choose you. I have to… I’m sorry.”

Avery had always imagined
that if she found herself facing death she would be dignified.
Stoic. Like Aunt Caroline. Chin up, eyes blazing with strength and
resignation. That’s not the way it was. Avery was so scared her
legs buckled and her chin trembled. Knowing you were going to die
was terrifying. The helplessness was unbearable. She wasn’t ready.
There was no peace. They lied. There was no peace.

“
P-please,”
she whimpered, shaking her head as tears streamed out of her eyes.
“Please d-don’t,” her teeth chattered.

Anonna shook her head and
looked away. “I love him.” The knife slid out of the sleeve of her
shirt in a practiced motion.

“
Oh god,”
Avery beseeched, choking on hard sobs. Her legs gave way and she
slid down the wall to the floor, watching as Anonna approached her
slowly, the knife gripped hard in her hand.

This couldn’t be
happening. This wasn’t supposed to happen. She was supposed to be
with Brennus and Caroline was supposed to be saved and they were
supposed to have the happily ever after thing that she knew just
couldn’t be true but she had so hoped, oh god why had she hoped,
she couldn’t have done anything worse than hoped. All that time
wasted, dreaming about him, wanting him, all those books and
research on the web about the Ankou… all that-

“
Oh God.”
Avery looked up sharply and Anonna stilled at the look in her
eye.

“
What?”
Anonna asked hoarsely.

Avery shook her head as
the answer came to her. She prayed the thick tome from the library
had it right. “I’m so sorry.”

“
What-”

“
THANATOS, I
SEEK AID AGAINST A FALLEN ONE!” She screamed, her face rushing with
blood.

“
NO!” Anonna
shrieked.

A scuttling sound, like a
million cockroaches appearing from the dark, enveloped the room.
Avery tried to shrink back against the wall as Anonna swung around,
her eyes stark with terror. She brandished the knife. “No,” she
whispered as the scuttling grew louder.

And then Avery saw it and
her stomach clenched in absolute horror. Dark, misshapen shadows
crawled along the walls and floor, all heading for Anonna. They
swam towards her, in bobs and fits, the scuttling so loud it was a
like a shriek. Anonna turned back to her, staring at her as if she
couldn’t believe what she was seeing. And then she closed her eyes
as the shadows swam up her legs, torso, chest, mouth… covering her
in its shrill black ink until she was drowned in the entities
grasp. With one last wail the shadows fell to the floor,
disappearing and melting into nothing.

Avery stared at the empty
spot before her, her heart slowing.

It worked.

Thank God.

During her research she
had come across this passage about Ankou that broke the rules and
stalked humans. It sort of majorly pissed of Thanatos who was kind
of their leader, and if you called to him, he’d come and take care
of the problem. Avery was so glad the scholar who’d written about
it, knew what the hell they were talking about.

She blinked and tried to
stand to her feet, but as she did the room spun and she fell
forward, collapsing onto familiar wooden floors. She groaned and
flipped over, staring up at the ceiling of her sitting room.
Craning her neck around, she saw Caroline asleep on the
sofa.

She closed her eyes in
relief and sagged against the cold floor. “Where are you,
Brennus?”

“
I’m right
here.”

She snapped her eyes
open. He towered above her. He was the most beautiful sight. His
scent enveloped her. She felt stupid tears prickle in her eyes and
her lip trembled. “You came.”

Brennus glanced over at
her sleeping aunt as though checking he hadn’t disturbed her, and
then he knelt down beside Avery, hesitantly reaching out to help
her sit up. “Are you OK?” He asked softly and she nodded,
disappointed as he let go of her quickly.

“
I’m
fine.”

“
I heard.”
His face was dark. Dangerous. She knew that look. He was seething.
“Anonna has been punished. She’s no longer an Ankou. She’s been
sent into her afterlife.” He shook his head, regret in his dark
eyes. “I am so sorry, Avery.”