Lies Ripped Open (27 page)

Diana grabbed Jack by his hair and hoisted him upright. “My pleasure.”

Jack opened his mouth to say something, but instead the explosion of a rifle sounded out around the warehouse. Jack stepped backward and collapsed to his knees, blood beginning to drench his shirt.

Diana and I dove into the warehouse as a second bullet tore into the side of Jack’s head, snapping it aside with terrible force. I saw him topple forward, dead before he hit the ground.

Inside the warehouse Felix had crouched behind a stack of thick timber. “Who’s shooting?”

I glanced out around the corner of my own stack of timbers and saw the rifleman walk off the dock toward us. Even with the considerable distance between us, I could tell it was Enfield from his clothes. He moved slower than he had before, his wounds from our earlier fight wouldn’t have healed yet, but he didn’t need to move fast when he was able to cover the distance much quicker with a bullet.

A round smashed into the timber not too far above my head, and I ducked back around the corner to relative safety.

“Can you see anything?” I shouted to Felix.

“Either Fiona or Alan has closed the door to the room, but he seems to be ignoring them. He’s walking over to Jack. If you go now, you might be able to get the drop on him.”

I moved quickly just as ice began to fill up the front of the warehouse at an incredible rate. I poured fire against it, but every time I did, the ice just returned. It soon became apparent that it was a waste of time.

“Nathan, are you in there?” Enfield asked from the warehouse entrance. “My job here is done. Jack is dead, we can’t have him telling tales, now can we? I’ll see you around. You too, Felix, you can’t hide forever.”

No one moved for several seconds, until the ice began
exploding
outward, impaling large shards all around the
warehouse
. One of which—a three-foot ice blade—tore through the wood only inches from my head.

No one spoke, until a few seconds later when Felix risked a glance. “He’s off by the dock again.”

I crept around the pile of timber and watched as Enfield stepped onto a small boat and eased off along the Thames. When he was out of sight, I risked a glance and then, with an air shield in place, stepped out of the warehouse. No one shot at me.

“What was the point of that then?” I asked Felix and Diana as they joined me outside of the warehouse.

“I’ll go check on Fiona and Alan,” Diana said and ran off toward the building they were in.

I made my way to Jack and looked down at the body, which was now on its front. A bullet hole sat in the back of his head, to go along with the one in the side of it and the one in his chest.

“That’s overkill,” I said. “He was already dead.”

“Maybe Enfield just wanted to make sure,” Felix suggested.

I wrapped air around Jack’s remains and moved him slightly, just in case Enfield had left a nasty little surprise in the way of a mine under his body. Jack is moved, Jack gets to hurt anyone nearby. I’d seen it before, and Enfield was certainly devious enough to want to do it, but nothing happened.

Felix walked past me and looked behind several nearby stacks of wood and bricks. “Neither of us would have been able to see him here from inside the warehouse.”

“So, what was he doing?”

Felix used his foot to move what looked like some rubbish and then turned, screaming at me to run. My body caught up to my brain an instant before the bomb exploded. The sound was instantly deafening, and I expanded the shield of air to include Felix, but it was too late, he’d thrown himself directly in between the explosion and me.

We were both knocked back, my head striking something hard that made my vision blur. I felt something trickle down m
y neck.

I wasn’t sure if Fiona, Alan, and Diana were there a second or an hour later, but I hadn’t moved and my ears hadn’t stopped ringing. People shouted at me, and I nodded as my head cleared.

“Stay still,” Fiona said as she crouched beside me. “Your stitches have re-opened, and you’ve cracked your skull something fierce.”

“Felix?” I asked.

She shook her head. “I don’t know. You’re my main concern. Diana and Alan are dealing with Felix.”

It didn’t take long for Fiona to come to the conclusion that while I shouldn’t be running around anytime soon, I wasn’t in any immediate danger. My magic was already working hard to heal the silver wound, so adding a gash on my head hadn’t helped matters, but I’d be okay, if a little groggy.

Fiona told me that Felix was being taken to the safe house and that Diana would wait with me until someone returned. I thanked her and closed my eyes, only opening them again when the rocking motion of the coach woke me.

“We’re back,” Diana told me as she opened the coach doors and slapped me on my leg.

I sat up and immediately wished I hadn’t, as I fought the nausea that bubbled up. Diana helped me out of the coach and into the house, where I found a semi-conscious Felix lying on the kitchen table. A bowl of bloody water was on the table beside him. His shirt and trousers were missing.

“He okay?” I asked when I saw the mass of wounds dotted over his back and the backs of his legs.

“He’ll live,” Fiona told me. “It was a lot of silver though.”

“Time bomb,” Felix managed.

“Can you give us a second?” I asked everyone.

“Keep him calm,” Fiona demanded. “Stress could kill him.”

I waited for everyone to leave and then crouched beside Felix’s head. One of his eyes was bloodshot, and his face was pale and sweaty.

“Thank you,” I said.

“Had to make up for what we did. Didn’t want to die for nothing in some hovel somewhere.”

“You won’t die for nothing. I’ll make sure you’re somewhere safe; somewhere you can do what you like. I hope you live a long, boring, and safe life, Felix.”

Felix smiled and then passed out.

I left the kitchen and found everyone in the front room. Alan stood as I entered. “I guess you’re taking me to Avalon now.”

“Felix is unconscious,” I told Fiona. “I need you to stay here until he’s ready to be moved. Is that a problem?”

Fiona shook her head.

“Are you okay with that?” I asked Diana.

“I’ll clear it with Brutus. Are you leaving?”

“Yes. Alan, you’re staying here until Felix is mended. Then you’re going to take him somewhere no one else knows about and ensure he’s safe. That’s your punishment.”

“What?” Alan and Fiona asked at once.

“He’s a criminal,” Fiona explained.

“She’s sort of got a point there,” Alan surprisingly agreed.

“Don’t care. He helped stop these murders, so I’m giving him a chance. Run, Alan, take Felix somewhere safe and then run, because the second I tell people that you’re free someone is going to want to rectify that situation.”

“You can’t just let him go,” Fiona snapped.

“I can do anything I damn well choose. Once Felix is well enough to leave, Alan takes him somewhere safe. You want to keep tabs on him, you can go with him. In fact that’s not a bad idea. But I’m not taking him back to Avalon. As far as I’m concerned Alan’s a lot better at making someone vanish than Avalon is. He’s had more practice for a start.”

“I’m going to be staying with him then,” Fiona stated.

“Excellent,” Alan declared. “How should I let you know where Felix is?”

“I don’t want to know. No one but you should know. No one, are we clear?” I glanced to Fiona.

“In that case,” Alan started. “Fiona. I will take Felix away alone, then in exactly one year, I shall return to this house. You can treat me how you see fit. Just give me one year. Preparations will need to be made for Felix.”

Fiona glanced from me to Alan and then back. “I can’t believe I’m trusting you, but deal. One year today. An hour later and I hunt you down and drag you back to Avalon myself. By your damned ears if necessary.”

“Thank you, Nathan,” Alan said. “And you too, Fiona.”

“Don’t fuck up,” I said and left the room, fetching some clean clothes from my room.

Diana, Alan, and Fiona were all standing in front of the door as I made my way back downstairs.

“Be careful,” Alan said. “Thanks for the chance.”

“Try not to die,” Fiona said. “I spent far too long patching you up.”

I thanked them both and then turned to Diana.

“He won’t be happy to see you,” she said. “He will try to twist what he did. Don’t let him.”

“I don’t plan on it.”

She hugged me, which hurt more than a hug probably should. “Give him hell,” she whispered.

Give Merlin hell
, I thought. I hoped it wouldn’t come to that. I hoped I could bring him back from his path, just as I’d told Elaine I wanted to. But I didn’t believe a word of it. I was soon going to no longer be Merlin’s employee. What that meant for me, I had no idea. All I could say for certain was that no matter what happened from the moment I arrived in Camelot, I wasn’t going to be able to leave it and live the sam
e life.

CHAPTER
27

Doncaster, England. Now.

S
ome people would probably be fine with waking up tied to something, unable to move. I’m not one of those people. My instinct is to kill everything within a few feet of me and then try to figure out who the bad guys are. Unfortunately, my current predicament made killing anything but time slightly more complicated. A pair of manacles on my wrists, connected to a large chain that shackled me to the ceiling, held me off the ground by at least a foot. Another pair—these attached to my feet, with a second chain leading to the floor—ensured the only place I was going was in tiny circular motions. I was not a happy person.

A lot of people would yell, they’d shout and scream. This usually ends up with someone getting hurt or dead. The best idea is to stay very quiet and figure out what’s happening before you let people know you’ve woken up. It’s almost a guarantee if they’ve gone to the trouble they had with me, that they’re not your friends.

The memories of Kelly Jensen and her merry band of psychopaths popped into my head. The griffin was there too. I really wanted to kill that griffin.

I swallowed my anger and looked around the chamber we were in. It was obviously one of the rooms in Felix’s hideaway, the walls told me that, although I certainly didn’t remember anyone mentioning any rooms that contained manacles. Ellie was in a predicament similar to mine; blood had dried on her scalp. She’d probably woken up quicker than they’d been expecting and she’d given them some trouble. Her eyes were still closed, but she was breathing regularly.

Next to her was Alan. He appeared to have had the shit kicked out of him. His face was puffy and swollen. He breathed out and it rattled; something inside was broken, hopefully nothing too serious.

On the other side of me was Remy. Remy was wide awake, staring at me. “You took your fucking time,” he whispered. He looked a bit worse for wear, but didn’t seem to be in any
discomfort
.

“I’m sorry, was my being unconscious a big inconvenience?” I asked. “We’re back in Felix’s home, I assume.” I just wanted to be sure.

“Your glyphs remained lit up even though you were
unconscious
. That’s quite the trick.”

Apparently Erberus was still ensuring that my magic remained active even if I wasn’t consciously able to do it. I’d have to thank him for that next time we spoke. Although as my hands were shackled with silver I couldn’t use my magic to get free, or attack someone. In fact, all I’d be able to do was use it to blast the ceiling apart, crushing everyone. Which, as far as escape attempts go, isn’t the best idea.

Remy was the only one of the four of us not shackled both hands and feet. His hands were manacled to the shackles on the floor He couldn’t go anywhere, but at least he was on the ground. It was a start.

“What happened?” I asked.

“They shot you with a manticore spine. Who the fuck owns a manticore? Why would anyone actually decide they want to keep one of those ugly fuckers?”

“I feel we’re getting off topic here,” I reminded him. “What. Happened?”

“Right, well you went to sleep and they dragged us all down here, but Ellie here woke up. Tore some guy’s arm off before they subdued her. By that point Alan and I had woken up, and they gave us all a kicking. Still, she tore some guy’s arm off, which was pretty badass of her. If we find it, and then find him, can we beat him to death with it?”

I stared at my fox friend for a moment. “I’d rather use something more . . . stable for bludgeoning someone to death, but sure, why not? How long have you been down here?”

“Few hours maybe. Not entirely sure.”

“Why are you awake and not them?”

“Oh, that’s an easy one. They got hit more than I did.”

That would do it. “Any idea how we’re meant to get out of here in one piece?”

“Well, they’ve sort of left me alone. They didn’t even bother to check if my manacles were the right size. They just figured, ‘He’s a fox, what the fuck is he going to do? Shed on us?’ I tell you, people always underestimate the fox-human hybrids.”

“You really need to put that in a newsletter. Send it around to everyone. Or you could get us the fuck out of here.”

“I could but . . .” he stopped and sniffed the air. “Shut up.” And he immediately pretended to be unconscious again.

“Oh, you’re awake, that’s pretty good news,” a young man said as he entered the room. He was about six feet tall, and well built. His hair was shaved close to his head, leaving just a
little
stubble, and he wore jeans and a shirt that was splattered with blood.

“You’re the SOA agent I grabbed by the scruff of his shirt outside the Williams house. I don’t remember your name.”

“My name is Richard.”

“Can I call you Dick? You look like a Dick.”

He punched me in the stomach. I coughed and spluttered.

“It’s helpful that your stomach is right at punching level,” he said.

“I got dick slapped,” I said with a laugh.

He hit me again, and the air was driven from me.

“Please stop, I can’t take being beaten up by someone
called Dick.”

He hit me for a third time.

“You seem to have some issues with people calling you Dick,” I pointed out. “When you were younger, did you fall asleep and someone draw one on your face? Did they call you Dick Face? You can tell me, let the pain out.”

A fourth punch and I spat blood over the floor.

“You might have noticed that I’m not taking you very seriously,” I said. “I should point out that it’s because I’m not. You fucking arrogant little twat.”

“Maybe you’ll take me seriously now.”

My magic stopped and the pain of the venom coursing through my body caused me to cry out. It was nowhere near as painful as it had been, clearly my magic was doing its job, but I was still in agony.

“That’s right, I’m a void,” he told me.

“Did the Reavers put an advert in the paper for your kind?” I asked. Just as quickly as it had vanished, my magic returned.

“You murdered my brother back in an Avalon hospital. Do you remember him?”

“Was his name Dick too? I’m going to take a wild guess that your parents had a pair of dicks.”

He punched me again. My stomach and ribs felt as if they were on fire.

“He won’t get to live to see the Reavers’ plan come to fruition, but then neither will you, if I get my say.”

“What plan?” I asked. “So far your plan has been to try and find Felix and kill some people. That’s not a plan, I’m pretty certain a plan is meant to have an end game.”

“No one told you? We plan on taking over Avalon. How’s that sound, tough guy?”

“Avalon?” I laughed and it hurt like hell, but it was totally worth it. “A friend of yours mentioned that before. I don’t know what shit you’re smoking, but how the hell are you going to do that?”

“We’ve got power, power you can’t believe. We’re going to find out exactly what Felix knows and then we’re going to march to Camelot. Soon, Avalon Island will be under our control. Kelly has gone to see to it personally.”

That was news I really hoped was more bluster than fact. “Why am I still alive then?”

“Because once we take Avalon, we’re going to bring you there so you can watch as your friends are killed. All of them—Lucie, Olivia, Elaine, Tommy, every single one of these assholes here in this room. You die last, covered in their blood.” He shouted the last sentence, sounding very pleased with
himself
. He certainly believed everything he was saying; the fanatical often do, even if their belief is so wrong no one else can
understand
it.

I stared at Dick for a moment. “Did you rehearse that little speech? It sounded rehearsed. The covered in their blood part especially, it’s just so cliché. In fact killing me last is a terrible idea. You go to the trouble of keeping me alive just to watch me have my friends die? Is that meant to break me, am I meant to weep openly at the idea? Because if that’s the case, you need to know who
I
am.”

Dick laughed. “I know who you are. The mighty Hellequin. We’ve all been briefed on you. I have to say, so far I’m not that impressed.”

“That makes me a little sad; I was hoping to impress you. I wanted you to be my groupie. Let me ask you something, how impressed are you at being able to breathe?”

“You’re actually threatening me?”

“No, not me,” I said dismissively. “But you really should have made sure that everyone was properly restrained. Just because someone is small, doesn’t mean they’re not dangerous.”

“Hey, fucko,” Remy said as he stood behind Dick.

Dick stammered and went for the gun on his belt, but he was far too slow. Remy was on him, jaws around his neck as Remy took the larger man to the floor.

Fox jaws aren’t as strong as a wolf’s, or even a domesticated dog’s, but Remy wasn’t exactly your normal fox, and like the rest of him, his jaws were much more powerful than they first appeared. A few seconds later and Dick stopped moving.

“I guess you’re going to want me to let you down now,” Remy said. “If you make a single joke about me playing with Dick, I will bite you.”

“Give me credit, I’m a bit more subtle than that,” I countered.

“Yeah, magic boy, real subtle.” He searched Dick’s body and sighed. “The key isn’t here.”

“So, where is it?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” he said looking all around him exaggerated fashion. “Allow me to use my amazing key finding ability and I’ll get right back to you.”

“Sarcasm isn’t helping.”

Remy shrugged. “Helps me.”

“Just please go.”

Remy walked off down the tunnel and I waited for him to return, hoping it would be sooner rather than later.

“Found them,” he exclaimed and jangled the keys at me. A second later and he’d climbed up me, before proceeding to unlock the manacles around my wrists.

I fell to the floor with an unpleasant crash and a short time later, Remy had unlocked the shackles around my feet too.

We helped unlock and lower both Ellie and Alan to the ground, the former of whom stirred the second her manacles were removed, showing the silver necklace that had been wrapped around her hands.

I removed the chain and threw it aside, trying to ignore the burn marks around her wrists. “You okay?” I asked her.

Ellie nodded, and Alan began to stir beside me.

“They shot us both full of tranquilizer again,” Ellie said. “I’m beginning to dislike that stuff.”

“How you feeling, Alan?”

“Fucking peachy,” he said. “That guy dead?”

“Yep,” Remy told him.

“Good. So, what’s the plan, fearless leader?”

“We get out of here, find Felix, get him away from these nutcases and then burn the fucking lot of them to the ground.” I explained what Dick had said about Avalon Island.

“We’ll need that helicopter again,” Ellie said. “Felix first though.”

“Any idea where he is?” I asked.

“No, he wasn’t brought in here with us,” Alan said. “We’ll have to keep someone alive long enough to question them.”

“You two up to this?” I asked Ellie and Alan.

Both replied with a nod.

We followed Remy out of the room and down the dark tunnel until we came to the massive open area with the pool in the middle. There were no guards about and Remy sniffed the air. “At least two guards in that direction,” he said, pointing toward where we’d met Felix. He sniffed again. “More down those
tunnels
over there and there.” He pointed to the tunnel where Ellie and Alan found weapons, and a third we hadn’t been down.

“They come here, attack us, kidnap Felix, and now they’re going to steal from me?” Alan said, his voice steady, but full of anger. “I’m off down there, who wants to join me?”

“Remy, go with Alan. If you can keep them alive, do so, otherwise, just be quick.” I turned to Ellie. “You want to come hurt the people who attacked us?”

“Give me a moment.”

There was a grunt, and then a tearing-like noise, immediately followed by an exhale of pain and something crunching. “All done,” Ellie said, her voice now low and full of danger.

I turned back to her and found a six-and-a-bit-foot dark gray werewolf standing where Ellie once had. Ellie’s clothes were torn apart, discarded on the floor.

“Be careful,” I told Alan and Remy and then moved off toward our target.

It didn’t take long to walk down the tunnel before the sounds of voices filled my ears.

“Have you found anything?” a woman asked.

“No, you?” a man replied, evidently annoyed at their lack of success.

“We need to find something,
he’s
expecting something.” Fear. Whoever the
he
was, he made them very scared.

I glanced over at Ellie.
He?
I mouthed.

“Maybe Felix didn’t write anything down,” she suggested. “I mean, maybe what they’re doing to him will give them the answers they need.”

“This isn’t about answers; this is about removing any evidence for future allies of Felix to use. Whatever they discover up there isn’t the point. We need to make sure there’s nothing her
e th
at can link to those in power. Or would you like to go explain to Kelly why we found nothing?”

“But if there’s nothing to find, then what’s the point? Why not just burn it all?”

“Because they need to know all of the names on whatever list Felix kept of Reavers. It’s called covering your ass. Now stop complaining and get on with it.”

“I’ve been getting on with it for hours. There’s nothing here we don’t already know. We’ve found lists of Reaver names, but just rank and file. I don’t even know how he managed to get all of the information he has.”

“He must have had helpers.”

“I’m sure we’ll hear about that later; right now, we need to get on with this.”

More paper was moved about and then the man said,
“
Richard
has been in with those four for a long time. You think he’s killed that sorcerer he wanted to give a kicking to?”

“No, he’s not stupid. Some people with a lot more clout than us really want to do that themselves.”