The House (36 page)

“We don’t know
it’s him for certain. It could be someone using his e-mail, it
could be a trap. What if they kidnapped him and are using this to
get us to a place of their choosing? There’s too much wrong with it
to act rashly, we can’t afford to.”

“What about
your friends? What about Marie? What if he’s telling the truth?”
Eddie said, incredulous. I winced. I couldn’t bear to think that we
might know where they were and do nothing. I thought of Marie – so
gentle and caring – being brutalised, being hurt and I felt it in
my heart.

I wanted more
than anything to find them: Stripes who had worked so hard to find
her place in the world; Shayana who was the strongest, most
confident person I’d ever met. I thought about them scared and
alone and had to stop myself from shaking.

“We can’t risk
it. We can’t help them if these people get us as well.” It hurt
something deep inside of me to say that. It broke my heart to hear
the words come out of my mouth but I didn’t have a choice. We
didn’t have a choice.

“We have to
go.” Marlow stood in the doorway. He looked terrifying. He took up
most of the space, his shoulders so wide it looked like they would
brush the sides as he walked through. It was the look on his face
though that made my heart beat faster. There was a look of barely
controlled rage in his eyes. Shayana was his sister and we were
planning to leave her. Not if Marlow had anything to say about
it.

“And what if
that’s what they want, Marlow? What if we all get caught?” Hercules
was facing him, his hands out, his voice calm and soothing. He had
talked me back from the brink a time or two with that voice, but it
just wasn’t going to work on Marlow.

“Then I’ll go
alone. If I don’t come back then you know not to come after me,” he
growled.

James was
suddenly in the doorway, blocking his way out. I wouldn’t have done
it; Marlow had beaten me up once already that day and I wasn’t
looking for another round. “You’re being stupid,” James growled. I
could hear the change take his throat as he stayed put. He was
apparently planning on tackling Marlow if he tried to leave.

“She is my
sister,” Marlow said through gritted teeth. “I can’t leave her
there, I can’t.”

“Marlow...” I
was standing now, showing him my open palms, “...we aren’t going to
leave her there. Marie is as good as a mother to all of us. Shayana
is almost as much my sister as yours and Stripes has always been my
responsibility. Are you really suggesting that I would ever leave
them in danger?”

“No, but you
aren’t doing anything. We know where they are!”

“No, Marlow,
no we don’t,” James said from the doorway. “We know where Talon or
someone using his e-mail thinks they are. For all we know they
caught Talon as well and are using this to get us to where they
want us. We aren’t strong enough for this. Not on our own.” I could
feel his eyes on me. I knew what I should be doing; I should be
calling my grandfather. I should march straight down to the
Covenant and demand that they help, but I couldn’t. They were going
to take me prisoner and sentence me to death the moment I got
there.

“I can’t, I’m
sorry. There is no help for us there.” I let my hands drop to my
sides and picked up the chair from the floor again to sit down. I
couldn’t look at anyone in that moment. A part of me was screaming
that I had to, that I should sacrifice my own life to rescue my
friends, but I knew that it would do nothing. I had no status
beyond my power in the Covenant. They would not help me any
longer.

“The Covenant
won’t help, they can’t.” I looked up, meeting Marlow’s eyes. I
could see the pain there but he knew; he knew exactly how my hands
were tied. “They won’t recognise me anymore.” I glanced at Eddie.
“I am effectively a non-person to them until I present myself for
trial. I won’t do that; they haven’t let a telepath live in over
two thousand years and they aren’t going to start now.”

“I know,”
Marlow said. He sounded resigned but I had no illusions that he
would refrain from trying to save his sister. He simply wouldn’t be
himself if he didn’t. “I can’t get any help from there either.” He
looked sad about that for a moment, a flicker of emotion that he
had never shown before.

Marlow and
Shayana were amazingly independent and they projected that out all
the time. I knew that their father had rejected them, something
unheard of in the Covenant. I had a feeling it was to do with their
paternal grandmother. She’d wanted a better match for her son and
she’d wanted witch grandchildren.

I sighed.
“What do you suggest instead?” I asked. Hercules looked at me like
I’d grown a second head. I knew that it was stupidly dangerous to
follow what the e-mail said but I couldn’t see another choice. I
couldn’t look Marlow in the face if I didn’t. Besides, if the
Covenant was going to execute me anyway, I might as well go down
swinging. That thought was enough to send me into the most stupid
of situations. There was no point in protecting myself now just to
die by someone else’s hand later.

“We
investigate. I know we can’t just run into it but if we’re careful
we’ll spot any attackers. We can stop them.” He was growling by the
end of the sentence.

“And getting
ourselves killed is going to help your friends...how?” Eddie asked.
It took me a moment to recognise that he had effectively opted in
to helping us. Or rather, following us into whatever idiotic thing
we did decide to do.

“It won’t,” I
said, “but we can’t do nothing.”

“But you just
said…”

“I know what I
said,” I growled. “The Covenant is going to kill me anyway so I
might as well try. You don’t have to help.”

“Like hell I
don’t. You don’t even know what Talon looks like. You have no idea
what he’s like or what he’ll do.” Eddie sounded angry, it was just
a thread in his voice but it was getting stronger.

“And you do.”
There was a matching note of anger in my voice and I had to work
not to let it colour me. In truth, I was more scared than angry. I
just couldn’t tell him that; he was still unknown, untested. I’d
let him break down first. Just as I thought it, I remembered that
I’d already lost it in front of him. I resigned myself to not
falling apart again in front of the new guy and just stared at
him.

“I spent years
with the man. He’s not...well, he’s not very nice about things...”
There was the echo of a shadow in Eddie’s eyes as he said it. I
suddenly wanted to know what caused that darkness behind his eyes
but he didn’t seem in such a sharing mood. I’d seen ‘not nice’
before. It wasn’t something I wished to repeat.

I phoned
around everyone in an attempt to find out if the e-mail was
genuine. I didn’t get any definitive answer but everyone either
told me I was an idiot and going to die, or that if I left without
them they’d kill me. Some people said both. Hunter told me to wait
for him. He’d been held up at the club so he hadn’t managed to get
to us before but he assured us that he was leaving as we spoke.

Catherine
wanted to help but there was little she could do. There was nothing
about her that in any way resembled a fighter. At least I had my
speed and strength. Catherine was also older; she wouldn’t be
coming with us. I looked at her carefully as she walked into the
room. I was surprised that I hadn’t seen her around with all the
commotion. There were tearstains on her cheeks and she looked
beaten down. I didn’t really want to know what had happened to give
her that look but I had to ask.

“It’s alright
dear, it’s not related,” she said to me, but there was a quiver in
her voice.

“Are you
alright though? You seem shaken.” I looked into her eyes, a sadness
gripped the edges of them.

“My
grandfather died yesterday,” she replied. “Don’t fret, it was his
time. He’d lived a long life; it just hit me a bit harder than I
expected that’s all.” And she missed Marie terribly. It was left
unsaid, yet somehow hanging in the air. All I could do was nod and
get back to my calls.

As an
afterthought I called Hannah, but Alex had not returned home. She
seemed half worried and half furious with him. I hoped that when he
did get back he had a good excuse. I also prayed that he had not
been taken with the others but I held out little hope.

Despite doing
their best to talk us out of it, James, Hercules and Eddie were all
preparing to come with us. We had found out nothing except that the
warehouses existed and that it would be secluded enough to hold
people there. It was beyond dangerous to go there and still expect
to find them unharmed.

At worst, we’d
all be captured and a part of me thought that at least then we
would know what had happened to them. Maybe my grandfather would
step into help if something actually happened to me. It wouldn’t do
his reputation much good to lose his only granddaughter.

I halfway
wished I had the courage to face the Covenant and High Council.
They had seers that could locate nearly anyone. Of course, they
would likely tell me that it only worked on witches. Or that the
seers were far too busy to deal with a few missing people. Although
maybe they would actually try to locate me if I was taken; they
couldn’t exactly let a rogue telepath run around untested. Or stay
alive.

I went back
upstairs to change as Marlow told us to wear dark clothes. We would
try to be stealthy. I didn’t have many illusions as to the likely
success of that, but the least I could do was try. Marlow, at
least, knew what he was doing. The rest of would just have to
scramble to keep up.

I opened my
wardrobe and stared at it for a while. I owned black clothes. It
was just a case of finding some suitable to sneak around in. There
were quite a few low- cut black tops that I thought kind of
defeated the point, since my pale skin would be very visible. I had
to dig through to the back to find a slightly small, black
polo-neck from my younger gothic days. I hadn’t worn it in years
and it showed. I had to put a black camisole underneath to make
sure that my stomach didn’t show.

I had some
black low-cut jeggings and with the camisole it gave me a full body
black look. At least the jeggings were the right size. I’d brought
them to wear out but never found a top I liked to go with them.
They had a velvety finish – not ideal, but they were black so I
figured Marlow would forgive me. Hercules would probably spend a
good amount of time stroking my leg. They really were very
soft.

My hair was
already dark, although it wouldn’t be long before my blonde roots
showed through. I pulled it back into a ponytail and plaited it so
I could put it in a bun since I didn’t have a bun net. I wanted my
hair out of the way; I had enough trouble with it in normal life
but I had never been able to bring myself to cut it. I had memories
of my mother brushing my hair before bed. It was something I
couldn’t stand to lose.

I even found
some black leather gloves. There were small cut-outs on the back of
my hand but it was better than nothing. I couldn’t do anything in
wool gloves and I had a feeling that I would need full use of my
hands. I had a moment to think that if I shifted my hands the
gloves would be restrictive. They would also be ruined if I shifted
claws but I didn’t care about them that much. I wasn’t likely to
wear them again anyway.

I also put on
black knee-high socks, mostly because my black boots were that high
and I couldn’t remember where my dark trainers were. The boots were
designed to be super-comfortable with full range of movement. They
also had a decent grip so I was less likely to go flying if there
was any ice or slick surfaces. That was the idea anyway. We didn’t
get much ice, even in the middle of winter it hardly ever froze on
the streets. The only slippery surface I was likely to be combating
would be blood.

I looked in
the mirror and felt ridiculous. I also looked like I was a cat
burglar. Maybe if I got stopped I could pretend to be a depressing
poet or something. At least it was cold enough for the gloves; I
wasn’t sure what to do about a coat. Anything I wore would flare
out and mess with my silhouette; I had no idea if it would even
make a difference so I opted to let Marlow decide.

Unsurprisingly, Marlow didn’t entirely approve of my outfit but
there was nothing he could do about it; I didn’t have anything
better to wear. Hercules and Eddie also looked very
un-put-together. They had both found dark long-sleeved tops,
although Eddie’s was navy and not black. Hercules’ top was also
rather tight. I certainly appreciated it but Marlow just pressed
his lips together to stop himself from commenting.

Marlow and
James were dressed as they had been for our ‘training’ earlier.
Form fitting but not too-tight clothes all black. Marlow had gloves
but James didn’t. They weren’t like mine either; they were in thin
cotton that attached to his sleeves. It would prevent any wrist
skin showing in the gap. It also made him look just a little too
much like he was planning something illegal.

I really
didn’t want us to be stopped by the police. There was no way we
could explain Marlow, or James for that matter. They both looked
too dangerous.

I smiled at
Hercules. He smiled back nervously and predictably came up to touch
my jeggings. He stroked them absently as we stood around. Nobody
spoke for a few minutes. We looked like assassins at a funeral.

I actually
liked the silence. I emptied my mind and thought about what we were
going to do. Marlow would give us instructions and we would try our
best but we were almost guaranteed to fail.

“OK,” Marlow
began and we all looked up as one. “I know that this is
monumentally stupid but I just can’t stay here any longer.” I saw
Catherine give a gentle smile, she wasn’t coming with us and she
looked relatively normal. She did, however, have a look of saying
goodbye. I didn’t think she felt we’d be coming home again and it
made me nervous. “We aren’t going to do much now. We are just going
to check out a lead,” Marlow stated.