Vowed (11 page)

‘Agreed. But on condition that both of you are present when the creature is either taken by the Beast or killed.’

Dante and I share a look but we both nod, in the end.

‘Is this your vow, to hunt the thief of children?’ She asks us, her voice suddenly sonorous and official. ‘To find him and send him to the Otherwhere for judgement?’

‘I so vow,’ I say.

‘Yes. I vow this.’

As both Dante and I speak the words, we slip the tokens around our necks. The shimmer of the spell implanted in the token sparks in the early morning light and I can’t help the shiver that
steals through me. I finger the rune-carved wooden pendant – no longer or bigger than my thumb – and wonder who the sorcerer is who can work the magic so finely that a piece of wood
stows enough energy to open a gateway between two realms.

‘It is done,’ Melusine says, turning to go. She hesitates for a second, perhaps about to say something, then she seems to think better of it and walks back towards the river.
‘Suola expects you to have the case wrapped up soon,’ she throws over her shoulder at us. ‘You know better than to disappoint her.’

She dives smoothly into the river, her clothes shedding mid-arc and her legs forming into a shimmery mermaid’s tail. I watch her dark head dunk beneath the water and she’s gone as
the sun’s early morning rays hit us.

‘What now?’ Dante asks after a few seconds of watching the river.

‘Now I go home, get some sleep and head back to the estate to check things out. With luck, we’ll get calls from the girl or Dread Boy in the meantime to set something up.’ I
look at him. There’s no sign of his earlier queasiness or weirdness, except maybe in the darkness of his eyes. ‘And you? Are you okay? What are you doing now?’

Dante checks his watch and grimaces. ‘I’m okay. Thanks for sticking with me. I’m off to work, unfortunately. I’ll call you later.’

‘You don’t have my number,’ I point out and he passes me his phone. I quickly type in my number and hand it back to him. He immediately hits dial and my pocket starts ringing.
‘Where’s the trust?’ I ask him, laughing openly now.

‘Ah, just being careful,’ he says, pocketing the phone. ‘Drive safely, Kit. Talk later.’

I watch him wander off to the parking garage as I swing my leg over my bike and pull on my helmet. Maybe he wasn’t so bad, I think to myself. He was certainly easy on the eye and
didn’t look too shabby in that T-shirt of his. I laugh at the thought and shake my head as I start the bike. I have to tell Megan about him, I decide. He’s definitely her type.

I get back home fast; there’s little enough traffic going through town. I love the Ducati for this but I miss my little car, Lolita, and I hope the ogres are taking care
of her. Here’s a tip: never agree to play poker against ogres. They are canny and like shiny things, like my Mini Cooper. But at least the agreed three months’ lending term is almost
done and I’ll have her back. Megan is still refusing to talk to me about the mess I got myself in there. But the ogres swore very prettily not to damage it, so here’s hoping I get her
back in one piece.

Kyle’s still sleeping when I get in, so I have a quick shower, crawl into bed and pull the covers over my head. I’m exhausted but sleep decides to play elusive and I sit up in bed
after half an hour of tossing and turning. I wonder about checking on Aiden for not showing up at the club last night but decide against it. We’re good mates but I really don’t want to
be the clingy one.

I pull my sketchpad over and flip to a clean page. I twiddle the charcoal between my fingers thinking about last night. My sketch is rough and untidy as I draw Suola’s face but I like it.
It gives her a wildness that seems apt. I draw Melusine too, only her face. I purposely don’t sketch Dante. I don’t think I want to have him in my sketchpad, not yet. I do, however,
draw the bits of tattoo I saw peeking from beneath the sleeve and collar of his T-shirt. They have sharp strange edges that I think are definitely part of a larger tattoo. I wonder how old he was
when he got it. His parents must have been unimpressed. I get the feeling that they were quite strict with him but that obviously didn’t stop him from being a bit of a wild child.

I wonder how often he thinks about who his real parents were and why they gave him up – and if he ever thinks about looking them up.

Although I grew up with my nan, I can count on one hand the stuff I know about my mum and dad. Sometimes I wake up in the night feeling a hollow ache, wanting to know more about them. It was no
longer enough to know that my mum was stubborn and single minded, or that my dad was a normal human employed by the Spook Squad.

The things I know about them gives me a tiny keyhole view of who they were, but nothing else. I yearn to have an HD widescreen vision of them. I can only imagine that the way I feel might be the
way Dante feels about his own parents.

After finishing a final quick sketch of Melusine I close and drop my sketchpad and scoot underneath the covers again. I find my ear buds and plug myself into my iPod and eventually drift off to
the sound of instrumental soundtrack music.

‘We need to talk.’

I eye Kyle dubiously as he watches me down my second coffee. I’ve just come back from a long run and am gearing myself up to do the paperwork for the warehouse job, so I’m not a
hundred per cent keen on seeing his scowling face.

‘What now?’

‘That wallet you took from the guy at the warehouse. His name is Marko Monroe. He runs with the Jericho Gang.’

I sit down at the dining-room table and drop my head into my hands. ‘See? When you say something like that, as if it should mean something to me, and it doesn’t? This is my confused
expression.’

‘The Jericho Gang runs drugs from the borders all through the Midlands.’

‘Do we know any of them?’

‘No. But Aiden’s mate Leo’s dad does. I spoke to Leo earlier.’ Kyle’s fingers dance across the keyboard in front of him. ‘Here, look at this.’

I push up from my chair with a sigh and go and stand next to my cousin.

‘What am I looking at?’

He points to the map of the UK. ‘Here, all of this belongs to the Jericho crew.’

I reluctantly have to admit that it’s a huge area. ‘I can’t take them all on by myself,’ I tell him.

He grimaces. ‘Glad you know that. No, we’re passing this information on to the police directly. We have a few sympathetic ears. Also, Leo’s dad said he’ll speak to some
people. He’s seen first hand what Glow does to someone.’ When he sees my curious expression he explains further. ‘A kid died in one of his clubs in Soho last night. He’s
pi—. He’s very angry. Apparently Aiden was there and helped.’

That would explain Aiden not showing up last night. I don’t know Leo very well, having only met him a few times, but he’s a good friend of Aiden’s and they went to some posh
private school together. A werewolf and a gangster’s son. Nothing wrong with that picture at all.

‘How far are you with figuring out what’s in the Glow?’

‘Not far. Jilly is struggling to lock down some of the ingredients. She says she’s never seen anything like it.’

‘We don’t want her to marry it, we just need her to figure out what it’s made of. If we know that, we can get the labs to manufacture a way to help the little girl lying in a
coma.’

‘I know, Kit. Bloody hell, give me some credit. Jesus. You’re getting meaner by the second. Is this how you’re going to be, hanging out with a Spook?’

‘Not by choice, Kyle. Remember that. This is not my choice.’

‘You didn’t seem to fight it really hard,’ he mutters under his breath.

‘What did you want me to do? Tell the Queen of Air and Darkness to shove the job? That she can ask someone else to do it?’ I frown at him. ‘These are little kids that need our
help. I reckon I stand a better chance figuring out what’s going on than anyone else she could ask.’

‘Yeah, but the Spook.’ He looks unhappy. ‘I mean, he’s not family. An unknown.’

‘He’s not a liability,’ I tell him, hating that I’m using words that Jamie enjoys throwing around. ‘I’ve got this.’

My pocket starts vibrating and I lift my phone to my ear. ‘What?’

‘Oh! Hi? This is Diane? From like earlier this morning?’

I scowl at Kyle and walk away from him, towards the living room.

‘Hi, Diane, thanks for calling.’

‘Are you okay? You sound angry.’

‘My cousin is being a pain,’ I tell her. ‘Thank you for asking.’

‘Oh right, no worries.’ She laughs nervously. ‘So I’ve been talking to the boys and we’ve decided that we’re going to help you. I’m going to get the
scrapbooks my auntie’s got in her flat so you can look at them. I’m telling her it’s for a school thing.’

‘Look at you, being a devious person,’ I tease her, the smile showing in my voice. ‘Thanks for that.’

‘Chem said to help. He’s really worried about the block, you know? We all are. These are our friends’ little brothers and sisters being taken.’

A trickle of ice drips down my spine. ‘Diane, are you guys staking out the estate?’

The brief pause at the other end of the phone tells me all I should know.

‘You can’t do that, okay? It’s not safe. Just go to school, go about your business like usual.’

‘Yeah? And what about you?’

‘This is my job,’ I tell her. ‘It’s in my blood, okay? It’s what I do. Me and my family.’

‘And the guy from last night? Is he family?’

I sigh and close my eyes. ‘No, he’s someone I have to work with on this.’

She sucks her teeth and I can feel her defiance right through the phone.

‘So, did you guys get to speak to the little boy’s brother? The one who almost got taken a few days ago?’

‘Yeah, that’s the other reason I called? His mum’s working tonight so they’re going to be alone at home. He said you can come over then.’

She gives me the boys’ names, and we confirm the time and flat number before hanging up. I stomp into the kitchen and dial Dante as I pour myself another mug of coffee.

He answers on the second ring. ‘Dante Alexander, how may I help you?’

‘Wow,’ I say, impressed. ‘You sound grown up.’

‘It’s a ploy,’ he assures me. ‘It happens every time I put on my suit.’

‘Sucks to be you.’ I laugh when I hear him draw in a breath at my apparent rudeness. The guy really needed to loosen up a bit. ‘Listen, Diane called and tonight we get to meet
the little kid, Adam, who said someone tried to break into his room. His older brother, Colin, will be there too. We’re seeing them at seven. Wear something that doesn’t make you look
like a government agent.’

‘I like my suit.’

‘You are twenty,’ I tell him. ‘You should be wearing shorts and sandals and hideous T-shirts, glorifying surfing off the coast of Hawaii or something.’

‘Is this your way of telling me you don’t like me, my clothes or what I do for a living?’

I sigh. Gods, what a diva! ‘No, it’s my way of telling you to not wear a suit tonight.’

‘Do I get to tell you what you should be wearing?’

Oh my giddy aunt. He’s flirting with me and I can feel my cheeks flame bright red. ‘I’m coming by Monster,’ I cut him off. ‘Jeans and a leather jacket. That’s
how I’ll be dressed.’

‘Cool. I dig chicks in leather who ride bikes.’

He can’t see me rolling my eyes but he must sense it because he laughs and he doesn’t have the grace to sound even a little bit embarrassed.

‘I’ll see you later, Blackhart.’

‘Try not to get too many paper cuts, office boy,’ I advise him, before hanging up. ‘It’s on, Kyle. We’re meeting the little boy who was almost taken the other
night.’ I’m talking as I round the corner back into the dining room.

Kyle nods and hands me back the folder Suola gave me last night.

‘Read this again. I’m running a search to see if anything weird went down in the timeframe these kids got taken.’

‘Weird, like how?’

‘Anything odd, you know – stuff that happened.’ He grimaces at me. ‘Shut up and study your file and let me do the computer thing.’

‘What about the warehouse paperwork?’ I say. ‘Aunt Letty’s going to go mental if I don’t have it back to her soon.’

‘She can wait. This is more important.’

The look he gives me is so much like Uncle Andrew’s that I shut up, grab the file and head off to sit in the living room. Here I sprawl inelegantly on the sofa and flip open the file.

Five kids. All of them under eight years old. I undo the clips and lay each photo on the ground, grouping their bits of paper beneath them. I pick up the details of the first one that
disappeared.

Roberto Santos. Four years old. Mum and dad were watching TV in the next room when he was taken. Dad went in to check on him when he got up to go make coffee. It was 9 p.m.

Rachel Mitchell. Five years old. Rachel was taken from her home two days before her sixth birthday. Both her parents were at home. No sign of an intruder.

Joanie Powell. Seven. Parents woke up to a noise at 3 a.m. and found Joanie gone. No sign of an intruder except for an open window. Their flat was on the sixth floor.

Christopher Singh. Aged six. His mum got up to wake him up for school but when she walked into the room it was in a mess and there was no sign of Christopher.

Jerome King. The oldest at almost eight, taken a week before his birthday. His dad heard a commotion in his room and ran in to find his son’s window open and no sign of Jerome. They were
on the fourth floor of the building.

The police reports are succinct and brief. No sign of forced entry into any of the flats and the CCTV stayed suspiciously blank. Kyle has shown me how easy it is to mess with CCTV footage, so I
don’t trust the CCTV. I also know that creatures from the Otherwhere knock the cameras out, so they hardly ever show up on any film, unless they want to be seen. No human could do this, so it
was definitely Otherwhere related. I will need to check with the other players in town, the Infernal (demons and angels to us average folk) and the Suckers, our very special slang for vampires.
There are other creatures too, but those are the major players.