Forged by angel and hell.., p.25
Forged by Angel & Hellfire, page 25
I sigh because I always have to be the bigger person. “What did Boxer even say to her? I mean, she told me he shouted at her, but she was woolly on details.”
“She was upset when you asked for Dad and Seth. Lucifer, I mean. So was Daniel. Anyway, she kept going on about it. Boxer told her that you’re clever, that you must’ve had your reasons, but she took the triblade and hid it.”
“She did what?”
“I don’t know what she thought she was doing. She basically held it hostage. Told them they could have it back if they took her with them. Boxer was furious—everyone was—and he shouted at her, told her it wasn’t a game of hide and seek, that she would get you killed with her selfishness and recklessness. It was ugly. He said he’d wash his hands of her if she didn’t bring the triblade back immediately. She was devastated, obviously. So was he, but it worked. He still feels bad about it, which is why Eden pushed them together for the costume thing, but they’re still not talking properly.”
“I can’t believe her. Christ, what if he’d killed me?”
“She just wanted to be there for you.”
I sigh. “She was there for me. She was here when I got back. I don’t need her to risk her life for me.”
“Tell her that, then.”
“I had my reasons for choosing Seth and Lucifer. Albert told me Seth calms him, and I needed him to be calm because he was a mess. And Lucifer is the most powerful of all of us, and I knew I could rely on him to stay rational. Daniel would never have taken Albert and left me behind. He would’ve tried something dangerous and stupid and got himself killed. I thought about asking for Michael, but I wasn’t sure he’d be around, and there wasn’t time for Magnus to go hunting for him.”
“He was here a lot actually. Almost every day. He went looking for you… Daniel and Magnus too.”
Misplaced guilt crashes over me, but I’m too tired to unpack it. “I’ll talk to her in the morning.”
Kite nods then reaches for the broom. “I know it was worse for you, but it was hard here too, Vi.” She turns away, swatting ineffectually at the floor. She sniffs quietly, hiding her thumb inside her shirtsleeve and dragging it across her eyes. “We didn’t know if we’d ever see you again.”
I don’t know what to say, so I push the broom away, and we watch it hit the floor. We hug, and it’s awkward because my pineapple hair attacks her face, and we both go for the waist, then laugh at our tangled arms. She wraps hers around my shoulders, and I don’t know how long we stand there surrounded by Lucifer’s hair, but eventually Kite picks up her broom, and I go back to bed.
“I told you,” Leia blurts. “I told you it wasn’t working right.”
Magnus’ hand is on Leia’s shoulder, and she’s gnawing at her lip. They’re alone in the drawing room when I get there, and the house is oddly silent.
“You’re doing your best, Leia. Nobody expects more.”
She turns away from Magnus and slumps into a chair. “My best isn’t good enough.”
“What’s going on?” I ask. “Is this about the wound reopening?”
“Seth said the transfusions aren’t taking,” Magnus explains. “He gave her one as soon as she was stable, but the wound reopened, and she bled out.”
“Nobody will listen to me,” Leia grits out. “Her blood is replenishing itself. The transfusions aren’t helping at all.”
“How can it replenish itself? Have you asked her? Nobody knows blood like Tabby.”
“She’s not being terribly cooperative.” Magnus gives me the sort of dark look he usually reserves for when he’s talking to Eden. About us.
“Tabby’s asking for Caleb,” Michael says, striding into the room. “Has anyone seen him?”
“Not since yesterday.”
“I’ve looked everywhere,” he says. “Tried The Oats, but the landlord’s not seen him. Even went over to Albert’s, but it’s like he’s disappeared.”
“He can’t get off Castle land on his own,” Magnus says. “Iron circle, remember?”
“He’s taking it pretty badly.” I sit opposite Leia. “He thinks what he and Tabby have isn’t special because they’re both stubbornly refusing to call it a relationship.”
“When did you get so wise?” Magnus asks.
“I’ve always been wise.”
Leia snorts, and Michael looks down at her over the top of the sofa. “I didn’t even see you there.”
“Yes, I’m so short,” she grumbles. “I love these jokes.”
He frowns. “Not a joke. Are you well? You look… exhausted.”
The hesitation is interesting because Michael doesn’t usually filter himself. This means Michael has met Leia’s cactus self before and he’s actively seeking ways to avoid it. She really has him well trained.
“I’ve had plenty of sleep,” she snaps. “It’s the healing. It’s sucking the life out of me.”
“Are you eating properly?”
Leia rolls her eyes. “What are you, my dad now?”
He frowns down at her. “Just concerned.”
“I always eat loads more here than I do at home, thanks to Archer’s cooking. If we get married, I’m gonna be a weeble.”
“So, you are definitely… eating and sleeping well?”
“I already said so,” Leia groans.
Michael sits next to her, still frowning. “I wondered if something like this might happen.”
Leia gives him a stinky side-eye. “Something like what?”
“Do you feel like you’re missing something?” he asks carefully. “Like there’s something your body needs but doesn’t have?”
Her eyebrows pinch together in confusion. “Like a craving?”
“Yes, exactly.” He lets out a sigh of relief, like this is going easier than he expects it to be, and I wonder what my best friend has been putting this man through lately if he thinks this is easy. “A craving.”
But this is exactly what I mean about their weird dynamic. Michael doesn’t do tactful. He happily tosses words about like bombs, barely registering their impact. With Leia, he notices the eggshells and keeps the grenades in his pocket. Even Magnus thinks it’s weird.
“I don’t know. Maybe? I take multivitamins and an iron supplement, so I’m not sure I’m lacking anything obvious.” Michael remains silent. Through fear. “What do you think it might be?”
He looks over the top of Leia’s head to Magnus, and the pair of them sigh.
Michael gulps, then straightens his soggy spine. “Blood. I think you may need blood.”
“A transfusion?” Leia asks.
“No.” Michael stares down at his fidgety hands, then grimaces at Leia’s face. “A drink.”
She gasps. “You know I’m vegan. And if you dare say that to me again, I will punch you. I don’t care who you are, or how big your brothers are. Got that?”
She stands and walks calmly from the room like she didn’t just threaten to punch an archangel.
“That went well,” I say.
“She’ll need to consider it if she keeps trying to help Tabby,” Michael says. “I’m certain it’s what’s making her weak.”
“What will happen if she doesn’t have blood?”
“I don’t know.” Michael tips his head back against the sofa. “I’ve never met a vaenix before.”
“She’ll never drink blood by choice,” I tell him. “She thinks it’s disgusting.”
“If her body craves it, she won’t have a choice.”
I’m not sure what to do first. I know Leia needs time to think about the blood thing. She’s probably buried her head under her pillow already, and it will likely stay there for the next few hours.
I want to sort things out with Amethyst, but I’m not sure I have the patience for dramatics right now. I know I’m expecting the worst, that I’m being uncharitable, but it’s not like her hostility is confined to me. I mean, she held a knife to Paul’s throat. What was she thinking?
I could go on a Caleb hunt, but I’m not sure he’ll be much use to Tabby.
I look in on Albert who doesn’t even wake when I open the door to his room. He probably spent the whole night keeping Tabby calm, so I’m not surprised he’s exhausted.
I head to Magnus’ shed. Seth is hooking up a bag of blood, and Archer is sitting next to Tabby’s bed looking morose.
I frown at the blood bag. “You’re giving her another transfusion?”
“She asked for one,” Seth says, and something about his tone tells me he wishes she hadn’t.
“Leia says they’re doing more harm than good.”
“Look,” Seth says, lowering his voice to a whisper, “I don’t like this any more than you do, but she’s uncomfortable, and… Well, it’s Tabby. She knows about blood. She must know what she’s asking for, right?”
He’s pleading for understanding, and I don’t even know what to say. What the hell is Tabby’s game?
“She’ll just bleed out again,” I say. “I know you’re awake, Tabby.”
Her eyelids twitch, but she doesn’t open her eyes.
“Let her rest, Vi,” Archer says, his voice weary.
“You know what she’s doing, don’t you? She’s experimenting. On herself. She knows the transfusions aren’t working.” I look around at the nearby surfaces. “Where’s the notepad I gave her?”
Tabby shifts sideways on the pillow like we’re all stupid. I reach under her pillow, feeling the hard edges of the book, which Tabby has stashed inside the pillowcase. I sigh and pull it out. It’s open on the first page, and she looks away from me while I read.
Where’s Caleb?
Please find him.
I turn to Seth. “Can you give us five minutes?”
“Tabby?” he checks.
She nods, then sighs. Seth and Archer leave the shed.
“I haven’t seen him since yesterday,” I tell her. “He’s not taking this well, and he thinks you don’t want to see him.”
Her eyes shoot up to mine, denial on every inch of her face. Tears puddle, then spill over faster than she can wipe them away.
“Is it because you think Sean didn’t love you back?” I pass her a tissue. “Because his diaries say otherwise. And they’re different men. Both idiots, but you know, different idiots.”
She snorts a sob and rubs her nose with a tissue.
“He thinks you don’t love him, so he won’t admit he loves you, but he does.”
Tabby shakes her head.
“Shake your head all you want. You didn’t see the state of him. God, I hope he hasn’t done anything dangerous.”
Tabby snatches the notebook and writes on the next blank page: what sort of dangerous?
“Looking for Fane on his own.”
She leans back against the pillows, her breathing shallow. I take the notebook from her and flip through the pages. She’s obviously been talking to someone because it’s full of one-sided conversations. Then I find what I’m looking for. She had three transfusions four hours apart. Each time the wound reopened, and she bled out within the hour.
“Leia says your blood is replenishing itself. What’s going on? Why aren’t the transfusions working?” I give her the notebook and wrap her fingers around the pen. “Tell me. Why are you insisting on transfusions when you know they’ll just make you bleed out?”
Finally, her hand moves briefly over the page, then scribbles to a stop.
I need to bleed out.
“Because your blood is replenishing too quickly or…?”
Yes.
“So, what happens once you have enough blood?”
I’ll drown in it.
Then I’ll bleed out over and over.
She stabs the full stop, ripping the page. She flings the pen across the room, then rips at the pages, shredding them from the binding one by one until they lie scattered across the bed. She slumps back, eyes closed, tears falling.
“I’m sorry, Tabby.” I squeeze her hand. “Do you still want me to find Caleb?”
“Yes,” she croaks.
I make to move away, but she grips my hand more tightly as she fumbles for the remnants of the notebook with her other hand. She points at the pen on the floor, so I get it for her. She starts writing the moment it’s back in her hand.
Fane thinks portrait of Rad holds key to archive. Rad portrait used to hang above desk at BOSS. Don’t know who moved it or where it is now, but someone put that new portrait above desk. New painting must be clue. Maybe subject knows where archive has been moved to. Harvey looking into it. Stay in contact with Harvey.
“Subject?” I frown down at her message. “The subject of the painting?”
She nods and scribbles one more word: Gabriel.
25
Basic Bitches
Michael has already called his brothers once, but they’re either ignoring him, or he’s keeping quiet about his communications with them. Would Gabriel even come? When I go to the entrance hall, his portrait’s not there.
There’s nobody around again, so I go to the kitchen, which should really always be my first stop when I want to know stuff. Glenda knows everything going on around here.
I settle onto a stool at the island. “Where’s the portrait of Gabriel?”
I wasn’t planning to sit, but Glenda’s taking fudge cupcakes out of the oven, and the room smells divine. I eye the cakes, giving Glenda a pleading look.
“Wait a few minutes.” She tuts and shakes her head. “The fudge’ll have the roof of your mouth off. Tea?”
“Please. So, where is it?”
“Michael and Magnus took it down to the library last night.” She pours me a cup from the pot. “Didn’t want to take any chances with it.”
“Tabby thinks it might be a clue.”
“What sort of clue?”
“To help us find the archive.”
“Well, somebody went to a great deal of trouble to hide it.” She blows across her tea. “I’m not sure it’s wise to go looking.”
“But Fane could find it if we don’t try.”
“Or you could lead him straight to it.” She bites her lip. “Look, love, your dad doesn’t want us discussing certain things with you, and I’ll honour that since I know very well what you’re like, but Cascade will be handling this.”
My eye twitches. “What I’m like?”
She rolls her eyes. “Oh please, you have better things to be offended by than being told what you already know about yourself. We all know you’d run off half-cocked if you thought you stood half a chance of making a difference.”
My eyes jump like I’m watching tennis while I try to unpack what she said. “Well, I am a Penhaligon. Half-cocked is literally my baseline.” But she’s right. I do want to fix this. “Besides, I heard Michael say Cascade isn’t working fast enough. I mean, he was talking about angels, but he meant Cascade.”
She zips her lips. “You’ve heard my last word on that.”
“Who’s Astaroth?”
Glenda’s expression goes dark. “An ethereal pain in the jacksy.”
I guzzle my tea and pour myself another cup. “How did the Bishop know the archive was at BOSS?”
Glenda doesn’t answer, and we sip our tea in silence. It’s not like I actually expected her to know.
Fane must’ve known the archive was there, that he’d meet resistance, otherwise he wouldn’t have sent so many apostles in. Every empty habit we found was an act of resistance. And it didn’t seem like Fane was bothered about getting information out of any of them, because no attempt was made to take them alive. The apostles must’ve killed the nuns before they realised the archive was empty.
But then how did Tabby get drawn to BOSS? Was she lured there? By a nun under duress? Or an apostle making threats? How much time passed between the death of the nuns and Tabby showing up? Or were the nuns lying in wait because Tabby was there? For her protection. And if so, didn’t the nuns know the archive was empty?
It’s obvious Tabby deliberately ditched Mr Harvey’s network, so he wouldn’t know where she was, but why hide it from him if she trusts him? And she does trust him because she asked us to stay in contact. And she did tell him where she was going, so why hide from the network? Unless, there are people in his network she doesn’t trust.
I need to talk to her again, but I’m sure she’s had enough of me for one day.
Glenda’s got a point about us leading the Bishop to the archive. If even one of his apostles survived, he’d know by now that we showed up at BOSS. Putting ourselves on his radar again is practically an invitation, and he’ll follow for sure if we go looking for the archive. Then again, Lucifer is untrackable, and if he took us under his shield, Fane would need to know where to look at the very least.
And there’s the problem.
So would we.
Glenda walks a fudge cake across the island.
I grab it before she can snatch it away. “Do you think he was ever an actual real bishop? He wears a proper robe and stuff.”
“Aye, well, sticking feathers to your arse doesn’t make you a chicken,” she says.
I’ll take that as a no. “Where is everyone?”
“Library, mostly. Seth and Archer are back in with Tabby. Kite and Lucy are up by the river. Laying extra protections.”
“More?”
“You can never have too much protection.”
“Have you seen Caleb?”
She turns away with a shrug. “No, I don’t think so.”
“So, you know where everyone is but Caleb?” My sceptical look is wasted on the back of her head. “Likely story.”
“He’ll come round,” she says.
“I’m going downstairs then… see what everyone’s up to. Thanks for the cake.”
“You’re welcome, pet.” She lets out a chuckle. “Don’t let Amethyst see you. You’ve got fudge on your chin.”
Ew, she’s my sister.
I check on Albert on my way down to the library, but he’s not in his room, so I figure he’s either with Tabby again or looking for Caleb. We haven’t been alone together since before we set off to find Tabby. Even leaving aside the month-long imprisonment and torture, our relationship didn’t have the best start.
