“Yeah, Alex, you did great.” I could almost hear his smile from across the phone. “Look, I have to go now. Thanks for the info. I mean it though – stay away from that shop from now on. It’s too dangerous to go back.”

“What, really? Dangerous how? Wait, do I need to hide myself? Is that Endor dude going to come after me because of what I found out?”

I reckoned he probably had bigger plans than bothering with a surf loving mage. “No. But still, it wouldn’t hurt to stay out of sight for a little while.”

“Sure, sure. Okay, I’m going to go now then. Maybe I should go abroad? Not, that’s too obvious. Um, perhaps up north somewhere?”

“Bye, Alex.”

“Yeah, bye, Mack Attack,” he responded distractedly.

I hung up and passed the phone back to Aubrey. He was watching me carefully. “There are bad things afoot, aren’t there?”

“Yes, there are.”

“Worse than vampires?”

“Much much worse than vampires.”

Aubrey nodded. “Okay, then. What do you need?”

“I need to get back to London as soon as possible. Can you run?”

His eyes widened. “To London? Isn’t that kind of far?”

I patted him on the shoulder, trying to avoid appearing patronising. It was hard. “No, you prat. The car park. Come on.”

Chapter Twenty Three

Twelve hours I was later I was at least feeling physically refreshed. I’d had what was probably the longest shower of my life, eight hours’ sleep, and a good breakfast with lots and lots of coffee. If you could call a meal at three o’clock in the afternoon ‘breakfast’. There was a hard numbed shell around both my heart and my thoughts whenever I even began to consider the terrible events on Haughmond Hill, but I kept pushing that oh so very recent memory away, knowing that I needed to start feeling more prepared to deal with all this necromancy bullshit. At least for once in my life I’d really appreciated being able to travel halfway across the country via a portal. It meant that there was far less faffing around, and far more time to really get down to business.

I’d known when I’d entered the now shiny red door to my little flat in the wee hours of Sunday morning, with all the others outside watching me as I’d entered, that Corrigan had been hoping that I’d invite him in. I had desperately needed the hours of solitude to get my head into gear, however. It had nothing to do with pushing him away, and everything to do with just wanting to sort myself out. As much as I wanted to feel his arms around me, I had decided that some real undisturbed sleep was more important at this point. I wasn’t completely convinced as to whether he had understood that or not, but I was damned sure that I’d make him realise it.

Leaving a note for Mrs. Alcoon to explain (although how I could possibly appropriately convey that there was an ex-vampire sleeping in her shop on a scribbled bit of paper, I really had no idea) I’d installed Aubrey in a campbed at the back of Clava Books. I’d pointed out to him in no uncertain terms that it was a very temporary measure. He had been pathetically grateful. Out of all of us, I was pretty sure that he was the one least happy to be back within the steel and cement arms of the nation’s capital. I had been debating whether to invite him along to the formal meeting of the Otherworld’s great and the good that had been called for later that day, but had eventually decided that as an ex-member of the undead himself, he might have some insights that he could shed on necromancy. Vamps weren’t exactly the same as necromancers, but I reckoned they probably lived in the same metaphorical neighbourhood.

Considering what on earth the future could possibly hold for Aubrey, I lifted up my half-empty coffee cup and stared down at my hands cupping its still warm exterior. My mind flitted immediately back to when they’d been in the same position around the dryad’s delicate skull. I winced in the pain of the memory and dropped the cup abruptly. Then I picked it up again and threw it with all my might against the bare wall facing me. The china smashed into shards, and I watched as the remaining coffee dribbled down the wall. I reached out for the vase containing Corrigan’s now very dead flowers and did exactly the same. The decaying stems mingled with the dark caffeine infusion in a messy heap on my floor. I didn’t feel any better.

I flexed my fingers and held them out in front of my eyes. They didn’t look any differently to how they had before I’d used them to kill the dryad. They didn’t really feel any different. But the knowledge of what they’d done was gnawing away at me. Atlanteia had asked me to help save her extended family. Instead I’d helped destroy them.

A sharp knock at the door broke me out of my self-absorbed reverie. Somehow the tinge of arrogance that lent itself to the sound made it clear who was there waiting. A wave of relief shuddered through me. Standing up I walked over and opened it.

Corrigan took one look at my face and pulled me towards him. For once I let him, allowing myself to lean towards his hard body. He rested his chin on top of my head, and I sucked in his familiar spicy citrus aftershave. Neither of us said anything for several moments. Finally he drew back and looked me in the eyes.

“How are you doing?” he asked softly.

I shook my head slightly, realising that if I tried to speak, I’d end up sobbing hysterically. He seemed to understand. I sank back into his broad chest again, and remained there for several moments, trying to re-compose myself. It occurred to me, in some dim recesses of my brain, just how happy I was that he was here. Despite what I’d overheard from his conversation with Lucy, there had been the chance he’d feel he’d gotten everything he wanted from me during our session in the woods. The fact that the Lord Alpha of the Brethren was right now standing in my little doorway, with his muscle steeled arms around me, meant that he still wanted to be with me.

“I’m sorry I didn’t invite you in last night,” I said, my words somewhat muffled as I spoke them into his chest. “I just needed the time to sort myself out. To get some sleep and get things straight in my head.”

His voice rumbled above me. “I understand, kitten. You know I do. And you should also know that things haven’t changed since yesterday, not with us and not with the reasons behind everything that happened and everything we did. There wasn’t a choice to make. Endor forced our hand and we had to react.”

I sighed deeply. “I know. But that doesn’t make it any better.”

I pulled back and looked into his warm eyes. “What’s going to happen at this meeting? Is everyone going to be able to work together against him?”

Corrigan’s expression was serious. “There’s no other way this can go. If we can’t find a way to work as one to bring him down then we really will have failed.”

I nodded, trying to ignore the hard little nugget of worry in the pit of my stomach. We’d all managed to sort ourselves out and be a team at Haughmond Hill, even if the results of that collaboration hadn’t gone our way. But that had only involved a small group of us, and the fact that neither the Arch-Mage nor the Summer Queen had been there had meant that there were less authoritative egos to have to manage. I knew as well as anyone that the clash of different Otherworld species and personalities could cause a lot of problems. I reckoned that it would just have to be down to Corrigan and me to try to encourage them all to keep the peace.

“Shall we?” Corrigan asked, motioning out towards the open door.

I blinked in assent. “I need to pick up Aubrey first though.”

For a moment, Corrigan didn’t answer. I could see that his muscles had tightened infinitesimally at the idea, however. I felt the need to elaborate.

“He’s on our side,” I said. “And he might be able to help. If anyone can provide some insight into what an evil fucker who deals with death might do, then it’s got to be a vamp. Ex-vamp.”

The tension in Corrigan’s frame remained. I had to bite my tongue to stop from snapping at him that he was already letting his pre-conceived ideas about other members of the Otherworld get in his way. Thankfully, however, he finally nodded grimly. I let out an inward sigh of relief and already felt more optimistic. If Corrigan could put aside his antagonism towards Aubrey, then there was a good chance the rest of the Otherworld’s leaders would be able to do the same with each other.

An expensive looking car was sitting outside, looking somewhat incongruous against its slightly shabbier surroundings. It seemed ridiculous to climb into it to drive a couple of blocks to the shop, so I gestured to Corrigan that I’d meet him outside Clava Books once I’d picked up Aubrey. Corrigan was having none of that, however, and flicked a hand towards the invisible driver to instruct him to follow us. Then he carefully manoeuvred himself between my body and the road, in some old-fashioned idea of chivalry. I shot him an irritated glance, but he chose to ignore it, and the pair of us walked down in silence. At one point, his hand brushed gently against mine. I didn’t know whether it was by accident or by design, but it still made my heart skip a beat. Stop acting like a love-sick teenager, I told myself firmly, you’re a grown woman. Then he shrugged off his jacket and folded it over his arm. His black t-shirt stretched across his body in a manner that made my mouth go dry. Damn it.

When we reached Clava Books, Corrigan waited outside, clearly not wanting to spend any more time in Aubrey’s company than was strictly necessary. I entered, surprised that the door was already open, but that was nothing compared to my shock when I took in the scene beside the small till area. Slim was hovering in the air, a smile stretched across his face, and a cup of tea cupped in his small hands. He’d substituted Mrs. Alcoon’s scarf round his waist for a pair of bizarre looking Bermuda shorts that were probably designed for toddlers. Mrs. Alcoon herself was propped up against the counter, her head cocked to one side as she listened intently to the stream of nonsense that was coming out of Aubrey’s mouth.

“So, then Mack tells me to order a pizza, which is no mean feat in the middle of a forest. Giving directions without a postcode is hard, you know? She trusted me enough to choose it for her, and I thought that she was going to eat it herself, but then she took it and went to Corrigan and told me that they were not to be disturbed. At first I thought she was just hungry, but then I realised…”