Part One can be found here

She could give up. The thought was mighty tempting. It would be easy. She could find a quiet corner of the room, curl up, and refuse to talk to anyone. They’d drag her into the main room, or arena, or wherever it was she was going to fight, and she could just be curled up and someone would do something horrible and it would all be over.
Scarlet moaned, and pushed herself to her feet, walking slowly back to Martin. ‘Can I give up now please?’

He tipped his head to one side, the ghost of a smile playing across his swollen lips. ‘Of course you may. You have already done more than I could ever have expected.’
She blushed, looking at her feet. Her shoes were a state, soggy and covered in dirt. She got to buy converse maybe once every couple of years, tops, and these were like, her favourite pair. That was all it took. ‘What do I have to do. I mean, I can’t fight.’
Martin shook his head slowly. ‘You will not be fighting, not how you imagine it. The Council has grown ‘civilised’ in recent decades. It will be a power show, nothing more.’

‘So what will I do?’
‘You will choose a spell, and cast it, and your opponent will have the chance to counter it. Whoever comes out on top will win.’
‘What if I do a ‘get me the hell out of here’ spell?’
Martin chuckled, wrapping his arms around his chest and wincing. ‘There are wards on this place, powerful wards. You will not be leaving until they decide you may. Why do you think I am still here?’
‘Well, you were, you know, tied up…’

He looked at her and she gave him a sheepish grin. He nodded uncomfortably and went on. ‘What you must focus on is putting yourself into the spell. When we are practicing, in a safe place, it is easy, but when you are surrounded by people watching, and it is a matter of life or death, it will be quite different.’

He paused, coughing. She moved closer, putting her hand on his shoulder. He smiled at her, moving so he could sit properly. ‘The power you have, the inate power, is as much a part of you as your personality, the things you love and hate, then beliefs you hold. You must put all of that into your casting. We have spoken before about opening yourself, letting the magic come from within. This is where it must happen. Do you understand?’

She nodded, and shrugged. ‘Um, yeah, I think so?’

He raised his eyebrows, but nodded in return. She pulled the spell book out, thumbing through it to find the things they had worked on. ‘What about ingredients?’
‘They will have them, everything you could need. Like I say, they are ‘civilised’.’
She nodded, not sure why he was putting emphasis on the civilised, but maybe she should, so she kept quiet. He was breathing hard still, gasping against whatever was hurting him and she watched, frustrated at there being nothing she could do. She spoke softly.
‘Martin, about why you’re here. Is it to do with your wife?’

When he looked up, she recoiled. The pain she had seen before in his eyes was nothing compared to this. It was like he was carrying something, some huge weight she couldn’t see, that bore down on him, threatening to crush him into the ground. He opened his mouth, but didn’t say anything.

Martin cast his eyes around the room, and gestured slowly with one hand. ‘We shall talk about that after we leave here. There are ears in here, Joanna, and they will hear everything.’
She nodded, and they fell into silence.
‘I thought you said I needed to prepare.’

He laughed quietly. ‘I did, but in truth, there is little we can do. Look through your spells, choose one you feel good about using. Revise it, ensure you can speak it properly. That is all I can tell you now…’

He looked back down at the floor and her heart lurched, becoming heavy. They had to get out of here, just so she could see him feeling something other than sadness. Her world was shifting and coming apart and she wasn’t sure she could handle it. Like when mum and dad started shouting. She’d been young enough to not know what was happening, but everything else had gotten so much harder.

They sat in silence, until the door cracked open and one of the younger men came through. He spoke in the same, affected and silly voice. ‘You will follow me, now, both of you.’
She almost said something, but cut herself off. What was the point? If she came here to study, would they make her do the voice? There was no way she was even attempting it. Then again, the robes were pretty lame as well. What good’s a robe that only comes to your knees?

She helped Martin stand and together they walked slowly from the chamber and out into the corridor. The lights were brighter here, and she squinted as they made slow progress toward wherever it was she was going to fight.

Eventually, the man stopped before a door, holding the handle and muttering quietly. The door clicked open and he pushed it, gesturing for them to precede him into the room beyond. They hobbled through together and paused, just inside, looking around.
There were four chairs again, but they were higher up, and bathed in shadow. Three of them were full. So three of the four had decided to come and watch her. That was nice.
Around the edge of the room, chairs sat on a series of steps, three deep. They were filled with men and women, of various ages, all wearing robes or the black outfits her first captors had worn.

The conversations petered out as the audience noticed them, until the room was silent, and hundreds of pairs of eyes were fixed on Scarlet and Martin.

The middle of the room was empty, a large circle, maybe as big as a large classroom. Standing across from her, in front of the three masters, were the three men who had first found her when she came into the Council. They wore identical, smug, smiles, all staring straight at her.

So, being stared at was up there with having a knife held to her eye, and physics lessons. Being stared at by a bunch of people who didn’t like her was, like, a hundred times worse. She jumped when one of the masters spoke, his voice booming and grand.
‘Miss Joanna Slater, please, step forward into the circle.’

Next Installment Friday 20th December

Part One can be found here

Scarlet had a tissue, crumpled up in one of the pockets, and she tried to wipe the blood off his face, but it was dried and hard and every time she touched him, he moaned and pulled away. Martin was unconscious, or at least, trying to be, and she sat back on her haunches, looking up at him.

He was a mess, and she grabbed at her jeans, clenching her fists to stop the tears from coming. Her lip was wobbling and she reached out, touching his shoulder as gently as she could, and whispering. ‘Martin, wake up, it’s me, it’s Scarlet.’

He hissed, pulling at the bonds, which she saw now were bands of leather, dark brown and smooth. ‘Don’t say your name.’ His voice was different, lower and rough and slow. She nodded, although he still had his eyes closed. ‘It’s me, Joanna, your apprentice.’
Now his eyes did crack open. ‘Joanna?’
She shrugged. ‘First thing that came to mind. Lots of people asking me who I am tonight.’
‘They’ll do that.’ He coughed, his shoulders bulging as he strained against the bonds. ‘Well done. Why are you here?’
‘Um, you’ve missed my last two lessons.’

His eyes were dull, lifeless, but now they opened wider, and he chuckled, shaking his head at the obvious pain. She sat back again, laughing also. ‘Yeah, I was wondering if you could, you know, maybe give me a catch-up sometime.’
‘Well, I’ve not much on my plate right now. What would you like to learn?’
‘Who are the ladies?’
His head snapped up, eyes burning into her. She’d spent the last six weeks seeing him as a slightly odd, sort of hunky but old sort of person. But he wasn’t that anymore. His eyes were haunted. He was, she realised, actually alive and doing things when she wasn’t there. He had a life, and stuff. Weird.

‘Why do you want to know?’
‘Well, um, I sort of met them.’
His head dropped and he sagged in his bonds. He shook his head again, slowly this time, before looking back up at her. ‘Why, uh, Joanna. Why did you meet them?’
‘I was looking for you.’
There was silence for a moment, and he nodded. ‘As did I. My first time. I would be happy to not do so again.’

The effort seemed to exhaust him, and he slumped, his head resting on his chest. She stood, picking at the leather on his wrists. It was tied tightly, but she could pick at it. She bent, talking quietly into his ear. ‘Can you stand, and take the pressure off these, please?’

He looked into her eyes and she winced, looking away before she could see the pain in them any more than she had to. She put her shoulder in his armpit and tried to heave him up. He helped and stood, swaying slowly. She pulled at the bonds, loosening them bit by bit. The leather was wet with sweat and blood and almost glued together, but she got it apart, losing only one nail in the process.

When his right arm dropped, he staggered forward, and spun slowly round, his weight centred on the other bond. She put herself in the way and he bumped into her. She almost fell over. He was far heavier than he looked. And almost naked. And pressed against her.
She bent to the task of the other bond, finally pulling it clear, only just managing to stay on her feet and take his weight. When the leather fell away, he collapsed, taking her down as well, so they lay in a heap. The smell of blood and sweat was strong, tickling her nose and making it itch.

She shoved him as gently as she could until she could crawl free, and sit up, peering down at him. His eyes were closed. The blood was coming from tiny holes, where the skin had been ripped open and still hung, little tags of flesh. There were burns also, the skin tight and discoloured. She stroked his hair, peering around them into the dark.

She started when the door opened, lifting her head off his shoulder. Her eyes were gritty and her mouth like she’d drunk loads of coke and not cleaned her teeth. How long had she been sleeping? What would mum be thinking? Was she supposed to be at school? She was, yes, it was Thursday, how cool is that?

The man she had spoken to earlier stalked into the room. He was one of the four, part of the Council, but he still couldn’t quite get his robe tied properly, one hand fiddling with it as he strode in.

‘We called a meeting.’
Did he want a response to that, round of applause maybe?
‘It has been decided that you may fight for your Master’s freedom. It is an old tradition, but one you may be worthy of. You have an hour to decide and prepare.’
He turned to leave and she tried to put her thoughts into some sort of order. ‘Wait, hold on. What happens if I don’t fight?’
He stopped, glancing back over her shoulder. ‘When I say you may fight, what I mean is, you will.’

She scrambled up, her knees cracking. She flew at him, hands outstretched to do what, she had no idea. He spun, his own hand raising and she stopped, completely. She was trying to move, but nothing was working. What had he done?

She sagged, her body going limp. He stepped closer, staring into her eyes. ‘What you should have asked, is what will happen if you lose.’

She didn’t have the chance to ask, as he strode from the room. When the door slammed behind him, the spell stopped and she staggered and fell on her face, swearing as her head struck the stone. She sat up, rubbing it and groaning.

Martin was watching her, eyes open completely now. ‘We must prepare.’

Next Installment Wednesday 18th December

Part one can be found here

‘Who lived there?’
Rat man grunted, Alex said nothing, so she asked again.
‘That house, where you were going to torture me, who lived there?’
‘Have you ever heard of witness protection?’
Had she? It was amazing! You got to, like, invent a whole new you, and have no history, and become anyone you liked. She’d seen it on some program a couple of years ago, and spent months wishing she and mum could see something really bad and get whisked away by men in black people carriers.
‘Yeah, I’ve heard of it.’
‘We have something similar, in the magical world. People who know too much, or see too much, they get moved, relocated to a new place, a new country.’
‘So what did they see?’
‘I don’t know. Only that the house was available for short stays. Word travels fast.’
From his silence, she assumed he’d had enough of talking about it. They were walking through an estate, nicer than home, and soon emerged onto a street of shops. The tube station said East Finchley, on the Northern Line, and they went back past Camden Town as they headed into central London.
Rat man was stood, both hands wrapped around the pole beside her seat, and every time she glanced up at him, he was staring down at her with a smile. She wanted to tell him to go away, but she caught a glimpse of the knife, stuffed beneath his jacket and instead she read the adverts opposite.
Hair loss. Hair loss and holidays. The world was a different place now. She wondered if there’d be a time she didn’t feel scared, or cold. Alex was also lost in his thoughts, still playing with his phone, though it was more likely to be Angry Birds than anything important.
They got off at Leicester Square, Alex once again muttering under his breath as they passed through the barriers, them opening and closing without an Oyster in sight. That was a trick she needed to learn. The spell book was tucked inside her jacket pocket. The cover had got wet, but it was leather and thick, and the short inspection she’d done in the bedroom had shown that all the pages were intact, and readable.
They walked through the crowds, The Square still busy, despite the late hour. She had no idea what time it was, only that her feet ached and her bed was rapidly becoming a mythic and wondrous vision she couldn’t imagine ever getting back into. Alex was striding ahead and she hurried to catch up.
‘So, you do spells without ingredients. Are there that many that don’t use them?’
He glanced down at her, one eyebrow raised, and shrugged. ‘Some do, some don’t. It’s about being prepared.’ He pulled his long jacket open and, neatly sewn in the lining, were stacks of small pockets. From some poked small bags, some plastic and others material. He looked at her again as he pulled it closed.
‘I keep myself stocked up with the basics. You get used to certain spells, stuff you remember easily, and then you get used to knowing what ingredients you use the most. It’s simple, really, just takes practice.’
He paused, taking the corner out of Leicester Square to the right and heading down toward Trafalgar. Scarlet knew this bit well. Dad had loved it here, before he went, and they used to come in and just wander about. She’d had ice cream, sometimes.
‘How long have you been learning?’
She shook her head, blinking away the memories. ‘Um, about six weeks. I’ve been to hell though.’
She wasn’t sure why she said it, maybe to show Alex she wasn’t as entirely green as she seemed. The American was looking at her, eyebrow raised. ‘Did you like it?’
She shrugged. ‘Meh, it was alright. Weather was a bit crappy, not as bad as here though.’
Alex nodded, a smile creasing his face. ‘Well, you’ve been to hell, met the sisters. That’s more than most magic users will boast in a lifetime. What next?’
She laughed, shaking her head. ‘Find Martin, go to bed, never get out of it.’
He nodded, mock serious. ‘A good plan. Though I have my doubts that the universe will allow you such a simple life.’
She groaned, shaking her head. They walked down the steps into Trafalgar Square, and approached the toilets beneath the huge frontage of the National Portrait Gallery. They were heading for the mens and she slowed. Rat man was right behind and poked her in the back. ‘Don’t worry yourself, luv, there’s plenty odder folks ‘round ‘ere seen.’
She hesitated at the entrance, and Alex took her arm. His grip was still like iron and the smile was gone from his eyes as he dragged her in. A couple of the men within glared at her, zipping up and hurrying out. Alex pulled her to the cubicle furthest of the right and stepped in, rat man coming in behind.
The back of the toilet contained a tall, narrow steel door. Alex rested his hand against it, muttering again. She watched his coat and spotted a small trickle of smoke emerge from the neck line. The door opened inward to reveal a tunnel.
Once more with going underground. There was a distinct lack of originality in the magic world, like all of them had watched the same cheesy movies, or read the same books. Alex had ducked sideways and slipped into the tunnel. Rat man prodded her and she followed, stepping into the darkness.
The tunnel widened, the ceiling rising sharply into the gloom. Light was squeezing its way in from somewhere and she could see the walls, old cracked concrete, dry and covered in spiderwebs. She shivered, hurrying on, hearing only the footsteps of the men in front and behind her.
She relaxed her eyes as they walked, the ground, even beneath her, and the green light flickered back into life. It was quicker, and easier this time, and the first thing she spotted was Alex’s outline before her, strong and like some cool night-vision thing.
Beyond him, a green wall filled the end of the tunnel, growing brighter with every step. This had to be the Council. She hadn’t realised how badly she wanted to find out what, or who, they were, until she saw the light, and picked up her pace.
She blinked the green away, relieved to slip back into the peace of the dark. They walked for another few minutes, and the walls went the same way as the ceiling, vanishing into the darkness. She was left with the feeling of space, a huge space. She could see little aside from the floor, but the air was cooler, and the sounds of their feet were lost in the dark.
A mutter from Alex, and Scarlet gasped as a light exploded into life on his hand. They stood before a replica of the museum above them, huge columns rising into the gloom high above, a pair of massive wooden doors, many times her height, standing triumphant at the top of a set of steps. It was totally over the top, totally ‘whose dick is bigger’, but she couldn’t help being impressed.
She was about to step forward, when something occurred to her, something she couldn’t believe she’d missed. She turned to Alex, realising he was standing just behind her, side by side with Rat man. ‘You were looking for something, at Martin’s, not just him but something else, books or something.’
Both men looked at one another, grins flitting across their faces. ‘What were you looking for?’
Alex shook his head, looking sad. ‘I’m sorry, Joanna, we haven’t been entirely honest with you.’ His hand shot out, grabbing her arm. ‘We are looking for Martin, and we are employed by him. Thing is, we’re employed by someone else, too.’
She swore, and kicked out, her foot striking Rat man on the shin. His hand slammed into her face and she was thrown sideways, Alex’s grip the only thing stopping her from falling. It felt like someone had driven a car into her cheek, and she whimpered, hand clutching at it, then dropping away.
They were still smiling. ‘You see, we’re pretty certain that Martin is dead by now, so we don’t get paid. But we need to find out, just to be sure. We also need to know whether the Council have retrieved the minutes. So…’
He pulled her up the steps until they stood in front of the massive doors. He brought his face close to hers, his breath hot on her cheek. ‘So, you’re going to be our scout. Go in, see what happens, and we’ll be watching.’
He yanked open the left door, and shoved her through, slamming it behind her.

Next Installment Friday 13th December

Part One can be found here

‘The Council! The council have got him, they have, the sisters told me.’

The knife paused above her cheek, close enough so she could see her eyes, reflected and distorted in the blade. She swallowed, dropping her head as he let go of her chin. She’d broken. All he’d done was wave the knife at her and she’d given in, just like that. She’d betrayed him.

Her palms were wet and she was breathing hard and the knife was still in front of her, and she didn’t care that she’d broken, he was going to cut her. Actually cut her. She started to shake, little tremors that became whole-body shaking. She was heaving and gasping and shaking her head and rat man stepped back, a look of disappointment on his face.

‘Alex, ‘es with the Council, bastards.’

The American wandered into the dining room, idly tapping on a phone. He looked at her, and raised an eyebrow. ‘What did you do?’

Rat man grinned. ‘Waved my knife at ‘er. Seems the agents aren’t as tough as they once were.’

Through the haze, what he said sunk in and she shook her head. ‘What do you mean, agents?’

Alex crouched down beside the chair, until his eyes were level with hers. He smiled, teeth showing. ‘You’re good.’ He glanced up at rat man. ‘Are you sure she was telling the truth.’

The other man nodded vehemently. ‘Oh yeah, no doubt. They get that look in their eyes, you know, desperation.’ He said it like Scarlet would have said chocolate, or Depp, and she squirmed. Alex turned back to her. ‘Who do you work for?’

She shook her head. ‘I don’t, I’m just looking for Martin.’

‘How convenient. Why are you looking for him?’

She dropped her eyes, mumbling. ‘He’s supposed to be teaching me, magic.’

His hand grabbed her chin, more roughly than Rat man, and pulled her face up. ‘I’m sorry, you might have to repeat that.’

‘I’m Martin’s, you know, student, apprentice, whatever.’

Alex stared at her for a few seconds, and she tried to relax her eyes, to see what he was thinking. Right, that was gonna work. He stuck out a hand and when it came back into sight, it held the knife.

His grip on her chin grew stronger, and he laid the flat edge of the knife on her cheek, pointing to her eye. ‘I can blind you faster than you can think. One simple movement. So tell me again, who are you?’

‘My name is… Joanna Slater.’ Better this time, quicker. ‘I’m a school girl, that’s all. Martin is teaching me magic and I haven’t had my last two lessons so I came looking for him, then you came in, so I hid, then I went searching and went in the Underworld, and then I met the sisters and then you found me and that’s it, that’s everything, I swear it.’

She sucked in a breath, and peered down at the blurred tip of the knife, then up to Alex. He was shaking, and the knife dropped away as he stood. The shaking became laughter, huge belly laughs that had her smiling, then not, then smiling again and wondering why. What the hell?

Alex turned, handing the knife back to rat man. When he turned back, she jumped, grabbed the seat of the chair. His face was blurry, shifting like the dodgy plasticine effects in Evil Dead. When the blurring stopped, he was changed. Still the same face, but the width was gone, and the menace, and he looked actually quite nice.

Rat man had done the same, and though he was still a little rodenty, his face was fuller and kinder. Alex was still chuckling when he pulled her from the seat. ‘Please, come into the kitchen. Would you like something to drink, or eat?’

She nodded and he rooted through the fridge, pulling out bread and cheese as rat man flicked on the kettle. When he shoved a mug of tea in front of her, she sipped greedily, ignoring the burning lips. Alex sat opposite her, resting his arms where her head had been only a few minutes ago.

‘I did think your disguise was particularly good.’ He chuckled again, shaking his head. ‘Now I know why. I’m sorry, Joanna, our mistake.’

She hadn’t had a chance to figure our what was going on, but as the tea boiled its way into her stomach, she raised a hand. ‘So, what the hell’s going on?’

‘We made a mistake. We are working for Martin. Our job is to find him if something like this happens. We thought you were from the Underworld.’ He turned and spat onto the floor when he said it. ‘Apologies, old habit.’

Huh? She’d preferred lying on the table, things were simpler then. ‘Sorry, so you work for Martin?’

Alex nodded. ‘We’re called Watchers. People hire us when they think something might be going a bit wrong. You must have noticed by now, things in our world are a little different to things out there. People disappear, more often than you’d think. Martin thought he was going to vanish, and wanted us to find him if he did. Turns out it was a good call.’

She nodded. It made sense, sort of. Right now, anyone who gave her tea and bread was a good person. She’d think a little more when she had time. She took another glug of tea, and placed it back on the table. Moments later, accompanied by a squeak from her, rat man took it, emptying it down the sink, and returned for the plate.

She grabbed at it, but he took it anyway. ‘Sorry luv, no time, we gotta go.’

‘What, go where?’

Alex looked at her, brow creased. ‘To find Martin of course. When I say people vanish, what I meant was, they vanish, and turn up in the foundations of the next Tesco express. Only they don’t actually turn up, of course.’

She went cold, and scrambled up. She pulled her t-shirt away from her stomach, aware of the cold clammy damp. Her jeans were chafing, scratching at her legs. ‘Um, are there any clothes here, wherever here is?’

Rat man nodded upward. ‘Go ‘ave a look. Think a teenager lived ‘ere, before.’

Wondering what ‘before’ meant, and not daring to ask, she climbed the stairs, and found the bedroom filled with Green Day posters. Whoever had lived here had at least had some taste. She opened the wardrobe, found something far too small, but at least vaguely cool, and stripped off, pulling on the strange jeans.

This was creepy. Not as creepy as the sisters, but creepy still. Who had lived here, and where had they gone? She hauled the jeans closed, sucking in her gut until the button closed, and threw on a baggy t-shirt and jumper. She found a jacket hanging behind the door and took that too.

Rat man was waiting at the bottom of the stairs. He looked so different now, but as he looked up and watched her coming down, the twinkle in his eyes was just the same as when he’d been holding the knife. What was she doing here? It didn’t matter, they’d find Martin and everything would be alright. Assuming he wasn’t already…

She swallowed, pushing past rat man and back into the kitchen. Alex was holding the door open, and they stepped out into the night, Scarlet clad in a strange girl’s clothes, with two men she knew nothing about, in search of The Council. If she wasn’t so terrified, it might actually be quite cool. This was a full blog post, maybe a couple even.

Next installment, Wednesday 11th December

Part One can be found here

She was warm. If she kept her eyes closed, she could maybe just stay here, undisturbed. And warm. She smiled. ‘Splendid, she’s ‘wake. ‘Ere, Alex, our little witch ‘as woken up.’

She groaned and opened her eyes, seeing little except the pasty face peering down at her. He looked how he sounded, small and bitter and not unlike a rat. She was lying on a table, like, a dining table, with her feet hanging off the end, and she rolled onto her side.

She’d misjudged the size of the table and rolled right off, landing hard on the floor, and shouting in alarm. As the pain sank into her left arm, she held it with her right hand, and despite her best efforts, a few tears ran down her cheeks. She scrubbed them away, looking up at her captor.

She was kidnapped, properly-held-against-her-will-by-mysterious-men-kidnapped. She almost laughed, it was so ludicrous. Then Alex leant over her, and the humour died in her throat, crawling down into her stomach to curl up into a hot little ball and hide.

Where the other man was skinny, Alex was wide and his face looked like someone had smacked him with a saucepan, many times. His nose was flattened across his face, and his smile was leery and contained more than a hint of menace. She shuffled back, her head bumping against the top of the table.

She thought about scrambling under it, when he grabbed her, his hand tight around her arm.

‘Ow, let go, that hurts.’

He sneered. ‘Please believe me, little girl, that doesn’t hurt. You’ll know when it hurts.’

She was sweating now, and glanced around. They were in a kitchen, though she wasn’t convinced it had been used for doing any cooking in. Dirty plates were piled high in the sink, plastic cartons spilling out of the bin and onto the floor. It smelled in here, of old food and rot and she wrinkled up her nose.

Alex pulled her forward, and she stumbled, losing her footing. She wasn’t light, god knows, she wasn’t light, but the American barely seemed to notice, dragging her across the floor and throwing her into a chair. She rubbed her arm where he’d grabbed her and bit her lip. She tried to picture Martin, but could only see him in his tramp outfit, grubby and a bit creepy. I’ve been through hell, I’ve actually been through hell, this shouldn’t be scary.

It was, though. Was mum panicking yet? She probably wouldn’t call the police, they might come round and discover the dodgy lead from next-door’s satellite dish. But she’d be worried, calling everyone they knew and asking about her. She might never see her again, never get the chance to cuss her latest horrible hair cut, or take the piss when she tried to use some ‘cool’ expression.

The thought was far worse than she’d expected. Alex bent down, his face stopping inches from hers. ‘Where is he?’

‘Huh?’

‘Where is he? You know him, you know where he is, so where is he?’

‘I don’t know, I don’t know who you mean, who do you me—’

He hit her, his hand catching her cheek bone and slamming her head around. Her neck cracked and she swore as lights flashed before her eyes and she swooned. She’d imagined swooning, but it had always been following a meeting with some gorgeous person. This wasn’t like that.

He was back in close. ‘I have neither the time, nor the patience, I really don’t. My friend here, he’d be happy to play with you. Maybe I’ll let him, just for a while. Or you can answer my questions.’

‘Why do you want him?’

‘He stole something. My employers want what he stole.’

‘Do your employers own them?’

Alex raised an eyebrow. She went on, wincing at the pain opening her mouth caused her. ‘So, your employers are paying you to steal something from someone who already stole it?’

Alex raised his hand and she cringed. ‘I don’t know where he is, really, I don’t. How did you find me?’

She’d try anything now, anything to make him put his hand back down. He sat back on his heels, both hands folding in front of him. ‘You left some pretty serious residue back at Martin’s place, when you jumped out. Clever hiding spell you used though, didn’t see you at all. But we came back, had another look round, and saw what you’d left behind. You might like to work on your subtlety.’

She sniffed, affronted and embarrassed at the same time. It hadn’t even occurred to her she might be leaving a trail. Probably looked like she saw people, green tracks to say where she’d been. ‘So who are your employers?’

Alex snarled, and put his foot between her legs on the chair, shoving it until she tipped over backward. She held her head up, but the impact still drove it into the kitchen floor and she howled as her teeth slammed together. Rat man bent over her this time, broad smile showing dark, dirty teeth.

‘We’re gonna play for a bit, ‘ee says we can play. Would you like to play with me?’

She bit her lip, feeling the blood well up and into her mouth. She wouldn’t cry, she wouldn’t. He grabbed her hand, and yanked her to her feet.