Severed(11)

     
 

      Chapter 11



He was dissolving into a sea of bleeding hearts while a song about love lasting a lifetime played in the background. And now Evie had appeared on top of him, thirty metres high. It was the same photograph that Tristan had given to the members of the Brotherhood, right before he'd ordered them to kill her.

Lucas turned quickly back towards the stairs to head Evie and the others off before they got inside. If Evie walked in here she'd be recognised in seconds. Why the hell hadn't Issa seen this? It wasn't exactly hard to miss. Damn the Sybll and their faulty, inexact visions. He wove through the crowd, his eyes on the door, willing Evie not to walk through it, but it was already too late. She was standing at the top of the stairs, staring open-mouthed at the photograph of herself projected onto the wall. He watched her grab Issa's arm and point, and then saw Flic spin around and bark an order at Jamieson.

But Evie wasn't moving. Instead she was throwing back her shoulders and arguing with Flic. Damn it. Lucas pushed past a crowd of Scorpio, ignoring their flicking tails and grabbed the banister. They needed to leave. Now. Before someone spotted her. The fight could wait. He was about to launch himself up the stairs three at a time when he finally saw Evie nodding in agreement and Jamieson taking her quickly by the arm. Lucas froze, waiting for them to turn and leave. But instead Jamieson was pulling her towards the stairs, heading in his direction, down into the club. What was going on? Why weren't they leaving? He looked up at Flic and Issa, wondering if maybe Issa had seen something coming. And, as if on cue, the door behind them exploded open and a swarm of Mixen burst through screeching with laughter, their green skin pulsing a toxic warning under the strobe lights. Lucas thanked Issa silently for the heads up.

He let Jamieson and Evie pass him by, resisting the urge he had to reach out and take Evie by the arm and pull her towards him. Instead his fingers trailed the air behind her. He didn't want her distracted. He wanted her to keep walking and get the hell out of this place. If he let her know that he was there, right next to her, shadowing her every move, she might change her mind. Knowing Evie, she would change her mind. So he stayed invisible, following them as they made their way across the dance floor towards the rear exit.

Jamieson skirted wide of the Thirsters and the Mixen, pulling Evie through a group of Shifters whose wall of shimmer offered some cover. Finally they broke free of the crowd and he could see them heading towards the green glowing exit sign up ahead. He was wondering whether it was now safe to leave them and head back into the club to start this fight when a curtain of shimmer erupted suddenly out of nowhere blocking their path. Evie stumbled backwards, almost banging into him. The shimmer faded almost instantly and two Shapeshifter girls appeared. Lucas was already beside Jamieson and Evie, standing there invisible, sword raised.

‘Oh my God!' shrieked the first girl. ‘You're so that girl! You're so her. Aren't you?'

‘Aren't you?' squealed the other in unison, jumping up and down.

‘Er  –  what girl?' Evie tried.

‘That girl,' the first one said, pointing one arm at the pixelating picture on the wall behind them. ‘The one who Lucas Gray is going to die for!'

Lucas was holding his knife at chest height, pointing it at just the right angle to slide between the ribs and into the left chamber of the girl's heart. They were completely unaware that the person they were talking about was at that moment standing right in front of them, ready not just to die, but also to kill for that girl.

‘Girls,' Jamieson suddenly burst out laughing, ‘do you really think an on-the-run Hunter would come to a place populated by demons who want to rip her to shreds and scatter her body parts to all corners of the realms?'

The girls stared blankly at Jamieson and then frowned at Evie.

‘But you look just like her,' the one with the knife against her ribs said unhappily.

Lucas didn't want to kill them. It would be like killing puppies. He took a breath, calculating whether he could knock them out instead and drag them somewhere without anyone noticing. Maybe it could look like they'd had too much tequila  –  be a lesson in under-age drinking. But before he could sheath his knife and bring his hands up to squeeze the nerve at the back of their necks, he caught sight of a ball of shimmer just to his left.

For half a second Lucas wondered what the hell Jamieson was doing and then he started praying that his sister's boyfriend was shifting into something good  –  a lion or a three-metre tall bear, anything that would send them running, screaming, in the other direction.

But Jamieson went one better.






     
 

      Chapter 12



Evie turned to look at Jamieson but he had vanished. There was just the mirror on the wall opposite and her own reflection smiling back at her. It took her a good five seconds to register that she wasn't staring into a mirror at all, but at Jamieson. He had shifted. Into her. He'd copied every detail, from the camisole strap that had slipped down her arm, to her mussed-up hair, which she'd swept over to one side in an attempt to obscure her face. The only visible difference between them was that he looked a whole lot calmer than she knew she did. And he was smiling. She was fairly certain she wasn't smiling.

‘It's like totally our thing,' Jamieson said, turning to the two girls. Evie's jaw dropped. Was that what she sounded like?

‘So don't copy us, OK?' Jamieson said, planting one hand on his hip. That was so drag queen. She'd have to talk to him about that. She never stood like that.

The first girl's mouth fell open like a dead fish. ‘OH, MY  … '

‘GOD!' the second girl chorused.

They both started shimmering wildly, like faulty Christmas lights, and in the next instant Evie was surrounded and staring back at two more reflections of herself. She felt dizzy, as if she'd been led unexpectedly into a hall of mirrors after a wild turn on a teacup ride. The two Shifters standing opposite were now admiring their arms and legs  –  her arms and legs  –  and groping each other's butts  –  her butt. Then, once they were done groping her body, they turned to each other and started admiring each other's eyes and eyelashes.

‘I am so totally hot like this,' declared the first.

‘I call dibs on the first Shadow Warrior.'

‘Do you think we'll be able to bag someone as hot as him though?' the first one shrieked, grabbing hold of the other Evie's hands and pointing up at the photo of Lucas, which had appeared once again on the wall behind them.

‘Ahhhhh!' they both squealed, before running off into the whooping crowd.

Evie turned to Jamieson. ‘Please tell me I do not sound like that,' she said.

Jamieson gave her a lopsided grin. ‘Freaking you out?'

‘Yes. But thanks,' Evie said, still blinking in amazement at him. ‘I think you saved my ass.'

‘It's a cute ass,' Jamieson said, groping his own behind admiringly. ‘Definitely worth saving.' He took her hand and started off towards the fire exit. ‘Now, let's get out of here.'

‘No. Let's stay,' Evie said, pulling her hand free. ‘Come on, you created a great cover.'

Jamieson grimaced at her and she made a mental note to never grimace. It wasn't a good look.

‘What about Flic?' she tried. ‘She might need our help. Look, there she is!' Evie pointed at Flic who she'd spied wading through the crowd in their direction. Jamieson spun to look just as Flic hit the edge of the dance floor and vanished.

‘Where'd she go?' Evie asked, craning her neck to see over the crowd.

‘Over there,' Jamieson said, pointing.

Flic had reappeared on the other side of the dance floor. She was standing in front of the group of Thirsters, hands on her hips, smiling flirtatiously. The skinny one with auburn hair gave her a crooked smile and flashed his fangs at her. Flic smiled back  –  a long, seductive smile that elicited a few loud whistles from the group of Thirsters.

‘What's she doing?' Evie asked, clutching Jamieson's arm.

‘Oh, she's starting a fight. She claimed Lucas was good at it, but let me tell you, Flic's a pro. Normally they have her work the door at this place.'

‘Seriously?' Evie asked, looking up at him in astonishment.

‘Just watch,' Jamieson said, nodding his head back at Flic.

‘But she's unarmed,' Evie whispered. She'd seen Lucas fighting a Thirster and it had been violent, brutal and bloody. She'd tried to kill one herself. Three crossbow arrows, including one through the brain, still hadn't been enough to finish off Joshua. She glanced at Jamieson, but he didn't look at all worried.

The auburn-haired Thirster was swaggering towards Flic now, his fangs fully out. What was that? Some kind of Thirster mating ritual? Display teeth and impress the ladies? Next he started to gyrate his pelvis in Flic's direction. She didn't look all that impressed by his moves. Evie heard Jamieson snort as Flic gave the Thirster a bored stare, raised one eyebrow, and turned swiftly on her heel.

The Thirster's friends all collapsed laughing at the brush-off Flic had given him, but the auburn-haired one hissed through his teeth, rounded his shoulders and sprung like a cat at Flic's back. Somehow though, Flic anticipated it and moved in a blur, spinning fast and delivering a kick to the Thirster's head that for certain, Evie thought, would have decapitated any human.