Dangerous, Diabolical
10.4

“Grahame!” I drawled his name out, baring my teeth in a forced smile. “Fancy seeing you here!” Like Joanne, the vampire was stuffed in a metal crate with heavy-duty bars. His clothes were torn, and congealed blood was gathered on one side of his hair.

For the first time in my life, I finally understood the fast food fascination. Two people and nowhere for them to go. Mouth watering, I licked my lips.

“What the hell, are you doing here?” Grahame quizzed, his tone gravelly and as intense as his gaze. Swiftly he launched himself at the bars to grab me but changed his mind at the last second and swerved to avoid touching them. Resuming to stand in the centre of the confines, his eyes immediately fixated on the cut on my cheek.

Joanne whimpered. “Can you get us out Celandine?” She begged, eyes darting toward the top of the stairs, mascara running down her cheeks. Her clothes were torn and dirty, and one of her earrings had already escaped.

I gazed around trying not to inhale too deeply. “How did you even get here?” It was a damp room, a pipe slowly dripped into a mouldy corner. From the smells and discarded rags, it had been the detention facility for several people. Other cages stood empty as proof.

Grahame growled from his confines. “’Anne,” his voice held a gentle cadence it took me a while to associate that it was him talking. It took me even longer to realise he meant Joanne. “Can you not see she is our enemy? Why else would she be here?” His voice cracked, and he flashed me a shallow glare. “She has proved to be a liar, murderer and not at all what she claims to be.”

Jo gasped, huge, watery eyes contemplating and darting between us. Well, he wasn’t wrong. Wait until I caught up with that darn Markus, he was far too chatty.

“You kidnapped us?” Joanne murmured, voice croaky.

Geesh. Now this was the problem when people jumped to conclusions. “Why on earth would I kidnap you?”

She smiled weakly, giving Grahame a small nod as a relieved sigh escaped her chest.

“I’d rather just kill victims outright,” I explained.

Jo froze, her chin crinkling as she threatened to break out into a new shower of tears.

Grahame erupted in a flurry “I knew it you lying scut!” This time he collided with the bars and his skin instantly hissed into welts.

Interesting. I cooed mentally.

He withdrew hastily, pausing before his eyes grew wide. As he tried to look up towards the opening he grew a bit too close again, causing a sore to open across his cheek before rapidly healing. “Where’s Stan?” He stumbled over his words quickly. “What have you done to him?” His dialect completely dissolved into thick Irish, still watching the stairs as if his friend would suddenly appear.

I rolled my eyes at him but otherwise ignored the question.

Joanne shuddered, crossing her arms over herself. “So you didn’t trap us here?” She spoke clearer this time, her chin stilling from its tremble.

“Nope.” I popped the ‘P’ with a grin. At least she was talking some sense.

She let out a long breath. “I knew it couldn’t have been you, since you spoke to me on the phone; of course, I went to see what was making all the racket after I hung up but I didn’t get a good look before everything went dark... next thing I knew, I woke up here.” She inhaled a long snotty breath. “If I had my skin, I would’ve stood a chance.”

“Your skin?”

She tilted her head, eyebrows scrunched together. “I thought you’d realised when we met?” She wiped her nose on her arm. “That I’m a selkie?

“Then you’re not human?” Trying to hold back a dramatic gasp, I focused my sight on her looking for any signs of magical residue. She had more specks than usual gathered around, but not enough for me to consider her anything other than she appeared.

“I-I am,” she stammered, “but I transform when I wear my seal skin.”

That was a new one. Um-hmm. “And where’s your skin now?”

She turned even paler, the chin dimpling and eyes scrunching. “I left it at home.” Her eyes spilt over again. “I house-share. My friends are going to be so worried!”

She must be the most pointless magical creature I’d ever heard of. So without this skin that she doesn’t even carry around, she is completely helpless?

Staring towards the ceiling I truly felt at a loss. At least her co-inhabitants had managed a bit more fight in them. “I’m sure they haven’t even noticed you’re gone,” I reassured her. After all, they didn’t seem to be too interested in any sort of thinking, being dead and all that.

“D-do you r-really kill people?” She continued rambling. I gave the metal on the bars a flick. The cage was a problem. I wasn’t sure I could bend it with brute strength, and heating the metal to boiling point would probably kill Joanne first. Both ideas seemed like a considerable amount of effort for little reward. Absently I rubbed the gem in my hand. Leo would’ve probably cast some really cool spell to make the bars just disappear.

I threw my hands up at the realisation. That was it!

Just like my gold stash at home, glamouring a different kind of metal should be no different. With a mental yank on three of her cage bars, I snapped them into their own dimensional pocket. They simply vanished.

She blinked, wafting an arm in the space.

“H-how...”

“Hurry up.” I snarled mentally chanting. Stay, staaay. Didn’t want them slipping out. The fact that they were attached to something in the physical realm meant I’d never truly be able to possess it. She stepped through the gap, one of the bars flickering dangerously. She hesitated, eyeing me through tears.

It felt like swimming in treacle, but using my brain for the stroke. “Anytime now!” I snapped

“Ah!” She jumped out of the gap. “Neptune praise.” Joanne cried as the bars snapped closed behind her. “Celandine you did it!” She clutched my shoulders into a hug before shaking me. My toes began to tingle, and I acutely felt as if all my teeth were holding onto their gums for their life. “I knew you cared!”

“What the actual hell,” Grahame swore from the other cage in a thick Irish accent.

His hands opened and closed slowly as he fixated on my neck. “That’s a level one void. Only sorcerers like Leofstan can achieve that.”

There he went again, trying to tell me what was what. “It’s a glamour - and a fae child trick to boot.” I snapped at another unfounded accusation. From the buzz in my head, maybe it wasn’t such a great idea.

“Can you get Gray out?” Jo asked, clutching my arm as she straightened, staring sadly at the vampire.

The man was glaring at me, eyes luminous red and fangs bared.

“I need to recharge.” I partially lied. “You should go get your skin in case anything else happens.” And maybe then, not be as useless.

“But...” She looked to Grahame, then back to me. “Gray?” Was all she asked.

He looked to the floor a moment, before pinching the bridge of his nose as he shook his head, he paced about the small footage. “Where is Stan, Celandine?” The vampire finally asked in answer.

Seriously? Always with the missing Leo nonsense. “Leofstan left to look for you hours ago.” My hand raised in a dismissive wave.

He growled.

I groaned. “He was in one piece when he left. Honest.”

He continued to shake his head. “I swear if he’s lost somewhere in Faery again...”

“Then it was nothing to do with me,” I interjected, throwing off Jo so I could perch my hands on my hips.

For a moment he said nothing until a small sob escaped from the girl next to me and his shoulders slumped. “Jo, it’s fine, I know you need water soon. Just be careful, please. At least we can be certain you won’t be on the target list for a while, since you’re meant to be locked down here.” A small corner of his lips twitched up. For a moment I wasn’t sure I’d witnessed it at all.

She pushed a hand out to him through the bars, smiling weakly back. “I’m sorry,” Joanne whispered. “You’ll meet me tomorrow?”

He took her offered hand, hesitantly dragging his eyes away from the vein on her wrist. “I promise.” Their touch lingered, her heart quickening. Joanne was the first to pull away slowly, fingertips trailing his.

Her chin began to wobble again but she turned, heading towards the stairs. Even as she ascended, the vampire stared long after, unblinking, completely still.

When he snapped his attention to me, I jumped. “So how long do you need?” He demanded.

My jaw almost hit the floor. He was so bossy. Always demanding this, accusing me of that. Turning instead of answering, I went to follow Jo. If he knew so much, he didn’t need my help.

“Celandine Doukas!” He roared. “Let me out!”

Not even the word ‘please’, with a shrug, I kept walking.

“Celandine, this isn’t funny get me out of here right now!

Nope, not answering that.

“I know exactly what you are Oilliphéist!” He spat the word. “All dragán are murderous demons, I knew you were wrong the moment I saw you!”

My feet stilled.

“Go mbrise an diabhal do chnámha!” He screeched in what I could only assume was meant to be insulting from the tone.

Always so nice.

He began to plead, “If Stan’s gone after the miscreant alone, and it doesn’t end well, they’ll be unstoppable with control of the Druids’ power. You said he’d left looking for me? He could be confronting him right now!” He tugged at the bars, his hands sizzling. It was a good point, maybe Leo was being made into a corpse right now. “Even I was caught unaware by a magical onslaught.”

I cocked my head at him. It was inevitable that he would have eventually figured out what I was but I’d hoped to be long across the ocean by the time he did. “What gave it away?” Curiosity leeched into the question.

“You think I don’t recognise another predator? Your soul is as black as your heart. Your species always has one damn thing in common; each one of you assumes you’re better than everyone else. Once I started asking questions it was easy to put the pieces together.” he snorted. “As strong as Stan? Portals spilling open? Chaos in your wake?” He paused, snarling. “You will destroy everything.”

Is that so? My teeth sharpened as I smiled coldly. “Well, you got one thing right.” My tone was bitter, “I’m out here,” I pointed to the floor, then flicked my finger to him, “and you’re in that cage,” A sharp laugh escaped as I explained, “Looks like I am better.”

“Focáil Dragons,” he muttered, face darkening. He shook the bars with another fleshy hiss, shouting more obscenities. “Let. Me. Out,” he demanded.

“Why?” I argued, moving back to near his cage. The man dared to look shocked at the question, rapidly blinking as he pieced an answer together. If I left, he might eventually manage to get out, or someone might find him, or he’d become a dead conduit for the necromancer.

It’s wasn’t like I could leave him to die... since he was already dead.

“Well, I’ll speak on your behalf to the council. I will advocate a lighter sentence,” Grahame said it like it was the simplest answer in the world.

“For what?” I argued. If he was speechless before, this seemed to push him over the edge.

“You’re a dragon!” He exclaimed.

“We established that.” I agreed.

“You’ve killed people!” He the retorted.

Calmly, fixing my gaze on him: “So have you.” The silence stretched between us, and he stood mouth agape.

“It’s different.” He returned to arguing. “Mine were accidental,” then as an afterthought, “or required.”

“So you’re saying mine weren’t?”

“I think we can leave that to the jury to decide, back at the council.”

Over my dead body. Or his.

“So, you’re going to be on my side if I stand trial?”

“I will provide suitable evidence.” He straightened, neck tall, looking as confident as a person could in a dishevelled captive state.

With a sigh, under my top, I grew a protective layer of scales, “Come here,” I ordered, a finger beckoning. It was increasingly difficult to keep my face neutral at times like this. “I won’t be able to hold the bars long.” Because I didn’t want to. As I gestured to the main three, he drew closer.

Focusing, I coated them into a glamour, mentally finding a fold of reality to hold them in. As quickly as they flashed out of the world, I released them back into it.

Grahame ripped with a satisfying squelch.

For all the super-speeding he did around the place, you think he’d be a little more careful and take a moment to contemplate that sometimes, slower might be better.

“Oops.” I sang, squatting to see how deeply he had become impaled. The bars began burning through his leg and stomach area where I’d caught him, smoke filling the room surprisingly quickly and rather than his blood pooling out, it evaporated where it trickled down the metal.

The keening groan that came from him was abysmally weak. “Not even a scream?” I pouted, leaning my elbows on my knees. From what I’d observed, Grahame relied on his vampiric abilities to carry him through situations and then used his brains later. Leofstan was the opposite. He’d think, then strike. Grahame had not disappointed my assumptions. He bared his fangs, hissing as he tried to grasp at me.

In return, I bared mine, the points sharpening and my eyes bleeding into reptilian focus. Graham’s hyperventilating sped, as he tried and failed to rip his leg free.

“You look so surprised Grahame. Really, what were you expecting? That we were going to become best buddies? That I’d just let you take me to stand trial for some skewed sense of justice?” He shot a hand out again, but his fingertips grazed the air before my knee.

“As you said, I’m a murderous demon after all.” Repeating the words he’d said to Joanne earlier. With a shrug, I pouted. “But you were right, I can’t have anyone else knowing. You really shouldn’t have snooped around.”

“Stan suspects...” he choked out.

That gave me pause. Did he? Surely not, wouldn’t I have noticed? His lopsided smile flashed across my mind. “Hmm.” I patted my chin. Could I really overpower Leo? “Well, maybe I should invite him for a stay with you down here then, huh?”

He tried again to pull his legs to free them from the impaled bars, stopping to scream through gritted teeth when the burning intensified. For a moment more, I watched him struggle.

“This is your fault, you know. I was going to let you live, I respected the love of human meals we shared and the bloodlust you emanated.”

“Nothing... alike.” He gasped out. “Will, kill you.” The iris in his eyes grew redder and the feeling of a soft pull could be felt. The intention was for me to grow closer, and boy was the coercion strong. Unfortunately for him, my magic was a lot stronger than his and the compulsion bounced off harmlessly.

“No.” I simply told him, as I would a misbehaving puppy.

He panted. “How many... dead?”

I smiled sweetly as I remembered. “A couple a month, minimum.”

“Do you... regret any?”

My reply was wistful. “Why would I ever regret killing anything?”

“That’s why, you must... die.” He gasped out the last word. A feature crossed his face that I just couldn’t place. With one more lunge he tried to rip himself out of his constraints, this time he managed just a bit further, before collapsing into a whimper. Much like when an animal nears the end of its life and stops struggling as it realises the inevitable, so did he.

“Stan will kill you.”

I bit my lip, grinning as I thought about seeing the man at full strength. “He can try.” Then I plunged a clawed hand into his chest, just like I had many times before, hand encasing his heart. Weakly he tried to pull out my arm, but his strength was gone. In a quick, practised movement I pulled it back out, the broken shards of ribs drizzling out down his chest as the organ came away.

As pale as he was, it was hard to know if he was actually dead. He didn’t breathe, so I couldn’t go on that. The heart in my hand gave one last stuttering shudder. A grey sheen imbued his skin and the burning flesh fizzled to an end.

It was all terrifically boring. I was hoping he’d fast-track to his real age like a movie.

Taking a lazy bite from the appendage in my hand, I recoiled, spitting the flesh out. Instead of the usual gushing heart, this one was sour, chewy and rotten.

A rock skittered from the stairway, and I pivoted as I launched to my feet, the brick bouncing to a standstill. A trembling, wide-eyed Joanne stood mid-step, her knuckles ghostly white as she clutched at the bannister.

“I couldn’t open the door.” She whispered.

“Oh, shi-”

Her bloodcurdling scream filled the basement.

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