End of the Line
By ChocolateEclar
Disclaimer: I do not own A Madness of Angels or The Midnight Mayor. Those are the creations of the wonderful Kate Griffin, aka Catherine Webb.
Part 1: The Test
In which a tenuous friendship between a sorcerer and a magician-killer is put to the test and the dead come back to play.
The silence followed us out to the front step, where the bouncer was mysteriously absent.
"Whatever you think I've done, I really haven't," I said when nothing jumped out at us.
"Save me your excuses, sorcerer," Oda said, pulling out her gun. It made a very loud click in the quiet. I couldn't even hear a rat scuttling among the bags of rubbish sitting in the alley beside the club. It was… eerie.
Perhaps that should've been our first clue.
Someone started whistling. It was a little folksy rhythm that made one want to hum along, but mostly it raised the hair on the back of our neck.
The whistling broke off into hums and then whistles again and someone shuffled and tapped their feet like they were in a musical. I finally realized it was coming from down the alley. A figure emerged, clothed in brown rags, with thick matted dark hair and a stench that wasn't unfamiliar for an alley.
His skin was as dark as Oda's, but I wasn't sure if it was natural or grime. He lifted up his head and gave us a gap-toothed grin. I got a good look at the weird squiggles of red on his forehead, hiding half under the wiry black fringe, and realized they were made from dried blood.
I stepped back so suddenly that I smacked into Oda.
He spoke.
"Hello."
It was the kind of creepy-as-shit cheerful tone that made every nerve in my body freak and my stomach twist in on itself. It probably would've made dogs howl, but they were smartly nowhere to be found, just like every other animal.
Oda cocked her gun and fired into the man's forehead. It ripped through his flesh, dead centre, and passed through and into the bricks behind him.
He grinned.
I grimaced. "Who the hell is that?"
Oda frowned at me and studied my face, as if she was gauging my reaction. "That," she said, "is my brother."
"Um," I said and glanced back at the figure in the alley, who was just innocently gazing at us as calm as you please. "I thought you said he was dead." That was when the figure sprang forward, faster than I could blink, and brought a knife down towards my head. We scrambled out of the way and darted after Oda, who paused in the alley and lifted her gun. It went off with a muted bang and passed another bullet through the man's skull. Of course, it had about as much effect as the first time.
"Dead to me, maybe," she muttered and then gave me a sharp, dangerous look as we ran down the passage. "I said no such thing to you."
"You're right," I said, panting. "It was Chaigneau."
"You asked Chaigneau?"
"It was a long time ago."
Oda's face looked pinched and bleak as we dashed onto another street. "You should know better than anyone that dead is not always dead."
"Oh, that kind of dead. Lovely."
"Do you have to – " she hissed and then took a deep breath. "We need to get out of here before he decides – "
"Sister!" came the singsong voice.
"That is really fucking creepy," I said.
She glared at me as we took another corner and into an alley. We stumbled through upended cardboard boxes and a blanket-wrapped old man who snored loudly. "Yes, because reanimated sorcerers are so terribly natural," she said, as we exited onto a street and her brother appeared at the end of it.
"Hey, I am not a zombie," I grumbled.
She ignored this comment and readied her gun. "You're just wasting bullets," I pointed out cheerfully.
"Fine. Then be useful, sorcerer."
We grinned. There was plenty of garbage lying around that we should have been able to assemble a decent litterbug and –
And then the Order came barrelling in and ran Oda's undead brother over with a Hummer.
You can't make something like that up.
They took a vehicle that ridiculous and used it to flatten a zombie witch doctor. Then, they came hurtling over to us, while I gaped stupidly.
Oda opened the passenger door and climbed inside. While we continued to do nothing except stare at Oda's brother slowly pulling himself off the asphalt, the back window of the Hummer lowered just enough so that they could stick the barrel of a dart gun through.
That got my attention. "Oh, come on – " I began before it was lights out. End of the line. Again.
I woke to the pleasant sensation of someone yanking me back by my hair and bit my lip to keep from yelling. "Good morning, sorcerer," a familiar bastard said as he came into my field of vision.
"Is it actually morning, Chaigneau?" I asked tiredly. My head was pounding with the blood pulsing behind my temples like a jackhammer and it didn't help that someone was still holding me by my hair while someone else bound me with rough hands that yanked my arms behind me.
Chaigneau smiled, as calm and cool as he had been once before when we had cursed him with our blood. He would not make the same mistake again. Even the hands at my wrists and in my hair were gloved. No one was taking any chances with us. "I do not think that you need concern yourself with such things, sorcerer," he said. "There is nothing here for you to use. This house has no electricity nor is it near any. No telephone lines in this room for you to escape to either. You have been reduced to the snivelling little man that you are."
We laughed. The sound echoed around the stone and a scrawny boy among the Order members in the room stepped back against the wall. I glanced past Chaigneau's shoulder to see Oda standing at the door with another woman. I met her eyes squarely and did not look away until she did.
"I'm glad you find all of this very amusing, Swift," Chaigneau said, but he was no longer smiling. "You have made an error in toying with us with this walking devil."
I had to laugh at that a little. "Your lot botched up and tried to take on the literal Spirit of the Goddamn Nightlife for no reason other than you didn't feel like harassing me for a few years because I have Aldermen nursemaids watching my every move and now you think I'm the one who resurrected Oda's crazy brother. Brilliant! You must be so pleased with yourselves over this logical deduction."
Chaigneau sighed and crouched down to my level. "Swift, we need to know how to stop this abomination."
"You can stuff – "
"You sent this monster after our Order and we will – "
"Is the brother even going after the Order? Because it sounded to me like it's just trailing around Oda every night and – "
A punch to the solar plexus sent me to my knees like tumbling bricks, as a kick to my back knocked me forward so that my face was pressed into the floor.
"What I'm trying to say," I said as I moved my head so that my cheek was on the stones instead, "is how did Oda manage to piss off Lady Neon more than the rest of you?"
"I do not need to analyze the motivations behind a demon such as Lady Neon," Chaigneau said derisively. "However, I find it more likely that you decided to take vengeance on Oda."
Fists clenched behind my back, I lifted my head and glared at him and his pleased expression of self-righteous bullshit. "Oh yeah. I went to all this trouble to try to off the only member of your group that I can tolerate. Genius."
"Why don't you let me speak to the blue electric angels, Swift?"
"Oh, sod off," I grunted and braced for the kicks and punches that I knew were coming. They did not disappoint.
Sometime later, we realized that we were slumped against one stone wall of that room and chained to it. We clinked and jingled as we sat up.
I took stock. Ribs? Well, who needed them anyway? Although it would've been nice to be able to breathe more easily. Back? Probably bruised with interesting boot-shaped patterns. Stomach? Thoroughly empty. I had vomited up those scones at some point.
When I lifted up my head and looked towards the door across the little room, it didn't really surprise me to see Oda leaning against that wall.
"So, how did you manage to piss off the Neon Court this much?" I grunted.
She rolled her eyes. "I think you should worry more about the Order right now, sorcerer."
"Yeah, I'll get right on that. By the way, do you think Kemsley will have a conniption and a heart attack and die if I make Penny the Midnight Mayor with my dying breath?"
"That doesn't concern me."
"Yes, of course, because you're busy waging an utterly pointless war against the Neon Court."
Oda said nothing. She simply stared at me, arms crossed, with an expectant look that made my skin prickle.
"Oda," I said very softly and set my hands on the floor with my palms flat against the cold stone. "Oda, listen. Lady Neon is not someone you muck about with. I swear – I swear it. Go with the Order and wage this war and that's it. End of the line."
I was surprised by how angry she got. "Is that your mantra?" she hissed. "You're a coward. Why would I listen to you?" she asked and left my cell with the bang of a steel door in a steel frame.
However, I was not really surprised that she had left. I found it more interesting that she had called me a coward but not a spawn of Satan.
We slept. It was something to do at least.
Sometimes, Chaigneau interrupted to bully us some more. Oda was noticeably absent for what felt like days but probably weren't.
The scrawny boy was in the room one day with two fingers missing on his left hand. His freckles stood out vividly against the pale skin of his knuckles and along his cheekbones. I wondered what nightclub he had raided with the Order.
When Oda did show up to one of Chaigneau's sessions, we turned on her.
"The Neon Court is going to delight in spilling your guts out on their dance floor!" we snarled. "Your bloody almighty Order cannot save you from something like this, Oda! What have you done?"
It was the first time we had spoken since we had entered that room and of course Chaigneau was delighted, Oda was unmoved, and everyone else looked frightened or angry.
"We have done what is necessary, sorcerer," said Chaigneau and left with a smile. Two men kicked us until we screamed, but we were hungry and cold and weak and our blood did not burn, even when we spit it at one of their boots.
A few hours later, we were huddled in a corner and shivering. There was a rat somewhere in the building that we had briefly communicated with. With its eyes, we had studied the whole place, top to bottom, and discovered that it was small, totally electricity-free and housed only two others during the night. Both had guns and were never the same two nights in a row. The Order's House of Self-Righteous Bullshit must have been somewhere a few miles away so that they could use their electricity without worrying about us. We felt almost flattered that they found us this dangerous.
The boy brought us a plate of standard prisoners' fare – a tiny loaf of questionable bread and a glass of water – and left without looking us in the eye. No fruit. Maybe we would die of scurvy. That would be almost funny.
We savoured the glorious food and decided to use the rat's eyes for a while. It pattered across the concrete floor above us and discovered a little nibble of bread. It bit into the morsel and looked around at the high, darkened windows and twitched its nose. Best to be alert.
The rat sprang away when a door opened and footsteps reverberated through the room. We got dizzy with the lightning views of a tiny sliver in the wall and dozens of tunnels within.
We disconnected from the rat's eyes and waited for the familiar boots to reach us.
Oda entered. I squirmed as she stood by the shut door for a long time not saying anything. "During my inauguration," I finally began and waited for her to look at me. "During my inauguration, I saw dead people," I said very seriously.
She looked bored, although I had a feeling that she was intrigued somewhere in that façade. "Dana," she said. It wasn't a question.
"Yes, and Bakker and Vera." I didn't mention Kemsley because, really, who cares about him?
"Interesting."
"And myself."
"And a dragon? Are you sure the Aldermen didn't drug you?"
"It was… trippy," I admitted. "But that's beside the point. I'm telling the truth."
"Fine. And how was that possible if you were just talking to dead people?"
"Me, the Matthew Swift that died at the hands of Bakker's shadow, said it was like Star Trek."
"Star Trek," she said carefully.
"Yes. Have you denounced that too?"
"Only the new movie."
"Are you kidding me?"
"I never am."
"Right," I said and almost laughed. She caught my near-slip and frowned. "Teleporting turned me into little ones and zeroes for two years and then I was reassembled. I'm like a copy of the dead me."
"A clone. How science fiction of you."
"You," I said and paused to clear my throat or I would have smiled. "You ruin all of my snappy pop culture references."
She shrugged.
"Why are you here?" I asked finally.
"I figured you would get into trouble if I didn't indulge your 'snappy pop culture references' now and then," she said.
"Thanks. I think."
We stayed there and pointedly did not look at each other for a while.
"Oda," I said and stared up at the ceiling. It was made of smooth, moist blocks of stone that looked faintly mouldy. "What's the story of you and your brother?"
"You really think I'm going to tell you that?"
"Not really," I muttered. "Just felt like filling the silence. I suppose I shouldn't throw stones. Glass houses and all that."
"Right. Have you seen your grandmother since you were resurrected?" She said the last word distastefully, but I hardly noticed.
My head snapped down and I glowered at her. "The Order had better not – "
"The Order saw only a doddering old woman when we investigated you."
"I hadn't checked on her. I wasn't sure…" I cleared my throat. "Good to know," I said in the end.
The next time she came, about three days later I figured by my food intake, I finally put the pieces together and we got into an argument over the Neon Court.
"Is it worth it?" I asked. Oda raised one burnt eyebrow and waited for me to explain. "That kid who brings me my meals is going to lose something a hell of a lot more important than some fingers if you don't stop this with the Neon Court. How about you tell me what you did?"
"I didn't start this."
"Maybe not, but you certainly forced Lady Neon to take you seriously."
"Her Court should fear us."
"I'm fairly certain that she's just toying with you actually."
That got her attention. She clenched her fists and walked a little closer to me. There was still half of the room between us, but now I could just reach her. A tactical error from the psycho-bitch?
"What," she asked and paused angrily, "makes you think that she isn't just scared of me?"
"Did you decide to use the system to close some of her seedier clubs?"
"I made a suggestion," she admitted with her arms crossed.
"A suggestion," I repeated and shook my head. "You could have gone in there, guns blazing, and you took the bureaucratic route? Lady Neon probably knows everything about the Order. Doing this has actually thrown her a little and now she wants to play with you. Possibly even wanted to see what would happen when she threw me into the mix."
"We have now, as you put it, gone in with 'guns blazing.'"
"Sure, but she couldn't care less about that."
"Fine." She glared at me for a moment and then her features smoothed over into a kind of tranquillity. "Why haven't you escaped yet?"
We smiled. "Haven't felt like it."
"Meaning, you can't?"
"Oda, you know I never tell you my limits."
She noticed how close my legs were and stepped back out of range. "I think," she said and there was a note of warning in her voice, "that you haven't left because you think I need your help in getting rid of Lady Neon's curse."
"I think you should consider it."
"I have been destroying magic for a very long time, sorcerer."
"I'm sure. You're what? Thirty? I'm shaking in my trainers. Oda, the fact that he is still following you around, threatening to cut your throat and lick your blood, means that you could probably use someone like me around."
"What about them?"
"We will help," we said.
"I think I've had enough of using a lesser abomination to stop a greater one."
I snorted. "Oh, come on. That's bullshit and you know it," I said.
"The Order will take care of my brother."
"The Order doesn't give a damn about that. If they did, they would help! They're just using it as a convenient excuse to bring out the big guns against the Neon Court and me in one fell swoop!"
She came in closer and jammed the barrel of her gun between my eyes. "The Neon Court preys on children."
I tried not to stare cross-eyed at the gun. "The Order throws children into the fray against them," I said. "Totally not the same thing or anything. This will kill you and a bunch of stupid brainless kids. Go back to quiet bureaucracy. Encourage police raids. Hell, why don't you ask the Midnight Mayor for some resources from the Aldermen?"
"The Aldermen are not going to destroy the Neon Court."
"No, you're right," I admitted. "I mean, the Neon Court is basically a symbol of the belief in Night-time Revelry, a Good Time, et cetera, and you can't really destroy an entire concept like that. But they will try to regulate it a bit in London, just to keep kiddies safe and what-have-you. Especially if I got particularly cranky. Try to think on a smaller scale maybe?"
"I would die for my faith," she said carefully.
"Your faith and self-preservation are not two different things," I said. "Oda, let me help you. I can stop the curse if you just trust me."
"Trust, yes. You were entirely truthful with me about Penny Ngwenya."
"Hey, the fact that you even thought about trusting what you deemed a 'spawn of Satan' should mean something. Please. Just please listen to me. To me." My voice broke embarrassingly. Words shattered and splintered to hang between us unsaid and, for the first time in ages, she really looked at me.
And she left. I sighed and slumped forward.
About five hours later, she appeared again. I didn't bother to look up even when she was kneeling down beside me. Everything felt faded and bleak and then the rings around my wrists snapped open and I could move my arms again.
"Oda?"
"Quiet," she hissed. She met my eyes as she worked on the rope around my ankles.
"What're you – "
She finished on my legs and shoved me back into the wall with a hand on my chest. "Shut up," she said. "Matthew, if you so much as breathe wrong, I will chain you up again and you can rot here, damn you, for all I care. Do you understand me?"
I nodded, although I really didn't.
However, I did notice that she was bleeding steadily out of a cut on her forehead. There was a bruise there too.
"Oda," I said and almost regretted it when she gave me a glare that seriously made me fear for my life, "did someone pistol whip you in the forehead?"
"There was a disagreement."
"A disagreement? Like polite political conversation over tea?" I stood up and wobbled a little. My wrists stun, my legs were asleep, and I all around felt very much like I'd been dead again.
"Matthew."
"Got it. I'll shut up for the moment."
I was almost positive that she muttered, "Small mercies," under her breath.
I used the rat to figure out if there was anyone else around the building. Oda noticed. I guess suddenly having beady black eyes is kind of noticeable. She jammed her elbow in my sternum.
"Oomph," I said eloquently, as my eyes returned to blue. "Was that necessary?"
"It's hard enough getting used to your glow-in-the-dark eyes without that," she said matter-of-factly.
"I apologize. Next time I get resurrected, I'll tone down on the radioactivity."
As we crept down a long stone hallway, I heard her sigh.
Outside the building was a field. An honest-to-God, middle-of-nowhere sort of field with long grass waving gently in the wind, bleeding songbirds singing somewhere in the trees, and glaring sunlight. I hadn't seen sunlight in a while and, even though it was clearly only an hour or so past dawn, I winced.
There was also a Hummer sitting in the grass with Chaigneau standing against it and aiming a gun in our general direction. I think he was aiming at me, but Oda was close, so close that I could smell her hair. It smelled of smoke and the city and the thick, dusty scent of a nightclub. Other gunmen crouched in the grass around us, as obvious in their dark clothes as it was possible to be.
"Oda," said that smug bastard. "The Order will pray for your soul."
Oda jerked back as if she had been struck and then smiled. It looked almost peaceful. And then she shrugged and lifted her gun.
Chaigneau took that moment to open his mouth to say something else insipid. I took the opportunity to release a little spark through the wiring of the car and set his gas tank alight.
It let out a satisfying boom and threw Chaigneau to the grass. Oda grabbed my wrist and took off through the trees.
Some followed. Most stayed with the car and their leader. Oda took care of the followers with well-placed bullets.
I used the little space left over in my brain during the marathon run to wonder why Oda had turned traitor.
I couldn't come up with a reasonable answer to counter her usual fanaticism and thought it probably wasn't the best time to ask.
It never hurts though.
"Why are you doing this?" I yelled as I nearly tripped over a fallen tree branch covered in honest to God multicoloured mushrooms.
"I am holding a gun, Matthew," she yelled back and pulled me to the left.
I wisely shut up.
A/N: Please read and review.