Hey everyone! I'm updating again and only about 4 days after last time. Hope you like it! ~Fury
I stayed in my room until everyone got back a few hours later. Rasputin stayed with me. I figured out how to fix my hand and realised that I'd somehow managed to keep the cardigan arm that the future me had lost. I went for a shower and pulled Pritkin's big jumper over the t-shirt I wore. When they did come back everyone else was awake and had been told what happened.
Mircea, Cassie, Louis-Cesare and Pritkin were half way up the stairs when Rasputin and I joined them. Cassie saw Thomas' mutilated body and sank by his side instantly crying. Mircea knelt by her and held her but talked to Rasputin.
"You did your best?" he asked.
"I was keeping Cassie safe whilst John fought the incubus. There was nothing I could do. I'm sorry."
"Ava survived her attack, that's all that matters." Pritkin said bluntly and stalked off somewhere else.
"He's pretty pissed he wasn't here to start off with." Cassie said. "Go and talk to him." she gently pushed me after him. I hesitated a moment but when she turned back to Thomas I followed Pritkin.
He didn't lose stride even though he had to know I was following him. He headed towards the kitchen and I was reminded of what Cassie said earlier – don't stop of at the kitchen, you don't use what you get from there anyway – or whatever it was. Maybe he was going there to see what we would have picked up if we did stop there.
When he was inside he turned the kettle on and got some cold pasta-bake out the fridge and began eating it cold.
"Is Cassie telling the truth?" I asked.
"It made my job more difficult. That's all." He said without looking up which hurt a lot more than it should have.
"What about what you said afterwards?" I was dreading his answer but I needed to hear it at the same time.
"I only did that because I wished someone had been there for me when I'd first killed."
"So it meant –"
He lifted his eyes to meet mine. "Nothing." He said unflinchingly. The green in his eyes went darker and a haunted look crossed them. "It meant absolutely nothing."
Something stabbed my heart and twisted it. Tears pricked my eyes and a couple rolled free before I could stop them. Pritkin looked away and found extra interest in his food. I just stood there for a moment staring at him. We hadn't seen much of each other over the past few days thanks to his lies but before that we'd – or rather I'd – been falling head over heels in love. Every time he talked to me I got all excited, whenever he came near me I forgot to breathe and when he touched me I all but fainted which was kind of a pain in the ass in training but it felt too good to ignore and I couldn't make it go away.
Now though it was apparent that even after we'd almost died together he couldn't forgive me for being related to the person who'd almost killed his friend a few hundred years ago. It didn't stop me loving him but I gave up on him and left with disappointment welling in my heart.
When she left Pritkin sighed and sat at the table. He carried on eating for a moment but then stopped feeling like a traitor for what he'd just done. He couldn't forget the promise he'd made though. I'll kill every Morgana until the end of time. It was bad enough that he'd let her live this long. Even more so that he'd saved her life. Yet he couldn't bring himself to kill her. She was just a fragile young woman and if Cassie had to go back in time to save her and keep her from being killed by the Consul then she had to be important for something.
He was just trying to delay what he had to do. He was making excuses to keep her alive. Why? Because when he felt like a traitor he was being a traitor to his own heart and denying his feelings. When he said that his words and actions had meant nothing he felt the lie burning in his chest and catching in his throat even as he said it. More over he was disgusted with himself. It wasn't so much that he'd lied but more of what he'd lied about and who he'd lied to.
He quickly banished those thoughts from his mind and quickly finished eating before going to see Cassie.
"We need to go back." she said before he left the kitchen. She'd shifted in there scaring the hell out of him.
"Why? Has someone decided they need an audience with you?"
"No I left my necklace at MAGIC and Billy-Joe can't just come over here – he can only travel about thirty miles without it. We need his information."
Pritkin held out his hand to her and she shifted them back to her rooms at MAGIC. The necklace was right where she left but the ghost that inhabited it was sat on the sofa fuming.
"Go and spy the Consul!" Billy-Joe fumed. "Whose brilliant idea was that? They have a necromancer under their control and I had to tell them everything about Ava that's how they got to the mansion. Go and spy on the Consul indeed! I told you the mage was an idiot! That's the last time I follow any of his orders."
"Get in the necklace Billy." Cassie said.
Knowing that tone Billy did as he was told and let her shift. He let a few minutes pass before emerging from the jewellery and when he did he began ranting right in Pritkin's ear at the top of his voice taking delight in the fact that he couldn't hear him. They went straight to Mircea's lounge which was, unfortunately, where Ava was talking to Rasputin and Ralph. Ralph was the first person to notice their arrival thanks to Billy's hollering.
"What the hell is that man shouting about?" he asked over the racket.
"He told the Consul Ava's here." Cassie said.
All movement in the room stopped and everyone stared at Billy by following Ralph's gaze. Ava was the first to move.
"What the hell did you do that for?" she demanded rising from her chair and walking towards the space by Pritkin's left ear. "I was almost killed you know!"
"It wasn't quite like that." Cassie said. "There's a necromancer there."
"I did however learn some pretty nifty stuff if anyone's listening." Billy-Joe interjected trying to get back on everyone's good side. Before he probably wouldn't have bothered and would have happily sat on the information but with the necromancer there he couldn't risk it. He could order him to do something that could result in the loss of his life… or whatever he was living now. He wasn't dead exactly but he wasn't rotting in his grave either and he preferred to keep it that way.
"Oh and he decided he'd co-operate did he? Cassie if you can't control that ghost then maybe you should let me break that necklace." Ava threatened, thunder in her voice. Dark anger clouded her eyes and governed her actions which scared most people in the room. They all knew she was half incubus and knew her power. She was dangerous and they didn't want to make her volatile temper explode. Not that any of the vampyres let even a hint of it show in their faces.
Pritkin watched amused for a moment. He had his Ava back. The last few times he'd seen her she'd been a shell of her self, scared and in shock. Now though she was being the hot tempered fighter he knew she could be. Most of the anger was fuelled by fear – who wouldn't be scared when the Consul was constantly trying to kill you? – but least this time her fear was being turned into something useful and stronger. Then he realised what she was doing.
He stood from leaning against the wall and unfolded his arms and walked towards her. "Ava, calm down." He commanded.
"Calm down? I have the Consul out to kill me and the best you can say is calm down?" he could see that she was finally letting panic set in which meant she was closer to accepting the news that the Consul knew where she was. He hated seeing her like that but he knew it was good for her.
As he walked towards her she looked at him with a strange mix of anger and hope. She needed him to love her but she didn't want him at the same time. She wanted to shout at him and throw spells at him until he begged for forgiveness but most of all she wanted him to hold her and tell her everything was going to be alright.
"Tell me John, how am I supposed to calm down?" she turned away from him and looked anywhere part from where there were people, all of who decided they should be somewhere else and left the room at the same time, even Billy Joe. She didn't stop looking at the door for the next silent minute.
Pritkin walked up behind her and wondered why he was still in the room and wanting to help her. He put his hands on her arms and softly spoke to her. "Breathe." He said his lips right by her ear. Shivers fell down her spine and her knees went week. Pritkin felt this change in her and had to school himself from being pleased by it. "Breathe and relax. No one is going to let anything happen to you."
"But she's the Consul. She's powerful and –"
"But we have her brother!" Pritkin bellowed. "Stop worrying you're safe don't you trust us?"
"After you're 'I have to kill every Morgana' speech I'm not so sure." she snapped. "Seriously, Pritkin, if you're going to kill me do it now. No one will have to worry about me and I won't have to live in fear that I might get killed in the next five seconds. Do you know how that feels? It'll be a –"
"I know how that feels." He said quietly. "I've been living with it since a few weeks before you came here. Cassie had a vision and saw me dying. I know how you feel. If you let your fear consume you she'll have killed you anyway."
"Oh, so I just have to worry about some revenge seeking incubus killing me now." she said almost laughing with hysteria.
"You have nothing to worry about, Ava." He insisted but didn't meet her eye.
"Well tell me, John, have you resolved yourself on whether you're going to kill me or not?"
"Bloody hell, Ballet Shoes what am I supposed to say?" as soon as he said it he knew he'd slipped. Ballet Shoes. He remembered that training day with ease. He'd called her Ballet Shoes which he knew would annoy her and help her hit harder and faster. It resulted in her breaking his wrist clean in half. He'd been careful to get to close to her whilst teasing her for a few hours after that. Ballet Shoes had been a name frequently on his lips until a few days ago. That and occasionally Twinkle Toes.
"That you forgive me for being a Morgana!"
"I never said I blamed you." He said and walked out.
How the hell did we get onto that subject? I thought when the door closed. It was official: my life was a mess and I was a mess of emotions. Now that I knew how I felt I was able to slowly get a grip on myself and control all the swirling emotions inside me. I took a few breaths and then followed Pritkin out the door well aware that he might suddenly buck up the courage to kill me. That is if I didn't kill him myself to vent out my anger.
I followed him into a room where Mircea, Cassie, Rafe, Louis-César, Jack, Rasputin and Ralph were sat probably with Billy Joe. I pointedly ignored the mage and sat on the floor by Rasputin's feet. Mircea spared me a glance and a smile. Rasputin let a reassuring hand linger in my hair. I felt about four but for now it was a good feeling and I didn't bat the hand away. Instead I rested my head against his knee and listened to the conversation as if it were a bedside story, as I was sure this mess would one day be.
"Billy Joe was just telling us how a necromancer ordered him to tell the truth." Louis-Cesare said. "I think he might be saying desolé."
"He couldn't help it." I replied smiling to the spot Ralph was listening intently to. "Just don't do it again."
"Yes, yes all very well." Jack said. "But what of the Consul's plan? Did the ghost find out about that?"
There was a pause but then Cassie began talking, probably telling us what he said a few words after he said it much like a translator would. "He did, some of it any way. All of the senate apart from the people here are part of her plan. The battle is sabotaged against the silver circle. Jonas doesn't know about it but many of his mages have been blackmailed with money… and that's all he found out because that's when the necromancer came in." she finished quietly not at the lack of information but at what it was.
I hadn't been told the specific plans for the battle and didn't fully know how this affected anything but I knew it was bad and suddenly the bed-time story turned into a horror movie.
So there it is, let me know what you thought!
Alas it is Karen Chance who owns the Cassandra Palmer series adn not me.