Jinn watched as the furious girl stormed off, her slim figure dwarfed and made vulnerable by the size of the trees and the vast night around her. His anger burned deep as he leant back against the oak tree and let the memories Eutopia had stirred flood back into his mind, the images playing out in colour as he closed his eyes.
He had landed silently behind Ash that night, seeming to drop out of thin air though he had been following Eutopia since she had stepped off the tube at Covent Garden. Eutopia must have taken a wrong turn at some point, ducking out of Jinn's view in one fatal instant which was how events had progressed so far already because, God's truth, that guy would never have had the time to lay even a finger on her if Jinn had been there from the beginning. Jinn's temper was already blazing, though at first it was aimed at his own stupidity for losing the girl so easily. Now, it was aimed at the scum in front of him. In one fluid movement he reached out and palmed the top of Ash's head with his large hand and kicked out at the back of the knee that Ash had most of his weight on as he stood there, a fistful of Eutopia's hair in one hand as his other hand tugged at the exposed bra of the unconscious girl. Ash buckled and Jinn pulled his head back hard by the short, blond hair, shifting Ash's centre of gravity so that he would fall on his arse. Jinn's face was stoic, emotionless, his indigo eyes seemed to glow in the dim light, but when he caught a glimpse of Eutopia's state they turned hard. The corner of his lip turned up in a snarl as he slapped the man's hands away from the girl, gripped him under his arms and shot straight up into the air.
Now it was Ash's turn to be afraid. He screamed in fear as the ground suddenly shrank in his view. The roar of air as it rushed around him all but muted his cries. First he saw the alley from two or three stories up, then a moment later he was looking down at the city as a whole, twinkling lights flickering serenely below like so many scattered stars. The sight might have been beautiful given some other situation. The view went unappreciated by either of them, though. Jinn had seen it all before and Ash was too petrified to give it much attention. The feeling of rapid ascension didn't seem to cease until at last Jinn turned the man to face him. Jinn's eyes were still hard, anger seethed from his very essence and the look of utter disdain he gave him made Ash shudder with terror. There was something so familiar in the other man's eyes as Jinn looked deep into them. Nephilim! Jinn had heard of these ghastly creatures, so like human men in their physicality yet so un-human in their emotions...
Ash was a predator but he was a cowardly one and he knew that now as he stared into the eyes of this thing that loomed over him. He was looking into the eyes of a true apex predator and suddenly the fact that they hung weightless in the air was lost on him. So too was the fact that this predator had wings, large ones which extended out fully as gravity tightened its grip on them and began to pull them back toward the earth.
Ash had just enough time to piss himself before Jinn pulled his feathered wings in close and spun in a complete circle, flipping in the air to dive head first back down to the alleyway they had shot out from only moments before. The slick pavement raced up to meet them both but Jinn pulled up with enough time to set his booted feet on the ground with barely a jolt, far away from where Eutopia lay unconscious. The glint of something steely caught Ash's terrified eyes, reflecting the soft glow of Davey's headlights in the distance. A wry smile touched Jinn's lips as he gripped the man before him with his other hand. He hoped that Ash would try to make peace with God as the knife registered in his horrified mind and Jinn hoped he would be utterly denied.
'Tell him I've redeemed myself now,' he muttered to Ash.
Not wasting another moment on the scum, Jinn dragged the blade across Ash's throat and let him drop to the ground to bleed to death as he raced back down the alley in time to find the other man, Jason, skulking around the corner looking around for his friend. He called out curiously for Ash as he approached the unconscious Eutopia and the other guy, Davey, wandered down the alley from the opposite end gawking up at the night sky.
"Davey, what the fuck happened to Ash? Davey what are you looking at?" Jason asked as he knelt over the girl. Davey didn't have time to respond, Jinn was on him in a blur of motion, rolling Davey down the alley back toward his car without even a thought as to why the Nephilim were skulking about in such a large group. Two might possibly team up occasionally, but it was almost unheard of for three to join together, they were usually single predators. There was a sickening sound of impact, the breaking of bone and cartilage. Jason could only stare at the profile of a large man, a winged shape of black against the headlights of the car down the alley, his mouth wide open as he connected the nauseating noise with the crumpled, unmoving figure of Davey on the floor.
"Oh shit!" Jason exclaimed, stumbling to his feet to run as fast as he could. The shock and horror of what he had just seen, plus the fact that he carried more than a few quids worth of crack in his jeans pocket, kept him silent as he fled. Jinn, too concerned with Eutopia still lying motionless on the dirty ground, let him go. For now. He noticed the girl's bag lying in a puddle and slung it with ease over his shoulder before racing back to Eutopia's side, touching her cheek gently. She was definitely out for the count. He could see a bruise beginning to form on one side of her face, blood drying over her delicate chin, darker at the corner of her mouth where her lip had split. Jinn frowned blackly and scooped her up carefully into his arms. There was a muffled ruffle of feathers as he spread his wings for a second time that night and took off, up out of the dingy alleyway, unbothered by the rain that began to fall more heavily on the horrific scene below.
Jinn shook his head in an attempt to clear the images from his mind, a frown still creasing his usually smooth brow. Anger pulsed in his veins as a trace emotion, residual energy from the memory and all the unanswered questions he had little time to address, though Eutopia's fury had irritated him. Jinn realised that he could no longer hear her crashing through the trees and he worried that she might get lost or hurt herself so with a heavy sigh he set off after her, his steps light and almost soundless as he wove his way gracefully through the path Eutopia had carved clumsily through the undergrowth. It didn't take Jinn long to catch up with her as she had stopped to untangle a creeping bramble frond from her flip-flop, cursing under her breath.
'Eutopia,' he called, 'wait.' Jinn caught the dark flash of her eyes as she turned pointedly away and marched on with no idea as to where she was going. The milky trickle of moonlight grew weaker and weaker as the trees began to thicken around her, the web of leaves above blocking out more of the light as she wandered deeper into the woodland. 'I thought you wanted to hear the truth?' Jinn called to her, not wanting to follow too closely in case she viewed him as a threat now, he didn't want her to bolt.
'I don't want to hear anything from you, you've said enough,' she called back without slowing down, forcing her way between the gaps of the trees now.
'I don't like to have unfinished business,' Jinn said, simply. That pulled Eutopia up short as she spun around to gaze at him in disgust.
'Business? Is that what you call the act of taking someone's life? Murder is business? Who do you think you are, God?' she scoffed.
'Not exactly,' Jinn stopped a few feet away from her, seemingly unruffled by her questions, but his eyes still blazed blackly. 'But some things just need taking care of.'
'I cannot believe you just said that. What are you, some kind of renegade angel?' Eutopia asked sarcastically.
'Sort of.' His voice matched his deadpan expression, his eyes gleaming and hard.
'You are seriously weird. Just stay away from me.' Eutopia turned her back on him to shoulder her way through the trees again, glancing nervously at him before she had to watch where she was putting her feet. The sole of her left foot still hurt from where the bramble branch had stuck its thorns in. Unexpectedly, the strangest feeling of weightlessness took over her; the pit of her stomach seemed to drop away as she felt herself flying through the air for the shortest moment, before her feet came to touch the ground again and she found herself pressed face first against the trunk of a willow tree. Bright moonlight streamed down again from between the delicately dripping branches, a welcome relief from the gloom of the woodland. Jinn gripped Eutopia's shoulder with a firm but gentle pressure, turning her around to face him and the wide clearing they now stood in. Eutopia could see the flat surface of a little lake reflecting the full moon behind Jinn, dropping straight down from the lush grass around it with little by way of a bank or shore. She met his intense gaze with eyes wide with sudden fear.
'Don't touch me,' she said, trying to keep the trembling from her voice. Jinn immediately let his hand drop from her shoulder but he didn't move back to widen the six inch gap between them. Eutopia could feel the body heat emanating from him. He took a deep, steadying breath and tried to make his tone reasonable.
'Look, it's dark and it's late. Just come back to the house until morning. I'll drop you at the train station first thing.'
'Stay away from me!' Eutopia growled, shoving him as hard as she could to gain some space. She would never have succeeded in moving him an inch, no matter how hard she pushed, but Jinn got the message and took a few steps back.
'You asked me to be honest. I'm sorry if you don't like the truth,' Jinn said quietly. 'I couldn't stand by while those… while you were being attacked like that. Those men were dangerous and one of them is still walking around out there.' His tone sharpened again at the thought, a flicker of moonlight dancing dangerously in his eyes. 'I can't rest knowing that.'
'Then do what's right. There isn't much difference between rape and murder, it's essentially doing the same thing; destroying a life and the lives of people who care about that person,' Eutopia spat, causing an angry snarl to rumble in Jinn's throat.
'It's nothing alike!' he barked, 'He was big enough to get involved in the first place; he should be man enough to take what's coming. And it is coming.'
'What gives you the right to deal out punishment like that? You're sick!'
Jinn laughed and the sound was harsh and hollow in the still of the night, his eyes flashed and his teeth clenched as though he was trying to keep his anger in check. 'I'm sick?' he asked, incredulously, as his hand reached across the space between them to touch the dark bruise on Eutopia's cheek. 'They did this to you, only because I stopped it from going any further, and yet I'm the one that's sick? I think you're the one with the problem if you see it that way.'
'Take your hand off me,' Eutopia growled fiercely, her breath quickening and her heart racing as the ghostly memory of being pressed up against a wall flitted through her mind's eye, the overwhelming sense of being trapped set her ears buzzing hollowly. The tree behind her was knobbly against her spine, reminding her she could not back away, and the bowed branches of the willow hung down around them to blinker her view of the clearing and tunnel her vision like the thick bars of a cage. Yet Jinn did not move his hand away quick enough, his fingers still rested lightly on her cheek and his steely eyes were fixed unwavering on hers as panic at the recollection gripped Eutopia's throat and made it hard for her to breathe. Feeling like a cornered cat she lashed out in the only way she could think of. Her head twisted rapidly and her teeth caught in the flesh of Jinn's hand and she bit down as hard as she could, sickened at the thought that this biting seemed to be becoming a habit of hers. It had the desired reaction. As Eutopia had hoped, Jinn let out a cry of pain and immediately pulled his hand away yanking it forcefully from between Eutopia's teeth which snapped sharply together with the absence of skin to sink into.
A gasp of uncertainty escaped her as she looked up to meet Jinn's eyes which were narrowed and his strong jaw was set as he closed the gap between them without warning and lifted Eutopia clean off her feet, cradling her to his chest like a child and crossing the clearing with a few long strides. It happened too quickly for Eutopia to register anything other than surprise as her feet left the ground and she breathed in the clean, warm scent of Jinn as he held her close before she felt the world spinning around her and the cold, black water of the lake enveloped her entirely.
The water was far more bitter than she had expected it to be, sharp and icy against any skin that was bare and dark, so dark despite the clear moonlight above. Silvery bubbles of her escaped breath tickled her face and distorted her vision, disorientating her as she searched for the right way up whilst at the same time trying to force down the beast of terror that clawed at her. Eutopia had never learnt to swim and the feeling of water in her mouth, her ears, eyes and rushing up her nose as her lungs burned with the need to take a breath was terrifying. Her arms and legs were leaden already with the water that had soaked into her clothes which gave a nightmarishly slowness to her frantic movements as she tried to thrash her way upwards. She could hear nothing but the eerie absence of noise that comes with being submerged in water, and her own frenzied heartbeat that throbbed painfully in her head.
It could only have been seconds before she felt a thick arm curl around her chest beneath her sluggishly flailing arms and the sudden warmth of another body pressed close behind her, though to Eutopia and her scorching lungs those precious few seconds felt like too many minutes. Her head broke the surface of the lake and she gulped in the cool night air in sweet relief, spluttering and coughing loud enough to shatter the silence around them as their bodies sent crazy ripples across the still water's surface. Jinn said nothing as he towed her back to the lake-edge and heaved her onto the grass where she lay for a moment on her side, evacuating her tortured lungs of the black water she had breathed in. When she could sit up she flipped the long dripping hair from her face and glared up at him as he stood beside her, looking much less like the half-drowned rat she resembled and more like one of Neptune's god-like offspring.
'You complete arsehole!' Eutopia exploded, a little hoarsely. Jinn stood precariously near the edge, his back to the still undulating water, with his arms folded across his chest and his expression stony. She had to fight the urge to push him in.
'I wasn't aware you couldn't swim,' Jinn said. The light from the moon shone clearly into the little glade, uninhibited by the ring of surrounding trees, silvering his handsome face, his features made intense by the frown he still wore. Eutopia's cold fingers were clasped suddenly by his warm ones as he helped her to stand.
'Well, that was unnecessary,' she managed through chattering teeth , dripping murky pond water as the cool night air snapped at her wet skin and sank into her soaked clothes, her dark blue eyes hard and unforgiving.
'I'm sorry,' Jinn muttered softly as he reached down to grab his hooded jumper he'd stripped off before diving in after the girl. He held it out to Eutopia, a truce flag that hung between them for a moment as she considered it. Shivering, her eyes softened and she took it, turning her back on him to peel off her own sodden jumper and the thin cotton t-shirt beneath, already too cold to feel embarrassed. Jinn averted his gaze back to the now smooth surface of the lake, watching as the subtle white light played on the calm water whilst Eutopia swapped her wet clothes for his dry ones. The cool air didn't seem to bother him at all despite his own dripping shirt and jeans.
'So you should be sorry,' Eutopia said, huffily, jamming her hands deep into the kangaroo pocket of his jumper to warm her fingers up. A sigh escaped her lips, soft and almost hesitant. She walked back to the willow tree that was closest to the edge of the water and sat down, drawing her soggy knees up to her chest and resting her chin on them as her eyes followed Jinn's movements warily.
'You shouldn't have bitten me,' he said, coming to sit beside her. 'You might want to take your jeans off too, you'll get a cold.' Eutopia, annoyed that he was right, shuffled out of her jeans whilst remaining as tightly curled into herself as possible. She pulled his jumper down over her knees to swamp herself in its warmth whilst splaying her wet jeans out on the ground with the other hand to dry.
'Why can't you just leave me alone?' she asked without looking at him, 'my life has been nothing but complicated since you strolled into it.'
'Actually, I think you'll find it was complicated long before then,' Jinn said, gently taking her left wrist in one hand and unwrapping her arm from around her knees. He pushed the sleeve of the jumper up to reveal the faint, hair-thin scars that laced the inside of her forearm from the crease of her elbow to her wrist. Eutopia froze at his touch, but did not resist as she too looked down at the scatter of sharp lines, each one a reminder for her etched forever into her creamy skin. 'What are these?' Jinn asked, softly, the anger fled from his azure eyes now as they followed the pattern on Eutopia's arm.
'Scars.'
'I can see that. But why?'
'Don't you ever wish you could be someone else? Anyone other than you, in any other place but here?' she asked, repeating the sleepy question she had asked him at the house the night before, tracing one of the thickest scars near her wrist with a finger. Jinn shook his head slightly, a tiny, barely there motion.
'No.' His answer made Eutopia smile, though the humour never reached her eyes which were still fixed on her arm. Not that it was mutilated, the scars could hardly be seen in the daylight, but here between the shadows and thrown into stark relief by the moon they were visible with her sleeve pushed up. Jinn had seen them before, when he had laid her on the sofa in his flat after rescuing her from the alleyway, as he had been checking her over for any other injuries. They had caused his brows to knit then as they did now and stirred his curiosity whilst weighing heavily on his mind. He had to know. Other things had crept up since that evening and it hadn't seemed appropriate then, but now, in the near silence of the secluded clearing beneath the gentle light of the stars that afforded them some sense of intimacy, however forced, it seemed right.
'Each one of these,' she said, stroking the criss-cross of lines, 'each one is a wish.'
'They're some pretty desperate wishes.' Jinn murmured as his finger snaked smoothly across the scars along her arm, her wrist held lightly by his other hand.
'I'm not ashamed. It's part of who I am. I wasn't trying to kill myself or anything, I'm not that crazy.' Eutopia gave Jinn a wry smile.
'I don't think you're crazy. You wanted help.' It was a statement rather than a question. Eutopia nodded as she pulled the sleeve back down, pulling both her arms inside the jumper and hugging her knees beneath.
'I used to cut myself a lot.'
'With what?' he asked.
'Knives, razor blades. A piece of glass once, anything really.'
'Did it help?' Jinn probed, curiously, the frown still fixed to his forehead.
'It was a release sometimes, a rush. Other times I just wished someone would walk in on me and stop me or ask me why. I was ten when I started. What normal ten year old child cuts themself?' Eutopia demanded with bitter softness, leaning her head back against the willow tree to look up at the stars. Her hair, still pulled back in its ponytail, trickled cold droplets of water down the back of her neck and caused her to shiver.
'Why?' Jinn's voice was thick with emotion 'Why did you do it?' The words were low in the darkness, but Eutopia heard them clearly as Jinn had moved closer to her. She could feel the warm solidness of his body pressing against her side even though he was just as wet. Despite the thick, soft fabric of Jinn's jumper that she still had tucked around her knees, Eutopia felt chilly, so the damp heat was welcome and she didn't pull away.
'I didn't know what else to do.' Eutopia shrugged. 'I felt like I had no one. I'd lost my mum, my brother. I was never very good at making friends really.'
'What about your foster parents, you couldn't talk to them?'
'Part of the problem. Not so much my foster mother…' Eutopia glanced up at Jinn and realised she was leaning against him now, relishing the heat he put out. She saw Jinn's eyes twitch wider, ever so slightly, his earlier fury clouding the gentle indigo in a way that Eutopia recognised now. 'It never got that far,' she said, answering the unasked question. 'It all started the night after my tenth birthday. My foster father was Andrew Scott,' Eutopia's mouth twisted as she spat his name, remembering his wet, rubbery lips and floppy mousey-brown hair. 'When I first moved in he made this big show about trying to break my fear of the dark. He said it was like learning to swim, you just had to dive straight in. Not that I ever got the hang of that either,' she grinned, wryly. 'I used to pull my quilt over my head and wait, sometimes for hours, until I heard them come up the stairs at night and go to bed. The floorboard just outside their bedroom door used to squeak, so I knew when they were in their room. Then I would put on my light, but Andrew would always know. I guess he could see the glow in the hallway because they never used to close their door. He would storm back in and take the bulb out, saying I was cheating and I'd never grow up if I didn't learn not to be afraid. I was six years old then. When I was eight and more settled in, I would argue back. I used to get really angry and shout at him, but he wouldn't say anything or let me have the light back. He would just hold me, like, cuddle me on my bed until I was quiet… Even when I stopped the arguing, stopped turning on my light, he would creep into my room once my foster mother, Gillian, was asleep and still do it. It really freaked me out, but Gillian didn't think it odd even when I told her I didn't like it. Mostly she just changed the subject whenever I tried to talk about it. After I turned ten the cuddles turned into strokes and touches, even though by that point I'd learnt to squeeze my eyes shut and curl up under the duvet as tightly as I could. There wasn't anywhere his hands didn't reach… But it never went further than that, which I'm grateful for.' Eutopia shook her head, her voice husky with pent up emotion. 'I had to get out of there though. I knew it wasn't normal. I'd never had a father figure before, but it didn't feel right. I just had to get out of there. I'd already decided I was going before Will turned up that night; I just hadn't worked out the details. Cutting myself was just a temporary solution that turned into a habit I couldn't shake as I got older. A cry for help, I guess. Each time I pulled a blade across my skin I just wanted to bleed all that pain and anger away. Each time I did it I made a wish; for my mum to come back, to be with Will, for Andrew to leave me alone, for somewhere warm to sleep when I was on the run, not to be put back into care… for a little help. My wish list was endless. Still is, I guess. '
'I'm here now. I can help you. I only wish I could have been here sooner.' Jinn whispered. He was looking at her with such intensity that she looked up to find his eyes burning into hers with a sadness that made her heart ache unexpectedly. 'Just let me help you.' One of his fingers shifted a stray tendril of her dark, damp hair as it curled over her cheek, tucking it behind her ear. 'You don't know how long I've waited to be here with you.' Jinn's fingertip slid over her bruised cheek to brush along the full curve of Eutopia's lips, parted slightly in wonder as her wide eyes, deep fathomless sapphires, were fixed on his timeless face that seemed comfortingly familiar. The strong defined lines of his features blurred, whether diffused by the night as a thick cloud passed over, or because of the tears that gathered unshed in her eyes, Eutopia wasn't sure.