CHAPTER Ten
The area uncovered by the unmasking of the spell was perhaps only about ten metres squared. The ground was empty and black, as if it had been scorched by fire, and in its centre stood a large tree, completely absent of leaves or any other sign of life. Its branches had a grey brittle appearance, highlighting that it was as completely devoid of life as the earth and the pale figure of the dryad hanging from it. She appeared to be bound there by her wrists, in a pose eerily reminiscent of a crucifixion. I tried to take a step forward, as if to see whether I could still rescue the tragic tree nymph, despite the fact that her shrunken flesh made it clear that she had been there for some time. However there was some kind of invisible barrier in my way, preventing me from moving into the dead space. I pushed forward with every ounce of strength that I could muster, but it was clear that I wouldn’t be able to break through by sheer physical power alone.
Aubrey moved silently to my side and stared up at the dryad’s body.
“Any ideas?” I asked.
He glanced at me mutely. Oh yeah. “You can speak.”
“It’s so elegant,” he breathed. “This is a masterpiece.”
I couldn’t help myself. Reaching over, I slapped him hard across the cheek and gave him a disgusted look.
“Owwww!” He clutched his face with his hands, the wounded expression in his eyes clear even through the darkness. “You don’t have to resort to violence. What did I do?”
I didn’t know why I’d ever thought that vamps were smart. I supposed that I’d assumed that living for so long afforded enough life experience to understand at least some of the nuances of polite society. Clearly I’d been completely wrong.
“One minute you are like a puppy dog at my feet, begging to be brought along and gushing at how wonderful I am,” I spat at him, “not to mention the constant f*cking tears, and the next you’re making some kind of sicko comment like that. She’s dead, Aubrey. She died a horrible death and you’re talking about her as if she’s a piece of f*cking art.”
“I was a vampire for a long time, and I was a bloody good vampire too. We’re undead, Mack. I might not kill many people these days but death really is what I know, and I know that whoever did that,” he jerked his head towards the tree, “did it very deliberately and very carefully. Look at the way she’s strung up. You say I’m talking about her as if she’s a work of art, well, that’s artfully done. Bodies are heavy, and not all that easy to manipulate into different positions. She’s hanging there, from those dead branches, by her wrists. There’s nothing holding her up; she’s been arranged that way.” His voice began to rise suddenly. “You’re acting as if I’m more than evil than whoever did that. Bitch!”
I guessed that angry Aubrey was suddenly making a return. The guy was like Jack the Ripper, a Disney princess and Niagara Falls all combined into one. I felt a flicker of bloodfire. “Go round the back and see if you can get through that way,” I told him. “Keep trying to find a weak spot.”
He snarled at me in rage but, good little servant that he was, his feet were already moving him away before he could finish. He circled round the edge of the blackened patch and began throwing himself at the edges of the barrier, over and over again. I watched him for a moment, part of me hoping that he’d do himself some permanent damage, and then turned my attention back to the tree.
I thought about Aubrey’s words and examined the way the dryad had been displayed. He had been kind of right, actually. She was definitely positioned as if to gain maximum effect from a viewing audience. And yet, whoever had done this had then hidden her from sight. What was the point in creating a piece of ‘art’, and then never letting anyone see it? I fervently hoped it wasn’t part of some sick master plan by some nasty Otherworld monster. Atlanteia hadn’t so much as breathed that any dryads had already died as a result of the upcoming development. Unfortunately I now very much doubted that the planned tree clearance had anything to do with some luxury holiday homes. Not unless the target market was psychotic serial killers anyway.
There was a thump from the other side. Aubrey had managed to trip over something and was lying sprawled on the ground. I smirked humourlessly, and then returned my thoughts to the matter in hand. My blood had a helpful habit of being able to open various mystical locks. I really wanted to use it now to get through to the dryad to cut her down at the very least. But I didn’t want to trigger any supernatural alarms in the process. As much as she deserved a dignified death, I would probably serve the nymph, or her friends and family anyway, better by concealing not only my own presence, but also my knowledge of her presence.
I stared at her sadly. “I’ll come back for you,” I whispered. “I promise.”
Leaving Aubrey where he was, I continued further on up the path. Surely one of the other dryads who lived here had to have seen something? If those trees were as capable of communicating as Atlanteia had suggested, then the whole bloody forest probably knew what had happened. All I needed to do was to find someone to f*cking tell me. Anger and heat were swirling around inside me – at Aubrey for his utter lack of tact and decency, at whoever had done that to the dryad, and at Atlanteia for not telling me that there was some kind of bizarre tree murderer on the loose in the first place. At the very least, if she’d told the truth, I’d have arrived somewhat better prepared.
I stalked up through the trees, then looked right and cut across, leaving the path behind. When I reached a small clearing, I stopped and looked up.
“Come on,” I cried out. “You got me here. Show yourselves and tell me what happened.”
Somewhere in the distance, an owl hooted. There was no other sound.
Pissed off, I tried again. “Your friend has been slaughtered by some kind of monster. I imagine that’s the real reason why I’m here. But if you want me to try and stop whatever did that, you’re going to have to help me out a bit and tell me what you know.”
I stood and waited. Again, there was nothing. I clenched my jaw and called their bluff.
“Fine, then. If you can’t help me, then I can’t help you.” I turned round. “I’m leaving. You can keep the ex-bloodsucker if you want. That’s the best I can do.”
I stomped out of the clearing. I’d barely taken more than a couple of steps, however, when a quiet voice floated towards me.
“Don’t.”
If the woods hadn’t been so quiet, I’d never have heard her. “Pardon?” I asked politely, albeit rather loudly.
“Don’t leave.”
“You’re going to have to do better than that. Show yourself so we can have a proper talk, face to face, and I might stay.” I wasn’t enjoying this conversation very much; playing hardball with an introverted dryad was not exactly my idea of fun. I didn’t think I had much choice, however.
“I would rather not. We are not like our city cousins, Mackenzie. We are not so bold.”
That figured. Both Atlanteia and the dryad who’d first found me in the park had shown considerably more confidence than I’d come to expect from my previous encounters with dryads in the countryside. Perhaps the pollution emboldened them. Whatever.
“That’s not my problem. Atlanteia asked me to come here and help put a stop to a building development. Not deal with a slaughtered dryad.”
For a long moment there was no response. Then the voice softly spoke again. “So she’s dead?”
Empathy filled me. I closed my eyes briefly. “Yeah. She’s dead.”
When I opened my eyes again, there was a pale figure in front of me, long fingers gripping the slender girth of a young tree. Silent sad tears of green trickled down her cheeks.
“I’m sorry,” I said, ineffectually.
She dropped her head, barely able to even look at me. “We thought…we thought she might still be alright.”
I didn’t answer, instead waiting for the dryad to pick herself back up again. I hoped it wouldn’t be too long, then immediately hated myself for that thought. She flicked pained eyes up at me, and then back down to the ground again.
“We don’t know what happened.”
I had to strain to hear her. “But you knew she was gone?” I asked gently.
“Yes. We heard her scream. It was…unpleasant.”
That was probably the understatement of the f*cking year. “What about the trees?”
“They did not see. They spoke of a strange shape, nothing more.”
Outstanding. What good did all-seeing trees do if they didn’t actually see anything? I gritted my teeth. “When was this?”
“About two weeks ago.”
She didn’t like expanding on her answers much. “Okay. So does it have anything to do with the development?”
“We think so.”
I sighed. “You’re going to have to help me out a little bit here. Give me some more information.”
The dryad swallowed nervously. “We had managed to contact the local humans. They were coming. We had heard that people in power were on our side. Then Mereia disappeared and everything stopped. As if they’d forgotten the development ever existed. The number of visitors has also decreased. We have not seen this before. So few people in this wood. The animals and birds sense it also. They are quiet. There is an unnatural feeling.”
That was an improvement. “Thank you.”
She inclined her head gently.
“Why didn’t Atlanteia tell me any of this?”
“We know you are afraid of what you are.”
Great. Was there anything that the sodding Otherworld inhabitants didn’t already know? Apart from useful information about the murdering bastard who had slaughtered an innocent friend of theirs, of course. You’d think they’d pay more attention to what was trying to kill them instead of what was trying to protect them. I gazed askance at the nymph, in full defensive mode and feeling the hackles on the back of my neck rise up. “So?”
“We thought that if there was a chance you had to fight, you would not come. We need you.”
“So you thought it would be better for me to walk in here completely unprepared?”
“Atlanteia did not lie.”
“Yeah, yeah. She didn’t tell the whole truth either though did she?” I looked away from the quivering nymph for a moment, still annoyed but unwilling to scare her off with a snarky attitude. “I’m not going to change.” Realising I wasn’t being completely clear, I elaborated. “I mean, if you think that I’ll transform into a dragon to save the day, then it’s not going to happen. I’m not going to do that again.”
“It is enough that you are here. We have faith in you.” A sad smile lit her features. “We would not have asked you otherwise.”
“You know I have someone with me.”
She nodded.
“And I might need to get some others to come and help too.”
A heartbeat later she nodded again.
“And you cannot tell anyone that you know what I am. Not you, not Atlanteia, not any dryad ever. I don’t know exactly who those trees talk to, but they can’t tell anyone either.”
The dryad didn’t pause this time. “You have my word.”
“Okay, I’ll see what I can do. There are no promises though. I have no idea what we’re up against. Something that can not only use supernatural power, but also manipulate the human world is something that is powerful. It might be one entity or it might be many working together. Can you tell me whether there was anything you noticed about Mereia before she was taken? Anything different about her?”
I jerked my head to my left as I heard a muffled yell off in the distance which sounded like Aubrey. He’d probably fallen over again. I switched my gaze back to the dryad, but she’d gone. “Hello?”
Damn it, I didn’t get her name.
“Are you still there?”
Nothing. I tutted in quiet irritation. Given how shy that nymph had appeared I’d probably done well to get as much out of her as I did. I’d just have to hope that they weren’t keeping anything else back from me. Making a mental note never to entirely trust any dryad, I headed back to rejoin the path and find out what was going on with El Nutso.
When I arrived back at the warded area, I couldn’t make out Aubrey’s shape anywhere. Cursing under my breath, and trying to peer through the darkness, I began to wander round the barrier, keeping my footsteps as light as possible and my senses alert. Either the compulsion that my blood had placed him under had dissipated, or he’d been attacked by whatever had created the foul display in the first place. After having Aubrey get the jump on me at Hampstead Heath there was absolutely no way I was going to let anything else do the same. Stupid herbal mixtures aside, I had a reputation to maintain.
I was about halfway around when I spotted him. He was lying flat on his back at the far corner. From where I was, he seemed to be completely immobile and I couldn’t make out whether he was still breathing or not. I pressed my fingertips together to keep the green fire down. As handy as it was in a fight, its glow might just alert any potential boogie monster to my presence. Instead of heading straight for him, I side-stepped to my right, avoiding the few fallen twigs and branches on the ground. If he had indeed been attacked, and hadn’t just idiotically managed to knock himself out, then it stood to reason that whatever had gotten him was now hiding nearby, waiting for any companions to rush to his aid. Fortunately, while I might not be prepared to kill him myself anymore, I didn’t actually really give that much of a shit if anyone else bothered to do so. At this particular point in time I was far more concerned with my own self-preservation.
I quickly scanned the blackened inner area, trying to avoid looking too closely again at the dead nymph, but there was nothing there. If anything was waiting in the wings ready to pounce, then it was on the outside. I felt a flicker of regret that I didn’t have Balud’s daggers with me anymore and then pushed it away. Wishing otherwise wouldn’t change anything. I had to focus on the here and now.
I took a step forward and paused, listening. There was nothing. My eyes searched through the dark shapes of the living trees and watched the shadows on the ground for any suggestions of movement. Still there was no sign of anything. I took another step before waiting again. A cloud drifted across the moon, darkening the environment even further. I was fortunate that by now dawn couldn’t be far away. If there was anything waiting, then it would be easier to see when the sun rose. I debated my options then decided to take the high road, reaching out for the closest tree and swinging myself up onto its lower branches, then digging my feet into the rough bark to gain an effective foothold so I could climb higher.
There was a sudden groan and I froze, eyes flicking left and right. It sounded again and I realised that it was Aubrey himself making the noise. Guess he wasn’t dead after all then. I watched as he sat up, one hand rubbing at his forehead, and the other ripping out tufts of nearby grass.
“F*ck!” he shouted. He thumped the ground. “F*ck!” He picked himself and launched headfirst at the barrier, literally bouncing back off it and falling back down onto the ground.
I rolled my eyes. Really? I hadn’t told him to try and knock himself unconscious, just that he should check for weaknesses in the ward. Before he did it again, I dropped down from the tree and walked casually over to him. Not that I cared if he hurt himself, but there was no way that I was going to carry his sorry arse back down the path again if he managed to pass out completely.
When I reached him, he groaned again, but didn’t get up. I kicked his feet.
“Hey, butthead, was that wholly necessary?”
He muttered something inaudible. I leaned over him. “What was that?”
“Fat woman. Hideous. Naked. Hit me. Sat on me.”
Outstanding. Now he had a concussion and was bloody hallucinating. “We’re in a wood, not a stripper joint in Soho. Don’t see any naked women around here, Aubrey. I think maybe you’ve hit your head.”
He sat up and stared at me through the gloom. “Didn’t.”
“Did. I saw you do just that about two minutes ago in fact.”
“Didn’t.”
I put my hands on my hips. I was not going to get into this. “Stand the f*ck up. We’re going to get out of here and see if we can make it to the nearest village before sunup. I’m hungry and I need a coffee.”
He held his hand out in the air, pointing it towards me in a gesture obviously designed to encourage me to help him to his feet.
“Aubrey,” I said, keeping my voice deliberately quiet, “let’s get one thing straight, you neurotic nutcase. I don’t care about you. My friends died as a direct result of your actions. Just because you’re not a freaking bloodsucker any more, does not mean that I suddenly like you or am in any way inclined to help you. Pick yourself up and stop acting like a child.”
His bottom lip started to quiver. I lifted a warning finger. “Do not, whatever you do, start to cry.”
He pulled himself together and stood up, although he was still pouting. I raised my eyebrows and he smoothed his features over, although I could tell it was an effort. I turned away from him, but had the sudden feeling that he was sticking his tongue out at me from behind my back. Without looking at him, I motioned at him to move to the front again and lead the way back down. I really did not need this - the sooner I ditched him, the better.