Scenting Hallowed Blood (19 page)

‘Pev,’ she answered, unable to
call him anything else. She could hear the pain in her voice; it
sounded small in the room. What could she say to him, this man who
had nearly destroyed her?

The woman standing at
Shemyaza’s side said, ‘
You know her
?’

Lahash gestured with his gun.
‘No time for introductions, get moving. They’ll be back soon. I
only scattered them.’

At Lahash’s words, Shemyaza
seemed to gather himself up. Perhaps it was the instinct to
survive. ‘They? I sensed only the two of you!’ He towered like a
reed of light in the room, shivering with power.

Aninka felt the hairs on her
neck raise.
He doesn’t have to go with anyone if he doesn’t want
to...
‘They are weird people,’ she said. ‘Dangerous.’ She
pointed at Emma’s scratched face and neck. ‘They had your
friend.’

‘So?’ Shemyaza said. ‘What are
they? The hounds of the Parzupheim? Insects! Why should I go
anywhere with you?’

‘It would be best to,’ Aninka
answered coolly. ‘At least you’ll be safe with us.’

‘Safe? You have no idea...’

‘I do,’ she said.

‘There’s a car outside,’ Lahash
said. ‘Let’s go.’

Shemyaza would not move. ‘Where
do you want to take me?’

‘Cornwall,’ Aninka said. ‘High
Crag House. You’re expected.’
He won’t come with us,
she
thought.
He’ll put up a fight, and Lahash might kill
him.

‘Cornwall,’ Shemyaza echoed and
tapped his lips with a forefinger thoughtfully.

He seemed amused, as if he was
playing with them. Aninka suspected he was on the verge of
complying with their request, but then Lahash decided to take
action. Without warning, he leapt across the room and slammed
Shemyaza against the wall. It was the kind of thing Aninka had
feared might happen. She cried out in warning, yelled at Lahash to
stand back.

Shemyaza uttered an indignant
roar, and the room filled with a blaze of light. The woman beside
him let out a stifled scream. Lahash was tossed backwards, to land
in a heap at Aninka’s feet. She feared he was dead, but he uttered
a shocked groan and rolled onto his side. It was a miracle the gun
hadn’t gone off.

Shemyaza stood against the wall
with his arms held high. His face was radiant with infernal power.
His whole body emanated a spectral glow. Aninka swallowed
reflexively. What stood before her now was more than a man, more
than Grigori.

‘Stop this!’ she cried harshly.
‘You must come with us! My guardian, Enniel Prussoe, is a member of
the Parzupheim. They only want to help you. They
know
what
you are. So, it seems, does someone else. We want you alive, but
others might want you dead. For your own sake, you must come with
us!’ She was still unsure whether the creatures outside the room
had been sent by Enniel or not, but felt she had to convince
Shemyaza the Parzupheim would not harm him.

Shemyaza flexed his hands into
fists and hissed. ‘To Cornwall?’ Sparks of light seemed to crackle
in his hair.

Aninka nodded. ‘Yes. My
guardian has a stronghold there. Nothing will be able to get to
you.’

The room seemed to hold its
breath, then Shemyaza relaxed a little and the glow faded from his
eyes. He smiled affably and said, ‘All right.’

For a few moments, nobody said
a word. Then Emma began to laugh, a sound tinged with hysteria.

It can’t be this easy,
Aninka thought. Shemyaza now looked tired and thin, drained by the
burst of energy he’d directed at his attacker. The light in the
room had become dim, as if the bulbs had been sucked of power.

Lahash got gingerly to his feet
and rubbed his arms as if they were numb. Shemyaza stared at him
scornfully. ‘I said I’ll come with you. What are you waiting
for?’

Aninka half expected another
attack. ‘Well, let’s go then.’

They began to move towards the
door, then Shemyaza hesitated.
Here it comes,
Aninka
thought.
He’ll back off again.
But she was wrong.

‘Daniel...’ Shemyaza said. ‘The
twins...’

‘Don’t worry,’ Aninka told him
hurriedly. ‘Daniel’s with us. Once we get to my guardian, we’ll do
what we can for your other companions.’ She still expected another
excuse to emerge.

Shemyaza directed a single,
penetrating glance at her. ‘You have been busy,’ he said coolly.
‘Lead on.’

In a high room, opposite the Moses
Assembly Rooms, Sofia awaited developments. She held a pair of
night-sight binoculars to her face and behind her, two women in
black stood like caryatids of stone. They were Serafim; Grigori
warriors. The room was empty, an attic smelling of must. Spiritual
presences, long enchained within the wood and stone of the
building, clustered towards the light of Sofia’s soul, but she
burned them away with her indifference. All her attention was
focused on the building in front of her. Nearby, at strategic
points, other Serafim waited in vehicles or on foot. The etheric
Kerubim, savage Grigori predators, awaited Sofia’s summons,
although she hoped she would not need them. All was prepared.

Half an hour before, Sofia had
been ready to send in her people and use whatever method possible
to entrap Shemyaza. Then, Lahash Murkaster’s car had drawn up on
the road outside, and she’d recognised Enniel’s ward, Aninka. Had
Enniel sent her? That was possible. Within the inner cabals of the
Grigori, trust was virtually unknown. Enniel might suspect Sofia’s
motives. She smiled. No, he wasn’t that clever. Othman had once
been Aninka Prussoe’s lover. It seemed most likely that she had her
own agenda. The scorned huntress. Her search for Othman, which had
culminated in Little Moor, had ended in failure. Perhaps now, she
aimed for success. Sofia sighed. Love and desire: what fatal arrows
they were. She watched Aninka and Murkaster sniffing round the
building opposite, and decided to observe what happened. She had no
fear for Shemyaza’s life, confident that his power would protect
him. Anyone else was expendable.

It was possible that Aninka and
Murkaster might jeopardise her own plans, but she doubted it. Let
them do the work for her. She could intercept them afterwards.
Also, it seemed most likely Aninka’s involvement meant only that
they intended to take the Anakim to Enniel.

Then Sofia’s skin had prickled
a warning.

Across the road in the Assembly
Rooms, something alien had manifested in the echoing, empty rooms
and the bare, neglected stair-cases. Intruders. Sofia sensed them
as chaotic forms. They were Grigori, but transformed, like Kerubim,
into beings that were monstrous. They did not have the psychic feel
of creatures that had been sent by the Parzupheim. Was some other
faction acting without her sanction? Then, as more information
poured into her mind, her teeth peeled back from her teeth in a
grin. So, another of her protégés was making their presence felt.
She recognised the intruders as Emim, and knew of only one person
in this country who had recourse to such demons. She herself had
helped him shape them.
Fool!
she thought.
You think you
can get to him before I do?

She summoned one of the Serafim
women. ‘Semili, please go and position yourself upon the roof of
the Assembly Rooms. Await a message from me.’

The Seraf inclined her head and
melted from the room like a half-seen shadow.

Sofia turned to the remaining
aide. ‘Agnestis, go and start the car.’

Left alone, Sofia extended her
finely tuned senses towards the building opposite. She could sense
the black flame of Shemyaza, and the other bright points of light,
which indicated the positions of living souls. He eclipsed them
all. Her hands curled into fists.
Murkaster, get him out
now!
Alien presences were slithering over the stairs, hanging
from the rafters, dropping down like spores. They possessed a
doorway of some kind, a portal that enabled them to travel between
space and time. If Murkaster didn’t move quickly, he would be
engulfed, and Sofia didn’t trust that the owner of the Emim could
control them completely. Shemyaza might get damaged.

Movement alerted her. She saw
Semili’s fluid shape flowing over the rooftops. The Seraf would
gaze down chimneys, hang from eaves to peer into attic rooms. Sofia
directed a message to her.
What do you feel? What do you
see?

I feel the presence of chaos,
Mother, but I see nothing.

Wait, then.
Sofia put
down the binoculars, closed her eyes, and concentrated entirely
with her mind on what was happening in the Assembly Rooms. She
could sense argument and confusion, all enwrapped by the sinister
presence of the
others
. Perhaps she should act overtly, call
in the Kerubim, flood the building with them. Then, a spear of
thought pierced her mind. Semili.

They are moving.

Sofia opened her eyes and
raised the binoculars once more. She saw dark shapes hurrying down
the alley; one of them, female, running on ahead. That must be
Aninka. Shemyaza was instantly recognisable. She could not make out
the details of his features, but he was surrounded by a golden
aura. Sofia counted heads: four. Shemyaza must have one of his
followers with him. She wondered what had happened to the others.
They too would have their uses.

Sofia contacted Agnestis.
I
am coming down.

They would follow Murkaster and
Aninka to Cornwall, and if they tried to go anywhere else, they
would have to get past the Serafim first. The master of the Emim
she would deal with later.

‘
Do you think it was all
right to let Daniel go off with that guy?’ Lily asked, as she
walked, arm in arm with Israel up the side street that led to the
square. Now that they’d left the club, some of her euphoria had
evaporated. The dance-sweat had dried on her back; her skin was
cold. She felt nervous of Israel’s hot proximity.

Israel made a palliative sound.
‘He’ll be fine.’

Lily, conscious of this
Grigori’s strength and height beside her, fought for words. ‘But
he’s... inexperienced.’

‘Don’t be afraid,’ Israel
said.

They walked into the square and
Lily could hear birds calling in the trees of the Garden of
Remembrance, even though it was still the middle of the night. The
city was like that, she thought, mixed up in time. During the dark
hours, many things happened that belonged to the light of day, or
vice versa.

‘Let’s cut through the
gardens,’ Lily suggested.

They walked through the
creaking iron gate and onto the path, strewn with wet, papery
leaves, which were slippery underfoot. The bare branches of the
trees gripped the sky above them, and a few stars could be seen
through the orange haze of the city lights. Lily sighed. She felt
momentarily sad: one of those moments when time condenses and the
past and the future seem to come together in the heart in one
melancholy spasm. Only a few weeks ago, she’d been able to predict
the course of her life from day to day. Now, the illusion had been
shattered. There was no routine, and her belief in one had been
misguided. Always the gift of her heritage had been waiting for
her, waiting to pounce and tear the fabric of her reality to
shreds.

Israel put his arm around her
shoulder. ‘Don’t worry about Daniel.’

‘I’m not.’ Lily wondered
whether she was about to cry. It was absurd, but her emotions
seemed outside of herself; she could observe them with a cool
eye.

Israel made her stop walking
and put his dark hands upon her arms. She looked up into his
inscrutable face.
He’s not human.
The thought seemed
inconceivable. But how could she think that? She’d never been
completely human herself.

Israel lifted her bodily in his
arms until her face was level with his own. Then he kissed her, and
Lily opened her eyes to the vague, occluded stars. She felt her
body was a void, empty of light, but stretching into infinity. She
thought of Ishtahar, and the timelessness of love, its eternally
damned patience. She thought of Owen and the way they had once been
lovers, drawn to one another because there was no-one else of their
kind to turn to.

When Israel released her, Lily
sat down upon one of the wooden seats beside the path, hugging her
arms because she felt cold. Israel sat down beside her and touched
her cool cheek with his fingers. She shivered, prompting him to
withdraw his hand.

‘No!’ she said, shaking her
head, and turned towards him. ‘Touch me again.’

He reached out and slid his
long, dark hand beneath her hair. Lily leaned against him. She felt
lonely, yet weirdly happy. She wanted this Grigori male. It was his
duty to obey her desire.

On the wet mat of leaves behind
the bench, Lily lay back upon her shawl and lifted the red folds of
her borrowed gown. She parted her legs with her knees raised, and
Israel knelt between them. They said nothing to each other as he
unzipped his trousers. Lily closed her eyes and stretched her arms
along the ground, high over her head. She parted her legs wider,
feeling the cold air moving against her moist sex. She still felt
weirdly removed from herself. Her instinct was that of lust, and
her body was responding to it, but her mind seemed up among the
stars.

Israel touched her gently
between the legs, opening her up with his long fingers. Coolly, she
felt the lust grow hotter in her loins, the hungry contraction of
muscles that desired only something to grip, something male and
hard and alive. His dextrous stroking, which he must see as
foreplay for her own pleasure, only teased her. It was agony
because she wanted all of his body, and there was pleasure in
prolonging that agony, in not voicing the command for him to enter
her.

She was almost at the point of
orgasm by the time she felt him begin to push into her. She was
used to Grigori size, for she had slept with Othman, but Israel
seemed concerned about causing her pain and moved only slowly. Were
Grigori women any larger than human girls? Was that why he was so
careful? She didn’t care. She wanted to feel her flesh stretching
to accommodate him. In an attempt to encourage him, she curled her
legs around his back, pressing down with her heels to pull him into
her. She felt him shudder with desire, and could hear his breath
becoming harsher. His hands were upon her breasts as he strained
his upper body against the constriction of her encircling thighs,
but she gripped him only harder. She was still the empty void and
she sucked him into her. In, out: the long fist of his sex pumped
her body. Her skin was hypersensitive, registering in abnormal
detail each fraction of his movements. Then, she sensed a ball of
light spinning in the void, getting larger, drawing nearer,
bringing with it a tail of fire. She thrust her legs high into the
air as the orgasm crashed through her body. She felt it in her
arms, her legs, her fingers, her toes, her eyelashes, her tongue,
the depths of her ears. Her hair seemed to stand on end. Then, in
the pulsing aftermath, she felt Israel’s seed gouting into her,
soaking into the soil of her womb.