The Key to Erebus (The French Vampire Legend. Book 1)

  Chapter 16

  I moved through the next few days in a haze of misery and pain. Mostly I just stayed in my room, too humiliated to face Gran. Thankfully she let me be, occasionally coming up to give me something to eat. I couldn’t listen to music, everything reminded me of him and I couldn’t concentrate enough to read. I just lay on my bed wondering if the pain in my heart would ever go. I felt, with a terrible certainty that it never would.

  I went over and over everything that had happened with Corvus, wondering how I could so misjudge someone. Gran had said that when I felt ready she would tell me everything. I wasn’t sure I ever wanted to hear what had happened, though I knew I had to. I had to believe that the man who had become I'd been falling for was a killer.

  No matter how hard I tried, his words came back to me, the tender things he’d said, and the way it felt to be in his arms. I'd felt so safe with him. So right. Had it really all been a lie? I swallowed a sob. I would not let this destroy me. I wasn’t going to let my first broken heart be the end of everything. I wasn’t! But misery continued to wrap itself around me like a heavy blanket and I couldn’t imagine ever being happy again.

  I couldn't sleep. After nights spent awake with Corvus my body clock was back to front. The only sleep I could get was during the day and only then from pure exhaustion. At night I lay awake for endless hours, trying not to wonder where he was and what he was doing.

  On my third night back, I was lying on my bed as usual, trying to sleep when I became aware of a familiar prickling sensation all over my skin. I leapt out of bed, my heart hammering furiously in my chest. He was outside the house. My heart leapt at the thought of seeing him again, and then I felt disgusted with myself. He had broken my grandmother's heart and left my mother without a father, how could I even contemplate seeing him?

  So instead, I flung open the windows and screamed at him to go away and leave me alone. I never saw him but the feeling went and I knew he’d gone. A few days later Nerva turned up. I knew Corvus had sent him but I didn’t have the heart to send him away.

  When Gran found out she went mad. She said we didn’t need any reminders of my mistakes around the house and made me send him away. He kept returning for a couple of days and it broke my heart more every time I had to frighten him off, but eventually he didn’t come back.

  Gran said that Felix had called in several times to see me, but I couldn’t face talking to anyone, not yet. I thought about phoning Claudette, but there was no way I could explain everything that had happened.

  I wished Rodney would come to see me, but I was afraid that he was too angry to talk to me. It was clear he would take Corvus’ side, they’d been friends for decades after all. I wondered for the hundredth time why he’d never warned me, but then he was a ghoul, maybe their moral code was different, maybe killing a man wasn’t that serious in their world. Cyd had told me herself that Corvus would execute other vampires. She’d made me believe it was for the good of humanity, or maybe I’d just wanted to believe it. If he could kill his own kind so easily, my grandfather might have been easy to dismiss. Their world was a violent one and I'd been stupid to forget it.

  It had been almost a fortnight when I finally got up the courage to talk to Gran. I felt numb with grief but I knew I had to move on. Get over it and begin again. At the moment, my heart still refused to accept what he had done. I was in love with him. Ironically, it was easy to admit it to myself now, but I needed to hate him. I tried to persuade myself I already did, but it was just words. I was too broken to feel anything but devastated. If I could get a hold on my anger, if I could hate him, maybe then I could carry on.

  The weather had turned dismal, which suited my mood. Although it was June, the temperature had dropped and a heavy drizzle made the grasses and flowers in the meadow hang their heads sadly. Gran had even lit the fire in the kitchen, more to get rid of the damp feeling in the place than because it was really cold. She'd made a pot of coffee and now the rich aroma filled the room.

  I waited for her to come out, she'd been rummaging around in her bedroom for some time and finally appeared with a massive book that looked like it had come out of the Ark.

  “Voilà!” she said, heaving it onto the kitchen table with a thud.

  I coughed as dust flew from the pages. “What is it?”

  “That is a history of our family, Les Corbeaux,” she said, the pride in her voice quite evident.

  She poured us both a cup of coffee and then sat down at the table, carefully turning the first pages of the massive tome.

  “Jéhenne, for more centuries than you can imagine the women of our family have been tasked with protecting the innocent. We were blessed with great powers and long lives, and in return, it is our job to protect those who cannot protect themselves and to make sure that spirits return to their proper places, whether they are good or evil.”

  “Really,” I murmured, feeling a bit overawed. “But why just the women and how come the name has always been Corbeaux? Did none of them marry?”

  She nodded, touching her hand to the book with reverence. “The power only passes through the women in the family, it would not go to a male child and no, the women did not marry.”

  I looked at the book and the depression that had been hanging over me seemed to cloak itself tighter. Why, I couldn’t imagine. The thought of ever marrying anyone had always seemed unlikely, but now I felt it was an utterly impossible dream. So what did it matter I thought bitterly.

  “I want you to read the book Jéhenne.” She gave me a fierce look that brooked no argument.

  “All of it?” I looked at the swirly old fashioned writing in dismay.

  “Oui, all of it. You must know what you are, what your purpose is,” she said, her green eyes flashing with anger. “Who your enemies are.”

  I didn't dare argue with her, there was something in her expression that made me believe I would be in a world of trouble if I made excuses or tried to get out of it.”Now?” Was all I managed, hoping I could delay it at least.

  She nodded. “Maintenant. You have a guest this afternoon by the way,” she said as I carefully turned the book around to face me.

  “Who?” I asked, frowning. The last thing I wanted was a visitor.

  “Someone who has come to teach you.”

  I looked up, eyebrows raised, wondering what she meant. “Teach me what?”

  She looked at me in surprise as she shrugged on her rain coat and paused with her hand on the door knob.

  “Why, Jéhenne, to fight,” she said with a grim smile and yanked the door open, slamming it shut behind her.

  The noise of the door seemed to echo in my head, what on earth did she mean to fight? I looked back down at the book and decided I could worry about that later, now I had to get on with the task at hand.

  I read for hours. Gran had come back and made some lunch which sat beside me, untouched. I couldn’t stop reading. I was by turns fascinated, horrified and in complete awe of my ancestors.

  One thing was clear, my family had hunted vampires throughout history. Not only vampires though, there were other tales of were-wolves, of every sort of demon and evil spirit you could imagine, but over and again, we killed vampires.

  After one particularly gruesome story which my great-great grandmother had recounted with great enthusiasm and detail, I had to go and throw up. The vampires the women wrote about were certainly all evil, wicked to the core if the book was to be believed, and had deserved what they got. I sat on the edge of the bath while my stomach tried to right itself and remembered the night of the party and how charming everyone had been. I mean there had been the misunderstanding with Guillaume, but I never believed he meant to really harm me, certainly not murder me. Could I have been that blind to the danger I was in?

  I came out of the bathroom and went and sat down at the kitchen table. Gran watched me silently before coming and sitting opposite me.

  “Alors, Jéhenne. I think it’s time I told you about Adrian, n’es
t-ce pas?”

  I swallowed and stared down at the oilcloth on the table, but nodded, I couldn’t escape it any longer.

  “You now know first-hand everything I had warned you of about vampires. They are beautiful, charming, and seductive and they are all killers. You forget that at your peril, Jéhenne. This truce between species is all well and good, but everyone seems to have forgotten what wicked creatures they are.” She sounded furious, her pale skin flushed by the zeal with which she spoke and I bit my lip, afraid to comment but remembering what I'd been told about the reality of their lives in the modern world.

  “But Rodney said the vampire senate made it illegal to kill humans and that if any of them did, they would be hunted down and destroyed.”

  Gran snorted, dismissing the idea at once. “Rodney has been too long around them. Even some of his own kind don’t welcome him anymore. He believes all the pretty lies.”

  She looked past me out of the window. “Even I forgot for a time and that is something I will never forgive myself for.” Her voice was bleak, her eyes glittering with emotion. “My mother had always warned me not to let myself fall in love. Friends yes, lovers bien sur but don’t let anyone close because caring for someone makes you weak. I heeded her advice for centuries, but I had begun to yearn for a family - and then I met Adrian.”

  Her face softened with the memory and she smiled.

  “He was impossible, always joking. He made me laugh and I hadn’t laughed for a long time before we met. So we were together and he wanted us to marry but I always refused. I regret that now. I kept telling myself that I’d let him stay for a few more weeks and then send him on his way.

  But your mother was born and the weeks turned to years and he was still here. He knew what I was of course and had attended meetings with me and met many of the other creatures. The ones that fascinated him though, were the vampires and he was in complete awe of Corvus.”

  She frowned now and I could hear the bitterness in her voice. “He hero worshipped him. I tried to warn him, to tell him to stay away, but he insisted that Corvus was his friend and would never hurt him.” She snorted in disgust. “He wouldn’t listen and he paid dearly for it, we both did.”

  “What happened?” A chill settled over me, despite the fire crackling merrily in the hearth.

  “Adrian was getting older. I was too of course, as I’d promised to age alongside him, but he knew I wouldn’t die when he did and the knowledge ate away at him. Corvus began to drop hints about him becoming a vampire. I knew because Adrian would mention it from time to time, like the thought had just occurred to him, but I knew who had planted the seed. Corvus manipulated him.”

  I tried to push away the nagging doubt that this didn’t sound like the Corvus I knew. But then, the Corvus I thought I knew would never have killed Adrian.

  “I had to go away for a few days whilst Adrian stayed here. I didn’t know at the time but he had arranged to meet Corvus so that he could turn him.”

  Gran took a sip of her coffee and composed herself. I could see this was hard for her, so I covered her hand with my own and she smiled grimly.

  “So Adrian met Corvus and he turned him, but Master vampires rarely make new vampires, not when they get to Corvus' age and there’s a good reason for that. After they’ve been turned the only blood in their veins is the blood of their creator. They take on all that vampire’s powers and strength until after the first time they feed. A new vampire finds it hard to control their thirst in any case and the two thing combined would have made Adrian unreasonably strong.”

  I frowned, still having trouble accepting Corvus would have done such a thing and even if he had, he'd made Cyd and she had clearly survived.

  “But surely Corvus would have known that Gran, better than anyone?” I asked, keeping my voice soft.

  She thumped her hand on the table, making me jump with alarm and the coffee slop over the side of her cup.

  “He’s an arrogant bastard, Jéhenne!” she yelled. “He thought he could control him but he couldn’t. When I returned and found Adrian missing, I was sick with fear. I guessed what was going on and I was determined to stop it. I dowsed for them and managed to track them to the woods.” She stopped, her hands clenched into fists. It took her a moment before she could speak again. “By the time I got there it was too late.”

  She buried her head in her hands and sobbed. I got up to go around and comfort her but she looked up tears streaming down her face.

  “Stay where you are! You must hear the rest of what your lover did.” She spat the words at me, venomous and full of hatred.

  I bit my lip to stop myself from crying, though I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes and sat down again.

  “When I came to the clearing where I found them, they had fought - Corvus had broken his neck and was drinking his blood. He was covered in it, Jéhenne, covered in Adrian’s blood!”

  I gasped in horror, my stomach recoiling from what she was telling me.

  “No,” I moaned. I realised I had hoped she had made a mistake, somehow got it wrong. But she’d seen him, with her own eyes; there had been no mistake.

  “I tried to cry out, tried to move, but I was frozen by the horror of it,” she continued. “I could only watch as Corvus ripped a branch from the nearest tree and drove it into Adrian’s chest. I screamed then, but there was nothing I could do, the body burst into flames and he was gone.”

  The tears were now running freely down my face and I flinched as Gran stood up abruptly.

  “So now you know, Jéhenne. You know what he did. Vampires are evil, no matter what they may seem on the surface. Don’t ever forget it.”

  Her green eyes blazed into mine until she turned and walked into her herb room, slamming the door behind her.

  I felt numb. Everything Corvus appeared to be had been a lie. It had to be, he couldn’t really be the gentle, kind hearted man he had appeared to be and a violent killer. I'd known there was truth in that before this, Cyd had told me herself. I'd just tried to rationalise it at being a part of the world they lived in. I didn't believe for a moment my Gran could make something like that up either. Her heartbreak was very real and very raw, even after all this time. She'd really seen him kill Adrian. It seemed that my initial fearful reaction to him had been more appropriate. He was a real life devil and he’d tried to seduce me.

  So that was the end of that, I thought bleakly. There was no longer any room for doubt. It didn’t stop the ache in my heart - if anything it made it worse - but now I had to accept the truth as well as my destiny. I would work, I would learn to control my powers and understand how they worked. I would learn to fight and to defend both myself and those I cared about. I would never be weak again.

  I sat at the table for ages, staring into nothing, too distraught even to cry anymore. I wouldn’t cry anymore for him. I decided, he didn’t deserve it.

  We didn’t mention the conversation again and I kept the vow I had made by throwing myself into my studies. It actually started that same afternoon with the arrival of Corin, who to my astonishment was an elf. I don’t know why it was that these creatures kept surprising me with their existence. I mean really, how much weirder could my life get?

  Corin was a surprise though. He was incredibly beautiful. There was a feline almost feminine look about him, though I had the strangest sensation when I looked at him - as though I wasn't really seeing him properly. Like I was viewing him through a veil or he was wearing a mask. His rather delicate looks were not to be taken at face value however. As I was learning the hard way, looks can be very deceptive.

  He arrived without a word and covered the dirt floor of the barn with what looked like large yoga mats. He was dressed simply in soft brown trousers and a white cotton shirt. His long brown hair was tied back in a ponytail with little plaits braided in the sides I watched him, fascinated with the way he moved. I had thought the vampires moved with a fluid grace, but he was like a dancer, all soft lines and elegance.

/>   When the mats were arranged to his satisfaction, he stood in the middle, hands on hips and addressed me for the first time.

  “Well then, Jéhenne.” He smiled, his hypnotic golden eyes twinkling with amusement. “Let us begin. I want you to knock me down.”

  I stood up, feeling uncomfortable and walked towards him.

  “Erm, ah, OK then.”

  I felt rather ridiculous but as this was what he’d come for, I thought I’d best get on with it. I tried to kick my leg between his and hook my foot around the back of his ankle whilst pushing his upper body backwards. Somewhere along the way I ended up flat on my back. He hadn’t even moved.

  He smirked. “Try again.”

  So I did try again, and again and again and again. On my sixth attempt I hit the floor and stared up at the ceiling of the barn with a feeling of inevitability.

  “OK, just show me how,” I demanded.

  I looked up to see his slanting golden eyes glittering down at me, his expression full of warmth. “I wondered how long it would take you to ask.”

  After that he spent a lot of time teaching me about my centre of gravity and how to balance. To begin with, he just had me try and keep upright and still, while standing on one leg for example, whilst he tried to distract or unbalance me. I was surprised by how much concentration was needed and also how exhausted I felt when he left.

  I felt strangely disappointed when he went, as I was once more unoccupied and alone with my thoughts. When he’d been here I hadn’t had time to dwell on my unhappiness. It hadn’t gone, but at least I could keep it from the forefront of my mind as I concentrated on trying not to hit the floor yet again. Now though, the sorrow welled up inside once more and I went to bed early, too unhappy to eat, although I knew I should as I was quite noticeably starting to lose weight.

  The next few weeks took on a steady routine which I stuck to with dedication. The mornings I spent working with Gran, casting spells, and generally working on my powers. The afternoons I spent with Corin and at night I cried myself to sleep even though I’d promised myself I wouldn’t.

  I did sleep now at least, from utter exhaustion. It didn’t stop the dreams though. No matter how much I forbade myself to think about Corvus during the day, I still had no luck in banning him from my dreams.

  One particular day I had an especially stressful morning when Gran brought in a large frog and instructed me to turn it into a cat. I looked at her in alarm but she just gave me the necessary spell and left me to it, only to return half an hour later to find me chasing a furry and furious frog - with very sharp teeth - around her herb room. Needless to say she didn’t find the funny side of it and to be honest the frog didn’t look best pleased either. Gran just instructed me to try again and left me to it.

  First though, I had to catch the damn thing which was proving harder than you might imagine. It jammed itself behind a large dresser, stacked high with bottles and jars, all with dubious contents. I tried wriggling my arm down the back to grab it, but it walloped me with its front foot, which was now not only webbed, but was also sporting some very sharp claws. I straightened up with a yelp and managed to knock the dresser with my shoulder, causing a jar of something to fall off and bash me on the head. The sticky, blue contents dripped slowly down my face and with a mixture of frustration and disgust I threw another spell at the frog monster with rather more aggression than was necessary. This resulted in the frog growing a large bushy tail that was far too big for its body. The new appendage seemed to surprise the frog too and threw it off balance so much that it fell flat on its back. At least it gave me a means of pulling it out from behind the dresser without suffering anymore scratches.

  By the time I’d cleaned myself up and returned the frog to its natural state Corin had turned up for our lesson. My mood lifted when I saw him as I was enjoying our ‘fight club’ and felt I was making real progress. I was black and blue all over though and still spent a fair amount of time staring at the barn ceiling. I could now block attacks from behind quite successfully and even disarm someone who came at me with a knife.

  It turned out to be a particularly gruelling afternoon with Corin and I was trying to sooth my aching muscles with a hot shower, when I heard yelling coming from outside the house. I pulled on my clothes as quickly as I could and opened the bathroom door to recognise Rodney’s voice shouting at Gran.

  “Take it off, Inés!” he yelled. I’d never heard Rodney lose his temper before and was quite taken aback when I came outside because he was obviously furious.

  “No Rodney, we’re putting all that behind us. I don’t want you filling her head with stupid ideas,” Gran said, as she lowered herself into her car and turned the key.

  “Now, if you’ll excuse me I have things to do.”

  “Inés, don’t you dare leave, you take this bloody spell off now!” Rodney stood, rigid with anger in front of the car. Just a short moment later he decided that perhaps self-preservation was the way to go and dived into the hedgerow when he realised Gran didn’t intend to stop.

  “Shit!” he emerged a little breathless, from one of the bushes lining the driveway.

  “Hi, Rodney.”

  I felt nervous seeing him again. I didn’t quite know what to say, or even if we were still friends after what had happened.

  “Hi, Jéhenne.” He picked leaves out of his hair and brushed his New York Dolls T-shirt down carefully. “How have you been?”

  He seemed nervous too.

  I shrugged, not really sure what to say. Seeing Rodney again just brought home how much I missed him as well as Corvus. I felt I’d lost a lot of friends that night. I bit my lip and hoped I’d make it through this conversation without blubbing.

  “Yeah, well, I wanted to come and see you like. I’ve been by a few times already but Inés said you didn't want to see me and she clearly didn’t want me here.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry Rodney, I didn’t know, I would have seen you.’ I felt annoyed with Gran for not telling me he’d been round. It would have helped if I’d known I hadn’t been abandoned.

  “Well, I dug me heels in today, didn’t I? Said I wasn’t leaving until I’d seen you, so she went and put a bloody spell on me!” he said in disgust.

  I wrapped my arms around myself and shivered despite the warmth of the day. “Oh, God, Rodney I’m sorry. What sort of spell?”

  “One that stops me talking about what I came to talk about!” He kicked at a stone angrily.

  “You mean Corvus and Adrian.” I looked at the floor, frowning.

  “Well obviously,” he said, giving a heavy sigh. “Look, I don’t know what Inés has told you …”

  I held my hand up to stop him talking. “Listen Rodney, I’m really glad you came to see me but I just don’t want to talk about this. Corvus killed him. He killed my grandfather, Rodney and Gran saw him do it. She couldn’t possibly make up something like that.” I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes and turned away from him. I’d kept a tight lid on my emotions the last few days and I’d even begun to feel I was getting things under control, well a little bit anyway. I didn’t want him stirring everything up again.

  “Corvus killed him,” I repeated, trying to keep my voice steady. “You don't understand what effect this has had on my family, Rodney. Mum says Gran was never the same after and ...” I hesitated, I'd never said this out loud before. “My Mum and my Gran don't get on. Mum hates her, says she's a cold hearted bitch, but she says she knows it's because of what happened.” I took a breath and looked up at Rodney, seeing the sympathy in his eyes and willing him to understand. “Mum's just the same. She's cold and hard and ... he did that. He ruined their lives and Mum ruined mine. She hated what Gran was and so she pretended I wasn't like her. Corvus may have felt he had no choice because Adrian was stronger than he’d anticipated, but he knew the risks. He should never have turned him in the first place.”

  Rodney started to speak, but although his mouth began to move no words emerged. He kept trying a
nd in different circumstances it might have been funny, but now it just made me feel sick.

  “Arrgh!” Rodney threw his hands in the air in frustration. “You’re wrong! No matter what, you are wrong. If you could just see him, talk to him. Please?”

  I wavered, seeing him again, the idea made my heart leap, maybe I should just listen ... I could ... Murderer, stay away ... the words pulsed in my mind, making my head hurt. “I--I can't,” I said, feeling the pain disperse. I shook my head sadly, refusing to look at him.

  Rodney's shoulder's slumped. “Jéhenne, you don’t know what you’ve done to him,” he said, his voice rough. “What you've done to us, the whole family. Everyone is on edge. He disappears for days at a time. He only comes back if he has to, to fulfil his responsibilities and then he's off again. He won’t even speak to anyone.”

  Rodney’s voice cracked and I glanced up at him to see his eyes were filled with tears.

  “He’s my friend, Jéhenne … and I ain't never seen him like this. I’m scared for him and for you too, because I know one day you’ll regret this.”

  I felt my heart ache, I wanted so badly to agree to see him but my head hurt and something told me it was a really bad idea, it was a trick, Rodney was lying for him. I shook my head sadly, not bothering to conceal the tears that were flowing freely now.

  “I’m so sorry, Rodney,” I said and walked back to the house. I was just opening the door when Rodney yelled at me.

  “If your Gran is so undeniably right, why’d she need to put a bloody spell on me, Jéhenne? You answer me that!” He looked at me briefly, as if waiting for an answer, then got in his car, slammed the door and sped off.

  I shut the front door behind me and realised I was shaking. I wiped the tears from my face and snatched up a tissue to blow my nose. I wasn’t going to do this again. It was over, history. But Rodney’s words circled in my head. He had always put Corvus on a pedestal, hero worshipped him even, but he seemed so sure, so convinced that Corvus was not the monster Gran had exposed him to be. Maybe he just didn’t want to believe Corvus could do such a thing, I could certainly understand that.

  As for the spell, well like Gran said, we’d moved on and she knew talking about it would upset me. I didn’t like that she had done it, putting a spell on someone like that seemed to me a terrible thing to do but maybe I could understand why - maybe.

  I was shaken from my thoughts by another loud noise coming from outside, although this time it was more of the howling, screeching variety. I open the kitchen door again and peered around the garden. The noise seemed to be coming from the barn. I crept to the barn doors to investigate, opening them slowly and then squinted into the darkness as my eyes adjusted. I half expected to be accosted by a werewolf or some other fantastical creature, let’s face it, it wouldn’t be that surprising after the past few weeks.

  I scanned the upper floor, which had been used to store hay years ago when Gran had kept more animals, and quickly found the culprit. Now I was looking up at the ugliest ginger cat I’d ever seen in my life. Somehow it had got up there but couldn’t get down. I’d often seen it hanging around the garden over the past few weeks and had meant to ask Gran who it belonged to. It meowed at me piteously, staring at me with sad, green eyes.

  “Alright, alright, I’m coming.” I manoeuvred a rickety old wooden ladder up against the beam and climbed nervously as the rungs were riddled with woodworm and I didn’t want to go crashing to the floor. I’d already done enough of that today with Corin.

  “Come on then, cat,” I said, once I’d got to the top. Surprisingly he came happily and settled himself over my shoulder, without digging in his claws and I managed to bring him back down without incident.

  I put him gently on the floor, expecting him to dash off into the undergrowth but he just sat down and looked up at me, expectantly, with big eyes.

  “What?”

  “Meowff.”

  “I guess that means you’re hungry?” I suggested.

  “Meowff.”

  “Well, OK then, let’s go see what we can find.”

  I walked back to the house, still half expecting the cat to change its mind and disappear, but he trotted along at my heels and strolled in the house as if he owned it. I found a tin of sardines and dished some out into a saucer for him. He looked at the sardines with distaste and turned his back on them.

  “What kind of cat doesn’t eat sardines?”

  “Meowff!”

  “Good grief.”

  A tin of tuna, a saucer of milk and some finely chopped ham were all offered, and refused, before he settled down to eat a plate of lasagne left over from last night’s dinner.

  “I hope you realise that was mine,” I grumbled, but found I couldn’t stay cross when he began winding backwards and forwards between my legs, making noises like a Geiger counter.

  “Hmmm, well I guess I’m not hungry anyway.”

  I settled myself down in the arm chair and before I had a chance to pick up the magazine that Gran had bought in the vague hope of cheering me up, the cat had jumped onto my lap. He circled around a couple of times before collapsing in a heap against my stomach and snoring loudly.

  “I hope you haven’t got fleas,” I muttered, scratching the top of his head.

  “Hummph,” was his only response before he settled back to snoring. I took a moment to look at him closely. His ear was torn, and he seemed to be badly scarred. There were several big patches of fur missing where he’d obviously been fighting more recently and he had blood on one paw where a claw had been torn out. He was obviously a bit of a bruiser.

  “You’re a disaster, you know that, don’t you? A catastrophe in fact!” I chuckled, feeling pleased with myself. “I think that’s what I’ll call you, Astro cat.”

  He cracked one eye open and sighed heavily.

  “It does too suit you,” I replied. “Oh, God watch yourself, Jéhenne, you’re talking to a bloody cat,” I said out loud and then wondered if talking to myself was worse. Either way I was definitely losing my mind.

  I picked up the magazine again and settled back to try and concentrate on an article about ‘How to find Happiness’ but Rodney’s words kept coming back to haunt me. I wondered where Corvus had been going off to and if he was really as miserable as Rodney had made out. I told myself off for even thinking about him. I hated him … end of story. But big, fat tears rolled down my face none the less and plopped onto Astro’s head. He got up and put his front paws on my shoulders, affectionately rubbing his head against mine and I laughed despite myself.

  “Well I guess it’s just you and me, Astro.”

  “Meowff.”

  I got the feeling that that was just the way he liked it.