Blood Work

  #

  My phone rang and woke me up.

  I hadn’t even realised I’d been asleep. Beside me, Erin mumbled something and sank back into a deep slumber. I fumbled in my pockets and eventually found the phone just as it stopped ringing. Before I could look at the number, it rang again and I answered.

  “What?”

  “Mr Hawkins,” Aurum said. “I’m glad you survived.”

  “You know what happened?”

  “I was watching from a safe distance.”

  I moved away from Erin so I wouldn’t disturb her sleep. “You were watching?”

  “It would hardly have counted as a test of your skills had I not watched.”

  My growing fury obliterated all responses I had bar a rumbling growl.

  “Now, before you fly into a rage, Mr Hawkins, let me assure you that you passed. You stopped the alliance between Red and Violet and not many humans could have done that. Congratulations.”

  The phone creaked as my grip tightened. “Fuck you,” I managed.

  “Language, Mr Hawkins. I believe you have a lady with you.”

  A day ago, his tone would have had me ducking my head in shame. All it did now was set my blood dial to ‘boil’.

  “You used me.”

  “I did. The potential alliance had to be diverted. If the Reds and Violets joined forces, they would be a threat large enough to wipe out the other castes. At the moment, the castes are evenly matched overall. Should one, or two, gain an upper hand, the balance will be lost. Had the Reds and Violets joined, the end result would have been the destruction of all castes but the Violets. Yes, even the Reds wouldn’t have survived. Without a threat equal to her own, Veilchen would have been free to concentrate on the human population of the world.”

  He paused and if he expected me to fill in the convenient blank, I wasn’t going to satisfy him. I’d done enough dancing to his tune.

  “Ah, I see,” he murmured eventually. “And I understand. However you may feel about me, Mr Hawkins, just remember what you accomplished here tonight. You defeated a great threat to your kind, and earned my respect. That is no small thing.”

  I swallowed the shout of rage I wanted to vent. “Who are you?”

  Aurum just said, “Think about it. Apply your scientific mind.”

  About to hang up on him, I stopped and asked, “Veilchen? Did she survive?”

  He chuckled. “Of course she did. She is truly eternal. But you wounded her grievously. She won’t be a threat to you for some time yet. As you count time, at least. Martínez, however, was not so endurable. And Mr Hawkins, I believe there is someone waiting for you outside.”

  The line went dead. I stared at the phone. Then before I could throw it across the room, I put in back in a pocket. See, Dr Campbell, I do have restraint.

  Angry beyond reason with Aurum, I was nevertheless curious. I staggered to the front door and eased it open enough to peek out. A dark bundle lay on the front steps.

  Flinging open the door, I almost fell down beside Mercy and gathered her up. She stirred and opened her eyes. Maybe it was a reflection of the street light or just my imagination, but for a second, they flashed gold. Then they were just normal brown.

  I checked her over, found her wounds mostly healed, including the ones from the night before.

  “Aurum,” I breathed, suddenly understanding.

  Faint light touched the eastern horizon. Time to move. I carried Mercy to the car and laid her as gently as I could in the boot. It would protect her from the sunlight until we got home. Then I went back inside.

  Erin was awake and sitting up. She nursed her arms, tears streaming down her cheeks. I sat beside her, close but not touching, though I ached to.

  “Mercy’s back,” I whispered.

  “I’m glad.”

  “I think she’ll be okay.”

  Erin nodded.

  “Will you be okay?”

  She thought about it for a while. Then nodded.

  “Erin—”

  “I’ll call you and set up a meeting to get your things to you,” she said firmly. “After that, no more.”

  My fingers itched to touch her, to brush the hair from her face, to catch the tears that fell.

  “We got married here,” she said suddenly. “And I’ll bury him here. And then I’ll move on.”

  Her speech tore my heart in two, but reassured me as well. I touched her then, a soft squeeze on her arm.

  “Do want me to take you to a hospital?” I asked.

  “No. Just go.”

  I hesitated.

  “Thank you for your concern, but I’ll be fine. Go.”

  I left her there, got in the car and drove home.

  As for Aurum? It wasn’t too hard to put the pieces together, once I really thought about it. Just as veilchen was German for violet, aurum was Latin for gold.