Unfinished Business (The Shades of Northwood 3)

  There was a war going on outside the bedroom door. It was looking only slightly less lethal that an all-out firefight. It was no fun to listen to either. It was making Katie feel as though this was all her fault. She supposed it was, in a way, but there was no way she could have changed the way things had turned out. It didn’t stop her wishing though…

  About 15 minutes ago, Leo had stormed into her room raging about this and that and she was a lazy bitch for not showing up at the library that afternoon when it was only ten minutes walk away and was it too far for the babba? Which, surprisingly, hadn’t made her feel brilliant. She had floundered, momentarily lost for words and on the brink of what she thought were irrational tears. Now Leo was outside her door and Jack was trying to calm him down, trying to explain what had happened. But,, of course, he couldn’t explain away the bits he didn’t know. And this calming technique wasn’t working. Leo was still yelling but not making much sense, and Jack was starting to get worked up and defensive too. It was time for the feminine touch.

  “Guys!”

  They both ignored her. Too engrossed in mutual hated or some other favoured male past-time.

  “Stop telling me I can’t take care of my own girlfriend!”

  “You can’t! Can you be there for her every minute of every day?”

  “Wait… no-one takes care of this girl.”

  “Stay outta this, Katie.”

  “Excuse me Pointer?”

  “This isn’t your fight. It’s between me and him.”

  “And it’s about me! So it damn well is my business.”

  “So you’re rowing with girls now?” Jack began a slow handclap. Slow and sarcastic. “Wow. I actually thought you were better than that.”

  Leo clenched his fist and pulled back, clearly ready to throw a punch. In her minds eye, the scene blasted into bright colours, swirls of red and yellow energy in the air. Hot, energy, fierce and passionate. And it was all because of her. All in a blur she knew that Jack was not going to fade even a little bit to avoid a blow he knew was coming. He was going to take the hit. He was going to let it fracture his cheekbone and not heal from it until he was alone. And why? Because he was 150 years older than Lady Katie. Because she was a girl and he was a man whose job it was to protect her. Knowing this with one glance at the bright energies flying around her made Katie suddenly angry. And then, the colours faded behind the real things and she saw Leo making the first forward movements with his arm. She closed her eyes and stepped forward, beating him to the punch.

  Literally.

  Okay, not literally but OH FUCK! OW! It was more a slap.

  “What are you guys fighting for?”

  Jack just stared at her. Then he touched a hand to his cheek. A white handprint stood starkly against his tanned face – I would turn pink and then red, perhaps a faint bruise and then it would fade to nothing. And Jack would savour every moment of that pain while it lasted. “You…”

  “For a Shade your face is bloody hard,” she said, barely hearing him, as she shook the stinging away from her left hand and blew on her fingers as if that would cool them down. “So glad I don’t have to do that often.”

  “Look what you made her do.”

  “Me?”

  “Yeah, you.”

  Katie looked between the boys. If she had allowed the situation to devolve into fists, Jack would definitely have caught the sharp end of the deal. Leo was taller than him and new more modern fighting techniques than throw a few punches and hope he goes down. Of course Jack had the benefit of over a century surviving in who knew what kind of dark world. So she had thrown herself on the middle of the two boys, hoping to make herself the focus of attention. It didn’t appear to have worked because they were still raving at each other – now about something to do with duty and stress. Yes, she knew all about that. But now wasn’t the time to think about that.

  “You know what? I’ve had enough of you two bitch-fighting over me to last a lifetime. Now, Leo, I’m sorry I didn’t make it to the library but I was watching a friend of mine die. The world doesn’t run to your schedule, okay. Deal with that. And Jack, you don’t own me so don’t go round fighting my battles. I’m a big girl.”

  “I never meant-“

  “I never meant-“

  The two boys spoke at exactly the same time. Katie held up a hand before they could even think of ways to end that sentence. “Save it. I don’t want to be in this.” And she turned around, walked back into her room and slammed the door on them. The remnants of her latest splurge of… ultra-vision showed her a complete halt in the flow of energy outside her door. A complete confused standstill. But if Katie was hoping the boys might stay that way or even be halfway civil to each other, she was disappointed. They had had their moment of utter shock at her - such an outburst was out of character, but hell if she hadn’t secretly enjoyed letting rip for a second – and then they carried right back on in much more hushed, but unmistakably angry tones. Through the door, it was impossible to tell one voice from the other but snatches of hissed conversation drifted through.

  “… love her but…”

  “… don’t think she knows…”

  “… keep it down…”

  “… don’t tell me…”

  “… disgusting…”

  “… grow up…”

  “Fuck off and deal with it then!” That one rang out clearly. It was filled with bile and hate but… tiredness. Like the words were just rehearsed and there was nothing but a slow burning fuse behind them. “Go on. Leave us to our own problems.”

  No. Katie decided it wasn’t that the arguing was heating up again – although she had no doubt it was. This was her hearing sharpening. Just as it had when she had fought that thing in Jaye’s body last month, all her senses were suddenly more alive than ever. She was seeing the energy trails things left or radiated all around them; hearing things she may not have even noticed like the ticking of the second hand of her watch; she could even smell the sweet and sugary sin that was Doritos and Red Bull under her desk. It was all too much. Heightened senses was something Shades had to deal with every day. Maybe they were better equipped to deal with them.

  “Screw you!”

  The words descended into unintelligible babbles put the sounds of pushing and shoving were obvious enough. Just as Katie resigned herself to wriggling back into her dressing gown and leaving bed (lovely bed) behind, footsteps stormed into the middle of the boys and stopped the scuffle.

  “I’ve heard enough.” Dina. She was as tall as Katie but much thinner. She was surprisingly strong and her delicate voice and looks betrayed the voice of authority she could snap on at any moment. “I’m trying to catch up on coursework and all I can hear is you two whining about Katie and being a Shade and how you have so many things to do and no-one else is helping.” She said this last part with a pinch of sarcasm that made Katie grin. “Well, I’m sick of it.”

  “He started it. Coming in here and-“

  “I don’t care who started it. I’m finishing it. You, in your room. Cool it.” That must have been meant for Leo although no footsteps faded into the next room. “And you.” Jack next. She wondered what kind of a pasting he would get and, unthinking, flexed the hand she had used to slap him. if only she could take that moment back… “You’re old enough to know better. You’re not coming back here until at least tomorrow.”

  “But you don’t know what she’s been through today.”

  “And neither do you. But this won’t help. Now get!” She stamped her foot and there was a third less tension outside.

  “S’all I wanna do you know. Help.”

  “I’m sure you do. Best thing to do is let the kid sleep, ‘kay?” Good old Dina. She might still be hurting inside now that she knew how she was going to die and having tried to hurt herself before it happened – nobody wanted to suffer and die and then be brought back to this world to end
ure it all over again – but she knew how to keep a cool head when everyone else was losing theirs. It suddenly occurred to Katie that this might be why Dina had slashed her wrists in the first place. I know you didn’t mean it D. But was it really because you didn’t want to make a fuss? The only answer that came back was two sets of feet turning into the rooms on her right and left, and their doors creaking closed just seconds apart.

  Katie defiantly squeezed her eyes shut, pulled the covers so far up that only a roughly human shaped lump was visible and tried to go to sleep. Nothing, nothing, nothing, I’m thinking of nothing. It sounded good enough to keep the freaky dreams away. And it worked for a while. Until something woke her up. She opened her eyes and noted that the house was in darkness. But a slightly darker shape stood in her open door. Jack? She sent it weakly, still lazy with interrupted sleep. There was no answer. Her mind worked slowly through the problem. Jack had been sent away so he couldn’t be here unless some-one else… And also she had locked the door, hadn’t she? Maybe she had just closed it but he knew better than to intrude. Blinking and rubbing her eyes, Katie twisted and looked at her alarm clock. It threw out some ridiculous hour of Sunday morning in a sick yellow glow. The numbers should be a bright but gentle green but she hadn’t changed the batteries for about a year. And the abuse she put it through every morning gave it a good excuse for not working properly. No. No more distractions. Somebody was standing at her door and watching her sleep. Perv. Without turning on a light, Katie picked out a faint wisp of energy and concentrated on it, following it all the way along.

  Oh great.

  Of all the people in this old house, Leo was the one she liked least. Paradoxically, she trusted him the most though. He hadn’t tried to shoot her in the head, break her arm, lead her into some strange not quite hell dimension, pitied her when she had confessed to being raped less than six months – yes, it was a confession because, somehow, it felt like something to be kept secret - and nor had he kept anything a secret from her. He had simply told her what she needed to hear and then let her get on with things. That was one of the few things she truly liked about him. No poofery about protecting her because she was a girl or a child; no trying to wrap her in cotton wool. In fact, Katie had the distinct impression that he would much rather wrap her in barbed wire. In the few seconds it took her to think all this, his dark figure was looming over her bed. The first notes of a scream wobbled on her tongue. He slapped a hand over her mouth before it opened. Katie held down the urge to struggle. Instead, she bit into the palm. Not quite hard enough to draw blood but hard enough to make Leo snatch his hand away and hiss a chain of expletives Katie couldn’t hear.

  “What are you doing in my room?” When he didn’t immediately answer, she carried on, whispering her angry words. Angry gave way to merely pissed off. “Is this your new insane game or something? Watching girls sleep like some – ewww! There aren’t even words.”

  “This was the only time I could speak to you. I’m being watched like a thief in Harrods.”

  “Well hell, I can’t think why.”

  “You wanna help Walkin’ Dead or not?”

  “Jack.” She suddenly remembered slapping his face – how the sound of flesh on flesh had been so hard, as real as any other person she might care to assault. Don’t make a habit of it muttered a voice in her head. It was followed by another one – go on, you’ve got every excuse. And it could be fun. Stamp on it. Trample down her internal debates. Too tired.

  “You wanted to know what made him look all scared and shit?”

  “At a guess… something to do with you. Though why he cares what you think is-“

  “Whatever.” He shut the door and turned on the lamp by her laptop all in one motion. “Set this shit up. I ain’t touching your computer.”

  Oh, sleep had made the final escape from her mind and she was fully awake if not alert or quite knowing what she was doing. A proved when she nearly tumbled to the ground trying to get out of bed, tangled in sheets as she was. Katie glared at her duvet. “Don’t be looking at me like that, dolphin. You know what you did,” she accused it. Harsh words didn’t stop her tumbling into a spin, going over on that weak left ankle – damn, is that going to keep giving out on me? – but dimly not being bothered that she might fall, knock herself out, never wake up again. In reflex, she windmilled both arms for balance. Her good arm struck something warm and tightly corded. She knew without a hesitation she had grabbed onto Leo – he had shot out of the chair to catch her but the less said about that the better. She opened her eyes and found herself staring into deep blue ink wells that held nothing but a million stars. A galaxy of them in irises that were usually so blank. So often had those eyes been twisted with loathing as he discussed Shades and people who only came back once they were dead, or soft with… with… with something she couldn’t find a name for as he saved her life over and over. I’ll find a way to thank him for it. A way that’s better than words. I promise you that, Leo, I’ll find a way. “Okay. Now what?”

  The computer whirred away quietly, booting up. Leo crouched down and spread Doritos and Red Bull out on the only clear patch of floor below the window, stretching the mains adapter down so they could work on the floor.

  “You use my stuff, you raid my sugar stash. What a gentleman.”

  “Yeah, we need your badge too,” he mumbled through a mouthful of tortilla chips.

  The glow thrown out from her desk lamp stretched just far enough to see in the bedside cabinet, where she had dumped her things earlier. The glare was tilted down to light up the laptop perfectly. Draw open, Katie rummaged around and just as her hand closed around the pointed star of a badge, two tarot cards slipped between her fingers and she brought them out too, laying the whole lot on the floor and not giving it a second thought.

  Leo opened the internet browser. “See, I was looking for anything that matched this badge. I didn’t think I had anything but I looked on this history place.” He was taking a history class as part of his studies. “You know, research, like you said.”

  “And?”

  “Well, this style – kinda like a shield but with all the points poking over the side – was only used between 1840 and 1860. Give or take. So that fits.”

  “Okay. Give me something useful.” Where was all this going? “So I crossed that with the state of Texas to find a list of sheriffs who were around between those times.”

  “Trying to find the guy who…” still couldn’t say ‘the man who killed Jack’. It made Katie feel cold inside, like he was truly dead and never coming back to her. And that just wasn’t true. Jack would always come back. “Who hurt me,” she finished.

  “You wanted a name.” Leo typed a crazy long address in and clicked impatiently at various pages, trying to find what he wanted. “I found this place. I don’t know how reliable it is, but…”

  Katie got up on her knees and shuffled around to his side. It was just a list of names at first glance. A site somebody had been geeky enough to set up but hadn’t bothered to have professionally designed or maintained. SHERIFFS IN MID 19TH CENTURY AMERICA read the title and the page was subheaded TEXAS. Katie squinted her eyes and started to read down the list. About halfway down, her name fell on one name in particular. “Henry Lawson. That’s Jacks’ last name. Lawson.”

  “Makes sense. Son of the law. S’how they used to decide surnames years ago. By jobs.”

  “So he must think that his father killed him. Murdered his own son. Maybe not even knowing who he was.”

  “Bitch, innit?”

  “Is there a photograph or a picture?”

  “I guess so. Not here but I could look for one now we’ve got a definite name. Why?”

  “Because he didn’t do it. Henry Lawson didn’t touch his son.”

  “And you know this how?”

  “Because-“ oh wait, should she really be telling him any of this? “Because
I met Henry today and he isn’t the man I saw trying to flay me alive.”

  The wheels in Leo’s brain started turning – whirring actually – Katie could practically see them going round and then, all at once, stopping. It was as if his mind had just been overwhelmed by this new knowledge and had simply dug its’ heels in and refused to think about it. She also saw his eyes flick over several other topics to talk about before he finally noticed the two tarot cards on the floor. “What are those?”

  “Mademoiselle Romani gave them to me. She says they represent-“ Katie grabbed them up and passed them over and was suddenly no longer aware if she was still speaking. Their hands brushed as he tried to take them and something like electricity snapped between them. One dark soul reaching for another…

  And it recoiled from what it found there.

  Because Leo didn’t have a dark soul. Despite all his outward nastiness, Leo didn’t have a dark soul. Nor did he have one of light and air. He had a soul made of all the colours in the spectrum and more shades besides, some she couldn’t even understand let alone name. There was fire engine red and police siren blue, emerald green and crystalline clear. All through it were lightning strikes of the oldest of old gold. It was beautiful. Katie allowed this awesome rainbow pull her along; went willingly into a spirit of many colours and crushing brilliance. Further… further… until the back of a young boy appeared in the distance. As she grew closer she noticed a thin clear sphere all around him. “Hello?”

  The boy didn’t appear to hear.

  “Are you alright in there?”

  He heaved a huge sigh and then turned. He had curly dark hair, worn just long enough to cover the edges of a face that was tear-streaked and drawn. “Hi.”

  Katie ran over to the transparent ball and flattened her left hand against it. The boy raised his right and met it. “Why are you in there?”

  The boy shrugged and thought for a long time before he answered. “So I can’t do any more damage.”

  “Damage?”

  “It’s cold in here. And I’m hungry. But he says I have to stay here. He says this is the only way.”

  “Who?”

  “Please don’t leave me. Promise me you won’t leave me.”

  Her heart broke a tiny bit with the need to make this promise. She would promise this strange little boy the moon and the stars themselves if they would make him happy. “I… I’ll…”

  “I’m a secret, you know. I was a very bad boy once and then he punished me for it. Locked me up and never played with me again.”

  Katie tapped her fingernails against this see-through ball, as thin as a soap bubble, as tough as Perspex. How to get this child out..? But, just as she was thinking of some mad scheme, she felt something pulling her backwards like a string attached to her. Back through the stunning kaleidoscope of colours. Back to the real world where she was holding Leo’s hand in hers and staring into that galaxy of dying stars in his eyes. A sound ran out, breaking the gluey connection between the two. It was Katie’s mobile phone, vibrating frantically and ringing very quietly. She moved away from Leo, glad to be putting some distance between them, and snatching it up off the bed. “Mademoiselle Romani?”

  “Oh, thank the stars you answered. Katie, I worked some things out.”

  “And you had a burning desire to share?”

  “The… things I couldn’t see for you earlier, couldn’t divine. I didn’t understand then but I do now.”

  “Okay. But why are you calling me to say? You did the reading. Surely your job’s done now.”

  “I told you you knew too much. I thought you did but you don’t know anything really. You’re learning though. Learning to fight, learning who to trust and who you should doubt.”

  “Mademoiselle Romani please. Slow down. What don’t I know?”

  “Oh stars. The things I know now, the things I need to tell you. You have to come to Ink Exchange. Right now. It’s the only way you can see for yourself.”

  “Now? Seriously? It’s like,” Katie glimpsed the alarm clock by her bed, then checked her watch, hoping against hope her eyes were playing tricks, “four in the morning.”

  “I’m sorry, but it may be too late by the time the sun comes up.”

  “I’m on my way,” Katie said, trying to hold down a yawn. It was funny how you seemed to be exhausted all in a moment when moving was essential. She started to take the phone away from her ear and heard a choked up, “Thank you.”

  “I need to-“ she started to say to Leo then stopped herself. She didn’t need to explain herself to him.

  He was already headed for the door anyway.

  As she dressed quietly by the weak light of her desk lamp, Katie gazed at the window and plotted her jailbreak. Simply walking downstairs and letting herself out the front door didn’t seem like a very good option – not after the noise she had ended up making this (yesterday) morning. Nor did she wish to push her window wide and jump out. The ground below her window was hard concrete but if she jumped, she would miss that and land on top of flower beds and a scrap of grass. And she would almost certainly break her ankle and probably bust her wrist back open. If she was lucky.

  Great. Two choices – one ended in her possible grounding and the other in broken bones. But only one of those ways would get her out of this house for sure.

  Katie finished dressing, faded jeans and trainers and her comfiest Mr Men jumper over a vest top. She didn’t bother with a coat. It would just get in the way. She threw open the window, grabbing it before it slammed against the frame, and looked out into the night. Ahh. The world wasn’t totally against her then. If she climbed through the hole and stretched her left leg out like… yes she could just touch the black metal bracing of the drainpipe. She gripped the windowsill with the fingers of her right hand and shuffled over to get a better footing. Damn. Working her wrist even this little bit hurt; was making it scream to stop the pain. It was worth it when she managed to wrap her left hand around the back of the drainpipe and haul herself onto it like a koala. Somehow she managed to slide down it until it lurched to one side a foot or so above ground. It was an easy jump then. Not painless by any means – the impact just about force her femurs into her pelvis, although she had tried to remember what Adam had said about bending her knees if she fell,, turning the cartilage in her knees into mini shock absorbers.

  It was as she was trying to brush the drainpipe grime from her clothes that a small dark shape dropped silently to the ground behind her. There were two more on either side of her.

  Oh shit.

  Maybe this was a dream.

  Maybe they would go away if she shut her eyes tight and wished really hard.

  Nope. Still there. Then Face them you nit. They’re just shadows. A winning argument. Katie tensed and turned to face the one who had just dropped out of the sky like an angel cat.

  “Don’t say a word!” a voice warned, low and dangerous. “Not till we get out anyway.”

  “Jaye?”

  “I said shush. You want them to hear?”

  “You’re here.” There wasn’t much else to do but state the obvious.

  “And me.” Dina.

  “Me an’ all.” Leo.

  “Why? This isn’t the midnight Moonwalk.”

  “Katie. It’s not even dawn yet, you’re running off to God knows where, and there might be trouble.”

  “I’m going to see a psychic.” And, last time I checked, pictures weren’t dangerous.

  “At four in the morning. Sounds totally legit,” Jaye replied.

  “How did you-?”

  “Door,” Leo answered, before she had finished asking her question.

  “Window,” Jaye slotted in, pointing up to emphasise her point. “Gravity sucks.”

  Then Dina, fast becoming the voice of logic, raised a very important point. “Shouldn’t we get moving before they hear us?”

  Ja
ye was the only one of the group small enough to reach through the gap in the back gate and slipped the latch. The four of them filed out, past black bin liners and a leaning bicycle, as quietly as they could manage which was surprisingly very quietly indeed. “We’re not letting you have all the fun here, babe.”

  “Let’s just go before I crawl back to bed,” warned Katie. “And if anything happens on the way, I never invited you. Load of crashers.” Half-hearted insults were the best she could think of to relieve this coil-tight tension.

  “Erm…” Dina put a hesitant hand up. A dark mass of skin and bone against an inky sky with just the faintest grey tinge of dawn, it looked a bit like a moving tree in the night. The thought made Katie bubble with laughter and she allowed herself a giggle disguised as a cough. “On the way where?”

  “Here?”

  “Problem?”

  Leo took a look around him. The dark of night – and half past four was night in anybody’s book – would make the nicest of neighbourhoods look spooky but here, on Penniton Row with its’ dilapidated buildings and no people around, just felt downright creepy. “Looks like drug pushers paradise.”

  All the girls were feeling it too. Not quite the dread that an axe murderer was waiting round the next corner with blood already on his weapon and hate in his eyes and he didn’t give a damn who was next or first or last because- snap out of it bitch! Katie gave herself a mental slap and wiped a sweaty hand on her jumper. She was getting hot and bothered with the worry. They were a group of teenagers traipsing through the bad part of town in the dark. What could possibly go wrong? A list of possibilities started to form. Katie fixed on a light glowing dimly in a shop further down and headed towards it before her mind could get carried away with itself. “Ink Exchange,” she said and stood before the group. “I really don’t think you needed to come, guys. But… well…”

  “It’s fine. We could hardly let you come alone.”

  “What are Lainy and Adam going to think when they get up and we’re not home?”

  “We’ll think of something to say.”

  “You never know, maybe it’ll be cool.”

  “Yeah, Jaye, the kids they’re meant to be looking after go missing and they’ll be cool about it. Might not even notice. Stupid bitch,” he added, more under his breath than usual.

  “I only meant… I’m not sure what I meant. But they understand things don’t work like clockwork.”

  While this was going on, Katie had walked up to the front door and was looking through. There was a strip light flickering over the counter, but the big room was empty of life. There were the pieces of furniture that had been there earlier although they didn’t look as though they had even been sat on. She stood back and pushed at the door. “Mademoiselle Romani?” The front door was tightly locked. She called a few more times but got no response. There wasn’t even the sound of any movement deep in the shop. To all intents and purposes there was no-one at home.

  Chapter six