Thaumatology 12: Vengeance (9 page)

Pushing the door closed, Ceri applied a little magic to keep it that way. When she looked around again, Ed had lifted his head, sensing the energy release. She saw his face shift as tiny expressions flickered across it: pain, loss, relief. The one it settled on was fear.

‘Ed,’ Ceri said, ‘I know I said I’d kill you if I saw you again, but I’m not going to teleport a couple of hundred miles to do it.’

‘Uh, no,’ he said after a second, his voice carrying a soft Welsh accent. ‘I never took you for unreasonably murderous.’

‘No, I’m just reasonably murderous. Look, I need your help, but that’s an excuse… I… Maybe I was a little harsh…’

‘You weren’t,’ Ed replied. ‘I’m a coward. I could have come forward with Cheryl’s whereabouts straight after the fall, but I was scared of how you’d react…’

‘You stopped Huanglong from having her killed, messily if his other work is anything to go by. You stood up to him on that at least and you deserve more credit for it.’

‘Still, I’m sorry…’

‘Not to me, Ed,’ Ceri stated flatly. ‘Apologise to Cheryl. I’m not a great believer in “I was only following orders,” but you were under duress. You did what you could. Mei was the same and I forgave her.’

‘Can we take my apology as read then, and move on? I’ll talk to Cheryl first chance I get.’

‘That may be sooner than you think.’ Taking her tablet from her bag, Ceri tapped up an animation showing the reconstructed cube and passed it across to Ed. ‘What do you make of that?’

‘A tesseract-form enchantment,’ Ed stated immediately. ‘That is old school. I haven’t seen anyone use one in… centuries at least. The glyph sequences construct a fourth dimensional inner construct…’

‘That’s what Gwyn said. Do you think you can work out exactly what it does?’

‘Well… no. You’re missing one of the sides. I can work out
almost
precisely what it does, but you could be missing something vital.’ He frowned. ‘These glyphs are too small to read properly, but…’

‘They’re draconic, Ed. Someone who knows how to build enchantments using draconic symbology has made something which is causing angels to solidify in London. And they’re using the generator to power it. I need… an expert, and you are about as expert as it gets.’

‘Gwyn could…’

‘Gwyn has a lot on her plate at the moment. I’ve got her helping Cheryl with the conference. She can help. Hell, I doubt you could stop her, but she’s got Cheryl’s sanity in her hands. I’ve got several generator projects and two worlds to juggle. Will you help?’

‘Of course I will.’ His expression said he was just glad she had got over her feelings for him in order to ask.

Mayfair, London.

Ceri had not really been in the mood for Demi-monde, but she had been faced with Gwyn, Twill, and Mei telling her that she needed to relax, and she needed to pay some more attention to Lily. The latter reason had been mean, but also true. Lily had got all dressed up for her, and then there had been the news break and they had been running from crisis to crisis ever since. So they had gone to Mayfair.

As they approached the club, however, they both started wondering if it was such a good idea. There was a woman, short and a little dumpy, standing outside the building with a placard which proclaimed ‘Babylon is Here.’ She was waving it at anyone passing by and saying something or other to them. The reaction she was getting in most cases was a quickening of pace.

As Ceri approached with Lily, both wearing long, leather coats, the woman eyed them, decided they looked like customers, and stepped forward. ‘And He cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird! Go thee not into this foul and depraved place lest you be judged.’

Ceri came to a stop, saying nothing, but she looked down into the woman’s eyes.

The woman looked back, then quickly at Lily, and then back to Ceri. Her mouth hardened. ‘If a man sleeps with a man as with a woman, they have both committed a detestable thing. They must be put to death, their blood is on their own hands.’

It was entirely the wrong thing to say. Ceri felt the anger surge, felt her dragon-self rising to the surface, and knew her eyes were changing. She did not care. ‘Go. Away,’ Ceri growled. The woman’s eyes widened and she backed away. Then she turned and hurried down the street away from the door.

‘Did you use magic on her?’ Lily asked quietly as they walked up to the door with its subtle little plaque.

‘No, that would be illegal. I just glared at her.’

‘You did the eye thing, didn’t you?’

Ceri pushed the door open. ‘She got me angry.’

Reynolds, the stiff-looking man who greeted the guests, was there as usual. He was one of the few members of staff who wore clothes, unless you counted leather jeans or a body harness as clothes. Today, however, Mistress Arabella was with him.

The owner of the club was the kind of woman who made a strict corset look great. Her décolletage was being pushed and pressed into particularly impressive form tonight, and the floor-length, silk skirt split all the way up the front, just added to the look. She looked like a thoroughly self-assured woman, a dominatrix, which was exactly what she was.

‘You seem to have scared off our protestor,’ Arabella said, smiling as Ceri removed her coat.

‘She annoyed me,’ Ceri replied. ‘I told her to go away. I’ve been getting a lot better at glaring at people recently.’ She handed her coat to a woman in a strappy, leather harness and then went to sign in.

‘The poor girl has been out there since about midday. I think she deserves a rest. Lily is rather more dressed than usual…’

Ceri straightened up and looked around. She had dressed Lily in the new lingerie she had bought and a pair of black high-heeled pumps. She had also left out all the jewellery Lily was fond of wearing to the club, but her hair was pulled back into a ponytail by the conical ornament she wore at work. She still looked both gorgeous and every bit the submissive.

‘I’m trying to teach her that she doesn’t have to be naked to be my pet,’ Ceri said.

Arabella contemplated Lily for a second. ‘She’s not actually wearing much.’

‘Baby steps, Arabella. Um, a favour… Where do you get your clothes from?’

~~~

Ceri let out a soft groan as Lily’s hands worked over the muscles in her lower back. The baths at the club were perfect for massages and Ceri never passed up an opportunity for a really good massage from Lily.

‘Mistress?’ Lily said, her voice soft. ‘Why were you asking about Mistress Arabella’s clothes?’

‘I thought her designer might be able to work something up for us.’

‘Hmm, yes, some demonic corsetry.’

‘I don’t have the bust for the kind of dresses Arabella wears. I think something a bit like the fae witch dress, but… more… demony.’

‘Is “demony” a word?’

‘No.’ Ceri let out a soft moan as Lily’s hands shifted to a tense patch at the base of her spine.

‘Mistress is working too hard,’ Lily commented. ‘Her neck felt like it had iron rods in it.’

‘Now it feels like rubber bands,’ Ceri replied with a sigh.

‘Mistress needs to relax more.’ Lily’s hands slid between Ceri’s thighs, her fingers quickly finding the spot she was looking for.

Ceri let out a tiny squeak. ‘This is the quiet pool, pet.’

Lily began a slow circling motion which she knew drove Ceri nuts. ‘Mistress will have to be quiet then.’

Holloway, April 3
^rd
.

‘Ceri,’ Cheryl said as she walked into the office her assistant had been allocated, ‘what
are
you wearing?’

Ceri looked down at her corset and skirt. ‘I came straight from the club. Lily and I had a very relaxing evening and I am feeling thoroughly refreshed and ready to face murders, falling angels, and aquatic thaumatology problems.’

‘That’s just mean.’ Cheryl’s gaze shifted to Lily who was apparently looking for research papers on the other computer in the room. The second office had been built for two, but Cheryl had never replaced her other assistant. ‘You don’t want to take your coat off, Lily?’

Lily took her hand away from the mouse, stood up, turned to face Cheryl, and opened up her coat to reveal the lacy bra and thong under it. ‘I came straight from the club too.’

‘That is just… cruel and unusual, but I should’ve seen it coming.’

As Lily sat back down Ceri said, ‘Lily’s hunting for some papers I need, and she’s available to make coffee and generally be useful.’

‘At least until lunch,’ Lily added. ‘I’m working tonight and I want some time to myself before then.’

‘Well, thank you,’ Cheryl said, smiling. ‘Gwyn and Faran are a godsend. Gwyn’s got everything organised like clockwork and Faran is talking the suppliers into whatever we need. He’s got the administrative heads of the two colleges eating out of his hand. Well, he has one and a rather attractive blonde has the other, but I’m ignoring the abuse of demonic power if it keeps them sweet.’

‘Dad always has been good at twisting people in knots. Of course, he has certain natural advantages, but he’s just got a lot of talent with social skills on top of that.’

‘He certainly is skilled,’ Cheryl agreed.

Lily looked around at her. ‘He’s persuaded you into the broom closet, hasn’t he?’

‘It was on that desk, actually,’ Cheryl replied, managing to keep her voice casual, though her cheeks were colouring.

‘I’ll have him tortured next time we’re in the castle,’ Ceri suggested. ‘No, wait, I never employed a torturer.’

‘We could put him in a few of the machines though,’ Lily countered. ‘Maybe the ones we haven’t worked out yet.’

Cheryl frowned. ‘You actually
have
a torture chamber?’

‘Faran wouldn’t let me rip it out,’ Ceri replied. ‘Aside from the scare factor he says that it’s the greatest collection of torture instruments in the world. It’s lacking a lot of more modern inventions…’

‘Thank God,’ Lily put in.

‘…but it’s a really amazing collection. I have to admit, some of the things down there are kind of beautiful… as long as you don’t think about what they do.’

‘We have the
other
kind of dungeon too,’ Lily pointed out. ‘Hiffy has added some
very
interesting equipment to that too.’

Ceri winced. ‘Demons have a lot of time on their hands to, uh, invent ways of making things interesting, no matter what the type of, um, torture you’re interested in.’

‘Any thoughts on when you’re doing that conference there?’ Cheryl asked.

‘I’ll go over there at the weekend and arrange it,’ Ceri replied. ‘I want to do it soon though, because the Australian project depends on the results.’

Cheryl gave a smile. ‘Isn’t it nice to be cursed with living in interesting times?’

Battersea.

‘We found a rather confused man wandering down the railway line two days ago,’ Alexandra said. ‘He seemed to think he was an angel, so we put him up at Acre Lane.’

Ceri nodded. ‘If he can get about five miles away from here he can go back to whatever god he owes allegiance to.’

‘I’ll get word to Andrea at the shelter.’ The old werewolf looked over Ceri’s shoulder to where Michael was sitting, arms wrapped around his mate. ‘Michael is still kicking himself that someone got into the station to plant that thing.’

Ceri reached up and slapped Michael’s muzzle. ‘Well stop it. Whoever did it was quite possibly a dragon, and at the very least they had access to
very
advanced enchantment. You’re good, but you know I could get past you no trouble if I used magic.’

Michael gave a grumbling acknowledgement, but Ceri suspected he was not going to give up the guilt just yet.

‘Other than that,’ Alexandra went on, ‘things have been quiet. The protests at the station are giving a little concern, but they remain peaceful so far.’

‘No sign of them coming over here? There was one of them outside Demi-monde last night.’

‘I’ve had reports of a couple of them walking past, but no protests. Anita has increased the standing guard around the island, just in case.’

‘That sounds like a plan.’ Ceri patted Michael’s arm. ‘Come on, let me get into fur and we’ll go do a border run. There’s that spot you like down by Eagle Pond. I’ll let you catch me there.’

Michael gave a rumbling growl and Alexandra laughed. ‘You’re not supposed to let them know we
allow
them to catch us, dear. It takes all the mystery away.’

Mayfair.

Ishifa peered around the interior of the Dubh Linn as though she might get eaten at any moment. It was not actually an entirely unreasonable fear; some of the inhabitants of the pub would have considered a fairy as a potential light snack, which was why there was a pipe running from the roof of the building down to the solid, polished wood bar.