JOHN, Yorkshire May 2017
'So who's your friend?' John asked as he ran after Semila, his steps echoing. Sem just smiled and kept marching. 'Come on Sem, who is he? Is he an Angel like you?'
Sem stopped dead and turned. 'No John,' she said, 'she's nothing like me, nothing like me at all. Come on, I'll drive you there.'
This time John stopped dead. 'She?' He frowned, then he realised she'd said "drive." 'No way Sem, I'm not getting in a car with you ever again, you're fucking loopy.'
The Angel sighed and rolled her eyes, thumb hooked into her jeans. 'I took lessons John, turns out I'm a fucking natural.' She smiled and the gold tooth gleamed. 'Passed my test first time.'
John's head cocked to one side. 'Did you pass, or did you charm your way to a pass?'
'I passed John, I've got my licence, it's all fucking good.' She smiled again, but he wasn't convinced, eyeing her as he approached her.
Together they walked out of the shady alley into the street, and Sem clicked her car key. The double beep rang, and hazard lights blinked on twice.
John's eyes almost popped out of his head. 'What the fuck is that?' He pointed at the metallic grey car that'd just winked at him.
'This,'--Semila stroked the front wheel arch-- 'is a Morgan Aero 8 with a four point eight litre engine. Complete with eighteen inch alloys and a sexy as fuck top speed of one hundred and seventy miles per hour. I also had a custom paint job done on it.' She pointed at the car's side where angel wings spread. 'You like?'
John stood in the street slack jawed. His mind was equally stumped. 'H-how did you afford this? I thought we were keeping a low profile!' The pitch of his voice hiked with the panic suddenly overwhelming him.
Sem opened the driver's door and slid into the seat, then pressed a button and the passenger window slid open. 'I am.' She sounded petulant. 'I also had the suspension lowered, grips the road better apparently.' Her disarming smile made John grin in spite of his racing heart. Fuck, he was mad getting into this car.
'You're mad Sem, fucking barking mad. But I'll forgive you this time.' He stepped closer and opened the car door. The new car smell filled his nostrils as he sat in the passenger seat.
Sem started the car and blipped the accelerator. 'Buckle up dip shit, and try not to vomit in my car.' Not a promising start.
The Angel smashed the car into first and took off like a missile while John fumbled with the belt buckle clasp. The violence of Sem's cornering and the break neck speed of her driving ensured it took a few streets before John clicked himself into some sort of safety.
'Red light Sem! Red light!'
Sem pushed her foot down hard on the accelerator and sped through. John gripped the door handle and screwed his eyes shut. The screeching of tyres behind him made him shake his head. And his stomach felt like he'd swallowed a melon. 'Sem you can't do that, people could get hurt.' John glanced behind them and saw at least three cars piling up in the intersection behind them. And flashing blue lights. Fucking fabulous.
'Lighten up John, no one was hurt. I help people. I don't hurt them.' Sem paused for a second. 'Unless they touch my car, then I'll fucking pound them.'
John shook his head as sirens sounded behind them, drawing nearer.
'Consequences Sem, always consequences for your actions. You can't jump red lights!' John craned his neck and swore under his breath—the police car was tailing them. 'Pull over Sem, take your punishment like an Angel.'
Sem indicated left and slammed on her breaks, the police car nearly rear-ending her but screeching to a stop a centimetre from the Morgan 8.
Two police men got out of their car and walked towards Sem and John. Sem wound down her window.
'Miss,' said one police man, 'could you and your passenger put your hands on the dash please.'
Sem smile. 'Officer,' she said, 'I think you-'
'Hands on the dash!' he shouted, his hand twitching to a weapon at his side.
'Fuck, John Blin-' Sem started to say, but the police man hit her with some sort of cattle prod. She jerked in her seat and managed to grab the prod, then another came in and her head hit the steering wheel.
'Shit!' John growled, eyes still on Semila not quite believing what he was seeing.
John's door was ripped open, and a punch connected with his temple. The police man reached over and unclicked his seatbelt, then flung him out onto the road. Nausea filled him and the world spun, blurry. Before he knew it he was cuffed and face down on the cold pavement. The grit against his cheek felt familiar, but he couldn't muster the terror he should be feeling while his head spun.
A crunch and Sem landed next to him, cheek on the asphalt, mouth bloody as she grinned at him between spasms. He looked down to see her cuffs radiating a neon red glow. 'Sem!' he whispered, 'are you okay?'
Sem nodded, her face still twitching sporadically.
One of the officers was on a mobile phone. 'Yeah it's Gronch, we got them,' he said. 'Your fucking sticks didn't work properly. We hit her with two and she's still alive. They're in cuffs now, yeah. Yeah the red ones. She aint going anywhere. Yeah, we'll bring 'em down. You want us to off the lady?' There was a silence before he answered again. 'Okay, but if she's that dangerous it would be easier to just...Okay! Okay. Both of them it is.'
John's mind dragged like tired feet. He heard the words, and something deep inside him nudged at him to fucking do something, but his thoughts kept muddling.
'Get up, we're taking you for a ride,' the police man called Gronch said as they hauled John and Sem up and into the back of the police car.
All John could think was how much his wrists, cheek, knees, and face hurt as he stumbled in the man's grip and toppled into the back. God, he was gonna puke.
'And you bring that vehicle,' Gronch said to his partner. 'It would arouse suspicion if we left it here.'
'Scra...scra...scratch my car and I'll f...ffff...fucking kill you.' Sem grit her teeth against the spams.
Gronch turned in his seat. 'Shut the f-f-f-fuck up. You move or speak again, I'll kill you. Understand?'
John and Sem sat and stared hard at the police man, Sem fighting against spasms, John fighting against drool. 'This isn't the first time we've been jumped,' John said as he stared the copper in the eyes. With every word he felt more himself. 'We'll get out of this and I can guarantee a biblical mountain of shit will rain down on your fucking head. You feeling me?'
Gronch back handed John hard. Welcome back, dizziness. 'One more fucking time, I swear you'll die.' John was about to speak again, but Sem knocked her knee against his and shook her head. The look on her face explained everything. They were in the shit.
The cars drove, and the streets blurred. John was still trying to gather his focus when they pulled off the main road, and Gronch radioed to his partner. 'Here will do, we'll dump it here and burn it out.'
The cars pulled over and Gronch's partner got out of the Morgan.
Gronch paused, looking towards a movement in the shadows, he tensed until he saw the slight form of a hooded person walk out. The person walked past Gronch's partner, and to his surprise his partner started following the hooded figure. He got out of the police car and shouted over. 'Oy! What do you think you're doing?' His partner said nothing as he took out his gun and shot Gronch four times in the chest. The shots echoed, and John heard a thwack as Gronch hit the ground.
John had just started thinking he was back to himself, but this latest development made no sense to him. What the fuck was going on? John and Sem exchanged concerned glances. A woman's voice floated from the nondescript street, and Sem and John leaned to look out the window, their faces pressed near the glass misting it up
'Now,' the hooded woman said to Gronch, 'who sent you? Where were you taking them?'
Gronch grimaced and bit down hard, he twitched and jerked, blood smearing. Baffling. He foamed at the mouth, and with a gasp and a final twitch died on the pavement. Poison?
'Goodness me!' the woman said. 'They are taking this serious. Poison.' She turned to the partner. 'Now then handsome,' she purred, 'tell me everything.' The man smiled and started talking, but a high-pitched whine sounded, and red light appeared in his mouth.
'Oh dear,' said the mysterious woman. 'Please back away from me.' She pointed. 'Over there on the grass, if you would.' The woman ducked down as the man walked away, and his head exploded.
'Poison capsules,' the hooded woman mumbled as she shuffled into the driver's seat of the police car and pulled her hood down. 'Exploding heads!' she exclaimed as she turned to face the two in the back. 'I can only assume you two are extremely important people.' She smiled. 'Hello Semila, nice to see you again. And you must be John Finnie.' She looked him up and down. 'So nice to finally make your acquaintance.'
Who? What? John looked at Sem, confused, and Semila sighed.
'Hello Natasha. We were just coming to see you.'
Natasha smiled, and John couldn't help noticing the lush red of her full lips. 'I know.'
'Now my friends,' Natasha started, 'I will take the car over there and Sem, you follow me in this one. We need to get rid-'
'The fuck you will!' Sem spat. 'Nobody touches my car Natasha. You drive this one, I'll drive the Morgan.' The women stared each other down for a tense moment.
John glanced between them, his cuffed hands in his lap. He had the feeling this was a war of wills he didn't want to come between, but something had to be done. He cleared his throat. 'Hi Natasha, can I call you Natasha?'
Natasha nodded, her eyes still fixed on Sem.
'I would shake your hand, but I'm cuffed you see, which makes it a bit difficult.'
Natasha waved her left hand, and the handcuffs released and fell of John's wrists. A startled John brought his hands forward and rubbed at his wrists. 'Thanks man, cuffs proper suck.' He put his hand in front of Natasha's face, blocking her line of sight to the Angel. 'John,' he said, 'pleased to meet you. Could I ask who's side you're on, please?'
Natasha looked towards John and took his hand. 'Pleased to meet you too, my name is Natasha Malign.' Light glimmered in her eyes and her voice took on the sultry silkiness that made men's knees weak. 'And to answer your question, I'm on your side John. I have been for many years now.'
Magic oozed from the succubus as she looked John in the eyes, but he didn't notice. Semila felt the alluring pull, and it was hard to resist, but Sem was stronger now, tougher than before.
Natasha put her hand on John's knee, magic flowing like a river. 'I just know we are going to be the best of friends, you and I John. We could be a team better than Semila and yourself, together you and I would be...formidable.'
John laughed, and as he did so Sem felt Natasha's magic falter. 'There is no better team than Sem and me,' John said as he moved his body between Sem and the mysterious woman. 'So if you want to kill her, you're gonna have to go through me first.'
This time Natasha giggled. 'Oh my, no John. I would never kill my little pet Angel. I've gotten quite attached to her over the years.' She looked at John, almost as if she was confused, and put her hand on his knee again. 'Now,' she said as her magic flowed again. 'You drive Semila's car and follow me closely.'
John shook his head. 'You're fucking joking right? Drive Sems' car?' He leaned back in his seat. 'You hear that Sem?' Sem nodded slowly, looking at John the way a scientist looks at a new life form. John stopped talking and looked from Sem to Natasha, both women were looking at him in a strange way. 'I mean, drive your car! My shoulder would never recover...Why are you both looking at me like that?'
'You didn't feel it?' Sem asked.
'Feel what?' John had the distinct feeling he was missing something.
'The pull, did you feel a pull?' Sem asked. John shifted in his seat, suddenly uncomfortable. 'I felt nothing. Why? What should I have felt?' A blush burned on his cheeks.
'How very infuriating,' Natasha said and pouted.
'How very fucking marvellous,' Sem said and grinned like a Cheshire cat.
P.S. Silly season is here, so I thought i'd share another chapter for everyone before the holidays.