"God, you really are insane, aren't you?" he said, his lips curling away from his teeth in a disgusted snarl. "You're spending too much time listening to those whispering ghosts of yours."
"It's true," I insisted, wrapping my arms around myself as if tortured by the cold. "I saw her."
"And if you really had seen her you would know she was not capable of such things!" he snapped, eyes blazing hot fury. "Jenny was the sweetest, kindest girl. She didn't know what it was to hate, even after the way Benjamin treated her, even after he rejected her and made it be known she wasn't one of us; she still didn't have the capacity to hate him or anyone for that matter. Now I don't know what you saw, but I'm telling you now that it was not her."
"It was her, I saw her face. Lucius showed me...."
"Oh Lucius be damned!" Harper sneered. "How do you even know what he shows you is real? We don't know anything about that child and here you are believing the lies he puts in your head." He stepped forward and pressed a finger up against my temple. "Whatever he made you see, forget it. Jenny is no more a threat to you than she is to me."
I pulled away, glancing down the street as the wind whipped up the rubbish in the gutter and danced it along the kerb. He was never going to believe me. He was never going to believe she was anything but an innocent in a world in which she didn't belong.
"Megan, please," he sighed, reaching out and tucking a loose strand of my hair behind my ear. "Lucius has....incredible powers, it's true. He showed me enough for me to never want to go near him again, but we don't know enough about him yet."
"But Garrick says Lucius is one of The Lost, that he has the power to open the gates of the Underworld?"
"So say the legends. And all the signs point to Lucius being what Garrick says he is. But does that mean what Lucius is showing you is the truth? Like I said, we know nothing about the boy. Until we do know, let's not place too much credence on the devilish images he implants in our heads. He could be a demon, nothing more."
"A terrifying one with the smile of a saint."
"All the best demons are just like that. The make people believe they are angels, when really underneath, lurks the beast," he smiled then, the type of smile he used to do when we first met, full of confidence and smouldering arrogance. "Talking of which, can you please stop hunting on your own? It makes me nervous and I don't like feeling nervous."
I grinned and scratched my nails across his beard. "Oh you're just afraid that you're missing out on the action. Quite the voyeur, aren't we?"
His eyes narrowed but his hands gripped my waist, tugging me against him. I inhaled deeply, breathing in the smell of his leather jacket and the musky scent of his skin. "And why not?" he drawled. "Watching you is quite something. Certainly puts a smile on my face."
The sirens were shrieking now. Screaming through the night air as the engines approached, navigating the narrow city back streets.
"We should go," Harper said, almost reluctantly. "As much as I enjoy the mayhem you create, let's not attract too much attention."
"Didn't have you down as the shy type," I laughed, tugging sharply on his hair and nipping at his bottom lip with my teeth.
"Very funny, angel," he winced but I felt his hardness press against my stomach nonetheless. "Come on, let's get back before you start the next Great Fire of London."
He began to walk away and I looked back down the road, noting the hungry glow of the fire emanating above the buildings and the blue lights of the emergency services lighting up the sky.
"Harper?" I called out and he turned, his hands thrust deep into his jean pockets. "What did you see? What did Lucius show you?"
He stared at me for a moment, his emerald eyes darkening and a shadow passed across face.
"Just ghosts, Megan. That is all. Nothing but ghosts and lies."
**********
"Can't you keep him locked up?" I hissed at Garrick.
We were in Benjamin's study, with Garrick seated at the table as usual, pouring over the books that were piled up like little towers on the desktop. Lucius sat cross-legged on a blanket in front of the fire, a pile of his own books by his side and leisurely perusing each one in turn.
"Megan, I can't keep a child locked up forever. I'm a vampire, not a monster," Garrick said with a wicked smirk.
"Oh I could think of a lot of things you are right now," I shot back, my eyes narrowing to slits. "And anyway, he's hardly a child. Surely it's safer to keep him in his room?"
"What would be the point now that you know he exists?" Garrick replied, his face annoyingly impassive.
"Well it would stop him tormenting me every time I go to sleep," I sniped.
"What can I say? He likes you." He leaned back in his chair and smoothed his hands over his long Mohawk, a smug grin highlighting his sharp cheekbones.
"I don't want him to like me; I want him to leave me alone."
Garrick scanned my face, his countenance now solemn as he surveyed me carefully. "Look, whatever your feelings about Lucius, you can pout and stamp your foot all you like, he stays where he is and I'm afraid you're just going to have to get used to it."
Glaring at him, I turned on my heels and stomped from the room, seeking haven away from the study and from Lucius. Harper was nowhere to be seen, he'd disappeared out the door soon after sunset to meet Edward at The Box, for what reason I did not know. I threw myself down on our makeshift bed and put my hands over my ears, desperate to drown out the sound of the whispers that hissed in the walls. Even my own space no longer seemed to offer me any sanctuary. I wasn't sure I wanted to listen to the ghosts anymore, so fearful I was that it would be her voice I would hear reaching out to me, spitting out her bile through the cracks in the plaster.
I wasn't sure how long I had lain there before I heard the door open and a great commotion spilled up through the corridors of the asylum, sounds of shouting and alarm. Harper was back and I recognised Edward's voice amongst the melee of raised voices. Jumping up, I ran out to the main passageway and found Garrick, Paige, Kale, Sergio and Blaine, all clearly heading out as they concealed weapons about their person. Harper stood with Edward, their faces troubled as they waited for the others to join them. Garrick was uttering foul curses as he put on his military-look coat, glancing at me as I appeared.
"What is it? What's going on?" I asked, feeling the tension clouding over everyone.
"There's been a Varúlfur attack in Shoreditch," Harper replied, his mouth set in a grim line. "One of our own has been killed, a male. His female companion is still alive, but barely so. We're going to check it out."
I felt the alarm bells ringing and Brandon's voice in my head.
Tomorrow it is business as usual.
It wasn't exactly the day after the battle, but he had promised the Varúlfur would return and clearly he had meant it. I shuddered thinking about him out there somewhere, waiting and planning, intent on having his revenge.
"I'll come with you," I said and immediately spied the look that passed between the brothers.
"No, Megan, someone needs to stay here with Lucius," Garrick said, shaking his head.
My fear spiked instinctively at the thought of being here alone with the boy. "So just because I'm the woman I have to stay here and babysit?"
"We don't have time to argue about this," Harper snapped. "The last thing we need is Brandon picking up your scent, so just stay here and do your best not to let Lucius go wandering out the front door."
And with that they were gone, leaving me standing in the empty corridor with nothing but the sound of the door slamming shut echoing through the building and the flickering lights buzzing like enraged insects overhead. The whispers whirled and eddied as if the wind were rushing through the passageways and spinning the ghosts' voices around my head, tugging on me and threatening to pull me down to my knees.
"Stop it!" I groaned. "Please."
"They won't listen," said a small voice and I gasped as I whirled around to find Lucius standing with a copy of The Gruffalo held tight in his arms. I backed away automatically, feeling my body tense up at the very sight of him.
"W-what do you mean?" I stammered, hearing the croak in my voice.
Lucius shrugged, shaking the blonde hair out of his eyes. "They just won't."
I gawped as he turned away, walking back towards Benjamin's study, his small frame casting large distorted shadows on the walls. His socked feet barely made a sound as he padded away and I felt hypnotised and horrified at the same time, unable to take my eyes off him yet wanting to tear my gaze away, to run away, to get as far away as I possibly could. Instead, I found my feet moving, following his tiny footsteps, until I was at the doorway watching as he settled himself in front of the hearth again, the brightly coloured book resting on his lap. The fire crackled, the orange glow of the flames alighting one side of his face and leaving the other side in darkness.
If he knew I was there, he didn't acknowledge me, but turned each page, trailing his finger along the script. His mouth moved, forming words that made no sound.
Stepping into the room, I moved cautiously, slowly sidling along the wall, never taking my eyes from him, but still he didn't look up.
"Lucius?" It came out in little more than a trembling whisper.
He raised his head, fixing those big blue eyes upon me and smiled, almost shyly.
"What did you mean? Why won't they listen?"
When he spoke it was a boy's voice, but the words sounded wrong somehow, as if they were out of place coming from a child's mouth. "Because their voice is all they have," he said. "If you won't listen to them, why should they listen to you?"
"But I do listen to them. I listen to them all the time. Sometimes it's all I can hear," I insisted.
"What do they say?" he blinked, once, twice, those child's eyes feigning a child's innocence that I knew did not exist.
"Excuse me?" I frowned.
"What do they say to you?"
I hesitated, my brows furrowing deeply as I tried to pull on those voices. "They're upset, frightened...."
"But what do they say?"
"I....I don't know. Sometimes I can't make out the words. It's mostly cries of pain. Cries for help."
Lucius smiled wider now, a toothy grin that revealed a small gap at the front but instead of feeling warmed by his smile, I recoiled as if I expected it to suddenly transform into a demon's mouth full of terrible, sharp teeth. He just turned his attention back to his book as if I wasn't still standing there.
I stepped forward and I saw his eyes flicker, shooting a glance at my feet as I moved towards him.
"What do they want?"
"All sorts of things," he shrugged again before looking up and thrusting the book at me. "Will you read to me?"
"W-what?" I almost choked. "You want me to read to you?"
He smiled again, shaking the book insistently, a pleading look in his eyes. Careful not to touch his hands, I took the book from him and moved in a wide semi-circle until I reached Benjamin's old chair. I sat with my back poker straight, knees pulled in tight as I opened the book and stared in a daze at the pictures and words that seemed to meld into a jumbled mess. Lucius clasped his hands together under his chin and looked up at me, his face expectantly waiting for me to start.
I began to read. My voice was shaky and more like Megan Walden's than I cared to recall.
A mouse took a walk in the deep dark wood. A fox saw the mouse and the mouse looked good.
I glanced at Lucius, who sat seemingly enthralled by the story, his eyes sparkling as he listened.
A Gruffalo? What's a Gruffalo?
Lucius clapped a hand over his mouth, his eyes widening in child-like horror.
He has terrible tusks, and terrible claws, and terrible teeth in his terrible jaws.
His reactions seemed so normal all of a sudden, so fitting with his appearance as an eight year old boy that I soon found myself smiling as I read the story out loud and immersing myself in the tale just as he was.
Good? said the mouse. Don't call me good. I'm the scariest creature in this wood.
Lucius giggled at the mouse's trickery and rocked back and forth, clutching at his feet as he laughed.
Well, Gruffalo, said the mouse. You see? Everyone is afraid of me.
The boy climbed to his knees, his eyes bright as he consumed every word with unadulterated glee.
All was quiet in the deep dark wood. The mouse found a nut and the nut was good.
Something nudged against my foot and I looked up to find Lucius kneeling directly in front of me, his hand on the book. He was smiling again, that horrible smile that made me press my back against the chair and my breath seemed to leave me in one fell swoop.
"They want to be saved," he said. "They want you to save them."
"Me?" I whispered as the hair on my neck prickled. "Why me?"
"Because you're the only one who can," he said simply and placed his hand over mine.
The screaming began.