The Maleficent Seven. Derek Landy
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sneer crossed Jack’s face. “Not bloody likely.”
“I’m serious. We were all set to mount a daring rescue attempt when we heard you’d managed it all on your own.”
“And why would you want to get me out? Need my help, do you? Another dangerous little mission?”
“As a matter of fact, yes.”
“Yeah, knew it. Get lost.”
“Jack...”
“Not interested.” Jack turned, knees bending, ready to leap away.
Sanguine stepped forward. “Where are you going? Where is there to go? They’ve got the area sealed off, Jack, and they’re closing in. They’re going to get you, drag you back and throw you in a cell so deep you’ll never even breathe fresh air ever again.”
“And let me guess,” said Jack, turning his head slightly, “the alternative to all that is hookin’ up with you and your dad and the vampire again, is it?”
“Not my dad. They have him locked away and no one knows where. As for Dusk, though, yeah, he’s onboard.”
“Forget it.”
“Ask me who’s leading this little mission.”
“No.”
“Tanith Low.”
Jack turned fully now. “You what?”
“You’ve been out of the loop, Jack, so you won’t have heard. She’s got a Remnant inside her now. It’s changed her outlook on a whole load of things. She’s one of us.”
“You bein’ serious?”
“Would I joke about a woman who wears leather that tight?”
“Tanith Low’s possessed by a shadowy little Remnant and has gone all evil on us, has she?” Jack said, then considered it. “And what, exactly, would this mission entail?”
“It would entail, exactly, the retrieval of four God-Killer level weapons from around the world. We have all the locations – we just lack the manpower.”
“And what’ll you be usin’ these weapons for, may I ask?”
“Well, that’s a little bit of a secret at this juncture. If you sign on, though, everything will be explained.”
Jack’s eyes narrowed. “And the risk?”
“Apart from the resistance we’ll face in the actual retrieval of the weapons from their current owners, there’s also a little group of sorcerers who are going after the same things. Our aim is to get to the weapons first, swap them with some clever forgeries and slip out before anyone realises something is wrong.”
“Who’s in this little group of sorcerers?”
“Dexter Vex and a few others. Seven in all. Tanith’s recruiting her own team to match it. You’re our number-one pick.”
“I won’t be on any team with Dusk. If we leave him out, I’m in.”
“That’s great news. Tanith will be delighted. One slight problem. Dusk is already in.”
“You said I was your number-one pick.”
“And you are. In our hearts. Alphabetically, though, Dusk comes before you.”
“And what do I get out of all this?”
“For a start, we burrow away from here and get you out of London and away from the search teams. If they do find you, you’ll have our little group fighting by your side. But more than that – Tanith’s been doing some research.”
“Oh, yeah? About what?”
“About you, and what you are, and where you come from. If you help us find these weapons, she’ll tell you everything you’ve always wanted to know.”
“You’re lyin’. She knows nothin’ about any of that. No one does.”
“Jack, you’ve been a killer all your life pretty much, right? You’ve been a villain. She’s been a hero. She’s had access to things you can only dream about.”
“She knows what I am?”
“Yes, she does. Are you in?”
“Tex, if you’re lying to me...”
“Jack, she needs her team. She’s done her research. When this is over, you’ll have your reward. So what do you say? Are you in?”
Jack raised a hand to his mouth, and his sharp little teeth worried the skin of his knuckle. It didn’t, in fairness, take him all that long to think it over. “Yeah,” he said. “I’m in.”
“Wonderful news,” Sanguine said, and smiled.
“So where is she? I can’t wait to see the all-new, all-evil Tanith Low.”
“You’ll be seeing her soon enough, don’t you worry. Right now she’s recruiting the third member of our little group, someone who comes before both you and Dusk alphabetically, but a distant third in our hearts.”
“Yeah?” Jack said. “And who might that be?”
Black Annis had had an ignominious end. There weren’t many who could survive an encounter with her, not once she was mad and her skin was turning blue and her teeth were growing long and jagged. Her fingernails had silenced many a last scream and her jaws had clamped round many a throat. She was a people-eater, and had never seen anything wrong with that, and for most of her life she’d lived in one ditch or other, or a cave if she was lucky, its ground littered with the bones of her victims. Apart from one particular idiot who used to scurry around after her, no one who entered her lair had ever emerged.
Until the blonde. Until the blonde in the brown leather. And before Annis had known what the hell was happening, she was hog-tied and helpless and the blonde in the brown leather was smiling down at her.
Just like she was now.
Annis sat up in her narrow bed, in her cell that was far too cramped and far too bright. There was a toilet against one wall and a sink against another. She’d never needed a toilet or a sink when she was living in her ditch. That, she supposed, was the sole advantage of living in a ditch.
“Hi,” said the blonde. She stood there in the open doorway, smiling, with that sword strapped to her back and all that brown leather barely keeping her in.
“You’re looking well,” said the blonde. Tanith Low, her name was. “Better than the last time I saw you, anyway. At least you’re not wearing a sack.”
Annis looked at her, but didn’t move to get off the bed. “They starve me here.”
“No, they don’t. They feed you.”
“I eat people. They don’t give me people to eat. They give me animals. That’s barbaric. At least people have a fighting chance to get away. The animals they give me are already dead. It’s sickening, is what it is.”
“Annis, you’re a unique individual, which is why I’m here.”
“I should rip your throat out.”
“And if you could grow those sharp nails of yours, I’m sure that wouldn’t be a problem for you. But you can’t. You’re stuck here in this little cell, your powers bound and your life drifting away from you. And let’s face it, Annis, you’re not getting any younger.”
“Is that why you’re here? To gloat?”
“Not at all. You see, the last time we met, I was the old me. But now I’m the new me, and the new me sees things differently from the old me. The new me would never have arrested you and dragged you from that ditch. And what a splendid ditch it was. Tell me something – did you like living in ditches?”