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Janet walked round and gave him a little shove. ‘C’mon, Doc, get on and do your stuff,’ she ordered.
Hands shaking, he trundled the small trolley nearer and reached for a swab. He cleaned the blood off my body’s left breast, then lifted what looked like an elephant-sized hypodermic. He held it up and pushed the syringe plunger until a bead of clear liquid appeared, then tapped the syringe until, finally appearing satisfied with his preparations, he felt along my ribs, and positioned the needle. He hesitated, and I could see his eyes blinking behind his glasses, then he pushed down hard until the needle was up to the hilt in my flesh. Then he injected the liquid.
‘Do you think that’s going to be enough?’ Janet hovered over him.
‘I’ve given her enough adrenalin to get a horse started; it’s almost three times what she needs for the body weight,’ he said quietly as he withdrew the needle and swabbed again. ‘It’s the equivalent of a massive build-up of venom, which is what I think brought her—it— the bodyround last time.’
We all stood and watched my body.
‘Give her another—’
My body’s spine arched and my arms and legs started spasming as if plugged into a live electrical socket. The machine beeped into life and numbers flashed red and began rising fast, and faster. My body opened its eyes; my mouth formed a wide, overjoyed grin and jerked upright.
‘Oh my goodness,’ my mouth yelled delightedly, ‘it worked, it really worked!’ My body lifted its hand and muttered and a ball of light glowed like the sun in its palm; my body threw it up and blew it a kiss. The light shattered into rainbow colours that rained down like a spring shower. ‘Oh, the power! It’s like driving a Ferrari instead of a cranky old rustbucket!’
Fuck.And I didn’t even know how to ride a bike.
I rubbed my hands over my face. I needed to work out how to get out of this, and I needed to get my own body back—before the demon appeared to claim all those poor souls, and mine—I clamped down on the terror that thinking of the demon brought and shoved it away. I looked up as my body threw another spell in the air and it showered me/it/Ha
Okay, now I needed to think of mybody as Ha
‘Get this stuff off me,’ Ha
‘Wow!’ she said, smiling at Janet. ‘You know what? I feel wonderful’—she held out her hand; it was shaking—‘if a bit quivery.’ She swung her legs off the altar and slid to the ground, reaching out to grab hold of Janet’s arm as she wobbled. ‘Time waits for no woman, or in my case, no sidhe fae. Shower first, then tidy up that mess you left at Gra
‘What’s the Fabergé egg for?’ I asked Cosette.
‘The egg’s a soul trap. Without it she can’t collect all those souls she’s gathered and hand them safely over to the demon, and that means the demon will take her own soul instead as payment.’
Ri-ight.So pretty much as Ha
‘What do you mean, tidy up round at Gra
Ha
‘I s’pose so—but won’t the sidhe slut get the blame?’
‘Janet, little sister, I amthe sidhe now—and if you ever call me a slut again—’ Ha
‘Shoot me?’ Janet’s mouth fell open as Joseph turned round, picked up his tranq gun and, without hesitating, aimed, then shot Janet in her ample chest—
She looked down, her eyes round with surprise. ‘But—?’ She dropped her sweeties.
‘Damage limitation, little sister dear,’ Ha
Janet’s eyes fluttered, then she did a tree-topple and thudded to the floor.
‘Is Janet really her sister?’ I asked Cosette, stu
Cosette nodded.
Talk about dysfunctional families.
Ha
He pushed his glasses up his nose, lifted the tranq gun and pointed it at her.
‘Don’t be silly, Doctor,’ she sighed. ‘Just put it down, otherwise that DVD of you cavorting about in all that tacky leather and chains could still accidentally find its way onto the internet ...’
He did as he was told, his hand trembling.
‘You should be glad, you’re going to be labelled a hero for rescuing me from the dangerous sorcerer’s clutches.’ She smiled. ‘Which is much better than being labelled a pervert, isn’t it?’
His cheeks flushed with either anger or embarrassment and I remembered all the ‘clothes’ in his mirrored wardrobes—the ones he’d said belonged to a friend!
‘Compulsion spell tied to a nice bit of blackmail,’ Cosette muttered as Joseph pulled out the cord from Ha
‘I see you started without me.’ A man strolled out of the gloom, his sun-streaked, gelled hair and well-trimmed van Dyke glinting blond in the candlelight, a red Souler cross pi
Cosette gave a small gasp and whispered, ‘That one is the necromancer who has been collecting the souls for her. I did not think he would be back so soon.’
‘Neil!’ Ha
His face twisted in disgust. ‘Not when you’re all covered in blood, Ha
‘Ge
He waved her anger away. ‘I will; it’s just that I still see your soul, not hers.’ He frowned, looking around. ‘Where is her soul, anyway?’
She patted the gold locket. ‘In here, of course.’
‘No, it’s not.’
She clutched at the locket in panic. ‘It has to be! I did the ritual perfectly.’
‘Don’t worry,’ Neil said calmly, ‘she can’t have gone far; she’s probably still disorientated from being cast out.’
‘You don’t understand—’ Ha
‘Ha
I clenched my fists. Bastard.
‘You must go, now!’ Cosette grabbed my left hand, in as much panic as Ha