Page 36 of Box of Frogs
The boy’s mother glared at me. ‘Stay away from us,’ she said in a low voice.
‘Mummy…’
‘The man is drunk,’ she told him. ‘Even though it’s only eleven o’clock in the morning.’
I frowned at her. ‘I’m not drunk. And I already said. I’m not a man. I’m a woman. Well, technically, I’m a faery.’ I raised myself up onto my tiptoes and flapped my arms. ‘See?’
The woman grabbed her son and the pair of them walked hastily away. A braver woman stepped up to the breach. ‘Are you okay, sir? Would you like me to call you an ambulance?’
‘You can call me that if you like,’ I said. ‘It’s not my name though.’ My knee inexplicably gave way and I stumbled down to the pavement. ‘Hey!’ I protested. ‘Who pushed me?’
There was a murmur from the growing crowd around me. ‘Call the ambulance,’ someone said. ‘He’s obviously taken something. He could hurt someone if we leave him like this. Look at the size of him!’
‘I’ll hurt you,’ I muttered. I braced myself, trying and failing to get back up to my feet. If anything, it was even darker now than it had been before. I glanced up at the sky. ‘Is it night time?’
‘Uncle! There you are!’ A blonde woman appeared in front of me, reached down and pulled me upright. I blinked at her. She looked oddly familiar but I couldn’t quite place her. ‘Sorry everyone,’ she said. ‘He’s on strong medication. He escaped from our house before anyone noticed. I’ll get him home.’
‘Will you manage? Are you sure?’ asked another passer-by.
‘I can still call an ambulance,’ someone else suggested.
‘No, no, it’s all good,’ she trilled. ‘I’ll be fine. So will he. I just need to get him back to bed.’
Her face swam before me, blurring in and out of focus. Hang on a gasbudlikin minute. ‘I know you,’ I said. ‘You’re Jodie. You work for Morgan.’
A flash of surprise crossed her face then she bit her lip and nodded. ‘That’s right. I’m your niece, Jodie. Come on. I’ll take you home.’ She pulled at my arm with surprising strength.
My legs felt like ten-ton weights but Jodie was so briskly business-like that I decided to play along. I stumbled beside her while she pulled out a phone from her pocket. ‘It’s me,’ she muttered. ‘I’m in the high street just down from St Peter’s Church and I’ve got a problem.’ She glanced at me. ‘A big problem.’
‘That’s because I’m the Big Bad,’ I informed her airily. Then my gaze snagged on something else. Across the street, staring at us, was another familiar figure. It was the tall Amazonian woman who I’d been sure was about to shoot me on that first day. ‘Hey!’ I said. I pulled away from Jodie and turned in the woman’s direction. ‘Hey!’ I waved my arms. ‘I’m here. Come and get me!’
I stepped off the pavement to walk towards her. A moment later, Jodie yanked me back, just in time to avoid the double-decker bus trundling towards me.
‘Who are you?’ she hissed. ‘Are you one of Rubus’s men?’
‘I…’ My stomach lurched and the world darkened even further. I lifted a hand to my head and rubbed it. ‘I don’t feel very well.’ I felt myself swaying.
‘Fuck,’ Jodie swore. ‘Just hang on. Try to…’
‘Look,’ I said, pointing. ‘There’s the pavement.’ Then it rushed up to meet me.
***
There was a swirl of voices above my head but it was far too much effort to open my eyes. Then it occurred to me that playing dead might be the best thing I could do. I was vulnerable enough; until I knew who these people were and what they wanted from me, I wasn’t going to move a muscle.
‘I don’t recognise him. There’s no database anywhere with his picture in it, either foreign or domestic.’ The clipped male accent wasn’t one I recognised.
Given what he’d said, I must still be wearing my Hell’s Angel body. The thought that the second head blow had returned my memory filled me with hope but it only took a second or two to realise that nothing had changed in that department either.
‘There’s no doubting that he’s Fey.’
‘Have you ever seen a Fey that size? I certainly haven’t. He’s a bloody monster.’
There was a delicate sniff. ‘When I came across him, he was telling half of Manchester that he was a faery.’ That was definitely Jodie. ‘I thought you lot were supposed to keep that part secret.’
‘We are.’ At this new voice, I had to force myself to keep my breathing even. It stood to reason that Jodie had taken me to Morgan – she did work for him after all – but it was still jarring to know he was standing over me. ‘He’s been poisoned with rowan though. His whole body reeked of it. Leave it untreated for too long and it can cause dementia.’ Huh. He’d not mentioned that little fact tome. I wondered whether that was deliberate or not.
There was a sharp intake of breath from the other side. ‘Rowan? It’s too much of a coincidence that the Madhatter bitch was poisoned with rowan too.’
