Page 63 of Monstrous Travels as Wicked as Sin

Percy wasn’t in the habit of believing beasts from the abyss (as presumably this thing was), yet he felt a traitorous spectre of hope at the being’s words. “What do you need him for?”

The creature retreated into silence.

Percy assessed the ivy. It was wilting fast. He knew nothing about plants beyond his enviable culinary skills, but he didn’t imagine he’d long withstand whatever force was so effectively draining the life out of the vine. The same force, he surmised, that must have left the grounds of Barmiston Hall parched, expired, devoid of all earthly life. He dropped the cigarette to the floor and stamped it out. “I think I’ll start with the fingers. A hot wire inserted beneath the nail usually does the trick.”

The thing raised Joe’s eyebrows. “Does it need to be hot?”

“Purely for show,” said Percy. “Something about the sound of the sizzle when the metal hits the moisture of the nail bed. The scent of burning nail and skin, the way the steam rises off it. People tend to do what I want on the first nail. A few make me go two nails deep. But I’ve never had to stretch to three.”

“And you would do this to him? A person you claim to love?” A new chuckle sounded in Joe’s chest, but there was an edge of nervousness to it.

Percy smiled a wan smile. “I’ll break every bone in his body if I have to. You might want him now, but we’ll see how much usehe is to you when he can’t walk anymore.” He glanced one last time at the terminal ivy. “I’d say I need an hour to get the job done. Two at the most.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

THE DISHONEST APPROPRIATION OF PROPERTY BELONGING TO ANOTHER WITH THE INTENTION TO PERMANENTLY DEPRIVE THE OTHER OF IT

Althea stretched and shook her aching fingers. She checked the enormous clock on the wall. They had ten more minutes before they had to dash for the tube back to Percy and Joe.

She copied down the text in front of her in a frenzied, mechanical haze of thoughts. There was no way she’d get it all finished in time. And how was she supposed to smuggle a book that size, that old, out of the British Library? She’d checked it for security tags and failed to find any, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t something hidden somewhere in there, waiting to set off a sensor if she tried to escape with it. And she wasn’t about to go to jail over something she didn’t even understand. Like possession.

She’d heard stories growing up—seen with her own eyes men who claimed to be possessed, eating shards of glass and stabbing themselves to prove it during religious ceremonies. But somehow the distance of London and all the years of trauma had pushed that childhood terror into the background, where she could ignore it—believe it was myth or trickery. But here it was, back with an undeniable vengeance.

Or was it? All she’d seen from across the airport was Joe, leaning into Percy, just as sweet and desperately misguided in his choice of boyfriend as he’d always seemed to be. And then he dropped. Joe on the floor, at Percy’s hand. The rest happened so fast, and Percy was too scary to challenge about any of it.

She felt she owed him. He said she didn’t; he acted as though she didn’t—as though she was barely an acquaintance, since they’d met at the airport. She wasn’t worried about any repercussions if she didn’t follow through with whatever he requested, but… she was terrified of him. Without a doubt. He switched hot and cold, with no rhyme or reason she could figure. She’d seen him crush five men with a car just for scratching his boyfriend’s cheek. He was right to do it, because in hindsight they were most likely zombies, but it’s not as though he knew that at the time.

Life was cheap to Percy. Any and all life except Joe’s was Althea’s supposition, and she didn’t want to put herself in the crossfire of a weapon like that.

Yet here she was, scrawling desperately lest she disappoint him, while she knew she should probably be at the police station reporting him instead.

This, she figured, must be how Leo felt. Under the thumb, too scared to fuck up, living on a perpetual knife edge of anxiety. And how had he got Leo under his control like that?

A pile of papers settled noiselessly on the table beside her, followed by Leo settling into a chair. He threw back that dark curl of hair that hung perpetually over his gorgeous cheekbones, and Althea’s heart sprang like a mousetrap. “All done?”

“Yeah.” He glanced nervously at the clock, just the way she had. After leaving Percy, Leo had dropped her at the library, then gone directly to get Percy’s ‘tools’ and meat. By the time he got back, she had swaths of supernatural-related discourse for him to photocopy. He’d done three loads, but there was moreand more again to be assessed and copied and brought back to Percy. “We’d better get going soon.”

She licked her lips, turning a few pages forward. Long and large pages full of dense, small text. “It’s all about possessions. And there’s also those ones I’ve marked there.” She indicated two tall piles of books, ripped Post-it notes sticking out to mark the important places.

As though reading her mind, Leo said, “We’ll never get it done in time.” He reached across, brushing Althea’s shoulder, allowing her a scent of him. He smelled exciting, like travel. He smelled like a hint of Paris and train stations, then fresh country air and adventure and coffee. He pulled her book down onto his knees beneath the table, cast a furtive glance around the room, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a flick knife.

She audibly gasped. “You can’t do that!”

He wrapped the knife in his fist, rammed the blade into the paper, and slashed a line down the book. He cut far more than he needed, only asking afterwards, “Where does it end?”

Her quick fingers searched the edges of the pages beneath the desk. “I think it’s?—”

“They’ve seen us.”

Althea jumped, in full panic, eyes darting around the room.

“Joking.” Leo’s smile was too close and too, too cheeky. It was the sort of smile that suggested he would, regularly, go too far with any and all hijinks. And that it would always be fun. His eyes rested on her with an expectant sparkle.

Althea was hopeless at hiding her feelings around Leo. Pink and smiling wide, she whispered, “Stop it. You scared the shit out of me.”

She soon separated the pages they needed, and Leo slammed the book shut the second her fingers were free. “Cover me.”

“Wha—”

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