Chapter 84
AN ANGEL
While Hanbury and Tash circled round to rescue Jasmine, Faultless would take out the head honcho. That was the plan. They’d hatched it in the few seconds it took to find the doorway out of the charnel house into the cavern, where pillars reached up into the darkness and stretched back as far as it was possible to see.
Now, as he darted towards the pale man in the cape, Faultless heard Tash screaming for her daughter, Jasmine screaming for her mother. He heard Hanbury threatening to kill anyone he got a hold of. But then all the noise faded, and Faultless was fixed on his adversary’s face.
The eyes were coal-black. The face was moon-white. The hair long and greasy to the man’s shoulders. His cape flapped and it shimmered in the darkness. And he had a tuft of hair on his chin, just like—
The man held out his hand, as if trying to stop a runaway train.
Faultless halted. He was aware of struggles going on in the background. Voices echoed. Curses flew. But he was mostly transfixed by the man in front of him, and they stared at each other for what seemed to be an eternity.
The pale man pointed at Faultless with a long, yellow fingernail and said, “You are the darkness . . . the darkness in the corner of my eye.”
“Are you Montague Druitt?” said Faultless.
“I was once.”
“Are you Jack the Ripper?”
The stranger smiled. “I was once.”
“Who are you now?”
“I like Jack. You can call me Jack.”
“Who are you really?”
“I am the lord who gapes. I am the lantern of the tomb. I am the moth eating at the law.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
The man snarled. “It means who I am. You should know.”
Faultless shuddered. He should know? The man was staring right at him, directly into his eyes. He furrowed his brow. There was something familiar about the stranger, and that familiarity scared Faultless. It gave him goosebumps. He got the feeling that knowing this man was a bad thing. It was a dangerous thing. And not just for your life but for your soul.
“You’re like me,” the pale man told him. Behind him, there was struggling as Hanbury laid into Spencer, as Tash fought to free Jasmine. But the stranger paid no attention to what was going on. He seemed fascinated by Faultless.
“Do you know what you are?” the stranger asked him.
The question unsettled Faultless, but he threw one right back. “Do you know who you are?”
“You’ve not faced judgment yet, have you? For a killing.”
“Neither have you.”
“More similar than you think, then.”
“I’m not like you. I don’t know what you are.”
The stranger grinned. “You don’t know what you are, either.”
“W . . . what am I?”
“An angel,” said the pale man.
“Flattery will get you killed.”
“You think you can kill me?”
“If I have to.”
“You’re not strong enough yet.”
“What d’you mean yet?”
The stranger looked over his shoulder and then back at Faultless. “You have fucked it all up for me.”
“Sorry about that. Couldn’t let you kill her, see.”
“You can’t stop me.”
“I will fucking stop you.”
“I’ll have the mother killed if I can’t kill the child.”
Faultless fumed. He wanted to plough into the man, but something hindered him. Something in the back of his mind holding him on a leash and telling him to wait. The stranger had said Faultless wasn’t strong enough yet to kill him. Although he didn’t understand what he meant, Charlie knew there was truth in the statement.
Now he said, “You touch her, and I’ll hunt you down till the end of time, fucker.”
The stranger hesitated. Almost as if he believed that literally.
A scream erupted. It was laced with fury. Faultless blinked. Tash was hurtling towards the pale man, coming from the gloom like a laser.
The stranger wheeled to face her. He glanced over his shoulder at Faultless and said, “I’ll have her ripped like I had her sister ripped.” Faultless lunged forward, his fists bunched. Tash kept coming. Then the stranger said, “Like I had your wet nurse ripped.” Faultless charged. Tash clawed. A black shape whipped away to the right, blending into the darkness.
The stranger was gone.
Faultless and Tash ran into each other and fell in a heap.