Sarwat Chadda - Devil’s Kiss

But Mike was already out there. He stood waiting for her, standing on the narrow flange of an ‘I’ beam, maybe less than ten centimetres wide. The wind howled through the steel, cut and sliced by the metal so it sounded like screeching voices calling in the dark.

Mike proceeded to a ladder and started to climb up it. ‘The view is to die for.’

‘I bet it is,’ said Billi, but Mike didn’t hear her.

She put a foot out on the beam. It wasn’t wide, but she’d worked on narrower in training. She’d take one step at a time, not rush, concentrate and try not to worry about the rain. Or the gently swaying tower. Or gravity.

One foot, then the next, she worked her way, shuffled her way, to the ladder. It was further from the lift platform than she’d thought, or at least seemed that way. But she reached it. Her hands gripped the ladder rails tightly, and she could see it was clamped firmly to the vertical column. Maybe she’d just stay here for a while. Until they finished building the tower.

‘We can go back down if you’re scared. I don’t mind.’ Mike looked back down the ladder at her.

Scared? Billi scowled. If only Mike knew what she did at nights. She carried on climbing up. Her fingers were freezing and she had to force them to close round the rungs. But she climbed.

Mike stood at the end of a beam, suspended alone in the sky, his coat flapping in the wind like the wild wings of a giant bat. He was lost in the sight of London below him. Billi could see the pale white dome of St Paul ’s, the gleaming lights, the black star-sprinkled sky. And Mike, poised above it all.

‘Careful,’ she said. Like that was a great piece of advice. She held on to the column; the tower was definitely swaying.

‘Come out here, to the edge.’

‘The view’s fine from here, thanks. It’s a long way down. Don’t fall.’ Oh, very helpful thing to say.

Mike shook his head. ‘I can’t fall. I’ve never fallen.’

‘It may not be up to you. Accidents happen. Earthquake, sudden wind.’ She wasn’t helping, but she thought he was an idiot to be up here. ‘Things beyond our control. Force majeure. Acts of God.’

Mike stiffened. ‘Why is it they call them that? Acts of God?’

‘Call what?’

‘Disasters. Catastrophes. When something terrible happens it’s always an Act of God. Why is that?’

Billi started to feel nervous. Mike obviously still had as much stuff to deal with right now as she did. But this really wasn’t the place to be doing it. ‘Come back, Mike. Let’s talk on the ground.’ But he wasn’t listening. He leaned out; it looked as if he was ready to jump. Or fly.

‘I’ll tell you why. It’s because when people are afraid, they turn to Him. They remember their lives continue purely on His whim.’ He snapped his fingers. The loud crack was like a gunshot. ‘Lives that could end in an instant.’

This sounds like seriously Crazy Talk. Billi reached out, one hand on the column, the other stretched towards his back. ‘Mike…’

‘It takes a terrible thing to remind people of their obligations to God. The more terrible, the better. Wouldn’t it be something if that happened?’

‘What happened?’

‘Something so terrible that everyone returned to Him. To fill the churches on Sunday instead of Ikea. To fill the mosques, the synagogues.’ He spread out his arms. ‘An Act of God that would restore faith.’

Billi hung on to the ladder. It wasn’t the night cold that made her shiver.

‘Mike -’

‘Your father, he’ll make you suffer – you know that.’

Billi said nothing. Mike was crossing the line – that was her business. She wanted to get down. The wind picked up and invisible claws pulled at her. She wrapped herself tightly round the column.

‘You owe him nothing, Billi.’ Mike stroked the long spike along his neck. ‘Help me, Billi, and I’ll make you free.’ Mike turned towards her, those golden eyes peering down at her like an eagle’s. Predatory and surging with power. ‘Where’s the Mirror, Billi?’

Billi’s blood went cold. It couldn’t be. Mike stood up and the black coat spread out, not like wings of a bat, but like those of an angel. A Dark Angel.

‘Betray him, Billi. For what he’s done to you. For what he did to your mother.’

‘I told you – you’ve got it so wrong. My dad didn’t kill my mum.’

‘I know.’

‘What?’

Mike leapt.

He launched himself out into the sky and he seemed to halt, impossibly, at the apex of the jump. Then he dived down and slammed into the beam next to Billi. The ladder shook loose and fell away, and Billi tottered on the narrow edge before she came off, touching only empty air. Her heart froze and she flung her arms out, staring in horror as the ladder disappeared down into the deep darkness. Terror robbed her voice of air, and all she could do was stare as the lights blurred and the sky turned and the wind screamed in her ears.

OhGodohGodohGodohGod -

Mike’s hand locked itself round her left wrist and she almost dislocated her shoulder at the sudden halt. He held her with one hand without effort. Their eyes met and for the briefest moment Billi thought he was going to let go. Instead he let her dangle. Billi felt her left shoe slide off and it was gone; the air tickled her foot.

‘I know he didn’t kill her.’ His eyes lit up and there was nothing human in them. ‘I did.’

Billi felt like she was on the rack and her arm was being ripped out of her socket. She could barely focus through the blinding agony as she swayed, high above the city, dangling from Mike’s grip.

‘The Mirror, Billi, it’s all I want. Tell me where it is, and I’ll let you go.’ He laughed at his weak joke.

Billi groaned. Hot waves of pain raced along her arm and down her spine.

‘My brothers and sisters have been imprisoned long enough.’ He tightened his grip and Billi screamed.

‘No,’ was all she could say. The ground, so far below, revolved slowly, sickeningly.

Mike’s face was twisted in demonic rage, the skin waxen and pallid in his fury. He caught her looking at him, exposed, then the moment passed. Suddenly he was back to the friendly, human Mike. But the mask had slipped and his true self had been revealed.

The Unholy.

How could she have been so stupid?

‘I almost had it, ten years ago.’ He raised Billi up so they were eye to eye. ‘Would have got it, if it hadn’t been for your mother.’

The Nights of Iron. In spite of the pain, Billi couldn’t help but listen, awestruck.

‘But they were ghuls. The Templars were attacked by ghuls.’

Mike pointed to himself. ‘Created by me. You’d be amazed at how many people would sell their souls for a little immortality.’ Mike let out a sigh. ‘Twelve nights of war and bloodshed. It was glorious. I killed Uriens. Crushed his skull between my palms, but he didn’t tell. If he didn’t know how to live like a Templar Master, he knew how to die like one.’

Billi gritted her teeth and forced herself to look around. Maybe she could reach another beam, or maybe drop to the floor below. There was a ledge about two metres away. But a glance told her it was hopeless. The only solid ground was two hundred sickening metres below her.

Mike winked. ‘And when I found out Arthur had stepped into Uriens’s shoes I came to your home. Thought I’d hold both of you hostage. Force Arthur to hand the Mirror over in exchange for his darling wife and sweet daughter.’

Fire blazed in Billi’s eyes. She was staring at her mother’s killer. Every fibre of her burned with hatred. Mike didn’t seem to mind.