Sarwat Chadda - Devil’s Kiss

‘Elaine, it’s me, Kay!’

The woman stared, mouth hanging open.

‘Kay?’ Suddenly she grinned. ‘Kay! I’ll be right down!’

Billi waited in the doorway as Elaine came downstairs and unlocked the door and then the steel mesh gate.

‘My sweet angel! C’mere and give us a kiss!’ She threw her bony arms round Kay and planted a fat wet one on his cheek. Billi saw him go rigid as her lips slurped free.

‘Hi, Elaine,’ he said, blushing. They stood in the unlit doorway of the rundown old shop. The wallpaper was faded and peeling, the paint of the ceiling crumbled into tiny flakes, and the carpet worn down to wiry threads. Elaine admired Kay, her legs apart and hands on hips like a pirate captain.

‘As handsome as ever. The girls must be dropping at your feet.’

Billi pushed past Kay into the cluttered shop.

‘Yes, dropping dead,’ she said. It annoyed Billi intensely how Elaine, who acted like a cranky old witch with everyone else, turned all soppy with Kay. Just because she’d been in charge of his early training.

‘Brought her majesty, I see.’ Elaine scowled. She had the face for it – weathered, wrinkled and stained by fifty years of heavy tar cigarettes.

Billi switched on the light.

Junk filled the interior. It had accumulated without any sense of organization: battered old trunks, doorless wardrobes, a penny farthing bicycle and a thousand other useless treasures that Elaine refused to get rid of. They’d probably been in this shop for generations.

‘How was Jerusalem?’ asked Elaine. ‘Who did you work with? Rabbi Levison?’

Billi smiled to think what the early Templars would make of their secrets being protected by a Jew. But after the last Templar Oracle had been killed, the Order didn’t have anyone psychically trained to guard the reliquary. Gwaine had gone mental when Arthur had nominated Elaine, but Arthur was Master. The old religious war didn’t concern the Templars any more, he said. The only thing that mattered was the Bataille Ténébreuse.

‘Him, and others,’ replied Kay.

‘Like who?’ Elaine’s eyes narrowed with curiosity.

‘The Sufis on the West Bank. Spent a month with the Nestorian monks in the Sinai. I learnt a lot, Elaine.’ He glanced away, embarrassed. ‘How emotions cloud my focus.’

‘More than I could ever teach you,’ said Elaine. She had some psychic talent, but wasn’t in the same league as Kay. No one was. Her skills in Tarot, astrology and the occult had come from years of hard graft. Skills Kay had been born with. She sighed. ‘But I suppose this ain’t a social call?’ She fished out a battered packet of Benson & Hedges from her faded pink dressing gown.

‘You suppose right,’ said Billi. Elaine lit up a cigarette, wrinkling her eyes against the first bite of bitter nicotine.

‘C’mon then. I haven’t got all night.’ She shoved aside a dusty stuffed bear to reveal a small stout door set deep in the wall. She fished out a key from the cord round her neck and needed both hands to turn it in the lock.

The door groaned open. Steps led down into a cold damp basement, thick with the smell of slow, ancient decay. Elaine flicked the brown Bakelite switch and there was a long faint hum before the bulb came to life, gradually filling the catacomb with a soft golden glow. Ahead of them stood a large black cabinet. The dim light lit its bronze hinges and the ornate patterns laid on its surface with tissue-thin gold leaf, silver and mother-of-pearl. The images were faded, but Billi could just make out the imps, demons, animal-headed monsters, winged nightmares and the celestial hordes at war across an ebony field. In the centre, where the two doors met, was a large corroded copper disc, broken in half, bearing a six-pointed star.

The Seal of Solomon.

The mystical ward and the first defence against the supernatural. It was the principle symbol in the High Art, the magic of the Ethereal Realm. But the Seal was just the protection. Against what was inside the cabinet.

Billi felt a chill as she stared at it. She’d read the earliest Templar diaries, of how Hugues de Payens had found the cabinet and the treasure inside soon after the end of the First Crusade. How he’d taken it and made the Knights Templar the most feared organization in the medieval world. She’d often wondered how exciting it would be to see the treasure for herself. But now, with it in arm’s reach, Billi realized it wasn’t excitement buzzing in her heart. It was fear.

‘It’s in there, isn’t it?’ she whispered. The black cabinet seemed to shimmer, as though it radiated light from within. The chill deepened and Billi wrapped her arms round her body. What lay behind those ebony doors had been both the source of the Order’s power, and the reason for their near annihilation by the Inquisition.

‘The Mirror?’ Elaine nodded. ‘Of course. Where else would it be?’ She turned to Kay. ‘So, any luck with, y’know, next week’s lottery numbers? What about the Grand National winner?’

Kay shook his head. ‘You know I can’t do that. Prophecies aren’t my thing.’

She paused and looked at him curiously. ‘No, of course not.’

Kay dusted off a stool and slung his coat over it.

‘This’ll do.’ He stretched out his arms. ‘Thanks, Elaine. We’ll give you a shout when we’re done.’ Elaine looked at both of them, then nodded and turned away.

Billi waited until Elaine had left. ‘Why here?’

‘To help you.’ Kay pointed into the corners of the room. Billi squinted in the gloom and could just make out markings on the top row of bricks, all the way around the room. They were in cuneiform, the oldest writing in the world, and similar to those on the black cabinet. Talismanic protections from maleficia: black magic. Kay rummaged around in his coat pocket.

‘This chamber is psychically sealed. It prevents anything in this room being detected. It also dampens any supernatural or psychic powers. Gives you a bit more of a chance.’

‘Chance?’

He tossed a small red packet to her. Billi caught them: a pack of playing cards. ‘Shuffle them,’ he said.

‘I didn’t know we were here to practise your magic tricks.’

‘No tricks.’

Billi peeled off the shrink-wrapping and gave the deck a cursory mix.

‘No. Shuffle them properly. Use the table.’

Billi reluctantly did as she was told. She spread the entire pack over a small coffee table and swirled them around until they were totally jumbled.

‘What exactly is the point of this?’ she asked.

‘Various types of the Unholy have the power to… influence thoughts. They can take command of our senses, our memories. Remember what happened with you and the ghost of Alex Weeks?’

‘How d’you know about that?’

‘I’m an Oracle, remember?’

Billi bristled. Obviously nothing in her life was private any more.

Kay motioned for her to collect the cards and turned his back on her. ‘I’ll teach you to strengthen your mind against undesired intrusion.’

‘Like yours?’

He sighed. ‘Just pick a card. Hold it in front of you but try not to think about what it is. Think about anything else, try and prevent me seeing the card through your mind.’

Billi picked a random card off the table. ‘Tell me when.’

‘Three of clubs. Next.’

‘I wasn’t ready!’ She threw the three on to the floor. She took the next and held it in front of her.

‘Five of diamonds. Next.’

‘Wait!’

‘Four of diamonds. You did shuffle them properly, like I told you?’

Billi shuffled them again. Right, think about anything except the card.

‘Queen of hearts. Next.’

Damn it, this isn’t working.

‘Don’t swear, concentrate on the cards.’