Thicker Than Water

A few more deaths in the course of the riot wouldn’t have raised any eyebrows or merited any special investigation. But I’ve gone native. I know that. I can’t help thinking of you as a friend. Or to put it less sentimentally, having to murder you would make me unhappy.

‘So you get to live. And you also get - at no additional cost - these three pieces of advice. Don’t push this topic any further. Don’t ask questions that you may not want to know the answerÛkno ges to. And don’t assume for a moment that if you make me choose between you and my entire race, I’ll choose you.

I was about to answer her, but I wasn’t able to because she pressed her lips to mine and kissed me, deeply and passionately.

This was our third kiss, and it was different from the other two. The first, way back when Gabriel McClennan had first summoned Juliet, had been part of a concerted attempt to devour my flesh and spirit in accordance with her brief: it had been an attack, which I’d only survived through dumb luck and fortuitous rescue.

This one was a warning. It was meant to remind me of her power, and of how little effort it would take her to destroy me.

When Juliet finally removed her lips from mine I sagged backwards and almost fell. But she kept me upright with one strong arm around my waist.

‘I’d prefer,’ she said, ‘not to have to choose.

She propped me up against the wall, not without care, and walked away."

"Eventually I pulled myself together and became aware of the outside world again. Matt was still kneeling beside Anita on the walkway outside. I couldn’t tell from this distance whether she was still moving and speaking, whether her spirit was still present, but either way I suspected that he wouldn’t want to be disturbed. Coldwood was still talking on the phone on the landing below, directing his lackeys to take whatever they’d found down to the forensic lab on Lambeth Road and then stay with it until the results came through.

I stumbled across to the lift and pressed the call button. It came at once and didn’t smell of piss, as befits an age of miracle and wonder. It made a scary grinding noise as it descended, though, and the floor shuddered and bucked under my feet as if some corner of the cage was scraping against the wall of the shaft.