It was the pain in my chest that woke me up properly. The repeated crushing pain, which turned out to be Amelia doing CPR. I let her know I was awake and she could stop. She was the one I was worried about. She had a massive burn. But she wanted to know how the hell I'd turned from charred meat into someone alive. I had some questions about that myself, but reassured her that I wasn't a vampire, despite any evidence to the contrary. That slippery bastard fae did something to me when he made me the Seneschal of the Steamwheel Court. That didn't seem to reassure her any further. I clarified that I wasn't actually in charge of anything, I just got constantly plagued with text messages, but she said that humans couldn't have that job. I don't know what the rules are, but that raised some questions that I was in no position to start thinking about just then.
Then she punched me for lying about Priti, which was fair. Turns out I don't make the best decisions while under several metres of rock. Priti herself was now a lump of rapidly decaying meat, but had apparently turned into an old man for a bit on the way there. I told Amelia she was a djinn, which I'm not sure she entirely believed, but I was really more concerned with doing something about her injuries.
Then I heard a phone beep. Not mine, which wasn't going to be much use after both a swim and being struck by lightning. Not Amelia's either. It was an old flip phone, lying on the bank, which was somehow working. The text message was from Damian, saying there was a vampire problem at the hospital. The hospital where Celia, possibly the new sibyl who we'd only just rescued from vampires, was currently being treated.
We climbed the steps out of the gorge to find Bristol in full riot mode. I joked to Amelia that the buses wouldn't be running, but that gave me an idea. After all, if nobody was using those buses...
We found a double decker. Not ideal, but better than a bendy bus. I found the keys hidden in the cab where the driver had abandoned it, and got the thing started. It quickly became obvious I had no idea how to drive a bus, and I almost tipped it over on a corner. Amelia's weight wasn't enough to right it, and I had to abandon the wheel to throw myself against the side to knock it back upright. That got me more weird looks from Amelia, and she had a point. I absolutely should not have been strong enough to do that.
Amelia took over driving after that. Turns out she'd picked up a few things from her uncle back when we were kids, and she soon had the thing moving at speeds I didn't know buses were capable of. She even managed to drift it round one corner. She pulled up at the hospital and straight away I could see Damian was right. Humans don't crawl up walls like that.
Before I could even start to think about that though, there was a knock on the door, and there on the other side of the window was the last person I wanted to see. Lucien Black. Lucien, in his smart clothes and his Edward Cullen pallor and just a hint of glitter makeup, looking just like he did the first time we met. Except one thing had changed, I saw as he pushed his way through the doors. He had fangs now.
He was in my way, and I didn't have time to deal with his bullshit. I threw a punch at his face, but of course he caught my fist and started telling me just how much better blood tasted now he was a full vampire. And there I was in his grip once more, being forced to bare my neck to him and let him feed on me again.
Except I'd changed too, and while I couldn't break his grip, I had another option now. Bird form. Free of his grip, I tried to get my claws into him. No luck. He was too fast. And two of his friends were right behind him. But with all his attention on me, he wasn't looking at what Amelia was doing. And she might not look like much after what I'd done to her, but she was an associate member of the Council of Merlin and knew how to throw a ward together.
As Lucien was forced out of the bus I heard the most beautiful sound I'd ever heard - the roar of Vanessa's V8. Topher slammed the landrover into the three vampires, then jumped out, pulled out an actual magic sword, given the aura I could see around the thing, and straight up decapitated Lucien.
All that fear and shame, lifted in an instant. I could have kissed him. I didn't, because nobody wants a falcon beak to the face. I did the next best thing, hurling myself at one of the surviving vampires and ripping through his throat. The third vampire was taken out by a second landrover, which turned out to be driven by one of Clan Kielsyn's enforcers, and I wasn't entirely surprised when Fiona got out of the back.
Fiona could see that neither me nor Amelia were in any condition to head into a building full of rioters and/or vampires. I don't know what she did to me exactly, but it seemed to put everything back in the right place, and Amelia certainly looked happier once she'd been cleaned up and had the burns wrapped in clingfilm. Topher had wandered off, but returned to tell us he'd found a way inside. Benjy shifted into wolf form and in we went. I perched on Topher's shoulder. I couldn't tell him how grateful I was, but at least I could lean my head against his and hope he got the message.
Fiona, Topher and Amelia got in the lift. I was not going to get in a lift, and Benjy wasn't going to fit, so we took the stairs. Benjy was obviously very new to shapeshifting and kept trying to talk, but of course nothing came out but wolf growls. So I talked back to him in bird squawks. I figured he'd work it out eventually. We caught up with the others at the entrance to A&E. Unfortunately Benjy's appearance gave the nurse behind the barrier a bit of a shock and he passed out. I found a gap small enough to wriggle through and pushed the button with my beak to open the door. Benjy held it open while Fiona rolled in.
Fiona spun an impressive line of bullshit to convince the nurse that he hadn't just seen a massive wolf man, and got us introduced to Doctor Williams. He had a patient who would only talk to three names. We raised our hands. Well, two hands and a wing. We left Benjy on guard at the entrance. Amelia came with us.
If there'd been any doubt that Celia was the new sibyl it was gone the moment we set eyes on her. It wasn't just her white misted eyes, or her bald head with the same laurel wreath tattoo that the old sibyl had had. It was the air of confidence in both her posture and her voice that had never been that strong before. Now I knew how Damian had known what number to send that text message to.
Celia needed to talk to us, and also wanted me to be able to talk back. I looked around for something resembling clothing. Being a shapeshifter means having to become very cool very fast about people seeing you naked, but it's still not on to flash people unnecessarily. Damian draped a dressing gown over me, and I wriggled my way into it. I took the opportunity of having a voice again to thank Topher for the earlier beheading.
We had to end things, while there was still a city left to save. Celia had three options. Somehow talk the djinn out of what they were doing. Find the Lady Avonia. Talk to the Tuatha. The three of us didn't even need to discuss it. Finding the Lady Avonia was the right thing to do. The river needs its goddess. Celia looked sad about that choice. I wonder what bringing her back will do to the sibyl?
Celia knew where to look for the Lady Avonia, but there was a problem. One of the djinn was in the emergency ward. Attempting to leave would result in trouble. We were going to have to figure out who they were and stop them before they made everything kick off. Fiona was pretty sure they'd have some kind of identifying feature - a tattoo, unusual height, exceptional good looks or something. Unfortunately Dr Williams felt that could apply to quite a lot of the people in the ward at the time.
It probably wasn't any of the staff, we decided, as Dr Williams had known them all for at least six months. The most likely candidates seemed to be two of the patients - Shanene, a grandmother who'd had a heart attack, and Joey, who'd been in a bike crash. After some shenanigans to get people spread out enough that we could handle things better if it all went down, Fiona went with the staff, Topher went to talk to Joey, and I paid Shanene a visit. Fiona said we could force them to tell the truth by asking the same question three times, but we'd have to do it in such a way as to not tip them off.
I decided to act as a fellow patient. Not hard since I was wearing a dressing gown and was still a bit frazzled from the lightning. Shanene was complaining about people overreacting to her heart attack. I commiserated. I was too tired to come up with a story, so I just talked about getting struck by lightning.
I didn't get as far as asking her her name three times because Topher started shouting. Joey was the djinn. There was instant chaos. Shanene grabbed my wrist in a way that an elderly heart attack victim shouldn't have been able to do, and I saw the talisman she was wearing. I ripped it away from her, and switched to bird form. I didn't know if Topher needed help, but I was going to be there for him if he did.
Honestly, Topher could probably have taken him out with another swing of that sword, but things were getting spicy outside and we needed the djinn taken down fast. I went for the eyes, driving my claws into his face. And then there was a sudden burst of heat, and I saw him suddenly age and start to decay right in front of me. So that was what Amelia had meant when talking about Priti.
So all that was left to do was to find the Lady Avonia and stop the ancient volcano spirit sleeping under the Mitchester Arms from awakening and destroying the city and possibly the world. And if that all succeeded, perhaps I'd be able to go and see my three favourite boggarts and tell them they could go home.
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