doesn't. He comes back to me and shakes my good hand.
'Good luck.' He looks at me, grimly. 'Yeah, and I'd prefer it if you didn't come back through my town again. Not if you're bringing this kind of trouble.'
'No problem,' I say. 'Trouble's probably going to come anyway.'
'Thought as much. Anything I can do?'
'Run, if you get the chance.'
He nods. He doesn't look like the sort who would run. Lissa's waiting in the car. 'That was close.'
'You're telling me.' I start the engine. God, how I want to kiss her, but that's not going to happen.
We drive for hours, heading to the coast, me pushing the car as hard as I dare. I'm running but I'm not sure where.
I stop at a deserted truckstop. While I'm washing my hands, and splashing water on my face, cleaning off as much of the sweat and blood as possible, I think about what needs to be done. I have to bring this back to Morrigan somehow. I can't keep running, and Morrigan is sure to find me eventually. If that prick were here right now, I'd-
I look up, and Morrigan's walking out of a cubicle. I blink and he's still there. I scramble for my gun.
'You really should think before you start wishing for things, my boy.' He's wearing a short-sleeved shirt. The tattoos of sparrows on his arms are no longer bloody. The last time I saw him-wounded and frail-couldn't be a greater contrast to this Morrigan before me. I have never seen him looking so strong. He almost glows. Wholesale murder does wonders for the complexion, it seems.
On the other hand I'm pale, washed out, and what fingernails I have that aren't broken are dirty and black with blood. I wave the pistol in his face. 'Get out of here!'
'Why are you so frightened? If I really wanted to kill you right now, you'd be dead. All in good time.'
I steady the pistol, aim it at his face. It's one thing to know that he's behind all this, another entirely to hear it from his lips. I hesitate.
He blinks. 'Are you going to shoot me with that?'
I pull the trigger. Nothing happens. Morrigan laughs dryly. 'You always were such a stupid little fuck. You will see my messenger soon, just so you know how serious I am.'
He's gone before I release the safety. I feel Number Four-I feel the Underworld-open then close.
Lissa's through the wall, her gaze swinging this way and that. 'You're shaking.'
I am, fear's running through me. I want to cry. I want to hit something. 'Morrigan was here. How the hell did he do that?'
Lissa grimaces. 'Morrigan is Ankou. He can shift.'
'Shift where?'
'Anywhere he wants to.'
'I thought that was an RM thing.'
'It takes some effort, but Ankous can do it, too. Besides, his powers are increasing. That bastard really kept you in the dark. And I didn't feel anything, not until he was gone. He must have been waiting. You should have called for me.'
'And what could you have done except put yourself in danger?'
Lissa shrugs. 'I could have been here.'
I try Tim's phone. No answer, it just switches through to his voicemail. I don't leave a message, there's no point. He's in trouble, he has to be. Lissa suggests that he might just have his phone switched off, but even she looks worried.
We head down the coast, driving until I'm too exhausted to drive anymore which is far too soon, but I know that I'm going to wake up with the car wrapped around a tree if I don't stop. I pull into the first motel in Noosaville with a vacant sign, not caring that I look a sight, though the bored teen at the counter hardly glances at me as I pay for a room.
I'm exhausted, but manage to have a shower.
Steam fills the room. Tim's in trouble, he has to be. I've been out here for days and I still know so little, except that Morrigan doesn't seem to have a lot of difficulty finding me. If I stay out here, there's no one to help Tim. How could I ever face Sally again?
The truth is, Morrigan can kill me whenever he wants. It's three o'clock in the morning and I'm standing in the doorway, shaking, after another dream of bicycles. Even here I can feel it-the Stirrers building in the west and the south. I've had as much rest as I'm going to get.
'We have to go back, now. I can't spend another moment out here.'
Lissa nods. 'This was never going to be easy, Steven. But what do you really know?'
'That this has to stop. I'm learning nothing out here, except that Morrigan can get me.'
So much for escape, it really was a bad fit. I'm a Pomp, death is calling me, and the rough madness of the Stirrers. Maybe that's what Morrigan expected, maybe he knew I couldn't keep away for long. 'We have to finish this.'
'It's going to be tough, going back.'
'Yeah. But what else can I do?'
'I'm worried about what it's going to do to you,' Lissa says. 'I don't want to see you hurting.'
'Hurting more than I am now?'
Lissa nods at last. 'I guess you're ready. It's time to find Mr. D.'
I grab my backpack-it's already packed-and open the door.
Lissa stands there. The Stirrer.
'We need to talk,' she says.
25
My knife is in my belt. I can get it out in a moment. I look Lissa-I mean, the Stirrer-up and down. It doesn't seem to be armed.
'Well?' it asks.
I can either fight and run, or step back from the door.
I let the Stirrer in. She/it is unarmed and walks quickly by me and sits on the bed. The room shifts with her presence-the life in it starts bleeding away. I can feel all those poor microscopic creatures that fill any space on the earth dying. A silent shriek fills the room.
Lissa fumes at her body, and the Stirrer either ignores her or can't see her.
My eyes dart between the two of them. My Lissa, and this facsimile. Its presence startles me. This is a first, a Stirrer not trying to kill me. Just having her here is unsettling enough. They're Lissa's eyes, but they're not. The mocking wit has been replaced by a hatred that is at odds with her words.
'Morrigan wants you back in Brisbane. The killing's over with. He says it's time you returned.'
This immediately rings false. I have no position of power to negotiate from.
She must read this in my expression. 'He needs you back, Steve.' The informal address is wrong and its callous eyes narrow. 'He says it has to stop, for the sake of the region.'
'I don't believe her,' Lissa says.
Neither do I. Her presence itself is a continuous nexus of death. As long as this Stirrer and its ilk exist, the dying cannot stop-it can only accelerate.
'I don't believe you,' I say to Stirrer Lissa. I can see that this is going to get confusing very quickly. I'm so used to waiting for Lissa's opinion. And that's just what he's given me, a deal dressed in the most persuasive face possible for me. The bastard has wrong-footed me.
'He wants to negotiate?' I don't know why, but my words send a shudder down my spine. I move toward the door.
'Yes.' Then Stirrer Lissa realizes what I'm doing. She gets up from the bed, but it's too late. 'You little prick!'
I dash over the threshold and slam the door shut then mark it with the brace symbol. At once it's hot to
