Bloody Bones 9
1803 Words
Tommy
Blue, the bogget that Tammy knew, was sitting at the end of the bar, idly humming to himself as he tapped the pint glass that seemed oddly big in his hand. Letting my eyes adjust to the dim light, I stared at him.
How anyone thought he was human was beyond me. He was short, maybe a little over five feet, and he looked like a gnome. All massive nose and weathered skin. It made me glad that my kind at least had good looks in my human form. Blue looked like something out of a fairy-tale.
“How the f**k does he manage in…” I hissed to Raze who brought up the rear. But I was stopped from finishing my sentence. The man’s face snapped towards me, his eyes glowing an impossible shade of green.
“Ah Bloody Bones and his pet wolf.” Blue went back to his staring, his fingers tapping on the glass in front of him.
Behind me Raze growled. He didn’t appreciate being called my pet. I didn't tell him to cool it since I wouldn't have liked it either.
“Quiet down,” the bogget laughed loudly, but not one person in the room turned their attention to him. It was like he was invisible.
Raze growled again, louder this time, and still no one turned. All eyes should have been locked onto us. Especially when a grown man in a leather cut was growling and snarling like an attack dog.
“You know me?” I took a step forward, the hair on the back of my neck rising. Something was very wrong. It wasn't just the weird man in front of me. The whole bar felt strange. I could tell that the other patrons were human, but it felt like I was looking at them through a window. No, not a window, a television set. Everything felt slightly disjointed, out of time.
“I know of you.” The creature known as Blue nodded without looking at me. “We all figured you would find us sooner or later. Not that we expected it to take you this long, or for you…” he flicked a look at Raze out of the corner of his eye, “to throw your lot in with the Legion of Vidar.” He chuckled mirthlessly. “No one expected the almighty Leviathan to get to you first. But here we are.” He spread his hands wide. “What can old Blue do for the almighty Bloody Bones of legend?”
The way he said my name made me wince. “No one calls me that anymore. I’m Tommy now.”
“Ah, yes, since Rawhead died you haven't quite been yourself have you?”
“Don't talk about my brother like you knew him,” I bit back. “And stop with the magic. Can the humans even see you?”
It had taken me a minute to realise it but as soon as I did, I could feel it everywhere. There was some kind of spell on the bar.
“They see what I want them to see. And I want them to see a strapping young man. I do like humans so very much. They are so…” he paused, his gaze travelling round the bar, “soft and willing. But if it's making you feel uncomfortable then...” With a click of his fingers, it was like the fog lifted from my vision. Everything went back to the way it should be. Everything except Blue. He still looked exactly the same.
Frowning, I slid onto the stool next to him. My eyes swept over him. “Why bother with magic?”
“It's just a simple glamour that makes me more appealing to them.” He shrugged his bony shoulders.
“Son of a b***h is using a glamour to get them into bed,” Raze hissed next to me. “I should rip his throat out.”
I agreed with him. “We can't. Not until we find out what he knows, or if he can help us.” Surprisingly, I was the voice of reason.
“That’s right,” Blue crowed triumphantly. “You listen to your master, wolf. I am the only way you are going to get anywhere near Acco and his auction.”
“Auction?”
“He is still selling firstborns then?” Raze's voice was quiet.
“He never stopped. He’s just more careful about it now. And he has a network of humans that supply him.”
“And you can get us into this auction?”
Blue laughed. “f**k, no, but I can get you to the woman who is supplying this year’s harvest. She will be able to get you in if you are persuasive enough.”
He didn't have to elaborate. By persuasive, he meant we would need to threaten her. We had to scare this human enough that she was more frightened of me then she was of Acco. I was more than up for that job. I was a scary son of a b***h in my other form. A literal thing of nightmares. I had seen grown men piss themselves at the sight of me.
“Who is it?” Raze asked over my shoulder.
“Someone your missing girl works with.” Blue took a sip of his drink. I watched his Adam's apple bob but the liquid didn't seem to go down. A never-ending beer. We could probably do with that kind of magic back in the clubhouse, I thought absently.
“A teacher?” My eyebrows disappeared into my hairline. How was that possible? Weren't teachers meant to be good? Their whole job was to nurture children.
“Not just any teacher, the principal.” Throwing back his head, Blue laughed. “Briella’s boss is the one that gave her up. But if you wait for just a little while, she’ll turn up. She's due to be paid once the auction is over.”
“She will turn up here?”
Blue’s green eyes narrowed. “Of course she will. How do you think she's getting there? I'm the gatekeeper.”
***
“How much longer?” Raze shifted uncomfortably next to me. And I couldn't say I blamed him. I hated waiting as well. I had never been very good at it. Which was funny seeing as all the tales about me had me hiding and waiting for naughty children under the stairs and in dark cupboards. Personally, I couldn't think of anything worse than being trapped in a tight, enclosed space with nothing else to do but wait.
“Just be...” I didn't finish. The door swung open and my head swivelled in that direction. Outside, the sky had grown dark. It was much later than I had realised.
A woman swept into the room, her heels clicking on the wooden floor. She looked just as out of place as we did. In her pants suit she looked like a middle-aged soccer mum in a seedy bar on the wrong side of the tracks.
It had to be her. She screamed principal. It was like she had seen a picture of a principal in a children’s book and styled her whole wardrobe on it. It was so cliche, it was almost comical. At least it would have been if she wasn't the one who was selling her own kind to the monsters.
I was many things but I had never sold someone, human or paranormal, into slavery. I looked like a monster in my other form, but I wasn't one. The woman in front of me was.
“That her?” I hissed out of the corner of my mouth. I didn't want to draw attention to myself, but I needed to make sure it was her before I made a grab for her; it wouldn't do any good to grab an innocent woman.
“Ready?” Blue ignored me totally, raising his voice as he turned towards the woman who made a beeline straight for him, a wide smile on her too thin face. “I've been waiting for hours.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “The damn teacher’s brothers won't leave it alone. I probably shouldn't have taken her. But she just…” She trailed off as she caught me staring at her, too late she realised the danger she was in.
My hand caught her around the bicep before she could even think about running. “Why don't you take a seat?” I kept my voice low and even, as non-threatening as I could manage. Not that it mattered. The moment we touched, her instincts kicked in. She wanted to run, but with my grip on her arm, it was impossible.
“Get your hands off me, I’ll scream…”
Laughing, I pulled her closer. “No you won’t. You’re not going to draw any attention to us whatsoever. What you are going to do is take me to Briella.”
She looked at me dumbly. “Who?”
Was it possible that she was so heartless that she didn’t even know the names of the people she had sold? Her students and her staff. Did they really mean so little to her?
“They want the teacher,” Blue added helpfully. His face was impassive.
“I don't know what you mean. I don’t know any teacher.” She was trying desperately to wrangle her arm from my grip. I tightened my fingers.
“Fine, Acco then. You are going to take me to Acco.”
“I don't know…”
I sighed heavily. So, this was the way she wanted to play it. She was going to deny it to the very end. Glancing up at Blue, I nodded. “Can you hide my true form from the room?”
He nodded once; his face was thoughtful. Leaning forward, his eyes never left my face.
I let the change happen. I let the monster out. And I knew the moment she saw it. Her eyes filled with fear, her mouth opened in a silent scream as I grinned at her.
I knew how monstrous I looked. My skeleton face dripped with blood. My other form was how I got my name.
I was Bloody Bones.
And for the first time in my miserable life, I didn't hate my form. This once it was going to come in handy.
The woman was petrified. Her mouth opened and closed like a fish.
“Now, are you going to play nice?” I smiled a grotesque, bloody smile at her.
She nodded rapidly, a gargled noise rising from her throat instead of words.
“Good girl.”
- Writer
