Chapter Five
A couple of minutes later and Vara was up and about. And on a mission. She barrelled past Darius who, annoyingly, had been waiting outside for her. She headed to the Right Wing of the House because she was so not in the mood for bumping into Asleep members of the Black Dragons. Their ignorance would just annoy her, even though a couple of hours ago she’d been just as oblivious. Luckily, the Right Wing of the House was off-limits to those who were Asleep, so that was one annoyance dealt with.
The other annoyance trailed behind her now. Darius was like a puppy left behind when all its brothers and sisters had been sold, hoping that maybe she’d take pity on him and show him some love. Well, he could do that for as long as he liked, Vara was too busy to pay him any attention.
You cannot work with others, Vara…
The Master’s voice entered her mind. With a scowl, Vara shut that thought away. The Master meant on missions, not in corridors. Besides, she was in a hurry and Darius had decided to become a human anchor.
She reached the Right Wing staircase and galloped down, gripping the banister to keep from going head first as she took the stairs three at a time. It wasn’t long before Darius’ panting faded into silence as he fell behind. And it wasn’t long before she reached the steel-blue door to the basement, the place where Kerr hung out.
Vara slowed her pace and waited until her heartbeat got back into the right rhythm before she went through the door. Best to be calm and perfectly ready for anything when you descended to the basement, underneath which were the training rooms, filled with adrenaline-pumped members.
She pushed open the door and entered another world. Upstairs the yellow light had shone from exquisite chandeliers, fitted with light bulbs rather than candles, obviously. Here, electric blue light flashed from flickering ordinary light bulbs in the ceiling. There were no windows, which not only kept the natural light from softening this place up, but made the basement feel like a rabbit warren. One recently bought by a mad scientist and given concrete walls to keep the worms from popping in to say hi.
The basement set her on edge, all shifting dark shadows and snaking long corridors. The pounding rap music coming from up ahead didn’t do much to sooth her nerves, either. It shut out all other sounds so Vara couldn’t hear if she was being pursued, like a normal, paranoid Black Dragon member would assume. She’d learnt to ignore her thumping heart and dry mouth eventually, it just took practice. Since she came down here so often, when Awake that was, she’d gotten it under control. Now that she hadn’t been here in months, her usual restraint was taking a little longer to get back.
Finally, she reached another door. The rap boomed from behind it, and more blue light spilled out from the gap at the bottom. A sharp curse sounded over the music for a brief moment. Yep. Kerr was behind there alright.
Vara opened the door and did a quick survey of the room. Sheets of paper, maps, and photographs were hastily pinned to three walls. Multicoloured lengths of string ran randomly across the new wallpaper, linking bits and pieces together. Screens filled the fourth wall. Half were news channels and daytime quiz shows on mute. The rest were screens showing the CCTV footage for the outside of the House and the staircases inside. If Kerr had been paying attention he would have seen her coming, but he was sat in front of one of the many laptops, furiously typing away, his back to the screens.
Vara’s head began to pound and she wondered how on earth Kerr hadn’t turned deaf. Didn’t he know it was possible to turn down the volume of his music? With a scowl, Vara searched for the source of the noise. Then she marched over to the iPod in the iPod dock and snatched it free.
How strange that the silence that followed was actually louder than the rap…
Kerr jerked like she’d ripped his chair from under him. “H-hey!” he cried out. “What the hell?” He spun around on a swivel chair and glared at her, his grey eyes as hard as the metal that surrounded them. They widened when he saw she was holding his iPod hostage.
Vara stalked towards him, tightening her grip on his holy grail.
“V-Vara. You’re …back.”
“You don’t sound happy about it.”
“I’m overjoyed. Just… gimme the iPod, okay?”
“Hmm…” She tapped it against her chin, pretending to think about it. Then she chucked it on the laptop in front of him. “Alright.”
He wasn’t slow in grabbing it and tucking it safely away in his trouser pocket. Kerr looked back at her and Vara saw with surprise that his jaw was covered in stubble. Kerr was dark blonde, but unfortunately the hair on his face was ginger. He needed a shave. Badly.
“To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?” he muttered, sarcastic now that his iPod was safe.
“I need a favour.” When he snorted, Vara narrowed her eyes and added, “Since I didn’t stamp on the love of your life, I’m feeling you kind of owe me one, yeah?”
“What is it?”
“Emily Green. Find her address.”
“Which one will you want out of the millions of other of Emily Greens?” He started to turn back to his laptop, bored with her already. That was the thing with Kerr. He thought those who weren’t as smart as him didn’t deserve a moment of his attention. He’d decided as much with Vara now, not impressed with her request.
She grabbed his chair and spun him around.
“The Emily Green who has a mobile registered to her with this number.” Vara dug Kieran’s phone from her pocket and waved it at Kerr. She’d already saved Emily as a contact.
Kerr’s face split into a grin. “Vara, you’re a diamond.”
“And you’re a geek. Can we get on with it?”
“You seem pretty strung out,” he mused, studying her face. “First time back down here?”
Her head began to throb again. Except it wasn’t the nonexistent music annoying her, it was the nerd with the ginger face.
“What’s it to you? This is urgent. The girl is a person of interest to the Master.” Soon, she added silently. There was no doubt this girl and her connection to Kieran would be fascinating to the Master … when he knew about them. Besides, people got things done way more quickly when they thought the Master had ordered it.
“Say no more, say no more.” Kerr turned back to the laptop. “Tell me the number and I’ll get on to it.”
Vara looked down at the phone and read out Emily’s number. Then watched Kerr’s fingers practically blur together as he pounded on the key pad. Over the whirring of the computer hard at work, and the clicking of his fingers on the keys, Kerr said, “You mind waiting outside? I hate it when people look over my shoulder.”
Worked for her. If Emily decided to ring again, or if some other secret girl rang, Vara could answer without having to worry about Kerr listening in.
Outside, Vara leant against the wall, facing the way she’d come. She glanced from side to side, as the corridor split into two different directions. Both led to stairwells leading to changing room and then the training rooms. The one on her left went to the women’s changing rooms, the one on her right to the men’s changing rooms.
She was wondering if anyone had gone the wrong way and ended up the opposite sex’s changing room when she heard footsteps. It came from the corridor on her right, leading to the men’s changing rooms. Sure enough, someone came around the corner and walked slowly towards her.
Vara tensed for a fight, not recognising the silhouette of the figure, when another rounded the corner and joined it.
Damn it.
Except the person in front stepped under a flickering light bulb and the breath left Vara in a rush. They certainly weren’t male, despite coming from the male changing rooms. Their curvy figure and high heels proved that. And none of the guys liked to deck themselves out in skirts as big as handkerchiefs, or wear huge hoop earrings, surprisingly.
The mane of cherry-red hair, now purple under the blue light, confirmed Vara’s suspicions.
“Cherry!” she called out, her thoughts somewhere between ‘thank God it’s only her’ and ‘I will tear off her red hair and use it to strangle her with’.
Cherry stopped so suddenly that the person behind her bumped into her. He glanced up from the floor, looking surprised, and Vara recognised him too. James, his name was, and like Kerr, he was more the brains side of the Black Dragons than the fighting one. Which was fortunate; someone with his skinny frame would be crushed by the weight of a paperclip, let alone all the gear the fighters of the Black Dragons had to carry around.
Cherry lifted her chin and strutted towards Vara, shifting her hips from side to side so much it was a wonder she didn’t fall flat on her face. Her eyes fixed on Vara and her glossy lips parted, ready to speak.
Vara got in first. “What the hell? You again? How the heck did you get down here?” Her eyes shifted to James, who raised his hands in an ‘it wasn’t me’ gesture. She looked back at Cherry. “Well?”
“Mmm…” Cherry still stalked towards Vara, just an arm’s length away now. “Wouldn’t you like to know…”
As she passed, a triumphant smirk on her face, Vara grabbed her arm and pushed her backwards until they reached the nearest wall. She wrapped one hand around Cherry’s throat and slammed the other against the wall, inches from Cherry’s head.
It worked. Once again, Cherry’s eyes widened and her mouth formed a perfect ‘O’. Her eyebrows reached her hairline and her breath came in shallow gasps. Huh, now wasn’t this familiar? They’d done this only a few hours ago.
“I was asking you a question,” Vara hissed, really not in a patient mood. Her face was so close to Cherry’s that if she leaned in a little more, their noses would be touching.
“O-Omar,” she stammered. Then, abruptly, her face slipped into a sly mask. Her mouth twisted into a cold smirk and her eyelids sunk low over her navy stare. Hate hardened her voice when she said, “Mmm hmm… He’s one hungry customer.”
Vara’s top lip curled back in disgust, and suddenly, being so close to Cherry wasn’t a good thing.
“Well, well. This is cozy.”
Vara looked over her shoulder and saw Kerr standing by his door, a sick smile spread across his face. She rolled her eyes. No need to ask what kind of fantasies this guy’s mind was rolling.
As she stepped back from Cherry, Vara asked him, “You got the address?”
Kerr frowned at the change of subject. “Yeah.” He held out a piece of paper. “Took the liberty of printing it off for you.”
Vara stepped towards him and snatched from his hands.
“Don’t mention it.”
“I won’t,” she replied. “Seeing as you’re doing your job.” She looked at Cherry, thinking of Omar enjoying himself when he should be running errands for the Master. “Which is more than I can say for most people.”
Cherry rolled her eyes and walked off, heading down the corridor leading towards the women’s changing rooms.
“Uh, ah … Ch-Cherry!” James called after her, stumbling over her name.
She shot him a glare over her shoulder.
“Exit’s that way…” He pointed down the corridor Vara had walked down on her way to Kerr’s room.
As she stalked off in the right direction this time, Vara shouted to her, “I catch you in a place you’re not meant to be in again and I’m gonna have to take care of you.”
Without even turning around, Cherry lifted her middle finger to Vara. Charming girl.
Vara looked at James. “Were you escorting her out?”
“Er, yeah. Just told her which direction to go and followed her.” He paused before adding, “Omar said to.”
At least he made sure his girl got out okay. Ha, yeah, whatever. The Master needed to be told about that git. ‘Cause one day Omar was gonna forget to find a chauffer for his girls and someone was going to go missing. Causing a whole lot of hell along the way.
She sighed. “Make sure she gets to the front door okay, alright?”
James nodded, not looking too happy about his new role as babysitter. But he set off after her anyway, thank God.
“So, where you heading to now?” Kerr asked. His question roughly translated as: Can you please just go away now and leave me and my iPod alone?
Vara sighed. Again. She rubbed her wrist as the ache returned. “Well, now you’ve found Emily Green I have to go and tell the Master about her.”
She closed her eyes, her heart accelerating at the thought of facing him after what had happened last time she’d seen him. Had she really called him a bastard? Oh, fantastic. The Master was going to be really happy with her when she saw him. Well, her news about Emily should cheer him up … hopefully.
