Part 24 (2/2)

'What's wrong?' Cam put his hands on her shoulders and she realised she must've cried out.

'Sorry. Just got a shock.'

There was a furry mound on the back step. It wasn't moving. 'What is it?'

'It's too big to be one of Cat's gifts. I hope.'

Gwen crouched down, peering through the half-light. It was a large rabbit. Grey fur, streaked with dried blood. Spread around it on the step was what could be more blood if it weren't so crumbly. Soil.

'It's okay,' Cam said. 'It was probably very old. Had a good life, ate lots of dandelion leaves.'

'Blood and bone and earth.' Gwen's voice was hollow. She moved away from Cam. 'I've got to bury it.'

'Now?' Cam said, but Gwen had already stepped over the body and into the gloom of the garden.

She was vaguely aware of Cam saying, 'Right, then.'

Gwen was s.h.i.+vering. She should've picked up her coat. Probably should've told Cam to leave, too. Now he would think she was truly mental. She felt sick, though. Sick with the need to bury that creature, to try and neutralise whatever bad magic had been raised by its murder.

'You don't have to do that now, Gwen. Gwen...'

Cam's voice seemed to be coming from very far away. What had her mother always said? Blood and bone and earth. Blood magic was ancient and powerful and really, really scary. Oh, c.r.a.p.

With a heavy heart, Gwen went to the shed at the side of the house. She found an iron coal shovel and used that to scoop the rabbit into a bin bag. After digging a shallow grave at the end of the garden, marked with a lump of granite taken from the overgrown rockery, Gwen was sweating inside her top. She pushed her hair out of her eyes and discovered it was crispy with frost.

She was breathing heavily and became aware that Cam stood watching her. He had his woollen overcoat back on and his expression was unreadable.

'That's better,' Gwen said brightly.

'I did offer to help,' Cam said. 'I don't think you heard me.'

Gwen walked past him, trying not to think how messy she must look. 'Let's go back inside. Have a drink.'

Cam didn't answer, but he followed her.

As soon as Gwen's foot touched the tile of the kitchen floor, she could feel the wrongness. It flooded her. Bad mojo.

'What now?' Cam's voice was on the edge of exasperation, but Gwen couldn't worry about that now. She paused, one foot held up in the air. She forced herself to put it down, to feel the vibrations that were pulsing through the ground. She took a breath. 'Somebody killed that rabbit and left it for me. It's really bad-'

'No.' Cam closed the door and locked the new bolts. 'That's crazy.'

'It's bad magic,' Gwen said. She was shaking and couldn't stop. Shuddering. 'It doesn't feel right in here. I think the house is angry. Or something in the house. Something isn't right and I don't know how to make it better.'

Cam turned slowly. 'You've had a shock,' he began.

'Can we go to your house? Please? I think I need to give this place time to calm down.'

The drive to Cam's flat was quiet. Gwen didn't speak again until they got there and she was grateful that Cam didn't try to make conversation. He drove carefully and her tension eased with every mile that sprouted between her and End House.

At the flat, Gwen shucked off her hooded fleece and tossed her bobble hat onto a perspex Philippe Starck-style chair.

'Drink?'

'No. Yes, go on then.' Gwen looked around. 'Nothing that'll stain if I drop it, though.'

'Why would you drop it?' Cam looked perplexed.

'This place.' Gwen waved a hand. 'It's an invitation for mess. It's a question waiting to be answered. A gla.s.s of red wine waiting to be splattered across the rug.'

Cam frowned at his pale beige carpet. 'I don't have a rug.'

'The sofa, then.' Gwen gestured to the white couch.

'Please don't. That's quite new.'

Gwen sat on it, slipped forward, said, 'Whoops,' and hastily straightened up.

'Yes, there's a bit of a knack to that. I think the leather is polished or something,' Cam said. He disappeared for a moment, then returned with a gla.s.s of white wine and a bottle of lager.

He pa.s.sed her the gla.s.s. 'You seem calmer, anyway. What was all that about?'

'I feel much better for getting away,' Gwen said. 'I think the house was angry, even though I buried the rabbit. I'm just going to give it time to calm down and then I'll be out of your hair.'

Cam took a swig of his beer. 'You are aware that you sound a little nutty right now?'

'I'm not crazy,' Gwen said. 'Someone wishes me harm. I don't know what I've done, but somebody really hates me. And whoever it is knows their stuff, because that rabbit was no accident. Blood magic.' Which, Gwen realised, put Patrick Allen out of the frame. Gwen could imagine him paying somebody to break into her house and sabotage her boiler, but she couldn't see him anywhere near something like this. Blood magic wasn't just the darkest magic or the most powerful, it was the ickiest, too.

'So you think someone killed a rabbit and left it for you?' Cam said.

Gwen took a swallow of her wine. 'Could you stop avoiding the subject, please? You were there when I found that dog, when I cured Brian, I've told you about finding things for my business, knowing things about objects that I couldn't possibly-'

'The dog was a fluke.'

Gwen stopped speaking, her expression carefully blank. After a moment she said, 'No, it wasn't.'

'Look, I know you had an...um, alternative...upbringing, but you don't really believe this stuff.'

'Unfortunately, I don't have much of a choice. I know you think I'm unhinged.'

'No, I don't,' Cam said. 'I think you were brought up believing certain things and that's very powerful.'

'You knew about Mum?'

'I heard the rumours.' Cam looked uncomfortable and Gwen felt a familiar sinking in her stomach.

'You never said anything.'

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