CHAPTER THREE

Light and Dark

Jeremy led me across the outer room and back to the lift. The lift took us down to a floor decorated in markedly less opulence than the top floor but still a good deal better than my own accommodation had been. We stepped into a corridor resembling that of an indifferent hotel. Doors ranged on left and right but we continued down its length and through a door facing us. It led into what I guessed to be a common room. Chairs were grouped around low tables or in secluded alcoves. The pictures here were all prints or rather poor copies I noticed. There were three people in the room. A guard stood close to the door. Keeping people out? Or in, I wondered. The guard's face gave nothing away. He was way over six foot six and his build put even Karl's muscles to shame. He looked me over, taking in every inch... every well-padded inch, his look seemed to imply, before losing interest and returning to his apparent trance. I felt the heat rush to my cheeks. Arrogant son of a ...

'Grace, I would like to introduce you to Lewis Renwick and Clair Anderson.'

Lewis and Clair had appeared to be deep in conversation in one of the little reading nooks when we entered the room. Now they stood to greet us. Clair was a small, blond woman. Her dark eyes smiled into mine as she held out her hand.

'Nice to meet you, Grace.'

'Pleased to meet you,' Lewis said.

'Both Clair and Lewis have benefited from our research here and I think that speaking to them will give you a better idea of what it is we do and why it is so important.'

Lewis seemed to jangle within his skin as he plumped up a cushion in one of the easy chairs and invited me to sit. With his sparse frame, skin so dark it could be mistaken for black, dark, sunken eyes and nervous jittery manner he was unlike anyone I have ever met before. I glanced at Jeremy who indicated I should sit.

Clair sat opposite and Lewis sat next to her on the very edge of his seat. My smile was beginning to set and my face ache.

'I'll let you get to know each other in peace. Ross will bring you to me when you are done. Then we'll talk again.'

'What?' I glanced at the guard near the door, the one I assumed was, Ross. 'No, I'm sure Lewis and Clair wouldn't mind if you stay and then I really have to be going.' Though unwelcome, Jeremy's presence was a definite step up from the jittery Lewis.

'Going?' Lewis asked.

'Going where?' added Clair.

'Well home, I have to get back. You see I left in err, well, suddenly and people will be worrying. Wait.' Jeremy had started for the door again.

'We'll speak later,' Jeremy said without turning around.

'He does that sometimes,' Clair said sympathetically as the door closed behind him.

'What, walk out in the middle of a conversation?'

'The way he brought you here I mean.'

'Pardon?'

'His work comes first,' Lewis said.

'Wait. He's taken other people like me? I mean the way he took me?'

Clair nodded. 'I think he's a bit unsure of himself sometimes.'

'Oh? And abducting people is meant to endear him to them?'

'You must be very special for him to bother. And once you see the good he and his family are doing you'll want to help, I just know it.'

Lewis nodded and smiled showing the gap between his front teeth.

'Do you. So, how about showing me what he wants me to see so badly that he kidnapped me,' I said wanting to get this over as quickly as possible.

'You're feeling a bit put out just now but it'll pass.'

'A bit put out? You think I'm a bit put out.' I was almost speechless. I had been abducted drugged and imprisoned and she thought I was 'a bit put out'!

'You're a necromancer, right?'

I swallowed my anger sure that a scene in which I grabbed her by the throat wouldn't help me get out of here any sooner. 'That's what I'm told,' I said.

'And you've known about your powers all your life?'

'More or less.'

'And you've been okay with them?'

'I manage. Listen what is all this about?'

'Wow,' Lewis said leaning forward to scratch at his back.

'We have powers too, you know. But until recently neither of us had been able to manage them ourselves. Lewis has been in and out of institutions. Humans told him he was mad. So that's what he thought too, until recently.'

'Humans?'

'When I was thirteen I ran away and was lucky enough to be taken in by people who knew what I was going through was normal. Normal for a Shadow that is,' Clair added.

'A.... What?'

'Lewis wasn't so lucky, at least until Jeremy found him and brought him here. Now he's learning to use his gifts and not be afraid all the time.'

'His gifts.' I echoed.

'I'm a demi-demon,' Lewis said.

I felt my skin tingle and managed, after an awkward few seconds, to close my mouth.

'A what, sorry? I thought you said...'

'Part demon,' Lewis said.

'He doesn't know which part yet. I mean if it was his mother or father or even some grandparent who was the full demon, but at least he knows the truth now. And the people here at the clinic are helping him come to terms with his gifts. They are teaching him to explore them instead of trying to suppress them.'

The word I was hanging onto was 'clinic'. Clinic was good. Clinic meant these two were having treatment.

'I see, well I'm pleased you are getting help now and...'

'She doesn't believe us.' Lewis had gone very still. His large dark eyes rested on me and all trace of the previous jittery anticipation was gone.

'Give her a chance, Lewie. It's gonna take her a while to adjust. All this must be a bit of a shock if she hasn't known anything about...Lewis, no!'

As Clair spoke Lewis put his hands together as if in prayer. Then he drew them slowly apart. Between his palms arced strands of energy. His face was creased in concentration but he was perfectly still, perfectly calm. Clair took my arm and pulled me slowly to my feet. Lewis' lips moved and the stands of energy formed themselves into a ball. His eyes flicked from the fireball to mine. Clair's fingers dug into my arm. Ross had stepped away from the door but kept his distance.

Lewis smiled, 'You see?'

'Yes, I see,' I nodded. 'That...that's amazing. P...please put it out now,' my throat felt dry, my mouth reluctant to form the words.

The fire disappeared leaving a tiny wisp of smoke and an acrid smell. Clair released my arm.

'Lewie, you know you aren't supposed to do that without backup,' she said in a small, would-be reasonable voice.

Lewis sat down looking pleased with himself. 'I know but she had to see. She had to understand. Anyway, I'm okay with little stuff now.'

Little stuff?

Clair steered me back to the chair and I sat down on the edge casting a quick look over to Ross who was back at the door and back in his trance.

'That's a neat trick you...'

Lewis' face hardened. 'It's not a trick...'

'I meant gift. Sorry, I'm just a bit... well, scared, to be honest.'

Lewis relaxed visibly. And more disturbingly he looked pleased. 'Didn't mean to scare you, Grace, but you thought we were nut-cases. I could see it in your face. I had to show you that we are the genuine article. Like you.'

'Well. You did that. But to be honest, I'm none the wiser as to what's going on,' I said hoping to bring the conversation back to something I could manage. 'You said this is a clinic?'

'Yes. It's the Meridian Clinic. A clinic for supernaturals,' Clair said.

'Supernaturals.'

'Like you and me and Lewie here. You're going to be a big help.'

'People keep saying that but no one is telling me how.'

'You're a necromancer and from what I hear and you were alone out there but you are, well, still okay,' Clair said.

'Okay?'

'You know, not mental or locked up or anything.'

'Oh.'

'That means you have a natural way of coping with seeing and talking to ghosts and bodies and stuff without tipping over the edge.'

'Well, actually I don't...'

'Yes, you do,' Lewis said. 'You live out there by yourself and no one knew about you until recently.'

'I was going to say I don't talk to the ghosts unless I have to. And what do you mean 'bodies'.'

'So somewhere inside of you is the capacity to live with and use your abilities safely.' Lewis was nodding enthusiastically.

'Somewhere in your genetic make-up,' Clair added.

'My genetic make-up?' I was beginning to feel like an echo.

'We can't cope with our powers alone. Not without some help at first at least. You're strong and can. So something in your genetic make-up allows you to control and harness your abilities,' Clair explained.

'I don't harness anything. I ignore them. Anyway, it doesn't sound to me like you're after lessons in how to ignore your powers. It sounds more like you want to learn how to use them and believe me you have come to the wrong person for that.'

Lewis was beginning to twitch again, rocking back and forward on the end of his chair and picking at his trouser leg. 'We don't want lessons from you,' he said. 'We want to know why you can cope without support and we couldn't.'

'I've told you, I don't know. Why are some people good at maths and others aren't? How can some people dance and others seem to have two left feet? Come to that how can some people see ghosts and others can't? I just don't know.'

'But we're telling you,' Clair said, 'it's genetics. This is a genetic research clinic. Jeremy his mother and sister are trying to isolate the genes that are responsible for us being what we are. And they also want to find out how people like you are so strong. If they can do that then they can help us be more like you and we would be able to live a relatively normal life. You see?'

I stared at them unable to answer. Genetic research clinic? They wanted to mess with my genes?

'No, I don't.' I said at last.

'Jeremy wanted you to meet us because we are halfway through our program,' Lewis said. He itched further toward the end of his seat and leaned forward to get closer to me. I moved an instinctive few inches back. 'There are others here that he hasn't been able to help like he has us. And there are some that are still in the early stages of their programs, not like me and Clair. He's probably going to let you see some of them but you won't be able to meet them or talk to them. Not like us. They are too dangerous.'

'No, really it's fine. Meeting you has certainly been an eye-opener but I don't think I need to see anyone else.'

'Well that's not up to us, is it. It's up to Jeremy,' Clair said.

'What about what I want?'

'Shouldn't think that matters much,' Lewis raked his fingers through his black hair and grinned.

I stood up 'Well, like I say, it's been great meeting you. But the quicker I see Jeremy the quicker we can sort all this out.'

Clair and Lewis stood up.

'Okay,' Clair shrugged and smiled a smile that reached all the way to the corners of her dark eyes.

I found myself smiling back at her. I decided that just maybe, in different circumstances, I could have liked Clair.

'See you later,' Lewis said, wiping his hand down his trousers before taking mine. I found it a good deal harder to return Lewis' smile. With Ross in tow I left the room. Ross escorted me back to the lift. He moved with the grace of a cat and was equally silent. He stared at the closed elevator doors as if I were not there.

'Do you speak?'

'When I have something to say.'

'Will you show me the way out?'

'No.'

'I shouldn't be here you know.'

The doors opened and he indicated I get in the lift. It would be pointless refusing. And humiliating, I suspected. The doors closed behind us and he pressed the button for the top floor.

'What you're doing is against the law.'

He raised an eyebrow and his pale grey eyes looked almost amused.

'Okay, what you're helping them to do is against the law!'

'Which law would that be?'

'All of them I suspect!'

'You haven't chosen whether you want to be here yet.'

'Yes, I have. I want to go home.'

'You need to see what it is they are offering. Then you need to choose.'

'And if I choose to leave after I see and understand everything? Will you show me the way out?'

'Understand everything?' His face twitched in a half-grin and this time it was clear he was genuinely amused. I wanted to leap on him and pummel him with my fists, but the day had been humiliating enough.

'You're going to find it difficult to understand even a tiny fraction of what you see. Just try to understand enough to make a decision.'

The doors opened preventing the reply I probably shouldn't make. The grin melted from his face and when we entered Jeremy's office Ross was once more the silent door-warden.

'Grace, join me, I was about to have lunch.' Jeremy indicated a table set with two places. 'I hope you like seafood. Help yourself.'

He held out a chair for me and I sat. Assorted seafood and green salad was daintily presented and I found myself putting a selection on my plate even though I had no love for either seafood or salad. I put the serving spoons down and looked at the unwanted food on my plate. Damn, he did it again.

'How did your meeting with Clair and Lewis go?'

'They seem very nice.'

'Truthfully?'

'They are weird.' Damn! What was wrong with me? 'I mean Lewis did something weird.'

'Oh?'

'He conjured a ball of energy or something in his hands.'

'Did he threaten you?'

'No. No, he just thought I wasn't taking them seriously enough I suppose. He was trying to prove a point. It was a neat trick though. How did he do it?'

'What did he tell you?'

I picked at the salad on my plate. 'Well, he said he was part demon and his powers came from his demon ancestor. So what was it really?'

'As far as we can tell he told you the truth.'

I forgot the salad. 'You have to be kidding!'

'Why?'

'Because it's just ridiculous! There are no such things as demons.'

'How many people have told you there are no such things as ghosts?'

'That's different.'

'Why?'

'Because there are ghosts,' I snapped.

Jeremy grinned. I pushed a bit of white tube stuff into my mouth and instantly wished I hadn't.

'Maybe by the end of today you will be a little more receptive to new things.'

I washed the tubing down with a swill of coffee and pushed the plate away. 'If that means believing in demons, actual walking, talking, breeding demons, then I doubt it.'

'When Lewis first came to the clinic he was severely traumatized. He believed he was insane, cursed even. It has taken months of work to bring him to what he is now.'

'Which is what? He still doesn't look all that stable to me.'

'No. You're right. But you were able to meet him and have a conversation with him. A few months ago that would have been far too dangerous. He is finally coming to terms with his heritage and will soon be able to access his powers safely.'

'Why?'

'Excuse me?'

'Why would he want to access powers like that? If you're right and he really is part demon and not insane, surely simply knowing that would be enough.'

'You mean push his powers into a bottom drawer out of sight and forget about them?'

Though he didn't say it I knew the words 'like you' were very close.

'It works.'

'Not for him. His powers are active. Not passive like yours. And they are accumulative.'

I wouldn't ask but he obviously saw I had only a vague idea what he meant.

'The power builds until he can no longer hold it. He's being taught safe ways to discharge excess power without harming himself or other people, making him safe to be around. At least as safe as a demi-demon can be.

'If you're finished your lunch I'll take you to see some of our other patients. Unfortunately, you will not be able to meet them; their treatment is not as advanced as Lewis' but it will give you a better understanding of how far Lewis has come since entering the clinic and just what it is we are trying to do here.'

'And why I'm here?'

'I hope so.'

'So do I.'