ROGUE ANGEL - Book One: The Beginning

Chapter Twelve - The Showdown

WHEN I came to the small, rust-infested wrought-iron back-gate, I found it to be padlocked. But that didn’t pose a problem for me. I yanked it open and entered the compound. The lawn, with its overgrown grass and vegetation, was huge. I ran to the front and saw that it had a circular-shaped pathway that led back to the main gate from which it began. The building, or what was left of it, stood alone and ominous.

I made my way to the portico that had a short flight of steps. And there I halted, my eyes gazing at all corners of the place. Everything was quiet and still. There was no sign of Drakev. The wind, humming like bees, blew past me, rippling my clothes and tossing back my shoulder-length hair. It was rather cold too. Then I felt a slight tingling sensation, as if pins were poking my body. But I saw nothing. I looked again. This time I noticed some kind of electromagnetic waves all about me. So Kyra was right. There was an energy field enveloping the whole mansion, an energy field only my green eyes could see.

Brushing the mild irritation aside, I went to the wooden front door and pushed it open. A moment later, the interior of Ng Chan Villa unfolded itself. The ceilings were gone and there was no roof; cobwebs and dirt embraced the walls; and broken furniture and rotting timbers lay on the ground amid the debris of the ruined mansion. The whole place looked like it had gone through an air raid.

I crossed the lobby and ran down the passageway. At the end of it, I saw the study. There was no door. The inside was dim and the air was stale. In a corner were three burnt filing cabinets. A couch covered with soot was next to them. There was a badly damaged big oak desk with nothing on top of it. The panes of the windows were shattered. And there was no Madeline.

I looked about the room in a frenzy of anxiety. “Mirror, mirror on the wall,” I half-muttered and half-sang, “come out, come out, me not enjoying this at all.”

Nothing.

“Come on, Madeline, show yourself! I haven’t got all day!”

Still nothing.

“Madeline, I’m getting angry,” I fumed, my hands on my hip. “Do you hear me? I am getting very angry.”

The next instant, a flash of yellow appeared on the blackened east wall, casting a golden glow across the study. Then white smoke with a faint scent of citrus appeared. And the emerald-framed oval mirror, after decades of concealment, was visible once more.

I smiled gleefully. I felt joy, great joy and allowed myself a couple of moments to treasure the sight of the mirror that had a length of about half my size. When the light began to fade itself out, I nipped over to it, grabbed it, and kissed it. “All is forgiven, my dear Madeline,” I said, happiness choking my throat like a carol. “Kyra is waiting outside. And, boy, will she be overwhelmingly delighted to see you!”

After tucking the mirror under my armpit, I came out of the study and turned towards the front door. That was as far as I could go. Several feet away, I saw the person I dreaded most. It was Drakev; he was sitting on an armchair and blocking the passageway.

“You’ll be surprised to know this armchair is the only piece of furniture here left untouched by the fire,” said the witch-hunter, smiling at me – I thought it looked rather artificial – and playfully twisting the edge of his moustache.

Truth be told, I was not listening as I was frantically seeking another way out. There was none; the study dead-ended here. Damn, like it or not, I had to go through Drakev. Then I remembered that feeling of death back in my hotel room. Is this it? I wondered, biting my lips. Am I going to get killed by Drakev?

“So you finally found the mirror,” he said, still smiling. “Ingenious! For years I’d been searching for it in vain yet you’re able to find it with just one visit. Like I said, ingenious.”

Taking a deep breath to steady myself, I looked at Drakev and asked in a low, hard tone, “What do you want?”

“Now, now, why so serious? Can’t we have a little nice daughter-and-father conversation for once?”

“I am not your daughter!” I thundered.

“Search your feelings, Alison,” replied Drakev, speaking like a Darth Vader clone. “You know I’m telling the truth. Or else how could you pass through my energy shield without getting fried? You have my DNA.”

Drakev’s disclosure left me staring open-mouthed at him. No, this cannot be, I thought, putting the mirror down and leaning heavily on it. My mind was in a state of turmoil.

“Of all the women I’ve bedded, your mother was the only one whom I didn’t kill,” reminisced Drakev, reclining on his chair. “Don’t know why. There was something about her that I liked. She was tall and pretty. We first bumped into each other at a social club; she was the manager there. I was having one of my lows – we angels do have our off-days too, you know – and she pepped me up with her naughty sense of humor. Soon we became lovers. That was my first mistake.” He paused and looked at me; this time I was listening. I wanted to know more about my mother. “After a while, I began to get a weird kind of feeling … a feeling that humans call love. It was a big drag. I didn’t like this feeling. It was making me soft and vulnerable. So what did I do? I told your mother to get the hell out of my life.”

He paused again. His fake smile was gone. And there was fire in his eyes. Getting up, he growled, “That was my second mistake. I should have just killed her. Then there would be no you, and there would be no effing prophecy! You see, Alison, an oracle had foreseen my death in the hands of a green-eyed Chinese woman. Turns out to be you.”

I could feel the rage radiating out of him, could see it blazing in him like a furnace. The little nice daughter-and-father conversation was officially over; he was now in a murderous mood. I grabbed back the mirror when I saw him raising his hands, ready to blast me to kingdom come. All my instincts were screaming run, run. I could see the front exit ahead of me. The door was open. From where I was standing, the distance didn’t seem as far as I thought it was.

“Move your butt!” I told myself and I did.

Like a shot, I ran across the passageway, zooming past Drakev. But still I was not quick enough. The witch-hunter managed to take a blast at me. I felt a sting on my back and howled in hot pain, dropping the mirror on the floor. I went down as well, and this time I knew I would not be able to get up again.

Drakev came and stood on top of me. “Goodbye Alison, and don’t worry about feeling lonely in hell. Kyra will join you soon, I’ll see to that.” He smirked.

Tears of pain and anger were flaming in my eyes. I didn’t want to give in. Suddenly I recalled the words of Kyra: during your most desperate moment, trust no one but the mirror. Without wasting a millisecond I began feeling about the ground for Madeline. But it was too late; Drakev thunder-bolted point-blank at me. I screamed. The pain was beyond description. I felt my whole body burning up. And a dazzling sheet of white seemed to leap across my eyes. Then my hand finally closed around the mirror. Using the last iota of my energy, I held it up in front of me and blocked his assault.

“You think a puny mirror is going to save you?” Drakev laughed. “This is hilarious!”

But the mirror, despite taking the brunt of the thunderbolts, didn’t crack. This was no puny mirror like what Drakev had mocked it to be. This was Madeline.

Just like light is refracted when it goes through glass, Madeline absorbed all his thunderbolts, then deflected them back on him in one powerful discharge. Drakev had absolutely no idea what hit him. He recoiled from the sudden pain and was engulfed in flames the next moment. He ran wildly but soon dropped to the floor. And there he lay motionless, his body emanating a red mist, like smoke from a fire. It rose to a certain height then dissipated. It was as if he never existed.

“The prophecy was wrong, you son-of-a-b***h; it was the green-framed mirror that did you in, not me,” I said, my voice already slurring.

Then the mirror fell from my hands and my eyes slowly closed.