Under His Influence

“What’s going on?”

“Do it. Take her hand. Come with me.”

“I won’t!” spat Anna.

“I’m scarcely going to kill you while you’re so close to my child, am I? I’m not going to kill my own child. At least you can trust me on that score.”

Mimi, having scoured the other half of the hall, jogged up, flushed and panting.

“Oh, you’ve found them,” she said.

“Go home, Mimi.”

“But—”

“Just go!”

Mimi, shocked at John’s vehemence, slunk back, finding a vantage point at the corner of a bank of desks from which she could observe proceedings.

“Don’t go. Stay.”

She bit her lip and hugged herself as John’s instruction flowed through the air and into her brain.

“Rixxar One must not know I have any other close confidante on Earth. He will try to use you. Hang back and observe. Keep a safe distance. I may need your help.”

“I will. Be careful, John.”

“Thanks for caring.” She heard the smile in his voice and felt that warm emotion he had been evoking in her lately more intensely than ever.

“I do care. I care for you.”

From her corner, she watched as John and Anna negotiated. From what she saw, she deduced that Rixxar One felt nervous and disadvantaged. Anna frequently reared back, using defensive body language, while a confident John moved infinitesimally closer, employing gestures that were traditionally used to persuade. Liam broke in from time to time, hands flapping or clasped to his forehead, but he was largely ignored.

It took about twenty minutes of stepping forwards and back, coaxing and rebuffing, but eventually Mimi watched Anna put her hands in John’s, allow him to raise her to her feet and lead her through the concourse, Liam trailing behind, swearing and gesticulating and nearly in tears.

The three of them disappeared into a taxi at the front of the terminal, leaving Mimi to make her own arrangements. She didn’t have enough cash on her for the fare, so she headed for the Tube station, mentally preparing her for over an hour of speculation on what might be happening with John and his deadly foe. And Anna. And Liam. Funny how Liam, of whom she had been fond, had slipped so very far in her order of priorities. Was it guilt at the way she had treated him? Or simple pragmatism, the quality John admired in her above all others?

“Here you are safe, for the moment, at least,” John said, shepherding Anna and Liam into his basement. “I’m sorry, Rixxar, but I really couldn’t countenance letting you out of my sight, not while you are so close to my child. I have a little thing that enables our kind to fully inhabit a human body—it’s what I used to get myself into this rather splendid form. If you play along with me, I could find you a spare body. Then at least we would be on equal terms.”

Luana hid in the corner, shivering beneath piles of blankets.

“Is someone ever going to tell me what’s going on?” growled Liam. “It’s like the time m

y ex dragged me along to see Waiting for Godot. I haven’t got a fucking clue what I’m supposed to be thinking. And what the hell is this place? It’s like something from a sci-fi movie.”

“Your input is not required,” said John with icy hauteur. “Go and sit with my mother while we discuss our strategy. If you shut up for five minutes, we might find time to offer you some words of explanation.”

“Gee, thanks,” Liam muttered, but he shuffled off to the corner anyway, seeing a tube of Pringles and half a sausage roll on a plate over there.

“So then, Rixxar,” John continued, his voice low. “Could that be a deal? I find you a body. You leave my bond mate and child.”

“They are my only leverage. I cannot abandon that.”

“You can’t take me back. It is not possible. You cannot use this leverage to achieve any of your aims.”

“I only have your word for that.”

“True. Look, then.”