Eutopia (First version)

Chapter 12

Jinn watched as the furious girl stormed off, her slim figure dwarfed and made vulnerable by the size of the trees and the vast night around her. His anger burned deep as he leant back against the oak tree and let the memories Eutopia had stirred flood back into his mind, the images playing out in colour as he closed his eyes.

He had landed silently behind Ash that night, seeming to drop out of thin air though he had been following Eutopia since she had stepped off the tube at Covent Garden. Eutopia must have taken a wrong turn at some point, ducking out of Jinn’s view in one fatal instant which was how events had progressed so far already because, God’s truth, that guy would never have had the time to lay even a finger on her if Jinn had been there from the beginning. Jinn’s temper was already blazing, though at first it was aimed at his own stupidity for losing the girl so easily. Now, it was aimed at the scum in front of him. In one fluid movement he reached out and palmed the top of Ash’s head with his large hand and kicked out at the back of the knee that Ash had most of his weight on as he stood there, a fistful of Eutopia’s hair in one hand as his other hand tugged at the exposed bra of the unconscious girl. Ash buckled and Jinn pulled his head back hard by the short, blond hair, shifting Ash’s centre of gravity so that he would fall on his arse. Jinn’s face was stoic, emotionless, his indigo eyes seemed to glow in the dim light, but when he caught a glimpse of Eutopia’s state they turned hard. The corner of his lip turned up in a snarl as he slapped the man’s hands away from the girl, gripped him under his arms and shot straight up into the air.

Now it was Ash’s turn to be afraid. He screamed in fear as the ground suddenly shrank in his view. The roar of air as it rushed around him all but muted his cries. First he saw the alley from two or three stories up, then a moment later he was looking down at the city as a whole, twinkling lights flickering serenely below like so many scattered stars. The sight might have been beautiful given some other situation. The view went unappreciated by either of them, though. Jinn had seen it all before and Ash was too petrified to give it much attention. The feeling of rapid ascension didn’t seem to cease until at last Jinn turned the man to face him. Jinn’s eyes were still hard, anger seethed from his very essence and the look of utter disdain he gave him made Ash shudder with terror. There was something so familiar in the other man’s eyes as Jinn looked deep into them.  Nephilim! Jinn had heard of these ghastly creatures, so like human men in their physicality yet so un-human in their emotions...

Ash was a predator but he was a cowardly one and he knew that now as he stared into the eyes of this thing that loomed over him. He was looking into the eyes of a true apex predator and suddenly the fact that they hung weightless in the air was lost on him. So too was the fact that this predator had wings, large ones which extended out fully as gravity tightened its grip on them and began to pull them back toward the earth.

Ash had just enough time to piss himself before Jinn pulled his feathered wings in close and spun in a complete circle, flipping in the air to dive head first back down to the alleyway they had shot out from only moments before. The slick pavement raced up to meet them both but Jinn pulled up with enough time to set his booted feet on the ground with barely a jolt, far away from where Eutopia lay unconscious. The glint of something steely caught Ash’s terrified eyes, reflecting the soft glow of Davey’s headlights in the distance. A wry smile touched Jinn’s lips as he gripped the man before him with his other hand. He hoped that Ash would try to make peace with God as the knife registered in his horrified mind and Jinn hoped he would be utterly denied.

‘Tell him I’ve redeemed myself now,’ he muttered to Ash.

Not wasting another moment on the scum, Jinn dragged the blade across Ash’s throat and let him drop to the ground to bleed to death as he raced back down the alley in time to find the other man, Jason, skulking around the corner looking around for his friend. He called out curiously for Ash as he approached the unconscious Eutopia and the other guy, Davey, wandered down the alley from the opposite end gawking up at the night sky.