“Found you,” he said, the perfect prince.
He carefully closed the door behind him and presented himself to her. She looked disbelievingly at him: his broken neck supported by some homemade contraption of wood and bandages, his shabby clothes. He worked at one of his leather gloves to take it off, but it wouldn’t come.
“I came to see you,” he said, the words fractured.
“Yes.”
He pulled at the glove. There was a soft, sickly noise. She looked at his hand. Much of the skin had come off with the glove. He extended this seeping patchwork to her.
“You have to help me,” he told her.
“Are you alone?” she asked him.
“Yes.”
That was something at least. Perhaps the European didn’t even know he was here. He’d come courting, to judge by this pathetic attempt at civility. His dalliance went back to that first encounter in the steam room. She hadn’t screamed or puked, and that had won his undying loyalty.
“Help me,” he moaned.
“I can’t help you. I don’t know how to.”
“Let me touch you.”
“You’re ill.”
The hand was still extended. He took a step forward. Did he think she was an icon of some kind, a talisman that-once touched-cured all sickness?
“Pretty,” he said.
The smell of him was overpowering, but her drugged mind idled. She knew it was important to escape, but how? The door perhaps; the window? Or just ask him to leave: come again tomorrow?
“Will you go, please?”
“Just touch.”
The hand was within inches of her face. Revulsion overcame her, bypassing the lethargy the Island had induced. She swatted the arm away, appalled by even the briefest contact with his flesh. He looked offended.
“You tried to harm me,” he reminded her. “So many times. I never harmed you once.”
“You wanted to.”
“Him; never me. I want you to be with all my other friends; where nothing can hurt you.”
The hand, which had returned to his side, suddenly darted up and took her by the neck.
“You’ll never leave me,” he said.
“You’re hurting me, Anthony.”
He drew her closer, and bent his head toward her as best he could, given the condition of his neck. In a patch of skin beneath his right eye she could see movement. The closer he came the more she saw the fat, white grubs that had been laid as eggs in his face, and were maturing there, awaiting wings. Did he know he was a home for maggots? Was it, perhaps, a point of pride to be flyblown? He was going to kiss her: she had no doubt of that. If he puts his tongue in my mouth, she half-thought, I’ll bite it off. I won’t let him do this. Gentle God, I’d rather die.
He put his lips on hers.
“You are unforgivable,” said a thin voice.
The door was open.
“Let her go.”
The Razor-Eater unhanded Carys, and drew away from her face. She spat to rinse the kiss off and looked up.
Mamoulian was in the doorway. Behind him stood two well-dressed young men, one with golden hair, both with winning smiles.
“Unforgivable,” the European said again, and turned his vacant gaze to Carys. “You see what happens if you desert my custody?” he said. “What horrors come?”
She didn’t respond.
“You’re alone, Carys. Your erstwhile protector is dead.”
“Marty? Dead?”
“At his house: going out for your heroin.”
She was seconds ahead of him, realizing his error. Maybe it gave Marty an edge on them, if they thought him dead. But it wouldn’t be wise to fake tears. She was no tragic actress. Best to feign disbelief; doubt, at least.
“No,” she said. “I don’t believe you.”
“My own fair hands,” said the blond Adonis at the European’s back.
“No,” she insisted.
“Take it from me,” the European said, “he won’t be coming back. Trust me in this at least.”
“Trust you?” she murmured. It was almost funny.
“Haven’t I just prevented your rape?”
“He’s your creature.”
“Yes; and he will be punished, depend upon it. Now I trust you will return my kindness in coming here, by finding your father for me. I will not brook delay of any kind, Carys. We will go back to Caliban Street and you will find him, or by God, I will turn you inside out. That is a promise. Saint Thomas will escort you down to the car.”