"Bless my twisted little soul, Verity," a voice said, in the canopy of trees above my head. It sounded like something lurking in a graveyard. "Is that what I think it is?"

I stopped in mid-bite of my cheese sandwich. Whenever I could and the weather allowed, I enjoyed having a spot of lunch in a little park near the Park Royal Station.

I looked up, mystified. The leaves shone. I thought I glimpsed a flare of movement in the corner of my vision, but when I looked again, there was nothing.

"My, my," another voice answered, buttery, snake-sleek. "We haven't seen one of those in ages, have we, Vesper?"

"That is correct, my friend. And may I say what a lovely sight it is, always, a demon woman with mozzarella on her chin."

"Quite lovely, Vesper, if not slightly anticlimactic."

I whirled around, scanning all around me. I wiped the cheese from my chin with an unsteady hand and demanded into the trees: "Who are you? Show yourselves!"

A low chuckle drifted with the wind.

"Ah, and what would be the fun of that, dear lady? No fun at all."

"Are you fairies?" I asked. I felt a prickle of unease. "Are you witches?"

"Witches," one of the voices repeated, with deep contempt. "As if we'd be anything so common."

"Exceedingly common, Verity. Exceedingly common. Never seen eye to eye with the likes of them, not since that dinner party in the eighteenth century, you remember."

"I remember only too well. Fairies, too, dear friend. Rather vulgar sorts, fairies. One of them had the nerve to swindle me at the last Market – swindle me."

"A disgrace. Alas, London isn't what it used to be, not any longer." A sigh shifted the leaves. Then, meditatively: "Do you think our dear lady knows?"

I  frowned. "If I know what?"

The other voice slithered into speech: "I don't believe she knows, Vesper." Then it was lowered into a theatrical whisper meant to reach my ears. "Demons aren't what they used to be, either. So ignorant these days. No fire about them, no proper class, if you know what I mean."

My face burned.

"What are you talking about?"

"Can't you feel it in the air, demon woman? Can't you feel it in the whisper of the leaves? How the sun shines a little brighter – he can't help the effect he has on the nature of things. Even if he's repulsed by it and rebels against it."

"Well," the other said, in slow, ponderous tones. "He's an angel, my friend, at the end of the day. At the end of the night."

I felt it, then, a tingle across my skin. A rush of rage and fear threatened to swallow me.

I scrambled to my feet. "Kal!" I shouted. I didn't know if I was being brave or stupid, or both, but at the moment I didn't care. "I know you're there. Don't hide, you coward! Come fight me."

"Cheek," one of the beings said. "You wouldn't have realised, if we hadn't tipped you off. You know, Verity, I really don't hold with people who pretend others' merits are their own."

I ignored them, my heart thumping while I scanned my surroundings. A minute passed. Nothing happened. Another minute, and another. I began to think – and a small part of me, if I were to be honest, hoped – that the beings and I had been wrong.

But then there was a rustle in the bushes, and Kal strolled out, as idly as if he'd been taking a nice walk around the gardens. He was buckling his belt. It clinked in his hands.

"Not hiding," he said. "Can't a guy take a quick piss in peace or what?"

I looked at him, and, under the desire for revenge, under the dread, my traitorous body responded with a jolt of – oh no, was that pleasure? -- at the sight of him.

His hair was dishevelled and his boots were soundless over the grass. I could see the shape of his lean muscles move under his black jacket as he walked forward, towards me. A spike of something burned in my chest.

I wanted him.

"Kal," I rasped out.

Kal inclined his head in a polite nod.

"Rae." He looked up at me, unsmiling. His eyes held mine, and my breath hitched. "I've been looking for you."

I wanted him badly.

But what was I thinking? He was a killer, I reminded myself. He was the reason I'd suffered so much. I clutched at the thought, gritted my teeth. I couldn't be weak. Not after everything. Not now.

"So have I," I said. I watched him get nearer, his gait the calm, calculating tread of the predator's. My skin was fluttering. An ancient instinct in my blood urged me to run. "I trusted you, you know. I liked you."

"I liked you too," said Kal, with an acid smile. I saw his right hand touch his left shoulder, where I'd stabbed him. I felt a bitter surge of pride. "And look where it got me."

So badly, so badly.

He was standing right in front of me, unmoving. The metal clasp of his belt caught the sunlight and glinted white. I imagined the cold feel of it in my hands, the small jingling sound it would make as I unfastened it off him –

"You intrigued me, Rae," Kal said, conversationally. "I sensed there was something different about you. And I guessed right. You're different all right – you're a monster. You killed my parents."

I stared at him, shocked. I felt the penny drop. I remembered the tightness in his face when the subject had come up and I'd asked him about his family, back in his flat. This was what he'd meant, when he'd said his parents were dead – they'd been killed by demons –

"We're even, then," I whispered, holding his gaze. I rested a finger on the scar on my cheek. "You branded me for life."

This was followed by a giggle from the trees, ragged, mad.

"My, my, this is getting exciting. She's not as spineless as she looks, after all, is she, Verity?"

"Not at all, Vesper. This looks promising, an angel and a demon." A dramatic pause. "The stuff of legends. The tales gods whisper in the dark."

"Quite so, quite so. That was a nice turn of word, Verity, by the way. And she's right, you know, the demon woman. He won't kill her, and neither will she. They're too similar," the other voice mused. "It would be like cracking a mirror with a fist. You can break your reflection into splinters, but you can't really harm it. It stays where it is, and stares back at you."

Kal looked up at the trees for the first time. His voice was icy. 

"You're crazy."

"Very possibly, angel. Very possibly. And you're so broken, aren't you?" the voice asked. "Both of you, so broken. So lost. A pity, really."

I saw a muscle twitch in Kal's jaw. Then he lurched into motion. He jolted forward, hand outstretched. I ducked out of his way, my pulse thumping in my temples. In a flash I'd whipped out Sebastian from my pocket.

"You're asking for another stab, Kal," I said. "Don't tempt me."

He smiled at me, breathless. He looked so handsome then, with the hair falling into his eyes and the flush in his cheeks. 

"Oh, I'm always tempting, darling. You ought to have realised that by now."

He didn't take me seriously, did he? I glared at him and dashed forward. I heard the dagger hiss against his skin, but he merely stumbled slightly and crept backwards, shaking his head.

"Nah," he said, wiping the blood from his lip. "Just a scratch. Come on, Rae, you can do better than that, surely. Aren't you a demon, the epitome of all evil?"

I felt myself reddening with fury at the mocking in his voice. We circled each other, panting, eyes never leaving the other's face. It was a dance of sorts – there was a rhythm to it, a cadence. It wasn't as unbalanced as you'd expect; Kal was larger than me, but I was agile on my feet, quicker.

"And aren't you an angel?" I countered. "Aren't you supposed to forgive people? Aren't you supposed to be – I dunno – good?"

"She has a point, you know," one of the voices said. "I don't want to take sides, but there you go."

Kal shook his head. "Well, so sorry to disappoint you folks."

A blur, and he was by my side. I felt his hand close around my wrist. A sharp pain shot up my arm, and I cried out. Cursing, I wiggled with some difficulty out of his grasp. I wondered what he'd done to me.

"I believe you fail to realise, my dears, that you're two sides of the same coin," the smooth voice said. "Good and Evil, they balance each other out. You need the other to exist, to stir the hearts of people, to be real. You can't have one without the other."

"Bullshit," snarled Kal.

He launched himself at me again, sending me sprawling to my feet this time. Gasping for air, I scrambled into a sitting position.

"She has such contradictory thoughts about you, angel, you know," the voice said, in a confidential manner. With a shudder, I felt something probe at the corners of my skull. "She wants to hurt you and yet she longs for you to hold her close and – dear me – she positively burns to –"

I let out a howl of humiliation and flailed out at Kal. We rolled together on the grass, a kicking, struggling tangle of limbs, while the voices overhead gasped and cheered as though they were watching a particularly enthralling football match.

I shifted awkwardly on the grass, fumbling to grab my dagger from the ground, where it had tumbled to. Kal noticed. He leaned over in a flash, snatched it up and sent it skidding away into the bushes.

"There," he said. "Play clean, Rae. No nasty weapons – I have none."

"Don't make me laugh," I grunted, scarcely able to breathe. "You're the weapon."

He smiled.

"Spot-on. Close your eyes, now. I'm sorry about this. I think."

I kept my eyes wide open as his boot connected with my abdomen. The blow knocked the air out of my lungs, and pain exploded across my vision in streaks of light. I lay doubled up in a ball on the grass, wheezing, hating him.

I hated him.

I wished I'd never set eyes on him.

The world was tilting around me. I blinked, and the simple motion cost me a terrible effort. Kal dropped to his knees so that he was directly in front of me. I tried to crawl away from him, but my muscles wouldn't answer. His face swung before my gaze.

"You can't kill me today, I'm afraid, darling," Kal said. He gave me an amiable little pat on the shoulder. "I'm running late for work." He rose to his feet, wiped the dust off his knees. "Oh, and Rae? Your adorable dagger is behind that bench. Go get it before someone nicks it."