The City of Monsters

by Matthew McCollum

  “Big Three?” Adam asked.

  “Later,” Derek said. “Too much politics in that for now.” He kneaded his forehead. “Where were we... right, giants. They're pretty much what they sound like. They mostly sprung out of construction workers who figured being bigger and stronger would get them better jobs. It worked pretty well.” He shrugged. “They're mostly harmless, or at least no worse than any of the other cultures. Just don't piss them off. I've gotten some good jobs from them, and at least they didn't fight among themselves as much.

  “And then there are the demons.”

  “Like Lily,” Adam said, nodding.

  “No,” Derek said. “Lily's not a demon. I mean, demons do look almost exactly like her, but...” He brightened a little. “That's actually a good point. Just because someone looks like they belong to one culture doesn't mean they actually do. Keep that in mind.”

  Adam tried to force his head to stop spinning. “Okay.”

  “Anyway, most demons are just people with red eyes and horns, but they've also got a lot of subcultures. The hellions, the goblins, the sibriex, the orcs, the succubi...”

  “Wait,” Adam said. “Succubi?”

  “Yeah. Exactly what it sounds like. Oh, and incubi too. Obviously. But they're not that bad any more. They're a way too sexualized for my taste, but whatever. You want to have pansexual orgies in your nightclub, that's fine with me. Just don't expect me to show up.” He rolled his eyes. “Of course, most of the city feels differently.”

  “Really?” Adam said. “I wouldn't think they'd be prudes.”

  “No, that's not it... it's...” Derek closed his eyes. “Malcanthet.”

  “What?”

  “The Queen of the Succubi. She was one of the original founders of the demons. She wasn't your normal succubus. Most of the others stayed the hell away from her, but she and her Riven became the face of their culture regardless.” He sighed. “Then her Malcatari became the fist.”

  Adam raised an eyebrow. “So a crazy girl decides she's in charge of one little subculture. What's the big deal?”

  “Normally? Nothing. There are a few of those running around. The vampires have Dracul, the fels have the White Cat, the angels have Zaphkiel, so on and so forth. They're mostly good people—no one wants to follow a crazy person, and if they do, they all get themselves killed sooner rather than later.” He gave Adam a level look. “What do you think the Queen of the Succubi would be like?”

  “I guess... I mean...”

  “She had a very well-deserved reputation for raping her opponents into submission.”

  Adam blinked. “She... what?”

  He looked away. “Malcanthet raped her opponents until they didn't remember why they ever stood against her.” He shrugged. “And I hear she used drugs when that didn't work fast enough.”

  Adam thought on that for a moment. “So she eventually had a harem of sex-slaves willing to die for her. That's why she got run out.”

  He looked pained. “You picked it up faster than I did. I couldn't believe something like that could exist. Part of me still thinks it was an elaborate prank.”

  “You're a better person than me, I think,” Adam said quietly. Adam could think of the advantages of having a legion of slaves at his command. “But if she's gone now—”

  “Her taint remains,” Derek spat with surprising violence. “Every once in a while, one of her sleepers goes crazy. Not often. She's far less dangerous than any warlord left in the city. But it's enough to bring up the old prejudices.” He let out a long breath. “And the succubi always defend themselves the same way. 'If we're so bad, what about the angels? They're entire purpose is to kill people!' Then the angels claim vampires aren't people and we go through the whole cycle again...”

  Adam remained silent. He had no idea what to say to that.

  For a long minute neither of them spoke, but eventually Derek broke the silence.

  “Things are going to get better,” he whispered. Adam wasn't sure if he knew he was talking aloud. “I don't care if I have to wrestle every daybreaker and nightstalker and hunter and titan to the ground with my bare hands. Things are going to get better.”

  He looked up suddenly, a smile on his face. It wasn't a real smile, not quite, but it had more truth to it than Adam expected.

  “C'mon, enough sitting around,” he said, standing up. “We've got a rat to catch.”

  Chapter 4: PROBATA

  DEREK

  “Derek, why is that cage big enough to hold a dog?”

  Derek looked at Adam quizzically. He had mostly gotten over his little angst-fest over explaining the cultures. Monster slaying always calmed him down. Silver and gold, he hadn't gone on a rat hunt in years. “Because we're going to catch a rat, obviously. What'd you expect?”

  Adam opened his mouth to speak, then paused for a moment, choosing his words carefully. “How big... exactly, are these rats you're talking about?”

  “Slightly smaller than this cage. That's what...” Derek looked at the trap, gauging it. “...three feet long? Yeah, not including the tail.”

  Adam stared at him. “Derek, rats aren't supposed to be three feet long.”

  “Hm? Oh yeah...” He knew that, of course. It was just hard to remember, like how you don't always think about the fact that electricity was a relatively new invention. “Normal-size rats are extinct in Domina. Some fey gene-tweaked a few, increased the size of whatever gland it is that controls size, and... voila.” He pointed to the creature that had just come sniffing around the corner. “A rat.”

  It was actually a bit small for a rat, but Adam still jumped back a few feet. As expected, it was about the size of a small dog, but fat and well-fed. That was what startled him, Derek thought. The smelly, dirty little thing probably weighed forty pounds or so. He set the cage carefully on the ground, door open.

  “Now here's what we're going to do,” Derek whispered, careful not to startle the rodent. Adam seemed to have recovered from his initial shock, and was listening intently. “You pick up the trap and follow behind me. When I say so, set it on the ground—quietly. I'll grab the rat and try and throw it in. Make sure it doesn't escape.”

  “I could grab it.”

  “No, no, I have experience here. You just back me up. If we do this again, we can switch. Alright?” He nodded. “Good. Let's go.”

  They stalked forward as stealthily as possible. Having Adam carry the cage turned out to be a good move—he was much quieter than Derek would have been. Derek's usual tactic had always been to get as close as he could before the rat noticed him, then run after it when it fled. This way, they might actually be able to catch it before it bolted.

  While they weren't quite that lucky, they did manage to get within about five feet before it noticed them. It glanced up from the pile of trash it was nosing through, meeting Derek's gaze with those beady little eyes.

  Before it could flee, he leaped forward, tackling it with both arms. It squealed, hurting his eardrums, and thrashed violently. He barely managed to hold on to it, and he knew he wouldn't be able to keep it up for long.

  But Adam quickly took his cue, coming forward with the open cage. Derek threw the rodent in headfirst. It didn't work the first time, but with a few hard shoves they managed to get it inside and shut the door. The trap shook violently as it tried to escape.

  “Well,” Derek said, smiling. “That was fun.” He offered his hand to Adam, panting on the ground. “Wanna try again?”

  Adam laughed. “Maybe another time. I think this was enough for today.” He grasped Derek's hand and pulled himself up. “We do still need to turn this in, however that works. And we should probably look at those scratches.”

  Derek glanced at his arms. There were a few scratches from the rat that were starting to sting, but none were deep enough to bleed. “Nah, I'll be fine. I've got a decent immune system buff for just this situation.” He pulled out his phone. “MC? We got the rat. Please call our employer.”

  “One moment,”
she replied pleasantly. He hung up while he waited.

  “So... you use the toy maker?” Adam asked nonchalantly. Or he tried, anyway. He was clearly interested in the whole thing.

  Derek shrugged. “Just a couple buffs. The Immune+ one is probably the most common, everyone has some kind. Then I have the AT Tattoo, a muscle boost, and my eyes got fixed. I had an astigmatism.”

  “Wait, back up. You said something about a tattoo?”

  “Hm? Oh yeah.” He held up his palm so Adam could see it and concentrated. After a moment, the words “Hello Adam” resolved themselves in shaky black font on his skin. He erased it with another thought. “It's a cheap one, good for taking notes. Not much else.”

  Adam, however, was mesmerized. “That's really cool.”

  Derek grinned. He didn't say anything, but he had an idea. But before he had a chance to do anything about it, his phone rang. Five simple beeps, nothing more. He flipped it open.

  “MC? What's the word?”

  “Mister Ratko will meet you at the intersection of Abigail and Mechanus. Is that fine with you?”

  He thought for a moment. “That's... only five minutes from here.” And five minutes from there to where he wanted to go next. “That's perfect. Tell him we'll be there shortly.”

  “Where are we off to?” Adam asked as Derek hung up. He had his foot planted firmly on the cage, where the rat still thrashed loudly inside.

  “To meet our employer. It won't take long.” Derek headed towards the rendezvous point. “C'mon, and be careful with that cage.”

  Chapter 5: NOTI

  LAURA

  Laura Medina had lived in Domina City my entire life, without much more than her dad for company. She didn't have many friends. It wasn't that she was shy, it was just that she spent too much time doing other things. Reading, writing, studying... she had better things to do than hang out in a coffee shop and chat about boys. And, she supposed, she was protecting herself as well. She had been burned in the past.

  Floor six of the AU dorms was the same as all the others, which meant it was clean but bland. Her room was number sixteen, about equidistant from all the stairs. She had taken the elevator this time, because of her bags, but she was planning to use the stairs from now on. It might actually be faster, and she needed the exercise.

  She knocked twice, and when she heard no answer, shifted her burdens to get at her keys. It took her a few minutes to do it, with about a half dozen different bags hanging from her shoulders. Of course, exactly as she found the keys, the door opened.

  “Laura!” Elizabeth screeched as she tackle-hugged her. Laura managed to keep a hold of her bags, but only barely. “Isn't it great to see each other again? I have so much to talk to you about! Just this morning I saw an absolutely adorable purse that would look great on you—”

  “Lizzy, let me in,” Laura grunted. Lizzy just squeezed tighter. Laura tried to maneuver them into the room, leaving her larger suitcase behind, but it was slow going. Lizzy didn't stop clinging to her, or indeed even notice.

  “—they came out with a violet eyes cosmo that would just look dazzling with your skin tone. Oh, and maybe we could color your hair a little darker to complement—”

  Laura threw her bags onto the unoccupied bed on the right side of the room. It was the only part that hadn't been touched; Lizzy had gone overboard on decorating, covering everything in posters of her favorite bands and pictures of the two of them from when they were kids. At least she had selected pictures that only had the two of them in them. Laura was thankful for that.

  “—clothes, obviously, but that's fine because a great new shop called la Boutique Française and it just has these little skirts to die for—”

  Laura went back for the bag she had left behind, dragging Lizzy roommate as she babbled the whole way. Laura didn't really have that much; her dad lived nearby, so she could get a lot of what she needed from him. Mostly, it was just clothes and textbooks.

  “—don't you think? Laura? Don't you think so?”

  Lizzy had finally come out of her little dream world and was willing to have a real conversation. “I didn't hear you. What was that?”

  She pouted. “Laura, you never listen to me when I talk. I said we need to set up a study schedule. We can't flunk out after all this effort.”

  The first thing anyone noticed about Elizabeth Greene was that she was tall, a little over six feet. She sprung up pretty quickly when they were kids, so Laura had been shorter than her for a long time.

  The second thing was always her eyes. Pure gold, shining like the sun. Laura still wasn't sure whether it was a cosmo or not. She had them for as long as Laura had known her, but she never showed any interest in other toys. Her brown hair and tanned skin matched her eyes. In the right light, she looked like a shining statue made from gold.

  By contrast, Laura's hair was a bland black, her eyes matching, and her skin so pale she was pretty sure that one time she got sunburned by a light bulb. Lizzy was great, and always had been, but sometimes it was hard to be her friend. Everyone always focused on her, and it was like Laura didn't even exist.

  Laura did have one advantage, however: She was ever so much smarter than she was.

  “I'd be happy to help you study,” Laura replied, finally managing to extract herself from Lizzy's arms. “You signed up for the same classes as me, right?”

  “Yeah, mostly.” Lizzy sat on her own bed, legs held to her chest. “I skipped the advanced history, biology, and physics courses. I'm just sticking with four classes.”

  “But that just leaves you with three. What's your fourth?”

  “Normal history.”

  Laura nodded. Honestly, she had expected her to drop more. “Ah, well, that's not so bad. And I can still help you if you need it.”

  “Hm,” she shrugged noncommittally. She didn't say anything else.

  Laura started unpacking. There wasn't much; mostly clothes, her laptop, and...

  Sheets.

  She searched for ten minutes—despite the fact that the problem was obvious in the first ten seconds—before Lizzy noticed and spoke up.

  “What's wrong?”

  Laura cursed under her breath. “I forgot sheets.” She glanced around the room. “Are there any spares in the room?”

  Lizzy shook her head, but didn't say anything else.

  Laura sighed. Lizzy could get like this sometimes. Go from a little bundle of energy to a closed-off shell for no discernible reason. Probably because Laura hadn't been paying enough attention to her. She wasn't very helpful when it came right down to it. She was very... reactionary.

  Laura was already beginning to regret choosing to room with her, but it had been either this or some random stranger. Lizzy had lots of problems, not least being that it seemed like she couldn't do anything by herself. But she was better than whoever Laura would have ended up with otherwise.

  Laura packed away her clothes in the closet; she didn't have many, so it didn't take long. She started up her laptop and logged into the dorm's WiFi, then tried to get some more information on any nearby stores.

  Lizzy still wasn't doing anything, just sitting on her bed and watching me. Laura sighed again.

  “I'll be back,” she said after a moment. “I'm going to go buy some sheets.”

  “Hm.” Lizzy didn't get up.

  Laura shrugged and left the room, closing the door behind her. As she headed for the stairs, she flipped out her phone and called MC.

  “Can you tell me where the closest linens store would be from my location?”

  “One moment.” There was a pause. “There is one at the intersection of Abigail and Limbo. I can check their inventory if you like.”

  Laura started down the stairs. “Sure, but I just need sheets. I'm sure they'll have them.”

  “Yes, you are correct. Though it depends on what type you need.”

  “Something that will fit the dorm beds.”

  “They have plenty in stock, then.”

  “Thank
you, MC.”

  “Not a problem, Miss Medina.” She disconnected just as Laura reached the bottom of the last flight of stairs.

  Lizzy and Laura had grown up together, right here in South Central. Laura lived across the street from Lizzy's orphanage, and she always went over to play with the kids. Lizzy was one of the only ones her age; with kids, a year or two was a big difference.

  Still, she was never really someone Laura felt very close to. Their personalities just don't mesh well. Lizzy was interested in boys and clothes and talking, while Laura had her nose buried in books and strategy games.

  But when Laura decided to move back to the district for college, she knew she needed a roommate. When she first moved to North Outer, her dad had set up an apartment for her, but her social interaction dwindled to zero. Elizabeth wasn't her first choice, but she wasn't ready to let AU just pick one for her at random. Maybe next year.

  Laura had spent seven years alone in an apartment, since she was eleven years old. Dad came over for holidays, and she went out for school and food, but that was it. Luckily in Domina that didn't completely eliminate a social life, but she could count the people she talked to on a monthly basis on a single hand.

  At least that was something Lizzy could definitely help with. She liked talking, after all, so she had a lot of friends and acquaintances she was ready to introduce Laura to. Unfortunately, knowing her, it would be mostly boys.

  Why couldn't Lizzy take a hint? Laura didn't need a man in her life. Of course, every time she said that, Lizzy immediately came up with a list of lesbians for her to meet, which she needed even less.