by Holly Hook
“Can we go now?” I asked.
Alyssa and Xavier stood in the center of the basement as if trying to take inventory. Bathory's crew had moved a bed out of the way and shuffled around equipment on the shelves. IV bags. Syringes. Boxes full of tiny medication bottles.
“It's hard to tell what they took,” Alyssa said. “There was so much stuff here in the first place I never paid attention. They took a lot of stuff, whoever they were.”
“If we're lucky, they just wanted stuff to sell on the black market,” Xavier said. “But we're not lucky. We never are.”
“They want blood,” Alyssa said. "And equipment to get blood."
I wished she hadn't used that word because I felt like I would throw up. I brought my hand up to my face as my thoughts turned back to what I had just done.
Alyssa noticed. “Let's get out of here before they come back,” she said as if trying to change the subject. “We still need to go to the mall.”
“The mall?” Xavier asked. “We uncovered a new evil plot by our favorite lady.”
“Janine,” Alyssa told him. “She needs contacts.”
“Yes,” I said, turning my thoughts to those. I still wore my sunglasses, and it looked stupid at night. I had been wearing them over the last few days, and it had been super awkward. My mom and I were between apartments thanks to the fire Thoreau started, and about to move into a new one.
After that, she'd want me back in school.
And I'd have to go, rain or shine. The closer it got, the bigger of a problem it became. I couldn't hide my reddened eyes with sunglasses for too much longer. I knew school was possible, so long as I got there before the sun got too high in the sky and sat far away from windows and sunlight. But it would also be a drag. Alyssa had done it all her life and could give me advice. Sure, I couldn't wait for soccer practice, and I was sure that things would get better once I figured this out.
“Then let's go contact shopping,” Xavier said. “That's more important than figuring out what Bathory is planning.”
“Janine needs them,” Alyssa said. She trained her reddish gaze on him. “I do, too. Janine's going back to her classes, and I need to go with her.”
"That's not safe," Xavier said.
"Guys," I said. "Footsteps."
Faint footsteps sounded from the underground corridors that connected the city of Cumberland. Again, they were graceful and inhuman, and only a few minutes away. Bathory and her people were returning, either for more blood bags, more equipment, or both.
We left the basement and bolted down the passageway, in the opposite direction of the footsteps. We didn't stop until we rounded a couple of corners and passed the underground entrances to several downtown stores. The footsteps continued, and I heard the door to the walk-in burst open again. Yes. Bathory's people intended to take all the blood in the freezer, regardless of whether people needed it for transfusions. I had only used one.
"Greedy jerks," Alyssa said, gripping a cardboard box. Stores used these passages to move merchandise around without having to go through the city. It was lucky for us.
"What are they doing?" Xavier asked.
"Shh," she said. "If Bathory is with them, who knows how well she can hear? In fact, let's go."
Alyssa had a point. Bathory was powerful. Her senses might be, too. The three of us continued to walk, and I kept my ears peeled. Other vampires could sneak up on us, right? And Xavier's footsteps were still loud and sloppy, like a human's. His changes hadn't altered that. Could they hear us from the hospital basement?
I listened as we walked, but I heard no signs of anyone following us. We passed double doors that got more frequent as we got closer to the mall. Xavier led the way in a hurry. He must think he was still mortal, then. Either way, he knew these tunnels, having used them all his life, and it was better than traveling through the sewers. We'd done that enough times. I didn't want to swim in water laced with garbage again.
“Contacts,” Xavier said. He snorted.
“They're a necessity,” Alyssa said. “Janine will have problems with her mother if she doesn't make her eyes look brown, and fast.”
There was a lot more meaning in Alyssa's words. Her own mother had left her after she bit a classmate in the second grade. Sure, the girl asked her to do it, and didn't turn afterwards, but it didn't matter.
My stomach turned again, thinking of how my mother would freak if she found out about my Turning. I had to hide it, at least for now. We were both staying at the home of Alyssa's grandmother, sleeping in one of the spare basement rooms. I'd had to pretend to sleep like a Normal for the past few nights.
“Okay,” he said. “I get it. I forgot. My family doesn't hate Abnormals.”
“That's because they are Abnormals,” I reminded him.
“My father's Normal,” Xavier reminded me.
“But he's accepting, or he wouldn't have married a War Mage,” Alyssa said as we continued to walk.
“You've made your point,” Xavier said. “Maybe we can have Trish or Thorne meet us at the mall?”
“Or your aunt,” Alyssa said. “She's the leader now.”
“My mother should have taken over the Underground,” Xavier said.
“It is what it is,” Alyssa said. “We need to have her meet us there and then you can tell her what happened. That'll make this go faster. Food court?”
Xavier paused in the corridor. “I don't know if the authorities are still looking for us.”
“They've been quieter,” Alyssa said.
She didn't have to say why. People still obsessed over the horrible events that had taken place at Cumberland's Water Adventure. With the death toll. And most of all, with the fact that the Infernal had bled onto Earth for a short time. Cleanup crews were all over the place, and the news had gone global. Before that, Alyssa and Xavier had been the two most wanted Abnormals in the city. People had forgotten about them since the disaster. Big events had a tendency to do that.
The walk to the mall took about half an hour since it wasn't far from the hospital. We let Xavier lead the whole time. At last, we came to some double doors labeled with the name of a department store I recognized as part of the mall. My spirits rose and I could push what I had just done farther behind me. The rest of the night would be a good shopping trip with friends. I thought of dialing Maisha to join us, but I sensed that Alyssa and Xavier would be uncomfortable with that. Maisha was full Normal and had no clue I'd been dealing with demons and other supernatural baddies during the past few weeks. She knew I was between apartments, and that was all.
The door to the department store had gotten locked, and boxes lay in the hall, waiting for employees to come out and take the deliveries. The air smelled of new clothing, shoes, and leather. My new sense of smell picked up everything. I also smelled the hint of something else: fast food, leaking through the doors. An employee had picked up a quick dinner on the way in, and their blood had taken on that scent.
“So,” I asked, putting my hands on the door. “Do we pull this open? I don't like the thought of breaking the locks.” At the same time, the idea was thrilling. I could snap any lock I wanted, according to Alyssa.
“That's how we have to do things in Abnormal land,” Xavier said. “We break locks. People hate us for it."
I wanted to pull on that door and see how much stronger I'd become, but I held back. Vandalism was vandalism and so was breaking and entering. “We should be able to go through the front door,” I said.
“You're right. Front door,” Alyssa said. “We just need to stay away from the one by the attached theater. One of the employees might remember us a little too well.”
“And the bathrooms,” Xavier reminded.
I laughed. “Front door, then,” I said, releasing the handle. A bit of disappointment washed over me, but also a bit of relief. “Should we run?” I hadn't gotten to test that new skill quite yet.
“I might not be able to keep up,” Xavier said.
I wasn't sure how fast g
ods could run. He might have the ability to fly, and none of us knew.
Alyssa shook her head. “Maybe we should just walk,” she said. “If someone sees a pair of blurs going past, they might call the ATC. Or try to, anyway.” She reached into her pocket and put her sunglasses on, covering the red of her eyes. She smiled at me. “We match now.”
I smiled. “Okay. Let's do the boring thing and just walk.”
I knew why she'd changed her mind and it had everything to do with Xavier. He walked beside us, keeping the air charged around him. My hair stood on the back of my neck. Since that night, Xavier gave off a boatload of energy that Alyssa and I never mentioned when he was around. I didn't think he noticed it even though he had questioned why his eyes had gotten more violet than before.
So we walked until we found a stairwell that led to some closed double doors meant to let employees load stuff from trucks outside. Alyssa climbed first, pushing them open. We climbed into the night air, surrounded by trucks and trailers that shipped stuff into the mall. A dumpster nearby gave off every gross smell I could imagine. That was one thing I didn't like about my enhanced senses. You missed nothing.
It was easy to get inside the mall. We walked in through the front entrance and underneath the hanging lights. I hadn't been here since the night that the three of us got our hair done.
"You know," I said. "We might want to do the dye thing again. A different color, maybe." I held up a strand of hair that still had a hint of purple highlight in it. "Just in case."
"That might be a good idea," Alyssa said. The pink in her hair had faded by now. "Maybe you should try blond highlights, or blue, or maybe even copper."
"My mom hated the purple," I said. "And I used her credit card. I'm still paying that off."
"I've got money," Xavier said after a pause. The guy hated that he came from a family of snobs. He wasn't one, but people in the Underground liked to look down at him for that. I'd seen it already.
The smells from the food court—or maybe it was from the crowds themselves tonight—filled the air. I caught whiffs of everything from pizza to fancy salmon dinners.
Alyssa tapped me on the arm. "Should we go shopping while Xavier meets with his aunt?"
"Maybe we should meet with her first," he said. "Then we can go shopping. Ugh."
"Stop acting like a guy," I said.
"I am a guy," Xavier said, shrugging. "Why don't you two go shopping while I meet with Primrose?" He pulled out his wallet and his cell phone. "This works out the best for both of us. I'll call her and tell her what we saw, so she can get people investigating. Maybe this time, we won't have to do the dirty work."
"What chance do we have of that?" Alyssa asked.
We stopped by the water fountain. "I don't know," Xavier said. "Primrose isn't any different from the other Elders, even if she's younger than them."
"I hate those guys," Alyssa said. "They never want to do anything before arguing with themselves and everyone else first."
"Well, I still have to tell her," Xavier said. "I'm not as bad as I used to be in her eyes, so she might listen. Go shop."
Xavier handed Alyssa a few hundred dollar bills. The Lovelli family had piles of gold.
And then he handed me the same.
"Um, thanks?" I asked.
"Use some of it to pay off your mom," he said. "Get her off your back as much as you can."
"Seriously," I said. "Thanks. You didn't have to do it."
Xavier insisted that we take the money. He always had a few thousand on him at all times. We stood at the water fountain and watched him board the elevator to the food court, even passing two mall guards on the way. The crowd here was so thick I felt safe. Alyssa and I wouldn't stand out here with so many other teenagers and young people in the place. It must be a weekend night.
"Come on," Alyssa said, pulling on my sleeve. "Let's go shop. I think Xavier's doing this just to get out of shopping. Last time we did this, we made him cut his hair."
"That about killed him," I said, trying not to laugh.
"You might want to get a file for, you know," Alyssa said, pointing at her teeth. "Let's do the least pleasant stuff first and get to the more fun stuff like dyeing our hair."
"Sounds great," I said. "We'll have new looks for when we go back to school."
I hadn't filed down my teeth yet. Alyssa said it was unpleasant and had to get done daily if I wanted to keep my canines looking normal for school. But, you got used to it, and I was looking forward to being able to open my mouth all the way when I talked to people—and my mom. I had told her I had a mild sore throat over the past few days to avoid exposure and resisted her insisting I go see the doctor.
We visited a beauty store first, and Alyssa helped me pick out the strongest nail file I could. She knew all about files. I broke a hundred to buy it and turned it over in its package as we left the store.
"How is this supposed to file down teeth?" I asked. "I could see how it can poke out eyes--"
"Replace them a lot," Alyssa admitted. "You should be strong enough to file."
"Is it like getting drilled at the dentist?"
"It's not that bad," she said with a grimace. "But it's similar."
"That's great," I said, putting the file back into the plastic bag. I wasn't looking forward to adding teeth filing onto my morning routine.
But, school was school.
We hit a clothing store next and picked up a few new outfits that the authorities hadn't seen us in yet. So far, so good. People hadn't stared at us more than once or twice. For now, we had safety. Everyone focused on the mayor turning out to be a demon.
Alyssa and I stayed away from the movie theater since the employees might recognize her. We headed to the salon where two ladies were busy getting their hair curled. Alyssa and I had to wait our turn to get new dye done. We sat next to each other and chose our colors from a book they had at the front counter. I decided on a mixture of copper and blond highlights, which differed from the purple I had gotten before. Alyssa almost went with bright pink again.
“You should try the blue,” I said.
“Blue's not my color. Pink is.”
“That's why you should try blue,” I said. “It's the opposite of pink. People have seen you too much with the bubblegum hair. People are going to remember you as soon as this Thoreau stuff dies down."
“Thanks, Janine,” she said. “Blue it is, but if I don't like it, you will pay for me to get another color.”
I knew she was kidding. “Deal,” I said.
We had to wait for the two ladies to get done as the mall filled with more people. The stylists directed us to sit down in two reclining chairs. I pushed my sunglasses up on my nose, making sure they covered my eyes.
The lady about to work on me smiled. She was a mousy woman who was middle-aged and had been working here for years.
“So, copper and blond highlights?” she asked.
“They'll look good in my hair,” I said. My mom had gotten them once, which was a thought almost made me change my mind. I didn't hate my mother, but...still.
At least my hair would distract her from other things that had changed. It was one of the reasons I wanted to get it done.
“I agree,” she said, pulling the sunglasses off my face.
I panicked.
“No,” I said, reaching up and taking her wrist. Her pulse was strong underneath her skin, and she gave off the smell of a fancy cappucino. My stomach growled again. Why? Alyssa had warned me that the, um, stuff in the refrigerator would hold my hunger back just enough so I wouldn't hurt anybody. But Alyssa had done this for fourteen years. I was still in my first week.
I thought of biting that wrist.
For the first time, fear gripped me.
Maybe this would be more difficult than I thought.
The woman smiled, but I detected impatience. “Well, we need to work with your hair,” she said. “These might get in the way.”
I scrambled for an excuse. Migraines were th
e best fallback according to Alyssa.
My friend rose from her chair. We hadn't thought of this happening. “Janine has a headache,” she supplied. “She won't be able to stare at that light.”
“I can close my eyes,” I said, remembering I'd have the requirement to look at my hair in a mirror once the lady finished. I kept them half-shut. The lady had already pulled my shades down my nose. If she pulled them any farther, she'd see the truth.
Her comfort level with doing my hair might drop if she was like most folks.
We should have gotten contacts first.
A guy with a shaggy mane walked inside and sat down in the waiting area, but it wasn't Xavier. The woman said hello to him and told the guy it might be twenty minutes. He nodded and pulled out his phone, scrolling through social media. Then another young guy came in, one close to my age, and plopped down opposite the other. He wore glasses and a hoodie that smashed down his big hair. I wondered if that was why he was here.
During the distraction, I took my glasses off and closed my eyes. The bright light bothered me more than it should. I wished the woman could work in the dark. Her neighbor was already washing Alyssa's hair, tipping it back into the sink. These ladies didn't mess around. They got customers in and got them back out.
“Ready,” I said, holding out my glasses. I opened my eyes just enough to see through my lashes. The woman took my glasses and set them somewhere to my left. The logistics of reaching them spun through my mind. I'd have to open my eyes to find them, even with my enhanced senses.
She washed my hair and spent plenty of time braiding and applying highlights. The chemicals smelled much stronger than I remembered. I had forgotten about that. Everything in the world popped now, and the scents mixed in with the cappuccino running through the lady's veins. The other one smelled of fast food and a tuna sandwich. Even the people in the hallway smelled of food. I picked up snippets of conversations and even heard merchandise shifting in shopping bags. One woman had shoplifted a bunch of shirts by stuffing them on underneath her sweater. Her struggling to move her arms made an odd sound distinct from the others.
