by Holly Hook
When the stylist moved behind me, I dared to open my eyes. Alyssa sat up and admired her new blue highlights with a hand mirror, and both guys still waited.
The older one was glancing in my direction.
As soon as he caught me looking, he returned to his phone. I gripped the chair and studied him, but the phone now took all his interest. Even with my eyes most of the way shut, I could make out one of those de-motivational posters on his screen. It was a picture of the former mayor giving a thumbs-up sign. That wasn't unusual since a lot of them had been popping up. Thoreau was no longer the favorite guy in Cumberland and everyone was ripping him. I wished I could read the text.
But the staring guy freaked me out.
He was a guy in his mid-twenties, for one, and Alyssa and I were not old enough for him. That took the creepy factor up. And for another, he didn't seem like the guy to stroll into a stylist and ask for these ladies to give him a classy cut.
Or maybe he had to get ready for a job interview in a hurry and had no other options.
“Can you lean back for me?” the woman asked.
I did and closed my eyes again. That gave the guy another chance to stare at me if he wanted. I reminded myself that I might be stronger than him—I had to be—and he wouldn't be able to try anything creepy without getting hurt. Alyssa would be better at fighting than me, but I should be able to hold my own. I wouldn't have to rely on the pepper spray that Mom insisted that I carry.
The thought made me feel a lot wells, and I relaxed again as the woman continued to do my braids. Alyssa stood up out of her chair and paid at the counter, and I could hear every bit of change rattling inside the drawer. She walked to the waiting area and sat down in the seat closest and two away from the guy. He slid his finger along the phone, scrolling with a faint scraping sound. The noises painted a picture in my head. The young guy remained still.
“We're almost done,” the woman said at last.
“Great,” I said, heeding Alyssa's warning to keep my teeth hidden. I listened as strands of my hair brushed against each other and wound tight. The chemical smell hung in the salon, heavier than before, blocking out almost everything else. I was ready to get out.
“And there you have it!” she said. “Sit up and check out the new you.”
“My glasses,” I said, not daring to open my eyes the rest of the way.
“Oh,” she said. “Here. I forgot about your headaches.”
Since Turning, voices betrayed a lot more than they had before. My stylist was getting suspicious and uncomfortable. The older guy shifted in his chair to look at me, and though he was just a blob on the other side of my eyelashes, I could tell that he was trying not to make it obvious.
“Let me grab my money, and I'll pay so you can get to your next customer,” I said. “I'm sure he's been waiting a while.”
“That will be great,” the woman said. There was much more to her words than that. It would be great when I got my strange butt out of here. This woman must be one of those who feared Abnormals. Though a group of us had saved the world last week, some of us had also come close to destroying it. People hadn't forgotten that.
The fear of Abnormals would die hard. If ever.
I got up and paid as the chemical smell dissipated. How did these women stand being in it all day? Anyway, it was time to get to the contact store, find Xavier, and get out of here once he finished telling his aunt what we'd heard in the hospital basement.
I didn't notice the other scent until I went to stand next to Alyssa.
Or rather, the lack of it.
All Normals gave off scent at all times as did many types of Abnormals. Normals always smelled like what they had eaten last, and it was strongest right after a meal. Other creatures, like werewolves and demons, had their own strong smells. Human Mages smelled like food and more exotic things.
The staring guy with the phone gave off nothing. Neither did the kid in the hoodie. With the hairspray and everything else in the room, I hadn't noticed until now. And judging from Alyssa's relaxed posture, she hadn't, either.
According to her, only one creature gave off no scent at all, and that was us.
Chapter Three
I gripped Alyssa's arm so hard that she gasped. That was bad. I pulled her out of the salon.
I felt better once we were in the fray of shoppers, but not much. The newcomers weren't far away.
And I hadn't seen what Bathory's people looked like. Perhaps they heard us fleeing the hospital basement after all.
“We've got to go,” I said. “Those guys in there--they're vampires."
Alyssa's eyes widened. We didn't have to worry about them attacking us for food. We had to worry about how dead Bathory wanted to make us for thwarting the mayor's plan, which would have guaranteed her victims forever.
And I didn't recognize the guys from the Underground. The people there tried not to hurt others unless they deserved it. But there were good and bad Abnormals, just as there were good and bad Normals.
“They didn't look like it,” she said, waving me down the corridor.
I looked behind me to see the older guy standing at the entrance to the salon, eyeing his phone. I had noticed no reddish eyes on him, but contacts solved that problem. It worked for Alyssa and her father. They could pass as Normal.
“They didn't give off a scent," I said.
“There are so many people I must have missed it,” Alyssa said.
“I caught him staring at me,” I said, dodging around a slow-moving family with strollers. The crowds were thick, and the sounds and scents overwhelming.
“Bad sign,” Alyssa said. “I wish I had my Hello Kitty cane.”
I pumped my legs faster. We both moved at a hair below running, and the mall opened ahead to reveal the escalators that went up to the food court. My thoughts of being able to handle this guy vanished. If he was a vampire or any other strong type of Abnormal, his size alone would give him an advantage. I wasn't the greatest at Physics, but even I knew that.
Getting to someone who might be a god might convince him to back off. It was obvious those two guys had waited until we were away from Xavier.
I glanced back.
“Houston, we have a problem,” I whispered.
The younger guy hadn't followed us, but the older one had. The older guy wove through the crowd, drawing closer one stride at a time. He moved like a cat, not touching a single body, and he was only about thirty feet behind us. His gaze fell on me, and I glimpsed blue eyes ringed with the faint borders of contact lenses. He wore a disguise.
He must know we'd caught on.
“I know we do,” Alyssa said. “Get up to Xavier. Now.”
“You can use some of his power,” I hissed, half-hoping our pursuer would hear. Alyssa and Xavier were battle partners, which meant that they had access to each other's powers. Alyssa could use his magic, and Xavier could heal fast—even when he had been his usual self.
“That won't attract attention,” she said.
She had a point. War Magic was flashy and dangerous—and Xavier had the power of a deity now. Innocent people would get hurt. We hadn't seen him use his new power, but I had the sense that a mall wasn't the best place for that display.
And I hoped that he didn't try since he didn't know the truth.
The crowd around the escalator cleared. I had always wanted to try running up one, and now I would get the chance. I felt confident. As soon as we got to the top, the guy would leave us alone. Well, I hoped. He was working alone right now.
Or not.
A man and a woman, also in their mid-twenties, stepped out of the crowd and in front of the escalator to block the way. Both appeared young, but they moved with so much grace I was sure they weren't Normal.
Alyssa stopped and seized my arm. “Store,” she said.
I saw where she was nodding: a store filled with anime figurines, Buddahs, Chinese cats...and swords.
The guy closed in, and we dodged into the store, ducking in
side a theft detector. Our pursuer cursed under his breath—it was a creative curse—and paused.
The place was empty except for a bored-looking guy behind the counter. He smelled of chocolate ice cream, which made my stomach rumble all over again. Why was I this hungry?
I pushed the thought away and checked the hallway. The guy remained there, and his two companions joined him. The three spoke in low voices and stood near a map of the mall as if they were loitering. Over the chatter, I couldn't pick out their words too well. In fact, I couldn't understand them at all. It was as if they were speaking another language.
Alyssa and I moved back to stand by a section filled with plushes. She eyed the swords. Swords were her game, and I felt better knowing she could walk out of here with one. Alyssa had spent years training in martial arts. I wished I had joined her for some of that time.
“I bet I know what you'll buy,” I hissed.
“Being in here just got them off our back for a minute,” she said. “The swords in here are dull. They're crappy display weapons. They might look scary, but they won't do me much good.”
“Why did you say that?”
“Because it's true,” she said. “Besides, they won't sell them to us without an ID.”
I could imagine it now. Even if Alyssa had an ID, they wouldn't sell her anything as deadly as a sharpened No. 2 pencil. Alyssa had gained a reputation now, and everyone in Cumberland had heard her name.
“Maybe those guys think they will,” I said. I had to keep hope, right? “I bet they think you'll walk out there and chop their heads off in a few minutes. If you're most wanted, you shouldn't care about spilling blood in a crowded mall.”
My stomach roared when I mentioned that.
Not good.
“No,” Alyssa said. “They know they have us cornered. They're speaking a different language. I don't know what it is, but they're Bathory's people.”
The meaning of her words it hung in the air. Bathory must hate Alyssa for ruining Thoreau's plan. Bathory had been planning on enjoying all the free blood his takeover would have provided her. We had both helped take that away. Us, and the Lovelli siblings.
She'd want us dead, no matter what we were.
These people had been tracking us ever since we left the fridge behind.
Why hadn't they pounced and attacked yet? Alyssa and I had been alone for a while. They could have cornered us in the dollar store or in the dressing rooms.
“Is there another way out of this store?” I asked, searching around. The employee was scrolling through his own phone. He glanced up and smiled at us.
There was a door behind him, but it just led to a storage room. I heard no sound coming from it. There was the possibility of it leading to a corridor somewhere, but that was slim.
And I wasn't sure how to convince the guy to let us check it out.
I got out my phone. We'd have to get Xavier the old-fashioned way, then. I sent him a text.
In the sword store. Bathory's people outside watching us.
I felt like such a damsel in distress, sending that text, but they outnumbered us. Sure, we could overpower that Normal guy and steal weapons, but that would only get security called on us—and the ATC.
Xavier didn't respond at first, a sign he was up in the food court, arguing with his mean aunt. I wondered if I had any power to warp the employee's thoughts with my gaze, but I'd heard from Alyssa that was a myth, spread by those who hated Abnormals. All I could do in that department was bat my eyelashes, which wouldn't work too well with my sunglasses. I had to check that off, too.
The trio outside continued to linger by the mall sign. Alyssa and I could run for it, but they'd catch us as soon as we set foot outside the store. The three of them could drag us out of here before security could do a thing.
For the first time, terror swept over me.
I wasn't supposed to feel scared and helpless now.
My phone buzzed. The guy with the sloppy hair glanced at me. I didn't dare take my phone back out of my pocket. If they knew we were telling someone about our situation, things might go even more downhill than they already were.
“Don't show them we're communicating. We just have to wait for Xavier to get here.” Alyssa whispered. She took a plush of a square creature with sharp teeth off the rack and turned it over, forcing a smile. She raised her voice. “What do you think of this? Would Xavier like it?”
“I'm not even sure what it is.” It was a good effort, but I had the sense those people already knew we'd spotted them.
She put the plush toy back. From the corner of my vision, the guy went back to conversing with his friends in a low voice. The language didn't sound like Spanish or French or anything taught at school, and I'd barely passed Spanish last year. Alyssa had once told me that Bathory and Thoreau had spoken an ancient language to each other once. Bathory was even more ancient than most people believed, and these vampires might be, too.
“What about this one?” Alyssa asked, lifting her voice. She held a potted plant with sharp teeth. I ran my tongue over my own. Why did there have to be a mention of blood and sharp teeth everywhere?
“Why don't you pick out something cute?” I asked, reaching for a plush ghost. “Like this?” I inched closer to the counter. There were knives and throwing stars under the glass. I hoped that Alyssa noticed. I wasn't a weapons girl, but Alyssa knew what she was doing. Only once had I ever handled a sword, and that was to hand it to my friend.
But things might be different now.
They had to be.
I hadn't chosen to Turn, but life had given me a chance to do something for once. If Xavier didn't get here in time, I could smash the glass and grab a weapon. I had to learn, right?
“Try nothing,” Alyssa warned.
“I'm not useless,” I hissed, hoping that our pursuers couldn't hear.
“They're old vampires. Experienced,” Alyssa said. “Even I'm not much good against them.”
So she thought they were speaking the same ancient tongue as Bathory. Double bad sign. I inched closer to the counter of weapons. The employee turned away and texted on his phone.
Alyssa swore.
Footsteps approached. I knew what was happening: our pursuers were entering the store, and they planned to drag us out before the guy behind the counter could turn and see. Unless I wanted to fight them with a stuffed Pac-Man ghost, I had to act, and now.
I swung my fists down at the glass case of knives.
Shards exploded all over the place. The guy jumped and whirled around, but not before I seized the worst-looking knife and turned to face the danger. Alyssa jumped the counter with amazing speed and seized one sword from the rack (a Katana?) and shouted at the young man to duck.
He obeyed. I threw the Pac-Man ghost at the approaching shaggy guy, and he paused as it bounced off his face and landed on the floor. The man scowled, and now he was closer, I could see a hint of red in his irises trying to peek through the fake blue. My senses hadn't lied. He wasn't Normal.
“Stupid girl,” he said. He had a thick, exotic accent that would ooze hotness under other circumstances. “Young girl.”
I raised the knife over my shoulder, ready to strike, and my confidence melted as the guy closed in. The man and the woman stood behind him. I swung the knife down with a lightning fast motion I hadn't thought possible, but right before I sunk the blade into his shoulder, he grabbed my wrist.
The point stopped right above his shirt sleeve. I tried to ram the knife down into his skin, but his grip remained iron. Alyssa was right. I was nowhere near as strong as these vampires.
“Why are you following us?” I asked, trying to sound tough.
“You have been summoned,” he said, “by the Mother.”
“For what?” I asked. I knew who he was talking about.
But before the guy could answer, Alyssa came through. She leapt over the counter and sliced her blade down at my captor, but the man released me, backpedaling. He was so fast that he blurred, eve
n to my vision. No one wanted to meet Alyssa's blade. Bad things happened to them if it found its mark. He plowed right into the rack of plushes, breaking the shelf and sending an army of video game characters down on his head.
“This way!” Alyssa shouted, waving me to the door. She grasped the sword and brandished it at the man and woman, who parted like the Red Sea. They, too, moved so fast to me that they blurred. These were very strong vampires.
Alyssa tossed the dull sword on the ground and I threw the knife into a shelf of waving cats. It struck one of them, knocking it into a display of incense sticks. A knife and sword would do us no good against these enemies. The two of us bolted out into the rest of the mall.
A few people had stopped to watch the show.
“Don't slow down,” Alyssa said.
I knew what she meant. We couldn't care about Normals seeing us blur past them right now. A bigger danger lurked, and it was right behind us.
We ran. I held my shopping bags against my body, which crinkled.
Though Alyssa ran faster than any Normal, I could now keep up. I had that, at least. She darted around a small crowd of teenagers who might even go to our school and booked up the escalator, taking the stairs with ease. I followed. Now I was doing what I always wanted to do, but it was anything but fun.
“Xavier!” Alyssa shouted once she reached the top of the steps.
I joined her in searching. People ate at tables, but Xavier wasn't one of them.
“Where is he?” I asked.
I thought of the text he sent back, the one I hadn't checked. If he had gone to meet us at the sword store, he would have run into us. But I had no time to check my phone. I looked down the escalator and saw Bathory's three henchmen hurrying up the steps so fast they must look like blurs to the Normals in the mall. But, they were moving slow enough for me to make out their faces now, and the leader looked as if Alyssa and I might not live long enough to see Bathory.
