Magic Brew

by T. Rae Mitchell

  Hurley thinks about it. “Yeah, and Brooklyn’s our backyard. We know it as good as Coney. I don’t see why we shouldn’t be able to ninja our way back home.”

  Pandora pulls Nyx aside, letting Zulu, Knox and Hurley pass by as they talk about the best route to take. Gesturing, Pandora nudges Nyx toward me. She obviously wants her to tell me something, so I stop. “I’ll take you and Sienna straight to Coney.” Looking uncomfortable, Nyx drops her gaze to the floor. “Surfing the shadow’s the only way you’re gonna get her back in time for the cure.”

  I’d hug her if I didn’t have another girl hanging over my shoulder. Plus, I think she’d probably kick me in the stones right now if I tried. “That’s straight up of you.”

  Nyx gives me the slightest of nods, then turns and falls into a jog to catch up with the others.

  Pandora falls in step with me, her expression troubled as she stares at her sister’s back.

  “Just so you know, I feel like a jackass,” I tell her.

  Pandora throws me an angry sidelong glance, her fingers furiously spelling words, before ending with her fist tapping her ear. “You should. You’re a jerk for leading her on.”

  “I know. I honestly thought things were goin’ somewhere between us…until Sienna. Believe me, nobody’s more surprised than me that I fell for a gullie.”

  Pandora draws an X over her heart, then pats her temple, basically saying, “The heart rules the head.”

  “Been hearing that a lot tonight,” I say, more to myself than her.

  Just as we reach one of the many doors located throughout the market, Sienna groans. Slowing down as Pandora walks over to the others, I slide Sienna off my shoulder and lean her up against the wall. She slumps forward, her long hair falling over her face.

  “How’re you feeling? You okay to walk?”

  Lifting her head, she looks at me, not in the eyes but at my neck. “Hungry,” she says, running her tongue over the moist surface of her top lip. Her mouth closes into a sexy pout. “You said you’d feed me.”

  My pulse skips a beat. “I will. I promise. I just need you to wait a little longer.”

  She straightens, her back rigid as she stares at me with a vacant look in her eyes. “Why should I?” Her sudden shift from hot to cold throws me.

  “I have the cure, but I have to get you to Coney before you can take it. After you’re back to normal, we’ll go to Nathan’s and I’ll buy you all the hotdogs you can eat.”

  “What if I don’t want it?”

  “Don’t like hotdogs? I can get you hamburgers or pizza.”

  “I’m talking about the cure,” she says, her voice dripping with acid. “I don’t want it. I like what I am.”

  I shake my head. “Trust me, you don’t want to stay this way.”

  “You don’t know me,” she snaps, her face suddenly contorted by anger and resentment. “You don’t know what my life’s been like. Do you have any idea what it’s like being Catholic and having the Sight? My parents and my brother are afraid of me. When I turned thirteen my visions took over like crazy and my family freaked. They thought I was possessed and had our priest do an exorcism on me. It was awful. I actually had to fake being exorcised. They’ve been watching me like a hawk ever since and I’ve been pretending I’m like them. Blind to what’s really going on around us.”

  “You said your grandmother had the Sight too. Why didn’t you go to her for help?”

  “She died before my visions got really bad. But she taught me as much as she could get away with up until then. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have known what was going on. I’d probably be locked up in some asylum by now. I’ve spent my whole life scared, trapped by lies, afraid to be myself….until now.”

  She stares past me at something in the distance. “I’m not afraid anymore. I have power. Real power. I can feel it growing inside me, making me stronger. Bolder. It’s like I’m waking up to my place in the world. I’ve never felt more alive than I do right now. I’m finally free.”

  She’s breathing harder, getting more excited by the second. “I’m seeing so much more. I hear every heartbeat around me.” She leans in, breathing in the air between us. Her pupils dilate and her lips redden to an even darker shade. “I can smell the blood under your skin,” she whispers seductively. “It smells so good, like wet copper and honey.”

  Drawn in by her desire, my body sways toward her. I could almost give in and let her have what she wants.

  Almost.

  With a shake of my head, I pull an arm’s length away. “This kind of power is low, Sienna. It attracts evil and it makes you evil. It’s beneath you. Believe me, I know.” I don’t say it out loud, but I’ve witnessed the struggles Maddox had with vampirism. He fought against the bloodlust daily, and I watched him lose the battle more than once. “You have to listen to me. There’s no freedom in it. You’ll be a slave to the hunger.”

  Sienna recoils, glaring at me.

  Hurley walks over. “Sorry to break up the lover’s spat, but time’s a wastin’.”

  “Not really,” I tell him. “When we leave here, it’ll be the same time as when we entered.”

  Hurley’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise. “Oh dude, that’s so dope.”

  “Come on,” I say, grabbing Sienna by the wrist.

  She jerks her arm out of my grip.

  “Fine, stay if that’s what you want,” I say, feeling a sudden tightness in my chest.

  Her hands curl into fists. “What I want is to not be told what to do.”

  “Done,” I say, now thoroughly confused. “So what’s it gonna be? You comin’ or not?”

  She glances back at the huge crowd of supes milling about the market, then looks at me. “I’ll go with you. For now,” she says begrudgingly.

  I didn’t know I was holding my breath until now. Relaxing enough to take air, I nod and enter the long, arched passageway leading out. I figure it’s best to keep quiet for the moment and avoid any more fights. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, when a girl gets her back up, there’s no talking her down until she cools off.

  When we catch up to the others, Knox pushes the door open and we all step out onto the street. When we round the corner, I check the fire escape to see if the dark angel is still lurking around. There’s no sign of Anguish anywhere. I’m not exactly sure what to make of that.

  Hurley and Knox each climb onto the monster bikes and start them up. The deep growl of the engines bounce off the building and echo out over the river as Pandora gets on behind Hurley, and Zulu climbs on behind Knox.

  “Catch you on the flip side,” Hurley says.

  “Yeah. Later, guys,” I say as they squeal out and race toward the bridge.

  “Ready to bounce?” Nyx says as she moves in between Sienna and me.

  Sienna stiffens at her touch, looking ready to attack. I throw Sienna a warning look. Reluctantly, she relaxes her arm.

  Nyx suddenly turns toward Peck Slip. “Do you hear that?”

  “All I hear are the bikes,” I say.

  “I hear something,” Sienna says. “Sounds like acid rock from the 60’s.”

  “Good ear. It’s called Distortions of Darkness,” Nyx says, her fingers digging painfully into my bicep. She’s pinching off my circulation.

  I pry her fingers loose. “I take it you don’t like that song?”

  Nyx fixes her gaze on the corner of the building as the grinding riffs of electric guitars blare from the other side of the block. “I hate it,” she says, her voice shaky as she lets go of us.

  I’ve never seen her so shaken.

  She pulls out her daggers and hands me one. “Get ready to rumble, Edge.”

  “Why are you so freaked? Who do you think it is?”

  “It’s the Gray Boys.”

  Tension fires through me. That explains her fear. The Gray Boys are pureblood shadow elves–the ones who took Nyx’s eye before she and Pandora joined our gang. They’re also one of the largest gangs in the city, with territories marked a
ll the way from East Bronx to Brooklyn’s Crown Heights. Like Hurley, the shadow elves are Japanese exports. Unlike most of the world, Japan’s one of the few places where gullies acknowledge the existence of supernatural creatures, and they have zero tolerance for them and their bad behavior. Which is why New York’s got so many Gray Boys.

  “Let’s surf out of here. There’s no telling how many there are,” I say.

  “No, they can jump on my shadow trail, and I won’t be able to move fast enough to shake them off with you two on board.”

  “Then leave us. Get out of here.”

  Nyx shakes her head. “I’ve already told Pan. She’s got the gang turning around. They should be here in a few minutes. We can hold them off until then.”

  The music’s getting louder, but now it sounds like it’s coming from overhead. Glancing up, I see the thin silhouette of a Gray Boy four stories up on the rooftop. He’s looking down at us, swaying to the heavy, psychedelic beat of the music blasting from the boombox next to his feet.

  “God, that music’s grating. What’s with that?” I ask, growing more nervous as I check ground level for more Gray Boys.

  White-knuckling her dagger, Nyx grinds her fist against her palm. “They use it to throw off their enemies.”

  “It’s working,” Sienna says, her voice an inhuman hiss. The spider in her is surfacing. Her hands are stretching into long claws and her eyes are black orbs. I guess I don’t need to worry about protecting her.

  Five Gray Boys saunter casually around the corner and come to a stop. Dressed in tailored black gear over white t-shirts stenciled with their tag–an unhappy cartoon face–they bob their anime haircuts to the music. Tall, slim and fine-boned, none of them look older than sixteen, even though it’s possible any one of them could be a century old. To look at them, you’d think they’re too pretty and baby-faced to be feared, but nothing could be further from the truth. What they lack in brawn, they make up for with their mastery over darkness and the power it gives them to kill from the shadows.

  “Now would be a good time to drop that white light bomb you used on the Carnies,” Nyx whispers.

  “It’s not like I can go nuclear on demand,” I whisper back.

  The Gray Boy leader steps forward, staring straight at me with those colorless, deadpan eyes most shadow elves have. In unison, the others spread out and swing their hands out from behind their backs, revealing the dreaded Kaiser blades they’re so notorious for splitting skulls with.

  Sweat breaks out on my forehead and upper lip. My mind’s racing back to the warnings the Highborn girl gave me. My heartstone’s in danger of turning black and dooming me to a future I’m not sure I want anymore. It could happen after one kill, or twenty. There’s no way of knowing what number will tip the scale. One thing’s for sure, the Gray Boys didn’t come here to show off their dance moves to this twisted heavy metal currently searing a hole in my brain.

  The leader’s gaze shifts to Nyx. He points his blade at her. “Look who it is. The halfbreed who thought she was good enough to join us.”

  Still swaying to the music, the rest of them sneer at her.

  “How about we poke the other eye out?” one of them says.

  The leader nods. “Yeah, it’s time we put an end to her surfin’ our waves.”

  For the first time since I’ve known Nyx, she cowers, turning her head away in shame.

  Grabbing her by the arm, I shove her behind me. “You’ll have to go through me first.”

  The leader throws me a smug smile. “Normally, I’d oblige. But I can’t afford it. There’s this bothersome detail of having to bring you in alive for that hefty bounty on your head. But then you already knew that. Didn’t you, Djinn boy?”

  Gripping their blades, the Gray Boys stop bopping to the music and spread out.

  Pandora suddenly materializes behind them. She must’ve hopped off the bike as soon as she was within ghosting distance. Leaning in, she whispers to the one closest to her. His scream pierces the incessant beat of the music as his face sinks into the back of his head like a collapsed soufflé.

  In the same instant, Nyx gives her sister a nod and blinks out of sight. I take that as a sign she’s shaken off her fear. A second later she appears behind another shadow elf, jabs her knife in his neck and sidesteps the blood spurting from his artery.

  Chaos breaks out. The other three Gray Boys vanish into twisting vortexes of black vapor. Violent gusts of frigid air whip around me and Sienna. Hissing at them, her claws come out as we both swipe at the thrashing darkness. I aim for flesh with the dagger Nyx gave me, but all I slice is air.

  Someone grabs me from behind, pulling me into the shadow dimension. Quiet envelopes me, muffling the unnerving music blaring from the rooftop. Everything seems to slow as I strain to see who’s got me. It’s the leader, his face a silvery smudge. Knocking the knife from my hand with his sling blade, he grabs my wrist, twisting my bad arm up behind my back. The cut in my arm peels open. Pain shoots up my bicep, into my shoulder as he locks me into position with the hook of his Kaiser blade digging painfully against my already sliced neck. He surfs me past the others just as Sienna lunges at a Gray Boy and sinks her fangs in his throat. Nyx dodges the attack of a shadow elf whose movements are so fast it’s a blur.

  Catching a motion from above, I look up in time to see the Gray Boy on the rooftop jump off the ledge. I call out to Pandora to get out of the way, but I’m too late. He lands on her shoulders, knocking her face down on the sidewalk. Jamming his knees into her spine, he raises his Kaiser blade and brings it down.

  Sienna must’ve heard me because she launches herself at the Gray Boy, throwing him off Pandora before the blade cracks her skull. After ripping his throat open with more gusto than I can stomach, Sienna drops the mangled shadow elf and turns in my direction. I’m not sure if she’s intentionally helping or feeding her hunger. It’s hard to tell. There’s no sign of the sweet girl I thought I knew beneath her feral black eyes and bloodstained face.

  My question’s answered when she leaps through the air at us. Grappling hold of the Gray Boy who’s intent on delivering me to the warlocks, she digs her claws into his chest, dragging him off of me. His shadow cloak tears away and I hit the pavement like I’ve been thrown from a moving car. As I tumble across the street, the maddening music assaults my ears once again.

  I jump to my feet, ready for the next attack, but it doesn’t come. The street’s littered with five dead shadow elves. There were six. Looks like one of them got away.

  Then I see Pandora crouched over Nyx. I run over to them. Fear, like nothing I’ve ever felt, locks my lungs. I can’t breathe. There’s a pool of blood spreading like red outstretched wings to either side of Nyx. Then I see the gash across her midriff. The cut’s deep, dark and mortal.

  Feeling like my legs have been cut out from under me, I drop to my knees next to her.

  She looks up at me with a pained expression. “Would someone turn off that crap once and for all,” she groans.

  Pandora nods and ghosts out of sight. Reappearing on the rooftop, she kicks the boombox over the edge. The music’s warped, repetitive chords last all of three seconds before it crashes on the sidewalk, ending the song with an explosion of stereo parts.

  I turn back to Nyx, unable to keep my eyes dry.

  “Don’t be such a pussy,” she whispers.

  “You know me, I’m not as tough as you,” I say, wiping my eyes with the back of my hand.

  She smiles weakly. “So you finally admit it.”

  “Yeah, well don’t try and repeat it. I’ll flat out deny it,” I say, trying to smile back. I fail miserably.

  Pandora materializes next to us. Her face is drawn with grief as she takes Nyx’s hand in hers.

  Guilt overwhelms me, guilt about so many things. “Why didn’t you leave when I told you to?” I ask Nyx.

  “I couldn’t.”

  “Why?”

  Her one beautiful gray eye burns into me. “For the same reason you cou
ldn’t leave Sienna.”

  I look up at Sienna. She’s staring at the blood on her hands with a fevered look. She’s turned into something wild and unpredictable, but the goodness I sensed in her from the beginning is still there. She saved Pandora and me. Hate to say it, but that only makes me want her more.

  I lean down close, whispering in Nyx’s ear. “I’m sorry for hurting you. I wish I could make it up to you somehow.”

  She blinks sleepily. “You can. Promise me you’ll go find your father after all this is over. There’s nothing for you here. You’re better than all this.”

  I pull back in surprise. “Is that why you tried to keep me from killing the Hellhound?”

  “Of course, you idiot,” she says, her voice so faint and breathless I have to put my ear to her mouth. “I knew it’d be a slippery slope after your first kill. But it’s not too late. You still have a choice. You’re not doomed to this life like the rest of…us…”

  Her voice fades to nothing. I sit up, and grab her hand. “Nyx?”

  She stares past me. The frozen look of sadness on her face kills me.

  I shake her hand, flopping her arm up and down to make her wake up. “Nyx.” My chest clenches with unbearable pain. I grab her shoulder and jostle her. “Damn it, Nyx, don’t do this. Wake up. Come on. You’re the strong one. We need you…I need you.”

  Pandora reaches over to stop me.

  “Back off!” I yell at Pandora. Desperate to keep my world from changing, I lift Nyx by the shoulders, striking her hard across the face. When her head falls limp against my chest, I cringe with horror.

  She’s gone. The only person who ever loved me, regardless of what I did, is gone.

  Gently, I gather her in my arms, bringing her head close to mine so I can bury my face within the sanctuary of her soft hair. And then I scream until there’s nothing left inside me.

  25

  Mechanized Warfare

  KNOX’S RANTING PULLS ME BACK to the present. I’ve been drifting in and out of awareness since Hurley tore me away from Nyx, stuck me on the back of his Franken-bike and made me ride bitch behind him.