Vile Magic

by Holly Hook

  Cristoff waved to me and I waved back. I kind of liked the woman even if she was with the ATC.

  The steel door slid closed behind us and Xavier and I followed Thoreau down a carpeted hallway that sloped downward. We were headed underground. There were no doors, only signs with exclamation points that warned people that there were dangerous Abnormals below. The mayor said nothing and my hand went towards my taser. That might be more effective than a gun. I wanted to pump Thoreau full of ten thousand volts and watch as he writhed in agony on the floor. But did demons care about electricity? It was close to fire, after all.

  But I was fire proof and electricity sure bothered me.

  Xavier shook his head at me and I took my hand away from the taser. We might set off alarms. This place had the most awesome security I had ever seen and I was sure there were hidden cameras and sensors everywhere, not to mention magical wards that we couldn't feel in these Normal bodies. Thoreau continued to walk downwards and the hallway split into two ahead. A sign above the right hallway told us that the supervisor's office and the guard lounge were that way while the hall on the left had a metal gate over it that might be electrified. A low buzzing sound filled the air. A sign with purple letters warned of the danger and that only very limited access was allowed. I had the feeling most of the people in this bunker weren't allowed past that point.

  Thoreau stopped in the middle of the hall and faced us. "Please, do tell me your story. Peters phoned me and told me what you relayed to him, but I want to hear it from the two of you. You understand how words can get jumbled and turn into wild rumors when they go from person to person."

  "That's right," Xavier said. "It's like that game we used to play in school, where we'd tell a story in a circle and it would be something completely different when it came around again."

  "Precisely," Thoreau said. "That's why I want to hear it from you. I want to know where this Alyssa Choy may be. It's very important that she and the boy she is with be brought in before they harm any more of Cumberland's residents."

  "I agree," I said.

  I gave the mayor the same tale I had spun for the guy in the guard shack. It was best to stay consistent. I couldn't help but feel like Thoreau was trying to match my words with those of Peters. "I hope that you catch them," I finished. "I thought they were going to kill us. And that was nice of you to have breakfast catered."

  I waited for a bit of Leon to come through but he was either being suppressed or he was hiding. How did he feel about his own daughter being captured? He should be fighting to gain control more. I hoped that he was waiting for the right time.

  But the fact that he had gone to the Underground, knowing he shared a form with Thoreau, didn't bode well for him.

  "Now," Thoreau said, turning away from us and putting his hand in his pocket, "for your amazing work, I'd like to thank you. I'll give the two of you a tour of the prison area. Few in your position get this opportunity."

  Alarms rang in my head. The metal cage that blocked off the prison tunnel looked a lot more sinister. "Are you sure that's a good idea?" I asked. "There are dangerous Abnormals in there."

  "They are contained. I can assure you of that," Thoreau said. "The two of you are perfectly safe. In fact, I have a proposal for the two of you once we finish the tour. I'm always in need of bodyguards, for instance."

  Xavier and I glanced at each other.

  "You want us to be your bodyguards?" Xavier asked. "Thank you for the opportunity, sir."

  I tried to think of some way to worm out of this. There was nothing I could say that wouldn't blow our cover somehow.

  "Yes. Thank you," I said.

  Thoreau smiled. If I didn't know better, it would have been convincing. "Follow me," he said. "I have an office beyond that gate where we'll discuss your new pay. It's best if this doesn't get out to the rest of the ATC, if you get what I mean." He strode towards the gate and got out an ID card. He slid the ID into a slot underneath the fingerprint sensor and the buzzing stopped. The gate slid open quickly and the mayor waved us inside.

  So it was electrified after all. I wasn't sure how we were going to get back out. Xavier and I were headed into a bear's cage with almost nothing to defend ourselves with.

  Xavier and I followed through the gate. This was the most danger the two of us--and the world--had ever been in. We were risking the whole world for our families. What would my father think? I thought of him lying in his enchanted sleep, not knowing where he was, on a cot next to Xavier's parents. I could tell from the way Xavier looked at the ground that the same thoughts must be going through his head.

  This hallway was far longer than the others and there were no cells lining it. A sense of being trapped swept over me and I held back panic. Thoreau said nothing, giving us no other clues as to what was going to happen.

  And at last, we came to a set of wooden double doors.

  "This doesn't look like a prison," Xavier said.

  "Of course it's not a prison," Thoreau said. "It's a treatment center. We don't want our patients to feel like they're being confined against their will."

  "I hear they're very nice centers," I said.

  "They are," Thoreau said. "There are so many ridiculous rumors out there about them. The most interesting one I've heard," he said, pushing open the double doors, "is that our treatment centers are really portals to the Infernal Dimension."

  On the other side of the double doors was a cave, complete with stalactites that pointed down like angry, sharp teeth.

  A pool of perfect blue water spread out underneath them. There was even a line set up next to the pool like there was at amusement parks, complete with rope and metal stands. No one was in the line but I had the sense that dozens of people had waited inside of it, waiting to get pushed into the pool that had no doubt acted as a portal.

  "What is this?" Xavier asked, trying to sound stupid.

  Thoreau faced us and smiled, lowering his sunglasses. His eyes were black with dancing flames. There was no sign of Leon here. It seemed that he had conquered the Elder War Mage.

  "Your future," he said, grabbing onto the collar of Xavier's uniform and pulling him into the room. He tossed Xavier behind him, where he landed on the stone floor not far from the line. "Do come in here so we can discuss your new employment conditions."

  Chapter Thirteen

  I had no choice. I couldn't abandon Xavier.

  So I stepped into the room.

  "Good, Agent Sanders," Thoreau said, closing the two double doors. "Agent Ernest. Stand up, please."

  Thoreau hadn't detected us through our glamour. That was our only advantage.

  But he was planning to have two brave ATC agents Bound to him. I had the feeling that everyone he had Bound to him went through this.

  Now Thoreau was planning to do the same to us.

  He stood in front of the doors with his arms crossed. I helped Xavier up and we stood side by side. The only thing we had on our side was the element of surprise. If Thoreau knew who we really were, he would be saying something by now. Thoreau was about to get a pleasant surprise if we didn't do something. Finding out he had really Bound Alyssa and Xavier to him would make his dreams come true.

  "What is this?" I asked, pretending to be stupid. "This doesn't look like a treatment center."

  "It's a portal," Thoreau said. "I am not what you believed, but it doesn't matter. Those who know my secret do not speak of it. The ATC does not cure Abnormals of their conditions. I have used the ATC to bring Abnormals to me so that I can build my army. One by one, I have been...employing...those you have captured and keeping them in the Infernal until the time is right. The world is about to change, Ernest and Sanders. Before that happens, you will want to be employed to me as well. I am selecting only the strongest Normals to serve me. It will be a lucky position for you to be in. And by the way, thank you for helping to aid in the capture of Alyssa Choy. She will be in my hands soon enough and when that happens, your world will enter a new age."

&n
bsp; He was taunting us. Tormenting us. He still didn't know the truth.

  "You're a demon?" I asked.

  "Very good," Thoreau said. He had let down his guard. He unfolded his arms and strode towards us, drawing a small knife from his pocket. "So do you understand what demons are about and how our contracts work?"

  At first I thought Thoreau was going to cut his own palm and spill his blood into the portal, but instead, he held the knife out to me. I was the closest and Xavier was still grimacing from pain. The mayor held me in his gaze and waited for me to accept it. It was an ugly dagger, jagged, with demon faces decorating a bone handle. I didn't want to know what kind of bone it was made out of. I wondered how Thoreau had gotten it through all the detectors. He must have personal magical wards that got through all the scans.

  I reached out and I took the knife. Trembling, I held it and turned it over, hoping that I would distract Thoreau enough to reach for my taser.

  "Many of your comrades have already become my servants," Thoreau explained. "It will take a mere drop of your blood for you to become mine. Allow a drop of your blood to spill into my palm and consider the deal done. You serve me, you survive."

  "And what if we don't?" I asked.

  Thoreau faced the portal and smiled. "Then you will be cast into the Infernal. Unlike the others I have employed, you will have none of my protections there."

  He was watching. Xavier was watching. The tip of the dagger was very sharp and I had the feeling it had pricked a lot of fingers--and worse. Thoreau's eyes remained black and fire danced inside. He was leaving his sunglasses off for effect. I could smell his cologne but no sewage.

  I was Normal right now.

  We both were and possibly unable to fight him.

  Would spilling Agent Sanders's blood into Thoreau's palm enslave her or me? As far as I knew, I was full of her blood right now and not mine. I wasn't sure how it would work. Doing as Thoreau wished might doom her. It might doom me and Xavier both. Or it might doom all of us.

  "I thought I had to sign a paper?" I joked, letting out a nervous laugh. "A demonic contract, you know?"

  "That is a myth," Thoreau said. "Now, let's not delay. Do you care about your boyfriend?" Thoreau marched over to the portal and held up his own hand, ready to bite it and draw his own blood. He was going to turn on the portal. Xavier was the bargaining chip.

  "Yes. Yes, I do," I said, realizing how much I meant it.

  Thoreau had his back turned. He bit his own hand with a disgusting sound. Black blood dribbled out and into the water below. It spread out like ink, turning the pool black. Thoreau didn't have to say anything to get the portal to work for him.

  Maybe he had done this so many times before that it didn't matter.

  I blinked and the Infernal Dimension waited, feet away.

  There were no sleeping forms on cots this time, only a huge stone castle in the distance that I had the feeling belonged to the demon baron himself. A moat of fire surrounded the towering, reddish-black stone and lava fell in narrow falls from the top floors of the castle as if a fire jacuzzi had broken near a window. The sky was a dark red, deeper than brick, with blackish-green clouds hanging far overhead. Behind the castle, a reddish landscape spread away in all directions, dotted with fire lakes.

  There were barracks surrounding the castle.

  Hundreds of them, in rows. They were made of the same reddish-black stone, and I had the feeling they were filled with hundreds of sleeping soldiers, both Normal and Abnormal.

  No. Thousands.

  How many had Thoreau taken and enslaved over the last few years? The ATC didn't just exist in Cumberland, after all.

  It was where my father was. Where Xavier's parents were. Thorne and Trish and Elsina were there, too. Thoreau might have Bound them already, one by one as they filed through this line.

  "So you see?" Thoreau asked, turning back to me.

  But it wasn't before I shot the taser.

  The spring shot for Thoreau and he went to move out of the way, but his eyes flashed to an angry blue and violet as a bit of Leon came through. He remained still as if Leon were holding him there, but then Thoreau returned full force as the business end of the taser contacted the front of his chest. The demon baron trembled with the electricity pumping through him and he stumbled back, legs useless, shaking as if he had gripped an electric fence. Xavier joined in, firing his own taser, which contacted the mayor's arm. Twenty thousand volts of electricity ripped through the demon. He growled. His skin reddened. His fingernails extended into claws. Thoreau struggled to say something. He hadn't expected two Normals to fight back. I kept on the trigger on the taser, hoping that it had enough juice to make Thoreau's heart stop.

  At last, the mayor fell and tensed, trying to take the abuse. He breathed and shook as I continued to pump electricity into him.

  "Stop!" Xavier shouted.

  I did. The buzzing sound stopped. I expected to smell smoke but there was none. Thoreau remained on the ground, breathing heavily. I didn't know how long he'd be useless for.

  "His keys," I said, holding onto the taser and running for the mayor.

  I dug through Thoreau's pockets as he continued to breathe on the floor, helpless and paralyzed. He didn't speak. I fished his keys and his ID card out of his pocket. He even wore his sunglasses on his photo. Why no one ever questioned that was beyond me.

  "Come on," Xavier said, throwing down his taser. "I think these weapons are spent."

  I clicked mine again and nothing happened. We had depleted the battery or this room had sucked the power from them. These weapons weren't meant for long term combat--just to paralyze an enemy for arrest. Thoreau lifted one arm and I fumbled for the gun on my belt. "We have to kill him," I said.

  Xavier pulled out his own gun. "We're about to do this as Normals," he said. "I wonder if I'll get my--"

  "Shhh!" I said, fearing it might already be too late. I pointed the gun at Thoreau and fired as Xavier jumped back. Sound exploded. I pulled the trigger over and over, sometimes hitting the cave floor, sometimes hitting the mayor. Xavier joined in and we riddled Thoreau with bullets. Black blood burst through holes. My ears rang and the sewage smell finally reached me. This might not kill him. We had barely done it last time with War Magic and falling stalactites. I fired until the gun clicked over and over and Xavier did the same. The smell was unbearable and Thoreau was covered in spreading black flowers.

  I wanted to throw up.

  But he was still breathing. He would heal. Next to him, the portal was still alive as if the Infernal Dimension were just an arms' reach away.

  "Throw him in!" Xavier shouted. "It'll buy us some time!"

  It took both of us to roll Thoreau into the portal. He slipped inside, growling, vanishing from view as if the image before us were just a curtain. I waited to see him appear on the other side, but there was nothing.

  "We have to go in there," I said. "We have to get our people out!"

  Xavier seized my arm. In this form, he was stronger than me. The feeling was so new that I couldn't get over it. "We need to go," he said.

  "But we're here! Our parents are in those barracks! Where else does Thoreau keep his army?"

  "Let me go in," Xavier said. "Someone needs to be here for the Underground if I don't make it back." He took my arms and stared at me. I couldn't believe that this mustached man was him, but the caring was there in his eyes.

  "But you don't have your War Magic right now," I said.

  "I will. Soon. I need to get to the barracks. You need to get out of here. Once I wake the fighters--"

  "Don't go alone," I said. "Tell me, right now, why you're so scared of me going in there, and maybe I'll do what you want and get out of here. You'll need me to help kill Thoreau. I'll be fire proof again soon. We won't free anyone who's Bound until we kill the mayor." I had a point and I knew.

  The image in the portal was fading already, vanishing before I even had the chance to go in. Xavier looked at it and back to me. The air
in the room felt less alive than before.

  His eyes were already changing.

  The brown was slowly morphing into a blue with a hint of purple.

  "Alyssa," he said with horror.

  Our glamours were wearing off.

  "Not already," I said. I sniffed the air. The sewage smell was a bit stronger now and I could smell the water, too. My abilities were slowly returning. "Now what?"

  "We leave," Xavier said, eyeing the fading image of the Infernal Dimension. "There are other portals we can use. Thoreau is right on the other side of this one. There's no doubt being in his home world will help him recover. Then he'll be back here."

  "But we're here!"

  "We go!" Xavier shouted, pushing me towards the exit. "I was hoping our people wouldn't be behind one of these. I was hoping for cells. But there aren't. I'll come back here later. We have Thoreau's ID card."

  "What is your problem?" I asked, but a growing part of me warned me to drop this, get out of here, and go on with another way to rescue our people.

  "Go!" Xavier shouted. A hint of his voice returned. "We won't get out of here if we wait any longer. We're turning back. The magic in this place must be sapping our glamours away like it did the power in the tasers."

  The portal had completely faded now and was going from black to blue. They didn't stay open long after someone went through. But I still had the vial of demon blood.

  The ATC uniform felt a bit loose on me and the pant legs a bit too long.

  My chest ached. I was giving up my chance once again. My father was on the other side of that portal but we weren't armed. I wished I had brought my sword. All I had was this dagger.

  But when I thought about going through that portal, dread spread through my gut. A horrible thought was trying to worm its way up but I held it down, determined not to let it finish itself. Maybe Xavier was right and I needed to avoid the portal at all costs. Maybe--