by Holly Hook
“That was great, Alyssa,” Xavier said. “I didn't even think of that. It'll be very lucky if Mack is in there tonight.”
“Well, since he lives so close, I thought maybe he came here. He is a Dark Mage.”
All we could do was wait. The dwarf took a long time getting back to us. When the door opened again, though, he frowned.
“Mack isn't here tonight,” he said. “If he did recommend you, you might need to wait a while. He doesn't show up often, maybe a couple of times per month. Try again Saturday night. We're open then.”
“We can't wait,” Xavier said, reaching into his pocket.
“These are the rules,” the dwarf said.
“Look,” I said, leaning forward and looking down at the dwarf. “Thousands of Abnormals are in danger and if we wait until Saturday, they might all die or get captured.” I grabbed the front of the dwarf's employee shirt and pulled him off the floor. “We need to ask Beatrix if we can use her portal.”
The dwarf frowned and grabbed at my wrist, where the fire symbol was still etched. “Put me down. You Normal-sized people think you're so much better than the rest of us.”
I shook the dwarf. I wanted to hurt someone, something. At the same time, I hated doing this to the doorman. “I'm sorry, but if you don't let us in, you're going to learn how it feels to burn from the inside out.”
“You don't want to do that,” Xavier said, money in hand. “I've seen her take out two stone gargoyles that way.”
“No one can make you burn from the inside out,” the dwarf said, meeting my gaze. “Not even demons can do that. Beatrix has threatened to do that to me many times and she never has.” He gasped for breath as I tightened my grip on his shirt, pulling at the collar around his neck.
“I'm not Beatrix,” I said. “Just tell her that Mack recommended us and we'll all be good.”
“Okay. Okay,” the dwarf said. “Just let me down.” His tan face was turning the shade of wet sand. “She might be interested in speaking to the grandson of Leon Lovelli.”
Chapter Thirteen
It felt almost too easy. Either Beatrix had just hired the worst doorman in the world or there was something else going on here. I kept the Hello Kitty cane close to my side, aware that it probably wouldn't fool anyone in this establishment. The dwarf gasped for breath as Xavier and I entered a dark hallway that had zero lighting. My gray vision snapped back into place and I realized there was a spiral stairway at the end of the hall, one with a sign above it that read TO THE PIT. A jagged arrow pointed down into the depths.
“Good name,” I said as the dwarf closed the door behind us.
“I can't see anything,” Xavier said. “I don't think a lot of humans come here.”
“There are some here,” I said. “I smell them.” A mixture of turkey dinners, spaghetti, microwave fare and pasta floated up through the stairwell along with the adrenaline of nerves. There was also the unmistakable sewer smell that told me there was at least one demon down here.
The scents only got stronger as we descended the metal steps. “I don't like this,” Xavier said.
“Neither do I.” I checked to make sure the doorman wasn't following us. Check. I couldn't even pick up his scent anymore. “I wonder if everyone gets in by threatening that dwarf. He is a dwarf, right?”
“Dwarves usually have beards and they don't live in cities. Well, the men do. That was a redcap. They can be nasty. We need to watch ourselves.”
I'd never learn all the species of the world that I now inhabited. The smells got stronger the more we descended. There was some red light far below that made me wonder for a moment if we had stepped into the Infernal Dimension, but this light was electric and changed to green, then to yellow, then to red again. I could see it through the grating of the steps. Electro played down below, loud and deafening. It blocked out every other sound that I could have heard but the smells were enough. This place was very inhabited.
“We follow the sewer smell to Beatrix,” I said. “I hope.” I remembered the incubus coming down here with that woman. I hoped the incubi and succubi would be off in another part of the club with their dates, away from everything else. I couldn't imagine that any other way.
When we reached the bottom, it turned out I was right. There was a large bar in the middle of the room along with two dance floors where a variety of Abnormals were dancing. A burly werewolf man was serving all kinds of drinks in the bar and a Normal man was also sitting there. There were bite marks on his neck. He had been catering in a different way. A balcony encircled the whole place and there were several closed doors up there. I could only imagine what was going on behind them.
“This place gives me the creeps,” Xavier said. “Let's find the office as soon as we can.”
I wondered if Beatrix would force us to make another horrible deal. We had already made two in the last couple of days. I didn't need any more.
“There,” I said, pointing.
There was a small glass window at the very top of the club, overlooking everything. It was hard for even me to see in these changing lights, but if I looked close enough, I caught the figure of someone moving around inside.
“That looks like something I'd use as an office,” Xavier said. “Let's go and get this over with.”
We followed some narrow stairs up past all the closed rooms (that we did not want to open) and towards the door that was next to the glass window. I was shocked that no one wanted to stop us. In fact, there was no one up here on the balcony. The music was loud as ever up here, drowning out any sounds that might be coming from anywhere else, so Xavier and I couldn't exchange any words.
When I knocked on the door, though, it opened right away as if we were expected.
The creature standing on the other side was another golem. It took me a moment to realize that. The stone man looked like a typical club bouncer, complete with a bulging employee shirt and a jutting chin. He smelled of cold rock and glared at me and Xavier as we stood there.
I waved. “Can we talk to Beatrix, please?” I could see inside the office, which was lit with a single lamp in the corner. I caught a tall leather chair that was facing away from us.
The stone creature made no motion or sign that it had heard us.
“Beatrix!” Xavier shouted over the music.
Then the golem moved back into the office, shuffling over to the desk. It tapped on the back of the chair with a stony finger and pointed to us like it wasn't sure what to do.
The chair turned around and I caught my first glimpse of Beatrix.
She wasn't what I'd expected. For one, she was quite old, almost as old as Leon had been, and she was very small. Her hair was pure white and in a tight bun. She had eyes almost like a full Normal, but the irises were very black like a demon's. The look on her face was anything but friendly. Beatrix might be shorter than me when she stood on her toes, but there was nothing comfortable about her gaze.
“I wasn't expecting guests,” she said. At least she wasn't petting a white, fluffy cat or I would have cracked up. “Who are you, and why did you come unannounced into The Pit? Or how, I should say?”
I tightened my grasp on the fake cane, ready to shake it out and summon its true form any second. “We were recommended by Mack,” I said.
Beatrix leaned forward on the desk, putting her hands together and tapping her fingers against each other. She smelled like a mixture of sewage and bloody steak. Apparently, half-demons liked their food almost raw. It was a strange scent I would never forget.
“That's not what my doorman told me.”
Oh. The bouncer golem stood there by the door, right behind us now, blocking the way out. I wondered how the redcap had delivered the news.
“Ma'am,” Xavier said, stepping forward. “The Underground is in danger. I know it was wrong of us to come in here like this, but Thoreau is planning on burning everyone in the Underground alive in a few days. If you'd allow me to explain--”
“Silence,” she said in a very smoo
th and very intimidating voice. The way Beatrix spoke commanded attention. It was no wonder she headed a crime syndicate. “I know the Underground is in upheaval. I will not get involved either for or against Thoreau. Risking my operations is not on the table.”
“But who helps you with your operations?” Xavier asked. “Think about your club. If Thoreau vaporizes everyone in the Underground, will you have any patrons left?” He went on to explain everything to Beatrix, including Elsina's vision and the fact that Leon's body had gone missing. He even included the bits about the Dark Council and the fact that he had killed Allunna and by extension, Leon. I wondered if he was trying to win points by pointing out that he had eliminated another War Mage.
Beatrix shifted her gaze to him. “Not all Abnormals reside in the Underground and not all of my patrons are Abnormal. I am half Normal, after all. Why does no one remember that?”
“But many Normals do hang out in the Underground,” I said. “The authorities are capturing all the Abnormals who are too scared to go back home. Your patrons are going to disappear and with them, a lot of your business. That's why we have to ask to use your portal.”
“My portal,” Beatrix said. “It is for my smuggling operations only. Since portals require demon blood, only I or anyone else with the right blood can use it. Why can you not Transpose to the ruins you need? Frankly, I think you are on a suicide mission. My father used to speak of the Dark Council. He, a demon, mentioned them with fear.”
“It's our only choice,” Xavier said. “I can't Transpose because I made my family angry again. I'm the rebel Lovelli who's always causing problems.”
“Are you?” Beatrix asked, amused. “I knew your grandfather, by the way. I am sorry to hear that he died. We worked together on several operations for years. He and I were able to launder great sums of money from local companies. Those were good times.”
I stared at Xavier. This was clearly a revelation to him. The color drained from his face in shock. “You knew my grandfather? I thought you wouldn't want to work with War Mages.”
I wanted to hold Xavier's hand. Leon had been even more of a jerk than even Xavier knew. He hadn't been much of a demon slayer after all. Maybe he loved them instead and had been doing this whole honor thing with his family in order to hide it.
“I'm not a full demon,” Beatrix said, rising. “And besides, Leon was quite lax towards many demons. It was a side of him that he didn't show to the outer world all that much. I'm sure you know.” She walked closer to Xavier and her expression turned to a glare that was frightening. “I'm not pleased that I'm staring at the person who is responsible for his death.”
“Xavier didn't kill his grandfather,” I said. I lifted the cane. “Just let us use your portal and we'll be gone.”
“He killed Allunna, which is the same thing,” Beatrix said, turning to me with that fake smooth voice. “The two of you will not be leaving this club. I believe Xavier will provide a good meal to some of the guests. And you, missy,” she said, pointing at me, “I have nothing I can do with you that's productive, but you will die as you watch some of my patrons suck the life out of your bat--”
I shook the cane, revealing its real form, but not before the golem growled and rushed me. Two tons of stone smashed into me and threw me against the wall.
My arm crunched as I flew into the wall. I stood against the golem, stunned, as the first agony screamed up my arm with the now-familiar broken bone pain. Already my arm tingled as it tried to pull itself together.
The golem left me. Magenta light flared around my weapon as I peeled myself from the wall. The golem was rushing Xavier as he held his hand up, magical flame dancing in his palm.
“No!” I shouted, raising my flaming purple sword. “It's me you want!”
The golem turned around with amazing speed as Beatrix stood back, calm and scary. It charged me again as I let my broken arm dangle and pointed my sword with the other. The golem continued to charge, stupid and bull-headed, right into the blade.
It impaled the golem right in the chest. That should be impossible, but it happened anyway. The magenta flames danced around the blade, casting a purple glow on the whole office as Beatrix scrambled behind her desk and reached under it. The golem froze and looked down, only just realizing that I'd dealt a killing blow.
Already, mixed in with the purple fire, orange veins of real fire spread out from the golem's chest wound. It grabbed at the sword and I pulled it out, letting the bouncer stumble back. My broken arm continued to heal as I ran around Xavier, silently begging the rest of the pain to go away before we left the office.
There was no time. The flames around my weapon died as Xavier and I pushed against each other, trying to get out the door.
The music cut off, leaving the whole club very silent for a second. A muffled announcement from Beatrix rang through the club and I was aware that she was behind me, speaking into some kind of microphone.
“Eliminate the intruders coming out of my office,” she ordered. “They have entered the club illegally and have killed one of my colleagues. You may feed on the human.” Even muffled, her voice was smooth and dangerous.
Xavier grinned at me. “Ready to crash course a portal?”
I didn't answer. I shoved the door open, praying we could find it and use it before we got ourselves killed. We still had the issue of demon blood.
People stood down on the dance floors, stunned, as we left Beatrix's office. My sword flamed again and I raised it, warning anyone to stay back.
A door next to us opened. A succubus leapt out of the first one, pulling her tank top down over her stomach. I caught a glimpse of a bed in the room. She looked a lot like Allunna, with silver scales down the back of her neck and very short hair that hugged her skull, only it was jet black instead of blonde. We hadn't even gotten to the stairs yet and we were already facing another demon. The sewer smell was revolting.
“Traitors,” she hissed at us as Xavier's face went slack next to me. He was getting mesmerized. It was up to me.
“Move,” I said. “We've killed your kind before.”
“You're kids,” she said. “You don't even belong here.”
My sword continued to blaze and I leapt forward, jabbing it into her side. The succubus hissed and grasped at her ribs and I could smell her flesh burning. I caught a glimpse of orange fire spreading underneath her tank top, along with the magenta war magic that could end her, but I didn't wait to see if she'd die. Other doors were opening.
“Xavier! Come on!” I shouted, grabbing his arm.
We bolted along the balcony and reached the stairs before anyone else came out of the upper rooms. Another door opened behind us and the hiss of another demon followed. My sword went out and dripped with an oily black substance. Demon blood. That problem was solved. I scanned the far part of the club, searching for anything that might lead to a portal. I spotted some stairs leading further down way over by the far dance floor. They were the only set I spotted and there was a draft coming from that direction along with the scent of water.
“Watch out!” Xavier shouted.
A low growl sounded and a huge, hulking form jumped onto the bottom of the stairs.
It was a wolf, the biggest one I'd ever seen. Brown and slobbering, it growled, showing all its teeth and daring us to draw closer.
The hairy bartender was missing, leaving only the human man, who sat there like he wasn't sure what to do. The other patrons of the club stood gathered behind the wolf as it growled again. The demon behind us hissed. We were surrounded on all sides. The only thing missing was more Shadow Wraiths.
“Um...” I managed.
The werewolf stepped onto the first stair. The doggy smell overwhelmed everything else. It would rip Xavier apart and drag us both into death.
This was also my first time fighting a werewolf.
And probably, my last.
“Don't move,” Xavier warned me as the creature's eyes flicked back and forth between us as if deciding who it wan
ted to fight first. “Only silver is good against werewolves.”
I had the feeling swords weren't made from that. My blade continued to drip with disgusting demon blood and the werewolf's nose wrinkled in response to it.
“Like this?” I asked, rubbing the blade on the wolf's nose.
The werewolf backed up, growling in displeasure and trying to rub the awful stuff off its nose with its paws. It crashed into a vampire woman right behind it and they both went into the barstools, leaving an opening for us.
I still had Xavier's arm. I pulled him across the club and through a scattered group of more Abnormals, one of which was thrashing and growing more hair. There was more than one werewolf in here tonight. We reached the stairwell and I set Xavier down so fast that he stumbled. “Do one of those barriers!” I shouted, very aware that feet were thundering towards us.
Xavier faced the doorway and muttered a few words and a see-through wall of magenta fire filled the doorway, partly blocking the view of everyone on the other side. People stopped, leaving us on the stairs. The flames spat, masking any noise from the outside.
“Are you sure there's a portal down here?” he asked.
“Almost sure.”
“But we can't open it.”
“We have demon blood,” I said, holding up the sword. It wasn't dripping as much. The blood was drying. We had to hurry. There was no going back now. If we didn't get the portal working, we were both dead.
The water smell got stronger the further we went down this new spiral staircase. The brick around us turned to brick mixed with stone, then just stone. This was so far underground that it might be even under where most Abnormals lived.
“It's a cave,” Xavier said. “And dark.”
I had forgotten he couldn't see in this. I took Xavier's arm as my gray vision snapped into place. Water dripped. I had seen Thoreau's portal before and we now knew what it needed to activate, but beyond that, nothing.
