by Sarra Cannon
The world in front of me exploded in fire. The front of the building went up in flames and the Devil flew backward, his body slamming against the brick wall behind him and disappearing into a cloud of ash and flame.
I shielded my face from the blaze, coughing on the growing cloud of smoke. Lyla clawed at my arm, urging me to run, but I couldn’t hear her. I couldn’t force myself to move.
All I could do was stare dumbly at the destroyed building that used to be Venom.
Episode 5: The Devil
Venom Is Gone
Debris floated through the air. Ash coated the side of my face. I screamed, but my voice was lost amidst the wail of sirens. My ears rang from the noise of the explosion and blood trickled into my eyes from a cut on my forehead.
Venom is gone.
Lyla pulled furiously on my arm, but I was too numb to move.
Rend was still inside that building.
But in the flames and smoke, I couldn’t tell how much of the building was still standing.
“Franki, we have to go now,” Lyla said, her voice desperate.
“I can’t,” I yelled, yanking my arm away from her.
I ran toward the fire, but she blocked my way. She placed both hands on my face, forcing me to look at her.
“We have to go,” she said.
“I can't just leave,” I shouted. I shook my head, not wanting to believe this could be happening. This was all my fault. Selena and the others, they were all dead because of me. “We have to find them. What if someone's still alive in there? We have to go back.”
Lyla shook her head, panic in her wide eyes. “Dammit, Franki, you have to listen to me. It’s not what you think, but we have to go now. If we don’t go, you’re going to be dead, too. Do you hear me?”
I nodded, still in shock. I couldn’t focus with the weight of panic and sorrow on my heart.
We couldn’t just leave them here like this. We couldn’t just walk away and leave them. I couldn't leave Rend like this. Not if there was a chance. Didn’t she understand? But a part of my mind registered what she was saying. The Devil had come here for me. He’d been knocked back by the blast, but how long would that keep him down? If he woke up, he'd be coming for me.
“Come on,” she said. “I’ll explain as we go, but we have to move.”
I let her grab my hand and pull me back toward the main street. She led us through the crowd gathered on the sidewalk. A fire truck pulled up on the curb and rescue workers were yelling, running, and directing people to stay away from the alley.
We ducked our heads and ran through the crowd, past the rows of bars and restaurants, and toward the nearest ‘L’ station.
Cars were stopped all along Hubbard street, and people were getting out of their cars to see what was going on. A cab driver motioned to us.
“What’s going on up there?” he asked. “Someone get hurt?”
I just shook my head, unable to put words to what I’d seen. It didn’t seem real. The entire club was gone. Just like that, the building destroyed.
I pictured the Devil flying back against the brick wall, shock registering on his pale face. I pictured Selena's sad smile and the way she had told me to run. Chills broke out along my skin.
Had she died for me? Because of me?
I would never be able to forgive myself.
Lyla got us on the first train that pulled up and led me toward a pair of seats in the back.
We sat down and I stared straight ahead. It took all my willpower just to force breath into my lungs.
I couldn’t lose him now. Not when we hadn’t even had a chance to decide what we meant to each other. I might never know if I meant anything to Rend or not, but with the possibility of him being gone forever, I gained a new clarity about my own feelings.
And now it was too late.
My hands were ice cold and shaking uncontrollably. I held them in my lap, unable to stop them.
Lyla leaned over and placed both her hands on top of mine. She put her mouth close to my ear. “You have to get control of that,” she said. “People are going to stare. Franki?”
I shook my head, as if waking from a dream.
I blinked several times. What did she mean? Why would people stare?
Then I saw it. A series of small whirlwinds kicking up dust from the floor of the train. It looked like four miniature tornadoes traveling along down the center of the aisle.
My mouth fell open and I forced a deeper breath. Had I done that?
“I don't know how to stop it,” I said.
“Yes, you do,” she said. “Just breathe. Focus. All you have to do is calm down and find where that energy is coming from and tell it to stop.”
I closed my eyes and took several deep breaths. I focused on my body, connecting in a new way to what was going on inside of me. And she was right. Somewhere in the core of my being, a fire burned. Rage. Sorrow. Fear. Regret. My magic was so closely tied to my emotions that I had created small tornadoes of dust and wind right here on the train in downtown Chicago.
I pictured it slowing down and dissipating into nothingness, and the whirlwinds obeyed, collapsing into piles of dust and dirt on the floor at my feet.
Lyla squeezed my hands and looked around at the other passengers on the train.
“We’re safe for now,” she said. “But I have to get you someplace safe.”
“I don’t even understand what’s going on,” I said. I felt more helpless than ever before in my life. “How could this happen?”
“You saw him, didn’t you? Before I even saw what was going on, you noticed him.”
I nodded. “I saw him going in. The second I laid eyes on him, I got this weird feeling. I knew he was a bad man, but it wasn’t until he came out with blood on his hands that I realized who he really was. That was the Devil, wasn’t it?”
She swallowed. “Yes. He’s the worst of the vampires,” she said. “The most evil demon I’ve ever seen. Well, I’d never actually seen him in person, before tonight, but I'm sure that's who he was.”
“He killed Selena,” I said.
“She’s the gatekeeper here in Chicago,” Lyla said. “She understood that danger when she took the job. The gatekeeper decides who is allowed inside that particular gate. If she told him he couldn’t go in, there was no way he could cross that barrier. The only way in would be to kill her. Once a gatekeeper dies, the gate opens to everyone. At least until another gatekeeper arrives. Selena knew that going in. She volunteered for the job.”
I closed my eyes. “She died because of me,” I said. “The Devil was there for me.”
“The Devil was there for you? How do you know that?”
I slumped down in my seat. I wasn’t sure I had the energy to explain all of this to her right now, but I knew she had a right to know the truth.
“He’s the whole reason I ever found Venom in the first place,” I said. “He sent me black roses on my twenty-first birthday, inviting me to the club.”
“That doesn’t even make sense,” she said. “He’s been banned from Venom for more than a decade. Why would he invite you there?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I think he wanted to make me discover my own magic. He wanted to make sure I really was who he thought I was.”
“And who is that?” she asked, her voice soft and full of fear.
I swallowed and looked out the window at the city lights. It was just after one in the morning and I had no idea where we were going. Or what the hell I was going to do once morning came. I couldn't just go home and go back to my life before Venom. Before Rend.
He had opened my eyes to a whole new world. A whole new life. Finding the club had changed me forever. There was no way to turn my back on that now, even if I wanted to.
Of course, without Rend and the club, I wasn't sure how much life I'd have left to live. If the Devil had come to Venom for me, he was going to find me no matter where I tried to hide. Without Rend, there would be no one who could protect me.
“What are we going to do?” I asked. “I can’t go home.”
“No,” she said. “We’re going to a safe-house just outside the city. Rend will come looking for you there.”
I snapped my head toward her. My heart skipped a beat. “Rend? But—”
“I know what it looked like, Franki, but that’s what I was trying to explain to you on the street. The club itself wasn’t destroyed. It was only the Chicago entrance that was destroyed.”
My head pounded. She wasn’t making sense. “What do you mean? How is that possible?”
“There are six entrances to Venom around the world,” she said. “Chicago, Paris, New York City, Berlin, Moscow, and Havana. Only that one entrance to the club was destroyed.”
Hope fluttered in my heart and tears sprang to my eyes. “You mean he’s okay? Don’t fuck with me.”
She smiled and shook her head. “I’m not fucking with you. Anyone who was inside Venom is fine,” she said. “But they won’t be able to get here to Chicago without going through another gateway.”
I felt the first true breath of hope enter my body, and my hands stopped trembling. I needed to talk to Rend and tell him what I saw.
My heart was still sick for Selena, but I was relieved everyone else was okay.
“How does this work?” I asked. “We’re just supposed to wait for word from him? Or do you have some other way of contacting him to let him know we’re okay?”
I groaned, realizing Rend wouldn’t know where I was. Not for sure. He hadn’t seen me leave the club with Lyla. I wasn’t sure Azure had been paying attention, either. The only person I could be sure who knew we had walked out into the streets of Chicago was Selena. And she wouldn't be telling anyone.
“Did you tell anyone else you were going out to smoke?” I asked. “Any of the other dancers?”
She shook her head. “No, I just came to see if you wanted to go out,” she said. “But when they realize I’m not there, they’ll guess where I went, I’m sure.”
“But they won’t know I was with you,” I said, thinking out loud. “Rend won’t even know the Devil was there.”
“I’m sure he has a good idea of what happened,” she said. “It’s not like the doorways get destroyed very often. Selena wouldn’t have blown the door unless it was absolutely necessary. An explosion like that is rare. It's a fail-safe to make sure no one dangerous gets inside the club.”
I closed my eyes, my stomach rolling at the thought of Selena’s death. “I saw Rend arguing with her before we opened tonight,” I said. “She said she didn’t want to risk her life for me.”
Lyla pressed her lips together and shook her head. “You can’t blame yourself.”
“Who else can I blame?” I asked. “This is all my fault.”
“Look, we’re family at Venom. We look out for each other. Remember what I told you earlier? Every single one of us came to be there because we were in some kind of trouble,” she said. “Rend gave us jobs to protect us from people like The Order and The Others.”
I shook my head. “I don’t even know who those people are,” I said. “It feels like the more I learn about this world, the more I don’t know.”
“All you need to know is that there is a constant war going on in this world for the souls and power that witches hold,” she said. “There are those who think we’re evil just for existing and there are others who want to control us. Once these people realize a witch has great power, they will do whatever it takes to get control of that power. Rend has been around for a very long time, Franki. He’s seen the worst of it first hand, and he wants to do everything he can to save as many people from falling into the hands of evil as he can.”
I sat back against the cold plastic seat on the train and tried to process what she was telling me. How could I have been so clueless to the war between good and evil happening all around me? How could I have missed it?
“If the Devil is after you, you must be extremely valuable to him for some reason,” Lyla said. She chewed on the fingernail on her thumb for a moment. “Something beyond the average witch. Do you have any idea what it could be?”
I bit the inside of my lip. How much could I really trust Lyla? Rend obviously trusted her or he wouldn’t have her working at Venom. On the other hand, I barely knew anything about her. I was still getting used to the idea that I was a descendant of the Mother Crow. Did I want to confide in her about it?
I looked around at the other people on the train. This late at night, there weren’t many people on board, but I didn’t want to take any chances that someone could be listening in on our conversation.
“Rend and I figured out something about my family that makes me unique.” I knew I was being vague, but vague was my only option right now. “I’ll tell you more about it when we get to the safe place, but for now, can we just leave it at that?”
Lyla nodded and sat back in her seat. “Good idea,” she said. “We’re going to have to get off the train at the next stop anyway. Then we’ll get a cab and go the rest of the way. We'll get to the safe-house in half an hour or so, and we should be able to relax until Rend can get word to us.”
“He’ll be expecting us to go there?” I asked.
“Yeah, he’ll know that's where I’ll go if I'm still alive,” she said. “He’ll definitely come looking for us, but I have no idea how long it will take him to find a way here. New York is the closest doorway, and then he’ll have to catch a flight from there. We probably won’t hear from him until tomorrow at the earliest.”
I nodded, knowing I had no choice but to trust her and follow her to this safe-house.
I wished I had time to call Katy and let her know I was okay and that I would be gone for a while, but my cell phone and purse were both still inside the club. God, I hope she wasn't in any danger. When I talked to Rend, I'd have to see if he could get someone to watch over her for me. Just in case.
“So, if there are all these doorways into the club from all these different cities, what city is the club itself actually in?” I asked.
Lyla twisted her mouth to the side. “Huh,” she said. “I have no idea.”
I didn’t have time to ask more questions because the train pulled up to the next station. We both got off and descended the stairs to the street below. Lyla hailed a cab and gave directions to one of the nearby suburbs.
Neither of us said a word the rest of the way to the safe-house, but we clasped tightly to each other's hands in the darkness.
The Lore Of Vampires
The cab pulled up to a very normal-looking house in the middle of suburbia. The lights were all off and the lawn looked like it could use a good mowing, but there was nothing strange or unusual looking about the place. It wasn’t at all what I was expecting for a vampire’s chosen safe-house, but maybe that was exactly the point.
Lyla pulled a fifty out of her bra and told the driver to keep the change.
As we got out, she turned back to him and touched his hand. His expression went slack and he stared at her with empty eyes.
“You never saw us,” she said in an even tone. “You will drive back into the city and forget about this fare.”
The driver nodded, then blinked and smiled at her with a dazed expression on his face.
He drove away and I raised an eyebrow at Lyla.
“What just happened there?” I asked.
She winked at me, but didn’t elaborate. Once again, I was amazed at the possibilities that opened up when magic was involved.
Lyla took a good look around the neighborhood. It looked like the typical middle-class suburban street. Brick houses built close together. Basketball goals in the driveway. Shrubbery. Most of the lights in the nearby houses were off. A red tricycle sat in the driveway of the house next door. A dog barked in the distance.
“Notice anything out of the ordinary?” she asked. “Or did the effects of the Blue Frost wear off after the explosion?”
I looked around, trying to notice the kinds of tiny details I had not
iced earlier. But the shot seemed to be out of my system. Maybe the shock of the explosion had sobered me up.
Nothing seemed strange or out of place about the area. There were no strange cars parked on the street. No one looking out of windows. No dark feeling. But without the shot, I knew I could be missing a hundred important details.
“I have no idea,” I said. “The shot is gone, but I don't see anything weird.”
“Okay, follow me.”
Lyla walked around to the back door of the house. I expected her to look around for a spare key, the way I’d done at my mom’s abandoned house. Instead, she placed her palm on a small clear stone embedded in the door frame.
The door popped open and she took one last look around before stepping inside.
The inside of the house smelled like dust and mildew. It was dark, and when she flipped the switch near the back door, nothing happened.
“Shit, the power's off,” she said.
“I’m guessing from the smell no one’s used this place in quite some time.”
She laughed. “Years, probably. At least four, I think.”
“So, you’ve been here before?” I closed the back door and carefully followed her into what seemed to be a living room. The light coming in from the street through the front windows illuminated the outline of a couch and recliner.
“It’s been a while, but yeah. I came here maybe seven years ago when I had a scare with an ex-boyfriend of mine who came after me. Rend put me up here for a little while to keep me safe until he could... deal with it.”
I shivered at the thought of what Rend’s version of dealing with a dangerous ex might be. Had he torn him apart?
“The power was on back then,” she said. She tripped over something on the floor and cursed.
“You okay?”
“I’m fine,” she said. “Do you know how to make an orb?”
“Definitely not,” I said. “You can just assume my answer is no when you ask if I can do anything magic-related.”
She giggled. “You seemed to create a small tornado just fine earlier.”
I groaned. “That was an accident.”
