Black City

by Elizabeth Richards

  * * *

  Half an hour later, I’m striding down Chantilly Lane on a mission, Evangeline still following me. We used the rooftops to cross the city, keeping out of sight of the Trackers. People below us are fighting, yelling, getting drunk. After the bomb earlier today, everyone’s scared, excited, angry. Inside every house, families gather with their children, watching the news, trying to work out what’s going on, while video footage of the event is being broadcast on all the giant digital monitors around the city. A news ticker continually streams updates at the bottom of the screen: 26 dead after city bombing . . . Government calls for people to vote for Rose’s Law and crush the Darkling threat . . . Three Humans for Unity members arrested in connection with bombing . . . Emissary urges citizens to stay indoors until Darklings have been rounded up . . .

  I quickly phoned Beetle before coming to Chantilly Lane to make sure he was okay. His aunt Roach answered, giving me an update. The burns on his face will probably scar, and his stomach is being held together with a dozen stitches, but he’s alive, thanks to my blood. It’ll be out of his system in a few days, but it did its job: it kick-started his heart. I was relieved to hear that Day’s parents had agreed to let her stay with Beetle overnight so she could take care of him.

  Evangeline and I leap off the roof next to Mr. Tubs’s shop and go inside. The best way to find peace is from a hit of Haze, and I need to feed on a human to get it.

  The den is as smelly and claustrophobic as I remember. All I can see in the dim red light are shadows writhing around on the floor, lost in ecstasy. A voluptuous human woman makes kissing sounds at me and exposes her breasts.

  “Only ten coins, and I can be yours,” she says.

  “No, thanks,” I say.

  We carefully climb over the bodies and find Mr. Tubs in his office. He gives me a yellow-toothed smile.

  “You bring me another client?” he asks.

  “I’m here for me. I want to feed,” I say.

  He flicks his hand, and someone stirs in the corner of the room. A spaced-out girl walks over to me, her deep blue eyes glazed over, her blond hair loose around her face. Her coloring reminds me a little of Natalie.

  “She’ll do,” I say.

  “How you pay? I still waiting for money for that watch,” he says, referring to Natalie’s wristwatch.

  “Put it on Sigur’s tab,” Evangeline replies.

  The Hazer girl takes my hand, and we find somewhere to sit on the sticky, slithering floor. Evangeline joins us. The girl tilts her head to one side, not even looking at me. Her neck is riddled with bite marks, her veins black where the blood’s been drained from them. She doesn’t look that appetizing, but right now I couldn’t care less.

  “Ladies first,” I say to Evangeline.

  She sinks her fangs into the girl’s neck and begins to feed. I patiently wait for her to finish, itching to get a hit of the Haze now coursing through the girl’s veins, so I can feel nothing except bliss, because right now I feel like I’m being ripped apart. How could I hurt Natalie like that?

  The basement door opens, casting a shard of yellow light into the room, and several pairs of feet march down the stairs. Sebastian enters the den with a group of his Tracker friends, including Claw Neck and Gregory. They sit down on one of the sofas, and Mr. Tubs brings them a bottle of Shine without waiting to be asked.

  I slink back into the shadows so they can’t see me, grateful that the room is so dark.

  Claw Neck is carrying a thin black case, and he heads straight for Mr. Tubs’s office. He returns thirty seconds later and sits next to Gregory.

  Sebastian pours everyone a shot of Shine.

  “Shouldn’t we be outside killing the nippers?” Gregory asks in his whiny voice.

  “You’ll get your chance tomorrow when we go on the hunt,” Sebastian replies. “Aaron, Blake and Derek’s squads are helping the Sentry guards. Everything’s under control for now. We’ll round up any stray Darks tomorrow.”

  “Just relax, boy. Have a drink,” Claw Neck says to Gregory.

  “Is this where the Trackers normally come to drink?” Gregory asks, looking a little anxious.

  Claw Neck smacks Gregory’s back jovially. “Of course! Mr. Tubs gives us free Shine, and in return, we don’t tell anyone about his less legitimate business endeavors.”

  “He gives us information too,” Sebastian adds. “Like where to find Darkling nests around the city. We’ve got a few good tips for tomorrow’s hunt.”

  “Won’t we be conspicuous, all in one big group?” Gregory asks.

  Claw Neck chuckles. “We’ll be splitting up. You’ll be going with Aaron’s troop to the Rise. Blake will take his cadets to the Chimney, and the rest will be coming with me and Sebastian on a hunt around the Hub.”

  “Does that nipper Ash Fisher have to come with us?” Gregory says.

  “He might prove useful,” Sebastian says. “Besides, I’m going to enjoy watching him squirm when I make him arrest his first Dark.”

  My fangs throb at the mention of my name. I’m not going on their stupid hunt; I don’t care what they do to me. I don’t care about anything anymore.

  The woman who exposed herself to me earlier sidles over to them, and Sebastian pulls her onto his lap. She giggles and smears his cheek with slippery red kisses, running her hands over his shaved head. The rose tattoo on his face is still raw and sore looking.

  “What was up with Natalie back at HQ? Why was she crying?” Gregory asks Sebastian.

  “Who knows? Girl problems, probably,” Sebastian says in a bored voice, idly playing with the hair of the woman sitting on his lap. “Maybe I’ll go home and console her.”

  I don’t like the way he emphasizes the word console.

  “You two used to date, didn’t you?” Gregory asks.

  Sebastian nods. “For a while, but she got boring.” He turns to the whore sitting on his lap. “You won’t bore me, will you?”

  She runs a provocative finger over his bottom lip, and he bites it really hard, drawing blood. The woman lets out a scream as he throws her to the floor, laughing as he lifts up her dress. The woman scratches his face and manages to scrabble away, warm blood on her hand.

  “Natalie’s pretty, though,” Gregory continues as if nothing happened. “If you like that sort of thing.”

  Sebastian dabs at his scratched cheek with a handkerchief. “I suppose. Not as pretty as her sister, Polly, used to be. Now, she was something. Still, maybe I’ll ask Natalie out again. She’ll look good on my arm when I’m promoted.”

  “You’re getting a promotion?” Gregory asks.

  “Of course he is,” Claw Neck chimes in.

  “Purian Rose has entrusted me with an important mission,” Sebastian boasts. “It’s only a matter of time before I’m rewarded.”

  “What mission is that?” Gregory asks.

  Sebastian and Claw Neck chuckle.

  “When you’ve killed your first Dark and proved you’re one of us, then maybe I’ll tell you,” Sebastian says. “Now, drink up, gentlemen.”

  They knock back their drinks and, after a few minutes, head upstairs. I let out a relieved sigh that they didn’t see me. I wonder what Sebastian’s “important mission” is. Whatever it is, it can’t be good if Purian Rose is behind it.

  Evangeline finishes drinking from the Hazer girl and passes her to me. The girl flops in my arms, barely breathing, her blond hair spilling over my fingers. White pearls of foam bubble out the corner of her mouth, reminding me of the Hazer girl from the night I first met Natalie.

  “I’m going,” I say to Evangeline.

  She grabs my arm. “Don’t you dare go back to her. You belong to me!”

  “I don’t belong to anyone. This was a mistake.”

 
“If you leave now, that’s it between us. I’ll never be with you,” Evangeline threatens.

  I hesitate for a second, panicked at the idea of what I’m giving up. Evangeline’s my true Blood Mate, the girl I was supposed to be with. Not just that, she’s a twin-blood, the only one I know. If I leave now, I risk losing her forever and being on my own again. Except, it dawns on me, I wouldn’t be alone, not really. I’d have Natalie. I never once felt alone when I was with her. I don’t know if Natalie will ever forgive me, but I’m willing to risk losing it all to find out.

  Without another word, I go upstairs into the pawnshop. I’m about to leave when I spot Natalie’s watch in the glass counter by the till. I check no one is looking, then smash the glass, grab the watch and run out before anyone catches me.

  * * *

  The journey to Natalie’s house doesn’t take long, as I take my detour over the rooftops. I jump down onto her balcony and knock on the window, wait for a minute, then knock again, louder this time in case she didn’t hear me. The curtain twitches, and Natalie’s blue eyes peer at me through the tiny slit between the drapes.

  “Natalie—”

  She closes the curtains, shutting me out.

  “Please let me explain,” I say through the glass. “I’m sorry.”

  I wait on her balcony, praying she’ll let me in, but after an hour, I know she’s not going to come to the window. I place her watch on the balustrade, hoping she’ll find it. It’s not much of a peace offering, but I need her to know how sorry I am. How can I get a message to her? One name immediately springs to mind. As soon as I get home, I grab the phone and dial Beetle’s number.

  Day answers his phone, as I hoped she would.

  “Do you know what time it is, Ash?” she says groggily.

  “Yeah, yeah, sorry. How’s Beetle?”

  “He’s alive. Did you need something?”

  “Yeah. I need to ask you a favor.”

  I just hope this is going to work.

  28

  NATALIE

  I HEAR ASH LEAVE, but I don’t chase after him. I won’t.

  My pillow is wet with tears, but the pain won’t wash away, no matter how much I cry. The image of Ash and Evangeline kissing haunts my every thought until I think I’m going mad. He broke my heart. Sorry, her heart. It wasn’t ever mine to break. What really hurts is I still feel the same way about him. I love him more than ever; he’s still the boy who ran across the rooftops with me, the boy I played in the snow with. Not that it matters now. I’m not his Blood Mate. He only ever wanted me because of some stolen heart.

  My chest throbs, and I take one of my heart pills, although I know it won’t help with this heartache. I roll onto my back and stare at the ceiling. The room starts to feel too small, claustrophobic, like the walls are closing in around me just like in my dream. I force myself out of bed and go over to the balcony window to let in some fresh air. I notice a small object sitting on my balustrade. My father’s antique watch!

  Ash must’ve got it back for me. I’m touched by the gesture, but I’m still furious with him.

  I run my finger over the watch face, admiring how it shimmers in the moonlight. My finger halts. I look at the watch face more closely, turning it into the light. The ivory surface glimmers gold.

  Horror and disbelief rise up inside me.

  I remember seeing something glimmer like this before: the Bastet skull at the museum. What had Sebastian said? The Bastet’s saber teeth were imbued with its venom? That’s what makes the ivory shimmer gold.

  I run to my nightstand and empty my jewelry box onto the bed. The phial of Golden Haze rolls across the sheets, sparkling with the same metallic sheen as the Bastet ivory.

  I cover my mouth, muffling a scream as the truth hits me.

  The Golden Haze has been mixed with Bastet venom.

  And there’s only one place in this city where you can get Bastet venom.

  The Sentry HQ laboratory.

  * * *

  The Bastet boy is curled up in the corner of the cell, his tail wrapped around his naked body. His feet are chained to the wall. He’s emaciated, and there are bruises all over his tanned, brown-spotted torso. What have they been doing to him?

  They did this to Evangeline. She must have been so scared; she was only a little girl. As much as I want to hate her, I can’t. They brutalized her and took away her only chance at love by giving me her heart. She has every right to be mad at them, at me. I hate them too for what they did, even though I know Mother did it to save me. But she didn’t have to keep Evangeline awake when they cut out her heart; that was just cruel.

  I cautiously enter the boy’s cell. I found the key to his shackles in Craven’s drawers. It makes me sick to think this is what Craven and my mother have really been working on these past weeks. It explains why they needed so many Darklings; they had to get the Haze from somewhere. The only question I have is, why? What could Mother possibly gain by contaminating the Haze? If the citizens find out their government has been knowingly poisoning children, there will be mutiny. It doesn’t make sense. No wonder she was so keen to blame Chris’s death on Ash—she wanted a scapegoat. She’s been playing us all.

  The boy lifts his head and looks at me with furious golden eyes. Only the tips of his curved saber teeth are showing; the rest have retracted back inside his skull.

  “I’m going to let you go, but you have to promise not to hurt me,” I say.

  He gives a curt nod.

  I know it’s a big risk, but I don’t care. I won’t let Mother harm any more “specimens” the way she tortured Evangeline. I unlock the metal restraints around his ankles. The boy springs to his feet and grabs me around my throat, pushing me down on the hard cell floor. Panic spills over me in waves as he bares his saber teeth at me. I claw at his hands. I don’t want to die like this, please, not like this, not like Father.

  “You promised . . . ,” I gasp as his viselike grip tightens around my neck.

  The boy hesitates. He lets go of me, and I scramble to my feet.

  “Take the back stairwell and go out through the kitchens. There are no guards there at this time of night,” I say.

  “I will remember your kindness,” he says, and rushes out of the room.

  I rub my neck and wait a few minutes to see if any alarms go off. When they don’t, I know he’s escaped. I curl up against the cell wall, trying to hold back the tears. How could Mother do this? Somehow I suspect Purian Rose is behind it all, but what proof do I have? My head spins just thinking about it. There’s only one person I want to talk to right now, but he’s the last person I want to see.

  I go back to my room, hoping to go to bed and forget this day ever happened. I walk past Polly’s door and notice it’s open a crack. That’s odd. I enter her room, wondering if she’s awake.

  I gasp.

  Standing over Polly’s sleeping body is Evangeline. The white curtains billowing in the wind.

  “Get away from her,” I say.

  Evangeline turns to look at me, contempt written all over her face.

  “I said, get away from her,” I say more forcefully. I can’t scream for help, not yet—Evangeline is too close to Polly. She’d kill her before anyone could reach us.

  Polly stirs in her bed, unaware of the danger she’s in. Her black hair pools over her pillow, and Evangeline lightly touches it.

  “What do you want?” I say, panicked.

  “I wanted to talk to you.”

  “So you broke into my house? Most people use a phone.”

  “Your sister is very pretty, even with her scars,” she says.

  “You leave her out of this,” I say. “If you came here to punish someone for stealing your heart, then take it out on me—I’m the one who deserves it. She had n
othing to do with this.”

  Evangeline takes a step toward me. I carry on talking, hoping to lure her away from Polly and gain enough time to call for help.

  “You have every right to be angry at me. What my mother did to you was sadistic and cruel, and it’s my fault that you got hurt,” I say. “They took your heart, and not just that, they took Ash away from you. So I’m sorry, for everything.”

  She furrows her brow.

  I take a deep breath. The next words are the hardest I’ve ever spoken. “If you want Ash, I won’t put up a fight. He was never mine. He always belonged to you.”

  “You’d do that?” she asks.

  I lower my eyes. “If that’s what it takes.”

  She’s silent for a long time.

  “I don’t want him to be with me because it’s the only option he’s got,” she says. “I know, given the choice, he’d be with you. He showed me as much tonight.”

  “He kissed you,” I point out.

  “I kissed him.”

  “So where does that leave us?” I say.

  “I’m not going to stop fighting for him. Ash is my Blood Mate, heart or no heart. But when he decides to be with me, it’ll be because he wants to, not because you’ve given him no other choice,” she says.

  I nod.

  Evangeline moves toward the balcony windows. “And, Natalie?”

  “Yes?”

  “Don’t think this changes anything between us,” she says. “I’m getting my heart back from you one day.”

  With that, she leaps onto the balcony and disappears into the night.

  I hurry over to the windows and lock them tight.

  * * *

  I stay in bed until the following afternoon, the curtains drawn, the covers over my head, trying to block out the world. I had to pull a sickie, because it’s Wednesday, a school day. Despite yesterday’s bombing, Mother demanded the school be kept open and for everyone to go back to work, because the government “doesn’t bow down to terrorism.” It was surprisingly easy to act ill, given how I feel right now. When I eventually got to sleep last night, my dreams were filled with upsetting images of Ash and Evangeline kissing. At least I didn’t have the nightmare about the child in the cave. I don’t think I ever will again, now that I know the truth about Evangeline and my heart.