by Кирстен Уайт
“It’s crazy—total lockdown. This thing took out our Birmingham Center—everything. They called everyone in. No one can come or go until they figure this all out.”
“Well, at least that’ll protect the paranormals IPCA knows about. That’s something.”
“I guess.”
“Had some visitors last night,” he said. I just now noticed he was wearing the handsome black guy again. I was so focused on his real self that what was on the outside barely registered.
“Oh, the Supervisors?”
“Mm-hm. Man, if I were in charge of some massive, covert international organization, I’d choose a better title than Supervisor.”
I laughed. “No kidding. Are you okay?”
“Sure. They asked me a bunch of questions, I didn’t answer any. It was productive.”
I nodded glumly. “Raquel and I had a…fight…about you. She hasn’t seen me since, or let me talk to the Supervisors, either.” I held out the cookies. “Figured you might like a treat. It’s kind of the least I can do.”
“Thanks.” He took them from me, setting them on the bed. We stood there awkwardly.
“I’d probably better go. I don’t want to get us in trouble right now.”
He looked disappointed. “Yeah.”
On impulse, I leaned in and kissed his cheek. When I pulled back, he was smiling. “I’ll see you soon,” I said, beaming back and blushing as I walked out, practically floating.
I finally saw Lish the next morning. Everyone in Central Processing was super stressed, gossiping and spreading rumors in the hallways as they rushed to and fro. Lish, however, was in her element, flicking through screens and giving orders to people and paranormals standing in front of her.
“Hey, what’s up?” I leaned against the glass, ignoring the queue in front of her.
“Quite a bit. I am rearranging duties since all the werewolves will be out of commission tonight.
Plus there is the issue of finding more permanent quarters for everyone.”
“Why don’t you use the gym for the werewolves to zonk in? That frees up space for tonight at least.” The gym was a massive room where they could let the more energetic (read: rabid) paranormals run around.
Lish looked up at me and smiled with her eyes. “That is a great idea. Thank you.” She went back to her screens.
Near the front of the line was a vamp I didn’t know; his glamour was a teenage guy, devastatingly handsome with dark hair and crystal blue eyes. He gave me his best come-hither smile. “Hey,” he said.
He was already trying to work his mind mojo on me. Vamps have slight mind control powers. They can influence you, push you in a direction as long as you’re already leaning that way. So if you’re kind of scared, they can make you terrified. Kind of attracted, they can make you downright lustylicious. Unfortunately for this particular vamp, I could see straight through him to the corpse underneath. Oh yeah, baby, hot stuff.
I busted up laughing. “Not a chance.”
He scowled, offended. “What are you talking about?”
“I prefer my guys with a pulse. Lish, let me know if you need anything. I’ll see you later.” She glanced up and waved. I missed her. It would be nice to get to spend some time together again when this mess was over.
I was surprised when my communicator beeped with a page from Raquel. I thought about ignoring it but had nothing better to do, so I went to her office. She looked up at me from her desk with a tight smile. Dark circles ringed her eyes and her hair was falling out of its bun. That was a first.
“Evelyn, thanks for coming.”
I shrugged. I thought about making some remark about how I didn’t have a choice, but the bandage on her neck made me think twice. Thank goodness one bite wasn’t enough to turn her.
“I know things have been stressful lately and you’ve been struggling. When all this is over, I’m taking you on a vacation.”
Didn’t see that one coming. “Wait, a real vacation? Like, we actually spend the night somewhere else and just walk around or sleep or hang out during the day?”
She smiled. “Yes, a real vacation. Anywhere you’d like.”
Oh, the possibilities…I couldn’t help but smile back. Things weren’t all right between us, not by a long shot, but this was huge coming from her. I had never known her to take even a day off. “That sounds okay with me.” It sounded more than okay. The two of us, in some gorgeous, warm place.
Almost like a family.
“Good. Now I’ve got a lot of paperwork to go over and some interviews to do.”
“Oh, yeah. Sure.” I don’t know what else I expected, but I was disappointed as I left. We hadn’t talked about anything important, anything that needed to be addressed. I wanted to help out around the Center. She probably wanted me far, far away from the Supervisors after my outburst. And I was sure she didn’t want to talk about Lend again.
Lonely, I tried to sneak over and see Lend, but the hall was packed with werewolves making sure everything was secure before sedation. I figured I could make it back later; it didn’t ease my disappointment at having to wait.
Lucky for me Easton Heights was on that night, even if it was a rerun. I changed into some black leggings and a tank top (I bumped up the heat in my unit from 85 to 90—why wait for a tropical vacation?), then snuggled up on the couch, just barely warm enough. When the show began I was startled by my buzzing vid screen. Lish.
“What’s up?” I asked, trying not to panic. Surely something else hadn’t gone wrong already.
“Easton Heights is on tonight, right?” the monotone voice asked.
“Yeah, I just didn’t think you’d have time.”
“All the werewolves are down; the rest of the Center is finally secure and settled. I am looking forward to seeing who Landon kisses this week.”
I laughed. “Me, too.” I turned my vid screen toward the television. It wasn’t as good as actually hanging out in the same room, but it was pretty close. I pretended Lend was on the couch next to me, holding my hand. I had been going over all the times we’d held hands, trying to decide if they counted as really holding hands. I wanted them to, but it had always been in the context of comforting each other. Not, hey, I like you and I want to sit here and hold your hand because touching you makes me happy.
About halfway through the episode Lish spoke up. “What the bleep?”
“What?” I asked, turning her screen toward me.
“I just had five new ankle trackers pop up on the grid. This does not make sense.”
“Wait, like five new tags?”
She nodded, frowning. Then, vid screen still on, she called Raquel. “Raquel, I have five new ankle trackers.”
“What?” Raquel asked.
“Five new ankle trackers were just activated.”
“How? Who?”
“I do not know. The activation was incomplete, so there is no data. They are all in the same area, a suburb of Paris. Do you want me to send someone to investigate?”
“No, we can’t risk it. Actually, yes—send a faerie. Just have him pop in and look at what’s happening, then come right back.”
“Any other instructions?”
“No—unless it’s an operative who didn’t get back in time, then bring him in.”
“Okay, I will call the faerie on duty.”
Lish looked up, realizing I was still on the vid screen. “Sorry, Evie. I have to go.”
“Sure, yeah.” I closed the connection, half paying attention to the show as I thought about what I had overheard. That was weird. I mean, who would be out there on a bag-and-tag right now? Everyone had been called in. Maybe someone somehow missed it and was using this as a way to contact us. How anyone could have been missed in the lockdown I didn’t understand. Like I said, IPCA was efficient.
And then I remembered something. On the hag trip, I had dropped my bag with ankle trackers in it.
Five ankle trackers.
NOT OKAY
I tried to connect back
to Lish on the vid screen, but the channel was busy. Punching Raquel’s number on my communicator as I pulled on one of my boots, I swore. It was busy, too. I yanked on my other boot, nearly falling over in my haste, then grabbed Tasey and my knife. I sprinted down the hall, praying my hunch was wrong, that it was just a weird coincidence. No alarms had gone off yet; surely that meant everything was okay. Everything had to be okay.
As I turned the corner to Central Processing I slipped, flying backward and hitting my shoulder hard against the wall. The floor was covered with water and my leggings were now soaked. I couldn’t breathe. Everything was not okay. Pushing myself up, I ran the last few feet, nearly slipping again, and palmed open the sliding doors.
“No,” I whispered, so shocked it felt like everything around me had slowed, disappeared, stopped. I knew I had to move forward, but my body wasn’t working anymore. All I could do was stare at the jagged hole smashed into Lish’s aquarium. About a foot of water remained in the bottom and lying there, near the hole, was Lish.
She couldn’t be dead. She couldn’t. Lish was forever. She was my friend, my best friend. There couldn’t be a reality in which Lish wasn’t. She was probably just hurt—I needed to get her more water, right away.
I ran forward. “Lish! It’s okay. I’m here, I’m going to help!” I ducked through the hole and sloshed over to her. Her eyes, her beautiful, beautiful eyes, were wide, the clear eyelids half shut. She wasn’t moving. And on her chest was a handprint of golden flame, slowly fading. “Lish?” I dropped to my knees next to her, picking her up and cradling her in my arms. She wasn’t gone, she couldn’t be. I stroked her hand, the webbing between her fingers finer and more delicate than I had ever noticed. Her iridescent scales glistened.
She didn’t move, she wouldn’t move, she couldn’t. Lish, my Lish, was gone. There was nothing I could do and it was my fault. I had left the ankle trackers that became bait; I was the reason that thing got in. I leaned over and kissed her on the head. “I’m so sorry,” I said, my voice breaking into a sob.
I was shivering already, soaked through. I didn’t want to move, ever, because if I didn’t leave, if I didn’t let her go, then she wasn’t really gone. Shifting position, I gasped. Something sharp and hard had gone straight through my leggings, cutting into my thigh. Red seeped into the water, and it was enough to jar me out of my stupor. Kissing Lish again, I laid her gently back down. I stood and pulled the shard of glass out of my thigh, wincing.
It was here. I ran out of the tank and to the wall where there was an emergency panic button.
Smashing through the glass cover with my elbow, I pushed it down. The overhead lights went a notch brighter with strobes going off and a loud alarm shrieking.
Raquel—Raquel had to know about this. I pulled out my communicator and punched in her number while I ran for her office. “What?” she said. “I’m trying to contact Lish, we don’t know what the alarm is.”
“Lish is dead,” I sobbed, still running. “It’s here. It’s here.”
The line was silent for what felt like forever. “Heaven help us all,” Raquel whispered. Then, her voice hurried and panicked, she said, “Meet me at Transport. I’ll message all the personnel. It doesn’t go after humans—we should be able to get out.”
I changed direction and started running for Transport. Then I stopped. “What about the paranormals?” What about Lend?
“There’s no time. Get to Transport.”
I hesitated. Everything in my body was screaming for me to run, to get out. Death was walking the hallways and I needed to escape. “No,” I whispered, turning my communicator off. I ran back the way I came, headed for Lend’s cell. He was trapped. He’d be completely helpless, just like Lish.
Oh, Lish.
No one deserved to die like that. I was running past the gym when I stopped dead again. There were over a hundred werewolves in there, sleeping. Charlotte was in there, and Jacques—he should have been in there, too. I wanted to throw up. I couldn’t wake them, tell them to run. I couldn’t carry them out. What could I do? Then it hit me.
“Denfehlath!” I shouted. After a few seconds a door opened in the wall and she stepped out, ruby eyes blazing with excitement.
“Save the paranormals, starting with the werewolves,” I commanded.
Her smile disappeared. “What?” she hissed.
“Start now. You’ve got a lot of sleeping bodies to move!”
She glared at me, trembling with fury, but entered the gym. She couldn’t disobey. After the gym doors closed behind her, I palmed them, holding my hand there for a full fifteen seconds. The pad turned red and I hit a combination, locking it.
A couple of vamps came out of a side hall, seeing me. “What’s going on?” Vlad asked. He was with the guy from before who’d tried to hit on me.
“You need to hide! It’s here!”
The end of the hallway filled with light; a figure turned the corner. It was shaped like a person, but made entirely of living gold fire and burning so brightly the image was seared into my retinas. It walked toward us, beautiful and terrible as the sun made living flesh.
“Run!” I shouted to the vamps. They hadn’t reacted. How did they not notice the light?
They turned toward the creature just as it got to them. Neither one of them looked frightened.
“Run!” I screamed again. The creature cocked its head, turning toward me as it lifted both hands and put one on each vampire’s chest. I watched in horror as the vampires stiffened, for a brief moment glowing brightly. Then it was like someone turned off whatever was inside them; they dimmed and fell motionless to the ground, nothing but corpses now.
I couldn’t move. The thing turned in my direction. It was only fifteen feet away. My eyes watered.
It was too bright, too much.
It glided toward me. A scream, no doubt my last, built in my throat. I couldn’t make out any features as it paused a few feet away from me; everything blurred together in the sheer brilliance of its light and heat.
“I love the boots,” a woman’s voice said playfully.
I turned and ran, sprinting as fast as I could, waiting for my own life to be sucked dry. I looked back. She was walking after me. At least she hadn’t gone in the gym. I turned into a hall and ran straight for a door, palming it open and leaving through a door on the other end. I was almost to
Lend’s cell. If I could get Lend out, if I could get him to Transport, I could leave. The faeries were at Transport—that was the set evacuation plan.
I nearly ran past his door, skidding to a stop and darting into his room. He was standing there, looking anxious.
“It’s here!” I panted. “It’s here, in the building—we have to go now.”
“I can’t!” He pointed to his ankle. “Leave without me, go!”
I knelt down next to his leg, grabbing the ankle tracker. This would be my last action as a member of IPCA—what I was about to do qualified me for permanent lockup. I placed my thumb in the middle of his tracker, thanking whatever deities I could think of that I had been the one to put the tracker on Lend. That meant I could take it off, but it would be recorded in the computer systems, marking me as a traitor.
“What are you doing?”
“Don’t move.” I concentrated on holding perfectly still. After twenty seconds, a green light flashed.
I leaned down and blew gently on it and the light turned red. There was a small hiss as the sensors retracted. I reached around and unlatched it.
“Come on!” I took his hand and put the tracker in my pocket. “We have to get to Transport now.”
We went into the hall and turned—and there she was, walking toward us. “No, no, no,” I whispered.
“What?” Lend asked, looking over. “Oh, that’s weird.”
“Run!” I shouted, tugging on his hand and running in the opposite direction of the burning woman —and the opposite direction of Transport. I racked my brains, trying to think of alternate routes we could take.
“Who was that? What are you talking about? That was it—the thing—the life sucker!”
“What?”
“Did you miss the whole on fire part?” I panted, turning another corner. Clearly Lend was in shock.
I wasn’t thinking straight. We hit a dead end.
“Evie, she wasn’t on fire.”
“She’s so bright it burns my eyes!” I slammed my fist into the wall. “Come on. This way.” We ran back across the connecting hall and down another passageway. Everywhere in the Center looked exactly the same. Brilliant floor plan. Perfect for getting lost and trapped. Normally I knew every inch, but in my rush I had gotten turned around. Taking another hall, we stopped. Four bodies were slumped on the ground.
“This way,” I whispered, unable to take my eyes off the bodies as I palmed open a door to cut through. When we got out into the next hall it was clear—and another dead end. I realized to my horror that I didn’t know where we were. “Maybe one of these rooms connects somewhere.” I desperately opened doors, looking for any way out. They were all storage rooms. There was nothing.
“Back, back,” I said, trying not to sob. I opened the door and we ran through the room and turned into the hall. She was already there.
“Here you are,” she said. I heard the smile in her voice—her bizarrely normal, pleasant voice.
I screamed, pulling Lend back into the room and waiting for the door to lock. We ran back through and into the small hallway and I locked that door behind us, too.
“That won’t stop her!” She could probably melt straight through the door. They weren’t designed to withstand attack or fire.
“Evie, are you sure that’s her?” Lend asked, out of breath and confused.
“Yes! What’s wrong with you?”
He was quiet for a second. “She looks totally normal. Like a person. Like—” he paused “—like you.”
WHAT’S IN A NAME
W hat do you mean she looks like me?” I asked. “She’s freaking on fire!”
“I can’t see that! It must be under her glamour or whatever, I didn’t see anything.”
