Hidden Darkness

by May, W. J.

  There was a sudden flash of electric blue, followed by a piercing scream.

  “Molly!” Rae cried, whipping her head around.

  At the same time, Julian shouted, “Angel!”

  By the time Rae looked up, Julian was on his feet and tearing towards his lying girlfriend. She had been thrown up against the wall, breaking the plaster, and her clothes were still smoking as a little trickle of blood slipped down from her hair.

  “Jules, don’t touch her!” Devon commanded, stumbling a little as the inescapable freeze cleared from his system.

  Julian paused half an inch away, but gathered her up in his arms anyway, staring down at her unconscious body with a mixture of utter devastation and remorse. With trembling hands, he wiped away the smear of blood, lowering his lips to her ear and whispering, “I’m sorry. “The others gave him a minute, looking away until he finally let her go and got to his feet.

  Once he was clear, Devon walked forward cautiously. He clapped Julian quickly on the shoulder, casually turning him the other way in the process, as he picked up Angel himself and carried her to a nearby chair. His eyes flicked up to Rae in a silent request, and she walked forward, conjuring a thick rope as she did. Devon looped it expertly around the sleeping girl, careful not to touch her in the process. Once he was sure it was secure, he turned back to Julian, a little uncomfortable as to how to proceed.

  “Jules,” he murmured, “maybe you want to step outside for this.”

  Julian’s eyes flashed to Devon’s before coming to rest on Angel. It was impossible to say what he was thinking. Even his closest friends, who had known him for so many years, were at a complete loss.

  “No,” he said quietly, “I’m going to stay.” Then a little louder, “Devon, get whatever information we need, but…”

  Devon nodded solemnly. “I won’t.”

  There was a sudden vibration behind them, and the five of them turned as one to see a cell phone buzzing on the coffee table. Luke, the closest one, picked it up. A very strange expression flitted across his face as he held it out to Rae.

  “It’s…it’s him.”

  Rae and Devon shared a quick look.

  “Rae, don’t take—”

  But she’d already picked it up.

  “Angel,” a deep voice spoke sharply from the other end, “I don’t know why you wanted to linger in San Francisco, but I’m still waiting for—”

  “Angel’s dead.”

  The words were out of Rae’s mouth before she’d even considered speaking them. Her friends were staring at her in horrified amazement, but it was as if she suddenly knew exactly what to say.

  “But don’t worry—I’m sure you’ll be seeing her soon.”

  There was a chilling pause on the other end, and then a deep chuckling.

  “Well played, my dear, well played. I’m not going to pretend I’m pleased about Angel…she was an invaluable help to me with your friend. I have to say, I didn’t know you had it in you.”

  Rae’s voice was pure ice. “I’m sure it won’t be the first time you underestimate me.”

  Cromfield cleared his throat, and Rae got the feeling he was angrier than he was letting on.

  “Listen, Rae, I’m sure in time you’re going to—”

  “No, you listen.” She gripped the phone so hard against her head, she worried it might break. “This is what happens. You send people after me, they die. You come after me or my friends, or any other hybrids for that matter—and you’re next. You wanted to play? Then we’re going to play. Do you hear me, you sick son of a—”

  The phone was ripped from her hand and smashed against the floor.

  She looked up in shock, to see Devon staring at her with a truly unreadable look on his face.

  A feeling of recklessness akin to guilt welled up in her chest, but, before she could say anything, there was a faint stirring on the chair, and all five of them watched on pins and needles as Angel slowly came to. At first, she looked merely confused as to why she was sitting down, then her eyes travelled up to see all of them glaring back at her.

  Her gaze came to rest on Julian. “So…” the side of her lips came up in a sad smile, “you know.”

  He said nothing, his arms folded tightly across his chest.

  “Since when did you know?” she continued. “Before the other night?”

  “No,” he snapped at her suddenly. “I wouldn’t have done that if I’d known.”

  A look of deep hurt flashed momentarily in her eyes before she cleared her expression and nodded practically. “Yeah, if I was in your shoes, I guess I wouldn’t have either.”

  “Why did Cromfield leave Benjamin Mills alive?” Devon was all business; no time for emotional confessions or deep catharsis here.

  Her eyes flashed to him with a hint of frustration before returning to Julian. It was to him that she answered, even though he hadn’t asked the question. “He doesn’t need to kill hybrids anymore.”

  Devon scoffed. “Really?”

  Angel kept her eyes still on Julian. “He doesn’t need to kill them to get what he needs. In fact, he hasn’t in a long time. Not since scientists discovered the concept of DNA in the 1950s. Now he only needs a sample.”

  Rae stepped forward. “A sample? Why?” Cromfield wanted hybrids dead. Taking samples of them made absolutely no sense. She glared at Angel. “I said, why?” Rae didn’t care what sort of inner heartbreak this girl may be trying to hide. It was Julian’s heartbreak she cared about. And the dozens of hybrid lives that this sick experiment of Cromfield’s had claimed.

  Angel shrugged. “Beats me.”

  Devon nodded calmly, but he was staring at Angel with pure hate. “Julian told you everything about me, right? Told you that I’ve risked my life for him? That I think of him as my brother?”

  She stared at him uncertainly, not sure where this was going.

  When she didn’t say anything, Devon stepped forward with the most chilling expression Rae had ever seen on his face. “Knowing that, do you think there is realistically anything I won’t do to the girl who broke his heart? Do you think there’s any line I won’t cross?” His voice dropped to a lethal whisper as he leaned down to her ear. “I don’t have to touch you for you to feel it.”

  Julian’s face tightened and he looked away.

  If it was possible, Angel grew even paler than before. And when Julian refused to meet her eyes, she looked up at Devon with a sigh. “He has a list of ingredients he’s combining with hybrid DNA. Ethanol, midazolam, and sodium pentothal. He’s mixing it together to make some kind of serum. I don’t know what it does.”

  “Wait.” Molly frowned. “He’s using the hybrids to make the serum? He’s not giving it to them?”

  Angel tossed her blood-matted hair out of her face. “Well, he mixed my blood in with a tranquilizer to subdue some of the feistier ones, but, no; they’re not the intended recipients.”

  “Then who is?” Devon asked sharply.

  Her eyes flicked up with a trace of fear before she said, “I don’t know. All I know is that he’s collecting different samples and mixing them together. And that he’s crazy obsessed with your girlfriend.” She stifled a shudder and murmured, “And that he’s going to kill me for telling you this.”

  There was a sudden movement on the other side of the room as Julian slid down into a chair, unable to watch any longer. Her eyes went to him and she tried to get up before remembering the ropes.

  “Jules,” she called softly.

  “Don’t you dare,” Molly snapped. “Don’t you dare talk to him.”

  Angel stared past her to Julian. “Jules, I’m sorry. When I met you in Florence, I… This is what my family has always done, Julian. For over five hundred years. I didn’t want it to involve you. I’m sorry it did.” She bowed her head. “I’m sorry for everything. I never wanted to hurt you.”

  He met her eyes for only the briefest of moments before fixing his stare on the wall. “What a beautiful speech…”

  All
at once, as strange as it might be, Rae knew what she had to do. Her friend was not going to recover from this. Was not going to get over the fact that the only girl he’d ever fallen in love with was only pretending to love him back. It would completely destroy him.

  And it wasn’t even true…

  Squaring her shoulders, she walked quickly across the room, kneeling down in front of Angel’s chair with a look of pure determination.

  “Rae, what’re you doing?” Devon asked nervously. “Get back.”

  Keeping Angel fixed in her gaze the whole time, she slowly reached out her hand.

  “Rae! Get back! Don’t let her touch you!”

  But Rae was calm, leaning forward so only Angel could hear. “I’m going to give you one chance to leave him less broken than how you made him. When I touch your skin, I’ll know the truth. He’s seen me do it before, and he’ll believe what I say.” She swallowed and stared hard at Angel. “I also know how to break your freezing ability, so it’s useless to try it on me.”

  Angel’s eyes grew wide as they fixed on Rae’s hand. She didn’t say anything, but Rae got the feeling that she’d just thrown out a life preserver and Angel was ready to grab on.

  They were almost touching, when Rae suddenly paused. “If you try to freeze me, I’m going to let my three friends cheerfully beat you to death. And Julian will never know the truth.”

  Angel nodded, serious as could be. “I won’t freeze you.”

  Still aware of the fact that she might be making a huge mistake, Rae grabbed Angel’s cold hand in her own. She almost gasped aloud at the rush of feelings that was waiting for her. Fear, bewilderment, betrayal. A young girl apprenticed to a never-aging man, forced to watch and do terrible things.

  Instead of using Ellie’s power like she’d planned, her body slipped into Carter’s power, seeing down into the very depths of Angel’s soul. There was tragedy there, more than there was light. But none of it seemed to be her fault.

  Rae saw a young white-haired girl taken out of her mother’s arms. She saw flashes of that same girl growing up, living mostly on the move or in St. Stephen’s cemetery underground. Saw glimpses of her crying as she tried to fall asleep, covering her ears to the echoing screams of different hybrids in the next room.

  And then, as dark as everything was before, it suddenly changed.

  For the first time, Rae saw Julian standing on a bridge in Florence, staring confusedly at a map. Rae’s heart, as Angel’s, soared as she went over to make her introduction. She felt the faint stirrings of real happiness for the first time as Julian looked at her and smiled. Felt the way her heart melted every time they kissed, and shattered into a million pieces every time she went back to report to Cromfield.

  She was in love. From the bottom of her broken heart. There was no denying it.

  When Rae finally ripped her hand away with a gasp, there were tears in her eyes; the same tears she saw running down Angel’s face.

  “Please,” Angel whispered, “take care of him for me. Keep him safe.”

  Still trembling, Rae got to her feet. Devon was there in an instant to see if she was okay, but she turned instead to Julian, who was watching her with wide, apprehensive eyes. Without saying a word, she walked slowly towards him and pulled him to his feet.

  Then she held out her hand, and conjured a knife.

  His eyes flashed up to hers in horror. “Rae, you can’t—”

  She shook her head at his misconception and handed the knife to him. “Untie her.”

  “WHAT?!”

  The word echoed at the same time from Molly, Luke, and Devon, who were all staring at Rae as if she’d lost her mind. Julian, however, was looking at her with the faintest bit of hope.

  “She loves you, Jules,” Rae smiled faintly. “She always has. I think she probably always will.”

  A small light shone deep in his eyes as he strode across the room, and, with one skilled slice, cut her ropes from her. She got to her feet in a daze, staring up at him with tears in her eyes.

  “Jules, I—”

  He silenced her with a kiss. This one was very different from the first.

  It wasn’t an ending.

  It wasn’t a last goodbye.

  It was only the beginning.

  He pulled back, barely breathing, touching his forehead lightly against hers. “You need to run now. You can’t go back to Cromfield, and the PC won’t take you in, not after what you’ve done.”

  She nodded quickly, still smiling, unwilling to take her gaze from his face. “But you? You would be willing to—”

  He kissed her again before picking up her coat and putting it on her shoulders. “Go,” he said softly. “Keep yourself safe. Do that for me. One day I’ll find you. Heaven help me, but I’ll find you.”

  She stared at him for one final second before nodding and gathering up her things. She cast the others a look of farewell and squeezed Rae’s hand in a silent thank-you as she headed for the door. Taking a deep breath, she pulled it open and was about to leave, when Julian suddenly said,

  “Angel…”

  She turned around and their eyes met.

  He watched her for a second before his lips turned up in a sparkling smile. “I’ll know where to find you.”

  Her face broke out into a smile of its own before she nodded again and vanished through the open door.

  * * *

  “Yes, but how did you know she wouldn’t freeze you?” Luke slurred, peering through the glass of the empty bottle. “What if you had gotten stuck like that forever?”

  The five of them were sitting in the hotel lounge, recovering from the emotional roller coaster of the day. They’d tried using Angel’s phone to find Cromfield, but it had a protective thumb print which they obviously didn’t have, and then Molly had zapped it by mistake in frustration. There was no other way to find him, nor did they actually want to. So they headed back to the hotel.

  Luke and Molly were comfortably intertwined, Julian was practically glowing from happiness, and Rae had recently discovered the wonders of ‘hard root beer’ and was happily guzzling it by the pint.

  “I just did,” she hiccupped, and shrugged. “You can’t fake a kiss like that.”

  “It was a huge risk,” Devon said quietly. He alone was not partaking in their fun, choosing instead to watch it from afar, his chair tilted slightly away.

  Rae hiccupped again. “No different than the risks we usually take.”

  His eyes met hers, and she got the feeling that maybe that was the point. But before he could answer, Molly stuck her glass under Rae’s open hand. “Beer me.”

  Luke raised his eyebrows and chuckled. “Beer you?”

  “What?” She shrugged. “I heard it on TV once; I’m ninety-nine percent sure it’s a thing that people say.”

  Julian laughed, sipping down his whiskey. “Frat boys and douche bags say ‘beer me,’ Molls.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Rae raised her eyebrows. “Well, then, how you would know?”

  “I must have seen it on the same show,” he teased.

  In rather drunken concentration, Rae covered the top of Molly’s glass with her hand, and it filled with a frothy amber liquid. “Tell me how you like that one,” she said seriously. “I tried to make it sweeter than the rest.”

  Molly took a huge gulp and grinned. “Much better. I’m not going to lie, Rae, you totally suck at food. But beer and coffee? You’re the best.”

  Luke laughed aloud and gathered her up in his arms. “Imagine the trouble the two of you could get into if you weren’t out saving the world every night.”

  Devon sighed softly, but Luke didn’t hear him. “Maybe it’s a good thing that you’re so consistently distracted.”

  “Well,” Molly grinned, “we’re not going to be saving the world for long!”

  Rae leaned forward excitedly. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

  “Um—how Angel’s apartment looked almost exactly like ours, and how I’m so excited to finally get to li
ve in it, and how we’re going to see it by the end of tomorrow, and how I totally forgot but totally just remembered that it’s also right by that sushi place we love so much?”

  Rae’s jaw dropped open in amazement. “Yes! I was thinking all of those things!”

  Molly leaned back with a superior shrug. “It’s because we’re best friends. We don’t even need Maria’s telepathy. We just have it.”

  “Oh, yeah! That was another thing!” Luke exclaimed, just remembering. “You freakin’ spoke in my head, Rae. How crazy was that?!”

  Molly patted him indulgently on the knee as Rae grinned. “He’s so new to all of this. He’s like a little baby!”

  Rae cracked up, turning to Devon. “Do you remember when I was like that, babe? So innocent and naïve. And charming! Can we talk about how charming I was?”

  Devon pushed suddenly to his feet. “I’m going to bed. See you guys tomorrow.” He left before they could say anything, and Rae and the rest of them stared at his retreating back in shock.

  A heavy sinking feeling stirred in the pit of Rae’s stomach, and she rubbed her eyes, already dreading the conversation she knew was sure to come.

  Molly turned to her with concern. “Was it something I said?”

  “No,” Rae assured her quickly, pushing to her feet as well. “No, this was all me.”

  Chapter 13

  “You’re angry with me,” Rae said the words the second she opened the door, leaning back against it as the hard root beer slowly cleared from her system. She used Charles’ tatù to sober up the rest of the way, making a mental note to remember to use that in the future.

  Devon sat fully dressed in the center of the bed. He’d been staring at the ceiling when she came in, but looked up the second he heard her voice. “I’m angry with you,” he repeated her words exactly, keeping his voice an even tone.

  Rae sighed and pushed her hair out of her face before joining him on the mattress. “Can I ask why? Or do you just want to stew in it for a while?”

  He sat quietly for a moment before casting her a sideways glance. “You know, I’ve only been frozen a couple times before today.”