Wild Hunger

by Chloe Neill

  “Humans rule Chicago. Mayor, city council, population.”

  “They’re manipulated by vampires. Controlled by bloodletters.”

  “That’s absolutely incorrect.” If it had been true, I’d be giving Yuen directions, not the other way around.

  My back hit the wall, and her smile grew wider.

  “A brave little vampire to walk in here, but not brave enough to fight?”

  The anger that flooded me pushed the monster forward. Maybe I should give it a chance, I thought. Give it an opportunity to fight and play.

  So I let the monster step into me, and I slid back inside and watched it happen.

  I pivoted, pushed a foot against the wall, flipped backward over the fairy. She turned, her breath a shocked exhalation, and watched me land to face her again.

  “Some skills,” I said, smiling fiercely. The monster moved forward with a right hook the fairy didn’t manage to avoid, then an uppercut to the jaw that snapped the fairy’s head back. She roared in pain, and it took her a moment to find her balance again.

  The monster wasn’t interested in waiting, and advanced. A kick to move the fairy backward, to give the fairy her turn against the wall. And then the real work began.

  Punches to the gut, the jaw. A kick to the ribs, then another. The fairy tried to get a foot between mine, to twist me up and bring me down, but I managed to stay on my feet. A jab that knocked her head back.

  The fairy’s head bobbled, and she fell to her knees. But that didn’t stop the monster. Not even when the fairy’s eyes rolled back. One kick to the ribs, then two, then another.

  “Elisa.”

  Chicago didn’t belong to fairies or vampires. It belonged to the Egregore, and the fairies didn’t have a right to destroy it.

  “Elisa. Stop!”

  Theo’s hand gripped tightly around my arm, and he yanked me away. I stumbled, also not quite solid on my feet, and had to bend over, hands on my knees, to keep bile from rising.

  “I’m all right,” I said, and held up a hand to keep him back. “Give me a minute.”

  Go back, I willed it, demanded, but the monster fought me, waves of anger and aggression spearing forward. I closed my eyes, had to concentrate fiercely to keep my stomach from heaving and my mind in place. To take back control and keep it in my hands.

  This was a price of the power. The monster didn’t like being pushed back down again, into the place where it had to question its own existence.

  When the nausea passed, I stood up again, glanced back.

  The fairy was on the ground, unconscious. Her right eye swollen and dark, her lip bleeding, but her chest rising and falling.

  I hadn’t killed her. While I understood death, and understood now that it was inevitable in war, I found that to be a relief.

  My hands stung with pain. I looked down, found the knuckles battered and bleeding. But I was a vampire, and the wounds would heal quickly enough.

  “Are you okay?” Theo asked. The look on his face said he genuinely wasn’t sure.

  “I’m fine.” I looked back, found the fairy he’d also knocked unconscious.

  That made me feel so much better, it nearly brought tears to my eyes.

  “We need to get Claudia out of here,” Theo said, and I nodded.

  “I’ll get the door,” I said, and took his hand when he offered one, pulled me to my feet.

  Theo went to Claudia. I went to the small lobby and found the front door barred from the inside. I pulled up the long piece of steel, tossed it aside, turned deadbolts in the rotting wood, and pushed the door open.

  The wash of fresh air, of air that was mostly free of magic, felt glorious.

  “Cadogan House is closer than the Ombuds’ office,” I said as Theo carried Claudia through. “And we’ve got a doctor.”

  “Then that’s where we’ll go. You’d better make the call.”

  “Car first,” I said, and glanced back. “Just in case they wake up sooner than we’d like.”

  * * *

  • • •

  The green land hadn’t diminished. But it hadn’t grown, either.

  The United Center was still a field of grass, although now with CPD cruisers running crime-scene tape and barricades around Chicago’s newest park. I gave credit to Yuen for moving quickly.

  As we drove by, I regretted for an instant that I hadn’t had a chance to walk through it, to see what the fairies’ land really looked like from the inside. Even as I knew that anything touched by fairy hands was dangerous—tricky and seductive and usually a trap for the unwary.

  “Would you like to tell me about your . . . skills?”

  The question jerked me from my reverie. Theo said the word with uncertainty, as if he wasn’t entirely committed to the idea it was a blessing, and not a curse.

  “No,” I said.

  I could feel his gaze on me for a moment. “Okay,” he finally said. “It’s useful, for what it’s worth. And I don’t think anyone would fault you that.”

  Maybe. Maybe not. But this wasn’t the time to debate it. “I’m going to call the House,” I said, and pulled out my screen.

  “Elisa,” my father answered.

  “I need a favor.”

  There was a heavy pause, and I could only guess at the questions he was asking himself.

  “What do you need?”

  Rain or shine, he was reliable. “Theo and I are en route. If you could have the garage open and meet us there, that would be best.”

  “What are you doing?”

  “You’re not going to like it,” I said. “So it’s best if we deal with it when we get there. Bring Delia, if she’s available.” Delia was the House doctor.

  “Elisa—”

  “I need you to trust me on this. I won’t do anything to harm Cadogan. But we need help.”

  There was a pause.

  “We’ll be waiting,” he said, and hung up.

  I glanced back at Claudia, still unconscious on the backseat, realized there might not be enough macaroni drawings in the world to make up for this one.

  * * *

  • • •

  The gate lifted when we drove up to it, the door into the basement garage sliding open. Theo drove down into the House, then into a space near the door where my father, my mother, and Kelley waited for us. She opened the door for Theo, and he lifted Claudia into his arms.

  “Jesus,” my father said, brow furrowed as Theo carried her to the door that Kelley rushed to pull open.

  She was still limp, hair cascading nearly to the floor. And she looked worse in the fluorescent lights, dark shadows beneath her eyes, a bruise across her jaw, and a paleness to her skin that rivaled vampires’.

  “Second parlor,” my father said, and I pointed Theo toward the stairs. We followed him up, then into the pretty sitting room, where vampires scooted out of the way to give him the couch. Theo placed her down, then stepped back into the foyer, where we watched her warily.

  “Yuen’s not here yet?” he asked.

  “He’s on his way,” my father said. “Stuck in traffic.”

  “Delia’s on her way, too,” Kelley said. “She was at the hospital.”

  In the meantime, my mother stepped forward, checked Claudia’s temperature, her pulse. “Alive, but unconscious. I really don’t know how much we can do for her outside the castle. Her power, her magic, is tied to place.”

  “She was at the church?” my father asked.

  “She was,” Theo said, arms crossed as he looked down at Claudia. “Guarded by two fairies. She was bound, unconscious.”

  “And the fairies?” my father asked, the tension clear in his voice.

  “Alive,” Theo said. “But displeased.”

  My father nodded.

  “Ruadan did this,” I explained. “He wanted to get her out of t
he way in order to bring their kingdom back.”

  “Their kingdom?” my mother asked.

  “The green land,” Theo said.

  My parents’ stares were blank.

  “I don’t understand,” my mother said. “The green land is a place. It can’t be brought here. Deposited here.”

  “That’s no longer the case,” Theo said, and pulled out his screen.

  They watched the United Center become hills and flowing grass, the fairy mound in the middle of it all. My mother’s face, already porcelain-pale, seemed to lose all remaining color.

  “They did it,” she quietly said. “But how? How could they do it?” The question was quiet, as if she was speaking to herself, had forgotten we were there.

  “She took us into that world,” my father said. “And it’s a world of magic. By logical extension, perhaps they could bring that world here.” But he didn’t sound convinced.

  “Liege,” Kelley said, “what are we going to do with Claudia? This may not be a popular opinion at the moment, but she’s dangerous. I don’t know that we want her in the House.”

  “I agree.”

  We looked back to find Yuen in the doorway, Petra behind him. They were becoming Cadogan House regulars. And there were no shifters in their wake on this trip.

  “She shouldn’t be here,” he said. “I realize you didn’t have any better options at the time, but her being here is problematic.”

  “It is problematic,” my father said, then walked to the window and looked out, hands on his hips. He did that when he was trying to figure out an angle or a solution. “But I want her here.”

  “Liege,” Kelley said, “I’m with the Ombudsman. It’s dangerous. If they figure out she’s here . . .”

  “They may leave her be,” he said. “If Ruadan wants her out of the way, she is out of the way. She’s our problem now, which actually works for him.

  “She’s dangerous,” he added. “No argument. But Chicago is disappearing before her eyes, and she’s tied to that magic somehow. I want her where I can see her.”

  “I could overrule you,” Yuen said.

  “You could try,” my father said. “And I mean that with all due respect. You could cite the deal with the city, and I could cite the sovereignty of this House.” He glanced around at the other vampires in the foyer. “We fight when we must, and render aid when we can. She will be guarded.”

  A long moment passed, and then Yuen nodded. “Dearborn will be told you made an unassailable legal argument regarding the sovereignty of your House.”

  My father smiled approvingly. “So I did.” Then he looked at Kelley. “Increase security outside the House. Double the guards.”

  “Liege,” Kelley said with a nod.

  “When Delia arrives, ask where she’d like to treat Claudia. Perhaps the guest suite or one of the empty Novitiate rooms would be best. Restrain her, and put two guards inside, another on the door.”

  “And video feed into the Ops Room,” my mother said. “Just in case she gets creative with the magic.”

  A corner of Kelley’s mouth lifted. “Sentinel,” she acknowledged.

  “She wakes up, or stirs magic, or anyone disturbs the House, I want an immediate report.”

  “Liege,” Kelley said again. “We’ll let you know when everything’s in place.”

  “My office,” my father said, and we followed him down the hall.

  TWENTY-ONE

  “The fairies at the church?” Theo asked, when we were in my father’s office and the door was closed.

  “In custody,” Yuen said. “They’re on their way to the brick factory, but for now are refusing to speak.”

  “If they were willing to depose their queen, they’ll probably stay silent,” my father said.

  Yuen nodded. “I suspect you’re right. But at least they’re two we won’t have to deal with at the immediate time.”

  “What happened to the people?” I asked.

  “What do you mean?” my mother asked.

  “The parking lots around the United Center were empty, so there probably weren’t many people in the building,” I said. “But there might have been guards, maintenance staff. There was no one, not a single person, in the green land, at least the parts that we could see. What happened to them?”

  “We’re thinking it’s a kind of phase shift,” Petra said. “The green land is a world of magic that exists in, for lack of a better term, a bubble. Outside our normal physical realm. The fairies want the green land here, which would require an immense amount of energy. They draw on the power of the ley lines, and they make the shift—they switch the green land for our world.”

  “And, theoretically, Chicago goes into the bubble,” Yuen said.

  “Exactly. An exchange of matter. When the United Center is replaced, it pops into the bubble, along with anyone else who happened to be there at the time.”

  “So, they’re alive,” I said, and felt a flood of relief.

  “They’re alive,” Theo agreed, but I didn’t like his somber tone. “But their entire world is now the boundary of the United Center. No contact with our world, with those they loved.”

  “Wait,” Yuen said, holding up a hand. “If the conjunction is in Grant Park, why did the green land appear at the United Center?”

  “We aren’t sure about that, either,” Petra said. “But we have a theory.” She looked at me. “You said the fairies at Grant Park didn’t have guns.”

  “Right,” I said. “Knives, bows—that kind of thing.”

  “So no modern technology.”

  I opened my mouth, closed it again. “Yeah. You’re right.” And I knew where she was going. “They didn’t mean to disappear in Grant Park—they were trying to work magic, to bring the green land forward, so that’s why they had bows and swords and tunics.”

  Petra nodded, obviously pleased I’d gotten the right answer. “Exactly. We think Grant Park was a failure. They wanted to pop the green land into place right over the conjunction, but they couldn’t make it work. Instead of using the ley lines’ power to move the green land in, they moved themselves out.”

  “Into the green land?” I asked.

  “It’s possible,” Theo said. “We’ve been up and down the ley lines’ tracks, and we haven’t been able to find them.” He looked at my mother. “Claudia was able to shift you into the green land, and they’re able to shift part of the green land here. It stands to reason they can shift themselves, too.”

  “United Center may be another error,” I said. “They tried again to pull the green land here, this time without the conjunction, and they only made it halfway.”

  “They got the green land,” Theo agreed with a nod. “But not in the right place.”

  “There’s no ley line near United,” Petra said. “But Claudia was at the church. That might have been enough of an anchor to make the switch happen there.”

  “Why are they failing?” my father asked.

  “This is big magic,” Petra said. “It would take skill and expertise to make and control.”

  “And Ruadan is young,” Yuen added. “He’s discarded their queen, who’s lived long enough to have seen the green land when it existed in our world. She’d have been an asset to the process. Instead, they pushed her away.”

  “She probably told them not to do it,” I said, looking at my mother. “It’s her realm, right? If she thought it could be done correctly, wouldn’t she have already done it?”

  “Probably,” my mother said.

  The office door opened again, and Kelley stepped inside.

  “Claudia?” my father asked.

  “Nothing yet,” she said. She walked to the monitor, switched the view from the map of Chicago to the twenty-four-hour news station. And we watched grass creep slowly up Lake Shore Drive.

  Traffic was stopped, and th
e grass inched toward the vehicle in the back of the line. Then the grass reached the tire, and the tire began to disappear, like a drawing being methodically erased. Trunk, back seat, front seat, engine, tires.

  The car was subsumed, along with everyone in it. And the grass still crept forward, the stalks undulating in a breeze that undoubtedly smelled like salt and time.

  People realized what was happening, began abandoning their vehicles, confused or screaming, and running to get away from the danger that crept toward them.

  The Ombudsmen’s screens began buzzing. And then the office phone began to ring.

  Yuen pulled out his screen. “It’s Dearborn. I’ll be back.” He stepped into the hallway.

  “We have to evacuate Chicago,” Theo said. “There’s no avoiding it.”

  “First,” I said, “we have to talk to Claudia.”

  * * *

  • • •

  While Yuen talked to his boss, Theo and I walked upstairs to the room where Delia watched over Claudia.

  Delia stood in the hallway outside the closed door, bright pink scrubs a contrast against dark skin and hair, chatting quietly with one of the assigned guards.

  “How is she?” Theo asked.

  “She’s stable, as far as I can tell. But she’s away from the castle, from the magic. She’s not fading as quickly as she once would have because of the Egregore’s infusion, but she won’t last forever. She needs to be with her people.”

  “At the moment, her people are trying to destroy Chicago,” I said.

  Delia didn’t look the slightest bit fazed by that announcement, which was probably because she was a vampire, a physician, and a member of Cadogan House’s staff. I’d bet there wasn’t much that surprised her anymore.

  “I presume you’re here to make sure she doesn’t involve herself in those efforts?”

  “We’d like to talk to her about it,” I said. “Has she said anything about what’s happening?”

  “Not that I’ve heard. She’s been in and out of consciousness. I’m not certain, but I believe they dosed her for transport, and then relied on her absence from the castle to keep her weak. I’m going to get some supplies while you talk to her,” she said. “I’ll be back.”