by Jayne Faith
Great. We were preventing legitimate customers from entering.
I was just about to give up when the door abruptly swung inward. A hulking man with a buzz cut stood there, and I recognized his eyes from the slot.
“I’ll take you to her.” He waited for us to come in and then bolted the door closed.
Moving softly for such a large man, he led us through the first-floor hallways, which were lined with numbered doors. A few times when I heard the lusty noises of the rooms’ occupants, I tried to pretend that I hadn’t.
Finally, we reached an office where Henrietta sat at a desk with reading glasses perched low on her nose.
She nodded at the man. “Thank you, Lars. Please close the door.”
“This is Lorenzo.” I gestured to my companion, but rushed on before he could speak and make a fool of himself. “Thank you for seeing us. I wasn’t sure where else to go. Amy was taken by the Hunters earlier. She sacrificed herself to save me, and I can’t let her sacrifice be in vain. Please, Henrietta, you have to take us to the leadership right away.”
Now that we were here, my thoughts seemed jumbled and my emotions raw. My lips began to tremble. I pressed them together and cleared my throat, trying to compose myself.
Henrietta’s eyes clouded when I mentioned Amy’s capture. She rose. “You came to the right place.” She turned to a closed door at the back of the office. “Only half of the leadership meets together at any one time, to help mitigate against discovery and capture. Three of the leaders are here.”
She opened the door to reveal a windowless room that had been set up with a table and chairs. There were a man and woman I didn’t recognize, Erlich, the brewery owner, and Eduardo, the recently rescued Hunter.
“Erlich?” I asked, confused. “You’re part of the Underground leadership?”
He arched a brow at me. “So, I did a good job of pretending to be just another warlock?”
“I never would have guessed,” I said.
Henrietta left us alone in the small conference room.
“This is Wylie, and that’s Sarah,” Erlich said, pointing to the warlock and witch. “Of course, you know who Eduardo is. And I take it this is the agent of God you spoke of?”
It nearly sounded ridiculous when Erlich put it that way, especially considering the way Lorenzo was swaying a little. I licked my dry lips, determined not to let anyone’s skepticism intimidate me.
“Yes, this is Lorenzo. He is, as you said, an agent of God. He knows how to break the curse of the Watchtower.”
All eyes were glued to Lorenzo, and I prayed he didn’t do anything odd. He nodded and managed to look suitably serious.
“I’m sure you’ll understand that we need some show of proof,” Erlich said.
Lorenzo giggled drunkenly and let out a little burp. His eyes widened and he covered his lips with his fingers. “Oh my, excuse me.”
It was all I could do to keep from rolling my eyes. Briefly I wondered if it would give the wrong impression if I smacked him across his drink-reddened cheek.
But then he slid a glance at me and winked. He wasn’t entirely sober, but I realized that to some extent he was putting on a little act just to irritate me. Couldn’t he see this wasn’t the time?
Eduardo and the Underground leaders exchanged doubtful glances.
“Hmm, a display of proof . . .” Lorenzo tapped his lip with one finger, casting his eyes upward as if trying to come up with something.
“Your wings,” I said impatiently. “How about giving them a glimpse of your wings?”
He looked off to the side as if he hadn’t heard me.
“Lorenzo?” I waved a hand to get his attention.
But then I felt it. The air was shifting, thickening. It began to take on a red hue.
Sarah gasped. “The blood mist.”
She bolted for the door—no one liked to be caught with others in an enclosed space when the curse hit. When she jerked it open, thick red vapor poured in.
Sarah darted a couple of steps through the doorway, but a low snarl drove her backward. Henrietta had been caught by the curse. Foam dripped from her mouth as her growl deepened. She swiped at Sarah with long black talons that looked nothing like human fingernails, and Sarah jumped back. Behind Henrietta, a half-clothed mist-infected man lurched into the office.
Erlich ran forward, pulled Sarah into our room, and slammed the door closed. He turned the bolt just as Henrietta hurled her cursed body at the other side of the door with an animalistic screech.
I started to let out a relieved breath when one of Erlich’s eyes began to twitch. He blinked, and when he raised his lids, his irises were bloodred.
“Lorenzo, the curse is turning him! Do something!” I shouted.
Black claws began to extend from the tips of Erlich’s fingers. I stumbled backward, pressing away from the possessed man, but ran into the table. There was nowhere to go in this tiny space. Nothing to defend myself with.
Lorenzo began to glow, and the light extended beyond his form. Just as Erlich launched himself at me, Lorenzo’s light exploded in the room. I curled away and closed my eyes to protect them from the blinding flash.
When I looked around, Erlich lay unconscious on the floor. The others were staring openmouthed at Lorenzo. The angel’s wings were barely visible, folded behind his back and translucent as steam. A disc of light hovered in one of his hands.
“I can’t show you my true form in all its glory because you’ll go mad at the ecstasy of it. But I hope the wings and halo will do for proof.” Lorenzo’s wings and disc of light disappeared, and his glow faded.
Eduardo dropped to one knee, his head inclined. “I bow before you, angel sent by God.”
Lorenzo planted his hands on his hips and smiled broadly. “Now that’s the proper respect I like to see.” He narrowed his eyes over at me. “You could take a lesson from this man, sweetie. Would it kill yeh to show some farking awe once in a while?”
“Would it kill you to stay sober for more than a few hours at a stretch?” I shot back.
Lorenzo shrugged a shoulder. “Gotta do something to pass the centuries on this rock.”
Eduardo was still down on his knee, and his shoulders shook a little, as if he were crying. I went to him and put my hand on his shoulder, speaking to him in a soft voice.
Erlich was starting to wake up. Wylie went to help, and filled Erlich in on what had happened.
I sat down on the nearest chair as relief swept through me. The cursed vapor had dissipated, all of our hearts were still in our chests where they belonged, and no blood had been shed in this room. I closed my eyes briefly. I could only pray that the sacrifice in the Watchtower that had caused the blood mist wasn’t Amy. Surely the Demon Lord wouldn’t have taken her so soon after her capture.
Sarah pushed her fingers through her hair, still glassy-eyed and stunned as she peered at Lorenzo. “We believe that you are an agent of God. Now, please tell us quickly, how will you break the curse?”
There were noises on the other side of the door, people recovering from the blood mist.
Lorenzo described to the Underground leaders only what he’d told me about breaking the curse. He seemed almost completely sober now, perhaps a side effect of using his angelic powers.
Eduardo and the others looked duly impressed when Lorenzo told them I’d procured venom from the sea serpent.
“What about the rest? What’s the next step?” Sarah asked.
“Only the water witch and I can know,” he said. “I won’t take the risk of interference from others.”
He left out the part about how he’d refused to tell me the rest of the story about how we’d break the curse. Fortunately, the others seemed suitably awed by him that they didn’t balk at his lack of disclosure.
“We will take this to the other half of the Underground leadership,” Erlich said. “If we’re all in agreement, we’ll hold off freeing more Hunters.”
A new rush of relief filled me. I stood, and Lorenz
o and I went to the door. I winced and tried to mentally brace myself as I opened it, fearing what I would find on the other side in the wake of the cursed vapor.
My hand flew to my mouth when I spotted Henrietta sitting in a dazed heap on the floor in the doorway leading out of her office. Blood smeared her hands, but it wasn’t enough blood to indicate that she’d torn out someone’s heart. No, when that happened it was obvious by the volume of gore that bathed the one who’d been mist-inflicted.
The smell of blood hit me, and I looked around for a victim. Just beyond Henrietta, there was the twisted form of a man. The hallway was dark, but I saw enough of the gaping hole in his chest. A dark stain spread out on the floor beneath him. My thoughts jumped to the girls, but I knew they were safe in the flat. With any luck, they’d slept through the blood mist and had no idea it had happened at all.
Henrietta looked down at her hands and then up at me with haunted eyes.
I knelt next to her. “It’s wasn’t you,” I said. “You didn’t kill anyone. There’s not enough blood on you.”
“This is the first time I’ve ever been affected by the vapor.” She gave a tiny, broken sigh and glanced at the dead man. Her chin tightened as she fought off tears. I’d never seen Henrietta this way. “It almost doesn’t matter who did it—me or someone else. Every time the Demon Lord kills a witch, we turn upon each other under a curse we have no power to fight. We’re all guilty and we’re all innocent.”
I helped her up to her feet.
“You have to break this curse,” she said, looking at me and then Lorenzo. “I don’t ever want to wake up with someone else’s blood on me again.”
I nodded, and then beckoned to Lorenzo. We had work to do. But first, I needed to ensure that I would never have to go running through The Colony searching for Lorenzo. My chest clenched when I remembered Amy.
Averting my eyes, I went ahead of Lorenzo and hurried past the dead man. My heart panged for his family, who would have the double blow of his death and knowing he’d been here in the brothel. Or maybe Henrietta would be able to move his body before the death crews arrived. She probably had some sort of contingency plan for this situation. Discretion was her trade, after all.
Out on the dark street, there was no one about. At this late hour, most people were home and asleep in their beds.
“I need to know where you live and any other locations I might find you,” I said. “And I want access to the serpent venom. Things are going to move quickly now, and we can’t afford to lose track of each other.”
“Assuming your Underground doesn’t go forward with its idiotic plan,” he said.
I glared at him. “What do you mean? They believed you back there. They see that they need to let us continue with the steps to break the curse.”
“Missy, I’ve come around to you.” His expression turned a bit sheepish. “I, well, I don’t completely loathe you.”
I rolled my eyes. “Gee, thanks. I’m getting all teary.”
“But I can’t ever trust the word of a witch,” he continued, ignoring my sarcasm as his tone hardened. “And warlocks aren’t much better.”
Irritation flared up inside me like a lit match. But I tried to understand his point of view. There’d been a moment when he was so close to breaking the curse. He’d nearly been free. But the witch he’d been working with had gone offtrack and ruined everything, and he’d had decades and decades to stew over it. I supposed I’d be pretty damn bitter, too, if I’d been in his shoes.
“So, does that mean you’re not going to show me where you’re hiding the serpent venom?” I asked, and tried to look as forlorn as possible, thinking maybe a softer approach would work better than butting heads.
He squinted down at me, the dull light of a nearby streetlamp playing across his forehead and cheekbones. He looked much older all of a sudden. Still handsome, but weary, as if all the time he’d spent stuck here on The Colony waiting had worn away at him like wind against stone.
For a moment, I truly thought he would give in and tell me, that he would finally trust me. But his face was closed.
He looked off into the distance. “I don’t hate you, but you’re still a witch.”
“You’re a real bastard, you know that?” I spat out in frustration. I never should have let him keep the venom in the first place. After all, I’d been the one who’d procured it. I’d died to get the damned stuff, for shells’ sake.
He chuckled humorlessly. “Oh, I’m the worst.”
He said it in a tone of complete agreement and not even a hint of irony. It still made me want to smack him senseless.
“But I will show you where I live.” He stopped and pointed up at the tenement building that we stood in front of. “Corner apartment, third floor.”
Most of the windows in the building were lit, which probably meant that several of the residents had been afflicted with the blood mist, or at least awakened by the commotion. As if to confirm my thought, a death crew appeared around the corner and trotted up to the building’s entrance. I caught sight of a few of the crewmen’s grim faces.
“C’mon,” Lorenzo said, his hand at my elbow. “I’ll see you safely to your building.”
“That’s not necessary,” I said, my voice frosty. After his insults and refusal to fill me in on breaking the curse, his offer to escort me somehow only made me more irritated. “You’re already home. No need for you to go all the way to the Royal and then come back.”
“Nonsense, missy.” He tugged my arm, towing me down the street.
I made a grumbling noise in my throat, but gave in. We walked in silence, passing a few more death crews on the way. On one block, there were four bodies covered with sheets, blood already soaking them in wide, dark stains. A woman sagged against a lamppost, wailing and sobbing into her hands. Her arms and the front of her dress were completely blood soaked.
I looked away and closed my eyes for a moment, trying to block out her grief and guilt. The Demon Lord’s gluttony turned us into murderers at random. Every time, the scenes were the same—mangled corpses, and men and women who didn’t even remember the killings they’d committed, but who’d be forever devastated by actions they couldn’t have controlled.
We reached the Royal, where Lorenzo saw me into the lobby and then left. It was quiet, and I hoped that meant there’d been no mist killings here. Or maybe a crew had already come and gone.
A figure stepped out of the dark dining room, and I jumped and let out a squeak.
“Shells, Eduardo, you scared me,” I said, wrapping one arm around my midsection and slumping over it slightly in my relief.
He held up a hand. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to. I’ve been waiting for you.”
“You have?”
“I wanted to tell you something privately.” His dark eyes grew intent. “Victoria, your mother is in the Watchtower. She’s still alive.”
Chapter 16
MY MOUTH FELL open and my heart stuttered to a stop in my chest.
“That can’t be possible,” I finally said, my words faint. I couldn’t quite seem to catch my breath. My heart was beating again, tapping away so swiftly I felt light-headed.
He nodded. “It’s true.” His face remained solemn, sad even.
“But something’s wrong?” I asked.
“She’s serving the Demon Lord.” He drew a breath, but hesitated for a long moment. “She’s his personal consort.”
I stared at him, trying to process this new bit of information. My face twisted as I fully took in what he’d just said.
“You mean she’s his—his. . .” I couldn’t finish the sentence.
His shoulders sagged. “Yes.”
I couldn’t imagine my mother submitting to the Demon Lord that way. She would die before doing such a thing. I pressed a hand to my chest. My heart was beating so hard. “She must not be herself. Is it a spell? Something like what the Sorcerer does to create Hunters?”
He closed his eyes for a moment. “No, Victoria, she�
��s still in full possession of her faculties.”
I could only stare at him. Hope, revulsion, and sadness were swirling around within me in a confusing churn of emotions.
“That can’t be.” I shook my head. “You must be wrong. There’s some sort of compulsion involved.”
“I know it’s difficult to understand, but she’s just trying to survive,” he said. “Think of how brave she’s had to be all these years, serving the Lord and clinging to hope that she might be free someday.”
I shook my head again, trying to push down the growing storm that seemed to be swelling inside my chest. “No, she wouldn’t,” I whispered, unable to catch enough breath to speak louder. “She wouldn’t. . .”
Everything within me began to crumble. I pressed my fingertips to my lips in a vain attempt to hold my emotions in, but it was no use. I let out a quiet moan, and then the growing pressure in my chest rose up through my throat and into my head. It broke, sending a tortured cry from my lips and tears streaming from my eyes.
Eduardo caught me when my knees buckled, and pulled me against his chest. I sobbed out all of the grief I’d been holding in for over a decade. Longing for a mother who’d been so cruelly snatched away from me when I needed her most. Sorrow for the horrors she’d been subjected to all this time. She’d been there all along, and I hadn’t even known it. The revelation sent a new sort of guilt piercing through my heart, though I couldn’t have even said exactly what I felt guilty for.
I didn’t know how long I cried onto Eduardo’s shoulder. He held me, patting my back until I ran out of tears.
I pulled away so I could look up at him. “What else?” I asked, using my sleeve to wipe my eyes. “What else do you remember about her?”
“She’s still beautiful,” he said. Warmth sparked in his eyes, and I suddenly realized he had true admiration for my mother. Affection, even. “And she’s still strong. I didn’t get to see her often, but I remember every glimpse I got of her. And I could see it in the way she held herself. She’s still strong, Victoria.”
I took a long breath, nodding.
He held me by the shoulders and smiled. “Now you can free her. You and the angel. The two of you will break the curse, and you’ll be reunited with your dear mother!”
