by Andy Hyland
Mercy, the vampire formerly known as Grace, stood in the center of the room, waiting imperiously. We’d not known Grace very well – she was an ex-employee of the Union who’d thrown in her lot with Simeon when things went pear-shaped. Seemed nice. Now she was a vampire, the next in Simeon’s line. Part of this meant taking on a new name, hence Grace became Mercy. I wasn’t sure whether becoming a real pain in the ass was also part of the plan or if it was a side-effect.
“You’re late,” she informed us. She looked old and ageless at the same time, steel-gray hair and a ramrod straight back, dressed in black and tapping a long cane on the floor.
“But we’re here,” I said. “Can we get this over with?”
“With that attitude it hardly seems worth it, but very well. Please, empty yourself a little.”
A yellow crystal, embedded in rock, stood on a table near the entrance. I stepped over, placed a hand on it, and transferred most of my power. It was much the same type of transfer that Zack had made to me. Even after this, I still felt immensely strong and had more than enough to work with. The transfer was a precaution, to make sure that any damage, though potentially serious, wouldn’t end up as catastrophic.
“Ward yourself,” she commanded, and raised her hand. A fireball sprang into existence and came hurtling towards us. Instinctively I threw up a basic protective barrier, wide enough to cover me and anyone who happened to be standing near. Normally, back in the old days when I was your basic everyday mage, this would fix itself a few feet in front of me, and be sturdy enough. How things had changed. As soon as I threw the ward up, I felt it slip, getting away from me. The barrier rocketed forward, taking out the fireball and crashing into a nearby bookcase, which fell to the floor, splintered and ruined. Mercy, now possessing whatever strong magics had once been at Simeon’s disposal, threw up her own counter-ward. Even so, the shock knocked her backwards a few steps.
“Sorry,” I muttered, embarrassed once again at screwing up such a basic cast. “Let me try that again. I’ll get it.”
“No point,” she snapped. Then she sighed and made her way over to us. “We’re getting nowhere. Even a complete novice would have made a little progress by now, with these exercises. If you ask me, the problem isn’t magical. Irrespective of the level of power, the technique is the same. You’ve been Aware long enough to handle the basic castings at this intensity.”
“So what is it then?” asked Zack. “We need to get the man back up and fighting fit.”
Mercy shrugged. “If you ask me, it is mental. Or emotional.”
“I’m English,” I countered. “I don’t do emotional.”
“Spare me the attempts at humor. You have been through a great deal. It would be naïve to think that you could come out the other side unscathed. You need to find out what has got into your head that is stopping you being able to do these things. If you can discover that, we might be able to get somewhere. Until you do, we are stuck.”
“So that’s it?” I asked. “You called us down here to tell me to sod off and figure it out myself?”
“Partly, yes. But I also need your help with something. The Union has started putting together a list of mages active in the area, but we’re encountering some gaps. We need you to help with filling them in.”
I looked at Zack. He raised his eyebrows, evidently having the same thoughts as me about the endeavor. “So, to summarize,” I said to Mercy, “the Union, an organization I know barely anything about, but which was responsible for killing Simeon, and which you yourself ran away from, now wants to have a complete list of mages in New York. What will that include? Addresses, magic specialisms, known weaknesses perhaps? You’ll forgive me if I don’t find that an attractive prospect.”
“I admit it might sound strange. But there’s a lot you do not understand -”
“And which nobody wants to tell us,” I cut in. “Well, you run back to your bosses and tell them that until they start being a bit more open about things, including who the hell they are, they can go whistle as far as my help is concerned.”
I turned to leave. Zack fell into step behind me.
“Scorpio,” Mercy said. I stopped. “We can’t find your friend Scorpio. Nobody has seen her.”
“Damn,” hissed Zack.
“We’ll look into it,” I said, and walked out the door.
*
Out in the bay there was a slight mist over the water. Lady Liberty stood proud in the light of the full moon. Construction crews were still swarming over what remained of the Kreslaw Building and Ascension House, but in reduced numbers now that the night shift had taken over. Plenty of rumors were going around about what was going to happen with the sites. I wasn’t interested. Zack was over to my left, working his phone.
Neither of us had seen Scorpio since the Carafax scare kicked off. Last time I’d tried to call her was the day that Melanie went missing, the day that Jerry, a brand new Mage I was showing the ropes to, got butchered in my apartment. In everything that had happened since then, it hadn’t crossed my mind to chase her up. It’s not like I didn’t have enough on my plate. Or maybe that was merely an excuse.
“Nice night,” said a voice at my elbow. The familiar hint of a Welsh accent. The smell of a cheap cologne.
“Liberty,” I said without turning round. A member of the Union who’d reached out to me after Simeon died. Someone Simeon trusted. I wasn’t completely sold on him yet, but he’d not tried to con or kill me, so I was cautiously optimistic. “What’s going on in your world? You back on happy terms with all your friends?”
“The Union’s not broken anymore, if that’s what you mean,” he said, coming up to me and leaning on the wall. “We’re getting back to doing what we should be doing.”
“Am I ever going to find out what that is?”
He didn’t answer. Just smiled. “What do you think of Mercy?”
“Could take some getting used to.”
“If it’s any help, I’m reliably informed that Simeon was also a royal pain in the ass when he first turned. It always takes them a few years to settle in. Big change for them, you’ll appreciate.”
“Yeah, maybe I should cut her a break. But she’s not the only one having to adjust, is she?”
“No, she’s not. She told you about the big mage list project? Bit of a bee in her bonnet about that one.”
“She mentioned it. Terrible idea. I hate it.”
“I’d expect nothing less of you. Thing is, that strange little plan has highlighted something rather disturbing.”
“A missing mage. We’re onto it.”
“Missing mages. Plural.”
I shrugged. “Don’t want to sound callous, but it’s not exactly unusual is it? You play with demons, you get mutilated. Or carried off. Both, usually.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. What you say is true, but I think there’s something else going on. Call it a hunch. I need some assistance from you.”
“Are you paying, or is it a favor?”
“Why don’t we call it repaying a favor?”
I smiled. “Can’t argue with that. What do you want?”
He reached into the pocket of his grubby brown coat and pulled out a folded piece of paper. “Five names, including Scorpio. Contact details and notes of acquaintances, if we have them. Probably a day’s work to ask some questions. Perhaps it’s nothing.”
“And perhaps it’s something we need to be aware of.”
“Quite.”
“How do I get back to you on this?”
“Oh, don’t worry about that, lad. I’ll find you in a couple of days. You’re not that hard to track down.”
“So it seems.”
“Damn it!” Zack ended his call loudly and slammed the phone onto the grass, before regretting it and checking it over for damage.
“Anything?” I asked. “By the way, Zack, this is…” I turned round but Liberty was already some distance away and walking fast.
“Anyone I need to know?” asked Zack.
/> “Apparently not, no.” I waved the paper at him. “Looks like it’s not only Scorpio that’s gone AWOL. I take it you didn’t get anything?”
“Nobody’s seen her. Not since a day or two before Jerry.”
“She could have left. Gone for a trip.”
He shook his head, tapping the phone into his palm. “Unlikely. She’s got some pretty close…friends, shall we say. She dropped off the map. I know there’s any number of explanations – maybe she got stuck in the Fades when the doors closed, something like that.”
“But.”
“But people who are closer to her than us are worried.”
“Which means maybe Mercy’s onto something.” I opened the slip of paper. “No address for Scorpio. You ever been round to her place?”
“No, but that’s not a problem. She’s a customer. Had some gear shipped direct a few months ago. Place up in East Harlem.”
The Aware have day jobs – or night jobs, if you want to put it that way. We need money to grease the wheels of life as much as anyone else. I cleaned up problematic and unwanted messes. Zack shipped in arcane items from around the world and re-sold them on ebay. I worked harder, but he had a bigger apartment. That’s the modern world for you, I suppose.
I looked at my watch. “The night is young. Want to head up there?”
“Er, any chance we could leave it until later?”
I gave him a hard look. “This is pretty serious stuff, Zack. Potentially, anyway.”
“I know, but I met this doctor at the hospital. Cute, nice smile, laughs at all my jokes. Asked her out, so we’re going to see this late show. Her friend’s in it, she got tickets. I said yes, don’t want be a no-show on the first date.”
“Zack…”
“She’s a redhead, Malachi. You know how I feel about redheads.”
“Fine. If she’s been gone this long, I don’t think another night’s going to make a difference. You’d better hope it doesn’t, anyway. So when are we going to do this?”
“I’m probably going to be available again sometime early morning.”
“In your dreams.”
He grinned. “I’ll call you. Don’t call me. Don’t want her finding out what freaky folks I hang round with. Stay safe, man.”
He headed off uptown, and I was left kicking my heels. What to do? Then I remembered the two thousand neatly folded dollars tucked in my pocket. If I got to the comic shop, I could see how things were going and leave the cash to be banked along with the night’s takings. Hopefully word would filter out to the staff and they’d calm down a bit. Kelly, the most talkative of my informants in the Emporium, had it on good authority that at least two others were sitting on provisional job offers elsewhere. Nobody wanted to leave – it was, after all, a truly amazing place, and run by Julie – but everyone had rent to pay and food to buy. You couldn’t blame them. Well, not too much.
I considered a cab or the metro, but walking clears the mind wonderfully, and you should always treasure some peace and quiet when the opportunity presents itself. On my way uptown I also got to go past the Empire State building, my all-time personal favorite as far as concrete constructions go. Safe, and full of good vibes. Shame I couldn’t live there, really, but you can’t have everything. Running through my mental managerial list, I figured that as far as the Emporium was concerned we were on top of things, and apart from the precarious cash situation were in good shape. Stock was in, stock was on order, the staff was cheerful and Arabella had effectively and permanently dealt with six of the most offensive ex-customers. When Julie came back she’d find it in good shape. And given the size of her Dad’s estate, and his last will and testament that was sitting in my apartment, she was going to have deep enough pockets to keep the place going indefinitely.
Between shop considerations and the running memory reel of the past few weeks that started rolling as I walked, I was lost in my own little world as St Patrick’s drew near. I was dimly aware on some level of the couple standing outside the Emporium, arms linked, her smiling and pointing, him frowning.
The guy was average height, a bit taller than the girl, with spiked brown hair and a tidily-shaved goatee. Sports jacket over jeans. The girl was something special. Dressed more casually in a hoody and leggings, blonde hair tied back in a loose ponytail, smiling widely. That smile.
Her head turned in my direction, and our eyes met. She looked slightly shocked, like a kid caught with her hands in the cookie jar. Heaven knows what my face looked like. I stopped dead, mouth hanging open, trying to work out whether to carry on walking forward, what to say, how to handle this. I was about to turn on my heels and head back south, when she made the decision for me. Pulling on the guy’s elbow, she dragged him back up the street, away from the shop, away from me.
So Julie was back in town. And in the space of a few seconds my life had turned to shit.
I headed into the shop, nodding at Kelly and Marcus, who were working the shift that evening, keeping my head down. I saw Kelly throw Marcus a worried look. Evidently they’d seen her as well. And seen…whoever the guy was. The other guy. Marcus wasn’t my biggest fan – he’d spent the first week thinking I was using the shop as a front for a drug operation. Admittedly, some pretty odd characters had come in asking after me, but that was unavoidable – I had my own bills to pay. Even he, though, patted my shoulder as I headed into the back room. “Sorry man,” he muttered. Kelly looked like she was about to cry. I shut the door before she started me off too.
Because I had nothing to do and nowhere to go and didn’t want to face anyone ever again, I lurked in the office until gone midnight. Marcus rapped on the door to let me know he was off. Ten minutes later I headed out myself. Dawn was a long time away, but I wasn’t about to get any sleep before then.
“Hey, you Malachi?” someone asked as I locked up and left through the front door. It was a tall guy, jeans and a leather jacket, smooth brown skin and black hair greased back. Looked oddly familiar, but at the same time I didn’t think we’d ever met.
“That’s me,” I said, walking over and reaching out. Human, but with that tang of magic that unmistakably marks the Aware. “Who’s asking?” It was best to be ever so slightly aggressive and confrontational with these sorts of first meetings. My best friends are all Aware, obviously, but you can get some real assholes, and you need to weed those out of your life ASAP.
“Hey,” he said, putting up his hands, “just a friendly hello. You always so in your face around here?” Strong Mexican accent. The resemblance clicked.
“Sorry, not the warmest welcome, was it? You must be Anton’s brother, right?”
He grinned like a shark and pointed a well-manicured finger at me. “Good guess. Dexter said you were sharp.”
“You know Dexter?” Dexter was a good friend of mine, with a specialism in surveillance. He’d headed out of town for a break when things got a bit too hot for him in New York. Last time we’d spoken, he’d mentioned Mexico.
“Yeah, we met near the border. Good guy, helped me out a bit. Said if I was coming this way I should look you up, introduce myself properly, so – here I am. Formerly Valentino Rosas. Now I’m just Valen.”
He stuck out his hand and we shook. “Welcome to the big apple. Anton didn’t mention you were around. You seen him yet?”
Valen looked away and shifted uncomfortably. “I’ve seen him, but he doesn’t see me anymore. You know how it is. The family’s got magic, but Aware is Aware.”
I nodded and mentally kicked myself for not thinking of that. When you become Aware you’re shifted out of phase with this reality. Old connections you had – family in particular – they forget about you. Not completely, but in every way that really matters. You start life over again.
“Anyway, let’s not dwell on such sad things,” he continued. “I’ve got the cash, you’ve got all the knowledge. Why don’t you show me around, and the drinks are all on me?”
I smiled. “That sounds like a plan. Shame the best bar around her
e can’t be reached at the moment. Not while the Fades is in lockdown.”
Valen smiled. “You’re kidding, right? You didn’t know? Fades opened up again this morning. Word’s been going round all day. Man, you haven’t heard about the place? Come on, let’s slide. You won’t believe your eyes when you get there.”
He was right. I didn’t.
Chapter three
We slid across together near a Starbucks two streets down – a thin place, no real effort required. Even so, the process felt strange, unfamiliar – less clear, more hazy round the edges. For a moment I thought it hadn’t worked, that we’d been turned round and shoved back out again. Then it started to dawn on me. “You have got to be kidding.”
To truly understand the difference, you’d have had to know how the Fades was in this area before the change happened. Back then, if you slid from Manhattan, you’d end up in one of two places – a long cobbled street with Benny’s bar through a door on a wall to your left, or in Rarkshah, a shanty town of demons ruled over by an ex hell-lord called Sitri.
Now we stood in…well, we stood in New York. Manhattan. Sure, the buildings were dilapidated – ruins, some of them. There was the same acrid smell the Fades always had, the same choked ash sky with the pale yellow orb overhead. But now it was like someone had taken all the buildings from our world, emptied them and beaten them up, and stuck them over here. Even the roads were the same. Was there a subway system beneath the streets? Could well be.
