Shapeshifted

by Cassie Alexander

Page 24

  “Don’t worry. ” He looked over his shoulder at Jorgen, who was on all fours now, too long to be normal, drapes of skin and fur hanging down. “I’m sure we’ll both enjoy it. ”

  * * *

  Catrina let me in. The other two let her, and acted like she wasn’t crazy—even though they couldn’t see Jorgen, they accepted that there were strange forces at work in the world, and were prepared to try to handle them with gunfire. I wondered if Catrina had always been able to see the soul-sucking flower in me.

  She patted me down more thoroughly than the TSA, and when she was done, she gave me a grudging nod of respect. “I guess you know more than you let on. Welcome to casa de la noche. ”

  * * *

  Word traveled ahead of us. First we moved through the precariously balanced maze of junkers. I looked overhead and realized we were walking under deadfalls, created by non-engineers. I took a few deep breaths, tried to chase away my claustrophobia, and kept my eyes on Catrina’s back.

  It got darker as we went in—and then we reached simple Christmas lights, sparkling like stars, netted overhead. It gave the tunnel we were traveling through a dream-like quality, and took away the edge of a thousand pounds of rusting junk.

  Then we reached the building everything was attached to. I felt better once I was under solid brick. The main doors were guarded, and Catrina had to do a call and response in Spanish before she was let back in. Inside was quiet, as befit a place without drugs or hooliganism to keep it awake. A few people getting up for early jobs—they were wearing uniforms, and I could smell the coffee on their breath as they walked the way we’d come down the hall. They looked at me but didn’t ask any questions.

  We passed one person as she was closing her door. I could see into her rooms—they looked normal, tight but tidy—with the exception of a bricked-up window on the far wall.

  “Bricks?” I asked Catrina.

  “No open windows on the bottom two levels. It’s not safe. ”

  If you were allergic to light. Or maybe were expecting smoke grenades from rival gangs. I kept my mouth shut as I followed her farther in.

  * * *

  We reached the end of the hallway, and there were stairs going down. To the basement. There was a gate across the hallway, bolted into the cement. A series of locks of all different types ran down it, circled with padlocked chains through the bottom rungs.

  “We’ll have to wait here. I don’t have the key. ” She sat down on the stairs.

  “Is she normally out late?”

  “Until almost dawn. You have an hour. ”

  “You could—” I gestured back up the stairs. No need for both of us to kill time here.

  Her eyes narrowed. “Are you trying to ditch me?”

  I shook my head. “No—not at all. It’s just that it’s late. Not everyone’s as used to staying up at night as I am. ”

  She reached behind her neck and unclasped a necklace I hadn’t noticed there. A small cross swung out of her shirt, and she patted me with it.

  “Wouldn’t it have been smarter to do that up above?” I asked when she was done. She reclasped her necklace, satisfied.

  “You’re right—I should always check. ” She looked away, lips tight, like she’d missed something she ought not to have in recent past. “Even Reina doesn’t mind me checking. ”

  So. The plot thickened. If I’d known I might meet a real vampire, I’d have brought something useful. Like a syringe, or an IV start kit. I snorted at myself and rubbed sweaty hands against my jeans.

  Catrina was quiet. Any questions I wanted to ask would give away information on my part. I didn’t want to tell her anything else about myself or my situation until I found out who I’d be dealing with tonight.

  Waiting here I could feel the moments ticking away. I hoped that Jorgen hadn’t eaten Hector, that Olympio wasn’t cowering under his bed worrying about the Donkey Lady, that I hadn’t left Olympio’s grandfather with the impression that I was a bitch, and last but not least, that Peter had woken up my mother just enough to explain to her that I was all right. Let’s add the hope that my mother might not die at the end of all this to my laundry list too. That maybe I could get some fucking answers here from a fucking real vampire, one that just happened to be nice enough to hand over a small amount of blood.

  There were footsteps on the stair above us. “Catrina, who is there?” a voice called down.

  Of course the vampire could smell me. She could probably hear me breathing.

  “She’s a nurse, she works at the clinic with me. Hector brought her. She says she needs to see you, to help her get rid of the thing outside. Hector says it may help you in your search. ”

  Had he? Hmmmm. If this vampire was searching for something, maybe we could work out a trade. “My name’s Edie,” I helpfully provided, my name echoing up the stairs.

  There was a sigh from up above. “I was hoping it wouldn’t be you. ”

  Black boots appeared on the stairs, then tight jeans, black shirt, and then a face that I knew. She was a real vampire. I’d been there when she’d been marked to be turned. “Luz. ”

  “Enfermera,” she said, closing her eyes and shaking her head.

  I’d been her nurse—no, her boyfriend’s nurse—for a stretch when I’d been working on Y4. He’d been gravely injured by a gunshot wound, and she’d been adoring him to the end. Anna, the vampire I was a friend of, had changed him into a daytimer, and Luz into a full vamp, to save both of their lives. Mostly. Seeing as I’d found her as the ruler of a gang, hidden in the basement of an apartment-bunker, I wasn’t sure this was what Anna’d had in mind.

  “Catrina, you can go,” Luz said.

  “But—” she began, reluctant to be dismissed. She looked to me, then back to Luz, and asked, “Any news?”

  “Not tonight. I’ll look again tomorrow. ”

  It was clear Catrina didn’t want to leave. Luz reached out and grabbed her shoulder. “I’ll find her. I won’t rest until I do. Don’t lose hope. ”

  Catrina nodded softly, and then ran back up the stairs. Luz watched her go with pity, and then looked to me. “I suppose that we can talk. Perhaps I owe you that. Or perhaps you owe me?” Her eyebrows rose, and the gaze that had been so wide and soft with Catrina narrowed to predatory.

  “I didn’t mean for this to happen. ” She’d begged Anna for her boyfriend’s life, and this was the payment Anna had required. Changing her into this, here. “I had no idea. ”

  “What’s done is done,” Luz said, her lips snaking up into an ironic smile, showing fangs, as she reached into her pocket for a ring of keys.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  After enough locks to successfully win a car on The Price Is Right were opened, Luz pushed open a very squeaky gate. “Rust, my last defense,” she said, closing the gate behind us—and, to my dismay, redoing all the locks. Once finished, she repocketed the keys.

  She flipped on a light and gestured me farther in.

  The basement was small and open, with cement floors and walls. A couch, a coffee table, an unmade bed. A single lamp hung over the bed, a tissue paper heart stapled to its shade, casting a pink shadow down. With the exception of her excellent collection of capless test tubes scattered on the floor, Luz had fewer belongings than me.

  “Luz, this is a pit. ”

  “Call me Reina. Everyone else does,” she said as she kicked test tubes aside. Thank God the things were made of plastic, not glass, or this’d be like some sort of torture-porn horror film.

  “Okay, Reina, what—” I watched her sink onto the cement floor, and went to kneel beside her. Her eyes were flat and cold, like a shark about to bite. I scooted back a bit, and she nodded. “What the hell happened to you?”

  Focusing on me, she pushed herself up on one elbow. She stirred the test tubes nearest her until she found one with its contents still intact. “Since this is all your fault, I’ll tell you the truth.
”

  I cleared a spot from test tubes on the floor, thanked God that Hector had dressed me in jeans not shorts two nights ago, and carefully sat down.

  “After I was bitten I slept for three nights. When I woke, I was unguarded and hungry. So I went out. ” She cracked the cap off the test tube and daubed the contents out with a dainty fingertip. “My first thought was to use all my power to tear apart the gang that’d crippled Javier. I went to see him immediately after I was reborn.

  “He didn’t understand what had happened. No one had explained things to him. He just knew he was well now and that I’d been gone, that was all. No one told him that I was asleep. Dying. Then becoming alive again. ” She tilted her head and finished off the blood in the tube like it was the last gulp of beer from a bottle, then she tossed the empty tube away. “I found him at a party. ”

  I imagined her, starving, entering a room of humans, the sound of their blood singing in her ears.

  “He said I’d been cheating on him, and went to hit me. I stopped him. For good. ”

  I wondered if Javier had realized the mistake he’d made—right before Luz had broken his head off. “The party ended after that. I ate him. It was awful, in retrospect. At the time?” She picked up another test tube and looked at it as though it paled in comparison, then threw it aside. “At the time I was hungry. And then she arrived to claim me. Your friend. ”

  I wasn’t sure friend was the best term to describe the bond between Anna and me. I’d saved her life once, and that was a very big deal, but friend was pushing it.

  “I think she wanted me to do what I did. I think she knew I would do it, and she wanted me to, to show me what I was capable of. So that I would believe her. I would know what I’d become, and feel her power over me. But even after that I still fought her. ” She looked directly at me. “I don’t like being told what to do. By anyone. ”

  I snorted. “I remember that about you. ”