02 Seekers

by Lynnie Purcell

  “The Seekers have learned to be creative in the ways we kill,” Daniel said darkly. “Killing indirectly keeps more from turning into a Nightstalker. Management likes to control who turns and when.”

  “I’m usually a fan of creativity, but I think I’ll make an exception in this case,” I said eyeing the grave I had risen from.

  He held me at arm’s length for a moment. His face told a story of apology. “I didn’t know it was you. I just heard them talking about putting another human here, and I came when I was free to do so. How long were you here?” His eyes were terrified at my answer.

  “I don’t know…” I told him honestly.

  He shook his head and looked behind him for a moment. I sensed him searching out the future, the tension in his body telling a story of caution. When he turned back to me, he had found the present again – and all the consequent worries we faced. “We have to go. They have to think you’re still here, or they’ll get suspicious.”

  He moved the slab to cover the tomb and handed me the knife I had dropped when I’d escaped. I tucked it carefully in my boot, promising myself I would never go anywhere without it again, and he grabbed my hand to lead me down the rows of tombs. Fuzzy sounds, overwhelming pain, and thoughts closed in on my aching head, but I didn’t let it show. I was just glad it was his hand I was grasping instead of someone else’s, and that neither of us had died. Outside the rows of stone and marble of the cemetery was a street. It was uneven with cobblestone and only vaguely familiar. We had traveled farther than I had thought.

  Daniel tugged on my hand to make me hurry. I stumbled after him until we came to streets I had come to know too well. Sharp turn after sharp turn left me dizzy and disoriented – I hoped it did the same for anyone else who might be curious about our rushed passing. He finally stopped pulling me along and ducked in a hidden alcove. He pressed me against the wall, to keep me hidden, while he checked the roads beyond us to make sure we weren’t followed.

  “I don’t have long,” he said. “I have to be back by dark.”

  I looked up at the grey sky where boiling clouds rolled in an endless stream. There was no sun to let me know of the time. “When is that?”

  “Soon,” he replied.

  “Don’t go back,” I begged.

  He put his hand on my face. “I’m terrified that if I go back you’ll disappear, and this will have been some sort of awful dream to give me false hope but…”

  I already saw the truth in his eyes. “You’re close to the truth.”

  “Damian, the leader of the nest down here…”

  “We met,” I said.

  “I’ve gained his trust. He’s starting to let me on secrets…on missions he does personally for Marcus. I am close to finding out what Marcus is up to.”

  “That doesn’t matter if you’re dead.”

  “It matters,” he said. “More than you know…”

  His eyes turned distant, and his sense of urgency increased at whatever he saw in the future. His hand moved to his stomach and inky black circled around in his eyes. He took long calming

  breaths to stymie the darkness, but I saw how close it was to the surface. It was taking all his willpower to keep it at bay. His hand lingered at his stomach as he found his calm again. “If I don’t leave now they’ll find us here and that won’t be good for anyone. Meet me tomorrow, at noon, at the St. Louis church. You know where that is?”

  He meant the church I had met Serenity in. Why did everyone want to keep meeting me there?

  “Yes…”

  “We’ll talk then,” he said.

  “You promise you’ll be there?” I asked.

  “Nothing could keep me,” he said.

  I pulled the rock he had left me at the hotel from my pocket and forced it into his hand as a reminder. “Don’t forget,” I said.

  He held the rock up to eye level. “I won’t,” he promised. He leaned forward and kissed me. It was a kiss that left me breathless, not only because it was amazing to kiss him after so many weeks apart, but because of the tumultuous, conflicting, emotions I felt through our touch. It was not a kiss of peace. He rested his forehead on mine for a minute, communicating his love through our touch then he pushed off the wall, rock in hand, and disappeared down the street.

  He was gone before I could figure out what had just happened.

  Chapter 17

  I wasn’t aware of giving him plenty of time to disappear before stepping out from our little hiding place, but some part of my brain told me it was a good idea. It gave me time to catch up to the situation. It gave me time to realize I had actually touched him again, felt his skin on mine, his lips; had felt what it meant to be held by him again. It felt so surreal and much too temporary.

  Was I still really in the tomb and was dreaming all this? I pinched my skin to be sure. It hurt enough to let me know I wasn’t dreaming. And surely if I were dreaming, I would feel much

  better about seeing him? The knots in my stomach felt entirely too realistic.

  The weirdness of his sudden departure and our abrupt meeting sunk in. I understood that he felt obligated to find out what Marcus was up to, and that he wanted to stop the killing, but why was he so passionate about staying? We could have left and started over in another city – together.

  There were other options – there were always other options. I remembered Serenity and her

  words to me in the church. I had forgotten them around the panic of being locked in the tomb, but they flooded back in horrible detail. Was he hiding something else from me? And how would I tell him about Margaret and Jackson when I saw him again?

  My moments in the tomb replayed in my head as a light rain started. It had been more

  frightening than almost dying when I had been shot. I wasn’t much one for irrational fears, but I had just found a rationale for claustrophobia. Goosebumps that had nothing to do with the rain erupted down my spine at the thought. I certainly didn’t want to see a closed in space again…

  ever.

  My feet started their slow way back to Alex, figuring she would be worried, though my brain was trapped in the alcove we had said ‘goodbye’ in. With my slow pace, it took me a while to find the theater. When I saw the green awning and white building I was relieved, more relieved than I had thought I would be. The theater had turned into a safe haven, somewhere the bad guys couldn’t find me. I felt almost as if were my fortress against the world, my interim ‘castle in the woods’. Three steps up the metal stairs, someone called my name from behind me.

  “Clare!” Spider and Ethan ran over, their faces full of concern. Spider’s face was stretched tight in his worry, and his eyes actually burned with fear. Ethan was at a more reasonable level of concern, though he too was deeply worried.

  Spider caught me staring at him – the burning look in his eyes way too familiar – and arranged his face carefully. “You look like hell,” he told me. “Where have you been? Alex is frantic.”

  “Crap. Was I gone that long?” I asked.

  “Almost six hours,” Ethan confirmed.

  “Is she here?” I asked them.

  “Yeah, her and Eli came back to see if you were here. I think they are about to head out again.

  Cora, Sprint and Twitch are out looking for you in a different part of town. I should probably go get them…” Spider said. His whole body was a study in uncomfortable. He shifted and twitched almost as much as Twitch did when he thought someone was going to talk to him. I tried to listen to Spider’s thoughts, but he kept me out with technical, computer stuff I couldn’t even begin to translate. “I’ll catch up with you later,” he added.

  “Okay…”

  He spun around and left again. I looked at Ethan for an explanation but Ethan was equally

  puzzled. He shrugged at my unasked question and made a face of confusion.

  “How come Alex was frantic?” I asked Ethan as we started up the stairs.

  Had she been close to turning at my near death experience? />
  “She said she just had a bad feeling in her stomach, and knew something was wrong. Eli trusted her feeling and asked us to go look for you.”

  “Oh.”

  “What happened? Where did you go?” Ethan asked.

  “Alex will be pissed if she hears my story second,” I told him.

  “She’s going to be pissed either way,” Ethan muttered.

  He held the heavy door open for me, and followed me in to the dark hall. We were silent as we crossed the threshold of the hall and made our careful way down the creaky, dark stairs. I heard him thinking about my disappearance, trying again to work out why I was so weird, and why it mattered. He kept his questions to himself, though, and I didn’t try to answer his unspoken questions. I was too exhausted and much too worried.

  At the door to the stage I knew I was in trouble. I could tell from the expression on Alex’s face and the way she paced from stage left to stage right like a lonely player in a particularly restless, upsetting play. She had an audience of one to the madness of her play, but it wasn’t the sort of audience that appreciated the drama. Eli sat out of her way on the second row back.

  When I walked in, I sensed they had just stopped talking about something. Alex noticed me

  immediately. She saw the added dirt and ripped clothes, perhaps even some of the blood from the people in the garbage shoot. Her eyes widened then narrowed dangerously. She crossed her arms and one eyebrow rose to her hairline as she waited for an explanation. She didn’t have to say anything; what she wanted was written large in Times New Roman on her forehead.

  “If anyone wants to leave, now would be the time,” I said to Ethan and Eli.

  Neither moved, but they both eyed Alex’s change of expression in trepidation. They only knew the half of how deadly her glare could get. I almost felt sorry for them, almost as sorry as I felt for myself.

  “Beginning to end. Complete story,” she said in clipped tones when it was obvious they weren’t leaving.

  I took a deep breath, knowing how useless it would be to try and avoid her questions. Alex had a way of finding the truth. She would get her way. I gave her the full story, editing some for Ethan’s sake – he didn’t need to know about the unburied dead or the hopelessness of the people in the tunnels. While it was something I would never forget, he didn’t need the same burden burned into his memories. I watched Alex’s face as the story progressed, noticing how it shifted from irritated worry to downright rage.

  As my voice trailed away she found hers. “You had no right – no right! – to run off and do that!

  It was selfish, dangerous, and stupid! Do you even think about other people, or are you so focused on your little mission of being ‘Ms. I-can-do-everything’ that you don’t find the

  concerns of us mere mortals important?!”

  “Alex…”

  “DON’T ‘ALEX’ ME!!!!”

  I clamped my mouth shut.

  “I came down here to be a part of this journey, not to sit back and watch you do dangerous stuff in the name of stupidity! What did you prove by going down there?” She didn’t give me time to answer. “You don’t think!” She held up her thumb in an accusation. “We’re supposed to be

  sisters and all you can think about is risking everything we’re trying to do. If you cared more about what you did to me, you wouldn’t be so callous with your actions! You would let me be a part of this instead of shoving me to the side! ‘Oh, it’s okay! Alex won’t mind. I’ll just run off and get myself shot or attacked by a gang or get lost in a Seeker’s nest!’ I’m in this as much as you are! More, sometimes! When will you stop acting like I don’t get it?! I gave up seeing Dad, having a house, regular meals, to come down here! You’re not the only one longing to see people you care about! Ah!”

  She doubled over and grabbed her stomach in a gesture similar to the one Daniel had made only half an hour earlier. A strange shifting started under her skin, moving things that shouldn’t be movable. Her whole body started to shake and deep rolling growls formed in her throat – sounds I knew she shouldn’t be capable of. The shaking got worse as more growls ripped from her

  body. Flesh and bone moved in ear shattering pops, crunches, and tears. It didn’t take long, perhaps twenty seconds, for her to completely change, but I was aware of every painful second.

  Her eyes were the last thing to change. A milky white film covered her blue eyes. Those eyes trained on me once the change was complete.

  Eli was frozen halfway out of his chair. I was frozen as well but for a different reason than shock. It was instinct keeping me still. Would Alex attack me? Was her anger at me that great?

  That question was answered immediately. She jumped away from the tattered remains of her

  clothes and landed with a solid thump on the molded carpet. I felt the vibration of her landing through my feet. Her growls turned deadly, menacing. She didn’t take her eyes off me once, not even when she jumped. She bared her teeth at me, then charged. I only had time to push Ethan out of the way before she barreled through the spot I had been standing only seconds ago. Her momentum took her too far, though. She kept going, busting through the main doors of the

  theater as she scrambled to find footing. The heavy chain the owner had placed to keep

  trespassers out broke as easily as thread against her charge. She glared up at the sunlight, hating the feel of it on her skin as she regained her feet.

  I started forward, not knowing what I was doing, only aware that I had to stop this before it got out of hand. Her white eyes flashed briefly with blue in a moment of clarity as she craned her neck to look at me running toward her. She turned before I could find the words to calm her down and jumped up in the air. Using the building across the street like a jungle gym, she climbed up and over, disappearing from sight in seconds. The massive hole in the wall of the theater was a stark visual, a gaping question mark in my brain.

  Ethan found his feet again; he trembled at what he had witnessed, and his eyes were the size of half dollars.

  Eli had a much different response. “She’s a monster,” he said to me. “You let a monster into our home without telling us.”

  “She’s not a monster!”

  “What else do you call that?” he demanded.

  “My sister,” I said.

  “I’ve seen one of those creatures before. There is no humanity to them,” Eli said.

  “Seen one?”

  “It killed my mother,” Eli admitted. “It killed her trying to get to me.”

  “Alex isn’t like that.”

  “She just tried to kill you,” he pointed out.

  “I was just buried alive and witnessed things down in that sewer you can’t imagine, so you’ll have to forgive me for being a little…honest, but here’s the truth: I don’t care what you think. I don’t care about your opinion. I’m going to go find my friend, before she hurts herself or someone else.”

  “You should do her a favor and put her down,” Eli snarled.

  My blood boiled, and I felt heat rush into my face. “Don’t even think about it!” I warned.

  His face was ugly. The dank hair that was always greasy accentuated his glare, and for the first time I saw Eli as a killer – not simply as a defender or a protector of the kids, but a cold-blooded killer. Perhaps, because he had saved my life I had ignored the potential deadliness of him, or had underestimated him because of his silence, but I saw it now. I glared at him and his

  murderous expression. I felt like fighting him, wanting to take out my aggression somewhere.

  Ethan stepped between us and held his hands out. “Um. What’s going on? What happened to

  Alex?”

  “She turned into a Nightstalker because…because she got angry.” The reason behind her shift was obvious now that I had seen it.

  “A Nightstalker?”

  “Ethan, I would love to explain everything to you, but now isn’t the time.”

  Thoughts of curious neighbors were starting to
close in. Hanging around the theater was not only dangerous, it was stupid. With a final glare at Eli, I turned away and started out the hole Alex had carved with her body. I focused in the direction I thought Alex had gone, and after a brief pause Ethan hurried to join me. He caught up quickly.

  “Eli doesn’t want you to come back after you find her,” he said quietly.

  “I figured that much,” I said still angry.

  “But I want to help you look for her.”

  After what he had just seen, it was amazing he could still be so willing to help us. I felt my heart warm at his generosity, but I knew I couldn’t accept his offer. “It’s too dangerous,” I said.

  “Don’t tell me that. I’m older than Spider, have lived on the streets longer. I think I can handle whatever he can handle. I’m the one that taught him to pick locks for heaven’s sake!”

  “I…”

  “Tell me what’s really going on,” he commanded.

  I shrugged indifferently and told him as much as he needed to know. He was surprised, but he accepted my words. The truth of Alex’s change had given him all the proof he needed. “Spider knows about this?” he asked.

  “Yep.”

  “Okay. Where do you think she would go?” he asked.

  “Shopping.”

  “She’s a demon,” he pointed out.

  “Do demons have malls?” I asked.

  “We should probably split up,” Ethan said. “I’ll look for her near the water.”

  “I doubt she’s hanging around where people are, but okay.”

  “I’ll meet you at the bench near the coffee stand Alex likes tomorrow morning, okay? Hopefully one of us will have found her by then,” he added.

  “All right. Thanks. This means a lot.”

  He shrugged. “Family sticks together. Eli’s just forgotten that. He’ll come around.”

  “That’s what I’m afraid of,” I muttered as he walked off.

  I took a deep breath then tried to think through what I knew about Alex and her curse. This was the first time she had turned since what had happened in the bunker with the Sheriff. Would she be able to focus her energy like she had then, or would she simply go wild?