The Children and the Blood

by Megan Joel Peterson

  Trembling, she lowered her arm.

  A click sounded behind her.

  She stopped breathing. Slowly, she turned around.

  Her gun aimed at Ashe’s chest, Spider stared. The girl’s face was bloodless. Her hands shook. Red marks from the wizard’s grip shone brightly against the pale skin of her throat.

  But her expression never wavered.

  “Spider…”

  The girl made a warning noise, the weapon twitching in her hand. Wordlessly, she backed away, not taking her eyes from Ashe. Reaching for Mischa, she fumbled till she found a grip on the dog’s collar and then tugged the limping animal with her.

  At the corner of the alley, she paused, and Ashe could read the threat in her eyes. Her fingers tightening on the gun, Spider watched her a moment more, and then disappeared behind the corner of the building. Her footsteps pounded on the pavement as she raced away.

  Ashe blinked.

  She…

  A shiver shook her.

  Spider just…

  In dazed incredulity, her gaze dropped to the concrete. The blackened corpse waited by her feet and she flinched, backing away.

  They’d left. Spider. But with her went Carter. Bus. Jericho and Magnolia and Peony and Belle and…

  Ashe gasped as names tumbled through her head like pebbles preceding an avalanche.

  It’d happened. It’d finally happened. Every safe person, every safe place had evaporated in a heartbeat, and in their place, the whole great world opened like a maw, full of nothing but emptiness and waiting to swallow her whole.

  Because of what she was. Because everything about her had always been a lie.

  A choked sound escaped her. Unsteadily, she turned, her feet leading her away from the body and the direction Spider had gone. She trembled as she reached the end of the alley, the broad street suddenly seeming a thousand times more threatening than before.

  Nervously, she started across the road. Her feet moved faster. Faster. Air grated on her lungs as she ran.

  Wizards would be coming. And with them, the Blood.

  The city blurred. Alleys sped by, broken by parking lots and main thoroughfares. Racing past a busy street, she darted around the buildings on the opposite side and then skidded to a stop. A steep embankment rose like a wall before her, topped by train tracks. Frantically, she cast a glance back to the traffic and then rushed for the slope, pulling herself up by tree roots and scrabbling at the shale from the railroad. She dashed over the tracks and then slid down from the rise, her hands scraping on the gravel as she tried to control her fall.

  Athletic fields stretched in front of her, with office buildings covered in security cameras on their far end. A soccer team played to her left, their shouts punctuating the noise of traffic from beyond the railroad.

  Swallowing hard, she glanced to her right. A wall of scraggly brush and a chain-link fence separated the field from the rear of a cemetery.

  She took off.

  Her scraped hands stung as she jumped the fence, but she ignored them. Heart pounding, she dropped down amid the bushes and trees, and checked around warily. No shouts rose. Even the traffic sounded distant here. At the heart of the cemetery, a line of cars waited by a maroon pavilion on a hill, the late afternoon light silhouetting the figures within.

  She hesitated, watching them. They were too far away to make out any details, which meant she would be indistinct as well. Biting her lip, she edged around the graveyard, sticking to the brush and ducking deeper into the foliage when she reached the cemetery’s adjacent side.

  The well-tended lawns of a massive office complex lay beyond the trees. Cameras watched from the enormous buildings dotting the grassy swaths, while gardeners riding noisy lawnmowers carved checkerboard paths through the fields.

  Behind the cover of the brush, she sank to the ground. The sun would set soon. In the darkness, it’d be easier to cross that vast space.

  And go somewhere.

  Her eyes stung. The vast, unknown sprawl of the city seemed to contract around her, drawing in upon places she could no longer go. Places where her friends would shoot her if she came close.

  Sniffling, she struggled to push the thought away. Reaching up gingerly, she touched the cut on her forehead and then flinched when it stung. She’d hit something besides the dumpster when she fell, but unlike the gunshot wound all those weeks ago, the gash hadn’t healed and she had no idea why.

  She pulled up her knees and hugged them to her chest. The fires gave way, crushing down into nothing with more ease than ever before.

  Fires. But more like energy now than flame. Like light as much as heat.

  And by her command, by her thought alone, they’d burned that wizard alive.

  Shivering, she swallowed down the memory. She didn’t know if she’d meant to kill him. She didn’t know if it mattered. He was still dead.

  She was still responsible.

  But he’d been about to kill Spider. He’d worked for the men who murdered her family. He’d been after her.

  And she’d just killed him. Like the men in the forest, and the way she wanted to kill the Blood wizard.

  If she still could.

  Closing her eyes tightly, she fought back the tears. Everything wasn’t lost. The Hunters might be gone, but she could go after him on her own. After all, the Blood wizard was in this city somewhere, and now he knew she was here too. He’d come looking.

  And maybe she’d see him first.

  Drawing a ragged breath, she rested her aching head on her knees and tried desperately to believe the words. To believe she hadn’t lost everything along with her friends.

  It wasn’t easy.

  In the cemetery, cars pulled away from the pavilion and wound their way down the hill. Minutes drifted past, and then three gravediggers climbed the slope and set to work atop the rise.

  “You know, if you’re going to hide, you might want to try not running away in a straight line.”

  Her breath caught and she looked up to see Spider watching her through the branches.

  “Though, as covers go,” the girl continued, her voice slightly raspy from the bruises around her throat, “it’s not bad.”

  She glanced to the trees, but Ashe could hear the double meaning in her words. Returning her gaze to Ashe, Spider studied her briefly, and then pushed aside the branches and slid into the small hollow between the bushes. She held back the tree limbs for Mischa to follow, and then lowered herself to the ground as Mischa limped over to lay at Ashe’s side.

  Spider said nothing, watching the dog.

  “So what are you?” she asked finally.

  “Wizard,” Ashe answered quietly.

  “How’d you get past them?” She jerked her chin at Mischa.

  “I don’t know.”

  Spider’s eyes narrowed. Ashe looked away.

  “I’m sorry I lied to you,” she told Spider.

  The girl paused. “You were pretty convincing.”

  Ashe exhaled, struggling to know what to say. “I wasn’t… I’m not…” She stopped and took a deep breath. “I didn’t know what I was. Not until you told me about the wizards after what happened at Shen’s.”

  “Why didn’t you do anything?” Spider asked, anger breaking through her calm for the first time. “You could’ve saved her! You–”

  She cut off, clearly fighting to control her emotions.

  “I didn’t know!” Ashe repeated desperately. “The first time… the only times I used magic… Spider, I killed people. I couldn’t stop it. So I thought if I let even the tiniest bit out, anybody near me would die. You. Carter. Everyone. I…”

  She looked down, sick at the thought that she could have helped Shen. “I didn’t know what it was.”

  “So back there…?”

  “He was going to kill you.”

  “But if you hadn’t been able to control it…”

  Ashe didn’t answer.

  Spider paused, taken back.

  “What about everythi
ng you told us?” the girl continued after a moment. “Your dad? Your sister?”

  “It was true. I just… I didn’t know how to talk about the other parts.”

  Spider waited.

  “Wizards killed my family. But when they shot him, my dad did something. Pushed us away somehow. And then the Blood wizard came. He just looked like a human to me, but he…” She grimaced, forcing herself to keep talking past the memory. “He killed my dad without even touching him.

  “We escaped because of what my dad did, though. And then Cole showed up. I don’t know who he was or why he was there, but he was a cripple like you. I didn’t realize it till I met Carter and Samson, but that’s what he was. He helped us like I said, but then…

  “They shot me. Through the leg. Cole tried to help me, but then they shot him too. He fell. Lily was with him. I couldn’t run to her. Couldn’t save her and next thing I knew…” She shook her head. “I woke up in the middle of a forest fire with my body covered in flames. The wound in my leg was gone. And the men who shot me were dead. But the Blood wizard hadn’t been there, and I didn’t know what I’d done. What was happening. I thought it was a dream.”

  Ashe took a deep breath, determined to be done with secrets. “I got arrested when I reached town. But the Blood wizard followed me to the station, pretending to be an FBI agent. When I heard his voice, I panicked, and suddenly, fire was all over me again.” She paused. “One of the cops was killed.”

  Brow furrowing, she drove the memory aside. “So I ran. I was hiding when that feral found me. I had no idea what he was. What wizards were. He was just a monster trying to kill me, and then Carter stopped him.”

  She looked back at Spider. “I swear I didn’t know anything about this. And once I did…”

  “What?” the girl asked when she trailed off.

  “I was afraid you’d shoot me. Or leave. Or turn me over to them. I don’t know.”

  For a moment, Spider studied her. “You look like a wizard to me. Like nothing but a regular human, I mean. And the dog reacts to you like a Blood – again, like nothing but a human. You convinced Carter to hunt the Blood, even though that’s about the most dangerous thing we could do. So what? You’re a new one of them?” She paused. “Is this some kind of trick?”

  Ashe hesitated. “You wouldn’t ask that if you thought it was.”

  “I don’t know what to think.”

  Wordlessly, Ashe looked away.

  Silence fell between them. Distant sounds of evening traffic mingled with the rustle of wind through the trees, and over the soccer field, bright lights flickered to life and slowly began blazing like the sun.

  “You could’ve just let him kill me,” Spider suggested, almost conversationally.

  Ashe blinked, confused.

  “Rejoined the others with a story of how the wizards attacked and only you got away. And they would’ve believed it. I mean, you’re getting there, but…”

  Ashe looked down, feeling a bit defensive of her rudimentary shooting skills.

  “And your cover would’ve remained intact.” Spider paused. “But you didn’t.”

  For a few seconds, the girl sat silent.

  “Hurt like hell what you did, though.”

  “Sorry.”

  Spider chuckled, picking at the detritus by her legs. “Yeah, well, given the options.”

  Ashe watched as Spider slowly shredded a leaf.

  “I really thought he was going to kill me back there,” the girl said quietly, her humor gone.

  Spider glanced up. “Thanks.”

  Hesitantly, Ashe shrugged.

  The girl returned to her destruction of the leaves for a while, and then finally sighed. “We should get back,” she said, brushing the debris from her lap. “The others will be wondering if we got out or not.”

  Uncertain she’d heard correctly, Ashe blinked. “But…”

  “We’ll find a way to tell them.”

  Ashe stared.

  Climbing to her feet, Spider scanned the cemetery and then pushed the branches aside, letting Mischa precede her. When Ashe didn’t move, she glanced back. “Unless you’d rather stay here?”

  Faintly stunned, Ashe shook her head and rose. Ducking beneath the branches, she followed Spider from the brush. Sunset lit the western sky, casting lengthy shadows from the tombstones and trees. On top of the rise, a mound of dirt covered the new grave, the workers and the pavilion long since gone.

  “This way,” Spider said.

  In the fading light, the two girls headed back into the city.

  Chapter Eighteen

  The fishbowl windows of the sandwich shop glowed in the darkness, clearly showing empty seats and a tired clerk inside. Staying out of the pool of light cast on the sidewalk, Ashe and Spider slipped around the building and, as they reached the alley at the back of the shop, Carter and Bus rose from the shadows behind a dumpster.

  “Son of a bitch,” Bus swore, his blue eyes raking over them and taking in the dried blood on Ashe’s face and the bruises around Spider’s throat. “What happened to you?”

  “Ran into a bit of trouble,” Spider replied. “It got taken care of.”

  The old man looked between them when the girl didn’t say anything more. “You sure you’re okay?” he persisted, directing the question mostly to Ashe.

  She attempted to smile, and failed miserably. Her stomach wouldn’t stop doing flip flops, and she could feel the pressure of Carter’s gaze. For the first time since Shen’s, she felt like the word ‘wizard’ might as well have been branded on her forehead.

  “Bus,” Spider said.

  He grimaced, dropping it.

  “Where to?” the girl asked Carter.

  “Twitch’s.”

  Bus blinked. “That boy still alive in there?”

  “Last time Serenity got him to open the door,” Carter answered.

  The old man shook his head. Glancing to Spider, he motioned for her to go ahead. The two of them started off, and Ashe could hear the girl checking if Bus had any extra bullets she could use for her gun.

  Ashe jumped as Carter’s hand rested on her shoulder.

  “You alright?” he asked quietly, concern in his eyes.

  Not trusting herself to speak, she nodded.

  He squeezed her shoulder. “Scary?”

  She hesitated, and then shrugged.

  Carter smiled. “Come on.”

  Wordlessly, she followed him away from the shop.

  Keeping to alleys and dimly lit streets, they wound through the city. A bustling college campus slowly surrounded them, and through the gaps between buildings, she could see coffee shops and bars aglow in the night. Police cars patrolled the streets, following unpredictable patterns and forcing the Hunters to duck continually into hiding. Students roamed the sidewalks in packs, and if they paid attention to the four of them, it was only to glance over curiously before wandering on.

  Frat houses and sororities appeared, bordering brick streets with old trees hugging their sides. From within shrouds of spring leaves, streetlamps glowed on roads that rose and fell with the terrain as it drew closer to the river.

  At two buildings no different than the others, Carter turned, cutting down a narrow gravel drive. An unpaved parking lot waited at the end, its width barely enough for the cars wedged inside. Unkempt bushes and trees encroached on it, obscuring the view of anything beyond, and without pausing, Carter crossed it to pull aside the branches and let the others skirt through.

  Tugging past the grasping twigs, Ashe stepped onto the shattered concrete of another parking lot. Years’ worth of weeds spread like a forest from the cracked surface, continuing to the base of an enormous building. Five stories of brick stood at the center of the lot, while security lamps mounted on its corners streamed white-blue light onto the concrete. Weathered plywood was bolted over each window, and No Trespassing signs plastered the first floor. Graffiti adorned the walls, seeming more the work of bored college students than cripples, and except for the
security lights, the whole building looked as though it’d been abandoned for years.

  Or not, she realized as they came closer. Atop the building, small security cameras turned, their tiny green lights blinking as they tracked the four walking across the lot.

  A broken cement step led to a thick metal door, the only entrance she could see. Carter banged on it twice, and then stepped back, waiting.

  Nothing happened. Minutes drifted by. Through the dense walls of foliage surrounding the parking lot, only a whisper of late night traffic could be heard.

  “You sure he’s still in there?” Spider asked quietly.

  Carter didn’t answer.

  A soft clank came from beyond the door, and then another. Several more followed, making their way down the length of the metal.

  The noises stopped. A moment passed. The door crept open, and a white face behind enormous glasses peered out.

  “Carter?” the man said, his thin voice turning the word into a question of whether the people in front of him were real.

  “We need to come in, Twitch,” Carter replied carefully.

  The man’s white skin grew even paler, and on the edge of the door, his skeletal fingers fluttered. “A-are you sure?”

  “Yes.”

  Behind the scuffed surface of his glasses, his eyes flitted across the four of them, as though hoping they would disappear.

  “Twitch.”

  At Carter’s voice, he winced and then reluctantly inched the door back, leaving them just enough room to slip by. A narrow entrance waited beyond, lit by a single low-watt bulb dangling from the ceiling. Through the door to her left, Ashe could see a card table and folding chairs inside what appeared to be a tiny apartment, although except for the space by the closet and the efficiency kitchen, boxes lined every inch of the walls.

  She glanced around. It wasn’t just the apartment. Boxes were the predominant feature everywhere. Through the gaps in the metal stairway, she could see more of the cardboard shapes behind the steps, while the hallway to her right was blocked entirely.

  Behind her, Twitch shoved the door closed, and furtively busied himself with throwing the locks. When the last was in place, he turned, his glasses reflecting the dim light. Wild tufts of hair stuck up from his head in haphazard fashion, and his bony shoulders were hunched, making him almost half Carter’s size.