by S. L. Wright
6
“He’s cutting us off from my shop,” Crave said, grabbing hold of Bliss’s hand. “This way.”
We turned the corner and ran down the block toward Park Avenue. This was a much longer block. I felt Stun turn the corner behind us as we passed the middle.
Suddenly Crave slid to a stop, dragging Bliss with him. “No! Goad’s ahead, coming down Park. He must have been staked out east of my place.”
We darted across Ninety-sixth Street, avoiding the lone car that refused to stop despite Crave’s waving arms. I ran as fast as I could to reach Park Avenue before Goad made it to the corner. The angry stinging heralded his arrival like a plague of bees rapidly descending on us.
Despite the two-way boulevard, there weren’t any distinctive yellow cabs in sight.
“Cross over Park,” Crave barked. He skidded to a halt to let a black sedan zip past, then tugged Bliss along. I followed them into the strip of greenery down the center, scraping my shins on the evergreen bushes.
Across the uptown lane, we continued south, pushed away from Harlem and the safety of Crave’s shop. All we needed was a cab, and we could break free of this footrace.
But by the time we reached Ninety-fifth Street, I felt the burning of another signature. Raze, coming at us rapidly from the south.
“It’s a trap,” Crave said. We turned onto Ninety-fifth Street, heading farther east toward Lexington Avenue. Orange sparks refracted like lasers between Crave’s and Bliss’s hands. That made me realize how scared I was. I didn’t want to be trussed up in another straitjacket and hauled off to be tortured. Or worse.
But as we neared Lex, I felt another signature. It felt like Stun again, but he couldn’t have gotten in front of us. There were so many demons surrounding us now that their signatures merged together, making it hard to distinguish the individual notes.
“Yo, Allay!” A guy at the corner waved an arm at us. “Over here!”
With a sudden shift, my ears stopped ringing and it turned into Mystify’s signature—a floating, frightening void. Then back again. There was only one demon who could change his signature like that.
“It’s Mystify,” I gasped. “He’ll help us.”
“Who?” Crave demanded, trying to stop me from running forward.
“Ram’s offspring. Born after he killed Vex.”
Crave grabbed my arm harder. “What? You didn’t tell us that!”
“There’s no time to argue!” Bliss exclaimed. “It’s true.”
Between the two of us, we dragged Crave over to Mystify. As we reached him, demon signatures were closing from every direction, but in the darkness of Ninety-fifth Street, none of them was in sight yet. Mystify lifted the grate in the sidewalk. “Get in fast!”
Bliss didn’t hesitate. She jumped into the pitch-dark, not caring how long the fall was. She hit quicker than I expected with a metallic bong. I jumped down next to her, and the impact jarred my spine all the way up to my neck. We were crouching on the ledge that held the tray that caught the debris falling from the sidewalk.
Crave landed next to me, and then Mystify, who swung from his fingers for a few seconds as he padlocked the grate. When he landed, he grinned at me, his face checkered by the meager light shining through the grid. He was wearing a jacket that was too big for his wiry frame—since he could adjust his body to any size, the look had to be deliberate. His shaggy brown hair stood out in all directions, but with that angel’s face, it didn’t matter. He looked barely eighteen with a pug nose and large doe eyes. I wanted to eat him up and take care of him at the same time.
“This is stupid,” Crave hissed. “They’ll know we’re down here.”
“I can take care of that.” Mystify held his breath for a moment, and his signature changed to Crave’s. That same magnetism that Crave exuded, drawing you inward, was coming from Mystify. When I closed my eyes, I couldn’t tell them apart.
Crave stared at him openmouthed. I had felt the same way the first time I had experienced Mystify’s ability.
“Follow me,” Mystify urged, sitting down and swinging his legs over the side of the tray. “The platform is narrow here, so be careful when you land.”
I gave Bliss a nod as I leaped off after Mystify, feeling the demon signatures rapidly approaching overhead. Crave came next, and he caught Bliss around the waist as she landed, steadying her. Mystify was right, the subway platform was only two feet wide at this point, hugging the wall. A black trench yawned in front of me with the gleaming rails forming the brightest spot. The concrete was marked with red-striped lines where we stood—passengers weren’t supposed to venture into this area at the end of the station.
Mystify climbed down the ladder and motioned for us to hurry. I had to step over the rail, then back to hug the wall. “We have to be careful of trains,” he cautioned them. “There’s not much clearance here. About twenty feet further on, there’s a door that I’ve left cracked open. Once it’s shut, it will be locked from the track-side. Go down the stairs. At the bottom are some service tunnels. Get back in there and wait for me to draw off the gang. I’ll head north in the subway tunnel.”
“What if they catch you?” I asked.
“I know all sorts of hidey-holes. They won’t get me. But once I ditch them, they’ll come back and search along this line. So don’t stay down there long. And don’t get on the subway—Goad’s got someone posted at both stations.”
“How do you know?” Crave demanded.
“Earlier I was running with their gang, posing as one of them. Head toward Central Park. Demons don’t go there at night. There’s nothing for them to eat. Goad will expect you to go up to Harlem or down to Alphabet City.”
Mystify grabbed the ladder to get back up on the platform. I called out, “Wait—how do I get hold of you? Give me your cell number.”
Mystify grinned, abruptly looking much older. “No phone, but you can leave a message for me under the edge of the obelisk behind the Met.”
Without another word, he dashed down the platform. There were only a few passengers waiting this time of night, and they drew back to get out of his way. He looked demented, but harmless enough. He was radiating Crave’s distinctive whirlpooling sensation.
Directly above, demon signatures converged, at least six of them.
“Are they going to catch him?” Bliss asked breathlessly.
“They have to enter the subway on Ninety-sixth Street. That will give him time to get away,” Crave assured her.
“Let’s go,” I urged. “We have to get down underneath. Otherwise they’ll realize there are two Craves here.”
I started into the darkness, crunching quickly across the blackened gravel. Faint sheets of light pierced through the arches down the middle of the track. Adjusting my pupils to see better, I saw the ground moving as rats rustled away in waves. My fingers brushed the wall and came off covered in soot. Now I was glad I was wearing boots.
As Mystify promised, there was a metal door not far down, set in the wall a couple of feet above the tracks. Two metal rungs were underneath with a handlebar high on one side to use for climbing up. The door was cracked open with a piece of cardboard stuck over the hole for the tongue latch.
Crave went up first, then held open the door while Bliss pulled herself inside. I followed, taking hold of his hand to get up quickly. Crave checked the handle, then slammed the door shut behind us. The latch clicked, but when he tried the handle, it opened.
I felt the edge of the step with my foot, and I quickly adjusted my eyes to the total darkness. Everything was gray and black, just the outlines of shapes as if I had on night-vision goggles.
“I don’t even have a lighter,” Crave muttered. I felt him move as he took Bliss’s hand. “How well can you see?”
“Shapes,” I said. “Not much else.”
“Me, too.”
“I’ll go first,” he said. “Feel your way down after me.”
Bliss followed him, and I clung to the pipe railing after her, takin
g it one step at a time. The staircase was spiral, fitting into a narrow slot. My feet clanked on the perforated metal steps.
“I can’t sense them,” I called softly. “Crave, can you?”
“Mystify’s signature should be strong enough to drown mine out. Yours and Bliss’s are so mild they won’t notice us down here.”
I bumped into Bliss at the bottom. Crave groped his way forward over the uneven surface, and Bliss stumbled after him, both hands hanging on to his waist.
“There’s a tunnel over here,” Crave said.
We shuffled across the rubble-strewn floor as far as we could, until another locked door stopped us. The air was dank and moldy-smelling. The squeaking of rats kept me on my toes, far away from the surrounding walls.
The darkness was awful. Like we had no defenses. No wonder early man’s first major triumph was fire.
There was nothing we could do but hold our breath and wait. I didn’t have to say what was on everyone’s mind—we were stuck in a dead end if Goad’s horde came down after us.
“What a terrible place to die,” Bliss said artlessly.
Crave laughed shortly. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
“Nobody would ever know if it did,” I pointed out. Our bolt-hole was starting to feel like a trap.
“Our fate lies in Mystify’s hands,” Crave said. “Are you sure you can trust him?”
I wasn’t even close to sure. “I saved him from Pique. Hopefully that counts for something.”
Above, we could feel the rumble of a subway train approaching, then a long pause, then a building rumbling as it left the station again. Another train passed through at high speed, making the metal staircase rattle like it was going to come down. Then the noise subsided and there was only the scuffle of animals in the darkness.
“Tell me about Mystify,” Crave said.
Mostly Bliss filled him in, using my memories of his birth under the Williamsburg Bridge and how Mystify could imitate any demon’s signature he encountered.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Crave asked. “You know Glory won’t like it that you held out on her.”
“It wasn’t deliberate,” I said. “There was so much else going on, it wasn’t high on my radar.”
“She’s not going to believe that. And neither do I.”
“You don’t have to tell her,” Bliss told him. “Or do you?”
He shook his head, but he didn’t agree out loud.
“Crave belongs to Glory,” I reminded Bliss.
Crave flared up. “You’re trying to distract me from Mystify. You must have a reason for hiding him.”
I hadn’t even admitted it to myself. “Call it misplaced protective feelings. I worry about our offspring.”
“Especially because he’s Ram’s,” Bliss said.
I gave her a look that she probably couldn’t see in the darkness. “I’m getting tired of you saying everything that pops into your mind, Bliss. Don’t you have any filters?”
“Maybe not,” she laughed. “I’ll have to work on that.”
“Do.” I was getting antsy. “I can’t stand it any longer. Let’s go up.”
Climbing up the staircase was easier because a faint light shone around the door at the top. Now that my eyes had opened as far as they could, I could see at least a dozen pipes running down the concrete wall next to the spiral staircase.
“I don’t feel any demons,” Crave said, cautiously opening the door.
I peeked around his shoulder. “We’ll have to go up a block to get out of the subway.”
He looked back at both of us. “Run for it.”
He leaped down with me right behind him. With a few handholds and tugs here and there, working together as a team, we ran down the tunnel and up onto the platform. I kept my eye on Crave—he could sense much farther than me. But there was no sign of alarm when we reached the subway entrance. We flew through the turnstiles and up the stairs to the street as if we were fleeing a fire.
The air was a welcome relief after the stinking underground. The dark wilderness of the park lay three blocks away. I had the terrible feeling that we would never make it, that we were doomed prey. Last time Goad’s horde had come after me, it was like being run down by a pack of wild dogs, unbeatable. They had set their trap then with cold calculation, just as they had done again now.
Why were they hunting me? Did Goad want me for himself? Or was Dread behind it?
I could be killed. I had thought I was past all that, but it was happening again. I was caught up in other people’s power plays.
Crave was grim, trying to see every direction at once as he urged us, “Run!” But Bliss didn’t seem panicked at all. She had a slight smile as she sprinted down the blocks, as if she was glad to finally be freed from confinement. Crave kept glancing at her as if he was afraid to let her out of his sight.
In the yawning darkness of Fifth Avenue, a city bus roared past us and pulled up to the stop across the street. I was tempted only for a second to catch it—a bus was too predictable and slow to get away from demons.
The entrance to Central Park was right in front of us. I glanced at Crave, and he shook his head. No sign of demon signatures.
Crave took hold of Bliss’s hand as we hurried inside the park. We needed to get deep enough so that any demon passing on the streets along the outer perimeter wouldn’t sense our signatures. Until then, we weren’t safe.
We were all breathing heavily after our dead sprint from the subway. But none of us lagged behind now. I could still almost feel Goad’s angry buzzing signature. That was not the last thing I wanted to feel before I died.
We passed the band shell and crossed the treelined Mall. Bliss tried to veer onto the broad lane, but Crave stopped her. “This slants back towards Fifth Ave. We need to stay away from the East Side.”
“Down,” I decided. Side by side we ran down several flights of stone steps to Bethesda Fountain. At the bottom we paused to catch our breath, extending our senses to see if any demons were coming.
“We should keep heading west,” Crave insisted, as we paused to catch our breath.
“The West Side has always been a Vex stronghold,” I disagreed. “Raze has apartments there. We’ll have to go either north to Harlem or south to the Den. But to do that we’ll have to back out to Fifth Avenue to catch a cab.”
“Too dangerous,” Crave said.
“We’re more likely to attract attention moving around,” Bliss said reasonably. “Let’s find a place in the middle of the park where we can wait out their rampage. They’ll give up searching in a few hours and by then lots of cabs will be on the streets.”
Crave took both her hands. “You’re right.” Their auras were tinged with orange, as was mine from adrenaline and flight reflex. But Bliss’s radiant energy was still mostly yellow; she was enjoying this experience the way she reveled in everything. My aura and Crave’s were both tinted the darker hues reflecting our somber mood. It showed me clearer than anything else that despite our memories in common, Bliss was nothing like me.
I nodded when they both looked at me expectantly. I wasn’t eager to venture out again, anyway. “I wonder where Mystify is. I hope he got away from the horde.”
“He definitely saved our asses,” Bliss agreed.
Crave’s eyes narrowed, as if he wasn’t ready to go that far.
“I’m going to leave him a message at the obelisk,” I decided.
Crave shook his head. “No, it’s too close to Fifth Ave, right behind the Metropolitan Museum. Any demon passing by would be able to feel us.”
“I’ll go alone,” I told them. “My signature is so light they won’t notice it. They’ll be looking for yours, Crave. I tell you what—let’s go wait at Belvedere Castle. That’s in the middle of the park. From there I can nip over to the obelisk and leave a message for Mystify telling him where we are.”
I started up the steps, and they followed still holding hands. I slipped into the shadows and avoided the lit paths
in the Rambles, a dell densely filled with bushes and small trees interlaced with narrow paths. Shadows startled me at first, until I realized that men were there cruising for other men. Like cats, they melted away until we went by. I could smell the musky scent of sex in the air. Bliss perked right up, but she still didn’t linger. Apparently Bliss could resist pleasure if her survival was at stake.
At the transverse overpass, exposed to prying eyes and passing demons on the roadway below, I dashed across with both of them at my heels.
From there, Bliss and Crave split off to head deeper into the park where the castle overlooked the tiny lake. If Shock had been with me, she wouldn’t have let me go alone. But Crave was focused on Bliss, and Bliss didn’t have a cautious bone in her body. That was actually a relief.
I had almost reached the Met when I realized I didn’t have a pen or paper to leave a message. It stopped me short as I dug into my pockets. Money was the only thing I had.
I fingered a twenty-dollar bill; it would do fine as a writing surface. But it would be useless to search the park looking for a lost pen. So I turned over the rocks in the gravel, finding one with a sharp point.
Taking it slow, I punctured small dashes into the bill, holding it up to the light shining from the lamppost to check my work. I incised one word, all I could manage on the bill, signed with my initial, and then folded it up.
I almost passed the obelisk, as it reared out of the shadows to my left. I had expected it to be right behind the museum, not on the other side of the path. I hoped it was the right one—there weren’t two obelisks in Central Park, were there? You never could tell in this city. It seemed that I was a fair ways from Fifth Avenue, which made me relax a bit.
I was tucking the bill under the corner of Cleopatra’s Needle when I felt Crave coming. But I was confused at first because he was coming from the north, not the south.
“Mystify,” I realized.
