by Holly Hook
* * * * *
I coughed as a thick, warm fantastic liquid poured down my throat. I become aware of a dull, throbbing ache in my back, right on the lower part of my spine. I felt like someone had bruised me. I sucked down the liquid--pancakes and syrup--and felt warm strength flow into my body. The ache faded even more and into a distant bad dream.
"Drink up," a rough woman said. "You shouldn't have been fighting empty."
All I could manage was a nod. I was in some kind of dream, helpless until my body decided to cooperate. A warm tingle took the place of the last ache and chased the rest of it away. I was lying on something soft. A pillow crunched as the woman moved the cup or receptacle away and allowed me to swallow the rest.
"Better?" she snapped. "Don't do something stupid like that again."
"Whoever you are, you have a rotten bedside manner," I said, opening my eyes.
I was not home like I had hoped, waking from a nightmare. Instead, I was lying there in a dim room lit with legions of candles and made with old brick. The ceiling was arched like this was some wide part of a tunnel. Some candles burned away on an old vanity mirror with broken lights while others rested on a table of scary-looking medical supplies. A few more were on the floor in a ring like someone had decided to do a spell around my table. Light flickered everywhere and the room was warm, almost too warm, from all the heat. This whole space was no bigger than my bedroom and the air here was stuffy.
A very tall, stocky woman stood near the vanity mirror and she was holding a clear pitcher with about two inches of blood still on the bottom. She'd been pouring it down my throat. The woman glared at me with eyes that were tinted red around the pupils. She was like me and like the guy who had bitten me so long ago.
"It's about time you woke," she said, eyeing the pitcher. "You went through two of these before you started to stir. What have you been doing? I don't suppose you starve yourself. And I saw file marks around your teeth. That's the sure sign of an Imposter to me."
Then I remembered it all.
The bald man and his goons. Xavier. Jabbing my katana through that guy and letting him bleed out all over the living room floor. Passing out in Xavier's arms. I sat up on the cot and looked around, hoping to see him lurking in the corners, but he was nowhere. There was just this mean woman who looked like she wanted to throttle me.
But at least the pain was gone. I had healed.
I caught my breath for a second and waited for the shaking in my limbs to die down. I felt steadier, enough to get up and stand there. The woman was wearing a white lab coat over an old-fashioned Victorian dress. It was green with white lace and she kept her brown hair in a tight, neat bun. I wondered if that was when she'd been turned. I could be facing someone well over a hundred years old. Heck, she might be a hundred and fifty but looked not a day over forty. I'd seen old people who still dressed for their generation before--old ladies always putting on their makeup, really old men in neat trousers and tucked-in shirts, but nothing like this. Maybe everyone held on to the way they dressed when they were younger and this was no exception.
"I'm Trish," the woman said. "It's short for Patricia." She took her gaze from the pitcher of blood and gave me a stony stare. She spoke like she had said this a million times. "I'm the resident doctor here. I was the first female doctor in Cumberland, in fact, which was not easy in those days. The official story was that I went missing in early 1905 to run from a bank debt. In fact, a patient of mine bit me in the hospital, thinking I was an easy victim, and I was one of the lucky rare ones to be turned."
One of the lucky ones. I had to hold down a snicker. I'd heard stories of vampires sneaking into hospitals in the old days, disguising themselves as patients to get access to all the free blood. It was one of the reasons people didn't trust Abnormals and a lot of people still thought it happened, even though modern medical screening had stopped that problem in most parts of the world.
"I'm Roslyn," I said.
Her face hardened into one of anger and red snaked from her pupils. (That was the reason I wore colored blue contacts at all times.) "Your name is Alyssa," she said. "Get it right. Your Imposter days are over."
"Look," I said. Anger rose inside of me again. It was a monster I couldn't tame. "I don't get what this Imposter stuff is or what it means, and I appreciate the fact that you helped my back not feel like it was ripping apart. But please, I'm new here." This was the first time I had drank blood in front of anyone other than Dad. Mom had never been able to watch. Well, there was The Incident...
I shoved the thought of it out of my mind. I still couldn't bear to think about it.
I needed to leave, but the exit, a narrow tunnel on the other side of Trish, was the only way to go.
"Imposters are Abnormals trying to be Normal," Trish said. "We don't trust them around here. Too many have tried selling us out to save themselves. Also, I shouldn't have had to heal you. When you don't drink enough, you can only barely function. It's why you went down so easily in that fight. Thoreau knew you were an Imposter and figured you were easy prey. If our young War Mage hadn't found you, you'd be in the Treatment Center already. Let me guess. You rely on cold blood bags."
"Okay. I get it. This is all my fault," I said. I really, really didn't want to have this conversation. I felt like I'd been caught naked, even though this woman had the same problem as me. Even when Dad and I were home, we didn't discuss this and we never went to the freezer at the same time. Ever. It was our silent rule and had been ever since Mom left. As if that could change the outcome of our family ripping apart.
"Good. You see the error of your ways," Trish said, loaded with more sarcasm than I'd ever heard. "I hope that Xavier keeps a close eye on you. I'd hate to see him make another mistake. He's a smart kid but he's too soft with Imposters. He keeps bringing them in like lost puppies."
I bristled, hearing her talk about Xavier like that. The guy had pulled me out of my house, after all. "Don't be so hard on him," I said. "He seemed like he was pretty cool." A bit annoying, but cool. I supposed I owed him quite a bit for walking into a house and practically into the arms of the authorities.
"Trish, you don't have to be so hard on her, either," Xavier said from behind.
My face flushed. I hadn't noticed him standing in the mouth of the tunnel right behind Trish. She'd been blocking the way. He had lost his sunglasses, leaving those magical eyes, and his hat, too. I wondered if all Mages had eyes like that. And his hair--it was shoulder length and messy around his ears like he was some anime character come to life, just without the big eyes.
Trish turned on Xavier. "You know how things go with people like her," she said. "It never ends well when we bring them in."
"Hey. She proved herself," Xavier said. "She took down one, maybe two armed people in her first fight. She's a natural. You should see her fence. She's top of the class."
"I hope you're right," Trish said. "I just hate to see...never mind. You've been warned." Her tone was softer, almost like she was really worried about Xavier. It made me feel a bit bad. He'd put himself in danger, knowing he might go against this Thoreau guy...
The name rang a bell. I hadn't lived in the city long, but wasn't Cumberland's mayor named Thoreau? The name was on the local news all the time, which I only glanced at once in a while because it mostly made me sick. And his face...it was familiar. Cumberland was a big city, the biggest I had ever lived in, and for someone to ring a bell when I moved all the time--
Oh, no.
I had to talk to Xavier. I was exploding with questions.
Trish turned to me and waved me away from the table. I thanked her again and stepped over a circle of blue chalk symbols drawn on the floor, completing the candle ring. Maybe Trish did some kind of magical healing, too, even though only Mages were supposed to do stuff like that. She still held the pitcher of blood and it still smelled of pancakes and syrup. Whoever it had come from had eaten a nice, hearty breakfast. Or they had breakfast for dinner. What time was it?
<
br /> I kept my gaze averted from the blood and walked towards Xavier. I waved him out of the room and we walked side my side into the dark brick tunnel, which was lit with the occasional candle in the occasional crevice. We passed a skull where another candle burned inside with green flames. There was magic at work here. Lots of it.
We turned the corner and left the voodoo infirmary behind.
"Imposters," Trish whispered, which I could hear loud and clear.
I waited until we were well down the next brick corridor before I spoke. "Why does she hate me so much?" I asked Xavier in the lowest voice I could. I was about ninety percent certain Trish could hear me even from back there if her hearing was as good as mine.
"Trish has...a history," Xavier said. "People have screwed her over before. I might tell you about it later. I need to find you quarters for now.”
“I'm not staying here,” I said. “I have to get back home. Janine's waiting to hear from me.” I stopped myself before I blurted out about what. I still had to come up with a cover story.
“You can't go back there,” Xavier said, completely serious. “That life is over for you now.”
His words hung heavy as we walked. We passed a large alcove where an old woman was sitting next to a table covered in blue amulets and jewelry. A glass ball stood on a stand. The woman herself was dressed in a velvet blue robe. I tried not to stare at the golden moons, glowing gems and animal-shaped amulets as I passed, and least of all the old women herself. Hoop earrings swung as she followed me with her gaze. She was one of the creepiest people I'd seen down here, even worse than the burly guy who smelled like dog. Les. The whole day was spinning through my head now.
"Don't mind her," Xavier whispered to me. "That's Elsina. She's a Seer Mage." He put his hand on my back like he was trying to rush me past.
“You're trying to change the subject. I can move again once I head back up,” I said. It would suck leaving Janine and Maisha behind, but I had left friends behind before starting in the second grade, after my royal screw-up. I could do it again.
“It's not that simple,” Xavier said. “You might have some amnesia from being hurt, but I'll fill you in. You injured a guy pretty badly. The Assistant Mayor, in fact.”
I stopped right there in the corridor. My fears were true.
Somewhere, someone laughed from the light up ahead. An old man sitting in the next alcove stared at us. I felt like everyone was staring at me, at the Imposter who tried to blend in with Normal life. As if that were a bad thing.
“Who?” I asked.
“Mike Teller. He works closely with Mayor Thoreau all the time. It's all over the news. The official story is that Mike was stopping by your house to ask for a campaign donation and you attacked. He's in critical condition.”
I felt like the world had stopped. “I stabbed the Assistant Mayor?” I wanted to throw up everything I had drank back in the infirmary.
“You did,” Xavier said. “Granted, he was going to shoot you, so you were totally right to do what you did. Of course, the news left out the fact Mike Teller had a gun and that Thoreau was there and let him bleed. They always leave out parts of the story if it can make Abnormals look bad.” Xavier shook his finger with sarcasm. “The point is, you are a bad, bad Abnormal and too dangerous to be free. Do you see why you can't go back out to your house? It's crawling with police. People are freaking out that they had you for a neighbor.”
I stood there, too stunned to move and too furious to say a word. “They're lying?”
“It happens all the time,” Xavier said, waving me along. “They twist things. That's why most of us hide under Cumberland and under most major cities."
I had no choice but to follow. We emerged into a larger chamber, a brick dome, one with a lot more gas lanterns hanging everywhere. Low chatter filled the place. Merchants were set up everywhere. One woman was roasting meat over an actual spit. The scent of smoke and pork filled the chamber and I saw Les standing there, waiting to be served. He had his back to me, leaving me staring at his thick plaid shirt. A couple of younger women chattered away in the corner in a language I couldn't determine. I looked closer. One of them had silvery scales running up the back of her neck and very short blond hair. I could only see the side of her face, but even from here I could tell that her eyes were black. Pure black.
“It's best if you don't stare,” Xavier said, leaning close to me. “Succubi are easy to anger. Especially when they're dealing with other women.” He picked up his pace and we made our way across the open market, passing more stalls filled with crafts, shriveled plant roots and even a glass aquarium filled with giant crickets. One of them chirped as we passed, as if warning us to leave the area. I brushed past a short little man in a suit and then Xavier and I entered another tunnel. This place was disorienting. I wondered if these tunnels had been built during Prohibition when people were carting around illegal booze. I knew some cities had these. More laughter came out of a closed wooden door that might be a pub. Things were so bright and alive down here and so dark at the same time. I had been abducted into a whole new world.
“You want a room with a bed?” Xavier asked me when we were out. "You're going to need more rest before you face what's coming."
“Yes,” I said. “A bed, please.” It beat the alternative. I had always slept in a normal bed and that wasn't going to change. "What's coming?"
"A test," Xavier said. "To see if you can really be one of our fighters. There won't be any protective padding with this." He smiled at me. We passed under a hanging gas lamp and the purple flecks in his eyes got so vibrant all of a sudden. They were like his magic. I wanted to study them all day. Or night. Or whatever it was.
At the same time, I wanted to lash out at him for shattering my carefully guarded world. I still didn't know what was going on and this whole thing could have been a setup just to get me into Abnormals Underground. Literally.
"Do you really think I need that?" I asked. "I've been fencing for a long time."
"Alyssa, you might have taken out one guy, but very soon, you're going to have to take out a lot more. Thoreau might look like a suited up mayor but he's dangerous. He's already on his fourth term and we down here in the Underground think he's heading for something bigger. He gets money from the Abnormal Therapy Centers--no, he runs the company--so it's good for him to get as many victims as he can. That's where you almost went."
"A corrupt politician," I said. "How original."
“It's more than just that,” Xavier said. "You've probably seen his building even if you've only been here a few months. It's the tallest one."
"Sorry. Wasn't trying to be rude," I said. We were leaving the chatter behind now and walking down another tunnel with more skull lamps and eerie green light. We passed another older woman in a tan robe. "It's just...aren't they all corrupt?" A lot of them liked to get votes from the anti-Abnormal crowd. It was even known that the Centers funded some elections.
"Pretty much," Xavier said. "Anyway, more goons have been seen around the mayor's office lately along with people driving black vans. No one knows where they're taking the Abnormals they capture, but a lot of them who still dared to live in the city have gone missing in the past month or so. A family of Mages vanished just two days ago, all six of them overnight. Then a shifter man, Les's cousin, went missing the week before that. They're taking all the Abnormals they can find. Something big is happening in Cumberland. The Seer Mages can feel it. We're trying to save all the fighters we can."
My head spun. This whole thing was making less and less sense. "Are you sure about that?" I asked. "One of Thoreau's goons asked me to help him right before you came blazing into my house."
"Literally," Xavier said.
I grinned. At least he was fun to talk to and I was away from Trish.
"So you have a sense of humor," he said. "Anyway--one of his goons asked you for help?"
This was clearly news to Xavier. "He did," I said. "The guy looked all freaked out, like he was sc
ared of the mayor. I don't get it. Maybe there was some blackmail going on or Thoreau's one of those bosses who fires people over text." Somehow, that explanation didn't feel right. I thought of the strange tattoo on Thoreau's head.
"So you have even more of a sense of humor than I thought," Xavier said. "No offense, but you struck me as being a serious girl, all dedicated to fighting. It's nice to see someone down here who isn't on guard all the time." Then he went quiet and looked straight ahead as if I'd said something to offend him.
We walked in silence for what felt like minutes, passing alcove after alcove. Some were dark while others had oil lamps on tables. A couple of men with green scales down the backs of their necks played with an ancient-looking deck of cards. Neither one of them paid attention to us as we passed. Yet another alcove housed a couple of young parents and a baby. They had a mattress on the floor like homeless people and a Styrofoam cooler. Xavier waved to the woman, who smiled at us. She had green flecks in her brown eyes, almost like she was full of some natural magic. The man looked completely Normal to me.
"Say something," I said to Xavier after another few minutes.
He kept walking, lost in his own thoughts. I hated that Xavier knew what I was. He might have even stood there while Trish fed me on that table. The thought made my stomach feel even worse. Xavier might be a Mage but he was still human as far as I knew. He watched the walls as we passed. Yes. He must have seen the worst.
"Sorry," Xavier said. "It's just been a really long day."
“I agree,” I repeated. “My whole life got upended and now my dad's going to come home and--”
I cursed.
I had forgotten all about him.
“Alyssa, don't think about it,” Xavier said, reaching out for me.
But I was already running.
I didn't look back. Xavier’s footsteps pounded behind me but they faded as I bolted around a corner and down a wider corridor that looked like a main artery. Smells surrounded me on all sides. People walked up and down under more gas lamps and there were more shops here, bigger ones behind wooden doors and glass windows. I even spotted another glimmering crystal ball as I ran past. I wove around a girl a couple years younger than me and around another really hairy man who was walking out of another shop.
