by Holly Hook
“Mmmph,” she said.
I hadn't had a chance to speak to her. “It's okay,” I said.
“Mmmmph!”
“It's no use,” Mack said, cracking open the beer. “If we let them go, they'll both go back to the ATC and tell them about my junkyard.”
I didn't like the tone in Mack's voice. He was a Dark Mage and evil came to him naturally, whether he wanted it to or not. “They will,” I agreed. “That's why we should move them somewhere else for now. You're not going to do anything to them, are you?”
Mack faced me. The dark spots in his eyes were worse than ever, and it was giving me the creeps. Mack had magic that had originally come from Death.
But so did I.
“I do have to practice Dark Magic sometimes,” Mack said. “If I don't, it spills out, and people get hurt.”
“What are you planning?” Xavier asked.
Mack smiled. “You don't want to know.”
The man shifted in the open closet. I wondered if he had already told them. I imagined some horrible rite that involved sacrifice. We had to get the agents out of here.
“We'll take these two,” I said. “It's not like the agents have weapons with them. Xavier and I can handle them.”
Mack took a swig of his beer. I didn't like his body language. There was something tense about it. “I think not,” Mack said. “You still haven't freed me from my Dark Magic, Alyssa, as you promised. Every once in a while, my magic needs a release.”
“But you just used magic,” I said. “The glamour rite, remember? You did that just twenty-four hours ago. I mean, come on. Stop messing with us.”
“You've seen my mood changing,” Mack said. “A glamour is more of a general type of magic. Most rites are. I need to use my Dark Magic, or it builds up inside of me, turning me into a person I don't like to be. It's worse around the full moon.”
I thought of the orb waxing in the sky. There were probably only two or three nights left before it was full. So it didn't just affect werewolves after all. I had even heard that the full moon was used in magical rites sometimes.
“Okay. So what were you planning to use the two of these agents for?” Xavier asked. The air got a little hot, even though he was wobbling a bit. He was ready to fight. Xavier was weak, but the new power might be getting to his head. I didn't want him to do anything that would break him in a few minutes.
“You need fighters?” Mack asked. “We can make them, but it will involve turning these two agents into ghouls, with no free will of their own. We have to take most of their blood--”
“Stop right there,” I said, holding up my hand. “I'm not making anyone work for us against their will.”
Xavier didn't even snort at the irony of what I was saying. He was right there, defending me. “You want to make them one step above flat out zombies. That is not cool. I've heard of some Dark Mages doing that to people down in the Caribbean. It's disgusting.”
“It only takes a few of the right concoctions and another rite,” Mack said. “We need fighters. Why don't we move them out here into the living room and I'll start my prep? Alyssa, you can help with the blood draining part. Otherwise, this ritual will get messy.”
“No,” I said, loudly enough for the agents to hear. “I'm not into that stuff.”
“You're not into blood?” Mack asked. “That's a new one.”
I flinched. Mack was getting on my nerves. “I'm not into forcing people into anything they don't want to do,” I said. “I don't think these two agents want to become ghouls or zombies or whatever you want to make them.”
The man was shaking his head with so much vigor that he was about to strain his neck. The woman was pale as if I had just bitten her all over again.
“Then cure me,” Mack said, drawing closer. The beer in the bottle sloshed. He smelled like a cold cave. The two scents mixed.
I drew my sword. “You know, I heard that it's not good to drink right before doing magic. Xavier said something about that once."
It was official. I was in for another fight, and after the last twenty-four hours, I was ready for one.
“It's also not good to break promises in the Abnormal world,” Mack said, dropping his beer. The bottle shattered and the liquid spread all over the floor.
“Who said I was breaking promises?” I asked. “I should have never let you take the agents in the first place."
Mack took a bold step closer to me. The smell of adrenaline filled the air, but this time it was Xavier's. He was nervous. Scared. The two Transpositions had drained him. He wouldn't be much help now. I was the only thing standing between the agents and zombification. I wasn't even sure why I felt like I had to protect them.
I did what Thorne had warned me never to do.
I made the first move. I was so angry and wanted to lash out at someone so bad, someone worse than me, that I had lost control. With a lift of my sword, I charged forward and leaped onto a chair that was pulled out from the table. I swung my sword down, but Mack brought both hands up, and my blade stopped in midair, caught in a swirling mass of black energy snakes.
“So is that the game we're going to play?” Mack asked.
“Hey. I didn't choose it,” I said.
Xavier crept up behind Mack. He seized another beer bottle off the counter, one that was still full. I knew what he had planned. I kept my gaze locked with Mack as I tried to drive my blade down through his web of Dark Magic. Maybe if I wore him out, he would lose his urge to do horrible things to people, but the crazed look in his eyes wasn't changing. The black in his irises was overtaking the brown. I trembled, trying to force my blade through the magical field, but it was no use. I didn't know if I'd kill Mack if I cut him. He had Death's magic, too, but not the same way I had it. But my power had worked on Elder War Mages.
Xavier swung the beer bottle down on Mack's head.
The magic web died, and I swung my blade down onto Mack's shoulder as he stumbled back into the wall, stunned from the blow. Blood leaked out of the cut and Mack seethed with pain as I drew my blade back. He smelled like a TV dinner, too. I hadn't noticed that before, probably due to how sated I was, but now it was making me hungry.
I knew from experience that I had better take the opportunity.
Jumping at Mack, I latched on and did the worst.
And this time, Xavier watched.
I could barely stand the beer taste. It was in the Dark Mage's blood, and it overtook any of the food he had eaten recently. But I kept going, drinking from his wound. I had to drain him. I had to make him unable to do this unspeakable thing to these agents.
A flash of green filled my vision and my being as if the Death inside of me was rising again. I almost let go of Mack. For a second I felt as if I were falling through a black and green expanse of despair, but the vision faded a second later and revealed Mack's kitchen all over again.
Mack groaned and slumped against the wall. I kept going. He felt weak. His pulse raced.
“Alyssa!” Xavier shouted, wrapping his arms around my middle. “You've done enough.”
I pulled away. Mack lifted one weak arm towards the wound on his shoulder, the line where my sword had cut him. My teeth had left a dot on either side of the line, making it look like someone had etched a strange, magical symbol there.
“Oh,” Mack groaned.
“What was that flash of green light?” I asked the Dark Mage, searching for a napkin to wipe my mouth off. I found one and seized it off an open pizza box. “What was that?”
Mack was too much in pain to speak. He closed his hand over his wound and seethed. They all did that. It was a universal reaction no matter who I bit--unless it was Thoreau.
The thought made me want to gag and throw up. Instead, I put all my focus on wiping my mouth off. I felt too full like I had taken more than I needed. My hunger wasn't as severe now that I had bitten Xavier.
“Grab the agents,” Xavier said. “We've got to get out of here.”
I agreed. There was no t
ime to talk about the flash of green I had seen behind my eyelids. It was ironic, though. Mack had gotten to experience what he wanted to do to these agents. It was only right that he got this. The guy groaned again while Xavier and I ran to the closet and helped the two agents get to their feet. They cooperated.
It might be good for them to report Mack's junkyard after all. Sure, the guy had helped us, but what he wanted to do to them had blown all of that out of the water. I undid the binds that kept the woman's hands behind her back and went to work on the gag. The two of them had endured enough. We hadn't even told them that Bathory had taken out all of their co-workers at the bunker yet. I had a feeling that we'd be delivering that news next. I wasn't looking forward to it.
The woman let out a breath. I held onto her arm. I still had to warn her not to go back to the bunker, that it was death.
Bathory might still be there, waiting. Xavier undid the guy's binds and took the gag off. Agent Ernest. That was his name.
“Don't go back to the ATC,” I said. “Thoreau is killing you guys off. That's why your agents are going missing.”
“Our agents are going missing?” the man asked.
They had no clue. Great. Mack hadn't told them anything.
“Just don't go back,” I said, remembering my crazy idea from yesterday. Plan A was obviously not an option but now wasn't the time to spring Plan B. Xavier didn't think it would work and logic said that it couldn't work. But things were getting desperate.
“Why?” Ellie Sanders asked. She reached for her weapon but closed her hand on nothing. I was glad, even though I could have stopped her. She leveled a glare at me. She'd never trust me, not after Xavier had broken her window and I had bitten her.
“Because your co-workers are dead,” I said. “A friend of Thoreau's killed them. He's not what you think he is.”
It was clear that she didn't believe me. She had the whole ATC thing ingrained in her. Abnormals were evil, and Thoreau was a good Normal who was trying to clean them up. He couldn't possibly be anything else because that didn't make any sense.
“Then go there and find out the hard way,” I said. “Good luck. It's up to you whether you survive. We saw the inside of the bunker.” I checked to see Mack still slumped against the wall, weak as if I had drained more than just his blood. “Don't trust the people who walked through your workplace and saw exactly how your bunker runs. Don't trust the people who can tell you that there are six cubicles in your office and a tunnel that leads to an electrified gate. Don't wonder what's really behind it. Go ahead.”
A dark look came over Sander's face. She looked at the man, and for a second I wondered if they could read each others' thoughts, but of course, that was impossible. They were free. It was up to them. There was nothing else Xavier and I could do.
Mack continued to seethe with pain.
I took Xavier's hand and pulled him towards the door. Mack still smelled like a TV dinner. Something was off about his scent, too, but there was no time to deal with that. We had to leave. I pulled Xavier out the door and out into the night, where the dark junkyard towered around us. I broke into a slow run, and Xavier kept pace, even though he stumbled once. He needed to eat. Even our increased power didn't change that.
The agents came out after us. They said nothing. Xavier and I kept going, and he kept up the best he could. I was the one taking care of him now. Jumps were still draining, just not as much.
“Where to?” I asked.
It was the big question right now. We had nowhere to go that wasn't unsafe. The Underground was off. Thoreau knew all about the place, and he could get there as long as he let Leon have some control. George was probably getting sick of letting us stay at his place. The hideouts were out that the Lovellis used. Leon knew about those, too, and anything that Leon knew about was unsafe. Thoreau just might have access to his memories.
It was a creepy thought.
“George's, I guess,” Xavier said. “I think you did something to Mack back there.”
“I know. I bit the guy."
“He was different afterward.”
Xavier must have been keeping a better eye than I had. We slowed to a walk outside the junkyard. There wasn't much traffic out this time of night. There was only a man out walking his dog far down the road. I had the sense that the city was dying down, that this was the calm before the storm. The ATC had taken most of the Abnormals away already. Most were already in the Infernal Dimension, beyond my reach, right along with my father.
Xavier looked back. I did, too. The agents had vanished. They weren't going to listen to us. Sanders would go to the bunker and see what Bathory had done to her friends. They would find those bodies among the donuts and the catered breakfast. Maybe then she would realize the danger.
They always had to see it before they believed it. Connors, the agent from the headquarters, needed to be shown, too, before he accepted my word about Thoreau.
I wondered where the guy was and if he had been lucky enough to quit his job. And survive.
“Did you feel anything when you bit him?” Xavier asked. He extended his hand to me.
I took it and squeezed. “I saw a green flash like I did when I passed Death's test.”
“That's weird,” Xavier said. “You'd never know what you can do. I don't know what all you're capable of, but we have to think of everything.”
I shuddered when I thought of my nightmare again, of my hand. Of Xavier, chained up and helpless like some trophy. “Mack wasn't shriveling up after I cut him, but the Elders did."
“Mack already has Death's magic,” Xavier said. “He must be immune to it, just like he is to the Shadow Wraiths.”
“What do you think happened back there?” I asked.
“I don't know,” he said.
We wound up walking to George's house. We didn't dare take a bus, even though Xavier still had plenty of cash on him for emergencies. It didn't take as long under cover of night. Xavier and I stayed away from bright streetlights, sticking to the shadows and the alleys. We even cut through a few yards of houses where no one was home. It helped that not many people were awake.
“It's quiet,” Xavier said. “I don't hear any sirens tonight.”
“That's because all the Abnormals are gone,” I said. Before, while walking through the city, I could smell an occasional werewolf mixed in with the crowds, or see an occasional robed Mage wandering through the sewers, just trying to stay out of sight like us. Now there was nothing. I felt like the world was missing a big piece and ready to collapse. It was a horrible, lonely feeling.
We passed a twenty-four-hour diner, one that wasn't far from the fast food joint Xavier and I had burst out of not too long ago. We had barely dodged Trish by doing that. It was back when she hated me.
I already missed that. Trish was like a nagging parent that I didn't have right now. Right before her capture, the two of us had even bordered on becoming friends, even though it was her in the first place who urged me to stop using blood bags. I couldn't believe how weak I had been back then.
I thought of Thorne, too. He was almost like a second father to me or at least a big brother. He was trapped, and I couldn't reach him. He'd have no idea why.
We passed under a freeway ramp, where a billboard was advertising a new water park that was opening this week. Cumberland's Water Adventure. Happy families gathered by pools and sipped cheap, sugary drinks together. I turned away. The world had to remind me that mine was royally screwed up on every level. I couldn't wait to get to George's.
I would have to tell Janine what had happened in the bunker. I had done nothing else other than sending her a text that Xavier and I were still alive. There was no doubt that she'd heard about the missing ATC agents and was wondering about us.
I would have to tell her what Thoreau had said to me.
And then, what my grandmother had said.
I couldn't do it. I would have to relive it again.
But we got to George's house. Janine's light was on
, or, at least, the guest room light was on where she and her mother stayed. I wondered if her mother was in there. If yes, then we might not be getting in for the night.
When I peeked into the window, I could see that Janine's mother was lying in bed, and Janine was propped up on her air mattress, reading a book with sunglasses on. She was up late. Janine's mother was asleep. I could hear her slow breathing. Janine shifted on her bedding. She was restless. The only light in the room was a lamp that Janine had turned towards her, leaving her mother in darkness. I felt for her. I missed my dad, but I couldn't imagine having to share a room with a parent. I hoped that Xavier and I got rid of Thoreau soon so she and her mom could find a new place and stop hiding.
I didn't want to risk tapping on the window, and I knew that George was asleep. He was snoring. I could hear that through the walls, too.
“Now what?” Xavier asked.
I tapped on the window just a tiny bit with my fingernail. Janine looked up. I was lucky. I hadn't expected her to hear it.
Her gaze landed on me, and she tensed. I waved and smiled to let her know that it was me out here in the dark. I hoped that she could see me. I tapped again. Janine looked away like she wanted to wake up her mother.
“No,” I whispered. “Janine, don't wake up your mom.”
But she didn't. Janine tiptoed out of the room and towards the front door. She must be going to let us in. I pulled Xavier around to the front, ready to cook for him if I had to. His smell had weakened. He was hungry.
Janine unlocked the door and waved us into the dark living room. George's snores were so loud now that even Xavier must be able to hear him.
“I was wondering when you'd get back,” Janine said.
“Why the glasses?” I whispered. “We're not the authorities, looking for you.”
“It's always good to be safe,” Janine said. The purple was fading from her hair now. “Xavier, are you hungry? George and I bought some microwave dinners earlier if you want some.”
“I'll take two,” he said.
Janine looked at Xavier's neck. Her mouth fell open. “Did Alyssa finally bite you?”
