by Jude Marquez
Still striving to maintain the air of not caring, I shrugged.
Eric’s smile grew wider. His teeth were tiny and there were large gaps between them. I saw something gray lodged in his incisors.
“He’s in the room next door, with my sister. She has had a crush on him since she was little. She couldn’t let this chance passed her by,” he said.
I inwardly shuddered to think what he meant by that.
I kicked the blankets off of myself and put my legs over the edge of the bed. I still had my shoes on which was a strange comfort. I gave myself a moment to make sure that I wouldn’t collapse under my weight before I stood.
I wasn’t a hundred percent, I could feel that deep in my bones. I had to wonder how much of my magic I had used up and how much of it had been replenished when I was unconscious. There was a deep ache in every part of my body that I had never felt before, something that I could feel deep in my head. It was like there was a percussion band in my skull and the rest of my body was only following the same beat.
When I stood, Eric said nothing. He didn’t stop me either, which I took as silent permission. I walked to the door and when I put my hand on the handle, I realized that they could have locked it. A new fear rose in me. Away from the spring that fed my magic, alone with a nonhuman whose magical abilities I did not know, in a strange city that I had never been to, I would be more than isolated. I would be trapped, without a way out a way to call for help.
The door opened easily underneath my hand.
The hall was much the same as the room I was in. Paneled in dark wood with only one light overhead, it transported me into something out of an old horror movie. The house felt haunted, but by something worse than angry spirits.
I pushed the thought out of my head and went to the door right next to mine. I glanced over at Eric as I pushed the door open and he tipped his head to me, like he was a cowboy greeting me.
There was still something gray in his teeth.
Eli’s room was identical to mine. The only thing that was different was the young woman that was sitting at his bedside, adjusting the blankets around his shoulders. When she heard me step into the room, her head snapped up and her eyes met mine.
She was an unfortunate, skinny female version of Eric. The bones in her chin stuck out in a manner that suggested she had an eating disorder. Her lips were chewed and chapped and I could see she did the same thing to her fingernails. Her arms were strangely muscled, like a bad Photoshop job. Her low cut top showed off a pock-marked chest that was also thin and bony. When she took a deep breath, I could see the bones in her chest stick out so much that I was afraid he would pierce her skin.
Her magic sang out to me and I knew that she was this pack’s Sentinel.
“Who are you?” She snapped.
Once more, a vision of Celia popped into my head. I forced my own temper down and swallowed. “My name is Lou. Thank you for coming for us.”
This seemed to calm her briefly.
Until I stood next to Eli and looked down on him.
I could feel the anger and possessiveness rise within her. I wanted to tell her to check herself but once again held the back.
I spotted a chair in the room's corner and hurried over and grabbed it. I put it on the other side of Eli’s bed.
“How is he?” I asked and sat.
She glared at me but then I heard someone clear their throats from behind me. I glanced back and saw Eric standing there. He had his arms crossed and was watching the three of us.
“Whatever was in that bullet, is hurting him. It’s poisoning him and everything that I have tried seems like it does more harm than good,” she muttered.
Once more, I had to hold myself back. If whatever she had tried initially had hurt him, why did she keep trying? As I stared at Eli’s sleeping form, I wondered if I could even do this. The last time I healed him we were in the forest at home and I hadn’t just used up most of my magic.
It shouldn’t take that much effort, I convinced myself. Mostly it was guiding and encouraging Eli’s own body. He did most of the work while I only acted as a tour guide.
“Radiance. It’s the Ascendancy’s new and improved type of torture. It doesn’t kill, just drives the victim to madness with pain,” I said.
I unfolded the blankets and was more than a little dismayed to see that, unlike me, they had undressed Eli down to his boxers.
I didn’t know how much more I could hold myself back.
I made myself focus on the wound on his leg. It was turning black, and it was hot to the touch. I wondered how much longer he could have gone on like this.
Eli shuddered, and the girl made to pull the blankets back up over him.
I stopped her and shook my head.
“He will get cold. Keep him covered,” she hissed.
“No. He’ll be fine in a minute,” I muttered.
“I told you, I’ve tried everything,” she said, impatient and tugging at the blankets once more.
Maybe it was because I was close to Eli and he was from the same spring that I was. Or maybe I was finally beginning to feel the strength of my magic that everyone had talked about so much. Whatever it was, my magic was returning faster than I thought possible and I used it to nudge her back.
Her eyes widened when she felt it but her hands dropped.
“You’ve tried everything that you know. Now let me fix it,” I said.
Even Celia would not have been able to keep her temperature this long.
I gave as a girl one last, hard look before I turned my attention to Eli’s leg.
With my newfound knowledge, I prayed to the witch goddess, Hecate and hoped that she would hear me, even if I was so far away from home. I envisioned what Eli’s body looked like when he was healthy and whole, encouraging and offering my magic to help the healing. I offered my own abilities to Patecatl, the Aztec God of healing, and prayed that he would hear me. I found that direction that was becoming second nature and encouraged my magic to go where Eli so desperately needed help.
A moment later, the bullet and its fragments were sitting in my palm and Eli’s leg was knitting itself back together. I watched as it closed and there was not even so much as a scar as I slid my empty hand over it.
Then I turned to him and knew that it would only be a moment before he woke up.
I was right and when he saw me sitting by his bedside, he smiled. “You found me.”
“Of course I did. Isn’t that my job?” I asked.
Chapter 2
I don’t know how long Dante and I were silent in the teacher's lounge.
All I knew for certain was that we had lost, in a big way.
It could have been as long as an hour we sat there, but it was probably closer to thirty minutes before Dante straightened up and looked at me.
“We need to do something,” he declared.
I nodded. I still felt numb from the revelation that my little sister was somewhere that I couldn’t reach and it was all my fault.
I stared at the opposite wall, those words rolling through my head.
Dante stood up and walked to the other end of the lounge and then back. He paced a few more times and I could see the frustration building up.
“I hate this. In times like this, I would always turn to Lou.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. It seemed like a better idea to ask Dante what he was going on about then to focus on my own feelings of inadequacy.
“Ever since I was born, it has always been me and Lou. Well, until lately. Now it’s been more Lou and Eli.”
I looked up at him and raised my eyebrows.
Dante shrugged and continued to pace. “I don’t have a problem admitting that I’m jealous. He has always been there for me and it’s only been lately that he has been spending more time with Eli than anyone else, especially me. You try growing up with someone by your side every single day and then having them find someone else. See if you will be jealous.”
It impressed me h
e could even admit to jealousy without being bitter.
“I’m happy for him. Really. And maybe a little relieved too. Because Lou can be a lot to handle. And sometimes I couldn’t do it. It’s nice to share that kind of energy with someone else.”
“And you can look for someone else to, right?” I prompted.
Once more, Dante shrugged. “I guess. But it’s kind of hard to find someone in this mess.”
I had only been in this town for a few days, but I wasn’t blind or stupid. I had seen the way he looked at Savannah and the way Savannah looked back at him. I decided that now was not the best time to mention it.
“Even before all of this happened,” he said and gestured to himself. “I was always more of the brawn, the intimidation factor, and he was always more of the brains. He was always the one that came up with the plans and ideas. Which we desperately need right now.”
That was an understatement. We needed a plan, something to do in the worst way. We needed to start with something.
“I know you said that cell phones don’t work here, but is it worth a shot?” I asked.
Dante shook his head. “I don’t think so. And I can just see us calling Celia as she crept up on someone from the Ascendancy. Could you imagine? I don’t even have a number to call,” he admitted.
“Did you guys have a rendezvous point, in case things went south?”
“Yeah. The Ortega house.”
I winced. The last I saw of their house it was a pile of wood and rubble.
“Okay. So what do we have?” I prompted.
“Us. Your gun, with limited ammo, I imagine. And this vending machine over here,” Dante said and tapped on the glass.
“I don’t have any change,” I muttered. I looked down at the rifle in my hand and almost jumped out of my seat when I heard glass shattering. When I looked up, Dante was carefully picking through broken glass and pulling out a bag of trail mix. He held one up to me and I realized how hungry I was. I nodded and he tossed me a couple packs. We tore into the snack food and when we felt sufficiently satisfied, we fell silent again. We were still at the starting point with no idea what we would do.
“When I first started out hunting with my eight-year-old little sister, I came across this old man. He did the same thing that we did, had been doing it his whole life. We hunted a couple of ghouls together. He was smart, feisty. He told me one thing to do when I had no plan.”
I had Dante’s undivided attention.
“He told me that if there was no plan, to plan for the absolute worst. Think of the worst case scenario possible and plan for that. If things aren’t as bad, you’re still prepared.”
Dante nodded and his gaze was distant. “It’s better to be over prepared than under prepared.”
It was my turn to nod.
“My dad used to tell me that all the time, too. He was smart, but not feisty. He reminded me of Cary Grant.”
“I would have liked to meet him,” I said softly, noting that Dante was using the past tense.
“He would have arrested you,” Dante said and we laughed.
“That was a lot of people’s first instinct,” I agreed.
“Well, I’m glad that you’re here. I’m not sure I could do this alone,” Dante said.
I glanced over at him and had to remind myself that this big guy, whose muscles had muscles, was still young. He hadn’t even graduated from college yet.
“I’m glad to be here with you to. So let’s think. What is the worst-case scenario that we can imagine?” I said and stood up. I began to look through the cabinets and found a ream of blank, white paper. I tore it open and snatched a pencil from a cup on a nearby table. Then I looked up expectantly at Dante.
“Worst-case scenario? Everyone is dead,” he said.
I winced. “So, let’s bring it back a notch. Let’s say worst-case scenario with everyone alive.”
Dante nodded. “Okay. Everyone is alive. Worst-case scenario? Azolata is taken by his brother. And we are all alone.”
At the mention of Azolata’s name, I couldn’t help but feel a flash of guilt and anger. The last time I saw him, his brother was pinning him to a wall. I got off a few good shots and Azolata’s brother and even though I knew that I couldn’t kill the guy, at least not with us bullets, I thought I could injure him enough for Azolata to get away.
Then Savannah showed up. There had been something between Azolata and Savannah, something unsaid, before she threw me over her shoulder and ran away. I hated that he made that decision for me and I hated that I couldn’t do more to help him.
“Okay, tell me why being alone is the worst case scenario,” I urged. I couldn’t afford to dwell too long on my feelings toward Azolata at the moment. When I rescued him, and I would rescue him, then I could have it out with him face-to-face. Until then, we had to focus on the problem on our hands.
“The books. Do you remember us talking about them?” Dante asked, changing the subject so fast, I had to consider his question before I nodded for him to go on.
“Artie thinks each book belongs to one of our pack members –”
I held up a hand. “Why you? Why your pack?”
“Because packs like ours, with members like me and Lou, with alphas like Celia, with a magic like Artie’s, with strength like Eli’s, we aren’t supposed to exist. I guess they used to a long time ago, but not anymore.”
There was no arrogance or pride in his voice. This was just a fact of his life. It was all innocently said, like he was re-telling me a beloved fairy tale from his childhood.
“These books give each person special instructions. I’m sure you heard what Artie’s said,” Dante said.
“I did,” I said.
Dante cleared his throat. “Savannah had another book. She stole it from the Ascendancy before she left. It was mine. Those instructions in my book?”
I nodded.
“My instructions told me how to kill the queen. Azolata’s sister. The mother of all werewolves.”
I sighed and threw my pencil down. I ran my hands through my hair and I knew I left it sticking up at crazy angles. I was out of my depth here. The life I had led until I met Lou and Eli was an easy one. I hunted vampires, killed ghouls, and occasionally went to go look for Big Foot. This? Gods, prophecies, myths come to life; it was beyond me.
“Okay. But what does this have to do with us?” I asked finally.
“The last thing we decided as a pack was that we would search out our books. That was before all of this happened,” Dante said and gestured toward the town.
“So you think they are out there? Looking for these books? In hopes of what?” I asked.
At that, Dante’s face twisted with confusion. “I was never clear on that. I was never clear on why we needed these books so badly. I’m sure that if we could talk to Artie or Celia, then we could figure out why..”
Unfortunately for us, they were not here. And we didn’t know how to reach them.
“When was the last time you saw Azolata?” Dante asked gently.
“Before they dumped me in the middle of the forest,” I muttered.
Dante waited for me to go on.
“His brother collared him. They made it out of light. Then I saw a bunch of those Ascendancy freaks on him. Then he was gone.”
Dante looked thoughtful for a moment. I knew that he was wrong when he said Lou was the only with brains between the two of them. Dante was just as smart. The world we lived in did not let dumb people survive for very long.
“Our worst-case scenario is that everyone is gone, looking for their books. I have my book, but it’s hidden. The same with Artie’s. So, I think our best guess is to look for Azolata,” Dante said.
“I think we should look for Billie and the others first,” I objected.
“I don’t think so. You heard what Gerri said about the fairy courts. It is the safest place they could be. And I know for a fact that of all people, Billie and Artie will be safest there.”
“You can’t kn
ow that,” I said.
“I can. Gerri said that anyone who belongs to Celia will be kept unharmed by her mother. Her mother is the queen of all the Fae. I don’t know how much you know of them, but I wouldn’t mess with even the weakest of them, let alone their queen,” Dante said.
I hated that he had a good point.
Defeated, I nodded. “Okay. We’ll look for Azolata –”
I stop talking when I heard something above us. I looked to Dante, and he nodded. “I’ve been hearing them for a few minutes now. There are at least three of them,” he confirmed.
I stood up and put my rifle over my shoulder. “Can we get to the rooftop?”
Dante nodded. We left the room and followed a maze of hallways. At a maintenance closet, Dante jerked it open. In front of us was a metal ladder that led up to the roof of the school. Dante went first and shouldered open the door above him.
“Stay low,” I hissed as he pulled himself up.
I followed and we crawled to a ledge. The roof was covered in small pebbles that cut into my hands and knees. The surrounding air was cold and we could see our breath in the air.
In the center of town, there were two helicopters landing and another cresting over the forest.
“Look,” Dante said and pointed.
There was only one way in and out of Glenwood Lock. That one road was jam-packed with military vehicles.
“I think we have a new worst-case scenario,” I muttered.
Chapter 3
“You’re sure this is the only place we can get it?” I asked again.
Gerri nodded. She didn’t seem too pleased about the location either. Her lips were twisted in annoyance as the three of us studied the building in front of us.
“Well, if we are going to do this, we need to do it quickly. We could be picked up by the police or someone else if we’re just sitting here,” Savannah said and drummed her fingers on the steering wheel.
I looked around. I couldn’t hear anything, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were people in the buildings across the street peering out their windows. This was not the neighborhood that trusted a pricey SUV driven by three girls who looked like they belonged in a cushy sorority.
