by Lucy Auburn
"Both. Apparently Eve is freaking out because MJB was here recently, and they're worried he'll come back very soon. Sounds farfetched if you ask me. I think she just misses my ass."
Mason laughs. "Well, we can always come back later. I think this was enough turning over rocks for one evening."
"We didn't find anything," I point out.
"You found that." He motions towards the knife, which has a thick sheath and strange cross running through the middle, along with gems and curves along the whole surface. "It looks kinda... important. Historic, even."
"It's probably just an antique that got picked up at some estate sale... wait." Picking it up, I run my finger along the handle. "It's got my father's initials carved in it. V.A."
"Huh. Might be important."
"I wish we could hang around and look for more stuff. We should go, though," I admit aloud. "I've got the transport stone. Let's get out of here before Eve shows up to preemptively stab me so MJB never gets the chance."
I activate the transport stone, and give Mason one last lingering kiss before we go towards the doors together. It sucks to cut our alone time short, but we'll find some other time and place to reconnect. I'm just glad I finally started letting him in. It feels as uncomfortable as a hot poker stabbing into my skin, but it's worth it for the smile on Mason's face and the comforting way his hand holds mine.
The knife is a steady weight against my hip as I walk through Cain's doors, wondering what I'll find on the other side. For all I know Eve is going to be pacing back and forth in front of the campus gates, wearing a trench into the ground from nervousness. The way she sounded on the phone, it's like she knew he was going to come for me.
But I know he was going to show back up at some point. It's only a matter of time. I just hope he doesn't bring whatever giant castle-slicing knife took out the Black Serpent's creepy digs.
As I walk through the doors, a terrible sense of déjà vu goes through me. Because it's not the regular version of the campus that I walk out into.
It's a nightmare version.
The one I saw when we left the Black Serpent's pocket dimension and somehow wound up in some fucked up version of the future. All around me, the campus glows with eerie red light, every cloud in the dark sky and blade of grass on the ground frozen in time, unmoving and unresponsive.
On the other side of the gates, I know, there'll be chaos and destruction. Emptiness and despair. The version of the future we walked into was incomplete, but reality will be so much worse.
My pulse leaps. "Mason, it's a tra—"
"Too late." He grimaces as the Cain doors dissipate behind us, melting away like they were never there. "Get behind me. And check that decorative knife you found to see if it has a sharp edge—we'll be needing it."
"I don't understand," I mutter as I do as he said, his fingers trailing behind his back, waiting for my grip.
Checking the dagger, I find that it's more than ready to kill, which is a small victory considering who and what we're up against. My phone, of course, has no bars—and neither does Mason, he shows me as he flips the screen towards me. It makes sense; this pocket dimension is currently somehow frozen in time, and the long-range cell tower used to tap into the networks back on Earth isn't exactly going to work in these circumstances.
"We'll just have to find the others the old fashioned way. They're probably either in the training center or classes—that, or if everyone evacuated, down in the underground arena. Once we find them, we can figure out our next steps."
"Why would Eve tell me to come back to campus if it's like this? Unless—unless it wasn't her."
Ta-ta, Ellen. Where have I heard that before? Not from my best friend, that's for sure. It was what Vervaine said before she vanished with Brutus and took my powers with her.
Mason tells me, "I don't know what's going on, but we've got to find the others and make sure they're safe. Just take my hand and have that dagger out—I don't want to bleed out on you."
"Got it."
"With luck, my illusions will be enough that if we get into a sticky situation we can get away. So if I squeeze your hand, be as quiet as possible. Sound breaks the illusion if you're not careful. Ready?"
"As I'll ever be."
We move towards the gates forever, the air eerily still around us. I can't help but worry about Eve—if that wasn't her on the phone, but Vervaine somehow imitating her voice with her who-knows-how-many powers, that could mean trouble for the real Eve. But I try to remind myself that she can shapeshift as she chooses and has the ability to kill people with her glares (at least, I'm guessing from experience). She has to be okay.
They all have to be okay.
My Conduits, my pets, my friends—everyone.
Damned them if they get injured or killed just when I've started letting them in.
I'll figure out how to Jesus them back from the dead and stab them if they're dead.
"Watch out," Mason murmurs as we pass through the gates and head into the university grounds. "There's something up ahead."
Something, it turns out, is a dead body on the ground near the front entrance to campus. As we reach the corner, my knife in my hand, Mason's grip in mine, his other hand out and prepared to cast illusions, we find another body sprawled out on the ground.
Two students. Both dead. I recognize neither, which fills me with relief—immediately followed by guilt. These two were somebody's friends, and now they're gone. All because of MJB and his psychopath of a girlfriend.
"I think they've passed through," I tell Mason, looking around us for any signs of movement. "We should check the classrooms first, then the underground arena. Let's start with the new Mental Affinity classroom. Maybe Covington will be there still."
"Agreed."
They moved the classroom while the original one is repaired. It's in what was an old training gym, then a botany room. There are still plants everywhere—Grayson complains that the windows are left open all day to let sunlight in, which apparently makes it harder for him to meditate. I hope he's still alive so I can remind him what a finicky asshole he is.
Mason and I move to the Mental classroom, but it's empty, the doors wide open, no sign of the students inside. My pulse thrums; I can feel the emptiness in the air, the sense that any minute now, shit is about to go down.
And here I am without my ready-for-shit smile on my face.
"Their rooms," Mason says, sounding just as scared as I feel. "We've got to hurry—take my hand and run."
I swallow. "Got it."
"Don't be afraid, Ellen. We'll get through this together."
As I grip his hand tight and run alongside him down the empty hallways, past abandoned classrooms, through the courtyard and towards the dormitories, I can't stop wishing that I had my powers back. Maybe if I could still see into the future, I'd be able to see this. At least if I had my force field I'd feel somewhat protected—even without my vision.
Lady Fate really is a cruel mistress, to take away everything all at once just when I was starting to get the hang of taking down Marks with my Conduits.
As soon as we're in the dorms, Mason and I skid to a stop, backs against the wall, and look around us. I keep my dagger out, wondering how many times my dad used it to stab someone; Mason has his powers at the ready, thrumming just beneath his skin, electric and alive from our touch.
I feel like I've been stretched out so tight that I'll snap if so much as a butterfly lands on my shoulder.
So when I hear the distinct sound of footsteps down the corridor, I tense. Mason and I meet gazes, and he draws me behind him, a hard look on his face. His scar stands out when he's wearing that determined expression; it makes him look almost frightening.
Thump. Thump. Thump. The footsteps are loud and careless, like the person walking towards us don't give a fuck who hears them. I mentally picture Marcus Junius Brutus, then go further, my frightened mind imagining him carrying Eve's head in one hand or walking towards us in Wyatt's body.
No. It can't be. I'll stab everyone in the world to death if Brutus has taken my beloved Wyatt and started wearing his body like it's his own. Nothing could be a worse fate.
Just when I'm about to jump out in front of Mason and race around the corner to stab the loud-foot-steps-having person in the face, I hear a second figure walking towards us, in time with the first. This one has a peculiar gait, a kind of thump tha-thump, as if... as if they're using a cane.
In a low voice, I ask Mason, "Do you think it could be...?"
"Maybe. Stay ready for a fight, though."
The seconds that pass feel like minutes. I find myself wishing for my Emotional Affinity, so I could slip into an animal around me and use their eyes to see what's going on. My own feel useless next to that ability.
After an impossible moment, though, a familiar goofy loud killer rounds the corner, followed by a familiar grumpy asshole killer. And I drop Mason's hand, grinning as I fling myself towards them and wrap them both in huge tight hugs.
"You're alive!" Kissing Levi's cheek, I grab Grayson and look him up and down. "What's going on? They're here, right? Eve called me, but I don't think it was Eve—and we found two bodies near the gates, plus there's this weird sense in the air like nothing is moving... what?" Grayson is looking at me like he thinks the world might split open and swallow us both whole. I swallow. "Grayson, what's wrong?"
"It's Wyatt," he says grimly. "We can't find him anywhere."
Most of the campus is in the underground arena, the guys tell me as I try not to panic, but they haven't been able to find our resident big guy anywhere. His room, the training center, the classrooms—he's nowhere to be found.
Levi quips, "For someone so huge, you'd think he'd be easier to find."
"I'm putting one of those dog GPS trackers on him," Grayson grumbles. "I swear, he moves fast and quiet for a big guy. He's always slipping away from me. He was here right up until the evacuation, then—poof. Gone."
We're having our conversation in one of the empty dorm rooms, though in truth, no one knows where Vervaine or Brutus are. They appeared long enough to kill a few students—Levi says Vervaine has some kind of light knife now—but ran when the professors ganged up to counter-attack. Now they're either gone or lying in wait somewhere, for all we know using illusions to hide themselves.
"We don't even know their Affinities," Mason says, arms crossed, a troubled expression on his face. "For all we know they can shapeshift, and they're hiding down in the underground arena. Or..." He narrows his eyes at the other two. "Well. How do we know you are who you say you are?"
"How do we know?" Grayson shoots back.
Rolling my eyes, I reach out and grab his hand. "Is your pain gone? That's how you know it's me."
He swallows thickly, jerking his eyes towards my grip on him, then away again. "Right. Well, I'm me, in case you were wondering."
"No one could fake that level of grumpiness," I tell him. "Although..."
Glancing over at Levi, I admit to myself that he's been more serious than normal. The poisoner looks over at me with his brows down together, frowning a little—and I find myself wondering if it's really him.
"I'll just check real quick by asking him something only he would know," I tell them. "Though... Vervaine does have a Mental Affinity. And she worked here for a long time. There's a lot about us she could know. I can only think of one thing she wouldn't..."
"What?" Mason asks.
In response, I step forward, grab Levi's waistband, and look down. He indulges me as I jerk his shirt up and his pants down, checking for it: right there. The barely visible coffee stain birthmark right at the root of his dick, nestled in a few pubes, smack in the middle of the V of his abdomen.
"Hello there," Levi murmurs against my hair, while Grayson groans and jerks his eyes away. "Thinking of a little power up break? Because I bet I could be vewwy, vewwy quiet if you got down on your knees and—"
"It's him," I tell the others, hastily re-clothing him and stepping away. "No way our professor knows about that birthmark. As for Grayson... show us what's inside your cane that none of the teachers know about."
"You mean my transport stone?" He unscrews the top and shows it around, darkly adding, "Too bad you don't know my dick well enough to tell it from an imposter. That's something we could always fix if we don't wind up brutally murdered by a centuries old asshole looking for a new body to snatch."
Trust Grayson to find a way to hit on me while still making it bitter and dark. There's a look in his eyes, though, a longing that's for more than just the cessation of pain or a notch in his belt, and I have to look away from it before I fall into the still pools of his ice blue eyes.
Grayson Hughes is a man like no other. If I didn't have another, entirely different man to hunt down and kill right now, I'd lose myself in another one of his passionate kisses or maybe something more. Too bad nearly getting murdered keeps getting in the way of all the sex I could be having.
"Now that we all know we are who we say we are, let's go find Wyatt," I tell the others. "Any clue where he might have gone?"
"No clue," Levi says.
Grayson shakes his head. "He didn't mention anything."
"I have an idea," Mason pipes in, looking over at me. "I think... I think if he went anywhere during the evacuation, it was to make sure no one got left behind."
"No one did," Grayson says, frowning. "The professors got everyone, and the Shadow Fold found all their members. They did roll call—only Wyatt was missing."
"That's not who I mean. I was thinking that if it came to it, and Wyatt was worried about a certain fluffy Siamese cat or a scared stray dog..."
"Oh, fuck." I swallow, closing my eyes briefly. "He went back to get my pets."
The thing about cats that might not be actual cats is, they don't exactly stick to regular patterns. A normal cat would hang out near their food bowl and pop around for an occasional bit of playing or petting. Not Penny. For all I know, Penny has opposable thumbs that open doors.
She certainly gets into things like she does. The other day Eve caught her eating wild caught salmon filets inside what had been a closed refrigerator.
Killer is a bit more predictable, being the more skittish of the two. Trust me to give my shy pet the hardened name. But without my Emotional Affinity, it'll be impossible to pinpoint either of their locations—something Wyatt probably guessed when he went off to get them.
Now instead of panicking and freaking out because I can't find my pets, I'm panicking and freaking out because we can't find him. We don't even come along a sign of the two killers—though we do pass Covington in the hallway, and he frowns at the four of us.
"Students are supposed to be in the underground arena. Get to it."
"Have you seen Wyatt Brown?"
"No," he acknowledges. "But I'm pretty sure I've pinpointed Maureen's location, and I can't hunt her down if I'm worrying about the four of you getting caught up in all this. So you should head down into the underground arena—it's the safest place for you. If I find Wyatt—when I find him—I'll send him that way too."
He tries to shoo us off like we're recalcitrant schoolchildren, but I cross my arms and plant my feet, refusing to budge. "You're not doing this without us. Or at least not without me. This is personal for me."
"Which is exactly why you should be down in the arena."
Mason takes my arm and softly points out, "You know, he might have a point about—"
Before he can finish his sentence, Vervaine herself poofs into being behind Covington and comes running straight towards him, her eyes flashing, a glowing blue blade in her hand. Frizzy dark hair flies around her face, a savage expression on her eyes, dried blood covering her once-pristine grey-and-white clothes.
The blade bites down on his shoulder, and blood spills everywhere.
Shouting, I push Covington aside and—in what can only be a moment of total dumbassery—get between him and Vervaine. The professor recovers quickly, pulling m
e aside just before her blade of light slices down in the spot where I was. He grimaces and holds his wounded shoulder, going pale. The blade sinks into the stone at our feet and chips off a hunk of rock, its light diminishing some as the cut takes power out of it.
I kneel by the professor as he slides to the ground, reaching out to press my hands against his wound. "Are you going to be okay?"
"I will be." Putting his fingers around his Shadow Ring, he turns it around twice and tells me, "I'm getting Lya. I'll be right back."
Right as he starts to fade away, he tells me, "Watch out!"
I turn just in time to see Vervaine pull the blade free and turn to face me, a snarl on her face. "Time to give up the last of what's no longer yours, Ellen. First your powers, then that Conduit connection, and finally I'll be done with you, wretched girl."
"No." Grayson's voice is firm and dark as he sets his cane into the floor and leans forward, blue eyes narrowed, free hand hovering in the air. I can feel it as power ripples out of him, heavy and undeniable, making the hairs on my arms rise. "You won't be doing that... Cleopatra. Your arms are frozen. In fact, you find that you can't move at all. Even breathing is a struggle... a struggle you're slowly losing."
She glares at him, eyes full of hatred. I can see in her face that it's true, bizarre as it is—though then again, we're somehow up against the long-dead killer of Caesar himself. The ruler of Egypt should be just as dead as him, but if Cain's doors have taught me anything, it's that the shit I thought I believed is far from true.
"Does she have my powers?" Leaning forward, I try to see inside her pockets. "Can I look for them?"
"Stick your hands in there real quick."
Mugging her up, I find nothing inside her pockets, no sign of the magical yarn, and try not to show my disappointment as I step back. "Maybe there's a clue inside her head. A way to get them back."
Grayson concentrates, then shakes his head. "Whatever it is, she's hiding it deep inside her mind. I'm sorry, Ellen."
"What do we do?" Levi asks. "Other than kill her, which is obvious."
"If we even can kill her," Grayson says. "She's gathered many Affinities over the years and covered herself in them, even the ones she hasn't been able to transfer over to her new bodies. Just like that yarn, she's figured out a way to put power into objects... which is how she made that sword of light. She stole an Affinity just like Copenhagen's. No wonder he was scared of her."