The City of Monsters
Page 39
Was it the Composer? Or was there someone else in the game?
Game. Huh. As good an analogy as any. Somebody was playing a game with the city, with rules no one else understood. Otherwise, they would have just hijacked a zeppelin or something with a megaphone and blasted the song to the entire city at once.
“Hopefully that's not the case,” Laura said. “I don't want to think too long on the implications of that.”
“Well, if we could find a way to cut you off from the hive mind completely...”
She raised an eyebrow. He had a look on his face that she didn't quite like. “If you're trying to convince me to let your perform brain surgery on me or my friends...”
“My mother says just whacking him is easier than trying to talk to him,” a female voice cut in from behind me.
Laura turned to see a pretty young girl, about her own age, with long crimson hair tied into a single braid that went down to her waist. The color clashed a little with her pale skin, but she was slightly darker than when Laura had seen her last. Curious. She was also wearing a long-sleeved black shirt and jeans, which was also odd. She normally preferred short sleeves.
She glared at Clarke with her red eyes—to the best of Laura's knowledge, the only toy she had. “I'm just here for my allowance. But I'd be happy to whack him for you.”
The doctor clapped his hands, grinning. “Robyn Joan! Good to see you! It's been too long. How's your mother? She hasn't returned my calls.”
His daughter sighed. “No, dad, you haven't returned her calls.”
He frowned. “You sure?”
“Yes. MC? Can you back me up here?”
“She's got you there, Isaac,” MC's voice said from one of the speakers in the wall. “You haven't replied in months. I think you said you were busy with that heart thing, but I'm not sure. I have it on record somewhere...”
Clarke brushed his hair back. “Mary Christina, couldn't you be on my side just once?”
“Nope.”
Laura smiled a little at their antics. It helped keep her mind off the twisted pile of charcoal that used to be someone she had promised to protect. “How've you been, Robyn?”
She smiled back. “I'm all right. I haven't seen you since...” She frowned, searching her memory.
“Since you visited North Outer last year,” Laura reminded her. “You still dating that Frank guy?”
Clarke looked up. “Dating who in the what now?”
Robyn glared at her. “Thanks for that. And no, I'm not. That didn't last long.”
“Why didn't you tell me about this?” Clarke demanded, seemingly actually angry for once. “I could have—”
“Thrown your weight around and caused more problems than you solved,” Robyn interrupted. “That's why I never tell you anything.”
Laura had met Robyn when they were kids. Her parents—or more specifically, her mother, since her father never left the lab—lived in NHQ, so they went to school together. She had a crush on Derek ever since he saved her from a stone-slasher gargant when they were kids, but she ignored it pretty well. After Laura left the district, Robyn was her main source of information on what was going on in the area.
A lab tech ran into the room, throwing open the double doors with a crash, but skidded to a stop when she saw Robyn. “Doctor! Ah, if this is a bad time...”
Clarke grinned a little sadly. “No, no, my daughter should spend time catching up with her friends anyway. This is about the heart, correct?”
The tech nodded. “Yes, it has begun to beat, but it's erratic—”
He silenced her with a wave of his hand. “Show me.” As he was leaving, he turned back. “Laura, we can discuss more theories later. And Robyn Joan, I'll have your allowance after I'm done with this.” Then he was gone, the doors swinging a few times before stopping.
Robyn sighed and rubbed her forehead. “Which means I'm going to get the money sometime next week. Oh well,” she shrugged. “I didn't really need it right away anyway.”
“You should be nicer to your father,” Laura said. “He means well. He just...”
“Gets caught up in things,” she finished in a flat tone. “I know. That's what my mom has been saying for years.” She shook her head. “She knew what she was getting into when she married him, so she can live with it. I need someone a little bit more on top of things. Someone who remembers what year it is without having to look at a calendar.”
Laura chuckled. “Oh, c'mon, he's not that bad.”
Robyn just raised an eyebrow. “You only see him here at the lab, so you wouldn't know.” She shrugged again. “I'm really not in the mood to argue about this. I'll talk to you more later, okay?” She left again before Laura could stop her.
Laura sighed. Robyn was a wonderful girl, she was just closed off. She and Derek were a lot alike, but he was more popular due to his hero complex. Saving lives earned you lots of friends. She had much the same complex, but she didn't have the right instincts to rush into danger.
But there was something off about her today...
“MC?” Laura asked, still trying to puzzle it out.
Her voice replied quickly. “Yeah, what's up?”
“Has Robyn been doing any missions lately?”
“Uh... yeah. Mostly just a few lost-and-found ones, a couple of fetch quests. That kind of thing. Why?”
Laura frowned. “So she hasn't been fighting.”
“Not if we're going by her missions. Besides, it's Robyn.”
Laura touched her necklace, thinking. It didn't make any sense. She had always been non-violent to a fault. She got queasy at the merest sight of blood or death.
Well, Laura had nothing else to stick around for, so she grabbed her bag and headed for the doors. Clarke would call her when he had time.
“Laura?” MC said before she could leave. “Why are you wondering about Robyn's quest log?”
She shook her head. It had a simple explanation, she was sure, but she didn't know what it was. “She wasn't upset by the corpse.”
Things were changing in the city. In a thousand big ways, and a million tiny ones.
She just wished she knew how everything was going to turn out.
End of Book 1: The City of Monsters
Book 2: The Composer of Screams will be out soon
If you liked the book, don't forget to leave a review!
Author's Note
Domina has always had an odd place in my heart. I wrote it almost on accident. I had a random thought (“What if kids who dressed up as demons were actual demons?”) and somehow a story came out of it.
Domina is an early story, and it shows. Even after multiple rewrites and tweaks, some of the basic plot details remain amateur. Some important character traits were added for no better reason than as a reference to some popular show or genre.
But still, I can't bring myself to scrap everything and start over. Those stupid, unnecessary details have grown on me, and I don't want to just say they were worthless. I've downplayed them on rewrites, but they remain nonetheless. The biggest change was the change from a shifting first-person point of view to third-person.
This book, in particular, is half of what was originally a much longer “first book.” The original book was far too long and needed to be cut down. Ultimately, I am happy with how this came out.
Table of Contents
Book 1
Chapter 1: INITIUM
Chapter 2: MISSIO
Chapter 3: MONSTRUM
Chapter 4: PROBATA
Chapter 5: NOTI
Chapter 6: AMICUS
Chapter 7: IGNIS
Chapter 8: POTESTAS
Chapter 9: EXERCITIUM
Chapter 10: AMARE
Chapter 11: CONPEDIS
Chapter 12: MORSUS
Chapter 13: SUAVIUM
Chapter 14: NECESSARIUS
Chapter 15: SICARIOS
Chapter 16: PERICLUM
Chapter 17: CANTOR
Chapter 18: TORRIDA TELLUS
>
Chapter 19: PIETAS
Chapter 20: CONSEQUIA
Chapter 21: FUTURUM
Chapter 22: COTIDIE VITAM
Chapter 23: SPIRO
Chapter 24: SECRETA
Chapter 25: QUIESCO
Chapter 26: COMMEATUS
Chapter 27: NATALIS
Chapter 28: OBLITUS
Chapter 29: MALEFICUS
Chapter 30: TEMPUS TRANSIT
Chapter 31: AURORA
Chapter 32: FRAGOR
Chapter 33: REAGUNT
Chapter 34: PERSEQUEMINI
Chapter 35: CONSILI
Chapter 36: QUIRITATIONIS
Chapter 37: LUCTUS
Chapter 38: PRAEDO
Chapter 39: VULNERUM
Chapter 40: INTERULUS
Chapter 41: POST NOCTE
Chapter 42: DESPECTUS
Chapter 43: LACRIMIS
Chapter 44: SOSPITAS
Chapter 45: COMPRIMO
Chapter 46: CRUOR
Chapter 47: EXPERGEFACIO
Chapter 48: GIGAS
Chapter 49: MERCENNARIUM
Chapter 50: SEDUCERE
Chapter 51: ERUDITIO