by D. N. Hoxa
“You’re weird.” I was being honest.
“I can make fire with my hands. Of course I’m weird.”
“No, no, fire’s normal. Fire is great. Not taking your phone with you is weird as fuck.” I do believe you’d agree with me on this.
Logan laughed. “You’re walking around with an eye patch with an eye drawn on it, and you’re calling me weird?”
“My eye patch is cool and you know it.” It was beyond cool. “You’re just jealous Hailey didn’t draw a butterfly on your cheek.”
“What can I say? I’m a jealous man,” he said with a shrug. “But you might want to hide it for now. Didn’t you see how the people in that cafe watched you?”
Reluctantly, I pulled my hair from behind my ear and hid half my face. I hated doing that. Not only wasn’t it practical, it made me look like a weirdo, too. Like Logan.
“So what now?” he asked when we reached a park where people had taken their dogs out to play. It was such a lovely view. Too bad I could never be part of it.
“I was thinking about going to the library to kill time. There’s literally nothing else we can do but wait and hide.” The library was pretty close, too. “Unless you’ve got a job or something.”
“Nope.”
“Really? Then where do you get that money?” He’d agreed to pay that hacker a good amount.
“I’m not working now. I’ve worked before—since I was fifteen,” Logan said. Not the answer I was hoping for. Would have loved some more detail, but he wasn’t going to tell me more. “And you’re right. The Ministry wouldn’t think to look for you in a library. Definitely,” he said with a nod.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Just the way he said it made me feel like he meant something else.
“You don’t look like someone who reads books, that’s all.”
The asshole. “I do read books. You should see my apartment in Nashville. I’ve got plenty of books.” No joke. Books are so much better than movies.
“So you lived in Nashville?” he said the next heartbeat, making me roll my eyes.
“Yes.”
“And you came here when you found out about Tanana.”
“Yes.”
“Who is also responsible for the fact that you can’t do magic.”
“For the love of God, drop it.” I couldn’t believe I’d told him at the cafe that Nana had locked my powers. It hadn’t seemed like a big deal then, but now I was regretting it.
“I just want to know more about you,” he said.
“Why? So you can explore my weaknesses for when you try to kill me later?”
“So I can explore you, yes.” I had to turn my head all the way to look at his grinning face because he was on my right. The sparkle in his eyes made him worthy of his nickname.
“It’s great that you find me amusing, but we really have more pressing matters at hand,” I reminded him.
“But I find you much more than just amusing,” he continued, but he was no longer smiling.
I turned to the street again. It shouldn’t have been possible to even think about such things in the situation we were in, but I liked how he talked. I liked how he wasn’t afraid to speak his mind and tell it to my face. I also liked that he found me more than amusing, but that begged the question, what more? I really wanted to know, but of course, I wasn’t going to ask him. It was stupid and childish to even try to imagine what it would be like to kiss him, so I was just going to remind myself again that it didn’t matter. As soon as we found Nana, we were going to be enemies. We weren’t friends. We weren’t anything, just two people with a common goal, no matter how much that sucked.
“I didn’t mean to offend you,” Logan said after a while, almost making me jump. He thought he offended me? He must have, after I stopped speaking all of a sudden like a jackass.
“You didn’t.” On the contrary. He made me feel things I hadn’t felt in a very long time. I hadn’t even crushed on anyone since I’d been away from Richmond, and it almost felt like the first time.
Not friends! I reminded myself, yet again.
“Tell me what’s on your mind,” he said.
The library was in sight now. Just a couple of minutes and we’d have our hands full with other things. No time to talk while we were reading.
“I wish you’d stop trying to kill Nana.” That would make a difference. A huge difference. I wouldn’t have to worry about what would happen once we found her. I wouldn’t have to worry about anything.
“I can’t,” he said. The words were forced.
“Why?”
I thought for sure he would tell me this time.
He didn’t. “We’re here.”
So off into the library we went.
13
When we read all that we could read of the limited material that the library had on Egyptian and Futhark runes, we went to eat. We were starving, and pizza was the closest thing we could find. I’d have preferred a proper meal, but I didn’t have the money or patience for a nice, juicy steak, so pizza it was.
Virtual Disease X hadn’t sent us anything, either. By the time we finished eating, it was already dark outside. We didn’t find much in the library, but we deciphered another two words from the spell: past and future. So now we had reverse, death, past, and future, and my confusion level had gone up to about seventy-two. We were going to need a skilled high priest to make sense of that spell. Why the hell couldn’t we find those online, too?
Another day gone and I wasn’t even close to finding Nana. The desperation was getting the best of me. I worried that I might never find her.
“Hey, we’re going to find her,” Logan said, sensing my discomfort as we sat in one of the benches at the edges of the dog park.
“I know,” I lied. More worrying still, I had no idea where we were going to spend the night. A hotel was going to have to do because I wasn’t going back to Katherine’s house.
“You look sad,” he said. “I don’t like that look.”
Blood rushed to my cheeks, and despite it all, I found myself smiling.
“That’s better.” He raised his hand, and the tips of his fingers touched my cheek. I froze completely, as if hypnotized by the look in his eyes, that looked more amber than brown now. He leaned closer. Or maybe it was me? I couldn’t tell. I looked down at his lips, and God, they were so inviting. How bad would it be if I just kissed him right now? I was dying to have a taste, and if the way he was looking at me was any indication, he wanted a taste of me, too.
But we both knew we couldn’t. I looked down at my lap and moved away the same time he did. Neither of us needed the reminder of what would happen in the near future. Kisses had no place in our relationship, whatever it was.
“Where are we going to sleep tonight?” I said, to distract the both of us. My cheek was still hot where he’d touched me. I checked my phone, something I’d been doing every minute for the past three hours, and was disappointed to see that I’d received no new messages.
“You just can’t wait to get me in bed, can you?” said Logan, grinning. He had no idea.
“We’re sleeping in separate beds this time. And, by the way, you do snore. A lot.” That was a lie. He snored a little.
But that only made him laugh. “Let’s find a hotel.”
“I’m worried the MM might find us there. I’m honestly surprised they haven’t found us yet.” Although technically, the MM’s investigation department wasn’t worth shit. Even so, I knew it was only a matter of time.
“If someone comes looking for trouble, they’ll find it,” Logan said. He wasn’t worried at all, which made me feel a little bit better. “Come on.”
We turned the corner of the street and decided to stop in the first hotel we found. Maybe even an inn. Anything would do at that point. Doors and walls weren’t going to protect us if we were found, so it didn’t really matter where we stayed. If the Ministry was on our trail, we were screwed anyway.
We were passing by an alley when I hea
rd a noise, something falling to the ground from very high up. Both buildings to the side were five stories high, and for a second, I imagined a body dropping down.
“What’s that?” I stopped to take a look, but I couldn’t see anything past the once yellow dumpster. It was too dark.
“Someone probably threw trash out the window,” Logan said.
That made sense, so I continued walking down the street.
I wished I hadn’t.
It wasn’t long before we stopped again. The growling coming from behind us sounded a lot like a dog. That’s why I wasn’t afraid when I turned.
And saw.
It most definitely was not a dog. It was something else—and it had friends. Two friends.
“What the fuck?” I breathed as I took in the creature.
It stood on all fours, and its head was shaped like a dog’s but a bit different. The ears were bigger, pointier, and the snout longer. Its body was longer, leaner, taller than a dog’s, and covered in short fur that looked like a piece of fabric. Its legs were also much longer and strange-looking, almost human. I’d never seen anything like it in my life. It looked like an animal at first sight, but it was most definitely not. All you had to do was look at its glossy black eyes, like two spheres of black glass, to see that they weren’t exactly conscious—or even alive.
And the three of them were looking at us.
“Run,” Logan said, and I turned around to start running. My chakris were in my hand, but what the hell was I going to do with them? I also pulled my whip from the belt loop of my jeans as people screamed and ran across the street in horror. I was glad they kept away. Whatever those things were, they didn’t look like they would be easy to kill.
Soon, it was time to find out.
I turned my head to see how close they were, and the answer was terrifying: very.
“Watch out!” I shouted at Logan, then abruptly turned to the building at my side, jumped and planted my feet on the glass door while praying it wouldn’t open, and rolled around in the air just as the dog jumped at me with its jaws wide open. Those jaws were lined with perfectly white, pointy teeth—too many of them to count.
Using my chakri, I aimed for its face with all my strength. The chakri made contact and a whining sound filled my ears while I spun around once more, then landed on the ground on one knee. No time to see if I killed it because two more were coming for us.
Logan’s hands burned bright with orange fire, and he brightened the entire street as he threw a giant fireball ahead. It hit one of the dogs in the chest, but the other ducked and was just a few inches from my face when I pushed back. I fell on the asphalt on my back before coming back up and throwing my whip forward. It wrapped around the neck of the dog, but it didn’t hurt it. In fact, it moved to the side and took me with it, almost throwing me to the ground. I had to let go of the whip to throw my chakri at its face. It moved away quickly, too quickly, but my chakri made a clean cut on the side of its body, deep enough to make the creature whine loud.
Logan’s hands were spitting fire while the two other dogs tried to bite his head off. But they couldn’t even get near Logan. The fire was too hot, and it felt like it was burning me, too, though I was at least three feet away. My own dog was a handful. My whip was still around its neck, and one of my chakris was on the ground, but I kept busy for a few seconds, until one of the others decided he liked me better than Logan.
I moved and spun around more times than I could count, and my chakris cut into their flesh constantly. Their blood was thick and it looked black. The problem was, their wounds healed incredibly quickly. So when one of them jumped in the air, I spun around and fell on my back to get under it, and cut a clean X on its stomach with my chakris. I still wasn’t sure if that would stop it.
Black goo fell on my feet, and the creature hit the ground with a loud noise and a painful whine. It didn’t get up right away, and that was more than I could have hoped for. I couldn’t even finish it off for good because the other was already on me, more aggressive than before, its growl a nightmare on its own. Its jaws snapped constantly as it tried to bite me, and I moved away.
It almost bit my arm off when I tried to cut through its neck and missed, but Logan’s ball of fire hit it right in the chest and made it fall back.
“Again!” I shouted as I gained balance, and the creature had barely made it to its feet when another fireball, this one smaller, hit it in the chest. I ran forward with my chakris in my hand, crossed my arms all the way, then pushed them to the sides when I reached it.
The creature had no chance of moving away as its short fur burned with Logan’s fire but didn’t spread past its chest. My chakris made a clean cut on its face and neck, and it hit the ground with a loud thud.
“Let’s go!” Logan shouted.
I turned to see that the third was on the ground, too, burning fur producing a cloud of black smoke over it. I searched for the first chakri I’d thrown and found it, then had to untie my whip from the other creature while it slowly blinked its eyes. Fuck, it wasn’t dead, even though I’d literally cut its stomach open. Made you wonder what else they could endure.
With all my weapons on me, I turned around and ran after Logan as police sirens took over the night. There were basically no people left in the street, and that made it easier to run. My sneakers made a disgusting squishy sound every time they hit the asphalt because they were covered in the blood of that creature, and I could barely run.
Logan stopped to catch his breath in an alley two blocks away from where we left the creatures. I was glad he did because I needed to rest for a few seconds, too, before my legs gave up on me.
“What the hell were those things?” I asked breathlessly, trying to calm my racing heart.
“Never seen anything like it.” He looked back at the street with fear in his eyes. “But they wouldn’t die.”
“We can’t go to a hotel,” I said, squeezing my eyes shut. If those dogs or whatever they were came after us again, a hotel wasn’t going to be safe for us or for the other people who’d be there.
“Nowhere is safe right now,” Logan said through gritted teeth. But he was wrong.
“Nana’s Enclave. Whatever those things are, they won’t be able to get past her Guard.” Logan widened his eyes and looked like he wanted to refuse but then thought better of it. “It won’t stop the MM though, but we have no other choice.”
Logan took one more look back at the street and nodded. “It will have to do.”
Nana’s Enclave was another fifteen minutes’ run. By the time we reached the main gates, I’d imagined being eaten by those creatures at least seven times and being caught by the MM another five. I was a mess, my mind playing tricks on me, making me feel like there was someone right behind me when there wasn’t, and my muscles were turning to jelly fast. When I slammed against the gate and felt the Guard against my skin, I almost cried. I grabbed Logan’s hand and pulled him inside to make sure the Guard wouldn’t hurt him and slammed the gate shut behind me.
We were safe. I felt it, even if it wasn’t the truth. We were safe from those four-legged creatures, at least, and we could handle the MM if it came to it. We could handle them just fine, Logan and I.
For now, I wasn’t going to think. I was going to go inside, close the door, take a shower, and sleep.
Hopefully, the world wouldn’t end by then.
***
The world didn’t end.
I showered and dressed in clothes I found in one of the rooms of Nana’s students—a girl with blonde hair and a pretty dimpled smile if the picture in her room was to be believed. Who knew if she had died or not. Her clothes were the only ones that fit me. A pair of dark jeans and a white tank top was all I took while my clothes were in the washer.
Logan had used the other bathroom on the first floor. I hadn’t seen it, but he’d probably been covered in goo, too. We hadn’t talked much, but he’d asked me to find him some fresh clothes, and I had. The shirt was going to be
too tight on him, and the pants I found might not fit him at all, but it was the best I could find.
When he came upstairs, he wore nothing but a towel around his hips. My God. All thoughts of nasty dog-like creatures fled my mind, and my whole being focused in the bright ball of flame that suddenly ignited in my chest. It was really hard to breathe, too. He looked like a fucking god.
No, not like a fucking god, but you know, like a god. Cue internal eye roll.
Who the fuck was I kidding? He looked better than he had any right to look, with smooth skin, still a bit wet, covering waves of muscle on his arms and chest, and those abs…the tips of my fingers itched to touch them so badly.
Instead, I spun around, not as mortified as I thought I’d be to see him almost completely naked and pointed my finger at the door on the right. “I left clothes in there.”
Logan didn’t say anything. With my head down, I walked back to the room of the girl whose clothes I’d borrowed, willing myself to be still. This wasn’t a joke. The picture, the napkin, and my phone were on the twin bed, and they were a reminder of where I was. The MM had probably left people to watch the Enclave, and they knew we were here. It was only a matter of time before they came knocking on the door. We had to be careful and keep watch—anything it took not to get caught.
I sat on the bed and looked at the picture again. Who the hell were those people? I pulled my hair to the side—it was still wet and uncomfortable against my back—and tried to focus. Then, Logan came in, fully dressed. The pants had fit him by some miracle, but the blue shirt seemed like it was going to be ripped apart by the muscles on his chest and arms any second now. Nevertheless, the bastard made it work in his favor, and the stubble that now covered his cheeks and chin made him look even hotter. More dangerous.
“You look ridiculous,” I said, in an attempt to lighten the mood.