He didn’t go into the details of that law.
“I want to reassure all of you that these collars cannot fail, not even with tampering. I will not divulge the nature of how they can be removed, only that those means are heavily guarded and protected for the safety of all.”
I wasn’t reassured. He didn’t have a clue about the moon. What if something happened again, a new wave of shit that would leave the collars useless pieces of junk and blood flooding the streets?
“I also want to offer my deepest condolences to all of those affected by the affliction. It brings me tremendous sadness to hear of your losses. My heart is broken.”
The affliction. That was the spin, then. No direct blame on the wolves. Clever.
“My heart goes out to every one of you. I would never want to see any harm come to any innocent in the world. The wolves are here to protect you, to guide you, to be the governing force you need and look to in these times of crisis. Such as now. We will overcome this, fight back against the dark forces that are trying to undermine our way of life. Mark my words, destruction of evil will come. When it does, it will be eradicated. To all the terrorists watching this address, know that your destruction is coming. Hate will be undone. The sun will rise again.” He took pause as the camera zoomed in on him. His dark eyes still made my knees wobble through a screen.
“Investigations will continue, as will my public addresses. I apologize for the silence these past days, but now you can understand the task that was being undertaken.” Another pause with an intense stare at the camera. “I would like to end by once more pleading for the safe return of my son.”
I froze.
“There has been no word, but I know somebody somewhere has information on his whereabouts. I do not beg lightly, but I beg for his safety. He is my son.”
“So is Zach,” Phi muttered.
Though his face didn’t give anything but the coolness he always projected, my dad had used some dangerous language. The High Alpha didn’t beg. What the hell was going on?
Did he have a heart?
Too much. I didn’t know how to deal with this.
“Are you okay?” Phi asked as I watched my dad walk off-camera, and the action returned to the news studio for some analysis I so didn’t want to hear.
“I’m fine.” I got up and left the platform, jumping down onto the caravan tracks, walking away.
G was okay. My dad was okay.
He was worried about me. Me. The son who brought him shame. What did it mean? Was he more worried about me being used as collateral? Was that it? He knew I was being held by someone, right? Thinking about number one rather than me?
Fuck. My head was spinning, and I was stuck down here.
Dad confused the shit out of me on a daily basis.
Ugh.
I paused at a tunnel junction as a caravan crawled past.
Running footsteps. I turned to see Phi heading toward me.
“Wait,” she said, slowing down. “Sorry, you probably want to be left alone, but I just needed to check on you again to be sure.”
“I’m alright. Need to think before tonight.”
“I get that. I really do.”
“Thanks for checking, though. Proper nice.”
“I worry. I know how crazy all of this is.”
“For you, too.”
She nodded. “Yes.”
I stuffed my hands into my pockets. “I wish there was something I could say.”
“There isn’t, Akira.”
“I know. Just, well, yeah.”
“Answers will come.”
She seemed a lot more chill. Well, not chill, but empty. Broken. Lost.
“I hope so, Phi. I really do.”
* * *
When the time came to move, we moved. No fucking about, just got our shit together and went.
Me, Xavier, Phi, and Mel set out on our mission, heading through the tunnels for the Marble Arch trading post. It was a spot long-closed, sealed up proper. But these elves knew the way out, even if that whole area was mega guarded by wolves and SCU.
I sat in silence in the back of the caravan, not saying a word, taking the moment to get into a state of readiness. We were heading to Hyde Park, the prison of creepy mazoku.
Yeah.
Great.
Woohoo!
The journey passed quickly. I was zoned out to the world, focusing on the job, getting my mind ready for the task at hand. So, when the caravan stopped, it actually surprised me.
Blinking to clear my zoning out, I got up and exited the caravan.
The elves were already on the platform, dressed from head to toe in black. Just like me—thanks to Mel’s mad clothes-making skills.
Whoa. Talk about cobweb and dust central. The platform was filthy, footprints in the dust that blanketed the ground like gray ash. Some overhead lights helped with avoiding getting a face load of cobwebs.
One serious spider party had gone down here.
I walked along the platform behind my elf friends, catching movement in the shadows. Spiders. The eight-legged creatures didn’t bother me much, but I still didn’t wanna be around them. Just ‘cos, well, eight legs.
Xavier led the way up into the stairwell, which wasn’t lit. The elves pulled out some torches, beams cutting through the dusty dark, and we went up the spiraled staircase to the surface.
Here were go.
Chapter Twelve
“Okay, stay still,” Xavier said.
Our backs were pressed against the wall after slipping through a gap that wasn’t there. Weird thing. I didn’t actually see it, at all, but passed through it, feeling the space around me. Like I was swimming in liquid brick. Didn’t freak out, so boom for me. Still, that’d been some freaky shit.
Out in the air, hidden by shadow, I watched the SCU and the wolves patrol the area. The entrance to the Oxford Street slums was nearby, reminding me of the shit that’d gone down there with me and Violet’s dickhead crew.
I’d kill them all over again if I could.
Bet she was alive still. Why wouldn’t she be? Her and the damn banshees were gonna be the biggest thorns in my arse cheeks before I could find a hardcore pair of tweezers to yank them out!
Xavier had a pebble in his hand—one of those smoothed down oblong ones. You could use it to decorate around the edge of your pond, stick in some solar lights and a water fountain too, and it’d be oh so pretty.
Right.
“Watch me hit the bullseye, sunshine,” he whispered.
He flung the pebble, sending it out on an arched trajectory like he was in the Olympics. It cut through the night silently, until a small blink came in the dark.
I waited, not asking questions.
Silence. No disturbance.
“We can go now,” Xavier said.
The hell? “We can?”
“Single file. Don’t break the line. Move slowly. We’re following the path of the stone.”
“What did you do?”
“Don’t worry your head about it, sunshine. Elf magic. Just make sure you don’t break the line, or you’ll break the magic.”
“I won’t.”
“Good boy.”
And so, slowly, we walked in a single file away from the Marble Arch trading post, me behind Xavier, the other two behind me, making our way across the asphalt, passing the big white arch of marble itself, crossing the roads that didn’t see nothing but SCU and werewolf vehicles. There were plenty of agents and wolves about—standing guard or patrolling. Eyes moved in our direction, but only in the way eyes that scanned their surroundings did.
The air was pretty cold and had that metallic aroma of rain to it. In fact, the clouds were darkening in the crimson-tinged sky.
A Skytube train rumbled overhead, leaving a streak of red behind it.
This spell held all the way to the black walls of Hyde Park.
Impressive shit.
The scarlet moon’s rays tinged the walls with a bloody hue, giving them a bo
ost in the menacing department. Everything around me had a bloody sheen. I was living in a horror movie.
Xavier stopped. “Don’t move.”
I was ready to fight, ‘cos the way he put it sounded like there was about to be a throw-down.
Nope. He just bent to pick up the stone that’d made this stealthy stuff possible.
I loved that little thing.
Xavier pocketed the pebble. From his other pocket, he fished out a hardboiled sweet. A butter mint wrapped in foil. I used to love those.
He handed it to me. “Pass it on.”
I did as I was told as he pulled out more of them until all four of us had a sweet to hand.
“Suck.” He unwrapped his and popped it in his mouth.
I did the same.
It didn’t taste like butter mint at all, but a weird strawberry flavor with a bit of rose thrown in. Wow. And chocolate. Giving me all the Turkish Delight vibes.
“We wait ten minutes,” Xavier announced.
Time lapsed, he directed us to move again, lining up at the wall. The sweet had completely dissolved in my gob.
“Arms up,” the elf directed. “Wait. Okay. Now grab the edge of the wall and pull yourselves up and over on my count. Fluid movement. Don’t hesitate. Ready?”
I nodded.
“Good. One. Two. Three.”
Up and over we went, landing on the other side of the wall without making a misstep.
Good old elf magic and all its freakiness.
“You can now draw your weapons.”
My katanas were out and ready to slice.
The shadows stirred immediately, red eyes coming to life, the hissing of the mazoku drifting across the wide space.
Xavier pointed his scythe in the direction we needed to head in. “The Serpentine. Don’t stop until you’re at the water. Wait for my count.”
Hiss, hiss, hiss, shadows keeping their distance on the main, but some snaking forward. Just because they never attacked me, didn’t mean that was a permanent fixture. Plus, my comrades weren’t safe at all.
“Three. Two. One.”
On Xavier’s cue, we tore off across the grass.
The mazoku moved.
Phi was the first to take a tumble, a scary shadowy fuck whipping the legs out from underneath her. She yelped, but swung her curved blade at the creature, the tip of it glinting silver.
Was it real silver?
The weapon cut right through the demon’s head, slicing the shadow in half. It shrieked in agony, and the red light of its eyes died.
I helped her to her feet. “Come on!”
Cut down a mazoku, and two sprang up in its place. Just like now as the dead shadow didn’t stay dead, splitting and forming into two new demons.
What choice did you have when you needed to keep their claws off you? Slicing and dicing was the only way. We weren’t the SCU, had no access to any of their fancy anti-magic, and we weren’t trained in the ways of whipping up magical traps.
We ran together, straight into the path of another mazoku. It proper squealed like a pig getting a hook in its guts. Poor pig. The fucker shot out of my way, shrinking back into the gathering of others forming a line to my left.
“Fuck off!” I yelled at them. Didn’t do much but vent my frustrations.
We picked up the pace, Mel and Xavier, just ahead. Mazoku came at them but backed off when I got closer.
This wouldn’t hold. There were so many of them, and they were closing in. They’d make a grab and hurt someone. They had to. This was too easy.
“Keep going!” Xavier yelled, taking off a demon head with his scythe. Mel did the same with her sword—but took two at the same time.
Shit. We were helping them multiply.
The water was too far away to feel any sort of ‘Yeah, man! We’re doing it’ vibes.
“Fucker!” One of them got too close to Xavier. I leaped, slicing downward and splitting it in half. Its buddies shrieked at me, backing off, but swinging their claws in warning.
I swung my blades at them. Not to kill, but to warn. Whatever it was about me that freaked them out, I made as much fuss as I could, running around my running friends.
Swing, swing. “Come on, wankers! Let’s have ya! Not so fucking tough, eh? Yeah, you hiss. Pussies. Come on. Fucking bring it.”
A mazoku got all brave and came at Phi, just after I’d swiped at it.
“Shit!”
But I wasn’t quick enough to stop what happened.
She missed in her strike with her weapon, and the fucker got its dark claws into her arm and pulled. I heard her jacket tear first, then her flesh, her bones snapping.
I killed the demon before her arm hit the grass, and her screams rang through Hyde Park.
What sort of fucked up strength was that?
Then I saw her…them. Running across the park, the two-headed beast that was Mama Rita and wannabe queen of the mazoku.
“Bitch!” I spat and charged.
A mazoku burst from her body, not for me, but for my friends.
“You ain’t getting any more limbs!” I leaped, swinging upward, cutting the creature in half with some pretty hardcore timing.
Boom.
Okay. Possible new info: The mazoku inside Mama Rita were mega-juiced up. Yep. Correct. Instead of two, five more sprang up in the place of the one I’d just killed, plus the other one that’d hurt Phi. So, that made ten extras.
Oh, balls!
I spun, dashing back to my friends.
Mama Rita was howling with laughter. “That’s right, Akira! Run! Run for your life!”
She knew what I was here for. In my dreams, I got the message that the mazoku were blocking the answers that would otherwise be coming my way. How much did she know?
As much as I hated her big stupid gob, I didn’t turn back. Wouldn’t give her the satisfaction.
We had to get to the water.
“Run, run as fast as you can! I’m going to pull your guts out!”
I pushed through her words as my elf mates continued to tear up the grass, cutting down mazoku when they had no choice. Taking on the role of bodyguard again, it sucking so hard I hadn’t stopped Phi losing her arm, I got to cutting, dancing literal rings around my friends.
The whole park was black, a circle of shadows closing in. It wouldn’t be long until there was no way into the water. Xavier had Phi slung over his shoulder, blood gushing from her wound.
I took down two uber-mazoku before they could land on Mel.
“Thanks,” she said.
“I need to stop and heal Phi.” But Xavier didn’t stop. Instead, he pulled something out of his pocket.
A piece of chalk.
“This will cause a stir outside of the walls.”
The chalk shimmered like a pearl, and he threw it into the air. It burst into a radiant ring of pearly light, rushing across the park in an intense wave that pulled at my hair.
“Come on!” the elf roared.
The mazoku spun like they were stuck on carousels, hissing, and shrieking, confused by the wave of light that’d shot upward. It came back down as shimmering rain. Warm droplets landed on my face, doing nothing.
This was for the mazoku.
“You bastard!” Mama Rita howled.
We reached the water’s edge. I’d heard this lake used to be a popular spot back in the day for people to walk around, chill out at. Couldn’t see it myself with all the thorns and weeds choking the shore. There were gaps here and there, giving access to the water—how the warlocks and witches got in.
A gaggle of thorny vines rose up before me, stopping us dead in our tracks. Purple magic danced around it, helping it grow, transforming it into a huge figure I didn’t wanna get a slap from.
Fucking warlock spell!
Mama Rita was cackling.
Before I could make a move, Xavier asked me to take Phi. I took her, supporting her on her feet.
“You’re gonna be okay,” I said to her as she leaned her weight into me.
>
She was silent, ashen, eyelids drooping.
Fuck. This sucked so bad. We had to help her.
“Trapped like rats!” Mama Rita yelled.
We all ignored her. Xavier had pulled something else from his pockets of wonder. This time it was a coin. Elven. Copper. It soon became silver.
“This warlock has help. Elvish help.”
“What?”
“Look at the purple magic.” He nodded.
Silver. Inside the spiraling magical energy that was creating the thorn monster, there were balls of silver being carried along for the ride.
“Shit.”
“Not for long.”
Xavier threw the coin like he was skimming a stone. In fact, the little object bounced across the water and disappeared.
I turned to check out the situation behind us. The confusion light was starting to fade, the mazoku getting their demon heads back together.
Time was running out.
A scream and an elf burst out of the water, hurtling to the lakeside.
The man crash-landed into the thorns, right in grabbing reach for Xavier. My favorite elf moved quickly, took hold of the screaming elf guy, and snapped his neck in his big hands. Just like that. Then he tossed the corpse behind him.
Purple magic died off from the thorn monster. It wobbled and collapsed in on itself, no longer scary at all.
“Now!” Xavier roared and took Phi off me, throwing her over his shoulder. He ran into the water, and me and Mel followed.
“This won’t be pretty,” he added before we were sucked down into the cold dark.
Chapter Thirteen
Down, down, down, like being dragged through jelly and ice cream, but less fun, until we landed hard on a stone floor. Not bone-breaking stuff but fucking painful all the same.
We were in a huge hall. Half of it was made of amethyst, the other emerald. It looked proper weird, and even the grand staircase was half and half in color.
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