by Holly Hook
Even though I knew she was trying to help me, the words still stung.
"We know that you are," the man said. He stood two feet away from me, leaning against the wall of the van. I could hear the metal bending as he leaned on it. He remained an indistinct shape. "We thought you would bite Xavier again after his changes, but you haven't. That's a disappointment, but it seems that your friend has done just that."
I tensed.
They knew.
Brendan and the others had seen how I fought outside the school last night. Me, a newborn, taking down two old vampires who had centuries to master every fighting technique known to man.
"What does that have to do with anything?" I asked. I was tired of being silent.
"We know how you fought," the man said. He peeled himself from the wall and balanced as the van moved. We rolled over the first speed bump of the school drive. "There's no other explanation."
"Then it's Xavier's blood Bathory is interested in," I said.
"It's what it can do for us," the man said. "We have a bright future in Cumberland. In fact, we have a bright future on this planet. Soon, we won't have to hide anymore."
I thought of the hospital equipment these guys had stolen. Next to me, Xavier shifted.
I had the sense he would end on up on the receiving end of it. Bathory wanted to create a powerful army that no one could take down, and I was the example of what she wanted. She'd want to see me to learn what to expect. I was the test subject the moment I bit into Xavier's wrist. These guys had expected Alyssa to be the one.
But fate got in the way. I was special now, and it was about to cost me.
And after that—I didn't want to imagine.
The van turned, driving off the school grounds. I felt as if we were leaving the world for good. We might be.
The guards didn't speak. I could smell nothing other than Xavier, the furniture that had once filled this space and the spray paint these people had used not too long ago to create the fake ATC vans.
"You know," I said to break up the silence. "You could have put letters on the side of these vans to make them look more genuine. I knew these weren't real ATC vans after looking at them for more than a few seconds. And the hubcaps aren't great, either. I mean, no offense. But there are things I noticed that might stick out even to Normals."
The male guard who had done much of the talking snorted. "I told you we needed the letters."
"I don't think most of the school crowd cared," the woman said. "The rain kept their attention. I think it's dying down a little."
"The Mother needs to keep it going until we get underground," the man said. "She didn't give us any sun gear."
"You could have used tape to write 'ATC' on the side of the vans," I said. I had to keep these guys talking. The more we knew about where we were going, the better. We had already uncovered a clue. Underground. I was the chatty friend, the one that posed the least threat. "If people ask, you could just say Richard Grimes is making budget cuts and you're stuck with these vans."
The man snorted again. That seemed to be his trademark. "Richard Grimes will be in our hands soon enough," he said. "We're saving him for the Mother. He is not on our side."
"Which will make the budget cuts sound like the truth," I say. "What are you guys planning to do with him, anyway? None of us Abnormals like the guy."
"He had nothing to do with the former mayor," the man said. He seemed happy to talk. I heard him shove Xavier to the side. He also liked his new power trip. Pushing a god around would give anybody one.
"The ATC will not be around much longer. Let's say that," the man said. "If you're smart, you'll join us. The Underground doesn't want to take the action it needs to destroy the ATC. If they wanted, they could level all their facilities, but they haven't. The Mother will."
So Alyssa and Xavier and I might survive this encounter. We rolled over another speed bump. Even with the hood on, I could hear great and Xavier's blood showed no signs of fading. We had merged into traffic and judging from the sounds outside, we weren't far from my new apartment. I heard two cars navigating the ramp and even a brave hot dog vendor trying to cook in the rain. The rain wasn't as driving as before, but I could tell that it was still coming down hard enough to block all the sun.
The Mother could control weather.
I didn't remember her having the ability.
It was a useful ability, and one that would allow her and her minions to come out in the daytime with no restrictions.
I continued to listen, to figure out where we were headed. We rolled through the business district which was close to the real ATC building, but then we turned away and got on the expressway. We must head out of the city. The rain poured down harder again as if the Mother were trying to aid the driver in whatever way she could. The more I thought about it, the scarier it got.
She knew where we were, or at least had a general idea.
Alyssa and Xavier stayed silent as our drive dragged out into several minutes, and then about twenty. My sense of time seemed to disappear with this hood over my head. I had no supernatural sense of that. All I could do was listen to the other vans. Our turn signal kicked on, and we got off the expressway and onto a much quieter road. I had the sense we had left the city.
Xavier tensed. I heard his clothing shift as he did.
He was the only non-vampire in the van, and he might be the only one underground. He was lunch, and would be over and over. I remembered his cursing when I bit into his wrist. The Mother would subject him to much worse if he had that amount of power in his blood.
And he might never, ever die.
We drove through what felt like a residential neighborhood, a suburb, for a few minutes. And then we turned onto a dirt road and the ride got bumpy.
"Crap," Xavier said.
Even though I had never been here, I knew this area.
The real ATC had a bunker well outside the city, one hidden in the woods away from civilization. I had looked it up on a map for Xavier and Alyssa days ago when they were searching for the captured members of the Underground. The mayor and the real ATC had taken the members of the Underground through a portal in an attached cave.
Alyssa and Xavier had come out here, and the things that happened in the bunker was the stuff of nightmares. I could almost feel the horrible memories burning in Alyssa.
Where else would these guys take us? The real ATC would have abandoned this place after Bathory had murdered many of the actual agents inside. It was no wonder she wanted to set up camp out here. The whole ATC must have PTSD for this bunker and avoided it like the plague.
As I suspected, the van turned onto an even bumpier road.
I heard weeds slapping the body of the vehicle and snapping underneath tires. Tree branches brushed the side of the van. This was a hidden road in the woods, and I pictured it on the online map as we rolled through the forest. The rain let up a little more, or maybe that was just the trees blocking some of it out. The bunker would be in a clearing, about a mile back from the road and far from prying eyes.
"This place," Alyssa said. So she could hear enough to know where we were, too.
The man cleared his throat again. "We know it holds bad memories for you, but it is necessary for now. You will see."
"I'm not going back there!" Alyssa shouted.
The man gave her a shove, and I reacted before I could stop myself. Though the Infernal Iron bound my hands, I couldn't resist sending a kick at the man. My foot contacted his shin, and I heard the disgusting sound of his tibia cracking. The sound of a gushing, severed artery followed, and I heard his blood splattering on the floor. It carried no scent.
The guy lapsed into another language, which was good as I didn't want to know what he was calling me. He gave me a shove, and I backpedaled into the wall of the van.
"Restrain her!" the guy yelled. I could make out his form leaning over to nurse his injury. "Better yet, knock her out!"
I tried to wrench my grasp from the Infern
al Iron, but the metal was too thick and too capable of holding anyone in place. Two more people advanced on me, and someone drew a heavy weapon from their belt.
My last thought as they struck me over the head was that at least it wasn't another taser.
"Janine!" Alyssa shouted.
I heard my skull crack as a yellow light exploded in my brain.
Chapter Thirteen
"Janine. How did you end up here?"
My eyelids fluttered.
I was alive.
I opened them.
That might not matter.
A cave ceiling spread out. Stalactites hung down like angry teeth as if the earth itself was hungry. Even though I lay on my back, with my arms still bound on my stomach, I could sense I wasn't the only person in this room. There were others. Lots of others.
Maisha hovered over me, blocking out the ceiling of the chamber. Her eyes were red as if she had been crying.
"Maisha?" I asked, careful to keep my mouth most of the way shut. I didn't know how much time has passed. My teeth might be reaching the suspicious stage by now. A quick check with my tongue confirmed that yes, they were. I didn't want to scare my other good friend.
She sniffed. She was free, kneeling beside me while chains still held my wrists. "Those weren't real ATC agents. They grabbed me and stuffed me in a van during the downpour. I tried to yell for help, but no one heard me. They grabbed other people from the school, too."
I sat up. One of the guards had hit me over the head. "How long ago did they dump me here?"
"About ten minutes ago. They just brought us all in. Those people move fast, Janine."
Only a dull ache remained in my head. The guard had struck me hard enough to crack my skull. I imagined that my brain took a while to heal, being the most complex thing in my body. The ache faded as I looked around.
Alyssa and Xavier had told me about this room before. We must be in the cave that connected to the underground bunker, the one that once served as a portal into the Infernal Dimension. The circular pool in the center was still there, but it was full of collapsed rocks from the ceiling, as if a partial cave-in had happened here a while ago. I remembered. It had. Alyssa and Xavier had told me about that, too. The water between the stone slabs reflected the stalactites above. I hoped that this pool no longer counted as a portal to the Infernal Dimension. As far as I knew, Bathory and her people would want nothing to do with the place. Fire and vampires didn't mix.
And there were people here.
Lots and lots of people.
Maisha was right that the fake agents had taken students away from the parking lot. I spotted a cheerleader I had been standing near before I did my stupid charge back into the school to rescue Alyssa. She was sitting at the side of the room, arms wrapped around her legs, crying. I didn't know her name, but I wanted to hug her. A few guys from the football team had joined us and three of them stood over by the entrance to the room, a gated opening with thick bars. One of the art guys stood alone, and I even spotted Mr. Connors. The fake agents hadn't cared how old the victims were.
I guessed there were about two dozen people here from the school.
I knew why these people were here. Food. The fake ATC agents didn't have to answer to the public for missing people. They'd let the real ATC deal with the outrage.
And now my mother would count me among the missing.
The whole room smelled of adrenaline and terror. I searched for Alyssa and Xavier, but Bathory's people had taken them elsewhere. So far, no one had bite marks, but I turned my thoughts to the stolen hospital equipment. Bathory's people might not have to use their teeth.
"I don't know where we are," Maisha said. Her voice trembled. "I thought you would die, Janine. Your head was bleeding when they got you out of that van."
I had to think. Alyssa and Xavier were might already be meeting with the Mother right now. She wanted Xavier more than me, but then they'd come for me, too. Bathory would want to see what Xavier's blood could do.
Or she'd want to eliminate the person who had already taken it.
"Are we in a bunker?" I asked.
"Some kind of bunker. They took us through this metal detector, and then this office where there were bloodstains all over the floor, like they murdered a bunch of people there. Then they took us down this sloping hallway and deeper underground, and past an electrified gate. Then they brought us in here."
"Did you see Al—Roslyn?" I asked.
"They took her and a guy down another hallway, opposite this one." Maisha leaned close and spoke against the backdrop of quiet sobs. "Is Roslyn Alyssa Choy?"
"You're observant," I said. There was no holding any secrets now.
"What are they going to do to us?" Maisha asked. "I don't think those agents were human. They were strong. One of them shoved me into the back of the van, and I couldn't fight back."
I would be honest. "They're vampires," I said. I would not tell Maisha my secret even though I could see the suspicion in her eyes when she looked at my shackles. I was the only one in the room who wore them while everyone else had free hands. Maisha had to know there was a reason for that.
"Great," Maisha said, turning away and pacing. "Great. We'll die."
"Maybe not," I said, even though I knew our chances of getting out of here were slim. Bathory liked to kill, and the bloodstains Maisha mentioned must be from the real agents she had destroyed. Maybe she wanted to turn these people into a blood farm. There was no other explanation. Only one in five hundred could Turn. The rest had no other purpose.
"I don't know why they locked your wrists like this," Maisha said, holding onto my arms and helping me to stand.
"I tried to fight," I said.
She lifted her eyebrow, suspicious. "You shouldn't have been able to."
"I tried to fight," I said.
"I didn't see you in the crowd outside the school," Maisha said.
"I was in the school, looking for Roslyn."
"Alyssa," Maisha corrected. "I can't believe it. I'm friends with someone who's most wanted."
"She might help get us out of here," I said. "So might I." I was caring less and less about blowing my cover. She already suspected. If Maisha was my real friend, this wouldn't change anything. I knew it could go either way the moment we got out of here—if we got out of here—but surviving was number one.
"Okay. Alyssa," I agreed. "We'll talk about it later. We need to figure out a way to escape."
Maisha faced me. "Everyone here is too scared to think about it. That gate is solid. None of the guys would shake it."
I followed her gaze over to the exit of the room.
There was a sturdy, wrought-iron gate over the exit, wrapped in chains. The two football guys leaned against the wall, and one of them was massaging his wrist. They had been trying to break us out of here and it wasn't working. No one guarded the gate, but I knew nobody needed to bother.
I had a thought.
I might have the strength to break that gate enough to let us out, even with my wrists bound.
"We have to wait," I said.
"We can't wait," Maisha told me. "They will kill us. Why else would they have dragged us down here into this cave? There's no way out, and all we can do is stand here while they get hungry. My dad was right that Abnormals are trouble."
I took a step back. So Maisha didn't know my secret yet even if she suspected my involvement with this. "Alyssa isn't trouble," I said.
"Maybe she's an exception, then." Maisha was close to tears. Fear had changed her in an instant. "I don't want to die."
I pulled at my chains again, half-hoping that I wouldn't snap them in front of her. Maisha would not be my friend after this, then. A heavy sadness tried to pull me down, but I couldn't allow it. I faced the gate and walked up to it, chains rattling. I left Maisha standing there, bursting into tears near the pool.
And I caught a whiff of burning rubber.
"Hey," one guy said. "Why did they put you in chains?"
&nbs
p; "I fought," I said.
"Then you're an awesome girl," the guy said. He was cute and had charming wrinkles around his eyes, but he would be dead if I didn't do something. I sniffed again. The closer to the gate I drew, the stronger the burning rubber became. I had smelled it before, and it wasn't a giant pile of tires set ablaze.
It was a legit, ancient dragon named Gaozu who Thoreau had Bound to him for a long time. Alyssa had freed him during the night at the Water Adventure, and he had turned on Thoreau in an instant. The guy walked around in human form most of the time, and since Bathory was loyal to the mayor, or had been, I figured the two of them weren't friends.
But he was here.
No other creature gave off that particular stench, and I didn't hear any fire. That wasn't his fault. Maybe all dragons had that scent.
And he could control the weather, making it rain.
Hope rose. Dragon fire was the only thing that could break Infernal Iron. Alyssa had used it that night to get out of her chains.
"There's a dragon here," I said.
"Haven't seen any," the cute guy said.
I was blurting out too much. I pressed my face to the gate and peered down the hallway. It was a plain corridor with a concrete floor that led to the electrified gate. The hum met my ears, a hum that must be too quiet for Normals to hear from this chamber. The wrought iron refused to move as I pressed my body against it. Maybe, just maybe, I could do something if I got out of these chains, but my face and legs were my only weapons now.
I sniffed again. Along with the dragon scent came Xavier's wood smoke. He was here, too. I listened and heard a pained groan coming from Xavier. I guessed that he and the dragon emperor were in the same room together.
And then footsteps approached.
They were graceful footsteps, not Normal. I backed away from the door to look less obvious. Someone slid a key card into the electric gate, making it slide open. It closed behind the coming guards.
The guys backed away from the door. I remained.
And as I expected, four of the fake ATC agents appeared on the other side of the gate. None of them wore sunglasses now, leaving their reddened eyes exposed. One unlocked the chain and went to work undoing it. It was the man I had kicked. The tall one. Great.