by Syrie James
Vincent, his ebony head shaved as usual, was hiding behind a pillar near the stairs leading up to the street. He wasn’t dressed like the image of the police officer he’d been projecting, but instead wore a long gray coat over a dark suit, and a smug look on his face, as if everything was playing out exactly as planned.
“There he is,” Claire muttered grimly.
As they approached, Alec thought he saw plugs in Vincent’s ears. Strange.
Tom, a few yards ahead of them, didn’t spot Vincent. But he couldn’t miss Tweaker and Bag Lady, who were barreling toward him. Tom ducked out of the way, and the other two collided. Bruiser came next. Tom grabbed the guy, swung him violently into a wall, and leaped up the stairs two at a time.
Racing after Tom, Alec noted that in the present, the stairs were now filled with people exiting a newly arrived train. Shite! Holding tight to Claire’s hand, Alec was obliged to slow his pace and file out with the throngs. Helena and Lynn got caught behind a woman bumping a stroller up the stairs, and fell even farther behind. Vincent appeared from the shadows and raced right by them, up the stairs to the street above.
At last, Alec and his companions emerged onto a street which, in the past, was busy with traffic and pedestrians at the height of rush hour. Across the street, a wrought-iron fence enclosed a small graveyard next to Trinity Church, a Gothic gem that stood proudly among the more modern buildings surrounding it. A brief check of the present nearly blinded Alec with midday sunlight, but thankfully the streets were less congested than the subway station.
“There’s Tom!” Lynn cried.
The Grigori had already crossed the busy intersection and was running down the narrow street beside the churchyard, which was closed to traffic because of roadwork. In the present, that same street was open and empty except for a few parked cars. Vincent was following discreetly, as if trying to avoid notice.
“Hurry,” shouted Helena, charging into the crosswalk.
To Alec’s horror, Helena was so focused on the past, she didn’t see a car coming straight at her in the present.
“Watch out!” Lynn and Claire cried.
Alec raised one hand instinctively toward the oncoming vehicle, telekinetically slowing it down. The car squealed to a halt within inches of Helena, who didn’t seem to notice or even break her stride. Lynn, catching up to them, breathed a sigh of relief.
“Nice reflexes,” whispered Claire, as she and Alec hurried across the street, dodging another car in the present, while running straight through the ones in the past.
Tom’s and Vincent’s progress was visibly slowed by bulldozers and other construction equipment. Concrete barriers outlining a trench in the road forced them to find another way around. In the present day, the construction site and trench didn’t exist, allowing Alec and company to close in on Tom, leaving Vincent in their wake.
“This is so weird,” Lynn said breathlessly, as they ran over an open trench in one reality, which was now concrete beneath their feet.
Alec glanced back to see a furious Vincent arguing with a construction worker, who was trying to prevent him from continuing. As they reached the corner, Alec caught sight of Tom running for the green metal fence and pillars marking an entrance to another subway station.
Suddenly, a UPS truck pulled up to the curb a few feet from Tom. The truck’s rear door flew open. Four men clad in UPS brown jumped out and charged into Tom’s path.
“Dad!” Claire screamed, then grimaced in realization that her father couldn’t hear her.
They watched as three of the UPS workers tackled Tom to the pavement, while the fourth jammed a large syringe into his neck.
“Oh my God.” Helena touched her forehead and winced.
The scene around them began to fill with static.
The UPS guys shoved Tom into the truck, climbed in, slammed the door, and sped off. Moments later, Vincent rounded the corner, glancing around in confusion. He saw the subway entrance and ran toward it.
The static worsened. Suddenly, they were thrust back into the jarring sunlight of the present. A mom with two kids walked by, staring at them strangely. And no wonder. The four of them were breathing hard, and probably looked like they’d just seen a ghost.
“Who were those men who took him?” Tears welled in Lynn’s eyes.
“My guess? They were Fallen,” responded Alec between gulps of air. “Ditto for the three in the station. They must have all been part of the same stakeout.”
“So they alerted the asshats in the truck?” Claire unzipped her jacket to cool down.
“It looks that way.” Helena leaned against the nearby stone wall, exhausted. “I am sorry, but when they injected Tom, something changed about my connection to him.”
“Don’t apologize, Grandma. What you just did, that was incredible.” Claire hugged Helena, who returned the embrace with a weary pat on the back.
“Did anyone see the truck’s license plate?” Lynn asked.
“It didn’t have one,” Alec answered. “I’d have memorized it already if it had.”
“Damn it!” Lynn, frustrated, sank down onto the sidewalk, her back against the wall. “I don’t understand. What did they want my husband for?”
Alec pushed damp hair out of his face. “He’s a valuable asset. He can predict the future, remember? Just like Helena.”
“I’m still confused about what happened in the subway,” Claire said. “I get that Vincent wanted to turn my dad in and that he projected an image of himself when they were talking. But why did he make the fake Vincent jump in front of a train?”
“I think,” Alec answered slowly, “once he realized Tom was never going to give himself up, Vincent wanted Tom to think he was getting away clean. So Vincent could follow Tom home.”
“Oh.” A horrible realization hit Claire like a stab to the gut. “So if the Fallen hadn’t nabbed my dad that day, Vincent would have found me and Mom! And captured—or murdered—us.”
“Very likely,” Alec agreed.
Lynn shivered in dismay. “That is terrifying.”
“One thing still doesn’t make sense,” Claire commented. “Dad didn’t know he was talking to an illusion. He deliberately told pseudo-Vincent to commit suicide, almost like he expected him to do it.”
“Aye,” Alec said, glancing at Helena. “An interesting point.” They knew Tom had the same psychic ability as his mother, but Tom also had a second Grigori talent that Helena had never disclosed. Is that what had been involved here?
But Helena’s lips merely tightened. “I need rest,” was her only response. “And lunch.”
four
“I can’t feel my ears.” Claire pulled her woolly hat down lower.
She could barely hear her own voice over the roar of the crowd. It was New Year’s Eve. She and Alec were standing in Times Square, wedged in with a bajillion other people, where they’d been waiting for the past six hours. In ten minutes, the famous ball would drop. A band played on the stage a few dozen feet away, and around them huge video screens displayed live coverage of the event.
Her mom and Helena, who was still nursing a headache from the strain of her time-traveling-vision-projection extravaganza earlier that week, were watching the festivities from the overpriced quiet and comfort of their hotel room, thirty-five floors above.
Alec put an arm around Claire and drew her even closer. “If you’re cold, we can always join your family upstairs. Helena paid through the nose to get a great view.”
They both had to shout to be heard over the throng. “After all the time we’ve been standing here?” She shook her head. “No way. Seeing that ball drop is on my bucket list.”
“You’re too young to have a bucket list.”
Claire leaned in closer so she could lower her voice a fraction. Alec once told her he was actually about 113 years old, but his kind aged slowly, so he looked cl
oser to Claire’s seventeen. “You’re not too young.”
“Aye.”
“So after more than a century,” Claire said curiously, “what is on your list?”
He smiled. “Living like this, like you do, is all I’ve ever wanted.”
“Cheeseball.” She returned his smile. He’d had such an unhappy and stressful existence before they met. Claire was relieved that Alec had found what he wanted and that what he wanted was her.
Grigori law be damned.
A relationship between Grigori and humans (worse yet, with Halfbloods like her) was illegal. Alec had left the fold, a violation punishable by death. But so far, the only Grigori who was aware of Alec’s whereabouts was Vincent. And they hadn’t heard from him in months. Vincent was on the run from the Grigori himself, but if caught, he might reveal what he knew about Alec.
Claire shoved the worry from her mind, praying that she and Alec would be safe. “You know, you look really good for your age,” she teased.
“As do you.” Alec reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small box. “Speaking of, Happy Belated.”
“Wait, you already gave me a present.” Claire tugged on the winter scarf and hat she’d gotten at her family birthday dinner back home two weeks prior. “And they’ve been keeping me nice and warm all week.”
“That was the practical gift. This is the fun one, to remember tonight by.”
Claire struggled to open the box with her gloved fingers. Inside was a silver-and-lapis-lazuli bracelet, glinting in the neon glow of the billboards around them.
“Oh! Alec. It’s beautiful.” Claire pulled back the cuff of her parka while Alec nimbly fastened the bracelet around her wrist, his bare fingers seemingly immune to the frigid night air. She couldn’t stop smiling as she admired it, then threw her arms around Alec’s neck and hugged him. “Thank you. I love it,” she breathed against his ear. “And I love you.”
Alec held her tight. “I love you, too.”
However cold she was before, the feel of his embrace and the affection in his voice warmed her straight through. She pressed her lips against his, concentrating in the way she’d taught herself, to prevent the contact from triggering a vision. He returned the kiss with fervor, then pulled back, their eyes meeting as he grinned.
“I thought the whole point was to kiss at midnight.”
“Then, too.” She laughed. “Tonight is perfect, and everything has been so awesome this week. I love New York. I can’t believe how many things we’ve seen and done.”
He nodded, his eyes narrowing. “Are you disappointed, though, that we didn’t find out more about your dad?”
“Well. Seeing what happened the day he left was gut-wrenching. But at least we saw him. Plus, we found out he came back years later. Which is kind of comforting.”
“It is indeed.”
Around them, the mood of the crowd suddenly became electric. Everyone was staring up at the ball and digital timer atop the tower.
The final countdown began. Claire and Alec chanted with their fellow revelers, the air echoing with hundreds of thousands of voices shouting out the numbers from ten to zero. At midnight, an earth-shattering roar erupted. They joined in, cheering as fireworks exploded on the monitors, music played, and confetti showered down on them from above.
“Happy New Year!” Claire and Alec cried at the same moment, wrapping their arms around each other for a long kiss.
“Happy?” Alec asked as he looked down at her.
Claire was so filled with joy, she couldn’t speak. All she could do was nod.
five
“The Fallen kidnapped your father?” Erica’s fork froze in midair above her chicken enchiladas.
“Looks that way,” Claire sighed.
“I’ve spent a century tracking the Fallen,” Alec added. “I should be able to pick them out of a crowd.”
It was their first day back at school after the holiday break, and Alec was sitting with Claire, Erica, and Brian at their usual lunch table at Emerson Academy in sunny Los Angeles. Erica Fisher and Brian Yao had accepted him into their group on his first day at school last fall, and eventually had learned everything about him. It had made him a little nervous at first to have all his secrets out, but now he would trust these three people with his life.
“Wait up.” Brian was short in stature but had a giant intellect. His spiky black hair stuck up at weird angles as he studied Claire over his carton of chocolate milk. “CB, didn’t you say your dad called your mom the next morning, to warn her to leave town?”
“Yeah,” Claire replied. “I can’t figure out how he managed that.”
Erica shrugged as she tucked a lock of sleek red hair behind one ear. “Maybe they gave him his one phone call?”
Brian laughed. “That’s jail, dumb-ass.”
“He must have escaped,” Alec told them. “He got away, called your mom, and told her about the bank account he’d set up. Then he vanished.”
Claire nodded grimly. “But he was spotted by our old apartment like ten years ago. Where has he been all this time? Why has he been avoiding us?”
“No idea,” Alec said. “Hopefully, Helena can find a way to revisit the moment he was kidnapped and figure out why she hasn’t been able to track his aura since.”
“Maybe it has something to do with whatever they injected him with,” Brian suggested.
Alec looked at him. “What do you mean?”
“At Homecoming, didn’t—” Brian began.
“Oh! That’s right!” Erica placed her hand on Brian’s forearm, an action that made his stocky shoulders visibly stiffen. “Vincent injected you with something at Homecoming that messed with your powers, didn’t he, Alec?”
“Aye. Tranquilizers. But why would that break the signal Helena was honing in on?”
“I think what Brian means,” Erica said excitedly, “is that since depressants tone down your powers …”
“… they might affect your Grigori aura, too,” Brian finished.
Claire’s eyes widened as she completed the thought. “And Helena finds whomever she’s looking for through their aura’s unique frequency.”
Alec nodded. “It’s a thought.” He turned to Claire. “You should mention that to Helena.”
“She’ll be so pissed that three kids thought of it first,” Brian said, freeing his arm so he could continue eating.
“I think her ego can handle it, Brian.” Claire smiled.
Alec noted that Erica looked stung when Brian pulled away from her. It was yet another moment of discord he’d witnessed between these two over the past couple of months.
Erica lit up with another idea. “You should call that Fallen chick with the tattoos.” Erica had been present both times Claire had been accosted by Celeste, along with the two meatheads who always accompanied her. “Maybe she can tell you what’s up with your dad. I think her number’s still in your phone.”
“Yeah,” Claire scoffed. “Like Celeste would ever tell me anything.”
Then it was Claire’s turn to stiffen. Alec watched as Neil Mitchum—the tall, dark-haired golden boy Claire had crushed on for two years, and whose heart she’d broken at Homecoming—walked by their table. Beautiful, popular Gabrielle Miller was practically glued to his side, gracing Alec and crew with a wave of her manicured fingers. To Alec’s surprise, Gabrielle threw a genuine smile at Erica. Less surprisingly, Neil ignored all of them.
Once the door to the nearby library shut behind Neil and Gabrielle, an air of normalcy returned to the table.
Brian turned to Erica, his face scrunched in confusion. “Did Gabby Miller just wink at you?”
Erica seemed to deliberately avoid looking at any of them. “No, she just smiled. She smiles sometimes.”
“Only at the popular kids,” Brian insisted.
“Could we not make this a big
deal, please?” Erica rubbed her temples. “We kinda bonded during some late nights on the Winter Formal committee, and one night she invited us all to hang in her Jacuzzi. That’s all.”
“It’s nothing to feel bad about,” Claire reassured her friend. “At least she’s being nice. Meanwhile, Neil’s pretending we don’t exist.”
Given Neil’s complex history with Claire, Alec didn’t mind that in the slightest. Trying not to seem insensitive, he asked, “How long do you think he’ll keep that up?”
“How long ’til we graduate?” Claire responded with a sigh.
“You two have it easy,” Brian said with his last bite. “At least you’re across the room from him in Concert Singers. I have to stand next to him. The whole bass section used to be chatty. Now it’s a graveyard.”
The bell rang, signaling five minutes left of lunch period.
“It’s still better than telling him the truth,” Claire insisted, glancing at Erica and Brian. “I wasn’t supposed to tell anyone, remember? Helena keeps saying that knowing puts you both in danger.”
“Well, I’m still glad I know,” Brian said, taking his leave. “Later, amigos.”
Claire kissed Alec and gave him a look he’d learned meant: Girl talk time. “Don’t wait for me, I’ll see you in bio.”
“Aye.” Alec got up and strolled away.
As they gathered their stuff to leave, Claire studied her willowy friend, who had an odd look on her face.
“What?” Erica squirmed a bit under Claire’s gaze.
Claire lowered her voice. “What’s up with you guys?”
“Who?”
“You and Brian. You’ve been friends since seventh grade. But there was a minute of, I don’t know, weirdness between you just now.”
Erica blushed as she picked at the edge of her cardboard tray. “Can’t fool a psychic, huh?”
“I just used my eyes. He moved his arm away, and you looked hurt.”
Erica sighed. “Okay. Fine. I wasn’t going to say anything, but—”
“But you’re into Brian,” Claire finished for her. “I’ve noticed. Since Homecoming, right?”