Black City (A BLACK WINGS NOVEL)

by Christina Henry

  “No fire,” Nathaniel said. “Even if you are startled.”

  “I am not a pyromaniac,” I said. “I only set things on fire because it’s expedient.”

  Nathaniel gave me a look.

  “I already agreed, all right?” I waved my sword around. “I’ll only kill them with the pointy stick.”

  The steps to the platform were wide enough to walk side by side, so of course Nathaniel made sure we were joined at the hip. I fully expected to find a platoon of vamps waiting to leap upon us as soon as we got to the bottom of the stairs, and was a little disappointed to find the platform empty.

  I indicated to Nathaniel that he should walk down one side while I took the other, so that we could see—or hear—whether there were any signs of which tunnel they might have taken.

  Nathaniel took the northbound side, and I the southbound. The platform stretched between the tracks, so Nathaniel and I were within sight of each other at all times. There was nothing between us except some empty customer benches.

  We walked slowly and carefully from the Dearborn end of the platform. Halfway down, Nathaniel waved his arm at me. I joined him and he pointed south.

  He hopped down to the tracks, holding his arms up for me. I let him swing me down.

  “Stay away from the third rail,” I whispered. “We don’t know if the electricity to the subway has been shut off.”

  He nodded, and we stared into the tunnel. Ahead of us there were no lights except the occasional service lamp for CTA workers. I could have lit a ball of nightfire, but that would have advertised our presence for miles. Once we went in there, the vampires would have the advantage. My new superpowers didn’t seem to have come with the ability to see in the dark.

  “Can you see in there?” I asked softly.

  Nathaniel shook his head. “Now would be a good time to have the werewolf with us.”

  Despite the fact that I had just burned thousands of vampires with one spell, I didn’t want to go into the tunnel. In the tunnel I would be a trapped rat, just like them. I could sense Nathaniel’s reluctance as well. We had so recently been in the pitch black of Titania’s cave, and I hadn’t forgotten how helpless I’d felt there. Gabriel had told me once that angels were born of the sun. Creatures of the sun do not like to scurry in the darkness.

  But our quarry was scurrying away, and I wasn’t going to let him escape.

  I stepped into the tunnel, and Nathaniel kept pace with me. The air felt close and damp. I focused on breathing steadily—and quietly. The scrape of our boots on the tracks sounded like gunfire in the silence.

  We crept along for a while, trying to be crafty, both of us tense. And as we crept along I started getting annoyed. And I went from annoyed to angry to insanely furious with no stops in between.

  “Why are we tiptoeing around in here?” I said loudly. “What freaking difference does it make?”

  “Madeline, shh,” Nathaniel said.

  “No, I will not be quiet,” I said. “They can see in the dark. They can hear better than we can. Why should we play by their rules?”

  I raised a ball of nightfire and launched it up so it would float ahead of us. “If they’re going to run, then they’ll run whether or not we’re scuttling in the dark. If they’re going to fight, then we should be able to see them as well as they can see us.”

  “Madeline, stop. Do not be impulsive,” Nathaniel said.

  “Who’s being impulsive?” I said as the ball of nightfire lit up the tunnel. “THERION!”

  Nathaniel stared at me like I’d lost my mind.

  “THERION! You COWARD!” I roared.

  There was no answer.

  “They are gone,” Nathaniel said angrily. “They were ahead of us. I could hear them, and now they are gone. As soon as you began yelling they disappeared.”

  This news just made me even angrier. Therion had escaped, and I wanted him to pay. Still, I wasn’t going to play the vampire king’s game.

  “Fine,” I said. “Let’s go home.”

  Nathaniel’s eyebrows went up to his hairline. “You are giving up?”

  “Hell, no,” I said. “I’m going to track him down and take out his intestines through his nostrils. But I’m not going to chase him through miles of tunnel to do it. I’ll find him later. I have something else I need to do, anyway.”

  “Deal with Alerian?” Nathaniel asked.

  “Alerian’s not even awake yet,” I said, trudging back in the direction of the Washington stop. We hadn’t really walked that far. I could see the lights over the platform a short distance away. “I have something I need to do for Lucifer.”

  “Then I will accompany you,” Nathaniel said.

  “No,” I said shortly. “This is not optional. You’re staying home, and so is everyone else. This is for me to do.”

  “Have I not proven that I am trustworthy?” Nathaniel asked, an edge in his voice.

  “This isn’t about whether or not you are trustworthy,” I said. “This is about me and Lucifer and my duties as the Hound of the Hunt.”

  “What has he asked of you?” Nathaniel said.

  “I can’t tell you,” I said. “You may assume that the task sucks and that there are about ten million things I would rather do.”

  “Let me help you,” Nathaniel persisted as we reached the platform and clambered up from the track level.

  “Nathaniel, I am the Hound of the Hunt. Where I go, you cannot follow,” I said. “Besides, I need you to stay in Chicago. You’re the only one here who can deal with Alerian if he does rise. Or at least, you’re the only one who can contact Puck to come and deal with his brother.”

  We climbed the stairs back up to the station. Everything looked the same. When we reached the street I half expected Therion to be waiting there with another army of vampires to take me down, but he wasn’t. I guess the vampire king really was a coward, and the nightmare was over. For the moment.

  There were a few people on the streets, wandering in a daze, blinking at the sky like they’d never seen it before. News helicopters soared overhead. Nathaniel and I quickly cloaked ourselves and then took off flying. I wasn’t interested in being attacked by an angry mob just because I looked different, and I’d already had enough television exposure to last a lifetime.

  As we flew home I noticed that the clouds had stopped swirling over Lake Michigan, and much of the green fog had dissipated. I pointed toward the lake.

  “What’s that all about?” I said to Nathaniel.

  “Perhaps he has decided to go back to sleep.”

  “That would be a load off my mind,” I said. “It would be nice if all the people who fled the city could come back.”

  We returned to my house and flew back into the kitchen. Beezle was sitting on the counter eating a bag of pretzels.

  “Saw your light show on the news,” he said conversationally, but I could tell he was pissed off. “I see you’ve got some spanking new wings. And Nathaniel’s had his hair colored. There was a lot of banging around going on up here earlier. Anything you want to tell me?”

  “Not right now,” I said. “I’ve got to run an errand for Lucifer.”

  “Oh, you’re running errands for Lucifer now? Haven’t we come up in the world?” he said.

  “Don’t start, Beezle,” I said. “You were standing right there when he made me the Hound of the Hunt. Oh, wait—maybe you were napping, as you tend to do when there’s actual work to be done.”

  Nathaniel was edging his way around me and out of the kitchen.

  “Don’t you go anywhere,” Beezle said, pointing a claw at Nathaniel. “You’re in this, too. I know what the two of you have been doing when no one’s looking.”

  “I do not answer to you, gargoyle,” Nathaniel said.

  “And I don’t answer to you, either,” I said. “You’re not my father, and I’m tired of being second-guessed.”

  “Someone needs to rein you in before you become exactly what Lucifer wants,” Beezle said.

  “Do
you think that I don’t know what he wants?” I shouted. “He wants me in a cage and my baby bouncing on his knee. I am not stupid, whatever you might think.”

  “Do you know that most of the people who saw you on the news are scared of you, even though you saved this damned city from the vampires?” Beezle said. “The news anchors were discussing you like you were a monster. People were calling in, saying you needed to be exterminated. No one is going to thank you for what you did.”

  “I don’t care,” I said. “I only did what was right. I’ve only ever done what I thought was right. I don’t need a bouquet of flowers from the mayor.”

  “You don’t understand,” Beezle said. “Because of Therion’s message, everyone knows who you are. They know that you are Madeline Black. How long do you think it will take for people to track you down here? How long do you think it will take before there are police outside breaking down the door? Or worse?”

  “What’s worse than being chased from my own home?” I asked.

  “The curiosity seekers. The people who will want you to use your powers to help them with their petty problems. You’re in danger now, and so is anyone who stays here with you,” Beezle said.

  “How is that any different from before?” I said. “There have been creatures hunting me since the day Ramuell returned, and all of you have been willing to take the risk.”

  “Everyone is willing to fight supernatural monsters, but they aren’t willing to have their identities exposed to humans,” Beezle said. “Samiel and Chloe have already gone.”

  “Gone where?” I said, stung. I couldn’t believe Samiel had left without a word. I’d taken him into my home, made him a part of my family.

  “To Chloe’s. They both think it’s safer there. Neither of them wants to be here when the news vans roll up. And they will, sooner or later,” Beezle said. “I’m sure Jude will want to return to his pack now, too.”

  “Well, that’s the best place for him,” I said, trying not to be hurt by all of this, and failing. “Werewolves belong with their packs. It’s not healthy for him to be away for so long.”

  “It’s not healthy for anyone to be near you right now, either,” Beezle said.

  “And you?” I asked. Something was breaking inside me, something that might never mend.

  Beezle looked grim. “I promised your mother I would stay with you.”

  “But?” I said. I wouldn’t cry. I would not cry.

  “I’m not sure I know the person you’re becoming. And I’m not sure that I want to know that person.”

  I wanted to scream, to shout, to argue. I wanted to kick things and throw things and protest that it was unfair. I’d never asked to be an Agent, or to be the daughter of a fallen angel. I’d never asked to be the last direct descendant of Evangeline and Lucifer’s union. I’d never asked to have the power of the universe within me. I’d never asked for a life shrouded by death.

  All I’d wanted—all I had ever wanted—was to be plain Maddy Black. I would have liked to have gone on dates and stayed out past curfew. I would have liked to have gone to college and gotten a job. I would have liked to have met a man who was no good for me and had a torrid affair, and then met a man who was really good for me and gotten married and had a bunch of kids. I would have liked to have worried about taxes and the next election instead of the latest monster or the pending apocalypse. I would have liked to have been normal.

  Sure, I never would have been able to fly. But I would have been able to live without a lot of heartache, too.

  But I’d had no choice. I was never given any choice. And now, for this, everyone was leaving me. Even Beezle.

  “Go, then,” I said, my voice hard. “Go with Samiel. He’s your favorite person anyway.”

  “I didn’t say…” Beezle began.

  “Go!” I said, and I grabbed the nearest thing at hand and threw it at him. It was a coffee cup, and it smashed into the counter a few inches from Beezle. The handle broke off.

  I stared at it, stricken. Not because I’d just thrown a coffee mug at Beezle, although that was bad enough. But because I’d thrown the last coffee mug that Gabriel had used. The mug that had sat, untouched, in the dish drain since the morning he’d died. I’d almost bitten Samiel’s head off once when he tried to put it back in the cupboard.

  Beezle said nothing. I couldn’t read the expression on his face.

  Fight for me, I thought. It was a little girl’s voice in my head, the little girl who’d always wanted to be first to her mother but always came in second. The little girl who’d dreamed of a daddy to love her, a daddy who never arrived. Show me I matter. Show me you care enough to stay.

  But he didn’t. He pushed the half-eaten bag of pretzels to one side, made a great show of dusting crumbs off his claws, and flew out the kitchen window without another word.

  17

  NATHANIEL STOOD IN THE CORNER OF THE KITCHEN, near the hall. He hadn’t said a word, hadn’t tried to intervene.

  I didn’t look at him. My throat was tight. I thought that if he gave me one kind word at that moment, I would crumple to the floor and never get up again.

  “I would comfort you,” Nathaniel said carefully, “but I sense that is precisely what you do not want.”

  “You sense correctly,” I said. I was proud of the fact that my voice wobbled only a little. “You know, you don’t have to stay, either. All the other rats are leaving the sinking ship. You should get out while you still can.”

  “Madeline. I would not leave you. Now more than ever we are two of a kind. Could any of the others understand your magic, your burdens, as well as I?”

  “No,” I admitted. “But that doesn’t put you under any obligation to me.”

  “It is my choice.”

  It was astounding that the last person I’d ever expected to stand by me was the only person left with me now that my life was going to hell in a handbasket.

  When I’d first met Nathaniel I thought he would protect himself at any cost. I thought if he had a chance to keep out of personal danger, he would take it. I thought he would never be the kind of man who stood in front of me, sword raised, ready to keep me from harm.

  Yet Beezle was gone. Samiel was gone. Gabriel was dead. And Nathaniel was still here. He was choosing to be here.

  “Thank you,” I said. I didn’t say the other thing I was thinking. I could love you. Maybe. Someday. “I’ll see you when I get back.”

  I didn’t embrace him, or give him one last longing look. I flew out the window, because I needed to forget about those things that tethered me to life. I was going to a place of the dead, and if I longed too much for life, then I wouldn’t be able to do it.

  I flew up and up and up, soaring above the city, into the place where the atmosphere became thin. The lack of oxygen might have bothered me before, but not today. My body seemed to adjust as needed, without direction from me.

  I kept going, past the clouds, past where the blue sky touched the dark of space. Still I went up, and beyond, and I passed into a place on the edge of starlight. There, time moved at a different speed.

  I could see all of the worlds beneath me, all the worlds that had ever been and ever were and ever would be. I did not have to search for the correct place. Evangeline’s spirit called me, a flare of red like a homing beacon. I sensed her in my head, drawing me to her just as I had drawn the vampires to me.

  Beneath me was the land of the dead—or one of them, anyway. My newfound knowledge told me that all of the dead of history were scattered throughout many worlds. It was the choice of those worlds that a soul was given when it passed through the Door.

  My descent began, past the blazing sun of this world, through the empty air. The landscape was as stark as it had been in my dreams. Everywhere I looked there was white sand, bleached bone, gray rock.

  I alighted on the same flat stone and looked around, shielding my eyes from the sun’s glare. One moment she wasn’t there. The next moment she was.

  She stood befor
e me in the same gray gown she had worn in my vision. The small round bulge of her belly was just visible when the wind brushed her dress against her body. Her hair fluttered in the wind, black corkscrew curls, and I had the disturbing realization that my hair was exactly like hers.

  “I knew he would send you for me,” Evangeline said with a self-satisfied expression.

  “You know, you had the choice of all the worlds,” I said, ignoring her jibe. “Why did you pick this barren shithole?”

  The smirk dropped from her face. “This land is very like the place where I was raised.”

  “Oh, you mean the nuclear wasteland,” I said, rolling my eyes. “What, you missed the radiation poisoning?”

  “Your judgment means nothing,” Evangeline spat. “I will leave this land soon, in any case. Lucifer is defying the universe for me, for our child, just as I knew he would.”

  “Except that he’s not defying anything,” I said. “Lucifer isn’t here. I am.”

  “So?” she challenged.

  “He doesn’t love you for your brains, does he? Obviously, he isn’t here because you are not vital enough for him to risk his own precious self, even with that monster in your belly,” I said.

  Her face fell for a moment; then she visibly gathered herself. “Lucifer is far too important to endanger his physical being. I understand why he sent you in his stead. If he were destroyed, the very fabric of the universe would come undone. You, however, are expendable.”

  “Keep telling yourself that.”

  “You are in no position to sneer at me, as you are present, acting upon his orders,” she said.

  “I am here,” I admitted. “But it’s not a done deal. I could leave you.”

  Evangeline stared at me. “You cannot. You must do as Lucifer bids.”

  “No, I must not. I’m human. We’ve got this thing called free will.”

  “If you do not take me willingly, then Lucifer will command you to as Hound of the Hunt,” she said triumphantly.

  “I could still drop you somewhere along the way,” I said casually.