by M. Lathan
A chain slid across the floor as Nathan came closer, cutting off my rant. The woman had backed away from me, and the little girls eyes were bulging out of her head. Emma swept her hand over her lungs and up to her mouth, like she was reminding me how to breathe.
“Sorry,” I whispered to the woman. “I’m … yeah … sorry.”
“It’s cool,” she said, face still turned up. “And thanks. I’ll keep all of that extra stuff in mind.”
Nate took another needle from the ground and wiped the tip on his shirt, sterilizing with cotton. “It’s for her,” he said, nodding to the lady that Lydia’s baby, who grew up to be Leah, had just gone off on for no reason. “Close your eyes so you don’t feel it.” It didn’t work. I felt the pinch and the blood rush out of the vein he’d poked. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” I said, even though I wasn’t. I’d been tricked into meeting Remi, had a fight, been drugged, and was now offering up my blood to a child and projecting my pain onto her innocent mother.
“I’m sorry she made you think I texted you,” Nathan said.
“It’s okay. I shouldn’t have believed her.” My legs regained feeling and I kicked them around, rattling the chain on my ankle.
He gently pulled the little girl’s needle out of my arm when the vial filled. “Can I see her?” he asked her mom. She brought her daughter to Nathan. He smiled at her, and she smiled back. “What’s your name?”
“Kelsey,” she said, in the cutest voice I’d ever heard.
“Hi, Kelsey. I’m Nathan. I’m going to tape this on your arm, but you have to keep very still so it doesn’t go in, okay?” She nodded. “And when they come to take it off, I need you to pretend that it stuck you. Can you pretend to cry?”
She smiled and looked back to her mom. “Yeah,” Kelsey said.
“Good. And you also have to pretend to be human, okay?”
“But I’m not. I can make stuff fly,” Kelsey said.
“I know, but we can’t say that today. It’s a game,” Nathan said.
She smiled, her little eyes excited. “What do I get if I win?”
“I’ll get you a new doll,” her mother said.
Nate had pulled Kelsey’s old needle out and taped the new one on while she wasn’t paying attention. I wanted to smile with them, but I couldn’t. I’d probably given them false hope. Remi could pull off the tape and see that it wasn’t in her arm and we’d all be screwed.
I was close to crying by the time he’d finished securing a new needle to Mallory, Kelsey’s mom. But we had to try something. I was too weak to even try to move myself, and they were all too afraid to try a spell, fearing it would backfire. Lydia would call them idiots for that.
“Can you do more?” Paul asked.
“I can do all,” I said, still hopeful. Paul crawled over and slid two more needles into my arm. I smiled at Emma instead of wincing. They hurt even more since the drugs had completely worn off now. “You too,” I said to Nathan.
He shook his head.
“Stop being an idiot,” Emma said. “You expect us to leave you here?”
“You’re not coming with us, Nathan?” Kelsey asked. “Please come.” I don’t think any of us could have been more persuasive than that. He couldn’t tell her no, so he found yet another vein to puncture on me.
“What are we going to do with those?” Emma asked, pointing to their vials filled with blood that wouldn’t pass the test. I rolled my eyes. My plan seemed even more ridiculous now.
“Maybe I can help with that,” the sleeping man mumbled. Nate pulled me closer as the really sickly guy sat up in what I hoped was a puddle of sweat. “Cover the little girl’s eyes.” He coughed and crawled to the blood. Then he drank it … like literally downed the whole tube, then two more after that one. “That’s better. Much better.”
It was so disgusting that I almost didn’t notice I was in Nate’s lap. Almost. But it wasn’t the time to comment on it, not while the guy sucked down blood and licked the remnants from his lips like it was fudge. The nuns would call him a demon – not a vampire, apparently they didn’t exist. They were only evil spirits inhabiting human bodies that were demented enough to drink blood. And because I’d been raised to think that, I was terrified of him.
“Is he going to go potty again?” Kelsey asked. Mallory shushed her, and Paul laughed. He and Emma weren’t trembling like I was. I looked back, and Nate was glaring at my arm, not at the … whatever he was.
“No, sweetie, I’m not,” he said. As the color came back to his skin, I saw that he was actually kind of handsome. “Because we are about to get out of here. If they think you’re a witch, you must have human powers, and this is obviously my lucky day. Did you make her drop the needles?” I shook my head. At least I didn’t think I had. “She’s just really dumb, then. I know her boss is. The blonde guy. Complete idiot. Now that I have a little strength, I might be able to help.” His voice was southern and charming and … Emma really noticed how cute he was.
Paul pushed her. “Stop staring,” he said.
“They’re done,” Nate said, pulling out the last three needles. The evidence of our scheme was all over my arm. Nate saw too. “Can I?” he asked, raising my arm to his mouth.
I nodded, and he licked the puncture wounds. “Ewww,” Kelsey said. Her mother shushed her again.
“Do you have the rest of this forecasted, gorgeous?” the former sickly, now handsome, man asked me.
“No,” I whispered.
“I can help. I’ve been here for two weeks. They bring in new prisoners every few days. They either join them or…” He sighed, looking at Kelsey. “They get K. I. L. L. E. D.” Thankfully, she didn’t put the word together. “Let me handle it,” he said. “Follow my lead when they come back.”
He stuffed the rest of our evidence in his pocket, the unused blood and all – possibly a snack for later.
“This will work,” Emma whispered. “They’ll just … let us go.” No one answered her childishly hopeful thought. “How much time do we have?”
“Probably less than an hour,” the guy said. I was too scared and tired to ask his name.
“I think you’re going to faint soon. You should rest,” Nathan whispered in my ear. “Do you want me to put you down?”
I looked up, right into the eyes that hated me the other day. I wanted to ask him to take me back, but since I couldn’t take knowing that he was only being nice because we could die soon, I just shook my head and nestled on his chest.
I didn’t fall asleep completely. Faintly, I heard them talking about how Remi had asked Emma if she could have her wizard boyfriend bring her to Texas to see her. Sophia had told them to stay away in the one brief moment that they’d seen her after the blow up at my house, but Emma agreed to meet at a bar out of habit of saying yes to Remi. Paul went to protect her. Nate went to give her a piece of his mind. She pretended to apologize to them. They remembered eating half of an appetizer, then waking up in this cell. Liam had taken Mallory and Kelsey from a nearby restaurant by himself. They were his offerings, we were Remi’s. And Phillip, the … whatever he was, couldn’t be killed easily, so he was being tortured in the cell, wanting to drink his cellmates every day but restraining himself.
It dawned on me as I floated somewhere between sleep and awake that I shouldn’t think of Lydia or being a copy around people who could read minds. Liam obviously couldn’t read mine because he thought I was a witch.
“Think she’s going to be able to walk in those after giving so much blood?” Emma asked, sounding three miles away. I felt my shoes come off. “I think I can fit them.” Other shoes, lighter ones, went on. “I love these. I wonder if she’ll let me borrow them.”
Besides the fact that it was wishful to think we’d be alive to share shoes after tonight, those weren’t mine. At least I didn’t think so. They could belong to the person I couldn’t think about.
Our cell door opened and startled me awake in Nate’s arms. Remi looked better, like her face hadn’t c
ollided with concrete. Liam shoved her out of the way so he could walk in first. I wouldn’t call him handsome. He looked like an average guy, like the boys at school, but older. Thirty, maybe.
“Test the blood then get yours in line, Remi. They’ll be after mine,” Liam said.
Phillip gestured to Mallory to cover Kelsey’s eyes. He stood behind Liam, and I wanted to cover mine too. He grabbed him by the neck and raised it to his teeth. While we braced for a bite, he reached in Liam’s pocket and pulled out a radio.
“Transport to sector five. There are humans here,” Phillip said, in a perfect imitation of Liam’s voice.
He dropped Liam and stood over him, waiting for him to stand. Remi jumped at Phillip with a needle in her hand. He smacked it and it shattered on the ground.
“Listen, Liam. She lied to you. We are human,” Nathan said.
Liam scrambled to his feet, pointing at Phillip then at Nathan. “Liars. You will be tortured for what you just did.”
“No, it’s true!” Emma said. “We can prove it.”
Phillip kneeled in front of Kelsey and peeled the tape slowly away from her needle. She remembered to cry. It was very convincing. She may have a future in acting … if she lived through this. “Test it,” Phillip said.
Liam took a lighter from his pocket and tipped the vial over it. This time, I was glad to see nothing happen.
“I watched you!” Liam said. “I was sure. Shit! He’s going to kill me. A human kid. Shit!”
“I know for a fact that mine are not,” Remi said.
“Test me,” I said, holding my arm out. It was the only one still inside a vein. She did the test and gasped. The rest of them pulled out their needles before it could be done for them.
“Something’s wrong. They’re … I don’t know … they did something. Let’s just bring them to him. He’ll get to the bottom of it.”
“Shut up! You answer to me. I should’ve known when you couldn’t get me pictures of them in action. Don’t say another word, Remi. Understood?” Remi nodded and bowed her head. She didn’t seem like someone who’d submit so easily. Maybe the purging had changed that. Or maybe she was afraid of him. I didn’t know for sure. I was entirely too tired to hang on to any of the whispers in the air.
Liam snatched his radio from Philipp when the rest of their tests came back negative. “Hurry with that transport. Now!”
“If you don’t walk me out with them, I’ll make you both my dinner,” Phillip said. Liam nodded and unchained us from the wall.
When transport came, Liam prepped us to keep quiet in the halls and threatened to find us if we ever breathed a word of this to anyone. Nathan held my hand the entire time. The outside air was cool and salty, and waves crashed against the shore, too calm to say we’d just walked out of hell. To my surprise, Liam pointed to a boat and ordered us to move towards it. I’d assumed transport was a person with the power to bring us home.
“You are making a big mistake, Liam,” Remi said as we pushed through the sand. “We can’t go in there with nothing. This is my big night. My first night with him. I can’t fail!”
He groaned as Mallory lifted Kelsey inside the boat. Then Emma and Paul went. Then Phillip. Nate stepped in and turned around to lift me up.
“Okay. Her. We can take her,” Liam said. “The famous one. We’ll say we got her because of that. If he blood tests her and finds magic, then it will be a plus. Maybe … maybe it will work.”
While we were stunned, Liam, who apparently had an infinite supply of needles, pulled another from his pocket. Nate grabbed it before he jammed it into my neck and crushed it in his hand.
Liam winced and glared at me. “If you don’t come, everyone on the boat is getting off,” he said. “Your choice.”
It was an easy one to make.
“Okay,” I whispered.
“I’m staying too,” Nate said. I shook my head at him, trying to push him away. He held my arms against my side and pressed his forehead against mine. I gave up. He wasn’t going to leave me.
Freedom was so close, and it was snatched out of my reach. Emma and Paul yelled for us as the boat sped away from the shore, and Remi and Liam pushed us back inside.
Chapter Fifteen
“We’ll take credit for them both. Understand?” Liam whispered to Remi. She nodded. “Did you practice?”
“Yes, Liam, a thousand times. I told you I would.”
He sighed. “You’ll understand when you have a student. It’s nerve wrecking. All of mine have died. I can’t fail again. I won’t get another chance.”
We walked up flights and flights of stairs and then down a long hallway, a glint of light ahead of us.
“C-13, exit,” a voice said in the distance. A glass door swung open and a figure stepped out. From here, it looked like a boy, my age or a little older. He met the large man who’d called him out of there and turned on his heels like a soldier. “C-14, exit,” he said. Another boy stepped into the hall, slow and controlled, as we walked closer. Liam and Remi slowed. So did my heart. “C-15, exit.” Another boy emerged and got in line behind the others. “Liam, you may pass.”
They motioned us to start walking again. Nate had to pull me. I couldn’t move. They’d come from three rooms with glass walls and doors and pure white furniture. It was clean and neat, no mess other than a few books on the beds and floors.
“Triplets,” I whispered, when I saw their faces. They were dressed in stretchy black pants and shirts, muscles pushing at the fabric. “Copies,” I whispered, even softer. Nate tightened his arms around me, pulling me further away from what my life could have been, where my life could be headed.
At the end of the hall, Remi and Liam pulled wide hoods over their heads. The room we stepped into looked like a chapel. Candles flickered all around us. Nate held me so close that I heard his heart pounding against my ear.
More robed figures pushed past us, some with one or two frightened prisoners in their grips. The triplets marched to the front. I’d lost blood and been drugged. I needed a bed, not to be made to kneel on a marble floor. Liam forced Nate to kneel closer to him. I wanted to grab his hand and try to escape, but I felt like I did in the shower before my fit – woozy, jittery, like I’d hurt myself by trying.
I inched to my left, closer to Nathan, and Remi grabbed my arm. She didn’t speak, but the look in her eyes was such a terrible mix of fear and anger that I knew neither of us could move right now.
“Those who willingly enter his quarters, let your voice be heard,” a rough voice like crackling fire said.
“I willingly come,” they all said together, one voice, well trained.
Footsteps interrupted the silence. Well, as silent as this room could get for me as my growing strength allowed me to hear them again.
“Greet me,” a man said, passively like he was bored.
I looked up at him, and my heart stopped. Kamon was as handsome as he was in Lydia’s memories, just with graying hair in one spot. He’d kill Nate and breed me for sure if we didn’t get the hell out of here.
Remi peaked up at him, awestruck and teary eyed. He was the man she wanted to impress, not Liam. She’d followed a witch around for him. I remembered what she’d said on the phone call I’d eavesdropped on. She'd said that Sophia always told Emma where not to party. Sophia would know exactly where Kamon was at all times, and Remi latched on to Emma in hopes of finding him. She wanted to be here. She was never obsessed with Nate. She was obsessed with the man who would’ve drowned me.
“Hail, Kamon. We assemble today to show our undying loyalty for making us whole, our commitment to learning your ways, and our devotion to your cause.”
Right hands shot up into the air everywhere.
“And to you, Julian, we pledge to avenge your death, but stray from your flawed path.” My hands balled into fists, suddenly more upset with the dead man than the person I couldn’t think about. “To you, Kamon, my Master, my Lord, you have made me what I am. Without you, I have no home. No life. I
am nothing. Please accept my humble praise.”
Kamon sat back in an ornate black throne. He crossed his legs and raised his chin. He had to really believe he was a king, no a god, to these people.
“I accept,” he said, like it was a bother to speak to them. The hooded figures bowed their heads again. Only the prisoners and the triplets who were standing near his throne were left with stretched necks. “Who has something for me?”
Remi pulled me up, and Liam grabbed Nathan. I reached for his hand but missed.
There was a clear hierarchy with the hunters, and Liam and Remi were at the bottom. They moved us out of the way each time a hunter stepped in front of them with their offering. We ended up at the end of the line.
One at a time, the offerings, mostly witches and wizards, were brought before Kamon. Ten passed, accepting his offer to be purged, until the first one objected. The stocky man was covered in dirt and scratches, like he’d been fighting.
“C-14,” Kamon said, chuckling. The middle triplet stepped up, and the stocky man thumped to the ground, his neck cracking without C-14 moving a muscle.
No one else objected.
Then it was our turn. Liam and Remi bowed to Kamon. Liam took another step up and bowed again.
“Master, we have brought you two offerings today,” Liam said. “Both human. I pray you accept them.”
“Do they willingly come?”
“No, Master.”
Kamon laughed and leaned forward. “Then you’d better have a good reason for bringing them here. Julian was dismembered because he chased after those who didn’t worship him like I did,” he said, his voice darkening with each word. Dismembered? Wow. No wonder I wasn’t allowed to see that happen. “Surely, you don’t expect me to make that mistake.”
“No, Master,” Liam said.
Kamon glared at me. His eyes were a hypnotizing mix of green and brown with a hint of blue. That’s when I realized I was staring.
“Are you sure they’re human?” Kamon asked, tilting his head to the side, eyes still locked with mine. “They’re awfully silent.”