by D. N. Hoxa
“Run!” Elisa shouted, but her left leg didn’t seem to be working. Putting my hand around her waist, I dragged her forward.
“Move, move, move!” I shouted at the people in the crowd, and they made way for me. There were many more of them than I’d realized, most with phones in their hands. Some might have even been humans, and I had no idea how the ECU was going to fix that. I didn’t really care, to be honest.
The car waiting at the corner with the back door open was the same Mercedes that had picked us up the first time we’d been chased. I didn’t ask questions, or wondered if it was a trap. If we didn’t get in, we were going to get caught anyway. I threw Elisa in and jumped inside.
Eighteen
Eddie was pissed off.
I couldn’t get the smile off my face.
Elisa wouldn’t stop telling me that she was going to kill me herself just as soon as she was back on her feet.
“This is unacceptable! You left the house without telling me. You have something I own!” Eddie was shouting.
But it didn’t matter how much he raised his voice, did it? We were alive. Two of his men, the guys in the van, had been caught by the ECU, but he said he could get them out. It was going to cost him, but he could do it, so why was he so pissed off?
“Do you have any news about the others? Or anybody else like us? Did the ECU catch or kill someone last night?” I asked instead. We were alive but the others were on the run. As much as that sucked, I couldn’t bring myself to regret it. This had been our only chance, and I’d done what I thought was best.
Now, all I had to do was figure out how to find them again and get them back together. I should have told them to go to Crystal’s town, but I’d been so panicked that I’d completely forgotten to even mention it. But it didn’t matter. We were going to find them, no matter what.
“You’re not listening to me!” Eddie hissed. “We have a deal and you failed to honor it.”
“I didn’t. I let your people do to me whatever they wanted. My skin’s still burned, by the way. I didn’t think it was important to you where I was, as long as I told you when I got there.”
“But you did think it was important to tell me to come save you?”
I flinched. “We had no other choice.”
“We did. We could have run with the rest,” Elisa said. She was sitting in a chair farther away from Eddie and I, and Tammy was cleaning her wounds. Elisa had done a healing spell on herself, and Tammy had done a strong Blood one on her as well, but if they did more, she was going to pass out. So Elisa refused and accepted to leave her left leg broken. I, on the other hand, felt fine, except for my back. The knife the vampire had put in me, and the effect of Elisa’s spell that had hit me, had made a mess out of it. I could barely stand straight, and Tammy’s healing spell had done nothing to calm me down. It didn’t matter though. Most of my wounds were closed.
“Seriously, Eddie, did the ECU kill anyone last night?”
“No!” he shouted. “Listen to me, Scarlet Jones. From this moment on, you cannot go anywhere without my consent. You cannot leave this basement until the dragon is off your hand.”
“Are you out of your mind?” He was talking real crazy.
“We had a deal!”
“Yes, a deal for the dragon, not for keeping me prisoner!” Just the thought of it made me want to run out in the street, no matter that the ECU probably had the entire city on lock down, looking for us.
“I’m changing the deal, Scarlet. If you try to leave, you will be stopped,” he said, suddenly calm. I preferred it when he shouted. Now, he sounded much more serious.
“Eddie, twenty-seven people are out there, waiting to be found. I can’t stay here.”
“I don’t know about can’t, but you will. That dragon is mine, Scarlet. If the ECU gets hold of it first, I’m never going to see it again. I won’t risk it.”
“So take it off me! Right now! Come on, do it. Cut off my hand or whatever, but you’re not keeping me here.” I rose to my shaking feet. My back hurt like hell but I tried to ignore it. I needed to face the guy.
“We will, as soon as we’re ready. We should be in the morning,” Tammy said. She’d finished wrapping Elisa up, and she didn’t look like she was going to bother with me. She was already packing up her things.
“Until then, here is where you’ll remain,” said Eddie, and made for the door. The morning was okay, I guessed. It would give me time to rest and come up with an idea.
“For what it’s worth, thanks, Eddie. I really do appreciate you helping us,” I said before he reached the door.
“I didn’t help you. I helped myself.” Fair enough.
“You’re literally going to leave us here?” Elisa said. “Where are we going to sleep?” Eddie walked out the door, together with Tammy. They closed the door and the lock clicked in place. “Hey!” she called, but it was no use. They were already gone.
“We’ll be fine.” The room was small, set with dark grey tiles and concrete walls, and nothing but lights, two chairs, a small round table at one corner with an empty vase on top of it, and a square rug in front of the door. “I’ll give you both chairs so you can lie down.” The rug was going to be enough for me.
“What the hell were you thinking, Scarlet?” Elisa said, suddenly sounding very tired. The pain on my back took my breath away as I dragged the chair over to her, and helped her put her feet up.
“I was thinking they needed time to get away.”
“So very noble of you, except you almost got us killed.”
“You should have stayed with them, Elisa. You should have left me.”
“Enough with that already! You’re pissing me off,” she hissed. I took the rug and put it right next to her chairs. Lying down on the hard floor took some of the pressure off my back. The money I’d hidden in my bra, panties and socks was making me itch, so I took it off my body and put it under the rug.
“Do a spell and sleep. We need to rest.” Looking up at the concrete ceiling wasn’t helping my creative juices flow, but I had the whole night ahead.
“What do you want to do next?” she asked me, and began to spell herself.
“I don’t know,” I said reluctantly. “But I know one thing: this can’t go on any longer.”
This wasn’t life. Run from demons, run from the ECU, from everybody we know—it was barely an existence. There was a lot of us out there, and now that I knew it, I believed we could make a real difference. We were being hunted with no grounds. The world was going to have to accept us. We just had to find a way to make them before we were all killed and forgotten by time.
***
“You haven’t slept at all.”
“I have.”
Elisa raised her brows. “Then you should have slept more.”
But how could I, when, as soon as I’d slipped into sleep, I’d had the greatest idea in the history of the world? I mean the greatest, absolute bestest, awesomest idea ever.
“How are you feeling?” I asked her. She looked much better than yesterday. Instead of answering, she put her feet on the ground and rose.
“Still hurts a bit. Another spell later should do it,” she mumbled, then seemed to realize something and froze in place. “Why aren’t you freaked out?”
Ah, the moment of glory. “I have an idea.”
A beautiful idea, born from a nightmare, no less. I’d been dreaming of the horror of having ECU soldiers jumping at me, while the rest of the world, this huge crowd, watched and laughed. So many people, dressed in funny clothes.
Almost like a carnival.
Lightbulb, everyone!
“You know about Luminis Carnival, right?” I’d read about it when I was stuck at Mojo’s former brothel. At the time, I hadn’t thought it was important. All the news had done was remind me of my father.
“Yeah?” Elisa sounded scared, but she shouldn’t have been.
The Luminis Carnival, or the Carnival of Light, was this show paranormals put up for humans once a
decade. I’d never experienced it before, and ten years ago, there hadn’t been one, because both the Hedge and Bone covens had been broken apart. The ECU started the tradition a hundred years ago after the fairy war, to celebrate the closing of the portals, and to give back to the world. As a way to tell the world that Light always triumphs over Dark. In it, paranormals walked one of the main streets in Manhattan for a few hours. They shared candy and deserts—anything sweet, and slightly infused with magical herbs. It was the only time paranormals were allowed to expose humans to magic, and to spread calming spells all around for as long as the carnival went on.
I’d thought it was bullshit when I first heard of it from my father. There was no way in hell the ECU wanted to give back to the humans. They just wanted to let the people show off, feel more important, stronger and mightier than humans. Once every decade was a stretch, but “studies” had shown that it was a safe period of time for humans to be exposed to so much of our energy at once. The paranormals literally threw calming spells at every passerby and crowd of humans. They probably thought themselves gods while at it, too.
Now, I couldn’t have been happier that they’d decided to do the carnival again, to celebrate our survival from the fairy attack, and the inclusion of every paranormal species into the ECU leadership. That’s what the news article had said.
“We’re going to crash it,” I said slowly so Elisa could understand every word.
Falling back on the chair, she smiled. “Crash a Carnival?”
Excitement spiked my veins. It’s what had kept me from passing out the entire night. “We need to stop this hunt, Elisa. We need to show the world that we’re witches and we deserve to be treated as such. Everyone is going to be there,” probably my parents, too, “and it’s the perfect place to sort of come out. To demand we be treated equally.”
“That’s very stupid,” Elisa said. “You won’t get treated equally just because you show up at a Carnival. They’re already hunting you down.”
“Exactly. The public doesn’t know about us, right? The ECU never talked about us to anyone, as far as I know. Unless you know something else.” Elisa shook her head. “So we show the people that we exist, and that we’re being hunted, and we ask for their support. Witches like me were born in all kinds of families, even werewolves! If nobody else, then those people are going to support them. And there’s a lot of us now. Once they see how many we are, they’re going to have no choice but to accept us.”
“Except they could kill you all on sight,” Elisa said, cringing like she tasted something awful.
“How are they going to kill so many people in front of everyone?” They wouldn’t. There was a time when the ECU hated scandals, when they’d never make a scene in public, but our arrival had changed that, it seemed. Our only shot was to show ourselves in front of everyone—the decision makers and the people who gave strength to them.
“Scarlet, it’s going to take a lot time to find all of them. The Carnival is, what, four days away?”
I grinned. “I’m not talking just about the others we saved. I’m talking about every witch like us in New York.”
Elisa opened her mouth but she didn’t know what to say for a long minute. “So it’s worse than I thought. Luca and the others separated for this purpose alone. To find more people like you. You think you can find them all in four days?”
“We’re going to need Luca, Fallon, Ax and Grover, too, because we are not going to find all the witches. They are going to find us.”
Elisa’s eyes opened wide. “The Carnival.” She was catching up.
“Signs. All over the city. Everywhere.” And I already had a slogan in mind. It was going to say something like: A Storm is coming. Luminis Carnival. And then some lightning above or below the text. Simple. Effective, because judging by what the others said, probably every witch like us could create lightning at least once when they were kids. If I could get some paper and a razor knife, I could make a stencil in a second, then spray paint over it to mark every single building in New York.
“How much money do we still have?” Elisa asked.
“About twelve thousand, last time I checked.” I raised the corner of the rug where I’d put the money the night before. It was still there, the bills in a miserable state, but still useful. “It’ll be enough to buy all the paper and spray painters in the world. Eddie might be hard to convince, though. And we need you in top shape to be able to spell us. We’ll go out before dawn.”
“That’s a great idea—if you want to get caught.” I flinched, but before I could argue, she continued. “I have a better idea. It might cost you all your money, though.”
My heart jumped. “I’m all ears.”
“Humans,” she said, trying to stifle a smile. “We put an ad online and offer to pay people like ten dollars for every picture of the sign they send to us. Paranormals might get the ECU suspicious, but humans?” She shrugged.
My jaw touched the ground. I somehow made it to my feet and planted a very wet kiss on Elisa’s cheek that made her cringe. “You are a freaking genius!” Really. She deserved an award.
“You’re only just realizing that?” Elisa grinned. “But back to the point. We wouldn’t even need to leave this place. If we promise Eddie that, all we’d need is a laptop. We’d have to hire someone to design the sign, and then tell people how to do it, and where to spray it.”
“Everywhere!” Until all the money was gone. All of it.
“The people could make the stencils themselves. The sign would have to be very clear, though, and not overly complicated.”
“And with some lightning on it. That’s the only way everyone would understand it. I was thinking, A Storm is coming. Luminis Carnival. All the others that are hiding will know what that means. I already told them the name Storm witch. The rest will probably get the idea from the lightning. The ECU might figure it out, too, but I don’t think they’re going to bother now that they’re killing everyone on sight.”
“I wonder if it would be better to put a detailed ad online,” Elisa whispered.
“I don’t think so. Details would alert the ECU. The less they know, the better. All we need is for people like me to understand and to come to the Carnival. And not all of them will have access to the internet. Most, if not all, are on the run.”
“It’s going to be tricky to hit it just right,” she said, deep in thought.
“But we will. We’ve got the whole day ahead of us to prepare everything.”
Taking in a deep breath, Elisa nodded. “I guess I can hold off on killing you for four more days.”
I laughed. “Let’s scream our guts out until Eddie comes in here.” That was exactly what we did.
***
We decided to ask the people to use yellow because it attracted more attention. Or Elisa thought so. She practically made all the design decisions herself while Tammy and Doug coated my skin with acid to try and remove my dragon.
This time, they gave up after half an hour. They took notes, wiped the sweat off their foreheads, and left the room.
Eddie was concerned. So was I. As long as the dragon stayed on my hand, I was his prisoner, which could make things difficult if Tammy and Doug didn’t come through for four more days. But at least they’d put a healing spell on me for my back. Now, it felt much better.
“You cannot send anything through that,” he reminded Elisa, pointing at the Dell laptop on her lap. He’d provided it for us to get everything ready only after he’d seen the money, but said he’d post the ad where we wanted because he didn’t want anyone tracking his IPs. But we’d still get to receive the messages from people.
“Got it,” Elisa said, without looking back. “And just so you know, I think that’s an awful idea. The demons are going to be all over you.”
Yeah, I thought about that, too, but during the Carnival, the ECU would have the place locked tight. It was going to be a problem for us to get in, too, but at least we didn’t have catlike eyes. We were less noticeabl
e.
“Do you have any news on the others?” I asked Eddie. We’d practically begged him to put his people to work, to find Luca, Fallon, Ax, and Grover. We needed them now more than ever. They had to come back for the Carnival.
“Not yet,” Eddie said, which made me feel a bit better, because not yet meant he thought his people were going to find them. It was just a matter of time. “Scarlet, walk me through how you got this dragon, and everything else you know about it.” Dragging Elisa’s chair—she’d chosen to sit on the floor with the laptop—he sat in front of me. He looked nothing like the guy with the glasses I’d met at the ECU facility. I barely even remembered that version of him now.
“Well, I don’t really know much.” Other than it made me pass out, which hadn’t happened in the past three hours since I’d woken up because of the excitement and the pain of Doug and Tammy trying to remove the dragon.
Still, I told Eddie everything I did know. Where I found it, how I put it on, what happened when the ECU soldiers tried to remove it from my hand, and Melinda. I even told him about Trinity, and Eddie wasn’t pleased.
“When you first told me you knew how to get it off, I thought you had a secret,” I confessed. I’d even been happy at the time. Now that I knew how to make it work, even though it consumed my energy like a freaking demon? Not so much.
“I thought so, too, but have patience. Nothing is unbreakable.” He stood up then. “I need to leave now, but I’ll remind you that you’re not allowed to leave this room, unless you need to use the bathroom. Doug and Tammy might be back during the day.”
“Any news? Any new killings?” I asked before he could leave.
“Not that I know of.” He didn’t sound too convinced but I didn’t let myself look into it.
Yes, we were stuck in a basement in the middle of Manhattan, but we were doing something. The more I thought about it, the more sense it made. It even surprised me how much faith I had in the people after everything I’d gone through. I believed with all my heart that once they saw all of us together, they’d see that we were just like them. The ECU would have no choice but to stop hunting them.