Iron Inheritance

by G. R. Fillinger

  I kicked the hallway doors open and threw him ahead of me. “What gives you the right?” I growled, still advancing as his back hit the wall. His khaki shirt matched the aging poster behind him. “I saw it. For the first time, I saw what they’ve all been talking about. What you and Grandpa have seen all along.” I held up my hand, willing the blue flame to come back into my field of vision, my mind second guessing whether it was ever there at all.

  Nate looked at my hand, his eyes half closed under a weight of sadness. “I know.”

  I stepped back, betrayal stretching disgust across my face. “You know? Then why—”

  He tilted his head back, and the freckles on his cheeks unified as the skin underneath reddened. “Spiritual weapons force what should be natural. You can’t rush this process. I tried to warn Denisov, but she wouldn’t listen. Right now, your body isn’t ready. I’m trying to protect you.”

  I almost shook with anger. “And yet you couldn’t even protect the one person who really mattered,” I said, each word bitter. No tears came, but my eyes burned.

  Nate clenched his jaw before he nodded, accepting the blame he’d assigned to himself all along. He turned and disappeared with a gust of wind that stung my cheek.

  I breathed heavily, the tunnel quiet. I couldn’t go back in the arena. Too many eyes. Too many questions. The showers called my name, and after that, my bed.

  Hours later, I lay there looking up at the ceiling, playing through the whole thing over and over again.

  We’d had fights before. I was usually the one who stormed off.

  But I’d never said anything that mean.

  I sighed and pushed my head deeper into the pillow, a mixture of embarrassment and justification pumping through my veins at competing speeds.

  I rolled over and looked at the clock. Ria would be back soon. I wasn’t ready to face her, to explain what had happened. The library didn’t sound particularly inviting for once, nor did seeing anyone, actually. Maybe I’d roam the tunnels beneath the school. Get lost, curl up in one of those out-of-the-way courtyards until sleep took me. Maybe now that I felt another hole in my gut, the dreams would stop, Kovac’s smiling face would fade, and my heart would cease to pump molten fury through my veins so often that it was becoming normal for me to feel like this.

  I took the long way around from the dorm, exploiting a passage near the stairwell. It bypassed the normal stairs with a fifty-foot fire pole that dropped into the entrance of the library. I could get anywhere from there.

  The soles of my shoes screeched on the pipe near the bottom to slow me down, but it wasn’t enough, and my feet hit the ground so hard that my hands flew open in surprise and I fell backward…into someone’s arms.

  “You sure know how to make an entrance,” Josh said in his gruff Texan accent as he smirked down at my forehead.

  I tried to control the bulge of my eyes, but it was no use. I stared up at him and felt my cheeks redden.

  He righted me gently. “I was just going to come and try to find you, actually.”

  I blinked and rubbed my hands on my jeans, much of my day melting away. “Really? Why?”

  He shrugged. “Figured after today you’d need a little bit of a break from this place. Thought you might want to go for a stroll.”

  The thought of escaping for a little while and spending it with him sent my heart racing. I nearly grabbed his hand and pulled him forward, that nebulous connection from the first night we met coming back again.

  But part of me held back. Propriety. Fear. I didn’t know what, but it was there, and my hand stayed limp at my side as I managed to nod.

  He inclined his head toward the wall. “I tend to like the exits where people aren’t lookin’. How ’bout you?”

  “Definitely preferable,” I said all too quickly.

  “Good.” He led me out of the large stacks of books and into the carpeted hallway where he slammed his fist into the wall. A large panel swung forward into another hallway of wood paneling, art, and gas lamps.

  I raised an eyebrow. “You sure know your way around already.”

  He shrugged. “Almost every headquarters is the same. Come on.” He extended a hand for me to go first. “Trust me.”

  I stepped forward, and we walked through the secret hallway in silence. There was something comfortable about it, like I knew him already, when in reality it was kind of the opposite. We were usually together with Ria, Nate, Miranda, and Freddy as well. Not just the two of us.

  There were several turns, and eventually, the finely decorated panels gave way to a simple concrete pipe large enough for us to walk through in the center if our arms touched.

  My mind raced ahead of the destination to what this all meant—him and I walking together. Was it a date? The only two boyfriends I’d had started out like this. Maybe not the walking in tunnels, but the nonchalant quality was there.

  And neither relationship had lasted more than a month.

  What a great sign.

  “So, where are you taking us?” I said when the light in the tunnel began to dim significantly.

  “A mission Denisov gave me earlier today. After what happened, she said you might want to join—thought it might break your talent loose without any interruption.” Josh squinted ahead into the semi-darkness.

  My shoulders drooped slightly before I put on a smile. “That’d be nice.” Ok, so maybe it wasn’t a date, but at least I could get something useful out of it. At least Denisov believed in me, wanted me to push myself to finally see what everyone else already was, what Nate and Grandpa had seen without telling me.

  Josh nodded. “Denisov thinks we should do more than simply keep the balance between the Babylonians and ourselves. Sometimes, the balance needs a little adjusting.”

  Morales’ first conversation rang in my ears, her bloated notions of balance infuriating me even now. Grandpa’s murder could never balance out Kovac’s death. You don’t take a good man and measure him equal to a murderer. “So what are we adjusting tonight?”

  Josh grinned. “For the past few weeks, there have been pockets of dark essence appearing in Union Station at the same time every Thursday night.”

  I tilted my head. “How do you see the essence? Cameras can’t—”

  “Essence is like electricity, so with the right filter on a satellite, we can detect almost all essence.”

  My body tensed, and my feet skidded in the sludge at the bottom of the pipe. “Then you can see where the Babylonians are hiding, where they are right now.” My heart beat faster.

  Josh exhaled sourly. “They shield their buildings, even going so far as to make it look like there is human essence in there. We do the same thing,” he added. “But with actual humans and some demons it’s easier for us to see. They don’t know how to change the color of their essence.” His stormy blue eyes flitted over me as if he saw more there than I did.

  “Do you always see it? The essence?” I said, turning my shoulder away embarrassedly.

  “When I want to, I can turn it off. It took a good year for me to get that kind of control, but now that I have it, I find I don’t really need to. I like seeing both worlds at once.” He stopped looking around me and locked his eyes on mine.

  His gaze lingered until I looked away and started forward again. “So we’re going to walk all the way to Union Station in the sewer? Pretty romantic.”

  It was hard to tell in the dark, but I thought I saw him blush.

  My throat closed up almost instantly. Why did I have to say that?

  “There’s a way through to a track just ahead. We’ll take the train if your nose can handle it. Sometimes the sewer smells a bit better from what I’ve heard.”

  I laughed as a cool breeze and the rumble of an approaching train echoed off the walls.

  “Come on, our ride’s almost here.” Josh jogged ahead as the tunnel narrowed, a small slit in the wall to the left barely wide enough for us to turn sideways and shimmy through.

  Josh went first, reached b
ack his hand, and guided me through. The gesture was nice even if I didn’t need the help. Once his muscular chest got through, I knew I’d be fine.

  The station was nearly empty when we stepped up on the platform, and the train was idling, waiting to make the journey back from whence it came. The doors closed just as we got aboard.

  Josh grinned, and I looked back out the window at the narrow passage we’d come through. It couldn’t be seen unless you knew where to look, but it still left me curious. “How do people or even Babylonians not just walk into the school through that passage?”

  Josh pointed at the quickly disappearing patch of wall above the slit. “See it? That’s just like the one in the church you brought me into after you knocked me out.”

  The memory made my shoulders cringe. I looked out at the smudge of brown over the passage before it disappeared as we sped away. Blood over the threshold might have worked for the Israelites, but it hadn’t worked for Grandpa and our house. Kovac had crashed through there like it was a box of matches.

  I sat back, and my shoulder brushed against Josh’s.

  He didn’t move away.

  My heartbeat picked up again, my cheeks flushing even as a voice inside told me to let thoughts of boyfriends and warm fuzzies drift away. I had more important things to think about right now.

  I settled my head back against the glass window above our plastic seats. “So is this mission why you’re skipping Finkelstein’s classes all the time now?” I arched an eyebrow.

  Josh leaned back too, his chin level with the top of my head. “I’m pretty good with history.” He winked. “We should be out here anyway, protecting humans, learning by doing. I’m no good in a classroom.”

  “Ah, the truth comes out. His fatal flaw.” I grinned, his arm still pressing against mine. I didn’t pull away.

  He shrugged, the right side of his mouth turned up in a smirk. “Let’s hope it’s not as deadly as it seems.”

  The train trundled on for a few more minutes before screeching to a steel-on-steel stop and opening its doors. A gray ceiling and a strip of yellow bumps on the floor greeted us onto the platform, florescent lights hanging overhead. I turned and saw massive steel I-beams cantilevered over the train like a shallow awning with more lights underneath.

  Josh found a map in a glass display case and traced our way back to HQ. “Next train’s in fifteen minutes or so. Come on.” He waved for me to follow.

  “What line does the dark essence show up on?” I looked around like something might pounce at me.

  “This one, but we need to charge up first.” He called back, his arms pumping as he went up the stairs two-at-a-time.

  “What?” I whipped my head around, not realizing where he’d gone until he was halfway up.

  He stepped through the metal turnstile to exit and headed straight for the ticket machine. “Here.” He handed me a twenty. “Load up the card and follow me.”

  My eyes narrowed with the lack of information. He just grinned, his square jaw jutting out.

  “I’ll tell you, but it’ll ruin the surprise,” he said when my expression didn’t change, his hands balancing scales in front of him.

  I huffed and snatched the twenty. “Only because, generally, I like surprises.” I wagged my finger at him, failing to keep a giggle from escaping at the end.

  We loaded up two metro cards, and Josh led us back to the platform we’d just exited. He positioned himself off to the side of one of the turnstiles and motioned for me to do the same on the other, like we were greeters welcoming people onto the subway.

  “Swipe the card before they can.” Josh smiled as a plump woman with a teal handbag scowled at us as she neared, her card in hand like a knife she’d stab into our throats.

  “It’s on me,” Josh said and swiped his card.

  The machine beeped, and she looked at him suspiciously before scooting through the rotating bars sideways, her bosom and multiple chins pressed forward defiantly.

  I laughed into my hand when she was out of sight. Josh closed his eyes and inhaled calmly. “Trust me.” He opened one eye and peeked at me. “It feels good.”

  I scoffed and rolled my eyes but didn’t have to wait long for my first customer. A young guy with silver piercings through his nose, lips, and ears lumbered toward me, his black leather vest stiff against his thin body. His head was down with ear buds blasting through his eardrums. I smiled and swiped my card before he could.

  He looked up at me, startled at first, then flashed me a peace sign and went through.

  The effect was instant and warm, starting in my stomach and radiating outward to the tips of my fingers.

  “Feels good, huh?”

  I kept my eyes closed, breathed in, and nodded. It was like a slow rush of adrenalized happiness.

  Josh laughed when I peeked one eye open at him. The right side of his mouth was pinched in that endearing smirk of his.

  I smiled and swiped my card again and again as a group of fifteen disconnected strangers came through. Shouts of praise and thanks and simple blank stares were the beginning of my reward. Before long, I started to get glimmers of essence like I’d seen in the arena, though not as bright. Reds and blues and yellows and grays swirled through the air as their owners whipped past. Everyone had a different soft glow. Josh’s was a bright red sunset.

  “Don’t forget yourself. Stealing will just diminish it.” Josh swiped his card and let himself through.

  I looked down at the last amount that flashed through the card reader. I still had enough for one more person plus myself.

  A man in a dark blue suit strutted toward me, his dark hair slicked back, white teeth gleaming. I blinked a couple of times, thinking my eyes were faltering again, but the closer he got the more I knew they weren’t.

  The light in his chest and behind his eyes burned dark, grayish black. My hand swiped the card automatically, and he let his fingers skim over mine with a whispered, “Thanks.”

  I shuddered and followed him through with a final swipe. My gaze pressed into his back as my mind tensed every muscle at once for what black essence could mean. Was this a demon? A Babylonian?

  “What is that?” I whispered to Josh when I reached him, still on the stairs just above the train platform.

  Josh looked down and instantly shook his head. “Not a demon, if that’s what you’re thinking. Or a Babylonian. Not enough essence in there to be Graced, and not dark enough.” He added, his usual charm and calm demeanor vacating his eyes for wrath to take hold. “He’s human, and he chose to make his soul like that. That’s all him.”

  My eyes followed the blue suit all the way to the other end of the platform. A draft of hot, foul-smelling air hit my face as a train screeched to a windy halt below on the left side. Most of the people on the platform got on.

  “What makes a person like that?”

  “Sin,” Josh said. “That fella’s into some bad stuff.”

  My fists tensed and then relaxed. “Can he come back from it?” I asked as the man texted feverishly, his head down, brief case pinched under his arm, every bit of his physical form completely normal. Some kind of lawyer or businessman. I wouldn’t have given him a second look usually.

  “Hope springs eternal.” Josh smiled reluctantly.

  “Alexander Pope.” I arched my eyebrows. “Comic books aren’t your only reading material, I see.”

  “With lines like that, how can you resist?” He smiled, his eyes not as full of joy as they had been before.

  The train doors below started to close, and Mr. Suit stepped on at the last second. A shiver ran up my spine as my imagination played a series of horrible events that could have made his essence so dark.

  The last car of the train disappeared in the next instant, and Josh stuck out his arm for me cordially. “Want to go?”

  I hesitated for a split second, and then looped my arm through his, every nerve turned up a level so that I felt every bit of his skin on mine. “Kind of old fashioned of you.”

>   “Says the girl who says ‘Peachy’ every chance she gets.”

  I blushed. Grandpa had said it was my mom’s phrase of choice, too.

  “I like it.” He smiled and stared into my eyes until my stomach did a back flip. “Want to sit down and watch for demonic activity?”

  I laughed and started down the steps. “See, now I’m never going to think of ‘people watching’ the same way again. When Patrons do it, it’s more like x-raying.” I looked down at the soft blue flame that enveloped my whole body, purring up and down my arms softly. The intensity wasn’t the same as it had been in the arena, and I could only see essence from people instead of everything, like I imagined Josh could. Still, after a lifetime of not seeing what was so plainly in front of me, it was enough.

  I looked to the side at Josh. His essence was more of a Red Delicious now, floating through him like he was made of light instead of skin and bone. None of the others around us looked like him or me—their essence hovered around their solid torsos like hazy starburst patterns of yellow or pink or blue or gray. Lots of gray.

  Josh put his hand on my shoulder. I blinked and looked up—his stone cut jaw rigid, blue eyes staring straight ahead.

  I followed his gaze, the essence fading from my vision as my pulse slowed. A man in a white dress shirt caught my eye, his chest oscillating between too bright and too dark.

  He looked back at us, straight at us, and smiled. He scraped his bare feet across the gray tile and lifted his hands slightly. He tilted his head back like he was singing in some silent musical, his fingertips flitting across people’s shirts and pant lines without them even noticing.

  The effect was immediate. Their faces crunched into disgusted, angry scowls. They glared at the others around them, and their own essence dimmed.

  Five seconds later, they started yelling. Ten people’s angry voices erupted and echoed off the concrete walls until every eye in the station was on them. They were inches away from each other, mouths spitting accusations and threats, eyes bulging, arms flexing. Any moment, it would turn into a riot.