We’d come through the last leg of our journey just as easily as we’d begun it, and while Lacey seemed to be pleased with this fact, I couldn’t help but feel a little unsettled. Travel never went smoothly… ever. Even the shortest journeys I’d taken always come with a few hiccups. But not this one; and considering just how much could have gone horrifyingly wrong, I was stunned at how simple everything had been. I was definitely uncomfortable with that.
The train was due to arrive any minute, and a cold sweat rippled over my body. Something was definitely not right. Santiago was just shy of thirty minutes away by train, and there was still plenty of time for things to go straight to hell. The platform was beginning to fill with tourists and other travelers, and I scanned the crowd carefully. I didn’t know what I was looking for, but I knew that I would know exactly what it was as soon as I saw it.
Couples, families, a group of nuns in their painstakingly starched finery… none of them caught my eye, although one of the nuns looked at me strangely, pausing for a moment before clutching her rosary beads and moving on to catch up with her sisters.
I smiled briefly. The pull of my magic affected some people a little differently that others. Most people didn’t notice, but a few did. Sometimes it was just because they were sensitive to Hecate’s call, or they’d had a brush with magic at some point in their past… maybe even a past life. Old wounds could resonate through centuries of rebirth if they were deep enough.
There. I felt it, a tiny electric shock that ran up the side of my leg. I looked around wildly, trying to find that sensation again. The scent of ash and smoke his my nose… It was faint, but it was there.
The train whooshed into the station, blowing my hair across my face and obscuring my view. I pushed it aside and let out a frustrated breath. Lacey jostled against me as she stood up with her bags. At least she was eager to get moving. Maia was still lying on the bench, groaning quietly with her eyes closed.
“Come on, Maia! We’re almost there! I’m so excited. I want to go for a walk, maybe get something to eat…”
I gave Lacey a sharp look. “What?” she asked innocently. “Aren’t’ you hungry?”
I was hungry, but I wasn’t about to let her joke about eating when I knew damn well what she’d be looking for to curb her own hunger. I scanned the crowded platform again as they moved towards the train. The feeling of the electric spark was gone; the smell was gone, replaced by aromas of espresso, tired travelers and the sunbaked streets of the city.
Maybe I’d imagined it.
I pulled Maia to her feet and we stood in line for the train. As our tickets were checked and we were ushered on board and set loose to find our seats, someone crashed into me. A tall teenager with an even taller backpack, and his eager faced friends apologized quickly before pushing ahead, but I was rattled. The feeling of unease that had settled onto my shoulders when we’d touched down in A Coruña wasn’t helping, and neither was that whiff of smoke I’d smelled earlier.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Maia stiffen, and I followed her gaze to a group of young men who were arguing over a set of seats at the front of the car with the teenager who had bumped into me earlier. The argument was getting heated, and suddenly, one of the group reached out and grabbed one of the young men by the strap of his backpack and jerking him to his feet.
As the younger man yelped in surprise and his friends jumped to their feet, I noticed that the sleeve of the man holding him had been pushed up to reveal something I didn’t expect to see. A tattoo.
I heard Maia’s breath hiss through her teeth as she recognized it. A blacksmith’s hammer. Dark and thick.
Malleus.
“We have to go, we have to go now,” I said sharply. Lacey hadn’t seen any of it, she was busy trying to get herself comfortable in her seat.
“But, Fee, we just sat down!”
“We’re not staying here, get up now.” I didn’t have time for this shit. I pulled my bag over my shoulder and pushed Maia ahead of me. “Into the next car, go!” Maia nodded. She was trying to be brave, but I could see a glimmer of fear in her eyes. “We’ll be fine. I promise.”
I really needed to stop making promises I wasn’t sure that I could keep. Old habits die hard.
“Lacey!”
“I’m comingggg,” she whined, pulling her suitcases behind her through the aisle. I took the bigger one and took off through the crowd of people still trying to find their seats. I pushed my way through, seeing that Maia was already in the second car. It was still too crowded for my liking, and thankfully, she kept going.
The third and fourth cars were more sparsely populated, but Maia was on a mission to find the last car. I looked over my shoulder to see Lacey trapped between passengers as she struggled to pull her bag through.
Maia was two cars ahead of me, and I couldn’t see her bright red hair through the crowd of passengers anymore. Panic began to knot itself in my stomach. If the Malleus were on board, they would know where to find Maia. I couldn’t leave her alone. Not while danger was so close. If I could get to her, I could cast a glamour, something to hide us until the train arrived in Santiago and we could escape our seats and get into the city.
I ran ahead, thinking that I would catch up to Maia, and then come back for Lacey. Maia was perched on the edge of a seat in the last car, which was empty save for the two of us. It was a late night train with fewer passengers, which was precisely why I had booked it.
Maia’s eyes were wide and scared, and I wondered if she was able to smell the Malleus like I was. The air was clear back here, but I knew that the farther forward I went in the train, the stronger the acrid tang of smoke would get.
“Where’s Lacey?” Maia asked breathlessly, and then she began to cough. A wracking, raw cough that I knew very well.
Shit.
“Ophelia!”
I turned to see Lacey, running down the aisle towards me, pulling her suitcase behind her. She just couldn’t let go of that damn thing.
But she wasn’t alone, behind her were two men dressed in black striding quickly up the center aisle of the train. As Lacey pulled open the door to our car, a heavy hand landed on her shoulder.
“Lacey!” I shouted, lurching out of my seat towards her, but my legs were tangled in the bags, and I fell heavily to the carpeted floor. Maia coughed and spluttered, overwhelmed by the Malleus’ presence and I couldn’t do anything to help her.
I scrambled to my feet as Lacey whirled to face her attacker, and then the lights on the train went out and the car was plunged into blackness.
Chapter 17 ~ Maia
I couldn’t breathe. There was smoke all around me, but I couldn’t see anything. No grey tendrils, no black clouds, but it was there. It was definitely fucking there. It stung my eyes and clung to my lungs and I couldn’t stop coughing, couldn’t stop choking. The air was hot and sour and thick and my eyes were streaming.
Lacey’s voice shouted for Ophelia, and I struggled to get control of myself, but I couldn’t. Everything was blurry, and all I wanted to do was breathe. And then everything went black.
I gasped in a huge breath of air, coughing as it hit my lungs unfettered by the smoke that had filled the air only a moment ago.
I blinked wildly, trying to get my eyes to adjust to the darkness faster. I could hear muffled screams and cries of laughter from the passengers in the other cars, but the rattle of the train over the tracks filled my ears and echoed all around me. Suddenly, I heard a thud, and something shuddered through the car.
A purple flash illuminated the car for a moment as Ophelia’s power surged into her hands. My mouth fell open as the purple light played over her features. Her eyes were dead black, and dark water streamed from her mouth, dripping down her chest and onto the carpeted floor of the train. Her wet hair hung lank against her face, clinging to her neck and cheekbones.
What the fuck was going on?
I rubbed at my eyes as the train lurched again and Ophelia was back, looking the way she al
ways did, her face turned to where Lacey had been in the doorway of the train car. Ophelia edged forward, her hands held out in front of her, energy crackling at her fingertips, ready to lash out at whatever was hidden in the dark.
There was another crash, and the sickening crunch of breaking bone and tissue. “Lacey!” Ophelia called out, her power surging in her palms, lighting the car more brightly in their lavender glow.
Where there had been three figures in the doorway before the train had plunged into the tunnel, there were three huddled shapes on the floor. “Lacey?” Opehila’s voice was desperate.
There was another crunch and I heard Ophelia gasp as she stepped back just a little. The train rushed out of the tunnel and the lights flickered back to life, revealing Lacey pushing herself to her feet, bracing herself on the bodies of the Malleus that had tried to grab her. My mouth fell open as I saw that her face and chest were covered in dark blood.
Ophelia rushed over to help her friend, the purple glow fading from her hands as she reached down. “Are you hurt, what the fuck happened?”
Lacey looked down at her chest, wiping at the blood that stained the front of her dress. She frowned delicately and looked at the bodies on the floor. Their blood was beginning to soak into the carpet and she wrinkled her nose at them before looking up at Ophelia.
“Oops.”
“Oops?” Ophelia cried. “Oops! Nothing about this is an ‘oops,’ Lacey! What the fuck are we going to do with this mess? We’ll be at the station in a few minutes, and we have to get the fuck out of here!”
Hold the fuck on.
“What the high holy fuck just happened here???” I shouted. Lacey was covered in blood, there were two dead bodies in the train car with us, and no one was addressing the fact that Lacey had done this all on her own with no weapons and no magic and no help.
Lacey’s eyes widened as she looked over at me and then back to Ophelia. “You didn’t tell her?”
“Tell me what?” I shouted again. I couldn’t seem to control the volume of my voice anymore. Everything was shit. Everything was scary. The pale blue carpet was turning dark indigo where the blood was soaking into it and I couldn’t breathe, and everything was closing in and oh, god we were in the train station.
“I’m sorry, Maia. I’ll explain everything later,” Ophelia said in a rush, as she strode towards me quickly, her hand raised and her fingers glowing with magic.
“Noooo fuc—“ I didn’t even get the sentence out of my mouth before a wave of magic hit me. My mouth dried up and my vision blurred and Ophelia tucked her shoulder under my arm and lifted me out of my seat. I couldn’t move or say anything, but I could see and hear everything that was going on. It was the most infuriating thing in the world not to be able to react to what was being said and not have any of the million questions crashing around in my head answered, and worst of all, I couldn’t run the fuck away. All I wanted to do was run the fuck away.
Lacey tugged the bodies away from the door and shoved them into two seats at the back of the car, arranging them as though they were sleeping against one another. It was almost convincing, and the black clothing they wore hid the worst of their wounds. Lacey pushed against one of them, and his head lolled back, revealing the gaping wound in his throat before she tugged his turtleneck over it and patted his forehead gently.
I couldn’t scream. I couldn’t rage. I couldn’t throw up. I couldn’t do anything but watch helplessly as Ophelia cast a glamour over the bloodstains soaking into the carpeted floor and slung my duffel bag over her shoulder. Lacey changed out of her dress and cleaned the blood from her face and neck as though she’d done it a million times.
With a bright smile on her face, she led the way off the train. Ophelia slung her arm around my waist and dragged me along. Anyone who saw us would assume that I was drunk or asleep, or a charming blend of the two. They didn’t know how fucking angry I was. Or how fast I was going to run right the fuck away from these two nutcases the minute Ophelia let me loose.
They’d propped me up on one of the hotel room’s double beds, and I was surrounded with pillows and suitcases to keep me upright. This was bullshit.
“Maia,” Ophelia’s voice was calm and soothing. But I was anything but calm or soothed. “I’m going to lift this binding spell, and you have to promise me that you’re not going to freak out. We’re going to explain everything.”
“How do you know she’s promised not to freak out? Can she blink or something?” Lacey asked. “Maia! Blink twice if you’re not going to yell or throw things!” she shouted at me before Ophelia pushed her back into a chair.
“She can hear you just fine Lacey, stop being a spazz.” Ophelia pushed her hair away from her face and put her hands on her hips. “Maybe it’s better if I do all the explaining before I let you loose. That way I can get it all out and you can decide if you’re going to lose your mind or pass out or whatever the hell you want to do to deal with this.”
She shook her hands and took a deep breath.
“You asked me a little while ago if Lacey is different… like us. And I lied to you. Lacey is…” she paused, as though trying to figure out how to say what she had to say. If I could have rolled my eyes, I would have.
“Just say it, Fee!” Lacey blurted out. “Fine, I’ll say it. I’m a Laudan. A vampire. I can’t go out during the daytime, I can’t get tattoos, and I can’t go to Florida anymore…” she pouted briefly, her face falling the same way it did every time she remembered that little fact. “But I’ve got some wicked amazing powers, I’m gonna live for a really long time, and I have a cool job, and Eli is teaching me all the stuff I have to know…”
Ophelia made a strangled noise and Lacey clapped a hand over her mouth. “Ohhh… shit. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
If I hadn’t been frozen, I would have fallen over.
Eli. Eli was one of them? A vampire? A… oh, holy fuck.
“Maia… I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, I’m sorry I lied to you,” Ophelia said quietly. “I’m going to lift the spell now, and I’m just gonna let you… do whatever you have to do…”
She lifted her hands and I felt a weight lifting off me, like a heavy blanket had been pulled back. Feeling rushed back into my arms and legs, and it felt like my whole body was full of pins and needles as my blood flow returned and I was finally able to move. I launched myself off the bed, throwing pillows and suitcases aside as I did. My boots hit the floor, and my legs gave out underneath me, pitching me headfirst onto the tiles.
Ophelia bent to help me, but I swatted her hands away and scrambled backwards across the floor, stopping when my back hit a wall that held the tiny refrigerator. I slid up the wall carefully, using it to steady myself as the numbness started to fade from my legs.
“You…” I said, pointing at Lacey. “You could have told me a million times in the last few days that you were… that you’re a… I can’t even say it! It’s too fucking stupid! I don’t believe it. I can’t! We hung out all the time, you never left the apartment! I mean, I didn’t think you did…” I couldn’t believe it. I wouldn’t.
Lacey just nodded. “I know, I think you’re really cool, Maia! I mean, I’ve always been a night owl, so this wasn’t such a big deal, y’know? And I’d never feed on you. I can’t, actually, Laudan’s can’t feed on Daughters. I mean, that’s what Eli told me, so it must be true. I’m the same person you met at the club, I’m just… a vampire.” Lacey’s purple hair was in braided pigtails, and her t-shirt bore glittery letters that said “Sparkle Baby,” how could she be a vampire? She was just like me… well, not just like me, but close enough.
“I thought we were friends,” I managed to stutter.
“We are friends! You’ve got some magic in your veins, and I’m just a little bit undead… nothing’s different, Maia.” Lacey said brightly, and then she smiled and I could see her teeth. They were sharp, like Eli’s, like the bouncer at Spiral. I gasped aloud, lurching against the wall.
“Everyon
e at the club… they’re all… they’re all…” I gestured wildly, unable to say the word. That stupid fucking word. Ophelia nodded.
“Not all of them, but the ones in charge of everything are. Eli, the band, the bouncers… they run the underground club scene in New York. They’ve got their fingers in everything.”
“The... the whole band?”
“Well, not the whole band, but by the time we get back Grady will have signed his contract—“
“Shut up, Lacey,” Ophelia hissed, and Lacey shut her mouth.
“I… I can’t deal with this right now… I feel like I’m going to throw up, or pass out. Or throw up and then pass out…”
The room started to spin, I needed some air, I needed to go outside; I needed to get away from them. Ophelia stepped towards me again, and I flung out my hand, anything to keep her away. There was a flash of blue light, and Ophelia stumbled back against the dresser that held the small television. Lacey jumped up to catch the TV before it fell, and they both stared at me with wide eyes.
“Maia…” Lacey said quietly, edging towards me.
“Stay away from me! Both of you!” I shouted and ran unsteadily for the bathroom, throwing myself inside and slamming the door shut tightly. I locked the door and leaned against it, my heart hammering in my chest as my throat tightened and my eyes itched. No. Don’t fucking cry.
I slammed my fist into the door.
“Maia?”
“Leave me the fuck alone!” I shouted into the doorjamb as I turned on the fan. The ancient metal ductwork above my head chugged to life and started to hum, drowning out the sounds of anyone in the hotel room. It sounded like a jet liner about to take off, which was exactly what I needed.
I looked in the mirror. It was cracked in three places and the silver was starting to wear away at the edges. It looked as shitty as I did.
My hair was dirty, my face was splotchy and I looked like I’d been traveling for weeks instead of just one day.
I planted my hands on the vanity and stared into my own eyes. Could I see the magic in them yet? Was it like the movies where my eyes would glow when I was about to use my powers? How fucking ridiculous.
Moonlight Burns: (Urban Fantasy) (Daughters of Hecate Book 2) Page 16