The Tree

  “We’re not just talking to white people,” Luka said, exasperated.

  “I know, but they’re the ones whose reactions I’m worried about. There will be some who will be okay and there will be those who will be terrible and both sides are going to be scared. Fear tends to bring out our prejudices faster than any other emotion.”

  Luka was silent. She could refute none of what Dayida was saying.

  “Still, we have a duty,” Luka said.

  Dayida raised an eyebrow at the other woman.

  “We do. I to my oaths and you to your son. We have made our promises and we must stand by them,” Luka continued. “If we allow the information to continue to trickle out we will have no control over how it looks.”

  Dayida nodded. “But what about protection? Whoever shows their power is going to be in danger.”

  ‘That’s why we’ll involve no one else but the two of us. It will be easy enough to protect the two of us.”

  Dayida scoffed. “No, it won’t be. After this? Anyone we associate with will be assumed to be Blooded as well. They will be stalked and badgered and hunted. No one the least bit different will be safe.”

  “How do you know this?” Luka asked.

  “History,” Dayida answered.

  Luka did not doubt that Dayida meant her own personal history as well as the history of the world. “Still, it is better that people be aware and prepared.”

  “What’s to stop them from turning on us? They’ve done it before.”

  Luka lowered her head and conceded the point. “Nothing. My hope is that people will focus their fear and anger on the Angelics and darkness. And once that battle is over they will see us for the allies we can be.”

  “You are a fool.” It was said with equal parts exasperation and fondness. “But you are determined, and perhaps you’ll be right in the end.”

  “No matter what, it is better than it coming out by accident, and you know it will eventually,” Luka countered.

  “Yes. I am already stressed. This is simply another worry.” Dayida said it quietly.

  “I know,” Luka replied. All attempts to contact Zebub had gone unanswered, and the status of their people was unknown. It was horrible for all of them, but she could not imagine how Dayida was holding it together. She rarely showed any sign that one of those missing and in danger was her own son.

  Luka knew that Dayida had been regularly contacting any Blooded, Suits, or Independents that she could who had any talent connected with seeing or divining. None would speak about what happened in the meetings, but seeing how tense Dayida always was afterwards. It did not take a genius to figure out she was getting no news.

  Luka left her new friend to go back to her notebook. She made notes on planning the press conference. She would run everything past Dayida once she had it sketched out, but wanted to give the woman what little quiet she could.

  HU

  Hu walked into the building cautiously. He could still get out of this by turning into a rat and slinking away. Yes, it would mean fighting through the real rats that called this place home but he had done that and worse before. Here and now, though, Hu had backup, and it was better to face these things with others.

  Hu was a lot of things but he had never chosen another world over his own. Hu did not feel guilty for his choices. He had made the decision he thought best at the time, and what good would regret do? He was already suffering the repercussions from those choices. This was his atonement, as far as he was concerned. There was no need for self-flagellation.

  Hu cautiously climbed the stairs to the room he still had paid up until the end of the week.

  He had not enjoyed his sit-down interrogation after turning himself in—especially since Hettie Jayl had kept looking at him like she wanted any excuse to smear him across the floor like a bug. Hu didn’t have much to give them except the truth; he thought they had been working to save the world, not dooming it.

  They had all looked at him like he was an idiot, but it was much easier to identify lies in hindsight. When someone you’ve known forever says there is danger, you believe them. When someone you trust says you are helping, you believe it.

  Hu opened the door to the small room he had been staying in, and looked inside. It was clear, and had only one place to hide: the closet. Hu slowly approached the closet next to the window. Before he could cautiously push the closet door open, he heard the thump of heavy feet behind him in the hallway. Hu dove for the window even as his body shrunk in on itself. It was a near thing, but by the time he went through the glass, he was small enough to fit through the frame. He landed among the shards of glass; small, gray, and light. Hu could feel the cuts, but it was better than whatever the things behind him were planning.

  This time, instead of going down, he went up, his tiny-yet-sure feet taking him up the stairs at a quick pace. He leapt onto the roof, already changing back to human. He turned and saw the same two attackers from before right behind him. They spread apart to split his focus. He glanced back and forth between the man and woman. Both looked human, except for the snarls across their too-wide mouths and the deadness of their eyes.

  Blooded Haru jumped one of the creatures from behind. She came down on the one wearing the body of the man, and pinned him to the floor. He roared and bucked beneath her but she managed to put him into a hold. Haru’s bloodline was Xochipilli, the Aztec God of Games, and any games or athletics she engaged in she won, including wrestling.

  Unfortunately, it looked like she could hold it down but could not get enough leverage to knock it out. Still, neither could it gain an advantage long enough to hurt Haru in any way. Before Hu could decide if he should help, the other one came for him. Hu pulled his power into his body. The brown fur itched as it pushed its way through his skin. His new body reared up to its full height and swiped at the Maasu with a claw. The thing fell back with a hiss but then lunged for him. Hu’s brown bear body was not fast, and he caught the blow in the stomach. It forced him back several feet and knocked all of the air from his lungs.

  Hu went with the force of it, flipping over and changing, rising as a gorilla. He reached out with one of his large fists and slammed it into the face the Maasu, who looked like an Olsen twin but punched like a freight train. She went down but was on her feet a moment later. He tried the same tactic again, but she ducked under the arm and came up on its other side, locking his arm in a hold and pulling him off balance. He struck out with his other fist and screamed as the thing sunk its teeth into his arm.

  Suit Longworth came out of nowhere with something in his hand that looked like aged and blackened metal. He ran up behind the Maasu that Hu was holding off and touched the black metal to its body. The Maasu’s stolen eyes rolled up in its head and it slumped the ground, wisps of smoke coming from its ears.

  Hu shifted back to human, clamping his hand over the bite mark in his other limb, which was still bleeding freely. “What is that?” He asked, gesturing to the metal in Longworth’s hand.

  “A tool created to incapacitate Angelics except we were never able to give it a large enough power source to knock them out. So we use it mostly as a mythical taser. But Reina here . . .” Suit Longworth gestured to his back, where Reina clung, her eyes shining pure liquid gold. “. . . reminded me that she can amp up any electrical charge without overloading the containment unit, as long as she’s in contact.”

  “One of my many useful skills,” Reina said with a smirk.

  Haru still struggled with the other Maasu, flipping over and over as she tried to knock him out. Longworth put a stop to it by touching the device to the Maasu the next time it flipped her over.

  Haru crawled from beneath its smoking body.

  “Hey, how did you know that wouldn’t go through his body and fry me too?” She asked indignantly.

  “Didn’t,” Longworth said with a shrug.

  Haru’s mouth dropped open and then snapped closed. They could see her gearing up for a tirade.

  “Calm down, H
aru. I told him I could protect you from the current,” Reina said with a light laugh as she finally dropped from Longworth’s back.

  Haru looked at them suspiciously for a moment before she started to smile.

  Hu watched them. He had been naive and made bad choices, but even he was not dense enough to ignore this. The way the Agent, Suit, and Independent joked and laughed with one another: this was the future they needed if they were to survive what was to come.

  HETTIE

  The room looked more like the press conferences she’d seen in films than she expected. The seats were packed and those armed with cameras crowded the aisles. An empty table sat in front with chairs and microphones. Hettie watched from the back of the room, dressed in a simple pantsuit, with her long dreads covered in a black head wrap. She blended into the crowd and watched. While she had not been agreeable to this decision initially, but Luka had good points and they truly could contain this no longer. Better to take control of the flow of information while they could. Dayida, Luka, and the Mayor finally walked out from a small door in the back of the room.

  Dayida wore a bright yellow suit that made her brown skin and dark afro glow. She was followed by the Mayor in a plain black suit and finally Luka in a black and white houndstooth dress, her hair pulled back and white tennis shoes on her feet. The Mayor brought everyone to attention as they sat down behind the microphones.

  “We have called you here for a press conference of enormous importance. As you know, the President has declared a state of emergency in Manhattan, but the answers that are forthcoming about what is actually happening on the island have been less than satisfying. I firmly believe the public has a right to know what is happening, and even more than that, a right to defend themselves.”

  Dayida and Luka looked at the Mayor as he gestured to each of them.

  “The ladies accompanying me, Ms. Luka and Ms. Jayl, explained to me what is happening, and will now do the same for you. Ms Luka?”

  Luka looked out into the crowd with a small smile. “In the beginning giants walked the earth—” She went through the gist, continuing until the murmuring and protests became loud enough to drown her out. She stopped talking and stood, slowly allowing her body to become light. The room went silent, and Luka returned to flesh and her seat to finish the story.

  Hettie wished she had been allowed to help with this. Already she could feel the way the energy in the room was shifting. It had nothing to do with power and everything to do with being human. Hettie had suggested they bring in charmers to help keep the crowd calm. Dayida had seemed interested but Luka had nixed the whole idea. She didn’t think manipulating those they sought to save was a good first step. Hettie could see her point, but she also knew better than to trust crowd mentality.

  When Luka finished, the room was silent for a moment before it exploded into questions.

  “Joseph Rapid, Buzzfeels. How long have you known about this, Mayor Li?”

  The Mayor leaned forward. “Only the last couple of weeks. Ms. Luka came to me and revealed the danger that the people of The City were in. We began to work together to save lives.”

  “But you didn’t tell the public immediately?” The man continued.

  “I had hoped that the federal government would do the right thing and come clean, but the recent administration change has altered their policy of sharing information.”

  A young black man leapt from his seat.

  “Hakeem Young, Express. Are you saying the federal government is aware of this?”

  “Yes. In fact, Ms. Jayl is technically in the government’s employ.”

  Hettie saw the way Dayida’s jaw clenched as she looked at the Mayor and leaned forward.

  “Yes, I am temporarily helping to run a government office in San Francisco that is part of an agency—”

  A man came to his feet and interrupted her. “Yakov Milo, BartBart. What makes you think you have the right to say anything if the President has chosen not to?”

  Dayida leaned back and stared at the man. The silence was only broken when Mayor Li answered the question.

  “Obviously no one wants to challenge the President’s authority, but neither should we leave the citizens of this nation ignorant and in danger.”

  “Miranda Kang, San Francisco Chronicle. What are your intentions once this menace has passed?”

  “Only to live our lives as we have been this whole time,” Luka answered softly, which Hettie noted was a good technique. A lot of the people looked less nervous now.

  “Surely you don’t expect us to believe that you don’t have any motives beyond that?” A man shouted from the back.

  Dayida’s response was soft—not sensitive like Luka’s, but rather quiet in warning. “Why?”

  The man stared before responding slowly. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, why is that so hard to believe? Because if you had the power you would try to rule?”

  The man went red and Dayida smiled as he sat down. Another man shot to his feet. Hettie recognized him as an art critic with whom Dayida had gotten into a screaming match. Erik had relayed the story over a year ago. Hettie had looked him up and never forgotten.

  “Ms. Jayl. You are a noted artist. Does your art have anything to do with your power?”

  Dayida’s gaze was fierce.

  “No, I have only recently come into my power.”

  He didn’t seem to be listening. “For years, critics have been in awe of your control and color choice. This would explain it.”

  Hettie was in awe of the pettiness before her. This man had just gotten information that changed his whole world, and yet he was taking the time to try and drag down her daughter. The look in Dayida’s face was nothing but contempt.

  “Or perhaps it could be explained by talent? Perhaps I am someone who has worked at their craft for years? I very much doubt you would say any of it to a male artist, no matter what the circumstances.” Her voice rose through the speech, and at the last word, metal bubbled out of her shoulders and slicked down her arms, so supple it looked like shoulder-length silver gloves. Dayida looked down in surprise and quickly pulled the metal back into her body.

  The man sat down quickly and the room was silent.

  The Mayor looked nervous at the display of power. “Unfortunately, we must end this press conference. There is still much work to do, but we wanted to provide the following numbers and websites for the public who wants more information: www.blooded.net can be visited for stories about the Blooded and their history. For emergency help please call 1-888-999-0099. Any official information requests should go through either my office, Ms. Luka’s office at 415-555-6787, or Mrs. Jayl’s office at 415-555-0982.”

  They all walked offstage quickly to more and more questions being shouted at them. Hettie saw the men in innocuous black suits slinking out. Government. She could also feel the fear in the room and wondered when it would break free into violence.

  MELINDA

  Melinda never truly slept anymore.

  Her body did, but Melinda didn’t. Patrah said dreamers needed to sleep more than other people; that the time they spent walking in dreams wasn’t real rest. Another thing that made Melinda different. So she didn’t tell Patrah that she didn’t need rest. It would make Patrah give her that look again. The one that started confused before she looked away and then only looked at Melinda out of the corner of her eye.

  So as soon as she lay down to sleep the night of the press conference her dreamself rose from her body. She skimmed over her moms’ dreams. Melinda didn’t look in—that would be an invasion of privacy—but she felt them out. She smiled. Her moms were dreaming about each other.

  Melinda stepped directly from her moms’ room into the dreaming. This was another thing that she didn’t tell Patrah. The woman talked about jumping into people’s dreams and moving from dream to dream, but she’d said nothing about stepping into the dreaming itself; the space around dreams.

  Melinda didn’t know if that was becau
se Patrah didn’t know how to do, it or because she didn’t think Melinda could do it yet.

  The dreaming was always around, but it grew and shrunk around her. It shifted locations as people fell in and out of sleep. The holes in the world were ever-shifting, but Melinda did not stumble as she walked. She knelt at one point and placed her hand on the continuously shifting ground. The land was agitated tonight. People were fitful and scared, drifting in and out of sleep and nightmares. She felt it.

  “You’re very good.”

  Melinda turned around fast. Five beings were gathered watching her, where no one had been moments before. One was shrouded from head to toe in loose black. The only hint Melinda had of details was the wisps of white hair that emerged from the hood. Next to them was a young black woman. Her hair hung beaded down her back and the dress she wore was a simple white with beautiful scenes embroidered in silver at the hem, neck, and sleeves. She smiled widely at Melinda, and Melinda could not stop herself from smiling in response. The man next to her looked scary; his amber skin was studded with a lot of scars and she could see so many because all he wore was a piece of red cloth around his hips and the skull of some dead animal over his face. The person next to them was taller than the rest and entirely to thin, like they were only skin stretched over boe. Black hair covered the top half of their face, their most striking feature was the thick red lips that were quirked into a half-smile. They were wrapped in a white funerary shroud. The final figure was smaller than all the rest, Melinda’s size but a fully-grown adult. her skin was clear purple gemstone and the angles of her body looked sharp enough to cut.

  “I was not that good when I was still new to my power,” the black woman said. No one else spoke, but the person in white continued to smile their red, red smile.

  “Who are all of you?” Melinda asked, watching them. She was not afraid. They could not get to her before she woke herself up. She knew she was too quick for them, but watched warily. She had never spoken to any in the dreaming itself except Patrah.