Ink Witch

by Lindsey Fairleigh

I sucked in a sharp breath and opened my eyes. Mari’s words from my dream of a memory of something that happened sixteen years ago echoed through my mind.

  . . . only when we want them to . . . only when we’re ready . . .

  Pushing myself up, I scooted to the edge of the bed, wiping the smear of drool from my cheek and chin with the back of my hand.

  “Dom,” I said, rushing across the room to the standing mirror. He wasn’t there, at least, not that I could see. “Dom!” I pressed both hands against the frame on either side of the mirror and moved my head from side to side, searching for him in the murky reflection of the room.

  “I am here,” he said, coming into view. He smoothed back his hair and studied my face. “What is it, little sister? Has something happened?”

  I shook my head. “Not exactly, but . . .” I thought back to the dream. “What if the shadow Senate wants the info about us to leak out? What if they want the humans to learn about us? What if they want war?” My thoughts sped up, spinning around my mind like race cars around a track, faster and faster. “What if they want to wipe humans off the face of the earth?”

  Dom’s sharp features pinched. “It would be suicide. Without a way to reproduce, eventually, our kind would die out as well. Besides, if that is their goal, why not simply release the information themselves?”

  I chewed on my thumbnail, seeking out a phantom hangnail. Nejerets’ natural regenerative abilities effectively rendered us a doomed species, since it locked the females of our kind in a constant state of infertility. Our bodies rejected any fertilized eggs almost as soon as they implanted in our uterine walls. Without human women, we would die out. It would take a while, since violent deaths were pretty much the only way to kill us, but in time, we would go extinct. Whatever the shadow Senate’s plans, they needed to keep some human women alive, specifically the ones who carried the latent recessive Nejeret genes.

  “Oh my God.” I lowered my hand, my mouth hanging open. “What if that’s the whole point of funding the research—to create some immortal humans, a select, chosen few women who are Nejeret carriers? Maybe they want to give them prolonged lives, then use them as premier breeding stock. They could commoditize the right to reproduce . . . control who has access to the women. They would have absolute control over the future of our people.”

  “A truly terrifying thought.”

  I heard the distant sound of the front door opening downstairs, followed by several pairs of footsteps entering the house.

  I looked at the bedroom door, then glanced at Dom. “They’re back. Are you ready for them?”

  He nodded.

  “Nik!” I shouted in the general direction of the door. “Can you bring everyone up here?”

  “On it,” he said, tapping the door with his knuckles as he passed by.

  I grabbed the throw off the back of the armchair and tossed it over the mirror. “Just for a sec,” I whispered to Dom. “I want to prepare them first.”

  Less than a minute later, Nik pushed the door to my bedroom open and let the others file in ahead of him, first Lex, then Heru, then Neffe and Aset. They looked like hell, eyes red-rimmed and puffy and shoulders slumped. Nik followed them in, crossing the room to sit in the armchair.

  “Nik tells us you have news,” Heru said, his voice weary. He sidestepped closer to Lex and curled an arm around her waist. She leaned her cheek on his shoulder, letting out a heavy sigh.

  “I know you all must think I failed, but I didn’t.” I took a step toward them, wringing my hands. “I found Mari . . . and she released Dom’s ba.”

  Lex’s head lifted, and her listless gaze wandered my way.

  “It was too late,” I said. “He was already—his body was already dead.” I took a deep breath. “But we managed to recapture his ba.”

  Aset looked at her son.

  Nik raised his hands in front of himself. “Not me,” he said, shaking his head. “This soul capture was all Kat’s doing.”

  All five sets of eyes fixed on me, curiosity muting the grief, just a little.

  “I, um, well . . .” I cleared my throat and took a couple small backward steps, moving closer to the covered mirror. “He’s not gone—not dead, exactly.” I reached out my right hand and pinched the fuzzy blanket. “He’s right here.” With one quick tug, the blanket slid off the mirror and fell to the floor.

  Dom, the only clear thing in the murky reflection, lifted one hand and waved.

  All four newcomers gasped. Neffe and Aset covered their mouths with their hands, and Lex took a couple steps forward, hand outstretched toward the mirror. Heru simply stood where he was and stared, golden eyes glassy.

  “It’s really him?” Lex asked, slowly moving closer.

  “It is,” I assured her.

  “Can I talk to him? Can he hear me?”

  I nodded. “He can hear you now, but you have to be touching the mirror to hear him.”

  She rushed forward, pressing her palm against the mirror. “Dom?”

  A gentle smiled curved his lips and he raised his hand, pressing it against the other side of the mirror’s surface. His lips moved, but lipreading was a skill I didn’t have.

  Lex rested her forehead against the mirror, shoulders shaking as soft sobs tumbled free.

  Not a moment later, Heru was behind her. He settled an arm around her shoulders, the other on the mirror beside hers. “Welcome back, my old friend.”

  28

  “So you can’t say for sure where the warehouse was?” Heru paced across my old room, from the hallway door to the wardrobe and back. He’d been at it for at least an hour now, mobility seeming to help him process the information Dom relayed through me.

  For the past hour or so, Dom had been explaining what had happened to him—how he’d been captured in a trap that resulted in the release of a knockout gas and what Ouroboros had done to him and the others while he was in their hands. Or rather, in their holding cells. According to Dom, the captive Nejerets were divided into two subject groups—those who were abused and brought to the brink of death, then allowed to regenerate, and those who’d had their bas extracted and then were abused and brought to the brink of death. Dom had been in the latter group.

  He wasn’t sure how the ba-extraction worked, science-wise, only that he’d been strapped down in a chair and that electricity had coursed through his body for what felt like an eternity. Once his soul was removed from his body, he had a brief moment of what felt like astral projection before he was encased in absolute darkness—the anti-At sphere closing in around him, we all assumed. His ba had been returned to his body several times during his several-week stay in the warehouse laboratory, allowing him to heal, but as a result, his moments of consciousness and lucidity were few and far between.

  “I could hear the roar of the freeway, the frequent rumble of a foghorn in the distance, and, on occasion, the sound of a large crowd cheering—those are the only identifying sounds I can recall,” Dom said, and I repeated his words to the others. Lex was sitting on the floor near me, Nik in the armchair in the corner, and Aset and Neffe on the foot of the bed. “Sounds like SoDo to me,” I added. Not only was the industrial area packed with warehouses and near I-5 and the water, but it was also the location of Seattle’s two professional sports stadiums—Safeco and Century Link Fields, where the Mariners and Seahawks played, respectively.

  Heru nodded. “I agree, but there are hundreds of warehouses there, and I highly doubt Ouroboros would be reckless enough to leave any kind of paper trail linking them to their illicit research branch. We need more information.”

  “Mari,” Dom said, voicing the option I was unwilling to suggest. “She was there each time my ba was extracted. If you can find her, I am certain you could convince her to tell you the exact location.”

  “We can’t trust her,” I told him. “She lied to me about knowing you were even there—said she didn’t know until I told her. She’s clearly got her own agenda. She’s fanatical about ‘saving our people.’ It’
s the most important thing in the world to her.”

  “Is it truly?” He stared at me with those dark eyes. “Is there not anything else you can think of that might be of paramount importance to her? Perhaps a person . . . ?”

  “Well, yeah—her mom, but . . .”

  “Might Mari’s priorities shift if she were to find out that her mother is just another test subject?”

  My eyes widened. “Are you saying Ouroboros has Mei? That they’re experimenting on her—torturing her?”

  Dom shrugged. “Truly, I do not know what they are doing with her, only that they have her. I watched them bring her in a few days ago during one of my recovery periods. They took her to a separate wing of holding cells.”

  “Mari’d never allow that,” I said.

  “Then she must not know.”

  I shook my head. “But that doesn’t make sense. Mei could just shift out of there.” It was her innate sheut gift, along with a number of others she’d attained proficiency in through years of rigorous dedication and training. She was old, centuries beyond me in understanding and developing her sheut. I was still figuring out how my own innate powers worked. But her . . . I couldn’t imagine anyone, especially not humans, figuring out a way to contain her.

  “My holding cell was surrounded by an electromagnetic field that would keep those like Mei and Heru from being able to locate us—Mari explained it to me herself. It seems logical to me that the same field used to keep Mei out could be used to keep her in.”

  “Oh, shit . . .”

  “Care to share?” Heru said, his tone bland. He’d finally stopped moving and was standing in the center of the room, staring at me.

  I returned his stare. “How long since anyone’s talked to Mei?”

  Heru looked at his sister, who immediately pulled out a sleek cell phone and started tapping the screen. “You believe Ouroboros has captured her?” he asked, returning his attention to me.

  I nodded. “Dom saw them bring her in.” I relayed what he’d said about the electromagnetic field, then added, “If we tell Mari, she’ll flip out.” I shifted my legs so I was kneeling instead of sitting on the floor. My heart rate picked up, and I rubbed slightly sweaty palms on my jeans. “She’ll abandon her ‘save our people’ crusade in a heartbeat and tear that place apart to get to Mei.” I licked my lips and inhaled deeply. “If we tell her about this, she’ll have no reason not to share the location.”

  Heru crossed his arms over his chest. “But what incentive will she have to help us? What’s to stop her from simply going in there and breaking Mei out, and leaving us sitting on our thumbs?”

  “Nothing.” In all likelihood, I thought that was exactly what she would do. “But, her going in and breaking out Mei brings down all of the barriers. She’ll disable all security measures in the process. And this is the only way I can see that she might tell us the location.” I stared at each of them for a moment, settling on Heru’s intense, golden eyes. “Back on that roof, she agreed to help Dom. She was going to come to the hospital and release his ba. She was going to help us save him.” I had to believe that part hadn’t been a lie. “She’s not a bad person. Misguided, maybe, but not bad.”

  Heru rubbed his jaw with one hand.

  “We can’t wait to come up with something better,” I persisted. “The shadow Senate will know that we know by now, thanks to our little show on the roof. Don’t you think they’ll try to cover their tracks by destroying all of the evidence—including the people?” I took a deep breath and barreled onward. “There are kids there, too, Heru. Children who didn’t do anything wrong besides being unlucky enough to be homeless. They don’t deserve this.” My fingers gripped my jeans. “Besides, what’s the worst that can happen? She leaves chaos in her wake? Ouroboros will send in extra security once they realize she’s broken Mei out. You own companies that have satellites, don’t you? If we have to, can’t we just use them to monitor the whole Industrial District? Their own people will lead us right to the warehouse where they’re holding ours.”

  Lex stood gracefully and approached her husband. She placed her hand on Heru’s arm and looked up into his face. “She’s right. You can see that, can’t you?”

  Heru’s stare shifted from Lex to the mirror. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dom nod once. “Alright,” Heru said. He looked at me. “Make the call.”

  I glanced at the scratched-up phone lying discarded on the floor. Her text from the previous day was the only place I had her number, and thanks to my dip in the sound, the phone would never turn on again. I bit my lower lip. Banging my head against the wall would be about as effective as this whole plan, because none of us had her damn phone number.

  “Here,” Nik said, fishing his phone from his pocket. He tossed it to me.

  I raised an eyebrow.

  “Her number’s in there,” he said, pointing to the phone in my hand with his chin. “She gave me her card . . . you know, because I ‘agreed’ to work with her.”

  A slow grin spread across my face. “Maybe I don’t quite hate you.”

  Nik snorted. “Don’t get soft on me now.” His lips twisted into a sly smirk. “I’ll blush.”

  I didn’t know how to respond to that, so I stuck out my tongue. What can I say? I’m forever eighteen, with all the hormones and maturity that come with that oh-so-special age.

  A slight tremor ran through my hands as I searched Nik’s contacts for Mari’s name. He had an enormous phone book, filled mostly with entries using distinctly female names. I ignored that little tidbit—for the most part—and found Mari’s name. I pulled up her contact profile, tapped the call button, and brought the phone up to my ear.

  She answered during the second ring. “Hello, Nikolas.”

  I responded without thinking. “His full name is Nekure, not Nikolas, numb-nuts.”

  “Kat?” From the way Mari said my name, she sounded wary.

  “The one and only.”

  “You sound . . . chipper.”

  I sneered. “You know, I feel chipper.”

  “Really?”

  “I just can’t help but feel all tingly inside when I know something you don’t know.”

  “Kat,” Heru’s voice held a warning, his eyes a dark promise.

  I held up a finger, silencing him. I knew Mari better than him; I knew just how to play her like a concert pianist.

  “And what might that be?” Mari asked over the phone.

  “How about we trade—I’ll tell you what I know, if you tell me where the warehouse containing your secret, evil lab is?”

  “It’s not my lab,” she said blandly.

  “Semantics,” I said. “How about this—I’ll go first. You don’t have to tell me the location right away. You don’t even have to tell me over the phone. You can text it to me, for all I care. But just remember one thing—you already owe me a debt for Dom’s death. Now you’ll be doubly indebted to me, and I’m not feeling too happy about you right now. The next time I see you, my sword might just slip out of my scabbard and accidentally pierce your heart. And trust me when I say I will see you again.”

  Mari was quiet for a few seconds. “Fine,” she said. “I’ll bite. Share.”

  I looked straight into Heru’s eyes as I spoke. “Ouroboros has Mei, Mari. They have your mom.”

  Another few seconds of silence, just the sound of her breathing on the other side of the line. And then the line went dead.

  Got her.

  I lowered the phone, setting it on the floor by my knee.

  Heru stalked toward me and crouched down, bringing his face to my level. Damn, but it was hard to look into those glorious black-rimmed gold eyes when he was so close and so very pissed off. “You’re reckless,” he said, his voice cold and controlled. And terrifying.

  I leaned back a few inches. I couldn’t help it.

  “You’ve always been reckless,” he continued. “If that causes our people their lives . . .”

  Lex touched his shoulder with gentle fingertips, li
ke doing so might help tame his rabid inner beast.

  The phone buzzed, and I risked a glance downward. One new message. From Mari.

  I opened it with a tap of my thumb. Straight-faced, I held the phone up for Heru to see. “If I’m not mistaken, that’s an address.” I suppressed a grin. “In SoDo.”

  29

  8:57 PM

  All bas have been released and returned to their respective bodies, security systems are disarmed, and personal are detained. Do what you want with this place . . . burn the whole damn warehouse to the ground if you want. I don’t care.

  8:58 PM

  Just don’t come looking for me. Don’t look for my mom. You won’t find us.

  8:58 PM

  This makes us even.

  Mari’s texts had come in quick succession while we were navigating the streets of SoDo. I’d smiled to myself after reading them. She’d always been reactionary. Once she cooled down and her more calculating, logical side took over, she would come to me, icy anger a frigid torch burning within her. Vengeance was a dish best served cold, in her case. And she made good chilled vengeance. The best, in fact.

  We kept our rescue party small—Heru, Lex, Aset, Neffe, Nik, and me. We were the only people outside of the shadow Senate fully aware of the situation. This core group was the trusted few, for now. Once the rescue mission was over and the warehouse lab was destroyed, we could start incorporating others into our circle—especially those we’d rescued—but for now, we were operating small, lips zipped. Loose lips and sinking ships, and all that . . .

  Once we knew where to attack, getting people and the kids out was easy enough—knocking out anything electronic is simple when you have nearly unlimited funds and resources, which Heru does. It’s good to be an ancient god of time—an ‘old one,’ as the more ancient of our kind were called. It helped that Mari had already swept through the place, disabling all of the alarm systems and security cameras and locking the few evening employees in holding cells that had apparently been empty.