Demon Underground (2)

by S. L. Wright

  When he emerged in the small plaza, it was even worse. Mystify was wearing a Theo Ram guise. It made me catch my breath.

  As Mystify came closer, I realized there were differences. He looked like Theo’s younger brother, less jaded and world-weary, more energetic and eager. His dark hair was longer and wilder, his cheeks slightly rounded instead of cut by a chisel, and his body not so lean and whip-hard as Ram’s.

  My mind knew it wasn’t Ram, but my body leaned toward him. Crave’s whirlpool signature, drawing me in, didn’t help matters.

  “Allay,” he said, an echo of Ram.

  I cleared my throat. “That’s not your guise.”

  “It’s what I was born in. It feels natural to me.”

  “I thought androgynous personas were more your style.” I forced myself to look away from him.

  “I remember our passion,” he told me, coming in closer.

  He had Ram’s memories—he had been born on the heels of our love affair. He knew all sorts of intimate details about me. “That’s not fair. Between you and Bliss, I’m an open book.”

  “Not many could hold up under such scrutiny. But you are divine. ...”

  His hand ran up the outside of my arm, making me shiver. He absorbed my confusion, trembling as it overwhelmed his senses. That was the emotion he craved above all others, and I was gushing it into him.

  “Ahhh ...” he breathed, shuddering in satisfaction.

  I pulled away. He knew what to do to confuse me, because he had seen how Ram manipulated me. “I don’t think Ram would like you wearing his guise.”

  Mystify grinned, making his persona look even younger. “Ram won’t risk contact with me, not so soon after my birth. Even under the best of circumstances, he would be highly suspicious of anyone who knows so much about him. He especially won’t let me get close during this upheaval.”

  “So you do know everything about him.” I wanted to ask him what Ram felt about me, but didn’t dare. I also wanted to ask about Hope. But that would be playing into his hands, and I was already vulnerable enough trapped in Central Park. My questions could wait until we were on a more equal footing.

  “I know one thing from Ram,” he said. “When things are in flux, that creates opportunities we can take advantage of.”

  “Like what?”

  “Getting control over other demons. That’s what Glory and Dread are doing. And Goad. There may be other players who haven’t revealed themselves.”

  “What about Ram?”

  He looked at me hard. “He’s spoken to you. Why don’t you tell me?”

  “I don’t know what’s true about Ram. He lives by lies.”

  “You shook his world, cracked his nut, so to speak. And he can hardly believe it himself, but you’ve got him hooked, sister.”

  Delighted confusion roiled through me again, and this time I didn’t mind it when Mystify rubbed my arm, stealing a chunk of it away for himself. His eyes closed in pleasure. He definitely made his feeding a sensual experience.

  It made me uncomfortable, so I pulled away.

  When he could speak again, Mystify said, “I know Ram would want you to get to safety instead of standing in range of Fifth Avenue.”

  “Bliss and Crave are waiting for me. I just left you a note.”

  Mystify swiped the twenty from under the obelisk. He checked it for writing, then held it up higher, seeing the pinpricks of light shining through from the lamp by the path. The letters spelled out C-A-S-T-L-E. In the corner was an A.

  Mystify blew out his breath in a long, low whistle. “Nice of you to let me know.”

  He started to pocket the bill carefully, as if it meant something to him. Maybe it was the first note he had ever gotten. “Oh, you’ll want this back.”

  He held it out to me. There was something so vulnerable about him, in spite of his steely Ram facade. He was only a day older than Bliss, but he hadn’t had her advantages. He had been running since the first second.

  Mystify was definitely a survivor. What else he was, I couldn’t tell.

  “Keep it.” I wanted to offer to help him if he ever needed it. But Shock’s voice warning me to be careful with newbie demons kept echoing through my head.

  He joined me as I cut through the bottom of the great lawn, heading to Belvedere Castle. “Where do you live?” I asked.

  “Here. Mostly.”

  I glanced around. “You’re always on the move? That must be hard.”

  He didn’t meet my eyes. “Yes.”

  There was a world of truth in that one word. He was alone, fighting for his life every minute. He had Ram’s memories, a vast wealth of knowledge, but none of his strength. In a fight with any other demon, he and Bliss would lose simply because of the weakness of their newly minted state.

  “You can always come to the bar if you need a safe place to stay.” It was out of my mouth before I could stop myself. Shock would kill me for offering. Ram, too. Maybe I was an idiot, but I had to find people I could trust. I had already proven that isolation was the slow road to ruin. And Mystify had saved our lives tonight. That made it my move.

  “You’d let me stay with you?” He shook his head. “Are you kidding?”

  “I’m letting Bliss stay with me. Why not you, too?”

  “For one, because Ram would kill me.”

  I had to laugh at that. “This isn’t Ram’s decision. Believe me. I mean it. You can stay at the bar if you’re ever in need.”

  He hesitated. “Thanks. That means a lot to me.”

  “You better switch back to your own signature,” I reminded him. “Crave’s suspicious enough without coming face-to-face with his own signature.”

  Mystify obediently reverted to his disorienting emanations as we climbed the hill and the stairs that led up to the castle. It had a small terrace around it with walls looking down the sheer cliff to the lake below.

  Bliss peeked around the open archway of the castle. “Mystify? Is that you? Did you see Allay—oh, there you are.”

  Crave appeared from the other end of the terrace. “I thought there was an echo at first.” He glared at Mystify.

  “I ran into him at the obelisk,” I said.

  “What happened with Goad?” Bliss asked eagerly.

  “I drew them up to Glory’s border. She’s posted sentries to warn her in case there’s another mass raid on her territory. They peeled away as soon as they came into range. I wasn’t challenged because they assumed I was Crave. I circled around to the park and headed south.”

  “You make it sound easy,” Bliss said admiringly.

  Crave frowned and tucked his arm around her. I hid a smile. Classic! Soon they would be sparring with each other over her favor. Better Bliss than me.

  “Come on up, Allay,” Bliss urged. “You should see the view from the top.”

  I followed her up the steps spiraling around a stone column to the second floor and on to the top. The parapet was lined by traditional crenellation, with buttresses thickening the walls. The park spread out darkly on every side, but the perimeter was marked by the straight lines of apartment buildings, the windows glowing and the pediments lit up to show off the most distinctive features.

  The cool breeze was bracing. Bliss’s hair blew back as if she were in a shampoo commercial. But the sound of rushing cars rising from the traverse roadway was loud enough to destroy the peace.

  “We’re too close to the road,” I said. “We can’t stay here. What if a demon passes by?”

  “I realized that after we got here,” Crave agreed.

  We headed down the steps, and Bliss was the last to come, tearing herself away. At the bottom, standing over the glinting lake, I said, “Should we head further north? We’d be exposed in the center of the lawn.”

  “And the reservoir is above that,” Crave said. “I think we should head south. There are more options down at that end of the park.”

  I turned to Mystify. “What do you think? You know this territory. We need a place to hang for a few h
ours where Goad won’t find us.”

  He considered it for a few moments; then he nodded as if making a decision. “I’ve got the perfect place.”

  He led us down the side of the hill and across the traverse bridge heading south. Crave grumbled that the bridle path was too close to Central Park West, but we were going the way he wanted. In less than five minutes, we reached Strawberry Fields.

  Mystify went straight to the small plaza with the memorial plaque inlaid in the center for John Lennon that read IMAGINE. Stumps of candles with rivulets of wax and flowers in various states of decay littered the area.

  It was absolutely quiet, with hardly any traffic noise coming from Central Park West. Mystify said, “I’m trusting you with my life.”

  “I promise I won’t tell anyone,” I said without hesitation. Bliss agreed, but Crave was much slower to follow. “You better mean it,” I told Crave. “That includes keeping this from Glory. Can you do that?”

  His eyes narrowed. “I can do that.”

  Mystify must have heard the smidge of doubt behind his confident assurance. I exchanged looks with him and shrugged. I couldn’t guarantee Crave’s word. I was pretty sure Glory was pulling all of his strings.

  Mystify grimaced and then shrugged, as if he was willing to take a chance.

  He looked around to be sure no one was in sight. Then he gestured us over to the center of one of the paths that radiated from the terrace.

  He took a tool from his pocket and inserted it into the manhole cover that lay flush with the paving stones.

  With a twist, he swirled the cover up. “They’re really heavy. It usually takes two men to drag one open. But if I put exactly the right leverage on it, I can get it to move.”

  I peered fascinated into the darkness. “What’s down there?”

  “An old tunnel that runs along Seventy-second Street. Hurry, I don’t want anyone to see us.”

  I lowered myself onto the rungs of the ladder that descended into the darkness. I moved a lot more quickly than I wanted to, as Bliss and Crave came down after me. I reached the bottom as Mystify stepped onto the ladder, smiling up at him as he deftly slid the cover back into place overhead, cutting off the light.

  Bliss bumped into me. “We really need to buy a lighter.”

  When Mystify got to the bottom of the ladder, he pulled out a green glow stick, the kind that recharged in the sunlight. It cast an eerie illumination on the rough ground and fallen concrete from the upper part of the tunnel. The tunnel stretched into the darkness in both directions.

  “Mi casa es su casa,” he said quietly.

  “Another filthy hole in the ground,” Crave muttered.

  “Excuse me for saving your life. If you don’t like it, I can let you back out.” Mystify lifted his foot onto the first rung of the ladder.

  “Be grateful, Crave,” I ordered. “Or I’m letting him toss you back outside.”

  Crave puffed up like he was ready for a fight, but Bliss let out a trilling laugh. “I think it’s cool! Let’s see where it goes.”

  Crave instantly deflated. Mystify looked like he wanted to continue the fight, and I was reminded achingly of Ram confronting Pique outside my bar. The first night he had saved me.

  “Won’t they be able to sense us here from Central Park West?” I asked. “We’re awful close.”

  Mystify finally broke eye contact with Crave. “We have to go further down. This is too near the surface. And there are too many people here.”

  “People come down here?” I asked in surprise.

  “Sure, there are dozens who sleep right here.”

  Bliss followed Mystify on his heels, exclaiming over everything. The glow stick cast enough light for us to see clearly with our demon sight. As Mystify said, we passed a few groups of people sleeping in rows. Some called out for us to get away. One of them shouted and threw a bottle at us. Crave shouted back, his voice ringing through the hollow space.

  Mystify pulled me along faster. “Shut up!” he ordered Crave.

  “Don’t tell me what to do,” Crave countered.

  Thankfully nobody came after us. Debris was sliding around under my feet. Crave was holding Bliss’s arm, helping her.

  “How did you find this place?” I asked Mystify.

  “I followed the homeless. When I got down here, I realized that if I could get deep enough, I could be right underneath a demon, and they can’t sense me because of the layers of concrete, asphalt, and wiring in between.”

  I wondered why I had never thought of it before. The subway could blank out a demon’s signature, and I had often used the train to escape demons. But I never thought of checking out the tunnels under the city.

  Mystify veered over to one side. He knelt down where the bricks were knocked out of the side of the tunnel, about a foot off the ground. Beyond was a big open space filled with deeper blackness. “Down the rabbit hole,” he prompted.

  I swallowed. “We have to go in there?”

  Crave took one look and crossed his arms. “You’ve got to be crazy.”

  7

  “It’s either that, or I’m dumping you back in the park,” Mystify snapped.

  They went face-to-face, both with their fists clenched. Mystify looked a lot tougher in the semblance of Ram’s guise. The ethereal personas I’d seen him in before hid the steely backing of Ram’s memories.

  “I’d like to see you try,” Crave said menacingly.

  “He saved our lives,” Bliss pointed out. “We would have been caught by Goad’s horde if Mystify hadn’t helped us.”

  The tension bound us motionless. Then I pointed to the hole. “I’m going down. It’s got to be safer than the surface.”

  “Me, too,” Bliss agreed. “I want to see what it’s like.”

  Crave pressed his lips together. “I’m not letting you go alone. With him.”

  Mystify was blocking the hole. “Maybe I don’t want you to come.”

  His slight sneer reminded me of Ram, the way he had stared down at Dread lying drained and helpless on the floor of his own cage. The ruthlessness of it made me shiver.

  I shook myself out of it. “Can you both please stop with the chest-beating? We’ll be caught while you stand here and figure out who’s more of a man.”

  Bliss laughed again, breaking the tension. “I’ll go first.”

  “No, let me show you.” Mystify turned away like he didn’t care about Crave. Crave had more trouble getting hold of his anger, but he managed to swallow it down. Clearly now was not the time. A demon could be driving by on Central Park West any second, and we would be exposed.

  “You have to go in backward and feel your way down the rungs of the ladder. Hold on to this,” Mystify told us, slipping his fingers around a bar that was wedged into the broken wall.

  Mystify turned and put his foot down where he knew the rung would be. As he disappeared down, Bliss leaned out fearlessly to watch. His voice drifted up hollowly, “Okay, you can start down now, Bliss.

  As she swung around, reaching down with one foot, I put my hand to my mouth. It looked really scary. But she disappeared into the hole as easily as Mystify.

  Crave took the glow stick from me. “You next,” he said shortly. He clearly didn’t like being one-upped by the newbie.

  I turned and put my foot through the hole. My stomach dropped as if it fell into the hole without me, until I felt the top rung on the other side. I had to be careful to lower myself as I backed into the hole, groping for the next rung with my foot. I was so focused on my feet and holding on that I bumped my head as I stepped down and inside.

  The ladder was an old aluminum one that was folded shut and roped to the wall by subterranean Sherpas. It rested on a plank set across another ladder beneath it. The whole contraption swayed alarmingly with every movement I made. I descended faster than was comfortable. Some of the ropes looked frayed.

  There was a push of air blowing past me, smelling more damp than above. The deeper tunnel was much smaller—we could barely
stand up inside. It was set at a ninety-degree angle to the one above, running roughly north and south. The walls were broken and seeping white crusty gunk along the cracks. The floor was uneven, filled with chunks of bricks and cement that had fallen from the inside. There was more sickening movement as mice, rats, and roaches scuttled away at the arrival of Crave and the green glow stick. A faint rumble of a subway train passing nearby made dust filter down from the curved ceiling. It felt like the tunnel was about to collapse.

  “We’re far enough underground that our signatures can’t be felt on the surface,” Mystify assured Bliss.

  Crave had his arm over his nose. “This place is disgusting. Please don’t tell me you live here.”

  “This is one of the underground highways. It’s an old water main. See how the walls are made of brick? When the city installed new pipes in the fifties, they put the mains up higher, about eight feet deep, and smaller for better pressure. It’s easier for them to maintain the cement pipes.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “I talk to the people I meet down here. I’m alone, an obvious misfit, so sometimes they talk back. An old guy showed me this place. I found an ancient gas main yesterday—you have to crawl through that one, but it took me straight to the 1 subway tunnel on the west side. I keep finding new levels and natural underground caverns.”

  “How cool is that?” Bliss marveled.

  Crave glowered but didn’t say anything as Mystify turned south. I stopped him. “Does this go all the way to Harlem?”

  “There’s a collapse at the north end of the park. But Harlem is only a few blocks away.”

  I turned to Crave. “You have to go see Glory. She’s expecting you.”

  Crave stiffened, looking the picture of offended pride. “I’m not at Glory’s beck and call. Why don’t you come back to my place? You’ll be safe there until morning, and I can call a car to take you home.”

  Bliss’s eyes lit up, but I asked, “Isn’t Lash there?”

  Crave hesitated. “Yes, but I can take care of her.”

  “That’s the last thing Glory wants—you bringing Bliss home to Lash. You two are supposed to be lying low for a few days. You think it will help if you’re walking around holding hands in front of her?”