by Holly Hook
“Where is my father?”
The banshee’s head rolled back and I thought I’d killed her. “You’re strong,” she managed, lifting her head and sticking out a very black, pointed tongue. Her voice gurgled. “It’s no wonder Thoreau is after you.”
“Where is my father?” I repeated, louder this time. “Where does he take his prisoners?”
She laughed and gurgled at the same time, which was honestly gross.
“Where?” Every muscle and part of my body shook with fury. I didn't need Xavier for this. I could do this on my own.
“With Thoreau!” she shouted.
“I know that!” I yelled. I twisted the sword and the banshee grit her teeth in agony. They were black with something that might be green algae all over them. I could see why Allunna had left the demon world. It was something different than the rest of the Abnormal society. These were things much worse than me. “I mean where, as in place. I have war magic. I can destroy you.”
The banshee reached up and clutched at the sword. “Your bond is not yet strong,” she said.
“How do you know so much about me?” This violation crap was getting old. “I nearly killed another demon earlier today. I can do it again.” I mentally called for Xavier to lend me his power, but he must have left the area. Distance might be a problem. This banshee was right that our bond could be stronger.
“You're the one Thoreau has been looking for,” she repeated. “The Dark Pentagram. Or, you will be soon. We're all searching for you.”
I twisted the sword again and I'm not going to describe the sounds it made. The banshee's next words gurgled. I was lucky my condition made me better able to handle blood than a Normal girl or I would have passed out. “I want a street, a building, something where I can find my father!”
The banshee gagged and spit up some black fluid. The smell was beyond revolting now. That was what was going to get me. “Isn't it obvious? The sign's above the city.”
I thought about it.
Duh.
The ATC building.
The mayor's office.
“Please let me go,” the banshee said. “It hurts. It hurts!” She struggled to scream the last word but didn't manage to do anything but give me a twinge above the eyeball.
“Is there a way to sneak in?” I asked.
She grit her disgusting teeth again. “The only way in is by joining Thoreau.”
“That's not good enough.” I leaned closer which was one of the hardest things I'd ever done.
But the banshee smiled. Her now pure-black eyes had the fake brown contact lenses sitting on top of them. Her gaze moved. “Look behind you.”
The sense of horrible dread and despair washed over me before I saw it. I retracted the sword, which dripped with more dark demon blood and faced three Shadow Wraiths that stood between me and the back wall. Their robes swished in a wind that didn't exist and it seemed like they had bled out of the walls themselves. The banshee screamed again and the pain and faintness washed over me, threatening to send me down to the floor, and I ran.
A Shadow Wraith reached for me, but I ducked and dove through the entrance to the store, crashing into the rack of bargain see-through pajamas. Clothing toppled around me and my sword caught fabric, but I stood and the black blouse fell in front of me. I seized it and draped it over my head like I was heading out into a rainstorm and bolted for the door. The dread and despair tried to pull me down and I fought the sense that nothing I did would be good enough, that I could never rescue Dad. A Shadow Wraith groaned right behind me.
But sun or no sun, I was out.
I rammed into the door and burst into the unbearable light. Cars honked and I had to make sure I was on the sidewalk. It was bright below my shoes and my sword had taken on the look of a Hello Kitty cane again. The sidewalk sparkled. Sunny. The clouds were either breaking up or moving away.
I swore as the burn spread over my skin, but it was staying off my face. I had a tiny shadow to breathe in. I kept my eyes down and ran, dragging the sword-turned-cane in one hand and holding the black shirt over my head with the other. I caught glimpses of jeans. Business suits. A dog that stopped and barked at me. I ignored it all and ran in the direction I thought the bridge was in. I dared to look up for a second—headache--and caught a glimpse of its suspension.
I stopped at the corner to wait for traffic and glanced behind me, at the shop where the Shadow Wraiths would be coming out.
There was nothing. Where the lingerie shop with the purple awning was a second ago was nothing. It was as if the space between a cafe and the insurance place had closed and sealed off from existence. I had come out of a store that didn't exist.
I took a breath. The air was too warm. My skin was on fire under my jeans but at least they weren't shorts. A pair of older women stared at me as they passed. I was drawing suspicion holding the blouse over my head and if I didn't get out of sight, someone would report me. I wasn't the type to draw stares but now that I was shielding myself from the sun it made things a bit obvious.
The old ladies picked up their pace. I was detected.
The signal changed to the walking guy and I bolted across the street. The migraine was starting by now, even though it was a little more delayed than being out in the direct sun. It got worse as I crossed the road, away from all the shadows. The bridge was straight ahead, sloping upward towards where the ATC building stood in the distance.
Dad was there. I wondered if he was looking out one of the windows now, watching me run towards him. The sun reflected off all of them, blinding me. How could Normals tolerate this?
I bolted down another alley, one that was cleaner than most, and found another fence that blocked off a pathway between two buildings. The light wasn't as intense in here and I could lower the blouse. It also didn't smell as bad as a normal alley.
And I caught a whiff of wood smoke, definitely coming from beyond the fence.
I cursed myself for the dumb idea that we should separate and cool down with all these demons coming after us. I hadn't realized there were so many out here in the city. And how had the banshee found us? I hopped the fence and ran down the concrete pathway, which someone in one of these apartment buildings had lined with flowers and a small garden that was sprouting new plants. Clothes hung overhead and the scent of water replaced the wood smoke for a second.
The space opened up and I found myself at the bank of the river, on worn dirt where generations of feet had stood to fish. There was a guy further down with a pole and a lure in the water. But on the left was the bridge, blocking out the morning sun and allowing me to stand here.
Xavier sat right under the bridge itself, well in the shadows.
I wanted to shout to him but it was best not to give away my position. Somewhere, police sirens went off. I wondered if that was for me and if the old ladies had called about my sighting. Maybe. So I ran about as fast as I could towards the bridge. My feet were light on the ground, barely making noise.
Xavier was staring into the water like he was trying to divine something. He was so lost in thought that even after I had stopped next to him, he continued to stare at the space under the bridge. Traffic hissed right above us as tires clunked. The police sirens got louder. I had vacated the area just in time.
Then he faced me and jumped.
“I didn't hear you coming,” he said. “So you bought the shirt.”
“Well, no. I stole it.” I put it on, making sure first that no demon blood had splattered all over it. I sniffed. Clean, except for a trace of that awful perfume.
“That's not a good idea,” Xavier said.
“The banshee I just fought deserved it,” I said. “She tried to sic three Shadow Wraiths on me. And no, they didn't touch me.” I stood over Xavier. “I think we should put more distance between us and that store, which vanished as soon as I left it, by the way.”
He shook his head. “We shouldn't have left each other. I should have known. Some demons have a way of surprising you when
you least expect it. Thoreau must really want us. They all work for him.”
“It was my dumb idea. That lady seemed harmless enough.”
"Maybe we shouldn't leave," Xavier said, craning his neck to listen. He probably couldn't hear the sirens as well as I could. "We should stay down here. The police aren't too eager to come after people like us. They have to respond to every call, though."
"I hope," I said.
"I'm sorry I was a jerk. It's just that...we can't be getting too close to each other. It might get in the way of things."
So not only was this just business, it was safety. Xavier was right that things were dangerous right now with Thoreau and all. At least I knew where I stood with him right now.
And it sucked.
"Wait," I said. "If something happens, it won't matter. We both die."
"There are worse things than death."
"Oh. Like the Shadow Wraiths." I wondered what would happen if I or Xavier become one. I didn't want to find out. "Still. We don't have to be jerks to each other." The sirens peaked and cut off. The police had reached the spot I'd been in a few minutes ago. I was wanted by the law, by some other Abnormals and by Thoreau.
It was the most horrible feeling like I had nowhere to go.
Xavier was literally the only person I could turn to other than maybe Janine. I wasn't sure how she'd take all of this but we couldn't stay out here all day, waiting for someone else to spot me. The sun wasn't going in and the only other option was to go underground where Leon was waiting.
"I thought I heard the sirens," Xavier said. "Do you know if dogs can spot your trail?"
"Animals are scared of me," I said. "Dogs run away when I walk past so they're not going to find us that way. They'd follow your scent, though--only they don't have it."
I felt better as soon as I reminded myself of that. I sat down next to Xavier, who showed no signs of getting up. The guy was deep in a funk and I felt like he'd put up a wall to keep everyone out, especially me. As I sat next to him, I felt a twinge of his magic again, hot and zinging through me. It felt almost scared. Tormented.
More sirens ebbed and flowed and then stopped. Those old ladies had not put in a good word about me. I let my skin cool off and the pain faded the more I sat under the bridge. The sun rose higher in the sky and I watched the shadows creep closer to us as they got more narrow. I'd be protected down here until evening when the sun sank low and cast its spotlight down here.
I wondered if Mom had seen the news, wherever she was. She might have turned off the TV before her new husband saw what I'd done. There was no way she'd ever check in again or even acknowledge that I existed. I wanted to scream and throw something into the water, preferably Thoreau.
But instead, I had to break the silence. "How did that banshee find us out of this big city?"
"I don't know," Xavier said. "Demons can work some magic trickery, but tracking isn't their strong suit. They also can't usually transpose. I think we got unlucky and happened to walk past the banshee's lingerie shop."
"She knew who I was," I said, and told Xavier everything that had happened.
His mouth fell open when I got to the part about the Shadow Wraiths and the Dark Pentagram thing she'd mentioned. "Have you ever heard of that?" I asked. "Thoreau wants me for something called the Dark Pentagram. He said I was it."
I watched to see if some recognition would come over Xavier's face but it stayed blank. "Thoreau doesn't waste so much energy tracking a single person like this," he said. "There's got to be a reason. Well, you are a good fighter. Better than most. I had a good feeling about you."
The way he said that made me tingle all over. What was with all the mixed signals? "There's something more to this. I'm supposed to be whatever Thoreau wants very soon. Are you sure you haven't heard of a Dark Pentagram? It sounds like some sort of Mage thing."
"I haven't heard of it," Xavier said. He sounded legit. "There are different kinds of magic but that's not something they ever brought up at the academy. Demonic magic is a whole other world. They never taught us that there. It's too dark. War Magic is the worst that they go. Some people say it's dark but it's nothing compared to what Thoreau has."
"I think this is something beyond my fighting ability," I said. I wasn't that good of a fighter. I still hadn't gotten Dad back. "Is there something else about me other than my, um, condition?" I was pretty sure I was a Normal girl before the bite.
"Well, you have some access to my magic now," Xavier said. "I'm wondering if that has something to do with it, but lots of Abnormals with good fighting skills have been linked with War Mages. We've been doing it for millennia."
I wrapped my hands around my knees, setting my cane sword down next to a crumpled up McDonald's bag. Something wasn't adding up here. And those Shadow Wraiths didn't make sense either. Maybe Thoreau wanted a very, very powerful Shadow Wraith to serve him but something about that seemed off, too. From what I'd seen he had plenty of those.
Other than that, there was nothing special about me.
"My dad's in the ATC building," I said. "The banshee confessed. It looks like Thoreau's been taking people there the whole time." I leaned over to try to see it, but the bridge was blocking the view.
Xavier let his head fall to his open palms. "That place is guarded with demons and magical wards that go off whenever an Abnormal who's not working for Thoreau walks through the door. Normals can get in there okay but if we were to try it, they'd know about us right away. There's a reason no one's gotten in and taken out Thoreau yet."
"That's great," I said. "I didn't have time to ask what floor Dad was on. I didn't know there was a fake treatment center up there."
"There must be," Xavier said. "I always thought they were camps out in the wilderness. Well, I think a lot of the real ones are, but it makes sense Thoreau wants his prisoners right where he and his company is. He must want soldiers."
I shuddered. Either he was binding other Abnormals to him or turning them into Shadow Wraiths. I was holding out hope that Dad hadn't met either fate but it would only be a matter of time. "We need to figure out what floor that could be," I said. "Where would we look up floor plans for the place? Because if we go in there we have to know where to go right away."
I realized what I'd said and waited for Xavier to tell me what a dumb idea it was. But he stayed silent for a bit and nodded. "I was hoping you'd want to attack," he said. "I do. It's the only way I'm going to prove that I'm not being a moron this time."
"This time?" I asked. "I don't think you're one."
"I was. Before," he said, turning away.
"Okay. You have a past," I said. "If it makes you feel better, I do, too." I checked the sky again. The cloud deck was a little closer but meanwhile, we were pretty stuck down here. I couldn't risk going out with this shirt over my head again. "Want to hear about mine?" This might be the only way to get Xavier to open up. We'd work together better if we cleared the air.
"You don't have to tell me," Xavier said. "We've all got crap."
"Well, I'm going to get it out," I said. "I lied when I said I never hurt anybody. I did. Once. In the second grade, I bit my best friend."
"You what?"
"Her name was Hannah. We did everything together. She told me all her secrets," I said. "It was one of those BFF things. Well, until I screwed up. I told her my secret and she thought it was all cool. She said she wanted to live forever like me and thought that if I bit her, she'd become like me. I didn't want to, but out on the playground she begged and begged and I finally gave in. I know. Stupid."
"Well, she wanted it," Xavier said. "There are Normals who do that over and over, thinking it's going to give them eternal life. It only works for the people with the right gene."
"Well, Hannah screamed and the playground lady ran and saw what I was doing," I said. I had never, ever told anyone about this before. I remembered what her blood had tasted like. Cherry Pop-Tarts. I had never been able to look at a box of them again.
"A
nd they hauled you to the office," Xavier said. "I'm glad I never had to go to a Normal school."
"Both of us," I said. "Hannah's neck was bleeding. They called an ambulance for her and her mom came into the school, screaming at everyone. Dad rushed to pick me up before the police could get there. Thankfully it was a normal rainy day in Oregon. We had to flee town. Mom said she couldn't deal with this kind of thing and left. Dad starting moving us around the West Coast."
"I'm sorry. I really am."
I sighed. "I blew it."
"That girl wanted you to do that. I'm sure she was okay. Most people are."
"She was," I said. "Hannah didn't turn. I never saw her again but Dad told me things were okay with her. I was kind of glad she didn't get what she wanted." I had hated Hannah ever since that incident.
I had also started filing my teeth after that like I was trying to erase what I'd done.
I stared into the water and Xavier went silent for what felt like a long time. "I suppose it's my turn to tell you mine," he said.
I felt bad. "I wasn't trying to, you know, manipulate you into it." It was a lie because part of me wanted to unravel Xavier's secrets. He was so mysterious and dangerous, so free. I didn't feel like I could have the bravery to be like that. The last time I'd dared to show my true nature, my world imploded. "I just wanted to get that out. You're the first person I've told." He knew what it was like to be rejected. Xavier was the first person capable of understanding.
"I get it," he said. "It sucks. It sucks so much I can't find anything to compare it to. Nice pun," he said, smiling at me for a second before he turned serious again. "My parents are gone. They tried to break into the ATC building and never came back. I'm not sure what happened to them."
"They what?" I asked.
"It was the last attack Abnormals Underground ever tried," Xavier said. "It happened two years ago, right after Thoreau got elected his second term as mayor. My mother could make big decisions. She had already killed a half dozen demons. She knew how dangerous he was and wanted to attack. Allunna said there's supposed to be a portal to the Infernal Dimension on the top floor. She could sense it since she's from there. She's the only one who came back from the attack. Mom went in, magic blazing. Dad was good with guns. They went in with a bunch of others to the top floor. No one heard from them again."