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  "She asked about me?"

  "Remember when I said you needed to get out of the Normal world?" Xavier asked me. "The older you get, the harder things get to hide."

  I hadn't even realized. Janine had been watching out for me this whole time. This was the first time a friend knew the truth about me since Hannah. I gave her the most shocked look while Xavier smiled at me from between us. I let my sword scrape on the floor which brought a disapproving glare from Trish.

  "Handle your weapons better," she ordered. "I don't want Xavier to be wrong about marking you. I look out for him."

  "Sorry," I said. Trish had let him mark me, after all. Maybe she didn't completely hate me.

  "I made the right choice," Xavier said. "Trust me. We're both still alive."

  "Barely," Trish said. She stopped at a crossroads in the tunnel and turned to us. "You're shaking," she said, pointing to me. "You need sustenance, but it's too early to go to the surface and too crowded in this part of the city. The hospital basement is to the left about two miles down. We will need to raid the blood bags after all...unless we find a stray janitor. Then the two of you need to find a place to lay low."

  I shrunk back. Trish was talking about this in front of Janine. I was getting more comfortable around Xavier, but Janine...that was new.

  "Leon is searching for you and I, for one, am not on his side right now. Something strange is going on with him and Allunna. They've been fighting. I've known him since he was a small boy--I helped raise him--and I think the fact that his life is drawing to a close may have something to do with his temper."

  Xavier shook his head at me like he knew this fact. Trish might have been the family nanny for the Lovellis for about three or four generations. She was old enough.

  "Thanks," I forced, keeping my mouth mostly shut. The teeth were almost completely back. Crap. I was not ready for anyone to see that yet.

  We continued our walk and it wasn't hard for me to walk slow enough to let Janine stay caught up. I was tired. Every limb trembled. Xavier shot me a look. We still had to go for Dad and we were in these storage tunnels, still banished from everywhere. I imagined wandering around this plain white and gray space forever, not able to go in the sun and not able to go down into the depths. This was what Limbo must look like if there was even such a place.

  "I know these tunnels," Trish continued. "I know every tunnel in all of Cumberland. You won't run into too many Normals down here, especially after business hours. Most people on the surface don't realize there's this network down here. Abnormals Underground is right under this."

  "I've never been in here," Xavier said. I could smell his adrenaline again, but nothing else. There was no food in anyone.

  At last, we reached a set of closed double doors marked DO NOT ENTER. BIOHAZARD. Trish grabbed onto the handle and broke the lock with a single pull. "I haven't been in here in a long time," she said. "This is an emergency."

  It was. I was feeling so bad I didn't even care that Xavier and Janine might see me...might see me...

  There was a large basement on the other side of the doors.

  Somewhere a machine hummed. The closed elevator doors had a push broom and a mop bucket sitting next to it but thankfully no janitor. I really didn’t want to victimize someone who was just working, especially in a hospital. That was one of the things patients still feared: people like me sneaking in. It was the reason hospitals all had security guards now.

  The place was full of old X-ray machines, beds and other unused hospital equipment. That awful, rubbery smell brought me back to when I was two and woke in some other hospital. This was the same. I couldn’t imagine anyone coming into this and not getting some sense of dread.

  A television played low somewhere. The drone told me it was on the local news.

  “You hear that?” I asked Xavier.

  “No,” he said.

  “I do,” Trish said. “Someone might be down here.”

  I smelled the air but there was nothing but cleaning supplies and rubber gloves. The TV noise was coming from straight ahead, from a partly-open wooden door tucked into the wall. I walked across the room and nudged the door open onto what had to be the break room for the janitors. Xavier and Janine followed while Trish wandered over to a metal door that must house the freezer. I knew what she was going for. Even Trish didn’t want to venture up into the main hospital and go after patients. She had some morals and she watched out for Xavier. I was starting to hate her less.

  It was a little office full of cleaning supplies and even a racy mag on that was sticking out from under a bunch of file folders. A small, boxy television was showing the news. An anchor stood in front of the smoldering remains of Janine's building and I hoped she wouldn't walk in here and see this.

  Crap. She walked in and stopped, completely silent.

  “Authorities are saying that a gas pipeline attached to two different buildings exploded and caused both fires,” the guy was saying. There were people standing around him and I could sense Janine there, searching the TV crowd for her mother. “Two people are still missing and city workers will be investigating the aging gas lines underneath this apartment complex. Meanwhile, other residents have been evacuated from the area.”

  “I don't see my mom,” Janine said. “Where is she? I'm one of the missing people.”

  A stream from a fire hose aimed at the smoldering remains. I couldn't tell if this was the apartment building Janine used to live in or the one Thoreau had blown up during our escape. The words LIVE were in the upper corner.

  Then the camera panned to Thoreau, who stood there in his sunglasses and suit along with a bowler hat. He wore a somber frown that would fool anyone who didn't know better.

  “This is a very sad tragedy,” Thoreau said, shaking his head. “The City of Cumberland stands with the displaced families of this apartment complex and we will do everything in our power to help. We are opening a shelter in the ATC building for those who have nowhere to go. Several people have already gone there to wait on news about their missing loved ones.”

  Xavier made a disgusted sigh. So did Janine. I glanced at her. She was holding tears back.

  “Does that mean Thoreau has my mom?” she asked.

  “He could,” Xavier said. I'd been afraid of that.

  Janine swore and turned, but didn't move. “I have to go and get her.”

  “You can't go back out there,” I said. “You know about Thoreau and he doesn't like that. And you don't have your cell phone, do you? Who knows if we're being tracked.”

  “No. It broke when those shadow things burst into the apartment. Like everything else. It was like they were sucking the life out of everything.”

  “That's what they do,” Xavier said, turning back to the TV.

  Thoreau continued to talk. “I will be working with the city tonight to resolve the issues that caused this disaster.”

  I knew what he meant. Us—even if Thoreau had been the one setting all the fires. He was going to be on the search.

  “I can't go there, either,” Janine said. “What if my mom heads there? What if he wants to do something to her?”

  “I don't think he will,” Xavier said. “Your mom will be at the police or she won't leave the apartment until she's sure you weren't in there. Thoreau does his dirty work out of sight and your mom isn't involved in this. Is she?”

  “No. No. She's never even met Roslyn.”

  “Alyssa,” Xavier corrected.

  “I can't get used to that,” Janine told him. “Anyway, what am I going to do?”

  “Abnormals Underground takes in Normals like you,” Xavier said. “You guys can get places that we can't. You might be useful. It's not bad there. I promise.”

  Then I remembered.

  The ATC building.

  We had Janine and she needed to get in there just as much as we did.

  But Thoreau would be there.

  “But I like the life I have here,” Janine said. “I think Abnormals are cool, but
I have school and I'm planning on college in a couple of years and my mom might be in that tower.”

  I said the dumbest thing ever. “Now's the time to go in if Thoreau's going to be out searching for us.”

  Xavier crossed his arms and shook his head. “This whole thing screams trap to me.”

  “It does to me too,” I said. “But Thoreau is out right now. We can handle things that aren't demons. And they're supposed to be pretty rare, right?”

  “Well, sort of. We met three today.”

  Some banging sounds came from outside in the basement. Feet shuffled towards us and Trish burst into the room, a couple chilled bags filled with telltale red stuff in each hand. She tossed one to me and managed a grin. “Don't make too much of a mess,” she said. “If they find out this is missing they might put better locks on the doors next time.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Xavier and Janine left me alone in the break room to do the worst. I was good at not making a mess. I'd never had to do this in public before and it felt stranger than I thought but at least I felt better when it was done. As in, a lot better and ready to swing my sword again. Outside, Xavier and Janine ruffled through stuff. The elevator dinged and I froze for a second, almost-empty bag in hand until I realized one of them was headed up to raid the hospital cafeteria.

  Janine waited with me and Trish while Xavier rode upstairs to hopefully bum some food from the cafeteria without getting caught. Janine was lucky she had a little bit of money she could lend him and she stayed downstairs to wait for him to come back. The elevator wouldn't open to the basement without a special key from the other side and it was her job to bring Xavier back down in about ten minutes. I just hoped there wasn't a long line up there.

  Janine stayed quiet as we stood there. Her gaze was steely as she eyed the elevator doors and checked the clock that hung above them. “We're going into the ATC building,” she said. “Whatever you need me to do, I'm doing it.”

  “The three of you are doing nothing,” Trish said. “I will not have Xavier go into that deathtrap. Or you, Alyssa.”

  Janine whirled on her. “But my mother is in there! The mayor's a demon!”

  “I know he is,” Trish said with sadness. “He's a demon baron. They're some of the most powerful types. There's a reason he's still alive after so many centuries.”

  “My father's in there, too,” I said. Janine and I were in the same position. “Are we supposed to just let whatever's going to happen happen to him?”

  Trish shook her head. “Thoreau's people took so much from me,” Trish said. “My career. My humanity. There are times that I miss it. The vampire who bit me so long ago might still be working for him. The people who serve him are too scared to do otherwise.”

  “But it's ruining things for everyone,” I said. I let the anger at my life rise to the surface. “He's doing bad things to Normals and turning the Normals against us. He's part of the reason my mother disowned me!”

  Silence fell on the basement and Trish's red eyes remained on me. Heavy sadness filled them. “Thoreau wants to divide and conquer,” she said. But then her expression hardened again. “You will not go into the ATC building. It is my job to protect Xavier until he's of age, no matter what Leon says. I've sworn loyalty to the Lovellis a long time ago and Xavier and his sister are the future of the family, not Leon.”

  “I get it,” I said. “You don’t want Xavier to get hurt. But we still can’t stand around here and do nothing.”

  “I’m the adult here,” Trish said. “I’m making the decisions until Xavier is of age and the three of you are not going into the ATC building. In fact, you’re going nowhere near it. I have a friend who runs one of the restaurants on the other side of town. When Xavier gets back down there, I’m taking you there and you’re hiding until I can find a place farther away to take you. Then, when Leon falls over—and it won’t take too many more years—you will be allowed to return to Cumberland. If there’s anything left of it by then.”

  “You’re kicking us out of town?” Janine asked. This was clearly her first time dealing with this kind of thing. I knew how it felt. “I can’t leave without my mom.”

  “Your parents wouldn’t want you to endanger yourselves,” Trish said.

  She had a point there but I couldn’t leave the only family behind who still actually gave a crap about me. Going to my mom wasn’t an option.

  “You don’t have family stuck in there,” I said.

  Trish opened her mouth but she had nothing to say to that. I was right. Trish didn’t have the stake in this that the three of us did. But then she scrambled for an answer. “Xavier is too important to lose,” she said.

  “We won’t lose him,” I said right when Janine hit the button to bring the elevator back down.

  It hummed on the other side of the door. She’d been paying attention to the time way better than I had. The doors opened and Xavier stood on the other side, two Styrofoam containers in his hand. He handed one to Janine.

  “Any interesting conversations while I was gone?” He asked. “And by the way, when do we infiltrate the ATC building?”

  * * * * *

  We waited until Trish had led us well down the maintenance corridor and down two more before we made our move.

  We were passing an open door to some underground truck loading dock when Xavier nodded at me. Trish walked in the front, satisfied that she’d lectured us into agreeing to do nothing with our powers against Thoreau like Leon wanted.

  It was when we passed the open loading garage that smelled of concrete and underground that Xavier and I made our move.

  I shoved Trish right into the doorway while she was in the middle of talking about the tunnels again and how she knew everything about them. Xavier helped by conjuring up a magenta fireball and throwing it at her, which made Trish come off her feet and fly into the loading room. She landed in a pile of boxes, some of which toppled over her, but then the snarled, baring her fangs, and got right back up again. It took a second fireball to knock her back again and this time, my blood amulet fell from her pocket and landed on the floor.

  “Got it!” Janine shouted, picking it up. Trish struggled to get up from the mass of boxes.

  “Come on!” I shouted, feeling bad that we’d done this to her after she saved our hides. I’d apologize later…like a lot…if Trish would even let me speak.

  The three of us bolted from the shipping room and I closed the doors on Trish as she reached out from the pile of boxes, trying to stand. It wouldn’t take her long.

  “You didn’t hurt her, did you?” I asked.

  Xavier panted as the three of us all ran together. “No. I used the weakest magic I could. It was just enough to throw her back.”

  I grabbed his hand and handed my sword to him. He took it in the other and we wasted a few valuable seconds slowing down. Then I took Janine’s hand and picked up the pace, dragging them along. Trish could run as fast as me. Maybe faster. There was no way I’d be carrying two people.

  “We have to hide,” I said.

  The maintenance corridor split ahead. Trish would be able to smell Xavier and Janine after they’d eaten the horrible hospital cafeteria burgers. I took in the air. Tacos to the left. It would mask the smell. “This way,” I said.

  Already, Trish was moving boxes from behind. I could hear it from behind the closed door.

  The taco smell got stronger. Cheese and burger filled the air and wafted down from a vent overhead. Several boxes lay stacked nearby and I stopped, letting go of Xavier and Janine’s hands. I didn't need to say anything. Janine shoved two heavy boxes right under the vent. I climbed on right when the door to the loading station opened with a bang. Trish was furious and she was right to be.

  I formed a fist and hit the grate as hard as I could. It buckled in and my knuckles screamed with the pain. I struck again and this time the vent popped in all the way, loosening and leaving us a hole to go through.

  I let Janine climb in first. She might be in the
most danger. Without a word she vanished through the opening, legs kicking, and Xavier motioned for me to follow. I did. It was easy to hoist myself up into the small tunnel where Janine's shoes were in my face. Xavier came up after me, kicked at the boxes and slid in the other direction. I craned my neck and watched as he put the grate back over the hole, went still, and waited.

  "Xavier!" Trish shouted. She was furious, so much that her voice had deepened.

  He held his finger up to his lips. The taco smells wafted past us and down into the hallway below. I could hear workers up above and a grease fryer beeping. I hoped that it masked us. It had to.

  Trish's footfalls approached, fast and almost undetectable.

  "Xavier!" she shouted. "You don't want me to find you."

  He shook his head with a frown. I was so, so glad Janine had grabbed the blood amulet or we would have been finished already. I didn't want to hurt Trish. I'd already done enough.

  Her footsteps stopped at the 4-way. She was smelling the air, trying to pick up on Janine's and Xavier's scents. The taco smell was overbearing here and I hoped it was for her, too.

  And then she turned and ran the other way.

  Xavier waited until her footfalls faded to look up at me and give me a questioning look. Is she gone?

  I nodded. I was thankful for my hearing for once.

  Xavier crawled towards me and dared to speak. "That was like having a chaperone. Now we can have fun. She doesn't realize I'm seventeen and old enough to fight. I've been doing it for years. What's her problem?"

  "Me," I said. "She thinks I'm going to get you killed."

  "Well, she's worried since the last person I brought in for testing turned out to be working for Thoreau."

  He just blurted that out and then frowned like he didn't mean to. "I didn't say that out loud, did I?" he asked.

  "Sorry. You did," I said.