Blood Magic Read online

  "Guys," Janine said. "It's really cramped in here and I have claustrophobia. Can we climb down?"

  "Trish might hear us," I said. "I can hear in these tunnels for maybe miles. That means she can, too. Maybe even better than me." I'd deal with Xavier's revelation later.

  It was time to leave. Mixed in with the taco smell was a young night. I could go out.

  “I don’t think we should leave through the tunnels,” I said. I’d seen lots of stairs and ladders going up to businesses and old apartment complexes, complete with locked doors at the top. Breaking into of a place would get the police called in no time and we didn’t have time to deal with that. If Thoreau thought we were down here, so be it. We might not get another chance to strike.

  But crawling through these vents and ending up in the middle of a Taco Bell might not be the best choice either. Either way, Trish was out there searching for us and she knew we couldn’t have gone far.

  “I don’t think so either,” Xavier said.

  “Then how do we get out?” Janine asked.

  “Crawl?” I said. “There’s another vent cover we can pop out somewhere. We’re not trapped. We might surprise some fast food workers but they’ve probably seen everything in a city like this. Let’s just hope we don’t catch them spitting in the food.”

  Janine and Xavier laughed. We were all crammed into this vent and still managing to have a good time.

  “I’ve got the sword,” Xavier said, crawling across the vent towards me. He brushed my leg by mistake. “Oops,” he said. “I just couldn’t resist…well, never mind.”

  “It’s fine,” I said. “You’re doing better.”

  “I’m glad.”

  Now our relationship was getting better when we were headed for almost certain death. Janine led the way, leaving me in the middle as we crawled like snakes through the tunnel. The smell got stronger and stronger and the beeping of grease fryers got louder. Someone placed an order for twelve burritos over the drive-thru and laughed. Yeah. We’d blend in fine breaking out of a vent.

  “It’s sloping up,” Janine said from ahead. “Someone stronger than me will have to squeeze past me.”

  My knuckles tingled as they healed completely. I wasn’t looking forward to breaking us out again but we had to do it. I listened past the beeping and chatter, to the quiet of the tunnels below, and heard Trish’s footfalls getting closer. She might have seen the toppled boxes and figured it out, especially since there was a vent right over them.

  Janine slid to one side and I had a horrible time getting past her. Light poured in and I caught a glimpse of some legs in greased-up black pants walking past. A sink ran. It was hard even for me to crawl uphill and I accidentally kicked Janine in the shoulder. I didn’t apologize. We had to stay quiet.

  We were in the back of the kitchen, underneath the sink, and the person stood there filling it. Dishes clanked as the worker piled them in. Bubbles popped. I hoped it wasn’t a heavy load of dishes.

  It was. The guy stood there, washing away and cursing under his breath. Trish’s footfalls slowed. She must be under the vent by now and she was capable of dragging Xavier off…

  I punched the grate and this one came out easier than the last. It flew into the guy’s legs and he swore louder this time, enough so customers in the front might be able to hear. “Brandon!” he yelled. “I’m going to punch you in the—“

  I scrambled out of the wall and from under the sink, standing before a young guy with stubble and a bad attitude all over. The guys ordering twelve burritos over the drive-thru laughed again.

  The guy’s mouth fell open. He hadn’t expected a girl to come out of the wall and I had the feeling it wasn’t a normal thing here. Janine scrambled out followed by Xavier. Below, Trish yelled his name so loud I was sure this guy could hear it too.

  “We’ve gotta go,” Xavier said, surveying the kitchen. It was all young people in hats and yellow shirts with the name of some taco place across the front. Everyone stared at us, still, while the drive-thru guys all giggled.

  It wasn't hard getting out of the fast food place except for the fact that someone out in the lobby screamed at the sight of my sword, which had lost the glamour and now sported full demon blood stains. I was sure I was breaking some health code with that. We bolted out the glass doors, almost running over a couple of girls who were walking in, and left the obnoxious drive-thru guys behind. These people would call the police for sure. I could hear phone buttons tapping even as the glass doors shut behind us.

  "Is everyone out?" I asked once we got to the other side of the parking lot.

  "As far as I know," Janine said.

  Xavier said nothing. We kept up our pace, running behind the Dumpster. It was early night. The sun had sunk below the horizon and my energy levels were already going up. It felt so good to be out of the underground. The three of us didn't stop until we had gone behind an apartment building that was old and made of crumbling brick. Windows were open on the warm night and I could smell what people had eaten. Mashed potatoes. Chicken. Even a mixture of ice cream and soda. I was a little hungry, but the blood bag down in the hospital basement had helped.

  The hospital itself rose in the distance. We'd come a long way.

  And the ATC building was even closer, glaring down at us with those three scary red letters. We were blocks away instead of miles.

  "My feet are about to fall off," Janine said. "How do you guys deal with this?"

  "We have to keep going," Xavier told her. "That's part of being an Abnormal. I can't glamour us. Just weapons. And it looks like I kind of failed at that. I wasn't thinking."

  More police sirens went off. "Thoreau's going to hear about us being in the taco place," I said. "He'll come here and check this out. He might know we're close to his building."

  "But will he expect us to try going in?" Xavier asked.

  "We can't rush." I was kidding myself. Of course we had to. "Okay. Maybe we do need to rush. Janine, if you don't want to go in there we understand."

  "I'm a Normal," she said. "I'll walk in, tell them that my brother got bit by a werewolf last week and ask to see where the treatment center is."

  On the way, Xavier had told Janine what was supposed to be in that building and about the wards that went off when people like us tried to enter or leave.

  "But you don't have a brother," I said. "The people there might recognize you. We were going to ask you to see if you could look around, but that was before we knew Thoreau figured out who you were. We don't want to put you in danger."

  "Me not having a brother is the point," she said. We slowed down now since she was getting out of breath. Even her soccer playing didn't make her fit enough to stay caught up with me. The ATC building loomed closer. "And I'm already in danger."

  "Going in there now will put you in more danger."

  "Now you're acting like Trish," Janine said. "My mom's in there. I have to find out where they're keeping the people in their shelter, too."

  "Alyssa's right," Xavier said. "It's too dangerous now for you to go in."

  "Is this just because I'm Normal?" Janine asked. "Too plain and boring?" She turned her gaze between the two of us.

  I had never seen this side of my friend. Janine was one of the most Normal people I'd ever met. She played soccer. She gossiped. She texted with her friends and went full throttle into the high school lifestyle. It was one of the reasons I hung out with her. But there was a Hannah here too--a longing to be special and different.

  "Being Abnormal is not fun," I told her. "You don't know what you have when you're Normal."

  We walked down another alley. I was getting sick of alleys and tunnels. It felt like my new prison.

  "That's because certain people make it that way," Janine said. "Like I said, it's not fair. I'm not saying I want to change what I am. I just...I just don't want to be the one getting left out when I have someone in that building, too. I want a part. You guys need me."

  "She's also right," Xavier told m
e. "There's no good way to do this. Leon won't back us up. He's been too scared to do anything since the last attack went bad."

  The police sirens stopped behind us. "We had better hurry," I said. "They might have gotten more scents than mine this time."

  * * * * *

  The ATC building loomed larger and larger as we approached.

  Janine still had some money left in her pockets so we stopped in a hair salon that was still open, where we waited while a really flamboyant guy dyed her hair hot purple. Xavier had thankfully re-glamoured the sword into a meter stick this time, which no one really stared at. It was probably for a school project, after all.

  I couldn't believe it.

  We were sitting in a hair salon, about to break into the ATC building. It was the ultimate forbidden territory, the headquarters of the company that was doing something horrible to thousands of Abnormals. We were breaking into the place of the guy who could be running for President.

  By time the guy was done with Janine her hair was a candy-colored, alien purple that might fit well in the late eighties in some dance club.

  Then it was my turn.

  I sat in the chair and Janine smiled as she ordered me some pigtails, each one hot pink. The guy went to work and Xavier sat there, smiling more and more the pinker my hair got. The chemical smells overtook me and I couldn't detect anything else.

  The result was just what you'd expect. I looked like I belonged in that dance club right beside Janine. I got out of the chair and flicked one of the pink pigtails. "I think I like this," I said, careful to keep my mouth most of the way shut. My teeth had pretty much come back.

  Xavier burst out laughing.

  "Now it's your turn," Janine said. "Get up. In the chair. Right now." Her eyes followed Xavier as a look of horror came over his face and he crept over and sat in the chair. He whimpered and closed his eyes.

  We both laughed.

  The guy wasn't too bad on Xavier, even though he did cut most of his awesome long hair off. It was sad to see his locks fall to the floor and gather in little piles. I couldn't resist picking one up and twirling it in his face. Xavier just closed his eyes and batted it away.

  In the end, he was left with a shorter haircut with hair going almost down to his ears instead of to his shoulders. The guy didn't dye it or anything. The change was drastic enough for me to not realize it was even Xavier at first.

  And it brought out the violet flecks in his eyes even more. It was as if Xavier had been hiding behind his hair all along and this was the real him.

  "I like it," I said when he got up and looked in the mirror.

  "It's not bad," he said, heat rising to his cheeks.

  "No. Really. I like it," I said. Behind us in the mirror, Janine watched with great interest. Xavier and I were coming closer together now that the end might be near.

  The three of us left the salon and Janine guided us to an outdoor mall that was still open this early in the night. People walked in and out with shopping bags as we entered. The ATC building was very close now, so close that if there were cameras mounted in the place they might pick us up. There was one more thing we had to take care of before we tried going in and that was our clothes.

  "We're going to save our parents by shopping for clothes," Janine said. "I don't know if this is heaven or hell. Mom's going to kill me for doing this to my hair. And for using her credit card."

  "You what?" I asked.

  "I had to," she said. "Mom always said I could use it for emergencies. She's kidnapped and if we don't disguise ourselves, we're not getting her out. I grabbed it as soon as there was a knock on my door this morning."

  "I'm sure she'll understand," Xavier said. "And you think fast. We can use people like that."

  Janine led us to a store that sold jeans with holes in the knees and shirts with knots tied on the sides. I picked out a ripped pair with pink flowers on the pockets--I had to match my hair after all. Xavier chose a baggy pair that hid his feet when he walked and threatened to trip him at times along with a much looser T-shirt with a brand name across the front. Janine stuck with purple and black. By the time we were done, half an hour later (since time was not on our side) the three of us looked like new people.

  "Why can't we do this when we aren't in danger?" I asked.

  "Because Mom would kill me," Janine said. "If she doesn't kill me when we get her out."

  We stood at the mouth of the outdoor mall. Traffic rolled past, dogs barked and people had Normal phone conversations as they walked. The night was deepening and there was no trace of evening light anymore.

  The red letters ATC hung almost overhead.

  This was it. I made sure I still held the fake meter stick. Check.

  We were silent as we walked closer to the skyscraper, taking our time crossing streets. Xavier linked his hand with mine and Janine walked ahead, even skipping at one of the crosswalks. We looked like three teenagers just having a good time in the city as we approached.

  "I wish things could be like this all the time," I said. "This is what Normal people get to do."

  "Well, not all of them," Xavier said. "Not all of them have it great."

  "I know," I said. "But still."

  "I know," he said, walking close to me.

  Yeah. We were getting closer.

  "You know," Xavier said. "We might have a bond, but it's not as strong as it can be yet."

  "What do you mean?" I asked as we reached the other side of the street. We were one block from the ATC building now. I sniffed the air but caught no whiff of cologne. At least I'd be able to smell Thoreau from a mile away. He couldn't quit wearing that stuff if he didn't want to reek like a sewer in front of every other Abnormal with a better-than-Normal sense of smell. I had a feeling all demons stunk like that.

  "Never mind," Xavier said. "It wouldn't work in battle, anyway."

  Janine hadn't heard us talking. We turned a corner and my stomach lurched as the doors to the ATC building loomed large.

  A red awning flapped in the breeze. Twenty stories towered overhead. I'd never been this close to the ATC building before and it was a lot scarier from this distance. The lights were on inside the lobby and a list of companies were on the front windows along with the address. A single woman was at the counter, waiting for people to come in. I'd forgotten that there was more than just the ATC in here. Other Normal companies were here. The campaign office. Some life insurance place. The city council. It wasn't all Thoreau's goons.

  Janine stopped. "I'll go in and ask about getting help for my brother," she said. "I'm sure that woman will point me to the right floor or tell me where to go. Rosyln, can you tell if that list tells us which floor to go to?"

  I squinted. My vision was good, but there were no floor numbers on the front of the building. "No," I said. "There's nothing. They want people to go in. Xavier says there are magical wards that go off when Abnormals walk into the building."

  "Then I'm going in," Janine said. "Don't worry. If something seems off I'll get out. The only person allowed to kill me is my mom."

  I laughed but got serious. "We don't know where Thoreau is."

  "She's right," Xavier said, releasing my hand. "He could be anywhere, including his office. If he detects us we're probably done."

  "Even me," I said. I was supposed to be this Dark Pentagram and I had no idea what that meant or why Thoreau tried to kill me with fire if I was so wanted. Nothing made sense here.

  "Do you smell him?" Xavier asked me, leaning close.

  I sniffed the air. There was the usual scent of coffee-infused blood and some doughnuts but nothing else. Thoreau's cologne would show up. Unless he'd washed it off he didn't seem to be in the area and the wind was coming from that way to boot. "I think we're good," I said. "I'll keep checking the air."

  We crossed one final street before we stood at the mouth of the ATC building. Even standing next to the awning and just out of the receptionist woman's sight I could feel a low thrumming in my bones, like some energy wa
s at work here. Xavier rubbed his arms, wrinkling his long sleeves that hid his mark. "You feel that?" he asked me. "It's the wards. We're not close enough to trip them but we're feet away."

  I tensed and faced Janine. "Can you feel them?"

  She shook her head. "Everything's normal on my end. It must be something that doesn't bother Normals."

  The sliding doors opened and a couple of businessmen left the building. An air-conditioned breeze wafted out and I caught more of the coffee smells along with microwave dinners for people working late. No cologne. Thoreau wasn't in the vicinity. I'd know. Those ventilation systems blew scents through the entire building.

  I gave Janine a thumbs-up. "Don't stay in there long," I said. "And by the way, your name's something different. Come up with something cool."

  "Got it." She walked inside, vanishing into the building.

  We waited. Xavier suggested we pace around a bit to not look suspicious, so we did. Janine took five, then ten, then fifteen minutes inside the building. I checked and she was no longer in the front lobby. But then, after about twenty minutes, she emerged from the sliding doors with a bunch of brochures in hand. She skipped across the street towards us with a big smile on her face.

  "They bought it," she said. "The lady told me the treatment center is on the top floor."

  Xavier and I looked at each other in horror. We hadn't told Janine what Allunna sensed was on the top floor.

  The portal to the Infernal Dimension.

  "What else did you see in there?" Xavier asked.

  "Well, I got to ride the elevator up to the twentieth floor," Janine said. "A lady on the way up said the shelter was on the nineteenth and she was helping to serve soup there. I got to the top floor and there was another receptionist there. A lady with a lot of perfume. She wouldn't let me back to see anything, but she handed me a bunch of brochures to help my brother who isn't real. She told me to call them when he was home."

  "You're such a great fake sister," I said.

  "I know," Janine said. "But that's what's up there. The top floor. You'll see the desk with some closed doors behind it. It was as far as I could get. I wanted to stop on the nineteenth but the woman in the elevator said some city council members were in there. I didn't think it was safe right now." Real worry crept into Janine's eyes. "I don't know what's happening to my mother in there."