Blood Magic Page 16

  "We'll get her out," I said. "You shouldn't go in with us. There's going to be all sorts of bad things."

  "Like magic fires and blood and guts," Xavier added. "We'll have to get up the elevator as fast as we can. The receptionist lady might not know what we are when we go in but someone in that building will."

  He was right. An entire division of Abnormals had gone in there and not come out and I had a feeling it had to do with the portal on the top floor. There might not be a treatment center after all. Maybe all captive Abnormals went to the Infernal Dimension until they agreed to work for Thoreau.

  Xavier and I might have to go in to get our people out.

  "Can you Transpose us in?" I asked.

  He shook his head. "I can't Transpose through magical wards. Within them, maybe, but not through them."

  I'd been afraid of that.

  "Find my mother," Janine said. "Please. I don't want her to turn into one of those shadow things."

  "I don't think Thoreau will do that to her," I said. "If she goes missing from the mayor's office, that's going to look bad for him. He's all about looks. But if you went missing he could say you ran away or set the apartment on fire."

  "He set it on fire," Janine said. "I know he did. Well, if he's a demon. I guess my mom will breathe fire too as soon as she sees my hair."

  We laughed. It might be our last laugh together.

  "Dragons could breathe fire," Xavier said. "Demons don't really breathe it, but they can create it. Okay," Xavier said. "We run in and we take the elevator. If I Transpose us to the top floor, I'll drain my magic too much for you to use."

  "Makes sense," I said. There was too much chance for something to go wrong.

  We would have to walk in like Normal people. It was going to be fun. Not.

  I held the fake meter stick. It would turn to the weapon I needed when it was ready.

  Xavier and I each took a breath and linked hands. We might not come out of there. If our parents hadn't, then maybe we couldn't, either.

  We crossed the street, waiting for the signal like Normal people.

  Without a word, we walked up the sidewalk like Normal people.

  The magical wards pulsed in my bones as we approached the sliding doors. We each gave each other a look and then crossed into the ATC building like Normal people.

  That was the last ordinary thing we did that night.

  Chapter Twelve

  The magical wards made my whole body tingle as we passed into the lobby of the ATC building.

  It looked like any other lobby I'd ever seen: plastic plants, a water fountain, chairs, two elevators on the other side of the room. The Normal woman behind the counter smiled at us like everything was cool. She must have no idea about the wards and the magical things going on here.

  "Hello," she said. "Can I help you?"

  "Where's the shelter?" I asked, aware that someone had detected us and we had to move. "Where they're keeping the people from the Marsh building?"

  "Nineteenth floor," she said. "Are you relatives?"

  "My cousin's up there," I said. "I wanted to tell her she could come to my house for the night."

  "You'll just need to talk to the people up there. The Chamber of Human Services will be up there. Head on up."

  Yeah. She was clueless. We thanked her and moved to the elevator. The one on the left was humming. Someone was coming down. I tensed and eyed the fake meter stick. It was still a meter stick. The wards hadn't stripped the glamour like I feared.

  Xavier and I took the right elevator. We climbed in and he closed the doors just as the left ones opened and a man asked if someone had come in.

  We were already on our way up. The elevator dinged up through the floors and I prayed that it didn't stop to let anyone else on. Whoever had entered the lobby would have to wait a few minutes to come back up this way. It might have bought us a few minutes.

  "I wonder who the Chamber of Human Services is," Xavier said.

  "They don't sound too bad," I said. "Maybe they're just Bound Normals like the Assistant Mayor. We can handle them."

  "Any cologne?" Xavier asked.

  I sniffed. "No." There was no sewage smell, either. I caught a whiff of more TV dinners and more coffee and even some popcorn but nothing else. It was looking less likely Thoreau was in the building.

  But then I caught another smell.

  Sewage.

  "There's at least one demon in the building," I said.

  "Great," Xavier said. "I've never killed one."

  "To be fair, I haven't, either," I said.

  The smell faded the higher we got. We passed the tenth floor and the eleventh and the scent vanished completely. We were leaving the demon behind. I hoped that Thoreau hadn't decided to wash off his cologne.

  We reached the nineteenth floor and the elevator dinged, then opened.

  There was a long hall in front of us with a desk at the end. Xavier and I marched off the elevator. Right away, it got called back down and hummed as it left us.

  "I think they're coming after us," he whispered. "We don't have time to be nice here."

  I knew what we'd do. We'd free the people trapped in the fake shelter and tell them to get down the emergency steps or something. I passed a door marked with a red exit sign with a picture of stairs on the front. I pushed on it to make sure it could open. Check.

  A man sat at the desk at the end of the hall. He smelled like adrenaline as we approached. He was nervous. Young, maybe even some kind of intern. His name tag said that his name was Travis.

  "The shelter is closed for the night," he said.

  "Bull," I said. "What's really going on here? You're hiding something."

  "I'm not hiding anything."

  "Then why are you so nervous?"

  "I'm not...how did you know I'm..."

  Xavier reached down and grabbed Travis's wrinkled business shirt. "You know something," he said. Then he raised one fist and magenta lightning spiraled around it, fizzling and lighting the hall behind him.

  "I...okay. The people in the shelter are being drained and then Marissa's going to make them and me forget afterwards. They're not letting the people out until someone named Janine gets here." He faced me, pleading. "Are you Janine?"

  I was glad she hadn't tried to come here. She was smart. "Drained?" I asked.

  "Yeah. Of blood. They're going to drain me too if I say anything and then make me forget it even happened."

  Xavier dropped Travis back into his chair and lowered his fist, but the magenta fire remained.

  "Which door?" I asked.

  Travis sank in his chair and thumbed to the right.

  We didn't hesitate. We left poor Travis, who Thoreau had probably tricked into this, and headed into the door. There was another hall on the other side that curved to the left. Someone was crying further down. Another man was cursing and telling someone that this was illegal.

  "You won't remember this," a woman said. "Why do you care?"

  "Ouch!" another woman shouted. "Stop!"

  I had never met Janine's mother, but their voices were so similar that I broke into a run. We left Travis behind and bolted down the hall. There was a single closed door at the end with a camera hanging above it, but it was too late anyway for us.

  I kicked the door and the lock broke. It was designed to keep Normals in.

  The room beyond was dim and lit with candles. We found ourselves in a round chamber with a red swirl pattern on the floor. Marble pillars held up the ceiling with an identical pattern on the ceiling and torches hung next to carved demonic faces. People were sitting along the walls and between the pillars, trying to stay out of sight. There must be three dozen of them, including children and old people and whole displaced families.

  And in the middle of the room was a suited man with combed-back white hair, pale skin, and reddish eyes the same color as mine when I took out my contacts. He looked up at me and withdrew his fangs from the neck of a dark-skinned, tall woman who looked so much like
Janine that I knew she was the one we were looking for.

  "Leave her alone," I demanded.

  He let go of Janine's mother, who groaned in pain and staggered away from him, holding her bloodied neck. One of the women cried out.

  "Who are you?" the man demanded. "You've come to the wrong place if you were wanting me to share. Unless you're with Thoreau you don't belong here. You had better--"

  He didn't get the rest out because Xavier threw the magic charge, hitting him in the chest and throwing him back against one of the pillars. People screamed as his back crunched and he cursed in pain. I knew what that felt like.

  "Run!" I yelled, holding the door open. "Get down the emergency exit!"

  People got up and stampeded for the door, tripping over each other. The adrenaline was intoxicating. I smelled every food I could imagine. If I were hungry this would drive me crazy, but I wasn't. Janine's mother leaned against a pillar, breathing in pain. Her blood smelled like pasta and bread. Her lunch.

  Thoreau had brought these people here just to have his minions feed on them.

  And to make them forget about it afterwards...

  Janine's mother peeled herself from the pillar as a man wrapped an arm around her and helped her to the door. They were the last people out. Footfalls stampeded down the hall and the emergency door opened. I listened as people made their way down and parents ordered children to hurry as if they needed convincing.

  That left the vampire man and one other person.

  A woman in a low-cut black dress emerged from the shadows. She paid no attention to the man still leaning against the pillar as she faced us.

  Her eyes were green with black flecks. They were as deep as the most distant regions of space. She was some kind of Mage, but not the same type as Xavier.

  "A Dark Mage," Xavier whispered.

  The panicked people got farther and farther away. The last of their scent vanished from the room. I hoped they made it down to the surface okay.

  "You took Mr. Colton's meal away from him." She spoke as if we'd just yanked a dinner plate away. "That was rude." She looked right at me. "Would you like that?"

  The elevator dinged in the distance. Whoever had been searching for us was coming up and almost here. Travis wasn't going to stop them.

  And then I caught the sewer smell.

  "And now I'm going to have a harder time tracking down those people and making them forget," the woman said.

  I tugged on Xavier's sleeve. "Demon incoming."

  He turned to the door and held one palm up. A transparent, magical wall formed in the doorway right when a figure on the other side rounded the curve and stopped. The wall flickered with fire, blocking the demon from view and shutting us in there with the Dark Mage.

  "You're an amateur," the Dark Mage said. The black flecks in her eyes got deeper. More hateful. "I can't believe there are Abnormals who are still against Thoreau. Don't you realize he's trying to help us?"

  Behind her, the man struggled to get up. He would heal fast. He had just fed. I knew I should strike but there was something about this woman that told me not to. I'd never met a Dark Mage before. I thought War Mages were as bad as it got.

  "He's not trying to help us," Xavier said. "Why don't the people he takes in here ever come out?"

  "They do," she said. "We let the Normals go after we're done with them and we erase their memories. No one gets hurt. And the Abnormals who stay with us find a cause. Thoreau is building an army. He wants the best of the best. The Normals outside think they're getting rid of us when in reality, they're bringing us together."

  "Then where is this army?" Xavier asked. "Where are my parents?"

  "It depends on how...willing they were to join." The Dark Mage paced in front of us. I raised the sword and pointed it at her. It had already changed. Behind her, the man pushed himself up. I wondered if he was the head of Human Services. How ironic.

  "What do you mean by that?" Xavier asked.

  She smiled. "Those who are willing stay intact. Others serve in...different ways. Have you ever seen a Shadow Wraith? I work well with them."

  Xavier let out a war cry and brought his fist back. At the same time, magenta fire roared around the blade of my sword.

  The Dark Mage moved to the side and the man lunged forward, blurring and going for Xavier. But he was focusing on the woman. He threw his magic charge as the man pulled him by the other arm and bit into his shoulder.

  I let all my fury rise to the surface right along with Xavier's wood smoke scent. His magic sputtered as the man drained his blood.

  "Get away from him!" I moved to the side and stabbed.

  My sword caught the man right in his ribs, penetrating into his lungs. He released Xavier. Blood drops flew. Xavier staggered away, clutching the area between his shoulder and his neck. He was bleeding. I could smell it.

  The man grabbed the sword and tried to pull it from his chest. I screamed and lunged again, driving it in harder, and then retracted it. The man staggered against another pillar, making the torch above waver. I seized the torch and tossed it down on him as he slumped against the wall.

  He screamed as real fire spread across his clothing. The smoke filled the air as the flames found the suit and ate away. I turned back to Xavier, but he had dropped his hand from his wound and raised his other. More magenta fire danced around it as the Dark Mage stood in the middle of the room, her eyes darker than ever. A cloud of blackness rose from the floor and around her like a hundred little snakes, seething and crackling. I had never seen black light before but this was the closest I could think of.

  Xavier threw the fire charge, but the black snakes deflected it and magenta light scattered in all directions like sparks from an explosion. Xavier fell to his knees as the Dark Mage smiled.

  "I love it when inexperienced Mages go up against me," she said. "Do you know how old I am?"

  I didn't give her time to finish Xavier off. Already I felt a bit weaker. Our bond was acting up. His strength draining meant that mine was going, too.

  I charged. The Dark Mage hadn't been expecting this. The fire died around my sword as Xavier crawled back, but it still penetrated the snake shield and sliced into her shoulder.

  The shield died and the Dark Mage backed up, fresh blood bubbling from the wound. It smelled like burning leaves. Like ashes.

  "Alyssa!" Xavier yelled. "The door's--"

  I glanced to the side as the Dark Mage held her hand over her new wound.

  He was right. The force field Xavier had placed in the door was now gone.

  And it was who was standing there that made my jaw drop.

  Right in the door, side by side, stood three people.

  The first was Allunna, the demon I had smelled coming up the stairs.

  The second was Thoreau himself, decked out in his suit and sunglasses.

  And the other was a pale, red-eyed man with a goatee and a leather vest that I hadn't seen since I was two years old.

  Russell Fox.

  The one who had done this to me.

  Chapter Thirteen

  He was the first to step into the room. Russell looked no different than he had that horrible night. It was as if my worst memory had jumped out of my mind and manifested. He flashed me a smile like he was trying to be warm. "Hello, Alyssa. You've really grown."

  "Shut it," I said, raising the sword. It was dripping with so much blood now.

  I had never expected to see Russell Fox again. The police never found him and he was one of the most wanted Abnormals out there. Now I knew where he'd gone. He was with Thoreau the whole time.

  "How did you like my gift?" he asked. "You were one of the lucky ones, you know."

  "Allunna?" Xavier asked next to me. This was news to him, too.

  "Lucky?" I asked. "I wouldn't be standing here if I weren't so lucky." I should attack but Xavier was still getting off the floor, the Dark Mage was behind me and the other guy was still batting the flames out of his suit and seething.

&nbs
p; "Did I do well?" Allunna asked, rubbing her hand up Thoreau's chest and ruffling his suit.

  She had betrayed us.

  Thoreau ignored her like she wasn't trying to come on to him. "You have," he said. "We will see about breaking your bond with that mortal in the coming months."

  She repeated the motion, stopping when her hand was under Thoreau's chin. "It needs to be soon. Leon will die at any time and take me with him."

  Allunna was trying to save her own life. She had switched sides again to do that and she might have betrayed all of Abnormals Underground for all I knew.

  Thoreau turned his sunglasses down to face her. "I'll think about it. You betrayed your kind once. You paired with Leon when you knew it would eventually kill you."

  "We demons always think of ourselves. You of all must know that."

  "True," Thoreau said, pushing her away. "But you wanted revenge on me. It might have been a hundred years ago, but my memory is old."

  "But cutting the bond will kill Leon," Allunna said, her voice like a hiss. "You must do it. His body won't be able to take it."

  Then he turned his gaze on us. "Marissa. Donovan. Go and find the people you let escape. Make sure they forget everything."

  I watched as the two of them gathered themselves and walked to the other side of the circular chamber. The torch was still burning on the marble floor, sputtering and gasping for life. There was a set of narrow stairs cut into the wall that I hadn't noticed before, like some weird optical illusion. The two of them vanished up the steps and went up to what I assumed was the top floor. The portal could be right above us.

  Xavier stood next to me now. He shot me a glance and none of it had to do with his grandfather. Neither one of us cared about Leon. The real danger was Allunna. She knew about Abnormals Underground. Every second we stood here increased the danger. If we didn't get out, nobody down there would know that Thoreau had found a new pool of slaves.