Abnormals underground 01.., p.18
abnormals underground 01 - one to five, page 18
The Shadow Wraiths wouldn't turn him. Thoreau wanted me to have his war magic. I raised the sword, screamed, and charged at Russell Fox.
The one who had done this to me.
The one who had ruined my life.
He had no time to move. His eyes opened with shock as I plowed the blade into his heart.
Russell backed into two Shadow Wraiths, who billowed and moved out of the way for him. I could tell by the despair in his eyes that the damage was already done. They had touched him. He was doomed.
We stared at each other and I drew the sword out.
Russell sank to his knees and looked up at me. "I'm sorry," he said, clutching his chest. His other hand splayed out on the floor and I caught something new on his forearm. A black mark, shaped like a drop of ink.
"Thoreau," he begged as smoke rose from his chest. Embers spread across Russell and he screamed from the pain. He was burning from the inside. I had impaled him in the heart. Even without the Wraiths he was a goner.
This must be how vampires died.
"Come on!" Xavier grabbed my arm and dragged me through the opening while Russell Fox continued to burn. We bolted up the stairs while black shadows and cloth swished towards us and Thoreau shouted a command for them to follow. The stairs were narrow and we passed torch after torch lit on the marble walls. We were headed to the final floor.
The portal floor.
Thoreau thundered up after us. I yanked Xavier up the stairs and into another, much larger marble chamber surrounded by large glass windows. Some were partly open on a catwalk and all were tinted, dimming Cumberland beyond.
And in the middle of the room was a round, clear pool. It was surrounded in red glyphs with a golden star in the middle, shining in the torch light. The place was empty. Marissa and the man had gone.
"That's the portal," Xavier shouted. "It's not active. There's no time to start it. I have to get you out of here."
"Where's the exit?" The room was completely closed. If there was a door it was hidden. The only way out was the open windows.
We didn't have to say anything. It was time to flee. Xavier and I squeezed out of the first window together just when the first Shadow Wraiths billowed their way up the stairs and spread out towards us. Thoreau roared behind them. Russell Fox screamed. There was no fighting this.
The stiff night wind blasted against us. Cars moved on the streets far below. The two of us stood on a narrow catwalk and there was nowhere else to go. This was meant for someone to wash windows, not to escape. My vision sharpened. No ladders. I wasn't sure if I could survive a fall like this and Xavier definitely couldn't.
The first of the Shadow Wraiths reached the window. I stabbed and my sword impaled a body that might not be there. The Wraith drew back, only to allow two more to squeeze through in its place, hoods first. They could get through anything. I wasn't going to hold them back.
I backed away and seized Xavier's hand.
He leaned close. "Ready for an experiment? I won't let them touch you."
I nodded, holding my sword as the first Wraith straightened up on the catwalk and then the second. They were pouring through a window behind us as well. Thoreau roared again. "Now what?"
"We jump."
"We'll both die." Xavier's death would mean mine.
"We might not. Trust me. Don't let go."
The Wraiths closed in. I was done living the way Thoreau had directed.
Xavier and I climbed over the railing together and jumped.
I screamed as the ground spun, then surged closer. Wind blasted against my face and Xavier tightened his grip on mine. I hoped it would be fast. He pulled me closer. I could make out the people walking below, some men coming out of a fancy bar. Ambulances parked around the block, lights flashing. The lines in the sidewalk. These could be the last sights for me. I gave one final thought to Janine, that she would be all right and that she had found--
Magenta fire exploded around us and we were falling again, through heat and light, and then we landed.
The sidewalk. We were standing on it now as the light faded, catching our breaths. I was dizzy. Xavier still had his hand in mine, squeezing so much I might never feel it again.
He had Transposed us to the ground.
We were alive.
"Run," he told me. "We're too close."
I looked behind me. The red letters of the ATC building glowed far overhead. We stood feet from the entrance. A few cars slowed down to gawk at us, at the people who had materialized out of magic fire.
We ran.
I carried Xavier again--it was my turn--and bolted around the corner and across the street, weaving around the moving cars. He was bleeding from his shoulder again, right onto my arm. His blood still smelled like wood smoke and something more exotic, but as long as Thoreau wanted to complete the darkness inside of me, it was something I could never taste.
Chapter Fourteen
We found Janine and her mother two streets over. Her mother was sitting in an ambulance while a paramedic dressed her wound and told her she'd need to have her blood tested to make sure she didn't have the gene that would make her turn. The paramedic also told her that the chances were only one in five hundred, which helped her mother calm down.
"Thoreau is a vile man," her mother said, patting the bandage over her neck. "Tell everyone what he really is. He's not trying to get rid of the Abnormals like everyone thinks. He likes them!"
The paramedic faced us while we stood there, watching her seethe from the pain.
Xavier and I backed away. It was clear where Janine's mom stood.
Janine led us to the corner and into a nearby clothing store. We stood surrounded by expensive tops and jeans but at least there was no perfume. No demon was trying to cloak their presence here. "You guys might not want to meet my mom after all. She didn't kill me too badly but I'm going to have to tell her the truth eventually."
"We have to hide your mother," Xavier said. "She's not going to like the Underground but she needs it. Thoreau will be after her just like the rest of us."
"Okay," she said. "I take that back. She really will kill me all the way. I haven't even told her about my cousin yet."
"Don't," I said. "Not yet, anyway."
"Did you see your parents?" Janine asked.
I shook my head. "We saw the portal, though. Xavier said it wasn't activated."
"I don't know how to do that," he said. "Thoreau would know. Maybe we need a demon to open it. Getting back up there, though..."
He let the silence hang. Another ambulance arrived outside to check out the people who had fled the ATC building. I wondered how Thoreau was going to cover this up. Marissa hadn't found everyone yet.
"We'll figure it out," I said. "Did you see the fire? Around me?"
"It should have killed you," Xavier said. "I don't know what that was about or what Thoreau was up to. It made me rage so hard I killed Allunna. I guess Leon's dead too. I'll have to head down and explain that to the Underground. I couldn't let her live. She was going to sell them out if she hasn't already."
"You did the right thing," I said.
I hugged Xavier. He was warm and so alive and full of freedom.
"What's this?" he asked.
"It's called a hug," I said. "It's what people do when they're showing affection for each other."
"Oh," he said. "Of course I know that."
Behind him, Janine smiled.
And Xavier hugged me back. "Thanks. Really."
"Is it true that I have to bite you to complete our bond?"
Xavier nodded against my shoulder. "Yes. Maybe you shouldn't. At least, not right now. We don't want to help Thoreau any more than he's already been helped. I'm not sure what that fire around you did, but I have a feeling it might have brought you closer to whatever he wants you to be." We separated. "Do you feel any different?"
"No," I said. "I feel fine. You're saying Thoreau might have changed me somehow?"
"I don't know. But the way that guy you stabbed started dying was not normal. Vampires just crumble into dust when they die. They don't burn like everyone thinks. My magic doesn't cause actual fires, so it wasn't me."
I shuddered. "So I might have done that. That guy was the one who bit me, by the way."
"Or Thoreau was putting him out of his misery," Xavier said. "He was doomed either way."
"What happened up there?" Janine asked.
"We'll give you all the juicy details later," I said. "Right now, we need to go find some answers. And we need to get your mother to the Underground. You'll love it down there, Janine."
* * * * *
Later, after we had convinced Janine's mother to follow us underground, gotten a chew-out session from Trish and wound up back in her infirmary for a check-up, Xavier, Janine and I stood before Elsina's little booth in the torchlight. Elsina first took Xavier's arm and rolled up his sleeve.
He had a magenta slash on his skin right above the crossed swords. It was his trophy for killing his first demon.
"Very good," she said. "I'm so proud of you, Xavier. Your power has grown a bit stronger." Then the old woman took my arm and rubbed her thumb up and down over my mark. "You have not solidified your bond yet. And...there is something burning inside of you. Something I have never felt before." Elsina raised her eyes to mine. She had blue flecks in them, blue like the deepest summer sky. "I do not know what it is. We will need to seek out the oldest libraries if we are to have any hope of finding out."
I was a freak. Awesome.
Xavier slipped his hand back into mine. "I don't care what it is," he told me. "Leon's gone and we're free to stay here. Do you want to stay?"
I nodded. "Yes. I do."
And the three of us walked down the corridor, towards where our quarters were waiting.
Chapter One
We stood out of sight at Leon’s funeral. It was best, since Xavier was responsible for his grandfather's death.
I squeezed Xavier's hand, which was shaking and cold. My best friend, Janine, stood on the other side of me. I was glad there weren't many others on the balcony with us. People were few and far between. Shadows shrouded us on the balcony while the bored crowd below stood listless in the huge underground chamber. Huge torches on the walls spit. It was always torches or candles down here. Using electricity from above would alert the city of Cumberland that there was a whole community of Abnormals right under their feet.
The crowd of werewolves (the hairier people), vampires, Mages (most of which wore long colored robes) occasional scaly incubi and succubi and even a few Normals who worked alongside the Underground filled the chamber, but they all parted to leave a long red carpet free of feet. It was like watching two massive walls of people come apart. The chamber must be at least half the size of a football field. Indoor waterfalls fell in rows along the walls, spraying those who were too close. This was some huge ballroom that was probably used for happier things.
Well, Leon's funeral wasn't that unhappy. Xavier's grandfather had tried to destroy him with war magic, after all, and had banished him from the underground. War Mages valued honor over flesh and blood. Well, some of them did and Xavier hated the whole thing. We had only been allowed to return to the underground due to Leon's death.
“I didn't realize there were so many Abnormals in just one city,” I said, trying to distract Xavier from the obvious.
“There are more,” he said. “Not everyone wanted to come to Leon's funeral. These people are here because they have to be.”
I knew Leon was hated by many down here for his cruel ways. Thorne, my martial arts teacher, sure didn't like the man since Leon had tried to roast me along with Xavier—and all because Xavier and I got Bound before I could prove myself in a rigged fight. Leon had been all about the family honor thing. Xavier was a stain on that who had to go.
But he was still Xavier's grandfather and the pain was there in my battle partner's eyes.
I searched the crowd below for Thorne. He was Normal, but often hung out down here and trained people like me to fight. I couldn't spot him. He had a life on the surface, a Normal life where he could go out in the sun and enjoy Normal things. I spotted Les, who Xavier said was a werewolf. He looked like a very hairy human but Xavier had told me that changed whenever he wanted that to. I spotted Trish, Xavier’s only mother figure. She wore a blue Victorian dress today and was minus her lab coat. Her pale skin glowed in the torch light and her eyes were reddish around the pupils, like the eyes of all vampires (which was why I made sure to put in my contacts every day.) I even spotted Elsina, the old Seer Mage standing near the front of the room. She was decked out in her blue robe that told everyone what kind of magic she had. There was a color code among the Mages. Wear your color was the rule.
And the casket.
Leon lay inside, even more old and withered than before and decked out in what had to be his best purple robe. He looked fake. Stuffed. I could smell the embalming fluid from up here. I was glad Xavier, being human, couldn’t. It was revolting.
Xavier wouldn’t look up or at the sight in the casket. I couldn’t blame him.
“You didn't kill him, well, directly,” I said.
“I killed his battle partner. That's the same thing,” he said. “They drag the other into death when one dies.”
“Allunna manipulated you the whole time. You had to do it to protect the people down here from Thoreau.” Allunna the succubus had been Leon's battle partner and her death had taken Leon with her. In her later years, she had worked with Thoreau, the demonic mayor of Cumberland, in the hopes that he could break her bond from the aging human Mage who would die soon. She may or may not have told Thoreau about the community hiding right under his feet. Xavier hadn't had a choice but to do what he did.
“Something's happening,” Janine whispered, leaning over the balcony.
My Normal best friend was hiding down here with the rest of us thanks to Thoreau. She knew Thoreau's secret and had to be kept safe. Ever since getting down here, she'd been exploding with curiosity. Janine loved Abnormal stuff while other Normal people hated us. She had a second cousin who had been turned into a werewolf years ago and she'd been fascinated ever since.
But she was right. The crowd below was parting for several very old people all clothed in purple robes. More War Mages. Probably Elder War Mages. They walked down the aisle like a bunch of exalted priests and people backed away from them, even the few other War Mages in the crowd. Elder War Mages were scary. I knew because I'd met the one now lying still. These ones looked as if they'd come from around the world and there were a dozen of them.
I wondered if they’d all Transposed in from somewhere, then come in through the huge wooden double doors on the other end of the room. Xavier had told me that the Elder War Mages were all over the world, usually hiding out under cities to stay out of sight of the Normals. These people looked as if they’d come from all over the world.
No one dared breathe until the dozen of them reached Leon's casket. They stood around it in formation, puffing themselves up. Next to me, Xavier sighed. The torches in the room dimmed, died, then came back to life with magenta flames. A strange glow fell over the whole room.
“Egos,” Xavier muttered.
Smoke filled the air up here and the ventilation was bad but at least it was masking the embalming fluid smell. Dad had refused to go to funerals ever since Russell Fox bit us fourteen years ago and now I knew why.
Dad. He was still a prisoner of Thoreau. He was in the Infernal Dimension in an enchanted sleep right along with Xavier's parents. They together were bargaining chips to get us both back into Thoreau's clutches.
I had done nothing to save him.
One of the Elder War Mage women began to speak with a hefty African accent. “Leon Lovelli,” the woman was saying, her voice almost as raspy as the dead man’s had been. “He was among the most powerful of us, having killed fourteen demons in his long life of one hundred and two years. When he was forty-two he married Estelle Johnson, a Normal, hardworking woman and had six children. Two inherited his magic and went on to continue the magical Lovelli line. The other four went on to live Normal lives. However, his marriage ended when it became known to Estelle that his battle partner was Allunna, the succubus who once was the lover of Thoreau.”
Some people down in the crowd snickered. Leon was not being honored here. Xavier had been right that the other Elder War Mages were looking down on him. It was no wonder the man had been so desperate to restore his honor.
But it hadn't all been Xavier's fault. Maybe, not even his fault at all. Xavier had been the scapegoat. The thought made me wish Leon was alive so I could see what it was like to bite someone after my mistake in the second grade.
Next to me, Xavier’s fists clenched. “I knew there was more to that than just Allunna being his battle partner.”
“Well, she was a succubus after all,” I said.
“I can’t blame my grandmother for leaving him.”
The laughter died below. A now-magenta torch spit and flared, then went out as if Leon’s angry ghost were watching over everyone. Could it be doing that? We were in the world of Abnormals after all. Even though everyone knew vampires and werewolves and pixies and demons existed, people still weren’t sure if ghosts were real or not. There were lots of stories and sightings but scientists had yet to prove it.
“Leon’s demon slaying career continued until nineteen eighty five when he was elevated to the Elder War Mage of Cumberland,” the woman continued. “The unfortunate passing of his much-loved sister, Nina, elevated him to the position. Here he served as Cumberland's Elder War Mage and leader of the Cumberland Underground for over forty years. During this final part of his career, Leon Lovelli took an approach of remaining quiet, peaceful and keeping the Underground out of sight.” The mockery was still there. A few other people snickered.
Yes. Leon had not been liked. It was no wonder no one tried to stop me and Xavier from returning to the Underground.
Xavier remained quiet. I could sense his torment. He couldn't show his face down there if he was the one responsible for his death. I wasn't sure how common knowledge it was yet. I was sure Trish knew and Elsina knew but I couldn't see even Trish, who hated my guts, sharing the news with the world.
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