Abnormals underground 01.., p.26
abnormals underground 01 - one to five, page 26
“Us,” Xavier corrected. The three of us remained still, catching every word.
“Even now, Abnormals with nowhere to hide are being picked off by the ATC,” the old man continued. “Thoreau is an expert at inciting fear in both Normals and Abnormals.”
I didn't like the way this meeting was going.
“Is there a way to retrieve the body?” a woman asked. “We must convince those who have fled that they will be safe in the Underground.”
“We do not know where the body is.”
“I say we should spread the word that it is safer in the Underground.”
“I agree.”
Xavier swore. “This is exactly what Elsina thought would happen.”
“But what if the Dark Council really does exist?” a woman asked. “And they do have the body?”
“Thoreau does not know where the Underground is. Otherwise, he would have invaded by now,” the old man said. “Even if he extracts Leon's energy, he needs to know where to direct it and he would need to present in some way. Our wards have indicated that he has never crossed into the Underground.”
“But Leon's battle partner knew about us.”
“Point taken, but she is dead if Leon is dead.” The old man wasn't backing down.
“She had time to tell Thoreau.”
“He would still have to be present,” the old man said. “Our wards are extensive and surround the Underground on all sides. Dark Mages and demons are unable to Transpose like we do. Here is the plan. We will remain in Cumberland's Underground for the next few weeks. If Thoreau tries to invade, we will be able to hold him back long enough for the citizens to escape.”
The Elders all went into argument. I couldn't take it anymore.
“Alyssa, don't,” Xavier warned me.
I shoved the door open on the meeting. Silence fell. The same group of Elders from the funeral sat around on the expensive couches in their magenta robes and slowly, every gaze turned to me.
“You can't send people back into the Underground,” I said. “I know the truth. There is a Dark Council. They have Leon's body because Allunna told us so. You have to go there if you're going to fight Thoreau and save everyone from being vaporized by Leon's magic.”
Tension filled the room and I knew I'd made a huge mistake. The old man who must have been speaking rose from his chair and faced me with a great anger I had only seen in Leon . “You do not interrupt an Elder meeting,” he said. “Battle partners and...children...are not allowed to speak here.”
Aunt Primrose rose from her chair. The color drained from her face. We had embarrassed her. “Ladies and gentlemen,” she said, trying to salvage the situation. “This will not happen again. My nephew was injured in a fight earlier and he had the audacity to bring his battle partner here.”
The old man advanced on me and the room took on a dangerous electrical sensation. I had no weapon and stabbing an Elder War Mage would be a terrible idea.
“We need to leave,” Xavier told me, taking my arm.
I agreed. I had screwed up royally.
“Come on,” Liliana said, taking my other arm. They were both in agreement here.
I turned and followed Xavier and Liliana out the door, letting them pull me away just as a small flash of magenta light exploded with heat. I wasn't sure if the heat from war magic could harm me or not—it was different than fire—but I was not going to stick around and find out.
We squeezed against each other trying to bolt out of the front door. We burst into the hall. Xavier closed it as the door buckled with more war magic. “Run,” he told us, leaning against the door.
We didn't bother with the elevator. The three of us tore down the stairs. None of us spoke until we had made it outside of the apartment building. Xavier panted and Liliana leaned against a pillar. A single car rolled past. It was late. Very late.
Then Xavier glared at me. “Why did you do that?”
“Because they're going to get everyone killed,” I yelled back.
“You can't interrupt the ego masters,” he said. “I'd love to, but you can't. It never ends well for anyone. That's one safe house I can never return to now. If Aunt Primrose sees me again she might literally kill me.”
“I hope that isn't, like, literal. And I interrupted, not you.” Horrible guilt boiled up inside me, threatening to spill over. What had I done? Xavier's life was terrible enough.
“Maybe, but Aunt Primrose will make my life and Liliana's life more of a hell than it already is. We can scratch going back there until the Elders are long gone. As in, a few weeks gone.”
“Xavier,” Liliana said. “What is with you? Things are already bad enough with Leon's body gone and Thoreau about to kill us all.”
“Don't do that. Ever.” Xavier turned on her. “You don't want to deal with the crap that I've...well, you don't want to deal with that crap.”
“Wait,” I said. “Liliana knows about all of this? When did you tell her?”
“When you were guiding Janine and her mother out of the Underground,” Xavier said. “We talked. I do tell my sister what's going on.” He was still half-yelling.
I checked to make sure no one was coming out of the apartment building. “Xavier. Calm down,” I said. “If we followed the rules all the time we'd never get anything done. We still need to find a way to get to those ruins.”
“What ruins?” Liliana asked. She hadn't been with us during our talk with Allunna. Of course she wouldn't know that part.
Police sirens sounded in the distance. There had been a lot of them lately. “Do you think the Elders are right about the authorities picking off all the Abnormals who had to come to the surface?” I asked.
Xavier let out a breath and we walked away from the apartment building. At least Xavier was calming down. “It sounds like it,” he said. “I've heard plenty of sirens around the city, but they seem to be really bad tonight. Maybe we should investigate.”
“I'm not going against the police,” I said. “I don't have a weapon. It's the ATC people I want to go after.”
“I'm sorry, but your sword is gone,” Xavier said. “The cops would have taken it after they got to that rooftop. We cannot return to the scene of the crime.”
“I know that,” I said. “But I'm going to need a weapon. That's how I fight. I don't know if I can just throw fireballs the way you can.”
“I'm not sure about that,” Xavier said. “We have a bond, but it's not a strong one.”
“We can't make it strong,” I said.
“I know.”
He sounded so disappointed that I couldn't help but rethink everything I thought I knew about him still pining for the pixie girl. I had no time to dwell on that. Dad was still missing and so were Xavier's parents. Thoreau could do something horrible to them at any time. It was my hope that he still needed them as bargaining chips. He would have to leave them whole for that.
I would face him again. At the ruins or here in Cumberland, I would meet Thoreau again.
“Is there a novelty shop around here that sells swords?” I asked.
“Those are display swords,” Xavier said. “They're not sharpened the way they should be. Wall hangers are different than the real thing. We're going to have a hard time finding any good ones around here. The same goes for finding a portal. Unless...no. We don't want to go there.”
“Where?” Liliana asked.
“To The Pit,” Xavier said.
“The Pit?” I asked. “You mean, like the Infernal Dimension?” I'd heard some people refer to the place as The Pit.
“It's a nightclub,” Xavier said. “I've never been there, but some pretty bad Abnormals hang out at the place. It's not something we could walk into and count on coming back out alive. The woman who owns the place is a half-demon by the name of Beatrix. She also heads the Smurch crime family.”
“So she could sell us some weapons,” I said. “Whose side is she on?”
“No one's,” Xavier said. “Most demons serve themselves. Even half demons are that way. We could buy weapons from her, but there's a problem. She might not want to deal with us. And there's another issue. A War Mage killed her father who was the demon in her family, so I'm sure she doesn't have a liking for us.”
“That might be a problem,” I said. We crossed an intersection. The light on the horizon was getting pink. It was almost dawn. “There must be an easier way to get weapons.”
“There are plenty of better ways. We could ask Thorne. But a portal is another story. Your instructor doesn't have one of those lying around. There's a rumor that Beatrix does.”
“So we have to talk to her to get to it,” I said. “Or fight to it.”
Xavier paused at the intersection of the next street. “We need to get inside,” he said. “The sun's coming up. Thorne's place might be as good as any. Where's Janine and her mother hiding?”
“They went to stay with her cousin,” I said, a grin coming over my face. “He's the one who's actually a werewolf and Janine's mother doesn't know.”
“We might need Janine again,” Xavier said, “if we make Thorne mad by telling him what we plan on doing.”
Chapter Eleven
Due to the coming morning, we had to look up, in a hurry, where Thorne lived. I found an actual phone book in a booth and paged through it until I found his last name. Johnson. All three of us groaned when we saw that it was just behind Smith in commonness. Meanwhile, the sun was rising and my skin was starting to prickle with discomfort. I might be immune to fire now, but sunlight was different. The world was too bright and the beginnings of a headache were starting.
Thorne was on the fifth page of Johnsons. He lived in an apartment on the other side of the city. “Can we take the Underground there?” I asked.
“I was going to mention that,” Xavier said. “Yeah. We need to take the Underground most of the way there. I think we should stick with the sewer system and not the actual Underground.”
More sirens went off. I hoped it wasn't another Abnormal being discovered and carted away. We were dropping like flies. Thoreau's forces were picking off the ones who had fled to the surface and had nowhere safe to go. The rest would return to the Underground at the words of that Elder War Mage and face the flames of the demon mayor's wrath as soon as he found a way to extract Leon's power.
Xavier waved me and Liliana to a sewer and we climbed down, me into the relief of darkness. Then it was my turn to lead him and his sister along the side of a trickling river of sewer water in the very dim, almost nonexistent light.
It took forever, hours almost, to reach the other side of town. We didn't descend any further into the sewer, to where the real Underground was below, but we didn't need to. I hoped no one was still left down there. I still worried about Janine and her mother. I hadn't seen them in hours, but it felt like forever. Thoreau knew that they had discovered his secret. If there was time, I would check on them before we left for that nightclub.
We followed street names in white paint on the walls of the sewer. Xavier had been down here many times, which helped us navigate. At last, Xavier climbed a ladder. “I think this is the right street,” he said, lifting the cover and peering out into the full sunlight. “Yes. Thorne must live in apartment. I think I see an old blanket by that Dumpster over there. I'll grab that for you and you can cover yourself while we run to the building.”
I squinted and backed away from the light. Xavier jumped out, leaving me and Liliana waiting. She hadn't said much on the way over here, just a remark or two about how her feet were killing her. The poor girl hadn't slept all night and the fatigue was there under her eyes in dark bags. She was also hungry. She didn't smell like anything right now, like most people did throughout the day. I had forgotten how small thirteen year olds looked and I could see why Xavier wanted to protect her from Leon and the rest of his family. He had made the mistakes and taken me on to keep them off her back. It was a noble thing to do.
“You have a great brother,” I told her.
“He messes up a lot,” she said, looking at the wall.
“No. You have a great brother,” I said. “You have no idea what he's gone through to keep crap away from you.”
She sighed and looked away. “I wish he didn't make everyone so mad.”
“He has to. None of us like making people mad.”
Xavier returned with the blanket. “I don't think this one is too bad,” he said.
He didn't have the sense of smell I did. It smelled like dirty clothes. Someone had been sleeping on it in the recent past, someone who hadn't had the chance to shower in that same time frame. But it was better than sun sickness. I cast the blanket over myself and we climbed into the daylight above.
It was noon. We emerged in another alley and Xavier took my hand. We scrambled around the building, staying in the quiet and out of sight. More police sirens sounded and a black van that might be from the ATC sped past on the street. They didn't slow for us. It was a busy day at the ATC. They were getting a lot of new “patients.”
“In,” Xavier said, taking me and Liliana through a dingy side door.
Thorne's building was run down and in disrepair. The old steps were crumbling in places. Paint was peeling. I hadn't realized my martial arts instructor lived like this. It smelled like fast food, bad cooking, and even alcohol and hopelessness in places. This was an area far from downtown. It was as if Thorne had rejected the lifestyles of the people he trained. His Normal students were wealthy. I'd always thought Thorne would be the same.
We found his apartment number on the top floor. The door was locked and he wasn't home. I couldn't smell him. “Now what?” I asked.
“Easy. We break in,” Xavier said. “My family can pay for the lock on his door.”
“Wait,” I said.
Xavier lifted one hand and a magenta glow surrounded it, turning to lightning bolts that danced around each other.
“Xavier!” Liliana hissed. “Stop doing stupid things.”
“Be quiet,” I told her. “He's doing this to keep you safe. Thorne will understand.”
Well, I hoped. He was Normal but he still had some fighting skills.
The lock gave with no problem when Xavier tossed the charge at it. The door swung in and showed us a really worn down apartment with a tube TV on a stand and a bunch of fast food drink cups all over the end table. The couch was scratched up and several cats lay together on it. Every single cat picked up its head, eyed me, and ran towards the back of the place. One slid on the kitchen linoleum and slid into a chair on the way. It sounded like a stampede of little feet.
“I hate it when that happens,” I said. It always made me feel like a freak.
Xavier closed the door with care and did the bolt. “That still works,” he said. “I'll explain everything. Liliana, you might want to sleep on the couch. I'll cook something for you.”
I waited for her to protest about the cat hair but she didn't. Liliana flopped onto the couch, right in the middle of the hairs and scratches as if it were most comfortable bed in the world. Xavier smiled at me. “I take it you don't ever cook?”
“I made some cookies for Foods once,” I said. “That was weird. I had to tell everyone in class that day that I was sick and couldn't sample any of the food.”
“And?” Xavier asked.
“I burned the cookies. I had never cooked before. Janine still said they were good but I think she was just trying to make me feel better.”
“You should leave this for me,” he said. “I've made a few things. Toasted cheese, mostly. Usually Nora makes my food, but she's so busy dealing with everyone else's demands that I like to give her a break. I'd do it more, but if I messed up the kitchen I'd just make Aunt Primrose go through the roof at everybody.”
“You're not like the rest of your family.” Xavier was a good guy.
“I don't want to be,” he said. “They hate that I never want to be home and they wonder why. Maybe you should sleep, too.”
I wondered where my next meal would come from and if Xavier would witness it. I had gotten lucky last time. The librarian might be in the hospital right now, getting tested for the rare gene that a vindictive part of me hoped that he had.
And despite not sleeping in over twenty-four hours, I still had a lot of energy. I felt like I could go for another day without it, but it might be a good idea to rest if the next stop was The Pit. So I wandered into the living room, found a spot on the floor that wasn't too gross, and lay on my back, staring at the ceiling. I was glad I'd be sleeping while Xavier and Liliana ate. I wouldn't have any horrible urges while they took on the smell of heavenly toasted cheese.
* * * * *
“At least I know why my lock is busted,” Thorne said.
I came to. It was still daylight. Some of it was pouring through the kitchen window ahead and a lone cat had dared come out to sniff my socks with its cold little kitty nose. But as soon as I sat up, the cat darted into the back of the apartment.
Thorne stood in front of the now-closed front door, the bolt done tight. He nodded to me and offered a hand. I took it and let him help me up. I caught a glimpse of his scarred wrist, where some of his other students had bitten him over the years, drawing blood for their tests. He had offered me that same wrist right before fighting Allunna and I had refused.
Xavier had been watching.
And if he offered now, I still couldn't do it, not even after the librarian. It was different when it was people that I knew.
“We had to get in,” Xavier said, empty plate in hand. He and Liliana were sitting on the couch. “We had nowhere else to go.”
They smelled like toasted cheese now, both of them. A mixture of food and wood smoke filled the room. Thorne, on the other hand, carried no scent right now. He was hungry.
“Who did you make angry?” Thorne asked. “What member of your family?”
“It was my fault,” I said. “I interrupted an Elder War Mage meeting. I only knew the fact that Thoreau was planning to vaporize the whole Underground and one of the guys wanted to move everyone back there, but me interrupting was way worse than that.”
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