"Nice move," Xavier managed. "Are you sure you're bad at driving?"

  "I'm sure that was illegal," I said, wanting to melt with the near miss. We weren't done yet. This side of the freeway, heading out of the city, wasn't nearly as crowded. It was another saving grace. I continued to drive and we passed the exit that the police had all gotten off of. They expected us to be heading into the city now. I thought of Mack and how much we needed him.

  I had no choice but to drive away from him now.

  Chapter Eleven

  The van had plenty of gas. That was another saving grace because stopping at a gas station would have been too risky. We drove through medium sized towns, then small towns, then finally countryside. Cumberland turned into a gathering of lights in the dark behind us.

  We had driven for over half an hour.

  "I think we're safe," Xavier said at that point. "Alyssa...I have to pee."

  I pulled off at an exit that promised a 24 hour McDonald's. We had to stop and find a way to contact Mack. If we couldn't get to him, he'd have to come out to us. To get to Mack, I'd have to call Janine and ask her and George to go to the junkyard. Neither one of them were wanted.

  The clock on the van said that it was twelve thirty. There was no risk of the sun for a while yet.

  I didn't know the name of the town I pulled off at. I had never been in this area before. I stopped at the McDonald's and parked back near the Dumpster to hide the broken windows. Xavier ran inside and I wondered if the two agents in the back had to go, but we couldn't risk letting them out here. I'd ask Xavier to go back in and get them some food when he was done, but he took a while inside and then came out with a couple of large bags. We'd been thinking the same way. One had to be for him and the other for the agents in the back.

  He got in and the food smells overtook me. "Thanks for stopping," he said. "I should eat as much as I can so I can keep my strength up. We need to keep the agents well fed in case you need them again. Well, the man. The woman's still weak." He looked in the back. "We should drive away from here before we feed them."

  So the food was for both of us. Xavier, obviously, but it was also indirectly for me. He was trying to do a better job of providing for me.

  "Thanks," I said, as much as I hated the thought of having to bite the man as well. I wasn't hungry now, but I might be again tomorrow night with the way I was fighting and running from the authorities. I was disturbed by how routine it was becoming.

  I drove us out of the town and down a dirt road that was a lot like the one the bunker was down. Weeds slapped at the van as we drew closer to a lake that was sparkling in the starlight. I stopped on a small sandy beach and the fresh air here was amazing. I hadn't realized how much pollution I was smelling before leaving Cumberland.

  Behind me, the woman groaned. She needed to eat.

  "Xavier," I said. "Maybe you should feed the two of them. I'll wait by the doors while they eat."

  He was already wolfing down a Big Mac. My battle partner had thrown all caution to the wind now that I had already bitten someone tonight. After our scrape at the movie theater, he wasn't trying to starve himself anymore. It gave me hope not just in his health and fighting ability, but in us as well.

  Maybe.

  "This is good," he said. "I know I shouldn't be eating all this junk food, but--"

  "You burn all the calories," I said. "It's not like you're going to get fat." Now that I thought of it, I had never seen an overweight War Mage.

  "It's still not good for me."

  "You still need to eat. I'm glad you are."

  "Well, you just fed," Xavier said. "If we work together, neither one of us will have to starve."

  "Again, I'm sorry."

  "Don't be. It's Thoreau's fault, not yours."

  "Then why do you look at me like I'm some kind of horrible monster?"

  There. I blurted it out and waited for a shocked Xavier to answer.

  "I'm not looking at you like you're a monster," he said. "It's just...sometimes there's blood involved, you know?"

  "Of course there is," I said. "I kind of need it."

  "And that's not your fault." Xavier looked out the window as he chewed and then he reached for a fry.

  I had the feeling there was something he wasn't telling me. How many more secrets could he hold?

  Or maybe he knew something about me that I didn't.

  "What do you think the final two pieces in me are?" I asked. "The ones Thoreau wants to wake up?"

  He flinched. I was getting closer. That was what he was afraid of, not so much the fact that I had to bite people now in order to live.

  "Well, three are woken up completely. The fourth one is full access to my War Magic. The fifth...I don't know. That's what worries me."

  "I don't know what it even is," I said. I wanted to stop having this conversation for some reason. "If we play careful, we won't have to find out. That's why I need to call Janine and let her know to send Mack out here."

  "That guy creeps her out."

  "She'll send George, then," I said. I got out her phone, which she had let me borrow. It took me a long time to navigate it and figure out how to actually place a call.

  Janine picked up right away. She was up late.

  "Hey," she said.

  "You still sound a bit sick," I said.

  "I think I'm feeling better," she told me. "I had a good meal not too long ago. George cooked steaks. Extra rare. They actually tasted pretty good."

  "I'm glad you ate," I said.

  "So, I take it you got away from the chase. They're baffled and they can't find you."

  "I knew you'd see it on the news," I said. "No one's around George's house, tapping our call, are they?"

  "They don't know about George or my phone. You're talking on a new one I bought this week. I don't trust the government especially now that I know about Thoreau."

  She sounded peppy and I breathed out a sigh of relief that I was sure she could hear. Janine definitely sounded like she was feeling better. I had gotten all worked up over nothing.

  "We're well out of Cumberland," I said. I told Janine exactly where we were and which exit we had gotten off on. She gasped when she realized we were so far out of town. "I don't think we'll be able to get back in for a while. We need Mack to come out to us. If he refuses, tell him that this is necessary for me to get to Death and place his request." I wasn't sure if this would lead me back to her, but I had to try this. I was willing to bet Thoreau might be waiting inside that bunker or he had placed some other Dark Council members there. Death might even be included, even though she was the least likely one with her supposed neutral attitude. The story she would see, though, might make it worth it for her.

  Mack had helped us. It was only right to grant his request to not be a Dark Mage anymore. I sympathized with that.

  "I'll head out there with George," Janine said. "The guy is creepy."

  "I know he is. But we can't go back to Cumberland unless we're in disguise," I said. That also meant repairing the windows but we couldn't just take this van to a shop. I wondered if Dark Magic had the ability to repair things. So far, I hadn't seen any magic that could. War Magic could only hurt and kill. Xavier had even told me some considered it dark for that reason.

  Janine got off the phone with me and all we could do was wait. The night was getting older and the waxing moon was now slowly sinking toward the horizon. I hoped that Mack got us disguised well before the sun came up. If that happened, I'd have no choice but to ride in the back of the van, even with a glamour over me. It might put a dent in our plan.

  While we were waiting, Xavier and I got out and walked around on the beach a bit, which was closed. The two agents were still locked inside the van and after about fifteen minutes of stretching our legs, we went back and threw them in some food. The woman accepted the burger we gave her and the man was reluctant to eat at first. He glared at me like I was trying to fatten him up. In a sense, I was. Depending on how long this took, he could be my victim later.

  The woman's weak condition kept them from trying to escape. The man wouldn't leave without the woman. It was obvious they might be a couple. We had that to our advantage.

  Xavier asked them if they had to go to the bathroom but the woman was thirsty and the man shook his head. She slurped down her entire large drink without any other cares.

  "Try to sleep," I told them. "I promise, we're not going to kill either one of you."

  "How are we supposed to believe that?" the man asked.

  I closed the door. There was nothing to make them believe me. Xavier and I walked around the beach some more until we heard a beat-up car crunching and groaning towards us from the road. I tensed and removed my sword from my belt but then I smelled something like a cold cave. It was the scent of a Dark Mage.

  Mack parked next to us in an old, beat-up Honda that must have come from the junkyard he managed. Mack was wearing a tank top and regular jeans today. Besides the black flecks in his brown eyes, he looked like a Normal. Due to being a Dark Mage, Mack lived the life of a hermit kind of how George did. Dark Mages always gravitated towards evil, which was the reason Mack hadn't endangered people by being their friend. He was ready to have a future. The look in his eyes was desperate.

  "So you still haven't met with Death," Mack said, leveling a glare at me.

  "Not yet," I lied. "We just might be able to. I think she could be hanging out with Thoreau and that Thoreau is in that bunker they're taking all the Abnormals to."

  "That makes sense to me," Mack said. "If they're ready to end the world, she'll be there. All the Dark Council members must be gathering."

  "We've met four," I said. "You don't want to know who the newest one is. She wasted twelve armed ATC agents."

  "Sounds like someone Thoreau would want in his circle," Mack said. "Everyone who knows the truth about the mayor knows he doesn't care about the people who work for him."

  "He sure doesn't," I said. "Now, we can't be wasting time on catching up with each other. Can you glamour us to look like two ATC agents?"

  Mack thought. "I believe I might be able to," he said. "I once glamoured myself to look like a celebrity. I scored an easy date that way. Of course, I couldn't continue the relationship, but I sure had some fun."

  "Which celebrity?" Xavier asked, interested.

  "Just an actor," Mack said. "I was able to grab a hair of his while waiting for an autograph. I won't say who it was, but the glamour brought me more trouble that it was worth. It's amazing how people swarm celebrities when they so much as sneeze. Don't ever do it."

  "How long did your disguise last?" I asked.

  "Mine lasted for six hours. I'm guessing that if I glamour two people, it might last for three. It requires a lot of magic and it would have to be split between the two of you. And by the way, our agreement still stands. You ask Death to remove my Dark Magic and we will be forever even."

  "What if we don't find Death?" I asked. "It's no guarantee that she'll be there but we'll do our best to find her."

  "Then you will try again," Mack said with a dark look on his face. "And again, if you need to."

  "We will," I promised.

  Mack circled around the van and stood at the back door. "Did you pluck some hairs from the agents?" he asked.

  "I did when I was feeding them," Xavier said, pulling a hair from each pocket. "The short one belongs to the man, obviously. Don't mix them up, please."

  I laughed, even though this wasn't the time to do it. Mack took the two hairs, one in each hand, and walked away from the van to the open beach. "We'll be lucky if we don't get caught down here," he said. "The rite is going to take some time. It's a good thing there's a lake here. The prep alone is time consuming. I'm sorry about that."

  "It's fine," I said.

  Mack got out a plastic baggie and dropped the two hairs inside. He stuffed it into his pocket and asked that we didn't look as he bathed in the lake. He said that this part was to purify himself before a rite. Xavier and I went around and stood on the other side of the van while Mack went to do what he had to do. Xavier explained that this was a normal part of prepping for any magical rite. It was why Mack had showered before opening up that portal to the Infernal Dimension for us.

  "Why didn't you bathe before bringing Leon back?" I asked.

  He flushed. "There was so much magic to work with in those ruins that I didn't have to," Xavier said. "Those weren't normal circumstances. These are normal circumstances. Rites have to be done a certain way and you have to enter the right state of consciousness."

  "I wouldn't want to purify myself in that lake. There's seaweed floating in it that you can't see."

  Mack waded around. I could hear his feet sinking into mud. He breathed slowly, concentrating. Maybe the nature of this place would help him do this right. In my opinion, a place like this with towering, old trees and pure starlight would be better for magic than a junkyard. It could be fortunate we had wound up in this place. Glamouring people had to be a difficult rite.

  Mack took about ten minutes in the lake. We waited on the other side of the van and I listened to him dress. Mack then walked over in his now-soggy clothes and opened the back door of his car, producing a folding table, candles, and a black altar cloth. Xavier and I watched him set up while he focused on his breathing. He must be trying to keep a certain state of mind. I didn't dare interrupt. He worked with purpose and deep concentration. I had seen Mack prepare for a rite before in his living room and this was similar.

  For now, he had pushed his shame aside. It couldn't get in the way of the rite.

  Mack set up some candles in a ring on the beach, big enough for us to stand inside. He motioned for us to step inside the circle he had created. He then muttered some low words in the magical tongue that only Mages knew. My skin tingled as he spoke in a low voice and walked in a rhythmic way around the circle, lighting each candle. The air felt different now, more charged. I felt like we were in a bubble of magic that we couldn't see. I tensed. Would it hurt to have a glamour put over us?

  Light flickered over the sand and a gentle breeze made the flames dance. The atmosphere had changed, all right. Mack didn't speak to us the entire time we stood there, next to each other and not touching. I wanted to hold Xavier's hand, but I had the sense it might mess up the rite.

  And I still feared he would reject me.

  He was still afraid.

  The rite passed in a blur. Mack picked up a dagger and pointed to the two hairs sitting on the altar next to a black candle, and then he pointed the blade at each of us in turn. He did this motion three times, repeating the same words, and the tingle got stronger across my skin. Xavier flinched like the same was happening to him. Mack muttered a couple more words and walked in a ring around each of us, waving the woman's hair over my head and the man's over Xavier's leather hat. The tingling increased. It was kind of cool and breathtaking, standing in this magical circle that Mack had cast with only some simple candles and the right words and movements. For a moment, I wondered why he wanted to get rid of his magic at all. This wasn't an evil type of magic. Some magic was quite good and the authorities were wrong to try to crush it. Even Mack was capable of magic that wasn't evil.

  But right when these thoughts washed over me, a much stronger electrical sensation washed over me and the world blurred. My bones shifted and popped as they changed size and shape. My skin pulled and came together again. The world blurred as my vision changed and became duller and darker. I was changing, morphing into something else. I dropped my sword and let it fall to the sand. The candles danced in my vision and I blinked, wanting to scream, but I couldn't.

  And at last, it all stopped and my vision went back to normal.

  Sort of.

  I blinked, trying to clear the dullness from my vision, but it was no use. I could no longer see the seaweed underneath the water or the fish that swam in the lake. The starlight reflecting off the lake was barely visible and the night was much darker and scarier. I blinked, trying to summon my gray night vision, but it had fled.

  And next to me stood a taller man in Xavier's leather coat and hat.

  I was taller, too. I looked down to see my jeans hugging me a little too tight and a little too low. My ankles were visible. The shape of my body was stockier and my chest and hips fuller.

  The glamour.

  We were now disguised as two of the ATC agents.

  Mack leaned against the table and motioned for the two of us to remain still. "Do not move," he instructed. "I must close the rite properly and dismiss the spirits I've summoned, or else they will take away your glamour when you leave the circle."

  Xavier and I obeyed. I couldn't get over how strange my body felt. I knew it wasn't real, but it felt real. My vision had even changed to that of a Normal. Was this how humans saw everything? They were missing out on so much. The last time I'd had vision like this, I was two years old. This brought back a flood of very early memories, including one of trick-or-treating in my mother's arms with a pumpkin pail in one chubby hand. I hadn't even remembered that until now.

  Mack walked around the circle again, muttering more words as he pinched each candle, snuffing it out.

  And then total darkness fell.

  I was nearly blind.

  Mack let out a breath. "I wasn't sure that would work on two people," he said, "but it looks like we chose the perfect setting out here. Now, I've put a very strong glamour on the two of you. Any Abnormal-detecting wards around the bunker will not be set off when the two of you enter the building. For the next few hours, it is as if you are both Normals."

  "Really?" I asked, shocked to hear Sanders's voice coming out of my mouth. I moved my arms, which were dark shadows. I hated this near night blindness. I hadn't realized how much I relied on my vision until now.

  Mack was a dark blob near a square shadow. "The unfortunate trade-off of this rite means that neither of you have access to your powers. That includes fast healing and magic. You can consider yourselves Normals until the glamour wears off."

  A strange feeling swept over me. Even though I was in the body of a grown woman, a sense of joy swept over me and tears almost spilled out of my eyes. This was what I had dreamed of ever since I was very young. A Normal Life. Normal needs. Freedom to move around as I wanted.

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90