Black City (31 page)

Natalie’s lip quivers. “Ash? Do you feel anything real for me at all?”

“I don’t know,” I admit.

She sucks in a pained breath.

Before I can stop her, Natalie climbs through the hole in the wall and sprints away. My heart cramps. What have I done? Evangeline grabs my arm as I attempt to run after her.

“Let her go,” Evangeline says.

“Get off me,” I say.

I chase after Natalie, and Evangeline follows. The city is still in an uproar, with people running through the streets, trying to escape the Darklings that are roaming free. I can’t see Natalie anywhere. Fragg!

The roads are crawling with Sentry guards and tanks. There’s a scatter of gunfire from one of the tanks, and a Darkling collapses to the ground, dead. We dart down an alley and climb onto the nearest roof to get away from the danger, using the rooftops to navigate the city. I head toward the Sentry HQ, the only place I can think of to find Natalie.

“Ash, where are you going?” Evangeline says.

“Where do you think?” I reply as we reach Bleak Street, just outside the Sentry headquarters.

We climb down the building and enter the alleyway beside the Sentry HQ. Evangeline takes my hand, stopping me. We’re standing beside an overflowing yellow garbage bin.

“She’s not worth it. You said so yourself, you don’t even know if you have feelings for her—”

“Then why does my fragging heart feel like it’s been ripped out of my chest?” I say.

She lets go of my hand, shaking her head.

“This is where Sigur found me, you know?” Evangeline says, pointing toward the garbage bin. “After they tore out my heart, they threw me out here with the rest of the trash.”

I shut my eyes. It’s too horrific to imagine.

“I don’t know what to do,” I whisper. “I love Natalie, but she’s not my Blood Mate. I’m so fragging confused.”

Soft lips suddenly press against mine. Evangeline’s lips. They feel . . . incredible. Her kiss is firmer, more intense, more desperate than Natalie’s kisses. I pull away.

“What are you doing?” I ask, opening my eyes.

“Showing you what you’re missing,” she says, and kisses me again, deeper this time.

Desire rages through me, and I don’t try and fight it. I pull Evangeline toward me and kiss her back, hard, searching for answers, needing to know if there’s something genuine between us. If I’m going to throw away everything I have with Natalie, I need to be certain I’m making the right decision. Evangeline’s lips part, and her tongue flicks across mine. It’s intense, amazing—every part of my body is buzzing. Even so, only one name rings in my mind: Natalie.

I vaguely register a door behind us opening. There’s a gasp. I break the kiss and turn to see Natalie in the alleyway, her eyes brimming with tears.

“Ten minutes! I wasn’t even gone for ten minutes, and you’ve already replaced me with her,” she says. “I can’t believe I was coming to find you, so I could fight for you, for us, when it’s clear you don’t care about me at all.”

“It didn’t mean anything—I’m just confused right now,” I say.

“Ash, don’t say our kiss meant nothing,” Evangeline says.

“Well, let me make this a lot less confusing for the both of you. I never, ever want to see you again!” Natalie says.

She slams the door in my face.

Evangeline walks up behind me. “She had to know. She was never meant to be with you.”

She tries to take my hand, but I move it away.

“Leave me alone,” I say.

“Ash . . .”

“You knew she was watching, didn’t you?” I ask.

Evangeline’s silence is answer enough.

“Just go!” I snap.

“No,” she says.

I stomp away, but she chases after me. I can’t believe how badly I’ve screwed everything up! I pinch the bridge of my nose, trying to push away the pain, but the pain isn’t in my head. It’s coiled like a snake inside my chest, and I can’t stand it. I feel like I’m dying. There’s only one place I can think to find any peace.

* * *

Half an hour later, I’m striding down Chantilly Lane on a mission, Evangeline still following me. We used the rooftops to cross the city, keeping out of sight of the Trackers. People below us are fighting, yelling, getting drunk. After the bomb earlier today, everyone’s scared, excited, angry. Inside every house, families gather with their children, watching the news, trying to work out what’s going on, while video footage of the event is being broadcast on all the giant digital monitors around the city. A news ticker continually streams updates at the bottom of the screen:
26 dead after city bombing . . . Government calls for people to vote for Rose’s Law and crush the Darkling threat . . . Three Humans for Unity members arrested in connection with bombing . . . Emissary urges citizens to stay indoors until Darklings have been rounded up . . .

I quickly phoned Beetle before coming to Chantilly Lane to make sure he was okay. His aunt Roach answered, giving me an update. The burns on his face will probably scar, and his stomach is being held together with a dozen stitches, but he’s alive, thanks to my blood. It’ll be out of his system in a few days, but it did its job: it kick-started his heart. I was relieved to hear that Day’s parents had agreed to let her stay with Beetle overnight so she could take care of him.

Evangeline and I leap off the roof next to Mr. Tubs’s shop and go inside. The best way to find peace is from a hit of Haze, and I need to feed on a human to get it.

The den is as smelly and claustrophobic as I remember. All I can see in the dim red light are shadows writhing around on the floor, lost in ecstasy. A voluptuous human woman makes kissing sounds at me and exposes her breasts.

“Only ten coins, and I can be yours,” she says.

“No, thanks,” I say.

We carefully climb over the bodies and find Mr. Tubs in his office. He gives me a yellow-toothed smile.

“You bring me another client?” he asks.

“I’m here for me. I want to feed,” I say.

He flicks his hand, and someone stirs in the corner of the room. A spaced-out girl walks over to me, her deep blue eyes glazed over, her blond hair loose around her face. Her coloring reminds me a little of Natalie.

“She’ll do,” I say.

“How you pay? I still waiting for money for that watch,” he says, referring to Natalie’s wristwatch.

“Put it on Sigur’s tab,” Evangeline replies.

The Hazer girl takes my hand, and we find somewhere to sit on the sticky, slithering floor. Evangeline joins us. The girl tilts her head to one side, not even looking at me. Her neck is riddled with bite marks, her veins black where the blood’s been drained from them. She doesn’t look that appetizing, but right now I couldn’t care less.

“Ladies first,” I say to Evangeline.

She sinks her fangs into the girl’s neck and begins to feed. I patiently wait for her to finish, itching to get a hit of the Haze now coursing through the girl’s veins, so I can feel nothing except bliss, because right now I feel like I’m being ripped apart. How could I hurt Natalie like that?

The basement door opens, casting a shard of yellow light into the room, and several pairs of feet march down the stairs. Sebastian enters the den with a group of his Tracker friends, including Claw Neck and Gregory. They sit down on one of the sofas, and Mr. Tubs brings them a bottle of Shine without waiting to be asked.

I slink back into the shadows so they can’t see me, grateful that the room is so dark.

Claw Neck is carrying a thin black case, and he heads straight for Mr. Tubs’s office. He returns thirty seconds later and sits next to Gregory.

Sebastian pours everyone a shot of Shine.

“Shouldn’t we be outside killing the nippers?” Gregory asks in his whiny voice.

“You’ll get your chance tomorrow when we go on the hunt,” Sebastian replies. “Aaron, Blake and Derek’s squads are helping the Sentry guards. Everything’s under control for now. We’ll round up any stray Darks tomorrow.”

“Just relax, boy. Have a drink,” Claw Neck says to Gregory.

“Is this where the Trackers normally come to drink?” Gregory asks, looking a little anxious.

Claw Neck smacks Gregory’s back jovially. “Of course! Mr. Tubs gives us free Shine, and in return, we don’t tell anyone about his less legitimate business endeavors.”

“He gives us information too,” Sebastian adds. “Like where to find Darkling nests around the city. We’ve got a few good tips for tomorrow’s hunt.”

“Won’t we be conspicuous, all in one big group?” Gregory asks.

Claw Neck chuckles. “We’ll be splitting up. You’ll be going with Aaron’s troop to the Rise. Blake will take his cadets to the Chimney, and the rest will be coming with me and Sebastian on a hunt around the Hub.”

“Does that nipper Ash Fisher have to come with us?” Gregory says.

“He might prove useful,” Sebastian says. “Besides, I’m going to enjoy watching him squirm when I make him arrest his first Dark.”

My fangs throb at the mention of my name. I’m not going on their stupid hunt; I don’t care what they do to me. I don’t care about anything anymore.

The woman who exposed herself to me earlier sidles over to them, and Sebastian pulls her onto his lap. She giggles and smears his cheek with slippery red kisses, running her hands over his shaved head. The rose tattoo on his face is still raw and sore looking.

“What was up with Natalie back at HQ? Why was she crying?” Gregory asks Sebastian.

“Who knows? Girl problems, probably,” Sebastian says in a bored voice, idly playing with the hair of the woman sitting on his lap. “Maybe I’ll go home and
console
her.”

I don’t like the way he emphasizes the word
console.

“You two used to date, didn’t you?” Gregory asks.

Sebastian nods. “For a while, but she got boring.” He turns to the whore sitting on his lap. “You won’t bore me, will you?”

She runs a provocative finger over his bottom lip, and he bites it really hard, drawing blood. The woman lets out a scream as he throws her to the floor, laughing as he lifts up her dress. The woman scratches his face and manages to scrabble away, warm blood on her hand.

“Natalie’s pretty, though,” Gregory continues as if nothing happened. “If you like that sort of thing.”

Sebastian dabs at his scratched cheek with a handkerchief. “I suppose. Not as pretty as her sister, Polly, used to be. Now,
she
was something. Still, maybe I’ll ask Natalie out again. She’ll look good on my arm when I’m promoted.”

“You’re getting a promotion?” Gregory asks.

“Of course he is,” Claw Neck chimes in.

“Purian Rose has entrusted me with an important mission,” Sebastian boasts. “It’s only a matter of time before I’m rewarded.”

“What mission is that?” Gregory asks.

Sebastian and Claw Neck chuckle.

“When you’ve killed your first Dark and proved you’re one of us, then
maybe
I’ll tell you,” Sebastian says. “Now, drink up, gentlemen.”

They knock back their drinks and, after a few minutes, head upstairs. I let out a relieved sigh that they didn’t see me. I wonder what Sebastian’s “important mission” is. Whatever it is, it can’t be good if Purian Rose is behind it.

Evangeline finishes drinking from the Hazer girl and passes her to me. The girl flops in my arms, barely breathing, her blond hair spilling over my fingers. White pearls of foam bubble out the corner of her mouth, reminding me of the Hazer girl from the night I first met Natalie.

“I’m going,” I say to Evangeline.

She grabs my arm. “Don’t you dare go back to her. You belong to me!”

“I don’t belong to anyone. This was a mistake.”

“If you leave now, that’s it between us. I’ll never be with you,” Evangeline threatens.

I hesitate for a second, panicked at the idea of what I’m giving up. Evangeline’s my true Blood Mate, the girl I was supposed to be with. Not just that, she’s a twin-blood, the only one I know. If I leave now, I risk losing her forever and being on my own again. Except, it dawns on me, I wouldn’t be alone, not really. I’d have Natalie. I never once felt alone when I was with her. I don’t know if Natalie will ever forgive me, but I’m willing to risk losing it all to find out.

Without another word, I go upstairs into the pawnshop. I’m about to leave when I spot Natalie’s watch in the glass counter by the till. I check no one is looking, then smash the glass, grab the watch and run out before anyone catches me.

* * *

The journey to Natalie’s house doesn’t take long, as I take my detour over the rooftops. I jump down onto her balcony and knock on the window, wait for a minute, then knock again, louder this time in case she didn’t hear me. The curtain twitches, and Natalie’s blue eyes peer at me through the tiny slit between the drapes.

“Natalie—”

She closes the curtains, shutting me out.

“Please let me explain,” I say through the glass. “I’m sorry.”

I wait on her balcony, praying she’ll let me in, but after an hour, I know she’s not going to come to the window. I place her watch on the balustrade, hoping she’ll find it. It’s not much of a peace offering, but I need her to know how sorry I am. How can I get a message to her? One name immediately springs to mind. As soon as I get home, I grab the phone and dial Beetle’s number.

Day answers his phone, as I hoped she would.

“Do you know what time it is, Ash?” she says groggily.

“Yeah, yeah, sorry. How’s Beetle?”

“He’s alive. Did you need something?”

“Yeah. I need to ask you a favor.”

I just hope this is going to work.

28

NATALIE

I HEAR ASH LEAVE,
but I don’t chase after him. I won’t.