Black City (26 page)

“They were leaving Chicago,” Nathaniel said.

“So that they can go and harm someone else in some other city,” I said fiercely, yanking my hand away. “When does it end, Nathaniel? When is it okay for us to take the fight to them? Why do we always have to be on the defensive, waiting for them to kill somebody, or hundreds of somebodies, first before we’ll do something about it?”

“Do not start crossing those lines unless you want to live in Lucifer’s kingdom,” Nathaniel said.

I heard Gabriel’s voice in my ear, from long ago and far away, saying,
Lord Lucifer has a way of making choices seem gray.

And I heard Beezle, too, saying,
Dark side.

Was I crossing the line by taking out a few demons just because they’d never done anything to me directly? Or was I just ridding the world of some vermin?

“I thought you wanted to find Therion,” Nathaniel said.

“I do,” I said.

“The longer you spend toying with these creatures, the more likely it is that he will escape, and then you will never discover the identity of his cohort,” Nathaniel said.

“Fine,” I said. I felt like a chastised child, and I sulked
as we flew along. I was still tracing the signature of Therion’s power through the city.

As we passed over Daley Plaza I felt the tug of my trace pulling me downward. I should have known he would be here, where it had all started.

I landed in front of the Picasso statue. The plaza looked like the war zone it had been a few days earlier. Everywhere I turned there were coffee cups, sandwich wrappers, coiled scarves and lost mittens, open briefcases. Blood. Lots and lots of blood.

I stood still for a moment, sending my senses outward, looking for the source of the signature I had traced.

“There,” I said, pointing toward the Washington Blue Line stop. “He’s underground, and moving fast. He’s using the subway tunnels.”

Nathaniel looked at my shiny new wings. “Those won’t be of much used to us belowground. And fire in a close space is a dangerous prospect.”

“I know,” I said, drawing my sword. “Don’t worry. I know how to behead a vampire.”

We approached the stairs that led into the station. I sent out a little pulse to make sure that nothing waited for us at the bottom of the steps.

There was nothing there. I stepped onto the first stair. Nathaniel tried to object, as usual.

“Madeline, let me…”

“I just barbecued a stadium full of vampires and you’re still trying to make me walk behind you? What’s next, foot binding?” I said, and jogged down the stairs before he could do anything about it.

I heard him muttering something about chivalry and modern women but I didn’t ask for clarification.

We entered the station. The vending box for fare cards
had been knocked to the floor, and two of the turnstiles had been torn out.

The splattered brains of the former attendant had dried on the window of the CTA personnel’s box.

I moved cautiously through the station to the stairs that led down to the platform. I sent another pulse of power out, and this time I didn’t detect Therion at all.

“He’s cloaking himself,” I murmured. “Even a vampire couldn’t have gotten out of range so quickly.”

Nathaniel held his hand up so he could listen.

“There are several creatures moving in the tunnel below,” he said.

“They could be rats,” I said. “The regular Chicago kind.”

“The ‘Chicago kind’ are far from regular,” Nathaniel said. “I have seen the size of those rodents, and there is nothing ordinary about them. However, I can tell the difference between a rat and a vampire.”

“Can you tell how far away they are?” I asked.

Nathaniel listened again. “Not precisely. The tunnel makes strange echoes.”

“Yeah, it does,” I said, thinking of the way that the El sometimes sounded like it was coming from the south when it was actually coming from the north. “Let’s go down.”

“No fire,” Nathaniel said. “Even if you are startled.”

“I am not a pyromaniac,” I said. “I only set things on fire because it’s expedient.”

Nathaniel gave me a look.

“I already agreed, all right?” I waved my sword around. “I’ll only kill them with the pointy stick.”

The steps to the platform were wide enough to walk side by side, so of course Nathaniel made sure we were joined at the hip. I fully expected to find a platoon of vamps
waiting to leap upon us as soon as we got to the bottom of the stairs, and was a little disappointed to find the platform empty.

I indicated to Nathaniel that he should walk down one side while I took the other, so that we could see—or hear—whether there were any signs of which tunnel they might have taken.

Nathaniel took the northbound side, and I the southbound. The platform stretched between the tracks, so Nathaniel and I were within sight of each other at all times. There was nothing between us except some empty customer benches.

We walked slowly and carefully from the Dearborn end of the platform. Halfway down, Nathaniel waved his arm at me. I joined him and he pointed south.

He hopped down to the tracks, holding his arms up for me. I let him swing me down.

“Stay away from the third rail,” I whispered. “We don’t know if the electricity to the subway has been shut off.”

He nodded, and we stared into the tunnel. Ahead of us there were no lights except the occasional service lamp for CTA workers. I could have lit a ball of nightfire, but that would have advertised our presence for miles. Once we went in there, the vampires would have the advantage. My new superpowers didn’t seem to have come with the ability to see in the dark.

“Can you see in there?” I asked softly.

Nathaniel shook his head. “Now would be a good time to have the werewolf with us.”

Despite the fact that I had just burned thousands of vampires with one spell, I didn’t want to go into the tunnel. In the tunnel I would be a trapped rat, just like them. I
could sense Nathaniel’s reluctance as well. We had so recently been in the pitch black of Titania’s cave, and I hadn’t forgotten how helpless I’d felt there. Gabriel had told me once that angels were born of the sun. Creatures of the sun do not like to scurry in the darkness.

But our quarry was scurrying away, and I wasn’t going to let him escape.

I stepped into the tunnel, and Nathaniel kept pace with me. The air felt close and damp. I focused on breathing steadily—and quietly. The scrape of our boots on the tracks sounded like gunfire in the silence.

We crept along for a while, trying to be crafty, both of us tense. And as we crept along I started getting annoyed. And I went from annoyed to angry to insanely furious with no stops in between.

“Why are we tiptoeing around in here?” I said loudly. “What freaking difference does it make?”

“Madeline, shh,” Nathaniel said.

“No, I will not be quiet,” I said. “They can see in the dark. They can hear better than we can. Why should we play by their rules?”

I raised a ball of nightfire and launched it up so it would float ahead of us. “If they’re going to run, then they’ll run whether or not we’re scuttling in the dark. If they’re going to fight, then we should be able to see them as well as they can see us.”

“Madeline, stop. Do not be impulsive,” Nathaniel said.

“Who’s being impulsive?” I said as the ball of nightfire lit up the tunnel. “THERION!”

Nathaniel stared at me like I’d lost my mind.

“THERION! You COWARD!” I roared.

There was no answer.

“They are gone,” Nathaniel said angrily. “They were ahead of us. I could hear them, and now they are gone. As soon as you began yelling they disappeared.”

This news just made me even angrier. Therion had escaped, and I wanted him to pay. Still, I wasn’t going to play the vampire king’s game.

“Fine,” I said. “Let’s go home.”

Nathaniel’s eyebrows went up to his hairline. “You are giving up?”

“Hell, no,” I said. “I’m going to track him down and take out his intestines through his nostrils. But I’m not going to chase him through miles of tunnel to do it. I’ll find him later. I have something else I need to do, anyway.”

“Deal with Alerian?” Nathaniel asked.

“Alerian’s not even awake yet,” I said, trudging back in the direction of the Washington stop. We hadn’t really walked that far. I could see the lights over the platform a short distance away. “I have something I need to do for Lucifer.”

“Then I will accompany you,” Nathaniel said.

“No,” I said shortly. “This is not optional. You’re staying home, and so is everyone else. This is for me to do.”

“Have I not proven that I am trustworthy?” Nathaniel asked, an edge in his voice.

“This isn’t about whether or not you are trustworthy,” I said. “This is about me and Lucifer and my duties as the Hound of the Hunt.”

“What has he asked of you?” Nathaniel said.

“I can’t tell you,” I said. “You may assume that the task sucks and that there are about ten million things I would rather do.”

“Let me help you,” Nathaniel persisted as we reached the platform and clambered up from the track level.

“Nathaniel, I am the Hound of the Hunt. Where I go, you cannot follow,” I said. “Besides, I need you to stay in Chicago. You’re the only one here who can deal with Alerian if he does rise. Or at least, you’re the only one who can contact Puck to come and deal with his brother.”

We climbed the stairs back up to the station. Everything looked the same. When we reached the street I half expected Therion to be waiting there with another army of vampires to take me down, but he wasn’t. I guess the vampire king really was a coward, and the nightmare was over. For the moment.

There were a few people on the streets, wandering in a daze, blinking at the sky like they’d never seen it before. News helicopters soared overhead. Nathaniel and I quickly cloaked ourselves and then took off flying. I wasn’t interested in being attacked by an angry mob just because I looked different, and I’d already had enough television exposure to last a lifetime.

As we flew home I noticed that the clouds had stopped swirling over Lake Michigan, and much of the green fog had dissipated. I pointed toward the lake.

“What’s that all about?” I said to Nathaniel.

“Perhaps he has decided to go back to sleep.”

“That would be a load off my mind,” I said. “It would be nice if all the people who fled the city could come back.”

We returned to my house and flew back into the kitchen. Beezle was sitting on the counter eating a bag of pretzels.

“Saw your light show on the news,” he said conversationally, but I could tell he was pissed off. “I see you’ve got some spanking new wings. And Nathaniel’s had his hair colored. There was a lot of banging around going on up here earlier. Anything you want to tell me?”

“Not right now,” I said. “I’ve got to run an errand for Lucifer.”

“Oh, you’re running errands for Lucifer now? Haven’t we come up in the world?” he said.

“Don’t start, Beezle,” I said. “You were standing right there when he made me the Hound of the Hunt. Oh, wait—maybe you were napping, as you tend to do when there’s actual work to be done.”

Nathaniel was edging his way around me and out of the kitchen.

“Don’t you go anywhere,” Beezle said, pointing a claw at Nathaniel. “You’re in this, too. I know what the two of you have been doing when no one’s looking.”

“I do not answer to you, gargoyle,” Nathaniel said.

“And I don’t answer to you, either,” I said. “You’re not my father, and I’m tired of being second-guessed.”

“Someone needs to rein you in before you become exactly what Lucifer wants,” Beezle said.

“Do you think that I don’t know what he wants?” I shouted. “He wants me in a cage and my baby bouncing on his knee. I am not stupid, whatever you might think.”

“Do you know that most of the people who saw you on the news are scared of you, even though you saved this damned city from the vampires?” Beezle said. “The news anchors were discussing you like you were a monster. People were calling in, saying you needed to be exterminated. No one is going to thank you for what you did.”

“I don’t care,” I said. “I only did what was right. I’ve only
ever
done what I thought was right. I don’t need a bouquet of flowers from the mayor.”

“You don’t understand,” Beezle said. “Because of Therion’s message, everyone knows who you are. They know that you are Madeline Black. How long do you think it will
take for people to track you down here? How long do you think it will take before there are police outside breaking down the door? Or worse?”

“What’s worse than being chased from my own home?” I asked.

“The curiosity seekers. The people who will want you to use your powers to help them with their petty problems. You’re in danger now, and so is anyone who stays here with you,” Beezle said.

“How is that any different from before?” I said. “There have been creatures hunting me since the day Ramuell returned, and all of you have been willing to take the risk.”

“Everyone is willing to fight supernatural monsters, but they aren’t willing to have their identities exposed to humans,” Beezle said. “Samiel and Chloe have already gone.”

“Gone where?” I said, stung. I couldn’t believe Samiel had left without a word. I’d taken him into my home, made him a part of my family.

“To Chloe’s. They both think it’s safer there. Neither of them wants to be here when the news vans roll up. And they will, sooner or later,” Beezle said. “I’m sure Jude will want to return to his pack now, too.”

“Well, that’s the best place for him,” I said, trying not to be hurt by all of this, and failing. “Werewolves belong with their packs. It’s not healthy for him to be away for so long.”

“It’s not healthy for anyone to be near you right now, either,” Beezle said.

“And you?” I asked. Something was breaking inside me, something that might never mend.

Beezle looked grim. “I promised your mother I would stay with you.”

“But?” I said. I wouldn’t cry. I would
not
cry.

“I’m not sure I know the person you’re becoming. And I’m not sure that I
want
to know that person.”