Shattered (the Spellbound Series Book 2) (16 page)

16

             
By the time Nick and I arrive at the Nightmare Theater, there’s a line extending around the block that we have to wait on. I hadn’t been expecting such a massive turnout; of the three bands playing tonight, I’ve only heard of
Interrobang,
and that’s only because I know Lily. Heads turn as Nick and I pass, and I’m not sure if it’s because they’re wondering what humans are doing attending a show here, or because of my temporary look. I make a mental note to keep Jenna and her drawers of beauty products away from me in the future.

              In the time it takes for Nick and I to make it to the front of the line, hand over our tickets, get our hands stamped with neon green X’s, and find the right theater, the first band of the night is setting up on stage. It’s a much more intimate interior than I was expecting, more of a simple performance space than a “theater” as the name had implied. There are rows upon rows of chairs lined against each other, arranged in a vague semicircle surrounding a makeshift stage. It’s a wonder to me that all those people we saw on the line could fit into this small of a venue.

Nick kisses me on the forehead before we go our separate ways, and I kiss him on the cheek in return. “Good luck,” I whisper in his ear.

              “You too,” he whispers back. Then he turns, and disappears into the still growing crowd.

              When I reach my seat, Alyssa’s already in the one next to mine, with Rachel on her other side. I settle into my designated space, and check that the earpiece hidden behind my hair is on. I can feel that the power switch hasn’t moved since it was activated, so I leave it alone, and turn to Alyssa. She looks uncomfortable for some reason, so I ask, “What’s wrong?”

              “Nothing,” she replies with a shrug. Her eyes widen as they roam over my temporary face, but she doesn’t comment on how I look. “I just don’t like having this many demons around.”

              “There are demons here?”

              “You can’t feel them?”

              “Feel them? What?”

              Alyssa looks at me like I have three heads, even though she’s the one not making any sense. “Krystal never taught you, did she?”

              “What the hell are you talking about, Allie?”

              “Look, just close your eyes, and try to see me without seeing me… wait, that makes no sense. Just, uhh, open your mind and let your power expand a little past the confines of your body?”

              I can’t help smirking at Alyssa, and staring at her incredulously with a raised eyebrow. “You’re terrible at explaining things.”

              “Shut up and do it.”

              I close my eyes as instructed, and try to “see” Alyssa without opening them. It takes a moment, but with enough effort, I manage to find her, a beacon of intense light sparking in the darkness. And more than that, I can
feel
her; for the first time, I have a sense of the immense power bubbling beneath her skin, and wonder how mine must feel to her. I try expanding this newfound ability to Rachel, and have a brief inkling of the much dimmer, much more primal impression her light gives off before I’m bombarded by the information coming at me from all angles.

It’s like a new, untested sense; I can feel everyone around me, and get a sense for who and what they are. Some members of the crowd feel fresh, and pure, probably humans like Nick and Jenna; some feel more in touch with their animal instincts, like Rachel; some are beacons of pure energy, like Alyssa, albeit nowhere near as intense; and a large portion of the audience has a much darker, alien feel to them, as if they’re significantly less human than those around them. At the same time, there’s something familiar about these strange beings that I can’t put my finger on.

I open my eyes, and I can still feel everything and everyone around me, although now that all five of my other senses are in use, the messages are a little more muddled. Alyssa’s watching me expectantly, so I ask, “Is that how you see all the time?”

“Yeah. It’s hard for a lot of spellcasters to use that skill, but some of the best have claimed to be able to hear thoughts too with enough practice.”

“That’s insane.” I crane my neck around to look at the rest of the audience. Through normal eyes, they all look like normal people. But now I know better; three rows down from us is a small cluster of spellcasters, bookended by some werefolk, and there’s a large collection of humans backstage. And in the row directly behind us, there are some of those creatures that I couldn’t place, that seemed decidedly inhuman. Under my breath, I ask Alyssa, “What are those dark things?”

“Those would be demons,” she whispers back.

“It’s weird, but something about them feels-“

“Like us? Yeah.” Alyssa checks behind us to see if anyone’s listening, and says, “Demons have powers similar to the ones spellcasters use, but it’s usually a lot more volatile, and for the most part, they can never quite learn how to control it to the same degree that we can. Selene once told me she thought demons and spellcasters share a common ancestor, but I don’t know. It seems a little farfetched.”

“I could see that. I mean, angels apparently have powers similar to ours as well, and it was technically an angel that created demons…”

“Are you saying the three could be related?”

“I’m saying I’ve seen and heard too much crazy shit to rule it out.”

The lights in the “theater” begin to dim, so Alyssa and I turn to face forward, clapping politely for the evening’s first band,
Walter Cronkite and the Evening News
. Before their first song starts up, I hear a soft buzzing coming from my earpiece, meaning that the capture team is in position and on the lookout for Eve. Alyssa, Rachel, and I cough in turn to let them know we got the message. I settle back into my seat, and keep my eyes on the stage while the opening notes of the first song are strummed out of the lead guitar. I may not have come for the show, but at least the music I have to sit through as a result is pretty good.

There’s a break after the first band has played their five song requirement, and when we applaud them, it’s with a lot more enthusiasm than before. I have to admit, they were better than expected. Alyssa gets up to go wish Lily luck before her set, leaving Rachel and I sitting alone. Of all of us, she seems the least impressed by
Walter Cronkite and the Evening News
. She’s not as interested in the indie rock scene as the rest of us. I move one seat over, and she looks up from her phone at me with a confused expression. “Any news from the others?,” she asks.

“No news, which I guess is good news.” I look out at the crowd to see if I can spot Nick, but he’s nowhere to be found. Emma and Jenna are likewise missing, but that’s to be expected. They’re well versed in the art of remaining unseen.

Alyssa returns quickly, and takes the seat on my other side without comment. The lights dim again, but this time,
Interrobang
is being introduced. Four girls walk confidently onto the stage, clutching their instruments with steady hands, unlike the first band. Lily’s the last one to take the stage. She strides right over to her spot by the drummer’s side, and plugs her deep violet bass into the amp. The lead singer, a squat blonde with a pixie cut and gauges in her ears, asks the audience to make some noise. Everyone cheers and claps in response, Alyssa and I included. The drummer then counts them off, and their first number starts with an almost literal
bang
as the opening notes form a wall of sound.

Alyssa’s watching them with rapt attention, and I can see why. The music is simple yet powerful, much like the lyrics. In a mezzo soprano voice hoarsened by years of tobacco abuse, the blonde frontwoman belts out the chorus:

Hearts are broken, words unspoken,

Tokens stolen from better days.

Knees that quake, promises that break,

I’ve lost my faith since you ran away.

Unfortunately, I don’t get to hear the rest of the song. My earpiece crackles as it comes to life, and I hear Emma’s voice coming to me through one ear. “Southwest exit. You three are needed.”

I cast a worried glance at Rachel, who just sets her jaw and nods. Alyssa sighs by my side. “Five more minutes?,” she asks. “The next song is about me-“

“NOW.” I wince at the voice in my ear, and grab both Alyssa and Rachel by the hand. We vanish as one, and materialize by the door just to the left of the bar, and push our way through.

Rachel runs the fastest, so she takes the lead as we race down a brick-lined passageway. We sprint up a few flights of stairs to the abandoned sections of the building, and pass an unconscious form on the second floor. He’s breathing, for now, but the wound in his side is bleeding heavily. The second and third floors of the staircase are peppered with gunfire and blood splatters. Whatever happened with Emma, she’s clearly got a lot on her hands.

When we finally find her, she’s surrounded on nearly every side. A couple of vampires, a few weres, and a demon, if my second sight is serving me well. Rachel doesn’t wait for orders or assistance, she runs straight at the closest target, lifts them up by the ankle, and throws them into a wall across the room. The were she threw survives the attack better than the wall he crashed into, and snarls at Rachel, even though she’s turned her attention to the vampires.

I run for Emma’s left side while Alyssa darts to the right, and we converge on the enemies at the same time. Alyssa sends a vampire crashing upwards through the crumbling ceiling, while the were I attack first ends up slipping through the hole in the floor I create, breaking his ankles on impact when he hits solid ground on the third floor. Emma levels her pair of silenced pistols at one of the remaining enemies, and sends two bullets through his heart. I flinch, and look away as the body slumps to the ground; it seems she doesn’t struggle with taking a life as much as Jenna does.

When she notices my expression, Emma shouts, “That wasn’t a silver bullet, he’ll be fine in a few hours. Probably.” She then turns and fires at the man on her left, a delighted grin plastered on her face.

One sibling who avoids violence when he can, and one who revels in it. I can’t imagine how Nick and his sister ended up so wildly different.

“What the hell happened?,” Alyssa asks as she drops another opponent through the floor the same way I did.

“Nick was following Eve on her way to the bar, and I guess she noticed and tipped off a couple of friends. He and Jenna are in pursuit, but I got stuck leading away her bodyguards.”

Rachel slams the last vampire’s head into an exposed brick wall, and finally, the only person outside of our group left standing is the demon. I take a tentative step towards him, but he shrieks, and his body dissolves as I watch. Every inch of skin melts away to reveal a creature that seems simultaneously made of black smoke and some shiny, chitin-like material. It lets loose another shriek, and my new sense tells me this thing in front of us is incredibly strong, stronger than any spellcaster I’ve fought in the past few months.

Alyssa and I take one look at each other, and nod in silent agreement. I place a hand on Rachel’s shoulder, and she does the same to Emma. Then, simultaneously, we transport them downstairs with a spell. This situation is a little too dangerous for them.

The demon closes in on us, and my mind races as I try to think of ways to incapacitate it. I’m not sure what kind of damage its body can withstand, or where to even look for any weak spots. Alyssa comes to my side, and whispers in my ear, “We have to lure this thing out of here. It’s a lot more careless with its powers than we are; it could bring the whole building down.”

“How do you propose we do that?”

“Follow my lead.”

Alyssa sprints
towards
the demon, sliding along the ground to avoid getting sliced open when it takes a swipe at her with its claws. I run past the demon on its other side, catching up to Alyssa as she gets to her feet and continues running. I have no idea what she’s got in mind until I notice her lining up with one of the large windows on the other side of the open space. She makes a punching motion with her hand, and the glass shatters outward, tiny shards falling to the ground in a glittering shower. She leaps towards the opening, making her body as small as possible to avoid getting caught on the window sill, and sails out into the night.

Without a moment’s hesitation, I follow her, my hair whipping at my face as we both hurtle to the cold concrete below.

17

              My hair is too in the way for me to be able to see, but I can feel my descent. I panic for a fleeting moment when I realize I have no idea how long we have until we hit concrete. Mere inches from the ground, my body comes to a halt, and I breathe a sigh of relief. At least Alyssa was paying enough attention to stop our fall. I stand as quickly as I can, and look up at where we came from. The demon stands at the window, snarling loud enough to be heard from the ground, and for a moment, I think it’ll stop chasing us. Then it walks right through the brick building’s exterior as if it were immaterial, and great black wings extend from its back as it glides down towards us.

              Alyssa grabs my hand, and we run for the Nightmare Theater’s entrance, where a few cars have been parked. There’s no one really out front, just a doorman and a few vampires smoking while they lean against the building. I can still hear the band inside playing as Alyssa climbs onto a motorcycle, and searches for the ignition. When she notices I’m not sitting behind her, she looks back at me, and yells, “What are you waiting for? Get on!”

              “Since when can you ride a motorcycle?,” I ask as I swing my leg over the seat.

              “I’m not that great yet. Lily’s been teaching me.”

              “So you repay her by stealing her bike?”

              Alyssa lets out a frustrated grunt, and snaps her fingers, bringing the engine to life with a roar. “Are you kidding? She would kill me if I ever let anything happen to Baby.”

              “Baby?”

              “Don’t question it.” Alyssa revs the engine, and soon we’re careening forward, leaving the concert far behind us.

              I twist around to look over my shoulder, only to find that the demon is following above us, too far away to attack but close enough for his glowing red eyes to be visible. As I watch, several massive black shapes fly out the entrance to the theater, and fall in line behind the first demon. I count six before I face forward again. “Someone’s gonna notice this many demons flying down Bowery,” I yell over the din of the engine.

              “I’m on it,” Alyssa yells back. She raises her hand in the air, and the streetlight closest to us sparks and dies out as we pass. This continues with every streetlight, shop light, and car we pass until the spell spreads faster than we can ride, and even the lights in front of us are extinguished before we fly by. Soon, the streets are pitch black save for the eyes of the demons flying close behind us.

              There’s a loud bang, followed by the sound of Alyssa cursing under her breath as the bike begins to shudder beneath us. Something must have made the tires burst. We skid to a stop, and I remove myself from the seat ungracefully, stumbling a little through the darkness before righting myself. The bike falls over when Alyssa stands as well, and we turn to face the miniature swarm of demons on our heels. Now that it’s dark, I can feel them more effectively, and I’m a little intimidated by their collective power. I’ve never faced anything like them before.

              One of the demons swoops down toward us, and takes a swipe at me with claws longer than my forearm. I roll out of the way, and fire a burst of energy at it, which passes right through its body as if it were actually made of smoke. A strange chirping sound that I take for laughter comes at us from all angles, and I kick out at the closest source, my foot connecting with a body that feels more like armor than flesh. In response, the demon I hit grabs my leg and throws me to the side. I crash into a car, and my ears are met with the screech of metal caving in. For a split second, the pain is too intense for me to move. Then, I’m back on my feet, and running back into the fight.

              Alyssa looks away from her own encounter to watch me with a concerned expression. “What are you doing?,” she asks.

              “What’s it look like? I’m trying to fight these things.”

              “No, I mean, why are you holding back?”

              I frown at Alyssa, and watch as the demons circle overhead. I
do
have a habit of holding back, but only because I don’t want to accidentally kill anyone. It’s happened once, it can easily happen again.

              “You need to learn how to let go,” Alyssa tells me with a grin. “Let loose and have fun.” As she speaks, her irises start glowing red, and I can feel her power spiking drastically. She then flings the motorcycle we stole at a demon’s face, with enough force to knock its head backward and knock it out.

              I’m tempted to just watch; I’ve only seen Alyssa’s raw power twice, and during neither of those times was it actually within her control. This time, though, it seems like she has a firmer grasp on it, enough that she could trigger its release on her own. I can feel one of the demons approaching me from the side, however, and I just barely manage to sidestep the claws hurtling towards my midsection with alarming speed. I shudder to think what would have happened if I hadn’t been paying attention.

              Since it couldn’t hit me physically, the demon attacking me lifts me into the air with its corrupted version of a spell, and tries to slam me down into the ground. Another demon, I’m guessing one still circling around us in the air, grabs hold of me with a spell as well, and tries to pull me into the side of a building. A tug of war ensues, their combined power pulling me in different directions. It feels like I’m being drawn and quartered, like I could be ripped apart at the seams.

              Alyssa’s too busy with her own fight, so it’s up to me to save myself. I wildly search for anything that could I could use to my advantage, to no avail; it’s too dark for me to see anything. All I can “see” are the beacons of light radiating from Alyssa and our opponents. Surrounding us are the miniature beacons being given off by the people in their apartments, trying to call the power company, texting in the dark, testing their faucets to see if the water is still running.

              And that’s when I get an idea. I feel around tentatively for all the fire hydrants on the street, and with a flick of my wrist, several of them burst as one, water shooting into the air as soon as it’s free of the pressure keeping it underground. I take control of one of these jets, and aim it at the flying demon that has a grasp on me. Within seconds, it’s soaked right through, and I can feel myself being pulled towards the ground with an incredible force. That’s when I fire a second jet at the first demon, and suddenly, the sensation of being pulled in any direction has vanished.

              I roll as I hit the ground, and let my power rise to the surface. Maybe Alyssa’s right. Maybe this is a situation in which holding back will get me nowhere. I feel around in front of me for a car, flinging it behind me at an approaching enemy as soon as I find one. It knocks into a demon’s chest with a crunching sound, but the creature only staggers for a moment before grabbing the vehicle in its clawed hands. That’s when I light a spark in the gas tank, and watch as the car is blown apart by the force inside, a flickering orange flame illuminating the night.

              Perhaps that wasn’t the best idea; the blast was loud enough to draw people to their windows, and see what’s going on. Thankfully, all that can be seen with the human eye is the wreckage of the car that exploded, and my face basked in the glow of the flames. I extinguish the fire engulfing both the car and the unconscious demon, while Alyssa stems the water flooding the streets. “Trying to one up me?,” she asks with a grin. Between the fact that her teeth are showing and the radiant red glowing in her irises, the smile is more than a little unsettling.

              “No,” I answer before ducking out of the way of one of the demons still in flight. “I’m just doing what you said. Letting loose.”

              “Good, because you could never top me.”

              “Is that a challenge?”

              In response, Alyssa lets out a shockwave of power that knocks the two demons on the ground to their knees. She groans with exertion, and as I watch, her aura becomes intense enough to see with the naked eye. It surrounds her for a moment, before coalescing on her back to form a pair of wings, glowing bright red and crackling like hellfire. She’s panting with the effort of keeping them intact, but pushes herself off the ground with one great beat of her new wings, and chases after one of the demons circling the street.

              I’ve occasionally wondered if Alyssa is something more than human, but for the first time, I’m a little worried she might have the same lineage that I do.

              Not to be outdone, I run towards one of the demons struggling up from its knees. One of them is still dripping wet, probably from when I doused them with water from the hydrant. It spots me approaching, and tries to assume its smoke form, but it flickers for a moment before retaining its shiny, black chitin form. It occurs to me that they might not be able to phase between forms when they’re wet. Once I’m close enough, I amass a large portion of power in my arm and leg muscles, leap up at the demon’s head, grasp it firmly in both hands, and bring it down to meet my knee. I hear the
crack
of the two hard surfaces colliding, and feel my knee jostle around in its socket with a searing pain. But a triumphant smile still spreads across my face as the demon topples over backwards, stunned by one powerful hit.

              When I hit the ground, my leg nearly crumples, and I fall forward onto my face. There’s no way I can take down the other grounded demon if I can’t even support my own weight. I teleport onto the nearest rooftop, and pull myself up onto the edge to see what’s going on. Alyssa’s still soaring through the skies, perhaps with a little less finesse than the creatures she’s chasing. She’s more on the offensive than they are, however, and fires off an intense blast of raw energy that passes right through its intended target. Instead, the spell punches a hole through the clouds, and eventually dissipates as it flies unimpeded through the sky.

              “It’s easier to hit them when they’re wet!,” I yell up into the night.

              As she flies close by, Alyssa yells back, “What am I supposed to do about that?”

              “I’m on it!” I turn my gaze skyward, taking note of the layer of clouds hanging low over the city. I raise my hands to the sky, and concentrate on pulling the clouds in closer, piling them up into one dense mass. Before long, I can see stars peeking through gaps in the cloud layer, and moonlight ringing the dark, misshapen form I’ve made. Another spell sets off the torrential downpour that’s been building, and within seconds, everything in a three block radius is drenched.

              Alyssa manages to stay in the air, but the demons apparently can’t fly unless they’re able to use their smoke forms. They crash into the ground in rapid succession, crying out in confusion. Once they’re all grounded, I gesture towards the sky again, with an entirely different intent. Six blinding flashes of light erupt from the clouds, and strike down on the demons below, followed closely by the crack of thunder that always follows. The sound of demons crying out in pain carries over the howling wind and rain, an incredibly eerie blend of human and animal that could almost sound like a word. But when I look down, I don’t see the shining black corporeal bodies of the demons. Instead, the unconscious forms of six normal people are all I can see. They must revert to their human forms when they’ve been defeated.

              Alyssa glides down to where I’m standing, and with a relieved sigh, she releases the spell holding her wings together. She’s panting a little, but she manages to murmur, “Holy shit,” between breaths.

              “Holy shit?”

              “Yeah. I’ve never seen anyone do that before.”

              “Guess there’s a first time for everything.”

              Alyssa smiles in response, and the red clouding her irises fades until her eyes have returned to their normal color. Seconds later, fatigue and gravity seem to finally take their toll on her, and she falls over forward into my arms. My injured knee buckles under the strain, but I struggle to keep us from crashing onto the gravel strewn rooftop. I smile into Alyssa’s rain soaked hair, and she looks up at me in a way that makes me wonder if her falling into my arms was actually an accident or not.

              Neither of us can say a word about it before our earpieces crackle to life again. This time, it’s Jenna’s voice coming to us, and it’s delivering news that I’ve almost literally been dying to hear.

              “Rendezvous at my place. We got her.”