The Children and the Blood (38 page)

She cut off, clearly fighting to control her emotions.

“I didn’t know!” Ashe repeated desperately. “The first time… the
only
times I used magic… Spider, I killed people. I couldn’t stop it. So I thought if I let even the tiniest bit out, anybody near me would die. You. Carter. Everyone. I…”

She looked down, sick at the thought that she could have helped Shen. “I didn’t know what it was.”

“So back there…?”

“He was going to kill you.”

“But if you hadn’t been able to control it…”

Ashe didn’t answer.

Spider paused, taken back.

“What about everything you told us?” the girl continued after a moment. “Your dad? Your sister?”

“It was true. I just… I didn’t know how to talk about the other parts.”

Spider waited.

“Wizards killed my family. But when they shot him, my dad did something. Pushed us away somehow. And then the Blood wizard came. He just looked like a human to me, but he…” She grimaced, forcing herself to keep talking past the memory. “He killed my dad without even touching him.

“We escaped because of what my dad did, though. And then Cole showed up. I don’t know who he was or why he was there, but he was a cripple like you. I didn’t realize it till I met Carter and Samson, but that’s what he was. He helped us like I said, but then…

“They shot me. Through the leg. Cole tried to help me, but then they shot him too. He fell. Lily was with him. I couldn’t run to her. Couldn’t save her and next thing I knew…” She shook her head. “I woke up in the middle of a forest fire with my body covered in flames. The wound in my leg was gone. And the men who shot me were dead. But the Blood wizard hadn’t been there, and I didn’t know what I’d done. What was happening. I thought it was a dream.”

Ashe took a deep breath, determined to be done with secrets. “I got arrested when I reached town. But the Blood wizard followed me to the station, pretending to be an FBI agent. When I heard his voice, I panicked, and suddenly, fire was all over me again.” She paused. “One of the cops was killed.”

Brow furrowing, she drove the memory aside. “So I ran. I was hiding when that feral found me. I had no idea what he was. What wizards were. He was just a monster trying to kill me, and then Carter stopped him.”

She looked back at Spider. “I swear I didn’t know anything about this. And once I did…”

“What?” the girl asked when she trailed off.

“I was afraid you’d shoot me. Or leave. Or turn me over to them. I don’t know.”

For a moment, Spider studied her. “You look like a wizard to me. Like nothing but a regular human, I mean. And the dog reacts to you like a Blood – again, like nothing but a human. You convinced Carter to hunt the Blood, even though that’s about the most dangerous thing we could do. So what? You’re a new one of them?” She paused. “Is this some kind of trick?”

Ashe hesitated. “You wouldn’t ask that if you thought it was.”

“I don’t know what to think.”

Wordlessly, Ashe looked away.

Silence fell between them. Distant sounds of evening traffic mingled with the rustle of wind through the trees, and over the soccer field, bright lights flickered to life and slowly began blazing like the sun.

“You could’ve just let him kill me,” Spider suggested, almost conversationally.

Ashe blinked, confused.

“Rejoined the others with a story of how the wizards attacked and only you got away. And they would’ve believed it. I mean, you’re getting there, but…”

Ashe looked down, feeling a bit defensive of her rudimentary shooting skills.

“And your cover would’ve remained intact.” Spider paused. “But you didn’t.”

For a few seconds, the girl sat silent.

“Hurt like hell what you did, though.”

“Sorry.”

Spider chuckled, picking at the detritus by her legs. “Yeah, well, given the options.”

Ashe watched as Spider slowly shredded a leaf.

“I really thought he was going to kill me back there,” the girl said quietly, her humor gone.

Spider glanced up. “Thanks.”

Hesitantly, Ashe shrugged.

The girl returned to her destruction of the leaves for a while, and then finally sighed. “We should get back,” she said, brushing the debris from her lap. “The others will be wondering if we got out or not.”

Uncertain she’d heard correctly, Ashe blinked. “But…”

“We’ll find a way to tell them.”

Ashe stared.

Climbing to her feet, Spider scanned the cemetery and then pushed the branches aside, letting Mischa precede her. When Ashe didn’t move, she glanced back. “Unless you’d rather stay here?”

Faintly stunned, Ashe shook her head and rose. Ducking beneath the branches, she followed Spider from the brush. Sunset lit the western sky, casting lengthy shadows from the tombstones and trees. On top of the rise, a mound of dirt covered the new grave, the workers and the pavilion long since gone.

“This way,” Spider said.

In the fading light, the two girls headed back into the city.

The fishbowl windows of the sandwich shop glowed in the darkness, clearly showing empty seats and a tired clerk inside. Staying out of the pool of light cast on the sidewalk, Ashe and Spider slipped around the building and, as they reached the alley at the back of the shop, Carter and Bus rose from the shadows behind a dumpster.

“Son of a bitch,” Bus swore, his blue eyes raking over them and taking in the dried blood on Ashe’s face and the bruises around Spider’s throat. “What happened to you?”

“Ran into a bit of trouble,” Spider replied. “It got taken care of.”

The old man looked between them when the girl didn’t say anything more. “You sure you’re okay?” he persisted, directing the question mostly to Ashe.

She attempted to smile, and failed miserably. Her stomach wouldn’t stop doing flip flops, and she could feel the pressure of Carter’s gaze. For the first time since Shen’s, she felt like the word ‘wizard’ might as well have been branded on her forehead.

“Bus,” Spider said.

He grimaced, dropping it.

“Where to?” the girl asked Carter.

“Twitch’s.”

Bus blinked. “That boy still alive in there?”

“Last time Serenity got him to open the door,” Carter answered.

The old man shook his head. Glancing to Spider, he motioned for her to go ahead. The two of them started off, and Ashe could hear the girl checking if Bus had any extra bullets she could use for her gun.

Ashe jumped as Carter’s hand rested on her shoulder.

“You alright?” he asked quietly, concern in his eyes.

Not trusting herself to speak, she nodded.

He squeezed her shoulder. “Scary?”

She hesitated, and then shrugged.

Carter smiled. “Come on.”

Wordlessly, she followed him away from the shop.

Keeping to alleys and dimly lit streets, they wound through the city. A bustling college campus slowly surrounded them, and through the gaps between buildings, she could see coffee shops and bars aglow in the night. Police cars patrolled the streets, following unpredictable patterns and forcing the Hunters to duck continually into hiding. Students roamed the sidewalks in packs, and if they paid attention to the four of them, it was only to glance over curiously before wandering on.

Frat houses and sororities appeared, bordering brick streets with old trees hugging their sides. From within shrouds of spring leaves, streetlamps glowed on roads that rose and fell with the terrain as it drew closer to the river.

At two buildings no different than the others, Carter turned, cutting down a narrow gravel drive. An unpaved parking lot waited at the end, its width barely enough for the cars wedged inside. Unkempt bushes and trees encroached on it, obscuring the view of anything beyond, and without pausing, Carter crossed it to pull aside the branches and let the others skirt through.

Tugging past the grasping twigs, Ashe stepped onto the shattered concrete of another parking lot. Years’ worth of weeds spread like a forest from the cracked surface, continuing to the base of an enormous building. Five stories of brick stood at the center of the lot, while security lamps mounted on its corners streamed white-blue light onto the concrete. Weathered plywood was bolted over each window, and No Trespassing signs plastered the first floor. Graffiti adorned the walls, seeming more the work of bored college students than cripples, and except for the security lights, the whole building looked as though it’d been abandoned for years.

Or not, she realized as they came closer. Atop the building, small security cameras turned, their tiny green lights blinking as they tracked the four walking across the lot.

A broken cement step led to a thick metal door, the only entrance she could see. Carter banged on it twice, and then stepped back, waiting.

Nothing happened. Minutes drifted by. Through the dense walls of foliage surrounding the parking lot, only a whisper of late night traffic could be heard.

“You sure he’s still in there?” Spider asked quietly.

Carter didn’t answer.

A soft clank came from beyond the door, and then another. Several more followed, making their way down the length of the metal.

The noises stopped. A moment passed. The door crept open, and a white face behind enormous glasses peered out.

“Carter?” the man said, his thin voice turning the word into a question of whether the people in front of him were real.

“We need to come in, Twitch,” Carter replied carefully.

The man’s white skin grew even paler, and on the edge of the door, his skeletal fingers fluttered. “A-are you sure?”

“Yes.”

Behind the scuffed surface of his glasses, his eyes flitted across the four of them, as though hoping they would disappear.

“Twitch.”

At Carter’s voice, he winced and then reluctantly inched the door back, leaving them just enough room to slip by. A narrow entrance waited beyond, lit by a single low-watt bulb dangling from the ceiling. Through the door to her left, Ashe could see a card table and folding chairs inside what appeared to be a tiny apartment, although except for the space by the closet and the efficiency kitchen, boxes lined every inch of the walls.

She glanced around. It wasn’t just the apartment. Boxes were the predominant feature everywhere. Through the gaps in the metal stairway, she could see more of the cardboard shapes behind the steps, while the hallway to her right was blocked entirely.

Behind her, Twitch shoved the door closed, and furtively busied himself with throwing the locks. When the last was in place, he turned, his glasses reflecting the dim light. Wild tufts of hair stuck up from his head in haphazard fashion, and his bony shoulders were hunched, making him almost half Carter’s size.

“Y-you changed,” he said, his gaze darting to them and away. “You…with that one,” he pointed a trembling finger to Ashe and then jerked it back as though expecting her to bite. “And not the big one.”

“We need a place to stay, Twitch,” Carter said.

The man quivered, his eyes going wide and distant. “That’s bad… Bad things come…”

“We’ll be gone soon.”

Blinking rapidly, the man processed the information, and then glanced to the door. “Upstairs then. Upstairs is safer. Upstairs…”

Still muttering the word to himself, he scuttled between them and then gave a startled cry at the sight of the dogs. Skirting around the animals, he clutched after the metal banister and then scaled the steps as though trying to flee.

Closing his eyes, Carter shook his head and then motioned them to follow.

The second floor hall was completely black, and before she could take a step beyond the stairs, Bus grabbed her arm with a wordless warning noise. Invisible in the darkness, she couldn’t see his face as she looked toward him in confusion.

Twitch’s footsteps preceded them swiftly, effortlessly navigating the space. In the distance, a red glowing panel appeared as he pulled a hatch aside. His narrow fingers danced over it, and suddenly the buttons shifted to brilliant green.

A doorway opened. The darkness thinned to red-toned gray, and the dim shapes of boxes could be seen lining the path to the door.

Warily, Ashe followed the others out of the hall.

The second floor had been destroyed. At least, by the definition of anyone sane. The space ahead was nearly the width of the building, with only a few rooms on the far ends spared the demolition. Throughout the center of the level, every wall had been torn down, leaving only the barest framework of metal struts to support the floors above. Holes peppered the ceiling, through which dense braids of cords and wires hung. The multicolored spaghetti of cables twisted across the carpet and tile to scatter at the massive bank of computers lining the leftmost wall. Sleepy orange lights blinked on each workstation, and reflected opaquely on the monitors above them. Black-and-white images of the parking lot flickered across the screens, interspersed with news channels showing crime scenes around the country. In the heart of the mess, a rickety folding chair stood, one bent leg supported by a dog-eared book.

Ashe stared as Twitch darted across the space, hopping like a leprechaun through the gaps between the cords. On the far side of the room, he pulled aside another hatch and flittered his fingers over the red buttons to charm them into green. Impatiently, he waved at the others as a door swung open at his side.

Eyebrows drifting up in disbelief, Ashe followed Bus across the room. More steps met them behind the door, and though the way to the first floor was blocked entirely by boxes, the path upward was comparatively clear. On the levels above, small windows in the stairwell doors revealed more glowing red panels, one by each door lining the halls.

Ashe froze as, in the shadows of the corridors, small forms skittered along the walls. Shuddering, she forced herself to keep moving, praying she didn’t step on anything.

On the top floor, Twitch hurried to the first door by the stairs and tapped out a key code faster than Ashe could follow. Shoving open the door, he stepped aside and then motioned tensely to the room with his eyes on the floor.