Called by Darkness Page 8

  I blinked and he was gone. I let out a pent-up breath, my knees suddenly weak.

  “You okay?” Asher said, still staring at the space the Vamp had just been.

  I rubbed my neck, my hands coming away sticky with blood. “Yeah, I’m…I’m good.”

  Asher magically collapsed his sword. The fury drained out of his face, his attitude returning to its normal assured, charming self. “Well, that was fun. Maybe next time be a little more specific about where you’re going, huh Skylar?”

  “We need to move,” Colson said, gesturing for us to leave the alleyway. “Time to get out of this mess.”

  “You look like death,” Asher said.

  I glared at him from over the lip of my coffee cup. I gave the sweet nectar time to unthaw my insides before saying, “Just what every girl wants to hear.”

  Asher grinned and leaned back, throwing an arm over the back of the booth we sat in. We’d found a 24-hour restaurant, a diner, with pastel, egg-yolk-colored walls and a single fan that barely pushed the stale air around. The lone waitress picked at her nails behind the counter. The cook kept to the back. Both looked like Norms. That was fine by me. I was pretty sick of Supes right now.

  There was a flush and Colson returned from the bathroom. He’d managed to magically hide his hammer, but his size still made the waitress glance nervously at him as he approached our table.

  “You hungry?” he asked me.

  “I could eat three elephants with a side of zebra,” I said.

  He nodded and went to order us some food.

  “Here.” Asher pushed a backpack across the table toward me. “We didn’t have much time to prepare before we went chasing after you, but we managed to grab you some clothes.”

  “You did? How did you…you went into my room?”

  “I believe the correct response is: thank you, Asher. I’ll be so glad to get out of my adorable PJ’s, Asher.”

  “You’re a creeper, Asher. How’d you get past the charms?”

  He gave me a devilish smirk that made my heart thump hard. Stupid coffee. “I have my ways.”

  Oh, this boy was dangerous to me.

  I semi-gratefully took the backpack and slipped into the grotty restroom to change. Asher must have been in a hurry and only grabbed what he could ‘cause there were three pairs of socks, jeans, and two old t-shirts I only wore when I was lounging around. And…underwear. Asher had grabbed my…

  Nope, not thinking about that.

  I changed and washed up the best I could in the sink, scrubbing my arms and face until I felt semi-human again.

  Our food had arrived when I returned to the table: three heaping stacks of pancakes soaked with syrup, an entire plate of heart-stoppingly good bacon, and more greasy hash browns than even I could finish.

  I took a bite of the pancakes and nearly melted in my seat. “Colson, have I told you how amazing you are?”

  “Not lately,” he said before spearing a pancake and eating the entire thing whole.

  After I fueled up, my brain began to work again, and one thought rose to the surface in a panic: Mia.

  “Did you find Mia?” I asked.

  “No,” Colson said, and my spirits plummeted again. “We grabbed some things and left soon after you did. Wandered around for a long time until we found you.”

  “Again, you’re welcome,” Asher said.

  I ignored him. “Did you tell anyone else what happened? Where you were going?”

  Asher stopped, fork halfway to his mouth. “Where you were…we didn’t know where you were until your message showed up. There wasn’t…we didn’t…”

  “No,” Colson said.

  “Thank you, Colson,” I said, sighing.

  He nodded and took a long sip of orange juice. I sat back in the booth, trying not to let myself feel too down. The Masters might not know where we were, and we hadn’t found Mia yet, but at least we had our weapons and each other. Unfortunately, even if we were able to reach the Academy now, it was unlikely they’d know any more than we did about where to find her.

  “The people who kidnapped Mia were the same ones who attacked the ceremony and left the note,” I said.

  That got their attention. I filled them in on what had happened since leaving the Academy, in what was quickly feeling like days ago. I kind of didn’t mention the part about…whatever had happened when the woman spoke to me, with the eyes and the weird voice inside my head. I wasn’t even sure what had happened.

  “I don’t know how she knew my mom,” I said when I’d finished. “She sounded…mad. Like my mom had done something to her. Did our parents make a lot of enemies?”

  “Plenty. Take your pick,” Asher said.

  “You can’t rise to the level they are without angering some people. Some of that anger is justified, some of it is not,” Colson said. He clenched his fork tight enough to bend it.

  I thought about Mia out there. Alone. In trouble. Maybe hurt or even…

  No. I wouldn’t let myself finish that thought. But even so, I felt the start of tears prickling the corner of my eyes. A warm hand rested on my own.

  “We’ll get her back,” Asher assured me. “They’re not going to kill her or else they would have done it back at the Academy.”

  I furiously rubbed my eyes. “Yeah. Okay, yeah. But how are we going to find her? If it really is the same people who sent the manticore, nobody seemed to know who that is. We have no place to start.”

  “The Masters?” Asher said.

  I shook my head. “I already thought of that. They might know something, but I’m not positive.”

  “What about your mom? She used to deal with rogue Supes all the time. Still does.”

  “Not as much. And she mostly works abroad, not here. She’d be out of the loop. Same with your dad.”

  “Right…” Asher crossed his legs. “We need someone who has a clue about these kinds of Supes. Who knows the kinds of places the Academy doesn’t usually go and can tell us where to look. But we don’t have anybody like that.”

  “Yeah we do.”

  Asher and I both looked at Colson.

  “We do?” Asher said.

  Colson nodded. “Remember my cousin Ricky? The one who lives in Queens?”

  “You mean the guy with the lake house we went to…was it two summers ago?”

  “That’s him. He works as a bouncer at the Bone Yard.”

  “The dude has a lake house on a bouncer’s salary?” I said, but Asher’s eyes slowly widened like he was realizing something.

  “He works at the Bone Yard? You serious?”

  “So?” I said.

  “It’s a super exclusive club,” Asher said. “Supes only. Not too far from here. Someone might be there who knows…”

  “The owner,” Colson said. “Called the Duke. A wraith. He might have an idea where to start.”

  “I don’t know about dealing with a wraith,” Asher said, but without conviction. He knew we didn’t have much choice. We all knew.

  Asher went to pay after we’d finished eating. I watched as he joked and flirted with the cashier. She fluttered her eyelashes at him as he handed over the money. I appreciated him reassuring me about Mia, but seriously, couldn’t the guy turn it off once in a while?

  “Asher’s right, we’ll get her back.” Colson was nodding. “She’ll be just fine. Promise.”

  “I know we will. And thank you.”

  Colson nodded again. A muscle twitched in his cheek, like the words he wanted to say were bottling up in his mouth and he needed to let them free.

  “Mia…” he blurted out, “is she…is she frightened of me?”

  I could only stare at him for a moment as Colson worried his fork, bending it in and out of shape.

  “I know we didn’t get a choice for partners,” he went on. “But I want her to succeed. If I scare her—I don’t want to do that to her, so maybe we should—”

  “No!” I said, forcefully enough to make him jump. “No, it’s not that, she’s not…sh
e’s just nervous around new people.”

  “But we’ve been in the same school for a while.”

  “Well, she’s especially nervous about those she…you see, she…”

  Colson cocked his head. Then I saw understanding dawn in his eyes. The faintest red touched his ruddy cheeks. “Oh. Oh. Okay.”

  I coughed. “Yeah. When we get her back. Just give her time. She’ll open up. Then she’ll continue to kick your butt at sparring.”

  The corner of Colson’s mouth twitched. “I can’t wait.”

  Colson and I went to wash our hands. Asher was standing outside when I was done. He was looking off down the street at something I couldn’t see. The diner’s light cast his face in half light, his expression soft and serious and a little bit sad, and for just a moment it was like I was seeing beneath his skin—to the other Asher below. To the boy I’d once known. The one I’d watched cry when one of the griffon chicks didn’t make it through the night, the one who I could always count on to be there when I was upset after a fight with my parents and who’d help me sneak into the kitchen to steal sweets.

  Where had that boy gone?

  Or maybe…I paused before I pushed through the door, again watching his face. Maybe he was still there, but hiding. Maybe he’d changed before that summer he’d come back different, and I just hadn’t noticed. Hadn’t wanted to notice. Hadn’t wanted to lose the boy I’d come to know. The one I’d come to…

  The door jingled as I walked out. Asher blinked and his nearly constant smirk returned.

  We both stood there awkwardly. I realized for the first time in a long time, I didn’t have anything snappy to say.

  “Sorry if I didn’t grab the right clothes,” Asher said. “Things were kind of crazy—maybe we should have told someone, I know—but I was kind of just reacting and—”

  “Thank you,” I interrupted.

  He paused. “Thank you?”

  “For coming after me.”

  Asher blinked. Then he smiled wider and my heart started doing things I was pretty sure was worthy of a diagnosis.

  “I’ll come after you anywhere and always, Skylar. You’re my partner, after all.”

  I nearly told him that we almost weren’t, that I’d almost ruined that, but I could only stare at him, into those cool blue eyes, just thinking. A flutter of warmth rose in my chest and stayed. Dim and hesitant, but hopeful.

  The door dinged again. Colson rubbed his hands together. He nodded to each of us.

  “Let’s go find trouble.”

  Chapter Eight

  With Colson guiding us deeper into the bowels of the backstreets, it took less than an hour to find the Bone Yard. One second we were winding down a deserted alley, the next we’d turned a corner and nearly run into groups of laughing couples, each of them hanging onto each other so close they might have been one person.

  The farther we walked, the more people we passed. It was like we were fish swimming up an intoxicated stream smelling of smoke and booze and decked out in fine jewelry and glitter. This was definitely the right direction.

  “I’ll talk to Ricky first,” Colson said, pulling us up short of the club’s entrance. The door was lit in soft neon light, flanked by two dudes so big they had to be half giant. Or at least a quarter. Every time they opened the door to let someone in, I could feel the rhythm of the music pulsing through the ground, vibrating up my body. My heart sped up.

  “Hope this club guy works,” I said when Colson approached the bouncer on the left. He gave the guy a complicated handshake and the two of them began speaking in low voices.

  “The owner’s full name is the Duke of the Lower,” Asher said. “He’s a wraith, which means though he’s a spirit he can still hurt us—”

  “I know what a wraith is, Asher. I took Supernatural Races 100, too.” Geez, just ‘cause the guy came running to my rescue didn’t meant he didn’t still annoy me. “And I’ve never heard of him.”

  “Well, we all learned something new today, didn’t we?”

  “How do you know about him?”

  He gave me a smug smile. “I made it a point to learn. You never know when you’ll need to use it, like when your Academy partner goes running out into the night and you wind up outside a club at three a.m.”

  I turned away with a huff. This guy…it wasn’t enough he had book smarts, he had to have street smarts, too.

  “If it makes you feel any better, taking on extra studies wasn’t exactly my idea of fun,” Asher said.

  “Then why’d you do it? Why’d it matter?”

  Asher opened his mouth, then closed it. “It mattered,” he said simply.

  I looked at him for a moment, but he wouldn’t look back.

  “Hey.” Colson was gesturing to us. When we joined him, his cousin Ricky peered down like he was trying to decide which shoe he was going to squash us under first.

  “You my cuz’s friends?”

  “We’re with him, aren’t we?” I said. Asher elbowed me. Ricky’s tiny eyes squinted, making his face look like a pig who’d gotten his butt stuck under a fence.

  “That lip may work with me, sweets, but you’d better learn some manners before you talk to the Duke.”

  “Thanks for letting us in,” Asher said with his biggest grin. “We owe you—”

  Ricky put one massive hand on Asher’s and my shoulders. I could feel the strength in his grip, strong enough to snap me in half with a single squeeze.

  “I want you to know something: Colson’s my cuz, so the Duke won’t touch ‘im. But you two…he’s free to kill you. You understand?”

  “Thanks, Ricky,” Colson said.

  “Yeah, thanks, Ricky,” I said, mouth dry.

  Ricky nodded, removed his hands, and pulled the door open. The music and lights immediately slammed into us. The bass thumped hard, and I could feel myself being pulled in like a trance.

  “You’re minors, so head straight across to the other side,” Ricky said. “No stopping. No staring. No touching.”

  He gave us an affirming nod and one by one we slipped in.

  “Hey, how come they’re allowed?” a guy outside complained.

  “Want me to stuff you in a tail pipe?” Ricky said.

  The door slammed shut. Colson let out a long breath.

  “He makes me…nervous,” he admitted when he saw me notice. “Most of my family does.”

  I didn’t think there was anything anywhere that could make Colson nervous, but before I could think about it, we were absorbed by the club.

  Flavored smoke filled my nose, strobe lights cutting through the haze. All my senses were on high alert, but not in a bad way. It was like I’d been living with earplugs and a face mask my whole life and both had been loosened just a bit. The air thrummed with toxic energy. The gyrating bodies on the dance floor were nothing but silhouettes. I spied Vamps tucked in corners, fangs glistening wet as they leaned into their chosen Supe prey. The pierced face of a necromancer met my eyes at a shadowed table and I quickly looked away. Some ghouls at the bar voraciously dug into something I thankfully couldn’t see. I felt a tremor of part fear, part excitement race through me.

  “There.” Colson’s voice pulled me out of my stupor. He pointed over the heads of the dancers. All the way across the club was an enclosed glass box on the second-floor landing, the perfect vantage point to observe everything. From here, it looked like a balcony a king would use to speak down to his peasants. Somebody had an ego.

  I could make out shadowed shapes moving behind the glass. I looked at where we had to go. The bodies were crowded too thick on the outside to push through. Not that I’d want to. Being close to so many predators hyped up on music and who knew what else was practically shouting “I’m a meal! Bon appetit!”

  I turned back around to find Asher grinning at me.

  “What?”

  “The quickest way around is through.”

  And before I could protest, he took one of my hands, wrapped his other arm around my waist, and plunged
us onto the dance floor.

  Idiot boy.

  “You can’t even dance!” I shouted as we were immediately squashed by bodies on all sides. I ducked as a man’s elbow nearly clobbered my face. “And the dance isn’t the waltz!”

  “You ever heard of starting a trend?” Asher shouted back.

  He cut through another pair of head-banging dancers like a shark through hot butter. Or…shark through…something. I was having trouble thinking straight, between the music rocking my core and the sensations clogging my senses. I was intimately aware of Asher’s hands on me, the closeness of his body to mine. The bodies around us were hot, but somehow his was blazing. What the heck was wrong with me? This was Asher. It wasn’t like we hadn’t sparred before, hadn’t gotten this close before. But somehow this was different. This felt more intimate. More personal. It felt…nice.

  I let myself relax a little more. Asher must have felt the change because he pulled me even closer—or maybe it was just so we could slip through the next cluster of people. We were nearly halfway across the floor, but strangely I didn’t want to stop.

  Asher leaned down to my ear. A tingle raced up my neck as his breath brushed my cheek.

  “You’re a good dancer.”

  “Well you’re bad enough for the both of us.”

  Asher threw his head back and laughed, almost immediately ducking as an ogre doing the jackknife nearly plowed into him. “Can’t be good at everything. I need to save some talent for other people.”

  I rolled my eyes, and as I did so they locked on someone behind him. It was as though the crowd of dancers parted, revealing a lone woman standing, unmoving between them.

  Staring right at me.

  I could barely make out her features in the low light, but I swear she smiled. I let out a small whimper.

  “Skylar? What’s wrong?”

  My skin was prickling like it had in the alleyway. Like those hundreds of eyes were back and peering straight into my heart. My lungs clenched, but this time I didn’t let the fear hold me. It was her. The woman from the alley. I was sure of it.

  “Move!” I shoved past Asher, pushing my way toward the woman. No way was I letting her get away this time.