“It’s a tracker,” I explained. “Not exactly subtle, but anyone out at this time will be too drunk or high to be suspicious.” Unless they recognize magic. My eyes shifted nervously to the trees across the street, watching for movement within the shadows. The foliage had long-since disappeared into a mass of blackness—perfect cover.
“Pretty, isn’t it?” Mage observed, interrupting my paranoia. “Should you make a couple more, just in case?”
I nodded. A regular sorceress would be foolish to use her magic in this way, knowing she was going into battle. It took a significant amount of magical reserves. But I had more than enough helixes floating around my body. I went to work, sending two more tracker links out within seconds to do our bidding. “There. When the links find fresh blood, they send back a message to their sister-half.”
“So, now what?” Mage asked, hawk-like eyes surveying the street.
I drew the three links from my hand around my wrist. To anyone without a clue, they looked like purple glow-in-the-dark bracelets, the kind teenagers wore to raves. Except they were covered in blood. “Now we wait.”
Approaching heels clicked against the sidewalk. We all turned to see a young woman in a long dark trench coat and woven red beret hurry past, her furtive eyes glancing down the alley to see six people staring back. She sped up, casting a worried glance over her shoulder at us. That was the worst thing a person could do with a group of vampires behind her. I shifted my weight, ready to ground them with magical ropes if necessary. But they remained still, Amelie admiring the woman’s leather boots. Not even one vein pulsated in their eyes. I began to relax. Maybe Mage was right . . .
Bright purple light began flashing in the alley. I looked down at the helix links. One’s identical twin had found fresh blood; it was pulling me to the right. “Come,” I hissed, magical bolts of fire ready at my fingertips as I set off at a brisk pace. The streets were nearly empty at this hour. Thank God. We passed ten people in the first block. Each time, my attention bounced from the passerby’s face and hands—looking for signs of a Sentinel spy—to the five vampires traveling with me, assessing everyone’s level of control. Each time, Mage turned to meet my gaze, to assure me, “They’ll be fine.” It wasn’t much, but it was the support I needed.
As if we’d walked into a solid wall, all six of us suddenly stopped, hit with the pungent scent of freshly spilled blood. Both Amelie and Fiona let out cries of pain, the crushing urge to feed catching them unprepared. Caden and Bishop each threw their hands out to grab them by their shoulders.
“I’m okay!” Amelie cried, though her emerald-green eyes were morphing. I checked all of their eyes. They had all morphed, but none were quite so full of veins as before. That was a good sign. It meant they had some level of control.
I moved ahead, hugging the wall so closely that my shoulder grazed the bricks, gaining distance from the others as they hung back. The link was pulling me to an alley ahead. What would I find there? Jonah and his posse of mutants? No; trapping and disposing of them all in an alley would be too easy. I slowed to a creep, edging forward until I could peek around the corner into the darkness. No mutants, from what I could see. Two fire sparks instantly ignited at my fingertips, though. I wasn’t taking any chances.
Caden and Bishop came up and flanked either side of the alley. With boyish, commando-like signals, they waved me through.
“How about we stay on guard out here,” Mage suggested, her arms linked through Fiona and Amelie’s.
I nodded and entered the alley alone, heading toward the dumpster in the back corner. My stomach sank as I spotted a trail of red leather, torn and bloodied. It led to the far side of the dumpster, to a pair of long, pale, female legs, lying in a pool of blood. Evangeline’s precious face flooded my mind then, paralyzing me for a moment. I forced myself to continue to the other end of the dumpster and looked down. My teeth clenched so tightly, I thought they would crack.
There could be no doubt: this was the work of newborn mutants.
By the silky material around the woman’s thighs, I could tell she had been out enjoying New York’s nightlife. Her last night out. From what I could see of her face, she looked young, no more than eighteen. My heart instantly swelled for her parents. This girl was someone’s Evangeline.
Mage suddenly appeared beside me to observe the body, but only lasted a second before turning around and stalking to the other side of the alley, the blood no doubt the cause of that. “We need to keep moving,” she said through tight lips, adding, “fast. If anyone finds that . . . ” She didn’t need to finish. I knew what would happen. It would make front page news.
I sighed, then muttered, “We can’t leave her here.” We couldn’t have this much attention this close to Viggo and Mortimer’s place. The Sentinel would certainly put two and two together, if they hadn’t already.
“Then you had better do something, and quick. They’re likely still traveling in a pack. They wouldn’t think to do otherwise right now. But soon enough, they’ll scatter.”
And then we’d have five mutants heading in five different directions. I brushed away the giant snowflake that had landed on my nose as I weighed my options. I couldn’t burn the body; the smoke and flames would draw too much notice. And cloaking spells were temporary. I didn’t have time to weave the spell that would mask the evidence properly. Those kinds of spells took more time than we had. I looked at the dumpster. A very unimaginative, human way of disposing of a body.
“I’m sorry for this,” I whispered, throwing open the top of the large green bin. Delicately, careful not to soil my clothes—I enjoyed blood as much as the next vampire, but I didn’t enjoy bathing in it—I hoisted the body up and tossed her in, rubbing my hands to get all evidence of blood off afterward. There. At least when she was discovered, it would take time to trace her back to here. I assessed the blood pool on the pavement. Perhaps I could lift it all—
The second link on my wrist began flashing brilliantly. More fresh blood. The third one went off immediately after. A lot of fresh blood. All thoughts of this crime scene vanished, driven out by fear of what lay ahead. I ran to the others.
“Where to now?” Mage asked, faint red lines still marring her almond-shaped eyes.
“This way. Quick,” I ordered.
We followed the pull of the links for thirteen blocks, ending up in another alley, in front of a gray steel door, where the scent of blood infused the air. My tongue curled, the coppery taste filling my mouth. I turned to see five sets of eager eyes. “Whatever is behind this door could be hard to handle,” I warned.
Fiona and Amelie clasped hands. “We’re ready this time,” Amelie said with stoic conviction.
Caden reached out to grasp the handle. “It’s locked.” With a nod to me, he swung his long leg at the door. It caved in with a loud creak, the frame twisting so badly that the door simply fell over. We stepped down a set of stairs and into a dank concrete hallway. The weak fluorescent bulbs shook violently with each beat of the music pounding in the underground club ahead. They illuminated four large, mangled male bodies sprawled on the dirty concrete, their freshly spilled blood splattered along the walls like abstract art. Their size identified them as the bouncers. The mutants had carved through them effortlessly.
“Keep moving!” I shouted, grabbing hold of Fiona and leading the way to a second set of doors at the end of the hall. I looked over my shoulder to find the rest following, struggling but somehow bypassing the bloodied bodies, Caden with steely eyes and a hand hooked around his sister’s arm.
Swallowing the lump forming in my throat, I listened intently at the doors. I heard no screams, no moans, just hammering music. What would we find on the other side, a mass killing ground? These late-night parties held hundreds, if not thousands of young people. Thousands of fast-beating hearts pumping fresh, warm blood through millions of veins—could the mutants control themselves?
I squeezed the metal door handle. The door popped open, the previously muffled music now exploding through the crack as I peered inside—at a sea of moving, gyrating bodies. I breathed a sigh of relief. No mass killing here. Yet. It was a late-night rave in the giant, low-ceilinged basement of a building, complete with a smoke machine, kaleidoscopic light show, and a dense crowd of wasted revelers. The perfect plucking ground for a hungry vampire.
The six of us quickly slipped through the entrance. Bishop closed the door behind him, bending the door frame to jam it so no one could exit through that doorway and find the bouncers’ bodies. I spent a few moments scanning the crowd for our repulsive targets but soon realized it would be impossible to find them while standing here, even with our abilities.
“We need to split up,” Caden yelled, echoing my thoughts.
Mage gestured to Bishop and Fiona and pointed to the right. Caden and Amelie followed me as I headed along the left perimeter.
“See? We are going clubbing after all!” Amelie chirped as we wove through the edge of the crowd. I couldn’t help but smile.
The place reeked of sweat, booze, and vomit but no one seemed to care; all were too engrossed in bumping and turning into each other. As a human teenager growing up in nineteenth-century France, my nights had consisted of reading books by kerosene lamp and the occasional ball or late evening picnic—nothing like this. I’d quite happily kept Evangeline away from this scene, not wanting her exposed to deadly drugs. Ironic, really, given all the other deadly things she was now exposed to, thanks to me.
A young girl of no more than seventeen, dressed in a tight, microscopic white dress, suddenly flew out of the crowd to throw her arms around Caden. “You are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever laid eyes on!” she shouted, her voice slurred.
Caden smiled politely while gently extricating himself from her arms. “I’m flattered, but I already have someone.”
Unwilling to take no for an answer, the girl leapt at him. I think she tried to lay a kiss on his mouth but, in her drunken state, missed and buried her face in his shoulder instead. A tiny hand reached out and grabbed a handful of the girl’s long, straight brown hair. “He said he’s taken. Back off!” Amelie yelled. With a flick of her delicate wrist, she sent the girl flying backward into the crowd; she took several revelers down like dominoes as she plowed into them.
“Come on!” I grabbed them both and pulled them ahead of me, hoping to get away before a fight broke out. Only ten feet away, we passed a group of young men leaning against the wall, and I sensed their despicable intentions as their eyes appraised Amelie and me. I recognized their type immediately—they would lure a woman into a quiet location to have their way with her. Normally, I’d respond by batting my eyes—I enjoyed baiting my meal. But not tonight. Tonight I needed to deal with five other vile creatures, and it wasn’t for pleasure. It was for survival.
Amelie read their lewd intentions as well and, unfortunately, she wasn’t as focused. Lunging at one of the men, she easily pinned him up against the wall and bared her teeth in a snarl. Caden yanked her off before she could take a chunk out of the guy’s neck; before anyone could see her eyes morph.
“Amelie!” I barked, pushing her forward. “We don’t have time for this! I’ll put you on a leash if you don’t behave.”
“Sorry,” she muttered with a sheepish smile, her irises quickly reverting to their girlish green. We continued along the perimeter of the room, Caden now with one hand firmly locked on his feisty sister’s shoulder.
My own eyes roamed the crowd, searching in vain for any sign of the mutants. Happily, there hadn’t been an attack yet. They were showing restraint. But I knew they were here. There was no way they could pass up a thriving scene like this.
We passed a young blonde man and my eyes locked with his as he attempted a covert look-over while taking a drink. It was enough for me to catch the small mark on his hand—a deformed cross. The Sentinel were here, too. They must be watching us. Too coincidental to be otherwise. Great. Well, as long as they remained watchful and nothing more, we would have no trouble with them tonight. I continued shifting through the crowd, marking the Sentinel’s location for future reference.
And then I spotted them—two people hunched over in the shadows of a dark corner, their black hoodies pulled up to conceal their faces. But their eyes couldn’t be hidden. Demonic white eyes peered out from the darkness, delightedly studying the crowds, scouting their next victims. Mutants. There were only two, though. Where were the other three? I grabbed Caden’s arm. “To your left. By the speakers.” Caden’s eyes quickly zoned in and his body jerked forward to attack. I squeezed his arm, stopping him. “If the others see us, they’ll escape. We need to find them all first.”
“I’ll watch from here,” Amelie offered, her eyes shifting over to the group of lewd guys by the wall.