The scent hit me just as I crossed in front of an alley. Smoky, spicy, and sweet. I stopped in my tracks and inhaled deeply. I looked to my left and saw a neon sign down the alley advertising The Happy Hookah Lounge. The scent of smoke and blood summoned me into the darkness like a bent finger.
Smoking blood was a popular activity in certain circles of the vamp community. My own grandmother liked to lace her tobacco with a little opium for an additional high. The scent had followed me for most of my life, clinging to my clothes and hair when I came home from vamp bars.
After walking around the swirling vortex of motion that was New York, the reminder of home was bittersweet. As tempting as it was to indulge in a little emotional wound prodding, I continued on past the alley. Pretending I belonged among vampires didn’t cut it anymore. I’d never belonged among them, and trying to do so now might end up putting me in the path of more of the Dominae’s assassins.
Besides, I’d had enough of a walk down memory lane tonight to last me for a while. Talking to Slade was… interesting. I still didn’t trust him. But I was willing to admit that my old grudge didn’t hold as much water now. Slade might have screwed me over and pulled a disappearing act on the Dominae, but I betrayed them. It didn’t matter that they betrayed me first. Now I understood how my blind loyalty to the Dominae had guided my decisions. And now, after all these years, Slade and I were on the same side again. Funny how life works sometimes. So funny I would have cried if I’d been the crying type.
A cab zoomed past, reminding me I should probably head back to Maisie’s place.
“Hey, G?”
“What?”
I grimaced. The goddess save me from surly feline demons. “How much money you have left from the fight?”
Silence.
“Giguhl?”
I swear I heard a sigh come from the carrier. I lifted the bag up to look into one of the mesh side panels. A pair of guilty cat eyes stared back. “Well?”
He scooted back from the panel. “Five bucks.”
“What?” I shouted. “You won a grand!”
“Those nymphs bewitched me! They made me do naughty things, Sabina. Naughty, expensive things.”
I cursed. “Well, how are we supposed to get home now?” Ever since I’d arrived in the city, I’d relied on cabs to get around. Consequently, I hadn’t really paid attention to little details like street names. But I knew enough to guess five bucks wouldn’t get us very far.
“How about the subway?” Giguhl said in a small voice. I glared into the carrier. He cringed back. “I’m just sayin’.”
With a disgusted sigh, I swung the bag down roughly. A thump and a “Hey” followed the move, but I ignored it. Instead, I looked around for another solution. Sure enough, not twenty feet from where I stood, a descending staircase led into the bowels of Manhattan. What was worse, I spotted Stryx sitting on a lamppost nearby. He screeched my name and blinked his red eyes as if in challenge.
“Awesome.” I took off toward the sign like an inmate headed toward death row. It’s not that the subway scared me. Being a vampire with secret mage skills and an assassin to boot tended to make one immune to trivial worries like muggings or sex offenders. But for some reason, the idea of sitting in an enclosed tube, barreling through underground tunnels, freaked my shit.
I reached the bottom of the stairs and figured out how to pay for a card that would allow me access to the tunnels. Once through the turnstile, though, I entered a labyrinth. At any moment I expected a freakin’ minotaur to jump out at me. Instead, I just got jostled by impatient mortals who understood the mysterious caverns.
A map covered in multicolored lines hung on the wall. It looked like there was a subway stop right near Prytania Place, so I was in luck. Two trains went that way, so I mentally flipped a coin and chose the C train.
I followed the signs to the track for the C and found myself standing on an empty platform. After the constant barrage of humans and the scent of their blood teasing me, I appreciated the break.
“Looks like we’re early for the train,” I said to Giguhl.
“Are you sure this is right? Shouldn’t there be more people?”
I plopped down on a bench. “The map said the C will take us almost to Maisie’s front door.”
“Since no one’s around, will you let me out of my prison?”
I looked around and shrugged. “Okay, but just for a minute.”
I unzipped the bag. I’d barely finished when Giguhl’s little bald head appeared. “Freedom!” He took a deep breath. “Eww, it smells like ass down here.”
I picked him up out of the bag so he could sit on my lap. “Stay.”
His ears twitched, and he cocked his head to look at me. “I’m not a dog, you know.”
I laughed. “Sorry. When you’re the cat it’s hard to remember you’re really a badass demon.”
He sniffed, making his little nose twitch. “Damned straight, sister. I kicked that Defiler’s ass tonight.”
“Yes, you did. Where’d you learn to fight like that? I wouldn’t think a Mischief demon would have wicked street-fighting skills.”
He plopped his butt down on my lap. “It’s precisely because I’m a Mischief that I needed to learn how to fight. Irkalla’s got this stupid caste system, and we’re low on the totem pole. It was either learn to fight or become some Lust demon’s butt boy, you know?”
“In a weird way, yeah, I kind of do.” Granted, I’d never had one of my classmates try to sodomize me, but I understood having to defend myself from bullies. Growing up a mixed-blood among vampires wasn’t exactly a cakewalk. Despite my own status as the granddaughter of the Alpha Dominae, my classmates found plenty of opportunity to remind me I’d never be accepted.
“Sabina?” Giguhl said. “Are you sure this is the right train? Seems like one should have come by now.”
“Hmm, you might be right.” I rose, ready to put Giguhl back in his bag so I could go find the A train platform. Right then, a screech echoed through the tunnel. The hair on the back of my neck prickled. The sound hadn’t come from an inbound train. Instead, it sounded suspiciously similar to Stryx. I stilled, looking around for the owl, but the tunnels were now eerily quiet. Surely I’d been hearing things. What would an owl be doing down in the subway?
Shrugging off the feeling, I reached for the bag. Giguhl didn’t protest and ducked back inside. I left the top open, figuring he’d feel less confined that way.