Devil Inside, page 29
When Cassandra and Harley reached the corner of the block the three Ignis finally noticed them. They watched the two women cross the road. The Ignis reacted as many human thugs would when encountering women on a dark street corner. Their grins grew wider as they nudged each other and their eyes glowed even brighter.
“Hey ladies,” the one in the blue hat leered as Harley and Cassandra stepped onto the curb in front of the Ignis. As one, the three creatures stepped in front of the women to block their path. Harley’s entire body hummed with energy as she and Cassandra came to a smooth, slow stop.
“Where are you ladies off to this evening,” Blue Hat asked. Harley could smell his breath and it reeked of something that smelled like burnt meat. The smell brought back a flood of memories from the night Jamie died. The old pain and despair threatened to tear through her as she remembered her friend dying in front of her. With a deep breath she forced the pain aside and embraced her anger instead. Harley also smelled the Burner’s sweat, and as she did she knew without a doubt that this Ignis was particularly nasty. She hadn’t known that she would be able to tell this much about an Ignis just from being near it. She didn’t think it was just his smell. The impression of this Burner seemed to be connected to the “alert” that hummed through her head. In microseconds Harley knew many things about this creature. She knew that, even though he wasn’t an old Ignis, he was strong and she was sure that this Ignis liked to mess with mostly women. Harley would bet money that this man wasn’t just a rapist, but probably a pimp as well. She raised her head and looked into his cold gray eyes. She could feel her eyes burn with heat as they blacked out and her Nocte rose to the surface. She could practically hear the women that he had hurt screaming for help and it rippled across her shoulders and down her spine as her Nocte growled excitedly.
When his eyes met Harley’s Blue Hat dropped his grin quickly. As his grin faded, Harley’s grew. As the Ignis realized that the women weren’t just women—victims—they tensed preparing for a fight. They took several steps back to give themselves room to maneuver and they snarled as their eyes flashed in the glow from the streetlight.
Harley and Cassandra both reached for their weapons and braced themselves. Harley held her knife in her right hand poised for action. Harley and Cassandra waited for the Ignis to make their move. Finally, Blue Hat lunged at Harley and he was followed by the shorter of the two hooded Ignis. Harley saw Blue Hat’s hand swipe at her and she dodged the knife she hadn’t even seen him draw. She countered with her own and was rewarded a yelped when she gashed his bicep. Shorty swung his fist her but she managed to catch it and use his momentum to jerk him forward bring her knee up into his elbow. She felt downright giddy when she heard his elbow crack and bend in an unnatural angle. Shorty fell to his knees with a small cry.
Harley made the decision to kill Shorty quickly as she wanted to take her time with Blue Hat. He was the one she wanted to quench the fire in her stomach. Before Blue Hat had a chance to rebound from the wound in his arm, Harley finished off Shorty by, remorselessly, driving her blade into his heart. He went silent immediately and she yanked her knife from his chest. Before she could dodge it, Blue Hat lashed out with his own weapon. The blade cut a vicious fissure across Harley’s cheek. She spun away with a hiss and kicked him squarely in the stomach.
Blue Hat slammed into the wall behind him and Harley darted around Cassandra and the taller one as they stumbled between Blue Hat and herself. Cassandra was doing fine and holding her own so Harley returned her attention to the Ignis that she fought. Blue Hat, using the distraction of the fight between them, turned and began to run. Harley growled at his cowardice and quickly gave chase. Blue Hat was fast—she had to give him that. In less than five strides he had put the width of one building between them. She transferred her knife to her left hand and without stopping running she undid the buckle on the chain the wrapped around her waist. She unwound it, raised it over her head and spun it like a lasso.
Focusing on the feet of the Ignis running from her, Harley let go of the chain and held her breath. She had managed to put the right amount of force behind the release and Harley could hear the metal slide against itself as it wrapped around the ankles of Blue Hat. With a satisfying crunch he crashed to the sidewalk and his hat flew off. He immediately flipped to his back and as Harley came to a stop over him he slashed at her again. She managed to avoid the attacked and twisted away from him. Harley caught his wrist on the return swing and he struggled to break her grip while at the same time clawing at her with his free hand. Harley dodged his clawing hand and pinched at the nerves behind his thumb and he was forced to drop the knife. Blue Hat was finally beginning to panic and he rolled away from her. Even though he managed to break her grip he didn’t get far as she dropped all of her weight onto his back, driving her knee into his spine which popped loudly as he howled.
Harley laughed as she leaned over and spoke softly into his ear. “You’re gonna taste so good.” Harley giggled as he began to struggle harder, trying to throw her off his back. But she drove the handle of her knife into his temple as hard as she could. It didn’t knock him out but it did daze him. Climbing off his back she quickly glanced back in the direction they came from. If anyone had noticed the struggle they didn’t care enough to pay attention. The people in front of the restaurant probably couldn’t hear them anyway since pounding dance music spilled outside the bar. She didn’t see Cassandra or the tall Ignis, but she had to assume that they were fine. She worked quickly before Blue Hat could clear the cobwebs away. She grabbed his hands and pulled him into the alley closest to them. She was still surprised sometimes by her strength. As a human, Harley wouldn’t have been able to drag the dead weight of even a smaller man but she barely struggled with the Burner.
Harley’s breath came out in short gasps—not because of the exertion of dragging the Ignis—but in anticipation. She could feel her fangs slid free and she flexed her jaw, still not having gotten used to the sharp teeth. A voice in the back of her shouted to be heard. What are you doing? It seemed to ask. The parts of Harley that were still human wondered how she was doing this with no squeamishness at all. The new, animal-like, part of her ignored the rational voice. This binge was stronger than any of those she had experienced at the Den. Giddy excitement rippled through her.
When she had the Ignis fully hidden in the alley she again climbed onto his back. Blue Hat must have regained enough clarity to realize what happening and he tried to crawl away, his fingers clawing at the dirty pavement. Harley grabbed a handful of his short brown hair and pulled his head back at a sharp angel, exposing his neck. Feeling very vampire-like Harley sank her fangs into his jugular vein. She didn’t even pause to think about what she was about to do. She didn’t have time to feel the surreal quality of exactly what was taking place. She only felt the painful hunger and the certainty of that this would cure it.
As Harley’s fangs broke into the Ignis’ bloodstream Blue Hat stopped struggling. Just as with the Burner that Levi bit, he seemed paralyzed by Harley’s bite and he lay motionless beneath her. Strange mewling sounds escaped his slack jaw Harley moaned as the hot blood exploded into her mouth. It was like nothing she had ever felt before. She felt it more than she tasted it and it was hard to even believe it was blood that she was drinking. It was indescribably better than the packaged blood that Nya had given her before. The bags of blood had always been cold and tasted stale; she just hadn’t realized it before. Fresh Ignis blood was hot and it tasted like fire against her tongue. Her soul, her brain and her heart exploded in blinding ecstasy and she couldn’t hear anything beyond the beating of the Ignis’ heart and her vision blurred beyond her unfocused eyes. As fast as she swallowed she still couldn’t stop some of the blood from leaking around her mouth. She could smell it as it dripped on the ground beneath them. She realized that her moaning had synced with the beating of Blue Hat’s heart and she could feel her nails embed themselves in his scalp and shoulder as she clutched his neck to her mouth.
All too soon the blood ran cold as the life force of the Ignis trickled and died. This is what Nya had meant, she realized. It wasn’t that the blood itself grew cold—it was the force behind the blood weakening and as a result the fire in Harley’s mouth began to die. As she tasted the cold metal of the blood, Harley knew that the Ignis was gone. The spell was broken and Harley pulled away from the dead man with a gasp. Still reeling from the ecstasy of the bite she stumbled away from him only coming to a stop as she slumped against the wall of the building behind her. The heat of the hunger that had been burning in her belly spread through her limbs. It was like stepping into a hot tub after walking a mile in the snow. The heat burned with an almost blissful pain and she sighed as she let her knees bend and she slid to the ground. Her vision swam and she closed her eyes and let the waves of energy and pleasure wash over her. She could feel the strength of the Ignis ripple through her muscles. She was sure that she had seen Cassandra standing at the corner of the building as she closed her eyes but she ignored her and continued to enjoy the rush that burned through her body.
Slowly, the feeling subsided. It felt like it took hours but Harley was pretty sure that it probably only minutes. She slowly opened her eyes and rubbed her hands over her numb face.
“Well—that was quite dramatic,” Cassandra spoke softly somewhere to Harley’s left.
Harley let her head tilt and saw the other Nocte leaning against the building a few feet away. Cassandra’s eyes had returned to normal and she was wiping her mouth with her tee-shirt. Harley smiled lazily at her.
“Is it always like this?” she asked smiling goofily up at the other woman.
Cassandra raised an eyebrow. “Everyone reacts differently to their first feeding. But I don’t think I’ve seen quiet that intense of a reaction.”
Harley regained even more of her senses and looked away from Cassandra. “Of course not,” she sighed.
“Hey, don’t complain. It’s better to be MORE of a Nocte than LESS of one—wouldn’t you agree.”
Harley thought about how to answer that for a moment. “We’ll see, I guess.” She looked at Blue Hat’s body lying at her feet. She could see his skin wrinkling and drying as she watched.
“You should probably move away from that,” Cassandra advised. Just as Harley managed to drag herself to her feet the Burner’s body erupted into small, smoldering flames. Before Harley’s eyes the Ignis turned to ash in a matter of minutes as it burned. She stepped away so as to avoid the dry, gray ash as it blew in the wind.
“So, what now,” she asked Cassandra as she watched the body disappear before her. She didn’t feel any regret or remorse—just a calm sense of peace. The creature at her feet hadn’t been human, and beyond that—he hurt humans for fun.
Cassandra watched her for a moment. “We keep hunting,” she said finally.
So they did. They didn’t talk much as they wandered through the city. Cassandra seemed distracted but they both were calm and unhurried now that they had fed. They came across one other Ignis that night and Cassandra had let Harley take her down. The fight had been a hard one and Harley came away with more than a few bruises and scrapes. As she thrust the knife into the Burner’s chest and pulled it back out with a splatter of blood, Cassandra raised her eyebrows at her.
“You aren’t feeding again?” she asked Harley with mild, wary surprise.
Harley wrinkled her brow in confusion. “No? I’m full. I feel good—I don’t really need to feed again so why would I?” Truth be told, she didn’t want to lose her cool again in front of Cassandra. Her confusion grew when Cassandra visibly relaxed. She hadn’t even realized Cassandra had been tense until she saw her shoulders and jaw soften.
Cassandra shrugged. “I just figured you would want more,” she said before turning away.
That’s when it clicked. Cassandra had expected Harley to have some kind of uncontrollable blood lust. Her back stiffened in anger. “What? You expected me to be one of the Nocte who can’t handle the darkness? You thought I was going to be one of the ones who go on some kind of rampage?” Her anger twisted inside her—THIS was why she hated being different.
Cassandra turned back around and met her gaze. “Well, can you blame me? You are stronger than the rest of us. You can go out in the sun with no affect and who knows what else you can do? Your Nocte is obviously strong. And you REALLY enjoyed that first feeding. I wouldn’t have been surprised if it was hard—or impossible—for you to control.”
Harley was glad to know that no one else seemed to know about the other differences. The stuff with Levi. That would have made everything worse. Those bits were more…private—not to mention weirder. It was bad enough that Cassandra had doubted her. She wondered how many of the other Praesidio doubted her as well. Did Nya? Did Levi? They both SAID they believed in her—but did they really?
Finally Cassandra softened her voice. “I’m glad though. You are one hell of a Praesidio. It’s good you are one of the good guys. I just hope it stays that way.”
Harley couldn’t help but ask, “What would you have done had I become one of those who can’t control themselves?”
Cassandra looked at her silently for a moment. “I would have done what needed to be done. That’s what I do.”
Harley tilted her head at her. “What exactly is it that you do?”
“I take care of problem Nocte.”
Harley swallowed the lump in her throat. Did Nya send Cassandra along because she thought I would need to be “taken care of?” Her hurt and anger was apparently obvious.
“I offered to come. Nya didn’t think there would be a problem, but I wasn’t all that sure.”
“What about now?”
Cassandra shrugged. “So far, so good.”
Chapter 26
Cassandra had stuck around for less than the week she had agreed upon. She had told Nya over the phone after three days that Harley didn’t need her to stay. She had assured Nya that Harley could take care of herself and Nya didn’t insist that she stay. Harley was apprehensive about Cassandra leaving, but she didn’t voice her concerns. She was sure she would be fine. She knew that neither Nya nor Cassandra would leave her on her own if they didn’t feel that she could handle herself. Some of her bruised feelings faded when Cassandra announced that she was leaving early. Harley knew that she wasn’t in danger of losing herself to the blood lust, and she was glad that had Cassandra agreed.
Now a month after her arrival in the city, Harley stood at the window watching the river of people as they made their way through the city. It was still early but Harley hadn’t been able to sleep. She had fed just last night so she wasn’t hungry; she had just had a lot of stuff on her mind. She decided to go out even though it wasn’t dark yet. She hadn’t hunted during the day even though she knew she was strong enough to do so and she didn’t particularly plan on hunting before the sun set—she had just realized that she hadn’t really seen the city during the day yet. If she came across a Burner—she’d take care of it. But the day belonged to the Lux so if she could avoid stepping on their toes she would.
Harley hadn’t had any luck finding Cutter in the month that she had been in the city. Granted New York was massive and there was an equally massive amount of people here—but she knew if he was here she would find him eventually. She had been interrogating the Ignis before she killed them. She knew she couldn’t completely trust what they had to say—but she could usually pick up on when they were lying so she felt sure that she wasn’t being duped when none of them could tell her how to find him. Harley let the sun wash over her as she stepped into the crowd. She hadn’t had any luck finding Cutter during the night—so she was hoping that she might come across something during the day. She knew that was a long shot but figured she didn’t have anything to lose by giving it a try.
Harley threaded her way through the people rush of people on the sidewalk. People still avoided bumping into her even during the day. She didn’t know if it was an aura she gave off that made people avoid her. Or, it might also have something to do with how she was dressed though. Her dark red hair blew free in the wind and she wore black out sunglasses. She also wore a tight fitting black tank top and a plain black, leather tailored jacket despite the warm weather. She had figured out that black was the best color to hunt in because it did the best job of hiding blood that inevitably ended up getting on her clothes. And she always needed a jacket or a hoodie to hide her knife. She was wearing dark blue jeans and boots again. Everything together must put off quite the imposing image. She imaged that she looked like an agent of some kind and that was why people avoided her. But then again, maybe she just looked like a weird Emo chick. She smiled to herself at that thought.
During the day the city came alive and teemed with activity. People shopped and went to work. They snapped pictures of the sights and they oohed and they awed at the skyscrapers that towered over the streets. The day was loud, garish and overwhelming. It was easy to drown in the bustling crowds of New York City during the day. But at night, you could breathe. Harley began to feel the crushing weight of the people that passed by her on the streets. She felt her agitation growing as she smelled the people and caught pieces of their conversations. Their shopping bags took up walking space. Young girls squealed over some inane delight. She could feel them and their heat pressing into her claustrophobically and she struggled to maintain control over her calm demeanor. It eventually became too much to block out and she looked for an exit from the flow of people. She finally found a side street that was less crowded and she ducked out of the foot traffic, walked away from Broadway and breathed a sigh of relief.
Harley continued to walk away from the popular roads that most of the tourists took. Eventually, the traffic of people thinned to a tolerable level and she began to relax more. As she passed by an alley way she was stopped in her tracks by the sound of a commotion. She felt her Nocte’s senses perk up and alert on the presence of a Burner nearby. Without the panic of the crowd she could focus on her “sixth sense.” She walked slowly between the two buildings and the sounds of the struggle grew louder and seemed to be coming from behind the several dumpsters at the end of the alley. She took a deep breath and beyond the smell of trash, rats and other food Harley could make out the old burnt smell of an Ignis…and something else. Something new that she hadn’t encountered before. Curiosity drew her forward.
