Serpent's Sacrifice Page 10

  His fat lips spread in a gleeful smile and the burning in her belly spread like fire on dry brush through her whole body. She knew for a certainty that he would not be smiling for long.

  He jabbed the knife at her and Alice jumped back, then somersaulted under his next attack. She swept his legs out and kicked him in the groin. His eyes bulged.

  He rolled over, trying to get up. “I’ll...kill you!”

  Alice kicked him in the stomach, and then the face. Grabbing the knife where it lay nearby, she pinned him to the ground and pressed the blade to his throat.

  “Alice! Don’t!” Marco yelled.

  “We don’t kill, not ever,” Lionel said, standing beside her.

  Alice barely sliced the man’s skin, producing a trickle of warm blood. It would’ve been an easy thing to drag it across his neck, open his arteries, and spill all that red warmth onto the filthy alley. He deserved it, and much worse.

  But, despite how much she hated this human bag of filth, she couldn’t do it.

  Hot tears coursed down her cheeks and she screamed at the man before tossing the knife away.

  That’s when he laughed. “Worse is coming for you. Much worse.”

  Lionel kicked the man across the face and he fell unconscious.

  “Al-Alice,” Aunt Diana moaned.

  Alice crawled across the slimy cement, the stench of garbage stinging her nose.

  Her aunt’s eye was swollen and her lip split. A cut somewhere on her forehead caused blood to seep down one side of her face. But the worst was the blood on her chest. It soaked her blouse and her gold locket was quickly becoming a garish red.

  Alice swallowed the bile in her throat and tried to smile. “I’m here. We’re going to get you some help. Just hang on, please.”

  Aunt Diana’s long fingers held Alice’s hand with surprising strength. She pulled Alice down to her.

  “I...didn’t...want...this...for you...”

  “Want what?”

  “I was wrong...”

  “I don’t understand.”

  Aunt Diana coughed, pink foam on her lips.

  “You shouldn’t talk,” Alice said, wiping her aunt’s mouth. “Just rest, you have to rest...you can tell me later.”

  “No...no later...” Tears fell from Aunt Diana’s large, blue eyes. “I...love you...”

  “Don’t do that. Don’t say goodbye, this isn’t goodbye!”

  “Be...brave for...Logan...for the city...”

  “The city? What are you talking about? You can be brave for Uncle Logan. You’re not going anywhere!”

  Her aunt’s grip loosened and her eyes began to grow glassy.

  “Stay with me!” Tears soaked Alice’s cheeks. “You can’t leave me...you can’t...I won’t let you!”

  Aunt Diana’s lips spread in a weak smile. “So...strong...”

  Then her head fell to the side, lifeless eyes staring at nothing.

  “No,” Alice whispered, the shock numbing. “You...you can’t die...you can’t...”

  Alice bent down to hug her, but stopped. Her hands ran over Aunt Diana’s face and arms, the warmth still there, but no breath stirred her chest.

  A large hand fell on her shoulder. “I’m sorry,” Lionel said.

  For a moment, Alice just stared her aunt’s body. Then she cradled her aunt’s head against her chest and sobbed, the wail of sirens in the distance.

  By the time Alice, Lionel, and Marco walked into the hospital, her crying had slowed. She stared at the cracked linoleum, unaware when someone covered her shoulders with a thick blanket that smelled of disinfectant.

  Police officers questioned Lionel and Marco right next to her, but their voices seemed very far away. Someone tried to offer Alice coffee, but she just stared up at them, their lips moving, but the words made no sense.

  Her mind replayed those last moments, no matter how much she didn’t want it to. She relived how bright Aunt Diana’s eyes had been one moment, and then the next, so very dull.

  Her aunt’s blood had dried stiff and itchy on the knees of Alice’s stockings and the bottom of her skirt. She realized she was staring at the dark red blotches and her mind settled on her aunt’s last moments of life, and the words she’d said that didn’t make any sense.

  “Where is she?! Let me see her! Now!”

  It was like being underwater for a long while, and then breaking the surface. All the sounds that had been muffled and strange suddenly came into startling clarity.

  “Uncle Logan,” she whispered.

  “I don’t give a good goddamn what your policy is, he’s coming with me! He’s a friend and a doctor,” Uncle Logan said.

  Alice threw the blanket off and ran around the corner to the glass entrance doors.

  Two security guards were restraining Gerald, even though it didn’t look like he was struggling at all. Her uncle stood toe-to-toe with another security guard who was at least six inches taller than him. His salt-and-pepper curls were wild around his head and the usually gentle brown eyes were red and ferocious behind his spectacles.

  Alice opened her mouth to say his name, but a broken sob escaped instead.

  Before she could sink down to the cold floor, her uncle’s arms were around her. She buried her face in his chest, the smell of peppermint and cigars a familiar comfort.

  After a few minutes, Uncle Logan wiped her cheeks with calloused fingertips. His own face was red and wet, but Alice could also see a stubborn glint in his eyes.

  Whoever had done this was in for a world of hurt, if Uncle Logan ever found them.

  “I want to see her,” he said to a doctor who’d just arrived. “Now.”

  “Mr. Miller, your wife’s body—”

  “I know, it’s going to be awful, but I want to see her. And I want him to come with me,” he pointed at Gerald, who had been forced outside.

  “I’m sorry—” the doctor began.

  Uncle Logan put his face inches from the doctor’s. “What do you think he’s gonna do? Infect people? I’m allowed a family friend in attendance if I need it, and I do. There’s nothing that says that friend has to be white.”

  The doctor swallowed. “I...alright...but the security guards must accompany you.”

  “Not into the room.”

  “No, of course not.”

  The security guards glared at Gerald as he walked to Uncle Logan. Gerald never gave them the satisfaction of acting like he noticed.

  “I’m coming, too,” Alice said.

  Uncle Logan shook his head. “You’ve already seen enough.”

  She crossed her arms and held his gaze.

  He sighed. “Fine.”

  “Want us to come, too?” Marco asked from behind her.

  Alice was about to say no, but looking up into his warm brown eyes, she realized that she desperately wanted him there.

  Lionel and Marco fell into step on either side of her, their hands swallowing hers in warmth and comfort.

  It felt like a long walk down to the morgue, but really it was just down a hallway. When they stepped through the door, Alice was struck by how different the lighting was, a bluish white that cast a strange tint on everything. A simple metal desk with half a dozen file cabinets lined the walls of the wide room. To the far right were double doors where the dead bodies were processed and stored. The thought made Alice shiver. A harsh chemical smell permeated the air, sharp and pungent.

  The two security guards started to come into the room behind Alice, when Lionel stepped in their way.

  She didn’t hear what he said to them, but apparently, it was enough to get them not only to stay out of the room, but walk away altogether.

  The morgue attendant at the desk stared at Gerald, mouth hanging open like a caught fish.

  “I’m sorry, you’ll have—”

  “We got permission,” Uncle Logan’s voice had an impatient edge to it.

  “Oh...I...sure...name?”

  The attendant looked through the same list three times before finding Aunt Di
ana.

  “We haven’t had the time to clean her up or perform an autopsy,” he said.

  “I don’t care,” Uncle Logan said.

  The attendant paused before leading them through the double doors, where several bodies lay in shiny black bags waiting to be processed.

  After checking four different tags, the attendant led them to the fifth one and unzipped it.

  Alice gasped as the bag fell away, her aunt’s bloody and bruised face surfacing as if by magic.

  “I’ll leave you, if you need anything—”

  “Go,” Uncle Logan said.

  Tears fell from his eyes as he reached out and smoothed matted, dark hair from her pale face.

  “Oh, God...Diana!”

  Gerald stepped beside him, hand on his shoulder.

  “You can do something, right?” Uncle Logan said to Gerald.

  Alice frowned. What could he possibly do about this?

  “Logan,” Gerald’s voice was low and heavy with sorrow, “you know that I can’t.”

  “But if it hasn’t been that long—”

  “It doesn’t work like that.”

  What are they talking about?

  “Please, try, please!”

  “My friend,” Gerald said, tears falling down his dark, weathered cheeks, “if I could, you wouldn’t even have to ask.”

  It was as if someone had taken away whatever strength Uncle Logan had been holding onto. He fell to his knees, sobs shaking his body.

  Gerald knelt beside him, whispering something in his ear as he held Uncle Logan tight.

  “I wish I could help him,” Alice whispered, her confusion tempered for the moment by her uncle’s grief.

  She felt Marco shift beside her, that same cold feeling as before traveling down her spine.

  “I can help him,” Marco whispered.

  “Are you sure you want to do that in front of...” asked Lionel, motioning to Alice.

  “She knows most of who we are, and if it helps him, then how can I not?”

  “Is this the time for riddles from everyone?” Alice’s voice was sharp. “First them, and now you two. What could you possibly do for him, Marco?”

  “Alice,” he hesitated, “I have...abilities...special—”

  “Powers?” she whispered.

  He nodded. “It’s hard to understand or believe, and later, I’ll tell you all about them. But for now, believe that I can help his grief lessen.”

  Alice licked her lips, tasting salt. “Alright.”

  Marco closed his eyes in concentration. When he opened them, Alice stumbled back. If Lionel hadn’t been there to catch her, she would have careened into the nearest cadaver.

  Marco’s eyes were completely black. He then reached toward Uncle Logan, black wisps of smoke floating from his hands.

  Alice stepped forward to protect Uncle Logan from the smoke, but Lionel stopped her.

  “It’s okay,” he said.

  The smoke twined itself around Uncle Logan, and after a few minutes, his sobs lessened, until he knelt quiet and still in Gerald’s arms.

  Marco sagged against the wall. When Alice saw his eyes again, they were normal, but bright with unshed tears. He looked so unsure, as if he wanted to hear Alice say what she thought. But she couldn’t get any words past her dry throat.

  “I have to...I need...” She bolted from the room.

  When the attendant saw her, he jumped up from his chair, but she didn’t stay to answer his questions. She needed air and movement.

  Just outside the morgue was a door that led to the back side of the hospital, where a small parking lot was, along with all the trash bins.

  She ran past the garbage bins to the sparse trees and grass that grew just on the other side of the parking lot. Here the air was crisp, cooling her flushed cheeks. Pacing through the rough brown grass, heedless of the snags ruining her stockings, Alice’s mind wouldn’t stop replaying everything.

  The broken nose that has healed so quickly. Her childhood friends being the mysterious vigilantes. Aunt Diana dying. Uncle Logan’s pleas to Gerald. Marco’s powers.

  I need to hit something! I need to run!

  But she was far from the loft, where the punching bag hung, and there was no way she’d get far running in heels.

  So, she paced. After the third time stumbling in her shoes, Alice tore them off. She could almost jog without them and the increased speed helped her mind slow down just a little.

  She noticed Lionel striding toward her. “Alice!”

  “Don’t! Just...no more lies, no more surprises.”

  “I can promise no more lies, but the other...”

  She continued to pace, as quick as she could, without breaking into a run. “You jumped three stories into the air the other night.”

  Lionel looked around. “Keep your voice down.”

  “I can’t! Do you have any idea what tonight has been like for me?”

  “Hard.”

  She laughed, bitter edges in it. “That’s putting it mildly.”

  “Okay,” Lionel said. “Yes, I did that.”

  “And your nose?”

  “Healed.”

  “How?” The word felt like it was choking her.

  Lionel looked down and sighed. “Do you remember that summer that I was in bed for a week? I had that strange fever?”

  Alice nodded.

  “The day I woke up and the fever had broke, I felt…different. I felt good first of all, really good, like I hadn’t been sick at all. And then…I got out of bed, and went to get something to eat and ended up breaking almost everything I touched.”

  She stared at him. “I don’t-”

  “Somehow I had developed strength, a lot of it. I could bend metal with my bare hands, I could punch through a wall without breaking a bone. And when I did get hurt I healed, really fast. It took months to learn how to control it. Do you remember how stand offish I was after that fever? Well, that was why. I was terrified I’d hurt you or Marco or, if you did know that…that you would be afraid of me.”

  “A fever gave you powers?”

  “Not exactly, at least, I don’t think so. I don’t know how I got them, honestly I don’t.”

  “You didn’t tell me?”

  “I didn’t know how you’d respond or if you’d even believe me.”

  “I would have, you know I would have. You were just scared.”

  “Yes, I was. I was ten years old and suddenly had super powers. Of course, I was scared!”

  Alice stopped pacing and looked down at the wet grass and dirt.

  “I’m sorry, that was unfair.”

  “I wanted to tell you before you left, but...it just didn’t seem important, since I thought I was never going to see you again. And then, we saw you last night. It was like...well, we realized how much we missed you, and decided to take a chance on coming back into your life. We thought we’d be able to just pick up where we left off and keep everything separate...but, you’re too smart for that.”

  “Is that a compliment or a frustration?”

  He grinned. “Both.”

  “And Marco?”

  “I can’t tell you much, we have an agreement that each man’s story is his own.”

  “But did he have...oh my god, are we really talking about super powers?”

  “Yes, we are. Is that...frightening?”

  She started pacing again, trying to sift through all the emotions rocketing through her body. It was a little frightening, more than a little, actually. Everything she’d known about reality, about what was real, and what was only possible between the pages of a good book, had suddenly blurred. If special abilities were real, what else was real? What else was hiding just under the surface of the world she thought she knew?

  As she thought more about that, a tiny glimmer of excitement began to grow in her mind.

  “Alice...” Lionel stepped close to her, stopping her pacing. “I don’t want you to be afraid of me, or Marco. We keep all this a secret, because we know
most people would at best turn away from us, and at worst, treat us like monsters. I never wanted you to look at me as anything, except...well, me.”

  The desperate fear in his voice softened Alice. Slowly, she reached out and took Lionel’s warm, huge hand in her small one. His shoulders relaxed, a long exhale escaping his lips.

  “It...It’s going to take me a little bit to get used to this,” she said.

  “I expect that.”

  “Is that...for Marco, is that how his powers always are?”

  Lionel nodded. “Promise you’ll hear him out? I think he’s pretty scared right now.”

  “I didn’t mean to run, it was just so intense.”

  “I understand — and he does, too — it’s just...well, his powers make him feel a lot stranger than mine do. And if you’re too scared to have him in your life, I think it would hurt — a lot.”

  Alice shook her head. “I don’t want that. I just...”

  “I know. They’re pretty freaky, especially the first few times you see them.”

  “How did I never know this? A year, and I never saw them?”

  “Well...” Lionel turned back toward the hospital, pulling her along with him.

  “Wait...did I?”

  “Remember those two boys, who saved you from your dad?”

  Alice’s mouth gaped. “Oh my God. You two made me feel like I was seeing things, and the whole time, it was you?”

  “Hey, we were pretty scared. That was the first time Marco had really let his powers loose — and we almost got caught by your aunt.”

  Alice hit him on the shoulder. It was lot like hitting a brick wall.

  “So, is it...I mean, you really don’t know how this happened? None of your relatives ever acted strange? You never came into contact with anything that might do this, a chemical or…?”

  “You mean did I get a bath in radioactive water at some point? Not that I’m aware of.”

  Alice chuckled. It did sound ludicrous, but her mind was still trying to grab something logical among everything she’d just heard and seen.

  “I don’t know how this happened,” Lionel continued. “Or if there’s anyone else like me out there. Besides Marco, I’ve never run into anyone with powers. Well...actually, that’s complicated. Let’s just say no one else who has super strength.”