White Winter (The Black Year Series Book 2) (7 page)

“Stay here and keep them out,” Jonas said.

“Yes, clan leader.”

Jonas and Damien rushed inside while Kieran turned to guard the door.

There were about 20 people in the front hall, armed with tools and cutlery. Two had guns. Jonas was about to shout a warning, but Damien had already blurred forward, slipping between the brainwashed humans, ripping weapons from their grips, knocking them to the ground, breaking limbs when necessary. He never stopped, never hesitated, always flowing from one to the next. Jonas tried to help and got slashed with a kitchen knife for his trouble.

“Head for the stairs!” Damien shouted.

More people ran in from the west side of the town hall. Jonas was already running for the back of the building. He ducked under a baseball bat, landed a right cross Frank would have been proud of, and bowled over a golf-club wielding soccer mom. He tried to grab her as she went over the railing, and felt his stomach flip when she landed, her neck bent at an unnatural angle.

“Keep going,” Damien whispered behind him, placing a hand on Jonas’ shoulder. Jonas felt his barrier strengthen.

They made it to the bottom of the stairs. Lucy and three other residents blocked their path.

“What are you doing, Arthur?” Damien said.

Arthur’s eyes flicked open, pupils completely dilated, fangs bared. The green energy pulsing around the chair flared brighter, and a wave of mental force washed over Jonas and Damien.

Jonas froze. He couldn’t move or speak.
What’s happening?

He’s blacked out. Used up his blood supply trying to keep us away,
Damien answered, pulsing the thought through Jonas’ arm.

Jonas remembered what starving felt like. He’d attacked Eve, and almost gone on a feeding frenzy.
What do we do?

Fight back,
Damien said.

Jonas focused his barrier as tightly as he could, trying to break through the layers of defenses around Arthur’s mind. It was like fighting a swarm of hornets, or a school of giant squid; he ran into a wall, only to find wide-open gaps that shifted and disappeared as soon as he tried exploiting them. He would have been completely lost if he wasn’t used to sparring with Eve.

Damien stabbed a spear of thought into the mass, and Arthur weakened.

“Keep pushing!” Damien said, and Jonas found he was starting to regain control of his body.

Lucy stepped back to Arthur’s chair. She sat in his lap, rested her head on his shoulder, and pushed her hair back, and Arthur tore into her neck.

“No!” Jonas shouted.

Arthur watched them as he swallowed. Jonas felt like he was moving through jello. It took a full minute to cross half the distance to the chair. Damien’s hand slipped from Jonas’ shoulder, and they collapsed. He could still see the green fire flowing from Arthur into the chair, brighter than ever as he tossed Lucy’s body aside. There was a small, golden loop of magic that stood out from the others, like the tail end of a slipknot, ruining the rest of the pattern.
Sloppy,
Jonas thought. He tugged on it.

The chair exploded.

♘

Damien helped him get up from the floor. The stench in the room made him gag. Arthur was sobbing, cradling Lucy’s head, her face at peace, as beautiful as she’d been when they first met except for the waxy, lifeless pallor of her skin. Two dozen bodies in various states of decomposition were piled like sacks of grain at the back of the room, unseen until the glamour failed. Above, Jonas caught the sound of people screaming.

CHAPTER 8

Kieran paced, barefoot, wearing a set of scrub pants and a blanket wrapped around his shoulders. Jonas did his best to sit still while the Agency paramedic jabbed at him.

It could have been worse. If it weren’t for his training with Viviane and Frank, he might have been stabbed in the chest. If he’d been human, he’d have needed stitches. Lots of stitches. Instead, they’d clamped the wound shut with butterfly closures and wrapped it while he sipped on a blood pack.

“All done, sir.”

“Thanks.”

The town was destroyed. That was the technical term for it; over half its inhabitants were dead. Most of the survivors were in shock, weak from blood loss and bruised from fighting Kieran on the town hall steps. Jonas, Kieran, and Damien done their best to get people indoors…

He covered his face with his hands. He’d pulled the old man who served them tea out of a snow bank. Lucy was dead. They’d found deputy Davison’s house to give his family the bad news; they’d been dead for over a week. So many orphans. It was all so overwhelming he wasn’t sure where to begin. And he’d-

“You all right, kid?”

Jonas looked up and saw Frank dressed head to toe in black riot gear. Jonas dropped his hands, smiled, and said, “Sure, I’m fine, Frank.” He yawned. “You guys got here fast. Crazy fast.” Frank and the first troops arrived only an hour after Jonas destroyed the chair.

Frank rested his hands on the butt of his rifle. “Well, it’s about the same distance from here to Midtown or the Pittsburgh field station. Technically their jurisdiction, but the Director made the call. Took us two-and-a-half hours; we left as soon as we heard.”

“But-” Jonas stopped himself. That meant Damien had called for backup long before Jonas and Kieran found officer Davison. He wasn’t sure if he should be annoyed or impressed. “Never mind,” he said.

They stared at the town. Black-clad soldiers guarded the road. Snow fell. A few blocks in, a woman walked across the street and knocked on a neighbor’s front door.

“So, um, I… killed someone,” Jonas said.

“Lot of bodies out there, kid. You’re going to have to be more specific.”

“I pushed a woman over a railing. She broke her neck.”

“Was she attacking you?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Good job, then.”

Jonas opened his mouth, thought better of it. They watched the same woman from before cross back to her house, clutching something to her chest.

“Was this what you were expecting?” Frank asked. “The reason you’ve been training so hard, was this it?”

This was just a thousand people.
“No, it wasn’t.”

“Crap.”

♘

Damien slid out of the coffin as they were crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, sitting cross-legged behind Kieran and Jonas. He kept twisting to look at things as they drove by; Jonas supposed he’d do the same if he’d been sleeping for a few decades.

Madoc’s phylactery hung from Damien’s wrist. The specter had demanded that Jonas hand him over.
Guess I screwed up pretty bad out there,
Jonas thought, as the silver pendant swung and glowed with golden lines of light.

Madoc?
he thought toward the cylinder
.

I’m not interested
.

At least tell me what’s wrong.

What’s wrong?
Madoc sputtered.
You can see magic. The last thing I want to do is give you ideas.

Jonas fidgeted with his hands.
Why is that a bad thing?

The phylactery glowed brighter.
Where to begin? Magic is like a blind man stumbling through a minefield, being chased by dogs, while on fire.

Jonas smirked. He wasn’t blind. He could see the rotating pattern around Madoc’s phylactery clearly. It was mesmerizing.
It’s not—

No!
Madoc interrupted.
That is exactly what it’s like. Most people study for years, memorize entire spell books, so they can make their way through safely without really knowing what they’re doing. But not you, not Jonas Black! You can see, so you’re going to running across at full speed with me swinging from your neck.

Jonas frowned.
What happens if I get it wrong?

You learned about Hiroshima and Nagasaki in school, correct?
Madoc asked.

Yes. But I-

Did it ever seem strange to you the United States hit them twice, as if one atomic bomb wasn’t enough?

Jonas scowled. It was like being in school.
Of course it did, but—

They didn’t.

What?
Jonas asked, thoroughly confused. He’d seen pictures of both sites.

There was no second bomb. America claimed the explosion to scare the Russians, but all that happened to Nagasaki was a very powerful, angry young woman who had no idea what she was doing.

Jonas stiffened.

“What’s wrong with you?” Damien said, leaning forward between the seats.

“Madoc just told me about Nagasaki,” Jonas said, trying to stay very still.

Damien snorted. “Madoc, stop scaring the boy.”

He unraveled a spell! He could have killed me!
Madoc said.

“Did you tell him the one about the blind man and the minefield?” Damien said.

The golden lines pulsed with Madoc’s words.
He needs to understand how dangerous it is.

Damien rolled his eyes and sighed. It was the most overt show of emotion Jonas had seen out of him since they’d met. “Don’t worry about it, Jonas,” he said. “Most sorcerers kill themselves long before they can hurt other people—”

“That doesn’t actually make things better,” Jonas said.

“—but that’s not going to happen to you, because Madoc is going to teach you,” Damien finished.

I will not!
Madoc said.

Damien crossed his arms, and Jonas saw the corners of his eyes wrinkle.

♘

The elevator doors opened and Eve was standing there. Jonas stared. She was hugging a thick file to her chest, the corner of her mouth raised, and her eyes almost sparkling with enthusiasm. He’d never seen her like this.

Damien cleared his throat and said, “I’m Damien, Ms…”

Eve blushed. “I’m sorry. I just - I’m Eve,” she said, extending her hand, her eyes darting to Jonas.

“I’m Jonas’ new instructor,” Damien said, shaking her hand.

“You are?” both Eve and Jonas said.

“I haven’t made the assignment official yet, but that’s why the Director woke me. Based on what I saw tonight, I’m going to accept.”

You didn’t know?
Eve sent Jonas.

Jonas felt his jaw tense. His mother hadn’t warned him he was being evaluated, or that the critical, expressionless vampire might end up as his supervisor.

After another awkward silence, Damien put a hand on Jonas’ shoulder and smiled warmly. “Jonas, why don’t you head to the Director’s office? Alice will want to hear your report.”

It took him a second to answer. Every time Damien smiled, it freaked him out. “You aren’t coming?”

Damien withdrew his hand. “I already made my report. The coffin had a computer in it. Can you imagine? The last time
I
saw a computer, it was as big as a car, and it used punch-cards.” He chuckled. Jonas felt a chill run down his spine. “Anyway, I’ll leave the two of you. I’m going to swing by the cafeteria.”

“Okay.” Damien raised an eyebrow at him, and Jonas added, “Sir.”

“It was nice meeting you, sir,” Eve said.

Damien smiled and waved over his shoulder as he walked away.

“He seems nice, for an instructor,” Eve said, once they were alone.

“Yeah, life of the party.” There was something a little bit crazy about Damien. Then again, Viviane wasn’t completely stable either.

“Well, I have to go,” Eve said. “I’m going to miss my flight.”

“Your flight? What-”

“I’ll tell you all about it when I get back!” She kissed him on the cheek, stepped into the elevator, and waved as the doors slid shut.

♘

“Close the door and take a seat, Jonas,” Alice said.

He sat in the nearest of the oversized leather chairs. “You didn’t change the furniture.”

“It was my office before it was Marcus’. An acquaintance of his did the fireplace as a gift in the 60s, and I’m rather fond of it; other than that, all he did was bring my sword back and hang his panoply on the wall.”

“So all this stuff’s yours.”

“Except the shield, spear, and the Roman armor, yes.”

She unleashed a flurry of typing that would have made his keyboarding teacher envious. Where Marcus had kept his desk bare except for a few piles of paper, Alice had quad-monitors and a wireless keyboard. A blue light winked from the headset on her left ear. She swiped the air in front of her screens and turned to Jonas. “Did you get to see Eve before she left?”

“Yeah, we uh…”

“She didn’t tell you?”

“No.”

Alice sat back and nodded. “Good. I like her. Amelia was nice, but Eve’s a better choice.”

Jonas wanted to cringe back into the chair, but it was built on werewolf scale. He was already on his tiptoes “That’s great, mom. I’m really glad you approve. Could you tell me where she’s going?”