Columbine

My heart was hammering, my pulse throbbing, the space between my ears pounding with fear. I was done for. My cover was blown. There was just one definite fact circling around the inside of my skull at a pace that made me nauseous: I was going to die. Well, to be precise, I was going to get arrested, tortured, interrogated, and then gratifyingly executed in that small, cold, metal room. Going over the finer points of my upcoming demise didn’t help.

I was shocked at my own surprise, to be perfectly honest. Was the situation I was in really as unreal as I was feeling it was? Every iota of common sense in me had been going off like an alarm, warning me of the danger I was in. Those alarms had been going off for months. Maybe they’d been going off so long that I’d gotten used to them.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Camel-shit guy snapped at Damien after he’d very truthfully observed that my name wasn’t Beatrice.

“Her name’s Columbine Wells, genius. I’d think you, of all people, would know that.” He pointed out.

“You’re a real asshole.” I said to Camel-shit guy. I noticed that my voice was shaking something terrible.

“Excuse me?” Camel-shit guy asked.

Damien was still looking at me, looking as though he was studying my face, memorizing it. It was almost like a computer reading a disc. I wasn’t sure what he saw in the process of staring me down, but something told me that the conclusions weren’t going to be all that friendly as far as I was concerned.

“Okay, here’s the plan.” Doc announced. “We turn you and the girl over to the Demataxt. We’ll also give you everything you need to bust every rebel in this city wide open.” He stopped and shared a thoughtful moment with Simon, Camel-shit guy, and the fourth one before continuing. “We’ll even tell you what happened on Halloween.”

At this, my eyes snapped wide open.

“Don’t you dare!” I yelled. Doc smirked.

“In return,” He continued, “We’ll be set for life. No hassle from you guys ever. Understood?”

Damien looked at Doc. He didn’t glare or imply hostility in any way. He merely looked, like he was nothing but an observer of the situation.

“You seem like you’ve thought this out.” Damien finally concluded. “I truly applaud your efforts.”

It took me and the kidnappers a moment to realize that he was being sarcastic.

“But there’s one thing you obviously didn’t realize as you were executing your little plan.” He said. “Not only did you assault an officer of the law, but you also seem to think that the Demataxt is actually that interested in a mere human that just happened to help a witch evade capture.”

Doc blinked.

The way Damien had said it, it almost convinced me that my kidnappers really were amateurs. But they had just one trump card, and that was me. Damien didn’t know about what my blood did, and I knew that as soon as the Demataxt caught even a whiff of it, I’d be on the top of their Wanted list in no time. Who the hell needed a stray witch when they had a walking, talking jukebox?

“Nice try.” The fourth guy said. “But you don’t know the half of it.”

I knew it was coming. They were going to expose the last detail -- the detail that would change everything. I bit my lip at the prospect. I didn’t know if the Demataxt had a science department or not, but if they did, there would be no more kind and understanding Scarlett to light up the end of the tunnel.

My god, how had I missed it? I’d been so preoccupied with my fear of dying that I’d totally forgotten the only other remaining option. If I didn’t get executed, I’d be a lab rat for life, constantly getting poked and prodded, studied and examined. I was sure they’d come up as dry as Scarlett had, but they wouldn’t leave well enough alone as she had. No, they’d be frustrated and eventually furious. They’d keep doing things to me until I wished I was dead.

“And what is it that I don’t know?” Damien asked, now frowning.

Doc grinned, reminding me of a particularly devious alligator.

“Oh, I’ll show you.” He reached for the knife he’d used on me the time before. It didn’t look any less daunting than it had the last time.

“What exactly do you intend to do with that?” Damien asked. He sounded just slightly worried now. I knew too well that the knife wasn’t intended for him.

“Don’t.” I said, my voice shaking harder than ever.

“Save it, honey.” Camel-shit guy said.

“You idiot!” I yelled at him. “You have no fucking idea what you’re doing, do you?”

“Stay still.” Doc told me. “You’re used to this, aren’t you? I can see all those scars on your arms if I look close enough.”

“What in the hell are you doing?” Damien demanded. He was about to get up when the fourth guy put an unforeseen gun to his head.

“Think you’re faster than a bullet?” He asked. “Because I don’t.”

“You want to know what happened on Halloween?” Doc asked, holding the knife to my arm.

Damien was staring at me. I could have sworn he was apologizing with his eyes. Apologizing for what, I didn’t know. He hadn’t done anything to get me involved with this mess that I knew of. Maybe he was apologizing for not being able to move faster than a speeding bullet.

“This is what happened.” Doc said, and I felt the blade move fast over my skin, leaving a gash much larger than the one he’d made before.

As expected, an explosion of sound burst out into the air along with a small spray of blood that landed on the table. It took me a while to register the pain, and another moment to identify the song.

I felt blood trickle down my arm, warm and sluggish. Some of it got on my dress, marring the gentle cream hue with splotches of screaming, bright red.

“See?” Doc grinned, wiping his knife on a dirty towel. “It’s her blood that does the trick. They mix it with water or something to make it louder. I’ve seen them do it.”

Damien’s face was expressionless. His eyes, however, were filled with what looked a lot like wonder. That same observant expression returned, pensive and thoughtful. I had no idea what the hell he was thinking when he had that look on his face. Most people by now would have been disbelieving their heads off, but not him. No, he was smooth as a drugged cat.

“They’ve got this underground club with buckets of the stuff. People go there to dance. They’re keeping your witch down there, too.” Camel-shit guy explained.

“And what is it you expect me to do with this information?” Damien finally asked.

The four of them seemed perplexed for a moment. Truthfully, so was I.

“Don’t fuck with me.” Doc crossed his arms. “I know for a fact that your higher-ups would be creaming their jeans over something like this.”

“Do you see me creaming my jeans?” Damien asked, tilting his head.

I couldn’t help it. I smirked for a split second. My kidnappers weren’t nearly as amused as I was.

“We’ve also got inside information.” Camel-shit guy said. “About the FFH, the dance club, and every arms dealer in the country!”

“I’m sure you do.” Damien said. “But you still assaulted an officer of the law. As you can imagine, that would wiegh heavily against you. While the inside information might balance it out, you won’t get much out of the deal. At most, you’ll receive an official pardon for your crimes.”

All four kidnappers’ faces had paled. I had to give Damien props for shaking them up. He looked at me for a moment, and then down at the gash in my arm. I’d been ignoring the pain the best way I knew how, but it was starting to catch up with me.

“Okay, fine.” Doc finally snarled. “We’ll just have to get the witch, too. Will that get us more out of the deal?”

“Perhaps.” Damien shrugged. “It might get you some of the reward money. Half of it, at most.”

The four of them looked at each other, thinking it over. After a while, Doc spoke again.

“We can get the witch by this time tomorrow.” He said. “One more day, and then that’s it. We’re going to Cairo. Understood?”

Neither of us responded. Simon led Damien and me back down into the cellar. No one had bothered bandaging my wound.

The cellar door slammed shut, leaving me and Damien alone in the darkness.

“I can’t believe it.” Damien said as soon as the door was closed. “All this time wondering …and this is what it was?”

“You mean where the music was coming from?” I winced.

“I thought it was Sarah Crow making the music, but it’s you!” He sounded genuinely shocked. I realized that the way he’d been acting upstairs had just been an act for the kidnappers to swallow. He was shocked out of his mind.

“I know it’s hard to believe.” I shrugged, not knowing what else to say.

“Hard to believe?” Damien asked. “It’s impossible!”

“Apparently not.” I said.

The music was still playing. It had changed to something reminiscent of hard rock, only lighter in content. I concentrated on it, trying to imagine how alien the sound of electric guitars must have been sounding to Damien. I’d merely gotten used to it, but the rest of the world had not. It would no doubt take a few moments for the sounds to settle back into their comfort zones again.

“Is it true that you‘ve started a dance club?” Damien asked after a momentary silence. I debated whether to say yes or no, but finally decided that it didn’t matter. The Demataxt would find out soon enough, anyway.

“Yes.” I admitted.

“There’s something I have to tell you.” Damien suddenly said. “I know where your lab is. I’ve known for a while. Am I right to assume that that’s where your dance club is?”

For a minute, I wasn’t entire sure that I’d heard him right. If I had, that meant he knew everything he needed to know to raid the Blood Bank and capture several outlaws at once. No, I couldn’t have heard what I thought I’d heard.

“What?” I asked. “I’m sorry, I’m not sure I heard right?”

Damien sighed.

“I know it’s a bit hard to accept, but it’s true.” He said. “I know where your lab is. It’s under that small pyramid outside of town.”

I was still vainly attempting to comprehend how the hell he could know something like that. If someone had been down in the lab, I was sure as hell that we’d know about it. Of course, not being a mage, it wouldn’t have been troublesome for him to get past the pyramid, but how had he known to look for it there in the first place? Surely the trap door wasn’t that obvious!

“How the hell--?” I asked, too stunned to finish the sentence.

“It was after Halloween.” Damien explained. “After that earthquake, Valentin seemed very anxious to get somewhere. My partner figured out that it was too out-of-character for him to volunteer to help agents, so we decided that he must have another reason for helping us. Maybe to keep us from finding something. So we followed him.”

Yes, it was all coming back now. The surprise visit after the earthquake. The surprise hug. It all made a very embarrassing kind of sense. How had I not have thought of it before? Furthermore, how had Valentin not thought of it? Sarah’s excruciating hypothesis came to mind, and I cringed.

“Why didn’t anyone see you?” I asked in a quiet, slightly embarrassed voice.

“My partner turned me invisible.” Damien said.

“Partner?” I asked.

“Yes -- she’s a mage, so she wasn’t able to follow me into the lab.” Damien elaborated.

“Goddamn.” I said quietly to myself. It was almost insulting how little we’d realized that two Demataxt agents had known where we were all along, when we’d tried so hard to stay hidden.

“Why haven’t we been arrested, then?” I asked, suddenly realizing the oddest thing about the entire situation. “Isn’t it your job to turn us in?”

“It was never our intention to turn anyone in.” Damien said. “It doesn’t take a genius to see that the Demataxt is corrupt and prejudiced. Unlike most of their employees, my partner and I never wanted to be a part of their regime.”

“You mean there’s actually people that want out?” I asked, hardly able to believe my ears.

“Some.” Damien said. “Myself and my partner included.”

I’ll admit I was taken aback. There were only two things I could conclude about Damien at that point. Either he was lying, or he was telling the truth. If he really was telling the truth, that meant that there really were people inside the Demataxt that wanted it gone as much as I did. Hell, as much as all humans did.

“Didn’t anyone suspect anything when you didn’t come back with any leads?” I probed, still unsure that Damien wasn’t lying.

“Not really.” He said. “We’re a bit too low key to be suspicious. I was going to capture some FFH members just in case, but, as you can see, I wasn’t too successful.”

Now there was something that didn’t make too much sense.

“Wait a minute.” I said. “You’ll keep the lab a secret for weeks, but you’ve got no problem bagging a few rebels?”

“I’m sure you heard about the explosion in Cairo.” He said. “The Demataxt branch was destroyed.”

“Yeah, I heard.” I crossed my arms, wincing as the gash in my arm was shifted into a different position.

“My partner got hurt in it.” He said. “Nearly lost a leg.”

“Oh.” I said.

“She didn’t get a very good look at it, so I convinced her it hadn’t been too serious, but she’d been a flap of skin away from being a cripple.” He said, voice serious and grim.

Well, at least it made sense. He wanted revenge. Who wouldn’t want revenge after seeing what he’d described? The mental picture was gruesome enough.

“Is she okay?” I dared ask.

“She’s fine.” Damien assured me. “She was even walking last time I saw her. She’s probably all better by now.”

I would have expected no less from the infamous mage doctors. Nowadays, people could walk into hospitals cripples and come out atheletes. Mages had even been able to obliviate tumors that would have been inoperable or fatal, saving hundreds of patients. Most people had rejoiced back in the day, all except for me, and later on, my grandmother. I tried not to think of Grandma Wells at that moment, seeing as I had far more important things to worry about.

“You think she’s looking for you?” I asked. “You two sound pretty close.”

“If she knows what’s good for her, she’ll stay away from these people.” Damien said.

“So…is she or not?” I prompted.

“She probably is.” Damien sighed.

“But that’s good, right?” I asked. “If she finds us, we can get out of here.”

“I already underestimated these people once.” Damien said. “She might make the same mistake I did.”

“And what mistake was that?” I asked.

“You saw the boy with the crooked nose and the glasses, right?” He asked.

“Yeah.” I nodded. It was the fourth one who’d opened the door when I’d been dragged inside the house.

“He’s quiet, so you’d assume he’s harmless, but he’s got more than a few tricks up his sleeve, believe me.” Damien said.

“Tricks?” I asked.

“Exactly.” Damien said.

I didn’t know what kind of tricks he meant, but I didn’t doubt for a minute that a demon hybrid could take care of himself. I’d seen more than enough proof of Damien’s resilience when I’d seen him kicked in the gut a hundred times and then seen him just go on living like it had been nothing at all.

Something was keeping him from making a move, and if whatever tricks were up the fourth guy’s sleeve had been enough to get a demon hybrid to lie low, then it left very little hope for me.

It was all I could do to hope that Damien’s partner would find us before we were all standing at the Demataxt’s front door.