would be here, where it had all started.
I landed in front of the Picasso statue. The plaza looked like the war zone it had been a few days earlier. Everywhere I turned there were coffee cups, sandwich wrappers, coiled scarves and lost mittens, open briefcases. Blood. Lots and lots of blood.
I stood still for a moment, sending my senses outward, looking for the source of the signature I had traced.
“There,” I said, pointing toward the Washington Blue Line stop. “He’s underground, and moving fast. He’s using the subway tunnels.”
Nathaniel looked at my shiny new wings. “Those won’t be of much used to us belowground. And fire in a close space is a dangerous prospect.”
“I know,” I said, drawing my sword. “Don’t worry. I know how to behead a vampire.”
We approached the stairs that led into the station. I sent out a little pulse to make sure that nothing waited for us at the bottom of the steps.
There was nothing there. I stepped onto the first stair. Nathaniel tried to object, as usual.
“Madeline, let me…”
“I just barbecued a stadium full of vampires and you’re still trying to make me walk behind you? What’s next, foot binding?” I said, and jogged down the stairs before he could do anything about it.
I heard him muttering something about chivalry and modern women but I didn’t ask for clarification.
We entered the station. The vending box for fare cards had been knocked to the floor, and two of the turnstiles had been torn out.
The splattered brains of the former attendant had dried on the window of the CTA personnel’s box.
I moved cautiously through the station to the stairs that led down to the platform. I sent another pulse of power out, and this time I didn’t detect Therion at all.
“He’s cloaking himself,” I murmured. “Even a vampire couldn’t have gotten out of range so quickly.”
Nathaniel held his hand up so he could listen.
“There are several creatures moving in the tunnel below,” he said.
“They could be rats,” I said. “The regular Chicago kind.”
“The ‘Chicago kind’ are far from regular,” Nathaniel said. “I have seen the size of those rodents, and there is nothing ordinary about them. However, I can tell the difference between a rat and a vampire.”
“Can you tell how far away they are?” I asked.
Nathaniel listened again. “Not precisely. The tunnel makes strange echoes.”
“Yeah, it does,” I said, thinking of the way that the El sometimes sounded like it was coming from the south when it was actually coming from the north. “Let’s go down.”
“No fire,” Nathaniel said. “Even if you are startled.”
“I am not a pyromaniac,” I said. “I only set things on fire because it’s expedient.”
Nathaniel gave me a look.
“I already agreed, all right?” I waved my sword around. “I’ll only kill them with the pointy stick.”
The steps to the platform were wide enough to walk side by side, so of course Nathaniel made sure we were joined at the hip. I fully expected to find a platoon of vamps waiting to leap upon us as soon as we got to the bottom of the stairs, and was a little disappointed to find the platform empty.
I indicated to Nathaniel that he should walk down one side while I took the other, so that we could see—or hear—whether there were any signs of which tunnel they might have taken.
Nathaniel took the northbound side, and I the southbound. The platform stretched between the tracks, so Nathaniel and I were within sight of each other at all times. There was nothing between us except some empty customer benches.
We walked slowly and carefully from the Dearborn end of the platform. Halfway down, Nathaniel waved his arm at me. I joined him and he pointed south.
He hopped down to the tracks, holding his arms up for me. I let him swing me down.
“Stay away from the third rail,” I whispered. “We don’t know if the electricity to the subway has been shut off.”
He nodded, and we stared into the tunnel. Ahead of us there were no lights except the occasional service lamp for CTA workers. I could have lit a ball of nightfire, but that would have advertised our presence for miles. Once we went in there, the vampires would have the advantage. My new superpowers didn’t seem to have come with the ability to see in the dark.
“Can you see in there?” I asked softly.
Nathaniel shook his head. “Now would be a good time to have the werewolf with us.”
Despite the fact that I had just burned thousands of vampires with one spell, I didn’t want to go into the tunnel. In the tunnel I would be a trapped rat, just like them. I could sense Nathaniel’s reluctance as well. We had so recently been in the pitch black of Titania’s cave, and I hadn’t forgotten how helpless I’d felt there. Gabriel had told me once that angels were born of the sun. Creatures of the sun do not like to scurry in the darkness.
But our quarry was scurrying away, and I wasn’t going to let him escape.
I stepped into the tunnel, and Nathaniel kept pace with me. The air felt close and damp. I focused on breathing steadily—and quietly. The scrape of our boots on the tracks sounded like gunfire in the silence.
We crept along for a while, trying to be crafty, both of us tense. And as we crept along I started getting annoyed. And I went from annoyed to angry to insanely furious with no stops in between.
“Why are we tiptoeing around in here?” I said loudly. “What freaking difference does it make?”
“Madeline, shh,” Nathaniel said.
“No, I will not be quiet,” I said. “They can see in the dark. They can hear better than we can. Why should we play by their rules?”
I raised a ball of nightfire and launched it up so it would float ahead of us. “If they’re going to run, then they’ll run whether or not we’re scuttling in the dark. If they’re going to fight, then we should be able to see them as well as they can see us.”
“Madeline, stop. Do not be impulsive,” Nathaniel said.
“Who’s being impulsive?” I said as the ball of nightfire lit up the tunnel. “THERION!”
Nathaniel stared at me like I’d lost my mind.
“THERION! You COWARD!” I roared.
There was no answer.
“They are gone,” Nathaniel said angrily. “They were ahead of us. I could hear them, and now they are gone. As soon as you began yelling they disappeared.”
This news just made me even angrier. Therion had escaped, and I wanted him to pay. Still, I wasn’t going to play the vampire king’s game.
“Fine,” I said. “Let’s go home.”
Nathaniel’s eyebrows went up to his hairline. “You are giving up?”
“Hell, no,” I said. “I’m going to track him down and take out his intestines through his nostrils. But I’m not going to chase him through miles of tunnel to do it. I’ll find him later. I have something else I need to do, anyway.”
“Deal with Alerian?” Nathaniel asked.
“Alerian’s not even awake yet,” I said, trudging back in the direction of the Washington stop. We hadn’t really walked that far. I could see the lights over the platform a short distance away. “I have something I need to do for Lucifer.”
“Then I will accompany you,” Nathaniel said.
“No,” I said shortly. “This is not optional. You’re staying home, and so is everyone else. This is for me to do.”
“Have I not proven that I am trustworthy?” Nathaniel asked, an edge in his voice.
“This isn’t about whether or not you are trustworthy,” I said. “This is about me and Lucifer and my duties as the Hound of the Hunt.”
“What has he asked of you?” Nathaniel said.
“I can’t tell you,” I said. “You may assume that the task sucks and that there are about ten million things I would rather do.”
