Twisted Sister of Mine (Overworld Chronicles) Page 22

  I looked at her dirt-smeared, blood-stained face, and wondered how she could feel pride in my beating the snot out of a woman, but decided it had been self-defense. "Um, well that's good. Why don't you go home, rest, and get cleaned up?"

  She nodded. "I will. Until tomorrow, then?"

  "Until tomorrow." I was glad I'd worn workout attire, and swung by the gym to shower and change so people wouldn't wonder how a filthy bum managed to slip onto campus.

  I returned to the dorm to find Bella sitting outside on a bench with my suitcase and hers sitting on the ground next to it. "The RA wouldn't allow me to stay any longer," she said. "Even when I offered to bake him cookies."

  A snort escaped me. "Well, I have another place. It's probably haunted, but you're gonna love it."

  She quirked an eyebrow. "You discover the most interesting places, Justin."

  I led her to our new "home". She stopped and stared. Gave me a sideways look.

  "Hey," I said, "it has toilets."

  Bella grinned. "I suppose that's a start."

  We went inside, and walked upstairs to the bedrooms. The preservation spells in the east wing had apparently worn off, or someone had thrown one too many parties, because not only were the bedrooms on that side dusty and moldy, but some of the beds looked like wild animals had clawed them to shreds. The west wing looked much better, and the rooms actually smelled clean, which was amazing if they hadn't been used since the frat boys had lived here. Then again, thinking about the parties this place had seen probably meant the beds could have been used in all sorts of carnal ways.

  "Know any cleaning spells?" I asked Bella as I cast dubious glances at the deep blue comforter atop the king-sized bed.

  She replied with an apologetic smile. "I'm not much of a housekeeper but I did once live in a fancy mansion like this one." She walked to a rope dangling from the ceiling, pulled it. A moment later, a golem, its wooden body painted to resemble a butler uniform, a ratty old gray wig perched atop its round head, walked inside the room and stopped.

  "You rang, sir?" it said in a perfect British accent even though it had no mouth I could see.

  "Clean the sheets?" I said.

  "Of course, sir," it said, and began stripping the bed with its finely articulated hands and fingers.

  "Goodness," Bella said, looking closely at the golem. "This is quite a fine piece of work. I can't believe anyone would simply leave such a useful golem in an abandoned house."

  "You think someone else lives here?" I said, alarm ringing in my head.

  "Butler, does anyone else live in this house?" Bella asked.

  Without looking up from the bed, it said, "No one has lived in this place for over two years, madam."

  "How long have you been here?"

  "I am not able to divulge that information," it replied, balling the sheets atop the bed. It walked to a closet and pulled large wheeled basket from inside, and stuffed the sheets into it.

  "What do you mean, not able?" I asked.

  "The information is simply not available to me, sir." The golem gripped the basket and wheeled it toward the door. It stopped just outside, and turned. "Does the master wish anything else before I take this to laundry?"

  "Clean the bed sheets in the next room too, please," Bella said, casting a curious look as the faux butler nodded and vanished around the corner.

  I looked at Bella. "This place is weird, but heck, if I have a butler, I think I may just like it."

  "I agree," she replied with a smile.

  I called Cinder and let him know about the new digs, and then thought hard about what I wanted to eat that night. As I weighed the pros and cons of pizza versus Chinese food, the front door swung open, and Lina stepped inside.

  "Hello?" she called and spotted me sitting on a freshly cleaned couch in front of the fireplace in the den.

  "Hey," I said. "Thanks for helping me find this place."

  She offered a tired grin. "It is very cool." She sat next to me. "Are you doing okay? You look really exhausted."

  I had to admit I was feeling not just physical hunger, but demonic hunger as well. I'd intended to fill both needs once I decided where I was going to eat normal food. The school dining hall served three meals a day, though I usually missed dinner thanks to my sessions with Vallaena.

  "Do you want to feed?" Lina asked.

  She looked so pale, so tired, I couldn't believe she'd even offer. "Are you kidding me? You look dead on your feet."

  "I am a little tired." A yawn seemed to take her by surprise.

  "Maybe you just need a break." I stood. "You feel like Chinese food?"

  "Yeah. That sounds great."

  "Hey Lina!" Bella called, leaning over the balustrade upstairs. "I wasn't expecting you. Did you come over to play Scrabble?"

  "Food first," I said. "You want to come?" I told her where we were going.

  "No, just grab me some goat fried rice," the dhampyr called back.

  Lina had a flying carpet with her, so we took it down to the town of Queens Gate in the valley below. From the mountain, the town looked like a miniature replica of Victorian London. Brick roads wound through mazes of townhouses along the outer edges, the gas lamps twinkling like stars, while shops and restaurants formed neat squares with water fountains and quaint parks around the middle. A giant clock tower rose from the center of town, faced on either side by impressive, domed buildings I assumed had some function of state.

  Once on the ground, the town reminded me of the Grotto, filled with vendors, restaurants, and supernaturals of just about every persuasion. The Chinese restaurant Shelton liked, the Copper Swan, looked exactly like a giant version of its namesake. Lina and I had dinner. We talked about classes, her brother, Alejandro, and her plans for after college.

  She sounded a lot like most people my age—clueless about what they wanted to do with the rest of their lives. At least she had time to figure things out. Lina looked so exhausted, I didn't dare feed from the poor girl, and instead took advantage of other female patrons in the vicinity. Thanks to Vallaena's pro tips I was able to do it without drawing any unwanted attention.

  I tried to keep up my end of the conversation, but couldn't stop thinking about Nightliss or Mom's imprisonment. I have to win Ivy's heart somehow. With her help, we might be able to free Mom. But I hadn't seen Ivy all day. It was hard to win someone's trust when they weren't around.

  Lina's phone chimed, snapping me from my thoughts. She glanced at it and smiled.

  "Someone you wanted to hear from?" I asked.

  She nodded. "My boyfriend. He wants to meet outside in a few minutes." She looked up. "Is that okay with you?"

  I shrugged. "Why wouldn't it be?" I'd forgotten about her mysterious boyfriend, but hadn't figured out a way to ask for more info without giving the wrong impression.

  Lina pressed a hand to her forehead, and closed her eyes. She seemed even more exhausted than before, and her skin looked a pallid gray.

  "Are you okay?" I asked.

  "Just really tired," she said. A smile. "I'm fine, Justin."

  We split the bill and went outside. People wandered the streets, their modern clothes anachronistic in the vintage setting. The denizens of the Overworld seemed to enjoy keeping things classic as opposed to modern, and I had to admit I liked it. Instead of trolleys or the horseless stagecoaches which frequented the Grotto, people here favored flying carpets or the shiny rocket boards I'd seen at the Science Academy.

  As Lina and I walked toward the sidewalk, I nearly collided with someone. I looked up and was about to apologize when I saw the arrogant face looking back at me with disdain. William Vanderbilt's eyes flared with recognition, and his lip curled into a sneer.

  I was just about to steer around him and tell Lina all about how much of a jackass he was, when she gave him a hug and pecked him on the lips. She turned to me and said, "Justin, I'd like you to meet my boyfriend, Billy."

  Chapter 30

  Billy, flanked by two other guys, stared at me w
ith an almost comical look of surprise plain on his face. I felt certain the expression on my face reflected his.

  "This guy is your boo?" I asked.

  "This guy is your friend?" Billy said at almost the same instant.

  We stared at one another again.

  "You know each other?" Lina looked back and forth between us.

  "He's a bloomer and a techie," Billy said, his surprised expression melding into a sneer. "I don't like you talking to his kind."

  Lina's eyes flashed. "You don't tell me who I can talk with, Billy." Her Spanish accent thickened as she set her arms akimbo and said, "You promised me you weren't going to say those sorts of things anymore."

  Billy looked at his two friends, one a short, heavyset guy with hair so thick, it looked like porcupine quills, and the other, a slender male with gray slacks, a pink polo, and silky blonde hair combed to the side. The three of them looked like escaped mental patients from a prep-school asylum circa nineteen-eighty.

  "Let's get out of here, babe," Billy said, trying to put an arm around Lina's shoulders.

  She threw off his hand with her own, and wobbled for a moment before regaining her balance. "You weren't acting like this the other night when we were alone."

  I was sorely tempted to chime in with my thoughts on elitism, spoiled blueblood kids, and maybe even give Billy a token punch in the nose, but decided placing myself between Lina's anger and Billy's obstinacy might be a bad thing.

  "C'mon, babe, I'm just joking. You know how I am."

  Lina's eyes flared. She opened her mouth to speak. And then she dropped to the ground like a lead weight.

  Everyone stood stunned as she lay on the ground like a broken doll. I bent down and pressed a hand to her neck. Her pulse felt fine, but, damn it, I was an incubus, not a doctor.

  "What did you do to her, you filthy techie?" Billy said.

  Someone clamped preternaturally strong hands on my shoulders and jerked me away from Lina. Before I could react, my feet left the ground. I plowed through a group of nearby students and rolled to a painful stop atop the brick road in front of the restaurant. As I climbed to my feet, I saw Porky the porcupine hair guy charging at me much faster than his stocky frame should have allowed. Billy produced an ebony rod about the size and shape of a magic marker, and gave a flick of his wrist. It sprang out lengthwise, and thickened into a staff that shined and glittered like polished coal.

  I strafed right just as Porky blew past me like a locomotive. He hit the side of the Copper Swan, ringing it like a giant gong. He had to be seeing cartoon birds and stars circling his head after a hit like that. A flash of azure blue caught my peripheral vision. A bolt of heat seared into my ribs, slamming me hard against the side of the huge copper bird. The breath blasted from my lungs. Jagged bolts of energy pouring from the end of Billy's staff pressed me tight against the side of the restaurant. I couldn't move. Couldn't breathe. Heat from the magical energy washed over me, the temperature just barely beneath my pain threshold. Lina's boyfriend, his lips peeled back with rage, walked toward me.

  "Let's see if your technology"—he spat the word like a curse—"can save you, bloomer."

  I flailed with my free hands, trying to grab my phone, my practice staff, anything, but the miniature electrical storm washing over my torso prevented my hands from getting close to my pockets. "Lina needs help!" I shouted. "Why the hell are you attacking me?"

  "You insulted me," Billy said. "Besides, you're a filthy spawn who attacked my girlfriend."

  By now a crowd was gathering. People murmured, pointing. I could make out some individual conversations.

  "Did that boy hurt the girl?"

  "He started a fight with Billy Vanderbilt?"

  "Dude is toast."

  I had no choice. I'd have to spawn like Vallaena taught me. It might be my only chance of breaking free. I delved deep inside, and began to lower the barriers. Frost dug bone deep into my left leg, frost so cold it felt white hot. Boiling rage and helplessness churned like acid against the barrier holding back my demonic side. Shadows stretched from every unlit corner around me in the shapes of skulls and robed phantoms, their bony claws reaching for me.

  Devour. Eat. Drain.

  The voices rasped the same words in my head, a constant susurrus of ravenous need.

  "Stop it!" I shouted, pressing my hands to the sides of my head. "Go away!"

  The demon inside me surged for the crack in its barrier, rising like bile in my throat. I clenched my teeth and fought back. If I spawned now with the vampling curse raging in my blood, I would lose control. Fighting the curse and my demonic counterpart was a battle I'd nearly lost in the forest. I definitely couldn't lose it now.

  "Buddy, you'd better let him go," said a familiar voice. "Or so help me god, I will turn you into a pile of rotten cow testicles."

  Someone yelped like wounded dog, and the force holding me to the side of the building vanished. I dropped to the ground, landing hard on my knees. Hands pressed to head, and eyes squeezed shut, I rocked back and forth, fighting the tide of nauseating insanity. Fighting the voices as they demanded blood, death, and destruction.

  The numbing cold receded bit by bit like ice under lukewarm water until only the usual chill of the curse drifted in my veins like permafrost. It was accelerating. I could feel it. Physical trauma, or magical trauma, or maybe some combination of the two was giving the curse new life despite the potion.

  "Get the hell out of here!" someone roared, and I heard more cries of pain and yelps receding into the distance. "Holy farting fairies, kid. You okay?"

  I looked up into Harry Shelton's eyes. He looked pissed and mildly confused. "Lina?" I said.

  "The healers are here. They're airlifting her to the university." Shelton gripped me under an arm and hauled me to my feet. "The curse almost got you again, didn't it?"

  I nodded. "Yeah."

  "Well, you haven't done a good job avoiding trauma, that's for sure," he said in a gruff tone.

  I raised an eyebrow, and considered him for a moment. "You're back."

  He nodded. "Yeah. Don't get all sentimental about it, though."

  "What made you change your mind?" I had to fight back a smile.

  "I got bored sitting around Meghan's house, okay? The way she and Adam coo all over each other makes me sick. I figured I'd rather face certain death than hang around that love fest. One day was more than enough." He blew out a disgusted breath. "So, besides brawling in the streets and knocking out Colombian girls, what the hell else have you been up to?"

  Pushing aside the dread I felt about the curse, I laughed and slapped him on the back. "It's good to have you back."

  He scowled. "Like I said, no big deal."

  Shelton and I took the lift back to the university, and I showed him the house. Bella came running from her room the moment she heard his voice.

  She looked at him, her eyes soft. "I'm glad to see you, Harry."

  "Don't even start with the Scrabble," he warned, looking around the cavernous den. "I used to come here for parties back in the day." He shivered. "But I heard this place was haunted."

  "Is the mighty Harry Shelton scared?" Bella said, her eyes twinkling.

  "Pssht. No, I just think this place has seen better days."

  "What made you decide to come back?" she asked.

  He shrugged. "Got bored."

  "Bored, huh?" Bella blurred down the stairs at supernatural speed and thudded into Shelton, nearly picking him up off the floor with an enthusiastic hug. "You're so adorable when you try to act macho and cool."

  He struggled, but was no match for the petite woman and her dhampyric strength. "Woman, put me down."

  She giggled and set him back on the floor. "I knew you were a good man." She winked. "Even if you are terrible at Scrabble."

  "I hate to break up the good mood," I said, "but Lina collapsed when we were out, Bella." "Oh, goodness, we have to go see her," she said.

  It was all piling up in my head. Nightliss, Mom, and
now Lina. Despite having Shelton back, the weight on my shoulders felt heavier than ever. How long did Nightliss have? How the hell could I find Ivy?

  The three of us visited Lina.

  Healer Hutchins, the same woman who'd treated me and MacLean was checking on another patient when we walked in. She saw me and quirked an eyebrow.

  Shelton's eyes went a little wide, and he turned to grab a copy of Arcane Daily from the scroll rack, unrolling the yellowed parchment as if the juicy centerfold of a cute female Arcane waited somewhere on the page.

  The healer approached us, her eyes glancing between me and Bella. "You again. Find anymore unconscious professors in the hallway?"

  "Uh, no, actually one of my friends collapsed." I nodded my head at Lina's bed where she lay asleep. "She was looking really tired. I thought it was just from studying too hard."

  "I see you've moved to rescuing girls now." An amused smile flickered across her lips. "You're either a knight in shining armor, or you get your kicks from knocking people out and bringing them to me."

  I offered her an uneasy smile because I couldn't tell if she was serious or not. "She's been practicing her magic too hard. Is it possible she has magic poisoning?"

  Hutchins shook her head. "You remember these children you saw the last time you were in here?" She looked at the beds where the same kids lay, their faces waxen, eyes surrounded by dark bruises.

  I looked at Lina and immediately noticed the similarities. "Wait, are you saying Lina has the same thing?" I asked.

  "It's possible." The healer crossed an arm over her stomach. "Her cells are absolutely saturated with magic. Unlike magic poisoning which occurs from within, this has happened from an outside source."

  Bella pressed a kiss to Lina's forehead. "Poor sweet girl."

  Shelton glanced back from his magazine and sighed. He walked to Bella, and put an arm around her shoulders. "I'm sure the kid just overdid it. Heck, I remember a time or two I passed out—"

  Healer Hutchins's head snapped toward Shelton. "Well, well, well, if it isn't the incorrigible Harry Shelton."

  "You know him?" I asked, realizing that with Shelton's apparent notoriety at the university, it was probably a stupid question.