I had another two hours in my shift. Yesterday had texted me an hour before, asking how things had been going. I texted her back, apologizing for the delay and telling her that everything had been fine so far. Pretty much true, even if I felt cold to my center whenever Lochlynn looked at me. Like all the heat fled from his gaze.
When I set the phone down, I looked back at him. The fury hadn’t left his eyes yet, and he didn’t seem that bothered by his hurt hands.
Still, I asked, “Do you need something. For the, uh, burns.”
“No,” he said.
“Does it hurt?”
“I’ve hurt worse,” he responded in a dead tone that told me I wouldn’t get any more out of him than that.
I rubbed my hands down my thighs and looked around the room. I had a few options. One, I could just continue to sit there, and hope that the rest of my shift didn’t feel like it did right then. Two, I could turn the television on, and ignore Lochlynn. Or three, I could try and explain to him what happened. Even if he didn’t believe me, I would at least get words out there that might help me in the end.
Clearing my throat, I said, “We really didn’t mean for this to happen.”
He gave me a flat look. “Forgive me for not believing you,” he said.
“I get how it looks. I’m not stupid. Just let me talk to you for a second, okay? I don’t know why my friends’ father built this room. They have theories on it, but I’ve personally never understood the man very well.”
“So, you’re admitting that you aren’t twenty-one?” he said.
I could’ve ignored that question, but maybe he would feel bad for me if he learned my actual age. “No, I’m seventeen,” I said, shrugging a shoulder.
He laughed. “Great. Kidnapped by some kids.”
“How old are you?” I asked.
He stared at me.
“Oh, come on. I gave you my age and name. I already know your name, too. Your parents feel like they’re a thousand years old, so I’m just curious.”
Still with that dead stare, he said, “I’m eighteen.”
“Oh.”
We had a moment of a silence, one where I squirmed a lot and he did nothing but watch me. I didn’t understand how he was the one in the cage, and I felt like he could kill me at any second. It didn’t make any sense.
I forced myself to stop squirming and looked back at him. “Anyway, this cage was just a coincidence. We snuck into the party, and when I went snooping around, you caught me. My friend overreacted with the taser, and we really didn’t know what it would do to you. We panicked.”
“If you panicked, then why am I still here? You’ve had plenty of time to let me go. I probably wouldn’t even tell my parents about this. It would require talking to them, and I don’t like doing that.”
I cleared my throat. “Well, I don’t know how to open this thing, for one. So, you can’t force me into doing anything like that.”
“Convenient.”
I did some more squirming, trying to keep my face from heating up. “It’s the truth.”
He didn’t say anything to that.
I breathed out and looked at the clock. Still the better part of two hours left before Seamus took his shift. I didn’t think he and Lochlynn would say a word to each other. Mostly because I couldn’t picture Seamus bothering with that kind of thing. He would rather watch television, letting our prisoner suffer.
And god only knew what Seanan would do.
“We have a friend,” I said. “His name is Derrick. You probably haven’t seen him, but he’s pretty tall. Not as tall as you are, but he’s up there. A little over six feet, I think. He’s black and Korean, but you can’t really tell the latter. He’s got curly black hair and dark brown eyes, kind of lanky looking. I don’t know what he wears now, but he used to wear these huge shirts that covered him almost down to his knees, and jeans. Unless he wanted to impress someone. Then he dressed up, and that was always really freaking weird for me.
“He was a sweetheart, too. Kind of shy. He never spoke unless he had something to say, so he could be easy to lose in a big crowd of friends. Too quiet, I guess. But when he got angry, he could be one scary son of a bitch. I’ve seen people run from him before.
“Anyway, Derrick has a sister named Elise. She moved away, but before that, she used to tag around with him a lot. She was twelve, and just wanted to hang out with her big brother. Unlike most brothers, he didn’t mind her doing this. He let her go with him everywhere.”
Lochlynn didn’t seem to care about my story one way or another. He watched me with the same empty expression. It felt like talking to a wall, for all that I got out of him. I didn’t stop, though, because I wanted him to know that we hadn’t planned this. That my friends and I just got in over our heads.
“Anyway,” I said. “Elise got sick. That happens sometimes, with human, ya know? When she didn’t get better, her mother took her to the doctor, and they found cancer. Leukemia, I believe it was. Derrick didn’t like to talk about it, so I don’t know much of what happened with her. I just know that Elise stopped hanging out with us, and that she never showed up again. The last time I saw her, she had been wearing this yellow dress with frills along the bottom and she kept fighting her pigtails. Her ties didn’t want to stay in.”
Still nothing from the slab of ice.
“Elise kept getting rose, though, and Derrick got desperate. Desperate enough that he did something no one wanted him to do. He made a deal with a demon, selling his soul in exchange for his sister’s life. The demons agreed and gave him six months before they would come to collect.”
I looked down at my hands and bit my lip. My throat had started to burn with the effort of keeping the emotion out of my voice. My chest ached, and my hands shook. I didn’t know how else to tell the story, because whenever I pictured Derrick, he always looked so happy.
I didn’t think he would ever get there again. Toward the end, he hadn’t smiled in days, he had barely eaten anything, he had dark circles under his eyes. He had just wanted Elise to be all right, even if that meant he couldn’t have been. I hated him for that, I thought. No matter what, someone had to grieve, and he hurt us. And yet, no matter how he hurt us, his parents, Elise, I couldn’t say that he had done the wrong thing. My pain didn’t justify a little girl’s death.
I took a deep breath that shook a little. “My friends and I went into denial, I guess. We tried to run with Derrick, but the demons…”
“Always get their due,” Lochlynn finally said.
I nodded. “Yeah. They always get their due. Derrick went with them. I think because he was worried they would kill us. I thought the price would’ve been worth it because at least we’d have died doing something for him. He disagreed.”
“So, instead of honoring his wishes, you’re still trying to find him,” Lochlynn said. “That’s why you snuck into the party. That’s why you were trying to break into that room, and that’s why I’m here.”
“Yes,” I said. “I know that you have to pretty annoyed with us, but is there any way that you could…help us? At least point us in the right direction, so that we have a chance of finding him?”
Lochlynn stared at me, and that ice formed in my chest again. I didn’t think he would answer me, so it surprised me when he started to talk. “No, there’s nothing that I can do, unfortunately. You have no idea how many humans enter our systems a year, and I don’t keep track of them. There are thousands of people that need to get processed, for various reason. I can’t help you.”
“Are you saying that because it’s true, or are you saying that because you’re hoping I’ll let you go now?”
His eyes went flat again, and not until then did I realize he had some emotion in his face. I couldn’t tell what, because it vanished so quickly, but I missed it. I missed it because of how cold he looked, like someone had erased all the humanity out of him. Then again. He hadn’t been born with any humanity.
“I am saying it because it is the truth.”
I refused to believe him. “How can I be sure of that? You are the one in a cage, and you might be angry enough to lie to me, just for the fun of it.”
“You are trying too hard,” he said. “You are so desperate to believe your friend is somewhere safe, unharmed, and waiting for you, it doesn’t matter what I say. It never mattered. I’ll tell you, anyway. How long ago did this all happen?”
“Six months,” I said.
He nodded. “Most human have been processed in six months. That means they have been checked off some list, sent to their designated location, and the duration of their lives have been determined.”
“You make us sound like cattle,” I said.
Lochlynn shrugged. “I’m just reporting the facts to you. Your friend could be anywhere in the country at this point, and in all likelihood, he’s dead. Very rarely do we choose to change someone from human to something else. Vampires are being punished for something they did to us, werewolves are supposed to loyal servants, and witches are people we like. You don’t want your friend to be any of those things. He’s most likely dead by now, and that’s if he’s lucky.”
I shot to my feet with my hands balled into fists. At which point I stalled out. What exactly what I do? Scream at him for telling me the truth? Punch at the glass to get my frustration out and break my hand? I couldn’t do a goddamned thing, because not only could I not get into that little room, but even if I could, he’d stomp me into the ground. I was helpless.
That only pissed me off even more, because I had to lower my sorry ass back into the chair and endure the smug look he got on his face.
“But there’s a chance that he isn’t dead?” I asked.
Lochlynn nodded once. “A small chance, but I suppose you’re willing to hold onto anything at this point, if you’re doing something this foolish to begin with.”
“Then how do we find that out? There has to be something that you can do that will tell me if he’s still alive.”
Lochlynn shook his head. “You don’t quite get it. Even if I could do something, I see no reason why I should. Let’s say I believe you about this entire thing being a mistake. Well, then it’s just my dumb luck that I wound up in your trap. However, you are the reason that trap even existed. Why should I help you?”
“To get out of the trap,” I said, gesturing to the cage.
The demon smiled and twisted around on the bed. He laid flat, staring at the ceiling. “I don’t have to get out of this cage. If I stay in it for the rest of my life, then so be it.”
“Seriously?”
Lochlynn looked over at me. “Let me tell you how this will go. In a week, maybe two, my brother and sister will inform our parents that they haven’t seen me in a while. When that happens, my parents will come looking for me. It’ll take them, I’ll say two days to find me. At which point, they will bust through your front door as if it were made of toothpicks that were glued together. Then they will kill you, your friends, your parents, and anyone else that stands in the way of getting to me. I’ll go home, and this entire mess will be filed under ‘incidents we don’t talk about.’ Until then, I’ll enjoy my vacation, by relaxing.” He laid back against the pillows.
My chest burned again, and I wanted to hurt him. “Sounds like they really love you,” I said. “I mean, if they’ll notice that you’re missing in two weeks. It must feel so good to know that you matter.”
Lochlynn smiled. “Nice one. If I cared about my parents, that would’ve hurt. You’re pretty good about this. Where are yours? They must be pretty understanding if they’re letting you keep a demon locked away in the basement.”
“My parents are dead,” I sniped back.
“Ah. That’s the dream,” Lochlynn said.
It took me aback. At first, I thought he mocked me with that, but I swore that he had actual longing in his voice. Like he really wanted his parents to have been dead by now. I didn’t know how to process that, because I would’ve given my left arm for another week with my father. He meant so much to me, and it hurt that he had disappeared when he did.
And I kept thinking about him in one of those facilities, getting drained by demons. We really were cattle to them. They used us for food, and then discarded the remains however they saw fit.
I brought my legs up to my chest, circling them with my arms. Despite how much I wanted to punch the bastard, I also wanted answers to questions I’d had since my father vanished. “Out of a hundred people, how many do you choose to change?” I asked, my voice subdued.
“I don’t choose to change anyone,” Lochlynn responded.
“You know what I mean.”
He looked over at me, and I felt another wave of cold wash across my skin. I shifted around, uncomfortable, until he started to speak again. “Out of a hundred? Maybe ten, for Blackwell Industries. Each demon division is different. We are very selective in who we choose, and for what.”
“So, it’s very unlikely that someone that’s sold their soul will survive the year?” I asked.
Lochlynn’s face changed slightly, and I couldn’t quite pin down what did it. What emotion had shifted his expression. “It’s highly unlikely,” he said. “Especially if they aren’t changed. I’ve only seen one human that survived that long, and…They were barely anything. I wouldn’t call them alive.”
I wanted to cling to my hope for Derrick, so I kept talking. “What about if they are changed. Is the human different?”
He laughed. “Of course, they’re different. It’s hard to go through something like that and not be different.”
“In what way?” My voice sounded small, and my throat was tight.
Lochlynn sighed. “Let’s say you have a human and you turn them into a vampire. Do you know how we do that?”
I nodded. “You remove part of their soul.”
“Half, actually,” Lochlynn corrected. “We remove half of their soul, because they could recover from anything less and anything more would almost guarantee their death. But if you remove half, you have them balanced between life and death. Their body changes over the course of a week, turning them into a predator, because their body wants to survive. It’s instinct, you know.
“When that week is over, they can then take parts of other people’s souls through biting them, drinking some of their blood. If they take enough, you have another vampire. If they take too much, you’ve got a dead body, and a vampire that’s running on a high until that soul burns out.”
Images flew through my mind, images of the kind of suffering that a person would have to endure for that kind of life to be bestowed upon them. It had to be hell and feel like worse.
“Now, imagine taking someone, a person who never hurt anyone before in their life, and turning them into that. Removing half of what they were, and then leaving them to flounder. Of course, it changes them.”
“Are they…more violent? Less compassionate?”
“It depends on the person, honestly. I’ve seen some vampires that are exactly as they were in real life. And I’ve seen others that are pale imitations of what they used to be. It just depends on the vampire. I’ve also seen some that are such monsters we have to put them down like animals.”
I pictured Derrick with paler skin and empty eyes, rising up from someone he just attacked. Blood coated his mouth in my mind, drenching his teeth. It didn’t fit with the image I’d had since we talked about going to the casino and trying to save him. I pictured a Derrick only a little weaker than the one I had seen before. I could see him hugging me, his arms tight around my body, so thankful to have me there. I could see a life that returned to normal after a while.
For the first time, I started to think that would happen.
“What about werewolves?”
He snorted. “Are you serious? We remove half the human soul and replace it with a wolf’s. You are seriously wondering if that changes them?”
“Yes, but how?”
“They follow different instincts, do different things. They are dangerous animals half the time, and the other half, they are trying to be the people that they once were. Their pack instinct is pretty strong. Dangerous. And that’s when they aren’t in their wolf form. When they are…” He shook his head. “You don’t want to piss off an entire pack. Let’s leave it at that.”
I didn’t even want to ask about witches. Demons made witches by replacing half their soul with that of a demon’s. The witch could use magic, but I heard they had to cannibalize their human soul to do it. They recovered from it most of the time, but sometimes…sometimes they used too much magic and ended up either killing themselves or burning their humanity away.
If that happened to Derrick, then I thought my heart would just stop. I didn’t even want to picture a world where he suffered like that. Especially not for doing something so selfless as trying to save his sister. A little girl that hadn’t done anything wrong in her entire life.
Lochlynn sighed, sitting up. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry for what’s happened to your friend.”
I glared at him. “Oh, are you? Is that why you aren’t going to help me?”
“Would you help me?” he asked. “If our situations were reversed, and I had you in a cage, trying to get something out of you, would you help me?”
“I don’t know,” I said, lifting my chin.
“I think you do know,” he countered. “You do know, but it’s not the answer you want me to give, so you aren’t saying a word, right?”
My jaw worked.
He nodded. “Because you wouldn’t help me. Because you would feel like an animal locked in cage, fighting for every second. You wouldn’t do a damn thing for me, in the hopes that I died before something bad happened to you.”
“Shut up,” I said, turning away from him. My anger came back on a hot wave, and I pushed away from the chair, so that I could glare at the guy in front of me. “You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. You’ve never been prey before. But look at us humans. You aren’t the one who’s worried about a friend. How many human souls have you fed on before? Huh? How many?”
Lochlynn looked away from me, and I had my answer. At least one.
“You don’t get to sit there and judge me for trying to save my friend from your kind. You can either help us, or we’ll make you help us, do you understand? Just…shut up until then.”
In a fit, I whipped my chair around so that I faced the television and plopped down in it. I turned the TV on and watched old shows from the nineties until my heart started to slow down. When that happened, though, I found shameful tears in my eyes, as everything that he said to me circled around my brain.
***
“Thanks for driving me home,” I said to Seanan later that morning, as she pulled up in front of my apartment building. I stared up at the façade, frowning at it. “I want an update every hour. If I don’t get one, I’m going to assume that you’ve died a horrible death and need me to come kill a demon.”
Seanan saluted me. “I will give you updates, but don’t get upset if you don’t like them.”
I got out of the SUV and dashed for the front of the building. As my friend drove away, I ducked into the parking garage, and rushed over to the elevator. I clicked in all the right numbers and took the ride up. I composed my face while doing so, hearing Yesterday’s voice in my head, telling me that I didn’t lie well.
The doors slid open, and I found Linda standing right there, with a plate of cookies. “That’s so much creepier than you know,” I said.
Linda laughed. “Sorry, sorry. It just feels like ages since I’ve seen you, Tom.”
My teeth ground together. “Yeah, last night got hectic.”
“I know! Yesterday told me all about it. I hope that Seamus got a spare tire, so that doesn’t happen again.”
“Me too,” I said, having no clue what Yesterday told Linda.
My sister saved me from having to answer by coming out of her room. Linda insisted that I take a cookie, and then she bustled into the kitchen. “Listen, girls. I know that we normally do a lot of stuff on Sundays, but I’ve got a prior engagement. I hope you two are okay to entertain yourselves?”
“Of course,” Yesterday said, smiling back at her. “We’ve got so much homework to do, I don’t think we’ll even be able to talk on the phone.”
Linda smiled and bustled into her room. “Good, because I’ve got to leave in like an hour, and I haven’t even figured out what to wear.”
Our guardian disappeared, and my shoulders relaxed. The second I didn’t have to have my guard up, though…I broke. Tears started to slide down my face, and I turned to look at my sister. Yesterday took the cookie from my hand and set it on the counter. Her arms came around me, secure and tight. “It’s all right,” she said.
“I don’t think we can do it,” I whisper-sobbed into her shoulder. “I don’t think we can safe Derrick.”
Yesterday hugged me tighter, holding on like she thought I would fall apart if she didn’t. “I’m not gonna lie. The chances are slim to none, but we’re already in up to our necks. If we can’t save him, and least you can say that you tried. You can say that you loved him enough to try.”
I held on tighter. “Is that enough?” I asked. “For this horrible feeling in my chest, is that enough?”
“It’s better than nothing,” Yesterday whispered. “It’s better than what we have right now.”
Because I needed to, I chose to believe her.