Dangerous Creatures(33)

He knew he was asking the impossible, and he expected that his associate was laughing on the other side. Laughing, and making room for Lennox Gates in the Otherworld, right next to him.

“I’m not stupid or suicidal. This display really isn’t necessary,” he said.

But it is your style, he added silently. Or your name wouldn’t be Abraham Ravenwood. And I wouldn’t be in this bind.





CHAPTER 15


Rock of Ages


As Link walked down the Brooklyn street with Sampson, he couldn’t remember what had been bothering him. Something had been, but it had slipped away. Ridley had that effect on him. A few words from her, and he almost always started feeling better. He’d almost have thought she was Charming him, except for the fact that she’d promised she wouldn’t.

What kinda magic was that?

Link gave up.

To be honest, he didn’t really pay attention to a word anyone said after audition. It was like listening to a bunch of chickens squawking over a spilled bag of feed. Chickens or cheerleaders. The Jackson PTA, fightin’ over which book to ban. My mom on the way home from choir practice, full up with a fresh load a gossip. Link didn’t have much to say. At least, not to the chickens. His mind was on the audition.

It was an awesome word, like overtime or front row or state finals. Cheese-in-the-crust or double-stuffed or supersized. Of all those words, audition was the granddaddy of them all. At least, Link was pretty sure it was.

He’d never actually had one.

Link didn’t audition for bands. He always made sure it was his band, so they had to take him. That was the secret of his success. But it didn’t help him now. He was terrified. Auditions were so good they were bad, so important they were paralyzing. Link’s adrenaline was pushing and pounding so hard he felt sick, same as when he tried to eat his mom’s red-eye gravy halfway through his transition from human to Incubus.

Like he could blow chunks.

Hope I don’t puke onstage. Marilyn Manson puked onstage. Wait. It’s cool, right? If Marilyn Manson did it?

Link was lost in thought until he and Sampson met up with the girls outside a stairwell that led to a subway station.

Don’t think about the audition. Crap, you thought about it, you dumbucket.

“Earth to Link.” Floyd looked at Link. “You sick?”

Link didn’t say anything. Not in front of her. Not in front of a girl. He tried to focus on the yellow police tape that sealed off the entrance to the stairs.

“If you’re gonna puke, do it now,” Floyd said. “That’s all I’m sayin’. Remember Marilyn Manson.” She smiled. “That was a damn good hurl.”

Link laughed, in spite of the bile in his throat. There weren’t a lot of girls like Floyd. Even Ridley could see that, which was probably why her feathers had been so ruffled ever since they’d gotten here. He had to admit he kind of liked the attention.

That’s just life in the henhouse, he thought. Especially when the rooster’s as smooth as this guy right here.

Floyd looked both ways and ducked inside the stairwell. The second she passed the yellow tape, she disappeared. The air rippled in her wake.

Not something you’d see in any henhouse.

“Is she Rippin’? ’Cause I didn’t hear anythin’.” Link looked at Necro.

Necro shook her head. “Nope. Doorwell. You gotta look for the broken subway stops. They’re not actually broken. They’re ours.”

“The regular old New York City subway? It’s also a Caster subway?”

“The stops are. We rotate ours through the Mortal system, so it’s a different stop every time, all over the five boroughs. Whole system. Someone got the idea when we saw all the New York City utility blockades during the last big storm. So long as we stick to the broken stops, nobody sees us come and go. And nobody bothers us.”

Link looked at her. “Doesn’t anyone ever wonder why there’s so many broken stops?”

Necro smiled. “Who? Something’s always broken. This is New York. Now come on.” She disappeared as she said it, as if she’d explained something.

Link scratched his head. It was hard for him to imagine, seeing as every time a porch light burned out in Gatlin, it practically made the news. At least, it made his mom’s personal broadcasting system.

“Try to keep up.” Sampson looked at Ridley and Link like they were a couple of kindergartners, then disappeared after Necro.

“Fun guy,” Link said.

“Or not,” Rid said.

Link shrugged. “I guess Darkborns are stiffs.”

“You think?” She sounded worried.

“You know what they say. With great power comes great nothing else.” He laughed, but Rid wasn’t having it. Not today.

She looks hotter than Myrtle Beach in July, but she’s just as crabby, Link thought.

“Come on. You want to—” Link gestured at the yellow tape. “Or should I?”

“They’re gone. We could bolt,” Ridley said. She seemed more uneasy than she should have, considering this whole Devil’s Hangmen thing was her idea.

“Yeah, right.” Link laughed, but she didn’t. Rid’s not jokin’. So that’s weird. “What are you talkin’ about? We didn’t come this far to hide like a scared cat now.”