Ten † Face the Shadows

When Kat and Calix exited the circular room, it was still two twenty-one in the afternoon. Though so many things had happened, not a single second had passed in the normal world.

Her questions were threatening to spill out of her, but Calix had insisted that they leave the place first, so she had to wait until they were back in the truck for her to go ahead and ask, "Won't they see us?"

Calix fiddled unsuccessfully with the seatbelt. "Who?"

"The authorities." She leaned over and strapped him in. "If someone reports his death, and they come to investigate, they will see the cameras and—"

"The cameras," he said, emphasizing the last word proudly as though to flex knowledge on a new language, "do not work well with our power. It cancels any form of technology, so you do not need to worry about that."

"Oh." She smiled and started the engine. "Let's go then."

Kat was on unbelievably high spirits as soon as they got back on the road, but once they were a few blocks away from The Meridian, her good mood started to dip. Her energy was sapped.

Maybe it's because she hadn't slept, she thought. She had a tendency to have energy flips when she pulled all-nighters. Maybe it was also because she hadn't had a proper meal yet. Calix had hogged the cake rolls.

Come to think of it, she was pretty hungry.

Thinking that a good old greasy meal would cheer her up, she decided to drop by a McDonald's. And naturally, the sudden stop startled Calix, but the mention of food calmed him back down.

At almost four in the afternoon, the place was pretty packed, but not enough to have all the seats taken. The lines were long, but not unbearably so. Excited to steer clear of the all-organic diet that her L.A. friends had gotten her into, Kat made a beeline towards the kiosks to get an order. There was a line, but she didn't mind. She needed to contemplate on her order anyway. Besides, Calix needed a bit of explanation so he wouldn't freak out over the giant screens.

She headed towards the end of the line, with him following her closely, looking absolutely lost in all the buzz. As they crossed the room, about a dozen heads turned in their direction. At first she thought it was her stupid shirt, but then she realized that the onlookers were mostly girls. They were all studying Calix with interest.

Ah, she'd almost forgotten. The weirdo had the looks of a heartbreaker.

The line moved, so they stepped forward, and as they did so, more eyes lasered on Calix. Unfortunately, he wasn't exactly dense. He noticed the collective turn of heads, and his eyes widened with fear.

"They are looking at me," he whispered to Kat. "I told you I should not have donned your father's clothing."

"The clothes aren't the problem," she replied, but that wasn't exactly true either. The eighties clothes were actually part of the problem, but it was because they made him look cooler instead of stupid. "Trust me, if you stuck with your cloak, you would've had all eyes on you the moment you walked in."

"Then why are they still staring at me? I thought I already look normal. Do they know I do not belong here?"

"No." She stepped forward as the line moved, deciding on a quarter-pounder with fries, an apple pie, and a large Coke. She turned to ask him what he'd like, but she stopped with the confused look on his face. "Dude, relax. You don't look out of place. It's just that you're . . . too good-looking."

Calix thought about that for a moment. "But you look good too."

Nothing could've prepared Kat for that. Her single-for-six-years heart fluttered against her will, rendering her breathless until it was her time to order. Instead of asking him what he'd get, she ended up ordering the same thing for him. All the while she was unable to look him in the eye, even when a table service employee (who'd done a double take at Calix) arrived with their food.

Although it wasn't what she'd normally do, Kat decided to get the table close to the air conditioner. Her face was too warm, and she was sure that a single degree hotter would make her head explode.

You're pathetic, Kat told herself bitterly as she gulped down her soda. He's still your enemy.

On the other hand, Calix was not feeling the same kind of awkwardness. He had no idea that the slightest bit of compliment was enough to make her fall into bits. He was munching on fries, delighted at the new taste.

For a while they ate silently. Kat thought she'd inhale the stuff quickly, but she couldn't even finish half of her burger. Her mind was churning, but it wasn't just because of the compliment this time. In fact, that was already being pushed out of her head. Right now the main thing she was thinking about was Auric Johnson.

Had anyone found him yet? Or was he still there, buried under a pile of the very things he was selling, cold and lifeless and—

"I just remembered," Calix broke through her reverie, "Are you familiar with Egyptian mythology?"

"Nope," she answered eagerly, glad for the emergence of a conversation, "unless you count The Mummy movies. Why?"

"The room you opened for us was Egyptian." He nibbled on his last fry and glanced at her full tray sheepishly. Before he could ask, Kat poured her fries onto his tray. "Thank you, Katalina Donovan."

"No problem." She took a sip of her soda. "Food keeps you tolerable, you know."

His eyes narrowed, but he just exhaled sharply and let her jibe pass. "As I was saying, the gateway has not been used in a very long time. I personally have not seen it before."

"Figures, because you're only what—thirty?"

"A hundred forty-five." To her horrified look, he added quickly, "We age five times as slow as humans. Technically I'm twenty-nine."

"Right." God, he was more than a hundred years old? This was some Edward Cullen shit. At least Calix didn't sparkle in the sunlight. "Are we exchanging questions now?"

Calix nodded. "If you like."

"Okay, then." Kat braced her chin on her palms. She'd been waiting for this. "What's in the goblet? And what's that liquid you keep with you?"

"This?" He carefully extracted the vial and raised it to her eye level. When she tried to get it, he retracted it with a frown. "Do not touch it. It is the extract of the nightshade berries we grow in the Underworld, which are more potent than the ones in the mortal world. The goblet contains a potion. When taken with the extract, the soul would regrow a mortal shell, a body more sensitive but more resistant than the last, designed to take and feel punishment."

Okay, that was terrifying. "Why do you still have powers? I thought I took them."

"My guess is that my powers have been split between the two of us." He paused in thought. "As to what you have and what is left for me, I do not know. Perhaps we could test sometime."

An image of them blasting away trying powers and opening doors popped into her head. For a second she almost giggled, but she was feeling more and more uneasy with each passing second. "The things you did to Auric, when you erased his mouth and shielded yourself when he tried to attack you . . . how come you didn't do that to me?"

He shrugged, his expression becoming closed-off and neutral. Guarded. "I did try, but nothing I did worked on you."

"What?" Out of shock, she almost got up from her seat, but she only managed to bang her knees under the table and collapse back down, her bones smarting. Scowling, she massaged her knees and focused back on him. "You tried to make my mouth disappear? I wasn't badmouthing you like he was!"

"You were talking nonsense," he said defensively, averting his gaze for a second. When she continued to glare at him, he leaned closer. "What did you want me to do to you, then?"

Kat could think of so many quality suggestions, but she didn't want to acknowledge them. No, she refused to sink any lower. "You could have left me alone."

"You know I cannot do that."

Change topic. Quick. "So you also do some mind-control, right? Like what you did to Mr. Michaels?"

His face was blank. "Pardon?"

"Mr. Michaels," she said slowly, emphasizing the name. "The one who almost ran me over with the car? He tried to finish the deed at the hospital, except that he was choking me. You must've done some voodoo on him and made him want to kill me."

"Controlling mortals, while not illegal, is considered to be . . . taboo." Calix looked genuinely bothered by this. "Even if I have that ability, I definitely would not use it like that. It is quite dark."

"Dark, yeah, that's about right." She snorted. Someday she would get him to establish trust and make him spill the truth. Maybe he was just being shy. "You just knew Auric's name. How?"

Calix absently fiddled with a ketchup packet. "When he died, his name just appeared in my head, as well as short moments of his life. Unclear fragments of his memories."

"Does it usually happen that way?"

"No." He shook his head. "Usually, the name comes when the first darkness arrives, before the Punishers set off to follow the trail. We are also supposed to see the face, the exact identity of the mortal, so that we could be there and wait for his or her death."

The information piling up was making her antsy. "How come you didn't see or know any of that this time?"

"That question is for you, not me."

"So you knew I was going to die?"

There was that guarded expression again. "Yes."

"I knew it. I saw you at the club." Her mind went back to that moment where she saw the black figure, the bird mask. It should have been funny now, but she still wanted to scream. "Now will you still be able to follow me around like that?"

"Not like that, no." His eyes narrowed slyly. "But best believe that if you try to escape, I will not rest until I find you."

Okay, now she was genuinely nervous. She'd thought she was safe, with him claiming that she'd taken his powers and all. But that was a partial lie, wasn't it? He still had some of his powers, and the skills he had so far were the creepy ones. What about her? She could only open gates and follow lights. Those were basically just the hobbies of a domestic cat.

It was time to face the facts. She was at a disadvantage here.

Calix raised an eyebrow. "I have a question as well—"

"Enough with the questions." She closed her eyes and massaged her temples. She felt hungover again. "Just finish your meal and let's go."

He didn't push, but he still studied her closely as he devoured the rest of the food left. She'd barely touched her meal, and although he was new to this eating thing, he knew that there must be a reason why she'd starve herself like that.

An inexplicable need to reassure her overcame him. "I think I know what you are feeling. You are human. The prospect of punishing is not the most pleasant thing to think about. Of course the task of collecting souls for that reason is difficult for you."

Frowning, she looked up. "Why would you think it's difficult for me? I did it, right? And I did well. You said so yourself."

"And I said so with sincerity," he said gently. "I only thought that while you were clearly capable of doing this, it must have been hard to see Auric Johnson go down that path. After all, you almost suffered the same fate."

Kat's blood went cold. The memory of the freezing air and the rumbling laughter came back to her. She felt like she was on the verge of collapsing.

Either oblivious or too knowing, Calix looked her squarely in the eye and continued genially, "Well, you are still destined to have the same fate."

•‡•‡•‡•

By the time they arrived at The Meridian, Kat was inches away from losing consciousness. The truck had beat to her it, however, as it broke down without preamble the moment she parked it inside the garage.

That incident had given Calix quite a scare ("How will we travel now? This is terrible!"), but she was in no mood to deal with his weirdness. She just shooed him out of the car, dragged him up to apartment B3 before Mrs. Lawrence could see him with her beady eyes, and locked the door behind them.

She did all that with a manic, trying-hard-to-stay-present look in her eyes, breathing heavily and moving in twitches like a pigeon. Her vision was getting blurry. The beaten sofa and the floor were kind of melting into each other. Unsure of what to do, Calix just watched as she stumbled towards the hallway. But when she almost ran straight into the wall, he didn't hesitate to catch her.

He took her chin and angled her face to his. "You look. . . ."

"Ghastly? Old news, pal." Kat supplied, breaking free from his grip and stepping on something solid. It was her phone. She held it up with a smile. "I almost forgot about this."

The sight of her wagging a lifeless device made him worry even more. "Are you unwell?"

"I'm fine." She closed her eyes for a second. God, the place felt like it was spinning. "I'm just . . . Will you open the door?"

Calix obeyed, but he held up an arm to stop her from going in. "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to lie down." Her voice sounded feeble, even to her own ears. "Don't you feel sleepy too?"

"Hellborns do not sleep." Still frowning suspiciously, he pointed at his eyes. "I do feel some kind of heaviness around here, however. What do you think that means?"

"It means you're sleepy too."

His eyes went wide. The idea of being sleepy seemed to truly bother him. Kat managed a small smile. Right now she was too drained to see beyond this naive man and acknowledge him as an enemy. "You take the other room. I'll sleep here."

Calix opened his mouth to object, but she pushed past him and closed the door behind her. Completely forgetting about locking it, she shuffled towards the cabinet, extracted an old (but hopefully still functioning) charger, plugged in her phone, and collapsed onto the bed.

It felt nice lying down, even though the sheets didn't smell very good. She could almost picture herself in her childhood, cuddled up between her parents as she fell into a deep sleep. . . .

And it didn't take a long while for the sharp, vivid dreams to rush into her mind.

In her dream, Kat was back at Auric's shop, except Auric himself was nowhere to be seen. She wasn't hiding behind a pillar either. Two tall shelves flanked her, both of which were precariously stacked with metal bits. Just looking at them made her heart stumble. She should really—

"What are you doing here?"

Kat turned at the source of the familiar voice, and sure enough, there he was.

Her father. Gregor Donovan.

He looked exactly like he remembered. Dark brown eyes, straight black hair that was starting to recede from his tanned forehead, deep smile lines on his full cheeks. He was wearing his blue overall, the one he'd put on to work on oil paintings.

Kat's throat tightened. "Dad."

He smiled. "I thought I'd never see you again, Katie girl."

Katie girl. She'd forgotten that nickname. It used to annoy her mom so much, since she was the one who named her Katalina.

Her heart swelled with love. She ran straight into her dad's arms, burying her face in his chest and inhaling deeply. He smelled like he always did, like paint and detergent and home.

He hugged her back, and slowly, she felt his body change, growing bigger and softer. Also, he kept muttering, "You bitch."

She pulled away abruptly, only to see that it was no longer her dad she was embracing.

It was Auric. There was a clear dent on the side of his head, but he still managed to smile.

Kat staggered back, and as she did so, the shelves' contents began to rain down on her. Pain seized her whole body as she slammed onto the floor. Something hot and thick was flowing freely from the side of her head.

She tried to cry out for help, but she no longer had a mouth.

This jolted her awake, her heart threatening to bust out of her ribcage. The first thing she checked was her lips, and thank God they were still there. However, that didn't mean that her horrible nightmare was over.

Greeting her when she sat up, as clear as the purple light of the dawn, was a humanoid silhouette pressed against the window, with shining eyes and the trace of a smile.