Beyond the Stone, page 15
Bane just wanted to know what was going on and he wanted to find answers. He had been charged with something and he meant to see it through.
“Are you going to stand there staring at us or are we going to go into the black market?” Madison asked.
“I’m just committing this moment to memory,” Bane said.
“Really, because it kind of felt like you were eye fucking us,” Lucille said.
“No, he wasn’t,” Jackson said. “When he does that, you’ll know.”
“Okay, eww,” Lucille said. “No thanks.”
“When we’re all done deciding whether I’m fucking you or not, could we get on with this while the night it still young?” Bane said.
The doors to the club opened behind them. “My thoughts exactly,” Myko said, coming down the stairs and pulling Claude close to him. “But I wouldn’t mind an eye fuck from you, honey, you know that.” He leered at Bane. “We could have quite the threesome.”
“If this kind of talk continues, I’m going to be sick,” Madison said.
“Honey, no,” Myko said. “I’m wearing purple suede. Have some class, won’t you? That would take weeks to get out.” He strutted over to the front door. “Well, are you all coming inside or not?”
They followed him and Bane took a moment to look around to see if there was anyone watching them. Jackson spoke up: “I don’t sense anyone, babe. I think we’re okay.”
“They could be watching us in other ways,” Bane whispered.
“Yeah, but what’s life without a little risk?” Madison said. “All clear from my side, too.”
They walked into the black market and, as always, Bane was blown away by the way the walls seemed to move and pulse in tune to the music, how the very air seemed to be filled with magic.
“It’s because the air is filled with magic,” Myko said with a snort. He turned to face them. “Honestly, how many times do I have to tell you?”
Bane gave him a smile and took everything in. There was everything and anything you could want, from curses and magics to wands and robes. There were electrical appliances that could withstand the effects of magic, clothing, watches, and clocks that told you more than time. There were booths selling experiences that enabled supernaturals to live like humans for a set duration, objects to enhance your magics and your powers, talismans to guard against mind control and manipulation. There were people selling teas and tinctures to help those more skilled with mind-reading and clairvoyance to enhance their skills and still more talismans and teas to give temporary powers to others who didn’t possess them.
Everywhere they went there was the movement and the sound of people laughing and talking, of stories being told and lives being lived. There were exchanges being made and trades being done. In an odd way, to Bane, all this noise was the sound of life being lived. His mother gave his arm a squeeze and a smile. Eliza was looking at everything with childlike wonder, reaching out to run her fingers along gemstones and necklaces, bits of bright coloured cloth. She looked so happy.
There was a soft hum of music that ran through the air that Bane knew to be both the hum and thrum of magic. The whole market took up a city block; Bane had forgotten how big it could be. He knew that it could change its shape at will. To Bane, it sounded as if the world of the black market was made of music, so heady was the sound. Lucille turned around and around, looking at everything and trying to take it all in.
“This place is incredible,” she said, in a reverent whisper.
“Wait till you see our newest offerings,” Myko said, strutting towards a section that Bane hadn’t noticed before. “What do you think, ladies?”
There were mannequins made of smoke, shadows, and stardust that were modelling the most gorgeous clothes. There were long dresses of satins made of stars, short skirts made of the sun, and robes made of magic. They came in many different coloured hues and shades. According to Myko, the colours could be changed depending on your mood or the outfit’s accessories. “We’re calling the line Weavers Threads.” He ran a finger along one of the robes, made of a deep purple that looked as if from the stars themselves. “What do you think?”
“So now you’re making your own clothes?” Bane said. “Isn’t that kind of a reach?”
“Why would you say that? I make spells and magic and potions and more. What is a dress but a bit of magic?”
“Hear, hear!” Lucille said.
“I think a good dress is magical,” Madison said.
“Not you, too,” Bane said.
Madison shrugged. “Hey, a good dress can be magic. And if it’s actually made out of magic?” She smiled, reaching out to touch the fabric. “Well, I would pay anything.”
Bowing in her direction, Myko gave her a sincere smile. “Precisely what we’re counting on.” He held out an arm towards a hallway that Bane knew well. “Shall we? My office is this way.”
The walls here moved more visibly, as if unable to stay completely still. He ran his fingers over them and watched as they shivered. The stone that his skin was now made of shivered in response. Instead of fighting the movement of his skin, he gave into it, knowing that the stone didn’t mean him any harm.
Jackson felt the shift within Bane and looked at his lover, smiling. Jackson gave Bane’s hand a squeeze and they stepped through the door that Myko had been leading them towards, and felt the world turn upside down.
The walls were decorated with stars. Indeed, it was as if they were within the very cosmos themselves. Bane could see the planets moving around them and could feel the rush of wind when a comet moved by them.
Darcy let out a small moan, but Bane wasn’t sure if the noise was from fear or wonder. “What is this place?”
“I thought you should see what we’re up against,” Myko said. His voice seemed to come from within the darkness and was all around them.
“But I did see,” Bane said, holding tightly to Jackson’s hand. “I saw, I looked through the mirror and I saw the darkness.”
“Yes, but look. It’s worse than we thought it was before.”
Bane felt a hand turning his head and he looked. In the distance, the darkness that had bloomed like smoke and shadow given form was obliterating the planets. He watched as planets beyond their cosmos were eaten, swallowed by the shroud of shadows. Soon, it would begin eating their solar system and everything within it.
The sun at the centre of the cosmos they were looking at began to shine brightly, casting the stars into nothingness as the sun brightened and they all had to shield their eyes, lest they be blinded. Bane could feel the warmth of the sunlight as he clutched Jackson.
Then the light was gone, as quickly as it had come and they all unshielded their eyes, blinking slightly in the renewed brightness.
“For fuck’s sakes, Myko. Was that necessary?” Madison asked.
“Oh, well you know me, dear. I know how to make an entrance and I love a bit of drama!” He smiled at them. “And now we begin.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Looking around the room, Bane experienced a sense of pride.
They were all coming together for something good, even Myko. They would find out what the Clocktower was really hiding, and it was Bane’s hope that they could remove the stigma between supernaturals and mortals. Of course, the two were one and the same now. A hum of warmth ran through him.
This warmth wavered when the door opened again and a throng of other people began to stream in, five of them. Looking at them, Bane wondered why they were here and what they hoped to learn. He wondered if he should be polite, just for an instant, and then decided against it.
“Myko? What the fuck?”
“Patience, Bane,” Myko said. “All in good time.”
“I’ll fucking give you patience.” He stalked over to Myko and poked him in the chest. “What the fuck? What gives? We just talked about how the Clocktower patrol is having us followed and you invite a bunch of people we don’t know into this mess?”
Myko gave him a dashing smile. “Bane, you make me hard and I am fabulous, and the rest of you are lovely additions to such fabulous hardness, but five people will not start a revolution.”
“Seven,” Madison said.
“I’m sorry?” Myko actually looked confused.
“There are seven of us,” she said.
Myko looked around at all of them. “Well, so there are.” Myko grinned again. “I was never very good at math. I used my cock to count, and it was usually busy doing something else.”
“Barf,” Madison said. “Do you have to be so fucking vile?”
“Why, yes. I do. Some people like it. Claude for one.”
“I don’t actually like your vileness,” Claude said.
Myko looked shocked. “Then why the devil are you with me?”
“Because there are many other things to like,” Claude said, giving him a simpering smile.
“Okay, double barf,” Madison said. Lucille stuck a finger into her mouth as if to make herself vomit. Darcy looked as if he really was about to vomit.
“Enough fucking around,” Bane said.
“Gosh, you’re all so sensitive.” He waved a hand. “Pshaw, all right. I’ll play nice. The long and short of it is that we’re in trouble. Something is coming, something that we don’t have control over on our own. That’s why I asked for help, as any good supernatural does.”
“We don’t normally ask for help,” Bane said. “That’s kind of our thing.”
Myko poked him in the chest. “That’s kind of your thing, dear boy. You’ve been pushing everyone away for years. Thankfully, Jackson is making you more...open.”
“Barf,” Madison said.
“So how can we trust these new people?” Bane asked.
“It’s all good,” Madison said. “I’ve had a look.”
“So have I. We can trust them.” Jackson said.
“That’s all well and good, you two,” Myko said. “But Bane shouldn’t have to just take our word for it.” He motioned at the first man, a burly bear of a man with a big beard and a lumbering gait. “You, Orville. Introduce yourself to your leader, Bane, and show him what you can do.”
“I’m not the leader,” Bane said.
“Of course you are, Bane, don’t be silly. Orville, step closer, say hello. He won’t bite unless you want him to.”
Jackson reached out and took Bane’s left hand and pulled him a little closer. Orville stepped forward and almost bowed.
“Nice to meet you.” His voice was higher than Bane had thought it would be. It almost sounded like the wind. “You’re a Rook,” Orville said.
“How can you tell?” Bane asked.
Orville motioned at Bane’s skin. “Your stone casing. Plus, I can smell it on you. All Rooks have a particular smell.”
“How would you know that?” Bane said, almost defensively.
“Because I am one.”
Orville pressed his hands together, almost as if he were in prayer. They all watched as Orville began to lose his shape and his skin turned slowly into mist. As they watched, the rest of him shifted and changed into mist that was at once transparent and opaque, there and not there.
Bane tentatively reached out to touch the mist in front of him, but Myko caught his arm. “I wouldn’t do that.”
“No?”
“No, I’m speaking from experience. I once put my hand into the mist, and he later told me that I put my fist up his asshole.”
“Gods, Myko!” Bane said, gagging and laughing at the same time.
Myko shrugged. “Well, how was I to know? He was mist, cloud, and vapour!”
Orville shifted back to his proper form. “It comes in handy. I can get past any blockade or locked door. I can spy on others by remaining mostly unseen. Who would expect a person to be hiding in the mist? I can’t wait to see what you become.” He was about to turn away but turned back and said to Bane, “I wouldn’t mind if you put your fist in my mist.” He smiled and walked away, and Jackson held on to Bane a little tighter.
“Anna, you’re next. Show them what you can do,” Myko said, gesturing to a woman. She was black as night and her eyes were whiter than white. There were no pupils to be seen. She had a beautiful face, almost heart-shaped, framed by a riot of gorgeous black curls that fell to her shoulders.
Though he couldn’t tell if she was looking at him, she gave him a warm smile. “Don’t mind Orville, he likes to play with his meat before eating it.”
“He’s mine,” Jackson said.
“Oh, Orville knows that, hon, he’s just having you on. Don’t you pay him any mind, I never do.”
Bane smiled and said, “So, your name’s Anna?”
“Well, that’s what Myko calls me. My name is actually Anika. But if he wants his little joke, I see no harm in letting him have it.”
“So, what can you do? Which of the supernatural races are you?”
“Oh, honey. I go beyond all the races.” She looked to the ceiling and, without moving a muscle, began to make it rain in Myko’s office. It started as a small storm cloud, but then it burst open and sent out gales of wind and lightning that a third person, a young man, stepped in the path of. He opened his mouth and swallowed the lightning whole.
“All right, Anna, that’s enough now before we all end up in a hurricane,” Myko said. When the winds died down and everything had returned to normal, Myko said, “Anna can control the weather. She can make a tornado out of nothing and can create rivers in the desert.”
“That’s strictly not true,” Anika said. “I take whatever water is in the air, any wind moving around to create a hailstorm, etc. I take and I give. That’s just how it has to work.”
“And you?” Bane motioned at the man who had swallowed lightning. “I assume you’re a spark plug?”
The man, boy really, looked no older than twenty. He had curly red hair that fell from his head in a wave. He looked at Bane with glee in his green eyes and when he smiled, he revealed dimples in his cheeks that somehow made him better looking. Instead of responding, he opened his mouth and out of it flew the lightning that he had held inside of himself the entire time.
With deft hands, he grabbed hold of it and began bending and shaping the lightning, turning it and folding it, sparks clicking into the air, until he was holding a flower. He held it out to Darcy who was eyeing the whole show with wonder. When Darcy took it, the flower gave off a shower of sparks and then slowly faded from sight.
“I’ve never seen anyone do that,” he said. “I just control electricity. I don’t bend it to my will like that. I could never do that.”
“I can teach you,” he said. He held out his hand to Bane. “Name’s Kerkus.”
“Nice to meet you,” Bane said, wowed despite himself. “Who’s left? I’m actually looking forward to seeing who comes next!”
Two people stepped forward, a boy and a girl. As they stepped forward though, Bane saw that though they looked young, they were quite old. There were lines and dips and valleys in their skin that somehow made them look more beautiful, though it looked like life had not been kind to them. They both had black hair, though the woman wore it short and spiky, and the man wore it in a long ponytail.
“We are Romilda and Remus,” the woman said. Her voice was soft as if it was beyond normal speech, but instead embraced frequency.
“What can you do?” Bane asked, eagerly.
“We are immortal,” Romilda said, simply. “We have lived forever. We were around when time began and I’m pretty sure that we will be around when time ends.”
“That’s not possible,” Bane said. “That’s not one of the supernatural races.”
“Even so,” she said, “here we are.”
“Look, there’s an easy way to prove this,” Myko said.
Romilda sighed. “Needs must and we are short on time. Be done with it.”
Myko nodded and, saying nothing more, thrust out his hand and sent a bolt of magic through her. Bane could feel the strength of the blast and knew that it would have felled someone else, but Romilda merely stood and bore it.
“Someone more,” Romilda said, sounding almost bored. “I have quite a bit to be getting on with.”
Her voice didn’t waver or shake. Darcy stepped forward and shot lightning at her. The bolt ripped through her and it would have killed a normal supernatural that did not handle electricity, but she stood and watched the lighting, almost entranced by it.
“Okay, enough,” Remus said.
The crackle of electricity and the whoosh of air ended, and the room was left in silence. “Did we pass your game?” Remus said.
“She has. But you haven’t.” There was something about him that Bane didn’t like. Jackson squeezed Bane’s hand, but Bane didn’t know if it was in agreement or caution.
“I can do this.” He took a rat from his coat pocket. The rat squealed for a moment until Remus broke its neck and dropped it to the floor. They all stood looking at the rat and Bane was just beginning to realize that this was seriously fucked up when Remus started to move his fingers...and the rat moved in response.
They watched as Remus made the rodent dance across the floor and Bane felt his heart swell in wonder. He had never seen anything like it.
“I can control the dead,” Remus said, letting the rat fall down. “Not a particularly helpful talent, but it does have its uses.”
Bane stood there, mesmerized. “Shadow magic,” he said. “You’re a Black Widow and an immortal?”
Remus shrugged as if he didn’t impress himself. “It’s a living,” he said.
“See, Bane?” Myko said “What have I been telling you? We are more than what they think we are. We are more than just crystal balls or lightning bolts. We are all so much more.”
Myko looked at all of them and Bane, in turn, took in everyone. “Now that you’ve met the rest of your team, it’s time for the revolution to begin.”
