In which Lorelei Price calls for help...
59
Her open flip top cellphone was the only light they had. Of the others only hoodboy, or Jacob as he called himself when she finally asked him his name, had a working one. Of these two working ones only her own had a signal now, one bar only, but it should be enough.
She dialed Zeus' number, silently praying that it would get through this time, her eyes returning nervously towards the direction Blackmoon had disappeared.
“Lorey!!” His excited voice finally revealed itself on the second ring. “Lorey girl!! Oh my god, Where the hell you been?! I've called you like eight hundred times. Are you all right? What the hell is going on down there? Are you still on the train?”
She turned towards the dim figures in the darkness that crouched around her. They were exhausted, terrified and shivering despite the damp heat of the subway tunnel. Only one of the kids seemed to be paying any attention to her, the little boy and in the blackness his face was unreadable.
She moved away from them, as far away as she could while still remaining in the fairy circle.
“Big Z,” she practically sobbed, her voice suddenly cracking unexpectedly as she said his name. He was still there, inside her, even after all these years of her bullshit. “Listen---”
“Ah shit, girl what the fuck is going on? I ain't heard you like this since... We're comin' girl, it's taking a long time, there's so much that needs to be done up here. You don't know girl, it's like the end of the goddamn world. Everyones' screaming fucking terrorists.. fucking Bin Laden...”
“Its not terrorists, Z” she choked out, trying to steady her voice, lowering it as much as she could. “It's not terrorists down here.... it's fucking vamps...”
“WHAT??!!” And now even his voice cracked.
“Yeah, vamps and some fucking shit right out of H.P Lovecraft... old testament shit, Z. They came at the train, killed everyone. Me and a few others got out with this guy, I think he's a mage. He's been helping us, trying to get us out of here.”
“Wait, Lorey, the whole fucking train???”
“Yeah, there's a goddamn army of the bloodsuckers down here. So many I couldn't count. I've used one of my clips, only got one left and that one's in the pistol, couple of rounds gone.”
“GODDAMMIT!!” She heard him curse loudly over the faint signal, trying to hold still, to keep the connection. “Hold on a sec, please, Lorey, one second...”
She heard him bark muffled orders, he was coming for her with or without those with him. It would be useless to argue with him, he would be coming anyway, but how he came concerned her.
“Z,” she whispered softly into the phone.
“Yes, girl,” he came back on, soft and sweet, undying concern laced in his tone. “Anything.”
“Come alone, it's the only way you won't be killed. Come alone and fast in the way you know how. Please do it fast, I don't know about this guy, this mage guy.”
“Lorey,” and she heard a tinge of his old frustration. “You gotta learn that not all of us are monsters... you gotta...”
“No, no, I think he's ok. I don't think he's a problem. It's just that he's different, he's gone, he's not with us anymore. He left to draw away a group of..... you don't wanna know. Anyhow, he said he'd be back and I believe him, but Z, he's different. He's got this sword thing that takes these things apart, the vamps too and his eyes, they fucking glow this weird blue color, they're cruel, like a hawk's eyes, but he ain't bad, I'm sure of it... it's just that--”
“Wait, wait, wait,” Zeus Machado interrupted her, his voice changing yet again and now she heard something else, something she'd never heard before in the big man's voice. “D-did this mage guy tell you his name?”
“Yeah, yeah, he did, he said his name was Blackmoon.”
He was silent then for a very long time and it was during that silence that Lorelei Price identified what she'd heard in Zeus Machado's voice.
It was fear.
End Part 58
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