Black City by Christina Henry

wasn’t far from the stairs at the entryway, so after a few moments of groping our way through the darkness we were back at the top of the escalators. I looked down the stairs.
    It was full dark, but we didn’t need light to detect the mass of vampires on the street outside. Through the glass doors and high windows, we could see the horde moving almost as one giant animal, a tremendous shape writing in the darkness. We backed away from the stairs.
    “I don’t think we want to go that way,” I said.
    “Where are the other exits?” Nathaniel asked.
    “There’s another pedestrian walkway going over to the lakeside center,” I said. “Or we can try to get into the Metratunnel and follow the tracks for a while, but the tracks terminate at Randolph and we’d be right in the epicenter of the horde. Plus, the tunnel goes away pretty quickly and we’d be out in the open.”
    “It does not seem wise to put ourselves in a position where we might be trapped in a tunnel,” Nathaniel said.
    “We have to take the same chance either way. If we go into the pedestrian bridge, we’ll have several feet where we have no way to escape if there are vamps ahead and behind. If we go into the Metra tunnel, we’ll be underground until it comes out of McCormick Place.”
    “And then we will be exposed.”
    I didn’t need to see Nathaniel’s face to know that he was brooding. I didn’t particularly like our choices—or our chances—either.
    I had no wings. Nathaniel’s wing was broken. My magic was burned out for the time being, and we had no way to call for help. Most annoyingly, I could sense that Lucifer was somewhere out of touch again. The snake tattoo on my right palm had been very quiet for some time now. I wondered, as always, where Lucifer went on these occasions. Puck had said that the Morningstar was going somewhere he should not. What secrets of the universe were closed off to a being as powerful as Lucifer?
    “It seems wisest to move toward the lake,” Nathaniel said finally, his quiet voice breaking my reverie. “The vampires appear to be avoiding the shoreline.”
    “Why?” I said. “Is there any truth to that old chestnut about vampires and running water?”
    “Obviously not, since they crossed the bridge over the Chicago River with ease,” he said. “But they do not like the lake, it seems. I observed that none of them came close to it as we flew over the city.”
    Nathaniel’s hand found mine in the darkness, and I let him hold it. I didn’t want to get separated.
    The convention center seemed so large and empty as we crossed through it, a relic from a time that had passed and might never return. How could the world go on as it had been before everyone knew that vampires existed? How long would it be before other things-that-went-bump-in-the-night decided not to hide their existence anymore?
    We paused as we reached the pedestrian tunnel that crossed to the lakeside center. The passage yawned into the darkness. Nathaniel squeezed my hand.
    “I cannot sense the vampires any longer,” he said. “They may have rejoined the horde.”
    He dropped the veil. It was a waste of energy if we didn’t need it.
    “I can’t believe the death of one of their own would go unnoticed,” I said as we stepped into the tunnel.
    The bridge crossed over Lake Shore Drive and was lined with windows. The flurry of activity that we had seen that morning had long since ended. Cars sat lined up bumper to bumper. Their occupants had either been eaten by the vampires or fled successfully on foot.
    My palms were sweaty. The air inside the tunnel was stale and hot despite the cold outside. I was afraid, and it was a terrible shock to realize this. I’d faced many enemies, and been many times outnumbered. I’d defeated plenty of powerful foes, much to their shock and mine.
    But I didn’t have my wings anymore, and my magic was quiet. I had a child to protect. I’d never felt more vulnerable. The dark had become a place of