The Urban Supernatural Guy

Chapter 4: The Devil You Know

Marcus spent the night watching Amanda sleep, his mind racing with possibilities he didn't want to consider. Every few minutes, she'd twitch or mumble something in a language that sounded ancient and wrong. Whatever they'd done to her ran deeper than simple brainwashing.

His phone buzzed at seven AM. Unknown number.

"Hello, Marcus." Elena Sterling's voice was exactly as he remembered—soft, cultured, with that slight breathiness that used to make his heart race. Now it just made him angry.

"What do you want?"

"To save your life. And your sister's. Meet me at the Gramercy Hotel, room 412. Come alone."

"So you can finish what Victor started?"

There was a long pause. "Victor thinks I'm having breakfast with the mayor's wife. I have maybe two hours before he realizes I'm gone. If you want answers about what really happened to your family, you'll be here."

The line went dead.

Marcus looked at Amanda, still sleeping on the couch. She looked peaceful now, but he couldn't forget that smile in the cab. The way her eyes had glowed like she was someone else entirely.

He called down to the building's security desk—another service that came with his new identity and enough money to buy loyalty. "I need someone to watch my sister. Discrete, professional, armed."

Twenty minutes later, a woman in her forties arrived. Ex-military by the look of her, with the kind of calm competence that came from seeing real action.

"Ms. Rodriguez," she said, shaking his hand. "Your girl will be safe."

Marcus took one last look at Amanda and left for his appointment with the past.

The Gramercy Hotel was old money elegant, the kind of place where Elena fit perfectly. She'd always belonged in places like this—charity galas, wine tastings, rooms that cost more per night than most people made in a month.

Room 412 was a suite with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city. Elena stood with her back to the door, silhouetted against the morning light. She was still beautiful—blonde hair swept up in a perfect chignon, designer dress that probably cost more than a car, the kind of effortless elegance that came from being born into wealth.

"Hello, Marcus."

She turned, and he saw the changes five years had brought. Lines around her eyes, a tightness to her mouth that spoke of stress and sleepless nights. She was still stunning, but there was something haunted about her now.

"You look good," she said. "Different, but good."

"Cut the shit, Elena. What's this about?"

Her composure cracked slightly. "I've been trying to find you for three years. Ever since I learned the truth about what happened to your father."

"Which is?"

"He discovered that some of the city's most powerful people weren't people at all. Victor Ashford, Mayor Harrison, Judge Crawford, half the board of directors at Sterling Enterprises—they're something else. Something that's been pulling strings behind the scenes for decades."

Marcus felt that familiar tingle of supernatural recognition. "How do you know about this?"

"Because one of them tried to turn me." Elena's voice dropped to a whisper. "Victor thought it would be easier to control me if I was like them. But something went wrong with the process. It didn't take completely."

She pulled back the sleeve of her dress, revealing a network of silver scars running up her arm. They looked like the ones Marcus had gotten during his own transformation, but different somehow. Incomplete.

"I can see them now," she continued. "The real forms underneath their human masks. I can hear them when they think they're alone, speaking in languages that make my head hurt. And I know what they're planning."

"Which is?"

"Complete integration. They want to replace every position of power with one of their kind. Mayor, governor, senators, corporate boards—all of it. Your father found evidence of their operations, financial records showing money flowing to accounts that didn't exist on any human banking system."

Marcus moved to the window, looking out at the city. Somewhere down there, the things that had killed his father and stolen his sister were going about their daily business, wearing human faces and playing human games while planning humanity's enslavement.

"Why should I trust you? You stood up in front of those cameras and called me a thief."

"Because they had a gun to my mother's head." Elena's reflection appeared beside his in the window. "Victor showed me photos of what they'd done to other people who refused to cooperate. Bodies twisted into impossible shapes, minds broken beyond repair. He said that's what would happen to anyone I cared about if I didn't play along."

"So you threw me under the bus."

"I chose to keep you alive. If I'd stood by you, they would have killed us both. At least this way, you had a chance to escape."

Marcus turned to face her. "And now?"

"Now they think I'm completely under their control. Victor trusts me, confides in me. I've been gathering intelligence, building a network of people who know the truth. Sophia Chen is one of them."

"Sophia." Marcus remembered the way she'd moved in the warehouse, the silver bullets, the way his supernatural senses had recognized something familiar about her. "What is she?"

"Someone like you. Someone they tried to turn, but who found a way to fight back. There are others—a whole underground resistance of people who've been touched by their power but retained their humanity."

Elena moved closer, and Marcus caught her scent. Underneath the expensive perfume was something else, something that made his enhanced senses recoil.

"What did they do to you, Elena?"

"Enough to make me useful, not enough to make me theirs." Her hand touched his chest, fingers splaying over his heart. "The question is, what did they do to you? Because you're not the same person who left this city five years ago."

Marcus caught her wrist. Her pulse was too slow, her skin too cool. Whatever she was now, she wasn't entirely human anymore.

"I became something they didn't expect."

"Good." She smiled, and for a moment she looked like the girl he'd fallen in love with all those years ago. "Because we're going to need every advantage we can get. They have your sister, Marcus. And what they did to her... it's worse than what they did to any of us."

"She's safe. I got her out."

Elena's expression changed, fear flooding her features. "No, Marcus. You don't understand. Amanda isn't a victim anymore. She's their weapon. Everything that happened last night, the rescue, her apparent helplessness—it was all planned."

Marcus's blood went cold. "What are you talking about?"

"She's been conditioned to kill you the moment you lower your guard. And if my sources are right, she's going to do it today."

Marcus's phone rang. Rodriguez, the security guard.

"Sir, we have a problem. Your sister is gone. And there's blood everywhere."