“Come on, you can’t stay here.” Craig urged, his voice calm but firm, “This isn’t a good part of the city for you to be in. You’re on Black Talon turf.”

“We know,” my mother said, “they left us a note.”

“A note?” Craig said in surprise, “What do you mean a note?”

“Somebody left this outside of the room we slept in.” My mother produced the envelope from her pocket and, removing the letter, handed it to Craig. He read over it, his eyes narrowing.

“I was afraid of something like this,” he told us, “tell me, have you met or talked to any Black Talon members yet?”

“No, my mother said, “but I think one of them might be following us.”

“Is that so?” Craig asked. He looked up and past us, scanning the buildings behind us with his eyes. “Hey! I know you’re there!” he called out, his voice echoing around the impassive concrete walls and surprising me with its sudden volume, “It’s Craig from the Red Crest! I want to talk!”

Given how Craig had been talking about the Black Talon before, the almost familial tone of his voice was startling. Whoever the stranger in black was, I got the sense that Craig knew him, or at least had some inkling as to who he might be. Craig’s eyes continued to search the buildings above, before seeming to come to a rest on something. He was staring straight at a semicircular balcony jutting from a nearby casino. I squinted at it, but I saw nothing unusual at first. Then, all of a sudden, I caught a slight hint of motion within a shadow at the very edge of the balcony. The man in black, who had been crouching almost entirely concealed, stood up and leered down at us. For the first time I was able to get a good look at him. He was tall, and every bit as fit as Craig and the other Red Crest members had been. The similarities did not stop there. His clothing was almost identical, a hoodie and sweatpants that fit his form and looked suited to athletics. The only real differences were that this man’s hoodie was black and he wore his hood up rather than down like Craig and the others. His hair was black as well, and though his hoodie covered most of it I could see where his bangs fell, not quite reaching his eyes. The only splash of color on him came in the form of a red tattoo that covered the entire right side of his face. It had patterns on it that looked almost tribal in nature, but I had no clue what meaning, if any, they held.

“Hello Craig,” the man said in a smooth baritone, “I’m surprised to see you here. It’s a little rude to meddle with Black Talon business on our own turf, don’t you think?”

“I’m not doing anything that’s against the code, Devon.” Craig replied, “Frankly, given the way you’re trying to follow these two newcomers around unseen I’m not sure that you can say the same.”

“The chief elder just wants me to keep tabs on them, that’s all.” the man named Devon responded, then continued with a roll of his eyes that I could perceive even at a distance “and what the Chief Elder wants the Chief Elder gets.”

“So wait, you two know each other?” my mother cut in.

“Of course. Devon is one of the Black Talon’s skyliners,” Craig told her, “I’ve raced against him more times than I care to count, so I should hope I would know who he is by now.”

“A skyliner?” I asked, “isn’t that the thing that you told your friends I might have a shot at being? What exactly is a skyliner?”

“I’ll explain later,” Craig promised before returning his attention to Devon, “so what happens if I bring these two back with me to the Red Crest?”

Devon shrugged. “Go right ahead,” he said, “I’m not going to stop you. Fair warning though, the Chief Elder has already resolved to issue a challenge to any other group who recruits that woman. It seems he’s completely smitten.”

“That lecherous old bastard,” Craig grumbled under his breath.

“Lecherous old bastard? Just what does this Chief Elder guy want with me?” my mother asked, horrified.

“The sitting Chief Elder of the Black Talon is notorious for having a long history of short-lived marriages with attractive young women,” Craig explained. “That’s why we didn’t want you to have anything to do with this group. You’d be exactly his type, and he’s relentless when it comes to getting his way.”

My mother went pale. Craig was right, if attractive young women were what this Chief Elder character was into, then my mother would certainly fit the bill. She had gotten pregnant with me when she was very young, so even now she was only in her mid-twenties. She had kept herself in good shape, and she had silken brunette hair, soft features, and gorgeous hazel eyes. I often wished that I had inherited more of my mother’s traits, but fate had cruelly made me into the spitting image of my father. I had his coarse, sandy hair, as well as prominent cheekbones and eyes that were brown nearly to the point of being black. It would have been nearly impossible to tell I was my mother’s son if not for the similarity in the shape of our mouths, which had brought me a few occasional comments over the years that my mother and I had the same smile. It didn’t come up much, however. Neither of us smiled all that often.

“I’m going to take these two with me,” Craig declared, “You say that won’t be a problem?”

“If anything you’re doing me a favor by getting me out of babysitting duty.” Devon told him, “As long as the Chief Elder knows they’re with you, that ought to keep him happy for now. Like I said, though, if you recruit them to your group you should expect to receive a challenge.”

“And what if we decide to reject the challenge?”

“You won’t,” Devon said, “The Elder intends to make an offer that you can’t refuse.”

Craig’s eyes widened for a minute. Seemingly he already understood what this offer was going to be, but he didn’t elaborate. Whatever it was, it seemed that Devon might be right in saying that the Red Crest wouldn’t be able to turn it down. The look on Craig’s face made that much clear. He pulled himself together and nodded his head.

“Understood. I’ll inform the elders. Carmen? Aston? Come along with me. You’ll be safer with the Red Crest. Besides, I think we’d all be better off to get above street level. Nobody likes it down here.”

“Yeah, what’s up with that?” I asked, “I’ve felt weird ever since I got here.”

Craig shrugged. “Everybody feels that way. I don’t know if it’s the lighting or the unusual silence or what the deal is, but the place just has bad vibes. That’s one of the many reasons why we prefer to live in the upper stories. Now come on, we should get moving.”

He began to walk away, and my mother fell in behind him, resigning herself to the fact that we had no better options. I stole a last glance at Devon. He inclined his head slightly as a goodbye and then turned and ran off, jumping from the balcony to a ledge and then running around the corner of the casino and out of sight. I turned back towards Craig and my mother, jogging a few steps to catch up and then trailing them as Craig led the way through the streets, bringing us towards our first real glimpse of what life was like here in this strange, empty city.