Queens of the Underground

Chapter 4

Always have a back-up plan. It was one of many pieces of advice her mother had given her and, true to form, one Becky often ignored. When she moved over to North America to wrestle, there had been no Plan B, no safety net, just a feisty Irish girl and her lofty dreams—and both fell flat. The second time she moved across the ocean, that time to join NXT, she still didn't have anything to fall back on—just wounded pride and the determination to make the most of her second chance. The advice applied doubly much to her magic. Annette knew all about having to manage the powers of a banshee and always made sure to use her magic safely; if she was going to have to suppress it for any length of time, she would arrange to meet with a friend she trusted with her secret.

Seth's my friend, Becky reasoned as she waved as Charlotte pulled away from the curb. Becky didn't enjoy driving at the best of times, and a session with The Fathoms could leave her drained, so she had asked Charlotte to drop her off—but she hadn't even told her best friend the complete truth. Charlotte simply thought Becky was catching up with some local friends and that she was going to pick her up at midnight. I could have asked Seth— Becky stopped herself before she could entertain that thought too intently. It was bad enough that Seth knew her secret; she certainly couldn't use him as a safety net.

This particular Fathoms group wasn't among her favourites. What others considered rules, they often saw as guidelines at best. It wasn't quite the supernatural equivalent of an anything-goes match, but it came pretty close. But she had spent weeks avoiding other gatherings for fear that Seth would be there, and now she was running out of options. She didn't have a trusted friend like her mother did, someone who would let her work a little magic on them just to alleviate her accumulating energy. Maybe I should tell Charlotte..., Becky thought on her way to the staff entrance. It was something she had been pondering off and on for a while now. She has enough bad memories she would like to forget....

The guard at the staff door held out a shot glass. "Proof," he said simply. Becky knew the drill, so she didn't protest: she simply took the small glass, exhaled into it, and handed it back. The guard drank it down, searching for the taste of her power, and finally nodded. "The big guns are here tonight," he warned, "so don't be surprised if you don't get any business."

"Understood." Becky wasn't looking for a full night; she would be quite happy to sit on her stool and catch up on all the text messages she had received after her match with Alexa. Some wrestlers were expected to stay for the whole show just in case changes had to be made to the card, but that mostly seemed to apply to the men. At one time that bothered her—and it still did, to a degree—but at the moment it worked to her advantage. If she could get her match during the first hour of RAW, it meant she could leave, go to a gathering, and hopefully get back to the hotel before any of her friends suspected anything. She could always discharge some of her energy by doing an exchange with a fellow magic user who wasn't in high demand; such trades were common and often incredibly useful.

As she headed to the memory worker section of the gathering, she kept an eye out for any magic users she knew. Lucille had endured a rough childhood, so she was always looking for a bit of memory numbing; in exchange, she could use her healing abilities on Becky's aching shoulder. Rohan was another good bet; Becky didn't need any mental work done, but he was a marvel with hair and she could always use help with her extensions. Unfortunately, she didn't spot any of her regular trading partners.

She did, however, see Seth, and he spotted her before she could duck behind a cluster of vampires shopping for cosmetics. "Becks!"Seth darted around the crowds until he reached her. "I was hoping you would be here."

How does he find out all the locations? Becky thought irritably. She was on a notification list from The Fathoms, but most humans had a hard enough time finding one gathering, let alone multiple. Something else was nagging at her, though. "Why aren't you at RAW?" She was sure there was at least an hour of the show left, and Seth was a marquee wrestler: even if something happened to his planned match, Creative would surely come up with something else for him.