by Wendy Knight
"Okay, stop it. Both of you. No more meanness. Be polite or I'm walking home." Navi planted her hands on her hips and scowled, like we didn't both tower over her and outweigh her by at least sixty pounds.
And both of us backed down immediately.
"Sorry, Angel. I'll be nice." I planted a kiss on the top of her head and gave her a gentle push toward the bar stool.
"Sorry, Navi. That was childish." Bryson nodded, sad eyes watching us.
Call me slow, but it was just barely dawning on me that he really did like her. She wasn't one of the many he'd brought home before. This, us, was really hurting him. I could only imagine how hard it would have been to watch him with Navi.
Yeah, I was a jerk.
Navi and Bryson kept up an enthusiastic conversation about cooking, of which apparently no one in their apartment could do. Bryson gave her tips and offered to come teach them all, and she took him up on it.
I tried not to wallow in self-despair.
"I'm gonna go jump in the shower and then we can go. Sound good?" I asked because if she decided to like him better than me because he could cook, I might just rip his head off. I could cook. I was an excellent cook. It just didn't make any sense to cook for one person, so I usually ate out.
It was the fastest shower I ever took.
When I got out, Navi was sitting on my bed, feet tucked underneath her, typing on her phone. She looked up with a smile. "Konstanz thinks I died last night. I forgot to tell her where I was going."
"Hey, how about if I come over today and do some cooking lessons?" Bryson appeared in my doorway, fully dressed but not, judging by the lack of wet hair, showered. "I don't have anything going on, and I know Konstanz and Reese aren't working."
Navi's smile faltered, but she nodded. "Sure. That sounds good. I'll be working on a paper, but I think everyone else is free." She climbed to her feet, sliding on her shoes, and turned to me. "I have to work at dark, but I'm all yours for the rest of the day." She smiled, leaning up on her toes to kiss me as soon as Bryson left the room.
This idea, I liked.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Navi
"You spent the night with Alec?" Konstanz squeal-whispered as soon as I walked into my bedroom. She grabbed my hands and bounced around like when we were teenagers.
"Shhh!" I laughed, disentangling my fingers so I could dig through my dresser for a clean outfit. My clothes still smelled distinctly like demons, and I needed a shower. I'd never found the ones that escaped last night. Which meant they'd made it into society. They'd shifted. They could be anyone right now, and I wouldn't be able to find them until darkness fell and forced them back into their asuwang forms. Who knew what kind of damage they could do between now and then. I'd only quit looking this morning because the sun had risen. I was worthless when the sun was up.
Stupid sun.
I'd never found Jesse, either. She'd either been captured or she'd gone rogue. But Elizabeth had promised to look all day, taking time out of her busy ghost-schedule to search for shape-shifting demons.
"Details, woman! I want details!" Konstanz blocked the doorway, arms crossed over her chest, and raised an eyebrow. Her hair was tied back into two braids, so she looked about as threatening as my bunny slippers.
"Nothing happened. We slept. And had breakfast. That's all." And I was going to spend tonight fighting demons, which meant that was all for the entire weekend. And tomorrow, it was back to reality and work and school and…
The thought made my chest hurt. I liked spending every waking minute with Alec.
"Well that's disappointing." Konstanz flipped her braids over her shoulder. "How is Bryson handling it?" She flopped on her bed and watched me pull out the rest of my clean clothes.
I shook my head. "Not well, I don't think. He was plastered last night and super weird today. Which is why he's here"—I smashed on my most cheerful smile—"to teach you guys to cook. Pretend to have fun, okay?" I pushed her out the door toward the kitchen. "And don't let him and Alec rip each other's heads off."
A day spent on the couch, writing a paper on the meaning of Faulkner's works, with Alec next to me studying layouts and blue prints, and kitchen fires and screaming in the background was still a day that was better than all the days of the last month combined, except for yesterday, of course. And last night. And the night before. I tried to focus on my paper, I really did, but knowing the asuwangs were loose in the city was a tad distracting. I kept flipping through the local news sites on the Internet to see if there had been any attacks yet. And then I tried to figure out how to find them. So the paper… wasn't my best.
As the sun went down, I saw Elizabeth's form shimmer into the room, near the back door. It was time to go. My blood hummed, like it was excited for the fight. "I've gotta go to work. I'll see you guys all later?" I stood up and stretched. Sitting with a laptop propped on my legs for hours on end was not advisable.
"You sure you can't stay home tonight?" Alec's lips quirked in a teasing smile as he rose too, gathering his papers.
"I wish I could. I can think of nothing I'd like better." I slid my hands around his waist and peered up at him. He dropped the papers and swallowed hard.
"Alec, you should stay a while. Sometimes she comes back after an hour or two. And Bryson isn't done here." Konstanz barely looked up as she attempted to mix batter in a large cracked bowl. She was covered in flour, as were Reese and even Bryson.
Elizabeth paced. There wasn't much time. More of my ghosts' outlines were beginning to appear. "Yeah, you should stay." I nodded too enthusiastically, nearly knocking my neck out of place. "I'll probably be back soon."
It was an outright lie. But it couldn't be helped. I had to go. I tugged on my tennis shoes and nearly hopped out the door, pausing only for one long, scorching kiss. Someone cleared their throat in annoyance. I wasn't sure if it was Reese, Bryson, or one of my ghosts, but it was time to go.
"Any sign of Jesse at all?" I asked. We'd been prowling the city streets for hours while the rest of my ghosts were on full lookout at the beach, to make sure nothing else came through. I didn't like the city at night. It gave me the creeps—demons were scary but bad humans? They were worse. However, the fact that I was walking, seemingly by myself but constantly chattering, seemed to keep the bad guys away. Acting completely insane will do that, sometimes.
"She was not taken, Navi." Elizabeth was more than a little disgusted. "I looked for her all day. She has joined those in limbo." She'd never liked Jesse, and I could tell it bothered her that brave ghosts were taken by the asuwangs back to their sea witch master while Jesse hid in the shadows and did nothing.
It bothered me, too. I needed to talk to Death.
"The sea witch seems to be attacking more frequently. Taking more souls. Many of the souls in limbo that haunt your city have been taken. They are all on lookout, as well. I suspect she may be planning an attempt to rise from her ocean lair. They've been testing our response time. And how quickly we leave when the fight is over." Elizabeth didn't look at me as she said it; her gray eyes instead roamed the city streets. As if she knew her words would rock me to the depths of my being.
See, sea witches were the masters of asuwangs. They survive on fear. Like, somehow, that's what they eat. Their asuwang pets eat human flesh, which is just as creepy. So they come, attack my ghosts, take their souls, and then escape into civilization to attack more souls and breed fear.
The sea witch can't leave the ocean. Not without a lot of souls. They make a sort of shell for her to live in. But once she's out, there's no stopping her. For one reason: She can live in the day—when I can't fight her. She takes all those souls she's captured, and she uses them to form a shell that, when the sun hits it, melts and becomes impenetrable. She'd be practically unstoppable.
That was how my grandmother was killed. She tried to fight a sea witch during the day. She was killed, but my mother and my aunt hid until the moon rose, and then they attacked and drove the creature back to the ocean.<
br />
Even so, hundreds lost their lives that day. The government blamed it on a tsunami. There were a few who claimed to have seen her, but they were laughed into hiding. The rest who did see her were taken.
Ironically, the only way to free souls the sea witch has captured is by waiting until she comes to land wearing them. Cut them from her shell and they can escape to limbo or the afterlife or my army, if they'd so choose.
Probably not though, given what they'd just been through. I'd suspect hell is nothing compared to her lair.
There were nine sea witches living all over the world at specific latitude and longitude points. And they're immortal. They can be killed, but only if they rise from the ocean, and as far as anyone knows, only one has ever actually died. Mostly they just go back to their lair and recover and plot and plan.
Seeing as how this one killed my grandmother, I'd really like a shot at her. Plus, she'd stolen my souls.
And I wanted them back.
"Look, there." Elizabeth pointed through the darkness. There, scrabbling through the cute little garden, was one of my missing asuwangs.
I nodded, eyeing the monster. "One down."
She smiled grimly. "One to go."
I unsheathed my swords and sprinted through the shadows. I leaped from the car to the house roof, skidding down loose shingles until I was right above it. It had captured one of my souls—Don, I was pretty sure, judging by the face it wore. But this was good, because I could kill it before it took Don back to the sea witch, and he would be free.
Raising my Golly, I jumped from the roof. I landed on its back and felt my blade slide through the thick neck. It wore the soul like armor, and now I could see it had another soul as well—not just one of mine. The thing screamed at me, bucking like a wild horse, and I wrapped my legs around its hairy body and jerked Kali out of my sheath. I jammed it down next to the other sword and threw my weight back, using them both like a lever.
The head popped off with an awful ripping sound, and the demon collapsed to the ground. Don flew free, and the other soul, too. Before I could tell them to run or fight or anything, another scream tore through the air. I whirled around, but too late. The sharp claws of the last missing asuwang tore into my stomach.
I gasped at the pain and shoved away from it with my feet, falling hard on the ground. Elizabeth and Don attacked, but it had several souls wrapped around it and their swords could barely penetrate.
The thing reared back, coming after me again. I dove out of the way, spinning and slicing with Kali and Golly. I hit it in the head, but not hard enough. It screeched, half-shifted into a weird combination of dog, spider, and human, and took off through the silent neighborhood. I risked a glance at the sky. The sun would be up soon. I had to finish this tonight, or someone would die.
Wrapping one arm around the wound, praying it would heal completely before the moon set, I raced after the monster.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Alec
After waiting until after midnight for Navi to come back home, and after texting her several times and calling once, I finally went home only to drag my exhausted butt out of bed and go to work three hours later. I wished, in those three hours, that I could have dreamed about the day I'd had before, but it was the same nightmare as always—if anything even more vivid than usual. I was glad when my alarm jarred me out of it.
Until I realized that meant I actually had to get up.
I decided while I was stumbling toward the shower that I had to somehow convince Navi to quit her night job and sleep with me every night. To keep the demons away, of course. She seemed to be the only antidote. I liked the plan immensely.
I doubted very much that it was safe for me to be driving as I yawned and squinted and tried to navigate the mostly deserted streets in the early morning light. Three nights in a row of not enough sleep… wasn't my brightest move ever.
But it had been worth it.
The memory of Navi's soft lips opening for mine, the smell of lilacs and her soft, soft hair… yeah. It was definitely worth it.
I was in love with her. Two days. And she had my heart in her hand.
But really, it wasn't two days. In the last four years, not one single day went by that I didn't think of her at least a hundred times.
I yawned again, stretching, trying to get some blood moving through my back and arms as I slowed for a stop sign. It was still dark enough that long shadows fell across the street, and I fought to keep my eyes open.
Until one of the shadows moved.
Forgetting my exhaustion, my eyes flew open and I leaned forward. Navi, disheveled and filthy, sprinted across the road and disappeared down a side street.
She was in trouble.
Screw work. I spun the wheel and went after her, roaring around the side street just as she turned into a cul-de-sac. I followed, gunning the truck. I got there seconds after she did—but she was gone.
I jumped out and turned in a slow half-circle, but there was no sign of her. "Where'd ya go, Angel?" I murmured. A movement at one of the windows caught my eye, and I jogged over, my heart in my throat. This was too much like before. Early morning light, peering through windows, wondering what the hell I was doing.
Inside, Navi and a big guy were all over each other. Crashing against the wall, knocking over the couch. She had her arms around his neck; his hands were locked around her lower back, holding her against him.
She'd been with me a few hours ago.
Now she was with some other guy. And apparently they liked it a lot rougher than I did.
I squinted, hoping in a sadistic sort of way that maybe they were fighting. Maybe this was part of her job—to beat big guys into submission. But no. They were not fighting. She had her arms around his neck, for hell's sake. If they'd been fighting, she'd be trying to get away, tiny thing that she was. She wouldn't have been holding him so tight.
Disgusted, yeah, that's what this feeling was. My heart wasn't shattered into twenty-five thousand pieces and sinking into my stomach. I was disgusted. I spun on my heel and stalked back to the truck.
"Alec?" Her voice was breathless and panicked. "What are you doing here?"
I turned slowly, hating the way my body wanted to pull her close to me. Hating the way my shattered heart wanted to beg her to explain. "I thought you were in trouble. Clearly, I was wrong."
"Alec, wait—It isn't like that." Her face, already pale and strained, went absolutely white.
"Really, Navi? I think I saw exactly what it was like." Tell me I'm wrong. Please tell me I'm wrong.
"No, Alec." She took three cautious steps forward. "It isn't what you think."
I ran a hand through my hair, staring at the sky. Wishing against all common sense. "Really, Navi? Then what was it?"
Her face, hopeful for about two seconds before I spoke, fell. "I—I can't—"
I rolled my eyes. "This is insane. Like, high school all over again. If you wanted to be with other guys, you could have freakin' told me, Navi." I shoved away the memory of her saying she wanted to be with me, into somewhere dark and less painful.
"I don't!" she cried, stumbling closer. I think she was limping, which served her right. "I don't want to be with other guys! It's just work!"
"So what—are you a whore now?" The second I said it, I wanted to take it back. It was pain talking, not me. I wanted her to hurt as much as I did. As much as she'd hurt me now, as much as she'd hurt me then. But with those words, any chance I had of her giving me a logical explanation was gone. Even if she could have come up with one. I started to tell her I didn't mean it, but I didn't get the chance.
Her eyes widened as her mouth opened in a silent O, and her arms curled around her stomach like I'd punched her. "Go to hell, Alec," she whispered.
Ouch.
Pain spoke again, lashing out, trying to protect me. "Funny, somehow I hang out with you for a couple days and I wake up there." I spun on my heel and jerked the truck door open, climbing in and slamming it so hard the en
tire vehicle rocked. She was still standing in the same spot, arms still clutching her stomach. Silent tears streaked down her cheeks before she turned away, back toward the house. She didn't even have the decency to wait until I was gone before she went back to him.
The big truck roared as I stomped on the gas pedal, taking us away from that hellish place and the little demon who had the power to crush my soul.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Navi
"You're hurt, Navi. You need to go home." Elizabeth's voice somehow found its way through the darkness. I forced my eyes open and stared at her. The asuwang lay at my feet, slowly changing from its human form back to the demon dog-spider-icky thing as the sun rose on the horizon.
"I can't breathe," I whispered.
She nodded, watching me sadly. "You cannot tell him?"
I shook my head. "I took an oath. If I tell him, it will open his eyes. He'll see the demons, he'll see the ghosts. It's too dangerous. If I don't tell him, I keep him safe."
"Did he not already see the demon with you?"
"He saw it in human form. They won't open his eyes in that form."
"Ah." She nodded wisely. "Then he is a fool."
Yeah. He was a fool. But I couldn't blame him. Just like in high school—I knew how it must have looked as I tried to cut through the demon's neck with my swords. It was way harder when he had a soul shell. But Alec wouldn't know that.
Because I was keeping him safe.
"You are hurt, Navi," Elizabeth said again. I pulled my arms away from my stomach. My shirt was ruined. The skin underneath was ruined too, at least until the moon came up again to heal me. I'd lost a lot of blood, I could tell. Or else Alec had hurt me enough to make the entire room sway. Black splotches came and went in front of my eyes.
But the asuwangs who had made it past us were dead. That was all that mattered.