I stumbled in my heels, twisting my ankle, and fell to my knees just as I reached the sidewalk. I screamed again, more from frustration than out of pain. The streets were empty. There was no one to call out to for help. I grabbed the corner of one of the brick buildings and pulled myself up, only to drop again when the sharp crack of Tisiphone’s whip sliced up my back.
I lay twitching on the sidewalk and watched as Craig descended on me. My hands were shaking, but I managed to shove one in my pocket and retrieved the can of angelica mace. It fit neatly in my palm. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t do much good against Craig. A dark little part of me wasn’t too upset about that. I wanted to get my hands dirty when I took my revenge on him.
Craig grabbed a fistful of my hair, yanking me to my feet. He pulled me back into the alley, and I let him, trying to get closer to Tisiphone. My body was humming with adrenaline. My breath rushed in and out like I had been running a marathon all day. Tisiphone smiled and swirled her whip in little circles on the ground, taunting me, daring me to run.
“Let’s try this again,” Craig said, still leading me by the hair. He stopped in front of Tisiphone and twisted me around to face her. I finally managed to catch my breath and looked up at her with a grin.
“Yes, let’s.” I lifted the mace and nearly emptied the whole can in her runny, black eyes.
Tisiphone opened her mouth, and what came out could hardly be called a shriek. It sounded like a wild animal being strangled.
“What the fuck!” Craig threw me to the ground to go to her.
I rolled away from them and onto my side, scanning the alley for my throwing stars. Craig had dropped them beside one of the dumpsters. My knees were bloody and raw, but I crawled my way over to the stars and stood, unclipping two of them before tearing off down the opposite end of the alley.
I made it to the sidewalk and immediately ducked around the corner, throwing my back against the brick building for cover. They would be following soon, and they were going to be pissed. I didn’t have enough time to run, so I tried to still my mind enough to formulate a plan instead.
The bitter taste of blood was heavy on my tongue. I reached up to touch my face. The side Craig had slammed into the brick wall was swollen and sticky with blood. My leg still ached from the bite of the throwing stars, so I strapped them on my other thigh and tore my skirt up the side so they would be easier to get to.
It wasn’t long before Tisiphone’s high pitched screech was replaced by a guttural growl that vibrated the very ground with her rage. I was beyond surprised that the streets were still empty. How had no one heard that? Perhaps her little doom spell was soundproof or warded others off. I could still feel the weight of her magic and sensed the haze it laid over everything, but it was affecting my mood less now. I wasn’t sure if that had something to do with my training or the fact that she wasn’t as focused with all that mace her eyeballs were swimming in.
Tisiphone’s whip cracked and my back went ridged from the sound. I held my breath and squeezed the throwing stars in my hand until I felt them cut into my flesh. They were sharper with the crystal tips, and I wondered if they would serve me better against the angry fury this time.
My nerves were too shot to wait around the corner for them any longer. Besides, I wanted the element of surprise. It was probably the only advantage I would have. I took a deep breath and launched myself across the alley opening, only slowing enough to aim and hurl the stars in my hand. I didn’t wait to see where they landed, but the startled shrieks were satisfying. Especially Craig’s.
I sprinted down half an alley and tucked myself into an alcove entrance of some nameless store. I pushed myself back in a corner, wishing Bub had trained me to be invisible. That seemed infinitely more useful all of a sudden.
What the hell was I going to do? I didn’t really think I could take them both out with my throwing stars. Did I? Where was MacGyver when you needed him? My ankle was throbbing, so I slipped out of my strappy heels. I’d run faster without them anyway. I was about to drop them when I noticed a small metal box stuck in the corner of the store window. It had to be an alarm system.
“I can smell you, reaper!” Tisiphone sounded close, but I didn’t dare peek around the corner.
My heart was doing flip flops. I had a feeling that the dash and throw maneuver wasn’t going to work on her a second time. Panic set in, and the next thing I knew, I was smashing my high heels through the glass of the store door. An alarm went off as I poked my hand through the broken glass and unlocked the door. I hurried inside, hoping I had enough time to figure something out before Tisiphone arrived. Surely someone would come to investigate the alarm. Her doom spell couldn’t be that good.
I skipped the obvious cover of the checkout counter and worked my way to the back of the dark store, shuffling around racks of musty, secondhand clothing. I imagined the place was where a lot of the Three Fates Factory souls dumped their wardrobes before venturing back to the human realm. Hopefully the racks would buy me a little more time.
I heard Tisiphone before I saw her. The broken glass crunched under her boots. I ducked under a row of fur coats and pulled another throwing star from my thigh. The only window was at the front of the store, but an exit light over the back door casted a dim red glow over the racks of used threads. I nearly bit my tongue off when I caught sight of a scraggly mannequin hunched over on the other side of the coats.
“Come out and play, little reaper,” Tisiphone taunted me.
The snap of her whip sent a chill down my spine, making me painfully aware of the salty sweat working its way into my wounds.
Tisiphone inhaled sharply. “I can smell your fear and your pain. It’s intoxicating. I can’t wait to draw more from you.”
I closed my eyes and tried to tap into the state of mind that allowed me to see demon heat signatures. I wasn’t sure if it would work without the raskov smoke, but I had to give it a shot. I was running low on options. Tisiphone hadn’t moved as far as I could tell, so I focused in the direction her voice had come from.
Sweat beaded across my brow and trickled down into the corners of my eyes. I held my breath until I thought I would pass out, and then it appeared. A huge, pulsing red light swelled up right where the queen of pain had stopped near the shop entrance. The light was such a deep red that it was almost purple. Then it moved closer. I sucked in a startled breath, and before I could fully grasp my next thought, I had snatched the old mannequin. I hurled it towards the back exit and didn’t even wait to see if Tisiphone would take the bait before migrating carefully around the racks, back towards the front door.
I stole a glance behind me before coming out into the open. The heat signature had faded from my mind, but so had her doom spell. I did a double take when the black braid over her shoulder coiled itself around and hissed at me. Tisiphone shrieked her frustrations at the mannequin, snapping the plaster torso into pieces with her whip. She spun around, catching a glimpse of me, but it was too late. I was out the front door and halfway down the next alley before she had time to turn on her pretty little heels.
I stopped to catch my breath once I had rounded the next block. Dear god, I was going to have some nightmares about that hair of hers. I would have almost rather suffered through the doom spell than to have witnessed that. I was within a block of Purgatory at this point, and feeling pretty confident that I was going to make it. The relief flooded in, mixing with adrenaline to form a nauseating concoction in the pit of my stomach, which doubled in toxicity when a hand gripped my shoulder and pulled me back into the alley, yet again.
My voice froze in my throat as I laid eyes on Craig. He dug his fingers into my arms, pulling me into his chest. My throwing star was lodged in his eye. It oozed pus and blood that splattered across my face as he screamed at me.
“Where is he, Lana? Where is he? Where is he?” he shouted, over and over again.
I recoiled from him, holding my breath as he pressed his face into mine. He had been terrifying enough before,
but now he looked like a crazed zombie. His buzzed head was smeared with blood. It ran down his face and soaked the collar of his shirt. His good eye was dilated and bloodshot and pierced through me like a poisonous arrow.
My blood was frozen in my veins. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. I was dangerously close to blacking out, when I finally snapped out of it. I sucked in a shuddering breath and screamed. I screamed like it was the last scream I had left. I screamed like the world was about to swallow me whole, and the only thing keeping it at bay was the breath in my lungs.
Craig jerked away, and then lifted me up and body-slammed me, bouncing my skull on the pavement. My shoulder blades ached, and my head was spinning, but I kept screaming. Craig straddled my legs and then lifted my shoulders and slammed me back to the ground, trying to shut me up. It took him several tries, but my voice finally fizzled out into a raw cry.
My vocal chords were shot, and I was fairly certain I had a few broken ribs. A burning sensation filled my chest, and I wondered if this was what dying felt like. I quit fighting and slumped in Craig’s arms. My pulse slowed in my temples and I rolled my eyes up to meet his so he could see the satisfaction in them before they went out. He had done his worst, but I hadn’t given in.
“Where is he, Lana?” He shook me again to keep me conscious.
I smiled and put a hand up to his chest. “Wouldn’t you like to know,” I croaked.
Craig shook me harder and growled his frustrations.
The heat in my chest felt like it was about to melt my heart and lungs, but I laughed anyway. Craig bared his teeth and then reeled his fist back, as if to punch me. I lifted my other arm, pushing him away with both hands, and that’s when the fire in my chest blossomed, filling me to the brim. I was no longer solid. It was as if my whole being had turned to molten lava. My hands sunk through Craig’s chest like he was made of butter. His mouth fell open, but nothing came out. A big orange hole formed around my hands. I struggled to pull them free, but as I did, Craig was sucked inward. He had been reduced to a soulish form, and I had somehow turned him inside out. His particles dispersed with a sudden pop and scattered into the night with the distant echo of a scream.
Chapter 32
“You don’t develop courage by being happy in your relationships every day. You develop it by surviving difficult adversity.”
-Epicurus
I lay on the pavement, panting and confused, and wondered what the fuck had just happened. I could barely wrap my mind around the fact that I was still alive, let alone the freak incident that had just occurred. A sob slipped out of me, and I covered my face with my bruised and bloodied hands. There was no one around to impress, and I hurt like hell.
The sound of frantic voices caught my attention as they drew near, but I was too exhausted to care if they were friend or foe. Craig was gone. Forever. When I was done crying from sheer terror and pain, I’d cry again from relief.
I hadn’t quite made up my mind if I had enough strength to make it out of the alley, when Josie rounded the corner.
“Lana! She’s over here,” she shouted over her shoulder as she knelt down beside me. “Are you okay?”
I laughed and sobbed at the same time as I reached up to touch her, making sure she was real. A spiral bruise circled up her arm, and a splatter of blood dotted her bare shoulder and chest around a gash across her collarbone. One of the spaghetti straps of her little blue cocktail dress was broken.
“I need a drink,” I said, my voice still gravelly from all the screaming.
Josie laughed and wiped a tear from her eye. “You must have passed your final if you’re still feeling well enough for a drink after the ass-kicking it looks like you just got.”
“As a matter-of-fact, I did pass.” I grinned up at her. “Now help me up.”
Kevin and Jenni arrived as Josie pulled me to my feet. Anubis and half the Nephilim Guard weren’t far behind them.
“Where are your shoes?” Jenni asked, which for some reason cracked me up. Of all the things to notice, it had been my bare feet.
My fit of giggles became contagious, so by the time Anubis had made it over to join us, we were all laughing hysterically. He gave us a cautious look. “Is everything alright? You look awful.”
“I feel awful.” I leaned on Josie’s shoulder, suddenly aware of my twisted ankle. I was sure it wasn’t finished swelling, but I didn’t care. I was just glad to be alive.
Anubis frowned and cleared his throat. “Well, the guard and I collected six more rebels in the city tonight, and then we responded to a shop alarm not far from here, where we encountered Tisiphone, the retired fury from Tartarus. I take it you encountered her as well?”
He didn’t mention Craig, and I wasn’t sure how to tell him what had happened without inadvertently incriminating myself. “Yeah, I guess you could say that.” I groaned and glanced over at Josie again.
She looked embarrassed. “We volunteered to help, but I think we got in the way more than anything else,” she said.
Anubis cringed, but to his credit, he didn’t criticize. Most other gods would have jumped at the opportunity. “It’s alright. We’ll get her next time.”
“I sincerely thought she was just another run-of-the-mill demon.” Josie winced and rolled her bruised shoulder under the weight of my arm.
“Don’t sweat it,” Anubis assured her again. “Take care of her.” He nodded to me.
I blinked a few times, feeling my adrenaline take a downward spiral. My consciousness wasn’t in very good shape, but if I passed out now, I just knew I was going to end up at Meng Po’s again.
“Lana, thank god.” Gabriel approached us from the opposite side of the alley. He took my free arm and pulled it over his shoulder. “Do we need to go to Meng’s?”
“Take me home,” I groaned. Josie struggled to hold me up, so Kevin moved in to take her place on my other side. He had a busted lip, but looked alright otherwise.
Anubis nodded, giving my wounds an unsure glance. I tried to smile, but it was too strained to look genuine. “Take it easy,” he said, and then signaled the guards waiting in the street to follow him through the alley.
Jenni stepped in towards us, completing our little bruised circle. Kevin rolled a coin and took us all to the front gates of Holly House. We didn’t waste any time making our way inside.
Charlie met us at the elevators. He gently scooped me into his arms, relieving Kevin and Gabriel. We crowded into the elevator, and by some miracle, we managed not to bleed all over the shiny glass and metal. My head lolled in towards Charlie’s chest, tucking my nose into his armpit. I thanked Khadija that he was wearing deodorant. I was far too tired to move another muscle. Charlie smelled like leather and lemon cake. It was an odd combination, but somehow soothing. I mumbled into his suit jacket as the doors pinged closed.
“What’s that?” he whispered, tilting my head back.
I looked up at him. “Now this is what I call room service.”
He gave me a light chuckle. I was out before we made it to the tenth floor. Visions of sugarplums didn’t even come close. It was more like a coma, and when it came for me, I welcomed it.
Chapter 33
“The average, healthy, well-adjusted adult gets up
at 7:30 in the morning feeling just plain terrible.”
-Jean Kerr
I wasn’t sure how long my dreamless sleep stretched for, but when I came to, I was relieved to see that I was in my own bed.
“Feeling better?” Warren stirred in the corner chair. He stood and stretched his wings and arms with a yawn before taking my wrist to check my pulse.
“Playing doctor today?”
He raised his eyebrows at me. “Yesterday too, but that’s one thing I don’t have a license for, so let’s keep it ‘tween us girls, shall we?”
I twisted my head to the side and popped my neck with a groan. One of my wrists had been wrapped, and an ankle too. I felt like one giant bruise. “How long have I been out?”
; He scratched his head. “Thirty-six hours, maybe?”
“It’s Saturday?” I sat up with a start.
“You haven’t missed anything. It’s still early,” he said, patting me on the leg.
I sighed and relaxed again. “How are the others?”
“Better off than you, that’s for sure. Bruises and scratches mostly. Meng Po sent Jai Ling over last night with some tea. Are you feeling well enough to have some?”
I crinkled my nose, but nodded. The aftertaste would be worth not looking like the walking dead at the placement ceremony.
Josie passed Warren as he left to fetch the tea and took a seat on the edge of my bed. The spiral bruise on her arm had faded to a grayish-green and a few stitches sealed the slash across her collarbone. She wore a sports bra and a pair of cropped yoga pants, and her skin held a dewy pink hue.
“Hey there, pilgrim.” She smiled down at me.
“Hey. You breaking in the gym here already?”
She blushed and rubbed a hand over her arm. “Yeah. It helps keep my nerves in check.”
I nodded. After a rough day, I found that taking the hounds for a run seemed to calm me down. I imagined the slight run-in with Tisiphone ranked up there with the worst of Josie’s days.
“Maalik stopped by yesterday,” she said, giving me a curious look.
I groaned and closed my eyes. “What did you tell him?”
“Nothing much.” She shrugged. “I told him you would recover and that that was all he needed to know, considering your recent breakup.”
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