“Duster.”
CRAP!
She came out of nowhere, sliding out of the shadows as if she were a part of them. She moved like smoke, wispy and insubstantial. She was tall, probably six feet. She was also gorgeous, damn it. I had been hoping for a troll.
Her pale gray dress hugged what looked like a great figure and fell all the way to the tops of her bare feet. Her skin was milk white, and her eyes glowed yellow as she smiled at me. (At least they weren’t red.) Her long, dark brown hair lifted in the wind and swirled about her head like writhing snakes, and when her smile widened she flashed a set of teeth that looked razor-sharp.
Oh, boy.
“I’ve been hoping you’d come. But you certainly took your time about it,” she said, and kept floating in a wide circle around me. It was really pretty eerie.
She was moving without moving, if you know what I mean, and it was seriously creeping me out. So I kept moving too, wanting to keep an eye on her so I could pretend to be ready when the time came.
“I’ve been busy,” I said. “You know, dusting takes a lot of my time these days.”
She frowned, and those yellow eyes narrowed. Not a good look. “You’ve taken many of my kind.”
YIKES.
“Yeah, well…” Good one, Cass!
She paused, lifted one elegant hand to her chin and tapped a long finger against it. “You have my Faery.”
“I sure do.”
“I want him back.”
“Why’s that?” Stall, Cass. Stall.
“The Faery’s mine, Duster. Hand him over and I’ll allow you to live.”
“Wow. Generous.” I have to admit, even if it’s only here, that just for a second I actually considered handing Brady over. You would have, too. I’m not brave or very good at this fighting thing. And if Brady went back to her, I’d get to live! Big bonus.
But I couldn’t turn him over, and I knew it. In a flashing instant, thoughts of Brady spilled through my head. Him at the stove. Him in the backyard, working with Thea. Him sneaking Sugar food. Him on the couch, watching Buffy DVDs with Thea and me. Him in my bed in the morning, making my hormones sing the “Hallelujah” chorus.
Besides, in the next second I had to wonder just how long the queen’s generosity would last. Once she had Brady back, what was to stop her from deciding to get rid of me anyway?
“I think it’s very generous,” the queen said. “After all, I’ve invested some time and money into ridding myself of you.”
“So I heard. Dollars to kill the Duster?” I shook my head, swallowed hard and tried to keep talking without choking on the heart currently lodged in my throat. “Don’t you think that’s a little tacky? Going online to get demons to kill me?”
She shrugged and kept floating. “I use what’s available.”
“Afraid to do it yourself?” Even I couldn’t believe I’d said that! What was wrong with me? I was practically daring her to kill me!
I took a step to one side, just to see if she’d keep pace with me. She did. That was when I noticed something else: That slow circle she was moving in was also shrinking. She was getting closer and closer to me.
Not a happy thought.
“You don’t frighten me, Duster,” she said, and her voice was almost lost in a sudden gust of wind. “You’re a bug. A nuisance. A fly to be swatted.”
I glanced around me, hardly daring to take my eyes off of her, but, let’s face it, wanting to know if she had help stashed close by. I thought I saw a pair of red eyes staring at me from under a bush, but I might have been hallucinating. It was a pretty weird situation.
“You’re becoming more of an irritant than I’m willing to put up with, though,” she said, so reasonable. So relaxed. Just another day at the office.
Then she smiled. Were her teeth growing?
YIKES.
She wanted me out of her way. For what? Global domination? “So why do you want Brady so badly?” I asked, and I wasn’t sure why I was stalling. Okay, I knew why: Terror’s a real good motivator. “Brady’s a great guy, but—”
“I have my reasons, and they’re none of your business.”
She was even closer now, and breathing was getting harder—for me, not her. She looked calm and cool. Totally relaxed. Just a couple of girls having a chat.
Me? I was hanging on by a thread. Every nerve in my body was humming. My blood was pumping thick and fast, and my heart—still in my throat—felt like it was swelling, cutting off my air.
Fabulous.
How did I get into this? My brain started racing and my feet were wishing they were, too. All I wanted to do was turn around, bolt for my car and speed back to my house. This demon was way out of my league. I could feel it.
Jasmine had said the queen was weaker now than she would be, and there was no way I wanted to see her at full strength. In fact, now that I was there facing her and it was way too late to run, I knew I couldn’t win this.
So…what did that tell me?
When in doubt…attack.
Without warning I did one of those snappy Duster jumps—straight up. It almost felt like I was flying. Must have cleared seven feet, because when I looked down I was staring into her wide, startled yellow eyes. Her mouth dropped open, and when I dropped from the sky like a rock I planted my fist in her face and felt the punch of it sing up my arm.
Brady, bless him, had been giving me that little extra battery charge for days. If male Faeries were really in charge of guarding the power, I could only be glad he’d been sharing it with me. When I hit Vanessa she crashed to the ground as if she’d been hit by a truck. I didn’t give her much time to regroup, either.
As soon as I landed I shot her dead in the eye with a stream of demon spray. It splattered across her pale skin and had her making like popcorn.
She SHRIEKED so loud I felt as if my ears were bleeding. The hair on the back of my neck lifted, and I sucked in air like it was one of Tully’s margaritas.
“You’re ruining everything,” she shouted, furious as she wiped desperately at the demon spray still blinding her. “I must have my Faery! Everything depends on it, and no Duster is going to stop me!”
“Oh, yeah?” (Not the best comeback, but I was under some pressure!)
While she was screaming I slammed my hand at her chest, going for her heart.
Except nothing happened.
No hand through chest.
No heart.
No pile of dust.
All I got for my trouble was what felt like a broken hand. Reaching into her chest was like trying to penetrate a solid steel wall.
Funny that nobody’d bothered to mention that.
“OH, SHIT.”
She hissed at me and leaped to her feet. Her yellow eyes were glowing, and she peeled her lips back from teeth that glinted in the moonlight. Then she hit me, and I really knew what it felt like to fly.
Chapter Twelve
The next few minutes are still, thankfully, a blur.
All I really remember is incredible pain. The queen was seriously pissed off and didn’t have any trouble letting me know about it.
She beat me, kicked me and threw me all over the yard like I was a cheap plastic purse at a garage sale. Every time I landed I felt the jolt shoot through my bones. There was pain everywhere.
I remember feeling the dampness of the grass seeping into my clothes. I remember looking up at the night sky, seeing the stars and a slice of moon peeking out from behind a cloud. I remember trying to breathe despite the agony gripping my chest. I remember looking up into the queen’s flashing yellow eyes and seeing my own death written there.
And I remember thinking that it was a damn shame I was going to die and never get the chance to tell Jasmine she was full of shit. No way had I been ready for this.
Mostly, though, I remember feeling something inside me tear as Vanessa picked me up and threw me against a rock wall surrounding her yard. When I landed I knew it was over. And I wanted to tell Thea I was sorry for leaving
her the way my mom had left me. And I knew that my mom had felt just like this. There was so much left to do. So many things I’d miss.
Thea’s first prom. Thea graduating from college with a million degrees. Thea winning a Nobel prize. Thea getting married. Thea having her own babies.
I wanted to see it all.
And now I wasn’t going to see any of it.
Tears filled my eyes, my heart, my soul. Tears for the waste of it. Tears for the ending that had come too soon. And tears for the pain roiling inside me.
“You’re a fool,” Vanessa said as she stood over me. Her gaze caught mine, and her yellow eyes spit disgust. “And worse, you’re a useless fool. You’re going to die, Duster, and I’ll have my Faery back anyway. You should have given him to me.”
“I’m here.”
She whipped around, and I groaned. I knew that voice, and God help me, I was really glad to hear it.
“Brady!” Queen Vanessa cooed his name, and even dying I was grossed out by it. Desire and greed laced her voice, and I hated knowing that she was going to get exactly what she wanted.
“Let her go, Vanessa,” he said, and I sensed, more than saw, him moving closer to me. “Let her go and I’ll stay with you willingly.”
From my perspective, on the ground I watched Vanessa’s beautiful features shift into a thoughtful expression. Brady was even closer now. I could look up and catch his profile. Handsome. Worried. Resigned.
“Why should I let her go?” Vanessa said, again totally reasonable. Hell, she wasn’t even winded from all of her kicking my ass. “You’re here now. I can have you and rid myself of the Duster.”
“Because if you kill her,” Brady said, “you’ll get nothing from me. Ever.”
“I don’t like being threatened,” Vanessa told him, and I was really starting to feel superfluous.
I mean, I was lying at their feet, quietly dying, and neither one of them even glanced at me. The two of them were so locked into whatever it was they had going on, I was nothing more than a lump on the lawn.
Brady smiled, and even half-dead, the woman in me responded to the magic in that smile. So I knew Vanessa would be feeling the same thing.
“My queen,” he asked, making his voice as tempting as his smile, “what interests you more—killing the Duster or having me back in your bed?”
There was a long pause, where I was forced to wonder if the queen really did want me dead more than she wanted Brady. And then the suspense was over.
“Very well,” she said, reaching across my prostrate body to cup Brady’s chin in the palm of her hand. “Come with me now and the Duster lives.”
He inclined his head and caught my eye as he did. I wanted to tell him not to do it. Not to sacrifice himself for me. And maybe a better human being would have. But I was so grateful to be alive, I couldn’t find the words to tell him to run. To save himself.
Vanessa turned and started floating back to the house, her tall, elegant body sweeping across the lawn, through the shadows and into the puddles of lamplight streaming through the long windows. She was clearly confident that Brady wouldn’t be going anywhere, and just as confident that I was no kind of a threat. Hey, she was right.
Pain washed over me with such a rich, deep pull that I felt myself drowning in the misery gripping my body. I sucked in air carefully, and when Brady went down on one knee beside me, I released that breath and managed to say, “Thank you.”
His gaze met mine, and I read sympathy and worry glittering in those beautiful eyes of his. I wished I could do something to help, but at that moment it was all I could do to keep breathing.
“It will be all right, Cassidy,” he said, holding his hands out over me and rubbing his palms together with a brisk, frantic movement. I watched as Faery dust shimmered in the night, rising up from his hands and then falling over me in a glittering sprinkle.
Instantly the pain receded, and I began to breathe easier. My body felt as though it were healing itself while I lay there, and the more Faery dust that drifted over me, the better I felt.
A few moments later he finished and helped me to sit up. He threw a glance at the back of the house, but Vanessa had already disappeared inside. When he looked back he forced a smile and gave an eloquent shrug. “You’ll be fine now, Cassidy. I will miss you and Thea. But you must leave. Go home before she changes her mind.”
“Brady,” I said, reaching for his hand and holding on, “I can’t just leave you here with her.” I seriously owed him. Not only had he saved my life; he’d healed me. Without that Faery dust I had no doubt at all that I’d have been weeks healing even with Duster strength.
“You must. But first I must do this.” He leaned in and covered my mouth with his.
His lips moved on mine, and a zing of something incredible shot through me. Brady’s Faery fingers were good, no doubt about that, but his kisses were even better. Despite the aches and pains still lingering in my body, my hoo-hah sat up and did a completely inappropriately timed rumba. Heat erupted between my thighs, and when his tongue pushed into my mouth and tangled with mine, I wanted him more than I’d ever wanted anything.
It was no wonder at all why Vanessa was willing to go to so much trouble to get him back.
Brady pulled away suddenly, ran his thumb over my bottom lip and smiled. Then he looked into my eyes and said, “Get to safety, Cassidy. Go now.”
My sizzling, needy, pain-ridden, completely turned-on body just sat there on the damp grass while I watched him walk to the house and step inside.
And then he was gone.
“Hmmm…”
“THAT’S IT?” I demanded while Jasmine stared at me. “THAT’S all you’ve got to say?” I sounded like Thea, the way I was shouting.
The TV was on, but for the first time in remembered history we weren’t watching it. A rerun of The Gilmore Girls was on, and usually Thea and I watched it together and laughed at the mother and daughter. I mean, please. Nobody talks like Lorelai and Rory do to each other. Besides, we were not happy about what the writers had done to Luke and Lorelai. Hello? Pay attention to the characters you created much?
And Thea had issues with Rory, of course, but not that night. That night I wanted answers. Poor Jasmine—Thea wasn’t looking any happier with her than I was feeling.
Thea was on the couch, Jasmine was perched on the edge of a chair, Sugar had her face in the popcorn bowl and I was pacing like a crazy person. Arms flying, feet stomping, I marched around the living room, circling Jasmine just like Vanessa had circled me—with a lot less floating.
“You told me I could beat her.”
“Yes.”
“You were wrong.”
“Yes.”
As fascinating as it was to hear Jasmine admit to being wrong about anything, it didn’t change anything.
“My MOTHER could have been KILLED,” Thea said, then added, “and now Brady’s missing and maybe dead, and what are we going to do about it?”
Jasmine looked completely uncomfortable—not something I was used to seeing, and it didn’t make me feel any better. I mean, this crabby old demon was my mentor. My link to what had happened to my life. My road map to the world of killing demons. If she looked uncomfortable, how do you think it made me feel?
She took a breath, smoothed her impossibly stiff hair with one gnarled up hand and said, “It’s true. You were not prepared. I take full responsibility for that.”
“Boy howdy,” I said, still pissed off and a little sore. The Faery dust was really spectacular stuff, evidenced by the fact that my bruises were nearly gone, but walking didn’t help anything. So I took a seat next to Thea and waited.
Jasmine looked from one to the other of us. “I was told the queen was weakened.”
“Well, if that’s weak I don’t want to see strong,” I said.
“Clearly,” Jasmine agreed.
“Is she going to kill Brady?” Thea asked, and I patted her hand. I wished there were somebody to pat mine.
“No,” J
asmine said.
“No?” I asked. “And this you’re sure of?”
“I am.”
“Like you were sure I could beat the queen, or a better kind of sure?”
Again with the tight-lipped smile. I think I irritate Jasmine on a cosmic scale. But just then I didn’t really give a shit.
“She won’t kill him. She needs him.”
“For what?” Then I winced. Of course. The queen needed Brady for sex. Hello? Sex slave? And was that something I wanted to talk about in front of Thea? “Never mind.”
Jasmine knew what I was thinking. One of her eyes twinkled. Briefly. “While you were fighting Vanessa, I was speaking to one of my sources—”
“You have sources now?”
She gave me that smile that looked as if it were the edge of a rusty knife blade. “Yes. Unfortunately this source wasn’t available before you went to meet the queen.”
“Fabulous.” I flopped back onto the couch.
“Yes, well…” Jasmine stood up, and Sugar lifted her head for a pat. Jasmine obliged. My dog isn’t very persnickety about whom she gets her petting from. “The queen needs Brady to accomplish her plan to take over the human world.”
I was stunned. Vanessa really did want global domination? “Isn’t that more of a Lex Luthor kind of plan?”
“Who is—”
“Superman’s nemesis.”
Jasmine’s eyes rolled so far back in her head, she was probably trying to see through her hair. “Of course. But if we could put aside comic-book heroes and television shows for one moment and deal with reality…if it’s not too much trouble.”
I stood up too. I’m only five-foot-five, and there aren’t many people I’m taller than. Thea is one. Jasmine’s another. So I took the opportunity to loom a little while I said, “You don’t get to be snippy tonight, Jasmine. I almost DIED.”
“Yes,” she said, backing off a bit, though she didn’t look happy about it. “I know. But to the point…”
I thought my near-death experience was the point, but what did I know?
“Male Faeries are…” She glanced at Thea, and I thought about having my girl leave the room, then remembered that she had to deal with all this stuff too. So no point in keeping secrets. Besides, knowing Thea she’d only slip back in and eavesdrop, so why pretend?
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