I snarled and turned toward her, intent on flinging my anger at her over pairing Caleb and I together, but she merely held up a hand. No, I knew that look. No… no… don’t say it…
“Together,” she added, and I deflated. It was final. I knew it was final because my mother, the vicious Diana Cortez, turned and walked off.
This wasn’t fair. I was mad at Caleb and here my mother was going and pairing us up together. All of the sympathy I’d had for her evaporated in an instant, which yes, was bratty, but come on. Caleb had left me… Surely, surely she couldn’t be siding with him over it. Could she?
Caleb and I stared at each other uncomfortably for what felt like forever, and I felt my cheeks start to heat up. I turned away from him and stared at my shoes because, hey, they were pretty interesting right then.
“So… What do you think is going on?” Caleb mumbled after a silence that was so long it could have an epic poem written about it.
“The Blue Prince is starting to wig out,” I replied with a shrug.
“I’m not really in the mood for your jokes,” Caleb said as he took a step forward, his eyes narrowed.
Great. Caleb thought I was screwing with him. I closed my eyes for a second and took a deep breath. I was not going to let him get the best of me. I relaxed my hands. I didn’t even realize I had balled them into fists.
I opened my eyes and glared at him. It was hard. No matter where I looked at him, he was beautiful. With his maroon tank top stretched across his well-muscled chest and windswept blond hair, he looked more like a swimsuit model than a sword-fighting demon hunter.
“I missed you, Lillim,” he said, reaching out then, running one of his hands along my cheek. Without thinking, I remembered the touch of his hands on my back, the feel of his mouth against mine.
“Lillim… are you blushing?” His words brought me back. Was he seriously touching me after leaving me alone in the middle of the night? And now he was making fun of me? Seriously?
I dug my nails into the palms of my hands, and this time, instead of resisting the anger, I allowed it to flow through me.
“I am not blushing!” I screamed, pushing his hand away from my face. “Nothing you could do would make me blush because you’re a coward!” He winced as I stomped past him. “Are you coming, Caleb? I don’t have all day.”
11
It was raining… of course. I hate the goddamned rain. When it rains, the only thing I can picture are worms drying out on the pavement, their slimy trails silver in the warm sunlight.
Caleb stood next to me, still wearing dark sunglasses despite the gloom. He was shielding us from the rain with a large pink umbrella. Pink… because that color didn’t stick out like a sore thumb. I ran a hand through my wet hair and shivered as water trailed down the back of my neck.
“Are you going to keep standing there, or are we going inside?” Caleb asked. His voice had that angry edge to it, like the taste of too much char on an otherwise well-cooked steak.
I sighed and adjusted the collar on my overcoat. I was ignoring him. I knew it pissed him off, so that’s why I was doing it. Sure, I was being childish, but he was a jerk. A jerk my mother was forcing me to spend time with.
I glanced toward the entrance to the bar. I was hesitant to go inside. The last time I went with Caleb into a bar, I was nearly killed. Granted, it was a demon bar, and while I had gotten a magic eight ball that led me to the dragon I’d killed, I still didn’t like the idea. I had no idea what to expect inside this bar either. For all I knew, it could be filled with giant slime monsters hell bent on my destruction.
Going into bars was a Caleb thing anyway. The first thing he always did was visit the local bars looking for information. According to him, there was no better place to get real, high quality supernatural bunk than from the town drunks.
They were the ones who told those stories about how they were walking down an alley and the couple in front of them just vanished. When you’re trying to find a monster, well, those stories tend to be true.
According to the strange engineer, the Blue Prince was last seen in this town. If we could find the Blue Prince’s trail, it would save us hours waiting for the fates to determine where he would go next. This was how Caleb liked to work anyway. A few days of fieldwork could save a couple hours of research after all.
“You know, what happened wasn’t your fault,” Caleb said.
I ground my teeth together. “I’m not talking to you.” I held up my hand before he could say anything. “We can go inside now. Lead the way.” I went back to ignoring him, and he glared at me.
Inside the bar was worse than outside. At least outside, things were real. In here everything was gaudy and pink. The place looked like a psychedelic ego trip from the sixties except without the drugs. A bunch of people sat huddled at a little pink booth in the corner under blue neon lights. Besides them and the bartender, the only other people in the dump were two waitresses.
The waitresses’ name tags said Grena and Dina. I smirked. Whoever came up with that was either really stupid or really funny. I wasn’t sure which, but for some reason I was leaning toward funny. I smiled at them, and they smiled back. I got the distinct impression few women ever ventured in here, despite the pink interior.
“So you made it,” the bartender said, looking at Caleb in that same dopey way he probably looked at his own face in the mirror. “And you brought a girl.” The bartender’s gaze traveled up and down my body so I crossed my arms over my chest uncomfortably.
“Yeah, Diana made me do it,” Caleb muttered, jutting his thumb at me as though I was unwanted. “Had to take her tyke out for a night on the town.” He slid into a seat at the bar. There was already a beer in front of him in a bottle. “Glass?” he asked.
“Sure,” the bartender responded with a smirk and pulled a frosted mug from a chest freezer beneath the bar. Steam wafted off the cool glass as he placed it on the dark polished wooden bar top. I watched as Caleb lifted the bottle and the glass at angles and poured the beer into the glass. When he was done, there was almost no foam. Apparently, he’d done this a few times.
“So, you’ve been here before?” I asked to no one in particular because I was still not talking to Caleb.
“Him?” The bartender pointed at Caleb. “He comes in from time to time. Seems he’s been looking for a fella that also comes in here from time to time. Odd they still haven’t run into one another.”
“Is that so? Who have you been looking for?” I asked as I took the empty seat at the bar next to Caleb.
Caleb turned to me, eyes ablaze as he set his mug down between us. “None of your goddamned business.”
I threw my hands up in supplication. “What crawled up your pant leg?” I asked, even though I was pretty sure he was annoyed at me ignoring him. “All I’m saying is you just dragged me into another bar that you ‘have goings on all up in’ and I’m supposed to… what?”
“Sit there, shut up, and wait. If you can manage that,” he replied with a glare that made my inner troll grin and dance a jig.
“For what am I waiting?” I asked, deciding this would be a good time to annoy the crap out of him. Besides, he deserved it, the jerk.
“You’ll know when it happens,” he said, turning away and looking across the room at the little pink booth.
“I really, really hate you,” I said as I folded my arms over my chest and glanced at the bartender. He was an older guy— maybe fifty?— with a balding head and a belly that would rival Santa Claus. An amused smile was plastered across his face. I was really hoping it wasn’t from staring at my chest. That would be creepy since he was old and I was seventeen. “Um… I don’t suppose I can have a drink as well?” I asked.
“She’s under age. You can’t serve her. She’s also too young for whatever else you’re thinking,” Caleb said nonchalantly.
Both I and the bartender turned to look at Caleb incredulously. Did he really just imply that I was too young to um… well… that wasn’t the poi
nt.
My cheeks turned bright red. My first thought was to grab Caleb by his stupid head and smash it down onto the nice polished bar. Surely there was a scuff mark or two I could buff out with his face.
“Bert? Hey, Bert? Bert?” Caleb called across the room. It happened so suddenly, it threw me completely off guard. The noise at the other table abated and one man with black hair, pale yellowish skin, and beady eyes looked over at us. Even from here I could make out the sweat stains on the grey t-shirt under his flannel. It made me think less of him, which was saying something since I was pretty much in ‘please don’t touch me’ mode already.
“What is it? I'm trying to drink,” Bert said, raising a glass full of amber liquid to emphasize his point. The man’s voice was deeper and raspier than I expected. It was like hearing someone try to talk through steel wool.
“I need to ask you about Ajax,” Caleb replied, standing up and pushing in his barstool.
“Listen, I’d love to chat, but not when I drink,” Bert responded before turning back to his buddies and ignoring us.
Caleb ran a hand through his short blond hair. His maroon shirt stretched tightly across his chest, revealing the lines of muscle that stretched between his jeans and the hem of his shirt. Heat rushed to my face.
I’ve seen guys do this trick before, where they moved in such a way as to reveal their six-pack or bulging biceps. Unfortunately, I didn’t think Caleb was doing this on purpose. Well, maybe he was, but if he was, was the show for me?
The bartender snorted, and I glanced at him. His smirk told me he’d caught me staring at Caleb. My cheeks turned even brighter red, and I shielded my face with my arm. My movement must have startled Caleb because he twisted toward me with a confused look on his face.
“What’s up?” he asked. His voice was quiet, as though he didn’t want anyone else to hear.
Since I wasn’t about to admit to staring at his body, I was left with no option, I shoved him off of his barstool. Caleb stumbled forward as I leapt to my feet and shoved him toward Bert.
“What in God’s name do you think you’re doing?” Caleb yelled, glaring at me. Clearly, all of our actions toward each other were going to be hostile. This was something I could deal with. Hostile was right in my wheelhouse. You might say I’ve perfected that course heading.
“Getting to the bottom of this,” I replied with a smirk. Bert glanced back at us and seemed to think watching a five-foot-nothing girl push a six-foot-plus Caleb across the bar to be hilarious. “What do you know and how does it pertain to me?” I asked Bert.
“Well… I know lots of things, and I’m sure most of them could pertain to you… if you like,” he replied, and the gleam in his eye made me feel like a caged bird being eyed by a hungry cat. What was with the creep count of this bar? I mean it wasn’t like I was dressed up or anything. I was wearing a black t-shirt and jeans under a blue overcoat that didn’t exactly hug my curves.
“Oh? What might that be?” I asked in my best sultry voice as I smiled seductively and took a step closer to Bert.
Bert stared at me stunned, mirroring Caleb’s reaction. All at once, a leer broke out on his face, and as he reached one sweaty hand toward me, I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and slammed him face first into the table. Beer mugs and pretzels went flying. He’d definitely been drinking for a while and probably didn’t expect little old me to smash his two-hundred-fifty pound ass into the table. I put my face right next to his and the sour stink of beer and sweat made my stomach clench.
“You have one second to tell me about Ajax. Or else I’m going to do things to you you’ll wish I hadn’t. It will only be enjoyable for one of us. Here’s a hint, it won’t be you,” I said with a smile that bared my teeth.
Bert glanced from me to Caleb. Real fear was evident in his eyes as he struggled to move, his blue jean-clad legs kicking back and forth. He was no match for my magic-fueled strength. I could totally keep holding him down for the next two or three minutes. Maybe longer if someone got me a sandwich.
“Caleb, help me!” Bert rasped, his face pressed against the table as he spoke.
Caleb glanced from Bert to me and back again before shrugging. “Bitch be crazy,” he said.
Oh no he didn’t. I barely controlled the urge to beat Caleb over the head with Bert.
“W-what do you want to know?” Bert squealed, voice was tinged with fear, like a man who had pissed off a dog and gotten snapped at.
“I want to know where Ajax is. You know, the head honcho around here. I know you know who I’m talking about,” I said as Bert started to whimper.
“I don’t know who that is,” Bert squealed.
“No, no, no. Don’t lie or my girl here will get all kinds of rough with you. And trust me when I say she likes to get rough. It will be a very wild ride for you and something tells me you won’t like it nearly as much as I do,” Caleb said, his teeth flashing under the pink lighting so that it looked like his mouth was full of blood.
Yup, I was sure of it. I was going to shoot Caleb in the face with my shotgun. No judge in the world would convict me either.
“If I tell you, he’ll kill me,” Bert whined.
“Maybe you ought to be a bit more worried about her?” Caleb inquired innocently. I suddenly found it extremely odd that no one else said or did anything. That was when I realized we were the only three left in the building. Had everyone else snuck out when I started kicking ass and asking questions? That was not something that boded well. I did not like being all alone in a strange bar holding down a strange man. Well, I guess I wasn’t all alone since, technically, Caleb was with me, but he didn’t count.
Something rippled beneath Bert’s stained flannel. It was almost like there was a whole bunch of salmon trying to swim upstream… under his flesh. His hand shot out and smacked me square in the face. Warm blood trickled down my lips as I careened backward and slammed into another table. It collapsed under me, and I hit the ground in a heap. I tried to roll onto my hands and knees, but it was all I could do not to cough up my lungs.
An inhuman shriek split the air. I turned to see an emaciated skeletal creature clad in Bert’s ugly red flannel and jeans stalking toward me. Flames the color of a fire engine smoldered where his eyes should have been. Giant bone-clad wings furled and unfurled themselves on his back.
“So how is your ‘speeding this thing along’ thing going?” Caleb called. That’s when I realized he was sitting in the booth with a grin on his face. “I know you take after your mother and all, but has it ever occurred to you that you may not want to pick a fight with everything first and ask questions later?”
I wanted to reach out and punch him in his stupid face. I didn’t do it, mostly because I was too busy scrambling backward across the floor as Bert lumbered toward me. With each step he took, he gained speed. By the time he slammed into me it would be like being hit by a bus.
So I did the only logical thing I could think of… I got a bigger fly swatter. I yanked the double barrel shotgun from beneath my overcoat and fired into the rampaging skeleton-creature. The buckshot slapped into him with a dull thud. Bits of bone and debris exploded out his back and smacked against the wall. Bert almost slowed for a second. There were two holes in his ribs the size of baseballs and Bert, bless his heart, did little more than shake his head to reorient himself.
“That didn’t seem to work very well. Maybe you should try something else?” Caleb offered. His ‘tips’ were really starting to annoy me.
“I’m sure this gun will work just fine on you if you don’t shut your mouth!” I growled and got to my feet, shoving the shotgun into my coat. I spread my hands wide and drew upon my power. It rushed into me like warm heat sliding along my body. I ran forward and slammed my palm into Bert’s face before he could regain his momentum.
“White Sparrow!” I cried.
My power surged out of me in a rush that left me a little weak in the knees. White fire erupted from the sky, splintering the ceiling and setting
the bar ablaze as it smashed down around Bert like a tube of super-heated death. I stepped back and took a deep breath. My heart was racing. I hadn’t meant to throw quite that much power out. This was happening a little too often lately. My power was starting to get harder and harder to control. I noticed it with little things at first. Accidently breaking a door knob or a window when I shut it.
This time though, I used an attack spell and nearly threw all my magic out in one blast. I shook my head and reloaded my shotgun. It helped me calm down. If I could be calm, I could control my power a little better. I glanced up to see Bert fall to the floor in a smoking heap. Well he didn’t die, and that was good… I guess.
“Lucy, you got some ‘splainin’ to do,” I said as I turned and pointed my shotgun at Caleb. It was more of a casual pointing rather than a real threat, to be honest. Which, yes, I know, is horrible gun protocol. Fear flashed across Caleb’s eyes just for a moment, but I noticed it. Evidently, my little display of power wasn’t lost on him either. Swell.
“Now, now,” he said, holding his hands out in front of him. “No need to get crazy.”
“But this bitch ‘be crazy,’ remember?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at him. “What was it you said again?”
Caleb started to say something as Bert reverted to his human form, but I didn’t catch it. I wasn’t sure what Bert was but reverting to human form probably meant he was done being a jerk-face for a while. Very slowly, Bert got to his hands and knees and began to crawl away, which really wasn’t a bad idea given that the damn bar was on fire. This is why I need primo fire insurance. Recently, it was starting to seem like everywhere I went caught fire. Then again, fire killed most things. Coincidence?
“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t finish this conversation with a bang,” I said as I sauntered over to Bert and put the shotgun under his chin. “I’m willing to bet my gun will have a more lasting effect when you’re not in uber-gross form.”
The Lillim Callina Chronicles: Volumes 1-3 Page 28