if her blood is made of sea water. I slide the needle
into her skin just as we learned in class and the
blood pours into the bag.
The siren’s chaotic and discordant song turns to
shrieks, and her skin sizzles where the metal needle
touches her. A tendril of smoke brings the stench of
burnt flesh.
The monster writhes and squirms, trying to tear
her arm out of my grip, but I dig my fingers into her
and smile. You can’t get away from me. I’m the
goddess of pain.
Yesss. Pain.
From behind me, Emma steps forward and
clasps a black band around the siren’s neck. The girl
vanishes and the needle clatters to the floor.
I raise my cute gun and give her a slow smile.
I’m still in control here.
“It’s empty,” she says.
Then stepping behind her, I press the cold barrel
against the back of her skull. “I reloaded.”
“Okay, fine.”
“Sit in that chair.”
She sits, grinning at me, and I watch her every
move. She’s got to be up to something.
On the floor, Jason looks around blankly. “What
happened? Where are we? Where did that
beautiful music go?”
“Sit down, Jason, or I shoot her.” I press the cold
metal of the gun against her head. She shivers and
the voices coo in delight. They are happy with me.
Their pleasure makes sweet little tingles all over
my skin.
“Angelina, don’t—” His voice breaks. “Please
don’t. I’ll do anything you want.”
“Mix the blood with the catnip and the frosting
and put it on the cake. Then you will eat it.”
“All right. All right.” He grabs the vial of blood
off the floor and looks around. “Um, the catnip and
frosting?”
I point at three carefully stacked storage
containers on a table. Opening the smallest, he
sniffs—“Catnip.”—and pours the blood into it.
“You got anything to stir with?”
“Of course, there’s spoons, spatulas, and forks
in my bag. Down there by the leg of the table.” I
always think of everything.
He retrieves a plastic bag and fishes out a
spoon, which he uses to stir and then pours the
mixture into the container of frosting. He spreads it
over the cake.
In minutes, he’ll be mine, Emma will be dead,
and I’ll have everything I’ve ever wanted.
He pauses, looking up at me and then at Emma.
His eyes beg me not to do this.
My heart softens. Maybe he could love me
without it. Maybe I can show him how good life can
be with me and …
“Jason, no, I’m not worth it,” Emma says
“Shut up.” I thunk the back of her head with the
gun—hard. She takes in a sharp breath, and I smile
as the voices reward me. “Eat it, Jason, or I kill her.”
Jason takes the bite.
“Eat the whole cake.”
He obeys.
The book said that, when the potion begins to
take effect, I need to be there so he can look me in
the eye. Our souls will connect and he will fall in
love with me.
As I move across the room, I float. My dreams
are finally coming true.
Pain explodes across my back, and a heavy force
throws me to the ground. It hits me again, and I
slump to the dirty floor. Rocks and rubble digging
into my skin, covering my clothes.
Fingers slip across my neck—just kill me now,
you hateful monster—and then footsteps patter
across the room. Scuffling, a grunt, and more
footsteps.
Get up. They’re getting away. The harsher voice,
the one that screeches and drives nails into my
head.
Shuddering in fear of what it might do to me, I
force myself onto my hands and knees, tiny rocks
digging into me, and I shove up onto my feet.
This is your day for victory. Nobody can take it
from you, the softer voice whispers.
Stumbling, I follow them deeper into the
factory, into the darkness. It presses into me, and
me.
The voices scream and writhe, afraid of the tight
space and the darkness.
For a moment, their fear paralyzes me, but then
the cold, harsh one growls in my ear, and I run
forward blindly. Banging my shin against a cement
block, I bite my tongue to hold back the scream.
Flashlight. Get the damn flashlight, you idiot, the
soft voice hisses, not so seductive now.
If I can’t get Jason back before the potion takes
effect, what will they do to me? I have never been
so terrified in my life.
The light from the flashlight is too bright.
Hurting my head. I shield my eyes and stumble over
a cement block, skinning my knee.
Hurry.
I make my way from one room to another.
Offices with broken desks, janitor’s closets with
stinky mops, bathrooms with painted graffiti—I pan
the light across each room only to find nothing.
Did you hear that? The voice hisses in my ear.
No, I hadn’t heard anything, but I turn back to
look again. The light picks up dust drifting through
the air, rubble, a desk, and a broken cabinet.
I rush back down the hall to keep looking. The
hallway seems strange, foreign. It becomes hard to
focus my eyes. How did I get here? Where did
Jason go? It is so hard to think. Please, please, let
me find them, I beg an unseen god, but my prayers
fall on deaf ears.
You’ve done too much evil for any god to care
about you.
You are a whore and a liar.
A thief.
A murderer.
Monssster.
Your heart isss filth.
Your life belongsss to us.
You failed usss, and for that, we will punish you.
Pain burns through my stomach and up into my
chest, spreading down my limbs. Sizzling. Ripping.
Shredding. Throbbing. Twisting. I fall to the ground
and clutch my knees to my chest.
“Little angel, what have you gotten yourself
into?” a husky voice whispers in my ear.
I open my eyes and stare at the bird legs in front
of me. When did Big Bird get here? I don’t
remember him having talons like those. Strong
arms scoop me up, and I’m being carried away. A
winged wolf, what an odd dream. Why is he crying?
Darkness swallows me.
Pain.
Stabbing me.
Drilling deep into my skull.
A dim light slices into my eyes. I groan and try to
pull away.
You failed us. You will pay. They shriek in my
ears and claw at my mind.
Far away, something growls. “Leave her alone.”
A chorus of harsh laughter chills me. He sets me
down and puts something warm over me. “Wait
here. Don’t move.”
Where am I? I glance ar
ound, shading my eyes
from the piercing light, and see nothing but brick
and snow. An alley. I think I’ve been here before,
but everything is so hazy.
I hear his voice nearby talking to someone. “Tell
Brogg I need …”
Get up, whore. Bitch. You’ve failed us. You will
pay for this.
Please let me go. Please. Please.
I know just what to do with you. This voice is
soft and sickly sweet.
The pain dims, and shivering, I push myself up.
Tear your shirt.
I rip and the buttons fall to the ground.
Walk down the street.
No coat on an Alaska winter night, my open
sweater hanging open, I trudge through the snow. I
feel nothing but numb defeat. Bars are full; drunks
stumble along the streets.
I trudge through the streets and move beyond
the downtown area and into the rundown
neighborhoods. Many buildings are boarded and
spray painted with graffiti. Abandoned cars line the
streets; many of them filled with bullet holes. I
should be scared—I’d never come to this place
when the sun shines, let alone at night—but I don’t
feel anything.
Two men stagger out of an abandoned house,
beer bottles in their hands. I know these guys.
Basketball players. Tyler’s closest henchmen.
“Hey, Angelina. You look cold; I bet we can find
a way to warm you up.” Someone behind me grabs
my butt and covers my mouth with his other hand.
My stomach writhes with nausea. I try to scream
but my voice doesn’t work.
Someone, help me. God, please save me.
He drags me deeper into the shadows then into
the house. Tears stream down my face and freeze
on my cold skin.
His buddies wolf whistle at me. Unbidden, my
legs move. “Hey, baby, tonight’s your lucky night.”
His pals close the door behind him as he grabs me
and shoves me through another door. Splinters
scratch against my skin as I brush against the
busted door jam. He whirls me around, and I
stumble over a pile of game cartridges sending
them sprawling. He shoves me to the floor. My
head smacks the corner of something sharp and
plastic. It crunches under me.
“Hey, careful. Don’t break all that stuff. It’s
expensive.” One of the henchman chuckles.
“Well it was for someone.” The other laughs.
Tyler just growls as he rips off my bra, and his
hand crushes my breast. Nausea roils in my
stomach, but I can’t even struggle.
I can’t move. “No,” I squeeze out past their
strangle hold on me, but it’s barely more than a
whisper.
“No?” He laughs. “You know you want me.”
Make a deal with the devil, pay the price, the
voice whispers before everything goes black.
Chapter 28
~ HUNTER ~
The stink of dragon and wizard mask Angelina’s
smell so completely I just follow the dry stench of
scales. Why did I walk away from her? I never
should have put her down.
My heart hammers wildly in my chest as I track
her through the city away from Brogg’s Bar and
into the poorer side of downtown, far from the
business district. Abandoned houses line the street;
some boarded up, others falling apart. The air reeks
of hopelessness and despair.
How did she get away from me so quickly with
that concussion?
What is she doing here?
Smoking and laughing, two drunks stagger out
of an abandoned house moving toward a van.
Another one approaches her from behind. “Hey
baby, tonight’s your lucky night,” someone slurs.
He grabs her and drags her inside.
My gut twists. I’m still too far away to stop him.
“I call next.” One bastard chuckles, grabbing two
laptops from the van before his friend closes the
back. They head into the house as I look for a place
to land. A door bangs.
Nauseated, I touch down on a neighboring
rooftop. The door stands partly open, the busted
lock keeping it from closing right, letting just
enough light into the dark room for me to see
through the window.
Pinned against the floor, she is getting fucked by
some slob of a drunk. From the rooftop, I catch just
a whiff of her fear and some blood through the
cloud of magic surrounding her.
Whatever they’ve done to her, she’s not doing
this willingly. Did they do this to Sammi too? Force
her to participate, rob her of her chance to fight?
Through the window, I can make out two guys
standing and watching as a third is thrusting on top
of her. Growling, I spread my wings and leap down
from the top of the two-story building and into the
yard. I no longer care who sees me in my true form.
They’re all drunk or high anyway.
Charging through the door, I grab the first guy
by the neck. I twist it until I hear a popping sound
and then slam him into the wall. I use my
momentum to disembowel his friend and grab a
handful of his intestines to wrap around the first
sap’s throat. They are dead so fast they never had a
chance to make a sound.
I stalk deeper into the room. Piles of electronics
lie scattered on the floor. Many of them still have
the pawnshop tickets attached to them.
With every step, the fear in my heart squeezes
harder, sending icy tendrils of anger throughout my
body. My muscles shiver with rage, fueled by fear
for my Angelina.
His pants around his ankles, he has her shoved
against the dirty floor, her clothes in tatters on her
body, and all I can see is her terrified eyes staring at
me … and Sammi’s body broken on our bed.
Throwing my head back, I howl my own pain
and rage into the night, a soul wrenching sound
that rattles my bones, and leap into the air.
My claws rip into him, tearing his flesh from his
bones. My teeth clamp down on the back of his
neck, and I shake him loose from her.
Still holding him in my jaws, I drag him across
the floor and ravage his body, throwing meat and
bones, digging into his guts, tearing him limb from
limb as I wanted to do to all of Sammi’s attackers.
Sometime after he quits twitching, I stop.
I lift my bloody muzzle and look around the
room. Angelina hovers in a corner, her eyes wide as
she watches me, but there is no fear in her gaze, at
least not for me.
“He won’t hurt you again.”
“Thank you,” she whispers.
“Come on. I’ve got to get you out of here.” I
reach my hand out to her, and she dashes into my
arms, a sob catching in her throat.
“Where will you take me?”
“Some place far away from here where you’ll be
safe. I know a little something about the magic
th
at’s plaguing you, and I think I know who will be
able to help you.” I look down at her. “Do you trust
me?”
Chapter 29
~ ANGELINA ~
I want to say yes, but the word catches in my
throat. Yes, I trust you. Thank you. No one has ever
saved me before, fought for me.
But I feel hands at my throat, squeezing me. I
can barely breathe. My stomach churns as I
remember Tyler’s body against me. Tearing my
clothes. Shoving me onto the floor. Holding me
down. Ripping me apart. I can still smell him on me.
Feel him in me.
Filth. You will never be clean again.
I am so dirty. So ugly.
I don’t care. I want to die.
“I’m sorry. I should have gotten here sooner,”
Hunter says gently. His wings fold around me, soft
and warm on my achy body. I bury my cold fingers
in his fur, and his warmth envelops me. “Do you
need anything? Let me get you a coat. We can take
one of theirs. They won’t need it anymore.”
You don’t deserve his kindness. Whore. Bitch.
You sold your body. You sold your soul to usss.
I grip my stomach to keep from puking.
I deserve to die.
The room fades away, and I’m alone in a dark
chamber, the shadows crawling closer toward me.
The air is stifling hot, singeing my lungs with every
breath, and I wrap my arms around my legs and sit
tight in a ball.
A ghostly shape made of smoke and shadow
steps out of the darkness. Red eyes flare and burn,
searing into my very soul. Viscous liquid drips from
its sharp teeth, and it smokes and sizzles wherever
its saliva drips.
I shudder and back up, but there are more such
creatures behind me.
“Welcome to our home. Our prison.”
“Where am I?”
“This is where you will spend the rest of
eternity. In hell with us.”
“How—how did I get here?”
“We dragged you here to share in our misery.
Your ancestor put us here, and now you will pay for
her crimes.” It steps closer and clutches at my skin.
Its touch is hot and dirty, leaving gangrenous slime
oozing on my arm where it touched me; I feel its
vileness crawling over me and burrowing into my
skin.
I shiver and try to pull away, but one behind me
worms its filthy fingers through my hair.
“Please don’t. I didn’t do anything to you.”