Friday, August 29th – 9:36 pm
The front door flew open, crashing against the wall. With the television program forgotten, Avery scrambled from the sofa and stood gaping at the open door. Five minutes before, she’d gotten back from the gym and had collapsed onto the sofa. She hadn’t yet taken her shoes off or bothered showering and changing out of her leggings and t-shirt. Dust and wind flew into the living room. She thought it was a haboob until smoke thickened and swirled amidst the dust. A form materialized.
Holy crap. Shit, shit, shit.
Mayor.
The woman stepped toward her. She wore another one of those flowy-type dresses with a hem that swirled around her ankles, but this one was in white-gold and black. Her white-blonde hair, thick and disheveled, flowed past her shoulders and down her back. Eyes blazing chards of blue ice, she strode into the room and pointed her finger at Avery.
Looking for any type of barrier to keep the woman away, Avery skirted around the sofa until she was behind it. Not the greatest move because nothing would keep Mayor away if she wanted her hands on Avery.
“Where is he?”
“Who?” Avery stalled.
Mayor’s gaze narrowed. “What have you done to him?”
Avery backed away, heart banging like a tribal drum in her chest. Only two feet, and she found herself against the living room wall.
Mayor pointed a finger at her. “I would never have done what I did if I knew you were going to ruin his life.”
The woman was crazy. Like Avery had anything to do with Luys killing someone and getting himself arrested. “I thought you hated Luys.”
“You don’t know a thing, do you understand?” She slashed a hand through the air. “He is family. People get angry with their families, yes?”
Avery huffed. “Well, I got the distinct feeling you wanted him dead.”
“Do not speak to me in that tone!” Her gaze inched slowly up and down Avery’s body. “And to think I thought you could do good for Luys. Hah! Estúpida. I should never have given you to him as a gift!”
“A gift?” Avery pushed off the wall and grabbed the back of the sofa. “What do you mean by ‘a gift?’”
“Do you think I randomly chose you of all people? You really are an idiot.” Her gaze narrowed. “I saw how he looked at you over the months. I have watched him. I know him. No one else would be able to see that he was pining for you. You didn’t even know it!”
Avery shook her head, having a hard time following. “So let me get this straight. You cut me open, performed some ceremony to make me what I am now all as a gift for Luys?”
“Yes, fool that I am. He is lonely. Given time, loneliness would have him search for a human, and he would have to endure the pain of his lover dying. Humans die too quickly. He may hide his unhappiness well, but he is my brother. I feel the same. That is why I know.”
“You did this to me because he was lonely? Seriously? Who does that?” Avery's fingers dug deeper into the back of the sofa. “You never once considered my feelings, or what you did would have ramifications to my life!”
“Spare me. You would have been dead by the end of the year if I had not done what I did.”
Mayor’s words strangled the breath momentarily from her lungs. “How…how could you know about my illness? I’ve never told anyone. Luys didn’t know—”
“All I had to do was smell you. You reeked of death.” She arched a brow. “Don’t look so shocked. Animals sense it. Humans have lost that ability. For too long, mortals have focused on modern needs society has created and dictated to them. They drown in greed and are completely blind to their inner instincts.”
“Get out. I want you out of my house.”
Her brow dipped, and her jaw flexed. “I’m not going anywhere. What did you do with Luys?”
“Nothing. I don’t want anything to do with him.” Her fingers dug deeper into the fabric of the sofa. “They took him away. That’s what they do with murderers.”
“Who? Tell me!”
“The police. They arrested him. Luys killed Noah Harris. All the evidence must point to him.”
“Psssh. Luys would not know how to kill a mouse, never mind a human. I have no compunction of killing anyone if they are a threat to my family.” Mayor took a couple of threatening steps toward her. “I dislike how you take me for a fool. You did something to him. There’s no other explanation. I’ve smelled your scent in his home. He must have trusted you, and you betrayed that trust. You lie about the police. If you have harmed him, I will rip the air from your lungs.”
A red flush rose up Mayor’s neck to stain her face. The woman was rattling on about nonsense. But her fixation on Luys’ innocence made Avery doubt Luys’ involvement. If she was so adamant about Luys being unable to murder anyone, then who had killed Noah Harris? Avery swallowed. That was a stupid question. Who else but Mayor? She had the strength, the rage. Maybe Mayor realized what Noah was digging into about ritualistic killings and was about to have evidence point to her? Mayor could have ransacked Noah’s home, not found anything, and had hoped Avery would uncover something she might have missed.
Still, there had to be something more when it came to Luys’ arrest. “He has to be the one who killed my neighbor,” Avery insisted. “The police don’t work that way. They wouldn’t have arrested him. There had to be some type of evidence against him.”
“You lie!”
Avery tensed. She could literally feel the rage animating from Mayor. “No. I was there.” Why wouldn’t the woman believe her? “They must have proof! I’ve told you, they wouldn’t arrest him otherwise.”
“You are an idiot! I should know better, yes? You people don’t live long enough. Your brains are feeble.”
“Feeble?” She was sick of Mayor’s insults. “We’re not as sick as you, cutting up people for their brothers!”
“By the blood of Christ!” Mayor sprang, launching herself over the sofa and slamming into Avery. She would have fallen if Mayor hadn’t grabbed her by the shoulders and lifted her into the air. She shook Avery with such force her skull hurt.
The woman paused her shaking long enough to ask, “Who took him?”
Avery’s answer died in her throat as Mayor shook her even harder, lifting her higher until her toes dangled in the air. Vision blurring, she struggled to focus and get her tongue around for a reply. The woman’s strength was shocking. She could swat Avery and kill her as easily as a gnat.
“Their names!”
“I—I can’t—t—talk!”
The shaking stopped. With a vise-like grip still around one shoulder, Mayor used her other hand to cup Avery’s neck and rub a thumb against the pulse point throbbing on the side of her neck. “It would not take much,” Mayor whispered. “I could break your breastbone with ease, grab your heart and squeeze my fingers….”
Avery finally wrapped her tongue around several words. “There was our neighbor. He’s a cop. He warned me about Luys, but I didn’t listen.”
She was afraid to give out his name for fear Mayor would murder him. She couldn’t handle it if someone died because of her.
“And you’re not listening now!”
She tapped two fingers against Avery’s upper chest before sliding them to the scarring between her breasts.
Oh god, she was going to kill her. Avery closed her eyes. The idea of dying filled her with terror. She’d always known the time would come soon enough because of her cancer, but not like this, never like this. If she’d never known Luys or Mayor, she wouldn’t be in such a dire predicament. She might have died of cancer, but she wouldn’t be threatened or throttled before her life ended.
She wanted to feel safe, carefree again. That’s all she wanted. She squeezed her eyes tighter. A place to hide, to lick her wounds, to feel like there was hope again. Please, she just wanted to be free. Free from the woman, free of the terror, of the pain, of being in this room. Somewhere safe where the crazy woman wouldn’t find her. That’s all!
She gasped in a chunk of oxygen, surprised at how easily air flowed into her lungs. The pressure on her shoulder and chest stopped abruptly, and she was suddenly free of the death-like grip on her shoulder. Her eyes snapped open as she stumbled backward into space. Clouds swirled around her, thick, moist, cold.
Oh, God. She was falling…Blackness engulfed her on all sides. Then lights, almost strobe-like, flashed past on all sides of her. A feeling of weightlessness swept through her body as if she no longer had a physical form.