What To Do About Ellie
“We’ve had no luck exorcising Sean,” Nic said in a low voice as we exited the car in the parking garage of Zara’s building and started toward the elevator. I had no idea why she was all but whispering since the vamp was upstairs, but didn’t question it. “Ryann is flipping out. Upon your advice, she’s kept Sellie sedated but he burns through the drugs quickly.”
Huh. Weird. “Is that normal with possession?”
“Ellie burns through alcohol when he’s speaking to the dead. Vampires burn through alcohol quickly, and painkillers, as you were told. I imagine you do if you’re using your abilities. So all we can figure is that something is going on in his system.”
“And does Zara know you just went to get me?”
The elevator door rattled as she lifted it and metal pinged beneath our feet as we stepped inside. “Oui. Just like she knew I went to the house to get you after she shot you.”
I didn’t remember that part. Something weird wormed against my breastbone at the thought—that she’d come all the way out there to save me, call my team, leave me where they could get me, and I didn’t know any of it. And I’d literally be fucking dead and going maggoty if she hadn’t.
“I make my own decisions,” she said as the elevator rattled to a halt, and cast a gaze back at me as her fingers folded on the door. A little smile curved her lips. “And I stand by them. Though if I had to offer a spot of advice, handing over her boyfriend to someone who wants to kill him is not the way to make yourself indispensable.”
“I...uh...didn’t really think that one through.”
“Apparently not,” she mumbled as she hauled the door up.
I stepped in the apartment after Nic, tense, glancing around, hand around the grip of the Glock in my pocket. Weak and hurt, sure, but I should get at least one round off before Zara popped me in the skull. Just for the principle of it.
Steps clicked down steadily on the staircase to my right and I glanced up to see Zara descend. “Nic, didn’t we talk about bringing home strays? It could have rabies.”
Here we go. “You know what? I’m not going to apologize.”
Nicolette visibly cringed ahead of me. Zara paused on the bottom step, a cool half grin poised on her lips. Physically she showed no signs of our brawl, having healed up nicely.
“He said he’d help me. You’d do the same thing if he gave you a way to avenge Nate or someone.”
She finished stepping down the last step and those damn boots put her a head over me. “That’s the difference between me and you, braintrust. I don’t avenge. I don’t have some warped sense of justice. I revenge. I don’t utterly destroy and make suffer those who wrong me out of a need for vindication. I do it to hurt. You’d do well to keep that in mind. Nicolette has bought you some time. I’ll put a bullet in the back of your head if I think you’re going to step out of line. Are we clear then, Hell Bitch?”
I hadn’t let go of the gun. “You bet, Vamp Slut.”
That earned me a chuckle.
Steps padded on the hardwood and Ryann came around the corner. She couldn’t’ve slept much in the past twenty-four hours, probably opting out of whatever sedative they’d been giving her boy. “What are you going to do about Ellie?” Her attention was on Zara, thankfully keeping me from having to answer her. Now that I was here I could probably exorcise him, yes, but I wasn’t sure if, first of all, we might still need Sean for some reason, and second of all, if I was physically in the condition to. I’d been tapped out when I woke up in the med unit and despite the carbs we’d picked up from a drive-thru, I wasn’t on top of my game.
“Pay for a trip to Hawaii for the pair of you when he’s better?” Zara offered.
“He’s been stalling,” Ryann bit out with a glare. “We don’t know what he was doing while he was gone. He could’ve already been into contact with the Veil.”
“I’ve been leaning toward similar thinking,” Nicolette said.
My belly was comfortably full, my chest ached, and I wanted another nap—trying to join the powwow was seriously hurting my brain.
“He could be waiting for them to show up and take us out,” Nic continued.
“I could also just deal with you myself.”
Ice slithered down my spine. We all turned to the sound of the voice, my skin prickling in hyperawareness suddenly. Time slowed to a thin, hard point, and I blinked, frozen in an instant, before light flashed and I hit the far wall with enough force to rattle my marrow.
Shock slipped away, cold fear sweeping through me and soaking my veins. Another blast, light glittering and shifting like prisms, hit Nic next and she went sprawling, rolling and crashing against the couch in a heap.
Sellie flexed his fingers, staring down at his hand with a smile.
I climbed to my feet. Pain shot through my chest, sudden and hot, and I sucked in a tender breath.
Sellie’s face was blurry—out of focus, even—something shivering over its surface, waving like the tide falling back from rocks on the shore. For a moment, I swore a completely different person stood in his place, like bone was shifting and his hair was darkening. He sent a backhand swipe to Zara’s head, and knocked the vampire away; she clattered on the ground, back striking the stairs and hair flopping over her face. There had to be more than human strength behind his blows.
Sean got his mojo back. Perfect.
He turned on Ryann next, lips forming into a smile as he clasped her throat. Ryann’s dark eyes widened in response, and of course the dumb bitch wasn’t doing anything to stop him.
Shit. I scrambled forward and beat across the floor to reach them. I squeezed my skinny, weak body between the pair of them and pushed, launching myself against Sean, shoving at Ryann with both hands until he released her. She dropped to the floor like a ragdoll and I got a painful backhand swipe to the jaw for my trouble.
My head rolled to the side and my lip stung. I swiped at the blood with the back of my hand, moved to a fighting stance, and sized him up.
Ryann clambered to her feet; she charged forward but it was Zara who grabbed her arm and jerked her back, tossed her against the wall and held out a warning hand.
“Don’t hurt him!” Ryann was looking at me, begging me, because she knew I was the liability. “It’s still Ellie!”
Sean’s eyes sparked blue and the air around him crackled, magic slithering through the room. It didn’t feel like mine, didn’t have that same grit, that same burn, but he had power and it felt big. “Oh, she won’t hurt me, little girl.”
He turned and metal groaned, snapped like thunder; the blinds over the far windows bent and squealed, popping loose from the wall and jerking back to about the size of a door. Glass shattered an instant later, tinkling almost musically, blowing widely like an explosion hit. I twisted my head to the side, hands coming up to protect my face, as glass struck.
When I eased my arms down and glanced around, I found Sean missing.
Motherfucker.
Our steps beat on the hardwood as everyone moved into action, trudging for the window.
“He jumped?” Nic said, frowning. “He couldn’t...”
“He’s got his warlock powers.” Zara hauled herself onto the edge of the broken window between the bent, ruined steel slats, and peered out into the night. “I’ll catch him.”
“I’m coming.” I moved close behind her.
She glanced back, lips poised to argue, then shrugged. “Whatever. Grab on—we’ve got three stories to go.”
I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and barely heard Nic say my name went Zara leapt.
Oh shit oh shit ohshitohshitoh—
Wind whipped against me for an instant and my heart shot up into my throat, then Zara hit the ground; she landed half-crouched, knees bent, and held steady while I lurched and stumbled off of her.
Oh hell. HELL. I was so not jumping out a window with a vampire again. I got my legs steady, feet holding solid on the ground, and I looked left and right. The November wind gave me a kick and any part of my stolen scrubs still damp turned to ice.
“Where’d he go? Can he...like, poof?”
“Nope.” Zara’s gaze dragged across the night, narrowed, and she took off in a run. Faster than me—faster than I could blink. I stood in the silent street and stared, unsure of what direction she’d even taken.
Well. Great.
I started to walk, realized that the fucking shoes were still Drew’s and too big to do much in without tripping myself. Already cold, I pulled the stupid things off, tossed them, and broke into a jog barefoot. Not that I knew where to go, but the speed got my blood pumping and warmed my body, even if the icy cement bit at my feet. The lab coat flapped behind me, snapping. I made an easy turn between buildings, into a long dark alley. Paused and listened. Where would he go? He had to have it planned—had to already have an idea for leaving. It wasn’t like he could fly or something. He’d take a car. Rich guy wouldn’t steal a car—wouldn’t necessarily even know how to hotwire one.
But Zara has cars and he’d know where the key rings were. Could’ve taken one like you did.
Son of a—
I spun, pads of my feet scraping on gritty cement, and bolted to the end of the alley. Took a left. The large doorway to the underground basement of Zara’s ex-factory apartment building lay open—I’d yet to see the doors slide closed and wasn’t sure if local businesses parked there too—and the ground dipped down. Yellow lights above shone on the cars parked to either side of me as I walked. The garage was cold, chill air giving it a sterile feel despite the inherit griminess. My steps were muted, just the odd pebble grinding between my feet and the cement. The fluorescent bulbs hummed, midnight traffic outside made regular noise, and I tried to push all that aside, to listen for any sound of movement. My right hand locked on the butt of my gun and I withdrew it from my pocket. I probably shouldn’t shoot Ellie, true, but he wouldn’t die from a bullet in the leg and it might slow Sean—
Tires squealed as a gleaming hunter green convertible swung out of a parking space at the end, headlights white and blinding. Engine revved and I could all but hear him stamp on the accelerator. My heart kicked into high gear but I breathed, just breathed.
Steady...steady...
I raised the gun. Fired.
A tire popped, the car careened wildly. I darted back, spine striking a thick cement support beam. The convertible swerved and metal crunched as it rammed a parked car. The hood crumpled, glass cracked.
Worst getaway ever.
I bolted forward, reached for the handle; the door swung open before I could touch it, smacking into me, and I stumbled back. Sean was out, running, and I locked onto his flapping button down shirt and jerked him back.
He swung a closed fist at me, sloppily. Maybe this would turn into a melee smackdown, maybe he’d throw a fire bolt at me—hell if I knew. I couldn’t let it get that far.
Fuck it. Gun dropped from my hand, clattered on the cement. I snatched his head in both my hands and yanked him forward. “My turn.”
It was easy. Easier than I’d thought it would be. Like flicking a switch, my father’s magic burst from the floor, whipping dark red tendrils, swimming up to the ceiling and swathing us both in it. I was burned out, hanging by a thread, but for a glorious moment, I didn’t care. Not if I never came back again. Not if I killed everyone in the fucking city. It had me stretched and swinging, jerking like a puppet, like I didn’t have the will to keep moving myself. The deliciously murky, swampy magic was easy, familiar, and I just wanted to do lazy backstrokes through it for the rest of my life.
But you have work to do, a little far off voice whispered as darkness closed in on my vision.
Right. Work.
Something felt...different this time when I reached for Sean/Ellie’s chest. I felt both of them there, souls entwined, Ellie’s withered and shredded, billowing in a breeze as if about to blow away. Sean’s was stronger, a solid dark shape I could grab with both hands.
And just as I drove him forward, shoving his soul through the cheesecloth veil to the other world, he grabbed me back and sank in with claws.
Where I go, you go, he whispered, words like threads tightening around my mind, and his grip on me went razor sharp.
I squeezed my eyes shut. Energy whirled, twisted, howled, a tornado tearing and swiping at me. Darkness came, closing in with arms that squeezed, and air left my lungs in a whooping breath I couldn’t get back again. My body came to a halt and I looked around. The air seemed to shimmer, an obsidian tar-like substance. Heavy. Thick. Shiny.
Familiarity. Home.
Oblivion.