Damsel
First things were first: I ran for Nic, wrapped both hands around the thin metal stake in her heart, and yanked. It slid free and my shot shoulder screamed. I cast the weapon to the side and knelt over her, gaze focused on her eyes even as the world quite literally crumbled around me.
“You’re okay, you’re okay...c’mon...” But she wasn’t moving, wasn’t doing anything but staring up blankly. Blood had seeped deep in the ground, the pale boards nearly pure black beneath her. Her skin was pallid and lips bloodless. I swiped soaked yellow hair from her forehead, touched her chin, tipped her head back. “C’mon, please...”
Feet scraped on cement and I looked up to see Zara wielding one of the lanterns, swinging it around like a flaming bo staff. “She needs blood, but first we need to close this fucking dimensional hole and send these fuckers back there, or none of us are getting out of here alive. By which I mean you need to, of course.”
Of course. I swallowed dryly. “Get back—and I mean run like hell. They’ll want me anyway.”
She met my gaze for a moment and nodded. Dropped the lantern, the glass globe on the end shattering. Ran. She wouldn’t go far, I knew—she’d have to get Nic.
After, that is. She knew I wasn’t going to make it long enough to feed the blonde vamp.
I pulled Nic over, her upper body slumping on my lap, her head nestled in my arms. Her skin was ice, chillier than the rain pelting down. Shadows danced, thickened, moved over the two of us; I glanced up through strips of soaked black hair on my brow to see the hissing, giggling sentry demons moving closer. Closer. Peel my flesh—that’s what they’d said. Apparently they weren’t fans of my bloodline. Imagine that, someone not liking the antichrist’s daughter.
Adrenalin was gone—just totally gone. My system was fried, my body exhausted, bleeding, aching. There wasn’t much juice left, but I might as well try for a lightshow.
A deep heaving breath...and I let go.
It happened in an instant, like an elastic band had been pulled taut and was at last allowed to release: one minute I was Peri, one minute I was...nothing. Everything. Something else entirely. The world slammed hard in my brain, like a door blowing open. My vision was dark—not even the red, the graininess, but just splotchy and black, like I was fumbling blindly. The murky, swampy world around me was shifting and slithering, and I pulled, hard, at all the dark I felt, at everything just...just beyond. Like cheesecloth dragged over the world, slipped between this dimension and the next, I felt around and latched onto Oblivion, tugging the energy through the holes in the cloth. It built and built, rolling and spinning in me, weighting my exhausted limbs like lead pumped into my veins, and I wasn’t sure I could lift my arms if I wanted to.
But I had to. Because they were closing in, climbing into the pit, slipping in mud, and these motherfuckers had to go down NOW.
My lips parted and I let out a cry, something that didn’t sound human, didn’t sound demon—sounded like something beyond. Above me the glowing violet sigils were dancing wildly, almost shrieking on their own, and light split the sky—light that wasn’t from the lightning, white-hot and hissing.
I raised my hand as the weight of two worlds pressed down, fighting back against it, arm outstretched and palm facing the night sky. Again, I pulled. And again. And again. Until the swirling ball of anger wasn’t in me—it was above me, all wisps of slimy smoke, shaped like eels and screaming. Bodies dropped around me, sinking unconsciously to the ground. I pushed this time, shoving the swirl of demons at the split in the sky, shoving them past the sparking sigils. The dark violet burned bright, brighter, almost pink around the edges—a deep, angry pink. And I shoved back at them too, throwing everything at that split in the sky. My lips were parted, throat dry and hoarse, and the heavy rain had all but sealed my eyes shut but I saw it. Felt it.
Home.
It was within reach, like I could just...slip out of my body, drift up, and disappear in its depths. Oblivion, where it was quiet and simple. Where I forgot. Where I would have power.
Where it was dark.
And so I held on.
I stretched away from myself with a long taut thread, but it didn’t snap—I wouldn’t let it. There was a cold, motionless weight in my arms, and with her...with her light. Light I might never have in my life. Light I didn’t deserve to have in my life. But light nonetheless and no matter how broken, how damaged, how...split in two and fractured I was, I held onto it.
I sank back in with a thump and the heaviness in the sky above eased, suddenly weightless and airy once more. Darkness descended, the night no longer so bright I saw it past my closed eyelids, and I opened my eyes again. Glanced down.
The world was quiet. Bodies littered the ground around me and I didn’t know if they were alive or not. Didn’t care. The spinning sigils were gone, the slice between worlds closed, and whatever else happened, I knew nothing came through.
No sister—I’d feel her. No father or grandmother. No apocalypse.
Just an almost-dead vampire in my arms.
I bled from all over—my shoulder, my face. When I blinked again, it was hard to get my eyes open once more—my head ached and I was going to fall over soon. But it was the slice from the knife on my arm that drew my attention. I let Nic’s head lean on my stomach lifelessly and fought my way out of the pleather jacket; it fell in a wet heap behind me. The holster was digging into my side and my legs were folded uncomfortably under me, chipped knee grinding when I tried to shift, but I ignored it. I shoved up my sleeve, streaking mud over my pale flesh, and pressed my arm to her mouth. It was already bleeding, showing no sign of stopping. Good. It meant I wouldn’t have to cut.
I held my arm against her lips, eased her mouth open. Wished I knew how to make her teeth pop out. But I ceased that thought because her eyes were fluttering open, stopping halfway, brows pulling to a frown.
I leaned over, blocking some of the rain, and swallowed dryly, my voice hoarse. “Just feed. You’ll be okay.”
She stared at me a bit longer, eyes blinking in the rain. Questioning. Waiting. And at last trusting.
She bit.
Hard.
The pain shocked me to my marrow, and considering I’d already been shot and beat up, that was saying something. There was a pull there, a feeling I hadn’t prepared for, yanking something more than blood from me.
Of course, that might’ve been the blood loss because I was fading fast.
My shoulders turned inward. Eyes drifted closed. Head spun but it was getting quieter by the second. I kept my arm locked there even as I lost feeling in it, even when my whole left side seemed to fall asleep, and despite being punched, kicked in the head, chipping bone, and losing a ridiculous amount of blood...
For once in my goddamn existence, I felt a measure of peace.
I slumped to the side and was gone before my head reached the muddy ground.