If I give up now, if I let this fear take me, I’ll never get to hold Stevie in my arms again. Never get to tell her I’m in love with her…
“Do it,” Judgment whispers, looming over me like a specter.
“Fuck… you.” I push the staff away hard enough to throw him off balance. The pain leaks from my head like blood from a wound, and I’m on my feet again, ducking and bracing for a fight. But Judgment recovers faster than I do, and in a swift blur, he jabs the business end of the flaming staff straight into my chest.
My bare flesh melts clear to the bone, the pain like nothing I’ve ever endured. Tears spill unbidden as I gasp for air, but I refuse to go down on my knees again. Refuse to lower myself. Refuse to give in.
“Baz! Don’t you dare stop fighting!” Stevie shouts from downstairs, as if the little witch knows exactly what I need to hear right now. “I swear to fucking Goddess, if you don’t come down here in one piece, I’ll beat your ass myself! And I’m super pissed off right now, so don’t press your luck!”
“What she said!” Kirin shouts.
I crack a smile despite the searing pain, my heart damn near exploding in my chest.
That’s my fucking girl down there. My girl and my brother. And I’m not letting them anywhere near this shit…
Hope and rage twine inside me, giving me new life.
“You want some of this?” I glare at Judgment, ignoring the burn of his staff, the fury in his eyes. “Do your best, you son of a bitch. You don’t stand a chance. Not anymore.”
He lifts his staff again as if to strike, but the flame immediately flickers out, and so does the fire inside him. His face goes slack. His shoulders slump. He has to grip the doorframe to avoid falling on his ass.
I take a step toward him. Glare at him with everything I’ve got. “We’re done here.”
With a final, whispered threat, the monster before me vanishes.
The monster behind me, on the other hand, is still hanging around like a rash you just can’t cure.
I turn around to face her. Hope like hell I can figure out how to make her vanish too.
“Now that looks like it hurts,” Janelle coos, her eyes trailing down my wounded chest. She juts out her lips in a pathetic pout. “Let Mama kiss you and make you all better.”
She grabs my face, pushing up on her toes to mark me with her bright red mouth.
Her sick smile is all it takes.
The toxic rage inside me ignites.
With a roar torn from my darkest depths, I punch a hole in her chest and rip out her stone-cold heart. It’s as black as pitch, as shriveled as a raisin.
Her body hits the floor with a soft thud, blood seeping into the carpet beneath.
This was the mother of my friend. This was the woman who took me in after my own parents couldn’t be bothered.
But as I watch the black pool of her blood spreading out around her lifeless body, I’ve only got one thing to say to her.
“Rot in it, bitch.”
Fifteen
STEVIE
At first, all I can see is the blood.
His hands and arms are covered in it, a thick, wet layer glistening on his skin like garnets in the moonlight.
The rest of him comes into view slowly as he descends the stairs and walks toward me. The dark swoop of his hair. Childishly small pajama pants. The swagger, still there despite the obvious wounds.
And last, as the invisible energy shield drops away and he stops to stand before me, those smoldering red-brown eyes.
