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She flapped around the room as she screeched, knocking things over and sweating through her makeup. She stumbled into a shelf and knocked over several crystal balls, one of which she lobbed at Hannah. My blonde friend dodged, and the ball crashed through the window, which only made the woman more hysterical.
I grabbed Hannah’s hand and pulled her toward the door. “Time to go!”
“But your face!”
“Bad sunburn.” I yanked her along behind me and had almost made it to the front door—
When the whole thing exploded inward in a hundred purple shards.
“Freeze! Right there!” A man dressed in black leveled a gun at my face. Several more people flanked him, all wearing black too.
“Shit. Back door!” I turned on my heel and ran as fast as I could, hopping over the sobbing Ophelia’s head as I went. A dart with a bright pink feather on the end impacted her shoulder as I passed.
At least they’re shooting darts and not bullets. But what’s in the darts?
Back door.
Jump the stairs.
Keep Hannah close.
Back fence.
“Jump it!” I shouted at her as we bolted for the fence.
She followed me over the rickety metal fencing, and we found ourselves in a parking lot behind a shabby grocery store. I booked it toward the receiving doors, keeping an ear on Hannah’s footsteps to make sure she stayed with me.
Just a few more feet, come on!
Hannah’s scream brought me up short. I hadn’t even heard the people come over the fence after us, but when I spun around to look, she was surrounded and on her way to the ground. One guy had a knee digging into her back, and a redheaded woman was struggling to control Hannah’s flailing arms.
“Oh, hell no!”
The guy who wasn’t pinning Hannah to the ground jerked his head up at my voice and leveled his dart gun at me. Fuck that. I smacked it out of the way as I charged full-force through him, headed for Hannah. I caught the man who was on top of her with a straight arm to the throat, and he tumbled just enough for her to curl her feet under her.
Someone was at my shoulder. I threw an elbow just as Hannah started pelting her assailant with her fists. We got a few solid hits in, which I would’ve been proud of if I hadn’t been too busy trying to fight down my rising panic. But I forgot about the damn redheaded woman until my arms were jerked behind me and my feet flew out to one side. I didn’t even have time to brace myself before the asphalt rose up to kiss my face. Hard.
“You’re under arrest,” the auburn-haired woman growled.
“For what? Walking while red? You of all people should know better than to profile like that,” I grunted breathlessly. My mouth was bleeding. It pissed me off.
“Shut up, demon.”
“Demon? Girl, I didn’t choose the red life, the red life chose me. Literally. I got snatched up and turned, nobody asked if I wanted this.” I got a little sassy when I was freaked out. It’d been a problem my whole life and had gotten me sent to the principal’s office more times than I could count in junior high and high school.
But alongside my fear and panic, there was something else. A wave of fresh, strange power was coursing through my body. I could feel it vibrating my tongue and buzzing around my eyes. The longer I talked, the stronger it got.
“All I want to do is go home. Switch a bunch of my classes to online maybe. Live out my life in peace. You should let me go do that. Especially since I’m pretty sure I left the stove on. You wouldn’t want to be responsible for a whole apartment block burning down, would you?”
I could feel her grip loosen. Damn, wherever this power rising up inside me had come from, it was some good shit.
“Yeah, there you go,” I crooned. “You know it’s the right thing to do.”
“It’s the right thing to do,” she muttered numbly.
“Yeah. That’s right. Just let me go.”
Her fingertips relaxed even more, and she made a soft, confused noise low in her throat.
