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She paused her dancing to gaze at me. Her nose wrinkled in disgust and she took a step closer. My breath caught in my lungs as I waited for her to respond. She had to know my end game. It was just a matter of time before she sicced her feral dogs on me.
“You’re probably right.” She raised her arms above her and began to sway again. “He’ll want to show the Nephilim the error of their ways. You!” Pointing to the nearest feral, a woman with flaming red hair and pale skin. “Call back the troops. Keep them ready for my command. We’re off to release their master.
”
The feral snapped its teeth and screeched before sprinting off in the direction of the manor. I breathed a heavy sigh of relief. It wasn’t much, but at least this would give the Nephilim a chance to regroup. I hoped the casualty numbers were low. The thought of Manuel’s lifeless body laying on that field made me want to cry.
“Come.” Elizabeth held out a hand. “Let’s do this. Together.”
I reached out and took her tiny hand in mine. A voice inside me told me that I needed to kill her here and now. I might not get the chance again when we got to the Hell Gate. My free hand inched toward the dagger at my belt. This would take all my training and all my concentration. Killing a feral was one thing, but a deceiver was a whole other boat. Few Nephilim lived to talk about it. I’d already killed one. Two might be pushing my luck.
My fingers closed around the hilt of my dagger. This was it. I had to kill her.
Just as I began to yank the blade from its sheath, a shot rang out through the woods. Elizabeth lurched forward, taking me down with her. We landed in a tangled heap among the leaves and dirt. Scrambling to my back, I looked up to see who’d found us. With surprise, I stared at the gray-haired woman who stood above us, a shotgun held tight in her hands.
It was Granny.
“Elizabeth Quinn Redding, I brought you into this world.” She cocked her shotgun in one fluid motion and aimed it on the snarling woman sitting next to me. “I can take you out of it.”
Chapter Eighteen
Elizabeth smoothed down the front of her shirt, brushing off pine needles and little specks of dirt. Slowly, but surely, she picked herself off the ground. A cocky grin lingered on her mouth as she regarded Granny and the shotgun in her hands.
“Hello to you, too, mother.”
She twisted and flexed her back. From my vantage point on the ground, I could see the bloody wound right between her shoulder blades. Little shotgun pellets rained from the tattered shirt as her body began to heal itself.
“Elizabeth Quinn, I’m warning you.” Granny blew a strand of hair out of her face and grimaced. “One wrong move and I’ll annihilate you.”
I began to push myself up and she swung the shotgun in my direction.
“That goes for you, too, child. I’m taking you both back to the manor, where I expect they’ll execute you on the spot.”
My lips parted, ready to explain to Granny the mistake she’d made, but I quickly swallowed down my retort. Granny would never believe me. She’d dance on my grave as soon as they buried me six-foot under. Besides, I couldn’t give up my act with Elizabeth. Not yet. Not until I had slide my dagger into her beating heart.
“You’re making a big mistake.” Elizabeth leaned casually on the boulder behind us.
“My only mistake was in keeping you.” Granny sucked in her cheeks. “I should’ve left you behind with those monstrous parents of mine. They would’ve sold you off for marriage at the age of fourteen, too, and we never would’ve gotten into this predicament. Look at what my softness led me to. That’s a lesson in life if I ever did hear one.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Don’t you ever get tired of hearing yourself talk? I know I did.”
“Maybe if you’d have listened a little harder, you wouldn’t have gone off and become a whore for the devil.”
Hissing, Elizabeth leaned forward. “You know who’s to blame for little Miss Elizabeth Quinn running off. Don’t think it’s the brown-eyed innocent little girl you see in front of you. I have her memories. I have her history. You have no one to blame but yourself.”
Granny’s face crumbled into a mask of pain. For the first time in my life, she faltered and swayed in front of my eyes. Her finger slipped from the trigger and the barrel lowered just the slightest. Elizabeth grinned, triumph clear in her rosy cheeks. With a snap of her fingers, three ferals sprang from the forest.
They surrounded her in an instant. Swinging wildly, she blasted the shotgun off. It hit the first feral smack dab in the chest. Shock crossed its face just moments before it burst into a cloud of smoke. Granny must’ve had her shotgun pellets coated in blessed silver. It was the only way to kill a demon. The remaining two ferals snarled in anger.
“Grab her,” Elizabeth ordered. She held her hand out in front of me, as if to keep me from charging into the fray.
I watched with morbid curiosity. Part of me wanted the ferals to take her out. Extinguish her from this Earth. She’d made my life Hell on Earth and tried to end it as well. I couldn’t help wishing she was dead. But, another part of me wanted her to win and prove to Elizabeth that she was more than just an old haggard woman. Wipe that smile off of my mother’s evil face.
The ferals managed to snatch the shotgun from Granny’s vice-like grip. They clawed at her back, leaving harsh red trails of blood across her flannel shirt. She grimaced and groaned as they forced her down to her knees, but never cried out in pain. The ferals kept their claws at their ready and pulled back on her mane of gray hair to expose her neck. One wrong move, and they’d rip open her throat. I had no doubt they’d jump on the opportunity.
“Finally.” Elizabeth strode forward, her head held high. “The great Ethel Redding is in my hands. How good it feels to be on the giving end of misery for once.”
Granny gave a coarse laugh. “Girl, you’ve been giving me misery since before you were born.”
