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The fairy advanced, fury tightening her features, as I moved backward into the sanctuary. If we were going to fight, I wanted more room to do it.
“You won’t win this,” she said, with what sounded like deep-felt loathing. “Bloodletters never do. Not when we’re involved.”
She stepped forward, tried a right cross. I bobbed to avoid it, then turned into a crescent kick that she met with a high-handed block.
Bone met bone and sent pain ringing up my shin. But the monster didn’t mind pain. Pain was proof of life, of existence. A reminder that itwas, even if it was trapped inside me.
“You’ve got some skills,” she said, advancing again. She was a sturdy woman with pale skin, dark hair in a sleek bun, and brown eyes. Barrel-chested and strong, she put some force behind her blocks. “But so do we. And we need it more.”
“Need what?”
“Our lives back. Our kingdom back. We’ve been under your thumb too long.”
By “kingdom,” I assumed she meant the green land.
“How are you under our thumb?” I asked, stepping backward. She was moving me closer to the wall, and I was fine with letting her believe she was controlling my retreat.
“Bloodletters rule Chicago,” she said, a corner of her mouth lifting.
“Humans rule Chicago. Mayor, city council, population.”
“They’re manipulated by vampires. Controlled by bloodletters.”
“That’s absolutely incorrect.” If it had been true, I’d be giving Yuen directions, not the other way around.
My back hit the wall, and her smile grew wider.
“A brave little vampire to walk in here, but not brave enough to fight?”
The anger that flooded me pushed the monster forward.Maybe I should give it a chance,I thought.Give it an opportunity to fight and play.
So I let the monster step into me, and I slid back inside and watched it happen.
I pivoted, pushed a foot against the wall, flipped backward over the fairy. She turned, her breath a shocked exhalation, and watched me land to face her again.
“Some skills,” I said, smiling fiercely. The monster moved forward with a right hook the fairy didn’t manage to avoid, then an uppercut to the jaw that snapped the fairy’s head back. She roared in pain, and it took her a moment to find her balance again.
The monster wasn’t interested in waiting, and advanced. A kick to move the fairy backward, to give the fairy her turn against the wall. And then the real work began.
Punches to the gut, the jaw. A kick to the ribs, then another. The fairy tried to get a foot between mine, to twist me up and bring me down, but I managed to stay on my feet. A jab that knocked her head back.
The fairy’s head bobbled, and she fell to her knees. But that didn’t stop the monster. Not even when the fairy’s eyes rolled back. One kick to the ribs, then two, then another.
“Elisa.”
Chicago didn’t belong to fairies or vampires. It belonged to the Egregore, and the fairies didn’t have a right to destroy it.
“Elisa. Stop!”
Theo’s hand gripped tightly around my arm, and he yanked me away. I stumbled, also not quite solid on my feet, and had to bend over, hands on my knees, to keep bile from rising.
“I’m all right,” I said, and held up a hand to keep him back. “Give me a minute.”
Go back,I willed it, demanded, but the monster fought me, waves of anger and aggression spearing forward. I closed my eyes, had to concentrate fiercely to keep my stomach from heaving and my mind in place. To take back control and keep it in my hands.
This was a price of the power. The monster didn’t like being pushed back down again, into the place where it had to question its own existence.
When the nausea passed, I stood up again, glanced back.
