"What is it you want?"
"The same thing everyone wants. Your blood." Her fingers wiggled at me impatiently. "It'll be over before you know it, just come with me."
My eyes locked on her outstretched hand. I studied the curvature of her fingers, the slender black nails sharpened to small points at the top. Just at the peak, a fleck of dried blood clung to a single one. I thought of my grandfather and grandmother, fighting off the woman before me, her nails slashing through skin and muscle and veins, their blood forever on her hands.
I exploded.
Fire expelled from my body, a sheet of flame arcing down the alleyway. I could hear the woman curse before exploding into smoke the exact same time I raced to make my exit. Kicking several piles of trash behind me, I ran down the opposite end, phone locked tight in my hand.
As soon as I had darted down another alley, I brought the phone back up to my ear. "Jayson, are you still there?"
"What the hell is going on?" He screamed on the other end. "Who the heck was that and why the hell was she talking about your blood?"
"I think she's an unhinged mental patient," I lied between breaths, running through the darker end of an alley. "Listen, you can't come here, it's too dangerous." I had no idea how this woman was tracking me, but I had a good feeling that it had something to do with my blood.
Jayson started to angrily reply when a high-pitched whistle blew out all other sound around me. Something hot and sharp sliced across my cheek, taking the cell phone with it. I let out a scream of terror as the phone ricocheted at the far end of the wall. It burst into crunched glass and plastic fragments. Behind me, the woman laughed with sinister glee.
Rage built in my chest, hot spikes ready to release. My veins throbbed just beneath the skin. The time to run was over, I had to defend myself.
Scrapping my heels into the gravel, I turned around to face my captor. She grinned wickedly in relish of the challenge, releasing her nails to long black spikes as she leapt up to attack. My body reacted instinctively, the click of fire igniting over my palms in defense. I threw myself into a slide against the ground, bringing my hands in front of my face. The image of a flame-blower came to mind and I breathed, blowing off a burst of blue fire at the woman.
She shrieked and curled inward, collapsing onto the ground in a smoldering heap. I barely had time to scramble to my feet before she was on hers, charging at me once more. I twisted my body to the side, barely missing the talons of her hands. I pushed a jolt of fire at her, catching the end of her ponytail as she spun back, pressing herself to the wall opposite me and using it as a springboard to crouch against.
"You have a death-wish I see, Nephilim," she hissed, crawling up the wall like an insect. What ever spell that had been keeping her looking human had now faded, revealing her form. Her face was no longer the creamy pale perfection she'd sported before. Now it was scaly and deep murky green with sharp, jutting angles making up her cheeks and nose while providing deep hollows for her black eyes. Her lips had been pulled back across the lower half of her face, revealing multiple rows of jagged teeth, stained and discolored with a mix of blood and pus-like goo.
"Not nearly as badly as you do." I stepped back, keeping to the balls of my feet. I felt like a spring, ready to launch at any given moment. "Should have turned around before I decided to fight back."
She laughed, twisting her arms to impossible extensions, the scratching of her nails against the wall shudder worthy. "You won't say that when we finish slaughtering everyone you love. I pick my teeth with loved ones of Nephilim, ever since your filthy kind was created."
I could feel the pressure in my veins, each heartbeat making the sensation overwhelming. Pictures of Jayson, dangling in this creature's grasp like a petrified rag doll, brought my rage to a boil. If I didn't release it soon, someone was going to pay. I was going to lose control.
"Tell you what," I started, craning my neck while keeping my guard up. "I'll make you a deal. My blood for my life. You can leave with your life and do whatever you want with the blood. I leave and you never see me again."
She seemed to mull over the offering, twisting her head at me with curiosity. She scuttled down the wall a few feet, drooling as she got closer to me. "Can't do. Master promised me your flesh when they would be done with you." One of her eyes changed color to a bright chartreuse. "Delicacy, flesh is. Those two mortals were delicious, smelled just like you. Appetizer to the main meal."
"Shame I have to disappoint," I replied sarcastically. "But your days of murder are over."
She screeched and launched off the wall straight for me. I had a second to spin around and curl inward, squeezing my eyes tight. I forced all the energy through my back just as the alleyway exploded into a luminescent bath of sparkling light.
The effect was instant; It felt like an extension of my soul had been pulled from my body, wrapping me into a cocoon of pure energy. The woman had screamed in horror, leaping back from the light as fire laced up her limbs with merciless speed. I turned to face her and she lashed out, nails scrapping across my face and knocking me to the ground.
Against the vines of burning light, she stood on her two feet and took a third lunge for me. This time I couldn't fend her off. Teeth sunk into my abdomen, tearing into the side with my scar. The pain was beyond anything I'd ever felt, the sensation like hot screws driving into my flesh. One of my wings flung at her, knocking her off me while adding to the fire pressing upon her body.
I scrambled back to my feet and added distance between us. Crafting a fireball I launched it, watching the brilliant blue mesh with the white flames, burning her skin as far as bone. The creature screamed and writhed, flailing her melting limbs in a desperate attempt to reach me.
I stood there, watching the fire char her body as if I was from afar. Skin peeled back like curling paper, revealing layers of the same pus-like ooze that drooled from her mouth, while the layers of muscle and fat melted away. I stood there until nothing but bones remained. Until I was sure she was dead, never coming back. One reincarnated demon was enough for my lifetime.
I walked out of the alleyway and down the main streets, oblivious to anyone who chose to stare. Chances were my outside appearance reflected how I felt on the inside; bruised, weak, drained. The crystal wings and blue fire both had vanished, leaving a hollow feeling extending deep inside of me. My head swam with everything, repeating my alien actions. Kayden had never taught me any of those things, yet my body knew exactly what to do as if I had it built into my DNA.
Turning onto a new street, I spotted a diner I'd never seen before. Wedged perfectly between two fast food shops it looked quaint, lost in the frame of an older time. I walked inside and slid into a nearby booth, keeping my head down to avoid any more stares.
My ribs ached, and as I yanked away the fabric of my torn shirt I quickly understood why. A half-crescent shape of teeth marks framed my colored scar. The skin around it was inflamed and tender, probably infected. Oddly enough, not a single drop of blood escaped from the wound. It wasn't nearly as painful as Chase's assault had been on me, either. I wondered if there was more than one type of demon blood.
A waitress came over to the booth, a bored expression glued to her face until she took in my disheveled appearance. Her amber eyes enlarged in a mixture of horror and curiosity. "Dear God, are you dying?"
I let out a weak, low laugh. "Most likely. But until I do, can I get a cup of coffee?" I thought about it for a moment. "And use your phone?"
She gave a jerky nod of her head, dark brown curls bouncing. "You'll have to come to the counter to use the phone, it's corded. Just don't tell my boss. We're not supposed to let customers use it unless it's an emergency."
Biting back the urge to tell her that this definitely was an emergency, I forced a smile in place of my sarcastic remark. She turned to leave as I stood to follow her, but I stopped. Between the back half of her uniform swished a long, thin red tail coated in small sharp barbs. The second I blinked, it vanished. Maybe the poison was already taking effect.
My fingers ran over the countertop as the waitress came over with the phone and a cup of coffee. Setting both down, she gave me a small smile before heading over to the other end of the diner, taking an order of an elderly couple. I punched in Jayson's cell number, and he picked up on the first ring.
"Essallie?" He sounded shaken, and I could practically picture the look of worry on his face.
I took a deep, steadying breath. "Yes, it's me."
And just like that, he started spouting words. "What the hell is going on, Essie? Abigail told me you're fine, that your phone died and Kayden was on his way to get you and bring you home. You're not telling me something, I know it. I called the police up there and they're on the way to you house and-"
"Jayson."
"Essallie-"
"Jayson, listen to me." I closed my eyes, envisioning him as if he were right beside me. "I need you to go home. Please, don't drive here. I've lost too much, I can't bare to lose you too."
Silence stretched on the receiving end for over a minute before he started to plead. "Come home, Essallie. Please. I don't want to lose you, either. We can do this together, whatever it is. I meant it when I said you could tell me anything."
I covered the receiver and took in a shaky breath. He couldn't get involved in this, that much I knew. He'd only be fodder against the creatures searching for me.
Removing my hand from the speaker, I kept my voice low and calm. "Everything will be okay. Just please, go home. Be safe, keep close to Abigail. I promise to tell you as much as I can, soon."
"Essie, please," he begged, and I nearly shattered. But I held my ground. Seconds that felt like centuries ticked by as he realized I wasn't going to budge. "Remember what we used to tell each other before nightfall? Our little safe-keeping phrase?"
I let out a weak laugh, hot tears escaping from my eyes. "Batten the hatches, love you bunches."
"You remember. Don't ever forget, I love you bunches. Be safe."
"I'm so sorry, Jayson. Goodbye."
I placed the phone back on its base, staring at the receiver with a bitter and empty feeling filling my chest. My heart felt as if someone had struck it with a mallet, steamrolled it, and tossed it into a hole to be filled over in wet cement.
Tearing my eyes from the phone, I stole a quick glance around the diner. Most of the booths had been quickly filled during my phone call; groups of families and friends huddling over cups of coffee or hot chocolate topped with whipped cream, laughing and smiling. Sharp gusts of wind rushed into the room every time someone came in, filling the room with a mix of hot and cold air. My heart let out a painful beat. Until now those smiling faces could have been Jayson and I, two people blissfully unaware of the horrors lingering in the shadows of another world pressing against each other.
"Miss, mind if I put the phone back?"
I jerked my head back to the phone, a hand resting lightly above it. A busboy stood behind the counter, his face caught between a mixture of shock at my appearance and fear that I might snatch the phone. But it neither the boy nor the phone that left me staring. It was the purple horns, a pair of them protruding out of his forehead, that caught my eye. And this time when I blinked, they were still there.
"What
are
you?" I asked.
The boy looked taken aback. He laughed nervously, a hand reaching up to touch his horns reflexively before he controlled himself.
"I'm afraid I don't understand, Miss," he said.
My gaze turned harder, lips pressing into a thin smile as a light bulb turned on in my head. "I think you do." I brought my hands in front of my chest, keeping them just in his eyesight. Slowly I opened them, revealing a flicker of blue flames cupped inside. "You understand very well."
The container of dishes nearly slipped out of his hands and crashed to the floor. "Please don't do that- you'll scare them-"
"Like your horns would scare them all?" I extinguished the fire between my hands and traded for a small flame cradling my index fingernail. The flame lazily spread halfway down my finger until I stopped it. "I bet you'd hate to have everyone here know you're a demon of some sort. Or worse, that you talked to the dreaded half-angel everyone seems to hate."
The effect of my words was instantaneous. Color drained from his face, his eyes bugging out of their sockets with paranoia. "Please, what do you want?"
There was only one thing in life I wanted, and that was to be free of being half of some creature. But for the moment I'd settle for some information I was sure the little scaredy cat would cough up. "You answer some questions, I'll leave. Easy as that."
He nodded enthusiastically. "No problem, sure."
"Why are there so many supernatural creatures here?"
His eyes ran across the room quickly, no doubt making sure we were the only two in the conversation. "No offense, but you do know where we are, right?" When I shook my head, he started to chuckle. "This is a corner of the demon end of New York City. You find any mortals around here, least not a mortal who isn't tied to one of us."
"But, the groups-" I started to say, turning around for a moment to look at the people in the diner. Sure enough, the busboy was right; no one in the diner was human, all wore different levels of glamours. A collection of various colored scales, feathers, tentacles, and more stood out like large billboards against the bleak, common backdrop of the diner. People who I had originally thought to be normal were demons, faeries, and succubi.
"Okay, that takes care of that embarrassing question," I mumbled under my breath, turning back to face a grinning busboy. His horns had grown considerably since I had pointed them out. Now they stood about six inches off his forehead, purple leeching into his skin and filling in the corner creases of his eyes. "Next. Is there a... demon who dresses in all black? With a red heart on the shoulder?" I traced a heart on my right shoulder to show him.