My Life From Hell (14 page)

“This is where I say good-night,” Kai said.

I blinked. “Oh.” I’d assumed he’d stay over. Just to sleep. My body ached to feel contact with him, to reaffirm our connection. We needed more bubbles of just the two of us—like we’d been back at his place. Time to breathe and be, without the world pushing in on us. But maybe he didn’t feel the same way?

My brain went into furious over-analyze mode.

Kai smiled gently, as if he could tell what I was thinking. “You need your sleep if you’re going to face Felicia. If I stay, that’s not going to happen.” His voice dropped to a low rumble there that did lovely shivery things to my insides.

“Ohhh,” I said in an entirely different tone of voice. One with waaay more enthusiasm. I gave him my best wide-eyed adorable look.
Kiss the cute girl,
I thought.

Kai tugged me closer. “That’s not gonna work on me,” he mumbled against my mouth.

“What about this?” I kissed him for all I was worth.

Hah hah. Putty. In. My. Hands.

Kissing Kai had beat out eating as my favorite activity.

“Evil wench,” he said several moments later, his eyes dark.

I smirked, feeling highly smug. This was teasing and flirty and positively normal.

“But one of us has to be noble enough to put what’s best for the battle first,” he said with a self-righteous expression and disappeared.

I laughed and reached for the door knob but before I could turn it, his arms grabbed me from behind and swung me around. Kai planted one last hotter-than-hell kiss on me that flared every single nerve ending I had to life, screaming “whee haw!” I actually staggered back when he released me.

Hot or feverish? Chemistry or overcompensation to try and pretend it’s all okay between you?
I refused to let my Persephone voice poison me with whispers.

“Sophie.”

I snapped back to attention, and Kai who now took his turn looking smug. “Sweet dreams, Goddess.” He disappeared again. This is what couples did. It was good. It was healthy.

So why where my hands trembling?

I entered the apartment and stopped, remembering that it was just Theo and me. “Hey.”

“Hey,” he said, his arms full of books. He began to stack them on a slender bookcase.

This sucked. I ran through a million things to say and discarded them all. “My behavior before was self-indulgent and childish. It won’t happen again.”

Theo shrugged and shelved another book. “It might. Felicia is a total bitch.”

I barked out startled laughter. Theo turned my way with a small smile, which made everything okay. “Love you, Rockman.”

He tilted his head toward my room. “Go to bed, Magoo.”

So I did. I barely managed to change into my pjs and crawl into bed before a deep but content fatigue stole over me, and I fell into much-needed sleep.

Eight

“Up and at ‘em, honeybunch,” Festos said cheerily on Sunday morning, crawling onto my bed to seat himself against my headboard. I was so dopey with sleep that it took me a second to remember where I was.

He looked disgustingly chirpy, all clean shaven, dressed in a green sweater and one of his endless pairs of skinny jeans. No fedora today though.

“Ugh,” I croaked, rubbing morning granola out of one eye. “What time is it?”

“Time to celebrate my sheer unmitigated genius.” He jammed his hand into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a silver ring, which he dropped into my palm.

I sat up, scootching against him. “Look at that.” I held the ring up to inspect it. “Necklace, bracelet, ring. I’ve got a whole jewelry set.”

The ring was really cool, with a wide, silver band. Attached to it was a flat silver plane, shaped like a shield, with a stylized sun engraved on it.

I slid the ring onto my middle finger and saw that the shield part went all the way up to my middle knuckle. “Tres funky.” I held it out to better admire it on my hand. “But how does said stylish accessory work?”

“Five minutes. Get dressed.”

“Can I eat?” I asked as I scrambled out of bed.

“No.” He left the room.

“I’m calling Amnesty International,” I called after him.

I threw my fabutastic red superpower T-shirt back on. First, because I knew Felicia would haaaate it. But mostly because I could do with any extra confidence boost I could get before facing her. Truth be told, I was really nervous about seeing my mother again. I’d always known she didn’t love me, but I had stupidly held out hope.

I didn’t anymore.

That just made it worse.

I pulled Kai’s jeans back on because, yeah, I liked wearing his clothes, and again, Felicia would despise our implied—
no, actual,
I corrected—closeness.

I made it to the living room in four minutes, partially to show off my punctual commitment to the cause, but mostly because I smelled bacon. The one reason I could never be a vegetarian.

Kai was already there, wearing jeans and a fitted red long-T. Tension simmered between him and Festos.

“We match,” I grinned, indicating our outfits, hoping to change the vibe.

Kai smiled as he held up a take out coffee cup. “Espresso?” he asked, waggling it.

“Gawd, I love you.”

“Doesn’t take much,” Theo said, entering the room, already dressed.

I shot back the espresso, my brain waking up as the hot caffeine hit. Heavenly.

Festos grabbed my hand. “Back to me and my brilliance …” He led me toward the door.

I glanced over my shoulder at Kai.

“Don’t worry, I’m coming,” he said.

“No.” I gestured vaguely with my free hand. “Bring bacon.”

Theo snorted his laughter.

Kai shook his head and caught up with us in the foyer, handing me a couple strips of super crispy bacon. I bit into a salty, crumbly piece and my eyes rolled back into my head in delight.

Festos opened the door to the cold, concrete stairwell. Both he and Kai tried to take the lead, jostling each other for position. Fee whacked Kai across the back of the knees with his cane. In anyone else, he would have shattered something. All Kai did was shove Festos hard enough into the cement wall to crack it.

I pushed between them. “What is your problem?” I hissed. I understood why Theo hated Kai. Kai’s kiss had messed up all of Theo’s plans. Plus Theo knew how Kai had catted around after Persephone’s supposed murder. But Festos and Kai seemed to have some kind of history that left massive chips on both their shoulders. Yet they bonded at the oddest moments.

“Well?” I demanded looking from one to the other.

Their expressions smoothed out and became totally unreadable. But they stopped behaving like bratty ten-year-olds, so I let it lie.

Festos only went as far as the third floor.

I shivered as we stopped in the middle of the large, unfinished, unheated space.

“Go for it,” he said.

My moss green light flew from my body to fill the room with a bright flash, then immediately dissipated. Before I had a chance to experience my usual utter exhaustion at using that much power, the ring glowed and a warmth poured through me.

I felt fine.

“Again,” Festos said.

I blasted another one. And another. I whirled on Festos excitedly. “Three! I did three in a row! That’s never happened. This is a freaking incredible superhero ring! How did you do it?”

“I’m brilliant.” He looked down his nose at me in mock haughty arrogance.

“Noted and agreed.” I bounced on my toes, still feeling the warmth tingling through my body. “I feel like I could go on forever.”

Festos shook his head. “More precisely, you could go on for another three minutes and thirty seconds. That’s our maximum time for you two to hold off the Pyrosim and Photokia. For me to cleanse the location and let you perform the ritual before Miss Dramabomb runs dry and hotshot is left on his own.”

“Worried I wouldn’t save you?” Kai asked him.

“Well, you are fickle when it comes to your loyalty,” Fee retorted.

I could practically feel the air heating up as the two of them inched closer to each other.

“Versus how you have no loyalty at all,” Kai sneered.

Them seemed to be fighting words, because, with that, all hell broke loose. Festos didn’t unleash his torrents of lava and fire. Kai didn’t strike with his toxic, pointed black light.

I almost could have understood that.

This was a plain old brawl. Primal and visceral and way more “I want to kill you with my bare hands and enjoy it.” The two of them lunged at each other and started pounding, landing brutal punches.

I ducked out of the way as Festos threw Kai about twenty feet, then barely scurried my butt to safety in a far corner as, with a roar, Kai raced back to deliver a roundhouse kick that should have shattered Fee’s ribs.

“Stop it!” I screamed. And was completely ignored. I tried shooting my vines out to wrap around them, but they were moving too fast, a speeding blur. I wasn’t quick enough to hold them.

Cement chips flew and concrete walls buckled.

It was terrifying. I’d shoved myself into a far corner, my back pressed as far as it could go against the wall, my arm shielding my eyes from flying debris. I hoped one of them wouldn’t fire the other my way and end up decapitating me in the process.

Just when my fears turned to anger, when I was sure that they were going to collapse the building and kill us all, there was a piercing shriek from somewhere above us.

We all froze. Festos and Kai were red-faced with exertion, cut up, and bloody. There was going to be some pretty ugly bruising.

I glanced up at the ceiling. With a chill, I recognized the voice. “Hannah!” I gasped. I ran upstairs in record time, flung the apartment door open and skidded to a stop inside the threshold, with my chest heaving.

Hannah stood there in her pajamas, her hand covering her mouth, her expression horrified. Pierce was beside her in clothes that looked thrown on. The look of concern on his face chilled me to the bone.

I followed their gaze and couldn’t believe what I saw. Cassie stood on the far side of the room, blood flowing from her eyes. She opened her mouth and, in a loud hollow voice, chanted, “Bring the fire, choke the spark, release the form.”

Over and over again.

Theo ran in from the bathroom with washcloths to staunch her bleeding. Cassie didn’t even blink as he touched her. Just continued her monotoned prophesying. “Bring the fire, choke the spark, release the form.”

“Fix her!” Hannah demanded of me.

I was rooted to the spot, with no idea what to do.

Festos and Kai ran in behind me. Fee’s eyes widened at the sight of Cassie’s condition, but all he said was, “We need to sedate her.” He headed for his First Aid kit in the kitchen, but Kai knew where he kept it. Kai shot past Fee, got it first, ripped it open, and rifled through it as he raced to Theo. Kai pulled out a small vial and held it up questioningly.

Festos nodded.

Kai tugged out the rubber stopper and waved it under Cassie’s nose. She fell into Kai’s arms in a heap, unconscious.

Silence.

No one moved. It was as if we were in a movie where the frame had been frozen. Then, with a lurch, everyone sprang back into action.

“Bedroom,” Festos said tersely, already leading the way. Theo and Pierce went with him, Kai in the rear with Cassie still unconscious in his arms.

Which left Hannah and me.

“What happened?” I asked.

“She lost it,” Hannah threw up her hands and started pacing. “Luckily she was on the phone with Anil. He freaked out and called me. Pierce and I went to collect her. She was babbling that sentence over and over again.” Hannah shook her head at me, radiating disappointment and worry.

I felt bad enough without Hannah’s supreme disapproval. That just made me testy. I jutted my chin out and met her eyes. “What’s with the look?”

“You know she’s tied to you. Maybe if you hadn’t been holed up here, maybe if you’d been paying a bit more attention—”