Chapter 12 Fighting to the Death, and Other Womanly Pursuits
FIGHTING TO THE DEATH, AND OTHER WOMANLY PURSUITS
ALEXIS
Sprinting, I veered left down a narrow opening between buildings.
Titans were on my heels, and guns were clutched in my hands.
I should leap away, but then Augustus would be right that I needed men to look after me.
These days, all I had was spite.
I’m a strong independent woman.
I jumped over rubble and skeletons. Stumbling, scraping against jagged bricks, I righted myself and ran faster down the alley.
The Titans screeched above, flapping gruesome wings.
Actually, I feel like men should be handling this.
“Move!” Nyx hissed with panic as her scales slid like she was looking up. “Faster.”
I skidded out from the safety of the alley. Arms pumping, I headed straight for the sheltered walls of the Colosseum.
A boom echoed and the ground shook.
Both Titans slammed down into the grass park that surrounded the ancient structure, directly in front of my path.
Their tattered wings slowly folded in.
What a nice day to die.
Stumbling back, I raised my weapons.
They stalked forward in a slow approach. Fluffy Jr. barked, the sound loud and harsh, as he once again stood in front of me defensively.
I unclicked the safeties.
“You need to get out of here,” Nyx hissed. “Right now.”
I nodded in agreement.
A light flashed brightly and a camera clicked.
Both Titans stopped moving, their heads tilted to the side—they focused on something off to my left. In tandem, they opened their mouths, razor teeth glinting. Saliva oozed as they licked their mangled lips with long black tongues.
I mentally focused on leaping to a safe destination.
“Dom—”
Someone whimpered.
I turned my head, heart dropping—I’d missed them in my blind spot.
A group of a dozen elderly men and women were frozen with horror, seated at concrete chess tables set up in the grassy park. One of them lowered a camera.
The Titans were zeroed in on the people, their intentions clear.
“Leap away, Alexis!” Nyx shouted. “Go—save yourself while you still can!”
I tipped my head back.
“Were the human casualties avoidable?” Persephone whispered in my ear.
I raised my guns and fired.
Bullets peppered the Titans’ flesh; they shrieked, but their attention remained locked on the group of people.
Arms wide, I jumped in front of the humans protectively.
“Pater noster, qui es in caelis,” someone cried out in Latin. Our Father, who art in Heaven.
The Titans prowled toward me, talons extended, mouths open.
Amen.
I raised both guns and kept firing.
Poppopopopopop.
Some bullets hit, some missed, but the monsters kept advancing, slow and steady. They were toying with their prey.
Ten feet away.
Poppopopopopop.
Five feet.
Poppopopopopop.
Two feet.
Poppop—Click. Click.
A ferocious growl echoed as Fluffy Jr. leapt forward, slamming into one of the Titans. The beast tried to shake him off, but my protector held on, his teeth locked around its throat.
It crumpled to the ground—Fluffy Jr. had ripped out its throat.
Jerkily, I reloaded both guns, raised my arms, and fired at the second screeching Titan.
In a blur of white fluff, Fluffy Jr. launched himself at the remaining Titan, but it was quicker, raising its forearm. He bit down on its arm.
I lowered my guns, unable to get a clear shot.
“Adveniat regnum tuum, fiat voluntas tua,” chanted frantically behind me. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.
Sobs became wails.
“Genuine question,” Nyx hissed. “Are we trying to die? Because if not, we should be running away right now!”
“I just need a plan,” I whispered.
Gritting my teeth, sweat burning my eyes, I bounced back and forth on my toes as the Titan spun, trying to dislodge my protector.
My thoughts raced desperately—a times x squared plus b times x plus c equals zero.
New plan: never think again.
Reciting the quadratic equation was not helping anyone.
I threw my guns down because the weapons were barely doing anything.
Try visualizing your success—a dead Titan morphed into the triangular function graph of Collatz conjecture.
I grabbed the hilts of the long daggers strapped to my thighs—the pair Kharon had insisted I wear—and pulled them both free.
All I had was poisonous blood and an unhealthy amount of theoretical math knowledge.
So be it.
I pointed both daggers at the Titan that was still on its feet, trying to shake off Fluffy Jr., and careening closer.
“Don’t you dare.” Nyx clicked her teeth. “Alexis, I have not raised you from a hatchling for you to throw it all away for some random humans.”
I bent my knees, weapons ready.
“Fine. You better survive.” Scales scraped—Nyx launched herself off my neck.
Bite marks bloomed across the Titan’s face as it spun, Fluffy Jr. gnawing on its arm.
Eyes narrowed, my fingers tingled. Closer.
The Titan turned as it struggled, its front wide open.
I leapt forward, stabbing both daggers into its blackened chest cavity. It shrieked and staggered.
I’m doing it!
I’m actually amazing at fighting!
A terrible slicing sensation exploded down my back—the Titan used its free arm to shred my spine.
There was no resistance.
I screamed.
Never mind, I’m not doing it.
“Alexis!” Nyx called.
Everything went fuzzy, the world blurring at the edges as I loosened my grip.
The monster spun.
All pain cut out, as if a switch had been flipped.
Eyes closing, I drifted into the peaceful dark, calm settling over my limbs.
“ALEXIS!” Nyx yelled.
My eyes shot open.
I was barely holding on to my daggers, bloody grip slipping and fingers burning, as the Titan stumbled, trying to shake all three of us off, its face purple as Nyx strangled it.
Repositioning my hold, I dug the knives deeper into its chest.
Fluffy Jr. growled louder, gnawing on its right arm, which was now partially hanging off below the elbow.
Good doggie.
Engaging my triceps, I hoisted my weight up, pushing on the hilts of my daggers for leverage—crunch—the blades ripped down from chest to navel.
Inky blood drenched my front as black organs unraveled between us.
My blood pooled with it.
Fresh pain exploded in my chest as I engaged my powers.
The Titan let out a strangled screech, talons falling away from my ruined back. Foam dribbled from its lips as it convulsed.
Mozart played the piano, fingers dancing, head flung back, eyes closed in ecstasy.
The monster careened backward into the grass—Fluffy Jr. and I fell forward with it.
In the grass, Fluffy Jr. went for its throat. I raised my daggers high, ruined back screaming in protest, as I slammed them down. Black gore sprayed as I stabbed again and again.
Pausing, I wiped blood from my face with my forearm.
The Titan was lifeless beneath me, a mangled mess of stab wounds. Its right arm was hanging at an angle, face swollen and covered in snake bites, mouth dripping with foam.
With shaking hands, I groped at my belt, fingers still tingling.
The pain in my back was slowly becoming a fire. The titanium cuffs wouldn’t unlatch. Tears streamed down my face, and it was getting harder to see as I fumbled with the cuffs.
Crunch.
Fluffy Jr. growled as he got to his feet beside me.
A few feet away, the other Titan’s head snapped back into place. It sat up, an empty ravaged cavity where its throat used to be.
No. No. No.
The Titan stood tall, blotting out the sky.
Wings unfurled wide.
I dropped the stupid cuffs and tried to stagger to my feet, groaning as my back throbbed with pain.
There was a split second—a flash of wings—darkness exploded.
Air whooshed and my stomach dropped, there was a horrible pressure on my arms, a fresh burning sensation streaked down my spine.
The Titan had slammed into me.
Two taloned hands were wrapped around my biceps. Its monstrous face hovered in front of mine as it held me up—and I realized we were shooting straight up into the air.
I screamed.
The Titan opened its mouth, emitting a raspy whistling noise as the muscles in its ruined neck contracted.
Fluffy Jr.’s barks grew distant. Nyx was down there with him, still wrapped around the fallen Titan.
My hair whipped against my face.
Mangled black wings whooshed as they pumped and we rushed past the top of the Colosseum, hurtling toward gray clouds.
I looked down, head lolling from the force.
People were crowded on the side of the street across from the park, peering up as if they’d all come out to watch me fight a Titan. Multiple cameras were pointed up at me.
The crowd became little dots as we flew higher.
My ears popped as the pressure and temperature plummeted.
The Titan squeezed its hands together, crushing me. There was no way to move, no way to infect it with my blood.
I wheezed as black spots filled my vision. Charlie, Helen, and Ceres were waiting for me to return to the villa.
The bowl of the Colosseum grew smaller.
There was nothing left. Last time I’d been trapped, I had the option to leap. Now there was nothing to do but— Wait. Could I?
My gut told me no, my injuries were too severe.
The Titan squeezed harder and my bones creaked as I screamed louder.
You’re dead anyway.
I focused on the concrete chess table in the middle of the park.
Might as well.
“Domus,” I shouted.
Everything went black.
We slammed down into the empty table—taloned hands released me and concrete broke beneath us.
Smoke was everywhere. Pain. The Colosseum once again towered above.
Chess pieces dug into my hands as I crawled blindly through the smoke. Coughing and slipping on blood, unimaginable agony scoured my spine.
Fluffy Jr. launched himself at the Titan as it rose beside me.
With unfocused vision, I pushed up to my feet.
The elderly gaped, huddled together in a tight circle.
“Get out of here!” I couldn’t hear my voice over the ringing in my left ear.
The humans remained frozen, crouched with fear around an elderly woman with short spiky white hair. “Lucia,” they cried out as they touched her red-covered skin. Blood.
There was a long slash across her chest. A chunk of concrete had sliced her.