Chapter Nine
It was surreal, answering phones all day for an insurance company when her friends were actively working to save the world. Liss chuckled as the elevator doors opened onto the ground floor of the suburban office building. All that insurance wouldn’t do diddly-squat if the Titans were unleashed to unseat God.
At least it gave her oodles of time to surf the Web for any possible helpful tidbits. And, for once, she thought she’d found something useful. She couldn’t wait to tell Zavier.
And the others, of course.
It was tempting to use the relocator ring to surprise him. But that would be needy. Or pressuring him. Neither was her preferred play. Although her overriding preference was, indeed, to hook up with him again…
She stopped at the glass doors to pull up her hood.
“Let me help with that,” said a voice from behind her. Male hands covered hers, tugging the fake fur–trimmed hood over her head.
Eww. What kind of moron still thought it was okay in this freaking century to touch a woman without permission? Liss turned to discover it was Clay. A low-level sleaze of a guy who’d hit on a different woman in the office every week for the eight weeks she’d been there.
Liss had been hoping that her long-term temp status would exempt her from his notice. But she wasn’t concerned. Her breasts had popped out at twelve. She had plenty of practice rejecting unwanted advances.
With all the sweetness of a loathsome Midori daiquiri, she said, “Thanks. It’s so kind of you to help the physically disabled.”
“Huh?”
“Mentally challenged?”
“What?”
“If you genuinely think I need any assistance putting up my hood, then you clearly believe that there’s some reason for that.” She opened the front door with her hip. Took that first icy hit of subzero air into her lungs with a wince, then headed for the bus stop. Liss had stayed late: both to cash in on a few extra bucks, but also to time her departure to the only-six-times-a-day bus arrival.
To her dismay, the dual crunch of snow indicated that Clay wasn’t giving up. “I’m not insulting you. I’m showing you how I take care of my ladies.”
“See? Right there? I don’t ever want to be lumped in as part of anyone’s group of ladies.” She shifted her purse to the center of her torso. It was a big one. Had to be prepared for office temp jobs with lunch, snacks, a tablet, the secondary protection charm Zavier had insisted she take, and the platform pumps she’d swapped out for sneakers to walk to the bus.
It also had room to hide a jagged-edged dagger.
“Let me take you for a drink.” He put a hand at the small of her back. It wasn’t much of a touch, through her big parka, but Liss still noticed it. This was a man on borrowed time.
But they’d both have to show up at the insurance company tomorrow. Be professional. Courteous. So she’d make one more attempt to turn him down politely.
“No, thanks. I have plans.”
Clay’s mouth took a hard turn downward. “Big night of wine, cheesecake, and Netflix?”
Hell, yes. Did he really think accusing her of being a cliché was the way into her panties?
Liss sidestepped to put more space between them. “It sounds like you meant that to be insulting. It’s not. Frankly, spending the night harvesting earthworms with my bare fingers sounds better than drinks with you. Because you’ve shown me zero respect.”
“You’ve got that backward. I’m about to teach you to respect me. My hand will be red by the end of it, but you’ll respect me. And you’ll be on your knees begging for more.”
Okay, that was no longer a questionable come-on.
It was harassment.
It was a threat.
It was go-time.
Liss widened her stance a bit. Bent her knees. “Leave me alone, Clay.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“I very much do.” She kicked out and up, right between his legs. It was the first in a series of moves Zavier had taught her and Maisy for self-defense.
Clay managed to lunge out of her path in time. “Bitch,” he snarled.
“You have no idea.” Luckily, there were more moves in her back pocket. She brought her foot down on his instep, sad that she’d changed into sneakers. Still, it bent a howling Clay in half. And him being in half put his nose right where it was simple to push upward with the heel of her hand.
Blood spurted onto the snow. “Leave me alone,” she panted.
“No way. You owe me now, you fucking tease.” Clay lunged for her, one fist already swinging toward her cheek.
Going against every instinct, Liss didn’t shy away. No, she followed Zavier’s instructions and leaned in closer.
Close enough to yank her dagger out of her purse, draw her arm backward, and in a smooth circle, plunged it toward Clay.
She assumed that the heavy wool coat would prevent any serious injury. Along with her lack of practice. Sure enough, Clay reeled away, but only a few drops of blood stained the belly of his dress shirt. She probably just grazed him. That had to be enough to scare him into leaving her alone, right?
“I’m not joking around,” Liss yelled. “Get out of here!”
“No fucking way I’m leaving without you.” Clay grabbed for her hair. Pulled hard enough to bring tears to her eyes and elicit a squeak of pain. Her scalp hurt, as did her neck as he twisted it.
That was when her fear pierced through her annoyance. Liss didn’t bother arguing with him anymore. She just kicked his shin. When Clay coiled up at the pain, she drove the dagger into his ass.
His scream hung in the empty parking lot. Suddenly, Zavier was there.
He must’ve kept his wings invisible because it looked like he fell from the sky. He grabbed Clay by the seat of his pants and rolled him like a bowling ball out onto the street.
Liss gaped at Zavier. “What are you doing here?”
“Are you kidding me?” he thundered. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Defending myself. Just like you taught me.”
Zavier plucked the dagger from her now-shaking fingers. “I’d ask where you got this, but I recognize it. You nabbed it from the armory at Metafora.”
“Yep.” Good thing, too.
He wiped the blood off it onto his black jeans. “Why? We expressly told you that weapons were off-limits.”
“Uh, hello?” She held an arm out to where Clay lay groaning in the middle of the empty street. “We live in a dangerous world. A girl’s got to protect herself.”
“I’m not even asking if you’re okay, because it’s obvious you kicked his ass.”
Liss smirked at that. “Damn right I did.” It felt 80 percent good, and 20 percent icky and too violent. But she was certain that Clay wouldn’t have stopped. She knew she had no other choice but to defend herself. And she hoped every time he winced sitting down, he’d remember that he’d brought it on himself. “So I repeat: why are you here?”
Zavier pointed to the familiar SUV she hadn’t noticed parked at the far side of the lot. “To escort you home. You should’ve called me yourself. We discussed that.”
“No, you spat out an order. I never fully agreed to it.” She wasn’t a little kid, needing to be shuttled around. “Plus, I was supposed to be driving myself today. Nobody ever expects their alternator to go out—except for the guarantee that it’ll strand you on the worst possible day.”
“Liss, I’m not a plastic surgeon. I don’t need you to schedule three months out and send a confirmation text.” Frustration sliced every word short.
They were putting her in the same position she’d been in with her parents: being the unwanted encumbrance that messed up everyone’s schedule. “I was fine,” she insisted.
With the toe of his boot, Zavier scuffed at the bloody smear across the snow. “Hardly.”
Such a smart-ass. “Okay, I was on the brink of not being fine, but then I handled it.”
“You stabbed a fucking civilian!”
“He deserved it.” Since his face had turned red and his eyebrows had pushed up to his scalp, Liss kept on talking. “I appreciate you zipping over. But it wasn’t necessary.”
“Stabbing a human isn’t a win. It’s not what we do.”
True. The Nephilim followed a code. They protected humans. They bent over backward never to hurt them. They were guardians: the Watchers of humanity.
Liss, however, was not under any obligation to follow their code. She had an even playing field. “It’s not what you do. Because you don’t punch down. It is, however, what I do to protect myself from a predatory jerk.”
Zavier squinted out at the street. Clay had rolled to his knees. He yelped as he stood, and then took off, away from them, at a limping jog. “What if he presses charges?”
“Not a possibility. He knows why I stabbed him. What he did to deserve it. And I’m not going to argue about that scumbag any longer. Now stop yelling at me. I had a traumatic five minutes there.”
“I’m not yelling.” Sure enough, his voice softened by 50 percent as he got to the last word.
Liss leveled a side-eye that would’ve made her ex-students proud. “You’re not quiet.”
“I don’t ever talk quietly. I’m Spanish, remember?” He gesticulated overhead. “We’re a loud, expressive people. I either mutter, or I yell.”
“Please. You talk to things . You croon to your sword when you clean it. You’re perfectly capable.” She shook back her hair. Now that her adrenaline was dropping, Liss didn’t have the energy for their usual bickering. Just like when he’d ranted at her the day of the potion stock-up and then disappeared, she couldn’t figure out what was going on with him. “To cut to the chase, I’m tired of being coddled.”
“Then stop needing—” Her icy fingers curved around his mouth, cutting him off. And the feel of his lips against her skin reminded her that this was the first time they’d been wholly alone since the whole sex adventure.
“Listen to me. I found something.” Liss indulgently dragged her fingers down his throat as she released his mouth.
“What?”
“Agree to stop yelling at me, and I’ll tell you.”
“Fine.” He put a hand at the small of her back. And this time, she thoroughly appreciated the guiding touch as he led her to the SUV. “What’s the big secret?”
Once she was seated, he fastened her seat belt and tucked her coat under her leg so it wouldn’t get caught in the door. Those simple gestures were so sweet, so thoughtful—in such stark contrast to Clay’s treatment of her—that tears unexpectedly welled in the corners of her eyes.
Liss managed to blink them away before he got into the driver’s seat. “I’ve been researching. Pretty much throwing darts at a zillion internet walls and seeing if anything sticks.”
“Yeah, we do that sometimes. And, sometimes, luck delivers.”
“Today it delivered an interesting historical tidbit. In World War II, witches helped protect England from a Nazi invasion by sea.”
Only because Liss was watching closely did she see that his hands white-knuckled on the wheel. “One, that’s a legend. Two, how did you find out about it?”
“Like you said, it’s a legend. Except we don’t live in an age where new legends are born so easily. People don’t believe anymore.”
“Not without proof,” he huffed in agreement.
“And yet, with no proof except for the absence of a Nazi invasion, there are repeated stories about Operation Cone of Power.”
“You found the name? Unbelievable.”
The man doth protest too much. She had to be on the right track. Gleefully, Liss wriggled as her seat heated. “When the same story gets repeated from so many different sources, it’s probably true.”
“It might have a kernel of truth to it.”
She stared at the brightly lit rows of strip malls and office buildings as they whizzed by, each with a mound of snow already dead-ending each parking lot. The view was ordinary. And her discovery was anything but . “On top of that, witches turned the Spanish Armada back from England in the sixteenth century. They kept Napoleon away, too.”
Zavier sighed. “Fine. Yes, it was real. What’s your point?”
Geez. He shouldn’t have even marginally obfuscated. Yes, she was human. But she was a part of their inner circle. Liss hadn’t realized there’d still be things the Nephilim were unwilling to share with her.
It stung.
Made her feel even more worthless.
Still, she wanted to make her point. “Why can’t our witches do the same thing now ?”
“I don’t follow.”
Had it truly not occurred to anyone? Ha! Score one for Team Human.
“We’re trying to stop the angels and demons from releasing the Titans. What if we come at it from the opposite direction? Shield Tartarus, create a barrier so that the Titans can’t get out and nothing else gets in?”
They’d passed three gas stations before Zavier deigned to grunt out a response. “That’s one option.”
Men. Even the half-angelic ones were reluctant to admit that a woman could out-think them. “Huh? Right now, it’s our only, and therefore best, option. If you can’t stop the coup, you can at least mitigate the consequences.”
“Fine. Talk to Aradia.”
“Me?”
“Yeah. The only ability you need for this task is talking. That’s your superpower.”
“I’m well aware that’s a compliment swaddled in an insult, but I’ll take it.”
“Find out if she knows how to work this—or knows someone who can. Lots of ’em, actually.”
She’d take the win. Her second in half an hour. But it wasn’t okay that he’d made her work so hard for it.
…
“You’re home late.” Maisy looked up from behind the refrigerator door. “I put the stew away already, but you can reheat a bowl.”
It shouldn’t rankle that her roommate hadn’t waited to have dinner together. They weren’t joined at the hip. Stew was perfectly fine being nuked. But…it did bother her. “I told you I’d be late. No car, remember?”
“Oh, that’s right. Sorry. I trained all afternoon. It uses a lot of energy, carefully incinerating evil charms. I was starving.” She pulled out the plate with the last slice of French silk pie.
“I’m starving, too,” Liss muttered, toeing off her shoes. And wondering if it would come off as bitchy if she suggested flipping for the pie slice.
Maisy’s red ponytail bobbed as she shook her head. “It isn’t the same. When I channel the First Light, that expends a ton of energy. Like running five marathons. I needed to eat, Liss.”
Her BFF wasn’t the only one with needs.
Liss needed to be able to walk out of work without being harassed. To be able to defend herself without being reprimanded for it. To not always be prioritized last behind people with more power. Or more strength. More talent. More fame.
Yep, that was veering toward a side tangent. Nevertheless, she was annoyed.
“I don’t think you would’ve turned to dust like after a Thanos snap if you’d waited half an hour. Nibble on some cheese next time.”
Maisy sat at the wooden table. “What’s your problem?”
“Nothing.” Liss banged open a cupboard for a bowl. “I apparently have zero problems compared to all you high-and-mighty paranormal beings. No problems worth mentioning. No ideas worth mentioning.”
Guess she had some pent-up emotions from the tussle with Clay and the argument with Zavier that needed expressing. But it was more than just a leftover bad mood. These were all valid complaints she’d been holding back for a long time.
“You’d better eat that cheese you mentioned. No time to wait for the stew to heat. You clearly need food. Maybe a nap. Maybe a swift hip-check away from that bad mood clinging to you like a staticky sock.” Then Maisy scooped up a huge bite of pie.
That was unacceptable. Maisy was a fellow woman—even if she did have some fancy powers. Women universally loathed being told that they were 1) in a bad mood and 2) should snap out of it.
After tonight, there’d be a new definition in Urban Dictionary for the phrase “letting it all hang out.” It’d just be a photo of Liss, at this exact moment, when she let go of any attempt at tact or courtesy and unleashed the nonstop frustration that had been germinating for the past six months.
She closed the fridge without retrieving the stew. She didn’t trust herself not to chuck it at the vintage maple syrup posters on the wall.
“There are days, occasions, when a bad mood is required. Inevitable. Today, my car wouldn’t start. So I was late, which means my paycheck will be docked for the hour I spent on the bus. An hour that I need to pay the several-hundred-dollars bill to fix said car.”
Maisy dragged the spoon through the piled-high layer of whipped cream. “I didn’t break your car. No need to snark at me.”
“Oh, isn’t there? I’ll just skip over how Gladys ate my lunch because she forgot hers and figured mine would do the trick.” Liss brandished her bandaged ring finger. “I’ll skip when I got a paper cut while filing—from a manila folder, which is far thicker and worse than a sheet of copy paper.”
“Drama queen much? Should I paint the walls black out of deference to your freaking paper cut?”
“I said I’ll skip over the snowballing sucky events of the day to get to the big parts. I found this really amazing thing that could help keep us safe from the Titans. Zavier wouldn’t even admit I was on the right track. He didn’t want to cop to admitting secrets to me.” And that had been a punch to her belly. He didn’t trust her enough. None of them did. Liss still couldn’t quite suck in a full breath as she contemplated it.
“He’s spent his whole life keeping secrets from humans. It can’t be easy to change such an ingrained habit.”
Maisy’s swift dismissal shocked her. “Do not even . If Rhys had done the same thing to you, you would’ve flipped out.”
“True. But our reactions don’t make their choices wrong.”
Liss stopped her agitated pacing. How could Maisy think that? “Whose side are you on?”
“I thought we were all on the same side?”
“Clearly not.” Liss ran a toe across the parquet floor. “See that line? All of you are on one side of it. I’m over here all by myself. The only human.”
“Uh, I’m a human.”
Not anymore. Not ever, really. They just hadn’t known that she’d been tapped to be the next Keeper of the Key to the gates of Hell’s worst prison. Hadn’t realized that as soon as she accepted the job, actual celestial power would flow through her.
“You’re a juiced-up version. You have powers. You have a special purpose. I have nothing.”
Maisy shoved the pie plate to the side and pulled over the stack of mail. She flipped through it quickly. When done, she looked up, innocence burning from those green and brown ringed pupils. “Just like I thought. My gilt-edged invitation to your pity party hasn’t arrived yet.”
“I’m entitled.” Liss gripped the ladderback chair until the wood frame numbed at least a solid few inches of her hand. “It was supposed to be you and me against the world. Together.”
“None of that has changed.”
Oh, every-freaking-thing had changed.
“You were supposed to be my safe haven. When the students ganged up on us. In our old, shitty apartment. Here, in these way better digs that I can’t entirely enjoy because I know they come with strings.”
Maisy’s chair squeaked across the floor as she leapt to her feet. “What strings? The house is paid off. We’re both living here, rent-free. I don’t expect anything in return. I’ve never made you feel like you’re out if you make a single misstep. This house is yours as much as it is mine. I wrote that into my will the night before I went to Hell, to safeguard you. What more can I do to prove it to you?”
If only it were that simple.
“The strings are this otherworldly mess that you dragged me into. Now I’m stabbing random men because of you.”
“You did what ?”
“This slimeball at work, Clay, followed me out. He hit on me and wouldn’t take no for an answer. So I stabbed him.”
“How is that at all my fault?” Maisy’s voice both tripled in volume and seemed to end three octaves higher than normal. “Is he alive?”
“Probably.” No doubt he had his phone. He’d been walking, so clearly he was capable of calling 911—or a friend, if he was too embarrassed.
“I never told you to stab anyone. The guys, in fact, expressly ordered us to stay away from all the sharp, pointy things in the Armory.”
“Tough. I now live in a world where I’m aware that I could be killed—by a demon, by an angelic reckoning—any second. That the danger is inherent and constant. I refuse to not be prepared. Which is why I was able to fend off Clay. But ignorance really was bliss.”
Maisy rocked back on her heels, crossing her arms. “You know what? Maybe Master Caraxis has the contacts to put you in touch with the original Eve. The two of you can form a club to whine about how you wish you’d fucking listened to everyone, but didn’t, and now life’s eight million times harder.”
That was bitchy.
Liss and Maisy never fought—not seriously like this. They barely bickered over who could use the bathroom first. Their friendship stretched back so many years that they’d learned to let the little stuff go in order to be strong besties and roommates. This fight was…
…well, it was awful.
Liss thumped her hands over her sternum. “I didn’t ask for any of this.”
“Well, neither did I.”
Now they were both yelling.
“I’m scared. All the time. I’m the only one of us who can’t do anything substantive to protect myself.”
“And you’re blaming me for that.” Maisy shoved at the pie plate so it slid almost off the table. The fork careened over onto the floor. “I can’t fix it. I can’t make you unlearn everything you know. I can’t make you feel any safer. So since I can’t do anything, I’ll leave you alone. Enjoy the pie.”
She grabbed her keys and coat from the hook and stormed out.
Which meant they weren’t going to properly finish and resolve their fight. One more thing left unfixed.
One more helping of absolute crap on Liss’s shitty day.
Her appetite was gone. How could she eat with this giant boulder of unresolved hurt and bitterness filling her stomach?
And tomorrow they were headed to the tournament at the Nephilim stronghold. Where all the warriors would look at her with pity for being so weak. So useless. So Liss couldn’t even give herself a little distance from the people yelling at her.
Her world was falling apart. Friendships crumbling.
If there was a potion to fix that, well, Liss sure as hell wouldn’t know about it.