Chapter 9
Three days after Mrs. Byrne’s funeral, I knew it was time to go back to my own apartment. Nothing else had happened. There’d been no more shadow monsters or supernatural things, and I was beginning to wonder if it had ever happened at all. Nate didn’t glow any more than normal, and his ax was on the wall where it had always been. The longer nothing happened, the longer I wondered if the streaky lights in my vision had just expanded into full-blown delusions.
If it hadn’t been for the fact that Mrs. B was still dead, and that Nate hadn’t ever contradicted that the events of that night were real, I’d really begin to wonder.
In fact, Nate was still pretty against me going back to my own apartment, even though he’d been sleeping his six-four ass on the couch, which had to be uncomfortable. But I’d imposed enough, and I hated sitting around his apartment all day while he went off to work.
I’d discovered he was an employee for an equestrian center outside of the city, where he worked as a stable manager, teaching children how to ride. My brain had almost exploded at the idea that the gruff, tattooed man who lived in the apartment below me had been out there teaching preschoolers how to ride ponies all these years. He also donated his time to helping people overcome their fear of horses, and ran a program for teens and adults with disabilities who wanted to ride and do animal husbandry.
Who freaking knew?
I slowly walked up to my apartment, wearing one of Nate’s oversized hoodies. I needed to get around to buying maternity clothes, because nothing I owned fit anymore. I was hooking my jean shorts together with hair elastics now. Even my comfiest sleep shirts just fit as regular shirts these days.
If I thought the nightmare creature had just been a delusion, one look at my apartment fixed that assumption. My furniture had been flipped, and the long scratch marks on the walls were straight out of a horror film. My heart thudded loudly in my ears, and I backed away.
I couldn’t stay here. I couldn’t.
Turning toward my room, I rushed in and grabbed some of my things. Clothes. Shoes. My laptop. The picture of my parents. Things that I needed until I was feeling stronger. Until Nate was with me and we could come and scrub the evil feeling from this apartment.
I needed an entire army of wiccans with a barrel of sage to smudge the fuck out of this apartment.
Stuffing everything in my bag, I slung it over my shoulder and got the hell out of dodge. I locked the door, like a lock had kept out the last thing that went bump in the night. Gripping the handrail, I waddled down the stairs, trying to think of ways to explain to Nate that I had to stay with him permanently, because my apartment had bad vibes, and Mrs. B’s apartment was too painful to live in. He was going to be stuck with me for a little longer.
“Excuse me?”
I spun around and gasped. I hadn’t even heard the woman on the stairs. She had a package in her hands and a tan outfit. Crap. I’d forgotten I started buying baby shit online.
She winced. “Sorry, I didn”t mean to scare you. The front door was open, and I thought that maybe this was an apartment complex. You didn’t have a package drop at your front door.”
I waved her away. “It’s fine. Just let me get the door.”
As I turned to open Nate’s door, the hairs on my neck stood up. I looked over my shoulder at the delivery woman, scanning her from head to toe. She was pretty, with honey-blonde hair and a wide smile. But there was something wrong; I knew it in my gut.
Stepping inside the doorway, I white-knuckled the heavy wooden front door. “Just leave it there, and I’ll get my husband to bring it in.”
Her smile never faltered. The uniform she was wearing looked too big, almost like it wasn’t made for her. “I can bring it in. It’s absolutely no problem,” she crooned at me, and her voice made goosebumps rise on my skin.
I was already shaking my head. Every instinct I had was screaming to get away. “It’s fine. Have a nice day.” I tried to shut the door, but the box was jammed inside.
“Let me in, Vessel,” the woman growled, her voice no longer sweet. I raced across the room and grabbed Nate’s ax.
And then promptly dropped it. That fucker was heavy. How did he swing it like it weighed nothing?
The woman was still on the other side of the doorway, and the pretty visage of a delivery driver peeled away, leaving something from my nightmares. She had huge, sunken eyes, and lips that were raw and red, like they’d been burned into her face. A long snake tail whipped behind her in agitation.
She screeched as she lunged at the doorway, but was propelled back by some unseen force.
“We’re coming for you, Vessel! You have to leave these wards eventually, and we’ll be waiting. You won’t always have the Celtic traitor with you.” She licked her lips. “And when you die, I’m going to eat the young from your stomach.”
I clutched my rounded belly protectively. “Fuck you!” I screamed at her. I ran into Nate’s room and hid in the closet, like that could stop her. I seemed to be protected here, but I couldn’t stand there and listen to her vitriol, and my heart was beating a million miles an hour.
Grabbing my phone from the front pocket of the hoodie, I dialed Nate’s number. He answered in two rings. “What’s wrong?” I could hear him puffing, like he was already running.
“There’s some kind of monster here. A snake woman. She—” I choked on the words. “She can’t get in, but she said she’s going to eat the babies. I’m so fucking scared, Nate.” I was trembling so hard, I dropped the phone. I could hear the snake monster taunting me from the doorway as I picked it back up.
“The fucking Lamia. Where are you right now?”
“In the closet in your room.”
I heard the door of his truck slam shut and the engine roar to life. “The apartment’s warded against the supernatural. Don’t move from there. I don’t care what she says.”
“Okay,” I whispered.
I could still hear the Lamia alternating between shouted obscenities to cajoling promises. “I’m going to burn you out of your hole like a boar hunt of old, Vessel. It does not matter to me if your flesh is cooked,” she sing-songed from the doorway.
I was breathing so heavily that my lungs were burning. “Did you hear that?” I whispered, hoping Nate was still on the other end of the line.
He growled. “It’s going to be okay. I’m almost home.” I could hear horns blaring in the background. “Three more minutes. You’ll be okay. She can’t get in there, and it would take longer than that for a fire to spread through my apartment. Get up and shut my bedroom door, then get back in the closet and shut that one too. Put clothes along the bottom, in case it gets smoky.”
Doing as he asked, I slid along the floor, blocking out the demon’s ranting vibrato voice. I repeated his instructions back to myself.
Shut the bedroom door. It would keep the fire from spreading into here.
Shut the closet door. That would keep the smoke out.
I climbed to the very back of the closet and buried myself beneath a pile of Nate’s clothes, like the scent of him could protect me from monsters and fire. I wrapped myself protectively around my stomach, the phone beside my head.
I could hear Nate’s hissed swear words as he drove through traffic. “Two minutes, Wren. Don’t move. It’ll be okay.”
Don’t move, he said. Where the hell would I even go? I rubbed my stomach soothingly, hoping the babies couldn’t feel my fear. “It’s okay. It’s okay.” I wasn’t sure if I was reassuring them—even though they were no bigger than a baby squirrel right now—or myself. Probably both.
“One minute,” Nate growled, and the banging outside the door stopped. I could smell smoke now, though it was faint. That crazy bitch had actually set Nate’s apartment on fire.
I wanted to be my own damn hero. I wanted to be the old Wren who would’ve gone out there fearlessly and fought off the crazy bitch. But it wasn’t just me in harm’s way now.
I could hear Nate’s roar of rage, and a quick scuffle, then silence. I heard the hiss of a fire extinguisher, then the door was pulled open.
“Wren!” Nate dug me out of my cocoon, pulling me easily to my feet and patting me down. “She fled as soon as I showed up. Are you okay?”
I was numb. My eyes were burning, but no tears came out, so maybe it was the smoke. “I think I need to go to Crete.”
Pulling back, he stared at me like I’d lost my mind. “What?”
“Amourgeles. I need to go to Crete.” I sighed and sunk into his chest, soaking in his strength like a vampire. “I’ll explain.”
And that’s how I found myself lying on Nate’s bed, my head on his chest, explaining about a crazy lady in the drive-thru and my upcoming trip to fucking Greece.
My life was a mess.