Chapter 13 #2
I’m nothing special, just a witch/coffee shop manager with no real aspirations.
The fact that what feels like only a few days ago I was contemplating my life and how meaningless it all seemed to be and today…boom. Fucking supernaturals!
But along with the fun information, there’s a lot of very not-fun stuff floating around, and it’s all based around little ol’ me.
“Hey, shop’s open and nobody’s downstairs.” The door at the top of the stairs opens and in walks another of my stalkers. May as well have a party and invite them all…if the whole two of them weren’t already here.
Beside me, Hack growls and stands, his body blocking me from the professor.
There’s a tight, hard ass in front of me, not that I’m complaining, because as much as Hack pisses me off, there's no denying the perfect slant of his nose or the piercing snare of his green eyes…
or the perfect roundness of those cheeks…
“You’ve been warned once already, vermin.”
“Oh, big bad demon beat me up and now I’m shaking in my expensive shoes.” I can’t see the professor, but I can hear him loud and clear. And he sounds so wrong. If I hadn’t just seen him, I would never believe it’s him on the other side of this mountain of flesh blocking my view.
“Hold up, did everyone know about demons and shit except for me? What are you, Professor, a werewolf?” I lean to the side so I can see him around Hack’s hulk, noting the blacked eyes and the obvious broken nose.
“Don’t insult me. Those flea-ridden things couldn’t come close to me.”
I’m taken aback by the professor’s reply, because what the actual fuck?
“I suggest you leave. Now. You are not welcome here.” Hack is barely holding himself together. It’s like there’s an electric charge coming off him and flying straight into me. His fists are clenched and he’s carefully trying to maneuver me to stay behind him.
“Why do you smell funny?” Danika is scrunching her nose up just before she yells and holds her head in her hands, as if she’s in excruciating pain.
“What did you do to her?” Hack isn’t moving away from his protective stance over me, but it’s becoming more and more obvious that he wants to. His muscles are twitching in anticipation of a fight, no doubt.
“Actually…nothing.” The professor snickers, like a real-life evil villain. “Yet.”
All Hell breaks loose and the apartment is suddenly filled with the impossible.
But obviously not impossible because they’re here, in our apartment.
Three beautiful women burst through the door, their bottom halves transforming into the bodies of colorful snakes and their reptilian eyes bulging with hatred.
Each of their faces crease as scales appear across their foreheads and cheekbones, creeping down their noses that seem to collapse in on themselves and form two slits.
Sharp teeth gleam from their once beautiful mouths, with some kind of green liquid dripping from the ends.
These snake women are joined by floating beings, several with long silver hair, others with long muted-red hair. Dark-gray billowing dresses adorn their willowy frames and I scramble to get to Danika on the other side of the couch.
“Danika!” Her head is still in her hands and her yelling is being drowned out by a growing scream ringing through the apartment.
She’s shaking when I get to her, but I can’t hold her like I want to because the screaming intensifies and I have to cover my ears to block it out as best I can. Instead, I kind of throw myself over her to protect her.
My gaze snaps to where Trina was sitting on the armchair and I notice she’s no longer there. She’s up, eyes closed, lips moving and powerful bursts of air pushing back the onslaught of whatever the fuck is going on.
As for Hack, he hasn’t moved from his position in front of the couch, acting as a barrier and protecting both me and Danika. Vines grow from his wrists or palms and wrap around the floating, screeching things, tearing them to pieces with an ease that should scare me.
Squelching sounds join the wails and thuds, but none of the beings get close enough to even touch us, thanks to my protector. With vines upon vines weaving around the apartment, ripping apart bodies, everything blurs into a stream of blacks, grays, greens and reds.
It’s all happening so quickly, I have no idea what to do or how I can help.
“Demon, behind the girls!” The yell comes from Trina, who pushes her hand forward and another gust of air shoots out, flying over my head.
Hack turns and more vines wave around, gripping the half-snake woman who was trying to creep up behind us. One of the vines wraps around her neck, pulling her head clean off before throwing it at one of the screaming beings.
The sight makes me gag, but I hold it in because Danika would kick my ass for puking in her hair where I’m still crouched over her on the couch.
She’s shivering beneath me, frozen in a state of whatever the professor did to her when she first yelled.
Although, some of the shivering could be me, or more of a tremble, because this is all kinds of fucked up.
I chance looking around, only to find that the screeching beings have thinned out and there are only two of the snake-women left.
Shit!
“Trina!” I shoot off the couch and around Hack as the blue-green snake woman wraps her tail around Trina’s legs and flips her into the air.
Time slows as she turns once, twice, before a frosted shield of some kind surrounds her body as she falls.
The shield cracks on impact, but Trina seems to be okay and manages to stand.
A new scream from behind me has me turning back again. The orangey-red snake woman has Danika wrapped in her tail and is slithering toward the exit.
My heart leaps to my throat but I yell as loud as I can anyway. “No!” I run toward her, tripping over something slimy and falling, scraping my hand on what looks like the sharp edge of a broken bone.
Hack is on me in seconds, his vines still whipping around and decapitating the leftover beings around us as he kneels beside me.
“Stay down, Satapti, you don’t have any powers yet, you can’t help.”
A chilling scream, unlike any of the others, pierces through the apartment, sending a horrible jolt through my bones, and I sit up. The room empties quicker than they arrived and I scan the apartment.
Danika is gone.
Trina is lying on the floor.
Shoving Hack out of my way, I crawl toward Trina, praying to the goddess that a trip to the hospital will fix the blood pouring from her thigh. I fight the overwhelming urge to hyperventilate and hold back the brewing tears because they won’t do me any good, and they certainly can’t save Trina.
When I reach her, my hands and legs are covered in sticky substances, likely blood and guts, and there are a few cuts on my palm from the sharp edges of all the broken shit.
She’s not moving. Her body is still, like a block of ice, and the green goo from the snake-women surrounds two puncture wounds in her neck, but her eyes…her eyes shift to look at me just as a lone tear falls from the corner.
A weight falls over me and I know it’s Hack but I can’t give him my attention right now. My heart is breaking.
“Lamia venom. They’ve paralyzed her.”
I barely take in what he’s telling me, but somewhere in my mind it processes one crazy piece of information at a time. He doesn’t try to move me or shield me from what’s happening, instead, he’s just here, beside me as I get semi-comfortable and grip Trina’s hand.
“Can we save her?” I don’t move my head when I ask the question. He’s the only one who can answer me so it’s obvious who I’m speaking to.
“No. The venom works quickly. Paralyses the host’s body before doing the same to their organs.” He’s informative, and as much as I don’t like it, I appreciate his honesty.
More tears fall freely down Trina’s cheeks, matched by my own as I place my hand in hers. I give a gentle squeeze, like she’s made of fragile glass, watching as the time between her breaths gets longer, the intake of air shorter, and her skin pales with every second that passes.
Seconds that feel like hours.
I keep blinking to stop more tears from free falling because I want Trina to remember how strong she helped me to become. I can and will be strong for her now.
I don’t know how long we sit here, in this position on the floor, but I’m not moving. I start counting in my head between her breaths, adding at least two new numbers with each one.
Until the numbers just keep coming. There’s no new breath. No restarting from the beginning.
Just…nothing.
Trina’s beautiful face blurs and my chin wobbles, all sound fades and my head begins to pound as my insides crack. I can no longer hold back the roar of emotion flowing through me and I cry out, collapsing over her and holding her so tight, I never want to let go.
Today, two things that mean the world to me are…gone.
I need to figure out how, why, and where the fuck my best friend has been taken.