Chapter 12 – Empusa #2
“I don’t think you have any information I need.” I inch closer to the edge of his burnt circle.
“Nothing? Not even about your mother?”
I feel every muscle in my body tense. “What do you know?”
He grins, and it’s fucking creepy. “Come closer, and I’ll tell you.”
Conley’s hand is suddenly around my wrist.
I look at the phoenix. “Do you honestly think I’m that foolish?” Then, my focus is on the monster once more. “I don’t care what you know or don’t know, I’m here to do a job. To kill the creature causing so much trouble in this town.”
“Kill?” Ceuthonymus laughs. “Oh, child, I kill, not the other way around.”
Charm growls low in her throat.
“Charm,” I command, and point to the woods behind me.
The dog hesitates, then slowly moves backward and ducks behind a tree. I can see her there in the shadows, but she stays put.
Which I’m grateful for. This guy isn’t going to go down without a fight.
“Monster,” Conley says, his voice rising, “I hope you’re ready to return to the Underworld because that’s where you’re going.”
“Go ahead, phoenix, show me what you can do.”
To my shock, the phoenix pushes off from the earth beside me and launches into the air. Ceuthonymus’s terrible grin widens, and he lifts a hand.
And I know how this will end. A handful of tiny moments come back to me from my childhood. Of when the guards would take me down those dark halls and subject me to the monsters in their cells. Of the times they took a misbehaving prisoner and threw them in that big cell deep in the prisons.
There, a terrible creature was kept. One with skin the color and texture of tar, with poxes oozing with an oily substance and eyes that burned of lava. Smoke would rise from his lips when he spoke, and they would shove a prisoner into his cell.
Where Ceuthonymus would burn them alive.
They would force me to sit there and watch as he charred them, laughter bubbling from his throat.
And it took so little effort from him. A hand pointed. A small touch. Anything.
As I look from him to Conley, it all hits me at once, and I’m scared out of my damned mind. I’m running before I know what I’m doing, watching as the lava bubbles from Ceuthonymus’s fingertip, moving through the air like a nightmare.
Black soot rises from my boots as I run across the burned space.
Conley’s gaze is focused on his opponent, but as I glance at him, I see utter confidence in his face as he watches the lava almost swimming through the air heading toward him.
It hurts my heart. The phoenix might be immune to fire, but lava isn’t fire.
I doubt anyone can withstand the heat that Ceuthonymus would bring.
And then my phoenix will be dead.
I’m running, running faster than I’ve ever run in my life, but it’s still not enough. I’m ready to launch myself at that bastard Ceuthonymus, yet I know deep down I’ll never make it. The lava is closing in on Conley, just as he’s closing in on it.
So I do the only thing I can think of: I leap.
But not at Ceuthonymus, at Conley. I slam into the phoenix, who is caught completely off guard, and then I feel the sting of the lava on my back.
The pain the lava brings is like nothing I’ve ever experienced in my life.
A scream tears from my lips, and I’m sure I’ll be all-consumed by the power of the creature, smashing into ash, before I even hit the ground.
We crash into the earth, tumbling in a pile of limbs.
I barely feel the impact, because I’m already scrambling to my feet, tears stinging my eyes as the skin of my back pulls and stretches against the burn. But I face the creature, knowing that this thing isn’t over. That this is the moment he’ll finish the job.
No one escapes Ceuthonymus.
But he’s gone.
I stare in disbelief. My mother had told me the stories about Ceuthonymus.
He was worse than any serial killer. He used his powers, not just to murder innocent people, but to ensure their deaths were slow and painful.
As far as my mother knew, once he chose a target, they were done for.
He never showed mercy. He never backed down.
And now, he’s gone.
It makes no sense.
“Em! Em!” Conley is there beside me, grabbing my arms.
My gaze goes to him as I fight my panic. “Where is he? He’s gone!”
“It doesn’t matter. Your back! Shit! Your back!”
I shake my head and try to go where I’d seen Ceuthonymus last, but Conley keeps me where I am. “We need to get you help.”
“No, we need to kill the monster. You can never make an enemy and leave them behind or you’ll spend your life afraid.”
“Em!”
I finally look at him. His hazel eyes are horrified. Whatever my back looks like, it must be bad. “We need to take care of your injury. Between your back and hitting the ground so hard…”
And then, it hits me. “The baby!”
His eyes widen. “Baby?”
I’m shaking, and I look down at my stomach, stepping away from him. How did I hit the ground? Was it on my stomach? Would the burn hurt my child? What the hell was I thinking? I’d gone into hunter mode, protection mode, when I should have been protecting my unborn baby.
“I need to see a doctor. I need to see Leo!”
He nods and awkwardly tries to hold me without touching my back. It’s hard, and I have to bite back a scream of pain when he brushes the sensitive skin, but he manages to get me into the air.
“Wait! Charm!”
“Who’s Charm?” he asks, and he sounds panicked.
“My dog.”
He looks at me like I’m crazy, but he takes me to Charm. And then, I’m carrying her, and he’s carrying me.
“My car is that way.” I point.
Conley laughs. “I’m not taking you to your car.”
“Then to where?” I ask, confused.
“To the others. They’ll know what to do.”
And for some reason, his words make me nervous. What in the hell will these big men do when they realize I’m carrying one of their children? And that I’m a monster?
I guess I’d be finding out.