Chapter 35 Sucrose of Doom
thirty-five
Sucrose of Doom
Gravel crunches around the bend of trees right when I finish placing my last surprise.
“Time?” I ask.
“Eleven-forty,” Ace replies in my left ear.
“Fucker was going to be early enough to do some of his own rigging,” I murmur as I stuff the last of the crystalized spheres in my coat pockets.
“He’s going to suspect you have, too,” he says.
“Well, there’s not shit he can do about it either way.”
I drop the backpack on the ground at my feet, trying to appear as if I’ve been waiting a while.
The black sedan pulls into the trailhead parking lot, which isn’t much more than five spots marked by chunks of logs.
They park in the last spot, farthest from me—as if they’re safe there.
The overhang in the trees provided a good opportunity for sabotage, and I took it.
However, their car is not my intended target.
It idles for a moment, and I glare at the dark windows. I decide to project through them anyway, hearing them chatter in real time.
“Thinks she stands a chance,” Lei mutters in Chinese.
“She won’t even know what hit her,” the goon in the front passenger seat says with a leer.
The back window rolls down and I see Lei’s smiling face. “You’re early, xiao mei mei.”
“So are you,” I say with a feral smile of my own.
“Good, let’s get it over with,” he says. “Get in.”
I laugh. “Yeah, right.”
“I’m tracking your location, so don’t lose your phone, okay?” Ace says.
“You can get in the car, or I can text my man in China to go ahead and do what he does,” Lei says, the vague threat hanging in the empty space between us.
I know I can still win, even if I get in with them. Even if they take me somewhere else and I have to leave all my carefully laid traps behind, I still have a litany of them all over my body, and in my pockets.
I take a trembling step forward.
Lei’s smile returns. “That’s it.”
I get to the door, and it opens hard and fast. I jump back, but Lei’s wrapped something around my neck. It’s frigid, spikes of ice pressing into my flesh like a choke collar. He reels me in with a hard jerk, and I stumble forward, hitting my head on the doorframe.
I blink, my eyes readjusting from the vivid future-sight.
“Now or never, little sister,” Lei says from the car in a sing-song voice that makes my skin crawl.
“Your father’s going to be real pissed when you tell him you couldn’t get me to sign your stupid contract because you refused to get out of the car,” I say.
He holds up his phone. “Your father’s going to be real pissed when he finds out what happened to his wife because of his disobedient daughter.”
“Mama.” Ace’s small voice cracks in my ear.
Fuck.
He’s not going to budge. There’s no way he’s getting out of that car unless I make him. Well, since my plan just got punched in the face, I guess I’ll whip out the grand finale early—that’ll get him out of there for sure.
“I can see that stubborn look on your face, Jade. Don’t do anything stupid,” Lei says, his face going frighteningly placid.
My hands are shaking, but I shrug and smile. “I actually think it’s kinda genius.”
I project out of my body, my astral essence spreading wide to hit every rune-etched placard I’d strung in the trees. Hot pink magic flares brightly in the golden boughs, and then, it snows.
Lei sticks his head out the window and looks up at what’s pelting their vehicle, then at me with a confused scowl.
“Sugar?”
I use my astral essence to draw runes in the crystals on the roof of the car; the exact opposite of the protection wards we used at the café. I grin as I pop back into my physical body and cup one of the special bombs in my pocket.
“Get skreeted on, bitch.”
“Oh, my god, you’re so lame!” Ace groans in my ear as I hurl the crystalized bomb at Lei’s face.
He dodges out of the way, and the ball hits the back of the driver’s seat. Sickly sweet syrup explodes on impact, coating the inside of the car and Lei’s face. I throw another, hitting the front passenger as he tries to get out. Lei emerges next, and I pelt him with one more.
“What the fuck, Jade!” Lei yells as he wipes his face. “This is a two-thousand-dollar suit, and you’re pulling pranks?”
A violet rip appears in the air above the sedan, then another over the hood.
Two skreet drones leap out, denting the roof with a loud bang.
The driver shouts and throws the car in reverse, flinging one of the drones free.
It smacks into the front passenger as he tries to escape and envelops him in an aura of blue and purple light.
They disappear through the rip in the world with a single, perfectly cut scream.
Lei stumbles back in shock, then looks at himself. He throws off his jacket and rips his shirt over his head, wiping at his sticky hair and face. The driver careens into a tree with a loud crash, and the skreet makes its signature noise.
Another tear in space appears beside Lei and he throws his shirt at it.
The sugar-coated cotton disappears into the void as it keeps growing wider and wider.
My heart pounds against my ribs as a creature emerges through the portal.
A vicious hook-clawed foot appears first and then a leg as big around as my thigh.
It’s black as midnight with a reflective purple sheen.
Razor-sharp hairs coat the underside of it, and they flex as the first foot comes down with a thud.
Lei screams and runs toward his car—which is covered in syrup. Idiot. The skreet head pushes through the portal with a roar that makes me stagger back.
“What the hell was that?” Ace yells through my earbud.
“Big one!” I say as I quickly grab the water bottle from my bag.
I wash off my hands, ensuring that none of the sugar that could’ve transferred to me remains.
The skreet pulls itself into existence as Lei fumbles with the driver’s door. He pulls on it in a panic, his gooey fingers slipping off the handle. The monstrous skreet that could only be described as an elephant-sized horror chitters, then charges Lei.
He runs but only gets five steps before the massive thing drops its head down on him like it’s bobbing for apples, mouth wide as can be. Lei disappears inside the skreet in a single chomp-less swallow.
I’m stunned, rooted to the spot.
He never had a chance. Even if I wanted to help him, it happened so fast there was nothing I could do.
I suppose I could’ve not called the skreet, but Lei didn’t leave me any great options.
I had a whole battle planned out for us, different runes drawn into different spots on my body that would make me super strong or super fast for a brief second.
I was going to punch his teeth out, and break his shins, not kill him…
But now he’s no more than skreet skat.
He should’ve just left my family alone.
The massive monster turns its whole body upward as if it’s moving Lei down into his stomach with the help of gravity. It’s antennae wiggle, making a gross rubbery noise that makes me cringe.
“Should I come get you?” Ace asks with trepidation. “Is there anything left to get?”
“Gotta be quiet,” I murmur as I stand completely still.
I’m not positive if the skreet have T-rex vision, but Rhaz made me still and quiet that night in the pantry, so I keep quiet and frozen on the spot.
The big one thumps over to the car and tries to take a bite. The whine of metal ripping pierces the air, and the skreet roars in frustration. A long tubule emerges from its mouth and then begins to unfurl like a scroll. It grows wider than it is long and covers the car almost completely.
It slurps and grunts, getting all the sugar off the surface and all the contents out of the inside. I hear another scream as the back driver’s side door is thrown open. The driver tumbles out and crawls across the gravel on hands and knees.
“Help, please!” he shouts to me, and a stone of guilt drops into my gut.
The smaller skreet that was dazed from the car crash leaps over the bigger one doing its thing, its wings flared wide.
The sun catches the transparent edges of the fragile-looking wings, making them glow.
It drops down on top of the driver, and a portal opens to the skreet domain on the ground, pulling them through.
It’s quiet except for the soft sucking noises of the massive monster.
Finally, it reels its tongue back into its face and turns around.
The dimensional rip shimmers, calling the beast home, and I almost heave a sigh of relief when it heads that way.
The skreet thunders toward the portal, each step vibrating up my legs.
I’m wobbly from adrenaline and everything in me screams run, but I stay still.
It pauses, antennae turning in my direction.
No, no, no. I’m clean. No sugar here. Move along.
My senses open to the future and I see the monster move toward me. Shit! There’s something still on me.
I strip off my jacket slowly and toss it aside.
The autumn wind blows across my marked skin, raising goosebumps and sending a chill down my spine.
The skreet’s antennae follow the jacket as it flops in front of it.
The hooked claw of its front foot stretches out and snags the clothes, then holds it up to its face.
It huffs and tosses the jacket aside, then looks back at me.
Oh.
Fuck.
In the split second it takes me to realize I’m screwed, I visualize the future scenarios.
I run. It chases me. Acid splash to the back. Into its mouth.
I stand still. It comes for me anyway. Hooked foot to the side. I block. Tossed to the ground. Broken arm. Into its mouth.
The visions falter, sputtering like a car running out of gas on a highway.
Great. I used up all my Nai Nai juice…
The skreet takes a ground-rumbling step forward. I trace the drawings on my forearm up to my elbow. They were designed to make me tougher than Lei for a short time, but could I stand a chance against this beast?
“What’s happening, Jade?” Ace mumbles in my ear.
I look up at the advancing skreet. My heart is pumping at double speed, heightening my senses. I know it’s a long shot, but I have other traps still lying in wait. I can do this.
I will do this.
“Ace, call the cops and stay away.”
“What? Why!”
“I’m gonna have to fight it.”