Chapter 37 Aniyah #2
I pressed the button, and the elevator doors slid open instantly. I hit the one for the third floor.
As the elevator moved, I tried to pull up everything I knew about Natalie, which wasn’t much.
She’d only started recently. A fairy with tiny wings and weak illusion magic, she was pretty enough that I put her on host duty on the main floor.
She blended in well, made friends fast, and helped the other girls.
Meek, quiet. Easy for others to want to protect.
The doors opened, and my phone buzzed. I stepped out, glancing down at the screen.
Van: No. I never got any paperwork.
Van: Glen and her were dating?
I stopped mid-step. He didn’t know?
Van didn’t miss things. He knew everything. How the hell did employees know, yet he didn’t?
Looking up, the space in front of me was pitch black. This floor ran mostly on a blend of tech and magic, so it shut down when we closed and automatically booted up when the first scheduled shift started. So, when I saw a soft glow under a far-off door, I knew where I was going to get my answers.
I unfurled my wings and silently floated down the hallway, every instinct on high alert. Even if Natalie was a weak little fairy, I wasn’t taking chances.
The door swung open to a dreamscape. Deep navy skies, stars twinkling from above and below, the hum of wind and water, owl calls echoing in the distance. The faint fresh air scent breezed by. Somehow, I was standing between time and space outdoors. It was beautiful, hauntingly so.
Then I heard it, a small, broken chuckle from the corner.
Natalie was curled up on the floor, cradling something in her arms, but the girl who looked up at me wasn’t the sweet, timid thing I remembered. No, this Natalie’s eyes burned with madness, her glare hot enough to blister.
“Natalie,” I said carefully. Even though my instincts were going haywire, I tried to keep a calm tone. “I’m guessing you heard about Glen.” Her head tilted at an odd angle, so I tried to assure her, “It wasn’t me. I didn’t put a hit out on him.”
She laughed, harsh and hollow, and when she spoke, her voice was gravelly, laced with a faint accent. Russian, I thought.
“No. No. Of course, you didn’t, you dumb bitch. I did.”
Ice slid down my spine, and I straightened, my brain kicking into full gear. The traitor hadn’t been Glen.
*It was her.
Natalie used the wall to push herself up, shaking with laughter.
“You think you’re so smart. That your family is untouchable.
But you’re not. You’ve got weaknesses. That’s why it was so easy to crash this disgusting house of sin.
” Her voice lowered, almost like she was speaking to herself.
“We just didn’t know about the failsafe.
Glen didn’t tell us that. But now… now, we’re ready. ”
We? Who is this we? Noticing her clutching something, I nodded toward the object in her arms. “What’s that?”
She lifted a black, ticking square. “Oh, this? This is the bomb that’s going to do the trick. It destroys magic, and since this floor is the most concentrated with it…” She trailed off, grinning as she broke into a fit of hysterical laughter.
Panic gripped me. A magic-destroying bomb? If that thing detonated, it wouldn’t just collapse the floor. It would suck the magic right out of our bodies. Everyone inside would die—horribly. No regeneration.
I scanned the bomb. No visible detonator. Just a timer that I couldn’t see well enough to read. Shit.
“I should have enough time to take care of you first,” she snarled.
My eyes flicked back to the device. I had to get to it, but first, I needed a distraction. Regret filled me for not bringing backup.
“I don’t believe you did that to Glen,” I said, slow and measured, motioning lazily to her figure. “I mean, a little thing like you couldn’t have shredded him like that.”
Her entire body jerked, her tiny wings twitching violently, then her voice dropped to a chilling rasp. “Oh. Is that what you think?”
She gently placed the bomb down in the corner and turned back to me. Good. I’d hit a nerve.
“You want me to show you how I did it? How I’ll do that to you?”
Her body cracked as bones began snapping in unnatural ways.
All I could do was watch something I’d never seen before.
When supe species intermingled, they didn’t make a baby that was half one species or the other.
One species always took over, and that meant that this fairy changing into a werewolf was wholly unnatural, something that shouldn’t exist.
Her mouth opened in a silent scream as her body mangled itself in what looked like the most painful way I’d ever witnessed. Her psycho eyes locked on mine, and sick satisfaction filled them as they watched me experience their transformation.
What had been a cute, unimposing fairy was now a grotesque werewolf hybrid.
Her limbs were uneven, claws warped, and fur sprouted unevenly across her limbs.
Her wings remained, though they were now twisted and matted with fur.
She looked like someone had tried to sculpt a werewolf from scraps and failed.
“Now you understand why his mouth was wide open before I sliced it off,” she growled. “He was desperate. Lonely. He told me everything about your precious palace. Right before he begged for his life.”
She lunged.
I dodged her first attack, so her claws slammed into the ground as she let out an unnatural, discordant howl that scraped along my nerves like broken glass. I clamped my hands over my ears.
While she was definitely bigger, she also was fast. She charged at me again. This time, I shot into the air, wings flaring, but she twisted mid-leap and slammed into me, knocking the wind out of me as she dragged me down.
Her claws raked across my abdomen, tearing deep, and blood spurted out onto the floor, making a slippery pool of crimson liquid.
Pain exploded as my breath hitched. My first thought was, man, that hurt like a bitch. Her claws weren't razor sharp but jagged and gnarly, ripping my skin to ugly shreds. That beast inside me rolled over, shoving the agony aside, giving me a moment to think.
I didn’t want to use my power of desire, not yet. I wasn’t sure how it would affect her, and I needed to play this smart. I had mates. A family. The Syndicate was depending on me.
Think, Aniyah. Think!
As my mind raced, I looked down to my heeled boots, the ones Ezra had given me on my twenty-fourth birthday… the ones that concealed poisoned blades in the heels. Fucking thank you, E!
Looking at the mutant werewolf, I told myself I just needed the right opening. One shot was all I’d get before those claws dug in me again.
Natalie licked her lips, her grin revealing blood-slicked fangs. “You’ve never looked worse, Miss Glovefox. Absolutely pathetic.”
I almost corrected her, almost.
Clutching my side, hot liquid seeping through my fingers, I glared. “And you look like a science experiment gone wrong. I still look better.”
Petty? Yes. But distracting? Also yes. I needed to give my body a few seconds to heal up enough for the blood to stop.
“Did you have Glen the whole time?” I asked, eyes flicking toward her blood-soaked claws. “Or did he slip past your weak little radar? Took you far too long to get rid of him.”
Her jaw clenched, teeth gnashing in anger. “He slipped away for one day. One! But when I caught him… oh, I made it count.”
She pawed at the floor, ready to charge again, and I glanced down, seeing that the bleeding had almost stopped.
She let out a savage roar, those mangled limbs bending before she lunged. She might be quick, but I could be quicker.
Dropping to the floor, I rolled under her bulk, grabbed my heel, and tore the blade free. With a scream of my own, I drove the poisoned knife across her chest in a wide, deep slash before ending up across from her.
She crumpled to the floor, howling, a jagged, wrong-sounding wail that rattled the walls, but I didn’t stop. The beast inside, my instincts, wouldn't let me.
Fueled by rage and adrenaline, I straddled her and stabbed her in the chest again and again. Blood sprayed. Her limbs jerked with each thrust, but I didn’t care. My beast had smelled blood and wasn’t about to back down, no matter what.
She tried to push me away, her claws flailing weakly, but I knocked them aside. Keeping up my tempo, I stabbed her over and over and over again.
Her body began shrinking, morphing back into a fairy again. Fragile. Small.
The shocking change slowed me just enough for her to gather all her strength and shove me off balance. She scrambled back, clutching her bleeding chest. It looked like the wound wasn’t healing.
The bloody knife clutched in my hand, I climbed up, standing over her. The quiet, steady plink was somehow loud, marking each drop of her blood that slid from the end of the blade. She coughed, scarlet liquid marring her lips. The poison was in her bloodstream now, making its way to her heart.
“You won’t win,” she rasped, glaring despite her agony. “Even if you defeat me, there are more of us. He’s taking all of you out one by one, but he’s saving you for last. His crown jewel.”
Blood bubbled at her lips, spilling out like a hose. She smiled through it, and I had to give her props for that.
“You and your family… you won’t survive it.” She took in a ragged breath, putting all of her venom into her last words. “I just wish I could’ve watched your empire burn.”
Her head dropped. The blood seeping into the floor was spreading slower, reaching its way to my feet but not quite touching.
She was dead, her heart burned to ash by the poison.
I barely had time to process that before I heard it.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
My head snapped toward the corner.
The bomb.
This isn’t over yet.
* Song: Down with the Sickness by Disturbed