by Devin Hanson
I lifted my head. The square room looked like someone had been searching for hidden treasure in the walls with a sledgehammer. The steel chair was a twisted wreck in one corner. I vaguely remembered being thrown into it at one point.
Savit was standing over me, his chest heaving. The look on his face was murderous, one hand clenched into a fist. Behind him, a tall woman stood, her face a thunderhead, her auburn hair done up in a heavy braid. She was just as tall as Savit, with broad shoulders and hips, but she had the curves of a woman, and plenty of them.
I followed her arm down and realized she was holding Savit in an armlock. She twisted her hips and Savit’s eyes jolted wide in panic. He grunted and fell to his knees, his right arm twisted up behind him and held in the woman’s grip.
“You were told to bring her to me,” the female marid snarled. “Instead I find you here, halfway to beating her to death.”
“She is Nephilim—”
Savit’s protest was cut off in a yelp. I heard the pop of his shoulder dislocating. Holy shit. I coughed and struggled after breath. “Wait,” I croaked.
Both marid looked at me, Savit’s face tight with pain, the woman still furious.
“It’s my fault,” I managed. “I hit him first.”
The woman released Savit’s arm and it thumped to the ground. Savit groaned and clutched at his shoulder. He stayed on his knees, though, unwilling to challenge the woman’s authority or strength.
Speaking of strength. The woman leaned over and grabbed me by the front of my jacket and hauled me upright the same way you would pick a kitten up by the scruff of its neck. I dangled from her grip, still too shaken to find my feet. I got both legs under me eventually, and she let me go. I sagged against the wall and felt the shattered concrete crumble and patter down onto my shoulders.
“Amat,” the woman snapped without looking around, “take Savit away and see to his shoulder.”
Amat muttered a hasty acknowledgement and got Savit to his feet and out of the room at speed. The woman eyed me. She had eyes that matched her hair, too red to be properly called brown. I looked back with equal interest. I hadn’t ever seen a female marid before. Obviously, they existed, but female children were rare among the marid, and this one, at least, seemed to be some kind of leader.
“I am Tovarrah of the Red House,” she introduced herself. “On behalf of the Red, I offer apologies.”
I touched the inside of my cheek with my tongue. I wanted a mirror to see just how badly Savit had battered me, but also dreaded it. “Alex,” I rasped.
Tovarrah nodded. “I know who you are, Alexandra Ascher.” She looked around the room, distaste twisting her mouth. “I am a fool for sending Savit. Is it true that you provoked him?”
“Not to be dramatic, but I thought he was going to kill me. It seemed a reasonable assumption at the time.” I tried a smile, but it came out more of a wince. That glow of health I had felt before breaking free had faded to a memory. I barely felt strong enough to stand, let alone break free of police-grade restraints.
She frowned. “It speaks well that you would intervene on Savit’s behalf. I came running when I heard the noise, but I expected to find Savit and Amat dead.”
I rolled a shoulder. “What can I say. I’m new to the whole Nephilim thing.”
“You refused,” Tovarrah said, realization mingling with relief on her face.
“Look, yesterday I thought I was human.” I managed to straighten up with only a little bit of painful moaning. “I’ve got no idea what is going on. To tell you the truth, I’m not sure why I’m not dead right now.”
“It is curious.” Tovarrah’s face creased into a guarded frown. “The spawn of the Fallen have great strength, but usually only after they accept the offer. We destroy them when we find them, as is the trust of the Red House. When we heard of a halfblood searching for isolated djinn, we feared the worst.”
“What, that I was murdering djinn?”
“It wouldn’t be the first time.”
I laughed, then coughed. “Man, have you got me wrong.”
“Then what purpose do you have for tracking down djinn?” Tovarrah demanded.
“I’m just trying to do my job. I was hired to investigate a crew of djinn robbers, a marid among them. Also, my apartment was destroyed by a marid,” I added, remembering Amat’s claims that I was lying, determined not to leave anything out this time. “I don’t think the two are related, but I was hoping to kill two birds with one stone, as it were.”
“The Red House is not involved in thievery,” Tovarrah said firmly. “Nor would one of mine commit vandalism.”
“Well. That narrows it down,” I grimaced. “Sorry. If I had known where to ask, I would have come to you first.” Memory of being captured flooded back suddenly. “Shit. Lei. Amat didn’t hurt her, did he?”
“Of course not.” Tovarrah looked horrified at the thought. “It was her insistent protests about your good intentions that kept you alive until we could talk.”
“You could have just taken her word for it in the first place,” I grumbled.
“The danger was too great.” She shook her head. “Had you accepted your sire’s offer, then only swift action could have kept you contained.”
Sire? I felt a breath of laughter stir the hair at the back of my neck and shivered. These marid of the Red House, whoever they were, didn’t seem like the sort that appreciated surprises. I didn’t think telling them my demon blood came from my mother’s side would help my cause any.
“So. Now what?” I was feeling like shit. All I wanted was to go home and get a good night’s sleep.
“I should keep you contained,” Tovarrah sighed, “but history has proven that to end in disaster. You are free to go. But I should warn you. If you accept the offer of your sire, we will find you and we will kill you. The Red House has killed dozens of Nephilim before you, and you will not be the last.”
“I’ve no intention of that happening,” I promised her.
She smiled sadly. “It is rare for a Nephilim to find the strength to resist. The temptation will always be there. For your own sake, Alexandra, I hope you find your restraint unwavering.”
Tovarrah walked me out of the building after that. It was an abandoned warehouse, its windows broken and covered with sheets of weathered plywood. My scooter was on the back of a pickup in the lot outside.
I eyed the towering woman as she lifted my scooter with only a small grunt of effort and set it on the ground. “Thanks. Are we good, now? I’m not going to get jumped by more of your boys tomorrow?”
“We will be watching you, Alexandra. But we will not interfere in your business unless we suspect you have accepted the offer.”
“Great.”
She got my helmet from the back of the truck and handed it to me. My keys and phone were nestled inside. “Drive safe.”
I stared after her as she walked back into the warehouse, then shook my head and climbed stiffly onto the scooter.
So far, being a Nephilim really sucked.
Chapter Nine
I climbed off the scooter when I reached Ethan’s house and wearily leaned down over the handlebars. I felt like utter shit. A couple times during the ride home I had almost lost control of the scooter, and only the resulting adrenaline spikes had kept me awake enough to reach the closest thing I had to a home unscathed.
“You could have handled that better.”
I jerked upright and almost toppled the scooter. My mother was leaning against Elaida’s white BMW, examining her nails. “How did you get here?” I demanded.
“Your father hid you from me by changing your last name without my knowledge,” she said with a beatific smile. “But now that you are of age, I can see every move you make. You belong to me, Alexandra. I am a part of you, a part that you can’t get rid of.”
“You lied to me,” I accused her. “You said I would be strong enough to fight the marid.”
Her smile slipped a little. “I told you no such thing. Yo
u’re human, Alexandra, the sons of fire will always be faster and stronger.”
“Half light, though,” I pointed out, while I tried to remember the details of what she had said. Reluctantly, I had to admit she was right.
She wobbled a hand. “Your soul is half light. Your body is all human. Until you accept my offer, it will stay that way and your strength will be limited to human levels.” Her smile broadened again. “But when you do accept, you will be of the light as I am, and the strength of the archangels will flow through you.”
“Ease off it, demon,” I sighed and swung a leg over my bike. My back muscles protested as I stood and stretched. “I’m not accepting your stupid offer.”
“You may abjure me, child, but I am still your mother.”
“I don’t get it,” I sighed. “Why do you care? Just leave me alone. My life is hard enough without you showing up everywhere.”
“I care because you are my child, Alexandra. I love you.”
I laughed. Up the driveway, I heard Ethan’s door open.
“Alex?” Ethan called. “Is that you?”
“I gotta go,” I said, turning back to my mother. The bonnet of Elaida’s car was empty. She had gone as quickly as she had come.
Ethan came jogging down the driveway, a bathrobe wrapped around his shoulders. “You’re hours late, Alex. Is everything all right? Who were you talking to?”
I groaned and pulled my helmet off. The cold night air felt good against my scalp. “Nobody. Sorry, I got caught up.”
“Well, you should have called, I… Jesus Christ, Alex! What happened to you?”
He caught my shoulders and turned me to face the streetlight. I winced and turned my head to the side, hiding behind a curtain of hair. “Nothing. I’m fine.”
“This isn’t nothing, your face is—”
I pushed Ethan away and we stumbled apart. I caught myself on the bonnet of Elaida’s car. In the reflection in the windshield, my face was mottled purple, with a split lip and dried blood under my nose. “Just leave me alone, Ethan,” I said hoarsely, swallowing back a suddenly tight throat.
“Alex…”
“I said I’m fine!”
“I will drive you to the hospital,” Ethan offered quietly. “No judgement, no comments. We can do it in perfect silence if you like.”
“I wasn’t raped. I just had a misunderstanding with someone.”
Ethan nodded, but I could see the hurt in his eyes. He let drop the hand he had extended toward me. “I won’t push,” he said. “We’ll do this your way, if that’s how you want it.”
“Honestly, it’s fine. I just need to get some sleep.”
“If you want to talk, I’m here to listen. Let’s get you inside.”
He stood there awkwardly for a moment, then turned around and started walking back up the driveway. The care he obviously felt was endearing, but it was his willingness to let me be that made me jog after him. I slipped an arm around his waist and hugged him.
“Thanks, Ethan.”
Gingerly, he hugged me back, a brief squeeze of an arm around my shoulders, then he let me go. “I can’t pretend to be oblivious. Whatever David has you doing is dangerous, I can see that.” He sighed. “But you’re an adult, Alex, and your own person. If you think you can handle it, then I won’t push. But I don’t have to like it.”
“Believe it or not, what happened tonight had nothing to do with David’s job. This one was all me.”
“I find that strangely believable,” he said with a wry smile.
“Yeah,” I chuckled, “it’s my winning personality. Turns out, a smart mouth doesn’t do you any favors.”
We got inside and Ethan locked the door behind us.
“Where’s Elaida?” I asked.
Ethan scowled. “We had an argument. She’s sleeping elsewhere tonight.”
“Ah.” I looked up at Ethan, feeling a little guilty. “Nothing to do with me, I hope?”
“Elaida doesn’t like someone else being the center of attention. It wasn’t anything you did.” He ran his hand through his hair. “You want some ice cream?”
“Careful,” I grinned, “you keep it up, I may just fall in love with you.”
“There’s a terrifying thought.”
I followed him into the kitchen and he delved into the freezer, coming up with a selection of Ben and Jerry’s flavors in little one-serving containers. I picked something with chocolate in the name and accepted the container and a spoon from Ethan. We retreated to the living room with our ice cream and settled onto the couch. Some black and white horror movie was playing on the TV, the volume muted.
The ice cream was everything I could have wanted right then. The heavy chocolate and sweet syrup soothed the bruising my soul was feeling. Ethan picked at his ice cream, studiously avoiding looking at my face.
On the TV, a poorly made-up werewolf was chasing a damsel around a haybarn. I watched glumly, wondering if my life would ever be so simple, so, if you could forgive the saying, black and white.
“My dojo is accepting newcomers,” Ethan said neutrally. “There are other women there. You might find it fun.”
As much as I wanted to protest that I could take care of myself, the night’s activities had proven that to be false rather dramatically. I touched the split in my lip with my tongue and winced. How much would martial arts training really make a difference? I replayed in my mind the strength and speed of Savit as he had flung me around that concrete room.
I had had about as much chance against him as a stuffed animal and had put up about as much resistance. And yet, Tovarrah had subdued Savit. She couldn’t have been that much stronger and faster than Savit. The difference between the two had been skill. Of course, I had no illusions about taking a few classes and suddenly being able to throw down with the likes of Savit. Still, it’s better to start learning now than wish you had the skill later.
“Solar plexus, instep, nose, groin,” I recited. “That sort of thing?”
Ethan rolled his eyes. “I don’t think getting groped in a bar is high on the list of things you’re worried about. I can get you a flyer if you’re interested.”
I sighed and leaned my head back against the couch cushion. “Yeah. It probably wouldn’t hurt.”
The couch leather rustled as Ethan shifted closer to me. “Those are going to look gorgeous tomorrow,” he commented.
I twisted my head to the side and found him staring at me from a few feet away. “You always know the right things to say to a lady.”
Behind him, shadows gathered, and I saw the outline of my mother, the side of her face lit by the flickering light of the TV. She nodded to me, an eager smile on her face.
“What is it?” Ethan asked.
I swallowed. “Nothing. Just some bad memories.”
Carefully, Ethan raised a hand and brushed some hair from the side of my face. His fingers felt cold from the ice cream container.
“What about Elaida?” I asked.
His hand paused and his brow furrowed. He shook his head and pulled back. “Sorry. I’m… sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”
I pushed myself stiffly to my feet, then squatted in front of him. Ethan looked up at me, confused, and I cupped his face with my hands before leaning in and giving him a kiss on the forehead. Behind him, my mother looked irritated, her arms crossed under her breasts.
“Don’t be sorry, Ethan. A different night, things might have worked out. I think I’m going to go to my room.”
“Sorry,” he muttered again.
I grabbed my ice cream and left him in the living room with his silent movie. My mother was gone again, back to whatever hell she came from when she wasn’t tormenting me.
Morning. I rolled out of bed, feeling stiff from the base of my skull to the last joint of my toes. I fumbled through a shower and stopped in front of the bathroom mirror. I wiped the condensation off with the corner of my towel and froze. My reflection stared back at me, splotched with bruising.
I leane
d closer and prodded at the yellowing circle around my left eye. I wasn’t an expert on shiners, but the bruise should have been livid purple today, not looking like it was four days into healing. I peeled off my towel the rest of the way and examined the rest of my body. The deep bruises on my arms and back had mellowed overnight.
The lingering sleepiness fell away. Now that I was fully awake, I felt the stirring of that now-familiar energy deep within.
“Yes. Breathe it in, child.”
I yelped and swept my towel around myself, covering my nudity. My mother was lounging on my unmade bed, the elaborate leather getup from the night before replaced with more modern, if no less provocative attire. She still had the same knife hanging in its low-slung sheath, the same gemstone jewelry that matched her eyes, but the leather was replaced with silk and lace.
“Are you going to be showing up all over the place, then?” I demanded. “I don’t know how you do things, but invading my privacy is only going to make me reject you more.”
“Hmm.” She smiled and stretched sinuously. “I’ll take that into consideration. You’re coming into your majority nicely, daughter.”
“What do you mean?”
She laughed. “You’ll figure it out soon enough. Why ruin the fun?”
“Man, you really are a bitch, aren’t you?”
She rolled to her feet and came to stand close to me. I could feel her breath, cold on my damp skin, and it raised goose bumps down my arms. “I appreciate wit as much as anyone,” she whispered, “but have a care that you do not push me with your petty insults.”
And then she was gone, the last lingering intonations of her warning hanging in the air after she was no longer present. Damn. I hated being left in the lurch without a chance to sneak in the last word.
I really needed someone to talk to about all this. I meant my promise to Tovarrah. I had no intention of sacrificing my soul and bowing to the power of my mother, but it would help if I knew what I was dealing with.
