by Jen Pretty
I heard Nick on the phone ordering pizza and silently declared my undying love of the man. When he sat down on the couch, he had two beers in his hands and passed one over. I tucked it in beside me in the chair and waited for my pizza. I deserved beer and pizza after what I had been through.
I glanced around and located the mini bar. I was officially taking the rest of the night off from all things demon — Just me and that minibar, and maybe a bath.
There was a knock and my body tensed. Nick stood, picking up a large knife off the table by the door before peeking through the peephole. He set the blade back down and swung the door open, allowing Julian in. He was carrying two pizza boxes.
“I came up the elevator with the pizza delivery man,” he said to my questioning look. He set them on the coffee table in front of me and then collapsed on the couch. “You feeling better?”
I nodded and leaned forward to grab a slice of pizza. The cheese was stringy, and I had to lift the slice high to separate it from the rest of the pizza.
The first bite was like heaven in my mouth. The piping hot cheese slide across my tongue and the thick crust was perfectly doughy — not dry like some pizza. I hummed my joy, and Nick laughed before taking a bite of his slice.
“This is good pizza,” he said around a mouthful of cheesy goodness.
“Mhmm,” I agreed.
Julian's dark eyes watched me until I finished the slice and uncapped my beer. I chugged most down. Beer was the perfect companion of excellent pizza.
“Did you get a hold of the local sculptor?” I asked Nick as I rose to raid the minibar.
Nick finished his slice of pizza before replying. “Yup, he said we could come anytime. You want to start tomorrow?”
I nodded and pulled out a few tiny bottles of alcohol, popping them into the pocket of my hoodie before returning to my comfy chair and a second slice of pizza.
Nick and Julian talked about some random stuff. I didn't care about anything by the time I had my third slice of pizza and a second tiny bottle of alcohol.
Eventually, I wandered into the large bathroom and flicked on the hot water to fill the whirlpool tub. I needed to get one of these for at home. After dumping a bunch of small bottles of soap in, I watched the bubbles form and pop as I waited for the water to get deep enough.
“Are you sure you won't drown? You’ve had a lot to drink,” Julian said from behind me. A closed door meant nothing to him.
“I’m reasonably sure I don't care right now.” I stripped out of my clothes and by the time I was in my underwear I heard the door click closed behind me. Ha. I scared him off.
I wondered for a moment if that was a win since I scared him off with my half-naked body, but drunk Harlow didn't care about such trivial matters.
Catching my reflection in the mirror, the red star on my stomach looked like blood.
Unfortunately, it didn't wash off in the bath, but on the plus side, I didn't drown. I staggered out, pruned and relaxed and fell asleep on top of the blankets on the bed, wrapped up in a fluffy white housecoat.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“Try again,” Julian growled.
“Fuck off,” I replied.
I had been freezing gargoyles for a week now. Working every day until I collapsed, and then Julian would carry me back to the hotel room and I would sleep. When I woke up, he would drag me back to the sculptor's shop and the cycle would start all over.
The first day I froze and unfroze three small gargoyles before I passed out. Now I was up to five large gargoyles, but what Julian failed to realize was that passing out sucked and I didn't want to keep doing it every day.
His sour look didn't affect me. I was immune to it. Okay, fine. It worked, and I froze another freaking gargoyle before my vision went blurry and my knees gave out.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered just before I lost consciousness.
When I opened my eyes, I was still in the sculptor's studio, laying on a dusty couch. The lights were way too bright, and I squinted as I rolled onto my side and glanced around for Julian. His voice was coming from a hallway on the opposite side of the workshop. I stifled a groan and stood up, making my way in the direction of his voice.
“She is almost ready. I think she can take down Collin and his top enforcers. The rest will fall once they are taken care of.” He paused, obviously listening to whoever was talking on the other end of the phone call. “I will take full responsibility for her once we leave here. She will be under my thumb. You don't have to worry.”
I reeled back. Pardon me? I would not be under anyone's thumb. I turned on my heel and headed for the door to the studio, but I tripped over some smaller stones and fell. Causing a racket and bruising my shins.
I swore and pushed myself up to my feet, planning to continue my exit, but now Julian stood in front of me. His broad chest blocked my way.
“Move,” I said, trying to push past him.
“Were you listening to my conversation?” he asked, his brow drawn down.
“You weren't exactly quiet about how under your thumb I am.”
“I’m sorry you heard that,” he said taking a step closer to me, so I had to look up to see his face.
“You should be sorry you said it. In fact, you can call whomever it was back and tell them that I won't be anywhere near you ever again because you can go to hell.” I reached out to freeze him, but he dodged my hand. I tried again and he jumped back another step. I figured I could keep doing that until I was outside, but it might take all day at the current rate.
“You don't understand the political implications of what you can do, Harlow.” He sounded angry again. His ability to summon any emotion he wanted, or to block out all emotion, made him untrustworthy. Was he mad or just putting on a show?
“I don't care about politics! I care about having a life I want to live. I don't want to keep doing errands for half-demons and getting my ass kicked!” I yelled.
“You can have a life and do some work for the division. You will find a balance.”
I scoffed and pushed forward again, my hand outstretched towards him. This time he didn't move but since I hadn't pulled up that hot source of magic inside me, my hand rested on his chest and he didn't turn to stone.
His lip ticked up into a half grin when he realized he wasn't solid like a stone.
“Thank you,” he whispered, pressing into me.
I was uncomfortable suddenly, as if the fact I didn't freeze his ass was a declaration of my undying love. I should have just frozen him and made a run for it. I had enough money to live comfortably in Mexico. Maybe there weren't any demons in Mexico since it’s so hot there. The heat would probably remind them of hell.
Julian took another half step forward, bridging the last of the space between us, and his arm wrapped around my back.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“It should be obvious,” he whispered, lowering his lips towards mine.
I brought my hand up and covered his mouth before it made the final descent to my lips, and I lost all control of my body and its reaction. It was the last moment of clarity I had before I let my hand fall and his lips crashed into mine.
Damn, Julian.
I shouldn't want him at all. I should hate him and wish he was dead, but my stupid hormones thought otherwise. As his tongue tangled with mine and his strong hands lifted me off the ground, I found myself wrapping around him like a baby orangutan and holding on for dear life.
A throat cleared behind me and I gasped, trying to push off Julian and get back on my feet, but his arms didn't release me. He held me to him and I was helpless to escape.
“I was just checking up on you,” Nick said.
“Fuck,” I whispered. “Put me down.”
Julian finally let me go, but he looked like the cat who got the cream. It was a good look for him. Much better than the stern or blank stares he usually wore, and I tried to bank it in my mind for later.
“I froze a bunch of things and passed out
,” I said turning away from Julian.
“Good,” Nick said. “I got us some supplies and weapons.”
“Weapons?” I had never used any kind of weapon except for my net. That was hardly a weapon.
“Not all of us can freeze an attacker on the spot,” Nick said. He bumped my shoulder with his and took a knife out of his duffel bag. It was sheathed in leather, and when he pulled it out the blade shone in the fluorescent lights.
“You are going to kill them?”
“Hope not,” he said. “But if it’s them or me, I'm choosing me.”
I glanced at Julian, but his face was carefully blank. I hated that look more and more every day. I didn't like the idea of killing anyone, even if they were half-demons hell-bent on destroying us, but I definitely didn't want Nick to go running into a war unarmed.
“Let’s hope it doesn't come to that,” I said.
Julian grunted his agreement.
“There is a gym downtown that has a basement room set up for self-defense training. I signed us up for a week of classes so we could learn some defense skills,” Nick said, not reading the room very well. He still seemed pretty keen on his ‘kill the half-demons’ plan.
I nodded. “Okay, Nick. But let's try not to kill anyone. I think once Collin is gone, things will calm down.”
Nick just smiled and tucked the knife away in his duffel bag.
“When do we start this self-defense?” I asked, grabbing my cell phone off the low table by the couch I had been passed out on.
“Today. Right now, if you are ready,” Nick replied.
“She just woke up,” Julian said in a low voice.
“It’s fine. I feel okay,” I said. “Let’s go.”
We all piled into the limo that had been hunched at the curb all morning, and the driver took us to the address that Nick provided.
The gym was tailored to boxing. Punching bags and speed bags lined the walls, and a boxing ring was set up on a raised platform in the center of the gym. It smelled like gym socks, and men and women were working out all around the open spaces. A pair of young women were in the boxing ring, sparring while a stereotypical grey-haired man was yelling instructions from the side of the ring. It felt like I was in the movie Rocky all of a sudden and I started humming the Rocky theme song.
Julian chuckled and shook his head at me while we followed Nick to the back of the gym where there were changing rooms beside a long wooden desk.
“Howdy,” said a man sitting on a bar stool on the far side of the desk. He had long hair pulled back into a man bun and wore a martial arts outfit with a black belt. I knew enough to know that meant he was probably a pretty tough ninja.
“Hi, my name is Nick, and this is Harlow.”
The man’s face lit up. “Oh great! Come on back this way.” He slid off his stool and opened a door I hadn't noticed behind him. We followed him down a rickety set of stairs and into a damp basement. “My name is Kirk. I’ll be helping you guys with self-defense and a bit of knife work.”
Kirk flicked on a light and lit up a room full of stuffed dummies in various places scattered around a large room. The space was bigger than the gym upstairs but had the same matted floor. There were a few heavy punching bags down here, too, but mostly it was human-shaped dummies with targets painted on their canvas chests. Most had holes in them as if someone had repeatedly stabbed them.
Nick looked excited and that worried me.
“Let's start with self-defense and see how that goes. Then we can move on to the knives,” Kirk said. He pulled on some padding and started telling Nick about different holds and maneuvers to get the better of your attacker. I stopped listening when they started talking about trajectories and body weight. It was all stuff I didn't care about. I kept staring at one particularly abused dummy along the back wall. It had holes in its head, neck and chest. Someone had taken a round out of it.
"Harlow, you ready to try?” Kirk asked.
“Sure,” I said, crossing the matted floor to where the ninja stood. His padded helmet squished his face a bit making him look like a chipmunk. He popped a mouth guard in and attacked me suddenly. Wrapping his arms around me and pinning my arms to my sides. I struggled against him, but he was really strong. His arms were like steel bands. I jerked my knee up and caught him in the nuts, making him drop to the floor. I guess he needed more padding in certain places.
“Sorry,” I said, looking back at Julian and Nick. Julian was smiling. A proper smile with teeth and everything. It was such a shock I forgot about the poor guy on the floor moaning in pain and just stared at the half-demon.
“You okay, Kirk?” Nick asked as Kirk rolled to his feet and staggered over to a bench along the wall.
“Yeah, man. Just give me a second,” Kirk replied.
“I thought you had protection,” I muttered. Oops. But it did work. I escaped my attacker without needing a weapon and only doing minor damage…I hoped.
Kirk took a long drink from a sports bottle and then cleared his throat and rubbed his hands over his face. “Okay, Harlow. Let’s try again. This time, please don't knee me in the balls.”
I bit back a giggle and nodded.
“To get out of this hold, you need to drop your body weight to the ground and then step in towards me to push me back. Just like Nick did.”
Oh, maybe I should have been paying more attention. “Got it.”
Julian chuckled, but Nick looked like he was disappointed that I hadn't been watching him wrestle with Kirk. Boys.
This time when Kirk grabbed me, I did what he said. I dropped hard and rammed into his legs. He staggered back, but I ended up on my ass on the mats. Kirk recovered quickly and pinned me to the ground. I struggled against him but couldn't get out of his hold.
He stood and offered a hand to me which I accepted. He pulled me to my feet and started going over what I did wrong. I was pretty sure falling on my ass was my mistake, but he went on and on about center of balance.
We tried it several more times before I gave up, leaving Kirk and Nick to practice some knife moves. I collapsed onto the bench worn out from the already long day. Julian sat down beside me and slid his arm around my shoulders, tucking me in beside him.
He was warm and I was so tired; I started nodding off.
“Harlow.”
“Hmm?” I said sitting up and wiping the drool off my cheek. I was curled up on the bench, my head in Julian's lap, a visible damp spot on his thigh. Fuck. That's not embarrassing.
“I said it’s time to go,” Nick said. He was putting away the knife he had shown me in the sculptor's studio. I guess he got to try it out on some of the dummies. He had sweat beading on his brow but looked relaxed and happy.
His sudden blood lust was getting more and more concerning. I prayed that this mission wouldn't turn into a blood bath.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
When we arrived back at the hotel, the woman we had met in the subway tunnels, Celia, was standing just inside the doors. She wore a heavy coat and a thick hat that covered her horns. She looked nervous until she saw us and then she visibly sighed in relief.
Julian held the door for me, and as soon as I was through, Celia grabbed me in a big hug.
“Thank God you are okay. I heard there was a big shit show in the tunnels by Collin’s hideout and he has had men searching all the abandoned tunnels. I had to come topside to avoid them.” She spoke so fast I had trouble keeping up with her.
“Uh yeah, we are okay,” I got in before she went off on another tangent.
“Collin is gathering more forces and I heard some of them talking about demons. I don't know if he already summoned some or what, but it's not good.”
“Shit,” I whispered as we all piled into the elevator.
“Yeah, it's just getting worse. I also heard that they sent someone to take you out. Here you are though. Tough as nails, eh?”
I laughed. “Not quite. I had help from Darla.”
Celia’s eyes went as big as saucers. “Dar
la? You must be important.”
“I don't think so,” I said.
“She is critical to our future,” Julian said.
I stared at him, but his face had gone blank. His guard was up around the fellow half-demon. We stepped off the elevator and into the hotel room.
“I’ll order dinner,” Julian said, walking into the bedroom as we all sat down on the couches. I kicked off my boots and groaned at the feeling of freeing my feet. My poor toes had worked way too hard today and needed a vacation.
“Did you pay attention to the knife work part of the day, Harlow?” Nick asked as he collapsed beside me on the couch.
“Not really. I'm pretty sure I can't stab someone with a knife. Even if they were attacking me.”
Nick scoffed. “You have to protect yourself. The half-demons have no problem stabbing you.”
The reminder of my recent attack was unnecessary. I glanced at Celia. Her hat covered her horns, but I knew they curved along her head, didn’t point straight out like weapons.
“The half-demons under Collin’s control will fight to the death. That’s why they created the Demon Division: to ensure the leaders weren’t using their powers for evil,” Celia said. She unzipped her coat and pulled her hat off her head.
I got lost in thoughts of demons for a while as Nick and Celia chatted about weapons. Apparently, Celia made knives and swords in her workshop, too.
My memory of the demon in New York was still fresh even now. The smell of his hot breath, the feel of his nails pressing through the skin on my neck. I ran my fingers along the biggest scar that ran down the back of my neck. It wasn't particularly huge but it was still a reminder, and with my hair up it was visible. We hadn’t seen much of Collin’s lair. He could have demons there already. Possibly many.
“I’m going to go,” Nick said.
