I spring across the dancefloor as I have hundreds of times before, my legs flying out in a ballet-type movement. I land in a small ball, duck, and weave around the beast that used to be Mr. Peppers. It turns on a pivot, groaning. “Graaahhhhhhhhhh, graaahhhhhhhhhh, graaahhhhhhhhhh.” Hands reaching, desperate to get ahold of me. Eat me. Kill me. Steal me.
I run to the opposite end of the room and watch it. I back against the wall. It flops across the room in a matter of seconds. I’m in exactly the same position I was in before. I duck, bob, weave—and spring across the room again.
Then I hear her: “Lila! Auntie Lila! Lila! Help me! Auntie!”
Closer than before.
Running.
Scared.
I grit my teeth and punch the wall-mirror. The glass shatters. Cuts bite into my knuckles. I ignore the pain and pick up the biggest shard I can find, a large triangle of cutting glass. I grip it hard and blood drips down my forearm. Pain flares, hot and wet, but Casey’s screams drown it out.
“Sorry, Mr. Peppers. It fish-flops at me. I duck, aim, and strike. The glass punctures the zombie’s soft skull and digs deep into its brain. The thing that was once Mr. Peppers collapses in a tangle of limbs. “You shouldn’t have refused my loan,” I mutter, dropping the glass and taking a step back.
“Auntie Lila! Help me!”
I step over the zombie’s corpse and head for the door.
Chapter Thirty
Tooth
When you have fought as many battles as I have, you know when there’s a problem.
The wingless phoenix leaps forward, arches its mangled arms, and shrieks. “Raarraaahaakk! Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaghhhhhhh!” It rears up and spreads its arms wide. It looks like a giant cross. And then it erupts in a fireball of smoke and chaos.
I’m thrown back fifty yards, slamming into the trunk of a tree. I roll to the floor, leaves and twigs sticking to my clothes. I smash my head on a stone. Reeling, I try to stand. My leg collapses beneath me. I grit my teeth and force myself to my feet. The wingless phoenix is aflame. Its eyes are no longer yellow, but twin embers of orange, flickering. It lopes behind the vampires, clicking its beak in excitement. Behind me, I hear Casey running, panting.
I raise my fists as the first vampire attacks me. It’s one of the groupie girls. Her belt is studded with metal and when she bares her teeth, her pierced tongue flicks about like a snake’s. She lashes at me with her fist, lightning-fast, much faster than any human would be able to track. But I am not a human. I follow the path of her strike, duck at the last moment. Step aside—right-hook her in the head. Her neck snaps and she hurtles back. Another vampire, another, another. Three of them come at me as though they are a many-headed hydra, lashing at me with teeth and claw. I jump back, deflecting their blows.
One of the fat men—a sparsely-haired goatee and jowls which quiver with each strike— missteps. I punish him for it by crushing his chest. I backhand one of the women across the face, sending her to the earth with her friend. Another man comes at me. I duck, dodge, weave, and then spin around his fist and chop him so ferociously in the neck I feel his windpipe cave in upon itself.
“Look at him go, ladies and gents!” Abraham laughs, watching the fight like a man watching a movie. He sits on his haunches, resting his elbows on his knees. The flames of the phoenix set the dry autumn leaves alight. Suddenly, a bonfire engulfs our little corner of the forest.
I listen. Casey is almost at the cabin. Good, I think. At least she’ll be safe. The all-father laughs inside my head: How will she be safe? Without you, they’ll both die.
I look Abraham in the eye.
“Single combat!” I growl. “I challenge you, Man in Black, Nightmare Man, to single combat!”
Abraham grins and turns to the witches and wizards which stand either side of him. “He thinks I’m a fool.” He turns back to me. “You are not worthy of single combat, my skinny-toothed friend. I am the King of the Night. How dare you presume to challenge me? Anyway, I think this beastie deserves a chance at glory. After all, it will burn itself out ever so soon. What a pity it would be if it were to go to the grave unblooded.” Abraham stands up and pats the wingless phoenix on the head. The sound of bubbling flesh rises momentarily above the crackling of burning leaves. Abraham snatches his hand away. “A nasty beastie to pet.” He clicks his tongue. “I’m sorry it has to end this way, Tooth. Really, I am. It’s a shame to kill a myth.” He claps his hands. “Go, beastie, go!”
I watch in quarter-speed as the phoenix, a mass of fire and tongue-like flames, charges at me. I listen to Casey behind me. But most of all I think of Lila. If I die here, Lila . . . They will take her, they will use her, they will torture her, and they will kill her. Or worse, they’ll turn her to the Horde.
When you’ve fought in as many battles as I have, you know when there’s a problem, and the problem right now is the hissing flame monster running straight at me.
Biting down my pride, I run.
I sprint through the forest as quickly as I can, whizzing by trees. I hear the phoenix behind me. Its panting breaths. Its shrieking hunger. But most of all the whoosh of dry leaves catching fire.
I sprint until the cabin is within sight. I watch as Casey collapses to her knees and Lila rushes out to meet her.
“Get inside!” I roar. “Get inside, now—”
Something thumps me between the shoulder blades. I stumble, fall, land in the dirt. “Shot!” Abraham giggles. A stone, thrown with vampiric strength. The pain spreads over my back.
Lila looks down at me, lips trembling. Her hand is bleeding heavily, dripping onto the dirt. Her face is streaked with blood.
“Mr. Tooth!” Casey cries.
And before Lila can do anything, she rushes at me.
Then everything happens fast.
Casey runs to me, trips, and stumbles over my body. She flies for a strangely long time. And then I see a shimmer in the Other around her. I look to the phoenix and see a wizard standing beside it. He wears a triangular hat, pitch-black, and the same billowing cloak as Abraham. His head is skinned and along his neck, where other men would have cut here tattooed, he has The King’s Disciple. He lifts Casey up with his magic and carries her through the air, directly into Abraham’s arms.
“Oh, sweetie.” Abraham wraps his arms around her. Casey screams. Lila darts forward.
I look at Abraham, the phoenix, the witches and wizards.
I look at the battlefield and I know, deep in my bones, that there’s no way we’re getting Casey back. If we try, Lila dies.
I jump to my feet and grab Lila as she makes to run forward. The wizards send bolts of lightning and balls of fire at us. I push Lila behind me, shielding her with my body. The lightning bounces off my chest. The fire splashes over me.
I don’t let myself think. If I think, I’ll hesitate. If I hesitate, the Woman of Starlight falls into the hands of the Horde and the world ends. That’s how I have to think of her. The Woman of Starlight. If I think Lila, if I think Casey, my resolve will crumble. I grab the Woman by the arms, pick her up, and run for the cabin door.
“Let go of me!” she screams, kicking and slapping me. Fire and lightning chases us to the door of the cabin. “Tooth, they have Casey! They have Casey!”
I know. I’m sorry. But I can’t let them take you. Everybody will die, every living thing in all the universes will die. Forgive me.
I rush into the cabin, drop the Woman to the floor, and slam the door behind us.
I roar the ward. The Other fills me—and then spills out around the cabin. The energy seeps into the wood and the earth and the dirt and the leaves and the twigs. I hear the phoenix shriek as it steps forward onto the Other-blessed earth. It takes a step back. I hear the lightning and fire of the wizards ricocheting off the barrier.
As I fall to the floor, my body aching in a thousand places, I hear Abraham: “We have the girl! Come, let us bask in our victory! We will return for the skinny-toothed god and the Woman Who Will End the World!”<
br />
The Woman of Starlight gets to her feet, brushing down her singed clothes, and then jumps at the door. Before an Other-sleep takes me, I watch her press down on the door handle. She snaps her hand back, moaning, as it burns into her flesh.
It’s to keep you safe, I think, wondering if I’ve just made a terrible mistake.
Chapter Thirty-One
Lila
The door handle is scorching to the touch.
Gritting my teeth, I go to the window, throw open the curtains, and punch the glass so hard I hear the bones in my knuckles crack. The glass doesn’t even wobble. I watch as the man in the billowing black coat—Abraham, that’s him, isn’t it, Tooth’s old enemy—throws Casey over his shoulder like a bag of potatoes. Casey kicks and screams, but her voice is lost amidst the constant barrage of fire and lightning which smashes against the barrier around the cabin.
Soon, the bombardment is so crazy I can’t see her. A sheet of blue lightning and orange-red fire engulfs us. But none of it touches the cabin. The energy fritters into nothing before it reaches us. I punch the glass again—nothing.
Anger boils through me, anger and guilt. Guilt for Isaac, the brave boy who protected me when all seemed lost, who became a man I loved more than anybody in the world and then fathered the girl I could never live without. I’m sorry, Isaac.
I choke back the guilt and turn to Tooth, asleep on the floor.
“What the hell did you do?” I scream, marching over to him.
He rolls onto his back, whispering something in his sleep. His eyes are closed and his skin is tinged purple from where he cast the ward on the cabin. It was days before he woke up last time, I think, horror coursing through me. Days . . . what will they do to Casey in days?
“Tooth!” I snarl, kneeling down next to him. I place my hand on his shoulder, dig my fingernails in. “Wake up!” I snap. “You let them take Casey! Now wake up! Wake! Up! Wake up! Wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up!”
I slap him across the face. He moans, mutters, but remains sleeping.
“I don’t care if they kill me. Don’t you get that? They can’t have Casey! Tooth, they have her. Don’t you understand? They have her.”
I slap him again, so hard my burnt-and-cut hand stings. A bloody handprint marks his face like an ancient tribal tattoo.
He has to wake up, I think, mind filling with the sadistic things the Man in Black could be doing to Casey right now. He has to wake up. He doesn’t have time to sleep. Damn him! Why did he let them take her!
I know what I have to do.
Despite the rage which bubbles inside of me—rage directed at him—I lie down beside his sleeping body. I ignore the aches and clicks of my bones, the pulsing in my hand, and roll over so that I’m facing him. Then I wrap my arms around his chest and my legs around his legs. Embracing him, I close my eyes.
I’ll find you in the Other, I think, and I’ll drag you back here.
With the starlight inside of me, I reach out. I feel it kicking against my belly. Like a baby. It kicks and then, in one sudden moment, it lurches out of me and into Tooth. He moans softly. Sweat coats my skin. I feel my body draining, sucking out my life and giving it to Tooth.
I sense him grow stronger. After a few moments, his eyes open.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Lila
I roll over, sucking the starlight back into me, as Tooth sits up and draws in a ragged breath.
“How many days has it been?” he asks.
“Days?” I cough, peering through the darkness at him. Outside, the barrage continues. “Days?” I repeat. There is acid in my voice. I don’t force it down. I take hold of it. It’s acid aimed at Tooth, aimed at the man—god—who let my niece be taken by monsters. It’s odd to think that less than an hour ago we were kissing, were about to do other things. Now, rage grips me. “It’s been minutes. Minutes since you let them take Casey and then made it impossible for me to go after her. What did you do to the windows and the door?”
Tooth rises unsteadily to his feet. He stretches his arms and legs, as though testing himself. “This is incredible, Lila. I’m awake. I never expected . . . this is incredible.”
He walks over to me and offers me his hand.
I bat it away.
“Don’t touch me,” I spit.
With a grunt, I climb to my feet.
“The power inside of you . . .” His eyes are wide and he looks at me like as though I have just sprouted wings. “You’re okay? You’re not tired?”
“I’m tired, but I’m okay.” I take a step away from him when he tries to touch me again. “If Casey dies, Tooth, I will never forgive you.”
Tooth flinches as though waking from a dream. The awe drains from his face and he clenches his jaw. “It was a horrible choice. I see that. But you have to understand that if they take you, the universes end. Not just the world—not just our Earth. Think of all those planets we saw on our romp through the stars, Lila. All of them would die and nothing would remain—”
“I don’t care about that!” I scream, waving my arms at him. Flecks of blood from my hand spray into the air. Behind me, the zombified Mr. Peppers throws up his deathly stink. “I care about Casey! I promised Isaac I would protect her! Do you understand me, you ass? I don’t care if I’m the Woman of Starlight or the Woman of Ice Cream or the Woman of Fairy Dust!” I march to the door. “Open it,” I demand.
Tooth watches me, but he doesn’t move. His expression is pained, a man caught between what he wants to do and what he must do.
“Open it,” I repeat.
“I can’t,” he says quietly. “The sun has not yet risen. There are still vampires out there. I can feel them. If I open it now, they will come in here. Do not believe anything you’ve heard about vampires. Garlic, crosses, thresholds, running water, all of it nonsense. They have reflections. In here, for example, they’d be able to watch themselves as they tore you apart, unleashing the power inside of you—”
If he mentions the power inside of me one more time, I think, I really am going to explode.
“They’re going to kill Casey.”
Tooth closes his eyes. “They’re not hurting her. I feel it in the Other. She’s unharmed.”
“But for how long!” I snap, but I’m glad she’s okay, even if it’s only for the moment. Why would they keep her alive? I wonder, mind overfilling with torments. How did I let this happen? How did she sneak out? Silly girl, why did she sneak out? I should’ve made it clearer. I should’ve drummed it into her. But I was worried she’d be scared. Ha! Better scared and safe than brave and dead.
Tooth opens his eyes. “I don’t know. But I promise you this, once the sun has risen we will go after her.”
“And how long will that be?”
“About an hour, I think. I can fight through the wizards and witches, if it comes to it. But I’d wager most of them will be dog-tired after a barrage like this. I can already hear it quieting down.”
He’s right. The crash and hiss and crack of lightning and fire is less frequent now.
“She might be dead in an hour. Or worse.”
“But you are safe.”
“I don’t care if I’m safe!” I scream. I leap across the room and slap him across the face. He takes the slap without moving, which infuriates me even more. I slap him again and again, again, again. Slap, slap, slap, slap. I slap him with my injured hand and when that begins to hurt, I slap him with my other hand. Blood smears across his face, his neck. But he just stands there and takes it. Part of me wants to stop, but another part is pure red-hot rage. Slap, slap, slap, slap, slap.
“You monster!” I shriek, my hands numb and his skin a dark shade of blood-red. “You left her out there! Who knows what’ going to happen to her! I can’t believe I ever kissed you! I hate you! Do you hear that? The Woman of Starlight or whatever the hell you want to call me hates you!”
I jump back, frantic and buzzing with anger. Tooth just watches me. I’ve cut him in several places
and blood slides over his skin, but he doesn’t show any sign of pain. For a long time—too long, Casey is out there, Casey is out there at the mercy of the Man in Black and I have to save her, I have to get to her now—we stare at each other.
Then Tooth says, in a cold and distant voice: “You are the Woman of Starlight. Whether you like it or not, Lila, you are the focal point of magic and the point of convergence for the universes. Whether your human feelings can take it or not, you have within you the power to destroy the universes. Not just the planets and the people and the animals and the plants. The universes. The fabric of reality. You are the single most dangerous thing who has ever been created.”
He walks across the cabin and takes Mr. Peppers under the armpits. “It stinks,” he says, and drags it across the cabin to the toilet. He opens the door and drags it inside. Then he emerges and stares at me.
I haven’t moved from my spot. My hands still ache from hitting him and my body feels like it’s in shock. Sweat pours down me and my clothes stick to me and my heart butts against my ribs as though trying to crack them.
Finally, I take a step forward. “You will monitor her in the Other. You will keep track of her and the second you feel she’s in danger, you will let us out of here, nighttime or not. If you don’t want to go after her, fine. But I will not leave her alone. Just the thought of it . . .” I stop, choking down sobs. I won’t cry. I won’t let him see me cry.
Tooth: An Alpha Like No Other (A Song of Starlight Book 1) Page 11
