Page 28

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Runaways

NYX

“ B eautiful, isn’t it?”

“Yes. So gorgeous.”

Clink.

The voices in my dream sounded so close. I forced my heavy, swollen eyes open. The sky was still dark, though it bled with deep orange at the horizon. The man and woman standing on the other side of the roof looked out, preparing to watch the sunri—

The man and woman!

I shot up, my limbs stiff from sleeping on this stupid chair. Their backs were to me. Clearly, they hadn’t spotted me here. I slid my arms and legs into the black t-shirt, hoping to stay hidden.

I could hear the bubbly fizzing from here. Crazy, stupid mortals. Champagne and a sunrise—really? Why did they have to choose this roof to have their romantic little moment on?

They were both dressed to the nines. I found myself checking out the woman’s outfit, impressed. A sleek, figure-hugging dress with dark leopard print and red bottoms. Damn, if she were my size, I’d totally Compel her to give me her clothes. Her shiny brown hair was slicked back to show off her facial features which I couldn’t see but assumed were striking. The man, clad in his three-piece suit, couldn’t take his beady eyes off of her.

I didn’t like his vibe. His face was turned slightly so I could see it. Shrewd features, too much gel in his hair. His cologne was absolutely rank , suffocating me from all the way over here. I rolled my eyes. Male mortals were the worst.

I stayed dead quiet, forced to listen to their mundane conversation. No way this woman was with this fuddy-duddy. He had nothing interesting to say, yet she laughed at his lame jokes and touched his arm constantly. He obviously had money.

“Another glass of champagne?” he asked, grinning.

“Oh, I shouldn’t,” the woman replied, her voice sultry. “It goes straight to my head, that bubbly.”

“Alright,” he said. I didn’t miss the weird edge to his tone, but apparently the woman did. Either that, or she purposely chose to ignore it. He set the champagne flutes on the ledge. The woman kept her gaze on the sky as he watched her face while he reached into the back of his pants and pulled out a pistol.

It took the same amount of time for my heart to drop as it did for him to press the tip of the shiny metal against her forehead.

She froze. That was the first time I caught a glimpse of her face. Stunning. Frightened. Young .

To her credit, she collected herself quickly in the face of certain death. As if she’d been there before. The fear turned to a desperate cover of flirty indifference. “Baby, what are you—”

“Shut up and get on your knees.”

“It doesn’t have to be—”

“Shut up and get on your fucking knees.” He cocked the gun.

Her dark, smoky eyes bulged before she shakily obeyed him.

He pressed the gun into her flesh. “Now undo my pants.”

My fire flickered wildly inside me as I watched her do just that. I almost admired the look on her face. She refused to show fear, though I could smell it, and I was sure this fucking creep did too.

Piping hot disgust clogged my throat as I noticed the look in his eye. A dark, distorted sense of joy and satisfaction simmered there. He wanted it like this—he needed it. He couldn’t just take a beautiful woman up to the roof to experience pleasure the way most people could. He needed it wrong—he needed her afraid. His sense of enjoyment came from her helpless misery. I’d met this beast before, the spirit that fed off the fear of others.

Celestials weren’t supposed to interfere with mortals affairs, but this ? I couldn’t just sit here and do nothing.

Silently, I hopped up off the chair and approached them. Neither noticed. Classic mortals, forever oblivious.

I needed to act quickly. She had his zipper down, and that thing was about to spring free.

“No one needs to see that, ” I declared through a grimace.

They both jumped and turned to face me. Her wide eyes met mine, and my heart tumbled to the bottom of my gut. She wasn’t a woman. She was a girl . A girl who could not have been a day older than seventeen. Dressed up like a woman, with her makeup heavy and her clothes all designer, heels six inches high. She may have fooled him, but not me. This girl should have been sleeping in her warm bed with her parents nearby. Not up here, on her knees, alone with a psychopath twice her age.

The man . His menacing glare felt like spiders crawling across my skin. He didn’t bother looking at my eyes for long. No, he had himself a little gander at my bare legs. Licked his lips, and snickered to himself. He wasn’t at all bothered by my dirty, unkempt appearance. In fact, he seemed to enjoy it. My lips peeled back in disgust.

He removed the gun from the girl’s forehead and pointed it at me. “You want to join her, girl?”

“Get away from her,” I growled, my fire begging to be released like a caged lion clawing at the bars.

Sending him back into the world was a crime, but what else could I do? I was already breaking laws by interjecting at all.

“ Leave. Now .”

He stared at me, his eyes staying clear.

Then he sneered, and my heart dropped. My Compulsion wasn’t working on him. Instead, he gave me a look of faux pity. “Come and join her, kitten. Lost little runaways are my favorite.” He nodded for me to join the girl on her knees in front of him. “I may play rough, but I pay well. Come earn yourself some money. You look like you could use it.”

I audibly gasped and looked at the girl. The fear had drained from her face, and she now looked at me with annoyance.

What the fuck was happening?

“Just go,” she said to me. “I’m fine.”

I made a face. No fucking way.

The man snarled and pressed the gun back to her forehead. “You shut up. Unless you’re going to convince her to come join you, shut the fuck up.”

Gold flames erupted from my clenched fists without my mind’s consent.

The fear that rose over the man’s face like the dawn behind him was fucking delicious. The awe in the girl’s stare might have been better, though.

I abandoned all traces of restraint and let my fire rage up my arms. “I said leave .”

I had to bite back a smirk. I hadn’t felt this powerful in a while. That familiar fear and wonder dancing behind their eyes filled my chest with pride.

The man jolted out of his state of shock and quickly pointed the gun at me. “Witch!”

I stalked toward him, ready to end this.

An explosion went off in my eardrums, rattling through my skull as an iron weight slammed into my chest. The force that struck me was otherworldly. Once, twice, three times. Air wailed in my ears, putting out my fire. Concrete smashed my back, the brightening sky intruding on my vision. Vengeful gods stomped their heavy feet all over me, weighing me down and holding my breath hostage.

Disbelief immobilized me for only a few seconds before the reality bit me right in the ass. Pain, unlike anything I’d ever felt, ravaged my chest. Hot liquid pooled under my back.

He shot me. Three times!

“Ah! Oh, my Goddess! FUCK!” I writhed, blinking through the blinding pain. Instinctively, my hands roved over my chest, finding it soaked and warm.

A low, guttural growl slid through my lips. I forced myself to sit up, teeth clenched.

He watched me stand back up with horror in his eyes.

More explosions went off and I felt the weights hit me again, but I didn’t go down. I screamed, releasing a line of fire that rushed him. Angry flames claimed his feet, clawing up his legs, coaxing a cry of terror and pain from him that filled me with jubilance. More shots knocked me back—I fell to my knees but kept my focus, my fingers curling inward, guiding the flames to rise and consume. He kept shooting at me until my fire swallowed him up. The pistol dropped to the ground with a harsh clank .

His screams died out all too fast, my fire too hot. He didn’t survive five seconds of it.

My shoulders heaved as I watched him shrink to a pile of smoldering ash until only a couple of teeth and bone fragments remained.

The silence that corrupted the air was loaded with something I didn’t have a name for.

I collapsed, the pain an invasive entity thrashing through me. Everything was warm, tingly… wet.

I stared up at the sky, watching as it bled with violent colors that mirrored me below.

The girl appeared in my line of vision. Her slicked-back hair was now loose, wild strands falling around her face. And her eyes . Her eyes were wide, and not with fear…but with marvel. A spark of knowing, a twinkle that only magic could incite.

“You’re not dying,” she pointed out.

I coughed, sputtering blood. Then I choked out the words, “We’ll see.”

To my utmost fucking surprise, the girl grinned at me. She sized me up in a way that made me feel like a goddess.

A moment later, her attention flicked to the pile of ash that was once a man. Her expression flattened. How curious. Instead of terror and despair, she looked disappointed as she regarded what was left of him. She moved over to the ash, and I twisted my neck to watch her. She sifted through the pile with the heel of one of her six-inch stilettos. “Well, shit! You scorched his wallet. If you live, you owe me twenty-five hundred bucks.”

I stared at her, wondering if I was hallucinating from the pain.

A ragged laugh escaped my lips. “What?” It hurt to speak, and my voice shook, but I forced myself. “I saved you. You owe me. And you should be way more freaked out by all of this.”

“Girl. He was one of my highest-paying clients! Almost three grand in less than two hours. He was fucked in the head, sure, but the guy was a hundred-dollar bill dispenser.”

I blinked. After all of that, this was what she cared about? Money?

“He was going to hurt you,” I whispered.

She scoffed and looked down at the ground. “No, he wasn’t. It was just a little game. And even he did… So? It’s what people do. They might as well pay you for it.”

Goddess.

The girl reached into her purse and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. She lit one and blew out the smoke with vigor. “And as for you, witchy-woo. Hate to burst your bubble, but you’re not the first Underworlder I’ve crossed paths with.”

“Underworlder!” I wheezed, horrifically offended. I could hardly see through the pain, but this little mortal had my full attention with her absolute ridiculousness. “I am no demon,” I snapped. “I am a highborn Celestial. Show some respect.”

The girl eyed me curiously. “Whatever you say.”

“Fuck!” I shouted, gritting my teeth. Under all the agony, there was something worse. A blockage. The bullets inside my body were stopping the healing from happening. I could feel my flesh trying to mend itself, but the metal invaders fought back. “Ouch. Holy shit, this hurts. Get over here and get these bullets out of me!”

A heavy whooshing sound roared in my ears over and over. A symptom of blood loss?

A shadow moved in front of the brightening sky above me. No! I couldn’t black out now. I clenched my jaw and tried to hold on to my consciousness. I couldn’t slip away here—not in front of this freaky little unfazed mortal.

A scream jolted me. It took me a second to realize the scream wasn’t mine. The girl was screaming at something on the other side of me, her cigarette dropped to the ground.

“Well, well, well. What do we have here?”

Fuck my life .

Pain and shame coursed through me, battling each other for first place on my list of misfortunes.

Blood loss made it exhausting to focus. Still, I heard those heavy boots strolling over here, his arrogance reeking up the air. That dark, enormous frame appeared in my line of vision. His wings shrouded us, blocking the dawn out almost completely.

Silver eyes raked over me, taking in the reality of me lying here in an expanding pool of my own blood. I wouldn’t have thought I could hit any more rock bottoms, but then my entire body lit up with relief that he was here.

Darkness clawed in at the corners of my vision, threatening to take me under, but I fought to stay alert, breathing heavily.

Solaris disappeared from over me. He moved with the speed only vampires possessed., grabbing the girl by the throat and, to my despair, went to hurl her off the building.

“No!” I croaked. I don’t know how I managed to exert myself at all. “Don’t!”

She tried to scream, but he squeezed her throat, dangling her over the edge. Desperately, she pawed at him, her reddening face warped with horror.

Solaris turned his neck to face me. The apathy in his expression hit like another bullet to the chest. “She’s seen too much, and their Amnesia isn’t working too well these days.”

“Let her go.” I tried to sit up. Gravity laughed in my face and kicked me back down. “Solaris, please.”

“What do you care for this mortal?”

“Please.” Blackness danced in front of my eyes. It took every ounce of my strength to stay conscious.

“You kill a predator; I kill a whore. The world goes on without missing a beat.”

No!

I meant to say the word out loud, but I didn’t get the chance.