Page 29 of Soaring into the Midlife

"Trust me." I attempted to reassure her. "We've seen weirder. And we'll figure out what to tell Jordan. It’s not like we could bring a dead demon to the human police."

They would freak the eff out.

"Hailey's right," Kendra said. "But first, let's get cleaned up. We look like we've been through a candy-coated tornado." She plucked a stray gummy worm from her hair and flicked it away with an exaggerated shudder.

"Good point." I surveyed the mess that was once our clothing. "I don't think my dry cleaner is prepared for this level of disaster. These are going in the trash."

Zara sighed, reluctantly accepting the situation. "If you say so, but later you’re going to tell me more about Luci."

"We will. After a long hot shower,” Kendra said.

“And some wine," I added.

I glanced back at the open front door of the apartment. I saw the number on the door, and I blinked a couple of times, trying to make sense of what I was seeing. "Damn it."

Kendra frowned at me. "What's wrong?"

"Guys, we're at the wrong apartment." I pointed at the door that clearly read 1131. “Weren’t we supposed to go to 1113?”

"What?" Kendra said, her frustration evident.

Zara hung her head, groaning in disbelief.

"Yep." I was pretty dang sure. "We were supposed to go to apartment 113. This is 131."

"Ugh, seriously?" Kendra moaned as she kicked the ground, sending a small cloud of debris into the air. "You know what? Let's just get out of here. We'll find the real skip tomorrow."

"Good idea." I was utterly drained from our surreal adventure.

We made our way out of the building and to the parking lot where we left the SUV. When we reach it, I let out a curse. All four tires were flat.

“This night keeps getting better and better.” The words were filled with exhaustion, annoyance, and a boatload of sarcasm. I wasn’t sure if the demon flattened the tires or the rift raft that prowled the streets of Philly had done it.

I was too tired to analyze it tonight. Jax would make a call and have someone tow it to the mechanic he always used.

"Oh great. How are we getting home?" Zara asked, looking around for other means of transportation.

"Leave that to me," Kendra said with a determined smirk. She closed her eyes and focused, her brow furrowing in concentration. If Kendra could pull off a portal, it would mean we really were home.

"Here goes nothing." With a flick of her wrist, a shimmering portal appeared before us. It wavered unsteadily, but it was there, a glimmer of possibility for our escape and further adventures.

"Yes!" I cheered, giving her an appreciative pat on the back. "Come on, let's go home." I stepped toward the portal with newfound optimism. As we crossed the threshold together, despite everything we'd been through, and everything still tocome, we were in this together, and we could handle whatever life, or unlife, threw at us.

And I didn’t hate Zara anymore. She really came through for Kendra and me.

14

"Ugh,this better come out of my hair." I tried to shake the last remnants of what looked suspiciously like slime from my bangs. Where had we even been around slime?

Oh, ew. The giants. So gross!

Kendra had just portaled us into the backyard with a flick of her wrist.

Zara tried to use the water hose to get some of the paint and chocolate off—arms flailing, shoes flying, and landed with a squelch in the flowerbed. "Oops, sorry, flowers."

"Right, let's get inside before the neighbors start questioning our choice of yard art." I motioned towards the back door. We were a sight, three women covered head-to-toe in otherworldly goo, walking into a house like it was the most normal thing in the world.

As for me, being a vampire-dragon hybrid had its perks, but at moments like these, I missed the simplicity of just being human. Though humans didn’t get to kick rogue demon butt across dimensions, so there's that.