Page 29 of Vengeance and Vipers

Yeah, I don’t get it either.

I use the shelf to propel myself around the corner and up the next aisle, but when I get to the end, I hear nothing.

I’m breathing hard and loud and try to quiet everything down, but I can’t hear him. I look this way and that, up and down and all around, but he’s not there. He wouldn’t have just quit. He wanted to kill me a minute ago. He would have if I wasn’t great at playing possum.

I tiptoe to the end of the next aisle and peer around the corner. There’s an echoing laugh that I can’t pinpoint.

The demon is stalking me. I know he is. He’s making me play his game now.

I cross my arms over my chest, scowling and getting my head on straight. I don’t play other supes’ games. They play mine! If I’m going to die anyway, it’s not going to be out of breath and sweaty and running for my life like I’m the token first victim in a 90s slasher movie.

‘Come out!’ I demand. ‘Face me properly, coward.’

‘Is that what my female wants?’ comes a whisper that’s much closer than I anticipated.

His female?

I frown as I turn in a circle, trying to locate him. ‘I’m not yours, demon,’ I say with more strength than I feel, trying not to let him see my fear.

‘Aren’t you?’

I finally realize where he is much too late to still be getting out of this alive, and I roll my eyes upward to the tower shelves, cursing my stupid ass. Sure enough, he’s gripping onto the wooden frame like fucking Spiderman. I curse softly as I turn to run, even though it’s hopeless. He barrels into me.

I go down with a thud, the wind knocked out of me, wheezing on the floor as my own boobs stop my lungs from expanding.

Death by double D asphyxiation. What a dumb way to go.

Is it really going to end like this? Tears come to my eyes. Was everything I did to survive for the past few years actually for nothing?

I’m turned over, and I suck in a hard breath like I’ve had my head stuck underwater. My hands grip his forearms as he leans over me like that’s going to delay him even a little.

My pleading eyes lock onto his face, and I see something in his eyes that I don’t understand. It looks like remorse, but he’s got to be fucking with me, so I let my face fall to the side so I can’t see it anymore.

But a hand, not a claw, cups my cheek and urges my limp head back towards him. My eyes flutter to him again, wondering what he’s doing, why he hasn’t just killed me.

Probably wants to play with his food.

Demon fucker.

But then he speaks, and I’m more confused than ever.

‘Sorry,’ he half-growls. ‘I didn’t mean to …’

‘Well, you did!’ he seems to say to himself. ‘I can help her. You’ll just hurt her more.’

I stare at him.Them? This is so weird.

‘It’s called an internal monologue for a reason,’ I wheeze, turning my head to cough and wincing when my ribs twinge.

At least one is cracked, I’m pretty sure.

‘Maybe you could keep it down,’ I whisper. ‘I don’t want your argument with yourself to be the last thing I ever hear, you know? Give a dead girl a break, huh?’

He lets out a low, long-suffering grunt.

‘Fine. You deal with the female, but this isn’t over.’

Krase’s fingers, which I realize have been digging into my waist, gentle.