Undead and Undermined

Chapter NINETEEN



It’s hard to describe what happened next—it was fast, and it was dirty and weird. Not dear-Penthouse-forum-you-won’t-believe-what-happened-to-me-last-Groundhog-Day dirty and weird, either. The bad dirty and weird.

We fell. We fell for a long time, or maybe just half a second, we were pulling a Gandalf and we fell somewhere while Hellfire whipped past us and even through us (don’t ask me; no clue). We fell, and I could hear whooshing and shouting and sounds I didn’t in the least understand, sounds I had never heard in my life, sounds I never wanted to hear again.

My head hurt from Laura’s flurry of punches, my toes hurt from kicking her shins. I wished the Antichrist were a guy so I could rack him in the balls. I wished I were still holed up in our bedroom with Sinclair. I wished I were wearing my Jimmy Choo snake-embossed pumps . . . the toes came to a wicked point. I wished I hadn’t had that extra smoothie . . . it was possible I was going to be the first vampire queen to barf strawberry smoothie all over a portal to/through hell. Urrgg . . . make that a strawberry-banana smoothie . . .

“Get . . . off!” my sister shrieked, and managed to wrench herself free. This would be a shameful, shameful thing except we were in hell, her territory. And I was scared.

Not of her—okay, a little of her. I’d seen a side of Laura today I’d never dreamed existed. Which made me a moron, since I’d seen her kill people.

But I was too new to being a vampire . . . I was afraid if I really fought back I’d hurt her in a way someone who was half fallen angel couldn’t get back from. She might be the badass Antichrist, but she had a human body, which came with a skull and a neck, and both were breakable. So I let her twist free.

Which was dumb, in retrospect. I fell again (still?). Except this time, I didn’t have a guide cursing me as we plummeted.

Wake up.

I didn’t have anyone.

Wake up, Betsy!

I just kept falling, alone.

Wake up!

Forever. Or maybe it was only for half a second. Falling through hell, and me without a watch.