{ Katy }
Dee looked like a goddess of vengeance straight out of one of the books I’d read and cherished. She stood with her slender legs wide and shoulders back. With the sun behind her, forming a halo over her body, and her eyes glowing white, she looked fierce and really scary.
Fine. I might have read too many books, because this was real and she looked like she wanted to kill us. Like kill us dead.
Archer started forward. “Dee—”
She raised her hand, and he should’ve been able to move in time, but he was like Daemon, rooted to the spot he stood in. A bolt of the Source caught Archer in the shoulder, spinning him back.
Oh, she was so not messing around.
Dee turned to where we stood and then casually, like nothing was up, stepped into the house. Behind her, I saw more Luxen.
This was about to get bad.
“Shacking up with Arum?” Dee tsked as she spared a quick glance at Archer while he picked himself up. “How far you’ve fallen, brother.”
Daemon stepped forward. “Dee—”
She lunged at him, flying the several feet between them as my heart lodged in my throat. All Daemon did was grip her by the shoulders. He made no move to do anything else, and she took complete advantage of that.
Dee shoved her hand at his chest. He only moved at the last second to avoid a direct hit to the heart, but he took an up-close-and-personal blast anyway. I cried out as he went down, his sister right on top of him.
I knew in that instant that she would either really hurt him or kill him unless he treated her like the Luxen he’d just taken out.
Archer had the other Luxen engaged as I shot forward, making up my mind.
Daemon might hate me if I ended up having to kill his sister, but I’d rather he despise me than hate himself for hurting her worse.
I grabbed handfuls of her long hair and yanked her off Daemon. She hit the floor, arms and legs sprawled like a crab. She looked up, eyes glowing like diamonds.
“You don’t want to do this,” I said. “You—”
Dee popped up. Like didn’t even bend her knees, just shot right up and was in my face. “Oh, you have no idea how badly I want to do this.”
Then she drew her arm back and cold-cocked me right in the face.
The impact knocked me away, and I landed on my butt as pain lanced through my jaw and down my neck. Blinking fresh tears out of my eyes, I stared up at her.
“That felt so good,” she said, cocking her head to the side. “I think I need to do it again.”
Oh, it was on like Donkey Kong.
I lumbered to my feet, nowhere near as gracefully as Dee. Behind her, a Luxen zipped into the room just as Daemon rose. They two of them collided at the same moment I slammed my fist into Dee’s jaw.
Her head snapped back, black tresses flying out around her in a way that made her hair look like Medusa’s snakes. Dull pain flared along my knuckles, but there was no time to really pay attention to that.
Dee launched herself at me, grabbing my ponytail and jerking on my neck. A fiery sensation coursed down my spine, and I reached up, digging my fingers into her arms. She didn’t let go, and there was a good chance she was going to rip my head off.
Time to get dirty.
Twisting in her grasp, I gripped her arms as I brought my knee up, shoving it right in her lady parts.
Dee shouted hoarsely and let go, bending over as I straightened. I clutched her hair and brought my knee up once more, connecting with her face. She went down on one knee as I stumbled back, breathing heavily.
“Please,” I gasped out. “This isn’t you, Dee. Whatever this is, it isn’t you—”
She was up and her hand was bonding with my cheek in an epic smack, spinning me around in a little circle. Holy crap, that stung.
Dee slammed her hands into my back, knocking me onto my knees as she wrapped a slender arm around my neck and squeezed.
I gasped, fighting for air.
The little training Daedalus had taught me kicked in, and I grabbed her hand and then threw my weight forward. She went right over my shoulder, landing hard on her back.
She shouted something too furiously for me to understand, and I struggled not to find something sharp and plunge it into her eyeball. “We’re best friends,” I told her, pushing to my feet as she rose. “Don’t you remember? We’re best friends, Dee.”
“You’re just a stupid human.” Bluish-red blood trickled from her lip. “Because that’s all you are, underneath it, just a fragile, useless human who bleeds easily.”
“Jesus. It’s like I’m a muggle to your pure-blood or something.”
She just glared at me.
I backed up, keeping an eye on her. This so wasn’t the time for Harry Potter references. “We planted flowers together and you borrowed a lot of my books and never gave them back. You made Daemon talk to me and be nice—you hid his keys. And you—”
She tackled me to the floor, clawing and pulling my hair.
We were in full girl-fight mode.
Both of us had a hold of each other’s hair as we rolled across the floor. I gained the upper hand for a second. “We hung out together on Halloween and watched stupid movies. And we fought Baruck together—”
Dee flipped me, her nails tearing the collar of my sweater. “None of that means anything.” She grabbed my shoulders and slammed me back down with enough force that I was stunned for a second.
For long enough.
Hauling me up, she screamed as she spun around—spun me—and the next second I was flying through the air. I hit the wall. Plaster cracked and gave way. For a second, I could see clouds of white dust fly everywhere and then I was in the den, toppling over the back of a couch, hitting the floor.
That—that bitch! She’d thrown me through a wall!
I lay on the floor, unable to move as I stared up at the ceiling, blinking out the tiny stars clouding my vision. There was a ringing in my ears as I forced my body to shift onto its side.
Dee climbed through the Katy-size hole in the wall, which was pretty big. Good Lord, she wasn’t going to give up.
Hands shaking, I pushed myself to my feet, breathing through the unholy burn surrounding my ribs and back. There was probably a lot of stuff broken, important stuff.
She landed on the couch and then dived at me with murder in her expression. I darted out of the way at the last second, and she hit the coffee table behind me. Glass shattered.
Now she looked stunned as she stared at the ceiling, her chest heaving. I didn’t give her a chance to recover.
I landed on her, my knees digging into the broken glass, and slammed my hands onto her shoulders. “We’re best friends,” I tried again, not knowing what else to do. “You picked out my fake name—from one of my favorite books. You gave Daemon his new name.” I shook her, rattling her head back and forth. “You were picturing Archer naked not that long ago and you wanted one perfect night with him.” Her hand connected with my face again, wringing a pain-filled grunt from me. “We’ve been through some harsh stuff, but we’ve always made it out together, even after what happened to Adam.”
She went wild, like some kind of demon straight out of a nightmare, smacking and bucking, kicking and scratching.
“You and Adam tried to help me,” I shouted at her as I pinned her with all my weight, straining to avoid her swinging hands that hit my face and chest. “Do you even remember Adam?”
“Yes!” she shrieked. “I remember him! And I remember—”
“Me being the reason for him dying?” Every part of my body ached, and I could feel blood in a lot of places, some really uncomfortable places, but I had to get through to her. I had to. “It was my fault. I know that! And I’ll never fully forgive myself for what it did to you and to our friendship. But we got past that, because you’re like a sister to me.”
Dee froze with her fingers curled along the torn hem of my shirt, like she was about to rip it straight off me, and at that point I honestly wouldn’t have been surprised if she had.
“Do you think he’d be like this now? Adam loved everyone, and he would’ve hated this war—hated what his kind was doing to innocent people.” I watched the white light fade from her green eyes. “He would’ve hated what has become of you. Can’t you see that? You’re better than this. You’re—”
Dee threw her head back and she screamed—screamed like I was trying to murder her, and I eased off, raising my hands. The horrible, wretched sound was like a wounded animal, something dying. She shuddered under me and squeezed her eyes shut. Both of us were still for a handful of seconds, and then she screamed again, until the sound was raw and pained, until I thought there was a good chance she might be dying.
“I’m sorry,” Dee whispered as another great tremble rocked her lithe frame. As I stared down at her, trying to catch my breath, trying to process the two words, her beautiful face crumpled and big, fat tears streamed down her cheeks. “I’m so sorry.”