Raisa rose and stood beside us, avoiding looking at the scene.
Greg chuckled, but it sounded wrong. “Yeah, right.” He took in a labored breath. “I’m glad I was able to help a little though.” He grunted in pain. He clasped Keisha’s hand and looked from her to me to Raisa. “I ho-hope all of you make out of here safe.”
He closed his eyes, and Keisha pursed her lips.
We watched over him, until his chest stopped moving.
I checked his pulse. “He’s gone.” I took his hands and clasped them together over his chest. “Thank you,” I whispered, wishing I had said it while he was still alive. Sighing, I stood and turned to Micah. “Hey.”
His grin faded. In fact, he looked tense with a deep frown. His hands shook terribly, and he looked as if he was in pain.
Without thinking, I reached for him and took his hands in mine. The cold jolt shocked me, but only for a moment. He gasped, his head lolling back a little, as the energy rushed from me to him. My knees wobbled. He was taking much more from me than Victor had, which meant he was in worse shape, though he disguised it better.
I didn’t mean to, but it was hard not to stare at the sharp angles of his face framed by his unkempt black hair, the strands a little longer than the last time I had seen him, his smooth skin, his inviting lips, and his black eyes now staring back at me.
I swallowed, realizing the healing was complete, and pulled my hands away.
“Thanks,” he said, still ogling me.
“You took a lot from me.”
“Sorry.”
“That’s okay. But why didn’t you come before?”
He glanced at the ground, his jaw ticking. “Because I didn’t want to attract demons here.” The same thing Victor said. Boys! He gestured to the demons at our feet. “However, now that seems irrelevant.”
“So you endured it?” He nodded. “And you would have kept enduring if they hadn’t attacked the city?” He nodded again. “That’s insane.”
“No. Insane would be coming to you. The demons would sense my aura and be here in no time.”
As he had done, I gestured around us. “Like that worked.”
“Well, someone brought them here.”
I put my hands on my hips. “Are you implying that—?”
“Nadine,” Keisha called. “Who is your friend?”
I looked around. “Just … a friend. Micah, this is Keisha. Keisha, this is Micah.”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “Hey,” he said, his voice normal. It was odd, because normally every time Micah spoke to a female, his voice was sugary and he acted all charming and smiling. Then Raisa stood beside us, and he barely glanced her way. “Hi, Raisa.”
Wiping the unshed tears from her eyes, Raisa nodded in acknowledgment.
“We should keep moving,” Keisha said.
Micah shook his head. “I’m not sure if you saw it, but there’s a bunch of demons half a block from here. And by a bunch, I mean—”
Raisa’s eyes widened. “Demons?”
Micah and I exchanged an oh-shit look.
I wasn’t sure how the world would explain what was happening, what they would call these creatures, or if they would get a glimpse of what was really going on, and I wasn’t sure Keisha and Raisa should know about it.
Micah cleared his throat. “Well, it’s what I’ve been calling them.”
“It suits them,” Keisha said.
If only she knew.
Keisha knelt beside Greg’s body and covered it with my scarf as much as she could. Then she dragged the demons’ bodies to the back.
I lowered myself to help Keisha, but Micah put a hand on my wrist and pulled me back. “They are too heavy,” he said.
What the hell? Keisha could carry them. I could too! I hooked my hands around one of the many demons' bodies, trying not to throw up from their nasty stench and nastier look, and pulled. It didn’t budge. The damn thing was too heavy.
“Told ya,” he said, with a knowing smile. I could hit him. After he carried three bodies back, he stood beside me. “Who is she? How and when did you meet her?”
I looked at his face, ready to snap at him for already being interested in a girl. He was serious, though. “I don’t know. I mean, we were hiding and she was too. She looked elegant, like a fancy businesswoman, until the demons charged us, then she grabbed a sword from the museum and killed them as if she had wielded swords since birth.”
“Did she explain how she knows how to fight?”
“No. Why? Should there be an explanation?”
“I don’t know.” He squinted, observing her. She was dragging the bodies as if they were dolls. “Her aura is different.”
“Really? How so?”
“It’s odd.” He looked at me, his eyes sharp and intent, and I had to focus on breathing. “You know yours changed after Ceris took the Destiny Gift from you, right?” It had? I shook my head. “It’s not as strong right now, but it’s still way stronger than a human’s. Hers is like yours was. Strong, but not quite deity-like.”
“What does that mean?”
“That she’s not ordinary.”
Seriously? And here I thought I would be able to turn my back on all of this after we were done escaping the city.
Micah went back to helping Keisha, and Raisa scooted closer to me. “What do we do now?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” I said, my voice low.
Keisha wiped her hands on her ripped skirt. “Wait here for a bit. Hope they don’t find us. Then try to find another way out of the city if they don’t disperse.”
She turned her back to us, watching the street that intersected the alley, with her hands on her hips and her chin raised, like a badass security guard. Like someone who would get us out of the city.
I leaned against a wall with Raisa’s head on my shoulder, but with Micah standing in front of us, I barely felt her.
He was here. Holy shit, he was here.
And he was staring at me with an odd look and his arms crossed.
Just like that, the anger and the resentment from when he left me alone on that island, the same anger and resentment that had built up these past months, surged back into me.
There was much I wanted to tell him, so much I wanted to yell at him. Why the hell did he leave me alone? Why defend me back then? Why send Rok after me? Why show up now?
I opened my mouth to ask all those questions, but his head snapped to the side, a big V between his brows, his shoulders tense.
“Oh fuck,” he cursed.
“What?” I asked, stiffening.
He grabbed my arm and pulled me halfway down the alley. He leaned to me and paused. What was he doing?
Then he shook his head. “There’s a god here, and he’s coming this way.”
I pursed my lips. “Omi.”
“What? How do you know?”
“The radio … a police officer reported seeing fire being hurled from the sky. I saw that before when Omi decimated that small village in Switzerland.”
“Fuck,” he muttered, raking his hand through his hair. “This isn’t good.”
“You said he’s coming our way, which means he’ll be able to sense us. You especially.” He nodded. My eyes narrowed. “We should run, just run, the opposite way and pray we make it.”