“So, how would you like to do this?” Janika asked. “Personally, I don’t want to hurt you, Nikolas—”
“Come now, Janika, you don’t have to lie to me,” Niko interrupted.
She shrugged her bony shoulders. “All right, I do want to hurt you. But it’s beneath me.”
“
“All right! Not beneath me.” She sighed like an unconcerned socialite caught stealing a necklace from a store. “So, my In Between or yours? I’ll give you that much.”
Niko grinned. “Mine.”
Janika disappeared.
“What now?” Arianne asked.
He faced her. Their gazes locked.
“I need you to go home,” Niko urged.
“Fat chance.”
He gave her a bright smile that spoke of lazy mornings. “I had a feeling you’d say that.” Then, like a gray cloud covering the sun, he frowned. “But seriously, I don’t know if I can defeat Janika. She’s the Reaper of New York, third strongest among us. I don’t know if I can fully protect you.”
She framed his face with both her hands. “We’re doing this together or not at all.”
Arianne opened her eyes and found herself by a blood-colored lake and stormy skies. The pines had withered to resemble gray skeleton fingers reaching up from the ground like a corpse fighting its way out of a grave. The grass had dried to pus yellow and the air smelled of sulfur.
Janika leaned against one of the pines, filing her fingernails. “A tad overdramatic, don’t you think?” she said without looking up at them.
“I thought it appropriate,” Niko replied nonchalantly. “But if you want green meadows and hopping bunnies, I can oblige.”
“Don’t patronize me, Nikolas.” She glared at him, a rattler ready to strike.
Raising his hands as if she had a gun pointed at him, he shrugged, “I only aim to please, lady Reaper.”
Arianne marveled at how easy-going Niko seemed despite the threat Janika presented to them. They might as well be sitting for tea from the way they addressed each other, but Janika’s toxic aura pushed down on Arianne. She could barely stand. Her knees quaked from the effort.
“I’m bored. Let’s get on with it,” Janika said. She held the nail file aloft and it morphed into a scythe. Its ivory staff resembled a unicorn’s horn. A giant pink bow, its ribbons curling to the ground, joined the staff to a wide, arched blade of midnight metal with blush floral etchings on its surface.
Arianne couldn’t hide her amazement and wonder. She stood there, staring at Janika in abject awe. She half expected Rainbow Brite or a group of My Little Ponies to join the pseudo-eighties pop star. Before she had a chance to point out the observation, she found herself encased in a glass bubble. She fell to her knees as it levitated a foot off the ground.
“Niko?” Her voice echoed within the sphere, sounding hollow to her ears.
“As long as you are in there and I’m alive, she can’t take you,” he said to her.
“Is that an invitation?” Janika twirled her scythe, first in front of her then behind like a majorette at the head of a parade. “Because I’d be happy to oblige.”
Niko made a fist. A shaft of some kind of black wood stretched out. One end had a silver stud, and the other a transparent blue blade that resembled ice, misty wisps rising from it. The flat side of the blade had holes of descending size from base to tip. Arianne couldn’t take her gaze away from its beauty. She’d seen it once before, when he’d gathered souls at St. Joseph’s. At the time, it represented pain. Now, it became a weapon to protect her.
Janika and Niko widened their stance. A tense moment passed between them. Even in the bubble, Arianne felt the static they generated. Then, like a whip crack, they moved. Their collision produced a loud bang, like a firecracker exploding. Their blades rubbed against each other, producing a screech similar to nails on a blackboard. Arianne covered her ears, gritting her teeth.
Niko executed back flips even the pickiest judge would score a ten. Cat-like agility and predatory grace had him dancing circles around Janika. The female Reaper matched each step with countermoves of her own. Close combat never reminded Arianne so much of the tango as it did while watching them. A hint of jealousy, which she found utterly insane, curled up next to the fire in her gut. If they didn’t look like they were killing each other, Arianne would have slapped an R rating on the fight scene unfolding before her. Their grunts and groans alone sounded too intimate, despite the punches and kicks and blood.
In a blink, they were back on opposite sides of the lakeshore. Janika swept the blade of her scythe over the grass and a gust of air hurled itself toward Niko. He countered by leaping over the attack. A second and third followed, which he dodged, not realizing a fourth came in their wake. It hit his hip, sending him falling. He braced himself, but before he touched down, Janika hovered over him, slicing into his chest. A massive shockwave burst outwards like a bomb had been detonated, sending pines toppling to the rippling ground.
Arianne covered her mouth to keep from screaming, certain that Janika had cut Niko in half. The dust hadn’t even settled when Niko—face bloodied, clothes ripped—rushed Janika and landed a solid punch on her jaw, producing a sonic boom as she flew into the hillside. He quickly called upon thunder by raising his scythe, sending electric daggers Janika’s way, further leveling the landscape.
Niko stumbled forward, using his scythe to keep him upright. Arianne suspected the thunder attack he’d used took a lot out of him. She gripped the edges of her sleeves.
Seconds later, Janika walked out of the rubble, dusting off her skirt and top as if she’d slipped and gotten back up. “Is that the best you can do? I’m a little disappointed.” She tossed her scythe from her left hand to her right. “You only succeeded in annoying my dry cleaner.”
“Just getting warmed up.” Niko wiped away the blood streaming over his eyes. He returned all his weight onto his legs.
“Good.” Janika licked her own blood off her bottom lip. “I’d hoped you’d give me a challenge. It’s been a while.” She charged—her blade aimed at Niko’s throat.
Niko somersaulted several times, dodging every advance Janika made. They both had wicked smiles on their faces. Despite fighting to the death, as Arianne saw it, both Reapers clearly enjoyed themselves.
A tug-of-war ensued as their staffs locked. Janika disentangled herself with a kick to Niko’s abdomen. The force sent him slamming into a large pine, splintering the dead tree into toothpicks. Janika tapped the crystal stud of her scythe on the water’s edge and a foghorn blared. Again, Arianne had to cover her ears.
A tornado touched down from the stormy sky and headed toward Niko. In no time, the funnel engulfed him, whirling him around like a rag doll. Arianne whimpered.
“That’s right, girly, be afraid.” Janika poked the bubble with her forefinger. “I’m coming for you next. It shouldn’t be long now.”
Arianne didn’t respond, too stunned by the fact that Janika moved so fast. She appeared out of thin air beside the bubble a second after Arianne’s eyes registered that the psychotic Reaper had been standing by the lake.
Then Janika’s eyes widened as she choked out blood.
Arianne screamed.
Niko pulled on his scythe, which he’d embedded between Janika’s shoulders. It left a gaping hole in her chest, soaking her shirt crimson.
“I thought I told you to stay away from her,” he said in a harsh whisper.
“How?” Disbelief replaced Janika’s previous cocky demeanor.
“I know a thing or two.” He snapped and the tornado Janika summoned subsided. “You forget who my mentor is. My domain, my control.”
“And you forget I’m the Reaper of New York.” Janika plunged her hand into Niko’s stomach and twisted her wrist before yanking back, his blood like a red glove on her hand.
Niko fell to his knees, covering the wound that bled like an angry volcano.
“Niko!” Arianne moved to him, only to collide with the glass she’d forgotten separated them. She got up and pounded on the barrier the bubble provided until her fists hurt.
