“Oh no you don’t, I just fucking found her!” Delta shouts out, and she shoves me forward just as one of the camo-skinned demons who somehow snuck too close to my side lashes out with its long claws.
She hisses out in pain as the claws rake down her chest instead. In some impossible gymnastics move I didn’t even know I was capable of, I flip over her, scythe raised, and I dust the demon who has another swipe aimed her way while I’m still upside down. My feet hit the grass, and I push a hand against the blood seepin’ out of the claw marks across Delta’s chest.
“Are you okay?” I ask as I apply pressure to her wounds with nothin’ other than my hand and my will for her to stop bleedin’. With my other hand, I arc the no nonsense side of my scythe and dust the row of demons closest to us.
Are they multiplyin’? How many of these damn things are there?
She grits her teeth. “I’m fine. It’s a bleeder, but I’m okay,” Delta reassures me, and then the strangest thing happens. The blood seepin’ through my fingers from where my palm is pressed against her wounds heats up. And not only heats up, but somehow moves up my damn hand.
Time slows as I watch drops of blood deny gravity and move in the wrong direction, flowin’ up my arm instead of down it. It’s as though somethin’ in me is pullin’ her essence in. Things get even weirder when the droplets of blood one by one get absorbed by my skin.
What the heck?
I’m suddenly like a parched plant, and Delta’s blood is the water I’ve been beggin’ for. Her gray eyes widen just like mine at what’s happenin’. And then, from one breath to another, power explodes out of me.
I don’t know exactly what happens, but my back arches, my mouth opens wide in a soundless scream, and somethin’ breaks in me, some sort of barrier that was trappin’ parts of me inside, shatterin’ completely.
Time speeds back up as the pulse of power slams out of me. Whatever this is doesn’t faze Delta other than to make her gasp, but the remainin’ demons all around us are thrown back, cut in half by the force that shoots out, a white ring of somethin’ rippin’ through everythin’ around us.
A tinglin’ sensation starts in my back but quickly morphs into a tearin’ pain. I whimper at the sensations sparkin’ through my body, and I cry out just as Delta grabs my shoulder and a familiar weightlessness comes over me. In the blink of an eye, she shifts us away, this time without bein’ blocked. In an instant, the terrifyin’ battle in her backyard dissolves, and we’re transported back to the driveway of Perdition Estate.
Gravel crunches under my feet as we land, but I’m suddenly top heavy and fall to my knees, my center of gravity off. Delta collapses next to me, worried gray eyes searchin’ my face as she presses her shirt to the wounds on her chest.
“Are you okay?” she asks me, her voice frantic. “I’m so sorry. I thought we were safe there, and then with the sound of the storm...” she trails off, her gaze and tone horrified at what just happened.
I push light purple hair out of my line of sight so I can see her more clearly, and then freeze.
Light purple hair? I don’t have light purple hair.
“What the hell?” I ask, flippin’ the foreign colored strands of hair over my shoulder and tracin’ them to their roots, which, sure enough, are attached to my head. I look at Delta, wide-eyed.
“I don’t know how, but I think the wards you had on you just broke,” she tells me. “Look.” She points to my back, and I look over my shoulder and balk when I see lilac-colored wings sprouted out of my back, in the same shade as my hair.
Well, damn. No wonder I felt off-balance.
I look around, needin’ to be sure we’re safe, and confirm that we’re back on the long driveway of their mansion. My eyes drop to her chest. “Shit, are you okay?” I ask Delta, worry coursin’ through me at everythin’ that just happened. My shirt is in tatters, and I rip the bottom of it off and help to press it against Delta’s wounds.
We both just sit on the gravel drive and breathe through the adrenaline that’s pumpin’ through both of us, our exhales ragged.
“What happened back there?” I ask, but her answer is interrupted by shoutin’ and the sound of runnin’ steps as our demons spill out of the front door and sprint toward us.
Delta only has time to give my hand a quick squeeze before she’s descended upon by her demons, while Alder and Flint flank me. And the look on their faces...pure terror.
Flint’s skin immediately darkens and hardens, like he’s goin’ full marble. Alder’s eyes flash with worried fury. I’m so relieved at seein’ them that a sob escapes my throat. I can see their gazes runnin’ over my new wings and hair, and I wonder what I must look like to them.
Delta and I are pulled apart as our demons wrap us up, and questions come flyin’ at us, which makes us both whimper.
“What happened?”
“Who did this?”
“Get her in the house, she’s hurt!”
Words and concern surround us as Alder lifts me up, his hands shakin’ slightly as he holds me. My wings are pressed tightly against the inside of his arms as he starts to inspect me for injuries. It’s uncomfortable, and I wiggle a little to give the new appendages room.
“What the fuck happened?” he growls, worry coatin’ his tone and bleedin’ out of his eyes.
Flint pushes my hair back, and I see confusion in his gaze as he fingers a lock of the new lilac strands I’m sportin’. “What is this? Are you hurt?” he demands, and all I can do is shake
