Theirbodies kept quivering even as the blood from the rest of their bodies pouredout onto the floor. It was kind of pretty in an obscenely morbid sort of way. "Drinkingunicorn blood will keep you alive, even if you are an inch from death, but at aterrible price," I whispered.
"Shutup, Firenze," Yuki giggled and shook the blood from her hands.
Darshifted back into his more angelic form. "So, keep going left, or go theother way like we were supposed to?"
Ialmost said right, but something was tugging me in the opposite direction,something in my heart. "Left," I said blankly and pointed.
Huggingthe walls and wishing for shadows, I led the way until the narrow hallwayopened into a giant cavern complete with pits of flame and scattered bones. Andtwo more angels guarding the door at the opposite end of the cavern. Two angelswho had seen us before we had seen them. There was no time to redon ourshackles and pretend to be prisoners. Screeching like banshees, they sweptacross the room, spears leading the charge.
Thefireball that Nana set off right in front of them filled the cavern with fire,knocked us all on our asses, and singed off my eyelashes.
"Holyfuck," Chief groaned as he stood slowly.
Iwas quite content lying on my back against the cool stone beneath me. It feltlike I had opened the oven door to grab the brownies and forgot to give theheat a second or two to dissipate. Times a thousand.
"Everybodyokay?" I swear I saw smoke come out of my mouth when I spoke.
Therewas a chorus of disgruntled affirmations.
"Oops,"was all Nana offered by way of apology.
"Holyhell, Mother." My mother stood and put out a few smoldering spots on hersilky black wrap.
Ijust stared at the two charred heaps that hadn't even made it halfway acrossthe cavern, reminded once again why I never wanted to piss off my Nana.
"NowI want chicken wings," Jimmy said as we moved closer, starring at the crispstumps protruding from their backs.
"Thereis something really,really wrong withyou. I hope you know that." Yuki stared at Jimmy, shaking her head.
"Oh,come on. Who doesn't like chicken wings?"
"Me."
"Youdon't count. You'd like them if you could eat them."
"Icould just eat you."
Jimmypaled and backed away.
"Comeon. Let's find your father," Nana said and moved toward the door. "Ireally want a nice cold shower."
"Cryogenicsisn't safe, Mother."
Ijust shook my head and followed the two most dangerous weapons in our arsenaland tried to ignore their banter.
Thestaircase led down, and I decided to take that as a good sign. Every castle hada dungeon. Every dungeon was down. Dungeons were also where they keptprisoners. Hopefully, the castle wasn't inverted, and he was in the highest roomof the tallest tower, waiting for his true love and his true love's first kiss.
Ilooked over at Jimmy. At least we brought our donkey.
Afterone spiral, the circular staircase opened into a pit going down and down andthen down some more. It wasn't completely black more of a deep purple. The staircasecontinued as far as the eye could see, the bottom lost in the abyss.
"Nobodyfall," Dennis said solemnly as we peered over the edge.
"Nobodypush Jimmy," Jason added as an afterthought.
"Wow,the love is real." I chuckled and continued down the stairs.
"I'mgoing to scout ahead," Yuki said as she passed us on the outside of thestairs, disappearing in a gust of wind as she practically flew down them.
Becareful, I said asI took the steps one at a time.
Likeyou do when you go off on your own?
Touché.
Hermental sigh was a real thing. I heard it. I'm sorry, Master.
Don'tbe. I kind of deserved that.
Youjust make me so angry when you do self-righteous, self-sacrificing, stupid,ignorant, never-learning, stubborn bullshit every damn time. Trust us. We'rehere to protect you, not the other way around.
Gosh,don't hold back. Tell me how you really feel.
Shegave me a light mental chuckle.
Ihave no problem with that, Yuki. If the shit we were facing were normal shit.But vampire lords, gods… Come on. You are protecting me by not putting yourselfin stupid amounts of danger. I love you guys so fucking much, and it woulddevastate me if anything ever happened to any of you.
Andthat's exactly how we feel. Stop. Doing. Stupid. Shit.
Yes,ma'am, I mentallymuttered and kicked a stone over the edge as I continued down the steps. It wasa full few seconds before the clatter of its impact reached our ears.
Youat the bottom yet?
No.Quit throwing shit at me.
Sorry.
NowI am. There's another door and more guards. Have Nana drop another fireball.
Doesn'twork like that. She needs to see it to set it off.
Fine.I'll take care of these two.
Yuki?Yuki! No! Negative! Stand down! Heel!
Unfortunately,I felt the impact of her against the unforgiving stone wall at the base of thecavern. With a scream of pain and rage, I launched myself over the edge,ignoring the shouts of the rest of our party. I fell most of the way beforeplucking my broom from my neck and floating down the rest of the way. With onehand, I clung to the broom and landed in the middle of the circular cavern behindthe two angels almost on Yukina. Rage burned through me as I swung the broom,feeling it thicken in my hands and slow as it shifted into my wicked lookingscythe. That time, I managed to sever the head of one as the blade sunk intothe shoulder of the other. One was silenced, the other shrieked in anger as itrounded on me.
Laughingmaniacally, Yuki ripped its head from its shoulders.
Standingover its corpse, tossing its head from one hand to the other, she sneered atme. "There. See how fucking stupid it is now?"
"Wait,you did that on purpose?"
Sheshrugged.
"Toteach me a fucking lesson?"
Sheshrugged again.
"You'rea fucking asshole. I just jumped from like two thousand stories up!"
Hersneer turned into a smirk. "And did we learn our lesson?"
"Maybe.But you're fucking grounded!" I couldn't help but laugh and ruffle her spikes.
"Good.We can be grounded together and Netflix and chill."
Istared at her for a moment.
"What?"
"Yeah.I don't think that means
