Tapping into the power, I lifted my arm. Whitish-amber light powered down my bicep and erupted out of my palm. The bolt smacked into the mass of shades flowing through the broken window. Akasha washed over the mass, and an eerie howl filled the room. The group of shades warped and rippled as the shadows expanded and then ruptured, spraying the windows with inky blotches.
“Huh.” I laughed. “Well then.”
“We need one alive,” Aiden reminded me. “Try to remember that.”
Stepping to the side, I grabbed the blond closest to me. He threw his head back and opened his mouth. Nothing came out. He snapped his jaw shut and glanced down at the hand I had wrapped around his throat.
The shade couldn’t escape.
“What do you know? Looks like you’re stuck in the body now.” I laughed. Interesting. Must be another new god trait. I lifted my gaze. “Guess you’re fucked.”
The shade let out a roar of anger. “No. I guess this body is fucked.”
Without any warning, it wrenched its head to the right. The crack of its neck was like thunder. “Gods.” My lip curled as its inky eyes slid back to mine. The head hung at an odd unnatural angle. “That was unnecessary.”
It laughed. “It was fun.”
“Yeah. You need a fucking hobby.”
Torin slammed another shade into the floor, shoving his blade into its chest as he lifted his dark gaze to Aiden. “There’s no helping them, is there?”
“Nope.” Aiden kicked another back.
“So what are you doing here?” Lifting the shade up, I turned and slammed him into the wall. “You’re out there catching pures and bringing them to the Titans? They’re nearby, aren’t they? Not in this city, I bet. But close.”
The shade coughed out a guttural laugh. “What do you think?”
“I think you’re nothing but a little bitch boy for the Titans.”
Black blood seeped out the corners of the shade’s mouth. “They got to eat, too, you know? To get all big and strong.”
“Uh-huh.” I stepped in, placing my other hand against his chest. Heat poured out of my palm. “Where are they?”
His lips peeled back, revealing tar-stained teeth. “You’ll never find them.”
“Oh, I think I will.” I dug in with my palm. “I’m going to ask you one more time. Where are they?”
The shade stiffened as I pulled in the element of fire, and I felt Aiden draw closer. “I know who you are,” it said, jerking as the front of its shirt began to smoke. “I know that we had something that belonged to you.”
Everything in me stilled. The world became quiet. “What did you say?”
The shade moaned low, its voice gurgling as more blood spilled out of its mouth. “I . . . I used to stand out on the porch and watch Hyperion drag that blonde bitch into the house. Her screams made me hard. I miss her.”
Rage roared to life, mingling with all the heady, powerful aether inside me. The air around me crackled. Those inky eyes met mine and then flared wide. I didn’t look away as the shirt burned away under my hand or as the skin bubbled. I didn’t blink a damn eyelash as blood and tissue gave way and the shade slumped to the floor.
Exhaling deeply, I briefly closed my eyes as I twisted my neck from the left to the right. I opened my eyes, but I still wanted to destroy something. I wanted to take this whole godsdamn building down.
“What did he say to you?” Aiden asked.
Curling my hands into fists, I stepped back from the heap of burnt clothing and melted flesh. “He was there.”
Aiden didn’t have to ask what that meant. He knew.
“The Titans are here. They’re in Texas.”
~
Josie
“You sure you’re going to be okay?” I stood in the doorway of the room Seth had been given the last time we were here, dazed by what felt like an out-of-body experience. I found myself nodding at Alex’s question.
We’d walked back to the dorm in silence. At least, I think we did. If Alex had spoken, I hadn’t heard her. My mind was still back in that minty-smelling room.
I was pregnant. Pregnant.
The nurse had taken my blood to just confirm the stick test results. I quickly learned that pregnancy among the pures, and I guess the halfs since the Breed Order had been abolished, was like a mortal pregnancy. Apparently the blood test would give me a better understanding of how far along I was, but I knew I couldn’t be more than three weeks unless one of the condoms Seth had used before had broken. That was possible, I guessed.
But the problem with that was, according to the nurse, it wasn’t common to have noticeable symptoms so early on. Some women did. Then again, I wasn’t mortal and I wasn’t a pure-blood. The nurse admitted that pregnancy for a demigod could be something entirely different.