“Do you think she can still drive?” Alex asked through the broken-out window.
“You kidding me? Lucinda can always go,” Marcy said. “But where am I going?”
Thea suddenly fell from the sky, landing on the side of the road with a sickening crunch. She groaned, which was the only evidence that she was still alive, and Liv floated down, landing on top of her.
“You had a nice, long reign, but your time is up,” Liv said as she wrapped her hand around Thea’s throat, making her gurgle and moan as she struggled to pry Liv’s fingers off.
Throughout the fight, Thea and Liv had been knocking down trees and branches all over the place. There was a thick, sturdy-looking branch only a few feet away from him, so Alex ran over and grabbed it.
He’d just picked it up when Thea spit in Liv’s face. Liv cackled loudly, and as Alex ran toward her, Liv tore into Thea’s chest and ripped out her heart. Two seconds too late, Alex swung the branch with all his might and struck Liv across the back.
“Not smart, little boy. ” Liv glared at him. “I was almost gonna let you get away. ”
She stood up and tossed Thea’s heart aside, so it landed in dirt and pine needles. She walked slowly toward Alex, but he didn’t run. He held his ground, and when he heard the car’s engine clunk and rev, Liv didn’t look away. She just kept walking toward him.
And then, suddenly, the car flew into life and slammed into Liv. Marcy drove the car right into a tree, and she kept pressing on the gas, pinning a screaming Liv between the car and the tree. The engine smoked and made all kinds of noises that no car should ever make, but Marcy didn’t let up.
Thea rolled over and stood up, as blood dripped out from the gaping wound in her chest. One of her wings had completely snapped, and it dragged on the ground as she walked over to Alex. He couldn’t help but gape at her, because he was pretty sure that she was a zombie siren at this point.
“Gimme the stick,” Thea said wearily, and held out her hand, so he handed it to her. Then she walked over to the car. “Shut it off. She’s not going anywhere. ”
Marcy did as she was told, which made it easier to hear the sound of Liv’s laughter.
“You’re half-dead, Thea. You really think you can do anything?”
Thea climbed onto the hood of the car, the dented metal groaning under her feet.
“You won’t hurt me,” Liv said. “Penn will kill you if you hurt me. That’s why you never stood up for your other sisters. You can’t touch—”
“Shut up,” Thea said.
Using the stick like a baseball bat, she swung. The wood connected hard with Liv’s face, and it shattered, splinters flying everywhere as the stick broke in half. But along with it, there was a terrible crunching and ripping sound, and Liv’s head flew off, landing a few feet away in the road.
Her mouth was open wide, like she was trying to scream, but only raspy breath came out. The lack of a head didn’t seem to slow her body down, and her arms clawed blindly at Thea, scraping down her legs and sides.
Thea didn’t seem to notice, though. She bent over Liv’s bloody, gaping neck and reached down into it. Alex grimaced, but he couldn’t look away. The moonlight made it harder to fully appreciate the gore since the blood didn’t show up quite as red, but when Thea ripped the heart out from Liv’s chest, her arm covered in dripping, dark liquid, he definitely got the picture.
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Liv’s body stopped moving, and it slumped forward onto Marcy’s car. Thea stared down at the heart in her hands, then she shrugged and tossed it back into the trees behind her. Covered in blood and dirt, Thea jumped down from the car.
“Holy shit. ” Marcy pushed open the car door as wide as it would go and eased herself out. “But your heart is missing. ”
Thea shrugged. “It’ll grow back. ” She was still holding the stick, and seemed to just now realize it, so she dropped it on the ground. “That’s why you have to cut off the head and tear out the heart. ”
“If I cut off your head, it’ll grow back?” Marcy asked.
“Eventually. ” Thea shot her a look. “But it’s painful, and it really pisses me off, so don’t even think about trying it. ”
Since Liv was gone, and both Thea and Marcy looked like they would survive, Alex turned to start jogging up the hill. He’d helped Thea take care of Liv, so he could help Gemma get rid of Penn.
“Alex!” Marcy called after him, so he stopped and looked back at her. “Where are you going?”
“I have to see if Gemma needs help. ”
“Wait for me. ” Marcy started hobbling up the hill, but she could barely put any weight on her injured leg, so she went very slowly. “No. Don’t wait for me. I’m too slow. Go, but I’ll catch up. ”
“What about you, Thea?” Alex asked.
Thea sighed and shook her head. “I won’t stop Gemma from killing Penn, but I can’t help her, either. I’ll stay back here. ”
Alex nodded, and he turned and raced up the hill.
FORTY-EIGHT
Rancor
Her blood felt like hot, liquid energy surging through her veins, like she was alive for the very first time. Gemma had been the monster before, but it had never felt quite like this. The strength, the speed, the hunger, it was all there, but this time it was completely under her control. The monster would do Gemma’s bidding.
Penn stood at the other side of the house, and she tossed Harper aside, like she was a scrap of meat. And that was all it took to set Gemma off. She’d been playing Penn’s games for far too long.
She charged across the room, her long legs moving in strong, fast strides, and Penn bent down, letting out an animalistic roar. Just as Gemma reached her, Penn turned around and kicked her right in the stomach. Her claws tore into the soft flesh, then Gemma flew backward, crashing into the kitchen.
As Penn stomped over to her, she laughed, but it sounded more like an evil raven than anything human. Gemma had gotten to her feet instantly, but the floor was littered with silverware and broken glass, making it hard for her clawed feet to get traction.
Gemma backed up around the island, letting Penn come toward her and think she had the upper hand. Gemma hissed at her, but neither of them spoke. They could, but something about being in this form made growling and crowing feel much more natural. Words required more thought, and her brain was giving in to much more primal instincts.
Penn lowered her head and spread her wings slightly, like she was getting ready to pounce. The way she moved was predatory and almost prehistoric, but she was too focused on her prey to notice her surroundings.
One more step back, then Gemma stopped. She waited until Penn jumped at her, and then in one swift move, Gemma reached up and pulled the stainless-steel refrigerator down on Penn.
It wouldn’t kill her, but it did slow her down for a second, and Gemma ran away from the kitchen, looking around for her sister. She found Harper near the back door, tearing through a broom closet.
“Get out of here,” Gemma said in her demonic-monster voice.
“I’m looking for something to cut off her head with,” Harper said as she pushed a vacuum cleaner out of her way. “I won’t leave you. ”
The sound of crashing metal in the living room made Gemma turn around. Penn had pushed the fridge off herself and thrown it into the other room. Not before tearing a door off, though. Penn growled at her, and, with her long hands, she snapped the fridge door in half.
It now had a sharp, serrated edge, and Penn threw it at Gemma’s head, like it was a guillotine Frisbee.
Gemma ducked, but she felt the edge knick the top of one of her wings. Penn howled in dismay, and Gemma charged her again. She bent her head low, so when Penn tried to kick her, she opened her mouth and clamped her razor teeth straight through Penn’s leg.
Penn squawked and fell backward, so Gemma pounced on her. Penn was still stronger than her, and any chance she had to get at Penn’s heart, she’d have
to take it. Her claws had barely pierced the skin on Penn’s chest when she felt herself being pushed backward.
The ground seemed to float away from beneath them, and Gemma didn’t even completely understand what was happening until she felt the wind from Penn’s wings. Penn was flying up and taking Gemma with her.
Gemma flapped her wings, trying to push back to the ground, but then she felt her back slamming into the peaked ceiling. But Penn kept pushing, using Gemma like a wrecking ball, and wood and shingles poured down around her.
They broke through the roof, and Penn kept going. If Penn wanted a battle in the sky, then she had one coming. With one hand, Gemma clawed her face, and with the other, she grabbed one of Penn’s wings. If she ripped it off now, Penn would tumble back to the ground.
Penn must’ve sensed her plan, because she smiled and lunged forward. Gemma tried to cry out, but she couldn’t because Penn had clamped her jaws around her neck. She was trying to bite her head off.
FORTY-NINE
Demonic
After Alex had left, Marcy ripped off the sleeve of a sweater she’d left in the backseat of her car. She tied it around the gash in her shin and tied it tight. Now she couldn’t see the bone, and that was kind of a bummer, but at least she could walk better.
Thea had taken the rest of the sweater and tied it around her chest, covering up the gaping hole in her chest where a small, beating, pink blob was apparently growing into a new heart.
While she did that, Marcy had gone over and laid a few of the smaller broken branches over Kirby. He was hidden under a blanket, but she wanted to add an extra layer of protection.
“I’m sorry, Kirby. ” Marcy wiped at the tears in her eyes, smearing dirt and dried blood across her cheeks. “I didn’t know you for that long, but you were supernice, and this never should’ve happened to you. ”
She took a deep breath and went on, “I’m also sorry that I can’t cry about you a lot right now, and I want you to know that it’s not because I don’t care. It’s because I want to go help kill the bitches that did this to you. ”
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“What are you doing?” Thea asked. She came up behind her and kept rolling her shoulder, making her broken wing crack.
“Saying a few words. I mean, I know he’ll have a funeral later, but it never hurts to say something like that when they’re freshly dead,” Marcy said. “His spirit’s probably close by, and I just wanted him to know that I’m sorry. ”
“Why’d you cover him with branches?” Thea asked.
“So the animals don’t get him. ” Marcy turned around. “All right. Let’s go. ”
“Where?” Thea shook her head. “I’m not going anywhere. ”
“What? You don’t need to just sit here and lick your wounds. My friends are in trouble, and I’m not just gonna wait around back here to see if they need help. ”
“Who died and made you king?” Thea asked.
“You did, when I saved your life like two minutes ago. ” Marcy limped over to her and held out her arm. “Now help me get up to the top of the hill. You owe me one. ”
Thea stared at her and didn’t move to help. “And this is how you’re using the one?”
“Yep. This is it. ”
“But you’re hurt. ” Thea pointed to her leg. “You can barely walk. How are you gonna help them?”
Marcy shrugged. “Maybe I can be bait or a distraction, or maybe Penn will just eat me instead, and she’ll be too full to eat anyone else. I don’t know what I can do, but I know for damn sure that if I stay down here, I can’t help anybody. And I won’t do that. I’m not you. ”
Thea ignored the dig and eyed her. “You’re gonna get yourself killed. ”
“You should like that. Then I’d be out of your hair. Now let’s go. Once we get up there, you can go back to not-helping Gemma or Penn. ”
A crashing and squawking sound interrupted the relative quiet that had fallen over the hill. Once Thea and Liv had started tearing through the trees, all the birds and other animals had scattered, making it almost eerily quiet.
But now Marcy looked up to the sky. The moon was clear and bright, and she easily saw the forms of two giant birds clawing at each other over the tops of the trees.
Thea sighed. “That can’t be good. ”
She put her arm around Marcy’s waist, so Marcy could lean on her, and the two of them started making the steep trek up the road. It was a nice gesture, but every time they took a step, Thea’s broken wing would swing forward and hit Marcy in the back.
“This would be easier if you put that wing away,” Marcy said as she brushed a bloody feather out of her face.
“I can’t. It’s broken. It’s healing, and it won’t go back until it’s done. ”
“Well, hurry up then,” Marcy said, and picked up her pace. Gemma was clearly in trouble, and she probably needed all the help she could get. “Maybe a car will drive by and stop for us. ”
“Penn chased away the neighbors because she likes privacy, so we’re the only ones who live up here now,” Thea explained. “And I’m also pretty sure that nobody would stop for the two of us. ”
“What? You have wings. You could be an angel,” Marcy said. “Who wouldn’t stop to help an angel?”
“You realize I’m actually more of a demon, right?”
“Yeah, I do, but a car driving by wouldn’t. ”
FIFTY
Ordnance
Alex was almost to the top of the cliff when he heard the crash. He’d been running up through the trees, trying to go a shorter route than on the road, and he’d had to stare up through the branches. But he’d seen it just the same. Two large birds crashing into each other.
They were in the sky, so Alex couldn’t really help much, but if he got to the house now, it would probably be a good time to try to get Harper and Daniel out of there.
When he made it to the house, the front door was still open, and Harper’s car was parked and running right next to it. Before he even made it in, he could see that it was a disaster. Pieces of wood, food, appliances, furniture—everything was broken and strewn all over the house.
“Harper?” Alex shouted as he stepped over the debris.
“Alex!” Harper shouted from the back of the house. “I’m back here. ”
He ran back to see the sitting room near the windows that faced the bay mostly intact, and Harper was sitting in a pile of fragmented wood and random knives. He was about to ask her what was going on when he heard a banging sound.
“What’s that?” Alex asked, looking toward the ceiling and the bedroom directly above them.
“Daniel. He’s fine. ” Harper shook her head and stared at the mess around her. “I need to find something to help Gemma. ”
Alex crouched to look at what she had. “Like a weapon?”
“Yeah, anything that can help when they come back down. ”
He turned back and looked up through the hole in the ceiling. A solitary black feather had fallen through and was slowly floating to the ground.
“What if they don’t?” Alex asked thickly, and he hated to even think it.
“Daniel is trapped here. Penn will come back eventually, and when she does, we have to be ready for her. ”
But she’d failed to say that Gemma would come back, and that’s when Alex knew the situation had to be dire. He knew that Gemma had been practicing to control the monster, so she could fight Penn, but he had no idea how strong she was. She might be drastically outmatched.
If she was, that just meant that he and Harper would have to step up their game.
“Okay, so what have you found?” Alex asked, looking back at her.
“It’s mostly stuff like this. ” She held up a broom that had been snapped in half so the end came to a sharp point. “I can stab her, but she’s not a vampire. Staking her won’t do much good. ”
“What does kill them? The head and the heart, r
ight?” Alex asked, and Harper nodded. “So let’s find something…” He’d been looking around the room, but he stopped when his eyes landed on the sharp, jagged edges of the broken fridge door. “What about that?”
“I thought about it, but I can’t really lift the thing. Gemma might be able to, but…” She trailed off. If Gemma were incapacitated, it wouldn’t do them much good if they couldn’t easily maneuver it.
“The steel is just a façade. It’s like glued on, sorta. ” Alex walked over to it and pulled at the metal to confirm this. “We can rip it off. ”
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Harper got up and rushed over to help him. They carefully grabbed the edge and tried to tear it off, but the sharp edges made it harder for them to grasp it. The metal was slick and glued down tightly, but Alex had just started tearing up one of the corners when the remaining windows behind them shattered.
He leaned over, shielding Harper with his body since his back was to the windows, as glass, feathers, and wood rained in around them. Penn was screaming in an odd, birdlike way, as she and Gemma crashed back into the house and rolled across the floor.
FIFTY-ONE
Slaughter
Gemma got up and shook the glass from her hair. She could feel the blood soaking the front of her shirt. Her entire body ached, and Penn had bitten into her left arm so hard that it had snapped the bone, and the arm hung at an odd angle.
Penn stood across from her, circling her slowly, and at least it was nice to see that Penn didn’t look that great, either. Bites and claw marks had left her a bloody mess. Two of her fangs had broken in half, and she had a limp.
It was good to know she’d inflicted some damage, but her energy was waning. She wasn’t sure if it was because she’d lost so much blood from the throat wounds or simply because she hadn’t eaten in so long. But the fight was going out of her.
This was her last chance to get Penn, so she had to make it count.
She waited until Penn charged at her, then stepped to the side at the last minute. As Penn ran past her, Gemma grabbed onto her wing and spun her around. Then she leapt on her back and knocked her down.
Penn’s wings flapped hard, beating against Gemma, but her teeth and claws couldn’t reach her. Gemma pushed her down, stepping on the small of her back with all her weight. And then with the last of her strength, Gemma tore her talons into Penn’s back, between her wings.
Penn shrieked and tried to buck Gemma off, but Gemma just tore in deep, breaking through her bones until she could feel the beating of her black heart. She wrapped her hand around it and ripped it out.
And then Penn pushed back, finally knocking Gemma off her. She fell back and tried to get to her feet, but her legs kept slipping underneath. They were weak, and the floor was slick with blood.
Penn came at her with full force. Gemma held her arms up to shield herself, but Penn was like a rabid animal, just biting and clawing without reason.
“Gemma!” Harper shouted, and Gemma saw her sister running toward them holding a long sheet of metal in her hands.