Opposition (Lux 5)

She shouted something too furiously for me to understand, and I struggled not to find something sharp and plunge it into her eyeball. “We’re best friends,” I told her, pushing to my feet as she rose. “Don’t you remember? We’re best friends, Dee.”

“You’re just a stupid human.” Bluish-red blood trickled from her lip. “Because that’s all you are, underneath it, just a fragile, useless human who bleeds easily.”

“Jesus. It’s like I’m a muggle to your pure-blood or something.”

She just glared at me.

I backed up, keeping an eye on her. This so wasn’t the time for Harry Potter references. “We planted flowers together and you borrowed a lot of my books and never gave them back. You made Daemon talk to me and be nice—you hid his keys. And you—”

She tackled me to the floor, clawing and pulling my hair.

We were in full girl-fight mode.

Both of us had a hold of each other’s hair as we rolled across the floor. I gained the upper hand for a second. “We hung out together on Halloween and watched stupid movies. And we fought Baruck together—”

Dee flipped me, her nails tearing the collar of my sweater. “None of that means anything.” She grabbed my shoulders and slammed me back down with enough force that I was stunned for a second.

For long enough.

Hauling me up, she screamed as she spun around—spun me—and the next second I was flying through the air. I hit the wall. Plaster cracked and gave way. For a second, I could see clouds of white dust fly everywhere and then I was in the den, toppling over the back of a couch, hitting the floor.

That—that bitch! She’d thrown me through a wall!

I lay on the floor, unable to move as I stared up at the ceiling, blinking out the tiny stars clouding my vision. There was a ringing in my ears as I forced my body to shift onto its side.

Dee climbed through the Katy-size hole in the wall, which was pretty big. Good Lord, she wasn’t going to give up.

Hands shaking, I pushed myself to my feet, breathing through the unholy burn surrounding my ribs and back. There was probably a lot of stuff broken, important stuff.

She landed on the couch and then dived at me with murder in her expression. I darted out of the way at the last second, and she hit the coffee table behind me. Glass shattered.

Now she looked stunned as she stared at the ceiling, her chest heaving. I didn’t give her a chance to recover.

I landed on her, my knees digging into the broken glass, and slammed my hands onto her shoulders. “We’re best friends,” I tried again, not knowing what else to do. “You picked out my fake name—from one of my favorite books. You gave Daemon his new name.” I shook her, rattling her head back and forth. “You were picturing Archer naked not that long ago and you wanted one perfect night with him.” Her hand connected with my face again, wringing a pain-filled grunt from me. “We’ve been through some harsh stuff, but we’ve always made it out together, even after what happened to Adam.”

She went wild, like some kind of demon straight out of a nightmare, smacking and bucking, kicking and scratching.

“You and Adam tried to help me,” I shouted at her as I pinned her with all my weight, straining to avoid her swinging hands that hit my face and chest. “Do you even remember Adam?”

“Yes!” she shrieked. “I remember him! And I remember—”

“Me being the reason for him dying?” Every part of my body ached, and I could feel blood in a lot of places, some really uncomfortable places, but I had to get through to her. I had to. “It was my fault. I know that! And I’ll never fully forgive myself for what it did to you and to our friendship. But we got past that, because you’re like a sister to me.”

Dee froze with her fingers curled along the torn hem of my shirt, like she was about to rip it straight off me, and at that point I honestly wouldn’t have been surprised if she had.

“Do you think he’d be like this now? Adam loved everyone, and he would’ve hated this war—hated what his kind was doing to innocent people.” I watched the white light fade from her green eyes. “He would’ve hated what has become of you. Can’t you see that? You’re better than this. You’re—”

Dee threw her head back and she screamed—screamed like I was trying to murder her, and I eased off, raising my hands. The horrible, wretched sound was like a wounded animal, something dying. She shuddered under me and squeezed her eyes shut. Both of us were still for a handful of seconds, and then she screamed again, until the sound was raw and pained, until I thought there was a good chance she might be dying.

“I’m sorry,” Dee whispered as another great tremble rocked her lithe frame. As I stared down at her, trying to catch my breath, trying to process the two words, her beautiful face crumpled and big, fat tears streamed down her cheeks. “I’m so sorry.”

20

{ Daemon }

As the last Luxen dropped to the floor in a messy pile, I whipped around to where I’d last seen Kat and Dee. There was a massive hole in the plaster, exposing the wooden frame inside the wall, and that had also taken a hell of a beating.

They’d gone through the wall.

“Good God.” My stomach dropped as I stepped over the dead Luxen and darted toward the open doorway that led into the other room.

I kept telling myself they had to be alive—both of them—because I would’ve felt it if either of them suffered a mortal wound. It did nothing to slow my racing heart or to ease the sick feeling curdling in my stomach.