John Hyde-Jones.My thoughts spun out of control. I tried to kick out my attacker’s legs, but I was in the wrong position to get a good hit. He grunted as I pummeled his shin with my Docs, but it wasn’t enough to loosen his hold.
And it wasn’t John. Dr. Atwood grunted in my ear. “Make this quick. I can’t hold her forever.”
I wondered what he meant. A black-clad figure glided into my stall.Oh, he’s talking to her.
Ms. West’s cruel eyes swept across my face. “Hello, Ms. Waite. I’m concerned you’re overstepping the bounds of our agreement. The god refuses to speak to me, and now two students are missing from my school. I know you have something to do with it.”
Atwood pressed me harder against the wall, bending back my head to press my windpipe into the cold tile. My whole body went into panic mode as I fought to gulp in air.
“Perhaps a little oxygen restriction will do you good.” Ms. West wrapped her fingers around my throat, her talons digging into me as she drove the air out of me. “And if I get a little carried away and squeeze too hard, well… that’s just your rotten luck. I’m sure the god would eventually forgive me. After all, I am the source of his children. In time, he will come to see me as hisrealconsort.”
She said some other things, but with her hands clamped around on my windpipe, pressing and crushing and closing, I stopped being able to hear her.
Adrenaline coursed through my body, imbuing me with a rush of superhuman strength. I clawed at her fingers, kicking and bucking and lurching. Atwood nearly lost his grip on me, but West’s fingers kept digging, pushing, squeezing. Fire tore from my palms as I tried to drag her hands away. The orange flames flickered against her skin – the pain of it must’ve been excruciating, but she didn’t loosen her grip.
“You took the one thing I loved,” she hissed, the words cutting through my panic. “You took the god from me. Turnabout’s fair play, Ms. Waite—”
My vision thinned. Stars danced in front of my vision, and weird, ethereal sleepiness slowed my movements, dragged at my arms.Help me.I called to the god.I need…
From somewhere, I heard a faintpop. Through the fog of my mind, Ms. West’s face collapsed, and her hands slid off me. She collapsed to the floor.
Air filled my lungs.
Glorious air.
Atwood yelled as someone tore him off me and flung him against the sinks. The mirror smashed, raining slivers of glass down on him as he slumped to the ground beside the unconscious Deadmistress.
I gripped the top of the stall to hold myself upright and gasped and gagged for precious oxygen. My head spun.What happened?
I saw shapes moving around me. The god’s shadows? But no, they resolved into flesh-and-bone people. Courtney stepped over Ms. West’s prone body. Behind her, Greg wiped blood off his knuckles. Tillie rushed to my side, catching me in her arms before I toppled over.
Courtney grabbed Dr. Atwood’s collar, jerking his head up so his face was inches from hers. Blood trickled from a wound above his eye.
“John and Paul won’t be returning to graduate,” she said, and her eyes dared Atwood to cross her. “If you have a problem with that, I suggest you take it up with their parents. Just don’t expect them to show up at the dance if they believe something is wrong.”
Tillie’s arms went under my shoulders, and she took my weight as I leaned against her, still gasping. My chest burned and tears leaked from my eyes.
“We won’t be in class this afternoon,” Tillie said in a saccharine sweet voice as she stroked my hair. “A fellow student needs our care. Tell Ms. West we’re so very sorry to hear about herunfortunate accident.”
Tillie helped me toward the door, held open by Ayaz and Quinn, who stared at my three rescuers with wide eyes. As I stepped over Ms. West, I couldn’t resist giving her a kick in the side of the head.
Damn right, bitch.
We stepped outside into a circle of students. They must’ve heard something, because they hovered with part fear, part curiosity. “Is Hazel okay?” asked Loretta. It was the most concern she’d ever shown for me.
I tried to answer that I was fine, but broke down into a coughing fit that would’ve landed me on my ass if it weren’t for Tillie.
“That bathroom is out of order,” Courtney declared, shooting her panther stare around the circle of students. “Nothing to see here.”
“We’ll take her from here.” Quinn’s arm went under my shoulders. I sucked in a deep breath of his coconut and sugarcane scent, my head spinning.
“I’m fine,” I managed to choke out. “I’ve been standing on my own two feet since I was two.”
Quinn bent down and before I could protest, he’d scooped me up into his arms. “No complaining. Let boyfriend Quinn take care of you.”
And he did, carrying me back to his room and shoving aside all the porn magazines and empty alcohol bottles to lay me down on the bed. He brought me hot tea and massaged my shoulders and kissed my forehead in a way that made me long for my mother.
“You’re good at this,” I smiled. “The only thing that could improve your bedside manner is a skimpy nurse’s outfit.”
