She nodded as if she were making a decision, and then shrugged.
“I really liked you, too,” Rebecca said and grabbed me by the scalp. I screamed—white-hot pain was coming from every nerve ending on my head. I grabbed onto the demonic grip of Eddie’s ex as she squirmed, but everything was moving—the world around me was spinning, and soon I was dangling over the edge of the parapet, the parking lot zooming in and out of my mind’s eye. I could feel my shoe fall—heard it clatter.
“Any last words?” Rebecca asked.
There was an explosion of noise from the far doorway kicking open. Rebecca turned.
“Rebecca!” It was Eddie’s voice behind her.
“Eddie, darling, I was just taking out some trash.” Rebecca turned her head back to mine, and then slowly, finger by finger started to let go.
And then the wind rushed up to meet me…
Chapter 12
I fell for a split second and then stopped.
Someone had grabbed me by the wrist, and white-hot pain tugged at my shoulder. I twisted around, legs kicking, hoarse voice screaming, and found the grinning face of Brother Aleister staring down at her.
“Need a hand?” he asked and pulled.
I was like a balloon floating through the air, gingerly hauled up and placed back on the roof. I gripped roof tile and clung to Brother Aleister’s leg, terrified. Eddie and Rebecca were staring at one another, hands down, and fists raised.
The air seemed somehow dense with tension.
“Need some help?” Another voice. It was another man-a stubble-faced pale guy, standing next to an effeminate man with a topknot.
“Nagi, Vic,” Brother Aleister said. “Cover the roof. We can’t let her escape.”
“Got it,” the pale man said.
The pale man began chanting, hands twisting. The air became thicker, and a cloud of shadows coalesced into place near the lip of the roof. The top-knotted man had started chanting—and before I could blink, his flesh was twisting, and he turned himself into a long serpentine thing, snapping and hissing, beady eyes and head tracking Rebecca’s movements.
“Don’t be afraid,” Brother Aleister said to me.
“You guys,” I was babbling. “She’s just hurt. Emotionally. She’s not a bad person.”
“Need I remind you she was seconds from dropping you off the roof?”
“Pretty familiar with that course of events,” I said.
“I loved you, Eddie,” Rebecca shrieked.
“Becca. I’m sorry,” Eddie said. “But you have to understand. I never meant to hurt you. I didn’t mean to change you like this. I was weak. I let my urges get out of hand.”
“Was that all I was?” Rebecca shrieked. “Urges?”
“No!” Eddie said. “But Becca. You’ve killed people. You know that’s not what we do. Not unless they need the gift of release. You knew that going in, and you’ve known it for a while. But still, you took that for granted.”
“You men,” Rebecca said. “You’re disgusting. You lose control of your urges and you turn me. Big fucking deal, the universe goes on. I lose control of my urges as a newly turned whatever I am, and suddenly it’s all, ‘You’re a danger to society.’ I’m twenty-four! I didn’t ask to be undead! I didn’t know there’d be all these fucking rules.”
“I know,” Eddie said. “Look. Becca. You’ve got the attention of the police. Pretty soon, the Regional Council is going to start looking into the pattern of deaths. You know what that means when Regional gets involved. We lose sovereignty over the city. We can’t protect you anymore once they get here. I need you to do what you can and just step down from this already.”
“Are they going to kill me?” she asked, and her voice sounded suddenly young and worried instead of crazed.
“Maybe,” Eddie said, to his feet.
“Look me in the face, Eddie, and tell me they’re going to kill me because of your mistake. Own it, Eddie. It’s the least you can do.”
