How much will he pay?She thought I was here to proposition her for Apollyon and she was willing to help him?
Oh, this was not going to go well.
“No. No, we can’t let him out because he will hurt a lot of people. He doesn’t want to pay you, he wants tokillyou. Andme. If you want to get technical, he wants to consume our souls. I need to get you to New York so you can help me fight him, not help him.”
She snorted. “Consume my soul? Right, like I’m going to believe that load of BS. I’m not going to New York. If Apollyon tries to kill me, I’ll slit his throat. Besides, all of this could just be lies to stop me from winning Hunter of the Year award tonight. Maybe Malcom put you up to this. He can’t stand that he’s going to lose to me.”
Wow, life had not been kind to my sister if that’s what she thought. I was definitely starting to panic. If she didn’t come with me, then all of this was for nothing. She thought I cared about her stupid Hunter of the Year award?
“You think I’m lying about Apollyon and being your sister?” I asked her.
She shrugged. “I don’t really care. We may share some blood, but that will never make you my family.”
Ouch.
“Don’t be like that,” Dash growled from inside of his hoodie. “You’d be lucky to have her call you family.”
Harley rolled her eyes. “What do you know about family drama?”
Dash reached up and pulled down his hood and then his neck gaiter, and Harley gasped, finally lowering her sword a little. “Holy shit. Dash Slate. You’re a legend. I thought you were dead.”
He shook his head. “No. But I am a Lumen, and you need to come with us. You’re on the wrong side.”
She tipped her head back and laughed. “Says who? Look around you.” She pointed to the opulent apartment. “I’m doing just fine.”
“Says your mother, Sam.” I stepped even closer, and she went rigid.
“Who told you that name?” For the first time I saw real emotion cross her face. The badass warrior girl who didn’t care about anything was clearly a front. At the mere mention of her mother she looked like a vulnerable child.
“I saw her. I know where she is now. Her spirit. It’s bound to the apartment she died in.” I’d take her to see Sam if I needed to but, I hoped I didn’t have to, because I didn’t think we had time for that. According to Skye, Apollyon was on his way right now.
“Lies.” She shook her head, but a slight tremor moved through her arm, and her sword lowered more.
“I can take you there right now, and if I’m right, you go to New York with us and help me defeat Apollyon. It’s what your mother wanted. I’m sure of it. That’s why she hid you from Apollyon when you were born rather than giving you to him as planned.”
Her jaw clenched. “My mother was a drug addict, and I was born with drugs in my system, so I don’t really care what she has to say.”
I was losing her, and unsure what to do now, so I just looked at Dash. At the same time, the front door to the apartment kicked open and Gage and Indigo waltzed in.
Harley spun to face her new attackers, and I lurched forward, doing the only thing I could think of. Slapping a hand to my arm, I pulled a blade out of it, flipped it around, and cracked Harley over the side of the head with the grip. She crumpled to the ground with a thud, and I winced.
“So that’s one way to do it,” Gage said.
Oops.
There was a commotion in the hallway outside of Harley’s penthouse and we all froze.
“It came from Harley’s apartment,” an unfamiliar male voice shouted.
Dash was in the middle of scooping Harley off the ground and his face bleached at the sound of the male’s voice.
Was that one of his family?
Oh, we were so screwed. This was going from bad to worse.
“Let’s check it out,” someone else said.
Dash looked sharply at me. “Make a portal. Get us out of here,now.”
