Okay, clearly no need of a love spell here.
Apollyon pulled a stack of cash out of the duffle bag he’d just brought from my mom’s place and held it out. She snatched the money and walked over to an empty coffee container, placing it inside. She was really underweight for a heavily pregnant woman, and by the look of the Cheetos and coffee mugs littering the counter I didn’t think she was eating healthy either.
“Drug test.” Apollyon slapped an empty urine cup on the counter.
She bared her teeth like an animal and actually growled at him, and in that moment I could see a black demonic snake wrapped around her neck.
A shiver went through my body as she grabbed the container and stormed off into the bathroom. When she returned, Apollyon took the cup and shook it. I peered over his shoulder and realized it was some fancy test where the lid was built in with the actual test strip.
There was a painful ten minutes of silence, and I took that time to probe deeper around the apartment. The view outside showed the Staples Center downtown, so I knew we were in Los Angeles. When Apollyon finally glanced at the cup lid, he nodded. “Two more weeks staying clean and then I’ll pick up the baby and you can crawl back into whatever drug induced coma I found you in.”
She glared at him, crossing her arms over her chest. “I’ve been havin’ contractions all day. What if it comes early?”
It. I cringed at the casual way she spoke of her baby.
He raised his arms. “Take care of it until I get here or you won’t get your final large payment.”
She nodded, and then without a word he turned to leave. My heart instantly ached for my sister and the situation surrounding her birth.
“Wait,” she called out after him and he stopped, looking at her with disdain.
“What do you want, Sam?” He spoke her name with such disgust I felt terrible for the woman.
“Can I name her?” Sam’s hand went to her swollen belly, and for the first time since I’d walked into the apartment I saw a flicker of tenderness and attachment. So she knew it was a girl. Maybe she called the baby an “it” to distance herself emotionally?
He looked at her blankly. “Sure.”
“I was thinking Harley. It was my father’s—”
“Sounds good. I’ll see you in two weeks.” Apollyon cut her off and headed down the hall. I was once again tugged in his wake, but instead of following him I decided to mentally fast forward the memory to two weeks later. It was like holding the remote to a TV. I just thought about next week and this apartment and then the scene changed.
The apartment I now stood in was trashed. Bottles of beer and alcohol lined the counters, and when I spun around I noticed needles on the coffee table and my stomach dropped.
No.
A loud bang came from behind me, and I faced that way just in time to see Apollyon rip the door off its hinges. His eyes were wide as he blasted through the apartment, bypassing the room I was in and going straight to the bedroom. As he opened the door, I ran over and followed him inside. When my gaze fell onto Sam in bed and her sickly gray skin, I yelped, stumbling backward. There was a needle hanging out of her arm and her lifeless eyes stared at the ceiling. I looked at her stomach and breathed a sigh of relief. Her belly was nowhere near as large as the last time I’d seen her. She must have already given birth.
Apollyon growled, not even bothering to feel for a pulse. She looked a day or more dead at least. Then he started to ransack the place, upending all of the furniture.
“Where is the baby?” he growled.
I felt sick to my stomach and I wanted to leave, but I needed to find Harley. I had a sister. Finding out what had happened to her would help me find her in real life.
Apollyon grunted in frustration and then stormed from the apartment. Something jerked at my navel, and I was yanked forward as he left.
No. No. No.
It was in that moment that I realized I never asked how to leave the memories. Panic gripped me as I was sucked like a magnet through the wall and right up to Apollyon’s back. He was opening a portal in the hallway, and I could tell from the black and red coloring and the faint city beyond that it went to the Netherworld.
Okay, time to get out of this memory and back to Avalon with Skye.
Think, Tatum.
A portal!
Yes.
Please be able to create a portal in ghost form, I prayed as I brought my hands together in front of me.
