Blood Stained Tranquility (28 page)

Cars zoomed by on the boulevard below, their lights a blur. Eve rested her foot on the ledge in front of her and looked down at the street. She squinted, out of habit, even though her vision could zoom in and out like a camera lens. The blurs became focused, detailed. Every detail registered almost instantaneously. With one look she already had a mental picture of every car, every face in front of the mall on the other side of the street. She could even tell what brand of handbag the woman on the corner had.

I’m never going to get used to this.

Eve tilted her head, seeing a spark of deep red come to life around one of the people below.

No, not one. There were two. And three. Then four.

She couldn’t blink. Her gaze darted from person to person. Not everyone had the blood red mist curled around them, but a lot of them did.

Men, women. Old, young . . . even a few children.

Her senses fired, signals she didn’t understand shooting painfully into her mind. She almost reeled back and landed on her ass. She blinked, desperate to erase the images coming to life inside the mist around the people below.

The truth slid through her mind, a mere murmur that stole the breath from her.

Sins.

She was seeing the sins of the humans. Evesse cupped her mouth with her hand, feeling sick. Out of the few hundred people she could see on that side of the boulevard, at least six had committed heinous crimes.

Guilty . . .

Eve closed her eyes, squeezing her lids shut tightly. The images wouldn’t go away. A tall, broad man with glasses who had crossed the street to the White Castle had murdered someone. Inside his mist, what looked like a ghost remained, clawing at him, her eyes panicked, her mouth open on a silent scream.

She’d been a teenager.

Evesse growled, opening her eyes and focusing on the man again. Her fingers curled. She jumped on the ledge, ready to vault, her teeth bared as she stared at his back. That was her target. That was who she needed to punish.

Yes,
punish.

She was a breath away from pouncing, when something caught her attention from the corner of her eye. Eve turned to see Dimithinia frozen, her now black eyes fixated below. Her stance was stiff, legs spread and back straight, her own fingers flexed into claws.

She was holding herself back from doing something.

Eve shook, refusing to look down at the humans once more. She stepped off the ledge and stopped next to Dimithinia. The ex-queen’s mouth opened slowly, her voice hissing out in a double whisper. The word she uttered made Eve’s heart plummet.

“Death.”

“Come again?” Eve said.

Dimithinia’s fingers flexed. Her eyes jumped around, her brow furrowing with distress. “I see death. The ones that are going to die. How . . . I see how they . . .”

Eve stepped back, heart racing. What the hell was happening to them?

“The emergence of powers. It can be a headache. I would know. Thousands of years and I’m still developing new ones.”

Dimithinia blinked and turned at the same time Eve did.

Evesse almost didn’t recognize the Nylicia that stood before them.

Her body was surrounded by black wisps of energy. Evesse could still see through her, but Nylicia was the most corporeal Eve had ever seen her. Her black, strapless dress ended in a trail of mist. Her hair was loose, the dark brown strands falling down to her waist and merging with the maelstrom around her.

There was a choker around her throat, one that had tendrils of that black energy slithering out and flaring behind her.

“What the—”

“What you see when you look at the humans is the result of your powers,” Nylicia said calmly, beginning to walk toward them as if nothing was wrong.

As if she didn’t resemble a creepy version of Morticia Adams come to life.

“My powers?” Eve stared at Nylicia’s feet. “And on another note, what the hell is wrong with
you
?”

The closer she got to them, the more Eve could see that she wasn’t really wearing a dress. It only looked like she was because of the way that black smoke encircled her. Leather pants and fighting boots peeked out with each step Nylicia took.

She stopped and stared down at the street.

“I’m worried.” She said it so easily; a simple statement of fact, yet her eyes turned black as she studied the mall before them. “I am showing you a projection of myself from deep within my mind. Unfortunately, that also means that I resemble my deepest emotional state like this.”

“So, this is what you look like pissed off?”

Nylicia looked at Eve. Her eyes were wide and unblinking while the black inside her irises started to spread to the rest of her eyes.

“No. I am
worried
. I told you.”

Well, then. Eve would hate to see what
pissed off
looked like.

“Back to the issue of your powers,” Nylicia said, her gaze focused somewhere in front of her.

Eve frowned. “What powers are we talking about?” In her memory, she saw Nylicia waltzing into the main hall of Enzyria with that colorful, glowing
Aristi
and flinging it at Ismini.

“I gave you the powers of Justice.”

“
What
?”

“Shit,” Dimithinia whispered.

“She was one of the goddesses who died during the last war. You were destined to take in her powers.”

Dimithinia raised an eyebrow at Eve. “Goddess of Justice, huh?”

“And you tell me this
now
?” Evesse growled at Nylicia, her mind revolting at the idea. “Why me? I’m not suited for that shit!”

“But you are. More than anyone else in existence today.”

“You couldn’t ask for my permission first? How about Ismini’s?”

Don’t try to harm her, Evesse. Sadistic insanity aside, she means well.

I think.

“No. Too much is at stake.”

Before Eve could lose her ever-loving mind, Dimithinia cleared her throat.

“And me? What is happening to me? Why can I see how those people are going to die?”

Nylicia shrugged one shoulder. “You were dead for eleven thousand years before being resurrected. It makes sense that you would have a connection to death.”

She was lying. Eve knew it. Dimithinia knew it. It was obvious in the way she glared at Nylicia.

Nylicia stayed motionless, her eyes resembling bottomless pits. “I must leave. You are to meet with a human down there. She is known as Spari.”

“A human?” Dimithinia asked.

“Yes. She is my sister.”

“Your sister?” There’s no way Eve heard that right.

“Yes. My sister.”

And still the bitch didn’t move.

Eve held back the urge to growl, frustrated beyond the point of belief. She didn’t like being confused. “How can a human be your sister?”

Nylicia
finally
turned, her irises surfacing amongst a sea of black. They were a solid color, a light blue so bright that it was almost white. “That is not my story to tell. If Spari wants to explain to you how she came to be as she is, then she will. She’ll be waiting for you down there.”

Evesse gave up with a small inhale and decided to go along with it. “What exactly are we supposed to do with her?”

“Go shopping with her, what else? That’s how you’ll find your male.”

Nylicia disappeared, not giving a damn that she was leaving two confused females behind.

Motherfucking bullshit,
Eve thought, exhaling roughly. She was trying real hard to convince herself that Nylicia was a good, well-meaning being, but it was hard as fuck when Eve constantly wished she could hurt the female. But it didn’t matter as long as she found Zen. At least, that’s what Eve was telling herself. “Alrighty then. I don’t see how this is going to help, but let’s get to it.”

Dimithinia gave her a nod. Together, they dematerialized and reappeared behind the hospital, on a less congested street. It was darker there and there weren’t as many people around. Evesse still looked both ways, making sure no one had seen her appear out of thin air.

She and Dimithinia walked side by side. A huge rat ran under the hospital fence, followed by another three, and she hissed, barely stopping herself from blasting them. She and Dimi continued around the block and walked toward the corner.

The empty parking lot next to the hospital had a Popeye’s in it. The back wall of the fast food joint was built against the hospital.

The rat infested, abandoned hospital.

And the parking lot of the Popeye’s was full of cars.

Gross.
Most people were idiots. They didn’t bother to think before doing things. There’s no way she’d fucking eat at a place with a rat mansion pressed up against it.

Evesse kept her stare locked straight ahead once they reached the corner, afraid to look at anyone for too long. She didn’t even need to see Dimithinia to know she was doing the same thing. Neither of them wanted to focus too long on the humans around them. Seeing how people were going to die must’ve sucked ass for Dimi.

For her part, Evesse knew that if she saw one more crime, or felt one more wave of anger that demanded punishment, she would launch herself, claws bared, at the first guilty motherfucker she found.

Nope. Better to focus on finding Spari. Although, she did wonder how they were going to pinpoint her amidst all the humans.

She didn’t have to wonder for long. A tiny female was leaning against the glass wall next to the entrance of Macy’s, large gold and black steampunk goggles perched on her head. Her large eyes were dark brown, her skin was a golden tan, and her long, dark brown fell in waves to her waist. She was a good two inches shorter than Nylicia, but the resemblance was striking. They even had the same exact cheekbones.

Eve came to a stop in front of her. How was this possible? Nylicia was a goddess. The woman before her was human, Eve could sense that. No, wait. There was something else there, some kind of energy thrumming beneath the surface of her aura. Eve tried to focus on it, but whatever it was she was feeling felt like a fish bobbing in and out of the surface of water, playing peek-a-boo with her senses.

Spari straightened and came toward them. “You’re Evesse and Dimithinia?”

They nodded. Eve continued the whole up-and-down with her eyes, trying to scan Spari’s form and make sense of what she felt. Spari either didn’t notice that Eve was practically checking her out, or she pretended not to.

“Cool. I’m Spari. Amazing sister to the universe’s most annoying being and . . . well, generally, I’m amazing all around. Except for the whole part about being cursed and whatnot. You’re the new Goddess of Justice right?”

Eve raised an eyebrow. Yeah, there was no doubt. That was definitely Nylicia’s sister. “Let’s not talk about what I haven’t come to terms with, yet. I just found out a minute ago.”

Spari smiled. “No prob. I’ve felt the same way. Many times.”

She stopped smiling and her brow tensed. A far off look fell over her and she tilted her head, as if listening. With an annoyed huff, she snapped out of it.

“Did I mention I was the sister of the most annoying being in the Universe?” She pulled the collar of her black pea coat up.

“Yes, it was mentioned. What I’m wondering is,
how
is she your sister?”

Spari turned and opened the door to the mall. “Oh, that’s simple. I’ve been cursed to reincarnate over and over in human form. They thought it was a punishment, but the joke’s on them. I’m having a blast. Especially in this century.”

Chapter 21

Dimithinia’s wide eyes met Evesse’s. Eve wanted to pry, she
so
wanted to know more, but Spari was already rushing ahead, racing onto a short escalator that led into Macy’s. Eve caught up and stepped on behind her.

Dimithinia, however, did not. She stopped in front of the escalator, looking at it in shock. Her nostrils flared slightly, her eyes following the movement of the stairs.

“Stairs that move. I learned of this.”

Eve and Spari arrived at the top and turned to stare down at the still-frozen female.