Poison Kissed (20 page)

I steadied my breath and blocked out the mess of noises one by one. . . .

Singing. A breathy, high-pitched fairy voice, warbling inane melody. And everyone on the platform was either asleep or dead.

My throat tightened. Joey touched my hand and pointed, but I’d already seen it. On the platform, beyond the crush of bodies, a narrow doorway led into greenlit darkness.

I stole forward. My boots scraped minutely on uneven ground, and I winced. A rusty ladder led up to the chest-high platform. Beneath it curled a nest of fat little baby spriggans, sleeping in the nude with their chubby thumbs tucked in each others’ mouths and their little green babytails knotted together. Their turned-up noses twitched as they burbled happily, blowing bubbles in their sleep. Cute little things. Pity they’d grow into monsters. But still my indignation sparked. What kind of parents left their kids in this place?

I couldn’t climb the ladder without waking them, and a baby spriggan’s screech is the soundtrack of nightmares. So I flexed my thighs and vaulted up, the tiles warm under my palm. My heels clicked quietly as I landed beside a paralytic firefairy, his long graceful limbs wasted. His pretty flame guttered, almost extinguished, smoke wisping weakly from slack fingers.

I froze in a crouch, my thighs tense, my muffled senses as alert as I could make them for sound and motion. No echo. No one awoke. The singing didn’t stop.

From the doorway, broken glass clinked, a muffled female curse.

I straightened, and behind me Joey hopped up, lighting gracefully to his feet. I hadn’t noticed that he didn’t have his cane. I knew he didn’t need it to walk. But seeing him without it was strange. Like he was undressed. Or disarmed.

Inwardly I snorted. Not likely. If he wanted to kill me, he had all the weapons he needed, right there under his skin.

But we’d a common enemy now. I didn’t know why he hated her so much. I didn’t care. It’d serve me well, and when we’d beaten her, the game would be back on.

My pulse quickened. Just for now, it was like it used to be. I couldn’t resist the ghost of a smile, and just for an instant, warmth glimmered golden in his eyes.

A fraction later, it was gone.

My heart ached. Damn it if I didn’t miss the way we moved together, thought together like two halves of the same person. How could a man who was the other half of me be my mother’s murderer? I’d refuse to believe it, if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.

But I had. Even if I was drunk and sparkleblind and screaming with my mind ripped open at the time. I’d seen it. It had to be true. Right?

I swallowed and silently unsheathed my knife. Joey eased out wicked wet claws. And step by careful step, we advanced.

Over a fat naked goblin, my foot sliding in wet snot trickling from his nose. Around a muttering vampire boy who crawled in circles in his sleep, yanking his own hair out string by greasy black string and stuffing it in his pockets. The smell thickened. The troll kept banging his head, blood gushing down his twisted green face. Creatures muttered and groaned, dribbling and quivering and writhing like worms, all lost in their own psychotic worlds, their minds erased, ruined, muddled beyond recognition.

Images washed, my mother moaning incoherent sounds, clawing at her face, bloody spit dribbling from those pretty lips that sang me spellsweet lullabies when I was a baby. The day she died, she wasn’t herself, her mind erased, too, her body’s shell housing some vacant monster that wailed in pain.

I cracked my jaw tight, and kept moving.

My toe caught a furry faeborn thing’s long deformed hand, and I recoiled, anticipating a hiss and a bleary-eyed challenge. But she merely licked catlike teeth with a coiled sandpaper tongue and went back to sleep. I tiptoed over her mismatched limbs, one leg with the elbow backwards, a mutant mix of paws and flippers. Sympathy mixed with wariness to sicken my stomach. Any faeborn kid who survived to adulthood was lucky, but some were luckier than others.

At last, we reached the doorway. I adjusted my knife grip, breathing to relax my jumping nerves. Sneak in. Jump her. Pin her down, demand she return what she’d stolen. And if that didn’t work . . . well, Joey and I had a creative imagination for threats. We’d think of something.

I rolled my shoulders loose, muscles crunching, and stepped toward the door.

Joey’s hand slipped warm into mine, and he tugged me back.

Jesus, don’t get all protective on me now.
I glared and shook my head.

He flickered his eyebrows at me, deceptively calm. Joey-speak for
Do as you’re fucking told, girl. Don’t make me tell you twice.

My fight.
I mouthed the words, deliberate so he could see.

He just put that infuriatingly calm finger to my lips again. For a moment he let it linger, his claw smooth and temptingly sharp. And then he coiled his forearm swiftly around mine and pulled me behind him.

For an instant, all my attention zoomed in on that shifting flesh. Warm, slick, so very smooth, sliding muscles wrapping me tight. Bumps tingled my skin, and I shivered.

I wrenched my concentration back, flushing, but stupid admiration still teased my blood. Gutsy move for a guy convinced I’m gonna kill him.

Sure. Or maybe just cold, calculating, biding his time.

My guts writhed. Even now that I knew the sordid truth about him, some timid little girl inside me still longed so badly to believe in him, she determinedly covered her eyes. Christ, what did he have to do before I’d hate him like I should? Slit my throat with his own hands?

Angrily, I tugged my hand away, but it only left me bereft and cold.

He gestured me to his right. I moved over as far as I could, only a few feet. I glanced around, my mouth dry. One entrance, too narrow to enter side by side. No light. Maybe no other exit.

Not a smart place for an ambush.

My foot crunched on broken glass, and abruptly the singing stopped.

I froze, and held my breath. Shit. She heard me. Without my hearing, I was blind. Should I wait, or strike?

In a flash, the light flared bright in a verdant halo, silhouetting a pair of long ragged wings.

Too slow.

Slanting silver eyes glinted evilly from the dark, and a crusty cackle drifted out. “Oh, lookie, serpent. You brought her. Just like you said.”

I tensed to flee, but hot despair flooded. The bastard tricked me. Again. My muscles refused to obey, and rampant chemicals in my blood screamed uselessly at me to move, run, fight.

A long yellow arm lashed from the dark. I snarled and jerked back, but too late.

Bitterstinging claws fastened cruelly around my shoulder and yanked me inside.

20

I hurtled forward, my knife slipping from numb fingers and clattering on the ground.

I grappled for her wrist, trying to lever her off me. Fairy fingers dug into my bare shoulder, drawing blood, and the pain spiked my struggling nerves alive.

I wrenched my shoulder tight and spun, using my grip on her wrist as leverage. My body cartwheeled. My boots smacked the floor, hard and stable, and my momentum yanked her off her feet. Blindly, I pulled as hard as I could, and let go, flinging her fairylight body across the room. She hit some wall or shelf with a satisfying crunch of shattered glass.

I panted, the world fading slowly into sight. Dark cavern walls melting into the distance, benches cluttered with dirty glassware, shelves of sparkling rainbow vials. My mouth watered, the dark velvety habit igniting longing in my blood. My palms itched. Hunger flowered darkly inside, that snitchy little voice whispering,
Kill her and take the sparkle. Forget all this. You know you want it.

I bit my lip and forced myself to think of shy, deceived Cobalt, midnight hair tumbling, breathing my stolen magic into a vial just like those. Did one of them hold my song? What color would it be? Surely, I’d recognize my own essence? Surely there’d be some lingering sound, some remnant?

I strained my ears, searching, but caught nothing.

Some swirling crystal sphere thing sat on the bench, eerie green light glittering inside like sticky faedrenched goo, and when I looked at it, my hair sprang and sparked with weird static, hypnotic images of strangers and unknown places skidding through my mind. I shivered and tore my gaze away. What the hell was that?

But no time for sightseeing. Already Ivy launched into the air, torn wings flapping like stretched white sheets. Broken glass splattered with spilled spells glittered scarlet and blue in her wild silver hair. Chartreuse blood dripped onto her dusty gown, and she snarled, her golden hands clawing. A bloodstained sleeping beauty, pissed to hell that we’d woken her up.

She hovered just out of my reach, and laughed, her pretty face twisted. In the eerie light, her cheek shone flawless, the scars gone. “So you’re still strong. Good, good. Hate to think I’d ruined you already. Now come over here and drink this.” She ducked to the bench and plucked up a dirty glass tube. Inside, brown sludge bubbled and steamed, stinking of rotting skin and foul sweat. Just like Cobalt’s memoryjuice, only a hundred times worse.

Beside her, the green sphere swam brighter. Static rattled in my hair, and my vision swirled dim.

I hissed, baring my teeth, angry spellcraft clouding my mind. My blood boiled toxic with hatred. She’d ruined my life to give some whacked-out sparkle freak a cheap high, and she was cackling about it like some crazyfairywitchbitch.

Black deathfury clotted my heart, and evil energy slashed urgently into my limbs. I gasped and exulted, my bones wrapped deep in pleasure. Better than sparklewash. Better than sex. Just like having my song back, only more delicious, more malevolent.
Now let’s see who’s stronger, bitch.

My fists clenched tight, and I lurched forward, intent on tearing her throat out with my teeth.

In my scarlet mist, I barely registered Joey sliding his arm around my shoulders, whispering tightly in my ear. “Don’t, Mina. She’s spellfucking you. Keep it real.”

I ignored him. My fingers clawed like talons. This was no spell. I felt fine. I felt great. She’d ripped my heart out, and she deserved no less from me.

He persisted, his body warm against my side, fighting for my questing arm. I shook him off. Ivy grinned and curled her finger, beckoning.

My rage exploded. I wanted to gouge her heart out. Claw her face off and eat it. Smash her into her stinking rainbowglass wall over and over until the flesh shredded from her mutated fairy bones.

Sharp fangs sliced my ear, and the hot shock slammed me back to reality.

Like breath on a mirror, my fury evaporated, and dirty fairy spellcraft crystallized like diamonds in midair and tinkled to the floor.

My limbs weakened. Dizziness spun my head in circles. My knees buckled. I stumbled, and Joey caught me.

Scarlet drops spattered warm on my shoulder, and chill racked my skin tight. My heartbeat warmed to his, steady, comforting. His arms felt safe around me, a living version of my tight leather. Nothing could hurt me in there. I wanted to huddle into his embrace and let him protect me.

Not a fucking chance.

Steadily, I pushed him away and lifted my chin. Attacking her wasn’t an option. Bargaining would have to do, at least until I could catch her off guard. “What do you want?”

Ivy folded her wings in a puff of golden dust and picked up a glittering glass wand to twirl. “Cleverthing like you? You know what I want.”

“I know Diamond gave you my song. What’s your price?”

Ivy mimed dabbing at her eyes. “So sad. Already gone, my love. Lost like breath on the wind.” She cackled, her eyes glinting golden with wicked delight. “Got a good price for you, too. Love and deliciousness. You make a delightful lovespell. But it’s not quite paid for yet.”

My heart glugged. “Gone? It can’t be.”

“Mmm. My thoughts exactly. Gone? Already?” She waved her arms, indignant. “How’m I supposed to make my pretty hellangel love me when it’s all
gone
? I want
more
!” Crimson treachery ignited in her gaze, and she lifted her skinny golden arm and hurled the sparkling wand to the floor.

Glass shattered, and a sweet pink cloud puffed like ethereal smoke.

Joey cursed and flung himself at her, a sleek black arrow in the air. Telltale bitterness stung my nose, the rotting stink of glassfae magic turned sour, and I stumbled back.

But too late.

Time jerked like a braking train, and slowed.

Air screeched to a halt in my ears, skidding like car tires. The mist motes danced slower, slower, until their sparkle shimmered and froze in midair. Joey’s swift dive hit insoluble friction, and his black shape smeared to a stop, caught in midflight. Ivy leapt into the air and hung there, her gown billowing in swelling pink fog.

My lungs jerked in panic, drowning me. My arms waved, desperately slow, and I tumbled backwards in slow motion, my momentum sucking away into some black void until I hung suspended on my back, my limbs flung out like a weird ritual sacrifice. My tangled hair spread motionless in a stained-glass azure snapshot, and blood dripping from my torn ear froze halfway to the ground.

I struggled, willing my muscles to work, but nothing happened. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe. Joey was stuck in midair, blurred like a jolted photograph. The world had frozen in time.

Ivy giggled and fluttered to her feet. Unaffected. Free.

My head throbbed. My lungs ached for air. A scream brewed in my throat, but I’d no breath to make it.

Dread chewed my guts ragged. Surely this was it. I’d die. Not a rotten sparkle hit, not a bloody gunshot in the dark or beaten to death in some stupid gangfight. Tricked by a mad, magicdrunk, lovesick fairy. Great.

I couldn’t move my eyeballs. Her soft footsteps rang uncannily loud in the crisp magical silence. She loomed into my vision and peered down at me, and her smile lifted her face to another level of strange fae beauty. Delicately dusted golden skin, liquid silver eyes with sweeping white lashes, small coquettish lips, cheekbones translucent like crystal. Even scarred, she was beautiful. Now, she was exquisite. This reluctant lover of hers must be blind.

Not that it mattered now, lying here at the mercy of her strange whims. Even if I could tell her I’d no voice left, that I’d never in my life sung a love spell anyway.

Her eyes glowed hot. “Ready to feed me, prettyblue?”

My blood lurched, cold. I struggled, but my nerves sparked uselessly in limbs that just couldn’t move, no matter how I coaxed.

She tweaked my nose fondly, brandishing the crusted glass tube so the memorysauce sloshed, brown and sloppy like runny shit. “I’ll need everything you’ve got left. So no shygirl, okay?” And she forced a cold finger between my lips and poured the sour brown froth in.

Cold, viscous, disgusting. Stinking grit fouled my tongue, coated my teeth, dribbled down my throat. I gagged, and she forced one hand under my chin and the other over my lips. My teeth crunched, and the feral stuff crawled down my gullet like a rodent.

Already my head swam, colors reeling, shapes hurtling like earthquake debris. Christ, the stuff was strong. Much stronger than Cobalt’s. It tore my mind open and whipped the insides to pulp. My face burned. My eyes stung and watered, and I couldn’t blink to clear them. My nose scorched inside, acid fumes ripping at my nostrils.

The gunk hit my stomach, and my guts heaved. Acid splashed my throat, splurting out my nose like horrid drunken vomit, but she wasn’t letting go. She tapped my larynx with impatient knuckles, and my treacherous muscles convulsed in a painful swallow.

Down it went, frothing foully in my stomach. Sickness choked me. My vision flared scarlet, and cramp rammed my guts like an iron fist, and then everything scrunched up and sucked away into a swirling black vortex of pain.

Somewhere, Ivy cackled and sliced cold grasping talons into my brain.

Images slashed, razorsweet. Tumbling like spinning blades, colors crashing discordant, the brassy shapes of melody and memory mingling. My skin crawled with ants. Pieces of my brain tore away and slopped onto the floor, pink and shining like gristle.

I choked a scream. Bile splashed my mouth, and with that bright salty shock, I realized I was still alive.

Alive, and hovering on silent wings in a dusty gray room, where moonlight slashed like blades between the cracks of drawn blinds to carve bright furrows on the grimy floor.

My mother’s house. My mother’s room. And there she lay, crying on the floor with blood smearing her face.

Inside my snap-frozen body, I wriggled and thrashed and wailed in horror.

But I couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, couldn’t escape Ivy’s crawling invasion. Vicious agony stabbed my skull, deeper, harder. In her search for the nonexistent remnant of my song, she was ripping the carcass of my memories raw.

Here we go again.