Shadowglass

Chris stalked forward into the light, his brass-topped black cane tapping on the concrete. He kicked Jake in the ribs, eliciting a soggy sigh. “Mirror, shithead. Now.”

I snapped my head back around, tension stopping my breath in my lungs like a cork. Chris stood with his back to me. Ashley (Costello) was distracted by her prey. Maybe they wouldn’t see me.

I flexed my limbs, testing. Jake had untied my wrist ropes. Only ankles to go. Quietly, I pushed myself up.

Pop.

My wing joints, crackling as the pressure came off them.

I snapped still like an icicle. My heart squeezed tight, waiting for Chris to spin around and chew my skin off.

But he was too busy kicking Jake in the guts to notice me. He jammed his sharp cane into Jake’s knee and twisted, fabric and skin tearing. “Mirror. Give.”

Jake just stared up at him with a bloody grin.

Cautious relief calmed my nerves. Heh. You’re an idiot, Cerulli. Pain’s not gonna convince this guy. Too much like what he’s after.

Inch by inch I stretched forward, keeping my sore wings flat to raise no shadow.

“Mirror or you die.” Chris’ voice slithered, reptilian, and Ashley crooned happily, toying with her knife’s edge at the metal studs in Jake’s eyebrow. Her own were torn ragged, missing, her lip and nose scabbed. Andy did that at Danny’s. I couldn’t bring myself to care.

My spine flexed, thankfully smooth and silent now, and I stretched forward, making myself as small and low as I could. My breasts slid down my thighs and squashed into my kneecaps, and I slid out a stealthy arm and curled it under the table. Prickly rope brushed my fingerpads.

Jake squirmed on the ground with a smooth, sexual groan that gave me shivers. “You can’t kill me, hellspawn. But I’d like your body. I’d peel the skin from it and let the snake out.”

I strained forward, searching for the knot. There, knobbly and damp, the rope fat with my water.

I picked at it with urgent claws, my pores sweating cold despair. Damn thing wouldn’t come undone.

“Just slash the fucker,” Chris ordered. Metal scythed. Blood spattered, that distinctive runny ketchup sound. Ashley giggled, and Jake howled, a horrid mix of laughter and tears.

I wiggled my claws in tighter, working the knot loose. The rope inched aside, agonizingly slow.

“Last chance, pretty boy. Mirror.” Shadows dipped as Chris knelt.

Jake spluttered wet laughter. “Come take it.”

At last, I wormed my claw in and dragged the knot apart. The rope slackened, and I slid silently off the table onto the floor, my heart pounding a hole in my rib cage.

The table’s shadow shrouded dark, and for a few seconds I lay there, blinded, my ragged breath frighteningly loud in my ears. Free, wings and spiky magic gutball intact. But Chris and Stalkerboy would fight it out and keep the mirror, and I’d be back where I started. Unless . . .

What was that?

I squinted. My eyes adjusted, and shapes slowly emerged on the floor in front of my nose.

Pebbles, a discarded nail, dusty tumble-weeds collecting under the table. And beside them, a shadowy, glinting steel ball.

Mirror. Tumbled from Jake’s pocket when he fell. Hiding under the table for me to find.

I stared, my pulse skipping. The mirror rolled a few inches to the right and wobbled, beckoning.

Breathless, I snaked out a swift arm. The metal crooned softly in my hand, a warm and satisfied noise I now knew only I could hear.

—Knew you’d be back,— it whispered, smugness dripping like acid.

The urge for revenge itched my sticky palms. Anger shook my forearm. I burned to throw the ugly thing against the wall and watch it shatter. Teach you to screw with my mind, squidgy.

I crunched my teeth, swallowing raging violence like vomit. I folded my wings in tight and wriggled like an earthworm toward the light’s edge and safety, the mirror burbling with satisfaction in my hand.

Darkness only a few feet away. The table stood between Chris and me. With luck, he wouldn’t see me before I made it out.

Grit scratched my elbows and scraped on my grounded belly. I kept crawling toward the darkness and safety. Behind me, the wet smack of flesh on flesh, a reptilian hiss. I didn’t care who’d hit whom. I glared at the mirror in my fist, my mouth tightening as I wormed along.

Jinxx’s welcome to you, nasty thing. You’ll get yours. Just get me out of here alive.

Jake sang, his unearthly voice grating with hatred like glassy shards. My ears curled in protest, hurting deep inside. I jammed breath into my lungs so I wouldn’t pant and give myself away, and kept crawling.

Finally, my nose poked into darkness. Then my chin. Then my wing tips. I scrambled to my feet in the dark at last, fresh relief spreading comfort through my aching limbs. I’d made it.

The thing lurking in the shadows grabbed my elbow.

Shock iced my lungs. My skin screamed shivery warning. I yanked free, my heart walloping, and stumbled backwards into the light.

A banshee shriek rose, warbled with shock. “Fairy’s getting away!”

I skidded, fluttering mad wings for balance, and my arms waved wildly. The rust-flecked mirror glinted bright for everyone to see, and in the shadows, a dark metal chuckle rang out.

Too late, hot iron scorched my nose. Familiar heat slithered over my skin. Andy?

Chris dropped Jake with a soggy thud, green and scarlet splashing from his hands. Black scales sprang out on his forehead, spreading to cover his face like fast-motion fungus. The pale skin on his hands rippled and blackened to shiny taloned fins. His eyes glowed like green neon, and like a snake on the strike, he launched himself at me across the table.

I shrieked, unbalanced. Black fins scythed an inch from my nose. Neon venom splashed my face, and that familiar slimy stink electrified me.

Drops seared my skin like acid, rotten leather-stink churning my stomach. I jerked away with a panicked flutter, and my hands flew up to ward him off. But he didn’t attack me again. He just slithered a steely black flipper around my wrist and twisted, hard.

Agony razored up my forearm. I screamed and struggled, fury crunching in my throat, but I couldn’t break his unearthly grip. He wrenched harder, and my bones protested with a sick crunch. Despair clotted in my heart. I clutched feebly at the mirror, but my numb fingers wouldn’t respond, and Joey reached out glossy black talons and plucked it away.

Easy as you please. Stupid, weak, useless fairy girl.

Frustration whipped my skin raw. I squealed and kicked at him, trying to pull my arm from his weird grip. “Get your rubbery hands off me, creep.”

He flipped the giggling mirror away into his jacket and yanked me forward by the shoulders. The scales on his face retracted beneath fresh, pale human skin, and he threw a lickerish grin at the shadows behind me. “Pretty thing. So breakable. Perhaps we’ll finish our game.” And his forked tongue slipped out, and he wrapped it quivering across my lips.

Wet. Cold. Wriggly like a worm. The stink of cold spit, laced with meat.

My skin caterpillared. Bile swamped my mouth, choking me. He grunted, and licked me again. I squeezed my lips together and struggled madly.

And then Ashley screamed. A horrid, gurgling, desperate scream that chilled my bones.

A rich metal whisper split the air like a warm blade. “Game’s on, snakeboy. Think again.”

Chris whipped around, one hand slipping off my shoulder. With a furious wriggle and a jerk of wings, I yanked free.

Andy clamped his sharp blue chin on Ash’s shoulder, one arm folded around her waist, ultralong blue fingers plastered over her mouth and nose. His wings stretched tight above his head, poised on an icy edge to flit backwards, and rusty glitter sparkled the air.

Ashley’s eyes bloomed huge and bright like garnets. Her feet scrabbled and kicked, but he evaded her easily. Her chest heaved as she tried to sing, to make any sound at all, but all that came out was a muffled mmph! as her lungs searched for air.

Chris cursed, and swiped for me, but I leapt away, circling the table toward Andy and Ash. My limbs shook, tense. My mind squirted in little circles, and common sense slashed at my courage with stinging claws, demanding my attention. Don’t be stupid. You’re not safe. Run away before it’s too late. Lock your heart away.

Yeah. Because that plan’s done well for me so far. Screw that.

I circled closer, wary of Chris’ greenvenom glare. On the ground, Jake flopped like a beached seal, scarlet bruises ripped open on his handsome face. He giggled, bloody froth running...

Weirdo.


I sidled around his flailing hands, indignation splashing back to me like a water bomb. Rotten bully. Hope those bruises scar, asshole.

Ashley struggled, her scarred face purpling under a wild tumble of shimmering blue hair. Chris gripped his cane in black-finned hands and hissed at Andy, his slimy tongue flickering. “You got a death wish, fairy?”

Andy wrapped his free fingers around Ashley’s jerking throat, and pressed one delicate copper claw against the place where her pulse throbbed. A cruel smile tainted his silvery lips, and his eyes glowed warm blue. “She’ll bleed pretty, Motionless,” he suggested, sniffing at the tiny bead of blood swelling under his claw. “So clean and warm. She wants it. They all want it, in the end.
Let me show you.”

Warmth spidered along my limbs. He’d touched me like that, tracing his claw over my pulse while we kissed. Now, icy violence glinted in that velvet bedroom voice. Even I was convinced he was a psycho who’d stop at nothing. But I still needed him to get out of here.

Notes

Hope you liked part one :)
Part two comin right up!