Page 44 of They Call Her Dirty Sally
“I didn’t expect you to leave him,” Eli replied dryly.
Right.
“Don’t piss on my leg and tell me it’s raining,” I said. Using the same sweet-ass line as my favorite television judge. “I know you’d take the first opportunity to get rid of him when my back is turned.”
“Then you don’t know me as well as I hoped.” He stared at me with blatant distress. “Because if I wished it, our last fight was a perfect excuse to kill him. I protected him because it is what you asked, Jade. It pains me that you think so little of me.”
Okay, he’d schooled me. He had a point.
Tamara began to chant the ancient words that got me through the backdoor the first time. Hopefully now, we’d be able to slam the door shut behind us and never look back. Although a fat load of good it did. With the veil destroyed, they’d just keep coming, and coming. I’d failed to find a way to stem the flow.
And at this point I was tapped out. Running on empty without a refueling station in sight. Did they have those kinds of things for angels? I could sure use one right now.
I ripped the bottom of my shirt until I had a decent piece of material and then wrapped it around the wound on my hand. I didn’t need to leave a blood trail behind. Pushing aside the suffocating guilt and crushing inadequacy I felt, I handed Kay off to Eli and slowly approached Cole.
“Hey,” I said softly. “We’re leaving. You have to take my hand. You’re coming with us.”
It might be stepping on the tiger’s tail but, after everything we’d been through, I stared death in the face daily and dealing with a dangerous Halfling seemed especially suicidal. If I died today, I’d have to be satisfied with trying my best. I was definitely on my own when it came to Cole.
Breathing hard and staring at his way too pale face, it took effort to stay soft, to smile. “Cole.”
He didn’t turn when I said his name. In fact, he remained unchanged. He crouched with his knees bent backwards, his face almost entirely demonic and his knuckles dragging on the ground.
“You better get him in line because it’s time to go,” Tamara said.
I turned back to my not-boyfriend. “You once told me that you never miss a fight,” I scolded. Wanting to run to him, wrap my arms around him, and holding myself back. “I’m not going to let you stay here in this place. I’m not going to give up on you. So you’ve got to come with me now and I promise I’m going to find a way to fix this. One way or another.”
I’d find a safe spot for him whether it cost me my life or not.
Love. It did stupid, terrible things to people.
It carved out your insides and left you hollow inside.
Love made walking corpses of us all.
CHAPTERSIXTEEN
“You told me I’m the one that matters, Cole,” I whispered, searching his face for any further signs of understanding. Wanting to crack when his brows remained knitted. “You matter to me. I refuse to leave you behind. You’ve got to understand. That’s why I couldn’t hold up my end of the bargain.”
A tugging began in my stomach and I knew I didn’t have time to convince him. I’d have to take him with us by force, and if he resisted…well, I didn’t want to think about it.
Eventually I had no choice but to take a hold of him, placing my fingers lightly against his graying skin as Tamara’s magic clicked into place. Those ancient words, the symbol she drew on my hand, and the rest of them crowding closer still so the spell would release all of us from Hell’s grip.
I closed my eyes against the wrenching. Painful and familiar, it ripped me into a million pieces before pulling me back together again. It took a bit longer this time. The intensity of the spell felt no different from the first but somehow the pain felt harder, keener.
Power shot through me and I silently screamed as every atom of air sucked right out of my body yet again. Kay’s cry echoed in my ears until it abruptly cut off. The others were with me.
I didn’t have to do this alone. The thought didn’t hold the kind of comfort I wished it would.
The edges of reality stretched, growing and contracting. Light exploded in front of my closed eyelids and consumed the last of the darkness. If I wanted a wave of assurance, I’d be waiting forever.
At last, a loud pop sounded. Cole shifted closer and I remained vaguely aware of his nearness until the spell spit us out on the other side.
Where, now,thatwas a different question.
Although my next breath brought with it strange and unfamiliar scents in the air, the quiet struck me as the oddest thing. The sound of absolute nothing. No Halfling screeches, no guns, no screams.
I took a long second to breathe deeply and hold the air inside my lungs. Count to seven, exhale for seven, rinse and repeat. Eventually I felt stable enough to speak.