“I thodisaid noddafuckintouchme.” The words sounded right in her head, but they fell clumsily out of lips that were too tired to work. “Gerrof”, she continued, blearily slapping at the hand pressing on her chest.
The scraping scratch of metal on skin, the slick wet of blood, the pain that leaked through…
Eve shot upright, immediately beset by a searing ache ripping through her chest.
“What the fuck is going on?”
Her stomach swirled as she surveyed the room. Her room. A dark haired man sat on the bed across from her, his wide frame was covered in an ancient looking ornamental robe, but the muscles of his neck, the tension in his jaw, sparked the imagination of what lay beneath.
“Whoa,” she said, “did…did we fuck? ‘Cause honestly, my mind is like…” she spun her fingers in circles around her ears, “whew, right now.”
“Eve –”
“No, no, no, my turn pretty boy.”
Nisha’s vibrant red face thrust itself into Eve’s field of view.
“Hey, fuck face, what did I tell you about having boys over during the week? Oh, and the music? Come the fuck on, dude. By the way, that shithead over there fucking clocked me right in the face. I oughta –”
The cough that splattered her face with blood ripped its way out of Eve’s chest before she could raise a hand.
“Fuck,” Nisha said raising her hand to wipe the blood away, “what the fuck did you get yourself into?”
The Shade. The memory pulsed its way into Eve’s mind. She’d been stabbed. How the fuck could she forget? The wound on her chest was weeping thick red. Bleeding again.
Arric.
No response. She tried again.
“Arric,” she said aloud.
“I am here,” said the man sitting across from her.
Eve stared.
She buried her face in her hands. “Oh god, tell me we didn’t fuck. Please.”
“Eve!”
She looked at him again, something different lived in his eyes this time. A cruel sneer licked at his lips.
“Pay some fucking attention to what’s going on around you, do you really think fucking is the last thing that happened in this room? Oh trust me, Arric thought about it plenty on the way over here, sure he won’t admit it, but,” he winked, “we both know how he feels.”
Eve looked down at the blade in her chest.
“There you go, yeah, come on, wake the fuck up now.”
“Shit,” she said, “shit, shit shit.”
“What happened to you?” Nisha asked.
“Fuck. I – I was in the Incorporeum, there was a Shade…we’d just completed a sacrament. Why was there a fucking Shade?”
“Why were you in the fucking inc – you know what, I think I know why, now what’s with the blade?”
Eve’s hands shot to her throat. She could still feel the indentations, the Shade’s cold, bony grasp.
“It stabbed me…ran me through…I guess, at least. It choked me out first, but…my heart. I should be dead.”
The headboard pressed hard against her back as she pushed her feet into her green bedsheets.
Don’t panic, she thought.
“Yeah, sure, okay,” Nisha started, “asshole Shade, stab stab, we need to get you medical attention. Just one more question. What’s with Clark-fucking-cunt over here?”
“Miss, I promise you, I didn’t mean to, I was panicking. Eve was dying and –”
“And what, you thought you’d just punch the fucking daylights out of her sister?”
“Stop!” Eve’s voice wavered. “Can we please…can we get this fucking sword out of my heart before you guys kill each other? Or fuck each other? I honestly can’t tell what’s going to happen at this point.”
“You think we’re taking that thing out, here?” Nisha shot back. “It’s covered in runes, dumbass. Look at the fucking thing. It’s glowing. It’s clearly not made of metals from our realm. That thing doesn’t belong here. I’m not fucking touching it.”
Please, someone do something, Eve thought.
Stolen novel; please report.
“No, it can’t stay, where am I going to go? What am I going to do?” Her head ached as it thumped against the wood behind her.
The room began to blur around her. She felt the salty sting of tears on her cheeks before she knew what was happening.
“Oh don’t think you can fucking ‘woe is me’ your way out of this one.”
Eve sobbed, pain racked her torso as she did. She clutched the blade wishing it would stop. Her head dropped to her chest as another cry ripped through her.
“Do you want me to burn her?” the whisper tickled her ear, “I’d do it if you asked.”
She hadn’t noticed his body move.
“No,” she sobbed, “that’s my sister. Why do you think I would want that?”
“I dunno, she made you sad. It felt right.”
“Get away from my sister,” Nisha said, pushing Arric, or more likely Castigan, aside. “Eve…I’m sorry, are you alright?”
“I just want to go home,” Eve sniffled through a dripping nose, “I miss mom and dad. I miss Charlie. I miss when we had a family. Do you remember that, Nish? When we were both going to go to Veilward together?”
Nisha pulled Eve’s head on to her chest, “shhhh, everything’s going to be okay…I miss mom and dad too.”
“Remember when Charlie ate that fucking soul shard off of dad’s desk and said “nevermore” every time he tried to bark?” Eve choked a laugh.
“Dad was so pissed that his Poe shard got eaten. It took Michael hours of begging to keep him from dropping Charlie in the Incorporeum.”
Eve laughed around the hard lump in her throat. “Remember how obsessed I was with Mike back then? How I swore I’d have his kids someday?” The tears ran harder now.
Nisha smiled sadly at her.
“Am I going to die?” Eve asked.
“Eve…I’m not going to let you die.”
“Neither shall I.”
“Eve?” Nisha whispered into her ear, “who the fuck is he?”
“A ward.” Arric lied. Or maybe it was Castigan.
Eve’s still bleary eyes went wide at the deception.
I can’t summon a ward.
“I…see…Octavia?” Nisha paused, as if listening, “yes, protection, only for a moment. Please and thank you.”
A screech and the scent brimstone ripped through the air as reality shifted at the center of the room.
Showoff, thought Eve.
A winged gargoyle emerged from a rift between the planes, it raised a mace high in the air as it screeched again.
“That,” Nisha pointed, “‘is a ward. You, pretty-boy, are no ward.”
She let the words sit heavy in the air.
“He’s a…special…class of –”
“Oh just zip it, if you don’t want to tell me what he is that’s fine…for now. Veilward however…they’ll want to know. They’ll demand to know. Especially if you’re expecting them to take that dagger out for you.”
“How are we going to get into Veilward anyway?”
“Oh, that’s easy, I’ll just call my years’ head spiritist and he’ll let us in.”
“You can…just do that?”
“Yeah, watch. Oh Jace!” she called, “can you come up here?”
“Oh you little slut! And you had the balls to give me shit for fucking and sucking my way through life.”
Arric cringed as the words fell from Eve’s lips. She almost regretted saying it. She hadn't let him see that part, of course.
“You’re not the only one in the room who likes a hard cock between her legs, get over it, he doesn’t give me any – well, much special treatment.”
Slow footsteps pounded on the stairs.
I can’t believe her.
Jace stepped into the room. He looked to Arric, Eve, the blade, Octavia, and then finally Nisha.
He sighed, running a hand through slicked back black hair.
“This looks…so boring. I’m out. Call me when something real happens.”
“Jace!”
“Ugh, what? It’s Thursday. Can’t this be like…a weekend thing or something?”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes! I mean…no…I just…” he took a deep breath before muttering something to himself. “Fucking…fine, what’s the blade, why’s Octavia here, who are the two dudes who want to fuck your sister?” he paused for a moment, before finally entering the room and offering an awkward hand to Eve. “Sorry. Hi, Eve, I’m Jace. Your sister has told me…some…things about you.”
The smell of alcohol burned Eve’s nostrils.
She shook his hand.
“Are you…drunk?”
“What? Oh, no, I wish. He is.” Jace pointed to his shoulder where a mummified monkey briefly popped into view. “I keep telling him it’s going to make him dissipate faster but…” he shrugged his shoulders.
He looked at Arric. “He says you two need to pick who’s in charge of that thing before your spirits merge. Unless you’re into that.” He paused, an amused look upon his face. “Or you could just give the Rat control, then you two can rest until you dissipate. Who cares, really?”
He rubbed his eyes before turning to the gargoyle.
“Octavia, dear, you know I love you, but sulphur gives me headaches, could you kindly fuck off?”
Eve couldn’t really interpret the look on the Gargoyle’s face, though something told her it was pleased to know that it could cause pain by just standing there.
Octavia crumbled into ash and dust at his feet, spreading a fine powder through the room.
Great. Who’s going to clean that up?
He strode forward through the dust, walking to Nisha. He pulled her face towards his, giving her a kiss on the lips. “Now, you…” he whispered into her ear. Her lips curved upward, face reddened as he did. She smacked him on the chest. “Later.” she mouthed. Motioning towards Eve with her head.
He looked at Eve. “You know why you’re boring?”
This is getting old.
“One: I can’t fucking fuck you. Three out of the five of us in this room would be mad, your opinion notwithstanding.
Two: I can’t fucking touch that blade.
Three: See number one.”
And four: The monkey doesn’t like you.”
“Wanna stop thinking with your cock for a minute and try to be helpful?” Eve shot at him.
He smiled demeaningly at her.
Arric stepped closer to Eve.
“Jace, stop. Please don’t try to seduce my sister in front of me.”
“He’s not seducing me, he’s being an asshole.”
He winked at her before turning to leave the room.
“Get your shit and let’s go. The front gate closes at 11PM and I hate – HATE – the Gargoyles that they’ve got at the back gate lately. Meet me downstairs in ten.”
He turned towards Nisha.
“Actually…Nish, you meet me in 5…everyone else…15, no…20 minutes.”
With that, he left.
Nisha turned to Eve.
“You're going to be okay. Your…friend, seems to have gotten you stable for now. Just…take a few minutes to recover, maybe pack something, then we'll go.”
