A Hand in Hell

Chapter 12

I pushed the door open with a rattling of keys and stepped into the dark kitchen, quickly flipping the switch beside the door to give Lauren some light to see by as she staggered into the house behind me. My head throbbed fiercely, and I squinted against the light. Fuckin' A, man. Misha might've done some real damage.

Lauren brushed past me as I paused to lean against the center island counter, craning her neck to see my down-turned face. "Are you all right?" she asked, her tone more curious than worried, and I waved my hand in dismissal.

"Just a little headache after some mental war games," I said lightly, putting a hand over my eyes, but no matter how hard I tried to block out the light, my head still ached incessantly. Fuuuuck. "I should be good to go any minute now."

"You shouldn't've even fought her," she said, leaving my side to peek inside the refrigerator. I watched between my fingers as she pulled out a fresh bottle of water, and I laughed inwardly. Glad to see she's making herself at home. "You should've found out what you needed to know and left," she went on as she turned to face me, letting the door slam shut behind her.

I shrugged and pushed myself away from the counter, giving up on blocking the light. "I would've had to kill her eventually, anyway. She pissed me off with her arrogance, so I decided to just get it over with."

She smiled wryly as she cracked the bottle open. "Her arrogance was a problem?"

I glared. "What are you trying to say?"

"I think," came a cool voice from the doorway to the living room, and I spun to find the Council's leader eying me, boredom a hearty force behind his crimson gaze, "what she's trying to say is that you, my dear, are quite the arrogant demon yourself."

"I didn't expect you to come so soon," I sneered, resting my hands on my hips. "News travels faster among your ilk than I thought, hm?"

He chuckled, coming to stand a few feet before me with his hands clasped behind his back. He looked wholly unconcerned, but my head only throbbed harder as I mentally prepared for the battle that was sure to come. "How long did you think it would take for us to notice that Mishakkon was no more? We do communicate, you know. Our bond is stronger than anything you could imagine, being a loner, such as you are."

I rolled my eyes. "So you guys talk. I'm so impressed."

He offered me a broad grin, his white teeth showing brightly from within his dark-skinned face. "We do so telepathically — any time, anywhere. Mishakkon did as well, right up until you fatally seared her synapses and tore her voice from us. She'd been telling us with complete confidence that she was going to end you once and for all until that very moment." His gaze slid to Lauren, placed carefully behind the center island counter, and his lips met in a tight smile. "It's fortunate that you have no one to communicate with in such a way, as I'm sure your own mental capabilities have been all but entirely burned away." Chuckling, he met my eyes once more. "I'm honestly surprised that you're not dead after facing someone who so clearly outranks you."

I slid my sunglasses off and eyed him as I clenched one ear piece between my teeth. Did he honestly think so little of me? "There's only one Council member who I might have a bit of trouble defeating," I all but hissed around the ear piece, "and that's you." I wiped the spit from my glasses and slid them back on, an unpleasant smile curving my lips. "Of course, I'm never above trying." And suddenly, I was before him, a tightly clenched fist heading right for his smug, scummy face.

He knocked my hand aside with a stiff forearm, and his fist was a blur of dark flesh as it hurtled toward my throat. I threw my torso to the right, his quick hit sending my hair whipping madly against my shoulder, and my eyes flicked down as a cool wave of air whooshed across my shin. I leapt backward to avoid his incoming foot, but I wasn't nearly quick enough, and the sole of his shiny black shoe caught my leg with the force of a perfectly targeted kick. With a grunt of pain, I dropped to one knee, my leg knocked cleanly from beneath me, and I scowled as he danced back a few paces, the beginnings of a smirk tugging at the corners of his lips.