Barren Crossroads

All the Monsters Look the Same

that moment, she hated him. She wanted to kill him. Bile rose in her throat, and threatened to spill past her lips. She kept them firmly closed. After another minute, she spoke. "Leave him alone," she whispered.

"Leave him alone?" Jace repeated. "Well, I think you'd owe me for that, don't you?"

"I hate you," she sneered.

"Me too."

Chapter 8

Wrong Side of the Stars

They'd gone around like that for several more minutes. Jace kept pretending to beat on her and Lilith eventually resorted to screaming and begging loudly just to sell it. She could hear Michael shouting on the other side of the thick stone all. "Stop!" he screamed. "Leave her alone. Please, just leave her alone. I'll tell you."

Lilith felt awful, her head ringing, her full stomach roiled. She knew it was fake, but Michael was so far into his guilt and his agony that she wasn't sure he could tell anymore. She wasn't sure he still believed Jace was on their side. Sometimes, she thought the only person that did believe he was was Jace himself.

"I'm going to show you now," he muttered in her ear, his fist still tight in her hair, but not tight enough that it stung. Then, louder, "Well. Maybe I'll jog your memory. Seems the bitch is dying. She looks awful. How long do you think before the infection spreads to her brain and kills her? Would save me à trip when I'm through with you, I suppose." His tone was dark and it made Lilith shiver.

He pulled the sleek laptop off the bottom shelf of the cart and Lilith's fingers itched to touch it. He set it carefully in front of her, in the cleanest bit of concrete he could find. "Unencrypt as many as you can, fast as you can. You have two minutes," he whispered.

"Here, watch," he spit at her. Then he opened the laptop, brushed à few keys with his long fingers, and shifted his large, broad form over behind her so that he was still blocking the views of the camera. He angled his arm so that it looked like he was holding the small silver blade to her throat.

He was silent then, still and solid as à rock wall and her fingers flew over the keys. Michael's shouting covered the quiet noise they made as she tapped them. She had files pulled up and was running through as many different decryption keys and logs as her half starved and frazzled mind could remember. She couldn't be sure how many would work, if any of them would and she knew she didn't have time to check. Her breathing was ragged, but Jace's was steady in her ear, though she knew it was being forced. She briefly focused on the raised white scars along his arms.

He didn't deserve any of that, and the memories of his torture, and the four Hunters he fought off to keep them safe was the thing she held onto when she questioned him. "You're perfect, Lil. Just keep going. Few more seconds."

"Magnificent, isn't she? Even half blind, and nearly dead, she's better than you. Does it get old, Lil, being second best? Or is it third? Michael was always second in command, even when you warmed her bed, Pathetic," he sneered. Lilith growled at loud, and pounding reverberated around them as Michael beat on the walls between them.

"Even so, even with all those extra special little abilities, she'll be dead soon. Maybe she'll make it to where she's going, maybe not. Want to tell me what it is?" he asked again. He shifted towards the computer, and she snapped her hands back to clenched fists at her sides. He snapped the lid of the computer shut and ripped it away. "Don't even try it."

"I will fucking never, and I mean never, give her up for you. You aren't fucking worth it, or her, or us. You're pathetic, à washed up, not quite good enough leader with daddy issues who just wants to be good enough," she spit at him. "And you never will be."