Fear Her Wrath II: Crucible of Glass

Chapter 63

"You get a good nap, white girl?" said a voice I recognized.

"Xao," I smiled, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. "Yeah, I'm... I'm alive. Where..?"

"We're at Ben's place," came Ellie's voice, only to be met by an annoyed grunt. "Uh, Ben and Bella's place."

"Your dad is stuck at the hospital," said Mr. Vang. "I told him you're alright. Crazy night, huh?"

I looked down and realized with horror I was still wearing my costume. I struggled to pull the covers up to my chin, but it was no use.

"It's okay," said Benedict. "Or, you'd probably think it's not okay, but it's too late, anyways. We needed someone to drive the car to go get you."

"I volunteered," said Xao. "But Fong wanted someone with a driver's license."

He rolled his eyes at what he clearly thought was his cousin's completely unreasonable concern for road safety.

"We got you out of there just in time," said Ben. "We passed half the police in the Fen going the other direction."

I still couldn't believe that Ben and Ellie had blown my secret identity like this, but—so far, at least—everything seemed to be working out. Ben's dad was being remarkably chill about the whole thing, and nobody seemed to be turning me in to the police. I had vague, half-conscious memories of being carried down a fire escape in Ben's arms and driven back to Hmong Town, but I hadn't been awake enough to notice that Mr. Vang was driving or that Xao was in the seat beside me. Apparently the car belonged to Ben's uncle, which explained how Xao got mixed up in this. I tried to make a list in my head of everyone who knew my secret identity as of tonight. It was either 9 or 10 people, which was probably 9 or 10 too many. But, what could I do?

"How you feeling?" said Ben, who was kneeling beside me. I shrugged.

"Alive. Really tired. And just about everything hurts. Are you and Ellie okay?"

"Oh, we're fine," said Ellie. "Probably a little too much coffee, though. I don't think I'll ever sleep again."

She did a small dance to get out her caffeine jitters. I noticed that Xao was glancing over at Ellie with an odd expression, like he had never seen anyone quite like her before. I wasn't sure, but I would almost swear he thought she was cute.

"I'd gladly trade," I said with a yawn. "I'm gonna need to start carrying a thermos of espresso with me in my satchel."

Ellie put a finger to the side of her head, as though she were seriously considering the logistics of me bringing an emergency supply of coffee with me while I was out fighting crime.

"Hey, I'm not the only one who's starving, right?" said Xao. "That Chinese place down the street wouldn't close in a zombie apocalypse. Let's go get something."

"I'm down," said Ben. "Ellie?"

"Like I'd trust you two to order," she said with a grin. "Just leave it to me."

"I'll come too," I said, but I really wasn't up to it. The bruises on my legs and sides were really starting to smart, and even sitting up to protest took a lot of effort. Luckily, my friends wouldn't hear of it. The three of them disappeared out the apartment door, leaving me alone with Mr. Vang and Bella. Mr. Vang soon got up to grade some seminary papers, and I found myself with only Bella for company. I was perfectly content not saying anything to Ben's obnoxious brat of a sister, but she kept glaring at me from the chair where she was sulking, and in the end, I was the one who broke the silence.

"You okay, Bella?"

She scowled, like it was a punishment even to have to speak to me.

"Dad says I'm not allowed to tell the police you're Nightwrath," said Bella sullenly.