Coveted [New/Revised Version]

GOOD GIRL GONE BAD

     Lisa back tracked down the hall and ran toward the stairs. She pressed her shoulder up against the small alcove between the wall and the entryway leading into the narrow hallway. Her eyes were squeezed shut as she tried to think of being as intangible as smoke. Penelope came sprinting straight into the hall, eyes flaring, with Chantelle panting behind her. When she didn't see anyone, she silenced the ward and examined the hall.

Chantelle reached for the knob but her grandmother's hand wrapped around her wrist. She raised a finger up to her lips, shushing her and Lisa knew she was in trouble. All of that hurrying, running, and exertion of magic winded her. She tried desperately to stop herself from wheezing. Penelope's amethyst gaze cut down the hall toward the threshold.

Lisa held her breath until it felt like her lungs were about to collapse. Penelope started creeping down the hall, one hand outstretched and the other clinging to a wicked looking carving knife. Lisa started edging around the threshold and onto the stairs carefully. It was a struggle to take small, controlled breaths as she worked her way down but after the fourth stair, she let out a breath that sounded like she had pneumonia.

Horror shot through Lisa and her concentration broke, her body becoming visible in a whirling cloud of gray. For a second, her and Penelope locked eyes. The narrowing of the other woman's told her she wasn't going to weasel her way out of this so easily.

"Just what I suspected," Penelope snarled before pushing her hand forward. "Once a deceitful, manipulative witch, always deceitful and manipulative."

Lisa's body slammed hard into the wall then tumbled the rest of the steps down to the second floor. She let out a haggard gasp when she rose. Her body ached but she pushed through it. All the doors were locked on either side of the hall so she leaped down the stairs to the ground floor. She was all tightly wound instinct with zero plans in mind. When she heard Penelope bounding down the stairs behind her, she didn't hesitate.

She wheeled around and pinned her to the wall. Beams of energy she normally could've easily deflected shot out of Penelope's eyes. The blast grazed her shoulder and she cringed, loosening her hold on the other witch. As she slid down the wall, Penelope started chanting words in the old language. Lisa rammed her back with such force the older woman's eyes rolled back.

That, however, didn't stop her from hurling the knife at Lisa. She screeched as it drove into her open palm. Penelope was slumped on the floor and Chantelle was coming down the stairs. She didn't rush though. No, she took her time, her hand trailing over the banister as she descended.

"You're going to die today." Chantelle told her in a honeyed voice. "And I'm going to be the one to kill you."

Mustering every ounce of resolve she had, Lisa used her other hand to pry the knife out of her palm, her knuckles paling around its hilt.

"I don't think so." Lisa snarled as she flung the blade straight at her heart.

Chantelle stood perfectly still, only tilting her head in a way that so eerily reminded her of Samael. A tiny green glow sprang from the center of her chest beneath the material of her white jumper. The knife splintered as it came up on an invisible force, the pieces flying all over.

"That makes one of us." The younger witch cackled, slapping the air with such force it knocked Lisa through the wall.

Sharp agony sang through every inch of her while she struggled to get up. She could feel dampness soaking into her clothes, streams of her blood coating the floor beneath her. Lisa tried to hoist herself up using her forearms when a foot stomped down on her shoulder. She let out a scream as she collapsed, her cheek crushed against the linoleum.