My mother brought her finger to my lips.
"Not we. You're pregnant, Scarlett. You're not going anywhere."
Her words were firm, but she'd forgotten that I was an entire adult and up until a few moments ago I had been taking care of her, not the other way around.
The look in her eye told me that she knew I wasn't going to be told what to do.
I sighed, taking a last look at my young mother, armor and all.
"So you're really an angel?"
She nodded.
"And my dad's a demon?"
She nodded again.
"So what does that make me?"
"One of a kind." She smiled.
I huffed.
There was too much going on, and I felt like we were running out of time.
There was a commotion behind the closed door. We opened it to see Gavril and Asher scurrying to the balcony. It was the first glimpse that Gavril was getting of his city since he'd left and judging from his anger it was a little more run down and a lot more.
"It's the governors. They used your dagger as an amplifier for a chaos spell. There are so many premature deaths that the underworld is overflowing. Even with the time difference, it'll overflow soon." I said.
Gavril spun around and looked at me, his eyes glowing red with anger. In that moment I saw it. I saw myself in him. Not so much the old Scarlett, but the new one was there, most definitely.
I knew he wasn't angry at me, but he was definitely scary when he was mad. A force to be reckoned with.
"No, no, no." He paced the balcony and cursed at the dark sky. "Those governors think they can play with fate? They have another thing coming for them."
He chuckled, but not because anything was funny. It was the kind of laugh that women did in arguments right before they snapped. The laugh of the rage sweeping through their bodies.
"Stay here Scar. We'll be back soon." My mother took a step toward Gavril, but I stopped her.
"No, I'm not staying." I protested.
She spun around, and her eyes were intent. She was going to make me stay, and even though I was an adult my mother was a badass now, and there wasn't a doubt in my mind that she could have made me stay if she wanted.
Right before she was about to pull away from me and vanish with Gavril, I did it. I pulled the card that I didn't want to have to pull.
"With the time difference you'll miss it." The words tumbled from my mouth and she froze. I had her right where I wanted her. "A single day up there is a year down here. It'll take you that long just to find the governors. That's a year of my life–" I paused lingering on the words. "A year of our lives."
I tried to make the threat vague, but she knew exactly what I meant.
Years imprisoned were enough for her, I knew it. There was no way she was going to skip out on me when a daughter needed her mother the most– during pregnancy.
She clenched her jaw tightly and her eyes darted to Gavril. His anger had simmered and again he held the smirk on his face.
"I say if she wants to fight, we should let her fight."
That was the moment I realized that I missed having a father to leverage things against my mother.
And I missed having a mother to leverage things against.
For the first time our family felt a little bit whole.
I turned to the guys. Asher was ready to hop on the fight train, of course. And even Xander got up and walked to me, followed by Max and Drax, but Finn sat beside Colt's limp body. He was still breathing, so I knew he was okay.
"I can't leave him." He muttered. "Not again."
I nodded. I understood. I truly did, and in that moment I realized how sweet and caring Finn truly was to the people whom he held most dear.
I realized how good of a father he'd make.
"You know we could be gone a few days, this time." I reminded him, and he nodded.
"Go kick our dad's ass. Send him to hell if you can." A fire blazed in his eyes.
Gavril glanced over at me. "I like that one."
"Me too." I smiled back at him before we erupted in a cloud of smoke leaving Colt and Finn behind.
IN AN INSTANT WE WERE transported to the middle of New York City, and shit was crazy.
Not crazy like it was over-crowded and rabid, but crazy like it wasn't.
One of the most populated cities in our entire country and there wasn't a single person on the street. Not a single car drove, horn beeped, nothing.
The city was filled with quiet, the kind that settled into your bones and made its home there, to live forever beneath your skin.
"Where are we exactly?" I asked no one in particular.
"You tell me." Asher answered. "I teleported off of your own psychic energy. Wherever you thought the governors were, that's where we are."
I saw it now. I started to recognize more and more pieces of our surroundings. We were in the streets outside of the boxing club that Xander and I had staked out.
And just as I realized it, the chaos erupted.
We turned just in time to see the doors to the boxing club beside us fly open. I almost didn't recognize it because of the heavy graffiti that had been painted over the entire building.
When the doors flung open a mob of people raced out, I could tell that they were all vamps the same way I could tell they were all members of Invicta, by their shitty jean jackets with the sleeves ripped off.
My mind was still hazy from teleporting, which was why everyone else had time to spring into action before I did.
I watched as Drax grabbed the nearest vamp and cupped his head between his hands. I knew he was transferring some fucked-up painful shit with his vamp power into the guy's mind by the way he gripped his head and crumbled to the ground before ripping out his own throat.
A wave of electric magic surrounded Max. So much that it lifted his feet from the ground, and he threw bolts of lightning at the intruders. Asher released a cloud of smoke that consumed them, and Xander somehow manipulated a huge stream of water from a nearby fire hydrant to wash the dead bodies away.
I had almost forgotten how badass the people I loved were, but as my mind caught up to my body, I wasn't about to let them forget how badass I was too.
My mother leapt into the air and used her wings to create a gust of wind so strong it swept some down the street.
But inside me, I knew I held something more powerful than even her. The darkness simmered beneath my skin yet again, prickling to the surface. When it was too much for me to contain, I opened my mouth wide and exhaled the cloud releasing all of the evil that lay dormant inside. It contorted and twisted until it was the familiar shape of a hound, its glowing red eyes staring hungrily at the vampires.
They fought through everything else, but the sight of my monster was enough to send them running in the opposite direction. It wouldn't be enough though, as the smoke hound pounced, landing onto a group of them.
Their bones crunched beneath it in a bloodied mess, and a twisted smile graced my face. It took another swipe at the group, its razor sharp shadow claws ripping them to shreds with almost no effort.
I couldn't call on the beast often, but when I did, it didn't disappoint.
One vampire was sliced clean in half at the waist and writhed in his own tainted blood before he died.
In no time all the opposers were dead leaving everyone to stare at me blankly, including the cowardice governors who stood just at the doorway.