I ripped one of the giant red medical waste bags off a hook and wrapped it around me like a towel. “It’s a long story.” Well. Not really. “Can I borrow your phone, Eduardo?” My face matched the color of the bag perfectly. Good heavens, how many more men could see me na**d?
Eduardo’s head jerked from the phone at his hip, right back to me. He shook his head, quite hysterically I might add. “No. No. Dees ees no good, Miss Celia. Dees is berry, berry bad.” Eduardo abandoned his bin and backed away like I carried a grenade and asked him if he wouldn’t mind holding the pin.
“Eduardo, wait—”
He didn’t. And for the second time in a week, I found myself on top of a male, na**d. Eduardo was pretty damn slippery for a human, or maybe my sweat-soaked and bloody skin had something to do with it. I held him down while I phoned Shayna. I guessed she called Emme and someone reached out to Taran. They skidded into the bowels of the hospital within minutes to find me dripping with newt juice, na**d, and riding a custodian like Sea Biscuit.
Taran took my reptilian romp, well, just as I’d expected.
“Son of bitch. You wrestled a lizard!”
“Newt,” I muttered while Emme healed me. The gash across my face was wide open. No wonder Eduardo kept screaming. Or perhaps he had a fear of newts.
Shayna borrowed the mop Eduardo carried in his bin to wash clean the footprints. “I don’t like this, dude. You could have been killed. And this was only round one.”
“But I wasn’t.”
Taran’s breath increased like she’d run a marathon. “That stupid bitch.” Tears streaked down her face. “You should have let me handle this, Celia. If you’d hadn’t invoked that God damn Ninth Law—”
“Then we would all be fighting for our lives,” I finished for her. My skin tightened as Emme’s pale yellow light fused my flesh to seal my wound. With her power, there wouldn’t even be a scar. That didn’t mean healing didn’t hurt like a mofo. I gritted my teeth as the burning sensation receded. “I think they came to slap us around, with the hopes that maybe they could find an excuse to kill us. But you using magic from the earth was their excuse to issue a death challenge.” I squeezed her hand. “We’ve discussed this, Taran. This is the only way to get what we want.”
Taran scowled. “What if you don’t make it? The newt’s poisoned skin is proof she wouldn’t lose sleep if you died.”
Shayna swept up the remains of my rival and tossed the little critter in a small trash can. Her thin brows frowned with worry and fear. A single tear fell, streaking a line down her pixie face.
Emme kept her head down. Her timid soul allowed her tears to fall in tandem, never one to hold back her emotions, but always slightly embarrassed she couldn’t bury them as deeply as I could. I envied her in a way. I wished I could cry then, or scream from the wickedness of it all. But I couldn’t. I never could. I recognized my sisters were no longer the frightened children I had once shielded. They were grown, independent women, capable of living on their own and surviving. Yet despite their self-rule and strength, they still fed from my courage. So I didn’t weep, didn’t scream, didn’t tear the room apart. Even though I very much wanted do.
I placed my hand on her shoulder. “Look. If it comes down to me dying, I’ll plead misericordia, I promise.”
Emme’s soft green eyes glistened. “Wh-what if she doesn’t honor your surrender?”
I didn’t know how to answer her. Lying fell under my Things I Didn’t Do list. “Well, let’s just hope that she does.” My words did little to comfort my sisters and disturbed Eduardo even more. He wriggled beneath me frantically. I hauled him to his feet and held him in front of Taran as Emme’s light receded. “Make sure he forgets everything he saw.” I glimpsed at my na**d and blood-caked form. “Everything.”
Chapter Six
Another night passed without me sleeping. Dueling with witches was for the birds—birds who apparently didn’t require an ounce of shut-eye. Exhausted as my tigress claimed we felt, I welcomed the day when the rising sun peeked beneath my shades. “Let’s get this over with, Larissa,” I muttered and stumbled out of bed.
I padded along the dark hardwood floors into the half-tiled bathroom in a tank top and panties—my dress of choice for bed. The architect had designed two master suites. Taran had the other one. Emme and Shayna seemed excited just to have their own rooms for once. I adjusted the spaghetti strap that had fallen from my shoulder after I finished washing my face. I reached for my toothbrush and got down to business. Crap, my mouth seemed so dry.
My reflection showed me I looked just as bad as I felt. Dark circles swirled around my green eyes, the muscles of my shoulders and arms strained with tension, and my big hair had reached Monsters of Rock proportions. If men hadn’t found me scary before, they sure as hell would have now.
I rinsed my mouth and reached for my towel. I wiped my lips, frowning when my white towel somehow appeared pink in the mirror. My eyes scanned the bathroom, searching for something that might be affecting the color. I turned back and jumped when my reflection greeted me with a smile that wasn’t mine and two big middle fingers. Omigod. My mirror image threw back her head and laughed. I didn’t. I also didn’t blow myself a kiss.
My knees buckled under me and I staggered back, slamming into the double doors as I watched my reflection leap over the tiled counter and land in a crouch on the floor. She rose slowly, her messy hair falling around her face and shoulders, watching me with hungry and sinister eyes. Her tongue slid across her upper lip. She tasted my fear.
And she liked it.
To fuel my terror she turned her head to the side and kept going. The crunching and snapping of her neck made me cringe. Echoes of her laughter filled the suite until the back of her long tresses hung over her br**sts—my br**sts. Oh, God. Her head whipped back and she smiled with glee, pleased by my horror.