but it was far behind Charlie; she’d kill me long before I reached it. “That was Wolfe.”
“You’re weak,” she said, spitting the words at me in disgust. “You’re supposed to control them. They’re your souls, your puppets, but you can’t even keep what you’ve got in line. No wonder you can’t bring yourself to do what’s fun, what you should be doing. You’re pathetic.” She kicked out faster than I could have anticipated and knocked my legs out from under me, sending me to my back. I looked up and saw her face, nothing like the easygoing Charlie I’d seen; her eyes were wide, her mouth twisted in cold disdain. I felt a deep, powerful dose of fear as she said, “You’re nothing like me.”
“Thank God for that.” The voice came from behind her, strong, fearless, and I saw Charlie’s eyes widen in fright, her expression chilled as she turned to face the new threat, a woman standing at the edge of the platform, staring her down. Her dark hair was long, but pulled back in a ponytail, and she wore a simple t-shirt and jeans that had some dirt on them, as though she had been crawling around on the ground. “Get away from her, Charlie, or so help me I will crush the very life from your body the way I should have years and years ago.”
I felt a swell of emotion deep inside at the sight of her, something I didn’t even know I still had in me. Little tears sprang up in the corners of my eyes and I blinked them away, blinked again to be sure what I was seeing was true. It was. She was there. I opened my mouth, and amazingly, a single word fell out.
“Mom?”
Chapter 21
She attacked Charlie without warning, reminding me of a thousand sparring sessions in the basement. My aunt staggered back under the fury of my mother’s assault, kicks and punches blurring through the space between them so fast I couldn’t count. I saw Mom jump-kick and catch Charlie underneath the chin, sending her reeling, and followed it up with a flurry of punches that brought my aunt to her knees.
“Wait...” Charlie gasped. “Sierra, wait...” My mother stood above her, hands still raised, ready to rain down a killing strike while looking down at her sister with cold indifference. “I was trying...trying to help her...” Blood ran freely from Charlie’s nose, and one of her eyes was already swelling shut. I didn’t think she’d even managed to land a blow on my mom.
Mom reached down with a gloved hand and picked Charlie up by the neck, holding her out at a distance, as though she didn’t want to get to close. “Help her what? Die?” She threw Charlie to the ground, her face scraping against the grated metal platform as she landed.
Charlie lifted her head and rolled over, holding a hand out as though she could ward off my mother’s cold fury with it. “Please...please, Sierra...please!”
My mother halted. “One chance, Charlie. Why should I let you go?”
“Please.” Charlie propped herself up, both hands behind her back. “I won’t come anywhere near her again, I swear. I swear on my life.”
My mother’s face twisted in disgust. “You picked the right one to swear on. Heaven knows you’ve never cared about anyone else’s.”
“That’s not true!” Charlie shook her head, her normally calm or sly expression completely consumed by fear, stricken by the uncertainty of whether she’d live or die in the next moments. “I came to help her, Sierra, I came to teach her because I knew you weren’t around! I knew she needed help!”
My mother halted her advance, hovering menacingly over her sister, her face a mask. She stood there, staring down, her expression impenetrable, for a very long moment. “Get out of here,” she said, growling. “If you ever come near my daughter again, Charlie, I will kill you. You know I will; and it won’t be pretty, or quick.”
I saw Charlie slide back, pulling herself to her feet, then turning to see her sister, and she nodded, quickly, all trace of the carefree, cocky woman my aunt had been gone as though she had never existed. “I swear. She’ll never see my face again.” Charlie turned and began to walk out, down one of the catwalks toward a door on the far side of the room.
“She better not see any of you again, Charlie.” My mother’s voice was hard, sharp as glass, and unforgiving. “If she sees so