Page 31 of Necromancers Don't Raise

“Thank you,” I said with gritted teeth. “Bones, would you mind paying for the dress instead of strangling Sissy?”

He blinked and dropped the two bodyguards, then turned and handed the assistant a black card. “And it has warm sleeves?” he checked.

She nodded with a smile that was slightly more alarmed. “Yes, warm and soft.” She ran it through a machine and then handed the card back over to him. “Do you need a bag?”

“No, it’s perfect,” I said before I grabbed Bones’s arm and walked out, head held high. That lasted all the way down the elevator, into the parking garage, then into the backseat. As soon as I got there, I curled up in a ball on the comfortable leather and tried to think in neat ordered lines that would add up to something. I’d thought that I’d find out something from my mother, but she hadn’t recognized me, hadn’t wanted me to be alive, and certainly hadn’t given me any clarity on what I actually was. I’d learned nothing useful, other than the fact that she didn’t want me unless I was the perfect face of the company, and I’d already known that. I breathed shallowly while Bones got in.

“Are you all right, Miss Nova?” he asked.

“Bones, I feel like shooting someone. Is there a shooting range around here you can take me to?”

“No, but I can take you to one in Song. It’s in the neighborhood, so it’ll be a quick drive. Are you lying down because you’re tired? Shouldn’t you go home and take a nap instead of shooting? We got a new television, so we could watch the show.”

“No, I just need to shoot things.”

“Very well, Miss Nova, but I’ll have to notify Mercury so he doesn’t worry about you.”

I snorted. Why worry about someone who couldn’t be kept dead?

How could my mother be so incredibly unhelpful? Why was she so blind? I’d always thought she was bright, but if she wasn’t under a spell, if this was all willful denial, I was going to killher! Why had I let her dictate my life for so long when she cared so little about me? She let me do humanitarian aid as long as I fulfilled every other one of her tasks, down to getting engaged before my twenty-first birthday. After all those years of work and pain, trying to be the perfect daughter, what did I have to show for it? I mean, I’d developed a lot of talents over the years, striving to be exemplary, but I’d never have love from the one person I’d worked so hard to please.

And I still had no idea how I’d gotten demonic and goblin blood. Infuriating. All that humiliation with nothing to show for it.

“We’re here,” Bones said, opening the back door. I hadn’t even noticed him stopping in the garage to switch cities.

I sat up and slid out past him, absently noticing that this street had a tall limestone building going all the way up the roof of the cavern high above that had Egypt written all over it, literal Egyptian hieroglyphic etched into the pillars. The shooting range was next to it, the sign in blue neon advertising that you could get five rounds for five dollars. What kind of caliber would that be? I guess I’d find out. I was going to shoot absolutely everything.

Seven minutes later, I was set up in a booth with protective glasses and my first five rounds. The 9mm was small, functional, the kind of gun that was no nonsense and all death. Perfect. I raised my gun, sited, and shot. The gun kicked, but I held it steady with my solid stance until the pop echoed and then faded away. I narrowed my eyes at the target and saw that the bullet had clipped the right edge of the bullseye instead of the center. That meant it needed to be recalibrated, but what did I expect from a rental?

I raised my gun again, sited, and that time, after the satisfying recoil, I saw that my bullet had gone where it was supposed to. My mother had me going to the range everymorning to shoot guns since I could walk. Was that the demon in her, or the goblin? Or something else?

I shot all my rounds, making a pretty pattern on the target, but when I lowered my gun, I still needed to shoot something. That’s when I noticed the people lurking around me, staring at me like I was something to see.

“Nice shot,” a sandy-haired man with a plaid vest said, nodding at the target.

Oh. That’s what they were interested in. “Yeah. I guess I got lucky,” I said lamely, then headed for the window to get something bigger now that I was warmed up.

The rounds for the 365 magnum were more expensive, but the bullets were larger, ripped bigger holes in the target, and were much more satisfying. I shot my first bullet, checked to see that it was almost perfectly calibrated, and then enjoyed the rest of my rounds. By the time I was finished with those bullets, there were quite a few more guys lingering, like this was the best show around.

“Your training is interesting,” the sandy guy said again. “You hit every major artery first, then focused on the smaller ones before demolishing the heart and brain. Do you prefer to make your targets bleed to death rather than kill them quickly?”

I’d shot so few actual people, but it was true, I aimed to wound rather than kill. It was Sissy’s biggest pet peeve with me. “If we’re talking about preferences, I prefer both. First you wound, then you kill after they’ve suffered.” Which wasn’t true at all, but demonic girls didn’t care about telling the truth.

I headed for the door while Bones kept closer to my back. “Several of them gave me your card, mentioning that they would pay top dollar for your skills,” he said quietly.

I stopped and looked at him, puzzled, then horrified. “You mean to shoot people?”

He nodded. “And you’ve been looking for a job.”

I stared at him for another moment before I grabbed his arm and leaned close. “I’m not going to kill people for money. Ever. If anyone else suggests that, you should refuse them. All right?”

He frowned. “But why else would you shoot so well?”

“Self-defense. That’s all. The few times I’ve shot people, it’s been life or death, their lives or mine and my companions. I still felt bad about it, even when it was necessary.”

He patted my head. “Miss Nova has a kind heart.”

I sniffed, because if my heart was so kind, I wouldn’t still be furious with my mother. I was still so angry, so I continued to the window.

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