Page 69 of Just Dare Me
Capra clenches his fists, bracing for the shot. His eyes dart around the circle. “What do you want? For me to run? Any one of you can dismantle me in an instant. Sorcerers and assassins, a siren, an exorcist. How many different ways could you kill me? What are you waiting for?”
Jay’s thumb moves to a button next to the gun’s trigger. When he presses the button, the ammo magazine drops away, clattering to the ground. Then he yanks the slide back, ejecting the bullet that was chambered. He tosses the gun away.
Capra is surprised and relieved, but quickly covers it with a look of smug defiance. “What do you want? An apology? You want me to remember who it was? Let me ask you something.” He plants his feet wide in a fighting stance. “Do you remember everything you ate in the last week, let alone the last few years?”
He streaks forward, too fast for Jay to react. With a flurry of strikes, Capra clubs him in the ribs, sends a fist into his jaw, then kicks him square in the chest, sending Jay flying off his feet, crashing onto the hood of my Crap-pile with a groan. Capra pivots defensively, first toward Nora and Ilren, then Elle and Oliver, expecting retaliation. When none comes—when we simply stare coldly at him—he grimaces in confusion. “Don’t just stand there! You would watch him die? You think I couldn’t have just now?”
“No, I don’t,” I say.
Jay climbs down from the hood and resumes his position in front of Capra. The revenant attacks immediately, dropping Jay with three savage chops. When Jay pulls himself back to his feet, Capra sends him crashing right back to the ground.
“What are you waiting for?” I taunt the revenant. “Why are you going easy on him? Let him have it already!”
Jay, bleeding from his mouth and nose, is a little slower to get up this time. Sensing weakness, Capra rushes in for the kill, baring his fangs. But Jay anticipates the move, instantly dropping the act of sluggishness. He rockets a steel fist through Capra’s teeth with the sound of expensive crystal breaking.
Our stoic mood finally lifts. Russo claps his hands. Ilren says “Ouch,” and I can’t help but giggle at the shocked look on Capra’s face. There’s a noticeable gap where one of his fangs used to be.
With a furious snarl, he lunges at Jay, and the real fight begins. There’s no question that Capra is faster, landing punch after punch that Jay can’t block. But it’s equally clear that Capra can’t match Jay for stamina. The revenant is the one dishing out the beating, but also the one who’s already getting winded. His one-two-three combos become one-twos, and then just solo shots. He winds up, putting all his strength into a hook, which Jay takes squarely on the jaw, only to keep stepping forward, never faltering, relentless.
Capra backs away, his chest heaving, his eyes darting around, looking for escape from our circle. Spotting an apparent weak link, two humans—Danny and Charlotte—he makes a bolt for them. Elle responds immediately with a hand gesture, blasting Capra with a spell that slows him down just enough for Russo to throw an arm out wide. Capra’s face slams into the clothesline. His feet fly up over his head in a complete backflip before he slaps facedown on the salted ground. Russo lifts him with both hands and literally tosses him back into the ring.
Staggering to his feet, Capra probes his mouth with shaking fingers, feeling two wide gaps in place of his missing eyeteeth. It’s the perfect moment for Jay to strike, but he waits generously, allowing Capra to gather himself for another assault. Summoning the last of his strength and rage, the revenant flies at Jay in a repeat of his first combo, which had been so effective before.
Not this time. Jay reads it from a mile away, blocking both punches, then hooking an arm around Capra’s leg mid kick. With lightning speed, Jay’s other hand produces an ash wood stake, which he plunges into Capra’s heart.
It happens so fast, the revenant can only stare with his gaping mouth at the hideous wood protruding from his chest. He crumples to the floor, trying to remove the stake, but that only causes more pain. A high-pitched shriek explodes from his throat. Jay stands over his writhing body, watching with solemn satisfaction.
“Charlotte,” he says with a calm voice. “I want to see his face.”
Without hesitation, Charlotte turns her palm upward, and with the incantation of a single Latin word, she pulls a demon entity from Capra’s head. It’s a ghoulish face made of black smoke. Large eyes like a fish, a mouth full of rows of sharp teeth. Rising to within inches of Jay’s face, it screams at him with bitter rage. That image—that sound—is enough to give anyone nightmares. But Jay doesn’t even flinch—not so much as a blink as he literally faces his demon.
“For Haley,” he whispers, and he stomps hard on the wooden stake, burying it in the revenant’s chest. The demon blinks out of existence. Capra’s body goes limp, his head flopping to one side. The cataracts in his eyes fade away as his skin shrivels and rots. Jay now stands over a decomposed corpse, half of its skeleton exposed where the skin has fallen away.
There’s no cheering. No fist-pumping or patting Jay on the back. This moment is beyond those things. It’s surreal to see him standing there, the victor of a struggle that everybody thought impossible. I know I did that first night, when this scared shitless human jumped into the back seat of my car, babbling about vampires.He won’t last long, I’d thought, looking into those stormy eyes in the rearview mirror. I’ve never been happier to be so wrong.
As if reading my thoughts, Jay turns and looks into my eyes. I love what I see in his. Serenity, clarity, and closure—sunset rays that will never again be clouded over.
A man’s voice calls outfrom the darkness. “Enough! We yield.”
Shielding my eyes against the headlights of my car, I search the rows of pillars, seeing nothing. “Who’s there?”
“I’ve been sent to wave the white flag. We’re not as numerous nor as strong as you obviously planned for. Without Beyona or Nash, Capra was our best—and last—defense. Consequently, we concede.”
“You talk good. Guess you’re not East Side, then. Cleveland?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Ma’am. Yikes.” I appeal to my team. “Am I really ama’amnow?”
Russo waves me off. “Nah. You’re definitely a ‘boss.’”
“Special Agent in Charge,” Charlotte says.
“Total Badass,” Nora adds.
“I’ll stick to ‘sweet-cheeks,’” Jay says with a grin.
I do a double take at him. “What, now the jokes come out? One little act of revenge, and you’re gonna be all giddy?”
