Page 64 of Slayer Mom
“Lucy, I believe that’s called sexism.”
“I want to poke your eyes, but I’ll restrain myself. They look like galaxies.”
“Thank you.”
“For the compliment or for not poking your eyes?”
“For touching me. You can poke or touch or taste anything you like. But it will make me possessive of you. It will make me think that you want me. There are very few things that I cannot resist, but you wanting me is one of them.”
“Even if it’s wanting to poke you in the eye?” I shook my head and turned around, walking resolutely away from the inhumanly gorgeous man I’d somehow gotten married to.
“Where are you going?”
“To bed. You can use that pretty face to lure the troops to battle, or whatever it is you do with it. Seriously, it’s just ridiculous. Being married to sculpted perfection for that long? For crying out loud!”
“That’s the third time.” There was a current of laughter in his voice that went down my spine like electricity. All of this was so incredibly impossible, but somehow normal, too.
“And he can count. I married a positive paragon. Goodnight, Hazen.”
“Goodnight, sweet Lucy. I love you.”
“I love you, too,” I said automatically then felt a lurch. He was a monster. He was too beautiful to be real. But, he was also the father of my children. I was too confused to be certain about anything, but he was what I had, so I’d make the best of it.
I’d try. Whatever that meant.
seventeen
. . .
I wokeup at the baseball stadium. No, it wasn’t a dream, because Brika shoving a needle in my arm was way too intensely unpleasant to belong to a dreamscape.
“Hey,” I said, less panicked than I should be. It’s just hard to be panicked when everything is so impossible.
“The infection has spread,” she said, scowling and jabbing me with the needle again.
“Why am I in a dugout at the stadium?” I was still on the guest bedroom mattress that someone had moved, with me, into the stadium.
“The Grand Master is inside, gathering his strength.”
“Because nothing says epic vampire zombie showdown like baseball.”
“There will be no baseball, just a stadium full of the Grand Master’s supporters. It is a way to contain the queen’s army.”
“A weird way, but whatever. Ow. Do you think you could jab me with a little less force? I don’t think that bruising my arm will be very—” I interrupted that thought to scream, because pain. Arm. Pain. So much pain. Every shred of my skin camealive to scream in agony at whatever crap she’d put in me.
When the pain faded, I was panting and then I threw up.
“Ugh!” Brika said, showing her disgust for my humanity. Next time, I’d throw up on her. Had I asked her to inject whatever nasty substance that was in her needle into my arm? No, not unless I was talking in my sleep.
“Where are Wat and Lock?” I asked once I straightened up.
She curled her lip, like she was bracing herself for impact, and then shoved the needle into my leg. “They are with the Grand Master. Wat stayed with you for a time, but then the Grand Master called him.”
The needle didn’t hurt the first time. Why was that? “Do they seem okay?”
She held her breath and then shoved the needle into my leg again. That time, the pain. I whimpered instead of screaming, at least I think I did, but it was hard to tell in the middle of that much horrific agony.
“They are strange monsters in a sea of strange monsters. They will adapt.” She looked sick, like she hadn’t enjoyed torturing me.
