Page 67 of Memories Like Fangs
And, it wasawful.
Yet, also, terrifyingly,glorious.
As my breathing steadied, my eyes darted around me. My brain captured as many details as it possibly could, moving at breakneck speeds. We were in yet another new location. It was a small, old, driveable camper, most likely from the 2000s. The space was tight and utilitarian, with laminate cabinets with chipped corners, stiff fleece-like carpet, and dull lighting. The hum of the generator vibrated through the thin floor, a low growl beneath my feet. I was seated at the dining room table, my wrists bound to the top of the vinyl that matched the countertops. Cooper stood nearby with a syringe still in hand as if he was prepared to give me more if I needed it. Next to him was Lilah, her eyes sharp and glittering even in the subpar lighting of the old RV. A reddish-brown cocktail with a large chunk of ice inside it was in her hand.
“What thefuck—” I started before my voice cracked.
“Welcome back, ladybug. I was worried we lost you for a second. You looked like a ghost who’d given up haunting,” Lilah chuckled at her sick joke. She looked down at me like a cat would a lizard they were toying with before killing them.
“What did you do to me?” I growled.
She downed the rest of her drink before putting it in the tiny sink. “Just a little Phoenix-shifter blood. Did you know that those existed? I didn’t either until Coopie here introduced them to me. Apparently, old hunter families have been taking advantage of their blood for centuries, since it doesn’t require any magic to take advantage of its power. Mainly, in other supernatural creatures, it acts like a shot of adrenaline. Hunters have found a way to concentrate the power tenfold, so it can wake up a supernatural being or bring them back from death for a time. With some enhancements from me, that time can be stretched a little bit further.”
So, it’s borrowed time, I thought. A chill raced through me.
“Now, don’t look so glum, ladybug! I’m sad our time is coming to an end, too, but that just means it’s time for one last hoorah. What do they call it in that human sportsball thing? You know, the gay one? It’s the move when you are backed up against a wall?”
“A Hail Mary?” Cooper answered with a raised eyebrow.
“Yes! That one! This is why I keep you around.” Lilah tapped his arm affectionately before turning back to me. “What do you say, ladybug? Let’s do a Hail Mary together?”
“I don’t think that’s how that should be used.”
“Oh, I will miss your jokes. You are so much more fun when you have that fire in you. It’s precious! But let’s get on with this, shall we? I would just hate to leave you in suspense.” Lilah took two steps over to me to stand in front of me. Her hands came toward me, long, pale, perfectly manicured fingers that would have been elegant if not attached to a psychotic bitch. I triedto flinch back away from her, but there was only so far I could go before the chair and my restraints stopped me. She purred, smug and sweet as always, like poison wrapped in sugar. “For this part, darling, we’ll have to get a little intimate.”
Then, she touched my forehead.
This was the worst yet.
White-hot.
Skin-melting.
Soul-flaying.
Agony.
It ripped through me like lightning would a dry tree. My jaw fell open in a scream that popped my own eardrums. My body seized, every nerve bursting with too much power, having already been overstimulated and lit up like flares.
My body betrayed me again. I couldn’t move, pull her hands away, or push her away from me. I couldn’t even close my eyes. Her touch seared straight through my skull, burning its way through my thoughts like she was peeling me apart layer by layer. My head felt like it might split open. The world around me became scattered shards of light and dark, static clouding everything and blurring it out of focus again. It felt like I was going into the abyss again, but this time, Lilah was dragging me inward with her, deep, too deep, where even death couldn’t follow us. We fell together, teleporting through to somewhere beyond the camper, somewhere even beyond our bodies and the present.
I closed my eyes.
When they fluttered open, we had abruptly landed at our destination.
I knew immediately where we were.
I knewwhenwe were.
But this felt so unlike Lilah’s usual tricks.
I sat on a park bench that felt solid and real beneath me. Unlike her games before, there was no one else here but me. The wind sliced through the air in sharp, erratic gusts, tugging at the sleeves of my coat and stinging my cheeks. Snow drifted at my now-booted feet in lazy spirals, carried by the kind of chill that settled deep into your bones and stayed there. Other benches were dusted in snow that no one had brushed away to sit on. The surrounding expanse behind me and the benches were blanketed in a dense white fog that seemed to go on for an eternity, with no way to see anything beyond it. I had a feeling that if you walked into it, you would likely be lost forever.
What centered me the most, and what I recognized instantly, was the wide oval outdoor ice skating rink. Made of frosted glassy ice, I could see it was etched with the faded scars of recent skates, the lines of which wove and tangled and ended in spots like half-forgotten stories. Overhead, whimsical orbs of silver light were suspended in air from nothing, giving the rink a faint glow. The ticket and skate rental booth to enter stood vacant and lifeless on the right, all of the training walkers pushed in like grocery carts behind it. The same emptiness could be seen in the Concession Stand to the far left. Still, the scent of buttery popcorn and sweet hot chocolate lingered in the air as if it were still open.
This was the skating rink where I first found my love for ice skating, where I found out that I was a prodigy at it.
Why was I here?
