Page 109 of Bite of Passage
Gemma didn’t want to leave Val alone against the witch if she couldn’t handle her.“Can you kill it?”
“Only by beheading it while one of these is in its heart.There’s no other way.On the count of three… This will get physical.And gross.”She held up her hand to silently count down.
One.Two.Three.
Gemma ran for the mirror and threw the bag with VanFliet’s medicine through, crying out, “Instructions are on the bottle.”
Nerves twisted her stomach as the seconds ticked by and she waited for the portal to close.She gnawed at her bottom lip, her heart beating so hard it hurt.Come on, let me see you one last time, Skarde.
He moved in front of the glass.He spoke, but she couldn’t hear anything he said.She pointed to her ear and shook her head.“I can’t hear you.”
“I can’t hold this witch for much longer,” Val yelled.“This is so much harder than I thought it’d be.I’m going to need you in about ten seconds.”
Skarde waved at her as if asking her to jump back across.He tapped his chest and pointed at her.Oh, my.Her heart flip-flopped.He wanted her.
As she stepped toward the mirror, euphoric, she heard Val’s moan.
“I’m so sorry.I have to help a friend.I can’t let this thing have her.”
A blast of energy hit her, knocking her away from the TV.
Head ringing, Gemma crawled toward the TV screen, unsure how long she’d sat in a daze on the floor.Muscles depleted, so weak from whatever spell she’d been blasted with, she struggled to raise her hand and touch the screen.
Skarde’s hand reached up.
“I love you,” she whispered.
Nothing happened.
She slapped the screen and put both hands on it.
Tears blurred her vision.The portal had closed.Any chance for a future on that side was gone.She’d lost everything.
Her anger crested.
The witch would die.
ChapterForty-Six
Three monthslater
Gemma threw herself in a chair and buried her face in her hands at the kitchen counter in Val’s apartment.
“What’s up?”Val asked, pouring a smoothie fresh out of her blender.The crystals on her charm bracelet clanked against the glass cup.
She peeked between her fingers.“There was an incident at work.”
“You bit someone?”She poured a second smoothie for Gemma and slid it across the counter.“We both knew it was bound to happen sooner or later.”
She groaned.“Worse.”
“You killed someone who annoyed you?I’ve been waiting for this.I need details.”Val didn’t seem appalled by the thought, only curious.
“A patient got discharged and I was cleaning up her room.There was an unused bag of blood hanging on the IV stand.”
“You did not.”Val put a hand over her mouth, but it didn’t hide her laughter.
“I popped the top on it like a soda can and guzzled.I was hungry after my self-defense class before work.In the middle of my snack, the chief of surgery walked in.”
