Page 3 of The Red Rider
Dice just crossed his arms and smirked at me. Then, he jumped and practically shrieked. I jumped too because when the Horseman of War screams like a woman, something fucked up like a Rage Head mutant rat in the room was probably happening. Out of instinct, I jumped on the sofa and held Smurfette ready.
Dice wasn’t in fight mode. He wasn’t even screaming anymore. He was rifling through the trashcan like he was utterly insane. I stepped off the couch because clearly, there were no mutant rats in here. Dice was just excited about trash.
“Anything exciting in the garbage there, Tiger?”
“Never let anyone say I’m not considerate. I promised Leif we wouldn’t break anything, but you need a target. I’m going to make you one.”
“This is a bad idea. Why can’t we wait until we get somewhere we can do this outside? Isn’t there a place at your base in Florida we can work on this?”
Dice just snapped his suspenders again, then took his toothpick out his mouth and gave me a stern look.
“We’re on a timeframe, cupcake. Do you think mastering divine powers like this is going to be easy? You need to start now, and we’ll still be working on it in Florida too. Godly lasers. Do you think that shit is easy? I know you saw Aeron in action when those dumbasses came here in big trucks. You don’t have the power to do all that, but don’t you want to learn to defend yourself with it? Don’t you want vengeance on your father? We’ll help you get that, but you have to put in the work. I’d like nothing more than to see you hit him with a little angel magic, then beat the shit out of him. We aren’t picky over who gets to kill the Antichrist as long as it gets done. We all think you should do it, except Asher, but he usually has his head up his ass.”
Well, shit. That was the most double-sided motivational speech I’d ever heard. Most people didn’t try to pump you up to kill your father. Well, I’m sure someone out there had this conversation at least once, but it was my first time.
It was so fucked up, but yeah, it had my blood pumping. I had the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, letting me kill the Antichrist. It probably would have gone a lot quicker if they did it, but they were totally on board with me bashing his face in with Smurfette. How cool was that?
“I just don’t want to blow the power out so that it can’t be brought back up.”
Dice beamed at me.
“I’ve never met a power grid that hated me before. I will give you the Dice guarantee if you knock the power and the generator out, I will get it back up.”
“But Leif has samples in the lab!”
“Different generator. Are you done complaining? Shit, girl, did Aeron have to give this big of a pep talk to get you out of that lab?”
I grabbed a pillow off the couch and threw it at him. He easily caught it and threw it back at me.
“Asshole.”
“Yeah, but I’m an effective asshole. Look!” Dice said, holding up a target he made from trash.
He’d even managed to make a bullseye on it. How the fuck did he manage to do that while we were arguing. I crossed my arms. It was time for a little payback.
“Well, that’s cute.”
Dice was totally unflappable.
“I aim to please. Now, help me find a place to put this. Leif doesn’t exactly have wall space free. How about the front door?”
Dice pulled chewing gum out his pocket. Where the fuck was he finding gum during the apocalypse? He saw me looking at him.
“Florida is mine. I can take what I want.”
“Leif is going to kill you,” I said when he stuck his target on the wall with the gum.
“He’ll understand. You’re stalling. Go stand by the doorway to the bedroom.”
Why was I so nervous about this? It was more than just breaking Leif’s shit and a power outage. I’d seen the aftermath of Aeron using his angel powers. I didn’t want to think I was capable of doing that, even if I really wanted to aim it at my father.
“Can I do what Aeron does with his?”
Dice just shrugged.
“You’re uncharted territory. I’ve never trained a Nephilim before, but from what I understand, they can only cause the lights to flicker. You’re a little more angel than they are. Anyone who looks on the true visage of an angel has kind of the same result as what you saw with Aeron. He just packs a little extra punch because he’s the Horseman of Death.”
“So, I could blow that door down and hurt someone.”
