Page 7 of Expose Me

“There is no time!” She grabbed my forearm.

“Then you need to give me more information here. Look ...” I extracted my arm from her grip. “What’s your name?” I figured that was a good place to start. She just blinked at me, so I took a breath and forced myself not to get irritated. Maybe they didn’t have names where she was from. “My name is Sky Serpell. That’s what people call me when they’re trying to get my attention or talking about me. What are you called?”

“My name is Zeymlardterrerdjormljerra,” she said.

“OK, uh ...” I tried to pronounce it like she had but gave up after the first three syllables, impressed that I’d managed even that much. “Sorry. Can you say it again?”

“You can call me Zey. It’s what you call a nickname.”

“Zey. OK great, I can work with that.” I gave her a smile. “Now let’s take a seat on the couch, I’ll make myself another coffee and we can talk—”

“We have to leave,” she cut me off, her eyes suddenly scanning the apartment, flying from the door to the windows.

“What?” I shook my head. “Calm down. Let’s just—”

“It’s not safe here. We must leave.” Again with the cutting off.

“No.” I crossed my arms and stood my ground. For a second, anyway. She grabbed me by the wrist and yanked me towards the door. Her grip was strong, bruising. I kicked the back of her knee and twisted out of it. She stumbled but didn’t fall, managing to recover, twist, and lunge for me again.

I darted to the side and whacked her on the side of the head, but she still managed to grab my arm and twist it behind my back. Immediately she started yanking me towards the door. Now I was pissed. My first instinct was to summon a blade, but she’d already shown me that wouldn’t do shit to her, so I settled into my hand-to-hand combat training.

Leaning forward as much as I could, I threw my weight back and pushed off with my feet hard. It threw us off balance, and her back smacked against the wall. I elbowed her in the stomach and wrenched my other arm free. Turning on the spot, I smacked her hands away as they reached for me and gripped her around the throat. I pinned one of her wrists to the wall next to her head and held tightly.

“You’re a warrior.” She flashed me something resembling a satisfied look, her voice perfectly fine even though I was squeezing her neck tightly enough to knock most people out. She seemed excited and was giving me the first smile I’d seen on her. Weirdo.

Behind me, glass shattered, the sound loud and intrusive in the small apartment. I whipped my head around to see the living room window smashed and a shape stepping through it.

The creature was pitch-black and faceless, and another two just like it were right behind the first.

“Friends of yours?” I cocked an eyebrow at Zey. Judging by the murderous look on her face and the fact they’d chosen to bust through the window, I was pretty sure they were more foe than friend.

Chapter3

Instead of answering, Zey moved. In the blink of an eye, she turned us so it was now my back against the wall. I didn’t stay there long. Zey wrenched the door open and shuffled me towards it. This time, I didn’t fight her. The things coming through my window did not have a friendly vibe, as evidenced by the weird-looking thing one of them threw at us.

Zey stepped to the side and took the blow. I summoned three throwing knives in succession and threw them at our attackers. One by one, the blades embedded themselves in faceless heads.

“That won’t stop them.” Zey groaned, clutching her shoulder as the door swung closed.

“I know,” I gritted out. Hopefully it would slow them down.

I gripped her around the waist, and we jogged up the hallway as fast as we could. I could’ve just left her there to deal with her own mess. She’d been nothing but a giant pain in my ass anyway. But she’d tried to protect me by getting me to leave before they got there, and then she’d taken a knife—or whatever it was—for me. Three on one wasn’t a fair fight.

“Remove ... the weapon.” She winced in pain, trying and failing to reach it herself. It was buried in the back of her shoulder, and her skin was doing that weird ripple thing I’d seen in the shower. Only this time, the waves of smooth black were jagged and coming from the wound.

We rounded the corner, and I tuned in to the sound of a door opening and closing as I took a few precious seconds to grip the handle of the strange weapon and yank it out. Zey winced but didn’t make a sound.

Hyperaware of the sound of approaching footsteps, I pocketed the weird five-pronged weapon and rushed towards the elevators. The footsteps were not slow, but not running either—a steady clip. Like they knew they’d get us and didn’t see the need to rush. It was unnerving, but it was just a tactic, and I refused to let it get to me.

I glanced at the display above the elevators. They were both several floors away. I mashed the button anyway as I pulled Zey past, heading for the stairs.

The door was still several paces away when I registered movement coming around the corner. Shoving Zey behind me, I gripped the pronged weapon and took a fighting stance. If it had hurt her so badly that she could hardly keep up with me, surely it would do the same to them.

A young man came around the corner, posture relaxed, a messenger bag slung across his chest. He looked up from his cell phone, did a double take, and froze in place. He was kind of gangly, with long brown hair tied up in a topknot. We must’ve looked crazy—shoeless, disheveled, breathing hard, me brandishing a weird-looking poker thing. The dude clearly didn’t know what to do with what he was seeing, but I wasn’t completely convinced he wasn’t one of those things shifted to look like a human.

The elevator pinged, and the doors slowly slid open. I kept my eyes on him as Zey and I shuffled into the elevator. Mashing the button for the basement level, I didn’t relax or lower my weapon until the doors were firmly closed. Then I dropped my arms and took a deep breath.

“Need ... water,” Zey panted, leaning heavily on the wall.

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