25
Sometimes kisses are a revelation.
But sometimes, in the wartime heat of goodbyes before the fiery fury of battle, they’re also a mistake.
Especially if they taste of sugar and blood.
Rebel had overheard Eden on the earpiece ordering a limo to drive him out to Tower Block B on the Utopia Estate.
Gizem’s block.
Stephanie and Anarchy were to stay behind in charge of business at the hotel.
We’d known then where to take the fight to Eden. How to save Utopia.
Yet tonight was also the deadline for Drake’s ultimatum: Return to Angel World or Drake would kill Jade.
I hunkered with Rebel in the dank graffiti sprayed stairwell in my old tower block, across from the one now controlled by the Pure; Eden’s new gang made Bisi’s look like kids playing at gangster.
Toben’s soldiers had once done their deals in this concrete stairwell, when it’d been splice, rather than blood, which was the food on the Estate.
I banged the heel of my boot against the wall, glowering at the floor. The tang of urine mingling with the spicy bursts of old dinners was reassuringly familiar.
And human.
Blaze and Spark were red shadows patrolling the block, whilst Ash took command of the tech side with his gadgets.
Yet I had to wrap my arms around my middle, not to yank Commander Drake through my mind and onto the floor at my feet.
Not to betray the world for my sister.
Betray Rebel.
Lips, gentle on my forehead.
I glanced up, as Rebel kissed me.
Then Rebel rested his cheek against mine. ‘I promised to protect you. And I will.’
‘Did you miss the part where I’m now top boy?’ I gripped his chin. ‘I’m the bitch with the flames.’
‘Don’t,’ he whispered. His gaze was searching, and I squirmed. ‘I’ll kneel for you, but only if I fight by your side. Or do you want to rule like Eden?’
My cheeks pinked. I shook my head.
‘Have you forgotten what I’ve lost? What the git did to my family?’
I wished I could forget. But his family’s true love — sacrifice — I got that now.
‘Ash’s lost someone too.’ I traced my finger across Rebel’s lower lip to silence his protest. ‘I had to watch — twice — whilst Anarchy was sacrificed to those fanatics. Angels hate vampires: cheers for the newsflash. But now we have to unite against the Big Bad. And that’s Eden.’
‘Inspired for battle, so I am,’ Rebel smirked. ‘This could be Agincourt.’
I laughed, smacking his nose. Then, without realising I meant to, I snogged him.
His lips tasted of sugar and blood. His tongue twined gently with mine, until I thrust deeper.
When he pulled back, his cheeks flushed, he opened and closed his mouth, unable to know what to say, before he tilted his head and asked, ‘Does this mean you’ve taken me off your List of Asses to Kick?’
‘Could be.’ I licked along his lips, until they parted.
Then I clutched him by the shoulders and snogged him again.
‘007 at your service…’ Ash slunk into the stairwell, balancing an Apple laptop and bundle of tech on the ledge, before noticing the kiss.
Then Ash roared, marching towards us into battle. He hauled Rebel up and away from me by his collar.
My lips kissed air.
Mistake, mashing your sweet lips with pretty in punk when you’re trying to hold together a peace accord with his love rival.
I didn’t blow the bastard; I only kissed him.
A kiss is life. Powerful. Love. I’m sorry you don’t understand that yet...
Ash smashed Rebel back against the opposite wall. I winced at the crunch. ‘I was giving you the benefit, mate, but now you’ll tell her.’
I pushed myself up. ‘Tell me what?’ I asked flatly.
‘Dry up, vampire,’ Rebel spat, struggling, ‘and get your filthy hands off me.’
Ash stiffened, weakness shanked. He lowered his head. Then he yanked off Rebel’s leathers, so fast Rebel yelped. He pulled out Rebel’s bent wing. ‘This is the last night before he Falls,’ his voice was clipped, ‘we vampires can sense each other when we’re close.’
‘Lay off, git, I’d die before I turned into a dirty thing, like you.’
Snap — Ash cracked Rebel’s bent wing at the violet tip.
Rebel wailed, clawing at Ash.
Ash plucked handfuls of grey feathers, tearing them from Rebel’s broken wing.
At last, I shook myself awake from the shock, diving to Ash. I hooked my arm around his throat, pulling him back. He choked but didn’t struggle. I chucked him to the opposite side of the stairwell.
The two blokes stood panting, scowling at each other across the shadowy concrete space.
I’d screwed up our truce.
For the first time, I truly realised the ancient war I’d stumbled into.
‘These,’ Ash held up the handfuls of Rebel’s blood tipped grey feathers, ‘are medals of honour, not shame. A traitor like you doesn’t deserve to wear them.’
When Ash tossed them to the floor like dirty snow, Rebel shrank back.
‘How’s that not fighting working out for you?’ I growled at Ash.
‘Not great since I met you, Violet.’
Sharp barks: Blaze and Spark’s signal for the arrival of Eden’s midnight-blue limo.
I shot Ash a last warning glare, before rushing to the ledge. I peered down over the playground towards Tower Block B.
The building blazed with light, as if every Pure had woken alongside their humans to welcome the celebrity.
Rebel hugged his broken wing to his stomach. ‘I don’t mean to give out here about our chances, but I can’t fly at all now, since some great idiot wounded their own side.’
I dropped to kneel in front of the laptop, tapping wildly as I hacked the fire alarm system.
A shrill alien beeping echoed out through the night. ‘Anarchy told me fire is Eden’s weakness.’ At Anarchy’s name, Ash’s expression finally softened. ‘And I promised to burn down their house, just like they burnt down yours, wallad.’
Rebel glanced up at Ash. The two men studied each other warily, before nodding.
‘And we’re nuking them into orbit from here…?’ Ash asked hopefully.
I stood upright: lightning and thunder streaked inside me. A storm that exploded the violet fire hissing down my arms and across my palms.
This time, it was both vampire and angel shrinking back.
The shifting powers inside howled warrior.
I grinned. ‘Bitch of Utopia is home.’
‘Bitch of Utopia is fierce frightening,’ Rebel whispered.
‘And hot,’ Ash muttered.
I fired flames at the ground between their feet, and they danced back. Then they shot each other a smile, before remembering they hated each other and scowling.
The storm died down. But static still fizzed along my skin. Supercharged, the savage sides to me had never felt so close to the surface before.
‘We have to show up the Utopia Project.’ I studied the bleak concrete and purple Tower Block B. ‘If it fails it won’t be copied around the world.’
The fox brothers’ eyes gleamed in the dark, their claws skittering on the concrete as they prowled to stand sentry at my side.
When I peered down at the playground below, residents were milling around in dressing gowns, wrapped in thick duvets or wool coats over bare legs. Kids swung on the swings or spun on the merry-go-round.
In silence.
Why were they outside in the middle of the night?
‘It’s like The Walking Dead.’ When Rebel blinked and cocked his head, Ash struggled to hide his smile. ‘Catch up on the box set classics at least, angel.’
‘The Pure are guarding them,’ Rebel pointed down, into the shadows.
Faces with star sharp eyes were caught by the moon’s pale rays.
The Pure patrolled amongst their humans — food supply — alert and…anxious?
They glanced over their shoulders, casting long looks out into the shadows between the tower blocks.
This is it then, the final curtain.
And what’s your choice? Fill me in. Because from my fabulous throne, I can see you about to take on an army of the Pure.
For humans.
The same humans who abused, abandoned, and treated you as a freak.
Now tell me this is a punchline to a lame ass joke.
Gizem saved me. She’s trying to save her sister. And she’s in that tower block.
Anyway, what could be better than going down in a blaze of glory?
I scanned the vampires. ‘That can’t be all of them.’
Ash shook his head. ‘I can sense they’re out of the rooms, but some are blocking the stairs, guarding the way in and out. Except for one floor. And that’s Pure HQ.’
I knew the number, before Ash said it: eleven.
Gizem’s floor.
I whirled on Ash. ‘How do we get in there?’
Rebel backed away, fiddling with the skull chained to his bondage trousers. ‘That won’t be a problem, princess.’
My heart pounded. Inky spots danced in front of my eyes. I couldn’t breathe.
I launched myself at Rebel, grabbing his t-shirt between my fists harder than I’d intended. Then I slammed him against the wall.
Rebel gasped as his injured wing cracked. He pushed back, but stilled when Blaze snarled warningly.
‘You always said I didn’t trust you.’ I spat. ‘Except now I do, and you’ve turned Judas?’
Rebel quivered, his hands fluttering, as if desperate to touch me, but not daring. When he finally answered, he collapsed back against the wall in submission, ‘The Brigadier was right. I can sense the Fallen now. And that means—’
‘They can sense you.’
Rebel’s betrayal booted me in the gut. The bastard had known and he’d hidden it.
When my hand heated around his throat, branding as I choked him, he didn’t struggle.
Instead, his gaze was…disappointed.
But he didn’t struggle.
Hurt me, kiss me, burn me…
My vision cleared, and I pulled in raspy breaths. I pressed my lips to Rebel’s, as my fingers scorched.
‘Save your fire,’ Ash wrapped his arms around my waist, gently pulling me back from my stranglehold. Rebel bent over, clasping his seared neck. ‘The angel is a muppet,’ Ash’s gaze was hard. Yet I realised with a jolt that he was pissed with me. ‘But I hoped you were better than that, Violet. And by the way?’
There was a thunder of running footsteps either side of the walkway.
Three female members of the Pure — fangs and claws out — in snarling attack mode and matching silver sequin evening dresses like they were on the red carpet, bowled us against the ledge.
I blasted a skank with neon pink lipstick shrieking in a blistered heap.
Ash ducked another’s claws and mouthed over his shoulder, ‘Told you so.’
Rebel drew Eclipse, struggling to swing, as a harpy with platinum curls and high heels stomped on his boot, and then sank her fangs into his broken wing.
Blaze and Spark circled, snapping at the vampire’s thin ankles.
I jerked her head back by the bleached roots, dragging her teeth out of Rebel’s brutalized wing.
But when something pronged jabbed into my neck, I lost my grip.
Electricity thrummed through the stun gun.
I gasped as my body cramped. A juddering current tore the muscles down my back and neck. I overbalanced onto my tiptoes, hunching my arms closer around myself against the pain.
Bang…bang…bang…
The pressure dropped away, along with the stun gun.
I juddered; the tremors slowed.
Breathing heavily, I stared around at the Pure, who were like dolls in their party dresses, with bullets through their brains.
Ash was tucking away his shooter, with a shrug. ‘I go bang, bang.’
Still trembling, I managed a shaky smirk.
Until the hollers from below.
I’d wanted an entrance but not like this.
Ash flushed. ‘I forgot about the stealthy, what with the electrocution. How do you want to play this?’
The vampires below were crowding towards Tower Block A…and our stairwell.
It was a suicide mission to get across that playground — through that many Pure — now they knew we were here.
And it was my decision to make alone…?
When I hesitated, Ash dropped to his knee. ‘You’re my princess, Violet,’ he said softly with a smile.
I glanced at Rebel, and he simply nodded. Then he also dropped to his knee, next to Ash.
I flushed, looking away from them. ‘Cheers for the pressure, wallads.’
Rebel spluttered with laughter, bouncing to his feet. He held out his hand to Ash. Grudgingly, Ash took it, allowing himself to be pulled up.
‘Screw it, we came to burn down Eden’s house. And I want a burning.’ I allowed the violet and black to spark through me, until I was flying. I nodded, and we stalked towards the stairs. ‘No hurting the humans.’ It was strange that I didn’t even stop to consider myself one of those anymore. ‘Now let’s take this bitch down.’
When we sprang down the final steps, and I drew Star in a blinding arc, I grinned.
A troop of the Pure in dinner jackets and bow ties (we’d crashed one hell of a party), marched towards us across the playground, between the terrified humans shivering in the cold night air.
At least if we were going to die, we’d have an audience.
The flash of fangs, gleam of shank claws, and gekkering howls.
Blaze and Spark leapt from the steps over my head, steering with their bristling tails, before thudding into a blue dinner jacket bastard and ripping out his throat.
An outraged roar, and we were swept under the well-dressed wave.
The fox brothers were nothing but flashes of red, rattling yelps, and howls.
I pressed my hand, as if in blessing, to one burly bloke’s forehead, and he fell squealing in flames.
When I was dragged backwards by my jacket, I struck with a spinning kick, slicing Star through the pretty blond vampire’s hand.
Hands and fire. I’d never forgotten Rebel’s lessons.
The hand dropped at the feet of a human kid like an offering. Crimson sprayed my cheek.
I was a god.
Yet when the bloke — a kid buried in puffer jacket and swag — stared at me, it wasn’t with awe. He looked at me in the same way I had Rebel, after he’d snapped Toben’s neck. I stumbled away, but the Pure struggling with Rebel caught my elbow, shoving me towards the kid.
I hissed at a sudden sharp pain. Confused, I pressed my fingers to my shoulder. When I drew back my hand, it was sticky with blood.
The human kid in the puffer jacket had his chin tilted defiantly, but his hands that clutched the gory blade shook.
And these are the jackasses you’re sacrificing Jade and your own hoochie ass for?
They’re like me, J, can’t you see that? That kid’s just protecting his own.
I snapped the human kid’s wrist — crack — and he squealed. ‘Not your fight, soldier.’ I glanced over at Ash, who was slamming a vampire with a peak of chestnut hair and classic dinner jacket repeatedly into the metal pole of the swings. ‘Playtime’s over,’ I called, waving Star towards Tower Block B.
Ash nodded, before wrapping the swing’s chain around the fanatic’s neck and pulling.
Ash was no James Bond. He was the hot villain who strangled him.
The Blood Familiars snapped at ankles and calves, biting through our enemies.
When Rebel heard my call, he fell back, away from a snarling gang of the Pure. Limping and clutching his broken wing, he swung his glowing sword in front of him, as if its light could ward them off.
Then Rebel blew on the flames and they ignited, whooshing heat across the playground.
Red-hot screeches, as the Pure flared violet to the night sky. Vampire fireworks. Rebel burnt them Hackney style.
We edged closer to Tower Block B, which rose above us monstrous. The mirror of my old home. And Eden’s dream project that would cast the world to hell.
The bald bastard with the wing tattoos, as if birds had exploded from his mind, thrust through the ranks of the Pure towards us. In gleaming white tux and black bow tie, he hunkered with his claws primed at his knuckles: the claws I’d mistaken for a shank, and the reason I’d abandoned Rebel and run on the first day I’d met him.
I stiffened.
Maybe I abandoned Rebel as much as others had abandoned me.
Maybe I did it to punish Rebel because they’d abandoned me.
Rebel’s hand squeezed mine.
Then a circle of humans stumbled around us, breathless and trembling. We shoved them away, but they pressed closer.
The vampires watched, smirking.
Stun guns… I noticed them casual in the fanatics’ hands.
The Pure were stinging the humans’ arses with shots of electricity to drive them towards us.
I growled, pushing a stout middle-aged bloke back, before catching Ash’s arm to stop him clouting a woman who was burrowed in her faded duvet. When someone tripped into my back, I spun, pinning them with my sword.
A girl.
She shivered in her unicorn nightie, sobbing in the snow. Then she collapsed to the ground, curling into a ball and dragging her thin arms over her head.
As if she could hide from the monster.
I’d almost knifed her.
I still hungered to kill her.
‘Stop,’ I whispered and then hollered, ‘bastard stop.’ When Rebel and Ash glanced at me, I tried not to let my voice waver, ‘I won’t do this by bringing bones and feathers to the world. I’m a hunter but I don’t gank humans. So, fly away now, Brigadier, this mission is over.’
Ash shrugged. ‘I’ve nowhere else to be. Anyway, would Han abandon Princess Leia?’
‘What about you, pretty boy punk? If your wings weren’t—’
‘Nothing to do with my wings.’ Rebel stroked the back of my hand. ‘I’m yours.’
I smiled, before bending down to Blaze and Spark. When they whined, I stroked their ears. ‘Run and be free. Ash was right, you don’t belong to anyone.’ Then I stood on tiptoe to wave at Bird Tattoo. ‘Wing face, white flag’s being waved over here, yeah?’
Bird Tattoo grimaced, shoving through the cowering humans. When he spun me, I braced myself.
I jumped at the spark and buzz of electrified cuffs, which bound my hands behind my back.
Bird Tattoo sneered, before shackling Ash and then Rebel. When he gobbed in Rebel’s face and punched him in the gut, it was Ash who snarled. Then Bird Tattoo smoothed down his tux and grabbed my arm, parading me through the fanatics’ ranks.
The Pure clapped and whooped.
I flushed, ducking my head to hide behind my hair, even as I glanced between the ash blonde strands at the looming tower block.
Floor Eleven — Eden and Gizem.
The battle with the Pure, on the night my sister was set to die.
Yet I was handcuffed, knifed in the shoulder, and my allies were defeated.
Bird Tattoo’s hold on me tightened as he dragged me into the shadow of Block B, for a date with the bloke who craved to kill me and feast on the world.