Tawny jerked upright in bed as the walls about her shook, a loud crash echoing through all the minds in the house to hit her tenfold. She was off of the bed and out the bedroom door before her disorientation had fully dissipated, and the sounds of her footfalls were another overwhelming echo in the minds of the house's many residents as she hurried down the stairs. She was expecting some terrible sight to await her in the living room, the results of some explosion or some horrible witch attack or some such tragedy; but when she reached the bottom, she saw only a room full of uninjured people, a cracked door hanging crooked on its hinges, and Bailey – red-skinned, red-eyed, winged and clawed Bailey.
Oh my God, Madeleine's soft, shocked thoughts filtered into her mind. Is that...Is that...? "Hayden!" The thought came at her from all directions, a scream cascading through a dozen minds until it finally reached Tawny. She staggered back a stair, tripping to land on her ass on the next one up, as the young girl rushed toward Bailey.
That was really her, bloody and limp and so very pale in Bailey's red arms. That was really Hayden.
Oh, God, came a whisper of Dameon's thoughts. She's...
"Dead," Tawny whispered. She stared from her spot on the steps, feeling cold but hot all over, wondering just how she should feel about this. Hayden had done a terrible, terrible thing, using Tawny to try to kill Bailey, but she was just a lost, frightened teenager. Did she really deserve this? Was this really what any of them had wanted?
Hayden was lying on the couch, now, and Madeleine was beside her, sobbing uncontrollably. Little wisps of confused thoughts drifted to Tawny's mind from the strangers that stood about the room, plates of eggs and toast in their dirty hands, but any contribution from Bailey was conspicuously absent.
Tawny turned from the spectacle in the living room and jumped, startled to find Bailey standing on the bottom landing of the stairs in front of her. She was naked, the telepath noticed now, and black bruises showed through the red of her skin and the red of the blood caking her flesh, but Tawny didn't have it in her to blush or to worry right now. The tears started before she could get a hold of herself, and she couldn't stop them after that.
"What did you do?" she whispered. "Bailey, what did you do?"
The devil bent down to place a gentle kiss on Tawny's lips, and a warm hand rested on the girl's cheek as Bailey lingered for a long moment. What had to be done, came the breath of her thoughts like a voice in Tawny's ear, sending a shiver down her spine and raising goosebumps along her arms and the back of her neck.
Bailey pulled away, but placed a second light kiss on Tawny's forehead before fully straightening. She turned from the girl, and Tawny caught sight of a glint of silver clenched in her hand – Hayden's cell phone.
"What are you doing?" Tawny asked, lurching to her feet as Bailey began to walk away. "What are you planning?"
Dameon stood only a foot from the couch, looking down at Hayden's corpse with an expression of raw shock on his face, and that was where Bailey went first. "I realized something while I was out," she whispered to him, the words of the half-guarded thought barely reaching Tawny's mind. The devil reached up, tangled a hand in Dameon's hair, and pulled his face to hers. Their lips met in a chaste kiss to mirror the one she had just shared with Tawny, one that Dameon accepted just as readily as Tawny had, and surprise and jealousy stabbed her through the chest simultaneously.
"Bailey," she breathed, but no one could hear her.
Their lips parted, but Bailey held Dameon's forehead to hers, and Tawny could see tears glistening in her eyes. "I need you both," she murmured.
YOU ARE READING
For the Hopeless
FantasyGuardians: those who have stepped forward to protect the various nonhuman races from their human enemies. Few have emerged, but the war has only just begun. Bailey is one of these brave individuals. Her race is unknown, but her power is great. She...
