In Vendetta House (The Vendetta Series #1)

Chapter 34

Chapter 34

Unfortunately, as the scene dissolves, I don't return to the real world.

A sudden round of feedback explodes into my ear, and the walls melt into gray buzz. Mist swirls around my ankles as I jump up.

I reach out and touch the gray. Nothing passes my fingers, and I realize I am not enclosed within four walls; the gray space is endless. My eyes cannot locate an end.

I begin to run, horrified that I may be stuck in some sort of limbo. After exhausting myself with sprinting for more than five minutes (or five hours, time is already hard to tell), I crawl to a stop. I place my hands on my knees, gasping.

Then, I hear an exhale, as if someone is breathing out quiet laughter.

"Hello?" I call, spinning around for any sign of life in the gray. "Is anyone there?"

My veins buzz from the exhausting run, causing my hands to shake unsteadily. The heartbeat thumping in my chest thrums with energy, tempting me to call forward some sort of defense.

Maybe I could.

"Hello?" I call again, louder, giving whoever is there one more chance before I sic them.

In a split second decision, I send out the best Telepathic Pulse I can gather. Instead of hearing someone else yelp from jagged sound waves in their brain, I am the one to feel white noise eating into my head.

I scream, sinking to my knees. The noise stabs a hundred times worse than Jesse ever made it. If that was pain, than this is being mauled to death by a hungry lion and then set alight with jet fuel while your limps are being eaten from the bone.

"Stop!" I sob. "Stop it!" My voice goes hoarse.

The pain ebbs slowly, and when it stops, it is replaced by maniacal laughter.

"Oh, child. Did you really think you could use a power on me that my people gave to you?"

I pry open my eyes, still grimacing at what is best described as the aftertaste of the Pulse. Despite myself, a whimper escapes, and I immediately cringe.

In front of me, a woman dressed in tight jeans and an artsy shirt stands facing the other way. On her back are large, leathery bat wings, twice as long as her arm span. However, I can't focus on them, and they keep blinking out of view if my vision strays anywhere from the center of it. I grimace and struggle to sit up. She turns to face me, smiling. I almost fall over again.

"Oh my god."

Blood red eyes seek out mine. She is obviously not the same red-eyed woman that gave me a phobia of sheds, but still frightening all the same.

Black curls tumble down her neck to her back, illuminating her pale and frightening face. She tosses it back, and walks over to offer a hand with slender fingers.

I curl backward, my gaze hostile. She did just kind of cause me permanent mental scarring.

"Okay, fine," she says. Her voice is musical, as if she's got back-up singers harmonizing with her as she speaks. "Be that way. But I don't have long. I'm kind of currently chained to Hell, you know."

My head jerks back. Did I hear that right?

"What?"

She shrugs, the movement awfully casual for someone who looks so formal.

"Whatever. I'm actually here for a reason. If I could just remember what it was."

I blink at her.