Bad Girls Drink Blood by S.L. Choi

Author:S.L. Choi
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781648981487
Publisher: City Owl Press

26

IN THE GRAY

Mae shouted my name. The wind tore it away and carried it out of earshot, even as her magic sizzled over my skin. The shield would save my face if I brushed against the exterior, but it wouldn’t do a damn thing for us if I didn’t stop our fall. Floor after floor screamed past at dizzying velocity.

A balcony flew by. I slammed my hands against the steel frame beam, but my talons didn’t punch through. Sparks rained over us. A high-pitched whine stabbed my eardrums.

No, no, no! I scrambled against the side of the building but couldn’t catch hold.

I’d miscalculated horribly. We were going to die.

We plummeted past another balcony.

My stomach left my body. I was hollow.

Another floor.

Too fast. We were going too fast. Even if I caught hold now, the force would rip my claws from my hands.

Steel transitioned to concrete. Relief itched along my spine.

My hearts hammered my chest, threatening to break me open.

I pulled back my arms and flung them forward, driving my talons into the reinforced concrete. We jerked, didn’t stop, but slowed. Come on stop, damn you! Hellfire roared in my shoulder sockets. Pain tore down my arms, up my neck. The wind stole away tears of pain before they could wet my cheeks.

Traces of concrete pummeled our protective bubble, stinging like a thousand bee stings, even through the shield. My retractable claws extended further than they were meant to, tearing at the quicks. Waves of darkness chased across my vision. I screamed.

My talons would snap. I’d have no way to stop us. We’d fall.

The shield pressed into the building beneath my claws, leaving slivers of fingertips exposed. Flesh and blood smeared down the side of the building. Pain reached into my gut and tried to pull it inside out.

Our descent stopped. I sucked oxygen and blinked wind-dry eyes at the pool next to me extending from the face of the building. The pool deck. We’d only dropped eight floors. Not as far as it felt, but probably why my shoulders were still in their sockets, and Mae and I weren’t fae soup on the sidewalk.

I panted in agony, in relief. If not for the extra layer of protection from Mae’s magic, I’d be short ten claws.

Mae pressed flat against my back, her face buried against my neck, legs pretzeled around my waist. The pressure of her knees on my ribs was nothing compared to the torture in my arms, in my fingers. Easy to ignore.

Wind chased across the building’s face and broke against an eight-inch-thick acrylic glass box containing one of the hotel’s prize features—a suspended pool. Gusts pulled at my clothes, tugged my hair, but otherwise left us relatively undisturbed in the box’s shadow.

Mae’s shield dropped, and a chill from its sudden absence chewed into my bones. Blood rolled onto my fingers, down my hands to dry before it reached my wrists. The wind swooped over and under and tore loose what hair remained in my braids.

Butterflies filled my chest, clogged my throat.

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