Pitch

CHAPTER TWENTY

The gun went off. Angelique struck me as my finger curled around the trigger, sending the bullet into the ceiling. Plaster rained down on us and lights flickered crazily as we rolled across the floor.

Her teeth snapped half an inch from my face. I swung the gun up and brought the handle crashing down against the side of her head. She shook off the blow with ease and caught my chest with her knee, driving all the air from my lungs. Wheezing I grabbed her hair and yanked it back. She howled and flipped to the side, wrenching free. Her nails raked down across my cheek and came away dripping blood.

“You fight,” I gasped as I jabbed my elbow into her throat, “like a girl.”

Her answer was to pick me up by the back of my neck and throw me head first into the lockers. I hit them with a crash and crumpled to the carpet, temporarily stunned.

Breathing heavily, her hair askew and her eyes like blue fire, Angelique towered over me. “Stupid mortal,” she spat. “I should have ripped out your insides and made you wear them as a necklace.” One hand drew back, vicious claws extended as she prepared to deliver a death blow that would cleave my head from my body.

For the third time a gunshot rang out. For the first time it hit its intended target. In slow motion I saw Angelique’s mouth fall open in shock. Her body jerked as if she were a marionette and someone else was pulling the strings, drawing her arms out and sending her falling forward in a graceful swan dive. Blood spewed from her lips, showering me in a sticky red spray.

The gun went off again. Her stomach exploded outwards as the bullet tore through her spine and came out her front, tearing a fist sized hole in her beautiful gown.

Angelique fell beside me and for an instant our eyes met. Her mouth opened and closed, trying to force out words that would not come. I said nothing. Did nothing. I was frozen in place, forced to watch in horrified silence as the life ebbed from her body.

Then Maximus was between us, his hands clutching Angelique’s shoulders and shaking her. “Where is the boy?” he shouted. “What have you done with him?”

Her head lolled to the side. With blood running down the corners of her mouth she smiled. “Hotel… But… Too late… Was always… too late.”

Travis was at the hotel? I pushed myself up on one arm and leaned weakly against the lockers. Maximus released Angelique. She slumped to the blood stained carpet. Her eyes closed, her long lashes spreading across her white cheeks like silk fans. One last, shuddering breath lifted her chest and flowed silently from her mouth before she simply… faded.

“She’s dead.” The words sounded hollow. I staggered to my feet, then sagged sideways, unable to support my own weight. I was pretty sure some ribs were broken. My ankle too. Courtesy of Angelique’s bite marks on my hand the pain I should have been feeling was nothing more than a dull throb. Ignoring it, I focused on Maximus.

He stood before me, his head bent, staring down at the spot where Angelique had fallen. “Lola, I -”

“Save it. There is nothing you could say. I’m tired of your secrets and your lies,” I said bitterly. “You said you would protect me, and instead you haven’t done anything but hurt me. I’m going to get Travis and my dad and we’re leaving. I don’t want to see you ever again, Maximus.” The words burned in my throat like acid. Tears threatened to spill, but I blinked them back. I couldn’t believe I had actually liked this guy. And the entire time he had been lying about… well, everything.

“Did you know they were going to come here? Did you know they were going to do this?” They weren’t questions I wanted to ask. They were questions I needed to ask, even if I was terrified to hear the answers.

“Yes,” he said without hesitation.

A mewling sound escaped my lips.

“Lola, there was nothing I could have done. I -”

“GO AWAY!” I shrieked, striking out at him with my fists. They bounced harmlessly off his chest, which only served to increase my fury tenfold. Even when I wanted to I couldn’t hurt him. The bastard.

He captured my wrists with ease. “Stop it,” he ordered, blue eyes flashing. “You don’t understand. There was nothing I could have -”

“If you say there was nothing you could have done one more time I will kill you. Do you hear me, Maximus? I’ll kill you!” And at that moment I really would have. He was lucky Angelique had knocked my one remaining gun out of my hand. “How could you let this happen?” I stared hard into his eyes, trying to see what I had missed. Trying desperately to figure out where I had gone wrong. “All those people… You could have done s-something.” My voice broke. I sagged against the lockers, defeated. “Just go,” I mumbled, twisting my head to the side. “Just leave me alone. I never want to see you again.”

He released my wrists. “You have to stay here tonight. It’s too dangerous to go outside.”

“What do you care?” I shook my head, no longer able to believe anything he said. “You could care less if I lived or died.”

His laugh was oh so bitter. “I care too much. You’ve made me forget things, Lola. Things I have no right to forget. Since the first moment I met you you’ve been under my skin like some disease I can’t purge, crawling inside, infecting me bit by bit.”

“You’ve been watching Lifetime, haven’t you?” I said dryly.

Maximus smiled, fast and fleeting. “I’ll go, if that’s what you want.”

“That’s what I want.”

His lips parted, as if he wanted to say something else, but with a small shrug he turned and walked away, leaving me alone with my thoughts and one carpet badly in need of stain cleaner.