Smoke, Vampires, & Mirrors

Chapter 2

Chapter Two

I wake up to the sound of familiar voices.

“Batman v Superman should still have a higher score on the movie review sites,” Ariel says from somewhere. “Even the last Matrix movie—your own least favorite—has higher ratings.”

“Why do you always have to bring The Matrix into it?” Felix grumbles. “Is it because you’re still jealous that the first Matrix has better scores than any Batman ever?”

“I’m not going there again,” Ariel says, and I can almost see her eyeroll. “You must at least agree that Armageddon—a movie that also stars Ben Affleck—shouldn’t have a higher score than Batman v Superman.”

The word Armageddon sends a jolt of adrenaline through my system, dispelling the remnants of my grogginess.

Sitting up, I rub my eyes.

Felix and Ariel are both looking at me with worried expressions on their faces. Speaking in unison, they say, “How are you feeling?”

“I’ve had better days,” I say, trying to figure out where we are.

The bland room doesn’t have any furniture besides my bed, and there are no windows. It also smells vaguely of medicine—so maybe it’s a nurse’s office or a hospital room?

With a loud bang, the gray door behind my friends breaks into shards.

Hovering a few inches from the ground is Lilith—my biological mother and, on one of the Otherlands, an evil goddess.

Eyes turned into mirrors, she flies inside.

Ariel turns.

“Stand there, and don’t move,” Lilith orders in a honey-laced voice.

Ariel’s body tenses as the glamour turns her into a mannequin.

“You too,” Lilith croons to Felix, who instantly turns into a statue.

“Good job,” she says to my friends before her eyes turn back to normal and she faces me. “Sasha, dear, how are you feeling?”

“What are you doing here?” I jump off the bed, staring her down.

“I’m here to check on you.” Her beatific smile shows off her fangs. “Your well-being is very important to me.”

“Yeah, right. Which is why you called the chorts and told them to ask me about Rasputin. Are you going to pretend you didn’t expect them to kill me?”

Her smile disappears without a trace. “I was working with a seer, which means I knew you’d turn. Every mother wants her children to reach their true potential. You should be thanking me for this.”

“Uh-huh, sure. Thank you so very much. Getting tortured was a blast.”

Frowning, Lilith floats down until her feet touch the gray linoleum floor. “If you’re going to be an ungrateful brat, I’m going to stop playing nice mommy with you.”

I stare at her uncomprehendingly. All the people she brutally killed in front of me, all attempts to get me to finish off the injured chorts—that was the nice version of her?

“It’s a lot to take in,” I lie, deciding I don’t want her to turn off the charm.

But it’s too late. She narrows her eyes and says, “Since you seem to hate me for no reason, how about I give you one—and make you that much stronger in the process.” She looks at Ariel, then at Felix and says, “Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.”

A horrible feeling grows in the pit of my stomach as her gaze lands on Felix.

“It’s settled then,” she says with a predatory smile. “I want you to kill this one.”

I stare at her, dumbfounded, but she just stands there expectantly—like she really thinks there’s a universe where I’d kill my friend just because a psycho asked me to.

“Listen,” I say, putting more acting into it. “I’m not ungrateful, I just—”

“Did I not say it clearly enough?” She rubs her chin. “How about this? I command you to rip out his heart.”

The word “command” slams into my brain like a truck, and I feel like I’m falling.

Except I’m not really falling. It’s my free will and the core of my consciousness that are being banished somewhere deep down.

A millisecond after the strange sensation comes over me, I feel as though I’m locked in some secret underground bunker inside my own brain—and my body begins to move with a zombie-like determination.

“There you go,” Lilith croons. “I know this can be tricky in the beginning.”

From deep in my exile, I want my mouth to scream in horror, but nothing passes my lips.

Desperately, I will my body to halt, but that doesn’t work either.

Before I can process what’s happening, my right hand lifts in a marionette-like movement, then plunges into Felix’s chest with a speed and strength I didn’t know I was capable of.

Despite being under the influence of glamour, Felix screams in pain—but only for a second. Then he slumps around my hand, unconscious.

What am I doing? What is my body doing? How can this be happening?

“No. Please stop!” is what I would be shouting if my mouth worked.

Oblivious to my will, my body grabs Felix’s no longer-beating heart, rips it out, and tosses it at Lilith’s feet.

What remains of Felix collapses into a bleeding heap of meat on the floor.

In the depths of my mind, I’m howling in horror and grief—but my body just stands there, calm as a stone.

“Very good,” Lilith says. “Now as your reward, you can drink that one.” She nods at Ariel.

This is one of the nightmares Nero mentioned. It has to be. There’s just no way—

My body leaps toward Ariel.

I struggle to snap out of it, but my fangs enter Ariel’s throat and her blood floods my system with unwelcome, unholy pleasure.

“Finish your food,” Lilith commands—and to my horror, my body keeps drinking until Ariel has no more blood to give.

“Ready to go?” Lilith grins at me as Ariel’s dead body collapses on the floor next to Felix’s.

Turning, she heads to the door, and my treacherous body follows.