Alien in the Family

hole in her head, and I felt confident she was dead. “When I punched you, that was really for me. This was for James.”

CHAPTER 52

    TITO AND I LOOKED AT EACH OTHER. “Grab a staff, not that you seem to need one.”
    “Never hurts.” He picked up Moira’s.
    “Is Gregory alive?”
    “No.” He shrugged. “I’m used to someone tapping out or a ref telling me to stop. Got carried away.” He didn’t sound upset about it.
    “Restraint is not exactly my watchword, either.” I took a good look around. Claudia and the Major Doggies had cleared out their portion. I could see bodies down, but they didn’t look like ours. Glanced toward where I’d sent Chuckie. We had a lot of people over there, and most of them looked like crap.
    Jareen ran over to me. “We have just two battles still going on.” She pointed. One was Martini and Neeraj against Kyrellis. And the other was Lenore and Uma against the Cat People and Queen Renata.
    Kyrellis did a leaping splits kick and hit Martini and Neeraj in their guts. They both went down. She swung her staff up, over Martini. He wasn’t moving.
    “KYRELLIS!” I bellowed as loudly as I could. She stopped and turned. I bent down and yanked Moira’s head up by her hair. “Guess what?”
    She arched back and screamed. It sounded how I figured a thousand banshees in an echo chamber would. And while she was occupied, I decided to see if the rusty javelin skills were up to the task. Did the little run, aimed, and threw. Kyrellis wasn’t looking at me or at the staff heading toward her.
    Jareen and I ran forward. I didn’t have to ask her plan. Get our guys, get them out of the way of danger. My impromptu javelin hit just as Kyrellis straightened up. Unfortunately, it speared through her hip, meaning she wasn’t dead.
    She bared her teeth at me. “I will kill him in the worst way possible.” She spun her staff and aimed it right at Martini’s groin.
    Jareen’s staff hit Kyrellis’ and knocked it out of her hand. It fell, missed Martini by a hair, and rolled away. Kyrellis snarled and pulled my staff out of her body. Now she aimed it at Neeraj. I decided it was my turn to represent again and went for the long jump.
    Hit Kyrellis in her chest. Due to her injury, it knocked her down. Due to her being the Amazonian Super Bitch, she held onto the staff. I tried to scramble away, but she got me, dragged me back, and slammed me up against her, my back to her chest. She also wrapped her other arm around me and started to squeeze. My arms were free, but the best I could do was lock my hands against her chin to keep her from headbutting me.
    I had perfect clarity. I could see Tito drag Martini away and Jareen do the same with Neeraj. Others ran up to help them. I saw Claudia slam adrenaline into Martini’s chest, heard him bellow, saw Claudia and Tito throw themselves on him, saw Jareen do something to Neeraj to bring him back to consciousness. I had the clarity because Kyrellis was squeezing the life out of me, and I got the feeling I was getting to see everyone before she crushed me to death.
    “I will make you pay,” she whispered. “My God will take you to the depths of hell.”
    “There a lot of men in your hell?” I gasped out.
    “Yes. They will have their way with you constantly.”
    “Sounds like heaven to me.” Maybe I’d luck out and when Martini died, he’d end up there. I could spend eternity with him ravaging me.
    She snarled at me. “I am not confused by you. You are a warrior. You don’t belong to any man.” She spat the word. “You belong with us, with the Free Women.”
    “I like Renata. I could hang with her. You, not so much.”
    “Renata is weak.”
    “She’s your queen.” I was starting to black out.
    “I serve my God.”
    “Your ‘god’ is taking orders from a man.”
    “You know nothing about my God.”
    “I know everything about your god.”
    “I will not kill you,” Kyrellis whispered to me. “I will save you and show you the true way.”
    I found myself wondering what ACE was doing, since I wasn’t feeling like I was going to survive this encounter. Then again, death might be better than what I guessed Kyrellis had in store for me if she let me live. My arms were weakening, and my vision was at pinpoint. I wasn’t out, but I was close. I wondered when I’d feel my ribs crack.
    I heard a crack, and Kyrellis let go a bit. I took a breath—the crack hadn’t been my ribs. My vision came back a little. Someone was on his