he fey I was getting acquainted with tonight. And wasn’t it fun? I thought grimly, switching gears.
“I’m dhampir,” I said shortly. “You know that. It means you get a two-for-one deal, with one being batshit insane.”
I glanced upward, at the boiling gray skies, and wondered which of us that was. Because, seriously, either some next-level shit was going on tonight or I really did have something wrong with my head. More than usual, that is.
“And your other half is . . . up there?” Caedmon said, gesturing at the sky. Although that weird, intense, slightly creepy look he was giving me never wavered.
It was starting to freak me out.
“Look, I don’t know anything more than you do, okay? We’re not supposed to be awake at the same time! But the barrier my father put in place fell recently, or got a big hole blown in it, thanks to your fey wine—”
“Fey wine?” It was sharp.
“Yeah. Not actual wine, but that weird stuff you guys export for the druggies. The kind with the herbs—”
“I know what it is!”
“Well, I didn’t! I thought it was just helping to control my fits—that’s when Dorina used to come out, you know?”
He nodded grimly.
“Because it worked even better than Claire’s weed. But it also weakened the mental barrier Mircea had put in my head, something I didn’t know until—bam! No more barrier. Or not much of one. Parts of it are still there, but it’s pretty damned ragged and not really preventing contact anymore.”
“And now you are finding out about . . . hidden talents . . . on the other side of your brain.”
“That’s one possibility!” I yelled, because the rain had picked up again.
“And what would be another?”
“That I’ve finally gone crazy and think I’m a bird!”
And then I did go flying, all right, but not because of wings. But because the car hit something and skidded wildly, careening us off the road and up a grassy rise of ground. And then flipping us over, and damn it!
Fortunately, I was tossed into a soft hillside, and didn’t break anything else. I did go rolling and cursing down said hill afterward, however, since much of the rain-soaked ground gave way with me, in a miniature mudslide. One that left me filthy and banged up and seriously pissed off.
And sliding to a halt at the feet of a couple of grinning vampires, one of whom was holding the end of what looked like a grappling hook on a cable.
The other end of which was attached to the back seat of my ride.
“You wrecked my roommate’s car!” I said, putting it together.
“Don’t worry,” the blond from the troll fight told me. “You won’t live long enough to have to explain it.”
And then he gave the cable a gentle tug, sending the convertible flying through the air like a giant mace.
One aimed directly at me.
I rolled frantically to the side, only to find myself facing off with Purple Hair.
“I thought . . . you two . . . were competitors,” I said, trying to get my breath back, while dodging kicks, blows, and stabs, because Bitch Girl had gotten herself a spear.
She was pretty good with it, too.
“We are,” she informed me, doing the rapid-stab thing all around my contorting body. “But you’re kind of annoying. So we’re teaming up till you’re dead, then going to fight it out between us.”
“You teamed up with that?”
’Cause Blondie had just tugged on his cable, trying to reposition the car, instead of helping her.