Leo releases me and I stumble a bit, feeling drunk on adrenaline and I don’t know what else. Artemis joins us, and I grab her hands, my whole body still a live wire of sparks. “We did it!”
She raises one eyebrow. “Yeah.” Her tone is more bruising than any hits I took in the pit. She turns away from me, her stance solid and ready for anything. But everyone who was here is gone or running. The platform is empty, the organizers vanished. The table that held the bets has been overturned. Money and strips of paper litter the ground.
There are also several bodies. They all look like demons, but in the darkness, I can’t be sure. Who killed them? Artemis? Or . . .
“Where’s Cosmina?” I ask.
My question is answered as the vampire from upstairs skids across the floor, sliding straight over the edge into the pit. Cosmina stalks past us.
“Come on, love,” the vampire says, standing and dusting herself off. “We didn’t mean any harm. I put a lot of money on you winning!”
Cosmina holds out her hand. “Give me the crossbow,” she says.
Artemis looks like she’s gearing up for an attack. I put a hand on her shoulder. I didn’t save Cosmina just for Artemis to rip her limb from limb.
Leo’s face is hard. “You left Athena in there alone.”
Cosmina spins, hitting Leo across the jaw. Leo barely budges. Cosmina swears, cradling her hand. I flex my own fingers. I didn’t notice pain down in the pit. That’s as unnerving as anything else. Every part of my body accepted what it was doing. Embraced it, even.
“Fine,” Cosmina says. She picks up one of the remaining wooden barriers and snaps it. Then she throws it like a javelin. The vampire doesn’t have time to duck as the wood shears her head from her body.
Artemis sweeps an arm at the ruined venue. “What the hell was this?”
I’m stuck looking into the pit. The werewolf I hit with the sword is bleeding heavily. I do my best not to look at the hellhounds.
I left corpses. My revulsion is almost as strong as the rush of adrenaline I’d had. And that’s what bothers me most: I was terrified, and it was awful, but . . . I also liked it. Loved it. The heady rush of battle. The iron tang of blood in the air. The way my body moved, a weapon in and of itself.
The power was intoxicating.
I’m a healer. I’ve dedicated my life to it. Fixing bodies is all I’ve ever wanted to do. But now? I have a body count.
Cosmina sounds indifferent as she answers Artemis’s question. “I got caught eliminating their supply of zompires.”
“Zompires?” Artemis asks.
If the term is new even to Artemis, that says something. I shake off all the thoughts about myself and what I did to focus on Cosmina’s reply.
“Zombie vampire. It’s what happens now when a vampire sires a new victim. With the hell connections cut off, any new vampire turns into those things. They form hives. I’ve got Dublin almost all clear. Didn’t realize these assholes were keeping them for a reason.” She stretches her neck, sighing. Then she starts gathering the money scattered on the floor, shoving it into her pockets. “They run this whole bloody town. Now I’ve got to figure out how to make this up to them.”
“Demons run Dublin?” Leo sounds surprised and concerned. We’re only a couple of hours from Dublin. Does that make it our responsibility? And why weren’t we already on top of it?
“Not demons
. The people who organized this.”
“And you let them?” Artemis asks.
Cosmina shrugs. “They’re cleaning it up. They’ve made Dublin safer from supernatural beasties than it’s been in decades. I tip them off when I find something too big to handle.”
Artemis is rightfully aghast. “You work with these people? The ones that hold demon fights? That threw you in a pit to die?”
“There’s a saying where I come from: Hold hands with the devil until you’re both over the bridge. I haven’t found the other side of the bridge yet.”
“Come on,” I say. I’m overwhelmed, but there’s still a task that needs doing. I try to focus on it. “We have to help the werewolves. Get them somewhere safe.”
Cosmina scoffs. “You mean the things that tried to rip us limb from limb?”
“It’s not their fault! And I cut that one. I didn’t mean to. But I don’t think werewolves heal supernaturally fast.” I look to Leo and Artemis for confirmation, but neither responds. Rhys is the expert. I’m glad we left him and Cillian outside. They stayed safe, and they didn’t see what I did. I wanted Artemis to see so she’d look at me differently.