She cocked her head abruptly to one side, eyes gleaming and bright. “You are not the only one who needs me.”
“Should I be jealous?” He came toward her suddenly, testing her.
She startled, flitting backward with a soft cry. “Jealous? Why?”
“I know how you are with me. What you want from me.” He narrowed his eyes. “Have you been giving your feathers to other men?”
“No.” Some of the light in her eyes died. “I have not been with other men.”
He eased up, walking away from her and into the kitchen. He grabbed a water from the fridge to give his hands something to do besides strangle her. “Then who have you been with?”
She shivered, her feathers rippling around her body. “Why do you ask so many questions? We should go upstairs.”
“I don’t want to go upstairs.” He twisted the cap off the bottle and tossed it onto the worktable. It rolled to a stop beside the discarded charm.
Her eyes followed. “Why are you not wearing the feathers I gave you? That your grandmother made?” Her gaze flicked from his bare neck to the charm and back. “Put it on.”
“I don’t think so. Not until you give me some answers.” He took a long drink of water and leaned against the sink. “Where have you been?”
She jerked her head from side to side. “I must go.”
Mawmaw had said she’d try to run. And just like she’d told him, he was prepared. He reached next to the sink where he’d set a small dish of salt, scooped up a handful, and tossed it at her. “Not until I’m done with you.”
She shrieked as the salt touched her, throwing her arms up to shield her face. It bounced off her and scattered, settling into a perfect circle around her. Mawmaw knew her stuff. Yahla quivered with tension. “Release me.”
“Answer me first. Where have you been?”
“I went to see your grandmother.”
At last, the truth. He slammed the water onto the counter and strode toward her. “Go near her again and I’ll kill you.”
Yahla’s eyes went solid, seamless black. “You cannot kill me. I always come back. There is no death for the woman with no soul.”
“How many times have you possessed me?”
“Twice.” Her gaze flickered to the charm.
That matched the number of blackouts. “What did you make me do?”
Her mouth took on an ugly shape. “Made you persuade the mayor to set the curfew. Made you side against the vampire and his whore. All necessary. All to set you free—”
“Shut up.” He grabbed the leather cord off the table and dangled the charm in front of her. “Why do you want me to wear this so badly?”
“P-protects you,” she stuttered.
He reached back and scooped up another handful of salt. “I’ll ask you one more time. What does this do?”
She cowered as far back as she could within the confines of the circle. “Opens you up to me and keeps you safe. Otherwise you would die when I left you.”
He had a feeling that wasn’t exactly the truth. “You used me.”
“No more than the Kubai Mata have,” she squawked. “The othernaturals must be removed. They are polluted with evil. Their blood taints our land.”
“You and I are done. Do you understand? Done. I don’t want to see you. No showing up in my bed, no flock of ravens following me on my bike, nothing.”
The whites returned to her eyes and she smiled. “You cannot be done with me. We are together always. You saved my life.”
“I didn’t save your life. You said it yourself—there’s no death for the soulless woman. You would have been fine inside the belly of that demon. You trapped me.”
Her smiled stretched farther across her face than was natural, and her hands fluttered at the edge of the circle as if wanting to touch him. “Let me go and I will show you again how good we are together.”
“I’m going to let you go, but then you’re going to leave and never come back. Understand?”
She nodded, the lust in her eyes barely hiding her contempt. He had no doubts she’d try to possess him again as soon as he brushed the salt away. He was counting on it.
He slid his boot out and kicked a hole in the salt circle.
She gathered like a rising storm cloud and thrust forward, plowing into him with the intensity of a hurricane gust. He staggered back with the force, feeling her struggle inside him. He knew instantly this was why she hadn’t tried to possess him until he’d worn the charm. Whatever the KM had done to him didn’t agree with her; that much was painfully clear.
His ears rang from the inside with her screeching. Out of reflex, he clamped his hands over his ears as he fell to his knees. She was trying to seat herself in him and tearing him apart in the process. Raking his bones with her talons, shredding muscle and sinew as she fought against the power sealed into his flesh.
At last she burst free of him. She hovered before him, barely resembling the Yahla he knew. Smoke trailed off the singed remnants of her feathers; blood dripped from the hooked black beak of her mouth. Her body was a shifting mass of bird flesh and human limbs. She opened her beak once to caw at him, then dissolved into a flock of ravens. They shot straight up, shattering the dirty skylight and raining broken glass over him.
He collapsed as the shards bit into his skin, knowing he was about to pass out but unable to stop it. His last thought was for Mawmaw’s safety, his last sight the dirty concrete floor sparkling with broken glass and black feathers.