Love Bites Then it Sucks by Julie Steimle (best self help books to read .TXT) 📕

I pulled out my scythe (which Deidre flinched at). It came out in hand held style, exactly as I needed. In one cut, I sliced off the zip ties which held her together, then I cut the ones around her ankles. Hissing low as I then cut the other girl’s bonds, I said, “Why didn’t you call your cousin JJ when you left your father?”

Deidre rolled her eyes at me. “Oh please. My father would have gone to them first.”

“And they would have helped you,” I snapped.

She shook her head. “I don’t think s—”

“No, you don’t think,” I bit out as I sliced through the other girls leg ties. Her eyes were widening on it, her mouth opening in shock as to her they just undid themsleves. “I bumped into JJ here and he told me all about it. Damn, Deidre. They were looking for you to help you. If you had come to me, I would have helped you.”

She averted her eyes to the ceiling, but then stiffened. The scuffling of paws crawling into the hallway drew both hers and the other girl’s attention. I felt a shiver run up my arms. It was coming. That boogieman Tom warned me about. I was starting to feel what he was saying. It felt deadly.

I pulled off the other gal’s gag, snipping off her last tie also. Then, just as the thing pushed open the door, I lifted off the ground to the ceiling, the instinctive urge to run surging through me. But what came into the room was a little critter, furry, blue. It reminded me a little of Stitch from that Disney movie, only this thing emanated an aura of fear. Not its fear. My fear. Everyone’s fears, really. And it grinned with wide teeth at both Deidre and that other girl. Then it looked up at the ceiling to see me.

Its grin widened.

“Food.”

Its voice pierced into the center my imp ears like an ice pick.

I dropped heavily to the ground, standing between the girls and it. “I am NOT food.”

The furry blue thing sort of gurgled out a laugh. Then it began to swell, getting larger and larger, standing on its hind legs until it was as large as a grizzly bear. “Yes, food.”

I pulled out my full scythe. “No. I am death.”

Immediately the furry bear-sized demon paled—literally. Nearly a yeti now, he almost looked bleached white from his own horror. He let out a screech so painful, I nearly grabbed my head. “ARMAROS!”

Three things happened at once. Gollum-wocky burst through the wall with his scythe out. Deidre and that other girl ducked behind some furniture. And two others charged into the room through the door, looking around but not seeing me. Gollum-wocky saw me of course.

“You?” His jaw went slack.

I stood back, prepared to take him on. “This is why you killed that cop, huh? I’m sure Asahel would be REALLY interested in your dealings in my territory!”

Gollum-wocky snarled and slashed at me with his scythe.

I blocked, dodging while that blue boogieman shrank down like a rat and scrambled out like vermin. The other two who had come in—both with vaguely human appearances but giving off smells of something not so human—ducked out. Though one called to the other, “Where did the witch and the ghost girl go?”

Deidre and that other chick were well out of the way. I could see Deidre looking for an exit that wasn’t the door. The room had one window which I doubted had a fire escape.

Gollum-wocky struck at me again. I blocked and parried.

“You keep sticking your nose where it is not wanted!” He slashed at me next.

I knocked it away. “I beg to differ. You aren’t doing your reaper duty, but messing with those connected to the Unseelie Court. That makes it more my business than you think.”

Striking at me, Gollum-wocky threw in all his strength. I dodged, then cracked his skull with the butt of my staff. Clenching his scalp, he grit his teeth. “That’s it. You die.”

The next second he was all over me, attacking like he had sprouted eight legs and arms, each holding a scythe in his hands. I defended myself as best as I could, but as I had never been up against such an attack before, it took all the strength I had in me to keep his blade from slicing into my still living flesh. I got nicked on the shoulder, one deep cut on my arm, a slice near my neck which just scraped my skin, and a stabbed foot.

Off to the side, that little blue vermin boogieman was cheering, its tiny fists waving in the air but keeping well out of my reach. It annoyed me so much that I chopped the tiny blue thing in half without even thinking.

 The top of the boogieman dropped to the ground with the sound of a wet sock. I didn’t look to see where it fell. I was too busy fending off Gollum-wocky’s seismic whacks that were attempting to sever my arms from their sockets. I struck, I blocked, and I spun my staff with a hard shove to get him away from the girls whom I was not sure he could see.

“Mervin!” shouted one of the half-demons outside in the hallway. “Something killed Mervin!”

An animal yowl cracked out in horror.

I slashed across Gollum-wocky’s chest. He was barely able to stop it, throwing me off toward the wall. He looked sick in the face, almost green. Sweating, panting, he struck at me with an under cut. I was barely able to block that, knocking his scythe to the right where it swiped straight through the wall as if it were not even there.

“Dosun!” one of them on the other side shrieked. I heard something drop heavily to the ground.

“You made me kill one of them!” Gollum-wocky screeched, hacking down on me with his expanding blade. It was now as large as a columbine wheel.

I whacked it away, spinning with a duck to dodge. He swung at me, but I leapt upside down and walked on the ceiling to take a hack at his neck—which he blocked and parried to the side.

“Armârôs! What are you doing? Be careful!” someone from the hall yelled into the room.

Gollum-wocky said nothing, though I knew they had to have meant him as he whacked harder at me with his wicked looking weapon. Our scythes hooked into one another, almost locking together. As he bared his hideous plaque encrusted teeth at me, I hissed back at him, my eyes going dark red with anger.

“Abdiel, you stinking interferer! You never change!” Gollum-wocky threw me off, my scythe spinning out of my hand. He slashed at me in that one moment, but I leapt over the scythe blade and caught my long staff again, swiping back at him.

“You know me?” I broke into a nervous laugh, running up the wall and leaping over his head toward the door, turning his attention toward the hallway. He had not seen the cowering ladies who were in the corner of the room, I had decided, so I had to lead him away. “Because—Gollum-face—I don’t remember you.”

“Gollum face?” The Gollum-wocky balked with disgust. “I am Armârôs from Hermon! One of the great Watchers and leaders of men! Father of giants!”

I didn’t care what he called himself. He was disgusting.

“You are a traitor!” he snarled at me.

I rolled my eyes, flipping up and back so that I went through the door and landed in the hallway, luring him out. I hoped Deidre and that girl would take that opportunity to escape. I doubted there was a fire escape out the window, but Deidre had to be clever enough to think of a way out of that room. I had to give her that chance. “I told you, I don’t remember that.”

“Asahel remembers!” Gollum-wocky slashed at me, following me into the hallway exactly as I wanted. Those who had been there backed off, nearly feeling him and me enter that space though it was clear they could not see us.

“I don’t remember him either,” I said and sprang over the banister down the stairs. He followed.

And as he followed, I started to hear imp chatter. With that little blue critter gone, the imps were coming back. I could feel that he was quite dead, the presence of fear in the air entirely gone now—which meant the imps were free to enter and wreak their havoc again… which could be useful.

Gollum-wocky came down on me with his scythe. I blocked it just in time. The tip of his blade had nearly grazed my shoulder and was threatening to cut in. But he hardly looked wounded. I sank through the floor to the bottom level.

“Damn you Abdiel!” I hear Gollum-wocky curse out. As I landed on tile in the entryway, with effort, he came down through the ceiling. I briefly wondered why he was still not accustomed to going through solid things when clearly he had been a reaper longer than I have—just as he brought down his scythe on me again.

“They’re getting out!” screamed voices above. I knew those thugs upstairs meant their captives—Deidre and that other one.

I shouted to the imps clustering around the room in glee at the death of the boogieman, seeking people to tempt, “Pants those creeps upstairs and trip them up! Stop them.”

With delight, those imps zipped off.

Horror washed over Gollum-wocky. His eyes whipped up to the third floor. He too could see the imps, but did not understand until now that I could command them like an army. He moved to go to help those demons, but I hooked his scythe in mine, keeping him down on the lower floor.

I said to the nearest imp who had just wandered into the apartment, “Go find Tom Brown and tell him the boogieman is gone.”

It gleefully zipped off, the mere mention of Tom Brown getting him excited.

“No!” Gollum-wocky shoved me back, working to dislodge his blade.

I grabbed him and sunk my extending claws into his shoulder, shaking my head. “You can’t help them. You weren’t supposed to be with them in the first place.”

He unhooked his scythe and slashed at me. I parried just in time. I got nicked on my shoulder, though. But in that moment he broke loose and sprang through the ceiling.

I went after him.

Up through to the second floor, I dodged one of those thugs who was tumbling down the stairs with his pants to his knees and his shorts on his head. Tom Brown was already on the third floor with Piranha, kicking demon-butt while just dodging out of Gollum-wocky’s range. I tackled Gollum-wocky through the wall into a near room, keeping him away from those two.

Shouts from below sounding something like “Police! Put your guns down and hands in the hair” echoed upwards, the thunder of feet following. I assumed they really meant “put your hands in the air”.

Tearing up the stairs came Matthew, JJ, and a number of police officers I did not know.

“No!” shrieked Gollum-wocky, fighting me to get to them. He shoved me off, scythe high as he jumped up to slash down on Matthew. I zipped forward to get ahead of him, but I was not fast enough. A red mark sprouted on Matthew’s forehead.

CLANG!

His blade hit a junk-filled shopping cart. The bag lady guardian stood between him. Her cart seemed as large as the room for a second.

Her eyes set on me with a chastening glare, but more on Gollum-wocky with a look that said she would spit nails. “NEITHER OF YOU are supposed to be here!”

“That depends on your definition of ‘supposed to’,” I said, standing off, now that a guardian was here.

She shook her head at me while Gollum-wocky paled. His eyes tracked to the ceiling as if expecting an army of angels to come down and slaughter him.

“This,” she said, “is not your territory.”

I shrugged. “I was invited.”

Clenching her teeth,