Juliana rolled her eyes and turned back around. Halfway up the flight of stairs, she heard her mother again.
“And if you die,” Genoa said, voice unusually harsh, “I swear I’ll take up necromancy, summon you back from wherever you’ve gone, bind you to your room, and ground you for the rest of your afterlife.”
Already halfway up the stairs, Juliana didn’t bother addressing her mother’s empty threats.
Probably empty threats.
There was a chance that she would follow through.
In fact, the more she thought about it, the more likely it seemed that her mother was being serious.
She would have to be extra careful to not die.
Eva had to be heading up to the roof. If she wasn’t, Juliana expected to run into her coming back down the stairs. Her conversation with her mother had taken a bit of time. Eva was probably already gone.
Juliana slowed down around the third floor corridor. Even though Eva was probably gone, she still was going to check the roof. However, a pair of familiar voices caught her ear.
“So scary. I thought I was going to die when she looked at me.”
“You’re exaggerating.”
“I don’t know what happens to you humans when you die, but a demon’s death is no fun at all.”
A short distance down the hall, just in front of Juliana’s open dorm room, Saija was…
Crying into Irene’s shoulder?
“Worse,” Saija said, wringing her hands with the sleeve of Irene’s shirt, “I wouldn’t be able to experience all this anymore. What if I never got summoned again?”
Irene, standing perfectly straight with her arms at her sides, grimaced as Saija wrapped her arms around her. She tilted her head away to avoid one of the succubus’ horns. As soon as she tilted her head, she caught sight of Juliana.
‘Help me,’ she mouthed.
Seeing her dorm room open gave Juliana hope that Eva hadn’t left yet. She must be collecting weapons inside. So, against Juliana’s better judgment, she walked down the hall.
Irene’s face lit up, but fell to despair as Juliana edged around the two to get to her room.
The lights were on, but nobody was in. A few of Eva’s clothes had been thrown about the room. The desk drawers that Eva kept her spare vials of blood in were open and missing their usual contents. With the bathroom door open and the light off, Juliana had lost hope that Eva was still around.
Turning back to the two girls, Juliana gave Irene a shrug. She doubted that Saija had even noticed her presence; her head was still buried in the other girl’s shoulder.
“Eva already left?”
Saija jumped, snaking around Irene to hide behind her. Her apparent fear lasted only a few moments as her wide red eyes narrowed.
“Oh, it’s just you,” she said, moving out from behind Irene. “I thought Eva came back.”
“So she is gone.”
“She just left a moment or two before you arrived,” Irene said.
“And good riddance. She tried to kill me, you know?”
Juliana glanced over at Irene, who gave a brief shake of her head, before she said, “I didn’t know that. You probably did something to deserve it.”
Pressing a hand to her forehead, Juliana ignored the succubus’ outburst of protests.
What do I do now?
She hadn’t seen Eva on the stairs. She might have teleported. Juliana couldn’t teleport or even blink.
Her first thought was to summon a demon. It was a terrible thought. Something she realized a mere instant after thinking it. No demon she had ever summoned had proven useful with the exception of Zagan. Almost all had tried to kill her. The ones that hadn’t tried to kill her had still not been very friendly.
While Zagan had proven useful, even unusually helpful, it hadn’t come without a cost. And, at the moment, Juliana was far from desperate enough to try summoning him.
Assuming any demons could even be summoned. Nobody had gotten anything but enigmas since early in the summer as far as Juliana was aware. Her demons had tried to kill her, but they could usually be argued with for a few minutes before they did so. The enigmas would just kill her, eat her, maybe become her? Eva had explained something about vampire enigmas, but she really didn’t get it. And then they would try to tear holes in reality to bring Hell through.
A great way to make a bad situation worse.
Not something that seemed like a good idea at the present time.
But the idea of demons wasn’t wholly without merit. They could sense Eva to some degree, most had ways of getting around quickly—either through super strength, flight, or outright teleportation—and perhaps best of all, one was standing right in front of her. No summoning required.
“Saija,” Juliana said, interrupting her continued diatribe about how innocent she was and how terrible Eva was for nearly killing her, “your wings are lovely.”
The comment stopped Saija’s comments in their tracks. She drew herself up to her full height, puffed out her chest, tilted her chin upwards with only a shadow of a smile showing on her face, and spread out her wings. The action knocked Irene off to the side, prompting a short grunt from her as she recovered her footing, but Saija didn’t even blink.
In a most humble tone of voice, Saija said, “Thanks.”
“They’re real right? I mean, they let you fly?”
“Of course. I wouldn’t just show them off for looks,” she said with a chuckle. For demonstration, she flapped her wings a few times. A fairly uncomfortable breeze stirred up in the hallway, but Juliana didn’t look away even as it dried out her eyes. Saija’s feet left the ground as she kept herself aloft. After a second or two, she dropped back down, landing with all the airs of a professional performer completing a difficult stunt.
“Wonderful,” Juliana said, clapping a few times. “But I suppose they’re too small to carry much more than yourself. Maybe a few small packages.”
“Nonsense. Just today I offered to carry Irene around,” she said, wrapping one arm and one wing around Irene.
Still partially recovering from being shoved aside, Irene might have fallen again as Saija dragged her back had Saija not wrapped her up in a hug.
Juliana had to admit to herself that she felt a bit bad for the girl. Saija didn’t have any friends as far as Juliana could tell. Everyone who hung out with her fit more in the category of admirer. By the looks of things, Irene didn’t quite fit into that category.
She was more of a plaything.
“Really?” Juliana said, not letting her thoughts appear on her face. “That’s pretty impressive. I wonder if you might be willing to offer me a quick ride?”
“Right now?”
“I’m not that heavy,” Juliana lied. Her armor didn’t double her weight, but it was a significant extra. Were she just going for a ride, she would probably shed it. However, she was going to fight. There wasn’t a chance she would be shedding it for any reason.
Though, if she was going to get carried by Saija, she should push any of the demon-harming metal deep inside her armor, covered by regular metal and her clothes.
“But if you’re worried, I understand. They’re very pretty, just not very functional.”
Saija narrowed her eyes. She parted her lips in something of a sneer, enough to show off her sharp teeth. “I could carry ten of you,” she said.
Which made Juliana feel much better about her armor.
“It’s just a bit… hectic outside.”
“Ah,” Juliana said with a knowing nod of her head. “You’re scared.”
Saija actually let out a low, guttural noise from the back of her throat.
“But,” Juliana continued before Saija could say something about how she definitely wasn’t scared and just didn’t want to scratch her nails or whatever, “I’m a little scared too. So why don’t we fly away from the battle, towards the city. We can get a nice bird’s-eye view of the fight while keeping nice and safe.”