Alpha Goddess Read online

  Sera laughed, the tension of the confrontation with her parents draining away. She half expected Kyle to drop out of school most days—he complained about it nonstop. But his foster mom, Carla, insisted on him graduating, saying it was the one thing she’d promised herself he would do under her watch. Carla was great and, though she gave him a lot of freedom, she was adamant about him finishing high school.

  Kyle had been in and out of foster homes his whole life, some pretty terrible. His last foster parents had been evangelists who’d left on a missionary expedition to Africa when Kyle was twelve. He hadn’t seen them since and didn’t care one way or another. As far as negligent parents went, they’d been the bottom of the barrel, caring more for saving their congregation than nurturing a child in their own home. Kyle’s real parents had died when he was five, some kind of accident he’d told her. When Kyle was placed with Carla four years ago, it was the only time in his life he’d actually been happy.

  “Hey, Sera!” a voice yelled out as they drove past a large house just down the street from hers.

  “Oh hi, Dev.” Sera waved back, recognizing the voice’s owner as a tall boy who had moved to the neighborhood that spring. She smiled as he brushed his mop of dark hair out of his face with his forearm, squinting against the glare. In the sunlight, his tanned skin glowed gold, and for a second, her memory jerked back to the girl in the mirror.

  “How’s it going?” she said.

  “Any chance I can get a ride with you guys? My car’s in the shop—”

  Before he could even finish the sentence, Kyle floored the accelerator and the car lurched past the driveway. Sera waved apologetically to Dev, mouthing a silent apology before turning to Kyle.

  “What is your problem? Slow down, it’s like a fifteen-mile-per-hour zone.” She shot him a surprised look. “That was really rude. He just wanted a ride.”

  “I don’t like him. And it’s my car,” said Kyle. “I’m not taking him to his stupid uppity private school.”

  “His school is like three blocks from ours. And we’re not even going to school today, remember?”

  “It’s my car,” said Kyle stubbornly.

  “Look, don’t get snarky just because he goes to private school. I told you he’s nice. I hung out with him over the summer.”

  “Whatever. He has a girl’s name.”

  “It’s unisex, and it’s short for Devendra.”

  “Yeah, short for girl.”

  “Leave him alone, he’s cool. And I like him.”

  Kyle made a sour face and looked over at Sera twirling a strand of purple hair in her fingers. “Well, he’s weird, and what’s with those blue tattoos anyway?”

  Sera burst out laughing. “Are you kidding? You don’t like him because he has tattoos? Isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black?” she said, jerking her eyebrows pointedly to his own inked skull.

  “They’re girly,” Kyle said defensively. “Probably got them from wherever he came from with his cab-driver accent.”

  Sera shot him a disgusted look. “My mother has an accent like that, too.”

  “That’s different,” Kyle shot back sourly. “And you know what I mean.”

  “No, I don’t know what you mean. What is up with you today? Seriously, Kyle, stop being such a snob. You sound like one of Ryan Davenport’s crew.”

  “Me? A snob? Come on, I’m a foster kid, remember,” Kyle said waving a hand for emphasis before jabbing her in her side. “And Ryan Davenport’s a tool.”

  Ryan Davenport, the son of her mother’s friend Eleanor, was captain of the hockey team at Silver Lake High School, and his group of friends included all the more popular kids at school; a group that neither she nor Kyle wanted anything to do with.

  “So what?” Sera said. “That doesn’t exonerate you from being a snob if you look down on someone just because you don’t know them. It makes you as bad as they are.”

  “Exonerate? Is that from your official SAT dictionary?”

  “Shut up. Some of us still plan to go to college, Mr. I-couldn’t-care-less-what-I-do-after-high-school. Whatever, I think the tattoo is super artistic, it’s like fifteen different shades of blue, and it’s across his whole chest and back.”

  Kyle stared at her sharply. “How would you know that?”

  Sera stared back, surprised by what sounded like jealousy in his tone. “Who are you and what have you done with Kyle?” she said. “When most kids swim in a pool, they wear bathing suits. I told you, I hung out with him over the summer while you were doing community service. Since when are you the jealous type anyway?”

  “I’m not. Just don’t like the guy, is all.”

  Sera rolled her eyes, refusing to start the day with a full-out argument. “Fine. Forget it. Let’s just go to Sal’s. I didn’t have breakfast and I’m starving.”

  Sal’s was a seedy local diner on the outskirts of Silver Lake. It was empty except for a couple of people on their way out. The staff there didn’t talk much and didn’t ask questions, which was a nice relief from the general consensus in their small town that everyone should be in everyone else’s business. It was also the type of establishment that most of their upper-class town residents wouldn’t deign to patronize.

  They sat in a booth close to the back and ordered the breakfast platter. Service was quick.

  “So tell me about your dream,” said Kyle, stuffing his mouth with fried potatoes. “Was it gory like last time?”

  “I don’t really want to talk about it,” Sera replied as thoughts of walking on human brains and entrails flashed through her head. “Last night, they were so … real.”

  “Details, please,” Kyle said, leaning forward expectantly. “Seriously, you’re like my own personal muse.”

  “You’re the one who’s into that sort of thing, not me. I don’t even believe in heaven and hell. I don’t even know why I’m dreaming about flying demons or mythical gods with ten arms.” Sera stared at him accusingly. “I think it’s because of you and all those stupid movies you make me watch with flying Valkyrie-devil-angel-thingys.”

  “Come on, you know the devil exists. At least admit that,” said Kyle.

  “I’m an atheist.”

  “You don’t believe in an afterlife? That there’s somewhere we all go after we die? Or even that we could come back as something else. You know, like karma?” Kyle’s voice had gone strangely quiet and he’d actually stopped shoveling food into his mouth.

  She stared at him for a second before responding. “No.”

  In earlier dreams, she’d dreamed of heaven, too, and for a second, Sera wondered at the feeling of knowing that she’d experienced, as if she’d been there before, which was impossible. Heaven didn’t exist, and neither did hell. They were both creations of a morally diseased world.

  “Why?”

  “Because it’s impossible, that’s why. The science of evolution teaches that we came from monkeys, some dumber than others—like yourself, for example, you big ape,” said Sera. “Darwinian evolution is the only scientific explanation for life on Earth.”

  “But that still doesn’t explain how life began,” countered Kyle.

  “Microorganisms. When did you suddenly become a theologian?”

  “When did you become such a cynic?” Kyle launched back. “Look, as much as you don’t want to believe it, there are other things out there, things that neither of us can see. Some people say that the gods walk among us.”

  “What, like in the National Enquirer?”

  Kyle shot her a glare. “You know, it wouldn’t hurt you to be more open-minded.”

  Sera shrugged. “Sure, let’s hold hands and sing ‘Kumbayah,’ and while we’re at it I need to stop by Madame Girard’s for a crystal ball reading on whether my best friend is secretly some outlaw deity.”

  “I’m not,” he sputtered, nearly choking on a piece of toast. “But just because you don’t believe in them doesn’t mean immortals don’t exist.”

  Sera sighed and drank some of her
lukewarm coffee. “OK, fine, I’ll bite. Have you ever seen one of these alleged immortals?”

  “I—”

  Kyle’s answer was interrupted by the sound of obnoxious laughter as a group of boys entered the diner.

  “Great, your buddies just arrived,” Sera said, hunching down in her seat to avoid eye contact.

  “Hey, Sera,” a tall, red-skinned boy drawled. “Slumming again? I’m sure Mommy and Daddy won’t be too happy with you skipping school.”

  “What do you care, Jude?” she said evenly.

  Sera always felt uneasy around Jude. His stare made her feel exposed in a seedy, dark alley kind of way—as though she were a thing rather than a person. Jude grinned and slid into the booth next to Kyle, while the other four guys sat in the booth next to them, leering over the divider. They all had the same tattoos that Kyle did, the strange black dragon wings in various places on their bodies, like they were part of some cult. Jude’s tattoos extended from his neck and shoulders, all the way to the tops of his fingertips. His grin turned conciliatory.

  “Come on, Sera. We haven’t seen you in ages. Surely you missed me,” he pouted, watching her in that unnerving way of his, drumming his long fingers on the table. His fingernails were bitten to the quick, their edges dirty. Sera ignored him, knowing he was trying to get a rise out of her. Jude threw an arm around Kyle, who shot her an apologetic look.

  “Kyle, you tap that yet?” He licked his lips, and Sera reddened. She had the sudden urge to slap the suggestive smirk off his face, but laying a hand on Jude would be unwise. He seemed like the kind of boy who would explode in a second. She bit her tongue.

  Jude smiled, exposing stained teeth that made Sera want to retch. They’d been filed to sharp points. For a moment, the air shimmered and Sera could swear she saw the tattooed wings along Jude’s arms undulate. Her eyes flicked to the others, and their faces rippled with elongated eyes and distorted mouths full of broken, pointy teeth. The air was suddenly hot and suffocating. Why was she hallucinating again? In broad daylight?

  She blinked and realized one of the boys, Damien, had asked her a question. “Wh … what?”

  “Are. You. Going. To. Eat. That?” Damien repeated his words like he was talking to a toddler, indicating her untouched plate. She flinched at the movement of his finger near her face and felt the stares of the other boys settling on her like moths.

  “Yes. I mean, no. You can have it. Look, I have to go. Kyle, I’ll catch you later,” Sera said, lurching out of the booth and throwing a five-dollar bill on the table.

  “What’s the matter, little girl? The big bad wolf scare you?” Jude said, grinning, his teeth normal: small, white, and unfiled. He leaned back and cocked an eyebrow, spreading his arms along the back of the booth. It was not an aggressive movement, but Sera felt some sort of unspoken challenge from him all the same. She couldn’t get away fast enough.

  She raced to the door, feeling like her chest was imploding. Sweat was dripping down her back as though she’d been sitting in a sauna and her breath was coming in shorter and shorter gasps—the beginnings of a colossal panic attack.

  Breathe … breathe … breathe.

  “How’ll you get home?” Kyle yelled after her.

  “Bus.” Sera gritted the word out and flung open the door, heaving great gulps of air into her burning lungs. It felt like she’d been under boiling hot water. She crouched down on the cracked asphalt, concentrating on inhaling and exhaling until slowly her panic subsided. She rubbed damp palms on her jeans.

  “Give me a sec,” she heard Kyle say as he pushed open the door after her, his face worried.

  “Hey, Ser, you OK?”

  She cleared her throat. “I’m fine.”

  “What happened in there?”

  “I don’t know. I swear that I just saw Jude and the rest of them …” She trailed off, unable to articulate what she’d seen or thought she’d seen. She shook her head. “I’ll be OK. I just needed to get out of there. It was so hot, I felt like I was going to pass out. And then the way Jude was looking at me … it just got under my skin. The guy creeps me out.”

  Kyle nodded. “Yeah, I mean, you looked freaked out—like you’d seen a ghost or something—and then I got this weird vibe off you.”

  Sera stared at him. “Off me?”

  “Yeah, like a flash of … I don’t know.” Kyle shrugged, dismissing what he’d been about to say. “It was probably just adrenaline. You looked ready to barf or bolt. So, did Jude do something?”

  “No, he didn’t do anything, it’s just … him. The heat of the kitchen must have gotten to me,” Sera said. “Forget about it. I’m exhausted, barely slept last night, and I think I’m still seeing things. I’ll call you later, OK? I’m just going to head to school. My mom’s probably still home and she’ll flip if she finds out I’ve skipped.”

  Kyle stood, pulling Sera to her feet. “Fine, I’ll meet you back there. I’ll be done with Jude and the boys soon.” Sera looked at him sharply. She could feel Jude’s stare through the scuffed windows of the diner.

  “You’re not … dealing, are you, Kyle?”

  “No, I don’t do that.”

  “Well, why are you hanging around with Jude, then? I don’t get it. He’s bad news.”

  Kyle hesitated as if trying to find the right words. “I’m just helping him out. I keep an eye out, that sort of thing.”

  “An eye out for what?”

  “For certain people he wants me to keep an eye out for. Look, let’s just drop it, OK? I owe him, you know that.”

  “But that doesn’t mean he owns you, does it?”

  “Here we go. I’ll see you later, Mom,” Kyle joked sarcastically, rolling his eyes skyward. He peered over her shoulder. “There’s your bus. You know, if you want to wait, I can take you back after I’m done.”

  She stared at him hard, but he wouldn’t meet her eyes. They’d been through this a hundred times before, and lately it seemed that every time Jude came into the picture, they ended up fighting. She couldn’t win.

  Sera threw her hands into the air. “No thanks. Obviously you have priorities. Do whatever you want.”

  Sera stalked off to the bus. She could feel Kyle watching her, but she didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of looking at him. If he wanted to do something stupid like mess around with Jude and drugs, it was his funeral. She was done caring.

  Her phone buzzed. She didn’t bother to read Kyle’s text before hitting delete and flipped him off through the window just as the bus pulled off.

  Kyle stared after the bus until it was a tiny speck in the distance, pocketing his phone. He thought about the flash of energy he’d felt from Sera in the diner just before she’d rushed out. It had been so brief that he’d barely registered it, and the delayed recognition confused him because he was never, ever wrong. His ability had never failed him.

  Until now.

  Because what he’d felt was impossible. Not Sera. She was human. He’d checked often enough over the years. So either he’d made a mistake or he’d been wrong every time before. Still, the sour feeling in his stomach remained like an unanswered riddle. He must have imagined the flash in the diner. It was the only explanation.

  Kyle closed his eyes, recalling the ephemeral sensation … like the fluff of baby feathers across his skin. There was nothing like it in the world.

  Daeva energy.

  BROTHERHOOD

  Everything OK with your girlfriend?” Jude sneered as Kyle walked back into the diner.

  “She’s not my girlfriend.”

  “Whatever you say. She’d hardly be hanging around if she knew what you were.”

  “Well, she’s not going to know, Jude. She wouldn’t understand.”

  “Maybe we should mess with her mind a little. That’d be fun, wouldn’t it, boys?”

  The others cracked up. Kyle ignored the jibe and slid into Sera’s vacated seat. Most of the leftover food from the table had already been scavenged. He remained silent, watching Jude
and his crew. Even though they looked like boys, they were far from human. They were Ifrit—dark shadow demons who preyed on the energy of the living and killed for fun. They thirsted for life and ruthlessly took it any way they could.

  Kyle wasn’t afraid of them, but if there was one thing he was most afraid of, it was death. Because Sera was wrong. Hell did exist. Only it was called by another name and was filled with horrors far worse than the Ifrit, ones that made the versions of hell in books and movies seem like child’s play. Kyle had seen one of its creatures with his own eyes when he was five years old—the day he'd watched his mother turn into something not quite human.

  Seeing was believing, and Kyle believed.

  Jude grinned. “I’m just playing with you, man. Sera’s cool. Don’t worry, I’m not into her so she’s all yours for now.” He winked, and Kyle felt a surge of anger that he quickly suppressed. “Anyway,” Jude continued, “down to business. We have to check out a new source up in Connecticut, couple hours away. I need you to come along.”

  Kyle relaxed the minute that Jude stopped talking about Sera. He wouldn’t put it past Jude to torture Sera just for sport and to prove to Kyle that he was the alpha dog. Jude was like that. It wasn’t enough to see someone unhappy, he loved to twist and push the knife in further, to make them suffer.

  “When?” Kyle asked.

  “Saturday. We’ll be gone for a few days.”

  “Jude,” Kyle said, “will Azrath be there? I mean, it’s been a few months already. Surely he’s seen what I can do, how I can serve him?”

  “Lord Azrath, Kyle,” Jude snapped, “and he’s a very busy person. Trust me, he knows about you. But you have to prove yourself, and you haven’t done that yet. He’ll find a use for you soon enough, and then you’ll get to meet him.”

  “Yeah, man,” Damien said. “It takes a certain kind of sacrifice to prove yourself worthy. Took me a couple of weeks, I think.”

  “But it’s been eight months,” Kyle said.

  “Well, maybe that’s because you’re a half-breed.”