The Unlikeable Demon Hunter (Nava Katz #1)(36)

I think I gave him the finger but I might have just imagined it, distracted as I was by the shiny of his nipple rings. That boy had two modes of dress–barely and horribly. I vowed to do a fashion intervention one day.

“For God’s sakes, woman, get up,” Kane said, holding a hand out to me.

I lay there, too tired to even reach for him. “Can I have a cookie?” I wheezed.

“Yes, Nava,” Baruch said, sounding amused. “You may. They’re in the cupboard upstairs.”

“Will you get it for me? Pleeeeeeaaaase?”

He nodded, pulling his hair free from his elastic band. Pretty hair.

“Todah rabah,” I called out in thanks as he and Kane left. I closed my eyes, my arm thrown over my face. If I played my cards right, maybe I could pull this off. Maybe Ari and I could be real live Wonder Twins soon. But you know, not lame. For the first time since I’d become Rasha, I felt like I could take a deep breath.

Footsteps neared and fabric swished as Baruch knelt down beside me. I opened my eyes, hand out to take the cookie, and then drew back. It wasn’t Baruch. It was Drio, squatting down. I burst into full-body Lady Shock mode, my exhaustion trumped by adrenaline.

“Showing off or scared?” he smirked.

“Touch me and find out.” I sat up as calmly as I could manage, given I was alone with a man who aggressively hated me and whose powers were a giant question mark. I didn’t trust his promise to keep me safe.

Where were my guards? The ones that liked me. Or at least tolerated me.

He pursed his lips. “Just came to see the progress. Checking if you’re earning your keep.”

“Impressed?” My heart was hammering and I could feel the electricity rising and falling like swells within me.

“I’ve seen better.”

“Sorry to disappoint.” I scrambled to my feet, sparking so brightly that residual blue sunspots danced before my eyes.

Drio stood up as well. “Shut it down.” He scowled at me.

The electricity flared, cresting off my skin in sharp bursts. I tried to visualize the off-switch but nothing happened.

“Nava.” He grabbed me by the shoulders, but after one quick shake was forced to release me, flinching in the wake of my magic.

A hot tight pain speared my chest. I clutched at it, my eyes watering, sensing this was all about to go sideways.

“Porco Dio,” Drio swore. “Baruch!” he yelled.

I hyperventilated. Pops and crackles jumped off my skin, a metal burning smell clogging my nostrils.

Footsteps pounded down the stairs.

I fell to my knees, feeling every charged particle in my body as the electricity wrapped around me like a snake with its coily embrace. I wheezed, desperate for air.

A heavy blanket lined with rubber enveloped me, arms holding tight around me. “You’re safe,” Rohan said. “Turn it off, Nava. You can do it.”

My cheek pressed against the blanket resting on his chest, I latched on to the even rise and fall of his breathing like it was my lifeline. He kept murmuring to me that I was safe, cradling me in his arms, and ignoring the small sparks not contained by the blanket that were blackening his skin in tiny dots. His voice was hypnotic, soothing me enough that my magic turned off. But I still couldn’t breathe for the pain lancing my chest. I shot him a panicked look.

Rohan lay me down on the floor. The last thing I heard was, “Clear!”

Not more current, I thought, and blacked out.

I came to, still on the padded floor, with four male faces showing varying degrees of concern hovering over me. Baruch crumpled the rubber blanket in one hand. Kane held a defibrillator limply. Rohan’s left eyebrow was scorched.

It wasn’t until I saw Drio, his hands burned from my magic, watching me like he’d missed some kind of manslaughter opportunity, that I was reassured I was okay. I struggled to sit up, Baruch assisting me.

I squinted at the electrodes placed around my sports bra, hooking me up to the bastard child of a fax and an answering machine. Ticker tape stuck out of one end of it. “What happened?”

I had to clear my throat a couple of times to get the words out.

“Not a heart attack,” Ms. Clara said cheerfully. I scrunched up my face in confusion and she tapped the machine. “Portable ECG.” She pulled the electrodes off of me.

“You’re qualified to read it, how?”

“Two years of med school before I dropped out. Apparently I didn’t have the right bedside manner.”

“O-kay.”

“You got… riled up,” Rohan said.

I glared at Drio who bared his teeth at me. “By-product of him wanting me dead,” I said.

“He doesn’t want–” Kane began.

“I don’t?” Drio asked.

“Drio,” Rohan warned.

“I was being friendly and she freaked out.” Drio cocked his thumb and forefinger like a gun, rocking them from side to side in some kind of Italian hand gesture. “Our new Rasha doesn’t play well with others.”

I tugged my clammy T-shirt over my head. “If you call your passive-aggressive intimidation ‘being friendly’ then you’ve got the social graces of a walnut. Pony up. You wanted my power off so you could hurt me.”

“It was becoming unstable.” He tapped his forefinger to his temple. “You’re unstable. Are you on your period?”