Blood of the Devil

Chapter 25 - With Me or Against Me

As Letha stepped back into the restaurant, Mickey and min came through the front door. Min was laughing a wrapping a length of sun burnt orange cloth around her head.

"What if you think?" She asked Letha, pouting and batting her lashes.

Letha froze, eyes flicking from Min to Mickey, who offered a small smile. She looked away. "Aren't you already wearing a scarf."

With a loud laugh, Min let the fabric slide off her head, folding it neatly over her arm. "Mickey bought it at Uluru for me," she explained, smiling broadly at her friend, "and I love it!"

"I saw it and thought..."

"When do we leave?" Letha demanded suddenly, glaring at Mickey.

He stopped mid-sentence, his hands buried in his pockets, and his smile disappeared. "Letha," he hissed.

"That's my name," she sneered, "don't wear it out."

Mickey snorted, "how original."

"When. Do. We. Leave?" Letha yelled, digging her nails into her palms.

He rushed forward, smiling apologetically at Min. "Stop being rude," he hissed.

"Screw you," Letha spat, "your experiment is a failure. Strap on a pair, accept it, and take me back to my brother."

Min coughed delicately from across the room, watching the pair of them standing very close and very angry. "Experiment?" She asked quietly.

Letha's head whipped in her direction. "You stay out of this." Her eyes were dark, feral, against her pale skin and her nostrils were flaring.

"Don't talk to her like that," Mickey thundered. Al popped his head ok of the kitchen, frowning, but Min waved him back on; the big softie would only get in the way. "You can't just treat people like dirt, like they don't matter."

"But they don't matter to me," she's screeched, spinning away from him. She slammed her fist into the wall and Min cringed on behalf of her decorations.

Letha whipped back to face Mickey, her fingers knotted in her hair. "You don't get it. I protect me, and I protect Hadrian. Nobody else matters to me. I don't give a damn about them, so I'm not going to waist my energy pretending that I do."

"No," Mickey craned his neck to stare up into her face, brow furrowed, "that can't be true. Or at least not the whole reason."

"Why can't it be?" Letha demanded, her arms falling limp by her side, "does it destroy your belief in the power of good? Ruin the storybook ending you have written for the entire world inside that rented space you call a brain?"

Letha laughed coldly. "Why the hell am I still here?" Her gaze flicked to Min, expression blank. "Where's the nearest bus stop?"

The startled woman pointed down the street. "On the corner."

Mickey caught Letha's shoulder before she'd taken a step past him. "You can't run away from everything."

Before he had finished, Letha's fist was aimed at his forehead, but he caught it easily. "You missed."

Letha boot connected quickly with his shin, but as he fell, he dragged her down with him. Mickey landed on his back, a pillow breaking his fall, and his stomach broke Letha's. She elbowed him in the gut and Mickey growled. "That's it."

He caught her forearms in both hands and rolled away from the closest table, pinning her to the floor. "You can't go around trying to hit or kick or slap people."

The bell above the restaurant door rang, and it pushed open to reveal a pair of elderly women. The first took a few steps inside before she saw the pair on the floor.