Heroine Complex (33 page)

WHAT THE FUCK.

That was the only thought my brain was capable of. But you know what? It seemed warranted.

What. The. Fuck.

My adorable, dorky, bespectacled boyfriend was related to Shasta? Who was apparently evil and way older than she looked and somehow in charge of this whole demon-human hybrid operation?

Was she a hybrid, too? Or something even worse?

“Leave them alone,” Nate growled. “I'll go with you, but they don't need to be part of this.”

Shasta threw her head back and cackled, a sound like a glass bottle being shattered over a rock. Maisy, who was still standing behind her, winced.

“Oh, Nathaniel,” Shasta said. “‘Nathaniel' . . . what an adorably mundane human name you gave yourself, by the way. Nothing like the one
I
gave you. Don't worry, I'll come for you later. Ever since I saw you at the League benefit—and really, it was so nice to reconnect—I've planned on bringing us back together. But for now I've got other things to worry about.”

I tried to look at him, to gauge his expression. Shasta snapped her fingers, and as I turned my head, I was hit by a searing pain. It was like being stabbed all over by a million knives.

“Ah, do you like that?” Shasta said. “It's taken me years, but I've finally perfected how my force fields function in your world. If you move, it will hurt like a bitch and probably damage all your internal organs. And if you keep trying to move through the pain, you'll eventually die.” She flipped her hair, obviously pleased with herself. “My latest field is so brilliant, it doesn't take up physical space—it exists on a whole other plane of the Earthly dimension. So they can't see us. Or accidentally walk into us.” She gestured to the crowd in front of Pussy Queen. “They think I escorted Aveda inside after the sun got to be too much for the poor dear. Superheroes are quite delicate, aren't they?”

She grinned. There was still lipstick on her teeth.

“What do you want?” Aveda asked. I was heartened to hear her usual imperious tone.

“Isn't it obvious?” Shasta strode toward Aveda, her heels clicking ominously. I willed myself not to shrink away from her as she came to a stop and planted her hands on her hips, looming over us. “As you may have realized—or maybe not, since you're all so stupid—I've been slowly infiltrating San Francisco society, one local celeb at a time.” Shasta snapped her fingers, and gray, rotting versions of Stu Singh and Tommy Lemon appeared behind her. “I know you thought you took out my demon-human hybrids, Aveda,” Shasta said smugly. “But these guys can easily reconstitute themselves after being burned to bits. And their limbs can be detached—” She nodded at Stu, who gamely demonstrated by breaking his arm off and waving it around. “Or expanded.” She grinned at Maisy, who held out her taloned hand. It inflated before our eyes, just as it had during our karaoke battle, morphing into a gigantic, menacing claw. I shuddered. Apparently Shasta's minions could move through the force field, no problem.

“Why, Tommy managed to inflate his entire being during your Yamato face-off so he was nearly as big as
the movie screen—pretty cool, eh?” Shasta said, grinning as Maisy deflated her hand back to normal size.

Do something
,
I thought frantically.
You have to do something. You have to
—

What? What could I do? Set Shasta on fire? I'd landed with both arms twisted awkwardly underneath me and the force field was making it impossible to move. If I tried to conjure up a fireball from my current position, I'd incinerate myself.

“But back to what I want,” Shasta purred. “I need one final minion. And it's you, Aveda. It
has
to be you.”

She reached down, grabbed Aveda's arm, and dragged her away from us. Aveda cried out as the force field stabbed into her.

“No!” I screamed. I attempted to sit up and nearly passed out from the pain. My stupid arms were still pinned beneath me.

“Mother,” Nate said. “Please.”

“Oh, hush up, all of you,” Shasta said irritably. She dumped Aveda in front of her minions. “I need peace and quiet for my hybridization ritual.”

Shasta grabbed Aveda's arm again and started to yank her into a standing position. Aveda screamed.

Do something. Do something. You have to
—

“Your plan sucks,” I blurted out. I had no idea why I'd said that. I didn't even know what her plan was, exactly. But my haphazard insult had the desired effect. Shasta dropped Aveda's arm, whipped around, and glared at me.

“Excuse me?” she hissed. “My plan is amazing: fabulous demon princess reinvents herself as a successful businesswoman, cozies up to the Bay Area's most notable figures and converts them into demon-human hybrids, thereby creating her own cabal to run the city. What sucks about that?”

“Just the city?” I countered. “Not, like, the world?” All I could think was this was like the dopey
Heroic Trio
villain who only wanted to take over China.

“We'll start with San Francisco,” Shasta said. “And move on to the world from there. Now if you will kindly stop interrupting me . . .”

This time, she didn't bother with Aveda's arm. She just grabbed Aveda by the hair and wrenched, attempting to pull her to her feet. Aveda's face twisted in pain and she screamed again, but she resisted with all her might, planting her hands on the ground and dragging her weight forward, pulling Shasta toward her. Shasta blew out a frustrated breath and let go.

I couldn't help but wonder why none of Shasta's minions were helping her. They were all just sort of frowning in her direction, looking put out.

Okay,
I thought, trying to get my scattered thoughts in order.
Maybe I can use that.

I desperately wanted to look at Nate, but I knew the force field would retaliate. I had no idea what he knew about all this, what he even was, what . . .

No. Don't think about that. The priority right now is getting us out of this. The priority is making sure we don't die or get turned into freaky hybrids.

I refocused on Shasta.

“You're not even going to get San Francisco,” I said, making my voice as clear and confident as possible. Shasta seemed unable to resist responding to bitchy taunts. Maybe I could stall her with a whole mess of bitchy taunts, inch one of my arms out from under me, and then nuke her ass. I didn't know if she, like her hybrids, had the ability to reconstitute herself, but I was guessing that going up in flames would at least distract her for a moment. And if I moved slowly, maybe it wouldn't be as painful. I dragged my arm a tiny bit to the side.

Fucking ow.

So moving was going to be a one millimeter at a time kind of thing.

“That's right,” Aveda said. “You're
not
going to be
able to get San Francisco. I don't think you realize just how particular San Franciscans are.” I looked at her in surprise. Her voice was shaky, but she met my eyes and gave me a little nod, then winced. She knew what I was trying to do. “Look at the figures you targeted,” she continued. “You've got a third-rate actor, a super-annoying blogger, and a dude who plays piano at an establishment that would charitably be referred to as a ‘hole.'”

“No offense,” I said to Stu Singh.

Stu held up a desiccated hand, indicating we were cool.

“Whatever.” Shasta flapped a hand at her minions. “They think my plan is brilliant.”

“Wee-eeelllll . . .” Tommy Lemon shifted uncomfortably, his glassy eyes going to the ground. His voice had the same watery, inhuman quality as Maisy's.

“That doesn't sound like a vote of confidence to me,” I said, trying to egg Tommy on.

“Your plan sounded brilliant initially,” Tommy said to Shasta. “But we didn't realize it had strings.”

“You get to be fucking immortal,” she snarled. “What are the strings?”

“I'm guessing the bit where you had to disappear from the public eye and pretend to be in the Andes maybe wasn't the greatest thing for a big movie star?” I coaxed.

“That's right,” Tommy said, nodding eagerly. “This mysterious retreat hasn't been sitting well with my fans. They just want more movies, ya know?”

“We also didn't realize we'd have to look like this all the time,” Maisy said. She frowned at her flaky gray hands. “Honestly, Shast, I don't know how you expect us to be this gosh-dang powerful cabal when we can't even go out in public.”

“People will adapt,” growled Shasta. “Once they realize we're in charge—”

“Once nothing,” Aveda said. “I know it's a little racist, but the public tends to prefer it when your skin stays on your body.”

Shasta glowered at her. “I think you'll feel differently once you've been hybridized. Now. We should really get started.” Apparently resigned to the fact that she wasn't going to be able to get Aveda to stand, Shasta knelt down next to her.

I attempted to move my arm again. The force field stabbed me so hard, I gasped out loud.

“Evie,” murmured Nate.

I ignored him. I couldn't think about him right now. If I thought about him even a little bit, I would come apart.

“Why do you want a minion who clearly wants nothing to do with you?” I said, trying to divert Shasta's attention back to me. “It sounds like these other guys went willingly, but Aveda is about as un-minion-like as you can get. For a demon princess, you lack foresight.”

Shasta sprang to her feet, rage sparking in her eyes. “I have plenty of foresight,” she growled. “I've been working on this plan for years!”

Years?
My thought process came to a screeching halt.
What did she mean by . . . Was she . . .

Shit. Of course.

“As in eight years?” I guessed. “You're one of the original humanoid demons? The ones who came through the first big portal?”

“I
opened
that portal.” She threw me a scathing look. “And I actually came here way before that, for research purposes. The demon elders were looking to expand their empire, and I knew if I could find the perfect realm to invade and annex, they'd finally give me the respect I deserve. You know, promote me from demon princess to queen. And your realm was just so . . . shiny. So full of beautiful things and beautiful dresses and beautiful people.” For a moment, her rage dissipated, and she gave a blissful sigh. “I knew if I could become one of those beautiful people, I'd be able to enslave humanity and the elders would allow me to rule your realm forever.”

“You thought you could enslave humanity by being
beautiful?” Aveda said, her voice heavy with skepticism. She met my eyes. When Aveda and I were kids, our co-dependent connection meant we could communicate entire paragraphs of thought in a single look. I tried to do that now:
Just keep Shasta evil monologuing. She seems to be really into bragging about this damn plan of hers and if she keeps doing that, I know I can drag my arm out from under me and set her on fire and save us all.

I tried shifting the weight of my torso, freeing my arm a bit.

That's it. That's it . . .
I moved my arm a fraction of an inch then stopped when the force field pain hit me. It felt like it was seeping through my skin, wrapping itself around my lungs and squeezing.

“Ugh, Shast.” Maisy rolled her sunken eyes. “You're explaining things all wrong, as usual.” She turned to us. “She thought she could just magically become one of our human-type celebrities. Entrance all of us that way. She didn't understand that becoming a celebrity requires panache.”

“And some kind of talent,” Tommy chimed in. “That's what I've been trying to advise her on—the actorly side of things.”

“So you came here from the Otherworld through your own portal for, uh, research,” I said, trying to keep Shasta talking.

“Correct,” Shasta said. She examined her nails, now in full evil monologue mode. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. I mean, yes, I
wanted
her to be in full evil monologue mode, but I was starting to see why her minions looked so fed up. I noted that Maisy looked especially fed up. Something else I could use.

“It was a very experimental one-person portal,” Shasta continued. “But I knew if I worked hard, I'd eventually be capable of bigger, better things.”

“So then, eight years ago, once you'd deemed us suitable for invading, you opened a way larger, scarier
portal from the Earth side. And brought a whole posse of humanoid demons through.” I had another sudden, desperate urge to look at Nate, to see if he knew any of this already. But I couldn't risk the force field pain. I needed to conserve any pain-tolerating abilities I might have for getting my stubborn arm out from underneath me.

Shasta beamed. “Every celebrity needs an entourage.”

“But obviously something went wrong,” Aveda snarked. “Because your entourage ended up dead.”

I noticed she was attempting to drag herself away from Shasta and the minions, but she was making about as much progress as I was in trying to move my arm. I met her eyes again.
It's okay
, I tried to tell her.
Stop moving. Save your strength. I got this.

Shasta's face darkened. “I may not have had my bigger portal-opening spell entirely worked out, particularly from the human world side . . .”

“Yeah, to say the least,” Maisy snorted. “Your stupid portal snapped shut immediately and killed your entire invasion team and trapped you here with no meaningful way of communicating with the Otherworld.”

“And I didn't let that stop me!” Shasta exclaimed, throwing her arms out dramatically. “If anything, I was even more determined to rule you humans.”

“Whoa,” Tommy said. “You're hitting that line a little hard. Remember what we talked about with dramatic monologues? You gotta loosen up, connect with people, be more real—”