Chaos Bites by Lori Handeland Page A

the soul snatcher back to hell before he could collect. She hadn’t been all that grateful.
    “Kiss my ass,” she said sweetly.
    Ruthie had ordered Jimmy and Summer to work together so Jimmy could keep an eye on her. I kind of thought that was rewarding Summer for bad behavior. All she’d ever wanted was Sanducci. Too bad he loved me.
    “What are you doing here, Lizzy?”
    Or he had. Now I wasn’t so sure.
    “You don’t look happy to see me.”
    Summer snorted. I flicked my hand, and she flew backward a few feet, landing on her perfect little butt with a thud and a grunt. Dust cascaded over her pristine boots. A deep growl rumbled from inside that did not match her outside. She lifted her arms and shot sparkling dust from the tips of her fingers.
    The sprinkles hit me in the face, cool and a little sticky. I’d closed my eyes, and when I opened them diamonds seemed to twinkle on my eyelashes. But I remained on my feet, and I felt no compulsion to cluck like a duck. Instead, I stuck out my tongue.
    Jimmy sighed. “It’s hardly fair to zap Summer when she can’t zap you back.”
    “There’s fair”—I let my gaze wander over the fairy as she got up, trying to dust the dirt from her jeans but somehow managing to grind it in farther—“and then there’s fun.”
    Jimmy’s lips twitched. So did mine. Sometimes it seemed as if nothing had changed.
    Then his mouth tightened, his eyes hardened, and he turned away.
    Other times I knew that everything had.
    There were so many things about Jimmy I no longer understood, so many years we’d been apart, years when I thought he’d been gallivanting around the world boinking his way through the Sports Illustrated Super-model Club. He probably had been. But in between boink-a-thons he’d been killing demons. A lot of them.
    “You weren’t aware she had the power of the sun?” Jimmy’s voice contained not even the slightest tingle of warmth.
    “No,” Ruthie said softly. “Could be a power she inherited from her mother.”
    “A phoenix was a symbol of the sun god in Egypt,” Jimmy murmured. “So I’d say that was possible. Ever see her mom do what she just did?”
    “ She’s right here,” I said.
    Everyone ignored me.
    “No,” Ruthie repeated. “Though that doesn’t mean she couldn’t.”
    “Sawyer?”
    “No.”
    “You’re sure?”
    Ruthie’s dark, bland gaze met Jimmy’s. Ruthie was always sure.
    “What about her father?”
    “Not a clue who he is.”
    “Is that not a clue, not a clue?” I put in. “Or not a clue but you secretly have a clue.”
    “What?” Jimmy asked.
    “She said she didn’t know who my mother was, either, but surprise! She did.”
    “I still think you slept with something else and absorbed another power,” Summer muttered.
    “I still think I should ram a steel rod down your throat and bury you with rowan so you never rise.” I shrugged. “But we can’t always get what we want.”
    “Girls,” Ruthie said. “Enough.”
    Summer and I shut up, satisfying our craving for physical violence by glaring at each other.
    “Why are you here?” Jimmy asked again.
    “Ruthie said you needed help.”
    Jimmy scowled at Luther. “I could have handled this.”
    “Yeah, you were doing a great job,” I muttered, and earned a glare from Sanducci that matched the equally vicious one I was still getting from the fairy.
    A bright flash of light drew his gaze past me, and he paled despite the olive tone of his skin. “What the fuck?”
    I spun. Lord only knew what could make Sanducci pale like that.
    Faith—once again a chubby baby—had her face pressed to the window. Her gray eyes shone luminescent with unshed tears as she pounded against the glass. Her naked chest hitched as she drew in a breath that would no doubt break every ear drum in the vicinity.
    Once again she’d developed human skills in far too short a time to be human. A few days ago I’d had to support her neck like a just-born infant. Now she stood on her own