It''s hard to describe what happened next-it was fast, and it was dirty and weird. Not dear-Penthouse-forum-you-won''t-believe-what-happened-to-me-last-Groundhog-Day dirty and weird, either. The bad dirty and weird.


    We fell. We fell for a long time, or maybe just half a second, we were pulling a Gandalf and we fell somewhere while Hellfire whipped past us and even through us (don''t ask me; no clue). We fell, and I could hear whooshing and shouting and sounds I didn''t in the least understand, sounds I had never heard in my life, sounds I never wanted to hear again.Advertisement


    My head hurt from Laura''s flurry of punches, my toes hurt from kicking her shins. I wished the Antichrist were a guy so I could rack him in the balls. I wished I were still holed up in our bedroom with Sinclair. I wished I were wearing my Jimmy Choo snake-embossed pumps . . . the toes came to a wicked point. I wished I hadn''t had that extra smoothie . . . it was possible I was going to be the first vampire queen to barf strawberry smoothie all over a portal to/through hell. Urrgg . . . make that a strawberry-banana smoothie . . .


    "Get . . . off!" my sister shrieked, and managed to wrench herself free. This would be a shameful, shameful thing except we were in hell, her territory. And I was scared.


    Not of her-okay, a little of her. I''d seen a side of Laura today I''d never dreamed existed. Which made me a moron, since I''d seen her kill people.


    But I was too new to being a vampire . . . I was afraid if I really fought back I''d hurt her in a way someone who was half fallen angel couldn''t get back from. She might be the badass Antichrist, but she had a human body, which came with a skull and a neck, and both were breakable. So I let her twist free.


    Which was dumb, in retrospect. I fell again (still?). Except this time, I didn''t have a guide cursing me as we plummeted.


    Wake up.


    I didn''t have anyone.


    Wake up, Betsy!


    I just kept falling, alone.


    Wake up!


    Forever. Or maybe it was only for half a second. Falling through hell, and me without a watch.