Free Blood Cursed by Erica Hayes

growing backbone didn’t snap. I didn’t even feel sick.
    I felt great.
    A smile tugged my mouth wide, and I wiped my tears and sidled through the dancing crowd, my damp wings tucked in safe. A sexy troll boy bumped my hip and threw me a jagged black-toothed grin, and I grinned back. I liked the glint in his eye. Maybe I’d come dance with him later.
    Then again, maybe I’d swear off men forever.
    Jasper had disappeared toward the back, so I went that way, sidling to get through. Beneath the mezzanine, the air rippled with heat, thick with sex and candy. My reflection floated along the mirrored wall, a tall shadowy ghost with smoky wings, her knotted hair bloodred. Her eyes burned, her face determined. She looked strange and wild, like the specter of a crazy big sister I never knew I had. A smart, kick-ass, take-no-shit version of me, without the fear. The Ember I wished I could be.
    I crunched my nose in a smile and waved. “Hey, Big Em. You go, girl.”
    To my surprise, Big Em waved back and winked, eyes glowing red. And then she faded like a stain of breath, leaving only me.
    I blinked. Weird. But good weird.
    My silly heels clunked on the ribbed metal floor, and as I hopped down the stairs to the fire escape, my ankles ached. Sooner this was done, sooner I could get home, take a shower, dump this nasty outfit.
    Assuming Jasper would let me take my things, of course, and didn’t leave me with nowhere to go. But I didn’t want to think about that.
    The back firedoor lay ajar, its metal-hinged handle jammed down. I pushed, and it screeched open.
    Hot dry air slammed my face, crinkling the blood on my skin to sticky lumps. I stepped into the alley, where garbagestink from the skip mixed with warm eucalyptus and stale beer. Moonlight glared yellow in my eyes, the brick walls a dusty rainbow of spraypaint and splashed vomit. Charming.
    But my pulse sparkled, treacherous under the hot caress of the near-full moon. My body heated, warmth spreading, and I hated it.
    Moonlight pleasures me. It’s the same with all bloodfae, something about cycles and tides and monthly madness. And in a couple of nights, the moon would be full, so fat and round and juicy, just the thought of it swelled my heart and throbbed my blood with ancient pleasure rhythms that urged me to twirl, dance, fly crazy pinwheels in the moonlight, find a beautiful fairy boy and slide my naked body over his until I moaned.
    But the last thing I wanted to think about right now was my blood.
    The door banged shut, blocking out the noise. My ears rang, clogged with cottony nightclub hangover, and I wobbled my head, straining for voices, footsteps, anything to show me where he’d gone. But silence, just the distant rough whisper of traffic and a screeching crow.
    I flittered into the air and hovered, glancing left and right. Tire grooves lined the narrow asphalt lane, a few parched potholes left by last month’s storms. At the end of the block, a tram rattled up the hill, a distant silver streak.
    No one. Maybe Jasper didn’t come this way after all … .
    Scrape.
    My eartips twitched. Behind me. I dived around in a breezy swish.
    Scrape again. A metallic rattle. Maybe a voice.
    I fluttered up the alley, summer air hot and strong beneath my wings. Garbage’s meaty smell twitched my nose, and my ears hummed. Definitely a voice.
    And then a slim dark body crashed out from behind the row of rusty skips.
    Alarm tingled my tongue, and I darted into the shadows for cover. And then my heart jolted cold. Jasper. On his back. Bleeding, his lovely face a mess.
    He rolled over with a wet gurgle of agony, trying to crawl away, but his legs wouldn’t work. His soft wing membranes scraped the ground, dust shedding, and a jagged bone stuck out from one shoulder.
    My pulse screamed. My feet hit the ground with a clunk, and my muscles jerked, urging me to jump, scuttle, run to him.
    The monster in the shadows leapt out.
    I recoiled, nerves squealing alive. A snarling hellbeast