"How many times do I have to tell you?" Kat asked exasperatedly. "Stop picking your scabs!"Knowing that this reminder would soon be followed by a stinging slap, Calix lowered his hand, which he'd just brought to his face to scratch his cheek. "Sorry."She continued glaring at him, even as he turned his attention back to the boxes in front of them. The past three weeks had allowed his wounds to heal, but in that period he'd also developed a nasty habit of picking and peeling his scabs because he found it to be 'calming'.There were a lot of things he found calming, actually. And fortunately they weren't as gross.First on that list of calming stuff was doing laundry, the frequency of which Kat had narrowed down to twice a week. After being taught how to operate the machines down in the apartment common area, Calix had wholeheartedly shouldered the chore. When she'd tried to help him, he'd only shooed her a

Five hundred bucks. That's how much Ulysses charged access to the VIP lounge. Five hundred bucks. Per person.Paying that not only made Kat a thousand dollars poorer, it also caused some delay, which allowed Damien to waltz inside undisturbed. Now she and Calix had no idea where that turd went.The layout of the lounge didn't help, either.First off, it shouldn't even be a lounge. In Kat's eyes, this area of the club was more an entire hotel floor. It was a series of hallways with private rooms, made extremely fancy with crystal chandeliers, plushy red carpets, cream-colored walls gilded with gold, and a mirror ceiling that did nothing to help them navigate.Now Kat and Calix were strolling around aimlessly, clueless on where to start, trying to use the lights as a guide. However, the tiny orange sparks were scattered around the place, as directionless as they were.When she asked him about this, he just said, "The lights are guides, not pointers. There are many factors that affect th

Kat should've known that when her delusions started with her college dating fails, it would all be downhill from there.And she was right. The whole business of getting stood up in a date was the mildest. Right after it, she was thrown back to the scene that started it all: the day of her death.Only this time, she was as close to death than she ever had been.The asphalt was cold against her cheek, sleek with the blood flowing from her busted temple. Her arm was bent at an awkward angle. People began to crowd around her, but only their feet were visible. She tried to lift her head, to see beyond them and the front of the Range Rover, but what she saw made her regret it.The cloaked figure. The Punisher.Kat expected it to be Calix. She knew it was him originally, and she'd taken comfort in it. However, the face under the mask was Auric Johnson's, pale and smirking. Then, it changed to Rita Arellano's. In a dizzying flicker it shifted again, morphing into the beautiful features of Nave

For a moment Kat's world stopped. Aunt Therese's words dug into her ears like knives, eliciting the greatest wave of denial and utmost refusal in her chest.This can't be true, she tried to assure herself. Surely something was amiss. Surely something as terrible as this couldn't be true. This must just be her aunt's way to get a rise out of her. A comeback, an attempt for a revenge—"I can't believe I had to lie and pretend to spare

The first thing that Kat and Calix met upon being let in by the buff men at the main entrance was the music.Calix expected something fast, brash, and ear-splitting, but to his surprise, the song being played was slow and dark, featuring a piano and a woman's light breathy voice. It contrasted artistically with the wash of red in the circular area of the club, illuminating the black bar counter, the glittery curtains on the stage, and the barely-dressed humans with stiff fake wings and halos."Angels?" he spluttered, facing Kat. "But last time, they were not dressed—or stripped down—like this.""Well, they're going to open in half an hour," she said knowledgeably. "Also, it's Friday. They do themes on Fridays, according to the taste of the highest tipper of the previous week."Calix nodded in understanding, then he paused, eyes narrowed. "Wait. How do you know all that?" Kat shifted uncomfortably. "Let's just say I'm a semi-regular customer."As though to prove that, a couple of men d