“Yes, there does seem to be a two-million-dollar bounty on your head,” Phil said. It had taken him all of five minutes of sitting behind his computer before he pulled that information. “I’ve heard five substantiated reports across my whisper network.”

“Who called the hit?” I asked.

“It would seem Benny’s number two put out the hit, but you have to understand how primitive this technology is—I had to interrupt phone signals and combine that with scattershot data from several disparate sources before I could even cobble this much information together… but yes, that is my best guess.”

“How confident are you in that?”

Phil shrugged. “Seventy-three percent, give or take. Enough to confidently say it, but not enough to recommend you reign hellfire down upon them, just in case I am wrong.”

“Can I reign hellfire on anyone?” I asked. “Because this is seriously hurting my reputation, and I am pissed off.”

“That’s not the thing I would be most concerned about,” Phil said. “There is a Firestarter out there, and she can actually kill you. That’s where my concentrations would lie at present if I were you.”

“That bitch took a passive role in trying to kill me, as far as I know. She didn’t attack until I showed up. This hit, though, it’s actively trying to take me down, and while there aren’t that many ways to kill me, there are enough monsters with enough know-how that I need this hit taken off me first. The Firestarter is next.”

“Umm… speaking of…” Phil tapped on his keyboard a few times. “There seems to be a contingent of assassins approaching your mother’s house as we speak.”

He turned his monitor so I could see it. The video showed a green, hazy image where a group of masked monsters with assault rifles were milling around Mom’s house.

“What?” I said. “How would they—” It came to me. I haven’t had my name on a lease in a decade or more. My last known address was my mother’s house, which didn’t matter until somebody called a hit out on me. “Porth i dŷ mam.”

“Where are you going?” Candy said, entering the room, covered in a towel. “Didn’t you just get here?”

“Wow, you are getting comfortable,” I replied.

“Phil said I could use his shower. It has very good pressure.”

“Thank you,” Phil replied with a smile. “I calibrated it myself.”

“It was nice.” She touched her stomach. “I couldn’t rub the black stain where you removed my tag, though.”

“It will fade away with time,” I said. “Just stay here. Things are getting dicey out there.”

“You mean they’re staying dicey out there, don’t you?” Candy asked.

I rolled my eyes behind my sunglasses without replying and disappeared into the portal. All the lights were off in the house when I entered my mom’s living room. I tiptoed up the stairs. Family was a weird thing. I hated my mother, but I also loved her. I certainly didn’t want her to die, even though I sometimes did, in short bursts. There was a familiarity there and a deep bond. I wasn’t sure there was anything else there, but I couldn’t stand the thought of losing her.

She birthed me. She made up half of my DNA. She didn’t deserve what God did to her, and she didn’t deserve to be hunted like an animal. I learned long ago that I could want her to pay for the way she treated me without wanting her dead and that sometimes, it was okay to wish her dead without actually wanting her dead.

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I rushed down the hall when I reached the top of the stairs. Mom’s door was the second on the right, with my old room being the first. She turned it into an art studio after I moved out, and then an exercise studio, and then it devolved into a cluttered storage unit.

I heard moaning from the room, and when I flipped on the lights, I saw her on top of a man—a boy, really. He couldn’t have been more than twenty-two. I wasn’t judging her for that, but no kid ever wanted to see their mom in that position.

“Mom!” I shouted, turning away.

Her tone was nonchalant. “Well, hello, Oleander. What a surprise to see you. As you can see, I’m a bit busy now. If you could—”

I ran to the window. The bushes rustled under me, and I watched movement in the darkness of the front lawn. “I’m sorry, Mom, but I can’t. There are bad men outside.”

“Always ruining my good time.” Mom rolled away from her lover. “I’m sorry, Gill, but we’ll have to finish this another time.”

“But—” Gill tried to say.

“No buts, Gill. I would rather not have you die today. I’ll call you, okay?” She snapped her fingers, and Gill vanished. “You know, this barging in is getting to be a problem.”

I wheeled on her. “Would you rather I let you die?”

Mom scoffed. “Please. Many have tried in my life, none have succeeded. I think you forget I carried a flaming sword during the Rebellion. I reigned hellfire on Sodom—I can handle myself.”

“There weren’t assault rifles back then, Mom.”

“Oh, piffle.” She pulled a shirt over her head.

“Not piffle. These killers know what I am, and I’m sure they’re prepared with black bullets forged from demonic weapons—and I came across a woman, mom. A Firestarter that could control the flames of Hell. We are not invulnerable to pain or death. Don’t forget that.”

“I suppose you’re—”

All at once, the bullets rained down throughout the house. I pulled Mom to the ground as something large smashed through the front door. Glass broke on the other side of the hall, and two demons appeared in the doorway.

“Get out of my house!” Mom screamed, blue fire blazing in her eyes. She clasped her hands together, and an inferno of fire exploded in front of her, a power I never mastered. The two demons rushing toward us lit on fire. “Do you know how long I spent making this house perfect?”

I tried to pull Mom back, but she ripped her hand away from me. She turned down the hallway where a cadre of dwarves with long beards fired at us. Without blinking, Mom created a forcefield around herself that ricocheted the bullets back on the group, sending them to the ground. The dwarves sprawled all over the floor, bleeding.

“Look at this place! It’s a disaster!” Mom growled. “And do you know what kind of problem I’m going to have with the homeowner’s association about this noise?”

She stepped over them as I followed. Two demons with Uzis fired up at her when she reached the landing. She stopped the bullets with a glance and pushed them back at the demons. Behind her, the door opened. The monster behind it didn’t have a chance to attack. Mom snapped her fingers, and it exploded into a pile of goo.

“Do you know how hard it is to get guts and blood out of carpet? This is unacceptable!”

Mom leaped down to the living room. Lights shone at her from outside the house. She pulled her hands together, and the demons on either side of the house smashed through the windows and crashed together in the center of the room. Mom looked down and pulled off both of their heads as if it were as easy as breathing.

And then she was done. Her body was covered in blood, and her chest heaved with wild and reckless abandon. She wiped the green blood off her cheek and licked it off. Mom had told me stories, but I had never seen her being a total and complete badass before.

She caught my eye as I stepped over the dead demons toward her. “I’m surprised you were afraid of these demons, my love. I barely broke a sweat beating them. I really should have trained you better.”

I grabbed her hand. “Later, Mom. There will be more, and I have to get you to safety.”

“Safety.” She laughed. “They are the ones who should be going for safety. I’m not going anywhere. I have to clean all this up.”

“Please, Mom.”

“Give me one good reason.”

I sighed. “You may be right. These demons can’t hurt you, but they are still going to try. Until I get this hit called off me, they’ll keep coming, over and over. Not just for you, but for everyone I care about.”

“So, yourself.”

“I care about more than just myself!” I yelled. “Not now, Mom!” I steadied my breath. “They’ll come for Phil, too. If you don’t care about leaving for me, then come to help Phil. You like Phil, right?”

“He’s fine, I suppose.”

“My recklessness got him kidnapped before. I can’t let it happen again.”

“Fine.” She brushed her hands together, and as she did, the demons vanished, and her house repaired itself. “Hrm. I suppose that wasn’t as hard as I made it out to be, was it, darling? Very well, let’s go protect your friend.” She smiled at me. “It’s so nice to see that you still need your mommy.”