Blessed by Night-Chapter 474: I’m Fast As F*ck Boyyy

Joanne appeared behind Malachi just as he changed back to human form and lifted Opal into his arms.

He only needed to say one thing to her.

"There’s a bomb!"

For a split second, Joanne felt she was reliving one of the most traumatic experiences of her life.

Her pupils trembled. She saw the building go up in flames right after she had just fled it like a broken doll.

And she remembered what she lost inside.

Joanne knew that she had meant everything she said to Awena in her last moments. She also knew that if she could have, she would have taken everything back.

"Jo!" Malachi yelled.

The sound of her husband’s voice pulls her from the uncomfortable fog of her past.

She clenched her fists together to wake herself up and darted off without another word.

Joanne felt something fundamental in her body change.

Using her powers had always made the world around her seem slow, but now, it felt like she was also living faster.

She was so filled with energy that it felt like she was on a high.

It was dangerous.

It felt like she was driving a racecar at full speed in the middle of an elementary school pickup line.

There were several instances where she almost crashed into a wall or flew through a person.

She whipped through the building as a streak of light, checking every room, wastebasket, drawer, and bulletin board that she laid her eyes on.

She couldn’t find anything.

Joanne wracked her energetic brain for something, anything that might help her deduce the location of an explosive.

Her mind went to but a single place.

’Boiler room..!’

Joanne changed direction completely and rushed downstairs.

She didn’t kick open the door to the boiler room so much as she phased through it... something that she would definitely be losing a fair bit of sleep over later, but as of now, could not afford to think about.

As she expected, there was an explosive device strapped to the side of the boiler, that the janitor had apparently just discovered.

To make matters worse, it seemed she was too late. The device was already exploding.

She could see the sparks rippling across the surface of the device. They slowly began to creep outward to widen their birth.

Joanne knew she was out of time.

She quickly took off her coat jacket and wrapped it around the bomb before ripping it off the boiler.

Immediately turning tail, she rushed out of the building even faster than she had entered it. She never noticed it, but parts of her body started to break down and become particles of radiant light.

Joanne flew into the sky as high and as quickly as she could before hurling her jacket and the bomb into the sky.

She exhaled for the first time since the madness started and watched as the explosion rocked the world around her.

-

From his perspective, Malachi had blinked, and Joanne was gone.

It surprised him at first, since he had never once in his life seen her move so quickly that even he had trouble keeping up with her.

But as soon as he had the thought, he heard a large explosion come from outside.

Opal stirred weakly in his arms. "Are we... dead..?"

"Doesn’t seem like it.."

"Shit... I was tired of paying taxes."

Malachi laughed halfheartedly. "Bet you miss the apocalypse now, huh?"

"Never said I didn’t..."

Malachi pulled out his phone and dialed a number.

As soon as the phone connected, he heard the sound of Aisha’s tomboyish voice on the other line.

"Why are you calling my wife?"

Malachi rolled his eyes. "I need her to track me and save someone’s life. That a good enough reason?"

The silence on the other end is all he needs to hear.

"...I swear I was joking."

"Sure you were."

Malachi felt a tap on his shoulder.

Looking back, he finds Sabine standing behind him and waving with her usual innocent smile.

"...That was fast." Malachi puts Opal on top of her desk.

"You’re a newborn demon who hasn’t learned to control their musk yet. Finding you was almost easier than finding my own hand." Sabine giggled.

Malachi suddenly looked completely crestfallen. His next words almost came out as a broken whisper.

"...I’m musty...?"

Sabine’s giggling devolved into full-blown laughter as she placed her hand over Opal’s injuries without being asked.

"If it makes you feel any better, regular mortals can’t smell it."

"It doesn’t..!"

"Oh well, I tried." Sabine shrugged.

Malachi slowly backed out of the room, his mental image shattered.

-

Mal didn’t end up finding Joanne so much as she found him.

From the moment he went outside to look for her, Joanne circled him in excess of ninety times in a single second.

"Babe, I did it, the bastards strapped the bomb to the boiler, they could have killed everybody, but I found it just as it was blowing up and I-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa..." Malachi grabbed Joanne’s shoulders warily. "Are you alright, love..?"

"Oh, I’m fine! I think. I feel great, though. Got a lot of energy, I think it’s because I was going so fast, I feel like I became like speed itself for a second, isn’t that crazy? My body feels kinda sore, and my wings feel like they’re burning, but it’s not that big of a deal, my hand is worse to be honest.."

Joanne held up her badly burned hand before her husband’s eyes.

"Shit, babe, you need-"

"No, it’s okay, it’s healing, look!" Joanne waved her hand in front of Malachi’s face.

Sure enough, the skin was regrowing on it’s own, and much faster than it normally would have.

But in contrast, Joanne was losing weight much faster than normal. Malachi could see that her pants fit her more loosely now than they had when they left the house.

"Okay..." Malachi was dumbfounded. "Why don’t we-"

"You’re very handsome."

"...Huh?"

"I like the way your face looks." Joanne patted Malachi on the cheek. "Your mom did a good job. Both of them."

"...Uhh..."

Joanne suddenly wrapped her husband in a fierce hug. "Can you hold me for a bit...? I’m kind of tired." She murmured.

Malachi’s concern for Joanne was steadily rising. He was tempted not to let her go to sleep at all.

"You know... I hope that if we have a son, he has a face just like yours..."

Jo fell asleep, likely not realizing what she’d said. And Malachi, unprepared for the last words that left her lips, wondered if she understood just how much what she said had meant to him.