Motion warned the elf. Andre glanced up as Brisbane’s spiked butt swung through the air, backed by sixty pounds of muscle. It caught Andre full in the face, driving a hundred of the long barbed quills deep into his flesh. Andre screamed. He jerked off of Law and scrambled backwards with Brisbane in pursuit. The slow-moving porcupine had no hope of catching the male, but Brisbane was at least chasing him away from Law.
“Get ’em, Brizzy! Sic ’em.” Law clawed at the spell on her chest, her body still jerking and writhing. Her hand finally obeyed her enough to rip the paper off. The spasms stopped but all her muscles continued to tremble.
She fumbled with her baseball bat, trying to get to her feet. Her hands wanted to stay tight fists. Her legs didn’t want to hold her up. Andre’s face was full of quills, making him look like he had a massive starched beard, but somehow Brisbane had missed his eyes. He backed up to the SUV and then half-fell into it.
If he picked up one of the many guns inside, she was screwed. She abandoned her attempts to pick up the baseball bat and stumbled toward the SUV as fast as she could make her wobbly legs move.
Andre fumbled in the truck’s dark interior. He shouted something over and over again. On the fourth shout, she realized it was an Elvish name. He was calling for backup. He found a rifle, swung it up, aimed and pulled the trigger. The click of the hammer landing on an empty chamber was the loudest noise that Law ever heard.
He swore, snatched up a magazine, and loaded the rifle. He lifted it again.
Law slammed the hatch shut onto his legs.
He screamed and pulled the trigger. The muzzle flash brightened the interior of the SUV. The bullet smashed out the back window and grazed Law’s upper arm. It felt like someone hit her in the shoulder with a lead pipe. She lifted the hatch and slammed it down on his legs again, throwing all her weight against the panel. There was a muffled scream from within the Explorer and four more shots fired. Bullets whined over her head. Then there was stillness and the scent of blood filled the air.
What the hell?
Law risked glancing through the hatch’s shattered window.
One of the bullets had ricocheted and torn through Andre’s throat. Blood had sprayed the inside of the Explorer.
“Oh God, what a mess.” She’d put men in the hospital before, but she’d never killed a man before. Technically she hadn’t killed him; she’d just beat the snot out of him before he shot himself. She wasn’t sure if the police would see it that way.
A shout and the sound of running boot steps made her realize that was the least of her worries. Andre’s backup was arriving. They were going to be pissed when they saw his quill-filled dead body. There were four of them, lean and dark, racing toward her like a pack of wolves.
“We’re so dead, Brizzy.” Law heaved the Explorer’s hatch door open and pulled the assault rifle from Andre’s dead fingers. Her hands were still shaking from the effects of the spell. Blood was pouring down her left arm from where the bullet cut through her, making the rifle slick.
The lead elf suddenly went down as if clotheslined. The others jerked to a halt, weapons raised.
“It’s the Death Wind!” one of them shouted. The remaining three drew swords and put their backs together. Law couldn’t risk shooting until she knew where Bare Snow was.
St. John’s church bells started to ring in midnight. They were seconds to Shutdown. Pittsburgh would return to Earth that had no magic. Bare Snow’s invisibility spell would fail; she was about to become visible. The female elf probably didn’t even know what the ringing bells meant.
Law shouldered the rifle and trained it on the males as she counted the chimes of the bell. One. Two. At twelve, she’d be able to fire.
Three. Four. Five.
It nearly seemed like time stopped as the bell rang. The swordsmen stood tense, waiting, knowing what would happen next. Their calmness infuriated Law. They had planned to murder Windwolf—perhaps already succeeded—and had lured Bare Snow halfway around the world to pin the killing on her. They were going to stand there as time ran out until Bare Snow was left helpless. They knew they had all the time in the world.
Six. Seven. Eight.
Somewhere toward the airport, someone was setting off fireworks. The distant thunder of the explosives was rolling up the river valley.
Nine.
The dogs howled a block away. Windwolf hadn’t made the Rim. A maze of a large junkyard was between him and the McKees Rocks Bridge.
Ten.
One of the swordsmen suddenly fell as if his legs had been swept out from under him. The other two leapt to defend him, furiously hacking at thin air. Law saw the distortion of air that was Bare Snow. The female was lying on the ground. Had she been hit by a sword? Law pulled the trigger. The bullet caught the tallest male in the chest.
A moment later, the other two were on the ground, bleeding, possibly dead from Bare Snow’s knives.
Which was a good thing as Law’s vision started to blur at the edges from blood loss.
Brisbane waddled over to her, sniffed at the blood dripping on the ground and then stood on his back legs to press his front paws against her hip.
“It’s okay, Brizzy.” She leaned against the SUV. “Bad guys all dead. I’m going to fall down now.” She slid down the side of the Explorer to sit hard on the ground.
Next thing she knew, Bare Snow was kneeling beside her, talking to her about something while bandaging Law’s arm. She struggled to pinpoint something very important that they should be doing.
“Windwolf!” Law cried when she remembered. “You should go, find him, and make sure he’s okay.”
Bare Snow pulled her to her feet. “I will go once you’re not out in the open, where you can be easily found. You’ve lost a lot of blood and there is no magic for a healing spell. You’re going into shock. You need to lie down and be warm.”
Being in shock was kind of like being drunk but not as pleasant. There was a time of dark non-remembering and then she was lying on a floor in a dark building with no idea where or of how she had gotten there. At least she didn’t need to vomit.
Gray of predawn was filtering through a massive multipaned window. Brisbane crouched at her feet, muttering happily as he ate something yummy. By scent, Law guessed it was the saenori fruit from the Explorer.
As she sat up, Bare Snow ghosted out of the darkness. She was wearing the blue sundress and cowboy boots, looking too beautiful for words.
“Law! You’re awake. Oh, good, I was so worried.”
“What happened with Windwolf?”
“He was wounded by the dogs, but he was saved by a very brave and clever young female. She’s a wood sprite; they are very moral and resourceful.”
Law scanned the auditorium-sized, filthy, empty room and realized that they were in one of the empty factory buildings in the Bottoms. They were probably less than a hundred feet from where the fight had taken place. Who the hell did Windwolf stumble into out in this desolated area? “You spoke with her?”
“Oh no! I was careful to keep out of sight. I kept watch until I was sure she was taking good care of him. Much better than anyone else could since we’re on Earth. She lives in this little metal house with broken automobiles all stacked on top of each other.”
She meant the junkyard. Now that Law thought hard, she remembered that the owner was a young woman and her older brother or cousin or something. They were said to be eccentric but good, honest people. In Law’s book, eccentric was a good thing.
Bare Snow settled beside Law with a squeal. “Oh, it was wonderful! I wish you could have seen it.” She clasped her hands over her heart and sighed deeply. “You should see the way that he looks at her. He sees her—all of her—and accepts her as she is. He’s falling in love; I am sure of it. I wonder if he will ask her to be his domi. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?”