I saw tools appear in his hands at some point they swung out of view. ; Makeshift tools, things that might serve triple-purpose as lockpicks, swiss-army tools and/or weapons.
There was only malice in his eyes.
Right. ; What was it Maggie had said? ; She dealt with mad dogs. ; Best let off leash on very short spans of time.
Except she wasn’t here to stop it or call it back.
I glanced over, and I saw Ainsley’s abandoned silver chain.
I reached, and found it maybe three or four feet beyond where my hand could touch pavement.
My legs might as well have been welded in place. ; I was paralyzed from the waist down, fixed in place by some sevenfold curse.
I glanced at Ainsley. ; She still held the candle.
She looked down at the candle, then back at me.
She shook her head.
I deflated a little.
No use wasting my breath arguing.
I pulled off my jacket, then threw it out, so it might drape over the chain.
It might have worked, if the snow and slush didn’t hurt the traction
I flung it out again, hoping for a better snag on the chain.
A small explosion startled me out of my wits, cutting past my jacket.
The goblin carried a length of pipe with a strap that could go over one shoulder. ; No, it was two lengths of pipe that were connected, Some kind of crude, makeshift shotgun?
He dismantled his makeshift weapon, shook a shell out, then reached behind him, digging for something.
I took note of the fact that he wasn’t digging in his satchel… and he wasn’t wearing pants.
He retrieved what must have been a gremlin-made shotgun shell, still striding forward. ; Shell into the small pipe, large pipe slid over both.
I covered my face.
He slammed the large pipe against the small one. ; It fired.
I screamed.
Shallow damage from a crude contraption, but it was still me getting shot.
“Fucker!” I shouted, lowering my hands. ; I was openly bleeding from the gouges. ; A twisted paperclip stuck out of my arm at one spot. ; Glass in another.
I heard him cackling.
“Little fucker,” I said. ; “I swear, if and when I get out of this-”
There was a clatter and a bang.
I looked in the direction of the others.
Douchegargler, the female goblin, was perched beneath the open hood of one car, hand holding the hood up. ; Smoke was billowing from the engine block.
Sunglasses lunged for her.
The goblin ducked into the engine block, letting the hood slam on his hand.
Little fuckers.
I wasn’t about to complain, except they were being indiscriminate, I was included in the indiscriminate part of it, and Laird was almost-
The door opened. ; It stopped short, banging against the side of the car that had stopped in front of the doorway.
Craig squeezed through the gap. ; He took in the scene. ; A parking lot thrown into disarray, his cousins in peril. ; “What the hell?”
“Gremlins!” Ainsley shouted from the far end of the lot.
I used my jacket to try to catch the chain again.
I managed to get some traction. ; Not pulling it toward me so much as bunching it up.
Holding both sleeves, I managed to fling the jacket out and get the collar around the chain. ; I dragged it closer.
Screwloose was apparently out of shotgun shells. ; He came at me with a blade.
Still kneeling and immobile, I whipped out the chain.
The chain struck him across the face. ; Shocked more than hurt, he staggered.
I whipped it out again. ; I caught him around the throat and forearm.
I hauled him close. ; When he struggled, I bound him further with the chain.
“Drop the weapon!” I shouted.
He didn’t.
Pulling chain tight enough to cut off circulation, I bashed one tiny, gnarled hand against the pavement until he let go of the blade.
“I forbid you from biting or harming me,” I growled.
“Nuh, we’re lovey-dovey,” he growled the words with a distinct English accent. “Bugger me, diabolist, and bugger me well. ; I’ve got sharp stuff stowed back there. ; I’ll bite you all I want.”
I held him fast. ; There was one gremlin, and it was perched on the hood of the car that had trapped Sunglasses’ hand. ; Laird or Craig were doing something to the door, eroding it by aging it, but it was a metal door, and the process was slow.
Craig and Tandy had backed away from Sunglasses and the gremlin, a little too unnerved to get close.
“Ainsley,” I said. ; “Release me, and I’ll help Sunglasses over there.”
“I can’t,” she said. ; “I made promises. ; To take this seriously.”
“This is serious.”
“-I can’t,” she said, so fast I doubted she’d even heard what I said.
“You can. ; Sunglasses over there-”
“Owen.”
“Owen’s going to get hurt if that engine explodes. ; I bound myself to save your life. ; You-”
“You were bound,” she said, still responding too fast. ; She was shaking her head, as if trying to deny the situation. ; “You didn’t have to.”
“I saved your life!” I shouted. ; “Are you willing to trade away his for some better fortune in the family!?”
“I-”
“Because if you are, then I’m fucking better than you!” I shouted.
“You’re never going to be better than me!” she said, a note of hysteria in her voice. ; “I could let a hundred people die and I still wouldn’t be as bad as you are when you’re just existing!”
I growled with frustration. ; Tried to ignore the goblin that was rhythmically thrusting its pelvis skyward in its struggles to escape.
I couldn’t convince her.
“Owen!” I shouted. ; “Sunglasses guy! ; You talk sense into her!”
“I’ll be okay!” he shouted.
“Gargler!” Screwloose cried out, as if mocking my tone, “Fucken Drive!”
The female gremlin looked at him, then grinned.
She kicked the windshield, cracking it, then threw herself through it.
“Fuck!” ; Owen said. ; He hauled on the hood, but it didn’t move even with the gremlin gone. “It’s snagged!”
“You morons! ; You’re willing to die for this?”
“To stop you?” he asked.
The car started up.
“Yeah,” he finished.
Fucking kids drank Laird’s kool aid.
“I’ll let you go if you stop her,” I told Screwloose.
“Eat me!”
The door was still coming to pieces.
“I’ll let you go if you go after Laird Behaim. ; I can sense the connection on the other side of the door.”
Screwloose looked up at me.
“Agree to hurt only him, tell me you’ll leave Toronto and leave people alone for a decade, and you’re as free as Maggie’s binding will leave you.”
“One-of,” he said. ; “Totally free?”
“Free, but you leave humanity alone.”
I saw indecision on his face.
“Yeah!”
I might have been missing something, but my gut said this little bastard was just a short-term thinker.
Whatever.
I unraveled the chain.
One problem dealt with.
The car’s wheels shifted, the front swerving slightly as it fought for traction. ; I saw Owen’s eyes go wide.
He tried to shift position, getting his legs up, crawling onto the hood, so he wouldn’t be in front of the car.
He didn’t succeed. ; Not really.
One shin was caught between the bumper of the car and the side of another.
He screamed.
“Evan,” I said, bowing my head. ; “Evan, I call you by name. ; I call you by the ties that bind us…”
I felt the connection appear.
“Evan, we’re connected. ; Nothing can keep us apart. ; Let’s use that.”
I felt something click.
Thirty seconds later, Evan descended from the sky.
“Finally,” I said.
“You’re bleeding.”