He frowned, hands still on his hips. I made a questioning, waiting face at him, and slowly his look changed to one of amusement. There was a faint glow from the floor, but it might just have been a memory on my retina. "I get first crack at him," Jenks said as he landed on my shoulder.
"And I'll get the last," I said, my heart pounding as the faint sound of running feet broke the stillness, the sound as old as the savannas.
Chapter Twenty-five
Heart thudding, I reached back for my splat gun, bringing it forward and peering into the blackness of the tunnel. If I couldn't bring him down with the gun, then I'd consider the charms. Reaching for the line, I filled my chi with a bright, scintillating glow of power, letting it leak over my soul and spindling a wad of it in my head just in case. Satisfaction was almost as warm as the line in me, and again I wondered how I could ever have willingly cut myself off from this. It was like bathing in light.
I heard Eloy slide to a stop, and I peeked up through the opening I'd left in the grate. There was a faint glow from a cell phone being used as a flashlight - he was looking for the air shaft, running his hand along the ceiling. It was hard to see, but his face was still bruised from Winona's beating. Breath held, I watched him. Grinning, I took aim. This was going to be easy.
The gun clicked . . . and Eloy dropped and rolled, right out of my line of sight, his faint light extinguishing. The blue ball burst open against the far wall of the shaft, useless. Damn!
Jenks flew through the grate, his sword out. "I told you I get first hit," he said, and the ping of pixy steel rang followed by the hiss of propellant.
"You have got to be shitting me," Eloy said, and I poked my head out of the hole in the floor, fear for Jenks making me careless. "A bug?" His shadow tensed. "Morgan? Is that you?"
"Give it up, Eloy!" I shouted, shooting at his voice. The light was gone, and I heard him swear. Crouched in the shaft, I waited for a sound, not wanting to get sticky silk in my eyes. At point-blank range, it would glue them shut. I had only so many sleepy-time balls left, or I would have peppered the hallway. Jenks was probably down, staying silent to keep from being stepped on. I wanted to keep Eloy busy until he was up again.
"When this is done, I'm going to come for you," Eloy said, and I shot at his voice, hearing him scramble back with another half-heard oath. "I know where you live. I'm bringing you in."
"Everyone knows where I live," I said from inside the lower air shaft. "I've got a sign out front with my name on it, moss wipe!"
"I'm going to find you," he whispered, and I shivered at the hatred in his voice, his sureness. "I'm going to sever your spinal cord in your sleep. You're going to wake up with me bending over you, unable to move. And then I'm going to milk your blood for the next one hundred and sixty years like the animal you are. I'll use you to wipe your species from the earth."
His threats were not going to happen, but I shivered anyway.
He was too far down the corridor. I needed a better angle. Heart pounding, I quietly wedged myself out past the grate and rolled onto the floor. Flat on my stomach, I closed my eyes and whispered, "You're going to have a hard time with that from jail."
"I could do it from jail." His voice was introspective, casual. "I'd rather do it myself, though. The pleasure. You know."
"Rache!" Jenks shouted, and I rolled, invoking a circle as the shot echoed in the tunnel. The gold of my aura glowed in the dark. Smut crawled over it like a living patina, dimpled where the bullet had ricocheted off. Through the haze, I saw Eloy by the faint light of my circle. He was crouched with his gun pointed at me, a young man overflowing with fear, hate, and misplaced zeal. The smell of gunpowder hit me. Behind him, Jenks was white faced and struggling, stuck to the floor.
"Son of a bastard," I breathed, scared for Jenks. Arms out, I shifted the angle of my gun and pulled the trigger. I rolled as the pellet hit my circle and broke the amber wash. My heart pounded in the new darkness, but I heard only a disgusted grunt.
"Noli me tangere, bitch," Eloy said, and my teeth clenched. Don't touch me? Had I missed? "Anticharm gear. You think I'd do this without it? Your magic is useless."
"You know some Latin," I said, my eyes searching for the barest hint of a glow, a glint. Anticharm gear wouldn't stand up to repeated abuse. "I'm surprised they teach you that in the bunkers."
Eloy chuckled, and I shifted my aim higher. If I hit his face or hands, he'd go down for sure. "I didn't grow up in a camp," he said, and I adjusted my grip on my gun, beginning to sweat. "I'm from a very well-respected family. Most of us are. I went to the best schools, better than you. That's why you're going to fail. We're smarter than you. You can't help it."
His shoes scuffed, and I shot at the sound, rolling as his gun popped again. Little bits of concrete peppered me, and I clenched my teeth, not wanting to set a circle and light the tunnel again. Jenks was still down and vulnerable. Where the hell was everyone? Weren't they looking for Eloy? Fingers moving, I reached to turn the radio back on to call for help. There was nothing. It was dead, and I thought of the two men running the radio. Had they been beaters or receivers? Had they left Glenn now that Eloy was on the run, planning on acquiring him themselves? They weren't HAPA, were they? Damn it back to the Turn, it would explain a lot.
"We are everywhere, at every level," Eloy gloated, cementing the idea in my head.
"You know what they say. Book smart, street stupid," I said, one hand letting go of the gun, my fingers reaching inside my boot for the charm to paralyze someone. "How's your elven?"
"Jenks! Light him up!" I yelled, then put the butt of the pin between my teeth.
It was a huge risk, but Jenks dusted, and in the faint glow, I found Eloy's eyes. "Look at me, you bastard!" I said between my clenched teeth - then yanked the amulet to pull the pin.
I was still connected to the line, and I sucked in my breath as something alien reached through me, pulling the line like a wind-whipped ribbon over my synapses with the sound of wicked, chiming laughter. It coated me in fear, and I fixed on Eloy's eyes, hoping, praying, that Trent had done this right and I hadn't just given Jenks's location away.
Eloy blinked, his expression going slack. And then he slowly collapsed, falling facedown on the cold cement.
It worked! Adrenaline washed through me, and I waited, hardly breathing, my gun pointed at him, afraid to look away to see how Jenks was. Hot damn, it had worked, and he was down!