Bedlam Boyz(85)

"Do you think that matters to me?" Nate said, glancing down at his fingernails. "That your boys are armed with guns? That's fairly insignificant in the scheme of things, I think."

Razz shook his head in disbelief. "You're insane, man. You're fucking insane. We're leaving here now," he called out to his gang. "With the girl."

"I don't think so," Nataniel said calmly. "You have one last chance to reconsider, Razz."

"Like hell!" Razz glared at him. "Fuck with me and you're dead, Nate."

"I couldn't have said that better myself," Nataniel commented.

"Fucking insane," Razz muttered, painfully grasping Kayla's arm again and pulling her along with him in the direction of one of the cars.

Without warning, the world exploded around them.

Blinding light and raging flames filled the air. Kayla felt Razz let go of her arm and fell to her knees, her eyes burning too much for her to see, gasping for breath. The air was too hot to breathe, and someone else's agony washed her like a wave. She quickly crawled away, feeling the asphalt melting beneath her hands and knees. It seared the skin of her hands, but she felt her magic responding instantly, already working to heal her.

She heard a horrible scream behind her, slowly dying away into silence, and knew that she hadn't been the real target of that powerful magic, only close to it. As her eyes cleared, she glanced back and saw Razz's body, engulfed with purple flames, fall lifelessly to the driveway, already crumbling to gray ashes. The T-Men were staring at it in shock, too stunned to move or react.

"Next?" Nataniel said in a bored voice.

One of the T-Men recovered, bringing up his Uzi to fire. Kayla pressed herself flat against the hot asphalt as the air filled with the sound and smell of gunfire. She saw the T-Men diving for cover behind the different cars, and one business-suited elf shoved back against the car by the force of the bullets, as splatters of blood blossomed from his chest.

Another elf leaped toward the gunman with the Uzi. Between one step and the next, the red-haired elf changed, his business suit melting away into a suit of glittering silver armor. He swung the sword that was suddenly in his hands, cutting through the Uzi and the startled gunman in one stroke. Then he staggered backwards and fell, blood trickling from his mouth and the many gunshot holes in the silver armor.

Kayla felt her stomach turn over and forced herself to look away. Bullets sang overhead as she crawled another few feet closer to the house, hearing shouts and screams from behind her. The front door of the house hung open, an inviting rectangle of light, if only she could reach it. One of Razz's boys was lying motionless on the steps, his hand outstretched as though reaching toward her.

Where's his gun? If I had that, maybe I could bluff my way out of here, do something, anything! I don't see it, it must be somewhere in the bushes, it's too dark to see it.

I've got to get Elizabet and get the hell out of here!

She was at the steps when another sound pierced the noise-filled air: the sound of screaming tires. She glanced back at the driveway, to see Carlos, leaning out of the open passenger window of the Chevy as it shrieked to a stop, firing the pistol in his hand. Two other cars were pulling up behind him, homeboys firing through the windows. Coming up the street behind them, she could see a black-and-white police car, tires squealing as it skidded around the street corner.

Oh my God, I didn't think it was possible for this situation to get any worse, but it just did. . . .

Kayla gathered herself and leaped up from the pavement, diving for the open door into the house. She dropped hard onto the steps as a hail of bullets echoed behind her. Kayla crawled through the doorway into the entryway, then stopped short, staring up into the barrel of the gun above her.

The young man behind the gun was looking down at her with terrified brown eyes. Kayla didn't know what to do. She couldn't move, couldn't do anything, just stare at him and wait for him to kill her.

She knew the instant he made the decision, his finger slowly tightening on the trigger . . .

Elizabet slammed into the boy with a football tackle, knocking him against the wall. The gun skittered away across the floor. Elizabet turned quickly and picked up a brand-new glass dolphin sculpture from the table, bringing it down on the young man's head. It shattered, and he blinked at her once and slumped against the wall.

Damn, there goes another dolphin. . . .

"Quickly, child, we're getting out of here," Elizabet said, taking her by the arm.

The world changed to pure white around them.

The force of the blast lifted Kayla off her feet. She landed hard on the floor, rolling. All she could see was brightness, slowly fading. Then she saw Elizabet near the couch, lying very still. She sat up quickly and looked around the room.