[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.She turned into me, I blocked with my right, and the sharp tipof my elbow sailed downward to bury into her left eye socket.Douglas had finally found his feet and had again coagulated into thegrotesque, rubberized monster meant to protect the Shadows, but I ignored hissnarl, dodged his lunge, and thrust my foot into his solar plexus.It sunkthrough to the other side, and would ve pierced his body if not for a membranewall as clear and thin as a yolk sac.He screamed as I yanked my foot free,but the interruption had given Regan time to retreat.She moved so the blazingfireplace was between us. Don t. I circled closer as her eyes flicked to the door. You ll never makeit.She shifted too. What are you doing? You can t kill me here. This is just practice, Regan, I said, stalking her. A taste of things tocome.She pulled out her conduit, even though it was useless in the safe zone. Isthat what the Tulpa told you when he took a chunk out of your cheek?My face still ached with the residual sting of the Tulpa s slap, but Ishrugged. That was before we came to an agreement.And I ll heal. Sure, she said, feigning unconcern as her gaze darted sideways. But willyour changeling? I m fine, Jasmine said, but she was guarded, clearly worried Regan wouldseek retaliation for my attack on her changeling.But Regan hadn t been looking at her. Jasmine& where s Li? She was here a minute ago, Jasmine complained, and she backed away to peerunder the freestanding bookcases separating the back of the room into rows. Iswear, if I lose her again my mother is going to& Page 63ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html Oh God. My eyes found Li at the same time Jasmine s did.I was vaguely awareof Regan s laughter laughter and footsteps as she ran from the storeroom but Ibolted in the opposite direction, and dropped to my knees next to Jasmine,who d been closer and had gotten there first. Wait, Jas!But she was already turning her sister over. Li, how many times do I haveto We both gasped, momentarily stilled by the china doll cheek scored with threedeep claw marks.It looked like she d been attacked by a pit bull.Herbeautiful skin hung in tatters, and blood pooled on the floor around her.Evenonce the bleeding was staunched, even when the furrows were stitched backtogether under a surgeon s gentle hand, the child would be scarred for life.But when she looked up at me, there was none of the loathing I expected in herwatery gaze.There was no room for it with pain and fear and hope all jostlingfor space. I did good, right? I protected you?The lump in my throat turned into a mountain. Yeah, baby.You did great.She smiled with the good side of her face.I turned to Jasmine and found thepiercing accusatory glare I deserved. Happy? she asked, voice breaking.God, no.I certainly wasn t that. I-I didn t know.My voice cracked and a tear slid down the cheek that mirrored the injury toLi s& except mine would heal.Jasmine looked at me in a length of chargedsilence, and for a moment I saw something akin to pity flickering behind hergaze, but she snuffed it out in the next. Whatever. I m going to fix it. I reached for Li. You d better. Jasmine said in a voice round with fury and disbelief. Hero.But there was only one heroine present, and I lifted her in my arms and gentlycarried her from the storeroom.11I drove Li and Jasmine to the emergency room, and left only after their motherhad arrived, assuring her all medical costs would be covered by the ArcherChildren s Foundation.She thanked me repeatedly for  saving her baby s lifefrom a vicious dog s attack, while Jasmine sat in a plastic chair, swingingher feet back and forth as she alternated text messaging on her cell phone andglaring pointedly in my direction.I wanted to tell her it wasn t my fault.I hadn t expected the Tulpa toattack, and I didn t know how the injury had been transferred to Li instead ofme or even her.But intentionally or not, I really had broken something vitalto the balance of the supernatural system, and now not only were the manualsnot being written, but a seven-year-old s life had been permanently affected.It was too late to return to Master Comics.The shop was closed and I dreceived instructions to meet the rest of the troop at eight o clock toexamine the mask Chandra had stolen from Xavier s.It was seven-thirty now andI still had to get across town in the rush of Friday night traffic, but atleast it gave me time to think of a way to tell the others about Li, as wellas ponder the smorgasbord of trouble now filling my plate.Okay, so it wasn tall bad news.I d learned the doppelg�nger s appearance had spooked the Tulpaenough to have him willing to bargain with the Light.I d also learned Regan sleft eye wigged out when she was nervous, that she was overly sensitive aboutturning into a walking corpse, and I could best her in hand-to-hand if Iplayed my cards right.The news about Hunter having a side gig as a sex worker wasn t what one wouldcall good, but he always had a reason for what he did, and surely he had onefor keeping it from the rest of the troop.Since I was exceptionally curiousas to what that reason was, it was convenient to find myself swinging in frontof the warehouse that served as his workshop with almost a quarter hour toPage 64ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlspare.We were meeting here because we weren t sure what would happen if wetried to take Xavier s mask back into the sanctuary with us.Anything relatedto the Shadows was instantaneously incinerated as it slid down the securedchute leading to our hidden underground lair.I shuddered as I recalled thesole time I d attempted entry without donning my protective mask.In contrast,we didn t know if this mask was inherently evil though there was somethingdeterminedly not right about a piece of wood that came to life and sucked outa person s soul essence but we couldn t risk it being destroyed before we hada chance to examine it further.Hunter s workshop was as safe a place as we could hope for on this side ofreality [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]