by Gini Koch
I was in the same crouch I’d spent years in—my feet and hands were set just the way they were in the sprinter’s blocks before the gun went off. I let her get a little closer, then pushed off with all my strength.
I hit her stomach and took her down. Grabbed the pressure points on her arms and squeezed for all I was worth. Lucked out that they were in roughly the same place on her as on a human. Her hands released the staffs.
Moira flipped us, so she was on top of me. She felt as heavy as Martini and she was definitely as strong. But I had to wrestle him all the time after I harpooned him. I wrapped my arms and legs around her and held on.
“Mmmm, I like this,” she said against my neck. I was sort of surprised—in my experience, anyone being this close to my neck would cause me to start to lose control. Apparently not when I was fighting for my life. I was thankful for small favors and worked to get out of the under position.
I heard someone shouting instructions. To me, I realized. “Move, move, move! Don’t let her hit your head, block with your arms!” It was Tito, and I did what he said—just in time. Moira rained some blows down, but they hit my forearms. She reared back, and I slammed the heel of my hand into her nose. It knocked her back.
“Release your legs!” I did as Tito said, pulled my knees to my chest, and slammed my feet into her sternum. She went onto her back and off of me. I scrambled to my feet and grabbed a staff as I did so.
“Tito, you okay?” I couldn’t see him. Anywhere. I looked around to see someone rolling on the ground with Gregory.
Moira tried to get up; I kicked her in the head and sent her flying back. Tito was on top of Gregory, pounding him. Moira flipped onto her feet, I slammed my staff into her side, and she went down again. Tito was still pounding Gregory—A-C or no A-C, Gregory wasn’t looking like he had much, if any, fight left.
Moira crawled to her hands and knees and went for her staff, but I kicked it away. “You won’t fight me equally?” she asked. Tito was off Gregory now, and Gregory wasn’t moving at all.
I thought about it, spun the staff, and rammed it right into her head. “No. Oh, and, by the way?” I pulled the staff out. There was a huge hole in her head, and I felt confident she was dead. “When I punched you, that was really for me. This was for James.”
CHAPTER 52
TITO AND I LOOKED AT EACH OTHER. “Grab a staff, not that you seem to need one.”
“Never hurts.” He picked up Moira’s.
“Is Gregory alive?”
“No.” He shrugged. “I’m used to someone tapping out or a ref telling me to stop. Got carried away.” He didn’t sound upset about it.
“Restraint is not exactly my watchword, either.” I took a good look around. Claudia and the Major Doggies had cleared out their portion. I could see bodies down, but they didn’t look like ours. Glanced toward where I’d sent Chuckie. We had a lot of people over there, and most of them looked like crap.
Jareen ran over to me. “We have just two battles still going on.” She pointed. One was Martini and Neeraj against Kyrellis. And the other was Lenore and Uma against the Cat People and Queen Renata.
Kyrellis did a leaping splits kick and hit Martini and Neeraj in their guts. They both went down. She swung her staff up, over Martini. He wasn’t moving.
“KYRELLIS!” I bellowed as loudly as I could. She stopped and turned. I bent down and yanked Moira’s head up by her hair. “Guess what?”
She arched back and screamed. It sounded how I figured a thousand banshees in an echo chamber would. And while she was occupied, I decided to see if the rusty javelin skills were up to the task. Did the little run, aimed, and threw. Kyrellis wasn’t looking at me or at the staff heading toward her.
Jareen and I ran forward. I didn’t have to ask her plan. Get our guys, get them out of the way of danger. My impromptu javelin hit just as Kyrellis straightened up. Unfortunately, it speared through her hip, meaning she wasn’t dead.
She bared her teeth at me. “I will kill him in the worst way possible.” She spun her staff and aimed it right at Martini’s groin.
Jareen’s staff hit Kyrellis’ and knocked it out of her hand. It fell, missed Martini by a hair, and rolled away. Kyrellis snarled and pulled my staff out of her body. Now she aimed it at Neeraj. I decided it was my turn to represent again and went for the long jump.
Hit Kyrellis in her chest. Due to her injury, it knocked her down. Due to her being the Amazonian Super Bitch, she held onto the staff. I tried to scramble away, but she got me, dragged me back, and slammed me up against her, my back to her chest. She also wrapped her other arm around me and started to squeeze. My arms were free, but the best I could do was lock my hands against her chin to keep her from headbutting me.
I had perfect clarity. I could see Tito drag Martini away and Jareen do the same with Neeraj. Others ran up to help them. I saw Claudia slam adrenaline into Martini’s chest, heard him bellow, saw Claudia and Tito throw themselves on him, saw Jareen do something to Neeraj to bring him back to consciousness. I had the clarity because Kyrellis was squeezing the life out of me, and I got the feeling I was getting to see everyone before she crushed me to death.
“I will make you pay,” she whispered. “My God will take you to the depths of hell.”
“There a lot of men in your hell?” I gasped out.
“Yes. They will have their way with you constantly.”
“Sounds like heaven to me.” Maybe I’d luck out and when Martini died, he’d end up there. I could spend eternity with him ravaging me.
She snarled at me. “I am not confused by you. You are a warrior. You don’t belong to any man.” She spat the word. “You belong with us, with the Free Women.”
“I like Renata. I could hang with her. You, not so much.”
“Renata is weak.”
“She’s your queen.” I was starting to black out.
“I serve my God.”
“Your ‘god’ is taking orders from a man.”
“You know nothing about my God.”
“I know everything about your god.”
“I will not kill you,” Kyrellis whispered to me. “I will save you and show you the true way.”
I found myself wondering what ACE was doing, since I wasn’t feeling like I was going to survive this encounter. Then again, death might be better than what I guessed Kyrellis had in store for me if she let me live. My arms were weakening, and my vision was at pinpoint. I wasn’t out, but I was close. I wondered when I’d feel my ribs crack.
I heard a crack, and Kyrellis let go a bit. I took a breath—the crack hadn’t been my ribs. My vision came back a little. Someone was on his knees next to us, hitting Kyrellis in the head. With his bare fists. He was doing damage . . . and he was growling.
She released me and shoved me away, presumably to focus on the stronger threat. Martini was high on adrenaline, and he was at “lion takes over the veldt” with his roar. His hands were moving so fast I couldn’t see them anymore. Kyrellis was still in it, and she managed to grab him around his waist and use that to turn herself and get onto her knees.
Before she could capitalize on this, Martini made a double fist and slammed his hands down on the back of her head. He did this until she stopped moving—then he did it some more.
I could breathe, and nothing seemed broken. My feet hurt, but I’d run around barefoot in the desert before; I could ignore it. Good. I got to my hands and knees. “Jeff.” He didn’t stop. “Jeff, baby . . . stop. I think she’s dead.”
He looked at me and his eyes were wild. “I know what she wanted to do to you.”
“It doesn’t matter now.” My body was shaking. “Jeff, it’s not over.”
Martini took Kyrellis’ head and twisted. If she hadn’t been dead before, she was now. He threw her body away and grabbed me. His hearts were pounding, and he was shaking. I held him and let him rock me for a few moments.
A scream rang out. We both turned toward the sound. Tito had, as near as I could tell, just b
roken Lenore’s neck. Claudia had Wrolph’s arm around her shoulders and was trying to get him back to the others. Queen Renata, Felicia, and Arup were nearby. But the scream was from Uma. She was swinging her ax in a circle, and as Claudia and Wrolph got closer, I could see he’d been slashed.
“Tito, down!” I shouted as loudly as I could, and he ducked. Uma’s ax whizzed over his head. He rolled away, but she was after him. Queen Renata planted her staff and used it to steady herself as she swung her body toward Uma. She connected with Uma’s side and staggered her enough that the next swing of the ax also missed Tito.
“GET OUT!” Martini bellowed.
Tito didn’t argue, he ran. But the other three didn’t. Uma turned and started bearing down on them again. She looked uninjured, and she was still glowing.
Uma hit Felicia. Felicia screamed, a cat’s shriek of pain. Arup managed to grab her. He lifted her into his arms and ran back to the others. Uma’s ax just missed him.
“Jeff, we have to get Renata away from her.”
“On it.” Martini ran at hyperspeed. I couldn’t see him, but I saw Queen Renata go flying just before Uma’s ax cleaved her in two.
I stood up. “Bitch Leader!”
Uma looked at me. “You. How dare you still stand!”
“It’s a human thing. We Americans pride ourselves on it.” I picked up a staff. “We’re all over the scrappy attitudes. The get-knocked-down-and-get-back-up mind-set.”
She smiled. “You will not get up again.”
I shrugged and used it as an opportunity to relax my back and shoulders a bit. “Your side’s down. Just the White Queen to protect her king. I still have active pieces on the board.”
“They can’t help you.”
We were close to each other. Not close enough for the weapons to hit, but close enough that we didn’t have to scream.
“They aren’t supposed to help me, are they? Not now.”
“No. You will face me as your final test.”
“Babe, you know, you can stop with the My Royal Lord crap, I know the plan. I know what’s inside you and what King Creepola has planned. I also know that you’re going to be very expendable once you send your god-in-the-machine inside him.”
She laughed. “But that presumes I will let him have this power. We have discussed it—the power is better in a woman. Stronger, more ruthless.”
“The power doesn’t have to work like that. It can protect and serve and love.”
“Your planet is weaker than mine, your power is weaker than mine, and you are weaker than me. I will enjoy killing you.”
“Uma? Got one thing to say to you.” I shifted into a fighting stance. “Bring it.”
CHAPTER 53
AS I WAITED FOR UMA TO MAKE A MOVE, ACE spoke in my head. Kitty, ACE wants Kitty to know that Kitty and ACE will be fighting together now. Kitty will see things as ACE can see them, do things as ACE can do them.
Come again? ACE? Haven’t you been helping me all this fight?
No, Kitty. ACE did not need to.
Wow. I really was black-belt material.
ACE spoke again, and he sounded embarrassed. Kitty is very . . . lucky. That is good.
Maybe I’d wait to go for the brown-belt test.
ACE thinks that might be wise.
Geez . . . I didn’t even have to actively think the thought with ACE inside. I wondered if Martini could read me like this now.
Not quite. Jeff is very upset. All the others are very upset.
Why?
The other consciousness and ACE have blocked everyone out. Kitty and Uma will fight alone now. No one can help Kitty.
Other than you.
Yes.
That’s all I’ll need, ACE.
ACE subsided, but I could feel him there. It was as though my whole mind expanded to see every living thing in the world and beyond. It was startling and amazing and a little frightening. Distracting, in a way, but a scary Valkyrie with a loaded ax can really pull you back into the moment.
Uma ran toward me, and I knew we were moving fast, but it seemed slow at the same time. I looked into her eyes, and I could see the other consciousness there. It was filled with hatred and anger, and it despised me, despised us, despised ACE most of all. By taking a name ACE had become more human, and so the other one loathed ACE.
Uma’s ax swung, I dodged, and it whizzed by me. I flipped the staff toward her stomach. She twirled, and the staff missed. She kept spinning, the ax swung toward my head. I ducked and spun the staff toward her legs. Uma jumped and landed farther away.
This went on for what seemed like moments and hours at the same time. I was tired, but stopping wasn’t an option.
The song in my ears changed, and I realized I still had my iPod on. I’d been so involved with staying alive that I hadn’t noticed. Aerosmith’s “Nine Lives” came yowling on. I started to laugh.
“What is funny?” Uma hadn’t hit me yet, but I hadn’t hit her, either.
“God likes me.”
“Your God does not exist. Only power exists.”
“You know, every time I fight some fugly monster or crazy bitch like yourself, Uma, someone tells me there is no God. But I know they’re wrong.”
Uma lunged at me, but I managed to jump out of the way. As I did, I realized we weren’t on the ground any more. We were floating in the air.
Looking around at the view was stupid. Uma slammed into me, with her body, not her ax. I was lucky that way. Not so lucky that I didn’t lose hold of my staff. It fell, and apparently it didn’t get to float if I wasn’t holding it. I saw it hit the ground and stick in the sand.
I rolled and kept rolling, Uma’s ax just missing where I had been a moment before. I started to feel like a hamster in a ball.
AC/DC’s “Back in Black” came on. Fitting—I was the Black Queen, after all. I managed to roll and shove away against nothing to get far enough way from Uma to get to my feet. I started running.
I was a sprinter, and I was staying in front of her. But the superconsciousnesses had created some sort of weird bubble around us. Which meant I was running in circles, but circles in any direction, including the impossible ones. Laws of gravity seemed suspended, but the ax was still missing me, so I was good with it.
ACE, any shot of us doing something more proactive? Just asking.
If ACE does, she will attack the others.
An odd thought occurred. ACE . . . name her. Name the other consciousness.
ACE cannot do that, Kitty! ACE does not have the right.
Why not? I name stuff all the time.
Uma was almost on me. Decided to see just how out of whack with the laws of physics we were. Instead of running, I jumped. I was standing upside down on the air, so the ground looked like the sky to me. I jumped for the ground.
It worked. I was across our Super Hamster Ball, and I hadn’t gone splat.
Decided all the talking in my mind was getting old. “ACE, name her!”
“Who are you talking to?” Uma shouted at me while she barreled toward me.
I jumped again, in a different direction. “I’m talking to ACE. He’s in me. Like Lilith Fair is in you.”
“That is not her name!”
“Well, she didn’t pick one, neither did you. ACE and I like Lilith. Sort of fitting.”
“Stop using that name!”
Wow, this really bugged them. Good. “Lilith and Uma, sittin’ in a tree, trying to kill poor little Kit-ty.” Hey, wasn’t the greatest rhyme, but I was trying to stay alive here.
This continued for a bit, me taunting, them trying to kill me. I didn’t have a weapon other than my speed and my mouth, both of which were running down. The ball of nothing we were in shifted—I got the impression Lilith had won some fight she and ACE were having at the same time, a fight I couldn’t comprehend but could just feel in the background—and I went flying.
Landed flat on my back. Facing the ground. The trippiness was what I expected hard drugs to do to a person. Found myse
lf glad I’d never indulged and swore to never start. My stomach didn’t enjoy the view.
The wind was knocked out of me, so I got to see how upset and frightened everyone on the ground looked. Chuckie, Tito, Reader, and Michael were restraining Martini. All the other males from Earth were down, though they appeared to be alive. Animal Planet was fifty-fifty on the sexes. Bottom line—our side was battered.
Uma thundered toward me, ax up. She swung, I dodged. Swing, dodge, swing. I was still on my back, and her legs were straddling me. I wasn’t going to luck out much longer.
I saw someone extract from our group—Jareen was running, toward our bubble if I was any judge. There was something on her shoulder, and I realized it was a Poof. I wondered if Poofikins was alive or squished in my jacket pocket, but I was too busy dodging to say anything.
Jareen grabbed my staff out of the ground. “Kitty!” She threw it, with a lot better aim than I had. It pierced the bubble we were in and sailed right for me. I grabbed Uma’s leg and used it to help slide myself under her. Rolled, jumped up, and grabbed the staff as if I’d done this move a thousand times before.
Chose not to marvel. Spun and stabbed, just as Uma was spinning, ax over her head, and coming for me.
The staff went through her stomach. All the way through to the middle and stuck there. I leaped back as she stared at me. “I . . . cannot die.”
“Wanna bet?”
The ax fell out of her hands and tumbled to the ground. She grabbed the staff with both hands and tried to pull it out of herself. The bubble we were in started shaking.
Uma looked at me again. “I . . . cannot die. She . . . promised.”
“She lied.” I watched the light go out of Uma’s eyes. “Sayonara, Bitch Leader.” I looked around. “ACE, we going down?”
Yes, Kitty. Lilith is still fighting to survive.
I thought about what I knew from when we’d first found ACE. “Take us down, to Jareen.” The bubble started to lower. “Soul sister! Need your help, if you’re up for it.”
