by Tim Marquitz
“Maybe I’m remembering it all wrong, but didn’t we just do this not too long ago? If I recall correctly, it ended with you running off with your tail between your legs. What makes you think it’ll end any differently this time?” Apparently my mouth felt the need to write a check it couldn’t afford to cash. I’m not even sure Donald Trump could afford the bill I was racking up. He shook his head, an amused smile on his lips.
“The last time, I wasn’t expecting you to show up. I was just there to pick up the chains the boys left behind. And besides, I was burnt out from helping the boss light up that angel he’s got all trussed up. This time, I’ve got all my horses saddled up and raring to go.” A tiny spout of fire sprung up from his palm and danced across his fingers as nimbly as a ballerina. He winked at me, the firelight glistening in his blue eyes. I’d realized during our first run-in McConnell wasn’t operating on a full tank, but I’d noticed too late to take advantage of it. I was regretting that failure now. If what he said was true, and he was fully charged, I didn’t stand a chance.
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“We can’t discuss this?” I changed gears.
“Tain’t nothin’ to discuss. I got a job to do and I figure I better get on with it. It was nice meeting you, hear?”
I didn’t waste a second. If that cowpoke wanted to put me down, he was gonna have to work for it. I dove forward, closing the distance between us, lashing out with a right. My heart jumped as I felt the satisfying thud of my fist collide with his mouth. He grunted and rolled away, redirecting most of the impact and stumbling back to give himself room. He wasn’t getting off that easy. I stayed on him. I threw a low kick, which nearly buckled his leg, and followed it with a left hook. It caught him alongside the head, just above the ear, and I saw his eyes flutter. His legs gave way a second later and he dropped onto his butt. Thinking I had him and feeling rather optimistic, I moved to put a knee in his face.
His magic struck first.
With but a flick of his hand, he sent out a wave of concussive force. It slammed into me like a wrecking ball. I flew back before I’d even realized what’d happened. The pain hit me while I was still in the air. It felt like I’d been raped by a jackhammer, all romance aside.
Instinctively, I curled up just before I struck the ground, but it didn’t help much. I crashed hard and rolled, more accurately defined as flopping, and Page 203
bounced along the asphalt. I was in a white haze of agony when I finally came to a stop. My eyes wouldn’t focus, my lungs burned with each shallow breath, and my body ached like it had been run through a hydraulic press. I lifted my head, fighting down nausea as I looked for McConnell. He was strolling forward, his eyes burning holes in me. My optimism crawled away to hide someplace I’d rather not talk about. I seriously thought about following it.
“I was gonna make it easy for you, boy, and kill you quickly.” He closed, cracking the knuckles of his fingers as his hands clenched into fists. “Not anymore. You want to slug it out? I’m more than willing to oblige you.” He gestured for me to get up.
I debated staying where I was. Without my guns, or my uncle’s blood, I wasn’t anywhere close to winning this confrontation. This was David versus Goliath, but only if David were a blind quadriplegic with asthma. I didn’t even think I had that much of a chance. Despite all that though, it just wasn’t in me to quit. I pulled myself to my feet with a groan, and met McConnell’s eyes.
His face softened a bit, the hint of a smile creeping onto his bloody lips. “Glad to see you’ve got a pair on you.” He settled into a defensive posture. It appeared he knew a thing or two about boxing. Just my luck, the old boy could fight.
“All balls, no brains, or so they tell me.”
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He chuckled, apparently having realized that already, and moved forward.
The talking over, we began to circle one another. Not expecting him to fight fair, I thought it best to get off first to see what I could make happen. I darted in with a jab and a quick, straight right. The jab clipped him and he adjusted, sweeping my right to the side. He countered easily, his hand speed much faster than I would have believed him capable of, and punched me in the liver. A flash of gray sparked off when he hit and my side exploded with pain, tendrils of it snaking down my leg and across my crotch.
I stumbled, barely getting my arms up in time to block the follow up. His fist crashed into my forearms, once more throwing up a flash of gray light. It was like he’d hit me with a sledgehammer. The bones in my arm throbbed, my shoulders stiffening up as I backed away. He grinned, stalking me down. My prediction as to the fairness of the fight played out and I knew I wasn’t gonna be walking away in one piece. I cast a quick glance toward the house and hoped Veronica had run like I’d told her. It would tear me up to think what might happen to her once McConnell was finished with me. I shook my head to clear away the images that popped up. I didn’t want to picture the possibilities. Driven to a rage by my way too active imagination, I lashed out. I threw a feint with my left, following it up with a kick to his ribs. My shin struck home with a Page 205
thump, knocking the wind from McConnell. He gasped hard, doubling over, but he managed to catch my leg. With it leveraged against his side, he twisted hard and I heard a snap, his magically-enhanced strength making it easy. I screeched as stabbing pains shot through my calf, the bones of my lower leg broken. McConnell lifted it up over his shoulder and dumped me on my back. I hit the asphalt with a thud, reaching down to cradle my right leg as he hovered over me.
“Any last words,” he huffed, his breath still a little short.
I moaned against the hard surface of the street, rolling my head to look up at him. “Yeah.” I did my best to smile through the pain. “You might want to watch your back.”
He burst out laughing. “You think I’m gonna fall for tha—” A flash of red behind him cut him off. He spun around, but was too late. Rahim let loose a burst of searing energy that smashed into him, blowing him a hundred feet into the air. I heard him land a few seconds later, crashing down through the roof of an aluminum storage shed in the yard next door.
“Are you all right?” Rahim asked with surprising gentleness in his voice. His upper lip peeled back into a disgusted sneer when he saw my leg, the bones protruding from the skin. He looked a little pale. I shook my head. There wasn’t time to do Page 206
anything else.
There was a squeal of aluminum being torn apart, then a flash of gray blasted through the neighbor’s rock wall and streaked over my head, tearing into Rahim. He cried out as the force of the blow drove him back. Knocked off his feet, he slid along the asphalt, shredding flesh in crimson layers as he went. He tumbled to a halt and got to his feet, wobbling as McConnell stepped over the wreckage of the wall and stormed toward him. Rahim seemed dazed.
I shouted a warning as The Gray walked past me, unable to do anything to stop him. Rahim looked up just as McConnell let fly another burst of energy. The old wizard threw up a shield and reflected the blast, grimacing as he did. I could see his arms shaking from where I lay. No doubt McConnell could as well. He pressed forward.
Tenacious, he fired blast after magical blast, alternating hands and angles in an attempt to take Rahim out. Rahim was just as intent upon not being struck. He conjured shield upon shield, turning away each of The Gray’s attacks, many at the very last second. Though he held his ground, I could see he was tiring. Sweat trickled down his face and he was breathing in deep, sucking gasps. It wouldn’t be long until he missed a block. Things would be over for us both when that happened.
With no magic of my own to aid in the fight, Page 207
I thought about what I could do to help. Injured as I was, it wasn’t much. I glanced back at the remains of my house and had an idea. Tearing the sleeve from my shirt, I wrapped it tight around my broken leg. I clenched my teeth to hold back my screams, doing what I could to work through the pain. The wound, like any caused by a supernatural being, wouldn’t heal on its own so
I couldn’t expect it to get better. The best I could hope for was it didn’t get worse. I tightened the tourniquet to keep the bones from shifting too much, rolling over onto my stomach.
As the battle raged behind me, I dragged myself toward the house. Each agonizing inch was like dousing my leg in gasoline and setting a match to it. The punctures, where the bone had torn through the skin, burned with searing intensity as it scraped across the unforgiving asphalt. Dirt and grease were being ground in, guaranteeing infection, if I lived long enough to worry about it. The bones twisted and turned inside the leg, grinding against one another with every shift of position. Tears streamed from my eyes and I bit down on my bottom lip to keep from calling attention to myself. An agonizing eternity later, the sounds of the magical duel muffled by the wreckage, I crawled into the house. Fortunately, given my current condition, the majority of the front rooms no longer existed. There was nothing but smooth tiled floors and open space. Compared to the street and the sandpaper surface of the sidewalk I’d Page 208
had to cross to get here, this was like Heaven. Too bad I’d have to crawl out once I found what I was looking for. I stowed the negativity and continued on, hauling myself to the bedroom. Once inside, I headed for the back wall. Thanks to the wind assault of McConnell’s, if I was going to find anything, it’d be there. Halfway across the room, where the debris began, I found it harder to navigate. Wooden splinters dug into my legs, their sharpened points piercing through my jeans and finding a home in the soft flesh. Glass shards snapped and cut deep as I crawled over them to reach the back of the room. Though there’d been a decent amount of blood oozing out of me when I’d arrived in the bedroom, there was now a lake pooling beneath me, a tributary running behind. I was beginning to feel the effect of the blood loss. My vision had begun to tunnel, the edges hazy and indistinct. My thoughts had become sluggish, chaotic; more so than usual.
Realizing how little time I had before I succumbed to my wounds, I dug through the debris with abandon. I ran my hands recklessly through the pieces of broken furniture and the shredded pieces of my house, searching for my gun. I was coming up empty.
I heard Rahim cry out from the street and redoubled my effort, only slightly reassured by the continued sounds of magical warfare. There wasn’t much time left for either of us. I crept closer to the Page 209
discarded mattress, digging through the wreckage. I had just about given up all hope, my thoughts wavering in my head, when my hand lighted on something cold and metallic. I sighed as I ran my numb hand over its surface, identifying it. I groaned. What little energy I had spiraled to nothing.
It wasn’t my pistol.
I collapsed in defeat, the vestiges of my resistance crumbling beneath the weight of my despair. My vision narrowed further as unconsciousness came to call, whispering soothing lullabies. My eyelids, far too heavy to resist the pull of gravity, drifted closed. I felt the darkness rising up to meet me. The end had come.
A whoosh of air startled me back to consciousness. I lifted my weary head and forced my heavy eyes open. There in front of me, laying flat upon the mattress was Rahim. He didn’t look so good. The places where his clothes had been burnt away by The Gray’s magical blasts, scorched and bubbled skin shone through. Patches of deep red and even blacker burns stood out against his natural dark hue. He lifted his head and met my gaze. I saw something in his eyes I’d never thought I’d see there.
Fear.
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There was also disappointment in equal amount. I think he cared more about being beaten by McConnell than he did about dying.
Before I could say anything, I felt a gust of wind whip by as a pair of snakeskin cowboy boots dropped to the ground a few feet in front of me. McConnell turned and grinned as I peered up at him through fluttering eyes. Though his face looked a little worse for wear, puffy eyes, bruised, swollen cheeks, he didn’t look anywhere near as bad as Rahim did. That was a sobering realization.
“There you are. I’d wondered where you’d gotten off to. Figured you crawled off to die. Glad to see I was wrong,” he told me. “Give me a second to take care of your buddy here, then you and I can get back to business.” He chuckled and stepped to Rahim, energy building at his hands. Gray sparks fluttered to life. “Don’t worry, old boy, I’m not going to kill you. Not yet at least. The master could use a strong conduit like you. It’d sure save me a hell of a lot of grief.”
Though I knew there was nothing I could do, I couldn’t just lay there without trying. I moved to get up, sliding my elbows underneath me for support. That’s when I felt the cold steel of something clutched in the death grip of my left hand. I wracked my brain to figure out what it was while I quietly tugged it toward me through the debris. The increasing hum of McConnell’s magic covered the sound. He was charging up the Page 211
batteries to be sure he could put Rahim out. I could feel the power washing over me. He was loaded for bear. Time was running out.
Unable to think clearly, I pulled the thing from beneath the wreckage and stared hard at the interlocking links. A second passed, and another, as I implored my brain to engage. Just as The Gray raised his hands to smite Rahim, it suddenly did. I held a pair of the magical manacles in my hand; the same chains that Asmoday had used to bind an angel. With nothing to lose, Rahim and I already dead in my mind, I mustered up the final remnants of my strength and pulled myself into a crouch. I hissed as I drew my broken leg up underneath me, but it held, barely. McConnell heard me and glanced over his shoulder. His eyes sprung wide as he saw what I held. He whirled around extending his arm toward me at the same time I leapt forward. The timing was perfect. The cuff hit his wrist and clacked shut as I tumbled to the ground clutching the other end. The dancing gray flames, which swirled at his palm, blinked twice, then died, dispersing without so much fanfare as a fart in an empty room. McConnell screamed, his voice shrill and crackling, as his free hand clawed at the manacle, trying to remove it. With the opportunity presenting itself, I sat up and snapped the remaining cuff over his free wrist. It clicked closed with a solemn snap.
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The look on his bearded face, the quivering lower lip, his twitching eyelid, was priceless. He looked like I’d just sexed up his horse. That alone was worth the beating he’d given me. When I look back on my life, the twisted, agitated look on his face was an image I’d always remember. I might even masturbate to it on occasion considering the amount of pleasure it brought me at that moment. It was that good.
“That’s gotta suck.”
I fell back with a smile, too exhausted to hold myself up any longer. His eyes swiveled to me. They were like two simmering coals, flickering red. I didn’t know what to expect when I’d slapped the cuffs on him, but I had thought it might physically restrain him as well as neutralize his magic.
Seems I was wrong.
He growled low in his throat and drove the point of his boot hard into my stomach. I gasped as the blow knocked me back into the wall, my lungs aching. With no mercy, he pulled his leg back and soccer kicked me in the face. My head snapped back, spider-webbing the plaster of the wall behind me as my mouth filled with the tangy taste of blood. My skull rang like an old brass bell and my jaw throbbed, but I noticed something as it did. Earlier when he’d been beating me, each blow was crippling, bone-jarring. It was like being hit by a speeding truck, but now, his blows seemed like love taps in comparison.
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I smiled big and wide, no doubt a crimson mess, as I realized what it was. With the manacles shutting down his magic, he wasn’t this almighty powerful wizard, he was human. Everything he did to me would heal. He couldn’t kill me anymore. I started to laugh, a sick, maniacal laugh that would have made any witch proud.
It just enraged McConnell. With no clue as to why I was laughing, he worked himself into a frenzy. Frothing at the mouth and screaming obscenities, he rained down punches, the chain of the manacles long enough it didn’t limit his motion too much. Blow after blow bounced off my f
ace and skull, streamers of blood trailing in the passage of his hands. After each, I would laugh a little harder, doing my best to smile up at him. This just infuriated him further. Like a whirlwind, he swung his arms and battered me. He showed no signs of stopping until I heard a crack and he reeled back with a shout, clutching at his right hand. Through the blur of blood and swelling, I saw he’d broken it. That made it all so much more amusing. I laughed a little harder.
McConnell snapped and started stomping me, his cowboy boot slamming into my side and bouncing away only to return a second later, as if it were a trampoline. Though I knew none of it was permanent, I started to reconsider my provocation as I felt a couple of my ribs snap inside my chest. I sucked in slow, shallow Page 214
breaths as he thumped out a double bass rhythm on my side so well any metal band would be glad to have him as their drummer. It hurt so bad I couldn’t see any more, my eyes washed out with white. Barely conscious to begin with, I felt the dark creeping back to claim me once more. I wasn’t dying, but it sure was starting to feel like it.
Rahim spared me that fortunate release. Coming up behind McConnell, who was far too worked up to notice, Rahim laid a 2x4 across the back of The Gray’s skull. His eyes went wide with surprise before rolling back into his head. He collapsed in a heap, his slack face laying just a few inches from mine.
“You killed Santa Claus,” I muttered as Rahim pulled me up, setting my back against the wall. I tried not to whine too much.
“He’ll wish he was dead before I’m through with him.” Rahim kicked McConnell, more out of spite than for any practical reason, causing him to roll a few feet away from us. He glared down at the man, doing his best to control his raging temper. I could tell he wanted to kill him, but he had something else in mind. I was too tired to care, either way.
I watched the wizard lay on his back like a dead fish with a twinge of satisfaction running through me. I couldn’t feel any pity for the guy after all he’d done. Shit! What he’d done.
