Obsidian Butterfly - Laurell K. Hamilton [256]
His voice shook when he said, “I wanted her to hurt.”
“She did hurt. Being torn apart is a bad way to die.”
He shook his head. “It’s not enough.”
“No,” I said, “it isn’t enough, but you killed her, Peter. That’s as good as revenge gets. Once you kill them, there isn’t any more.”
I took the Firestar out of his hands, and he let me. I tried to hug him, but he pushed me away, then walked away. The time for that kind of comfort was past, but there were other kinds of comfort. Some of them came from the barrel of a gun. There is some comfort in killing that which has hurt you, but it is cold comfort. It’ll destroy things inside of you that the original pain wouldn’t have harmed. Sometimes it’s not a question of whether a piece of your soul is going to go missing, only which piece it’s going to be.
Peter carried Becca. Olaf carried Edward. Bernardo and I took the lead. We searched the spring darkness with our guns, back and forth, back and forth. Nothing moved. There was just the sound of wind in the tall line of sage bushes that bordered the back of the cave. The air felt so good against my face, and I realized that I’d not really expected to get out, not alive. Pessimism, it wasn’t like me.
Bernardo led the way back to circle the house. We’d try for Edward’s car, but we wanted to make sure no one or no thing was waiting to eat us when we went for the car. Olaf went second, carrying a very still Edward. I was praying hard that he’d be okay, though strangely it felt odd to pray to God for Edward, as if I were praying in the wrong direction. Peter and Becca were just ahead of me. He stumbled as we headed into the thicker brush. He had to be tired, but I couldn’t afford to carry Becca. I needed to have my hands free to fight.
I felt the prickling brush of magic. I called, “Guys, something’s out here.”
Everyone stopped and started searching the darkness. “What did you see?” Olaf asked.
“Nothing, but something out here is doing magic.”
Olaf made a noise in his throat like he didn’t believe me. Then the first wave of fear washed over us. So much fear that it closed the throat, sent the heart thundering, made the palms of your hands sweat. Becca started struggling violently in Peter’s arms.
I took two steps to help Peter control her, but she struggled free, fell to the ground, and ran like a rabbit into the brush. Peter yelled, “Becca!” and went after her.
“Peter, Becca! Oh, shit!” I ran into the brush after them. What else could I do? I heard them just up ahead, crashing through the brush, Peter calling Becca’s name. I had a sense of movement to my right, and I saw something. It was bigger than a man, and even by moonlight you could see it was different colors. I fired into it as it opened a huge razored mouth, but the claw kept coming towards me, as if the bullets were nothing. The closed claw slammed into my head. It knocked me off my feet, and I hit the ground hard. Darkness swirled across my vision, and when I could see again, the thing was right above me. I kept my finger on the trigger, until it clicked empty. The monster never hesitated. It filled my vision with a face that was almost birdlike, and I had a moment to think it was pretty before it hit me again, and there was nothing but darkness.
62
I WOKE INSTANTLY, my skin jumping with a rush of magic that left me gasping. My body strained, writhing as the power rode over and through my body in a burning surge that just kept growing. My hands and legs strained against the chains that held me down. Chains? I turned and stared at my wrists, head still thrashing, my body jerking as the power roared through me. My arms and legs jerked, not because I was struggling against the chains but as a reaction to the power.
The magic began to fade, leaving my breath coming in pants. One thing I knew. If I didn’t get my breathing under control, I was