Unsympathetic Magic - Laura Resnick [84]
Max yanked so hard on Nelli’s leash that he lost his balance when she lunged again, and he fell down. Startled by this, Henry backed up a step. This accidentally brought him into direct contact with Napoleon, whose neck was eerily stretched out toward Nelli as he stuck out his tongue to catch her scent. Frightened by the contact—or perhaps mistakenly believing the snake was attacking him—Henry turned around with a startled cry and hit Napoleon with the wooden sculpture.
The snake recoiled so violently from this blow that his flailing weight made the mambo lose her balance and stumble sideways into the reception desk. Perhaps disoriented by the mambo’s staggering, Napoleon started trying to coil around her head and shoulders, evidently trying not to fall off his familiar perch.
Nelli’s barking grew hysterical, and she lunged toward the snake with violent determination. Max maintained his grip on her leash, so she dragged him laboriously across the floor as she struggled to get closer to the mambo and the coiling boa constrictor.
Trapped between the ferocious dog and the snake that appeared to be attacking the shrieking woman, Henry was waving around his wooden sculpture and screaming in panic, unable to decide which animal to strike first.
“Stop!” I shouted at him. Then I wrapped my arms around the dog’s neck. “Nelli, no!”
As she lunged forward, my foot tangled with Nelli’s leg. Fearing I was about to break my ankle, I scrambled desperately to move my foot into a less dangerous position. I felt something tug and then snap as it caught on my shoe. Nelli howled in shock, and I felt warm liquid gush down my bare ankle and onto my shoe. I looked down and was horrified to see blood all over the place.
Nelli staggered for a moment, yelping in pain. I realized that, in my scrambling, I’d accidentally torn off her dewclaw, a residual toe that grows on a dog’s foreleg.
“Nelli!” I cried, racked with guilt and still afraid she’d tangle with the snake if I let go of her.
Bleeding, yelping, and barking, Nelli staggered forward a few more steps. Wrestling with the frightened snake, the mambo fell onto the reception desk. This trapped part of Napoleon’s body under her considerable weight, and I could see the snake go into full panic mode and start fighting for its life. The mambo’s resultant shrieks competed with Henry’s screams as he continued waving around the wooden carving.
Biko came dashing into the lobby with his sword. From his perspective, it evidently appeared that we’d all been attacked by a lunatic with a lethal sculpture, and now a wounded Nelli was trying to defend us. So he lunged forward and shoved the point of his rapier against Henry’s chest. “Drop it!”
“No!” Henry howled in response to this new attack.
“Biko!” Catherine Livingston shouted from somewhere nearby. “What are you doing?”
“Drop it!” Biko moved his arm and Henry cried out, evidently feeling the tip of the sword prick his flesh.
The chubby mambo was still lying across the desk, fighting with the boa constrictor. Catherine was shouting. Biko was stabbing a man who was brandishing a piece of art. Max was being dragged along the floor. I was clinging to a hysterically barking Nelli, and there was blood all around us.
This, then, was the scene that greeted Lopez as he entered the lobby of the Livingston Foundation with my purse in his hands.
15
“Police!” Lopez shouted. “Everyone FREEZE!”
I’d had no idea his voice could be so piercing.
“Police! NO ONE MOVE!”
Henry and Catherine fell silent. Biko froze and looked at Lopez, a comically surprised expression on his face.
Nelli was still panting anxiously and growling, but she ceased barking. Even the mambo’s shrieks reduced in volume.
Still clinging to the dog, I was shoved aside and fell down. Nelli yelped