Page 82 of Their Property
No glass remained in the window, and the men outside all pointed their guns in my direction. The one in front, their apparent leader, started laughing at the sight of me. The others quickly followed, making obscene gestures at me while they laughed.
The leader’s mouth moved, asking me a question that looked like,so desperate to die?
I clapped the flat side of my axe against my shield, the sound ringing out clear and beautiful in my challenge to him.
His grin faded. Then he pointed his gun directly at my chest and fired.
Distantly, I heard the roars of,No!and,Kyrie!But nothing rang as clear as the bullet clattering harmlessly to the ground in front of my feet.
A smile curved along my mouth at the shooter’s expression. Shock, disbelief, and utterfear.
They all started firing, their shots rapid, desperate, and wild, but the shield around me stopped it all. Our attackers became so concentrated on me, they didn’t notice their own men falling until it was too late.
The last two men standing ran for their bikes, but a clean shot to each had them slumped over and lifeless on the ground before they could touch the handlebars.
All at once, the world came into focus like a bubble bursting. Sounds were clear, every detail sharp. The first person I noticed was Tiff, her arms still stretched out in front of her and her gun smoking from those last two shots. Sweat dotted her brow, and her chest rose and fell with ragged breaths. Someone touched her shoulder and then her posture finally relaxed, though her eyes cut sharply to me.
I looked down at myself to see that everything was gone—no shield on my arm or axe in my hand. I touched my head and felt sharp bits of glass in my hair, no winged helmet to speak of.
It felt like I had just woken from a dream in the middle of a warzone.
Glass covered the floor like glittering snow. Every piece of furniture had been turned over and shot to pieces. I spun around in a slow circle, realizing for the first time what I had actually walked out into, unarmed and un-barricaded.
And not a single bullet had touched me.
People emerged from their hiding places slowly. Some stared at me, while others were more preoccupied with their injuries and the state of the place. But everyone was moving, which meant no one had died.
“What the fuck was that?” demanded the woman who had been next to Kitty behind the table. She stared at me with a heated mix of confusion and fear.
“Kyrie!” Gretchen ran to me and clasped me in a tight, panicked hug. “Oh my God, why did you do that?” She pulled away, hands running down my arms. “How did you not get hurt?”
“I don’t…I…” No words could explain it. I was just as confused as everyone else.
“She saved our asses, that’s what happened.”
I whipped around, my heart in my throat as I searched the room. Chris came out from behind his cover and rose to his full height, blood dripping down his arm. Tiff was right there, grabbing his wrist to pull him closer and examine the wound.
“Is that glass or did you get grazed?” she asked.
“I hope it’s a fuckin’ graze. We’re already gonna find glass everywhere. Hang on, baby. You got some here.” He carefully picked shards from her braids while she stemmed the flow of blood from his arm.
“T-Bone?” I called, wandering out to the center of the room. “Grudge? Where’d they go?”
“Pres!” Chris barked. “Don’t tell me you ran.”
“Over here.” I heard T-Bone’s voice from a far corner of the room. “Is there a doctor? We could use some help.”
I hurried in the direction of his voice, driven by the pressing need to justseehim, to know that they were both alive. Of course, I was completely unprepared for the sight before me.
Behind an overturned table, T-Bone had Grudge sitting on the floor and propped up against a wall. His blood-soaked hand pressed over Grudge’s forehead and eyes. Blood streamed down Grudge’s face, so much that he was constantly spitting out the blood that got into his mouth. His teeth clenched and his fists shook, either from shock or pain, or probably a mixture of both.
I froze again, stunned into stillness while the doctor brushed past me and knelt at the man’s side. “What happened?” she asked.
“Got an explosion of glass in his face.” T-Bone’s voice was heavy with worry. “I don’t know if it gotinhis eyes or…”
“Let me see.”
T-Bone carefully peeled his hand away, and Grudge sucked in a pained hiss of breath. I couldn’t bring myself to look at the gore on his face, but that sound he made spurred me into movement again.
