Page 88 of Bizarre Bonds
Mirage whirls around us with a swish of one of his tails before it vanishes. “We can see more of the city and keep our Rainbow safe.”
I don’t think I’m in any danger, but at least they can help if the person I’m sensing needs more than I can offer on my own.
“All right,” I say. “But be gentle. We don’t want them thinking we’re terrorist gangsters from outer space too.”
As I hurry onward, the anguished sensation spreads up my throat and down to my chest to squeeze at my heart. It’s coming from just around the next corner… Somewhere along this next street…
Right above me.
As my head snaps up toward the shifting impression, a gangly figure with a mane of silver hair careens onto the street inches away from me. I stumble backward, and my men press closer around me.
The miserable feeling vanishes, replaced by apple-streusel amusement as Viscera aims one of her jagged grins at me.
“So you did come,” she says, poking me in the chest. “You acted like you wanted to tear the city down, but as soon as you thought someone was bothered about it, you came running.”
She tricked me—she figured out my ability and used it to catch my attention?
My gut squirms with disappointment, but that’s okay. It’s okay that I made a mistake.
Because my plan still brought her to us.
My voice bursts out of me. “Hold her!”
Raze’s green contacts dissolve, revealing the full ominous black of his basilisk eyes. As he fixes his gaze on Viscera, a chilly wind whips up from the ground, sending a flurry of snowflakes swirling around her.
Jonah lifts his voice, sorcerous syllables thrumming as they spill off his tongue. Mirage spreads his arms like he’s a magician in a stage act, although I know the illusions he’s going to create will feel much more real than that.
And I cast out all the soothing emotions I can summon: keeping Raze’s most aggressive urges in check, boosting Jonah’s confidence, wrapping Hail in gratitude, encouraging Mirage’s energy. Dampening Viscera’s desire to fight us as well as I know how.
It doesn’t appear that I’m affectingherall that much. She’s still got plenty of fight.
She yelps in an uncharacteristically squeaky voice at the gusting of the wind against her clothes, as if she’s been transformed into a bath toy. Her arms and tail lash out and jerk back toward her body with a tremor of revulsion.
Then her movements slow.
Is Raze’s power starting to paralyze her?
My hopes lift. Excitement shivers through my veins.
We’re really doing it. We’ve caught her; we’re containing her without hurting her.
I don’t know how much Jonah’s sorcery and Mirage’s mind-warping abilities are subduing her as well, but the combination of all of us working together is more powerful than I dared to imagine.
Now what do we do with her? Can we risk one of us stepping away to alert our other allies?
I don’t want to throw off the balance that’s let us finally contain her.
Maybe it’s that momentary prick of uncertainty that sets us off-kilter. Maybe Viscera was only going still so that she could gather her strength for one larger effort.
Whatever the case, before I can suggest our next step, she thrashes against our hold even harder than before.
Raze winces, a blink of his eyes diffusing their power. Hail sends his blizzardy wind roaring even harder around the rogue shadowkind, but he’s only focusing on her sides.
Viscera shudders and shakes her head, and Mirage’s head twitches in turn. Then she’s springing straight upward like a rocket.
She leaps free of the whirlwind that only extended a few feet above her head and flings herself farther down the street. As she races away from us, her boots clack and sizzle against the asphalt, punctuating the cackle of her laugh.
“You think you’re tough?” she hollers back at us. “You’re not stopping me, not ever. Let’s see how many humans I can bring crashing down while you try.”
