I really don’t think this is the time for memes!
I didn’t let myself get distracted by that thought. With my eyes on the assassin, I loosely screwed the cap on my currentmixture and raised my arm to throw it. I had seconds at max, I figured, but the glowering assassin already moved to dodge. I knew there was no way I was going to hit them.
My salvation came when Jackson howled, then the assassin’s head jerked in that direction. Jackson had jumped up onto the kitchenette island and was snarling at them with a fury I’d never seen on the youngest VanMarche.
There it is!
I wasn’t about to let the opportunity go to waste, so I lobbed my improvised weapon as hard as I could, and this time it beaned the invader right in the dome, soaking that lovely, thick cloak of theirs.
Once more, there was a moment where absolutely nothing happened. The attacker brought up their mace to no doubt bash Jackson, but then they staggered and began shrieking as their head started to smoke.
Hydrogen peroxide and vinegar made quite the dynamic duo. “That’s peracetic acid, biatch!” I said, quoting the second-best meth cooker from an old TV show.
They had to be hurting because they were ripping at their garments to get it off their skin. Jackson leaped off the table and slashed his claws down their chest. As much as I wanted to stick around and make sure things were finished, there was another assassin and Luther to deal with.
I looked across the room where Penelope, Chris, and Paul were doing their best, but it seemed like Luther was almost toying with them. Since they were all on their feet, I guessed he hadn’t used his alpha voice on them. That didn’t really make much sense, unless he was more like a cat playing with his meal rather than a wolf going in for the kill.
There was a storm of heated emotions whipping around so thickly that it occasionally superseded my actual color vision of the real world, but Luther was a completely blank slate in thecenter. Not a drop of adrenaline or bloodlust. It still felt so entirely unnatural to me, and honestly? Kind of pissed me off.
Unfortunately, there was no handy kitchenette over there, so I looked around to see what I could do. Because this time, there was no skateboard I couldstealborrow, and not really anywhere I could make a surprise entrance from.
I need to be close enough to make a difference but far enough that it would be difficult for them to reach me...
I looked around desperately, everyone moving in almost slow motion, before my eyes landed on a chunk of the roof that had collapsed with Luther’s unexpected entrance. It had completely smashed the small workout area and part of an entrance that led to another waterway.
Conveniently though, it was leaning up against the wall, which put it in jumping distance of a support beam that was also within jumping distance of an elaborate, wrought-iron hanging light fixture that looked like it could hold my weight.
Time to see if those gymnastics classes and free running club paid off!
Moving as fast as I could, I jumped back to the floor, grabbed a garbage bag, tossed just about everything I thought I could use into it, then secured the bag to my arm. It was heavy enough that it would mess with my balance, but I would just have to make sure I thought ahead and use that to my advantage.
Haha. Thinking ahead. That’s a real strength of mine...
I ignored that voice and jumped down from the counter, glancing over at Jackson. He had his still-smoking opponent on the ropes, before running full tilt at the collapsed bit of roof. I put my all into it, seams in my dress pants groaning at the athleticism they were not made for, garbage bag thunking against my thigh and butt annoyingly hard. But I didn’t let up, not even when I reached the sharply slanted mess of debris. Iused my momentum to sprint all the way up it until gravity kicked in, and I had to jump that last gap.
But all my skateboarding, dancing in my kitchen when I should have been washing dishes, and running up and down my stairs every time I forgot something paid off, because I was able to launch myself high enough to grip the edge of the fallen roof piece and haul myself up.
It probably only took ten seconds, maybe twice that, but it felt like an entire eternity. When I turned, I was sure I would see all the people I had come to care for were dead, and the three assassins standing above their bodies.
Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. But what I did see wasn’t all that comforting.
Penelope was down, her leg twisted at an unnatural angle while Chris fought against the cloaked assassin in front of her. Although I knew she would heal and probably only needed a minute to be ready to fight again, it still made my stomach twist.
Then there was Luther. Apparently, Jackson had wrapped up his scuffle with the other assassin while I had been running and climbing, because he had joined Paul. They were circling Luther, who was bleeding from his one good arm.
They never replaced his prosthetic.Was that because they didn’t want to, or because theycouldn’t?
Both had interesting and dire connotations, but I didn’t have time to map it all out in my head. I scrambled up to the support I’d seen before, then readied myself for the biggest jump I had done since I was fourteen years old. It was farther and much higher than when I’d vaulted up onto the canopy at the black market, and this time, if I fell…
Well, that would be evenmoredire.
That fact certainly didn’t ease my nerves, but a yelp from Jackson below and the distinct smell of sulfur told me I had to suck it up and do what needed to be done. I didn’t even takethe time to look down at whatever spell Luther had just used. Putting all my power into my legs, I jumped.
I did everything I could to close the distance, including throwing my arms forward and even swinging the trash bag to further propel me forward. And for a moment, I was so sure I wasn’t going to make it. It was like I was suspended in the air, personally witnessing a slow-motion failure I would not come back from.
But then I collided with the chain holding the light fixture up, the force of my impact sending me swaying until I was almost horizontal. Despite the force of the impact, I wrapped my arms around it and held on for dear life until the threat of me being thrown off like it was a bucking bronco had passed.
Holy shit! I did it!