No Dominion The Walker Papers - By CE Murphy Page 0,90
just as clear as Myles’s had been. The earth responded to her, too, all the strong young growth of trees an’ animals a quick cool rush against the core’s ancient fury. She threw it right back at him, no war inside herself about whether shamanic magic was made for fighting or not. I was gonna hafta talk to Jo about that, later on.
Except I was pretty sure that conflicted or not, Jo woulda caught the kid in the teeth with her magic and knocked him head over heels into the hedges. Hester’s nearly reached the kid, but another one of his tar balls flew out and swallowed Hes’s magic whole. Then she lurched, like that was a whole lot worse than taking a hit, and I reckoned maybe it was. Bracing yourself for a beating was one thing. Getting a bite taken outta your soul’s energy has gotta be something else. Hester kept her feet, but just barely, and Annie and me were both realizing somethin was gonna go wrong when the kid turned on us instead.
Turned on me, I reckoned, ‘cause there was recognition in his eyes when he saw me. A sneer smeared across his face, the kinda expression I’d seen on a lotta big fellas playing ball, usually right before they went down for good. I held on to that idea and stomped forward, getting between him and the girls. “Been a while, buddy.”
“You.”
One word, an’ it sent shivers up my spine and bumps dancing down my arms. If a word could kill, I’d have dropped dead right there, but I had a funny kinda confidence holding me together. I knew I was walking away from this one. I had years of future memories promising that. I’d been more scared in Korea than I was right now, even if mosta the time there I’d been a lot farther away from my enemy. I looked for one of Joanne’s cocky come-backs, an’ said, “Me, all right. How ‘bout you let that kid go and we try ta…”
Annie, a couple steps behind me, breathed, “Kill each other like civilized people?”
I laughed and muttered, “Somethin’ like that, yeah, doll,” back at her, and the sorcery-infested kid in our yard looked like none of this was going according to his plans. I guessed old folks weren’t supposed to make jokes when they were facing certain death, though I figured old folks were better prepared for it than kids. “You ain’t gonna win this one, son.”
He bared his teeth in a smile. “I’ve already won.”
I gave him a smile just as toothy in return. “Forward, the Light Brigade, buddy. You don’t win ‘til there ain’t a breath left in my body to fight with.”
The kid pointed a finger at me. I didn’t see anything coming at me, but pain shot between my eyes, a red bolt sizzling its way through my brain. I yowled like a cat in heat an’ leaned into the pain, expecting that was just the warm-up act and that things were gonna worse from here on out. The kid smiled again and swirled his hands together, calling up another ball of black magic. I liked that better’n the finger-pointing, cause at least I could see it coming.
Annie stepped right in front of me, like she was getting between me and a patient who’d gone a little crazy. “What happened, Myles? Were you given a choice? Your life for mine, or did you not even know you were making the trade?”
All the power the kid was pulling up kinda hiccuped an’ stopped growing. It didn’t stop swirlin’ furiously in his hands, but there wasn’t more of it, an’ that was something. I had to hand it to my girl. A handful of words and she had the kid’s attention a way I’d have never gotten it. A lifetime wasn’t enough to tell her how amazing she was. She kept talking, calm and soft. “It’s all right, you know. I’m not in any hurry to die, but I’m seventy years old, and you’re not even thirty yet. I’d understand that choice. At my age, I might even make it too, for you, or for someone else your age. I’d make it for someone younger, a child, in a heartbeat. But life doesn’t work that way, Myles. If we trade someone else’s health for our own, there’s usually a great cost. Kidney transplants are miraculous, but they’re hard to recover from.”