authoritative, brought all of them around somewhat and they started for the door, except Felix who simply stood there and rocketed inside with that sweet exquisite memory of her soft eyes and yearning, tender...
"Felix," barked Crow, "move your ass!"
Felix looked at him, at his hard face and hated his choices but knew he must obey and...
"Jack!" screamed Father Adam and there she was again, coming at them with the crossbow flopping gruesomely and the fangs out and glittering and Felix shot her again.
And again and again and again, hitting her dead square each time and she slammed back onto the floor with the first concussion but he just kept shooting at her, the bitch, walking right up to her and firing and firing into her and her body warped and arched with each slug and be enjoyed the revenge he was having on the filthy rotten - The automatic clicked empty in his hand and he automatically ejected the clip and reached for another and suddenly realized how goddamned close he'd walked up to her and again their eyes met and she was... hatred and horror and the things she was going to do to him!
And he started running back as she lurched up toward him and the second bolt, the one in Jack's crossbow, the one with the cable on it, slammed dead center through her chest and saved Felix's life and even over her wailing Felix could hear Jack barking at Joplin through the radio.
"Carl! Hit it!"
And Carl did, the cable went immediately taut and she was flung past them toward the door but the angle was wrong, she was being jerked around a pillar and as she went past it her suddenly taloned hands reached out and her fingers sunk two inches into the plaster and she just stopped herself.
Which meant she must have stopped the goddamn Blazer, too! And there was this high-pitched ping and distant grinding of metal and the cable went slack and she smiled this ghastly smile at them and then she let got of the pillar and ran past them toward the booking counter and she leapt into the air like a missile and went right fucking through the iron grille above it with an ear-splitting shriek of tearing metal and then there was this hole in the grille and it was all torn loose from its bolts to the counter and there was more dust in the flickering light from where the ceiling had given way too and...
And Felix grabbed Jack Crow by the upper arm and spun him around and screamed, "You didn't tell me they could do that!"
And Jack jerked angrily free and shouted back just as loud, "I didn't know!"
And Felix believed him. "Let's get out of here, then!"
Jack nodded. "Cat! Where are you?"
"Here, bwana," came the shaky reply from the top of the elevator.
"C'mon, dammit!" ordered Jack, moving toward him. "While she's out of range!"
Cat nodded, poised briefly at the top of the elevator, then dropped softly, like his namesake, to the floor.
"Everybody all right?" asked Crow to the others, who had gathered around Cat.
Each nodded, but Felix paid no attention. He was still moving toward the front door, toward the sunshine, toward safety, dammit! We'll count our wounds outside, how 'bout?
But the others still stood there. Not for long - just a few seconds, really. And then the cable that stretched between them, from the front door to the busted grille, began to twitch.
"How much slack," whispered the deputy, "does she really have?"
When she came bursting back through the grille toward them they all fell backward out of their huddle and Jack went in between Felix and the target and for just an instant the gunman almost fired anyway but he didn't.
And that gave her the time to lunge at Cat.
Cat fell back on the floor holding the pike out in front of him but it happened too fast - he couldn't get the sharpened end around toward her in time - and she got him.
Grabbed him around the waist and lifted him high in the air, one of the shafts that bisected her knocking loudly into his face - And Cat was dead and they all knew it.
Dead in front of them.
Dead in between them.
And the cable warped and zinged along the jailhouse floor and went taut and jerked her off her feet through the wooden stake in her chest and she hissed as she flew toward the sunlight, hissed and spat and dropped Cat