Blind God's Bluff A Billy Fox Novel - By Richard Lee Byers Page 0,5

I hoped it would vanish from beside the meter and appear at the shack’s front door.

Instead, I shot up out the top of my own head. Then I could see. My body glowed red, and the old man’s glimmered blue. The few sticks of furniture someone had left behind shined too, though nowhere near as brightly.

My body fell down. Fortunately, the old man comprehended something of what was happening. Tripping over one of my outstretched legs but staying on his feet, he scrambled to the door and held it shut.

I’d heard of “out-of-body” experiences, and about then, I realized I was having one. It’s scary when you’re not expecting it. My first impulse was to jump right back in.

But that would just mean I’d be there to feel every slash when the brownwings clawed me apart. I’d tried to do something that would save the old man and me, this was the result, and I needed to run with it. I visualized the Thunderbird again.

I rocketed right through the ceiling and out into the night. Some of the fairies on the roof sensed something and pivoted in my direction, but I was hundred feet above them before they finished twisting around.

I streaked south, over roofs, trees, and power lines. I was going where I wanted, but it didn’t feel like I was flying like Superman. It was more like I was a leaf blowing in a hurricane, or a rider on the world’s biggest rollercoaster.

I shot over the branch campus, then straight through a water tower with an ad for one of Ybor’s cigar companies painted on the side. Then I dropped like a rock.

I fell through the porthole hardtop and landed behind the wheel of the T-bird, without any hint of a jolt except what my imagination supplied. Loud voices jabbering in Spanish snagged my attention. I turned and looked out the passenger-side window.

Raul was still on the sidewalk where I’d seen him last, and now his brother was with him. As near as I could make out from just a few words, Pablo was trying to convince Raul that he’d really seen ugly little flying women, and Raul was pissed off because he thought Pablo was on drugs. Extra drugs, I mean.

Obviously, neither one had noticed my arrival. I hoped they couldn’t see me. I could see myself, my hands, complete with scratches, but not my face reflected in the rearview mirror.

I started to reach into my pocket, then froze. Why would I have my keys? Why wouldn’t they be back on my physical body?

I tried to push the treacherous thought out of my head. I still had clothes on, didn’t I? Then I’d still have my key ring, too. It would be in my pocket because I needed it to be. Because I willed it to be.

It was.

Grinning, I pulled it out, slid the key into the ignition, and turned it. It moved easily—really easily—but the ignition slot and cylinder stayed where they were. Because the key wasn’t any more solid than I was.

Except that I had to be a little bit solid, didn’t I? The seat was holding me up. I could feel it against my back and under my butt. Maybe if I tried, I could make myself thicker. More real.

So I concentrated on that, then tried the key again. For an instant, it seemed to catch, but then it turned without even the slightest resistance, just like before.

The same thing happened on my next try. And the one after. I almost had it, but not quite.

Someone shouted. I looked up. Raul and Pablo were glaring at me through the windshield. My struggle to make myself solid had turned me visible.

Raul grabbed for the handle of the door on the passenger side. The horrible thought occurred to me that, with me in my soft in-between state, he might be able to pull me apart like cotton candy.

Fortunately, the door stayed shut. I’d locked the car when I gotten out to walk to the Columbia.

“Give me your damn tire iron!” Raul snarled.

The order stung Pablo into motion. He reached inside the jacket of his warm-up suit and pulled his favorite weapon from the waistband of the pants. In another moment, Raul would use it to smash a window, and reach inside to drag me out.

Then the key turned the cylinder, and the dual quad engine roared to life. I snatched for the shifter with one hand and the steering wheel with the other, put my foot