2 Death Rejoices by A.J. Aalto Read Free Book Online Page A

on the mat.
    Ben's need to find one person in particular was a cramping urge like the after effects of a bad meal, and I felt his dread. This time, it was not so much the fear of failure as the need to protect someone. Protect Malas? Protect himself? Protect one of the guests? His anxiety shot through the roof when he came to the adolescent pink kitty.
    Several things happened at once, and I had barely a beat to register any of it. Kitty rolled dexterously across the mat to her knee like a gymnast, simultaneously loosing two weighted wooden stakes from her wrists. They whipped through the air with deadly precision. Ben bolted to his feet with a strangled cry. His worry ratcheted up to panic.
    I didn't think; I threw myself bodily in front of Malas.
    Ben and I collided and I crashed to my knees. One stake took Ben in the shoulder hard enough to penetrate the unicorn suit; he jerked back with a surprised gwak! The other stake hit an invisible wall in front of Malas’ raised palm and ricocheted noisily into the corner.
    The elder revenant hissed exultantly and stood, throwing his shoulders back, power rolling off him like he was a supertanker plowing out of a fog bank.
    The zebra burst off the floor like he'd been drawn up by puppet strings. In a controlled rush, he took Kitty off her feet via running tackle; she cried out from between clenched teeth. Harry tore down from the raised platform and grabbed for her, catching wind as she rolled Zebra and kicked him high over her body. Zebra flipped into the leaded glass window; he made a hole in the tinkering glass with his heels but didn't go through.
    Harry bounded across the floor and skidded with a squeak of skin as his palm gripped hardwood. His frustrated snarl prickled my every nerve, but Malas’ will and kinetic power now held me motionless, a human shield before him.
    Zebra righted himself and jumped back to body-slam Kitty. She dodged him, and as he passed, aimed a hard kick at the side of his left knee. Her shot landed well, and I heard the wet crack of bone.Zebra howled, a fragile human keen, and dropped like a slab of meat. My need to defend Harry finally snapped through Malas’ hold, blocking all else. I vaulted to my feet and ran to thrust myself between Harry and Kitty. I was too late.
    Flinging her agile young body in Harry's direction, Kitty was a blur of scissoring legs, her feet pitching at his midsection. Harry's hand shot out and tripped her by the airborne knees. When she came around, he caught her by the throat and slammed her body to the floor with a reverberating thump. He held her there easily, and with his free hand, tore off her cat mask.
    Fourteen, fifteen at the most , I thought, panting. She bared human teeth at him, her face screwed up with hatred. In that adolescent voice, she spat, “Fiend, you are damned to writhe in Hell.”
    “Come now, angel,” Harry soothed, “the daughter of a paladin should know better than to speak of damnation.”
    “—deliver you to Hell,” she gurgled.
    “For that, you would have to approach Hell yourself, little one,” Harry said. “Are you prepared to make such a dark and terrible journey with me?”
    Ben the Unicorn moaned. I felt rather than saw Malas rise in the air and craned to watch as his cavalry boots levitated clear of the floor. The sight backed me up against the stage, and I tripped over Harry's violin case, sprawling on my ass. The force of his summoning stirred the room, tearing things from the table toward him, as though Malas was a swirling black hole of chaos, gobbling up, slurping down, chewing through the forces around him. He raised both arms in his effort to squeeze the last drops of kinetic sap from his surroundings, and the hair on my scalp stood straight up. His anger cracked the air like the sizzling snakes of downed power lines.
    “How dare you come against me, Prioress?” Malas boomed.
    Just as his arms drifted above his head, the black hen flew up from its spot on the floor,