Dark Game (Merikh Book 1) by C L Walker Read Free Book Online Page B

information I could use, assuming the deputy wasn't thinking as fast as he was moving.
    I leaned into the deputy's grapple, swinging around our shared center of gravity as we fell to the floor. There was little time for the maneuver but the price of failure was death or paralysis. Desperation fueled my strength and the deputy did nothing to fight me. I gripped the man tight as the final part of the revolution completed a moment before we hit the ground.
    Even with the deputy beneath me to take the sting out of the fall, my wind was knocked out of me. I rolled, dazed, off the larger man and lay on my back, trying to breath as the building spun around me.
    Bill's form rested in my peripheral vision. In the calm of the moment I noticed something I’d missed earlier; the deputy was glowing a subtle yellow. It was the same sort of spectral light I saw when magic was in use, and I filed it away to think about later. If it were a way of identifying others using the ambrosia, it would come in handy.
    My ability to breathe returned in a ragged gasp and a coughing fit, my chest muscles screaming with indignant pain at the return to life. I put my hand over my mouth, worried I’d see blood when I checked. I didn't, meaning at worst I’d broken a rib or two, but nothing had been punctured. Probably.
    Bill was breathing too, though his was shallow and even. Somewhere deep in his chest came the sound of bones healing.
    The ambrosia. I finally remembered the bottle in my pocket. I scrambled to check on it and laughed when I found it only slightly crumpled. The thick liquid remained within.
    If I were going to face Bill I’d need all the help I could get. I unscrewed the cap and tossed it back, letting it pour slowly into my mouth.
    It didn't taste like heaven, as Bill had described it. It tasted as disgusting as it looked, like the pus running from a festering wound. I soldiered on, getting it down my throat and waiting for the healing strength I’d been promised.
    I dismissed the first wave of nausea as the result of the taste, but it kept coming, wave after wave accompanied by crippling pain as my body protested. I rolled on my side and retched hard, throwing it all up again in a desperate attempt to save myself. It was poison, vile and deadly, and it clung to me like a living thing.
    I forced the last of it out and rolled onto my back again, away from the mess. My breathing was labored and painful, but I was aware of Bill rousing at my side. I didn't have long before things were going to get a lot worse.
    I forced myself up into a sitting position and took in my surroundings. I was near the meeting spot from earlier, but closer to the wall. We’d almost hit the tank on the way down, narrowly avoiding bouncing off it and losing my landing cushion. If I could get going I’d be out the door before the deputy could stop me.
    I clambered to my feet, keeping an eye on Bill as I rose, wobbling in place. The world was spinning again, my equilibrium shot, but I was up and the other guy wasn't. It was progress.
    I made for the door and the bright sunlight outside. Each step was easier, each shuffling movement away from the remains of the ambrosia a little less torturous. I was halfway to the light before I felt my strength begin to return in earnest.
    “Rat,” Bill croaked behind me as he shifted from his back. “Where are you going?”
    I wanted to run, to save myself from the magically-powered man and never have to face anything like it again. But I needed to know what I was up against, needed to know if I had any chance in a fair fight. If I was to be denied their advantages I’d have to adjust and improve, and that meant learning what they could do.
    I wondered what Mouse would have said, and realized I hadn't heard from her since entering the distillery. The earpiece had fallen out during the fight and I hadn't noticed. I reached into my pocket, praying the Blackberry was intact. It was, though I didn't have time to take it out and