Page 76 of Boxed In

The other trained his weapon on Luke.

“Turn over the box, or I’ll kill the woman,” the Poisoned One said in a deathly calm voice.

Luke hesitated. If he gave this dung fly the box, he knew that he and Olivia would be dead moments later.

Let me have full control, Zabastian shouted inside his head.

The last time you had full control, you almost got us killed.

This time, you will be killed, if you do not do it.

oOo

In the hours since Zabastian’s spirit had come shooting out of the box, Luke had gotten more comfortable with the joint custody of his body. Now, in a desperate act of faith, he opened his mind fully to Zabastian, allowing the warrior to take the helm. As he did, the world seemed to go into fast forward. Or maybe it was Luke who leaped out of the space-time continuum into some parallel reality.

Moving like a whirlwind, he hurled the box between the two men.

Their faces registered shock, and they both made a grab for the precious object, their attention momentarily diverted from Olivia and Luke.

As they took their eyes off of him, he leaped forward, knocking the gun trained on Olivia away, then whirled to kick out a foot, catching the other man in the balls.

The attacker doubled over, and Luke brought the side of his hand down on the man’s neck.

“Down, Olivia” he shouted.

Olivia ducked, throwing the other man off balance, as Luke whirled back around, catching the assailant in the face with his elbow.

The man made a gurgling sound as he sank to the floor.

Olivia looked on in amazement as he gave each of the men another solid kick.

“How . . . how. . .”

“I let the big Z take over,” he answered as he strode into the hall and picked up the box, turning it in his hand, making sure that it was all right.

There was a slight chip out of one corner. Other than that, it looked the way it had when he’d first picked it up.

He glanced back at the men who had attacked them. He should shoot the bastards. But the thought of Olivia's watching him do it made his stomach curdle.

Before he could make a decision, the wail of sirens came drifting toward them through the night air.

“Do you think they’re coming here?” Olivia whispered.

“Don’t know.”

But as the sound grew louder, he changed his mind. “Yeah, I think they are. We’d better split.”

He grasped the box against his chest with one hand and held on to Olivia with the other, hurrying her down the steps. By the time they reached the first floor, he could see patrol cars pulling to the curb outside the house.

“Shit.”

Olivia stared wide-eyed through the window. “What do we do now?”

“Get out the back way, I hope,” he added as they sprinted for the rear of the house.

He unlocked the door, and they ran into the backyard, just as a cop came around the side of the house.

Luke pulled Olivia into the shadows, praying that the officer hadn’t seen them. When the man kept going toward the back door, Luke breathed out a small sigh. He led Olivia along the stockade fence screening off the alley. When he found the gate, he eased it open.

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