Page 90 of Delinquents Turned Fugitives
He tried to pull away, but I wrapped my hand around that shadow as if it were a true lasso and I were a damned cowgirl.
Claude writhed—he nearly yanked my arm out of my socket when he pulled on his arm. How the fuck that was possible (since he wasn’t corporeal) was beyond me, but magic had its own logic.
When Claude realized that trying to pull away wouldn’t work, he ran right at me. I had to throw up a shield of shadow to block him.
“What’s going on?” Z’s question echoed through the warehouse.
“She’s fighting him,” Malcolm whispered back. “Now, shut the fuck up.”
I couldn’t spare a glance for the peanut gallery because I was too busy trying to figure out how to convert my shield into a weapon, an axe or a noose. But the constant yanking, near-dislocation of my arm was distracting me. Did I give that up and risk Claude attacking the guys again?
“Run!” I yelled. I let my eyes meet Andros’ for half a second.
He nodded once, and I knew he understood my command without me having to say it. “Z, grab Gray.” He latched onto Malcolm and in the blink of an eye, the two of them disappeared. Z was only a split-second behind. Evan hardly had a chance to run his hand through his hair and looked surprised before Andros was back, scooping him up.
As soon as Andros had used his magic to speed himself and Evan to safety, I transformed my shadow shield into an axe of darkness and swiped at Claude’s head.
But the fucker ducked and then… disappeared. Just like Dad used to after he visited with me.
Shit.
I let my shadows dissolve.
That’s when something ice cold plunged into my chest and squeezed my heart.
Pain.
It took everything I had to think beyond that one word. And my only thought was shadow. I closed my eyes and imagined blackness filling up my chest cavity, spilling down my abdomen, bubbling up my throat and then coating me like a second skin. The more my shadows spread, the more the cold retreated until I heard Claude hiss.
“Fucking bitch.”
I smiled at his rage and then I pictured shadow glasses—darkening my vision like sunglasses—descending over my eyes. It took far more energy than my light did, it seemed to pull from deeper inside of me, drained me faster. But it was necessary. I made certain, one last time, that I was covered head to toe in shadow armor. Then I opened my eyes, ready to face my stepfather.
He stood just to my right, appearing solid, but the camping chair overlapped and interrupted his legs in odd, very disorienting ways.
Claude lifted a hand, smug arrogance marring his features. Nothing happened.
“Magic doesn’t work when you’re dead, idiot,” I sneered, creating a shadow throwing star and lobbing it in his direction. He leaned to the side, easily ducking it.
Growling, he barreled for me.
I had no idea if my shadow armor would hold up, or how long I could hold it. It already felt like it was fraying behind my calves. I needed a better weapon.
Think!I screamed at myself as Claude latched onto me and I felt the tingling of cold on the back of my legs. It stretched up, locking up my knees and making me tumble backward, smacking my shoulders and head against the concrete.
I need something he can’t duck, something he can’t pull out of… I wished Malcolm were here to brainstorm with me. For some reason, that thought led to another of Malcolm. A memory. Me and him in a study room. Playing the dot game.
I lifted my hands and pelted out shadow dots, until they filled the entire warehouse behind us in a three-dimensional grid. A dot game I could win. The dots grew closer and closer to us, the grid expanding row by row.
Claude noticed my smug expression and glanced behind him.
I could see it on his face when he realized those dots would eat him up like a million bullet holes. His cold grip grew tighter on my knees and I felt like my bones might snap. He snarled, “I’ll be back.”
Then he disappeared.
I gasped, releasing all the shadows. Exhaustion smacked me in the face and made me its bitch. I huffed out a dry, sad, completely unhappy laugh. Because he would be back again and again.
And I had no idea how to end a ghost.
