Collin, meanwhile, is tearing at his hair, pacing around, all while looking up and off to the right, gaze flicking back and forth. It’s like he’s desperately trying to track random birds speeding across the cracked plaster ofmy ceiling. “Jaysus, Alvin! What are youdoing?! Feck, feck, feck, feck, feck!” he cries out. He’s also terrified, it seems. But he’s terrified for me.
The elf, very displeased, grips more tightly on the hilt of his sword.
“So be it,” he says.
Suddenly Collin practically shouts in my ear. “Shite! I’ve got it! Alvin, you need to run and jump through the window! Right now!”
There is only the one window in my bedroom. It looks out onto the street. Five floors down.
I react with what I’m sure is the biggest WTF expression on my face, but I don’t dare turn away from the elf and his goddamned sword. Still, my bizarre flinch seems to give the fae pause, and he lowers his weapon slightly and tilts his head to the side, scrutinizing me.
But Collin isn’t stopping for nothing. “Listen here, Alvin! You wouldn’t have gotten the same boost as with a flesh-and-blood person, and the sex we had wasn’t completed, but I absolutely shared life force with you and it still counts as feeding! It won’t last long, but youshouldhave active incubus powers! You can easily handle the broken glass and the fall. And I guarantee it’s the last thing he will ever expect you to do!”
I experience a strange feeling of disorientation. On the one hand, Collin just threw a whole lot of words at me super-fast, and I’m so freaked out, there’s no way I should have the mental bandwidth to process them. On the other hand, it’s like everything he just said immediately makes total sense. I’m able to absorb it all with deep understanding, and I just need to decide if I want to act on it or not.
The elf continues to stare at me, warily, watching my freaked-out reaction (orreactions, as I try to sort through all the confusion in my overheated brain), but he’s clearly not able to see or hear the Irish boy at all. Instead, he pompously straightens his own back in what I’m sure he believes is a noble manner.
“So… I assume you are at last realizing thefoolishnessof your refusal and are now ready?—”
Collin grips my arm again so hard, it hurts. “Alvin, it’s now or never! I need you to trust me. Leg it toward the window, screaming your head off, and just throw yourself as hard as you can through the glass!”
Uh-huh.
What he’s asking me to do is insane. Suicide. I’m not going to have access to any powers. I wasn’t feeding off him. (I’d have felt it, right?!)
But really… what the hell else am I going to do?
I spin to my left, launch myself full-throttle at my bedroom window, and scream my soon-to-be-bloody head off.
“AHHHHHHHHHH!”
12
I bringmy hands together in front of my extended arms and swan dive through the glass, shattering it into a million pieces.
Then I’m in the cold, open air. Falling to my death. And still screaming at the top of my lungs.
“AHHHHHHHHHH!”
And Collin is right there beside me the whole time, yelling in my ear. “Cover your head with your arms! Bend your knees! And try to relax—it’ll distribute the impact! You’ve got this!”
Are you kidding me?!
Halfway down, I manage to throw my arms over my head. Then, while the ground rushes up at me faster than I would ever think possible, I feel Collin tug at my legs. “Feet out, Alvin! You want to land on your feet!”
I try to kick my legs out in the direction he’s tugging, and right before I hit the cement sidewalk below, I hear him shout, “Now roll! Roll! Roll! Roll!”
I do land on my feet. Hard. I do not roll. Instead myknees crumple, causing me to collapse in an ugly heap onto the concrete sidewalk, face-first, the sides of my elbows smashing against my cheekbones.SMACK!My entire body screams in pain.
But before I can even think for one second, Collin is pulling me back up into a standing position. And since I’m now guessing that everything he does is purely in my imagination (right?), in reality, I should be getting to my feet on my own. Which means miraculously nothing’s broken, so I’m doing pretty damn great, considering!
I glance at my sleeves. Hot red blood soaks through gashes in my windbreaker. Not only did my arms get hammered against the concrete while protecting my face, they got pretty slashed up smashing through the window. But when I gingerly poke through the torn fabric where one of the wounds should be, it’s barely there, and a moment later, it’s gone. Even the glass shards seem to be left on the outside.
All the damage my body experienced completely healed itself in seconds. That’s never happened before. Those areincubuspowers! Collin was right!
I glance up at the window to see the elf sticking his head out, looking down at me. He gives me a truly annoyed eye roll and then quickly ducks back into the apartment. Apparently he’s too noble to show off his own swan dive.
Collin tugs on the shredded fabric of my sleeve. “Alvin! We’ve got him on the back foot, but you aren’t safe yet. Not by a long shot. And you won’t have enough juice to outrun him for long.” He scowls, thinking. “You needsome wheels…” He urgently scans the road, then his eyes widen. “Class!”
