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That was the thought that hummed through my mind as I ran toward the storage room, grabbed a paring knife lying on a table there, and hurried back to the double doors that led into the front of the restaurant. I peered out through one of the windows, but the two giants had their heads down, counting the cash from the register. I opened one of the doors just wide enough for me to slip into the storef
ront, then tip-toed over to the end of the counter and hunkered down there, out of sight of our attackers.
I crept up to the corner of the counter and peered around it. The blond kid was still lying in front of the counter where Mason had dumped him, his thin arms and legs sprawled out at awkward angles. So was Sophia. I hadn't realized it before, but she'd cut her head when it had slammed against the counter, and blood had dripped down the side of her face and pooled on the floor. For a moment, I thought that she was dead, that I was too late to save her, that I'd failed her. But I made myself keep staring at her, and I saw that her chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm. Some of the tightness in my own chest eased. As long as she was still breathing, Jo-Jo could fix the rest. That was what Fletcher always said whenever he came home with a knife, a gunshot, or some other wound he'd gotten as the Tin Man.
The giants finished counting the cash, split the bills between them, and walked around the counter so that they were looming over Sophia and the boy again. I thought that they might pick up Sophia and carry her into the back of the restaurant. That's what they'd been talking about before - taking her back there so they could kill her. The kid too.
But instead of trying to move her, the other giant, Zeke, got down on his knees on the floor. He leered at Sophia, even though she couldn't see him, then started unbuckling his belt.
"C'mon," the other man, Mason, growled. "Quit fooling around. There's no time for that. Besides, someone could always walk by and look in the windows at any second. "
Not likely, given the late hour. Besides, the restaurant wasn't too far away from Southtown. Some nights, the vampire hookers and their pimps wandered over in this direction, so the street outside wasn't exactly a great place to linger after dark. Still, I held my breath, hoping that the possibility would be enough to get the giant to leave Sophia alone.
"Let 'em look. " Zeke sneered. "I don't care. "
"Well, I do," Mason snapped back. "So let's get them in the back out of sight before someone sees us. We got a nice little score from the cash register. Let's see if there's a safe in the back, then kill them and leave. "
Zeke snorted. "No way. I say we have a little fun with this bitch before we off her. "
"And I say that I don't plan on getting pinched by the cops over this . . . "
While the men continued to argue, I left the corner of the counter and darted forward, ducking down behind a table and some chairs. At this point, I was about fifteen feet away from the men. I could cross the restaurant in a few steps and be on top of them before they realized what was happening.
My hand trembled a bit, but I made myself clench my fingers around the hilt of the paring knife even tighter. The feel of the smooth steel handle digging into my cold skin steadied me. I drew in a breath. I could do this. I would do this. This was what Fletcher was training me for, so I could protect myself and the people I cared about. I didn't know if that included some random kid, much less Sophia, but Fletcher and Jo-Jo loved her, and I loved them. And that was all that really mattered to me.
"All right, all right," Zeke muttered. "Look at her. She ain't no great beauty. I'd rather have the cash from the register than her, anyway. "
"C'mon, then," Mason repeated. "Quit whining, and help me carry her. She looks heavy. "
Zeke rolled his eyes, but he rebuckled his belt and got back to his feet. Then both of the men leaned over. Mason grabbed Sophia's ankles, while Zeke took hold of her shoulders.
"On three," Mason said. "One, two - "
I didn't wait for
three . Instead, I rose from behind the table and raced across the restaurant. The giants were so focused on Sophia that they never even saw me coming.
I rammed my knife into Mason's right side. He screamed with pain and surprise, but there was nothing that I could do to keep him quiet, so I yanked the knife out and stabbed it into his other side. The paring knife wasn't quite as strong as I'd thought it would be, but I kept twisting and twisting it into his muscles, sawing through his ligaments and tendons.
Blood spattered all over the blue and pink pig tracks on the floor, turning them a rusty red.
Mason pitched face-first onto the floor and started crawling forward, trying to get away from me. This time, I plunged the knife square into his back. I used my weight to drive the blade in as deep as it would go. I must have hit something vital, because he let out a choked scream that quickly die down into a raspy gurgle. He arched his back once, then slumped forward onto the floor, dead.
"You little bitch!" Zeke roared. "You'll pay for that!"
Before I could crawl off the dead guy, Zeke stepped forward, dug his hand into my hair, and yanked me up. This time, I yelped in pain and surprise. He held me out in front of him and gave me a vicious shake. Then he started hitting me. Once, twice, three times, the giant backhanded me. My head snapped from side to side to side, and my world spun around and around and around from the blows. As a finishing touch, he rammed his fist into my stomach. He let go of my hair, and I dropped like a stone to the ground.
Zeke was strong, even for a giant, and the blows had hurt so much that I was having trouble fighting the black spots swimming at the edge of my vision. But I made myself focus and stay awake. Because if he knocked me out, he'd probably rape and kill me on the spot - if he didn't decide to go ahead and simply beat me to death.
So I pushed back at the black spots and focused on breathing. It took me a moment to realize that I'd managed to hang on to the knife while he'd been hitting me, and I tightened my grip on the bright, shiny silver handle, ready to use it on him the second that I got a chance.
But Zeke didn't give me one. He was in a rage now, and he drew back his boot to kick me in the ribs. I barely managed to reach for my Stone magic in time to keep him from caving in my chest with the vicious blow. And he didn't stop.
Again and again, he lashed out at me.
I lay there and let him hit me, cradling the knife in my hand and trying to hide it as much as possible. I didn't really have another option. I needed the knife to kill him, and if he realized that I still had it, he'd kick it out of my hand and keep on beating me until I ran out of magic.
Then he'd do the same to Sophia and the kid, and I couldn't let that happen.
