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What? I turned my head slightly, my chest going cold at the sight of two certainly burlier men within the corner of my vision. Damn. Did I not hear them coming because of my earphones? They were only a few feet away, not close enough to hear me, but still near enough to follow and, if they broke into a run, pounce on me.
“Shit. How long have they been following us?”
“Since you dropped me on the sidewalk, I would say. Seems they’ve taken a shine to me.” Vanitas’s jewels glimmered, like he was very pleased with his little pun.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I hissed.
Vanitas shifted in my arms again. He was shrugging. “I thought you knew,” he said.
“Damn it. Okay. I’m gonna make a run for it. I can barely carry you, much less use you in a fight.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
“I just need to duck into the right shadow and – ”
And nothing, I thought, as two even larger men appeared out of the next alley, standing just inches from my face. One of them grinned at me with teeth that looked like they could snap my neck in a single bite. The other man was so huge he looked like he had muscles on his muscles.
“Our friends back there called ahead to tell us you’d be coming,” Toothface said. “Little welcome for you and your valuable little treasure.”
Muscles stepped closer and cracked his knuckles. He smelled like soured sweat. Just unpleasant overall, the air of him made even worse when he spoke in a voice so deep it made my bones rattle.
“Look at this dumb kid. What kind of idiot walks around at night with something like that?”
Footsteps came to a stop behind me. It was the other two. Let’s just call them Giggles. Giggles as a collective. Giggles giggled.
“A sword. Some dumb-ass. Doesn’t even look like he can use it. Looks pricey though.”
Toothface, by now established as the leader of the group, held his hand out. “Give us the sword.”
Somehow, walled in by four huge slabs of street thug, I still found the wits to speak. Maybe I shouldn’t have, considering how my voice leaked out of me in a squeak.
“Can’t,” I said. “It’s not mine. Gotta bring this back to work.”
Giggles giggled. Muscles flexed. Toothface’s grin went, well, toothier.
“Then we’ll have to do this the hard way.”
“I have an idea,” Vanitas said. I was questioning his sudden silence, and was at once relieved by the sound of his voice, even though I couldn’t at all be sure what his idea entailed. The men closed in.
“Vanitas? Any minute now.”
“The fuck are you talking about?” Toothface said. “Who are you talking to?” His hand, which was just about the size of my entire face, came closer. “I said hand the sword ove – ”
The rags in my arms exploded into a cloud of scraps and fibers. Sword and scabbard flew apart with that soul-scraping “shing” you hear in every action movie, only it sounded even cooler because it was happening right in front of my face. The scabbard floated behind me, whacking and pounding the living hell out of Giggles. And the sword, flying of its own volition, flashed in a clean, gorgeous arc – and sliced Toothface’s hand off at the wrist.
How he screamed.
“What the fuck,” Muscles yelled.
“What the fuck,” I yelled.
Behind me, Giggles gasped and groaned as the scabbard somehow moved quickly enough to beat the ever-loving crap out of the both of them. Vanitas hovered just in front of me, his blade stained with blood and his hilt at hand level, as if wielded by an invisible swordsman. He stayed perfectly still. Muscles eyed the sword warily even as Toothface clutched his severed hand in his intact one, bawling and screaming.
“I think you should let us go,” I said, with hardly any strength left in my voice. I was just as confused as they were.
“This is fucked up, man,” Muscles said. “Fucked up. Last week it was that bearded psycho with the flamethrower, now this shit. I’m out. I’m so out.”
My attackers disappeared as quickly as they’d shown up, Muscles dragging Toothface down the way they came while Giggles hightailed it in the opposite direction. I looked around cautiously. Somehow we had managed to avoid drawing more attention to ourselves. No onlookers – yet.
