Amazon Queen

She made no other sound, no yelp of pain, no curse of anger, nothing.

'No!' I spun, determined to knock the two women back to whatever hell had created them.

One of them, the one with the baby, lifted her gun again. I could hear Jack yelling, maybe he'd been yelling all along, but all I could see was my mother's killers and all I could think about was reaching them, destroying them.

Overhead something shrieked. I didn't look up, couldn't.

There was another click; somewhere in my brain I recognized it as the sound that came right before the gun fired. I could see the woman holding the baby now. I focused on her. Her eyes were blue and watery. Her hair was gray and tucked behind her ears. She wore tiny pearl earrings and today she was going to die.

There was another shriek, louder, closer.

Something big and dark dropped from the sky. . the bird from the woods. Its talons extended, it tore at my intended target's face and hair.

She screamed and dropped both the baby and the gun. The gun fired as it hit the ground, but the bullet went wild, lodging into the brick wall of Mel's shop.

The second woman paused, then dropped her gun and ran away from us toward the front of the building. At an old maple she stopped and picked something up off the ground. Not sure what was happening, I raced toward her. She glanced at me, but I didn't think she saw me. Then she glanced back at where the other woman battled with the bird, where the babies lay on the ground.

Her thumb hovered over the box.

I spun and yelled, but Jack had already started moving, as had the bird. They both raced toward the baby seats. Jack got there first, grabbing both by the handles as he ran toward me.

There was a click, this one softer and less metallic, and the space between the two buildings exploded.

I stood straight up, my arms over my head, and cursed.

Something smashed into me from the side. An ooof of pain and expelled breath left my body, and I was slammed onto my back. My face was covered by something both soft and scratchy; I couldn't breathe. I kicked out. Whatever had been covering me moved.

Dirt clouded the air blocking my view of anything but shapes. On all fours, I held my hand over my mouth and nose and peered at the world through squinted eyes. Something rustled nearby, then wings flapped, loud and close. . the bird. I felt the air move as he took off. The dirt seemed to clear some too, enough that I could see Mel's outside lights again and Jack. He stood fifteen feet away, his face streaming with sweat, his arms shaking and a baby carrier in each hand.

I scrambled to my feet, trying not to cough, and searched the area around us for the two women.

'They're gone. She blew something.' Jack, his face ashen, glanced to where the woman with the tiny box had stood, then in almost the same movement slanted his head toward the stairwell where I had seen my mother fall-or what had been the stairwell. It was now filled with rubble.

I moved toward it, my legs stretching as long as they could, devouring the ground as quickly as they could.

Bern was there beside me. I didn't know where she'd come from. I hadn't seen her approach. But I didn't question her appearance. I just grabbed a piece of broken concrete and tossed it off the pile. Bern did the same.

As I lay my hand on a second segment, a man appeared, his walnut-brown body naked. He dove in, grabbing chunks in both hands and tossing them onto the ground behind us.

Soon the grass was strewn with debris.

'Was she. . is she?' I mumbled to myself, unable to comprehend that the mother I'd seen only as a super- Amazon lie trapped beneath pounds of stone.

A siren sounded; it was close.

'Humans to the rescue,' the naked man muttered.

Jack jumped forward and grabbed him by one shoulder. Jack's fingers were pale against the other man's darker skin. 'We'll take care of this. You have to leave. You're illegal as far as they're concerned, and naked. It will just cause new questions. Go to Makis's. I'll call you, let you know what's happening.'

The man ignored him, kept tossing hunks of concrete, but with an increased fervor, an almost crazed energy.

Jack grabbed him again, by the arm this time, pulling him around. 'Leave. You'll just create more questions.'

The man cursed. He was older than Jack, had gray at the temples of his close-cropped hair and lines by his eyes. His body was sinewy, like a long-distance runner or maybe a swimmer, and his shoulders were unusually broad for his slim hips.

He opened his mouth in one long stretch, like the famous painting The Scream and a screech ripped from his lungs. Then before I could jerk or respond in any way, he was gone and the giant bird stood in his place.

He turned his neck and stared at me. His feathers were inky black except for a white ruff that ringed his throat. His eyes were brown but with a reddish tinge that made me shiver, or maybe it was the expression in the eyes, the pure unadulterated dislike pointed directly at me.

The sirens grew louder, and not far away a fire truck honked its horn, trying to clear cars from its path.

'Go!' Jack pointed to the sky.

With a last shriek the giant bird shot into the night.

I moved into his place, tossing rocks with shaking hands.

As firemen and paramedics flowed onto the property, I kept tossing. I heard people muttering behind me.

'Her mother's under there.'

'Call someone.'

But no one tried to stop me and when two firemen dressed in bright yellow stepped beside me to help, I didn't stop them.

We found her ten minutes later. She wasn't breathing and hadn't been since the first bullet hit.

I was down inside the stairwell by then, my legs up to my knees covered in dust and broken bricks. I stared at my mother's too-pale face. I didn't need the fireman to tell me she was dead; I knew it. She'd never looked like that, never been lacking in the confident swagger that emanated from her like light from a halogen bulb.

My heart slowed. Someone was talking to me. . Mel standing behind me, her hand on my shoulder. I couldn't hear what she said. The fireman said something too. He yelled and gestured.

Mel disappeared. Someone grabbed me under the arms and pulled me from the debris. I could feel it slipping over my bare legs, the rough concrete bits scratching my skin. My heels bounced as my body moved. All I could do was stare down at that face and think how what I was seeing couldn't be true.

Amazons lived for hundreds of years. . hundreds. And my mother, as much as she angered me, wasn't supposed to be dead.

She wasn't.

But she was.

Chapter 15

After they found my mother's body, more humans had crowded onto Mel's property. There were firemen, paramedics, cops, and neighbors. People everywhere.

The babies were fine. Jack had handed them off to Mandy before pulling me from the stairwell.

He'd dragged me as far as the paramedics would let him. Only about eight feet from where my mother's body lay, he propped me up against the base of the old school and kneeled down beside me.

'Get mad, Zery. Getting mad will get you through this.' Then he squeezed my hand and stepped to the side.

Mel and a paramedic took his place. The paramedic asked me a lot of useless questions and tried to get me