for escape. The sharp pain hit a second time as she drove it in again, kicking and screaming all the while. When she tried to bring the appendage in for a third strike, I twisted against her, which caused it to glance along my side instead of landing a direct hit. Unfortunately, although the move saved me from another blow to the ribs, it allowed her to wriggle down even more.
In an instant, crushing agony tore into the top of my left wrist, and I let out a scream. A muffled shriek came from her throat as she bit deeply into my arm. Once again I could feel my flesh tearing as her teeth sunk through skin and tendon. My hand jerked with a spasm, and my arms loosened out of reflex. She instantly scrambled upward, and through my watering eyes, I caught a glimpse of her mouth smeared red with my blood. I rolled and pulled myself to my feet as well, but she was already sprinting away.
I flashed a quick glance back to my right looking for help but didn’t see anyone. I had no idea where Velvet had gone, but apparently I was on my own. I started after Annalise, following her up one of the wider “alleys” toward the center of the graveyard. Once again, she was well in the lead.
Darting to the right, she disappeared, and I pressed myself even harder to catch up. Focusing on the point where she ducked from sight, I brought myself in closer to the row of tombs and veered in the same direction. Coming up on the opening, I thrust my hand outward and used it to buffer myself against the structures as I took the turn at a dead run. My wounded appendage thudded against the wall, and I felt a fresh twinge of pain shoot up my arm. I fought to ignore it, but I could feel myself wince as I let out a yelp.
I was starting to pant hard as I fought for breath, but I pushed forward, covering the short distance and hooking around the opposite end of the row of tombs. The area opened up; however, there were two wide alleys, one to the left and one to the right. Acting purely on instinct, I veered to the left and continued running. As I shot past a large crypt, I caught a glimpse of her in another passage to my right, running in the general direction of the front gate.
Skidding on the walkway, I changed my direction and took after her. We zigzagged between tombs, her managing to stay a few paces out of my reach, but with me gaining on her each step.
As we crossed a main alley, she continued straight on and slipped into a narrow gap between two crypts. I started to follow but could tell immediately that I would never be able to fit my frame through the opening, so I whipped to the left and shot around the end of the row. I could already hear her frantic footsteps ahead, so I didn’t even bother making the second 90? turn to go toward where she had cut through. Instead, I kept going forward. She was still ahead of me, but her shortcut hadn’t given her the edge she needed. In fact, it had worked just the opposite, and I was now barely within reach. Lunging, I launched myself through the short space between us and tackled her as she shot out in front of me.
Once again we both went down hard on the concrete, but it was obvious from the way she kept moving that her leather jacket was affording her more protection than my thinner cloth garment was giving me. Still, she screeched as we rolled, and I did the same. I’m not certain if it was from pain or anger on her part, though I suspected it was both.
She rolled over in a flash and kicked at me as she scrambled back against a tomb bearing a brass plate and more than a few X’s scribed on its surface. I wasn’t certain, but I thought I saw the name Marie Laveau inscribed on the plaque before Annalise’s body obscured it from my view. A plate full of coins scattered everywhere when she knocked it from its pedestal. It was soon joined by candles and vases full of flowers that she upset as she continued scrabbling away from me.
I came up to a kneeling position and lunged toward her again, but she twisted out of my way. When she rolled back toward me, her hand was wrapped around the heavy glass container of a seven-day candle. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw it arcing toward me, so I threw my arm up and twisted, catching the brunt of it against my shoulder. I heard a wounded animal screaming then realized that it was me.
She scurried backwards, kicking me as she moved, then climbed to her feet and started running again. I dragged myself up and started after her, stumbling against the tombs as new and altogether unpleasant agonies joined the old. Slipping along a walkway, I shot out onto the main alley that ran parallel to the front wall. Looking to the left, I saw that she was already hooking to the right and out the front gate.
I ignored ceremony and rushed headlong behind her at a renewed sprint. The souls of the departed were just going to have to cut me some slack this time.
CHAPTER 14:
I exited the gates and shot across Basin Street in front of the cemetery without even bothering to check traffic. Fortunately, there was none to speak of. Annalise had widened the gap between us due to that last scuffle, and no matter how hard I was pushing myself, I no longer seemed to be able to gain on her. In fact it was all I could do to keep from falling farther behind. My only saving grace was the fact that she wasn’t moving as fast as she had been before either, and it even looked like she might be faltering because I could see that she was holding on to her side as she ran.
I knew exactly how she felt. I wasn’t sure if there was a single point on my body that wasn’t ravaged by pain at the moment, and I knew it was slowing me down. I was also well aware that the pains weren’t just from the damage she had inflicted. My legs were getting heavier, and my lungs were burning as I gasped for breath. A sharp pain was piercing my ribcage with each labored gulp of air, and I was even starting to feel lightheaded. The extreme exertion was taking its toll on my already exhausted system.
I kept my eyes focused on Annalise as I covered the half block to North Rampart. She was already out into the middle of the street dodging traffic as I ran off the curb. The sound of a blaring horn pierced my ears then mixed with the squeal of tires against pavement. I jerked my head in the direction of the noise and saw the oncoming vehicles. It felt as though my heart seized in my chest, and I was frozen with fear. I don’t know how, but I still managed to jump forward. A compact car skidded at an angle, and I felt a whoosh of air at my back. I elected not to look because I didn’t want to see how close I had just come to being road kill.
Another horn blared, and yet another. Rubber squealed on asphalt, and a truck slid to a halt in front of me, stopping only inches away and to my left. I jerked to the side and started to go around it when a loud crash met my ears. I caught a flash of the truck lurching forward out of the corner of my eye and jumped back instead. I felt myself thump against the first car that had barely missed me and watched as the truck was pushed several feet by the vehicle that had just rear-ended it, finally halting exactly where I would have been had I continued around it. I slid sideways between the truck in front of me and the compact car at my back then shot forward hooking around the end of the pileup I had just caused. I should have been scared out of my wits, but at this point I actually found myself feeling like a confused squirrel on his way across any given street.
Ahead of me, Annalise was dealing with her own self-inflicted obstacle course. I watched as she ran directly into the side of a station wagon that had only a split second before screeched to a halt in front of her. She bounced against the front quarter panel, stumbled, then regained her footing and continued on. As she swivel-hipped around the front end of the vehicle, she glanced back at me for a split second then tore off across the asphalt.
I launched myself into the mess once again, running a serpentine course between vehicles that had ended up stopped at oblique angles. Traffic was coming to a halt quickly; however, there were still a few cars in motion, and we both had to dodge them as well. Horns were still honking, some at us, some at other cars as confusion ran rampant through the mid-afternoon drivers. Some of those who had been directly involved in the accidents were out on the street screaming at us as we darted past them.
If I hadn’t been smack in the middle of this insanity myself, I’m sure I would have been looking around for the movie cameras. It was simply that surreal.
The various obstructions had caused our pace to slow somewhat, but it didn’t allow either of us to actually catch our breath. I had managed to close in by maybe a pair of steps at the most, so Annalise was still well ahead of me when she hit the curb on the opposite side of North Rampart. Our trajectories had been thrown off with all the zigzagging, and she now veered to the left. Anticipating her move, I barreled across trying to angle myself so that I could continue down the cross street where I assumed she was heading.
Though it still appeared to me that she was holding her side, she seemed to have gained a second wind. She sprinted across the mouth of Saint Louis Street, but instead of turning down it as I expected her to do, she continued along the sidewalk parallel to North Rampart. Because of my angle and momentum, I overshot the
