Jennifer Rardin - [Jaz Parks 1] - Once Bitten, Twice Shy

Maybe literally. With no key to control her actions, wouldn't the Tor run rampant?

Not without a willing soul.

I could run, but I wouldn't make it far. And that would still leave the Tor poised to wreak havoc. As the first drops of Liliana's blood hit the third bowl, I did one more quick study of the Tor-al-Degan.

Her inability to maintain a solid front made her seem vulnerable despite the energy that came off her in waves.

One clean shot, Jaz, that's all you're getting and then you're done for. I took one, heartbreaking look at the life I could've had, and let it go.

I began to cave myself inward, as if my soul was a collapsible laundry cart. Turn and fold, turn and fold, until the only portion left of me could've been punted, like a paper football, over goalposts formed by four fingers of a sixth grader's hands. It was the only fortress I knew how to build, and my sanity huddled at its center where, if I survived, maybe the blood and the horror of what I was planning could only leave a faint stain.

'Aaahh! Aaaahh! AAAAAAHHHl!!' It was Assan, too freaked to scream with words, holding a wooden statue of a closed fist with the middle finger raised. I couldn't connect that F-you statue to Amanda's frilly room, which was how I knew it must've been her brother's, maybe from his med school days when he still felt confident enough to flip off the world. It looked as if Assan had gotten the message.

Strings of box tape and bubble wrap streamed from his fingers like thick cobwebs, jigging to the rhythm of his shaking hands. His eyes had gone buggy, and he kept glancing from the Tor to Bozcowski to Aidyn, as if at any moment one of them would tear him limb from limb. And maybe they would if the angry mob the Deganites were becoming didn't lynch him first. They converged on him, pushing, shoving, yelling spit-laced curses. Aidyn, still mesmerized by the slow trickle of Liliana's blood looked around, confused. So did Vayl's ex.

I rushed to the nearest torch and tore it off the wall, breaking the tip off its wooden handle so that its jagged end threw splinters onto the murky floor. A small sliver of wood floating in an oily puddle gave me an idea. I touched the torch to it and it flamed nearly waist high, grabbing gases from the air that burned green and stank worse than a rotting skunk in the middle of the swamp.

With only seconds to spare before somebody figured out their sacrifice had grown a spine, I sprinted from puddle to puddle, lighting them up like road flares behind me. When I was done, a fence of noxious flame trapped Liliana and the Tor. Both of them screamed at Bozcowski, Aidyn, Assan, the crowd, not one of whom had thought to stock the dungeon with a fire extinguisher.

I had one more moment to grab a second torch from the wall before the bad guys reorganized. Behind me, the Tor and Liliana cringed against the back wall as putrid green flames licked the air and pronounced it kindling. I held the torches out in front of me and the crowd backed up. I took a step forward. They retreated another step, their shoes squelching in a puddle of mire large enough to hold fifteen pairs of feet.

'I'll bet you guys didn't know I went through college on a track scholarship,' I said, glaring into their flushed and wary faces as they tried to figure out how to surround me. 'For javelin.'

I tossed the right-hand torch up in the air, caught it in an overhand grip and launched it at their feet. The puddle ignited instantly, catching a woman's skirt and a man's sleeve.

The crowd stampeded, throwing their burning brethren into the muck as they went, stomping bones along with the flames. They reached the stairs as a herd, scrambling over each other to reach the top. Men cursed, women screamed, people fell, got up and jumped back on. Bozcowski, Aidyn, Assan and I watched, spectators at a train wreck. Then Assan shook his statue at me.

'You're dead,' he croaked, advancing on me slowly.

I nodded grimly. 'You don't know how right you are.'

He stopped, not sure what to make of this. Aidyn and Bozcowski tried to flank me. I waved the torch at them. 'Don't. Move.'

Behind them the crowd's roar doubled. The men turned to look, so I risked a peek as well. The Deganites were backing, tripping, falling down the stairs in the face of a pair of space-age guns held by Cole and Bergman. As those two cleared the stairs and began to round up the Deganites, they were joined by Vayl, leaning just slightly on his cane, and Cassandra, holding the key in one outstretched hand. In her other hand, the Enkyklios was transforming, its marbled parts rolling into the shape of an hourglass. She was already chanting, and I risked a look behind me to see if the Tor had heard her call. Evidently she had. Despite the heat of the fire that trapped her, she'd pulled away from the wall and risen to her full height, her eyes glued to the key.

The screech of buckling metal drew my attention back to the stairs. Cole and Bergman had made it to floor level with their prisoners. Vayl and Cassandra had reached the fourth stair when the whole structure collapsed. Vayl tried to balance Cassandra, but she lurched out of his hands and onto the floor, averting her face just in time to miss the taste of mud and flammable gases. A portion of the stair glanced off her head and shoulder, the artifacts flew free and her chant ceased.

Holy crap! My heart froze as I looked back at the Tor. She'd fallen to her hands and knees, was lapping Liliana's tainted blood out of the offering bowls, one after another.

'Cassandra!' I yelled, 'Hurry! Get control!'

Assan chose that moment to attack, rushing me like a crazed linebacker. I never could've met that mad attack full on, but then I never meant to. I faked a run to the right until he committed to that direction, then I came back left and connected with a leg sweep that sent him sprawling. I moved toward him, meaning to follow up with a bone-crushing kick to the skull, but Vayl's voice stopped me, 'Jaz! Behind you!'

I spun around in time to see Liliana launch herself over the wall of flame, which was vastly shorter now than it had been a moment before. The Tor's chuckle of triumph told me she might've had something to do with that. I tried to dodge out of Liliana's path, but stepped into deep, thick mud. It grabbed at my shoe, slowing me just enough that Liliana's nails grazed my neck as she landed, reopening the wounds Vayl's fangs had made.

'Now I've got you!' she exulted, keeping her distance as I desperately jabbed the torch at her. Assan struggled to his feet and drew his sword. His eyes were on the trickles of blood running down my neck into the collar of my shirt as he said, 'Now, Jasmine. Now is your time to die.' Son of a bitch!

Liliana began to circle me, her expression a study in satisfaction. Assan followed suit. 'It looks as if our rat is finally cornered,' she told him. 'Shall we play a bit before we take her soul?' He grinned and nodded, licking his lips as if he was about to sit down to a luscious feast.