Mark Del Franco - Skin Deep

Laura backed away. Cornering a boggart was never a good idea. She backed into the hallway. Saffin’s eyes bulged wider. Behind you, Laura! she sent.

Laura dropped and spun, kicking out behind her. She struck someone-a man-who fell, then rolled away. Laura jumped to her feet. Gianni lay faceup on the floor. He pointed his gun in her face. “You weren’t supposed to be here, Agent Tate.”

Laura raised her hands and gave him a winsome smile. “I don’t recommend you fire, Gianni. You shoot, the woman behind me will be on you before you feel the recoil.”

He stood, keeping the gun on Mariel. He tapped his headset. “Breach at Position 12.”

Saffin growled and surged forward. Gianni lost the cocky attitude as his aim drifted toward Saffin. Laura shot a burst of essence in his face. He staggered back, clutching at his eyes. With an essence-hardened fist, she laid him out with a roundhouse punch to the head. He hit the wall and slid to the floor.

“That was for Janice Crawford.” She kicked him for good measure. Moving quickly, she spun a binding spell on him that functioned with razorlike ribbons of essence. The more he struggled, the more the binding would burn into his flesh.

Saffin tackled her from behind. Laura scrambled beneath her in panic, expecting sharp claws to pierce her skin. Essence raked the air above them. She twisted her head to look down the hall. Three Inverni fairies in Triad uniforms came toward them.

“Stay!” Saffin growled. She bound down the hall on all fours, jumping from floor to wall and back again, evading essence-fire with an astounding agility. She launched at the lead Inverni, arms and legs forward. He screamed as she landed, the claws on her hands and feet ripping into his torso.

The other two Inverni fell back in terror, firing wildly. Panicked, one of them took to the air, but in the close quarters, he hit the wall and careened against his partner.

Saffin evaded their fire with every leap and turn. She sprang from the wall, flipped across the ceiling, and swiped her claws. An Inverni shrieked as her hands tangled in his wings, sparks of white essence bleeding from the tears she made. Saffin lifted him and flung him at his retreating partner. Their bodies met with a sickening crack, and they fell motionless.

Saffin whirled to face Laura. “Bomb, bomb, bomb.” She raced toward the basement vault.

Laura pulled herself to her feet. Terryn, the Treaty’s primed with a spell bomb. I need Cress back down here, she sent. She ran after Saffin. As she neared the vault, she heard Saffin’s raging howl punctuated with essence-fires and screams.

Laura skidded to a stop. Terryn? She pumped more essence into the sending to give it the effect of a shout. Still no response. Cress? she tried. Nothing. Laura doubted both of them could have been taken out without warning. Her sendings were being jammed.

Another scream from the vault grabbed her attention. She hardened her body shield and charged into a blood-bath. Two guards lay dead near the entrance. Saffin sprang among the columns and ceiling beams, slashing at a retreating Inverni, his uniform shredded and bloodied. She evaded his essence-fire, but her blows landed, opening wounds on his face. Another Inverni worked behind him, sending the Treaty on its way through the ceiling to the Rotunda above.

Laura threw a jagged spear of light that hissed and crackled as it flew. The shot hit the lift mechanism and reacted with the metal. The odor of ozone filled the air, the scent of essence-fire and burned electronics. The Treaty ground to a halt.

The Inverni fired at her as he leaped to the manual controls, gears grinding with the speed and strength of the fey. The Treaty rose and disappeared into a ceiling shaft.

Saffin knocked Laura aside and jumped. She landed on the Inverni’s back and wrenched her hands down. He screamed and convulsed as Saffin stood over him, the shredded remains of his wings dangling from her hands.

Laura ran to the manual controls and pulled on the gearshift. It wouldn’t move. She couldn’t reverse its direction. Saffin howled and scrabbled at the grease-slick hydraulic system.

“Saffin! Stop!” Laura shouted. Saffin ignored her. “Saffin! Listen to me! You did it. You found the bomb. You did it, Saffin. Calm down. You finished your job.”

Saffin hesitated, uncertainty glimmering in her eyes. Laura stepped closer and lowered her voice. “You did it, Saffin. Good job. You can stop now. Mariel will take care of it.”

“Laura?” she rasped.

“I will tell Laura,” Laura said.

Saffin thrust a hand at her. “Laura!”

Laura did a double take. Was this something about bog garts she didn’t know? Could Saffin see through her glamour? She pushed the thought aside. Time enough later to learn about it. She hoped.

“It’s okay, Saffin. Yes, Laura knows about the bomb. Come with me,” she said.

Tension drained out of Saffin, and she slumped against Laura. Her mania subsided. Even as Laura guided her across the room, she felt the woman’s body shifting beneath her hands, the limbs retracting to their normal length, the elongated features smoothing out. Laura wanted her out of the area before she fully recovered. Extreme boggart mania resulted in blackouts. She didn’t want Saffin to know what she had done until she was prepared to hear it.

More Inverni waited for them in the hallway. Laura extended her body shield. Saffin clung to her sleeve as they staggered under essence shots. Laura counted five attackers, highly trained and focused. She had power, but she needed to tap organic essence to take on that many alone, and so far underground, there was little available. Saffin growled deep in her throat as her mania returned.

Laura bit her lip. She had to get upstairs. She hugged Saffin from behind, words freezing in her throat. She took a deep breath. “Saffin, we need to get past them. Do you understand me? We have to stop the bomb. Will you do this for me?”

Saffin broke from her embrace in a blur of hair and claws. She bounded down the hallway toward the Inverni, her passage a spiral of acrobatics as she avoided essence-fire. Laura forced herself to watch as the screaming started.

LAURA RAN UPthe stairs, Saffin’s raspy breath in her ears. She did not want to think about what she had seen. What had happened. What she had caused to happen. She did not want to think about what she would say to Saffin when it was over. If she lived long enough to give explanations. They left bloody footprints on the marble steps.

Saffin growled deep in her throat. Laura put a soothing hand on her head. She had never seen a brownie so deep in a boggart mania. “Stay with me, Saffin. It will be okay.”

They reached an unguarded landing on the ground level. Above, essence-fire and fighting echoed down from the main floor. Laura grabbed Saffin by the arm. “You need to get out, Saf. Find Terryn macCullen. Tell him about the bomb in the Rotunda. Can you do that for me, Saf?”

Panting, Saffin stared with a crazed light in her eyes. She trembled and made a sound between a cough and a bark. Laura fought tears at the sight of her twisted and bloody face. Saffin touched Laura’s cheek, using the flat of her palm to keep her claws from scratching. “Go, Saf. Hurry.”

The boggart burst into motion. Laura fought back her emotions as she watched Saffin leap from side to side toward the entrance lobby. With a deep breath, she ran up the last flight. As she made the final turn to the main level, a stray shot of essence ricocheted down at her. She flattened herself against the wall and called up her body shield. After fighting through the basement hallway, no one was left to pursue her up the stairs. That wouldn’t last long. Once the bodies in the basement were found, more fighters would be coming up behind her.