Life Blood---XXVII---Page No 101

"Mierda!"

Blinding light, a face lost in the burst of flame, stars filling my
head. The fiery explosion tongued out past his ear like a brilliant
sword of reds and yellows, sending a round off into space. The
noise left a ringing in my ears and multicolored hues stuttering
across my eyes.

It hit me who I'd just seen. It was Ramos. With a gun! Shit.
        The flash of my pistol had given me the advantage for a
 second, since I knew it was coming, and with that edge I swung an elbow across his chin, then kneed him in the groin. It should have been enough to bring him down, but instead he merely sank to one knee and redoubled his grip.

Hey, I thought, maybe I know something he doesn't. How to
take a fall. I'd seen enough movie stunts to know what you're
supposed to do. It'd be risky, but I knew I wasn't going to win a
wrestling match.

I opened up with the automatic, firing everywhere again and
again and again, getting off five rounds in a crescendo of light and
sound, like a huge firecracker in my hand, enough to illuminate
the stairwell like a strobe and catch him off guard. In that fleeting
moment I slipped a foot behind his ankle and shoved.

I think I yelled as I felt myself being pulled forward. Then I

realized he was wearing a heavy bracelet that had tangled in my
hair. I'd been planning to roll down the remaining stairs, protecting
my head, and let him bounce, but the pull of his bracelet ruined it.
I felt myself being swept into empty space, my gun flying away.

Then something glanced off my face, the wooden banister of the stair, which had mysteriously come up to meet me. I turned and felt his body beneath mine, arms flailing, a soft landing, till we rolled and I was beneath him again.

I struck out, a right fist, and he fell away, his bracelet

disentangling as he tumbled farther down the stairs. Then I rose
and tried to take a step, but it wasn't there. In the pitch dark the
angle was wrong, off by just inches, and as I toppled forward into
empty space I reached out, taking a handful of dark air.

Finally I felt something clenching my wrist, and the next

thing I knew I was being swung around. I twisted sideways one last time, but then my head hit the wall. The hard marble caught me just above the ear, and I saw the darkness of the space grow brilliantly light, then transmute to vibrant colors.

Or maybe the hall lights had come back on. I only know I felt a set of arms encircle me.

"Come," Alex Goddard was saying as he lifted me up. "They're ready."