Battle of Bones (Anomaly Saga #5)

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LaVarre set his eyes on Chandler from under his mask. Chandler sighed and said, "I thought we had come to an agreement."

"You said Chaos hadn't promised me all the soap he had," LaVarre said. "I checked with him, and he said that wasn't true, and he, in fact, promised me more than he had, so I'm sticking with him."

"I really cannot figure you out," Alice said.

LaVarre shrugged and then tackled Chandler. Alice tried to pry them away from each other as they rolled around on the ground.

And with an uncomfortably evil look in his eye, Jacob turned his gaze onto Preston, whose face already provided evidence of their previous two fistfights that day.

Luckily for Preston, Camellia was feeling sympathetic. She raised her fists. "Well, Preston, what do you say we shut this loser up before he has the chance to even say anything?" Preston copied Camellia's stance.

Vincent, who had decided to take on Alf and his machete, looked at Jacob and then Preston. "Preston?" He narrowed his eyes. "So you're the kid who took my brother's spot with the anomaly hunters."

Preston lowered his hands, drawing his eyebrows together. "Huh?"

"You have a brother?" Camellia asked Jacob.

Jacob smirked. "There are so many things you don't know about me, doll."

Instinctively, Camellia threw a swift punch at Jacob's gut, knocking the wind out of him. He stumbled back a bit, but only let his smug look fall for a split second. "You are a good fighter," he said. "Why would you want to work with him when you could be working with me?"

She crossed her arms. "I do have standards. They may seem pretty low, but not low enough to reach your level."

"Hey! Don't talk to my brother like that!" Vincent raised his hand to Camellia, but she caught his wrist. He grabbed hers with his other hand and threw her to the ground. Her face fell into a moist spot in the ground, smearing dirt all over the left side of her face. Now she was mad.

Using the sleeve of her jacket to wipe away the mud, she stood. Her eyes looked almost black in the dim light. Preston thought she looked terrifying; if he were Jacob and Vincent, he would've been long gone. "Alf?" she said.

"What's it?" Alf asked.

"If you've got that idiot," - she nodded toward Vincent - "then we've got this one."

"Sure thing, mate." Alf brandished his machete at Vincent.

"Um, Chaos?" Vincent said. "Can I get a machete? Or something?"

Chaos snapped his fingers, and a machete appeared in Vincent's hands. "Cool," Vincent said, swinging it at Alf, who parried with his own.

Jacob stretched his fingers out and then curled them into fists. "Let's see how many spots on the team we can open up tonight." He was set on Preston being the first, but Camellia was quick to make it two-on-one.

Meanwhile, Chaps, Chaos, and Chapalina were engaged in the truest battle of wits - trash-talking.

"You call this a team?" Chaps scoffed. "Five nobodies and a bunch of sacks of straw. Your lot wouldn't be a match for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, which I hear is one of the worst teams in the National Football League."

"Well, at least I put thought into who I chose for my team," Chaos retorted. "Rather than just recruiting my friends who may or may not be prepared for such affairs."

"At least Chaps and I have friends," Chapalina said.

"I have friends!" Chaos snapped. "It's just that none of them are available. And at least they're all my age and I'm not having play-dates with all these toddlers like you, Chaps."

"If you knew anything," Chaps said, "you'd know that humans age differently. The youngest one here is Ariana, and even she's more talented than half your personnel."

Chaos glanced over at Ariana just in time to see her swiftly decapitate three scarecrows with one swing of her axe. "Well, at least . . . at least I don't stink!"

"Where'd you learn to insult people?" Chapalina asked. "From a three hundred and twenty-three-year-old?"

Chaps laughed and high-fived Chapalina. "Oh, good one, Chapalina, good one."

Joe and Locket had joined forces to take on Menshikov and Nadia. Menshikov raised his laser gun at Joe and Locket. "You really think that you have chance?"

Joe stroked his mustache. "Good point. We don't really have laser guns, ourselves."

Nadia frowned. "That seems not like fair fight."

"No, Nadia," Menshikov said, "it does not; that is the point."

"I do not think that we should fight them if they are not evenly matched," Nadia said.

"Oh, for goodness' sake, Nadia!"

"I am only saying! It seems not fair."

"She's right," Locket said. "It really isn't fair."

Menshikov sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Fine. Fine. We will not use the guns."

"I have a better idea, anyway." Joe summoned four fencing sabres and handed three of them out to Locket, Menshikov, and Nadia. "Now, we fight like real men and woman!"