White Shadows

Chapter 6 - One Of These Nights

***LUCA***

"I dunno which is worse for you," I say as I obey the guard's command and turn around slowly. "Being pissed off, or pissed on."

"Shut up, angel," the guard growls. "Hey, put that down!"

I turn to look at Mattia, who's found a knife and is holding it up, the blade pointing at the ceiling. The guard carelessly fires at her - or, at least, he tries to. I guess being in the water must not be good for the gun, because it starts clicking uselessly as he pulls the trigger once, twice, a myriad of times.

"What's the matter?" I ask, getting ready to launch a fireball if need be. "Didn't upgrade to the waterproof model?"

Instead of answering, the guard raises two fingers, the tips of which release short, thin bolts of light. These, he picks up like they're solid objects and sticks down the barrel of his gun.

"What, you think that's gonna clean your gun out?" I ask.

"You'd be surprised." The guard extracts the first stick of light from his gun, showing how it's dripping with grimy bay water.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Mattia light her knife up. On the count of three, she thinks, we're both gonna throw our fire.

I expand my fireball at this point. The guard catches sight of me doing so, and he cries out in surprise, then drops his light stick and hastily tries to shoot me. Luckily, he's not aiming properly, because the gun actually fires this time - but the bullet buries itself in the floor near the base of the bar, narrowly missing my leg.

One, Mattia thinks. Then she throws her flaming knife. Taking my cue, I throw my fireball as well. Both of these come very close to the guard, forcing him to hit the deck.

Two, three? I think. I also project an image of a happy-face emoji into Mattia's head for good measure.

Exactly.

The guard's not completely done fighting, though. He's lost his gun - it's hiding somewhere in the dark, probably under a table. But he doesn't really need the gun, not when he's got natural double barrels. That is, two hands capable of forming and throwing solid blades of light. Which he throws at me and Mattia. Now it's our turn to duck, and we're forced to stay down for a few seconds - not only to let the light blades pass us by, but also to let the broken glass stop falling after the blades crash into the rack of wine bottles behind us.

This actually proves to be a good thing, because it lets me get behind the bar and get a good look at its underside. There, I can see a small, unblinking red light. Scooting closer, I see that the red light is attached to what can only be the detonator for a pair of C-4 blocks.

Before I can do anything about the bomb, though, another light blade smashes through the wooden front of the bar. Again, it narrowly misses me, but then it hits the stainless-steel mini-fridge at my feet and explodes in a small shower of electricity.

If there's one thing I know about C-4, it's that it's usually inert, but explodes with the right spark of electricity. Realizing the true danger posed by the guard and his light elemental, I look around wildly. Mattia! We need to hit him with all we've got!

Got it! Mattia waves at me from around the corner. Take my hand!

I allow her to pull me out of the little cubby in which I found myself without hitting too much broken glass. Then, just as the guard comes around the corner, she jumps onto the bar. My shoulder is almost dislocated in the process. I end up practically dragged over the bar and onto the other side as Mattia pulls me. Damn, when did she get so strong?