Vagabonds

Chapter Twenty-Three: A Shot in the Dark

"Come on!"

Eliza grabbed Moose's hand and plunged into the crowd, knocking aside the screaming girl and barreling toward Daisy.

"I'll get him!" Joe shouted.

"No, don't!"

But Joe didn't hear Moose's warning. His hand came down on Daisy's shoulder, hard.

"AHHH!"

Blood spurted. Eliza shrieked. Moose darted around her, leaping in front of Daisy.

"Come on, bro," he said, aloud, his hands fluttering through frantic sign-language. Joe was clenching his wrist, dripping blood on the ground, staring at Daisy as if he was something diseased. But Eliza had no time to comfort him. The girl was still screaming incoherently, and tough-looking men and women were pushing closer with serious expressions and they had to get out of there.

"GO!" she shouted over the music, still thudding around them like the dull roar of a rushing river. Eliza's pulse was so loud in her ears she could hardly hear it. "Go, go, go!"

Moose had managed to get Daisy to lower the spines that had burst from his hoodie and stabbed Joe. Clasping his brother's now-safe shoulder, he shoved him toward the door, jerking his head at Eliza. She nodded, grabbing Joe by his uninjured hand. And then they were running, weaving through the thin crowd and away from the screaming girl.

The music died.

The lights came on.

And then the crowd morphed from a passive grouping of half-drunk strangers to a living thing, writhing and panicked and unpredictable as a school of fish. Eliza lost sight of Daisy and Moose, yanking a stumbling Joe behind her.

Oh god, if something happens...

She could see the door, crowded with people trying to escape whatever was happening in the warehouse. With an aggressive shove, she managed to burst through a cluster of bodies, Joe stumbling behind her. They exploded into the clean night air, panting desperately. But there was no relief at finally being outside. Joe's hand was still bleeding and the two brothers were nowhere to be found.

"Where are they?" Eliza breathed.

"What the hell did he do to me?"

"Joe, we have to find them!"

Eliza spun in a circle, eyes raking through the parking lot. She could see Old Betty, Aquila looming behind it like a crouched gargoyle. She could see the army recruits snapping into mode, talking to the bouncers and pulling out weapons and glaring at the crowd with suspicious menace.

But where were Moose and Daisy?

"We can't lose them, we can't..." Eliza panted, terror clawing at her throat.

Joe straightened, taking a deep, steadying breath.

"Is that them?"

Eliza didn't even wait for her eyes to adjust, lunging toward where Joe pointed without a second thought. She crashed into the alley between the warehouse and a dilapidated apartment building, drawn forward by the rumble of a deep voice.

"Take off the goggles, kid. We need to see your face."

The words echoing out of the alley were tight, commanding. Eliza stumbled to a stop as her eyes adjusted. Moose was standing in front of Daisy, arms thrown wide, face jerking back and forth between two people in fatigues, holding guns on them.

"Hey now, no reason for that," he said with an attempt at a smile, goggles glinting in the bright fluorescent light now spilling from the club. "We were just, er, visiting."

"Hi there," Eliza said, stepping toward the two privates, a woman and a man, trying to gage their expressions. Duty made their faces cold and hard, but there was humanity there. Maybe she could still talk their way out of this. "What's going on?"

"Stay back, citizen, we're dealing with it," snapped the woman, her dirty blonde hair slicked back into a bun.

"Look, I think there's been some kind of misunderstanding, I —"

"What's on his skin." The man's face twisted with disgust and Eliza felt a moment of relief that Daisy couldn't hear.

But the boy could still see.

Hunching his shoulders, Daisy ducked and sprinted for the mouth of the alley where Eliza hovered, frozen, unsure what to do. There was a shout. A barked command. Eliza's mouth opened, a scream bubbling up from her stomach.

And then the night was split by the crack of a gunshot.

"NO!"

Moose moved so fast that Eliza's eyes couldn't track him. Daisy went sprawling as his taller brother slammed into him, knocking him aside, and then shuddering in a full-body tremor as the bullet threw him off his feet.

"Fuck," muttered the young private, staring down the barrel of his smoking gun and the teenager sprawled on the pavement.

"What did you do?!" Eliza shrieked.

Joe was the first to move, sliding to his knees, using his unbloodied hand to feel for the wound.

"It hit his arm," he said, eyes flying up to meet Eliza's. And then they widened.

Eliza turned.

A shadow passed over her as Aquila came out of nowhere, pounding the gun-wielding private against the wall with one hand.

"Aquila, no!" Eliza shouted, leaping forward and grabbing Aquila's other arm as he drew back to punch. "No, wait, stop!"

The woman was staring open-mouthed, her own gun held high, but Eliza was in her way, struggling to hold Aquila back.

"Don't, don't do this, don't make things worse. Aquila, listen to me!"

He was snarling like a rabid dog, face contorted with rage, wings curled around them like blue-black shadows. In the striped darkness he looked positively enormous. Wild and violent, like a demon pulled straight out of the most horrifying late-night stories. If Eliza hadn't already seen his smile, his honey-sweet eyes, his bashful shrug, she'd think he was a monster.

After a moment of struggle, Eliza felt his muscles soften under her hands.

His elbow drooped.

Finally, Aquila stepped back, letting the terrified soldier slump to the ground.

"Go," he spat.

The young private scrambled to his feet, grabbing the woman. Together, they sprinted around the back corner of the warehouse and out of sight.

Eliza met Aquila's eyes, frightened by the fury she saw in them. She touched his arm, but before she could say anything, Joe's voice rose behind her.

"Um, there's a lot of blood here."