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Whenmy limbs to the floor Inches above htmare The cold, stale srave dust--flowed froled, but I couldn’t move The Old Ones looked at each other The black-robed one nodded Brown Robe yanked his sword froain, louder and more frantic than before

Black Robe lowered his face to s Slowly, carefully, he licked the corner ofthe blood s my skin Revulsion clenched my stomach, and I turned my head away Mistake Pain stabbed s into me These creatures could drain a person dry in a couple of minutes I’d seen the empty husks they left behind

My neck ached and burned, and I could feel myself weaken as the creature sucked the life froled the I heard a faint clink The silver chain It had burned Brown Robe’s hand to a cinder I had a feeling that Black Robe wouldn’t like it much, either

Black Robe had ers around the chain One flick, and the silver made contact with the decrepit yellow flesh S at his burned hand

The ht left my arms I was up on my knees I wrapped the chain around his neck and yanked hard Black Robe snarled and bucked and clawed at me with both hands I looped the chain around rip on it The silver links grew hot inthe shout the room The links of chain seared ainst the pain and kept the chain taut

A blade sliced towardas we hit the floor With the second strike, Brown Robe drove his blade deep into his buddy’s gut I kicked Brown Robe’s wrist, and he dropped his sword Inchain went slack as Black Robe’s head toppled froths of chain, one in each hand Contact with the Old One’s flesh hadthe chain The Old One’s headless corpse lay at ood, either

The length of chain attached to Juliet’s shackle was the longer of the two pieces I lashed it like a whip at Brown Robe The Old One ju through his cheek He shrieked and flew up to the ceiling I whipped the chain at his legs, his feet, whatever I could reach The smoke that choked the room showed I’d hit him more than once

Brown Robe swooped towardthe chain over my head like a helicopter rotor But Brown Robe wasn’t attacking; he was running away The Old One rocketed through the door I let go of the silver chain, snatched up the dropped sword, and ran after hi crookedly, any inhabitants long gone I ran toward the entrance The metal door that sealed off the cell block had been torn frouard who’d walked me down the hallway lay crumpled on the floor I passed hi n of Brown Robe--except for ned uard, one I hadn’t seen before, had been tossed aside like an empty candy wrapper All three of the dead norh a half-open door, I could see the building’s surveillance center It looked like a tornado had blown through, and then someone had taken an ax to as left

What a disaster After this, Juliet wouldn’t be safe froet her out of here I gathered up the knives I’d left with the receptionist and returned to the cell block

The ruined door to Juliet’s cell lay against the far wall, where the Old Ones had hurled it A quietissued fro pulled up and resting on her other thigh The silver chain trailed from her ankle She rocked back and forth, back and forth, cradling her leg

I went over to her "Let s, and shoved o"

She snarled again, her eyes flaring with rage and pain but not a spark of recognition

"Hey, it’srange, trying to et out of here Those Old Ones killed the guards The one that got away ht come back with reinforcements"

"The Old Ones," she whispered, and I saw a flicker of the Juliet I knew Her forehead wrinkled, like she was considering a difficult probleed the headless body with my toe Yup Killed it dead Juliet stared at the corpse as if she couldn’t fathoain "How badly are you hurt? Can you walk?"

She extended her leg toward h her leg gaped The bone, absurdly white, showed in the ragged cut That wasn’t good Juliet should have started to heal already

"It’s the silver," she said "It slows healing As long as that’s in contact with ed herself "And I’m so famished"

She looked terrible Purple crescents, so dark they were aled her eyes Her skin, always pale, looked dead white, like those guards who’d been drained of blood<ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>