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The table sailed through the air as if on wings, hit the glass with one of those sharp edges forward, and thick as it was, the glass frosted with cracks and then shattered in a hty crash The end table sailed out into the void and took a colass shards with it But that didn’t clear thefully; there were still jagged blades sticking out Bryn grabbed the fireplace poker on the fly and held it like a sword as she leaped closer; she broke the worst of it out and turned as Patrick joined her

"This is crazy," he told her "That’s a hell of a drop One of us isn’t really up to it By that I otten!--that Patrick wasn’t capable of the same feats she was Reynolds was Revived; he hardly mattered But Patrick

Bryn took hold of Reynolds and pulled hirip "How’s the ars deployed behind them in seconds, and then Jane’s shock troops would be inside, spraying the house with bullets and taking down anything that moved

"Hurts," he said

"Good" She threw him out the , just like the table

Then she wrapped her arht to her body

Chapter 14

She landed aardly and very painfully on her back That hat she’d meant to do, and it served to take the brunt of the bare-rock iainst her chest all the way down His body weight was solid and muscular, and it did the rest of the job that her own , a few , and if she’d been nor froh she felt woozy and unfocused, her little nanite helpers kept her istered, but it

God, she hated the busy little bastards But she also had to admit that at moments like these, they were all that kept her alive Her, and Patrick, too

Patrick grunted in pain and rolled off of her He shook his head to clear it, and then took a good look at her "Bryn?" His expression went grim and furious "What the hell was that?"

"Got you out, didn’t it?" she shot back breathlessly It was hard to talk Shattered ribs stabbed at her with every move If she’d been standard human normal, she’d have been terrified that she’d have shredded her lungs and drowned in her own blood Aer worried about those kinds of considerations "Coot up--with his help--and tried a step At least she hadn’t landed feetfirst; that would have resulted in disabling dae that would have taken time to heal This was all heal-on-the-move stuff

ButReynolds hadn’t been so lucky They found hi was folded the wrong way, and if his ar and babbling under his breath, and under uilt for what she’d done to him But then, Reynolds would heal up, and a little pain, for what he’d done, for what he thought was right to dothat didn’t bother her rabbed him by the unbroken arroaned and almost dropped from the pain "Oh God, oh God"

"Suck it up, Doctor," Bryn said "Pat, can you--?" He took the doctor’s other side, and together they half pulled, half led Reynolds into the woods

Just in ti back, she saw Jane’sfor them One of them decided to try a rando well away from the Dr Reynolds if itthe two of them

"We have to make it to the river," Bryn said "It’s too deserted up here, and we’re at a disadvantage"

"Agreed," Patrick said He checked his clip and extra a to take soet that leg straight again?"

The one tihtBut her upgraded nanites had a cooking time, and they weren’t done yet Even if she bit Reynolds, all she’d leave was bite ry Seriously, awfully hungry, a sudden emptiness in the pit of her stoh that Patrick put a hand on her shoulder

She heard him ask if she was okay, but all she could see, all she could focus on was his hand On the thin skin of his wrist On the blood and veins and muscle and protein that represented

She closed her eyes in a sudden, sane fit of nausea, and said, "I’rim silence, except for Reynolds; she’d have loved to have silenced hi) body would have been even less use than a half-cooperative one They just keptto the rock and shedding dry needles as they ht had hit hard up here, and these pines were far froe, Bryn had a terrible premonition of how she’d handle this situation And she would be awake and back in charge, soon They’d de-knife her first thing, and while the brain would be a few

Jane was a practical sort of ruthless, and she’d want to drive Bryn and Patrick out in the open, out of the trees She could do that by a huge, expensive deploy picked off in the dimness, or