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"You pays your money, you takes your chances," I muttered to ht aro!" A rush of heat from my hand exploded into flaulfed the stereo, which began to e, tortured screaled fro free

Then I turned, extended my arinto the suspended rooht, it rattled me Victor was dressed in black slacks, a black shirt, black shoes - very stylish, especially coy eyebrows and lean features were highlighted eerily by the dark light flowing up from the circle around him, where the implements of his ritual spell were ready to complete the ceremony that would kill es sharpened to razor keenness, a pair of candles, black and white, and a white rabbit, its feet bound with red cord One of its legs was bleeding froainst its head with a cord was the lock of ht hair Over to one side was another circle, laid out in chalk upon the carpeting,together in y for Victor&039;s spell

Victor stared ataroundinside the s over potted plants and knickknacks

"You!" he shouted

"Me," I confir to talk to you about, Vic"

His shock transforer in a heartbeat He snatched up the sharpened spoon, raised it in his right hand, and screaed the rabbit in front of hie out its, and therefore ive him the chance to finish I reached into a pocket and hurled the empty plastic film canister at Victor Shadowman

As a weapon, it wasn&039;t much But it was real, and it had been hurled by a real person, a ic circle

The canister went through the air above Victor&039;s circle and broke it, just as he completed the incantation and drove the spoon&039;s blade down at the poor rabbit The energy of the stor down the cylinder of focus created by Victor&039;s noed circle

Power shattered out into the room, wild, undirected, and unfocused, naked color and raw sound spewing everywhere with hurricane force It sent objects flying, including Victor and me, and shattered the secondary circle the Beckitts were in, sending the across the floor and into one wall

I braced ed aroundabout like water under pressure, seeking an outlet

"You bastard!" Victor screaale "Why don&039;t you just die!" He lifted a hand and screa at me, and fire washed across the space between us, instant and hot

I tapped some of the ah wall in front ofmy eyes shut in concentration It was a dozen times harder to shield without h and overunder a little quarter doic past it I openedbeaht

The air still thruy as the wash of flame passed Victor snarled when he saw me rise, lifted a hand to one side, and snarled out words of suht be soht it in one hand, turning to un

The proble in teric I don&039;t think Victor expectedfloor toward hi hi thud I leaned back a little and drove a knee toward his gut, s instead The breath went out of hiround By this ti at hi at his head

I heard asound behind me and spun my head in time to see Beckitt, naked, point an automatic weapon at me I threw unfire So , into the kitchen I heard Beckitt snarl a curse There were a nu sounds The auto around the roo hadn&039;t just exploded

Victor, meanwhile, shook the end of the bone tube he held, and a half dozen dried, brown scorpion husks fell out onto the carpeting His whiter-than-white teeth flashed in his boater brown face, and he snarled, "Scorpis, scorpis, scorpis!" His eyes gleas wasn&039;t answering my calls to action, so I crab-walked backward into the kitchen on the heels ofsection of the balcony, the scorpions shuddered to life and started to grow First one, and then the others, oriented on the kitchen and started toward er as they calee The Beckitts rose, both naked, lean and savage-looking, both sporting guns, their eyes e but a wild sort of bloodlust

I felt ainst a counter There was a rattle, and then a broo off of rabbed at it,somewhere aroundOne evil sorcerer on his hoic looking for so to set it into explosive motion And half a dozen scorpions like the one I had barely survived earlier, rapidly growing to movie-monster size Less than afor the quarterback

All in all, it was looking like a bad evening for the home team