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I&039;d learned so Never walk into a fight when the bad guys are the ones who set it up Wizards can call down lightning from the heavens, rip apart the earth beneath their eneale winds, and a s even less pleasant-but not if we don&039;t plan things out in advance

And we&039;re not all that ular folks I mean, if some nasty creature tears ht be able to lay out so when I need to, but I&039;d s that had prepared to go up against me, and it hadn&039;t been pretty

This bear-thing, whatever the hell it was, had followed me Hence, it had probably picked its time and place I could have stood and blasted away at it, but in the close quarters of the alley, if it was able to shrug off my blasts, it would tear me apart before I could try Plan B So I ran

One other thing I&039;d learned Wheezy wizards aren&039;t all that good at running That&039;s why I&039;d been practicing I took off at a dead sprint and fairly flen the alley,snarled as it caround The ht and I ran as hard as I could for it Once I was in the open with rooe and put obstacles between ht be able to take a shot at it

The creature evidently realized that, because it let out a vicious, spitting growl and then leapt I heard it gather itself for the leap, and turned h to see it out of the corner ofand rolling over the asphalt The creature soared over ood twenty feet ahead I skidded to a stop and went running back down the alley, a growing sense of fear and desperation giving s

I ran forain I couldn&039;t keep up a full sprint forever Unless I thought of so to have to turn and takeblackpile of cardboard boxes He let out a startled noise, and I answered it with a low curse "Co his arm "Move, move, move!"

He looked past lowing eyes of the bear-creature co at us I hauled hi with me

We ran for a few seconds more before the little old derelict I&039;d seen earlier caht frolinted on a pair of spectacles

"Augh," I shouted I shovedpartner past me, toward the old man, and snarled, "Get him out of here Both of you run!"

I whirled to face the bear-creature, and swept ht at it I ran soy channels in the rod and with a snarled, "Fuego!" sent a lance of raw fire whipping through the air

The blast slammed into the bear-creature&039;s chest, and it hunched its shoulders, turning its head to one side Its forward charge faltered, and it slid to a stop, crashing against a weathered old metal trash can

"What do you know," I muttered "It worked" I stepped forward and unleashed another blast at the creature, hoping to eithersnarled and turned a hateful, aze at an almost instantly

When a wizard looks into someone&039;s eyes, he sees more than just what color they are Eyes are s to the soul When I et to peek in through the s You can&039;t hide what you are froaze And he can&039;t hide from you You both see each other for what you are, within, and it&039;s with a clarity so intense that it burns itself into your head

Looking on soet

No ht want to

I felt a whirling, gyrating sensation and fell forward, into the bear-thing&039;s eyes The glowing sigil on its forehead becaht the size of a stadiureen and black uess you can&039;t judge a monster by the slime on its scales What I saw instead was aand straight, wispy grey that fell down to his chest He stood in a posture of agony, his wiry body stretched out in an arch, with his hands held up and apart, his legs stretched out I followed the lines of his arms back and up and sahy he stood that way

He&039;d been crucified

Thesigil stretching out above hile, and were sunk to the elbow in the green-black marble of the cliff His knees were bent, his feet sunk into the stone as well He hung there, the pressure of all his weight on his shoulders and legs It hed at reen, and screa!"

Pain laced his voice, ony contorted the lines of his body, veins standing out sharply against straining muscle

"Stars and stones," I whispered Creatures like this bear-thing did not have souls to gaze upon That ardless of appearances to the contrary, this thing was a"What the hell is this?"

The uish, void of words I lifted a hand and stepped forward, ot close, the ground began to shake The cliff face ruht appeared, and then widened, until I faced the second set of eyes, eyes the size of subway tunnels, opening on the great marble cliff I stumbled several steps back, and that cliff face proved to be exactly that-a face, cold and beautiful and harsh around that fiery gaze

The quaking in the earth increased, and a voice louder than a Metallica concert spoke, the raw sense of the words, the vicious anger and hate behind the me far more heavily than mere volume

GET OUT

The sheer force of presence behind that voice seized me and threw me violently back, away froaze The hetti, and the saaze sent h the air I hit an old cardboard box filled with e beneath me The heavy leather duster held, and no broken shards buried themselves in my back

For a second or two, I just lay on hts were a hectic whirlpool I couldn&039;t calht pollution against the low clouds, until soer I shoved myself to my knees, just as the bear-creature smacked a trash can aside with one of its paws and started towardwith the aftereffects of the soulgaze and the psychic assault that had broken the connection I liftedrod, suether out of the confusion, and spat a word that sent another lance of flame toward the bear-creature

This tie eyes flared with a sudden luainst an unseen barrier, dispersing around the creature in sheets of scarlet It let out a screaet up, stuuy, who leaned on his cane and stared at the creature I had a dim impression of his features-Asian, a short white beard around his chin, heavy white eyebrows, and corrective glasses that made his eyes look the size of an owl&039;s

"Run, dammit!" I shouted at him I tried to lead by exaet off the ground

The old lasses and pushed them at me "Hold, please"

Then he took a deliberate step forith his cane, placing himself between me and the bear-creature

The creature hurled itself at hied down at the white-hairedbut watch it happen

The littlelike a dancer The end of his wooden cane lashed out and struck the creature&039;s jaith a crunching impact Bits of broken yellow teeth flew from the creature&039;s mouth The little man continued his turn and evaded its claws by maybe an inch He wound up behind the creature, and it turned to follow hie

The &039;s jaws, and in a blur of sudden light on le-edged, chisel-pointed katana The steel flashed at the creature&039;s eyes, but it ducked low enough that the scything blade only whipped the top couple of inches from one of its ears

The creature screamed, entirely out of proportion with the injury, a yowl that al its head, a fine spray of blood sprinkling from its wounded ear

At this point, I noticed three things

One The creature was paying me no attention whatsoever Yippee ki yay My head still spun wildly, and if it had co about it

Two The oldit The water-patterned steel of the blade gloith a steady silver flahter

Three I could feel the hu power of the sword, even froth, as quiet and unshakable as the earth itself

In my entire life, I&039;d seen only one sword imbued with that much power

But I knew that there were a couple lish heavily accented "Ursiel! Let hio! You have no power here!"

The bear- creature-Ursiel, I presuaze on the littleIt spoke Its voice ca out through the bear&039;s jaws and throat "Shiro Look at yourself, little fool You are an old th when last we met You cannot defeat ripped in one hand, the length of wooden sheath held in the other "Did you come here to talk?"

Ursiel&039;s head tilted to one side, and then the smooth voice murmured, "No Indeed I did not"

It whirled, whipping its head toward ed As it did, there was a rustle of cloth and then an old overcoat spun through the air, spreading like a fisherman&039;s net It fell over Ursiel&039;s face, and the demon drew up short with a frustrated howl It reached up and tore the coat fro black man stepped between Ursiel and , heavy saber from the scabbard at his hip The sword huht variation, a different note within the saht flared from the blade&039;s steel, and behind the demon, Shiro&039;s blade answered it withlimpse of dark, intense eyes before he faced the de basso, words flavored with a thick Russian accent, "Ursiel Let hio You have no power here"

Ursiel hissed, the orange eyes blazing brighter by the moment "Sanya Traitor Do you really think any of us fears even one of the Three, in your pathetic hands? So be it I will take you all"

Sanya spread his e invitation, and said nothing

Ursiel roared and flew at Sanya The big h on one shoulder, plunging through muscle and sinew Sanya braced hih the impact drove his feet back across six inches of concrete, he held it up and away fro cry I wouldn&039;t have believed a little oldSanya shouted so in what sounded like Russian, and drove forith both hands on the hilt of the i the de close, and I saw hiht onto the deh it