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FLYING is better when you don&039;t have a body to deal with the inevitable hard landing

But instead of sensibly vanishing, I held on to the wheel and stuck it out

We were in the air for er, then wha quick and rough down an incline toward some trees They would stop us, oh, hell, how they would stop us I puht, which was pointless since the car&039;s , and the Buick slewedto the front, the landscape rushing by sideways and far too fast

A terrible low ha metal body tipped and tumbled like a kid&039;s toy

I was thrown around for one brutal, bruising, and frightening turn before winking out like a bad light The steel bulk of the car pu or worse Dimly, I heard Kroun curse amid the tin-can noises as we rolled

Then it stopped, just that quick

Re-for The car was upside down, a fact that was slow to creep into et clear-especially when I sas

Kroun was curled aardly on his side, still clutching his gun He looked dead, but was more likely just stunned

I kicked at ato break it-forgetting it was too thick for that kind of easy escape

The effort as in the air

Squir and in a hellish hurry, I aimed myself feetfirst toward Kroun&039;s open ent nearly transparent, and slipped out backward belly down Solid again, I got purchase with rabbed his shoulders, and pulled He weighed le wrenched ain Once rip I dragged him free and didn&039;t stop until ere twenty yards away behind a thick pine trunk

Then I collapsed Some nerve in my spine went off like an electric shock and had , but another quick vanish and return took care of it I didn&039;t bother getting up Sprawling exhausted in churned snow in the woods was all I wanted to do for the next feeeks

Kroun shifted and groaned Yeah, things were bad all over He sat up, wobbly, staring around

"Over here," I said, raising one hand

His stare concentrated full onwas off His eyes had gone funny, dilated to the point of being all black with no pupil That thing so carefully hidden behind thenize ers

"Whitey?"

It still had the gun and swung the ot out of there, invisibly, and not an instant too soon I felt the bullet punch through the space I&039;d occupied

No second shot, but I heard hiet behind hiainst the pine trunk He was silent, ain, accurately Unlike other people, he was able to seearound

I could wait until he ran out of bullets, but this crazy change in hi fury in me Hit me for no reason, and I&039;ll hit back twice as hard; that&039;s hoorks

He got off a shot as I rushed hirabbed his arms, and slammed him into the trunk He ducked his head forward, twisted, and suddenly I was the one about to collide with the tree

I faded, shifted, went solid, and hit hiain I stepped into his reach, knocking his ar his jaw on the return with otten too used to dealing with regular guys Kroun was a ht dirty He swiped his gun hand quick as lightning toward the side ofup behind, but he was ready for that, so I wasn&039;t solid for long A glie distorted his features into that of a wholly different man What in God&039;s name had come over him?

He wasn&039;t anyone I wanted to ht I floated back so he&039;d waste bullets, but he wouldn&039;t take the bait Going solid, I cast around for soht size for throwing Tree liun in a coat pocket, but hadn&039;t reached the point where shooting him was a prudent option I was mad, but not that mad He, on the other hand, looked-

Shot

That one missed my nose by a fraction I disappeared and rushed upward Much as I hated heights, that was et a weapon The plan was to break off a dead limb for a club, except this tioing higher Soon as I judged the branches thick enough to take ht work, and yanked hard It snapped off with a crack as loud as a gunshot-which I heard a second later Ito vanish withto another tree, I skih to get s

We were about twenty feet apart He stood over the fallen branch, looking right at me as I held to a semitransparent state I couldn&039;t talk; there wasn&039;t enough of un aimed point-blank at un, the one he&039;d taken froht

Kroun-or whatever it was that was running him-pointed the second ht like that

We traded glares, catching our mental breath since neither of us had a need for the other kind

He held hiradually relax That crazy blank-eyed rage ebbed, replaced by wary puzzle narrow "What the hell are you doing? What&039;s going on?" he asked, sounding annoyed He looked like hi chances He had a beaut of a stare as I floated across the space between, going solid at the last second

I busted him as hard as I could

Damn, that hurt my fist But this tiuns, then leaned against the tree The woods got quiet again

We were miles from anyplace except the diner I&039;d had ured to take a stab at hitchhiking back to town

Provided the road was clear of the guy who&039;d rammed us

Of course my efforts were bound to be ha over oddale als had tired rabbed a handful of snow,and struggling Since I&039;d tied his arether with his coat belt, I was in a better position to keep hie

"What the hell is this?" His outraged roar echoed through the trees

"You&039;re nuts, that&039;s what it is," I said in a cal Part of ht have done a lotht to roomed state "What happened?"

Since he asked in a civil tone, I obliged with an answer in kind, filling hi off the road He unexpectedly thankedhi it "Why would I want to kill you?"

"Bad driving?"

That netted lower

"Why do you think you wanted to kill ed as best he could with his aro crazy again?"

"I&039;ve had two bad turns in cars in less than a week, how the hell a me"

He did look bad, but his eyes were as noran to work the knot froht it, too, and tried to stand I shoved his, thenthrough the broken brush of the slope, following the trailand the wind being in the right direction scotched his chance of going undetected

The trees prevented ht a blur of a shadow heading toward ht have seen the skir for survivors, butthe maniac fro with the latter and crept closer A little uy to a pulp and take his car, yeah, that sounded good Maybe I could persuade hiainst Kroun

The shadow far ahead was not careful about keeping quiet The wind still restlessly stirred things around Heon that to cover his own noise

I could be absolutely silent, though It just required going invisible

Which I did, after fixing a direction in et to the car ahead of hiood old-fashioned bushwhack

I strea for the push of the wind, going at a good clip A partial re-for showed that I was only five yards off course I checked toward the road, hoping to spot hiainst unbroken drifts of snow except for the wide gash the car had carved My poor Buick was banged up, but not nearly as cru had held the fra the fall He&039;d have probably survived, but he wouldn&039;t have been happy

Footsteps up there The man was too far away to see Just another black shape concealed by the woods Daht lines of the city

He paused a as and was keeping a prudent distance The rong for that, but the stuff was all over

Soh the air I could only track the eneral size for a split second, then instinct took hold, and I vanished completely

Damned smart of me I&039;d have probably survived, but I wouldn&039;t have been happy

He&039;d lobbed a grenade at the car

I figured that out afterward

The explosion-despite -was impressive Shrapnel and God knohat else tore into the space I&039;d occupied, violently and quick as thought I felt each one, but had no real physical reaction Stuff like that and bullets pass right through, disrupting a relatively small area

Wind, on the other hand, can throw renade coasoline displaced a hellish amount of air in very short order I didn&039;t knoas going on, but the hurricane lasted entirely too long and was a few notches past unnerving Abruptly going solid, I rolled downhill, no breath left ina blue streak even when I picked up a ain, then popped back solid before co to a halt

It was another daainst it, my body folded, and I fifinished up wrapped around the base of the trunk like a damp sheet of newspaper

After all that I didn&039;t feel likesomewhere upslope, my world was fine just like this I was tired A nap would be nice I couldn&039;t have one, but it would have been nice

The roar died, and the red lights dancing on the other side of oose-egg object had been and what the consequences of dropping one of those things close to a ruptured gas tank were, and that I&039;d gotten lucky

Footsteps slogged my way

Odds were the Caddy driver would miss me in the dark He&039;d thrown his toy at the car, not me, probably unaware I was so close I lay still and well, it&039;s not called waiting when you don&039;t give a daot closer, walked wide around the tree, then slowly approached

Kroun crouched on his heels and squinted into my face "Hey You in there?"

He looked norone and my head was cold I hated that he had a hat and I didn&039;t "Go &039;way"

"Love to, but soht have stopped hi if you hadn&039;t trussed me like a turkey"

Yeah, I&039;ll keep that inthatsounding like, "Rrrer-nugh"

Kroun straightened, hands unencuh to keep hih the loops on his overcoat then bent again to peel ot even colder rolled out flat in the snow

"You&039;re a uns I&039;d taken from him He checked each for bullets and put theht ISorry"

"You do that a lot? Blacking out?"

"I wouldn&039;t knoould I?"

Good point

"Coet clear before someone spots the ses after finding out just how dizzythe tree for support I hung on to it like a drunk and gaped at as left of as had burned away; s tires rose high into the night,a terrible stink The fire hadn&039;t spread The recent snowfall had discouraged that, thankfully

Eventually I got close enough to thro on the tires to kill the s clods on a coffin after it was in the ground She wasn&039;t my first car, but had been the first one I&039;d paid for without help, even if I had taken the ht to ot insurance?"

Hitchhiking at night in the winter on a country road without your hat is terrifically boring I don&039;t recoht to avoid grenade-throwing ed clear, so eren&039;t exactly hitching My shoes and socks started out soaked through and icy and never improved despite the exercise

Neither of us talked ain mentioned that his head hurt, then shut down At one point he ainst the white streak on the side of his skull, and apparently that helped Sometime later he threas left of the ball at a fence post ten yards away, hitting it square He grinned briefly and kept walking, taking on a cheerful gait The way he could shift , and I wondered if that was a personal quirk or soressed a couple ru east and decided to chance it I stuck out a thu one with a covered load caked with snow, slowed and stopped, the driver bawled down at us "I&039;o," Kroun yelled back over the diesel noise "Buy you gas to get there?"

"That&039;s enough to pay for et his name, but he and Kroun had a fine old chat about the weather, bad roads, lousy drivers, and who did what for a living Kroun and I were stranded insurance salesmen whose car had died in a lonely and inconvenient spot The driver was hauling ht because there was less traffic

The night-driving business bothered me, and I wondered if he was in the club, too But he took a swig of coffee fro, and it smelled like coffee, not blood He offered us so jobs since it see if he was just passing the tihso over your shoulder

"Your friend okay?" the trucker asked

"He&039;s just tired"

Nail on the head for that I wanted to stretch out in a warm bed and ask Bobbi to rub the sore spots even if I didn&039;t have any If I turned up this late in her rooin

The driver was agreeable enough froo&039;s North Side, dropping us at a hotel two blocks frohtcrawler Club Kroun added another ten to the first, puood luck on his haul He sounded absolutely sincere, as though he&039;d one, he turned to look at ood, then the whole world should feel it, too

"What?" he asked, when I just shook uess that was sort of my fault We should have taken one of Gordy&039;s Tell you what, pick whatever you like, and I&039;ll have Derner put your name on it"

"I don&039;t want one of Gordy&039;s cars"

"You&039;re right You should have so new" He pulled out one of the wads he&039;d taken frorand in hundreds "This should set you up"

I took the money The car was Kroun&039;s fault, and thatI was still h there wasn&039;t much I could do about it As for what led to it "Someone wants you dead and anyone with you Why?"

That took his smile away

"Nobody followed us out there Your Mrs Cabot called for help, and it carenades Not a lot of farmers keep that kind of stuff in the toolshed I wanna knohat&039;s going on Everything"

Again, visible indecision as his ears spun and finally stopped "Not now I don&039;t knohen, but later"

"Why?"

"You&039;ll knohen I tell you"

It would be bad news, not that I expected any different, but he had a reason for having , and it wasn&039;t just so I could tell tales to Michael

With the wind freezingmy already wet shoes, I was in no mood to walk The hotel had a taxi stand I crossed to the first cab and got in Kroun followed, and I gave directions We got out again behind the Nightcrawler, and I tipped well since the drive was so short

The delivery truck and s stood in their place Soon as one of them saw us, he hurried inside

"We&039;re expected," said Kroun He ran a hand over the white patch of hair and settled his hat in place "Dammit"

Before we reached the back steps to the kitchen, Michael slammed the door open and came down He was hatless, with no overcoat, evidently impatient

"Where the hell have you been?" he de us a once-over "And what happened?"

"You tell me" Kroun put his hands in his pockets, apparently ready to stand outside all night and discuss it "Where&039;s Broder?"

"Back at the hotel Why?"

"You sure he&039;s at the hotel?"