Clipped (The Clipped Saga, 1) by Devon McCormack (16 page)

“Considering what happened to Janka, I don’t think it’s a

good idea to trust him.”

“I lost my wings, too,” Kinzer said.

“Could be a diversion. Convince us you’re stil one of us.

You never—”

Fie held up a shriveled finger. He turned and pushed out a

flem-filled cough.

“Oh, lordie!” he proclaimed, stil in the scratchy, smoker

voice.

“We need,” Dedrus said, “a place to hide out.”

“I can’t help you.” He wheezed, struggling to move flem out

of the crone’s windpipe.

“What? Why not?”

“Everything’s gone to shit. After you told me about Janka

and Kinzer, I tried to warn Donna and Krimson. Can’t get ahold of them. As far as I know, they’re off the grid. They’re my contacts to al my resources.”

“You can’t get ahold of them?” Dedrus asked.

Bad news
, Kinzer thought.

Based on what had happened the night before, he doubted

they’d been warned, and it was likely that The Raze had gotten to them.

“The Raze came to me and Treycore’s,” Dedrus said. “Tried

to kil us.”

“Fuck,” Fie said. “It’s a fucking bloodbath. Listen, al bets

are off. Just get your asses hidden and wait for this shit to blow

149 Devon McCormack
over.”

“Where?” Dedrus asked.

“Fuck if I know,” Fie said. “I got to cover my own ass.”

“Listen,” Kinzer said. “This is bigger than The Raze

infiltrators being outed.”

Fie fol owed Kinzer’s glance as he looked to the magazine

stand in the bookstore.

Maggie rested a magazine on her bloated bel y.

Fie fel into a fit of coughs. “Shit...that’s...not...” he said, struggling to push the words through flem-fil ed spams.

Dedrus nodded.

“Oh, fuck. This is worse than I thought.” He bal ed his

hands into fists. “Okay. I’ve got a place in the mountains that I was planning to go to. I’l head back to my place now and get some—”

He stopped. His mouth hung open.

Kinzer looked to see what had distracted him.

Through the cafe window, Craetis walked down the

sidewalk.“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Kinzer said.

He scanned the scene. His eyes flashed to the adjoining

bookstore. Just a few yards behind Maggie, Mika skimmed through

a book on a rack labeled “paperback bestsel ers.” As he pursed his lips, the dip in them became even more defined.

“We have to get her out of here,” Dedrus said.

As Craetis approached the cafe door, a man who’d just let his

family out politely waved him in.

CLIPPED 150

“Thank you,” Craetis said, glancing over the cafe patrons as

the door shut behind him.

Kinzer stared at Maggie.

Look up
, he thought.
Come on, bitch. Look up!

Maggie flipped to a page in her magazine. She tucked her

thumbnail between her teeth and arched her back.

Fie, still in crone-form, shook as he got on his feet.

Dedrus rose, pushed his walker toward him. “What are you

gonna do?” he asked.

“I’l distract them,” Fie replied. “You guys just get her the

fuck out of here.”

Look up!
Kinzer continued thinking at Maggie, wishing his gift had been telepathy.

Maggie’s glance flitted from her magazine to the table

Kinzer was at. As she saw Kinzer, staring her down with a

penetrating, deliberate stare, she stared back, as if waiting to receive a psychic message. His eyes shifted, and she fol owed his line of sight, slowly, cautiously till she saw Mika, tucking a paperback on the rack behind her.

She turned back to Kinzer, shrugging ever-so-slightly, as if

saying, “What the fuck am I supposed to do?”

Kinzer threw his glance to the bookshelves on the other side

of the magazine aisle.

Tucking the copy of the fashion magazine under her arm,

she sped-walked toward the cafe, slipping around the magazine

stand, and turning into the row of bookshelves. She was out of

151 Devon McCormack
Mika’s view. Unfortunately, she was also out of Kinzer’s.

“Wel , wel ,” Craetis said, approaching Dedrus and Kinzer’s

table. “Funny running into you here.”

“New leg?” Dedrus asked.

“Like it? You can thank Vera. She made a few deals, got us

some new limbs.”

“I’l bet she did. So how did you find us?”

“A little birdie.”

That rat
, Kinzer thought. He knew Fie couldn’t have been trusted. No wonder he was so eager to get away.

“Where’s the girl?” a voice asked.

Vera was suddenly sitting in Fie’s seat.

She’d changed her look dramatical y, sporting wavy, light

brown hair that fel just past her shoulders. She also had a new arm, subtly showing off a manicure as she massaged her new fingers

against the table. She wore an elegant, yet plain, beige dress with matching platform shoes. A string of pearls dropped to her bust. For Vera, it was a very modest look, likely because she was trying to blend in with the average mortals that surrounded her.

“Hidden,” Kinzer said, “somewhere you’l never find her.”

“Oh, I doubt that,” Vera replied. “Try that clever act al you

want, but I don’t believe for a second that you’re able to just tuck her away somewhere safely. Who would you turn to? Certainly not

Donna or Krimson. Certainly not Janka.”

The mention of Janka’s name sent waves of heat rushing to

Kinzer’s face.

CLIPPED 152

“Leave him alone!” Kinzer had cried out. “It's me. I'm the one
you want.”

Craetis undid the ropes binding Janka and removed his gag.

“Oh no,” Veylo said. The back of his almond-colored hair

waved down to his shoulders, his bangs just barely passing his nose. He
had a wide forehead that cut sharply as his eyes col apsed into his skul ,
enabling the overhanging lights to obscure them in sharp shadows.

Veylo ran his thumb across the sword he held. It was Kinzer’s
sword. “We've discovered that both of you have been doing a little
reconnaissance for The Leader, and I'm afraid we can't have traitors
like yourselves believing that we wil let these sorts of transgressions go
unpunished.”

Mika grabbed a cluster of feathers on Kinzer's wing and yanked
them out.

Blood rushed down Kinzer’s back.

Deter did the same with the other wing.

Kinzer ground his teeth, feeling the intense sting.

“Are you ready to watch the one you love die?” Veylo asked.

Janka moaned as he wiggled about. Craetis grabbed him by his
button-up col ar and punched him in the face.

“Stop it!” Kinzer cried.

Mika and Deter continued plucking at his feathers. The pain

was so intense, like someone was setting fire to him, stabbing knives into
his back.

But that wasn't his concern.

Craetis slammed his fist into Janka's face again and again and

153 Devon McCormack
again.

“Touchy subject?” Vera mocked, dragging Kinzer’s thoughts

back to the present.

Kinzer’s attention flitted to the adjoining bookstore, as he

scanned to make sure Maggie was out of sight. Her round bel y

caught his attention. She was heading up a flight of stairs to the second floor of the store, the fashion magazine tucked close.

What are you fucking doing?
Kinzer thought.

Mika, who’d abandoned the paperbacks, paced by a series of

spinner racks filled with bookmarks and mini-gift-books. His eyes wandered till they glanced up the stairs and froze. The usual M in Mika’s lips thinned across a smile. He paced toward the steps, taking his sweet time.

Vera fol owed Kinzer’s stare. She smirked. “Somewhere we’l

never find her?” she asked. “The romance section perhaps?”

Kinzer flashed Dedrus a knowing glare.

They swept under the table, snatched their swords, which

rested at their feet, disguised in brown packaging paper. They ripped the swords from the packaging.

Kinzer sliced at Vera. “Tapping out,” she said with a wink.

She disappeared.

Kinzer whipped around. Deter was behind him, his sword

jabbing at him.

Kinzer twisted his sword around, blocking the attack.

Dedrus slashed at Craetis. Craetis grabbed a chair and used

it as a shield. Dedrus’s sword cut right through.

CLIPPED 154

Their movements were so quick that it took the cafe patrons

a moment to realize what was going on. But when they final y did, they stirred with panic. The woman with the strol ered-baby

hopped out of her chair and hurried across the cafe. The teens with the comics watched in shock and horror, but couldn’t seem to pul their attention from the spectacle. The homeless sleepers roused, ful of bewilderment as they rushed to their feet and scurried for the door, like a light flicking on in a cockroach-infested apartment.

Dedrus struck at Craetis again. He dodged the attack.

Kinzer and Deter’s swords clashed.

Gotta get to the second floor
, Kinzer thought,
before it’s too
late.

As Deter pul ed his sword back, Kinzer grabbed his cup of

coffee and chucked it at Deter.

It exploded, like a grenade, across his face.

“Fuck!” Deter cried, smoke rising around the scalding

coffee. Kinzer made haste. He dashed into the adjoining bookstore and raced up the stairs, to the second floor.

Wide-eyed patrons gasped and screamed as he passed them,

his sword bobbing about as he ran.

The second floor was a labyrinth of bookshelves.

Kinzer caught a glimpse of Mika. He had an arm around

Maggie and his hand over her mouth as he pul ed her around a shelf in Home & Gardening. She slapped at him with her magazine.

Kinzer raced around the shelf.

155 Devon McCormack

“Stop right there!” he ordered.

Mika whipped around, maintaining his hand over her

mouth.

Mika chuckled. “Sloppy, sloppy,” he said, shaking his head.

“Thank you, Kinzer,” Vera said, stepping out from behind

him, making her way to Mika, “for watching her for us.”

She flashed beside Mika and Maggie, wrapped her arms

around them, and disappeared.

“No!” Kinzer exclaimed. This didn’t just mean the end of

Maggie. It meant the end of the Antichrist. Which meant the end of the resistance against the Christ. Which meant the end of the world.

In a moment, he felt like everything that he and Janka had

worked so hard for had been stripped from him.

He hurried back downstairs to find Dedrus. His heart

ached.

Dedrus met him at the bottom of the stairs, sweat sliding

across his temples.

“Vera just teleported Deter and Craetis outta here.”

“She got her,” Kinzer said, his heart steadily sinking.

Dedrus panted as he tried to catch his breath.

Sirens blared outside. Through the front windows, Kinzer

saw cop cars lining the sidewalk. Cops filed out like they were clown cars. Blue and red lights blazed.

“We gotta get out of here,” Kinzer said.

From a nearby bookshelf, Maggie stepped out, her eyes

wide.

CLIPPED 156

“They gone?” she asked.

“What the—” Dedrus started.

“Fie!” Kinzer exclaimed. He felt bad that he’d been so hasty

in assuming that he’d sold them out. “He must’ve...but...where’s your magazine?”

“That old lady you were talking to took it,” Maggie said.

The doors to the cafe and the entrance to the bookstore

burst open. Cops stormed in.

“We can chat about this later,” Dedrus said.

“Can you get us outta here?” Kinzer asked.

“I sure fucking hope so,” he said. “Get in front of me and

run.”

“Drop your weapon!” a cop screamed as the other cops

streamed through the doors and positioned themselves around the

front and side of the store.

“Sir, don’t move and drop your weapon. Sir, move and I wil

be forced to fire.”

Dedrus’s wings fanned out, effectively concealing Maggie

and Kinzer.

“Fire! Fire!”

The sound of gunshots fil ed the air.

Bul ets ricocheted off Dedrus’s wings as he, Kinzer, and

Maggie bolted up the stairs. Maggie held her baby as if her

movement was about to make the baby drop out of her.

“The window!” Dedrus exclaimed.

On the other side of the store, a window stretched out,

157 Devon McCormack
looking out at a shopping center across the street.

As they raced toward it, Dedrus’s wings tucked close. He

slipped between Maggie and Kinzer. His wings fanned out again,

whirling in a bal around him as he threw himself into the window.

SMASH!

The glass broke into large chunks that crashed to the

ground.

CRASH! They hit the pavement outside.

Dedrus flapped his wings, encircling back into the