I stepped out of the way. I mean, no need t
o get in the middle of a family squabble. When Brooks reached us, her eyes were on Quinn and Quinn only. She fell to her knees to inspect her sister’s wounds. A second later she declared, “You’ll live.”
Quinn nodded slowly.
“That’s good.” Brooks narrowed her eyes. “It’ll make killing you easier!”
“I should’ve called,” Quinn said. “But I couldn’t. This conflict is so much bigger than you know.”
“I thought you were trapped in Xib’alb’a! How are you here? Why are you here?” Then Brooks’s burning gaze turned to me. “And why are you with my sister?”
“How did you find us?” I asked, deflecting her question with one of my own.
“This. It buzzed all the way here.” She held up the jade.
My mouth fell open. “You… you found it? How?”
“I went back to the boat,” she said, the corners of her mouth almost upturned as she set it in my open hand. “It was wedged between the deck and the seat.”
So that’s where she’d gone. I wrapped her in a huge bear hug.
“Zane, you’re”—she gasped—“smothering me.”
I let her go. “Sorry.”
“Did you take some adrenaline pills or something?” she asked me.
“He got pounded with lightning,” Quinn said. Then she stiffened and her eyes went wide as she spotted something. “We’ve got company.”
A dark shadow rose in front of me. Black, hissing mist with the familiar puke-and-rotten-fish smell that still made me gag. Someone really needed to tell Ah-Puch to take a bath or wear some deodorant. Maybe carry a car freshener in his pocket. Nah, even that wouldn’t help.
“Get out of here,” I told Brooks and Quinn.
“Not a chance,” Brooks said in her signature stubborn tone.
Ah-Puch wasn’t in his nice Hollywood suit this time. Steam rose from his gray body. And like before, I could see worms twisting over his transparent skin, banding together as he rose to his full height. His eyes blazed hot white and he clenched his fists at his sides as his chest heaved. “You’ll pay for Muwan,” he hissed. His eyes found Brooks and Quinn. “You really do need to find better friends, Zane. Why do you insist on hanging out with pathetic creatures so beneath you?”
Brooks spoke up. “Anyone ever tell you how bad you smell?”
Quinn tugged on Brooks’s arm to shut her up. Yeah, fat chance of that!
Ah-Puch’s next words to her were pointed, the kind that went in for the kill. “No more talk, worthless half-breed.” Then black smoke curled out of his fingertips. Before I could even react, it zoomed toward Quinn and Brooks, knocking them to the ground, one on top of the other. Then the smoke took the shape of giant hands and muzzled their mouths.
Brooks’s own hands shot up to the smoke, but she couldn’t remove it. Taking advantage of his momentary distraction, I inched back, thinking quickly. I needed that spear, but how was I going to get it…? And then I remembered. It will do as you command. It was a long shot, but I opened my hand, which was still pulsing with a strange energy. Come, I thought.
The energy wound up my arm, but the spear didn’t make its way back to me. I tried again, this time with more concentration, which was pretty hard considering Puke was standing right in front of me in his murderous demon form.
Then I felt it. One hot pulse, and when I looked down, the spear was in my hand. I couldn’t believe it!
Ah-Puch let out a wicked laugh. “You think your little lightning spear is going to stop me?”
I glanced down and for a second I thought I heard a voice coming from inside the spear, muffled like it was being smothered under a pillow. I knew launching the thing at Ah-Puch while he was expecting it was lame battle strategy. Hondo always said to catch your opponent by surprise, because if they know the attack is coming they’ll prepare a counterstrike. Or in my case, a deathstrike!
The air shifted, turning cold, and a demon runner emerged from the jungle. Then another and another, all dragging their hairy knuckles along the ground. Those guys again?
“Now you must suffer for Muwan,” Ah-Puch said to me. “And for removing my eyes.” He motioned to my wrist. “I must say, I didn’t anticipate that move. But no matter, you’ll pay for both. And you will be the greatest prize the underworld has ever seen. Godborn of Hurakan, the great creator.”
Brooks roared angrily, trying to get to her feet. But Quinn had her pinned, which only made Brooks lash out more wildly. I swallowed hard. My heart thrashed around in my chest. I was outnumbered, outsmarted, and outpowered.