They hit the dust just in time to miss the jet of jade-colored acid that blistered the space where Phil had been standing.
So Roger was part wyvern now, too. That was fun.
“What the fuck?” Phil said, his voice shrill now, splitting the air.
“You’re a problem now,” Cooper said. “You know what Roger does with problems.”
He was surprised at how steady he sounded, even with everything that was going on, even with the fact that he’d landed belly-first on one of Phil’s sharply pointed elbows. It had knocked the wind out of him a little, but aside from that, he sounded fine. He almost felt fine.
Of course he did. For the first time in a long time, he was doing what he’d always done best.
Like Gretchen, he was a Marshal first. And now he had a witness to protect.
Admittedly, it was a witness he hated, but hey, you couldn’t have everything.
Ruffles around Roger’s scaly throat flared out as he began to gather up another deadly burst of acid. Cooper wasn’t waiting around to see how successful he’d be this time. He hauled Phil up to his feet and shoved him, hard, in the direction of the winding path down the mountain.
“Run.”
“Zigzag,” Gretchen advised, drawing her sidearm. “We’ll be right behind you.”
Her voice was splendidly cool, and Cooper was grateful yet again to have such a capable partner by his side. She took aim at Roger and fired, and while he mostly slithered/flew out of the way of the bullet, she at least skinned his hide a little, producing an ear-splitting wail.
“Nice shot,” Cooper said.
She nodded. Sweat was running down her face, and he could feel it on his own, too. The odds were against them. Only Gretchen had a gun (one that was already short on ammo), Cooper was already injured, and they had no idea of the extent of Roger’s hideous new capabilities. If they were going to survive this, they would have to be smart.
He heard the frantic beat of Phil’s feet against the ground. He might not have had much of a chance—it was hard to run in handcuffs, especially down a steep and dusty road—but at least he had a sliver of one.
Don’t think this means I like you, Cooper thought grimly at Phil’s departing back. I’m saving your life because it’s my get-out-of-jail free card. And because it’s my job—but I know you wouldn’t understand that.
“Fine,” Roger said. It was still surreal to hear such a creature talking—and in such an ordinary voice, too. “I’ll kill the two of you and then I’ll kill him. I’m not picky about the order.” He turned his enormous head to look at Monroe, and the only thing weirder than hearing him speak was seeing a kind of juvenile pissiness in a face that would otherwise have been completely alien. “Do you want to contribute to this?”
Monroe had shifted back to human, Cooper saw, and he’d gone so pale he looked almost bloodless. Maybe, despite everything, Monroe had still believed—at least a little—in honor among thieves. Either Roger hadn’t filled him in on all the details of the plan to kill Phil, or he had lost the stomach for it at the last moment.
Monroe had possibly been the one to take the lead back in their earlier shootout, Cooper realized. That one had been almost entirely dependent on skillfully done basilisk-related hallucinations, with none of Roger’s showboating. And in that fight, Monroe had concentrated all his fire on Cooper, trying hard to avoid hitting Gretchen.
Monroe wasn’t up for all of this. He touched his tongue to his lips and then said, “She’s a woman, Rog.”
Gretchen burst out laughing. “Seriously, that’s your objection? You’re fine with selling out witnesses and framing Cooper for murder, but it wouldn’t be chivalrous to kill me? Go to hell.”
Cooper agreed with her in principle, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to encourage people to try to kill her just on the grounds of gender equality.
It was bizarre for Gretchen a
nd Roger to be on the same side of the argument, because Roger was also looking at Monroe incredulously. “You’re such an infant. Don’t you know that she’s just as dangerous—”
Gretchen’s gaze flashed over to Cooper’s. The second he saw the anticipation in her eyes, he knew at once what she was going to do.
Oh, she was just as dangerous as he was, all right.
That’s my girl.
While Roger was focused on chewing out Monroe for not being sufficiently willing to murder women as well as men, Gretchen was melting into her griffin form and lunging at him, the coiled muscles of her lynx half creating a pounce that her falcon half carried forward in flight.
She crashed into Roger like a guided missile and fought him with the fury and energy of a whole life spent pent up in only half of herself. Her beak snapped at him, taking out mouthfuls of his own needle-like feathers, and her talons and claws raked over his tough hide.
Before Cooper could even shift to join in the fight, Roger flung Gretchen away from him with a high-pitched shriek of rage.