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As it was, I just lay in the muck and watched the vamps stumble around, because it seeant, deadly horde had fallen out of stealth ed party ood ti around, too

Unfortunately, the toys didn’t see drunkenly, but I didn’t hearvamps But the next second he was free, and naked except for the ass-kicking boots Which I hoped were about to live up to their name Because the latest potion bomb hit down as he reached for the weapons he’d shucked off, forcing hiain

He snatched ot an arm around my waist, and we stuh, the fact that neither of us could ht line actually helped Nets hit down in front of us, in back of us, and to either side, but not on us Like , either

But while wefast Pritkin put on an extra burst of speed as we approached the trees, and I was right there with him We were almost to the thicker part of the woods nohere any net would tangle in the branches before it could land on us Things were looking up--

Or they would have been Except that this Tin Man must already have been to see the wizard Because brainless he wasn’t Either that or his ai potion boht in front of us

The result was a long, sticky, billoeb of holy shit, opening up practically in our faces

For a second, I was sure I wouldn’t be able to stop, sinceorders about half the time But either Pritkin was less affected by the spell, or ass-kicking boots have better traction than Keds Because hethe dirt inches away froust of wind ed the ground, just as the Tin Man readied another shot

One it never had a chance to take

Tony’s boys s, even lousy shots with the forest fun-housing around the able to focus their eyes But they weren’t quitters Having a homicidal asshole for a boss tends to do that for you They’d regrouped while we ran, and lousy shots or no, when you’re spraying as many bullets around as they suddenly were, you’re bound to hit so al we could do

I didn’t see the bullet that connected; everything was happening way too fast for that But I sure saw the result Everybody in three counties probably did, as the Tin Man detonated in a burst of searing white light and apotion balls I felt the wash of heat even halfway across the clearing, as a dozen separate eruptions burned through the forest all around us and lit up the air overhead, like unearthly comets

One of them strobed Pritkin’s face in blue-white flah that I was surprised it didn’t set his hair on fire But not everything was so lucky A second later, it slah the net and then into the tree line behind us And I hit the dirt again, muck be damned, because I’d seen a few explosions inshot back at us fro over our heads like a river of wood Which I didn’t understand until I noticed the flowing bark and bulging li out of the forest behind us Andeverywhere, over and under the soil, trying desperately to support for upward like two-hundred-year old redwoods

And you know, you’d think soht have--if the rest of the coravity They arced high above the treetops, brilliant, blue-white, and burning against the pinpricks of the stars for a long instant And then they ca a bunch of seriously freaked-out va sounds into the wet and fertile soil

Which promptly went nuclear

Everywhere a coround like an X-ray for a couple of seconds, showing gli around under there I stared, because it looked like Cthulu had gotten lost and ended up napping beneath rural Pennsylvania And he didn’t see disturbed

He was no more unhappy than I was

"Cassie! Come on!"

Pritkin practically dislocated round But I didn’t co from the dirt on all sides of us now, like aupward into the otherworldly sky They would have been hard enough to avoid on their own, but as they shot up, a dark rain ofback down, on us and on the mass of now desperate-to-flee va in all directions, including into each other If the scene had had a sound track, it would have been full of kazoos Instead, it was full of creaking wood, cursing va leaves, and--

And the sound of a colossal tree ripping through the ground, right beneath our feet, throwing us in different directions