Suddenly, both of her arms were steel; one was a blade, the other was a spike. Wasn’t that nice. I repeatedly dodged them: ducking, diving, leaping, and jerking backwards – always remaining out of reach. As I’d hoped, she became more and more frustrated. As such, she became clumsier and clumsier.
I knew that people would be wondering why I wasn’t using my gifts, might think I was simply toying with her with the intention of using them later in the duel. If I could just get her close enough for Dexter to take a chunk out of her, I could act as though I was ending the duel early for that reason. She wouldn’t be in a fit state to fight me once his venom was in her system.
Magda must have guessed that, because she did her best to stay far away from Dexter and me. None of the venom he spat managed to reach her. I thought about signalling for him to leap at her, but I didn’t want to risk that blade slicing him in half. Well then I’d just have to piss her off so that she charged at me. “Shame I didn’t bring my chopsticks.”
“Bitch.”
“Thanks.”
“I’ve just thought of a great idea—”
“Wow, beginner’s luck.”
“—why don’t you come at me this time? Or do you only know defensive moves?”
Wearing a daring smile, I winked. “Oh I’ve got plenty of moves. Just ask Jared.”
Picking up on the insinuation, she hissed louder than Dexter. Then she was rocketing at me so fast that the effect was more of her disappearing and then materialising right in front of me. Although I’d been expecting it and had flipped backwards out of her reach, she still managed to slice at my chest with the tip of the blade. I cursed with the pain. She might have charged at me again had Dexter not spat venom in her face.
Crying out, she staggered back, scrubbing at her eyes. Not willing to play nice, I chose that moment to lunge forward and deliver a fast, hard uppercut. The force of it sent her somersaulting backwards. Her vampire grace meant that she landed steadily on her feet, but she looked dazed enough to slightly placate me.
In some sort of Matrix style manoeuvre, she abruptly jumped into the air and darted at me with her leg ready to strike. Again, she was fast. But with anger driving her, her movements had been too brisk to be anything but inept. I – though just barely – captured her foot, and spun her entire body clockwise so that she did a lovely spinning flip. Her back met the ground with a loud thud and there was a harsh crack that made me wince.
“He doesn’t love you, you know,” she said as she sprung upright, snapping her dislocated arm back into place. Ew. “Not really. Jared’s too scarred and guarded to let anyone past his walls. You might be snuggled up against those walls, but you haven’t got through them.”
I knew what she was trying to do: make me lose it so I rushed at her the way she had at me. Poor cow really thought I was daft, didn’t she? “Don’t take this the wrong way, but you make me think of a pigeon that keeps flying at a glass window. No matter how hard the knocks are, you just keep on hitting it – totally missing reality. The reality in this instance is that you can’t mess this up for us. Keep trying, though. It’s funny as shit to watch.”
Magda laughed. “You’re the one who isn’t facing reality, sweetie. In a way, I actually feel sorry for you.”
“Aw, bless your little black heart.”
“Whether you like it or not, that link I have with him makes me closer to him than he is to you. And you hate that, don’t you? He still wants me. That’s why he’s so desperate for me to leave. He doesn’t trust himself around me…and neither do you.”
“You know, I really wish I’d brought my Gullibility Test Kit with me. I’ve got a feeling you’d have passed with flying colours.”
I could always count on this mental case to react in anger. Growling, she charged at me. I could have ducked and swept her feet from under her with one whip of my leg. That had been the plan, anyway. But what I hadn’t known was that at that very second, an all familiar agony would assail my entire body. Helplessly, I fell to my knees, narrowly missing the blade aimed at my chest. But I didn’t miss the spike that pierced through my shoulder.
If I hadn’t already been in unbearable pain, I might not have screamed, but with so much agony tearing through me, I couldn’t hold it in. I knew that no one would know about the other more excruciating pain, I knew that they would all simply think Magda was defeating me. Hell, she was defeating me. But there was nothing I could do.
My peripheral vision picked up Dexter lunging at her. More pain – this time, emotional –seared me as I saw her backhand him with the blade, sending him crashing into the wall. Instead of darting at her again, he remained limp. Oh I’d f**king kill her if he was dead – even if it meant somehow coming back from the afterlife, I’d f**king end the bitch.
I screamed again as she repeatedly twisted the spike, tearing into the wound and preventing it from closing. I could feel the blood spilling down my dress, just as I could feel tears filling my eyes. To add to that, I had the sensation of invisible hands clawing their way into my abdomen, ripping me open, snapping my intestines, and trying to pull my stomach out of my body. Only twice before had I felt anything like it; in the bungalow, and that evening when I’d woken, paralysed, by torturous sensations.
Abruptly, Magda yanked the spike out of my shoulder. “Fight me,” she hissed.
Even through the pain, I understood why she’d pulled back. The duel would be ended if it looked as though she was attempting to kill me. No one would intervene as long as it looked like nothing more than a battle of strength.
“Get up,” she spat.
I told myself the same thing, but my legs couldn’t support me just then. Not while those invisible hands were still ravaging my insides and poking around in my head. Unexpectedly, a harsh kick to the face sent me tumbling onto my back. Blood gushed from my now-broken nose. Twat! What bothered me more than the blood was the nauseating crunch I’d heard as the cartilage snapped.
Looking up, I saw a spike once again aiming for me. Somehow, I rolled onto my side out of the way, still clutching my abdomen. The spike missed me, making Magda curse with frustration. Apparently, it also inspired her to deliver a hard kick to my back. Oh the witch!
“I told you I’d beat you. Look at the great Sventé Feeder curled up like a foetus on the ground. You’re nothing. And now they’ll all see that. Now Jared will see that. He deserves better than you, and he’ll see that too.”