'Wait,' Sarah said, 'Just let me see Ayaan first.'
He fired. At point blank range he couldn't miss. There was a lot of noise, though the sound of her pulse blocked most of it out. There was some light but she blinked as the gun went off'just a reflex action. Her body tensed and curled around the explosion, her muscles and skin and sinews convulsing inward as she fell backward, flat on her back and hit the ground. Blood splashed up across her face, fell wet across her chest, her legs. She could feel it pooling around her, soaking into her clothes and her hair. She couldn't breathe, which wasn't really a problem at first but she was dully aware that it would become important all too soon.
She brought her knees up, her body wanted to double up. Death was on its way, mere seconds off. The world got darker and louder, she could hear screaming but it wasn't her own, the screaming got louder. And louder. She felt something tugging in her chest. It jerked and ripped and tore at her like a bird eating her guts but higher, nearer her heart. She opened her eyes and looked down.
The bullet edged backwards out of the wound as if it were being pushed out from inside. She could see the striations on its surface, the rifling marks. It hurt a lot more going out than it had coming in. Pain wracked her body and suddenly it was her screaming, she could hear her own screams again. The bullet fell out of her and rolled down onto the bloody slickrock. The cloth around the gunshot wound, the cloth of her sweatshirt smoldered and winked orange at her here and there but the skin underneath sealed up without so much as a scar. She sat up and screamed and screamed. The green lich stared at her with genuine curiosity.
Was she... dead? Undead? No. She was breathing. The dead didn't breathe. She was still alive. She was still, somehow, alive. Her chest was full of blood, her lungs congested with it but she could talk, kind of. 'Dad,' she wheezed. 'Daddy.'
Monster Planet
Chapter fourteen
'She's got some charm against bullets,' the green phantom said. Enni Langstrom. That was what he was called. Ayaan was still trying to get used to the name. 'When we have a chance we'll get a bathtub and see if she can breathe underwater, too.' He was dragging Sarah along behind him, literally pulling her through the dirt.
Ayaan ran a hand over her chin. 'Enni,' she said. 'Let's give her an opportunity. Let's allow her to join us, if she will.'
'She tried to kill the Tsarevich,' he told her. To him it was just that simple. Sarah's head rolled to one side and she vomited blood all over the hem of his robe. 'Stupid bitch,' he snarled. He kicked her in the ribs until she was coughing blood all over herself.
Ayaan rushed forward and knelt down by Sarah's side. 'Enni,' she said, 'the first time you saw me, I was trying to kill you. Look how that worked out.'
She had been willing to kill Sarah. She had convinced herself that if it meant saving the Tsarevich'and humanity's last hope'she would kill Sarah herself. But now it wasn't necessary. Sarah no longer had the means to hurt anyone. Surely'surely a little mercy was in order. She wiped Sarah's mouth with her hand and lifted her head a little to make it easier for the girl to breathe.
'Ayaan,' Sarah said, her eyes wide, so wide. 'Ayaan, you're an abomination.'
Ayaan just nodded.
'If you want her so badly, take her. At the first sign of difficulty you should kill her. If she gets away from you, you'll both be executed.' Enni shook his skull-like head and stormed away. 'I have work to oversee,' he shouted back over his shoulder.
She lifted Sarah up to a sitting posture. 'Listen,' she said, but Sarah interrupted her.
'I was hoping I would find you were a prisoner here,' the girl said. Her eyes were very hard. 'I assumed you wouldn't let them turn you into a lich willingly.'