"DYLAN!" I SCREAMED. I knelt down beside him, feeling pukey and fuzzy and like the wind had been knocked out of me. He was holding his arm (sigh of relief) tight, grimacing. Blood leaked out through his fingers.
"It's fine," Dylan said tersely. "Bullet went right through—bone seems okay."
I didn't even have a second to give him my best I'm-really-glad-you-didn't-just-die-because-I-kind-of-like-you-more-than-I-thought look though, because—
"Max, watch out!" Dylan shouted and shoved me. Stage right, an older man with wild hair and plastic-like skin was firing a gun at us.
"Mark, no!" shouted Beth, the Queen of the Cult. Big of her.
The guy pushed the girl aside and aimed, and I dodged a bullet that came close enough to nick my feathers. I tried to drag Dylan out of the way, but the guy was still popping off as many shots as he could.
"Max, go! Don't protect me!" Dylan yelled. "Go!"
Then, Holden, the little Fang gang kid, came out of nowhere with an apparent death wish. He raced directly toward the maniac with the gun shrieking something that sounded like "I am Starfishhh!"
Holden looked like Swiss cheese for a second as Mark used up the last of his ammo, but the holes on the kid's arms closed up in seconds flat. This little daredevil had some serious chops, and by now most of the flock and the gang were closing in. The gunman, looking more than a little freaked out, ran offstage like a five-year-old girl.
I was still leaning over Dylan—the bullet hole was already healing, and he had some color back in his face—when someone cut in.
"Need a hand?" Fang asked. Dylan looked at the hand wearily, but took it, pulling himself up.
I raised an eyebrow at Fang.
He shrugged. "What? I'm trying to learn to be a team player." Dylan actually smiled and, get this, fist-bumped my ex.
I nodded, a little dazed, and moved to the other side of the stage to herd out more of the confused former One Lighters.
It was actually kind of amazing to see two of the guys I
cared most about in the world, different in so many ways, fighting together side by side. Fang covered Dylan's weak side, and together they were doing some serious damage. We've come a long way, baby, I was musing, when suddenly a heavy weight hit me in the back.
Then two viselike hands clamped around my neck.
