Chapter 33 #2
With dedicated footsteps, as if moving toward a lover, Cole moved to the archives room with the intent of retrieving Ulfberht written in her gaze.
Peabody read her energy as she passed by. At the doorway, she paused and turned her gaze onto Peabody. She gave him a look of interest. “Good readings?”
He swallowed down a scream as her neon eyes locked with his, and he felt cold air blow through his body like an ethereal wind through his atoms. He was weightless in her gaze as the past, present, and future were being measured and assessed.
He choked out his response. “The best.”
The men in the room shouted, shaking off their paralysis.
“You fucking cunt,” the tall one snarled.
“Lou!” the youngest shouted at the rough man on the ground.
Peabody watched Cole smile at the tall, older man who’d called her a name that Peabody thought would do the man no favors. Cole was an American, and she’d take that word’s meaning like one.
“Cunt,” Cole said. “A slang word for a beautiful organ made for fucking and birthing new life. Unlike dick. A fragile reproductive organ that swings dangerously from the body and renders its owner paralyzed when hit. What are you? A dick or a cunt?”
The taller man slipped something onto his knuckles; the brass of it shone dully in the fluorescent lights.
“Interesting choice.” She then brought her wrists up and struck them together with a clang. Peabody was sure the clang shook mortar from between the stones beside him.
On the far side of the room, the younger man held the Ulfberht sword with two hands, ready to stab Cole if she moved.
“You”—Cole pointed at the younger man—“will pay most dearly for touching her.” Then back to the taller man: “Once I’m done with my demonstration.”
She stepped farther into the room, and the taller man put his fists up by his face like a boxer and moved in an arc. Cole turned with him like a queen facing her heretic accuser, hands out, palms flat as if welcoming his first shot to her sternum.
As she did, Holly made her way down the hall and next to Peabody.
Peabody could only watch the possessed fight and his meter readouts.
Cole was taking and giving energy in a pulse that was new to him as the ancestral energy coursed through her.
He could almost feel the sizzle, and he had a strong hypothesis that something would happen once the Ulfberht touched her hand.
And he wanted to be there to capture it.
At his and Holly’s feet, the man Nicole had knocked off his feet stirred.
With a violence Peabody was unaccustomed to seeing from his peers in the science field, Holly stomped her foot down on the man’s jaw.
It happened so quickly that Peabody thought maybe that wasn’t the first time she’d been in violent fisticuffs. The man slumped back down.
Holly grabbed Peabody’s arm as the fight erupted.
The man who was still upright yowled and leaped.
His first jabs missed, but his third landed.
Cole stumbled, and the practiced fighter moved in.
He punched her abdomen. It knocked the wind out of her, and she hit the back wall with a thump and crashed into a display table.
“Oye!” Holly stormed into the room.
The man, arm back, aimed for Cole’s face. Holly kicked the man’s knee sideways as the younger man shouted at her. The taller man’s leg buckled, making his fist miss as he hollered in pain.
Suddenly, the fracas was all on Holly. The taller man turned and swung. Holly ducked and struck out. Her slugger’s punch landed on the man’s chin, and the young man charged with the Ulfberht.
Cole, unnoticed by the two men, braced her hands against the wall and lifted her boot. Peabody heard her low growl before the lights crackled, the air simmered, and she struck the taller man in the back.
He was knocked clean off his feet. Like a projectile thrown across the room, he hit the youngest and took him to the floor.
The Ulfberht was knocked loose and clattered to the stones.
The men hit the ground in a tangle of legs and arms as Holly moved in and kicked the sword to Cole.
The younger man pushed and shoved his way out of the tangle.
Cole watched the Ulfberht spin slowly on its handle, showing its precise balance. She bent with reverence and humility to it as Peabody moved closer, his energy receiver out.
She lowered her hand to it, paused as if asking for permission, then grabbed the hilt. A shockwave snapped out and shot through Peabody. His machine let out a single scream before going silent. Peabody shook his meter, then gave it a smack before flicking the switch on and off. It was broken.
Standing, Cole tossed the sword up, letting it spin on its vertical axis before catching it again in a small, practiced movement.
“I wondered what that would feel like again.”
Holly was beaming, and then her face crashed as all three saw the young man pull his pistol.
Holly, the closest to him, kicked, but the young man was fast. He lifted the pistol and then brought it back down, cracking against Holly’s cheekbone.
The calculation in Cole’s calm gaze said that while she wasn’t screaming in fury, she was taking note of his actions and would repay him in kind.