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"Come on, kid."
Shocked, Benny glanced at Two Swords. The Guardian lay a gentle hand on Benny's shoulder and gave it a light squeeze.
With one backwards glance thrown over his shoulder, Benny allowed the towering Guardian to draw him back to a hospital more than a thousand miles to the south.
With darkened eyes Two-Swords watched his charge. Benny whispered and moaned in the depths of a coma. Behind him a pack of imps gathered into a huddled mass.
One slipped away, a string clutched in his clawed hands.
Between her Guardian and the wall, Myers grumbled in her sleep. One hand flapped loose and she blinked, drawing it back into a loose cocoon of warmth.
The imp giggled and crawled under the bed. Backing out, it sneaked to the pack, chittering and waving its decay-warped hands.
Screaming curses and taunts the pack attacked the Guardians.
Two Swords spat at them. A-Heart-a'-Fire shrilled her war cry as she leaped into his hands. Fire ran down her length, jagged bolts of gold and blue, the center of her twin blades whitened to pure flame. Sparks cracked off her tip that balled into a fury of storm.
Spinning and twisting among the demonic horde, Two Swords hacked down. A minor asgina dark sun screamed. His sword was a streak of black, molten flames. 'Heart shrilled at his sword, they met in a thunderclap. The demon's sword shrieked in agony. It split down the middle, shattering to hilt.
Stunned, the demon gaped at Two Swords and staggered back. Another swung with the maniacal force of a twister. Two Swords dodged, bringing 'Heart up. The clash shuddered her, numbed his arms. He went to his knees. With a cry of triumph the demon charged in and 'Heart took him through the belly.
The demon hung there for a moment. Agonized rumbles came from him and he sank through the floor into the waiting teeth and claws of the tormenters.
Shocked at the clash of battle and the screams of the wounded, Myers snapped out of a nightmare and leaped to her feet, shouting, "Wounded. Help me, wounded." And with a squawk, spatted on the floor. Myers' Guardian roared fire from her mouth and mowed through them with a shrieking sword.
The remaining imps fled in hot pursuit of the idiot who tied the wrong legs together.
Grinning at a tiny speck of blue fire, Two Swords lowered 'Heart. The speck giggled and spiraled up to the Guardian
"Thanks, Oak." The Guardian winked. "But why'd you let them get away with it?"
"Didn't, Giant One Two Swords. Make him figure you were her and her were you were one and same." The sprite covered her mouth in a giggle and zipped away.
Myers gathered herself from the floor. Glaring at Two Swords, she checked her patient. She pulled a knife from a leg sheath and removed the cord. With a loud hrumph at the Guardian, she snatched up the blanket and hobbled out to find a quieter room.
The bed was a lot harder than the room she left, but the men's ward was a lot quieter, too. All that comfy snoring, but the men didn't get on her about it.
Gumming sleepily at her chew, Myers yawned and scratched under her girdle.
"Where's m' teeth?" Myers glared around the wardroom. Her gaze settled on one of the smiling men.
"Who swiped 'em now?" she hollered, shaking a fist at the men. "Best ye fess up now, else I'll -"
"I see them, Nurse Myers." A pretty, new, angel of mercy beamed a smile. "They're under the bed."
Myers glared at her, groping under the bed.
"A-yep, there they be." Myers stuffed them in her mouth. She saw the young woman staring, open-mouthed, at her. She looked faint.
"Aren't you going to wash them off first, Nurse Myers?"
"You're that new chick, Dellacourt, ain't it?" She sniffed and glared at the nurse. Watching in silence to see what Granite-Myers would do now, the men all perked up. In hushed tones bets were laid. The smiling men lay back, their eyes pleading for Myers to go easy.
"You mean to say them floors ain't clean, Nurse Dellacourt?"
Sensing trouble, the young lieutenant backed away.
"Nnno, Ma'am," she said, her mind whirling. She shook her head and mentally kissed good-bye to her up-coming promotion to First. "I never said any such thing. Your floors are clean enough to eat off of." She glanced at the rest of the staff in the wardroom. They scattered like quail.
"Mebby you're right, Nurse Dellacourt. Mebby, them floors ain't righteous-clean." She worked the dentures around in her mouth, champing hard to seat the self-adhesive plates. "Might be they needs a real ex-pert on what be clean and what ain't to see to 'em proper."
Myers gagged, spitting the dentures out into her hand. In wonder she glared at the men around her.
"By goshen, Nurse Dellacourt, if you ain't right. Look here. There's fly on my teeth." A long bony finger snapped at something and a low moan of despair escaped the girl's clenched jaws. Myers popped the teeth back in.
"Where you goin', Dellacourt?" Myers shouted after the fleeing woman. She said the man in the next bed. "I was only joshin' the poor thing." He rolled his eyes and sighed.
Her eyes widened and she spat out the teeth.
"By gum, if there ain't really a dammed . . . er, durned fly."
She flicked it off. The tiny imp shrieked and spatted on the floor. Myers grunted in disgust.
"Ugh, but I do hate bugs." Eyes bulging, the imp watched as the sole of her very comfortable shoe loomed then lowered slowly to the floor. Something made a small crunching noise and Myers grunted a laugh.
"Be-durned imps."
©2003 StoriesByEmail.com
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