Ambushed by Dean Murray Page B

Eric was creeping stealthily forward in an effort to surprise
Taggart and end the fight in one fell swoop. I couldn't afford to
continue to just sit the fight out, not if I wanted Taggart to have a
chance of surviving.
    Shape
shifter hearing was acute, but I changed my features, invisible
though they were, and visualized myself as being nearly weightless. I
pushed that change into effect as I started running towards Eric. He
was moving slowly enough that it took only a couple of seconds to
make it over to him and then I was left with the question of how to
go about disabling the tower of muscle and bone that was a hybrid.
    I
didn't realize that I'd made a conscious decision until a shiny
aluminum bat materialized in my right hand. It was exactly the same
as the bat that Tristan had used to try and stop Jackson. There were
probably better choices as far as possible weapons went, but it had
materialized without the invisibility that had been protecting me, so
my cover had just been blown. I didn't have time to mess around.
Besides, the bat felt good in my hand.
    The
red hybrid yelled out a warning as I wound up for a swing at Eric's
leg. Whatever change I'd gone through that allowed me to follow the
blindingly fast motions of a hybrid fight hadn't done anything to
actually speed up my muscles and bones.
    I
could tell that I wasn't going to be fast enough. Eric was already
spinning around, and my arms were taking too long to accelerate the
heavy aluminum bat. Only it didn't have to be heavy. I'd never had much luck changing my own strength inside
of the dream, but the weight of the bat was another matter entirely.
    A
concentrated burst of thought was all that was needed to make the bat
nearly feather-light. I nearly overbalanced as muscles that had been
straining against the momentum of a nearly motionless bat suddenly
whipped the length of aluminum through an arc faster than any major
league player had ever managed.
    Just
before the bat connected with Eric's knee I realized that the blow
wouldn't actually hurt unless the bat was heavy. Even with my
enhanced reflexes and time sense, I almost didn't have enough time to
make the needed change. I imagined the bat regaining its former mass,
but I was more focused on the concept of heavy than an actual defined amount of weight.
    I
over-compensated. The bat went from weighing less than three pounds
to something in the neighborhood of a hundred and fifty pounds. I had
no prayer of holding onto it at that point, but it didn't matter
because the bat retained its original velocity.
    It
crunched into Eric's knee with enough force to shatter the spine of a
rhinoceros. The bat tore itself free of my hands and nearly knocked
me down in the process, but it laid Eric out flat. I stumbled
backwards, trying to make sure I was out of range of the deadly claws
that flailed towards me.
    I
wanted to be sick. I'd helped kill Pamela, but I hadn't been the one
doing the damage to her, that had been Taggart. I told myself that it
wasn't real, that Eric would wake up in a few hours with nothing more
than a dull pain in his knee, and forced myself not to throw up. I
didn't have time to be squeamish.
    The
red hybrid darted towards me, no doubt intending on killing me
quickly so that he could return his attention to Taggart, but he made
it less than a full step before Taggart grabbed his arm and swung him
around, hurling him headfirst into another pillar of stone that
appeared between one heartbeat and the next.
    "Hold
them here!"
    Taggart
was fearsome in his hybrid form, blood dripping from his wounds, his
claws painted the same gory red, but I found myself shaking my head.
    "I'm
sorry, I can't do it."
    An
invisible, metaphysical wind tore across the white plain where we
were standing. It would have scared me, but I'd felt it before.
Taggart was holding both Eric and the other hybrid here in the dream,
but he couldn't keep them here indefinitely. The best he could do was
prolong their stay, only I could pull