"I wasn't."

Chapter TEN.

Backing out of the fissure sc.r.a.ped and bruised a number of interesting new places, but given what she now knew, Diana found the pain a whole lot easier to ignore. There's was nothing like finding yourself right back at a potential apocalypse to put a bruised b.o.o.b in perspective.

"FEE, FI, FOE, FEEPER . . .".

That didn't sound good. She poked Kris, trying to get her to move a little faster. Kris flashed her a one-finger answer.

"Feeper? What's a feeper?" The guy from the throne room, now positively identified as a Shadowlord, had become a lot harder to hear.

"IF I COULD FINISH!".

"Sorry."

"NOT YET, YOU AREN'T. BUT YOU WILL BE.".

With any luck, the punishing of the unnamed Shadowlord would distract . . .

"AS I WAS SAYING; FEE, FI, FOE, FEEPER, I SMELL THE BLOOD OF A NEARBY KEEPER!".

... or not.

Kris dropped down into the corridor.

"We have a Keeper in chains . . ." the Shadowlord began.

"NO, YOU DON'T.".

"Yes, we . . ."

"NO.".

"But . . ."

"YOU'RE AN IDIOT.".

Diana stumbled as she landed, cracked her knee against the stone floor, and told herself to ignore it. "Come on." Grabbing Kris' hand, she dragged the mall elf into a run. "We've got to get out of here."

"Haven't I been saying that?"

"Yeah, but now I'm saying it." First, up the slope. Then, when the floor leveled out, she'd follow the signature of her scattered stuff back to the throne room. After that, a fast run through the construction site and into the access corridor. Granted, the last time she'd covered that particular bit of the escape route, she was being dragged by a giant bug, but she was fairly sure she remembered the pattern of water seepage on the ceiling.

As they turned the first corner, Kris leaned in close and said, in an urgent whisper. "Who was that talking?"

"I told you."

"You said; oh, h.e.l.l."

"Close." A short pause at the second corner to make sure the way was clear. "I said, oh, h.e.l.l."

"And the diff?"

"Capital letter."

"So that was really... ?"

"Yeah." At the third corner, the floor leveled out. Diana reached out, feeling for possibilities out of place. Not surprisingly, it wasn't hard to pick up the signature of Keeper-designed weapons over the general hum of evil.

"But h.e.l.l's a place. Places don't talk."

"It's not so much a place as it's a metaphor."

"Whatever. Just so's you know, I don't believe in h.e.l.l."

"Just so you know, that doesn't matter."

"It isn't real!"

Diana sighed. "Six months ago, you were freezing your a.s.s off, trying to survive on the streets during a Canadian winter. Now, you're an elf, living in an evolving shopping mall, having been made the Captain of the Guard for an allegorical king. All things considered, I think you should be a little more open-minded about the parameters of reality."

"All things considered, I think I have the right to be f.u.c.king terrified!"

On a list of bad times for a second kiss, a kiss intended to fall between attraction and relationship, standing in a torchlit tunnel, deep in territory controlled by the dark side of a segue that could allow h.e.l.l itself into the world, ranked up there near the top, above "during the funeral of one of the partic.i.p.ants" but definitely below "in the holding cell at a maximum security prison." any time soon, Diana closed her eyes and leaned in. After a moment, a long moment of soft lips and gentle pressure and just a little tongue, she pulled back and murmured, "Still terrified?"

"Yeah."

"Oh . . ."

"But if you were trying to distract me, I gotta say it was a better idea than more stupid stories about your cat."

"Hey, that's Claire! I don't tell stupid stories abo . . ."

The third kiss involved a little more tongue and strong fingers cupped around the nape of her neck. Diana's left hand buried itself in the warm ma.s.s of mahogany dreads and her right spread out to touch as much of a narrow waist as possible.

"I'm not sayin' this is anything more than a reaction to that whole h.e.l.l thing."

Still close enough that Kris' voice was a soft warmth against her face, Diana murmured, "I'm not asking it to be more than a reaction to that whole h.e.l.l thing."

"I'm not sayin' that it isn't either."

"Okay."

"I thought we had to get out of here?"

"We do."