Jez gritted her teeth and hung on to the fighting stick, keeping it in place, letting the Power wash through her. It blew her hair back to stream in a hot wind and it seemed to last forever.
But finally it was over, and she was tingling with pain, with a metallic feeling in her teeth. And Morgead was still trapped.
He hissed at her, an amazingly reptilian sound.
"Got anything else?" Jez said, grinning down at him with narrowed eyes. Every bruise on her body hurt afresh in the aftermath of the blast-but she wasn't going to let him see that. "No? I didn't think so."
Morgead's upper lip lifted. "Drop dead, Jezebel."
Nobody was allowed to use her full name. "You first, Morgy," she suggested, and leaned harder on the stick.
The green eyes were beautifully luminous now, with sheer anger and hatred. "So kill me," he said nastily.
"Morgead-"
"It's the only way you're going to win. Otherwise I'm just going to lie here and wait to recharge. And when I've got enough Power I'll hit you again."
"You never know when it's over, do you?"
'It's never over."
Jez bit down on a rush of fury and exasperation. 'I didn't want to have to do this," she snarled, "but I will."
She didn't kill him. Instead, she hurt him.
She grabbed his wrist and locked it, with her hand holding his and her stick on top of his wrist. She could use leverage here to cause severe pain- or to break the bone.
"Give up, Morgead."
"Bite me."
"I'm going to break your wrist."
'Tine. I hope you enjoy it." He kept glaring.
Like a little kid threatening to play on the freeway, Jez thought, and suddenly, inexplicably she was almost overcome by laughter. She choked it back.
She didn't want to break his wrist. But she knew she had to. And she had to do it soon, before he regenerated enough Power to hit her again. She couldn't take another of those blasts.
"Morgead, give!" She put enough pressure on his wrist that it really hurt.
He gave her the evil eye through dark lashes.
"You're so stubborn!" Jez put on more pressure.
She could tell it was hurting him. It was hurting her to keep the steady pressure up. Shooting stars of pain were zinging in her elbow.
Jez's heart was beating hard and her muscles were beginning to tremble with fatigue. This was much more difficult for both of them than a clean break would have been. And he was a vampire- his wrist would heal in a few days. She wouldn't be injuring him permanently.
I have to do it, she told herself. She tensed her muscles-
And Morgead took a little quick breath, an indrawn hiss of pain. For just an instant his green eyes lost their gemlike clarity, unfocusing a bit as he winced.
Jez let go of his wrist and collapsed to sit beside him, breathing hard.
You are so stupid, her mind told her. She shook her hair out and shut her eyes, trying to deal with the fury.
Beside her, Morgead sat up. "What are you doing?"
"I don't know!" Jez snarled without opening her eyes. Being weak and idiotic, she answered herself. She didn't even know why she couldn't go through with it. She killed vampires-and less obnoxious ones than Morgead-all the time.
"I didn't yield," Morgead said. His voice was flat and dangerous. "So it's not over."
'Tine, blast me."
Tm going to."
"So do it."
"What, you like it so much?"
Jez snapped. She grabbed her stick off the ground and turned to look at him for the first time since she'd sat down. "Yeah, I love it, Morgead! I'm crazy about pain! So do it, and then I'm going to hit you over your thick head so hard you won't wake up until next week!" She might have said more, but the look in his eyes stopped her.
He was staring at her intently, not simply belligerently as she'd imagined. His green eyes were narrow and searching.
"You're just crazy period," he said, sitting back, his gaze still probing. In a different tone he said softly, "So why didn't you do it?"
Jez lifted her shoulders and dropped them. There was a pit of anger and misery in her stomach. 'I
suppose because then I'd have to break every bone in your body, you jerk. You'd never give up, not with that new power you've got."
"I could teach it to you. The others aren't strong enough to learn it, but you are."
That forced a short laugh out of Jez. "Yeah, right." She shut her eyes briefly, wondering what Morgead would say if she were to tell him why she could never learn it.
He'd squash me like a bug, she thought, and laughed again.
"You laugh weird, Jez."
"I have a twisted sense of humor." She looked at him, blinking wetness out of her lashes. Where had that come from? There must be something in her eye. "So. Want to start this fight again?"
He was staring at her hand gripping the snakewood stick. Jez tried to keep that hand steady, but she could feel the fine tremors in the muscles. She took a deep breath and clenched her teeth, making her gaze challenging.
I can fight again. I can do it because I have to, and this time I won't let any stupid sympathy get in the way of beating him. I have to win. Everything depends on it.
Morgead looked back at her face. "No," he said abruptly. "We don't have to do it again. I yield."
Jez bunked in shock. It was the last thing she'd expected. Morgead's expression was cold and unreadable.
Jez got mad.
"Why?" she blazed at him. "Because I'm tired? Because you don't think I can take you?" She whipped the stick up, ready to split his stupid skull.
"Because you're crazy!" Morgead yelled. "And because-" He stopped dead, looked furious. Then he said curtly, "Because you won fair the first time."
Jez stared at him.
Slowly she lowered the stick.
Morgead's expression was still distinctly unfriendly. But he'd just made an almost unbelievable admission.
"You just don't want me to whop you anymore," she said.
He gave her a sideways look that would kill pigeons in midair.
Jez let out her breath. Her heart was just beginning to settle down and relief was spreading through her.
I did it I really did it. I'm not going to die today.