Fif15teen Page 7

  Chapter 7

  Law 55

  Boys Are Dogs

  The blonde chuckled. “Calm yourself, Nishi, she doesn’t know any better.”

  “She knows better now,” Nishi said, making the girls laugh. The blonde girl bent down and gripped Quinn’s chin firmly. Quinn pulled her face away and sneered.

  “Listen carefully, love. I am Pox. I rule Fifteen. Boys are Dogs and this one trespasses on our territory.” She kicked Akeem without taking her eyes from Quinn. He howled in pain.

  “Leave us alone,” Quinn demanded, but Pox only laughed harder.

  “How sweet,” she said. “It’s rare that we get two at the same time, but we’ve never had one an Angel and one a Dog.

  “She is not an Angel,” a dark-skinned girl corrected.

  “You’re right, Isina, she’s not an Angel yet, but she will either become an Angel or end up a ghost.” Pox laughed at her own joke while Quinn and Akeem stared at her in confusion.

  “She is strong, we could use one like her,” the dark-skinned girl responded, causing Quinn to notice her strange accent. Her hair was so short she appeared bald. Thick layers of beautifully crafted jewelry adorned her ears, neck, and arms. She wore a black sarong tied over one hip and nothing else. She looked as if she had stepped out of a natural history book. She even carried a shield and spear instead of a bow and arrow. Akeem stared at her tiny breasts. He had never seen real ones before. They didn’t look much bigger than his.

  “Quit staring!” Quinn growled and elbowed Akeem, jarring the arrow in his shoulder. He moaned in anguish and beads of sweat appeared on his forehead. Quinn winced at him apologetically.

  Pox grinned. “See, she’s learning already. Let’s take them back to Haven. He can be her first.” The girls howled and stomped in response.

  “My first what?” Quinn asked, but at that moment a sharpened spear as big as a harpoon sailed out of the corn and buried itself in Isina’s chest with such force that she flew backward several feet and crash-landed in a crumpled heap. She was dead before she hit the ground. Quinn shrieked in horror, and it echoed through the corn. Akeem stared with opened mouth, his mind unable to accept what he had just seen. Did that actually happen? Is that girl really dead? Where are we? His mind raced with so many questions it spun in dizzying circles; suddenly he felt too weak to hold his head up. The last thing he saw before passing out was a group of howling boys swarming out of the cornfield.

  Quinn watched as the scene played out like a lethal schoolyard brawl. Girls clashed with boys without fear or mercy, and the boys, although outnumbered, fought back with an equally savage intensity. She tried to drag Akeem off the road and back into the corn but it was useless, her injured leg just wouldn’t work under the added weight. She looked down at Akeem for help, but he had lost a lot of blood and was drifting in and out of consciousness. All she could do was huddle on the ground with his head in her arms. She prayed that no one would notice them and tried not to imagine what would happen if someone did. Everywhere she looked boys and girls were locked in battles to the death, but Quinn couldn’t keep her eyes off of Nishi. The girl was savage, deadly, and from the twisted glow of carnal joy that gleamed in her eyes, she was more than a bit insane.

  Nishi had picked up Isina’s spear and shield, instantly transforming herself into a deadly adversary. She had taken out two boys before a third advanced on her. He was a large, blond boy covered in a zillion freckles. He was barefoot and wore a pair of cutoff jeans and a shirt with a smiley face plastered across the front accompanied by the words “Have a Nice Day.” He lunged forward and sliced her spear arm with a tarnished sword. She dropped the spear and her arm dangled at her side, bleeding.

  “Maru, you pup!” she growled.

  “Nishi, it’ll be a pleasure killing you today,” he said with a grin that showed a mouth full of sharpened teeth.

  “You’re looking more handsome than usual,” Nishi teased as they moved in a circle, waiting for the other to attack first. Maru smiled wider.

  “Fancy my teeth? I aim to start a new fashion.” He swung his sword. She blocked it with the shield.

  “Good luck with that,” she cackled. This made him angry, and he hacked mercilessly at the shield, forcing her to one knee. Just when he was about to deliver a death stroke, she swung her leg out and sliced him across the stomach with a crudely made shiv attached to the back of her boot. The boy dropped to the ground writhing in pain. The petite girl stood over him and smiled. She picked the spear up with her injured arm and waved it at him, chuckling.

  “Fooled you!” she gloated.

  “Faker,” he choked before she slammed the spear into his heart and twisted it home with both hands.

  “That’s for Isina, you Dog!” She yanked the spear out of the boy’s heart then rested her hate-filled eyes on Quinn and Akeem. Quinn flinched involuntarily when their eyes met.

  “Leave us alone,” she pleaded.

  “Let me finish what I started. By the looks of him, he’s done for anyway. Let him die in battle so that he can honor his ancestors.”

  “He’s unconscious—how is that honorable? He doesn’t even have a weapon! You’d kill a boy that’s unconscious and unarmed?” Quinn spat.

  “Of course I would. He’s a boy. We kill boys.” Nishi shrugged, gripping the spear tighter.

  “But why?” Quinn pleaded.

  “It’s the law. Now move aside,” Nishi demanded.

  “No.” Quinn squeezed Akeem tighter. The small girl grinned crookedly as she advanced but stopped suddenly when a horn blared in the distance. Her head turned toward the sound and her eyes grew wide.

  “Scatter!” Pox yelled. In an instant Nishi was gone, and the rest of the girls had vanished into the corn like wisps of smoke. The few boys that were still standing let them go, sighing in relief. They rushed to help their injured friends, ignoring Akeem and Quinn for the time being.

  “Run Angels, the devil is coming!” A plump boy screamed and waved a sharpened hook in the air. One girl with a mass of pink hair crouched at the edge of the cornfield and called to Quinn.

  “Hey girl, Thaniel is coming! You can’t stay here; he’ll kill you and he won’t do it quick. He will do things to you that will make you wish you were dead. You’re safer with us.”

  “I can’t leave him,” Quinn said, trembling with shock and fear. She couldn’t leave Akeem with these savage boys.

  “He can’t come where we’re going. Leave him; they’ll take care of their own. They have a better doctor than we do anyway. Hurry!” she urged, looking down the road nervously. Quinn didn’t know what to do. Her heart ached at the thought of leaving Akeem, but if these boys could take care of him, then perhaps that was better than leaving him at the mercy of Pox or Nishi. He wasn’t safe near either of them, and she wasn’t sure if she was either.

  “Hurry!” the girl said again before slipping into the corn. Quinn looked down at Akeem lying unconscious in her arms. She eased him down onto the pavement then leaned over and whispered in his ear.

  “I’ll find you, I promise,” she said, brushing her lips gently across his cheek. She stood up, hobbled off the road, and took one last pained look at him before disappearing into the corn.