In This Skin (24 page)

    But what Logan was never short of was an appetite for violence.

    Sometimes it didn't really matter whose face he was bloodying, as long as he was getting high on punching someone. Yesterday, he'd threatened to splinter Ellery's leg bones, but overnight Logan might have redirected his violent urges at some other innocent victim.

    And it complicated things that since leaving school Logan'd decided to build a career in petty drug dealing (not to mention rumors that he mugged the elderly for both fun and profit). A weight settled in Ellery's stomach as he walked along Fairfax. Ahead stood the work189 shop where he worked. In less than four minutes he'd be safely inside.

    The problem was that there were alleyways running off at either side of the street. You only saw who was in them when you actually walked by the entrance.

    But then, maybe Logan wouldn't be there? Or maybe he'd be stoned and just glassily stare at Ellery as he walked by? Perhaps the cops would have caught up with the thug? Maybe he was locked down tight in jail?

    Maybe a rival dealer had slit his”Ellery… what did I promise to do to you if I saw you on my territory again?”

    All the maybes vanished from Ellery's mind. He turned to see Logan standing in the open gateway to a derelict warehouse. Logan's tattooed fists hung loosely down by his sides. He wore a red bandanna down so low over his forehead it covered his eyebrows. A cigarette jutted from the side of his mouth like it was a bone white nail hammered into his teeth.

    The guy stood framed by the brick archway-a looming giant of a figure that oozed menace. He used one of his big muscular hands to draw the cigarette from his mouth in a swirl of blue smoke.

    ”I'm going to keep my promise. Enjoy the use of your legs while it lasts, buddy? ”I-I-th-thar-”Ellery began.

    ”What the hell made you come back here, when you knew I'd cripple that skinny little bastard body of yours?” Logan glanced to his right and Ellery saw that he'd brought along a whole pack of his bodies to enjoy the show.

    ”You should have stayed away Eh-Eh-Eh-Ellery," Logan mimicked Ellery's stammer with a smirk.

    ”I w-wer-work here. I've g-got to come.”

    ”You should've quit; then you'd have avoided all the hurt. Now…” He shrugged. ”It's pow-pow time.”

    Ellery glanced along the street. Unless you counted an old guy walking a dog and a couple of school kids, there was no one to help Ellery. Trucks rumbled by but no way would they stop and save Ellery's skin if the drivers saw some kid they didn't know being bounced around by a street gang. The best Ellery could hope for was that a stranger might summon an ambulance to scrape his busted bones up from the pavement. Damn, this is it…

    Ellery thought: Run!

    OK, I run, I get away from them but I'd only have to walk down this street tomorrow to work… Like dozens of times before, a sense of acceptance of the inevitable ran through him. Might as well let them do some shoe work on my face and legs. They're going to get me in the end anyway…

    The younger kid called Joe circled behind Ellery and shoved him forward into the courtyard of the old warehouse. Now he wasn't even in plain view of the street. Ellery noticed a row of aluminum baseball bats lined neatly against a wall. They'd planned this. Now they were going to execute the plan.

    Logan grinned at his buddies. ”Some of you know Ellery here. Some of you don't. He can't speak… not like a human anyhow. He yabbers like a monkey…”

    Ellery thought about the Luxor, about the woman and the man he'd met there, and giving them a place of safety in the apartment…

    ”Funny thing about Ellery is,”Logan was saying, ”he never ducks a punch or tries to run. Show 'em, Joe.”

    Joe threw a punch at Ellery catching him on the cheekbone. Ellery staggered but regained his balance.

    Ellery thought about the city he dreamt about, the one that shone as bright as the sun on the mountainside. He wished he were there right now. That was his home… not this town. And in the shining city lived his real family ”Hey Beanie.”Logan nodded at a guy with a shaved head. ”Take a poke at Mr. Ellery here.”

    Another punch split Ellery's eyelid. Blood ran like crimson tears down his cheek. These guys were Logan's new recruits. This was more than just sadist playtime. There was an important purpose to all this. First, Logan was tying the partnership bonds with his new buddies by indulging in this illegal blood ritual. Also, when they left Ellery with broken shinbones and a busted face, Logan's new team members would be thinking, Jesus Christ, I'm glad that didn't happen to me… then realizing it would happen to them if they disobeyed Logan.

    Ellery began the retreat deep into his skull, where they couldn't hurt him. Another guy stepped up to the mark to punch Ellery in the stomach.

    He doubled, gasping. A crimson bolt of pain surged through his abdomen.

    ”This is a neat trick with Ellery,”Logan grinned. ”Grab him by his hair with one hand. Then use the other to break him up around the eyes a bit.

    Good short jabs. That's all you need.”Logan grabbed a handful of Ellery's hair at the back of his head.

    Please, Ellery thought. Vanish into the back of your mind. They can't hurt you there. They can't reach you…

    As he searched through his mind for an image to lock onto so it would distract him from the beating, he found himself thinking about Robyn Vincent. He remembered how convinced he'd been that they'd met before.

    She was important to him… but why? He couldn't remember meeting her before.

    The hand tightened at the back of his head, ripping hairs out from the scalp.

    ”Ten bucks says I can break the fuck's nose bone with the flat of my hand.” Logan glanced around, looking for takers for the bet. His buddies grinned, then nodded.

    Come on, disappear into yourself. Ellery tried, only he couldn't. His heart pulsed in painful squelches. Dear God, he was going to feel every blow. For some reason he couldn't hide inside his imagination. For some reason his mind kept going back to Robyn Vincent. She had hair as fine as a baby's. Her features were delicate. And there was some light in her eyes that Ellery had felt so compelling. When she'd first entered the dance floor with her boyfriend, Ellery had experienced something like electricity crackle through every nerve in his body.

    She's special…

    But why is she special?

    What had he identified there in the light of her eye, or in the arrangement of delicate, otherworldly features? ”On the count of three.”Logan raised his open hand so the palm would snap Ellery s nasal bone. Behind him the other thugs chose their baseball bats. ”One…”

    She's so special… because they need her baby.

    Logan smiled cruelly. ”Two.”

    The words soared up from somewhere deep inside of Ellery When he spoke there was no stutter. ”She needs my help.”

    The clarity of his voice made Logan pause. A puzzled frown twisted the skin between the thug's eyes.

    ”Hey, Logan.”Joe laughed. ”Monkey man spoke properly He jabbed Ellery in the side with the end of the baseball club. ”Who needs your help, monkey man?”

    They all laughed. Logan's lip curled. ”It's you who needs help, Eh-Eh-Ellery.”He lifted his hand, ready to deliver the nose-breaking slap. ”Ten bucks says I do this, right?”

    ”Right!”they chorused.

    ”Three.”

    Between the start of Logan's hand moving and contact with Ellery's face, Ellery knew that Robyn needed him. He didn't know why. It was as if he'd been given important information years ago. For a long time it had been hidden in mists of forgetfulness; now the reason why he needed to be close to the stranger, Robyn Vincent, began to emerge. He needed to go there now. Even now might be too late. But nothing-nothing]- could get in his way Nothing should delay him a moment longer. The urge to run to the Luxor blazed in his bones, a fire of urgency that meant he couldn't stand there as limp and passive as a corpse. He twisted to one side as Logan's open-handed blow sliced through the air. Even though the thug held Ellery by the hair, he turned his head far enough so it was his cheek that took the force of the blow.

    The fact that Ellery had moved at all when normally he stood there still as a scarecrow to take the kicks and punches surprised Logan into releasing his hair.

    ”So you want to dance, Ellery? I figure I can still nail you down with a couple of jabs.”Logan said this to his buddies as if it was all part of a performance. He wanted to look good in front of them. The worm Ellery Hann meant nothing to him. He'd be crushed soon anyway.

    Ellery knew he should go to the Luxor now. He needed to find Robyn now.

    At that moment he was only half-aware of his actions. A remote but powerful intelligence pulled the strings. Looking up, he saw Logan towering over him. The underside of his jaw was black with stubble. A smear of yellow egg yolk from breakfast gummed the hairs. The big Adam's apple bobbed as he boasted about how he'd break Eh-Eh-Ellery's kneecaps.

    Jesus, no. Ellery willed himself not to, but he couldn't stop what he did next. With all his strength he jabbed his fist upward at the underside of the thug's chin. So hard was the blow that it sent a lightning bolt of pain cracking along Ellery's forearm.

    Just for a second Logan jerked his head down to lock his gaze onto Ellery's frightened eyes. The big man couldn't believe what Ellery had just done. All these years the stammering jackrabbit of a kid had taken abuse without a whimper…

    Ellery tensed, expecting a flurry of fists to beat him into an early grave. But Logan stared at him with absolute wide-eyed surprise. Then the man's eyes clouded as for a split second the force of the uppercut made itself felt. Logan staggered back, tried to recover his 194 balance… failed… then dropped backward to land butt first in a sitting position in the courtyard dirt. The others could have mashed Ellery into the ground in one second flat, but they were so surprised to see their boss knocked from his feet by the ninety-pound kid, all they could do was stare with stupid expressions on their faces.

    The all-important split second passed. Logan's eyes sharpened as full consciousness kicked back in. He glared up at Ellery. ”That's it, Hann, you bastard. You've made your last mistake. You are a dead man!”

    Ellery turned and ran. Joe went to block his way, but the force that had driven the uppercut to topple the thug flashed through Ellery's muscles again. He ran straight at Joe, shoulder-charging him into the wall. From the corner of his eye Ellery saw Joe double up, winded. Ellery Hann knew he couldn't stop running now. Somehow he'd have to make it to the Luxor.

    But even as he ran he heard feet drum against blacktop. Logan's gang wasn't going to let him escape so easily.

    

    

    RUN!

    The word was more than a word. It was a command. A need. A lightning strike bursting in his brain, igniting his nerve endings. RUN!

    Ellery blasted along Fairfax, his legs pounding. Already his heart surged against his ribs; the sound of his panting filled his ears.

    Glancing sideward into a store window, he saw his reflection. A thin nineteen-year-old with an elfin face and black hair, running so hard his limbs were a blur. He saw Logan's gang, too. They were running hard.

    Some carried baseball bats. And in that furious pack would be Logan, urging them to shatter Ellery Hann's bones.

    The day job meant nothing to Ellery now. He knew his destiny lay at the Luxor. Somehow it was wrapped up in the teen runaway Robyn Vincent. He had to lose the gang, then get to the Luxor as quickly as possible.

    Ellery ran past the entrance of the repair shop. At that moment he had no plan. All he knew was: RUN. Keep running. Don't let the thugs catch you. Okay, so those guys bulged muscle, but they were heavy. Wet through, Ellery weighed a hundred and sixty pounds. Lean and nimble, he wove around parked cars. All the time he scanned ahead, hoping to see some way of evading Logan's buddies. For they had the blood lust in them now. They yelled insults. Promises of revenge flew from Logan's lips.

    Ahead, a few cars cruised along Fairfax. Traffic lights ran through their sequences. A light scattering of pedestrians ambled to work at the cheap stores.

    A pain stabbed into Ellery's side. Exhaustion began to drag at his legs.

    The stitch worsened.

    I'm going have to stop running soon, he told himself. I can't keep up this pace. Only the moment I stop… A flurry of bloody images raced through his head: the thugs smashing their fists into his face; Logan stamping on his head. Fear jolted him, giving him enough energy to drive his legs even harder, although it didn't last more than a moment or two.

    Then his pace slackened. Logan would destroy him. Ellery's vision blurred with exertion. Sunlight became a tunnel of dazzling streaks through which he ran. Buildings became gooey blocks. He never even noticed the drivers who pounded their horns as he ran down the center of the road.

    I'm slowing… I'm slowing… Behind him, the gang sounded close now.

    He could even hear the way the phlegm crackled in their throats as they closed in.

    Ellery's heart hammered. His own respiration whistled through his throat. His windpipe was contracting, narrowing to a chokingly narrow tube. Now it was a battle to draw air into his lungs. This chase would end in seconds. Desperately he cut to his left where an on-ramp linked to a freeway. Trucks and cars rumbled along at sixty miles an hour.

    Maybe if he took the chance, he could run across the busy road. The flow of traffic might stop Logan and his gang from following.

    He risked glancing back. Logan was perhaps five yards behind him. The thug's eyes burned with the power of laser beams. The vicious snarl had returned to his stubbled face. Written through it were the words: I'M GOING TO KILL YOU, HAN!