Nicky looked at our three hosts and asked, “What are you going to do when she gets out?”

Donnie showed a Taser in her hand. I shook my head. “Nope, we didn’t negotiate for you hitting Magda with a Taser.”

The door began to crumple outward where she was kicking it. Mort asked, “Would a Taser slow her down?”

“Do they affect us? Yes. But not through a heavy jacket and sweater,” Nicky said.

“And if the Taser just causes them pain but doesn’t stop them, you better have another idea,” I said.

“Pepper spray,” Donnie said.

“If it wouldn’t work on a bear, don’t try it on a lycanthrope,” I said.

“We don’t have bears in Ireland.”

“America has bears and it’s not that pepper spray in their eyes might not work, but your chances of getting it in their eyes before they claw you badly are pretty small. Same goes for wereanimals—you’ll never make it.”

The metal door looked like a bubble was growing in it, a rapidly thinning bubble. It wasn’t a question of if, but when she’d break through, and they still didn’t have a secondary plan. Lucky it wasn’t a real bad guy busting the door.

“What are you going to do?” Nicky asked.

“Flash-bang,” Mort said.

“It would disorient her, but then what?” Nicky asked.

“We subdue her,” he said.

“How?” Socrates asked.

Mort pulled out what looked like a small black stick in his hand; one sharp movement downward and the “stick” telescoped out into a baton. It was an ASP, which was like a thin club and you could use it like one; it was good for pressure points and just a policeman’s little helper.

“Are you seriously going to try to subdue Magda with an ASP?” Socrates asked.

“Yes.”

The door shuddered.

“You haven’t tried hand-to-hand with one of us yet.”

“No. Why?”

“When she comes through the door, if Nicky or Anita tells her to put on a show . . . you’ll have your answer.” Socrates said it and started moving back down the hallway. He was right. If they were really going to be swinging at her and she was going to be dodging and maybe swinging back, farther away was going to be better.

Nicky took my arm and started backing us both away from the door. The door didn’t fall down like it would in the movies. It bowed outward and I think she peeled it partway out of the doorframe, because I got a glimpse of her hair and face, a shoulder through the opening. I was strong, but not strong enough to look at that door and think, I’ll just kick it until it breaks. That was like superhero strong, supernatural strong.

Donnie, Brennan, and Mort had their ASPs out and ready. Flannery had backed down the hallway in the other direction. Since I couldn’t see a door on that side, he was still trapped with a potentially pissed werelion.

Magda shoved her shoulder into the opening she’d made at the edge of the door and wall, braced her hand on the doorframe, and just shoved. If I’d been either of the three waiting humans I might have jumped the gun and tried to hit her then, but they didn’t, because we were all on the same side, or they were just too amazed at what she was doing to move. Either way, she was about to come out.

Nicky called out, “Magda, don’t hurt them much!”

Her eyes flicked up to see more of the hallway. She shoved one last time hard, the metal screaming with the force of it, electronics sparking around her. Mort braced and did a little bounce on the balls of his feet, some kind of martial arts training. Brennan looked like he was about to box, and Donnie was just ready. I don’t know how much of it Magda actually saw, but she gave that snarling smile that I’d started thinking of as a werelion kind of thing. She looked like she was going to push at the door again, but instead she ducked back into the room.

Mort stayed ready, so did Brennan, so did Donnie, but nothing happened. The hallway and the cell with its peeled-open door were quiet except for the sparking of the electronics that Magda had damaged when she opened the door.

Flannery yelled, “She’s coming!”

If I’d done the math, I’d have said that Magda couldn’t have leaped through the narrow opening she’d made, but I wasn’t doing the math. She came through that improbable opening in a blur that even I couldn’t follow. It was more a sense of movement like I saw her behind my eyes where you see dreams . . . or nightmares.

45

THE BLUR THAT was Magda hit the wall opposite the door and bounced back. Mort was the only one fast enough to hit the floor, so she went over him, but she hit Donnie and Brennan both. If we hadn’t told her not to hurt them, they’d have been done, but not hurting someone in a fight is harder than it sounds. Pulling your punch takes more skill than landing one, but even pulled they both went flying. Brennan hit the wall beside the other cell. Donnie slid across the floor and caught herself against the wall, but rolled to her feet and was in a fighting stance before Magda was on her again, which was pretty damn impressive.

Mort actually hit Magda as she came over him to go for Donnie again. It didn’t hurt her, but it threw off her leap and made her use the wall to turn and come back for him. I could see Mort as he fought with the blur that I knew was Magda. He was trying to land a blow, any blow, with the baton in his hand. I didn’t understand how he was avoiding her blows, but I knew he was, because his other arm was coming up and he was moving like he was fighting. I started to be able to see her moving, but it was still like watching the afterimage as if you saw where she’d been, not where she was, because your eye just couldn’t comprehend the speed. Mort had to be seeing her better than I did, because he was blocking her blows. It was like they were sparring, but it was movie-special-effects sparring, because no one moved like this in real life. It was like watching magic.