“He’s still alive,” one of the thugs yelled in amazement.

Filled with rage, Luck coursed through me. It poured from my eyes like I was some kind of emerald-spewing Scott Summers.

The thugs leveled their guns at me.

“What’s wrong with his eyes?” José asked, uncertainty betraying his fear.

“You killed Gavin!” I yelled, fury and spittle flying from my lips.

Their eyes grew wide with disbelief at my display of magic, but they decided to squeeze their triggers anyways. Semi-autos and full-autos alike filled the darkness with muzzle flashes.

Bang.

RAT-A-TAT-A-TAT-A-TATAT.

Bang.

Bang.

RAT-A-TAT-A-TAT-A-TATAT.

They made their decision. And their grave.

A barrage of bullets flew towards me. My Luck guided me to dodge and fall right under lethal lines of fire. Wind rushed over me as the shots brushed past me. I picked a target thug, dipped into butterfly twist, and launched myself at him. Spinning parallel to the ground, I brought my arms in close and threw a kick out, my leg whipping behind my spin with deadly force. My Converse covered foot collided with homie’s head and his neck twisted, ensuring he’d need a chiropractor’s touch before he’d be looking straight again.

I continued swinging my leg, using my momentum to tornado kick a nearby homeboy in the face, dislocating his jaw.

Growing desperate, the remaining thugs fired at me despite the friendly fire they inflicted on the men near me.

I somersaulted across the ground, retrieving a handgun and a knife, one in each hand. I lay down return fire dropping two thugs with Luck imbued accuracy. Dashing for my car, a massive brawny homeboy tried to cut me off. I chucked the knife lodging it in his shoulder and drop kicked him over the hood of my car.

Rolling over the hood myself, I eluded more bullets and got my side door open to retrieve my blades. Tain erupted from the car, snarling. “Get ‘em boy!” I wasn’t worried about him. The darkness of the night would cover him. Fragarach and Jade sang as they were drawn, emanating like green and orange Maglites.

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Slice and dice time.

Three goons lay in front of me, one at my ten o’clock, one at my two o’clock, and one directly ahead at twelve, each cowering behind a car, popping out every few seconds to fire shots at me.

With nowhere to dodge I focused my Luck though my swords. Twirling hand over hand, I cut bullets out of the air, splitting their route of trajectory. With each slash of my swords, Celtic knots trailed behind my blades like glow-in-the-dark rave batons.

I dashed straight ahead, Luck boosting my natural speed twofold. I crossed my swords in front of me, then spun a full circle, letting my blades loose. Luck led them home, skewering the two thugs on either side of me. Running at full speed, I kicked off the fender of an Impala, spinning into a front flip over the hood. As I completed the revolution, intertwining emerald ribbons shot out of my hands, calling my blades back to me. I brought my swords in close to my body, and narrowly missed another round of fire. The rage in my glowing green eyes was the last thing the thug witnessed as I extended my swords and made them both pass through the thug, ending his life.

More bullets pattered along the side the car I was behind. Planting my swords in the ground, I leapt atop the hood and threw raw Luck blasts with wild abandon. Each ball of energy collided with a gun, ending in minor explosions, leaving the thugs alive but unarmed.

Bladeless, I fell into a kata, inflicting twofold the beating that they inflicted on me, making use of fists, knees, elbows, and kicks.

I spotted Oscar getting into this car to take off. Some leader.

I engaged Oscar, the man that had actually thrown Gavin into the water. I assumed the horse stance, launching front punch after front punch into his torso until the Impala door I pinned him against caved in under the pressure. Oscar’s eyes bulged, bloodshot from my onslaught. I’d taken Oscar through the school of pain, and he’d graduated at the top of his class.

Green wisps of smoke rose from my fists. Eyes glowing, I scanned the darkness for Justin. Our eyes locked and he backpedaled until he tripped over the train tracks. Desperate, he leveled an AK-47 at me that he’d picked up from a corpse.

RAT-A-TAT-A-TAT-A-TATAT.

With a thought, my Celtic knotted shield appeared before me. It flared as bullets pinged off of the magic disk. With a glowing hand, I ripped the AK out of Justin’s hands and introduced the butt of the gun to his nose.

A voice, so subtle I almost didn’t hear it, whispered inside my mind.

Bring him to the water. Offer him to me.

Grabbing Justin by the shoulder straps of his tank-top, I hefted him over my head, stepping to the water. The waterline was broken by the head of a haggard horse, the Kelpie. Shoulders and arm muscles flexing, I prepared to launch him into the water.

“Wait Sean!” yelled a familiar voice.

In the distance I heard the puttering of a small boat engine. A soaking wet Nehemiah arrived with an equally wet Rob in his boat. They’d arrived too late.

“They killed Gavin,” I snarled.

Rob hovered over to me and tugged at my arms, trying to prevent me from sacrificing my girlfriend’s brother to the Kelpie. “Don’t do it. Stoppit. We’ve got him.”

I paused, not understanding.

Nehemiah’s boat hit the shore, and now that they were closer I could see the wizard helping someone else emerge from the boat.

“Gavin?”

I couldn’t believe it.