paint

Thomas and Molly arrived next. I was glad Thomas had let Mouse do the pursuit, while he came along more slowly so that my apprentice wouldn't be alone in the woods. His eyes were bright silver, his mouth set in a smug line, and there was broken glass shining in his hair. The left half of Molly's upper body was generously coated in green paint.
"Okay," I slurred. "I'm backward."
"What's that?" Molly asked, kneeling down next to me, her expression worried.
"Backward. 'M a detective. Supposed to find things out. I been working backward. The more I look at it, the more certain I am that I have no idea what's going on."
"Can you stand?" Thomas asked.
"Leg," I said. "Ribs. Might be broken. Can't take the weight."
"I'll carry him," Thomas said. "Find a phone."
"Okay."
My brother picked me up and carried me out of the woods. We went back to the car.
The car's remains.
I stared dully at the mess. It looked as though something had taken Thomas's white Jag and put it in a trash compactor with the Blue Beetle. The two cars, together, had been smashed down into a mass about four feet high. Liquids and fuel bled out onto the street below them.
Thomas gingerly put me down on my good leg as I stared at my car.
There was no way the Beetle was going to resurrect from this one. I found myself blinking tears out of my eyes. It wasn't an expensive car. It wasn't a sexy car. It was my car.
And it was gone.
"Dammit," I mumbled.
"Hmmm?" Thomas asked. He looked considerably less broken up than me.
"My staff was inna car." I sighed. "Takes weeks to make one of those."
"Lara's going to be annoyed with me," Thomas said. "That's the third one this year."
I rolled my eyes. "Yeah. I feel your pain. What happened with the big thing?"
"The fight?" Thomas shrugged. "Bullfighting tactics, for the most part. When it tried to focus on one, the other two would come at its back. Mouse did you rather proud."
The big dog wagged his tail cheerily.
"Paint?" I asked.
"Oh, the thing threw a five-gallon bucket of paint at her, either trying to kill her with it or so it could try to see her through the veil. Worked for about five seconds, too, but then she fixed it and was gone again. She did fairly well for someone so limited in offense," Thomas said. "Let me see if I can salvage anything from my trunk. Excuse me."


Changes Chapter 26, Page 253-254