TCG

G9

“Where’s the Golden Gift you fucking fairy?”

“It’s in the Temple, Johnny.”

"You don't know our names!" There was a whistle and a crack. Gabriel grunted. It took about a second to fully disconnect from the sudden slash of astonishing pain.

“That's the stupidest thing I ever heard," said Larry. "Of course it’s in the Temple. But we just came from there and we turned that place upside down too. So where in the Temple is it, exactly?”

“I don’t know, Larry. When I need it for the Last Rites, Kim just gives it to me.”

“You ain’t staying hitched to that Zinter gal,” another voice growled, and Gabriel identified him as Scott Hilling

“After I pass out, Scotty, make sure you fellows keep going until I bleed out. Then hide my body, because I’m in this sort of club, see. Red Wingers. We look out for each other. If they find out you did this to me they’ll pick over your feet for two or three days with a sledgehammer, blowtorch and knives like they were leftover turkey.”

“This is gonna pinch some.”

Johnny hurled his whip at Gabriel’s back again, two more times, whistle and snap. The boys kept waiting for Gabriel to scream, but instead they started to see a white layer of fat underneath the bloody split skin on hez back. Scott and Larry turned away and started puking.

With hez right hand Gabriel reached into the space-time pocket that always tracked with him and came back out of it holding the Golden Gift. Che extended the shaft long enough to cut the rope binding hez left hand. Then che switched the relic to his free hand and cut hemself down from the basketball hoop.

Johnny swung the whip right at hez face but Gabriel let it fly into the relic while it fully deployed as a shield. The black dome simply ate the whip, leaving little more than a riding crop for Johnny to swing. Then Gabriel cut hez legs free. All three of the boys ran away, but Gabriel was in no condition to run after any of them. Fortunately the neighbors had heard and seen the whipping and called it in, so the boys who attacked Gabriel only just made it away in time before deputies arrived.