Each grabbing one of the massive sliding doors, trying to close them. By all the Saints, these things weighed a ton. The angry buzzing of the cherubs growing closer as Nico put his back into it and slid his door all the way. Gigi however, was making little progress. Dashing over he nudged her aside, taking hold of the massive door handle and pulling with everything he had. Very aware of the approaching locust swarm of cherubs. Also aware of Gigi plucking at his waist, weird. Two feet to go. Taking another big breath, the wave of cherubs was coming in fast, showing no sign of stopping. Hell. He yanked the door closed. Thump. Thump. Thump. As the cherubs hit the closed doors.
Gasping, he let himself be pushed aside, watching as Gigi used the leather belt she’d just stripped from around his waist to secure the door handles together. Smart.
A golden flash out the corner of his eye was the only warning he got. Yanking Gigi closer, a small golden arrow embedding itself in the wooden door behind them. Fuck, one, no, three of the little bastards had slipped inside. Buzzing angrily as they weaved overhead, bows and arrows at the ready.
Mierda. Darting forward Nico wrenched an arm off the nearest mannequin, tossing it to Gigi before wrenching off one for himself. It would have been nice if this life-sized diorama from Zeus’s life had depicted a bloody battle, with weapons strewn about. No, they had to pick one full of nubile female mannequins, all, for some reason, rending their clothes off in some kind of frenzy.
No time to study the weird scene right now, as Nico swung at and missed the nearest darting cherub. It buzzed off to the right, circling around even as one of its buddies began its run at Nico, bow pulled taut, arrow notched.
So focused on Nico as a target, the cupid didn’t see Gigi step out from the melee of mannequins and club it out of the air. The cherub hitting the floor with a thump, dazed, little it could to do as Gigi closed in on its position and gave it another hard whack on the head.
One down, two to go.
A mannequin’s arm made for a clumsy weapon, except Nico found if you clasped your hand in the fake one, at least then it made a good club. Swinging and missing again, leaping forward to avoid an arrow heading he presumed for his ass. Given these cherubs appeared to be under someone else’s control, what did that mean for their love magic? Those arrows of theirs were legendary. But if they had somehow been corrupted, if he was hitby one, would he try and hurt Gigi? Loathing that idea beyond measure, but what if he was no longer in control?
The final two cherubs were hovering too high now, his club all but useless as the fluttering duo both notched an arrow, taking aim at him. Hell no. Ducking left, shouldering his way through the mass of mannequins. At least their sheer number made for decent cover. Bloody Hell, and now he’d lost sight of Gigi, where had she gotten too?
He ducked under the bared breasts of a mannequin and came face to face with her.
“You okay?” They both asked at the exact same time.
“You hit?”
“No.” Gigi shook her head, gaze directed up at the ceiling trying to spy their nemeses. “You?”
“No, I’m clear.”
They heard the thrum of wings, instinctively crouching lower. “What’s our game plan here? They’re hovering too high now to smack. Do you think we can just hide and wait them out?” Gigi queried from between gritted teeth. “Maybe they’ll get tired, or hungry.”
Hiding out amongst the mass of mannequins would have been a good plan, but as one of the cherubs strafed by overhead, it released an excrement bomb of gold liquid glitter. Luckily the mannequins protected them, this time, as they huddled together closer, now trying to avoid anything that dripped gold glittery shit.
“I don’t think that’s going to work.” Nico pointed out the obvious, as the second cherub strafed their hiding spot, a stream of gold liquid sliding down a nearby mannequin’s face, dripping down her naked exposed breasts and then to the floor. Pooling only a few inches away from Nico’s boot. “Okay. We need a plan. They seem to favour me as a target. If I distract them, how’s your throwing arm? I could break off a couple of feet or hands for youto use.” His blade wasn’t balanced or light enough, being more of a stabbing weapon.
“They’re too quick. It would be useless.” Gigi grudgingly admitted, wishing she could get her hands on a strafing tommy gun like the one mobster Zeus had been depicted holding. Oh. Hah! “Wait. I have an idea.” She lifted the catch on Canary’s basket, plucking him out.
“You’re going to the throw the rabbit at one of them? I don’t know, that kind of smacks of animal cruelty or something.”
“Look. Trust me. There’s much more to Canary than meets the eye, but there’s no time for explanations. I can absolutely take down those little flying shitters as long as you keep them distracted and occupied.”
Was she serious? Yes. Gigi clearly thought she and the bunny could take out the cherubs. “Okay.” Mierda, was he really going to do this? Place his life in the hands of a chocolatier with commitment issues and her pet purple bunny? It certainly seemed so.
They spent a couple of minutes discussing their game plan, though Gigi refused to divulge exactly what she and the rabbit would do to bring down the cupids. Although she appeared nothing but confident after he confirmed that he would be fine holding his breath kind of indefinitely. Which in no way gave him any inkling of what she and the rabbit intended to do. As she said, this was no time for long involved explanations. But given his experience with Gigi, she tackled everything full on with cheerful determination and a bucket load of efficiency. The look in her eyes right now showed not a hint of fear or trepidation.
Saints Above, he was going to have go on faith. “See you on the other side.” Nico made a break for it, or that’s what he intended it to look like. Running for the doors, only at the last second veering away, heading back to the protection of the mass of mannequins. He heard the angry thrum of wings close on hisheels. Zig zagging on instinct. Watching as a tiny gold arrow embedded itself in a mannequin’s eye some ten feet in front of him. Fuck, where was… Gigi stepped out from the crowd of mannequins, raised the rabbit high and the little thing opened his mouth, and kept on opening it. Nico only getting a quick glimpse of a seemingly infinite dark void in there before he was racing past her.
At the edge of the mannequins he turned, watching in shock as the air was suddenly full of little dark balls, a barrage of them headed right for the two cherubs that had been chasing him. They couldn’t break off their pursuit. A thumb sized ball hitting one in the cheek, exploding on contact. The other one too quick, fluttering left, right, up and down, avoiding the missiles. Though it hadn’t factored in that several of the balls had hit the ceiling, exploding, the contents drifting down like a… was that chocolate? Gigi was bombarding the little terrors with truffles? Seriously? Amazingly her plan appeared to be working as the first cherub’s face had turned a bright splotchy red, eyes streaming and squeezed shut as it sneezed, once, twice, and then ten more times, so violently it dropped fifteen feet as it desperately wiped at its eyes. Struggling to even flutter in place. Bobbing, climbing slightly, sneezing again and dropping two feet.
A new stream of something erupted from the rabbit. Thick, dark, syrupy, hitting the sneezing dazed and crying cherub with a splash, sending it hurtling backwards against a nearby column. It was a dripping mess for only another ten seconds as its wings fluttered pathetically as it struggled to relaunch itself. But between one flutter and the next its wings froze, and it couldn’t move, stuck to the column like a bug under amber.
The second cherub was less red and blotchy, not having taken a direct hit of the sneeze-bomb truffles, but a cloud of cocoa dust and who knows what else had enveloped it.
Likewise tears were streaming down its cheeks, and it was struggling to both fly and hold an arrow notched in the bow it was carrying. Nico assumed Gigi did something different to the rabbit, because this time when it opened its mouth, a torrent of bright aqua blue liquid drenched the cherub, sending it plummeting to the ground. Unlike the other cherub it didn’t bother struggling against the liquid, it instead focused all its energy on lifting the bow and arrow. Hah, whatever that stuff was it dried too fast, the cherub’s hold on the bow still at half-mast. They’d done it. Well, Gigi and her vomiting rabbit had done it. He had so many questions.
Stepping away from the mannequins Nico moved to her side, both their gazes locked on the second cherub that was glaring their way, murder in its eyes. It’s still blinking eyes. Oh, Mierda, it still had some movement. Nico’s arm sweeping out, trying to get Gigi behind him even as the cherub released the arrow.
Merciful Lady, no, Gigi was already back pedalling, pulling Nico along with her. The bow was at such an awkward angle, no way the arrow should have hit anything, but what did they say about the course of true love? Something annoying no doubt.
As the cherub abruptly froze in its bright blue coating of boiled sweet blueberry liquid, Nico and Gigi were left staring down at Nico’s left boot, where an arrow protruded from the tip of it. Praying hard the leather had prevented it from making any contact. Please. Please.
