“No, Manda, there’s no way,” Jai sputtered. He was reaching for his seat belt now, scrabbling for it as he yelled at her. “You can’t just...no. There are too many…” he turned to me, eyes wide. “Seat belt, Kali. Now.”

My grasping hands found the belt after several seconds of panic. My eyes were glued to the road, to the group of cars that were blocking our way. They were about fifty feet away now. Forty. Thirty.

Manda put her foot down on the gas, her lips peeled back in a death grin. We were gaining speed.

Oh God.

The seat belt clicked shut and then I was being pressed back against my seat as we accelerated. The jeep’s engine was roaring like an angry bear. When we were ten feet away from the blockade there was a flurry of movement. Figures leapt out from behind the cars, scattering out of the way. There was a loud repeated crack, crack, crack, and Manda screamed, “They’re shooting! Down! Get down!”

I threw myself down onto the seat just as the front windshield shattered, sending shards of smooth cut glass over all of us. From where I was crouched on the back seat it looked like both the front seats were empty, since Manda and Jai were both down too. It looked like the car was out of control, hurtling me to certain death.

It probably was.

There was a bone-jarring crunch and a shuddering impact, and I was thrown forward, smacking my face into the back of the Jai’s seat. I tasted blood in my mouth, and there was a sharp, insistent pain in my nose. I doubled up and threw my hands over my head. It felt like the seat belt was cutting me in half.

In front Manda popped up and gave a woop of savage delight. She gunned the engine and we were moving forward again. The jeep shuddered and there was the rasping shriek of metal being dragged over the road.

“That’s right boys! You can’t keep the guardians back. Suck on that!”

Even after the ruined cars had begun to shrink in our rearview mirror, it took me a long time to pry my fingers off the hourglass, and even longer to stop shaking. Manda didn’t seem at all bothered by what had just happened. She grumbled about the shattered windshield, saying she would have to find a new vehicle when we got into town, because trying to find somewhere to install glass would be ridiculous.

“I knew I should have put bullet proof glass in,” she kept repeating. “Why didn’t I think of that? Well, I didn’t have any, but I should have looked harder and found some.”

“Maybe you can put bullet proof glass in now.” Jai’s voice was a bit shaky, and he turned around in his seat to look at me. “Kali, are you okay back there?”

“Fine…” I squeaked, poking tentatively at my wounded nose and flinching at the sharp pain. “I’m fine.”

I turned around and looked over the junk behind my seat, seeing the barrier in the road get smaller and smaller as we drove away. There were a few people grouped together beside the cars, apparently in a heated argument, waving fists and rifles at one another.

Manda noticed me looking in the rear view mirror and grinned. “We got lucky.”

Looking down at the tiny squares of glass that littered my seat I wasn’t sure exactly how we were so lucky. I wished my hands would stop trembling. “Oh yeah?” Was all I let myself say.

“Yup.” Manda slowed the car down, leaning over Jai to look at the map he was holding. “They were disorganized, obviously they got slack because they’re used to people stopping when they see the cars piled up. They should have realized those cars weren’t enough to stop an all terrain vehicle with a determined driver.  They needed heavier cars to stop us, a few trucks. They were obviously newbies at the whole mugging roadblock thing.” She glanced up and down the street, peering through the empty windshield. “I just hope we get there before we run into anyone else. I think it’s down this street.”

I hunched over and stared out the window. The city we were driving through was massive, the streets were packed with abandoned vehicles and wrecks, trucks that had plowed into one another. Here and there I spotted military vehicles, and my mouth dropped open when I noticed a tank sitting motionless down one of the side streets we were passing.

Since it was daytime there were less soul suckers around, but there were still flickering movements in the shadows from some of the overhanging buildings, and Manda seemed more jittery now that her windshield was gone. I imagined one of the oily creatures leaping up onto the hood of the vehicle and trying to climb into the jeep, and I clutched the hourglass more tightly. It seemed like something the monsters might do.

Manda stomped on the break suddenly as we rounded a corner. “There, that’s Diegos. Geeze, it doesn’t look good.”

The building she was pointing to had a dilapidated grey front with a torn canvas awning that spelled out the word, “IEGAOS”. The D had been faded for a long time it looked like. The windows were cracked here and there, and there was only the faintest orange light shining through. It wasn’t exactly welcoming.

“Do you think it’s even an actual bar anymore?” Jai asked. “I don’t think much of just strolling in there if it’s a hideout for a gang or something.”

“We’ll just have to be careful.” She shot me a look over her shoulder. “Kid, make sure you bring the instruments. Both of them this time.”

I chewed on my bottom lip, glaring at the back of her head after she’d turned around. Yeah, I should have had the hourglass at the gas station, like I didn’t think about that and feel stupid about it already. I wanted to tell her “thanks for the reminder” with as much sarcasm as I could muster, but I bit my lip sharply instead, forcing myself to keep quiet.

She pulled the jeep up to the curb a few buildings down from Diegos and shut the engine off. The silence was deafening. There was only the faint howl of wind through the tops of the buildings and somewhere far away, little scraping, skittering noises.

The scraping reminded me of the soul sucker’s dragging claws, and I tried to repress a shudder. Manda checked the knife in her boot and then took a handgun from the glove compartment, shoving it into the back of her pants and concealing it with her shirt.

“Here, Jai you take the other one. It’s in the side compartment on the door. You still remember how to use one?”

Jai rummaged around until he found the handgun in the compartment, then he sat up and grinned at her. “You got ammo?”

“Is that a stupid question?” Manda fished under her seat and brought out a couple of black plastic cartridges. She handed one to Jai, and he slammed it home into the stock of the gun. “It’s like riding a bicycle,” he said. “I may not have been running around killing the suckers like you, but I haven’t forgotten how to handle myself either.”

“Atta boy.” She grinned and then turned around to look at me. “You got your blade?”

I shoved myself over the back of the seat, grunting. My fingers curled around the handle of the scythe, sending that familiar jolt of energy through the center of my chest. My muscles were buzzing now, and I felt ready…I wasn’t exactly sure what I was ready for, but I didn’t feel as afraid now.

“Got it." I dragged it halfway onto the back seat, being careful not to hold the blade too close to any of us. “I’m ready when you are.”

My fake bravado was rewarded when Manda actually quirked a smile at me. “Awesome, let’s go get a drink.”

We approached Diego’s carefully, with Manda darting looks behind us every couple of feet. I wasn’t sure which was to turn, scanning the street behind us and then staring with narrow eyes at the dark windows of Diegos as we got closer. Which was scarier, going into the ramshackle bar, or staying out here on the street?

Manda’s hand hovered at her side as she shoved the door of the bar open with the toe of her boot, she looked like a predator ready to spring. Like every muscle in her body was tense.

“Kali,” Jai whispered. “If there are people in there when we get inside, tip the hourglass over and it should freeze everyone except us. Okay?”

My heart lifted a little, and I nodded eagerly. That would certainly make things easier if there were hostile people inside. I could just freeze them like I’d done with the soul suckers.

The door’s hinges rasped as Manda entered, and Jai and I moved close behind her. The inside of the bar were just as dank and run down as the outside. The orange light we’d seen from the road was being produced by a couple of flickering gas lanterns someone had nailed to the wall behind the bar. Our scuffling footsteps echoed around the room as we entered. There was someone behind the bar, and I felt my skin prickle when I recognized him from my vision. He eyed us narrowly as we walked in, and several dirty looking men at the bar turned around on their stools.

“Oy!” A hulking man moved to get up from a nearby table. “We don’t want no outsiders.”

I let out a shaky breath and flipped the hourglass over, setting it on the nearest empty table. The sands began to trickle through in a shimmering white stream, and the hulking man stopped, his face frozen in a menacing glare.

We approached the bar, and I stared at the bar tender, who was standing with his hands on his hips staring straight at the spot where we’d been standing. He was like a dirty, badly dressed statue. The memory of my vision sprang to mind. In it he’d fled to the back instead of being frozen like this.

I’d already changed the future. I scanned the bar nervously, and my heart did a quick double beat when I spotted what I was looking for. The man hunched over the bar in the plaid jacket was there.

He moved as we came closer. He didn’t turn around, but he lifted his head long enough to stare at the frozen bar tender and then he put his head back down again, hunching his shoulders like he was preparing to receive a blow.

Manda spoke up, and her voice was loud and angry in the stillness. “She’s already seen how you’ll behave, Horace. You might as well just come with us and skip all the bullshit.”

He hunched over even more, until his forehead was almost touching the top of the bar. “No,” he muttered. “No. I can’t. I can’t face her.”

This was totally bizarre. Like I was reliving a dream. The feeling of déjà vu was stronger than I’d ever felt it before. I gripped the scythe tightly and stepped forward and Manda fell silent. It was like I had lines in the school play or something. I knew what I was supposed to say, and how it was supposed to sound, but I was just playing a part. It wasn’t really coming from me.

“Horace.” I tried to make my voice sound firm and commanding like it had in the vision. “You will look at me…” I stopped mid-sentence, realizing that nothing had come after that. Or at least, I couldn't remember anymore. I’d woken up after that, hadn't I? What the hell was I supposed to say now? I was out of lines.

Horace stiffened, then slowly he turned around on his stool, sliding off it. His boots hit the ground with a heavy “clunk” and I stared up at him. He was even taller than Jai, and probably twice his width. In his torn black jeans and plaid jacket, towering over me, he looked like some kind of menacing lumber jack.

“You should strike me dead,” he rasped. His glassy, blood shot eyes slid from me to Manda and Jai. “You should punish us all. There’s no point anymore. It’s all over.” He took a step backwards and then staggered, bracing himself on the bar. Even from here he reeked of alcohol.

I found myself speechless. This is what we’d come all the way to Toronto for? This is what we’d risked our lives for? This is why I’d slept in the backseat with the ammo and my body hurt so much I could hardly move, and why I’d bashed my nose in a few minutes ago? We’d come all this way for some drunk guy who could barely stay on his feet?

Anger rippled through me, and I slammed the end of the scythe down.  The crack it made echoed around the bar, making Horace jump.

“I cannot believe this guy!” I glared at Manda. “Are you sure this is another guardian? Because he looks like a drunk to me.”

Manda just blinked at me, but Horace was staring at me with wide eyes. He was paying attention now, so I plunged on recklessly.

“I’ve been hauled around by these two,” I snapped at him. “Chased by soul suckers, face-planted the back of a leather seat, crashed through a barrier and been shot at, and I find out you’ve decided you’d rather drink than do your job.”

“No…” he blinked furiously, like he was holding back tears. “Please, I know you’re angry. I know we failed…”

“I’m not angry about that.” I tried to make my voice soft now. “To be honest, I don’t even remember that. There’s a lot I don’t remember.” I look at Jai and he nodded encouragingly. “When Jai told me about all this freaky stuff, I didn’t believe him, I thought he was crazy. But he tells me there’s a way to get rid of the soul suckers. Those monsters,” my voice broke and now it was my turn to blink, forcing back the tears that threatened, “…they killed my parents. And I don’t care if I’m secretly Lady Time or whatever…they were my parents. So if we have a shot at this Thanatos jerk, we’re going to take it. But we need you.”

Horace’s expression was tormented. He looked back at the bar once, as if he was thinking about retreating back into his mug of beer. But then his face hardened, and to my shock he dropped to one knee right there on the dirty floor, bringing one hand across his chest and thumping his fist over his heart. “My Lady, I am with you always.”