The limo swerved sharply to the right and kept going, speeding up when the driver slumped over the wheel. The car went up on two wheels, and as the grip around my throat tightened, the limo went airborne.
9
{ Daemon }
I didn’t like this setup at all. Having Kat in a different car was bad enough, but leaving her with Sadi and Rolland made me want to put my fist through the back of someone’s head.
Dee was sitting in the front, next to one of the newcomers, dressed like a mini-Sadi, wearing a pantsuit. God, that made my skin crawl right off my bones. There were at least a hundred things I didn’t like about that, and all of them made me want to punch myself in the face.
I was in a punching mood.
That was so messed up after the bliss I’d experienced this morning with Kat. The time spent with her, in her, now seemed like forever ago. There was an odd, desperate edge to my thoughts that I couldn’t shake. Like the feel of her lips, and how it almost seemed like it was something in the past.
My brother cast me a long look before shifting his gaze back to the window. He was tense, practically as tight as a bow.
The mayor lived out in the boondocks, and we were still at least five miles or so from the city. I wanted to tell the guy behind the wheel to hurry the hell up.
Suddenly, the cruiser in front of us slammed on its brakes, and I was jerked forward when the Hummer followed suit. Grasping the back of the seat in front of me, I swore under my breath.
“What’s going on?” Dee asked, frowning. “We shouldn’t be stopping.”
Up ahead, a black sedan veered to the left without any warning, and I saw something that caused my heart to freaking stop on a damn dime. Horror balled in the pit of my stomach.
The limo Kat traveled in swerved into the right lane, and then went up on one side. It clipped a motorcycle cop, and as it spun out, right into the path of another, the rider shifted forms a second too late and smacked against the sedan’s windshield. The limo was airborne, coasting several feet before coming down on its roof. Metal crunched.
“Stop the car!” Dawson shouted.
I was already reaching for the door while the Hummer fishtailed to a stop. Throwing open the door, I didn’t stop to think what it looked like to the dozen or so Luxen spilling out of their respective vehicles. I didn’t care.
Pushing past one in a uniform, I raced toward the wrecked limo. The only way I knew Kat was still alive was the fact that I was breathing, but that didn’t mean jack. She could be injured, and the knowledge she could be seriously hurt was enough to nearly take my knees out from underneath me.
Dawson and Dee were right behind me as I rounded the mangled, flickering body of the Luxen who had been on the motorcycle.
A bright white light flared inside the limo.
I skidded to a halt.
The back door blew out from the limo, winging across the road at such a force that it ripped right through a Luxen in a police uniform. Like, one Luxen suddenly became two not-so-put-together Luxen.
“Holy halfies,” Dawson murmured.
No sooner than those words popped out of my brother’s mouth, a blue and red and white form followed the path of the door, zooming across the road and slamming into a pine. The ancient tree rocked. Needles fell to the earth as the blur dropped face-first onto the ground.
Sadi.
My wide eyes swung back to the limo as one small, delicate hand appeared on the asphalt, and then a slender arm followed, revealing the short sleeve of a black sweater.
Kat pulled herself out of the busted opening where the door used to be. Pushing to her feet, she brushed long hair out of her face. Blood trickled from her mouth and her right pant leg was ripped around the thigh, covered with red.
I started toward her. Two words stopped me.
She looked at me, dragging in a deep breath as the white light, tinged in red, powered down both her arms. “They know.”
Dawson cursed as understanding rippled over the two of us. Dee shouted as I slipped out of my human form. It was like taking off a jacket. Game over. The only thing I was capable of thinking at the moment was getting those I cared for the hell out of here.
I whipped around, unleashing the Source on the driver before he had a chance to go all special Luxen on our asses.
Our kind wasn’t the easiest to kill. We were like alien Energizer Bunnies. We kept getting up and we kept coming. The blow had to be catastrophic to the system. Kind of like with zombies—an analogy Kat would approve of—taking off the head was one way. A blow to the heart was another. One blast of the Source wouldn’t always do it.
The driver stumbled to his feet, rearing back to unleash his own little ball of happiness, and I hit him again, and then again, right over the chest.
Multiple hits from the Source would do the trick.
White light flared over the driver, pulsing through the network of veins, and then all the light went out as the driver toppled over like a paper sack in the wind.
Dawson was taking out a lot of pent-up aggression as he went after a Luxen in officer’s clothing. Kat had turned back to the limo, arms raised, flipping the crumpled car back on its wheels.
Dayum.
The tall Luxen who hardly spoke rushed out of the car, and I started toward him, easily dodging a blast of light, but drew up short as the long lengths of Kat’s hair lifted off her shoulders. Static crackled into the air around her.
A blast of the Source left her hand smacking into the Luxen and launching him into the air. She didn’t stop, sending another and another until he crashed back down on the hood. A shimmery, incandescent pool of liquid rapidly formed under the still form.
Oh, parts of my body got all kinds of tingly seeing that go down.