by Ella Maven
Sax snatched it from Gram’s hand and slipped it into his pants pocket. “Thank you.”
Gram’s smile faded. “They won’t stop, you know. I don’t know how far this goes up the chain of command, but Borhan and Polu, they answered to someone.”
Sax nodded. “I know, but with this information—” He patted his pocket. “—maybe we can get a better idea of what we’re up against.”
“Good luck.” Gram swallowed, and his arms flexed at his sides. “You gotta hit me now.”
This was the part I wasn’t looking forward to, and from the clench of Sax’s teeth, he wasn’t either. “Can you just pretend to be knocked out?” he asked.
Gram gave him a suffering look. “You massacred everyone else and chose to spare me without a scratch? That’s not going to be convincing to anyone.”
I reached out and squeezed Gram’s hand. “Thank you. For everything.”
His eyes flickered before he steeled himself. “Just get out of here. Survive.” He looked to Sax. “Come on, Drix. Hit me.”
“I’ll never forget what you did for us,” Sax said, balling his fist. “If you ever need anything, come find me at the Night Kings clavas.”
A small smile passed over Gram’s face. “Will do.”
“See you in another life, Uldani.” He cocked back his elbow and cracked Gram across the face. He crumpled like a doll, and his face had already begun to swell before he hit the floor. I flinched. “You didn’t kill him, did you?” I wiggled out of Sax’s arms and tried to check for a pulse. I finally felt a dull throbbing in Gram’s neck. I looked up at Sax. “Still alive.”
“I didn’t hit him that hard.” He frowned.
“Okay, we’ll talk about your definition of hard some other time.” I stood and wobbled on my feet. My limbs still hummed and trembled from the after-effects of Hawn’s wicked shock pole. I could taste a bitter metallic coating at the back of my tongue.
After stealing a pair of boots from one of the dead Kulk’s for himself and Gram’s for me, Sax scooped me into his arms. “Ready to get out of here, human?”
I laced my hands behind Sax’s thick neck and held on. “Ready.”
He burst out of the lab and took an immediate right, sprinting down the hallway. He ran so fast, the walls were a blur. No wonder he’d wanted to carry me. I could maybe run at one tenth of his speed. He slid to a halt before a door with a small black panel beside it. He passed the ring over the screen, and the door slid open, revealing an elevator. He jumped in and as the door slid shut, he pressed my head to his chest. “Brace.”
“What?”
In the next second, the elevator shot up so fast that I swore we left my organs behind. I gasped for breath, feeling like I was at an amusement park on those towers that shot into the air. Sax’s arms held me tight, which was great, because if I had been standing on my own, I swore I would have splatted to the floor like a swatted fly. The elevator finally slowed before slamming to a halt. If Sax hadn’t been holding me, I would have been smooshed on the ceiling.
The door didn’t open right away, and Sax’s chest heaved. I glanced up at him. The blue panther in my mind paced, its tail flicking restlessly. “Are you okay?”
He didn’t look at me, but the muscles in his neck bulged. “Yes,” he spoke through gritted teeth.
The door flung open, and I blinked into sunlight. Sitting there in the green dirt, right as Gram had promised, was an Uldani hovercar. Sax exhaled, his shoulders falling. He’d been nervous, and he hadn’t wanted me to be nervous too. Little did he know I’d wanted to do nothing but throw up since we’d entered that lab.
I didn’t get a good look at what was around us, because Sax opened the door to the car and shoved me inside. I crawled to the passenger side where he directed me to stay low and out of sight. I huddled on the floor in front of the seat, ignoring the odd, unpleasant smell. Sax shoved his arms into a robe that had been waiting on the driver’s seat, pulling the hood over his head as far as he could. The robe didn’t do much to disguise his color and bulk, but it wouldn’t draw the attention of anyone glancing through the vehicle’s tinted windows. We hoped.
He turned on the vehicle, and it rose into the air. When he turned his head to face me, his mouth split into a wide grin. “What’s are you so happy about?” I asked.
“Been a long time since I’ve driven one of these.” He gripped the steering wheel with pale blue knuckles. “When I worked for the Uldani, my job was to track down fugitives in one of these bad boys.” He patted the dashboard and licked his fangs. “Never missed a bounty. You’re in for a treat, lioness.”
He maneuvered away from the huge building and into the maze-like surrounding area with deft turns of his wrists and alternating shifts between the accelerator and the brake. His muscles clenched as he moved with the car, his jaw jutting firmly from the hood’s shadow. To be honest, it was kind of hot, and I wished I wasn’t absolutely terrified for my life so I could enjoy the sight of him.
We reached a busy area of town where voices drifted into the sanctuary of the car, and buildings rose tall outside the windows. I peered up, up, up, to see the floating pods above the skyscrapers. I wondered where the Uldani female lived who had been so eager to see us naked. I shivered and clutched my knees to my chest. My muscles still ached, and when I wasn’t staring out the window in awe, I was touching my wrists. The golden tattoos shimmered in the filtered sun creeping through the tinted windows. The muscles in Sax’s arms shifted as he drove, so his matching marks danced on his skin like decorative bangles. In the rush to get out of the lab, I’d forgotten all about our matching wrist markings.
I wanted to ask him what the hell they were, but now was not the time. His jaw was clenched, eyes focused on his driving. The purple panther in my mind was turned away. Occupied.
When I’d been in one of these cars before, I hadn’t paid much attention to the inside, as I’d been more focused on the fact that outside the windows had been a planet other than Earth.
The dashboard looked more like an airplane’s cockpit—various knobs and switches littered a slanted panel while a screen displayed a green grid that seemed to be a kind of map. A small dot flickered, signaling our location as we moved through the fortress’s maze.
He pressed a button on the console. “Alert scan.”
A voice—it sounded female but who really knew on this planet—answered him from a speaker near my head. “No alerts at this time.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“That’s Yuli. The Uldani artificial intelligence system. She can only be accessed within the Alazar walls or through an Uldani vehicle like this or an aircraft.”
“Why did you ask her about alerts?”
“If they know we’re missing, they’ll send up an alert. She’ll know immediately.”
Okay, so Yuli was our friend. Except there were hundreds of other Yulis in other cars.
Sax blew out a breath, and his gaze flicked to me before focusing back on the road. Or air-path? Whatever it was. “You okay?”
“I’m fine,” I hadn’t taken one good breath since walking into that fucking lab.
“We’re going to get out of here, Val,” he vowed.
I didn’t answer, because while I trusted him, I didn’t trust anyone within these walls. I still wasn’t sure I trusted Gram yet, even though he’d come through for us this far. I crossed my fingers, toes, and eyes.
He frowned at me. “What are you doing?”
“Crossing everything I can.”
“Crossing … what?”
“It’s a sign for good luck. When you want something to happen. You cross your fingers.” I held up my hands. “See?”
“Humans and your good luck symbols,” he muttered.
“Alert for stolen vehicle I-119. Guards in pursuit,” Yuli said in a calm voice as if she wasn’t notifying us of our imminent death.
“Sax…” I cried just as shouts went up outside our car. Something slammed into our rear, sending the whole vehi
cle on a forward nose-dive until Sax regained control. My head cracked on the panel above me, and I cried out.
“Fleck,” Sax muttered, whipping his head around to stare at the back window. “Fleck you!” he shouted.
Another jolt, this time from the side, and I screamed. “Sax!”
“I thought we had more time before they found us,” he grunted.
My heart sank as my skin broke out into terrified goosebumps. “No,” I whispered. “I can’t go back. I can’t go—”
“You’re not going back,” he shouted. He threw his hood back and his hair, which had come free of his carefully braided plait, swirled around his shoulders in a glossy black mane. His nostrils flared, and the rings in his ear glinted. “Because they won’t catch us.” Another jolt, and my shoulder slammed painfully into the side of the car.
With one hand, Sax hauled me into the passenger seat by the back of my shirt. He pressed a button and two shoulder straps crossed my torso in an X, locking me into place on the seat. “Hang on,” he said, his eyes glinting dangerously. “Ride might get a little bumpy.”
He jammed down on the accelerator, and we shot forward like a rocket. I thought the elevator had been an amusement park ride. It had nothing on Sax’s driving. I craned my neck to see out the back window and made an undignified squeak. At least five hover cars were on our tail, bearing down on us with lights and sirens blaring. Buildings rose on either side of us, so close I swore if I stuck my hand out the window, I could touch the shimmering structures. I felt like I was in an alternate universe in the Fast & the Furious movie franchise. Vin Diesel was great, but he had nothing on the blue hunk sitting next to me.
Sax weaved among the buildings. I couldn’t tell how fast we were going, but I had to estimate at least seventy miles per hour on streets that looked the width of an elementary school hallway. Below, Uldani huddled in groups, pointing at us as we sped past.
I remained braced for another jolt, but Sax kept just far enough ahead. He turned the wheel like it was an extension of himself, and his feet moved so fast—he drove with two feet—that his limbs were a blue blur.
“Fleck,” he muttered. “If I had my bike, we’d be out of here by now. Flecking car. I can stay ahead of them, but I have to lose them.” He sped between two buildings and into what seemed like a dead end. A building rose in front of us, tall, imposing, and most of all solid.
“What are you doing?” I cried as we raced toward the building at a breakneck speed. Why wasn’t Sax slowing down? We were going to crash. “How do you plan to—?” My words broke off on a shriek as Sax pulled back on the steering wheel and the car went from parallel to the ground to perpendicular to the building, defying all laws of gravity. I gripped my seat with white knuckles as my stomach revolted.
“Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God,” I chanted as green, wispy clouds drew closer. I stopped breathing just as we crested the building. But the ride didn’t stop. Oh hell no, because Sax slammed on the brakes, pushed on the steering wheel with a violent shove, and then stomped on the accelerator so we went zooming down the other side of the building.
I slapped one hand over my mouth as we plummeted straight down. I’d left my stomach and most of my organs back there on the roof. The ground drew closer. Closer. Little dots on the ground grew into big dots, then into tiny creatures, and then into Uldani. We were going to hit them. We were going to smash into the ground at an unbelievable speed and disintegrate into a million pieces. There was no way Sax could right this hovercar.
“Sax!” I croaked out of a dry throat.
“I got this!” he growled.
The Uldani on the ground pointed and then scattered as we raced toward them. My head spun. My feet jammed as if I had my own brake. The ground rose to meet us, and I sucked in a breath before sending up one last prayer to karma. And Fatas. And whoever else was listening.
Sax yanked the steering wheel. The nose of the car reared up. The car jolted as the back end scraped the ground, and then we were up and off again. I glanced behind me and saw we’d left the large buildings behind. Out the side, I saw a series of smaller homes, most of them in a dilapidated condition. And these Uldani? They barely glanced at us as they plodded along with hunched, overworked postures in drab clothes.
Sax glanced in the rearview mirror and swore. I didn’t like when he swore. I whirled around to see one hovercar behind us, a determined Kulk at the wheel.
“We lost the rest of them?”
“Yeah, most wouldn’t risk that type of maneuver,” he said. “Fleck, how am I going to lose this guy?”
“Is there a weapon in here somewhere?”
“What?” He glanced at me as he took a hairpin turn.
“A weapon? Rocket launcher?” I mimicked a gun with my fingers and made a pew pew sound. “Do you guys have guns here? Something that shoots, uh, killing … balls?”
Sax’s eyes went wide before he snorted. “Killing balls?”
“Yeah, on Earth we have guns. They shoot metal balls at a high velocity that enter your body and wreak havoc inside.”
Without answering, he reached under the seat and produced a wicked gun-like object. “This doesn’t shoot balls of metal. It shoots light pulses. Heated energy. If you—”
The entire car rocked, and the lights on the dashboard lit up like Christmas. “Weapon damage to left rear. Leaking fuel,” Yuli said.
We looked over our shoulders to see one Kulk hanging out the window of his car, the same gun-like weapon in his hand. “Mother-flecker,” Sax snarled. Another blast hit us, and I braced my hands on the dashboard so I didn’t hit it face-first. Sparks flew past Sax’s window.
“Weapon damage to left—”
“I know, I know!” Sax roared, drowning out the voice. He glanced at me, eyes wild. “I need you to drive.”
“What?” I screeched. “I never go more than seven miles over the speed limit. I drive a Prius!”
“You’re my lioness,” he yelled, his hair flying as he pounded the wheel. “You will drive this car so I can get these Kulks off our tail! Do you understand?”
I didn’t have a choice. He was right. I had to step up rather than sit in the passenger seat like a scared rabbit. But oh God, I was totally a cowering baby bunny right now.
I swallowed and steeled my spine as best as I could. “Okay,” I said, just as another blow nearly sent our car rolling on its side. “I’ll do it.”
Sax hauled me into his lap and showed me where the gas pedal was. “Just keep going straight,” he said. “We’re heading to the back wall where we have access to leave the gate.”
I gripped the steering wheel as he slid out from underneath me and threw his bulk into the passenger seat. As sweat dripped down my temples, I nodded. “Hands at ten and two,” I whispered to myself. “Foot on the gas. I can do this.”
I’d been talking to myself, but Sax answered anyway. “You can do this, Val. You can.”
With a closed fist, he punched out the passenger side window. Air rushed into the car, taking my breath away and sending my hair swirling around my shoulders. Something sharp sliced my cheek but I ignored it, even as something wet and hot slid toward my jawline. Sax and I must have looked a sight, his black hair nearly alive around his head, and my blonde locks whipping and twisting in the wind.
Gripping the top of the window frame with his right hand, he swung his torso out of the window and took aim. I nearly screamed at him for making himself so vulnerable, but we both had to concentrate, so I clenched my mouth shut.
He fired and a split second later came the blast of his direct hit.
“Bingo,” I whispered.
“What?” he asked as he ducked back into the car.
“Oh, it’s, uh, something we say when we succeed at something.”
He grinned. “Hold that ‘bingo’ until we actually lose them.” With that, he swung out the window again and fired three times in quick succession.
He was either a better shot or he had a better weapon, because when I ris
ked a glance behind me, fire and smoke were engulfing the car behind us.
I whipped my head back to the windshield, concentrating on not crashing. A blast rocked the rear of the car, and I heard the sound of metal shrieking as the car behind us no doubt hit the ground.
Sax reached over and steadied the wheel with a giant hand. He grinned at me, all fangs and flushed cheeks. “Binggg-ooo,” he sang.
Ten
Sax
After switching places with Val, I gunned the accelerator, speeding toward the back gate. We weren’t out of Alazar yet, but my blood hummed and my skin itched as freedom was just beyond the reach of my clawtips.
It was only a matter of time before the Uldani unleashed as many Kulk Defens as they could to hunt us down. The fortress walls rose high and forbidding in front of us, but I focused on the small car-shaped gate we were racing toward.
I pressed a button on the dashboard. “Open rear gates.”
The voice crackled to life. The damage sustained to the vehicle must have rattled something loose because she was sounding a little hoarse. “P-permiss-shhhhhon d-d-d-denied.”
“Denied?” I hollered and slammed my fist on the wheel. The vehicle shuddered and Val’s eyes nearly bulged out of her head.
“Denied?” she echoed my words. “What does that mean? We can’t leave?”
“Gram said he gave us access.” I tapped my fingers on the cracked screen.
“He wouldn’t do this to us,” Val murmured. “I looked in his eyes. He was honest!”
I didn’t have the cora to tell her that no Uldani was honest. “Access permissions,” I said to the car. “What is our access level?”
“Access l-l-level is a fi-i-ive.”
“I don’t understand,” I said. “A level five means we should be able to open the gates. I know this. This was my flecking job!”
“Rear g-g-gate access has been clos-s-s-s-ed to all levels b-b-b-ecause of internal emergen-gen-gency,” the voice crackled.