The Blood Racer (The Blood Racer Trilogy Book 1)

by Winchester, Matthew

  “The contest will begin in three minutes,” Beatrice shouted over the conversation. “Prepare accordingly.”

  With that, she stepped off the podium, accepting a helping hand from Gideon Chambers as she descended. At once, my three friends and I spun toward one another and put our heads together.

  “I’m in,” Rigel said first, looking determined.

  I nodded and gave him a smile. “So am I. What about you guys?” I asked, turning to Darby.

  She shook her head, looking disappointed. “No, I don’t want to risk my ship just for a head start. Georgie’s in there, too.”

  Killian patted her on the back. “I think I’ll also be bowing out of this one. It’s going to be a melee up there. Someone is going to die. I think that’s the entire point of this exercise.”

  I wanted to dismiss his claim, but I had a feeling he was right. People loved watching the race, but for some sick reason, they loved watching crashes even more. Even hearing about it on the radio was a wild event for most people.

  “I guess we’ll have to make sure it’s not us,” Rigel said confidently. “I gotta get to the Alpha Red. See you up there.” He gave my arm a gentle pat before dashing away to the other half of the docks, where his ship was cradled next to Darby’s.

  “Be careful,” Darby said, wrapping her arms around my neck. I hugged her back, feeling a bit awkward with myself. I needed to hug people more often. I wasn’t really used to it.

  Killian gave me a nod. “Good luck. I’ll play you another song if you win.”

  I laughed. “Sounds good,” I told him. “See you when I get back.”

  I gave them one last parting wave before jogging towards the Kicker. Thankfully, I was still wearing my helmet and goggles from earlier, so I would be able to listen to my radio. Wherever Reed and Lex were, I was sure they’d be commenting on this contest. I could probably use them as a source of info while I was in the air.

  I popped my hatch and dropped into the pilot seat of my ship, taking only a moment to prime the engine before hitting the ignition. I jacked the radio cord into my helmet and switched back to the civilian band. Sure enough, the two familiar voices were there.

  “And it looks like they’re launching the lure as we speak,” Reed said excitedly. “As soon as it gets out into the open air, this thing’s gonna kick off!”

  “These racers are raring to go!” Lex added. “This is gonna be good!”

  Out the side of my windscreen, I watched the ball of glowing paint hover over the docks and out into the dark sky. The small propeller on top didn’t look very powerful, but the thing moved a lot faster than I thought it would. I wondered who was steering it. It had to have some sort of remote control rig that allowed someone to fly it. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be much of a challenge.

  I kept my eyes trained on the glowing ball as it grew smaller and smaller. I could feel my ship humming with life beneath me. It was just as ready as I was. “Come on!” I shouted to no one. “Let’s kick the tires!”

  “Whoa-ho-ho!” Reed suddenly exclaimed. “Someone’s a little overly excited! Who was that?”

  I instantly felt my face burning terribly. I fumbled wildly for my chinstrap and muted my microphone. I had no idea how it had been switched on, but I felt horribly mortified. The entire Dominion had just heard me yell like a moron.

  “I think I know who that was!” Lex said, a huge smile in his voice. “Kick the tires, Elana! You can do this!”

  Even though no one could see my face, I lowered my head, feeling my cheeks and ears blazing with what had to be all the blood in my entire body. I don’t know how I could have been so stupid. I could only imagine what the other racers were thinking.

  “There goes Audra!” Lex bellowed. “She’s after it!”

  My embarrassment was replaced by shock. Sure enough, from right next to me, I saw the Mistress firing off the cradle and into the sky. Without any hesitation, I punched the button for my front VTOLs and cranked them to full power, letting them catapult me off the docks into the same backflip I had done at Rainier. Maybe I’d turn it into my own signature maneuver, or something.

  Once I was airborne, I righted myself and took off after Audra. Behind me, the domino effect was complete. Every ship had peeled off the docks just after I had, and we were all barreling through the night toward the glowing orb ahead of us.

  Audra was so fast. I had to stomp on my hydro thrusters just to catch up to her. I let off when I was even with her, and I had to fight the urge to look over into her cockpit. Instead, I focused on the lure, which was just a few seconds ahead of us. As we approached it, though, it suddenly changed trajectories, and zoomed back over the top of both of us. Audra immediately cut her speed and banked hard to port. Trying to gain some time on her, I pulled back on the stick like I was going to do another backflip, but I stopped halfway through and just rolled right-side up.

  “Ah!” I let out a cry of surprise. The rest of the racers that had been behind me were suddenly right in my face. I was barreling straight back into them. Panicking, I dove straight down, desperate to avoid a collision. I felt my muscles tensing for impact as the sound of a dozen engines blazed past me, missing me by what seemed like mere inches. I cranked back on the yoke to climb towards the lure again, and almost smashed right into Audra. She had the presence of mind to barrel roll out of the way, at least. Once again, we were neck and neck, chasing the glowing orb into the wispy clouds. As soon as we were within a few meters, it shifted again, looping down and zipping beneath us.

  Groaning loudly, I pulled the Kicker into an S-turn and spun downward. I wanted to follow the lure, but it didn’t want to crash into anyone else in the process. I steadied out well below all the others, and took a moment to look up into the chaos.

  Whoever was controlling the lure was having the time of their life. The orb was flitting around the ships like an annoying housefly that no one could swat. It was only a matter of time before someone ran into someone else, too. As I circled around the group, I noticed the Alpha Red weaving in and out of danger with relative ease, the wedge-shaped craft carving through the night like a seasoned veteran. Rigel clearly had more skill as a pilot than I had given him credit for. I was trying to concentrate on the task at hand, following the lure with my eyes, but the voices of Reed and Lex in my ear were extremely distracting.

  “I can’t tell who’s who up there, can you?” Reed asked.

  “Who is whom,” Lex replied.

  “…What?”

  Lex scoffed. “You misused the grammar in that sentence. It’s supposed to be ‘who’s whom’, I do believe.”

  “I do believe you’re wrong,” Reed said simply. “I was correct on that.”

  “No, no. Whenever you use-”

  “I am not gonna have this discussion with you again, Lex.”

  “Well, stop saying it wrong.”

  “It was right! What I said was-”

  With an angry sigh, I ripped the cord out of my helmet and took a deep breath, relishing the silence. Beside me, the orb was still playing games with the pilots, but they were getting closer and closer with each maneuver it pulled. If I was going to get that lure, I needed to make a move now.

  Banking to port, I turned straight toward the mass of ships. Before I could join the fur ball, however, a shower of sparks out my starboard windscreen got my attention. Two ships had collided, and a random wing was tumbling down into the darkness. Who was it? Who was hit? The fire obscured my vision. The wreckage, and whoever was in it, was corkscrewing downward, glowing brighter than the orb until it passed beneath the Veil. I pulled back from the chaos and began skirted the edges once more, searching frantically for Rigel’s ship. Thankfully, it only took me a moment to spot him. He was okay. I was about to breathe a sigh of relief when I saw the orb suddenly jolt to the side and start spinning wildly.

  Someone had hit it.

  It wasn’t destroyed, but it was damaged. My eyes went wide. I had to get to it. Right now. With a terrible wobble, the lur
e did its best to ascend out of the pack and into open air. Several ships were already going up after it, but as I got closer, I could see the tiny sparks some from the propeller. The gear was broken from the hit it took. The thing was about to plummet.

  Biting my lip, I turned the ship onto its side and dove downward. Maybe I could catch the thing as it dropped. Sure enough, the tiny prop burned out and the lure began falling, plunging like a stone through the confused mess of ships. I was right there. I had it. I had it! I was gonna smash right into it…

  Clang!

  Something ricocheted off of the roof of my ship, pulling my attention away from the falling lure. To starboard, Audra was there, and the top of her ship gave a small flash of light, just before another bullet seared past my windscreen. She had a gun on her ship! One of the hull panels had popped up to reveal a hidden, long-barreled anti-aircraft gun. Before she could fire off a third shot, I pushed forward on the stick. We were both still descending, but now I was underneath her, out of the line of fire. She wasn’t going to let up, though. She brought the Mistress right down on top of me, forcing me further down until I had to peel off.

  My anger was boiling over. Reaching down by my feet, I tore open the hidden compartment in my console and retrieved the revolver that Nichols had made for me. Without thinking about the consequences, I flipped on my dome light and throttled up until I was side by side with Audra once more. I wanted her to see my face.

  Twisting in my chair, I clenched my jaw, gripped the revolver with both hands, and pointed it right at her, aiming down the sight directly toward her cockpit. She must have seen it, because she instantly pulled up and away from me, leaving me alone in my pursuit of the falling lure. Laughing maniacally, I dropped the pistol onto the floor and hit the throttle. There was nothing stopping me now. I had this thing won. I aimed the nose of the Kicker right into the center of the orb and 3…2…1-

  “NO!”

  A flash of reddish color blew past my windscreen, smashing right into the lure just a second before I could reach it. Despite my shock, I pulled out of my dive before hitting the Veil and dropped my speed.

  “Come on!” I screamed furiously. Who had done it? I had the thing practically at my fingertips. Who had stolen the victory from me? I pulled back around toward the pack and glared angrily through my windscreen. It took only a moment to see the glowing paint splattered all over the port side of the Alpha Red. It was Rigel. Rigel had won the challenge.

  Back at the docks, everyone had returned to their cradles, and the crowd was going mad. Rigel was an instant star, and I couldn’t help but exchange furious glares with Audra as she docked right next to me and stormed off toward the Villefort warehouse. She had tried to kill me, after all, and I had been more than ready to kill her, too. Things definitely had a more desperate feeling, suddenly. Before, I had done nothing but loathe her. Now, however, a part of me was acutely worried that she would try to kill me again.

  I did my best to put the thought out of my mind and focus on Rigel, who was currently in the midst of an interview with Reed and Lex, behind whom stood a horde of cheering people. I strolled back to the warehouse, trying not to feel glum about losing…especially to a pilot with much less flight time than I had. I decided I would let Rigel have his moment in the spotlight. He deserved it, I suppose. In truth, I had underestimated him. I was so worried about beating Audra that I hadn’t expected him to swoop in out of nowhere and steal the challenge. I decided I would take solace in the fact that Audra didn’t win. At least I didn’t lose to her. As I strolled back to the warehouse, I was joined by Darby and Killian, who were quick to console me.

  “You very nearly had it!” Killian said. “Quite a performance, though.”

  Darby patted my shoulder. “You did really well. At least you kept Audra from winning.”

  I smiled. “Yeah, I had to point a gun at her to do it.”

  Darby and Killian exchanged a glance as we walked. “You have a gun?” Killian asked. “I thought the rules forbade them.”

  “They definitely do,” I replied. “But that didn’t stop Audra from building one into her ship, so it’s not gonna stop me from using one…if I have to.”

  They gave no arguments against it, but I got the feeling they didn’t like the fact that I had a weapon. Maybe they were just afraid of being disqualified from the race. I didn’t know. In either case, I wasn’t going to give it up. It had already helped me once, and I didn’t even have to fire a shot. I was definitely keeping it.

  Back in Villefort Cargo, the contestants that weren’t being interviewed had all returned to lick their wounds and tell stories to save their pride. I didn’t know who had crashed and fallen into the Veil, but no one seemed to be giving him a second thought. I guess it was just part of the race. People died. No big deal. No reason to fret about it. I even remembered to give Gregory an autograph like he’d asked

  With a weary sigh, I shook my head and made my way back to the food table. Maybe I could eat myself into a coma and not have to deal with Rigel’s gloating…which he was sure to do. As I was grabbing myself a plate, the door to the warehouse wrenched open with a loud screech, and Rigel slipped through, waving and smiling to the noisy crowd behind him. Under one arm, though, he carried a large, beautifully wrapped package, complete with a big red bow. It must have been the prize for winning the challenge.

  I immediately wanted to know what was in it. It was a huge box. It must have been something good. And since it was an item crafted by Dan Canter, it had to be worth a fortune. I set down my food plate and jogged over to him.

  “What is it?” I asked, feeling strangely excited about it.

  Darby and Killian were right behind me. “Have you opened it?” Darby asked

  Rigel laughed. “No, but it looks like I’d better do it before you guys do,” he joked, staring at all of our eager faces.

  Making his way over to the nearest empty bunk, he set the box down and looked over at me. “Sorry I stole it from you,” he said, giving me a sheepish grin. “I guess I got lucky.”

  I gave him a nudge with my shoulder. “Yeah, lucky I didn’t crash right into you. Whatever’s in there is half mine, you know.”

  He laughed and pulled at the ribbon to untie it. “Fair enough.”

  It took only a moment to unwrap the box, and Rigel wasted no time in prying the top off of it. Together, the four of us leaned our heads over the bunk, gazing down into the package to see what he had won.

  “What exactly is it?” Killian asked, voicing what we all were wondering.

  Rigel reached into the box and gingerly pulled out what looked to be a large hunk of tanned leather. As he brought it out, he held it at arm’s length so we all could inspect it. The first thing I noticed were the straps. It looked almost like a pack to be worn on your back, but the shape was all wrong, and there was a small hydro tank stitched into one side.

  From behind us, Grace Buchannon suddenly appeared with a large cinnamon bun in her fingers, chewing loudly. “It’s a pontoon chute, you dolts,” she said, sounding as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “If your ship goes down, you can get out and pull the ripcord. Keeps you in the air. Keeps you not dead.”

  The four of us simply looked back at the chute and nodded, finally understanding. If you could slip the thing on, you could inflate a pontoon that would keep you floating above the deadly Veil. I didn’t see any way to control the thing once it was inflated, but I assumed it would probably keep a person afloat for a couple of hours. Long enough for rescue.

  “None of you have ever seen one before…have you?” Grace asked. There was a note of genuine surprise in her voice. Though, it immediately disappeared as she strolled away, chuckling in disbelief. Of course we had never seen one before. I had never even heard of a pontoon chute. The four of us lived in the most impoverished places in the Dominion. What had she expected?

  “Well,” I said, turning back to Rigel. “Looks like I won’t be able to split it with you. But I guess it’s de
finitely good to have.”

  Darby nodded with a smile. “Oh, yes. That would be a stellar thing for any ship.”

  “Indeed,” Killian chimed in. “Congratulations, my friend.”

  Rigel grinned and stuffed the chute back in the box. “How about we get some dinner?”

  “I do feel a bit peckish,” Darby agreed.

  Fresh food had been brought into the warehouse while we were out at the challenge. Despite the loss of another competitor, spirits among the racers were relatively high. The feast was delicious, the drinks were plentiful, and it was a chance for people from all over the Dominion to mingle and get to know one another.

  The four of us kept to ourselves, mostly. We talked and ate, and listened to Killian tell stories of his misadventures with Darby, which included a tale of them stealing a ship and nearly crashing it into Ravencog. Darby had gone to the Foxfire and retrieved Georgie, her falcon, and was listening to Killian as she fed the bird strips of meat.

  As it turns out, the rest of the competitors were quite impressed with Rigel’s prize. One by one, sometimes in pairs, or in threes, they would venture over to our table and comment on the chute. Most were in agreement, that it was definitely a good thing to have around. They were also quick to congratulate Rigel. They seemed impressed that such a young pilot was able to win the challenge. Although, they didn’t seem to realize that he probably won by following me…not that it mattered.

  After a while, we received special visitors, in the form of Andre Villefort himself, along with his daughter Celina. They were both dressed fantastically, as if it was the most important night of their lives. The cynical part of me realized it was probably just to show off their status in front of riff-raff like us. They took their time working through the contestants, too, shaking hands and making small talk. Before long, though, they were at our table, and we were all forced into an awkward introduction.

  Andre was a thin, rigid, middle-aged man. He kept his hair flat against his head, with his bangs swept to the left across his forehead, and he wore a long, black tailcoat, coupled with a dark grey waistcoat underneath. Several shining gold chains dangled from his jacket pockets, and I wondered how long it would take for him to get pick-pocketed in a place like Adams. Probably a few steps off the docks. Someone would ‘bump’ into him and make off with his watch, and he’d be none the wiser.