Damn it.
It was a guard. It had to be—one of them had dematerialized onto the roof. Cursing some more, Kane trained the muzzle of the gun upward, covering Nadya’s ear with his forearm. Just as he was about to pull the trigger—
“Don’t shoot!” came the holler over the din. “It’s me!”
“Apex?” Kane yelled back.
The wolven glanced upward. “Hold on tight, vampire! I can’t stop!”
There was a final surge of speed, as if the male behind the wheel had stomped his foot and demanded all of what was mechanically possible out of the engine. Outside the windows, the forest that crowded up to the road whizzed by in a blur, and as they rounded a curve, he caught sight of a vehicle that had been involved in a crash. There were bodies next to it, lying in the road.
The wolven drove past the wreckage—and over some of it.
“Are you okay?” Kane asked again softly. When there wasn’t a reply, he felt a stab of fear. “Nadya?”
“Yes. I think so—yes.”
Kane glanced behind them. When there was only darkness in the road, he told himself they were going to make it.
But he wouldn’t have bet much on that outcome.
For Nadya, it was such a whirlwind, from getting thrown out of the building to being caught by a stranger. And then the car ride.
Her mind couldn’t keep up with it all, and she felt like that was a good thing. The risks were too obvious; she had heard the gunfire and smelled the acrid smoke of the discharges back at the prison camp. And now felt the lurching of the vehicle they were in, and heard the yelling among the males.
So she wasn’t sure how to answer the question that Kane kept posing to her, and decided to just go with the reply that would make him feel a little better. Besides, what was really bothering her the most didn’t have anything to do with the guards or the mortal threats.
What she was really struggling with was that he’d seen her. That revelation, which she had never intended, seemed more traumatic than the very obvious risks of this escape. Rescue. Whatever this was—
“Nadya…”
The way Kane said her name, with such compassion and sympathy, was the reason why she hid herself away, his pity the worst possible reminder of how bad she looked. And it was even more terrible because it washim. She just wanted to look how she’d been before for him. Which seemed so superficial given they were speeding away from the camp with a male on top of the car and at least a half a dozen guards free to come after them.
She glanced at Kane. As the world rushed by, he was still staring down at her, and she thought of what it had been like to sit by his bed, safely under her robing, hiding and yet feeling whole because he had been so broken.
“What happened to you?” she asked quietly.
The driver spoke up over the roar: “It’s not much farther.”
As if he had misunderstood the question.
When the car went around a tight turn, Nadya grabbed on to the front of Kane’s stolen uniform, and his arms tightened around her. The corner was so sharp, she was sure they would roll over—they did not. Somehow, the vehicle righted itself and continued on its course—
The brakes were hit and they went into a fishtailing skid, the sedan dead-ending in a dusty swirl.
“Get out!” The male at the wheel wrenched around. “Take these keys. I’ll be back for you at nightfall—this car likely has a tracer on it so we’re rolling a lot of dice right now. I have to get it good and lost.”
Kane did not hesitate. He took the keys, opened their door, and gathered her as he would any kind of delicate package.
Carefully.
The moment they were free of the car, she looked up to the roof. Apex was gone, not anywhere that she could see or scent. There was no time to ask where he was—and it was likely the white-haired male did not know any more than she or Kane did.
With spinning tires, the car tore off in reverse, as if the driver knew there wasn’t time enough to turn around. In its wake, more loose dirt spooled up into the night air and a faint whiff of gasoline lingered.
“He’s right,” Kane said. “If they kept collars on us, they definitely put locators on their vehicles. Come on.”
As if she were walking beside him instead of in his arms.