“There’s Jyran.” Dahy breathed a sigh of relief as he spotted Jyran run from tree to tree along the road in squirrel form.
“Wow, he’s made it this far already?” Myka glanced out the window but soon focused on the road again. “I had no idea squirrels were so fast.”
“We can be when we need to.”
He hadn’t more than uttered those words before a car bumped into them from behind. Myka screamed, and Dahy clutched the handle in the door. “What the fuck?”
Glancing in the rearview mirror, Dahy saw a black car speed up toward theirs again. This time he braced for the impact, but the car lurched.
“They’re gonna push us off the road.”
“Go!”
Myka’s knuckles turned white, and the engine roared as she pushed down the gas pedal. “Fuck!”
The car behind them sped up too, and now there was no other traffic around them. Dahy hoped Jyran would stay back. There was no need for both of them to die.
For a moment, he believed Myka’s car was faster. It flew along the highway, and a gap grew between it and the pursuing car. Then the car behind them increased its speed and rammed into them again. They skidded on the road. Myka screamed and tried to right the car but turned too much. The ditch came closer, and Dahy clutched the headrest with one hand and the door handle with the other.
Everything happened so fast, and yet it was as if it went in slow motion. Myka’s scream echoed in his mind and the airbag blew up in front of him. For a few seconds, he didn’t know if they’d stopped or not, but the seatbelt was digging into him, and his head was woozy.
Then the door opened on his side. Myka was still screaming, and while he wanted to look over to make sure she was okay, all he could do was look at the man leaning over him. Bear. He stank of bear, and yellow eyes looked into his.
Something pricked his arm, he was almost surprised he noticed it since his entire body was aching, then he slumped over the deflated airbag. Myka’s screams changed, and she sounded angry, but then everything faded, and he slipped away into nothingness.
* * * *
“Konrad!”
Someone shook him, and Konrad forced an eye open. He was so tired, so so tired.
“Come on! Wake up, Boss.”
Konrad recognized the voice and forced himself to focus. Roan.
“Are you with me?”
Konrad tried to nod without moving. He didn’t want to move.
“Where is Sewell? What happened?”
Sewell. A hazy image of Sewell waiting for him by the tree appeared in his mind, and he growled.
“He called me and said there was a problem. Was he taken?” Roan looked around.
Dahy. Where was Dahy if Roan was here? Another growl built in his chest. Roan stared into his eyes, and Konrad watched in fascination how the look of worry changed into one of anger only to then be replaced by panic. “Myka!” He turned around, and for a moment Konrad believed he’d abandon him, then he whirled around to Konrad again and pulled him to his feet. “Can you stand?”
Konrad did his best, he did, but when he tried to take a step, it was as if the ground jumped up to meet him. Roan caught him right before the impact, a huff of effort leaving him. “Fuck, you’re heavy.” He more or less wrestled Konrad back onto the bench, and then he was on the phone. The person he called first didn’t pick up and he snarled. Konrad feared he’d slipped away for a minute because the next time he looked at Roan, he was in the middle of a snarly conversation with someone. After another blink, Roan was crouching in front of him.
“Gideon and Jyran are on their way. I’ve called Farris as well, but he didn’t pick up. Myka isn’t answering, and neither is Dahy.”
Konrad tried to speak several times before his voice carried. “Oswald.”
“I don’t have his number.”
Konrad tried reaching for his phone in his pocket, but his arm hardly moved. Roan understood what he was doing though, got the phone out, got Konrad’s thumb on the sensor to unlock it, then he was scrolling. “What do I say?”
“Ask…okay.”
