I ignore him and shove toward Artemis. I take over where one has her shoulders, then shift her weight and bring my other arm under her knees. Because Malikai won’t rest, presumably, until he knows she’s safe, I carry her over and set her ass down on the hood of the car. Her body is like a rag doll, lolling forward.
He grips her chin, angling her face up. Pulls at her eyelid. Takes her pulse.
“She woke up briefly and told me to go to Olympus,” I explain.
I’m not one to get nervous… I mean, it’s not like I’ve done anything wrong, right? I just have an unconscious girl in the backseat of her own car, we can’t wake her up, and it’s looking more and more like I’m in the wrong.
I straighten my shoulders.
The rip of a motorcycle engine comes from a far way off.
Malikai glances over his shoulder, and someone shakes their head.
The noise grows, until it’s a low roar coming toward us. Around a bend, sloping down a hill, comes not one, or four, but probably twenty bikes.
“Who the fuck?” the Hell Hounds leader questions.
I shrug.
He releases Artemis, and I pick her back up. I put her gently in the backseat, closing her in, and pause with my fingers on the handle of my door.
The closer they get, the worse the sinking feeling in my stomach gets.
I recognize the front man.
Kade Laurent.
“I don’t suppose you need backup?”
Malikai shakes his head. “Nah.”
“Great, then I’ll let you handle this.” I get in the car and reverse it, leaving his guys to scramble to get their bikes out of the way. I speed in reverse until I get to the Hell Hounds’ driveway and spin the tail end into it. The car bumps to a halt, gravel dust kicking up around us.
One last glance down the way gives me a clear shot at Kade.
He’s off his bike, squaring up with the Hell Hounds.
That sinking feeling only grows.
I yank the wheel and hit the gas, and my back tires kick up rocks, spinning uselessly for a second until they grab traction. We take off back the way we came.
Kade bringing a group into East Falls? Practically begging for a confrontation from the Hell Hounds?
He probably didn’t imagine the scene he’d come across… but then again, neither did I.
All I know is, this city is fucked.
And I’m taking Artemis out of it.
11GABRIEL
Madness.
Descend into madness.
I follow the steps down, down, down. Into the subway tunnels long forgotten by this city. A year ago, they were used against them. Like some scene out of an action movie, dear Artemis and her twin brother entered the bowels of the city and very nearly perished.
Explosions seem so peaceful.
