Bit by bit, I work my lower body out from under the interlaced strands. My essence is still too weakened from the contact with the metals for me to manage to stand—my legs are wobbling just lying on the ground—but with a few forceful heaves, I manage to wrench the rest of my body free.
Air floods my lungs which can now expand to full capacity rather than squeezing tight against the ache. After several deep breaths, I shake off the lingering jabs of pain and sway upright. I nearly fall over again when one last surge of agony sweeps through my body.
I clutch at a nearby fire hydrant and catch my balance. With the metals off me, the pain quickly retreats. My essence knits itself back into proper health.
Hail and Mirage are still fighting with their own nets, sprawled farther down the sidewalk. My hands flex at my sides, but I don’t think I’d have the strength to yank the material off them once it starts burning me again.
Jonah, though…
I sprint over to the pole he’s bound to and wrench at the whip. Jonah pauses his struggles to let me work.
My strength can’t seem to dislodge the stream of light. It’s folded over on itself somehow, as if it’s melded right together in a way no regular strip of material could. And when I grasp any part of it for more than a few seconds, my fingers start to burn.
I bare my teeth at the weapon that’s managing to foil me even when it’s not in a hunter’s hands. “I don’t know how to get it off you.”
A sharp twinge of pain radiates through my connection with Peri, followed by a trickle of fear. My head jerks toward the direction those sensations are coming from.
I can feel them so much more vividly now that my own distress isn’t overwhelming my senses… or maybe she’s feeling significantly worse than she was a few minutes ago.
Jonah must be picking up on her emotional state too. He gazes up at me with widened eyes. “Get to Peri. If you have the chance to alert Rollick or any of his people, do it, but—we can’t let anything happen to her.”
We’re on the same page there. I nod and hurtle into the shadows without another word.
I’ve only run down a few streets, veering to one side and the other as I track the impressions I’m getting from Peri, before frustration nips at my heels. Even racing through the shadows, I can’t move as quickly as an army jeep that rumbles past me.
The asshole humans threw my mate into a van. They sped off far faster than I’m moving now. Every second I’m away from her is another second they could be tormenting her.
How hard could it be to operate one of those hunks of metal anyway? I’ve watched Jonah do it plenty of times.
Cars, trucks, and vans are parked here and there between the makeshift shelters of the camp. I steer away from anything with the blotchy army coloring, leaping from vehicle to vehicle in search of one with the key or fob that’ll turn on the engine.
There! Someone’s left their car running, the door cracked open while they must have run off to grab something. They’ll just have to excuse me grabbing their ride for a short while.
I dive into the driver’s seat while yanking myself into physical form. My spine jars against a seat pressed a little too close to the steering wheel for comfort, but I don’t have time to fiddle with the controls. Someone’s already shouting in alarm from behind me.
I tug the door all the way closed and step on the pedal that makes the car go.
The engine groans, but the vehicle doesn’t move. I peer at the stick next to my seat and remember that it’s supposed to be next to D for drive. P for park is getting me nowhere.
Footsteps pound toward me. I yank the stick and slam my foot on the gas again.
The car lurches forward at a speed I wasn’t prepared for. I jerk at the wheel to stop it from careening right into a tent and then in the other direction so I don’t run over a shadowkind being who was crossing the street.
The figure I nearly crashed into blinks at me and then leaps into the shadows. Well, I guess I’ve probably just informed Rollick that there’s a problem, one way or another.
I aim the car away from the mass of tents and people until there are a lot fewer obstacles on either side of me that I could slam into. Peri’s off to my left. I haul on the wheel again, and the car bounces off the road across the packed dirt of the nearby terrain.
I’m getting closer. When I find them, they’re going to regret ever setting their hands on my mate.
My anger brings my fangs to my gums and my claws poking from my fingertips even in my human-like form. I itch to stretch into my full basilisk body, but I suspect directing the car as a giant lizard will be quite a bit harder than it already is as a sort-of man.
As pebbles rattle against the undercarriage, another waft of emotion reaches me. It’s still twined with anxiety, but there’s a warm glow of affection mixed in.
For me, because Peri can tell I’m coming?
The sensation spreads through my nerves, and a knot forms in my gut.
I jumped in to protect her from attackers before… and ended up nearly causing a total disaster in human-shadowkind relations. We know a lot of people are scared of us. Charging inthere and slaughtering all of them the way I’m craving is only going to make the rest more frightened.
