Greyson sheltered Dru as they made their way through the flickering darkness of the destroyed building, circling around the sparks that rained down from the ruined wiring above them. He kept a wary eye on the fractured sheet rock and broken lumber overhead, keenly aware that it could all come crashing down on them at any moment.
Hellbringer sat still and dark where he’d left it, covered in dust and broken glass. For a moment, he feared the worst. But when he reached out and touched the sharp edge of the car’s fender, a spark of magical energy stung his palm, like static. He wasn’t exactly sure what that energy was, but he’d felt it before. It meant that, thankfully, Hellbringer was still alive.
The speed demon’s engine coughed twice, three times, and then rumbled to life. The long black hood trembled as the engine struggled to find its rhythm. It wasn’t in the car’s nature to run rough, but that energy blast had clearly shaken Hellbringer to the core. Greyson wasn’t feeling too steady on his feet, either. His ears were still ringing.
He opened the passenger door for Dru. “Get in. There’s still time to catch her.”
“She’s too dangerous. We need backup.” She paused in the doorway. “I left my phone back at the shop. We need to find a way to call Rane!”
Greyson looked around at the half-finished, half-demolished building lit by sparking wires. “I don’t think they have a phone here.”
Despite the deep shadows hiding Dru’s face and the dust speckling her glasses, the fear was plain enough in her eyes. “Let’s go.” She climbed into Hellbringer. He shut the heavy door with a solid thunk and jogged around behind the car, past Hellbringer’s tall black wing.
As he slid into the driver’s seat, the speed demon revved its engine, clearly ready to go. But there was something brittle to the sound, as if Hellbringer was only putting up a good front. Like the barking of a frightened dog.
One hand on the steering wheel, Greyson turned around in the seat and backed them out through the ragged hole in the side of the building. Once outside, he spun the wheel. Hellbringer’s tires chirped on the fresh pavement as they swung around the end of the building.
Around on the other side, another hole gaped in the unfinished exterior of the building. The flaming red car had left behind smoldering tire tracks, but those eventually petered out before they reached the road. Presumably, the red speed demon had been able to heal itself by then, or else the sorceress had cast some kind of spell to put out the blaze.
Greyson followed the road for miles, passing one dark cross street after another, with no sign of the red car. He finally had to admit that the redheaded sorceress was long gone, taking the cursed amulet with her. Still, he kept going because the last thing he wanted to do was give up. Judging from Hellbringer’s reaction, the black speed demon felt the same way.
The steering wheel kept nudging him toward the shadows on either side of the road, as if Hellbringer wanted to check every corner and make sure the other speed demon wasn’t hiding there. Hellbringer apparently knew that the red car was out there, somewhere. That concept seemed to make the older black car skittish, unwilling to drive as fast.
Greyson could feel it, too. An uncomfortable presence bugged him. It grated on his nerves like an itch he couldn’t scratch. Somewhere out there in the darkness, beyond the dotted yellow line streaking toward them through the headlight beams, Hellbringer’s nemesis freely roamed the highway. Clearly, that thing was tougher than Hellbringer, able to take all of that punishment and still keep going.
Even while it was on fire.
“We have to find her,” Dru insisted. “What if she takes that amulet to Yellowstone? What if she uses it to erupt the supervolcano like the Roman sorcerers did with Mount Vesuvius?” She shuddered. “A blast that size would scorch the land for thousands of miles around.”
Greyson rubbed the back of his neck. They were out of leads and heading nowhere fast. He let his foot off the gas and drifted over to the side of the road. The tires crunched on gravel as they rolled to a stop.
“What are you doing? We need to find her!”
“She’s gone,” Greyson said. As much as he hated to admit defeat, the trail had gone cold. He let out a long breath and turned to face her.
Looking crushed, she quickly busied herself with cleaning her glasses on the hem of her shirt. “Fine. Then let’s get back to the Crystal Connection. I need to do some research.” She jammed her glasses back on her face and sat back hard against the seat, arms crossed. “I know her from somewhere. I know her. But I just can’t place her.”
Greyson turned the car around and headed back toward the lights of the city. He thought about the older redheaded sorceress and frowned. “Is she one of your customers?”
“I don’t think so.” Dru chewed on her lower lip. “If she came into the shop before, she must have kept her crystal powers hidden. I didn’t know there were any other crystal sorceresses alive today. Opal might know. God, I wish I had my phone.” She cocked her head at him for a moment. “So, do you not have a cell phone?”
Greyson shook his head.
She rode in silence for a moment, lips pursed. “Do you mind if I ask why, in today’s world, you would choose not to have a phone?” When he didn’t answer right away, she added softly, “I mean, it is a choice, right? Not like an awkward credit problem or something? Because these days you can get a plan at the grocery store, even.”
He looked over at her, and the honest curiosity in her expression melted away the bulk of his irritation. “With everything that’s happening, you want to talk about cell phone plans.”
“Well, you’re not on Facebook, either. That’s an . . . interesting choice.”
“Life is full of interesting choices.”
Dru didn’t pry. They drove past the park they had nearly obliterated. The city lights shimmered in the tranquil surface of the lake. From the street, there was no sign of the damage he’d done.
Greyson glanced up in the rearview mirror and caught a reflection of his own fiery red eyes. Their eerie glow unsettled him, reminding him that he was cursed. Somehow, he and Hellbringer were inextricably linked with the fate of the world. As one doomsday threat after another emerged, he always found himself in the thick of it all, with no idea what to do. And yet Dru was always right there with him, trying to save him from himself. Even now, Dru was probably trying to distract him from exactly those thoughts. The more time he spent in the driver’s seat, the more trouble he had sorting out his own feelings from those of the speed demon. The car was driven by rage, aggression, destruction. Its soul had been forged in the infernal pits for one purpose alone—to help bring about the end of the world.
Yet somehow, Dru had won over Hellbringer to her side in the fight against doomsday. She had enlisted the speed demon as surely as she had saved Greyson. But how long could their tenuous alliance last?
The speed demon’s aggression was infectious, an insatiable hunger with no thoughts about consequences. Whenever the speed demon gave chase, it was all-encompassing. Greyson could still feel the blood pounding in his ears, the ache in his arms and shoulders, the twitchy feeling of unspent rage. It had clouded his vision from the moment they had started pursuit, and only now could he see it for what it was. It was like coming out of a fog.
How deeply did the speed demon affect his judgment? How much of his anger was his own, and how much was he picking up from Hellbringer? And more important, was it driving him to put Dru in harm’s way?
He could’ve gotten her hurt, even killed. If anything happened to her, because of him, he would never forgive himself, never be able to live with it.
He regarded her in the pale glow from the dashboard lights. On the outside, she looked so normal. Tousled brown curly hair. Bright eyes. Slightly startled expression. No one would guess that this unassuming young woman was a crystal sorceress of phenomenal power. Or that she had saved the world more than once.
By being around her, was he really protecting her? Or was he putting her in danger?
As he drove Hellbringer through the night streets, he had to wonder. Would Dru be better off without him?