Not bullets, as I’d presumed, but darts.
The sort of dart they used to bring animals down.
They weren’t trying to kill us; they were trying to capture.
Mathi rolled away from me, his gun barking again. I scrambled upright and darted through the doorway. More darts followed my movement, thudding into the outside wall and dropping to the floor.
“Go, go,” Mathi said urgently as he followed me through and slammed the door shut. It stopped the darts; it wouldn’t stop the men. I might not be able to grab the air in this place, but I could still feel the vibration of movement, and they were coming at us fast.
I turned, took several quick steps, and leapt for the window. I gripped the sill, swearing again as the glass still caught in the putty tore into my skin. Mathi shoved me up the rest of the way, and I half fell, half jumped down to the concrete path on the other side, staggering forward several steps before I caught my balance.
As Mathi followed me through the window, the door into the foyer crashed open. I caught the wind and formed a barrier across the entire front of the building—just in time to catch the darts that chased him through.
“Go, go,” he said as angry faces appeared at the window and the front door crashed open. They couldn’t get much further thanks to my barrier, but still...
I ran for the car and jumped in. Mathi followed me through, landing heavily on my legs before I could pull them away. Henrick immediately took off, turning left so sharply we were both flung across the rear seat. Once Mathi had pushed back upright, I did the same and saw the men running from the sideof the building. One of them was on the phone. This wasn’t over yet.
“Henrick,” Mathi said. “Get us to the fae hospital ASAP.”
My gaze shot to him. He was pale and sweating, his skin holding a weird, almost waxy sheen. “What’s happened? Were you shot?”
“A dart in the arm, I’m afraid.”
Alarm surged, but before I could say anything, Henrick said, “Your assailants give chase, sir.”
“Lose them.”
I twisted around and looked through the rear window. There was a big black van behind us, and it was going every bit as fast as we were. The driver and his passenger were little more than pale blurs, but even so, I could see the latter was on the phone, no doubt calling up reinforcements. It was tempting to cast the wind their way, but there were too many other cars on the road now and I didn’t want to risk causing an accident.
I turned, helped Mathi into his seatbelt, then pulled on mine. He really didnotlook good. I had no idea what they’d used on the darts, but surely it couldn’t be deadly. If they’d wanted us dead, they’d simply have used guns.
“Mathi?” I touched his cheek, trying to catch his attention.
His gaze slid to mine. “I feel... strange.”
His words were slightly slurred, and the alarm strengthened. I’d seen many of these effects before, in both my brother and in Cynwrig. “I think you’ve been hit with Dahbree.”
Dahbree was basically a rare but deadly truth serum, and if they were using that, then whoever was behind this assault wanted us to sing like birds before they got rid of us permanently.
Had Carla gone rogue, or was there someone else behind this? Macsen’s family, perhaps?
The Merc turned right sharply, throwing me hard against the seatbelt. I swore and looked behind us again. The van wasn’t losing any ground; whoever drove the thing appeared every bit as good as Henrick.
Another sharp turn. Horns blasted, and the squeal of tires filled the air. I twisted around again; one car had rear-ended another, while two others now faced in the wrong direction. The van swept around it all, briefly driving into the oncoming traffic, causing more chaos as drivers tried to evade him.
One vehicle, however, turned sharply and came straight at us.
It was another black van.
Henrick yanked the Merc left so hard she briefly went up on two wheels. We crashed up onto the pavement and into the parking area of a large warehouse. The vans followed, leaving more chaos behind them.
The man in the front seat of the first black van was still on the phone.
“Henrick, orders are being relayed via that van behind us.”
“Are they now?” His gaze flicked to the rear vision mirror briefly. “Hold on tightly, because we’re about to impact.”
I swore and pushed back into the seat and headrest. A heartbeat later, the Merc came to an abrupt halt. Tires squealed, and black smoke swirled down either side of the car, then we were hit, hard. The car lurched forward sharply, momentum Henrick used; the Merc’s engine roared as we pulled away to an accompanying symphony of tearing metal and breaking glass.
