At first I thought he might be flying, but while we reached higher than the tall buildings on either side of us, we landed back on the road with a crash that would make Parisians think there was an earthquake. One leap made us cross several buildings, and yet, unfathomable as it seemed, the drugged-up creatures were still in view.
“Watch out!” I hollered, spotting the building in our path after his last jump.
Cas was going to crash against the bloody Eiffel Tower. We were so going to get sued. And likely fired.
I underestimated his deftness; instead of colliding against it, Cas landed on the first floor, finally dropping me to my feet.
“We don’t have much time.” Way to state the obvious. I could see the pack starting to climb up the side of the metal tower.
A guard made the dumb decision of attempting to stop them, only to end up getting ripped apart by bare hands.
“I think they’re getting stronger,” I said, my voice hollow.
“They’re berserkers,” Cas stated.
My stomach dropped. The word was vaguely familiar, but while I wasn’t entirely sure what it meant, I knew I was scared of it.
“They don’t feel pain and will fight until death. The process works on human and supernatural alike. Humans will die faster, but until they burn through that energy, they’re just as strong as you and I. We can’t take a dozen of them,” he said quickly. “Do you have your searching device on hand?”
It took me a second to realize he meant my phone.
“Oh, yes.” I patted my pocket, before grunting out loud. “I think it dropped on the road when you pushed me earlier. Fuck. I was going to ask Gideon to send the jet sooner.”
Cas gingerly placed the box on the floor, opening its lock before flipping the lid open.
Below, sudden piercing screams told us they sensed the crystals.
“Why the fuck would you do that?” I snapped.
Cas grabbed a crystal in each hand, drew his fist back, and threw one after the next, in opposite directions.
One landed across the Seine, near the Musée de L’homme, and the other crossed the entire Champs-de-Mars. Then he did it again, the crystals flying even farther, towards the Champs Elysées, and somewhere in the sixteenth arrondissement.
“That was smart,” I reluctantly admitted as he shut the box again. Below, I could see some of the berserkers opting to run after the crystals rather than attempt the difficult climb. “How do you always know what to do?”
“I understand strategy.” Cas shrugged. “Winning often requires being willing to lose assets. We still need to get going. You seem to know the city. Is there an Eternal Gold Bank somewhere here?”
I blinked, trying to keep up with him. A Gold Bank? Rather than questioning why he’d want to know, I nodded. “I’ve never been, but I remember Gideon saying something about it. It’s in Montmartre, close to the Sacré-Cœur, I think.” I vaguely wavedto the left. “Maybe three miles away, as birds fly?” Or as Cas jumped.
“All right, that’s close enough. Let’s get going.”
The berserkers who’d chosen to keep chasing us rather than the loose crystals were a few meters down.
Cas handed me the iron box, and this time, carried me under the knees and back rather than tossing me on his shoulder. “I could walk, you know.”
“At the speed of a bloody snail,” he countered before leaping off the balcony, all the way across the Seine.
Every three or two leaps, he stopped to check the direction with me. I was by no means a Paris expert, and found my way in the metro better than up in the city, but Montmartre was thankfully not hard to locate from the Eiffel tower.
After spotting the Arc-de-Triomphe close by, I was a little lost, as I’d thought I’d led us closer to the Seine.
“Where to now?” Cas pressed.
Fuck, I missed my phone and my trusty map app. “I wanted us to pass by the Petit and Grand Palais, not the Arc.” We certainly could reach our destination this way, but I was far less familiar with this area. If we remained around the touristy spots I’d previously visited, I could direct myself using whatever landmark I could remember.
“We don’t have time for debates. Where to?” he demanded.
I gestured down the large avenue, towards the Louvre, annoyed to pass the world’s best shopping spot at high speed, in the dead of night, while running from crazed druggies.
