“What if we borrow one?” She eyes a sweet sports car parked a few feet from us.
“Grand theft auto isn’t on my bucket list.” I look over her head and see the solution to our problem. “Come on. I have an idea.”
Sophie follows me to the bicycle rental stand. “That’s your solution?”
I take my phone out to use the rental app. “Yes. We can move faster on a bicycle instead of running.” I unlock the first bike and offer it to her. “There you go.”
“I-I can’t.”
“What do you mean, you can’t?”
She glances down and whispers, “I don’t know how to ride a bike.”
“You’re joking.”
“I never learned, okay? They weren’t considered a proper mode of transportation for ladies the last time I was awake.”
“Oh, right. My bad. I keep forgetting you’ve been around for a lot longer than me.” I get on the bike Sophie refused and pat the rear cargo rack. “Hop on.”
“Uh… should I sit astride or…?”
“Best to do it sidesaddle. More comfortable.”
She keeps staring at the rack without moving.
“Anytime now. Unless you want to wait for Larsson to show up.”
Grimacing, she sits on the rack, but when I start to pedal, she lets out a little yelp and almost falls off the bike.
“Hold on to me. I’m planning to go fast, and I really don’t want to backtrack in case you fall.”
She wraps her arms around my waist, and I try to remain unaffected, but hell… it’s hard. It’s crazy how much I enjoy her hands on me.
“I’m ready,” she says, a little breathless.
I pump my legs, trying to get momentum as fast as I can. I’m honestly surprised we haven’t heard from Larsson yet. Ifdragons have a similar sense of smell as vampires do, he’d know exactly which direction we went. But I won’t complain about our good fortune.
I gain speed, and now it’s just a matter of weaving through traffic and getting out of downtown as fast as possible. I have no idea where we should go, but anywhere far from Ember Emporium is good.
When I begin to hope we might actually escape unscathed, I hear the sound of a few motorcycles behind us. “Shit. Don’t tell me we have a motorcycle gang on our tail.”
“We do. Dragon shifters?”
“Probably.”
“They’re gaining on us.”
“Fuck. Hold on.” I pedal faster, but with little confidence that I can lose them.
Sophie pulls one arm away from my waist and begins to chant. I sense the surge of magic a second later, but that’s about it. The dragon shifters are still behind us, and too damn close from the noise of their engines.
“What did you do?”
“I created a concealment spell. It won’t last long, though.”
A car I’m about to speed past turns into my lane, almost hitting me. I swerve to avoid a collision, only to hit the curb and fly off the bike into a shopping window. Hell. There goes the concealment spell.
Something sharp punctures my side, burning like hell. I lean on my elbows and see a huge piece of glass sticking out from my abdomen. Blood is oozing freely from the cut.
