Dance in Shadow and Whisper (Marionettes of Myth #1)

Chapter Seventeen

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

We ran.

I slowed myself to a jog so that Jason could keep up, but even I began to feel the trials of the day eat away at me. Last night had been defense training. This morning had been weight training. Basketball during gym. The struggle with the vampires. A demon body was made to handle a lot, and Rajy had made it so we could handle more than a lot.

But the fatigue encouraged gravity to work against me. I couldn't suffer the energy to contain the slaps of my boots against the broken sidewalks. My hand never slid from Jason's, our sweat mingling as the daylight waned and the clouds churned and backhanded us with wind. Cars roared past and people, whether human or vampire or demon or whatever, continued on about life as if nothing had happened only a few grids away.

We reached a stretch of highway that extended into the density of the old forest. The sidewalk ended. Jason tugged back on my wrist, and after I slowed our momentum to a gradual stop, he folded over with his palms to his knees and choked and coughed for air. Sweat dribbled down his neck and face and dotted the pavement.

Even I had to catch up to myself. Each gasp of air hit my lungs quick and shallow. I wiped sweat from my brow and peered into the darkness of the trees, where every shadow was dangerous.

Headlights rounded the corner and burned my retinas. I shied away, shielding my face. Another car smashed us with a wave of air and emissions, and a handful of seconds later, another. Every minute that passed, the shadows grew taller. Night crept up behind us, stalking low and quietly, eyes tethered to every move we made.

Cassius will have planned for this.

I swallowed, my tongue sticking to the roof of my mouth, and I turned to Jason. "We won't make it to my property. Something will find us before we do."

He shook his head, his voice raspy. "I know."

"What do we do?"

He lifted his heavy head and scanned the area. "We need to get out of the shadows. Prancing through them like this...we're dangling ourselves on a fishing lure, begging for something to swallow us up."

"Poetry, how unlike you."

He nailed me with the look. I pretended not to notice it as my attention returned to the road. We needed to hide. Too much could see us in the night, and I wasn't willing to risk Jason in a jog that would have taken a good couple hours and likely reduce him to mush in the end.

I squeezed my eyes shut and recalled the drive, of the four of us crammed into the tiny truck cabin. It seemed like days ago already. If only I'd known then what would happen as we had headed toward the obvious trap.

A 'for sale' sign materialized in my memory.

We had passed one on the way over. I remembered the blur of it staked on a front lawn, and it wasn't far from here.

I grabbed his hand. "Come on." We hopped across the street, moving quickly and reinvigorating the thirst for oxygen. We scaled the hill and rushed down the other side. Another hill brought us to a home in an untamed plot of land with an impassible barricade of trees extending behind. Out front was the rickety store-bought 'for sale' sign with a phone number that had faded, drowning in wild grasses and patches of weeds.