Chapter Thirty-Six
The Dark Forest was exactly like it sounded. The trees were massive, taller than Danica had ever imagined the redwoods were. Barely any light penetrated the canopy from above. Instead, the light seemed to come from some other source below. She couldn’t tell if it came from the trees themselves or the very air around them. It wasn’t a bright light, but it was enough to see by. The headlights made up for anything else they needed.
“I’ve never been in a race where I needed the headlights,” Danica murmured. “I street raced a few times as a kid, but we always did it on well-lit streets.”
“The darkness is considered another obstacle. Unfortunately, the only ones in this race it’ll hinder are you and the necromancers. The rest of the teams can see in the dark.”
“Ah, so this was probably chosen for our benefit.” Danica glanced in the rearview mirror and met Phi’s eyes. “Lucky for us, I have two vampires that can warn me if I’m not seeing something correctly.”
“Precisely,” Phi smiled. His hair was more disheveled than she’d ever seen it. After the roll, he hadn’t even attempted to fix it. There were larger things to worry about now.
Danica focused on the road ahead of them, on the obstacles piled in the middle of it that prevented her from going too fast. She needed to catch up to the Fae and with these in the middle of the road, she wasn’t sure she could continue going this speed. Determined to win at any costs, Danica slowly eased the speed up, going around the obstacles faster. If all else, it would help her gain more ground.
“How many more teams are there?” Arden asked suddenly, his eyes on the road the same as Danica’s. She could tell he was scanning the darkness and though she couldn’t see anything past her headlights, Arden was tense in a way that let her know there was more there she wasn’t capable of viewing.
“Eight including us.”
Danica scowled at the number. The realization that the Race Games were nothing but a waste of life hit her. All that waste for a little bit of entertainment. She didn’t understand the need really, but after thinking about it for a moment, she realized there was nothing different between the Race Games and any sport on TV. The supes were just more brutal with it, their morals slacker than humans, but if given the chance, Danica knew humans were just as capable of it. Besides, the stakes were too high in races like the Games. The temptation would always be there. In this race alone, besides their own personal stakes, the winner earned a place in the Council to fill a vacant one. It was an opportunity for one species to gain a little more sway than the others. It was difficult to withstand that temptation.
Not to mention whatever the King had promised anyone who killed them.
The Fae team was still a half mile ahead of them, the distance slowly closing with Danica speeding around obstacles. Some of those obstacles were creatures she chose not to look too closely at, their contorted faces terrifying in the near darkness.
“Don’t stop for anything,” Arden instructed. “The moment you stop, their seemingly slow movement changes.”
“Good to know. Don’t stop for the strange creatures on the side of the road. I feel like every horror movie ever has prepared me for this.”
Arden chuckled. “You’re not wrong.”
“How is the Fae car so fast?” Danica’s mind switched to figuring the other team out, determined to pick them apart for weaknesses. She’d read the file of course, but it hadn’t included car specs, just as any file on them. The cars were kept a secret mostly, as much as possible. The make and model were known—the Fae drove an iridescent Maserati—but no one knew what was under each other’s hoods unless there was a particularly good spy somewhere.
“They likely have magical elements just like us,” Phi answered, glancing between his cracked screen and the window. “But the Fae have been known to power their car with blood.”
Danica frowned. “I would think that would be your thing.”
“We’re vampires. Not savages,” Arden grunted. “The Fae, however, are exactly as savage as they sound. They won’t allow us to win so easily.”
The corner of Danica’s lips ticked up and she risked a quick glance at the vampire. “Good thing I don’t need easy.”
Speeding around the edges of barriers, Danica slowly closed the distance between them and the Fae team until they were only a quarter mile ahead of them, but that was where their good luck ended. In the final quarter of the race, with ten miles to go until the finish line, the traps were no longer marked. This part of the track was designed to prevent anyone from winning at all.
“Are there years where no one survives?” Danica asked suddenly, curious.
“Yes.” Phi sighed. “Some years, no one crosses the finish line. Some years, no one survives. The larger races, the ones that dictate many things, it isn’t unheard of for no one to walk away alive.”
“What a waste of life,” Danica murmured, and Phi nodded his agreement.
“It’s barbaric,” Arden agreed. “But what else can you expect from brutal creatures?”
Danica glanced at Arden. “Just because you have fangs doesn’t mean you lack the capability to hold strong morals.”
Arden blinked before a slow smile curled his lips. Danica had the strong urge to kiss him, but it wasn’t exactly the right time for that. “You’re right, of course. Sometimes, we use our nature as an excuse and a crutch rather than a strength.”
Danica focused on the front of the car again, just in time for a creature to dart out in front of it. It moved too fast to know what it was, and Danica knew well enough not to attempt to dodge the thing, but it clipped the front corner of the car just as the nose of the car slammed through a barely lit beam of light. Danica wouldn’t have seen it had she not been so focused on whatever creature was now possibly injured.
“Trap!” Phi shouted, setting his tablet aside. “Everyone, hold on!”
Tensing, Danica jerked the wheel, unsure where the threat would come from, but her tension only heightened a second later. There was a large snap and crack from the right, and though she couldn’t see whatever it was in the darkness, she knew the direction it was coming from. She dropped gears and slammed her foot down on the gas pedal, forcing the wheels to squeal before they caught and shot them forward. . .
. . . just as a massive battering ram swung from the forest.
Danica ground her teeth, focusing on beating the ram rather than Arden’s grunt of concern. They were almost clear of it before it reached the Porsche, but instead of catching them in the side, the large battering ram only caught the back right corner of their car. It made them jerk, an attempt to take control, but Danica had spent her life correcting a car and she easily turned with the spin to right them again. She blew out a puff of air and glanced over at Arden.
“You alright, bloodsucker?”
“Just dandy,” he replied, curling his lip up at her in a grimace. “I’m not a fan of surprises.”
“Heads up,” Phi interrupted. “We’re closing the distance with the Fae team. They should come into sight right. . . about. . . now.”
At Phi’s instruction, the iridescent car came into view ahead of them, the inside lit up so brightly, they appeared more like a beacon than anything else.
“Your turn,” Danica said, glancing at Arden. “I’ll close the distance, you take them out.”
“Deal!” Arden reached around behind the seat and pulled out a large gun. “Don’t throw me out of the car.”
“I’ll try.” She winked at him before he rolled down the window with a roll of his eyes and leaned out. Suddenly, the handle on the outside of the car made sense as Arden sat on the edge of the window and held on, aiming the large gun with his other arm. “Get ready for some retaliation.”