Fur and Claws (Race Games 4) - Page 27

TWENTY-SIX

Jo and Nic climbed into the car, Nic in the driver’s seat and Jo in the passenger seat. It was how they decided things were going to go, each of their strengths in play. Nic was a far superior driver, his experience in the demolition derby tracks better than any Jo had ever had. In contrast, Jo was the obvious choice for the technology and navigation. She spent her life on computers, with technology, learning it. Knowing how the weapons worked hadn’t been hard. Knowing when to use them had been something she’d made sure to understand as best as possible.

“The map is loaded,” Jo said as she buckled in her harness and made sure it was tight. Beside her, Nic was doing the same.

He glanced at her. “You ready?”

Jo nodded. “Let’s show them why it’s stupid to mess with the wolves.”

“Racers, start your engines!” the speakers boomed, signaling for everyone to prepare themselves.

Nic flipped the kill safe toggle and turned the key. Around them, the other cars purred to life, but Frankie? She roared, shaking the very ground beneath their feet. Too many eyes turned to them, the sound coming from the ‘Cuda overwhelming the sounds of the other cars. Even with minor adjustments, Frankie was a beast.

Jo grinned. “You’d think they’d never heard a muscle car before.”

The crow chosen to wave the flags this race appeared in the top box, the green flag held gently in her hand. She was dressed in barely anything, her black wings brilliant behind her. She stared out over the cars arranged in a random drawing. It had left Nic and Jo three spots from the end, but at least they weren’t last.

“When this is over, I’ll introduce you to my dad,” Nic said, his eyes on the green flag. He dropped the car into first gear, his feet on the brake and the clutch, ready to take off the moment that flag moved.

“Not the time.” But it made Jo laugh. She clutched the tablet between her thighs and curled her hands around the edges of her harness. “But I’d love to meet him.”

The crow held the green flag out over the track, and then with a great flourish, she aggressively waved it around like she was swatting at a bug rather than waving a flag.

Nic released the brake and stomped on the gas, releasing the clutch at the same time, and Frankie lunged forward.

The adrenaline was instantaneous. Jo kept her fingers curled around the harness as the force of their take off pressed her back into the aluminum seat. But she didn’t have time to gain her wits. The beginning of the track was for the crowd, but it only lasted for a quarter mile before the first section began. Their weapons were all powered down, not available until section two, which put them at a disadvantage if anyone chose to attack so early.

Jo pulled the tablet back out and flicked on the screen. It was an old model, the screen shattered where it had been dropped a few times, but the spiderweb glass didn’t keep the tablet from working. Still, when Nic glanced over at her while dodging the other cars, his expression pinched.

“Why didn’t you get a new tablet?” he snarled.

“It wasn’t in the budget.” Jo flicked to the map and zoomed in on the first section, having to move the map around the see through some of the worst cracks.

“I swear to Luna. . .” Nic grumbled, but he shook his head. “What’s the first section? We’ll be in it in a matter of seconds.”

“It only says, ‘Safari’,” Jo answered, turning the tablet towards Nic. “Each section is twenty miles long for this race.”

The moment she looked up, the stands full of crowds ended, the world flared around them briefly, and then they found themselves in a completely different world. The magic of the race games was always epic, but it was still shocking to be in the gloomy weather of Wyoming that suddenly turned to the dry heat of the savannah.

“There are only nine teams this race since the Kelpie never showed up,” Jo continued. “Watch out for the other teams. Some of them have likely been paid off to attack us.”

The asphalt of the track turned into literal ruts left through the tall grass for them to drive through, the path cut only because of cars that had driven before them. The heat was thick and because they hadn’t added an a/c system in the car to avoid extra weight, Jo was tempted to roll down the windows.

With so many teams around them, however, that was a bad idea.

The other racers pulled ahead of them easily, Frankie’s weight making them slightly slower than their luxury cars even in the high grass, but it wasn’t about the weight really. It was more about tenacity and the steady pace. Jo and Nic were going to show everyone how to use their weapons and survive while being the underdogs.

Directly in front of them, the demon team’s taillights flared in the grass. They were a handful of yards ahead of them, but the attack came so suddenly, none of them were prepared for it.

The giant beast came from the left, or at least the first one did. It was followed by a whole herd as the elephant went after the demon car and tried to crush it. The demons swerved wildly, just barely avoiding the herd of creatures, but it only left Jo and Nic to face them alone.

The elephants turned toward them, their new target, and Nic’s fingers tightened on the steering wheel. “Hang on!” he shouted, jerking the wheel so Frankie went off course, into the grass where they couldn’t see where they were going.

“Don’t hurt it!” Jo cried as the elephant stepped in front of them.

Nic jerked the wheel again and just narrowly missed the animal, its tusk barely missing the quarter panel. “Well, it’s going to hurt us,” he grunted.

Another elephant caught the edge of the car with its tusk, but because of the steel panels, it didn’t do anything more than shake the car slightly. The rear end jerked just a little before they continued. Nic pushed Frankie to the right, back into the ruts cut by other cars. They had to be in last place right then, but Jo didn’t fret too much about that. She’d meant it when she’d said it was more about tenacity and wisdom. This wasn’t a race won with speed alone.

The sound of a horn echoed around them, but they didn’t know who it was for. Not until it popped up on the tablet in answer to the horn. The app for the races were getting more high-tech thanks to the new vampire king and his first in command.

“The necromancers,” Jo murmured.

The necromancers had been in front of them, practically in the lead for the starting positions. They didn’t know what had happened to them so quickly, but it hadn’t been the elephants. They would have seen the car they’d been driving if so.

Nic jerked the car back along the winding pre-driven track and gunned it, the engine roaring through the safari as if it were its own sort of predator. Perhaps that was exactly what they were. They may have been behind most of the others, but that only meant they could give chase. It was all about endurance at this point.

A bullet pinged off the hood of the car and Jo ducked on instinct, despite knowing the bullet wouldn’t make it inside. They’d paid for the reinforced glass. “What the hell was that?”

And then a literal spray of bullets began to rain down around them. They weren’t exactly firing at Jo and Nic, but the bullets were being shot over them, through them, as if they were simply an obstacle. It took a few seconds later for the militia jeeps to appear, large guns in the back of them as they fired at each other.

“Are we in the middle of a literal war right now?” Nic asked, ducking when the bullets pinged harmlessly off the metal. It was difficult to dismiss instinct.

“We have no weapons if they turn that gun on us,” Jo commented, watching the jeeps driving around them and the men get hit over and over again, tumbling over the sides to lie dead in the grass. Crude weapons were held in many of the hands of those on foot. When one of the men jumped in front of the track suddenly, they didn’t have time to stop and he ended up rolling over their hood, falling to the ground behind them. Jo grimaced, but the bulletproof glass held up at least.

But all in all, it wasn’t that bad. A couple of elephants? Driving through a war zone? That was hardly Race Games worthy. Jo was starting to relax until they rounded a curve and came across the next obstacle.

She leaned forward. “What is that?”

The great creatures were running as a pack, their teeth sharp and coated in blood. It dripped from their chins, making them look far more sinister than they might have otherwise.

“African Hunting Dogs,” Nic commented, but if they were that, then they were three times the size of regular ones.

Jo curled her fingers around her harness. “Go faster, Nic.”

Nic dropped a gear and gunned it, but the African Hunting Dogs kept pace. And then one let out a cackle that chilled Jo’s blood.

Tags: Kendra Moreno Race Games Paranormal
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