were directed at Danica. Her spirit deflected stray bullets and fists as she pushed her way towards the edge of the upper seating platform. S he leapt over the side.
Wind rushed up at her. H er spirit push ed up and against her with ethereal force so that she fell in slow motion. H er stomach turn ed inside out. A drenaline and fear raced through her body as she plummeted through exhaust and explosive fumes.
Even s hielded, jolts of pain shot up Danica’s legs as she landed down on the mid-section seating area. She rolled forward into an open aisle. Her heart pounded. The air smelled like fear.
Danica ran down the aisle towards the exits. Many of the people in th e section she’d landed in were still in their seats in spite of the cacophony up above.
T he fighting hadn’t actually halted the race, but there were only a handful of vehicles left on the track. A monstrous truck armed with jagged horns ploughed through a dark van as they turned a corner, and t he crash rattled the stadium.
A Black Dog patrol waited next to the near est exit. Danica saw t hree Revengers and a trio of Blood Dogs, smaller versions of Blood Wolves that were specially bred at Black Scar to hunt down escaped prisoners. Their ebon skin and slathering jaws snapped at her as she came close.
Spectators looked out from the nearby aisles, confused. T he black-masked Revengers leveled their weapons and ordered her to halt.
Danica sent her spirit forward as a rush of cold wind and knock ed t he Revengers back. T wo of the Blood Dogs pushed past her spirit and came at her with snapping jaws. Their collars crackled with hex energies.
Black pulled out her katars, went to her knees and sliced into both hounds at once. H ot blood splashed on her cheeks and face as t heir bodies slid past her.
The third dog charged, and before she could move its teeth ripped into her leg. She swiped and kicked the beast.
Gunshots rang out. Revengers armed with MP5As and auto-shotguns ran into the seating section behind her. She saw a warlock among their ranks, and she wasted a moment wondering if she knew him before she turned on her heels and ran.
B ullets struck the ground behind her. T he Revengers chased Danica right to th e edge of the rac e track, a massive circle of grey and black concrete littered with dirt. S teel walls lined with blades and flaming obstacles wrapped around a network of shifting metal platforms and collapsing barricades of electric chain.
Revengers came at her from the opposite side, and she saw the shadow s of Killravens from above. Her spirit whipped around her like a molten tide. She kept him close and wound him around one of her katars while she drew her Colt Python. Danica looked into the haze of dirt an d vehicular fumes.
There was an exit on the far side of the track, almost directly opposite from where she stood.
Bullets hit the ground. A ricochet caught a spectator in the eye, and he fell screaming. Panic surged through the crowd like wildfire. People leapt from their seats and pointed at the Revengers and fell back as more Blood Dogs came at her.
Danica leapt over the fence and onto the track. Her lungs swelled with black vapors as she ran as fast as she could across the mud and dirt. An armored truck narrowly missed her as she sped across its path, and s he heard it twist and fishtail behind her. Something buried itself in the ground to her right, an electrified lance connected to a razor cable.
She dodged m etal monstrosities and wove through bursts of smoke. The air explode d all around her, and any second Danica expected an armored wheel or a blast of arcane power to strike her down. Her spirit forced her to keep moving, propelled her around spinning blade towers and beneath whirling flame whips.
A truck with a spiked grill burst through the grey smoke. Danica’s heart jumped. She pushed her fists together and dug her feet into the earth. H er spirit turned in to a jagged lance of frost and flew into the vehicle. The truck snapped and folded inward like it had struck an unbreakable iron pole. M etal and rubber wrapped around her body. She found herself unharmed at the center of a steel cocoon.
S he used her spirit to blast her way free. D ebris and smoking stone rained down. Most of the other racing vehicles were gone, and p eople rush ed for the exits. Revengers shot down spectators in an effort to get to Danica.
She ran. Her spirit threw a Killraven aside as he swooped in low. His thaumaturgic pack snapped, and dark smoke trailed his body as he flailed out of control and flew into a steel wall.
A bola snapped around her feet. Danica fell hard onto her face.
Her spirit whipped back and knocked two Killravens aside while Danica cut through the cord with a katar. Blood seeped out of open cuts where the razor bola had torn through her cargo pants, and she felt poison spread painfully through her veins.
She ran up to a downed Killraven. He tried to rise, but Danica kicked him hard enough to send blood all over the inside of his helmet, ripped away his MP5 and fired back at t he Revengers.
Blood Dogs and their h andlers pushed through the bloodied crowd. The air was heavy with exhaust and gasoline.
Danica ’s stomach clenched as her spirit purged the poison from her blood. She ran for the exit. E very muscle ached like they’d been hit with ham mers. Her heart pounded so hard her chest felt ready to split.
An explosion tore into the stadium overhead. Drifts of stone dust fell over her eyes and face. The gun was empty, so Danica dropped it and held her spirit tight i n her hands, where he burn ed like explosive gel. T he air was filled with a choking cloud of metal and stone debris.
An enormous clawed arm came out of nowhere and knocked Danica back. Stone slammed against her skull. Her head swam, and h er spirit reeled. H e’d shielded her from what should have been a killing blow.
A massive simian beast stepped over her. Eight-feet tall and as a wi de as a truck, the black — skinned and gorilla-like creature had six powerful arms and fierce canine jaws. A gold battle mask covered its face. Claws the color of milk had been sharpened to razor points, and the creature’s hind feet ended in reptile-like talons that gripped the earth and kept its top-heavy bulk stable.
It was a Talon, one of a number of mutated gorilla s bred and controlled by the Revengers to act as enforcers and pack mules. It s tepped forward. Its growl chilled her blood.
Danica leapt to her feet and lashed at the beast with her spirit. An acid whip sliced the creature’s mask apart and cut open one of its eyes. T he brute howl ed in pain. Even injured, it came at her.
Black could barely see. She desperately fused her spirit into a coil of frost and wound it around the Talon’s enormous limbs. It tried to break free, and Danica strained at the pressure it placed on her spirit. Her vision faded in and out. Blood ran down her face and into her eyes.
Something struck her from behind, and e verything went dark.
SIX
Do you?
Danica woke in the dark. She was sure she’d heard a voice, but it faded in the shadows of her dreams. I mages floated through her mind as she came to: blood-soaked horses and iron juggernauts, columns of dark ice and vampire faces behind bladed masks. She woke frightened.
Her wrists were bound behind her back, and she se nsed her spirit, adrift and unable to reach her. Something held him at bay.
Sweat rolled down her sk in. She tasted oil and exhaust. Her face pushed against a warm metal floor.
“Hello?” she said. Her voice echoed into the darkness. She wasn’t blindfolded, but she might as well have been. The black air was thick with heat. She heard machinery rattle in the distance, but the echoing dark made it all but impossible to pinpoint its exact direction. Her knees ached, and she felt dried blood on her shins where the razor bola had grappled her. She struggled to her feet and bumped her head against something metal.
“Shit!”
She tried to summon her spirit again, but he couldn’t answer.
