of his body. The Thirsters and Mixen below and on the opposite roof started howling and yelling as Cyrus started climbing, scrambling up the wire towards them.
Evie remembered all the ropes hanging in the loft and how she’d once watched him shimmy up them like a spider monkey. Was that what he’d been preparing for? This eventuality?
Cyrus heaved himself over the ledge, collapsing in a heap and grinning up at them. Ash offered him a hand and he took it, jumping to his feet.
‘There’s a part two to this escape plan, right?’ Evie asked, shouting to be heard over the screams from below.
Cyrus stared at her, his face paling. ‘Yeah, but I’ve forgotten it,’ he said.
Panic started to claw at Evie’s throat. Great. The amnesiac had got them this far, and now they were just as screwed.
‘Just kidding,’ Cyrus smirked, elbowing her in the ribs. ‘I told you to trust me, didn’t I?’
She stared after him in irritation as he held the door to the fire exit open for her. ‘After you,’ he grinned.
She brushed past him, glaring, and felt his hand coming to rest in the small of her back as he followed her down the stairs, urging her on. She upped her pace, leaping down the stairs three at a time behind Vero and Ash.
At the bottom, Cyrus shouldered his way past them and smashed through a heavy door into a garage. It was empty except for two gleaming black and red motorbikes, parked facing a set of double doors.
‘What are these doing here?’ Vero asked, turning to look at Cyrus in astonishment.
‘Waiting for an emergency like this one,’ Cyrus murmured, running over to the furthest one. ‘I seem to remember I left the keys in the ignitions.’
Vero straddled the one closer and jerked her head at Ash. ‘Get on,’ she yelled.
‘You planned all this?’ Evie asked as Cyrus swung his leg over the second bike.
‘Yeah. Not just a pretty face, huh?’ he said, giving her an all-too-familiar grin and holding his hand out to help her on behind him.
She grimaced at him, trying not to smile back. It might encourage more of the old Cyrus to come out and she was getting to like the new one – sort of. She settled behind him, careful not to press herself too close, but his hand closed around hers anyway, pulling it around his waist and pressing it there, hard against his stomach.
‘Ready?’ Cyrus called.
‘Ready,’ Ash answered, revving his engine, blowing exhaust fumes all around them.
Cyrus hit a button on a remote and the garage doors started to rise.
‘Hold on,’ Cyrus said over his shoulder as he gunned the engine and they went tearing out of the warehouse.
Chapter 23
Cyrus felt Evie grab on tighter as he accelerated down the alley. He managed to cut between two Thirsters, ramming the back wheel into one and bringing him down with a satisfyingly painful scream.
Evie let out a yell and he grabbed for her wrist, thinking she was about to topple off the bike, but she was fine, clinging onto him with both hands now, her face pressed against his shoulder blade. That could be a dangerous distraction, he thought, as he gunned the bike through the next alley, putting as much distance as he could between them and the small army of unhumans chasing them.
The warehouse was clearly a no-go zone from now on. He wasn’t sure he minded that much. It had felt like living in a playboy mansion – one that had been decorated by a pre-pubescent boy. Though, granted, the notches in the bedpost had been kind of impressive. He just wished he could remember any of the actual notching. It was Murphy’s law that he could remember details about exit routes, Spanish tourist phrases and where he’d left his keys, but he couldn’t remember anything he might want to remember, like notching.
He couldn’t remember any girls. Except for Evie. She was the only person who appeared clearly in the swamp fog that was his brain. Despite what she’d said to him last night he knew something had happened between them. Her lips looked just too damn tempting, but more than that, he could remember exactly how they’d felt – exactly how she tasted.
‘Cyrus.’
He turned his head slightly and the bike swerved.
‘Cyrus,’ Evie said again. ‘Slow down. We’re clear.’
He eased off on the gas and slowed the bike, marvelling at how it moved so fluidly beneath him. He really knew how to ride a bike. He was glad