eyes. “If you see my daughter Sofia … please tell her that I love her?”
The old man looked heartbreakingly sad and lonely, and I felt all my misgivings about him vanish. I reached out and touched his face with my good right hand. “You’ll have the chance to tell her that yourself soon enough. I promise.”
Rudy held my hand to his face for just a moment, his callused hand warm and trembling. “Thank you, miss. Godspeed.”
He released my hand, wiped his eyes on his shirtsleeve, and headed back to his empty store.
We put on seat belts and shut the doors, and Cooper started the engine. The automatic locks clicked down and the Caddy lurched forward, the tires slewing gravel as we pulled out onto the highway.
“This isn’t my idea of a slow start,” Pal complained inside my head.
“Whoa, easy on the gas,” I told Cooper.
He’d gone pale, and I realized he was stomping on the brake, not the accelerator. The car was continuing to speed up.
“Shit.” Cooper was yanking at the key in the ignition. “I can’t kill the engine.”
“Drive us off the road, we can hit that fence over there and maybe bust the axle,” the Warlock said.
Cooper pulled hard on the wheel, but it wouldn’t budge.
I whipped off my barbecue mitt and jammed my claw into the ignition, pulling a handful of plastic and sparking wires free. Nothing happened.
“What’s your man trying to do, give me a coronary?” Pal complained. He was galloping alongside the car, apparently just barely keeping up.
We’re in trouble. The car’s enchanted and won’t stop, I thought back.
“Everyone belted in?” Pal asked.
Yes. The rush of adrenaline had banished my exhaustion and sickness.
“Brace yourselves!”
I barely had time to say, “Hang on, guys,” before Pal broadsided the SUV. The Caddy tipped onto its left two wheels, then tipped back as if it was going to right itself and speed away when Pal rammed it again, sending it rolling sideways. I saw stars when one of the six-packs whacked into the back of my head. The car came to a rest upside down in the drainage ditch, the engine screaming in outrage as it revved high. The smell of gasoline filled the passenger compartment.
“Get out of there!” Pal sounded frightened.
Shielding my face with my flesh arm, I smashed my window open with my claw and slashed my seat belt, falling awkwardly onto my backpack and the car’s upholstered ceiling. Pal had bashed in the back window and was pulling the Warlock outside. I reached over and cut Cooper’s seat belt, then slung my backpack over my claw arm, grabbed his hand, and pulled him out with me.
We had just staggered clear of the ditch when the gas tank ignited, turning the inside of the car into a flaming crematorium.
I dropped my backpack on the ground and leaned forward on my knees, trying to catch my breath and steady my nerves. That had been a little too close. The guys were banged up but didn’t look like they’d lost anything more than their hats and the tote bag.
I looked over at Pal, who was rubbing his left shoulder, or what passed for his shoulder. “Thank you. We owe you big time for that. And also if we ever play football, I want to be on your team.”
“It’s quite all right,” he replied. “I’m just pleased I was able to stop the vehicle without any of you being seriously injured.”
“Are you hurt?” I asked him.
“I don’t think so. I’ll probably be a bit sore tomorrow, but I haven’t broken shell or bone.”
The Warlock was holding his healing crystal to his bloodied lip. He gave Cooper a look. “Safe, huh?”
“Hey, you didn’t see this coming, either, now did you?” Cooper shot back.
“Speaking of seeing things coming, there’s another car approaching,” Pal told me.
I followed his gaze down the highway. A battered blue van was speeding toward us, dust rising from behind its wheels. The sides and front bumper of the van were armored with old tires beneath rusty iron plates, and a .50-caliber machine gun had been mounted to the top, just in front of the sunroof opening. There wasn’t anything to hide behind aside from the burning SUV, which was too hot and noxious to approach.
The blue van screeched to a stop in front of us, and almost at the same moment my claw burst into purple flames.
“Dammit!” I jerked the claw away from my side and slapped out my burning T-shirt with my flesh hand. Fortunately only the