"Oh fuck," Ilianna said. "Tao, move!"
He didn't answer, simply threw the Jeep into reverse and planted his foot on the accelerator. The wheels spun slightly on the wet roads, then gripped, and the Jeep lurched backward. We were fast, but those things were faster.
"Stane, get down," I said as I leaned over the front seat and shoved Ilianna down into the front foot well.
"I can fight," he said. "I won't cower behind a seat while you and Tao make a stand."
I opened my mouth to argue, but I simply didn't have the time. Despite our speed, those things were on us. Two of them landed on the roof, denting it alarmingly as their half-claw hands scrabbled for the doors.
Stane and I moved as one, slamming the door locks down. Tao spun the wheel and the car swung sideways, riding up on two wheels briefly before dropping and lurching forward. One of the shifters on top of the car tumbled backward, hitting the roadside hard but scrambling to his feet almost immediately. A heartbeat later he was back on top of the Jeep, his claws tearing into the metal and barely missing Stane's head.
A third shifter hit the front of the car, its fist smashing into the windshield, cracking the glass. Tao swore and braked hard. The creature grabbed the wipers, trying to hold on, but the abruptness of the halt sent him flying, the wiper going with him.
Again, Tao planted his foot, cutting across a traffic island then hurtling down the wrong way of the road. Ahead, horns blew and cars swerved out of the way. But the things on top of the Jeep clung like glue.
The creature's claws tore deeper, peeling back the car's roof. Stane swore and twisted around, kicking upward at the talons. The creature snarled and lashed out, his claws raking Stane's leg. The metallic tang of blood tainted the air.
Tao swore and stomped on the brakes. As the Jeep slid to a halt, he threw the car into neutral and twisted around. Flames leapt from his fingers into the hole created by the creature, and there was a whoosh of sound followed by a gargled scream.
Then the driver's door was wrenched open and Tao was hauled from the car.
"No!" I flung off my seat belt and scrambled across the seat after him. Tao was aflame, his whole body burning with fire—flames that would not hurt him but should have consumed the creature holding him.
Only they didn't.
Instead the fire swirled inches from the creature's skin, not touching him even though the maelstrom of energy heated the air around us and blasted my skin.
As Tao struggled to free himself from the creature's massive arms, I launched myself at the two of them. Tao saw me in time and doused the flames but, in that instant, there was a bright flash of light, accompanied by a surge of power that echoed with evil and wrongness. In the space that the two of them had occupied, there was nothing.