he doesn’t want to fight, but just for once, I’d like to not be a passenger in my own life. Even though I stare at him for a while he doesn’t give in, just keeps holding the helmet out. Finally, I take the helmet from him and pull it on over my head, mentally grumbling about how uncomfortable it is to have my hair up in a ponytail with one of these things on.
"Get on, beautiful," he says, smiling at me as his eyes twinkle with promise in the dark.
"Why can you guys never just tell me where we're going?" I complain as I climb on behind him.
"We're full of surprises, what can I say?" Crash replies before pressing a button on the handlebars and letting the engine roar to life.
It’s no use trying to reply over the growl of the engine so I just save my breath and hold on, wrapping my arms around Crash's waist. He pulls away nice and easy and we glide through the gate that had been opened for Striker and Dragon as they left. Once we are through, I look over my shoulder to find Phoenix just behind us, and behind him the gate is rolling shut once more. A young kid in a prospect cut glares at us from the control panel.
The way he watches me sends a shiver down my spine, as though I can sense the anger rolling off him even from the back of Crash's bike.
It feels like hours pass before we start to slow down and travel on quieter streets, not that anyone is really out to begin with this late at night.
The moon has risen high in a cloudless sky, which is the only reason I can make anything out. We've turned down a side road and all four men have killed the headlights on their bikes so we are traveling in the dark. The only exception is the red glow of the tail lights when we all slow to a stop.
When the rumble of their bikes cut out the lack of sound is deafening. We all dismount, even me, though I am beyond confused as to why we've parked in an alley in the warehouse district. When I pull the helmet off, I rub the back of my head where the tie for my ponytail is, trying to relieve some of the ache from where it has been pressing against my skull.
It’s Striker that turns toward me with a grim look on his face. "About a half-mile to the west is a facility much like the one we rescued you from. We don't know how many experiments they have inside, or what kind of security or guards they have since this is a last-minute mission. We're also here to test your abilities. The four of us work well as a unit together, so we can keep you safe, but we have to know if you have the ability to control yourself and your ability when in a volatile situation."
His words leave my heart galloping in my chest and my breath coming in short, sharp gasps. I’m sure that if I enter another facility run by the cabal, or rather the Necron Order, since I know their name now, that I won't make it back out. They'll send those monsters to get me, or maybe kill me. Luckily, because of these men, I never found out which their goal was when they attacked the compound.
"I can't go in there," I whisper, my voice shaky to my own ears.
Phoenix steps in front of Striker and blocks out my vision until all I can see is him. "You've been through worse. This is nothing but walking into a building and clearing out as many of those monsters as we can and walking back out. Nothing is going to keep you there. I swear it. And now with your fancy schmancy power, you won't need us to protect you."
"Yeah, right." A smile tugs at the corner of my lips even though my chest feels tight and my head is tingling.
Dragon shoves Phoenix out of the way until he is right there, taking up just as much of my vision as his brother had, and seeing them both so close, one right after the other, I have no doubt that they are twins. Phoenix may have longer hair than Dragon, but the dark slashes of their eyebrows and the perfect pout to their lips leaves no question of their relationship to one