a tiny, barred window would allow the driver to see. Nearly every inch of the strange cars—if that’s what they could be called—was fortified with defensive objects meant to protect those inside as well as injure any attackers who made the mistake of getting too close. Vicious, huge hooks, giant, sharpened screws that spun eagerly, and razor sharp sheets of metal ready to slice up anyone too slow to move.
“What are they?” Rune asked.
“Rebels.”
She shot him a glance. “Shouldn’t we stop them? Rebels aren’t the enemy, are they?”
“Some of them are. I don’t know if these are friend or foe.”
“We need to figure that out. They might have seen our people.”
Our people.
He nodded. Then, before her rot-stricken body could stop him, he stepped out of the shadows and into the street.
Right in front of the caravan of unknown rebels.
“Damn you, Z,” Rune muttered, and shot out her claws.
It took her a few seconds to realize her claws hadn’t come. Her fangs hadn’t dropped. Something that had become second nature to her was now…
Gone.
Her monster was dead.
And Z was tempting fate.
“Z,” she cried.
He heard something in her voice, some panic, perhaps, that he’d never heard before—because when he jerked his head around to look at her, his eyes were full of fear.
“I…” she held up her hands. “I have no weapons.”
His face darkened as he yanked a blade from his belt. “Now you do.” He tossed it to her, silently begging her to be okay.
But she wasn’t okay.
She took her blade, puny and insignificant when compared with her claws and fangs and speed, and stepped out to stand at his side.
If they were taken down, they’d be taken together.
They waited.
The cars had grumbled to a wheezing halt and sat rumbling quietly, as out of place in Skyll as a TV would have been.
And for a few breathless moments, no one moved.
Finally a whirring sound interrupted the hot quiet of the day, and the lead vehicle’s roof began to open.
A man popped his head through the hole. “We’ve been looking for you.” He looked down into the car. “I reckon they were telling the truth. They’re both out here now.”
The passenger front door, barred and creaky, opened. A bald black man only slightly smaller than the berserker stepped out and stared at them. “You,” he said to Rune, “don’t look like no princess.”
She started coughing and leaned weakly on Z as she spat out a mouthful of blood. “If I don’t get to the Flesh Shimmer soon,” she replied, “I’m just going to be dead.”
He didn’t have to know she was immortal.
“You got that rot we heard about?”
“Yes,” Z said, answering when she could not. “Damascus poisoned her and her world. We have to find the cure or our world will be gone as well.”
“Well then,” the man said, “let’s get her to Flesh. We got a war to win and the way I hear it, we’re going to need us a princess to get that done.”
Part Two
No Return
Chapter Fourteen
Inside the vehicle was Blue, shackled, gagged, and very, very angry.
“What the fuck?” Rune said, falling into the seat beside Blue.
Z glared at the men inside the car. “She’s one of mine. Release her. Now.”
The interior of the vehicle was like a metal box with two filthy, uncomfortable metal benches built into the sides.
It was dark and hot, and the stench of men spending too many hours together in such close quarters caused Rune to wrinkle her sensitive nose.
The big bald man shrugged. “She’s mad. I let her loose she’s going to come at me. I don’t want to have to hurt her.”
Blue struggled harder, her face red, her eyes watering over the dirty rag that had been tied around her mouth. Her hands were cuffed behind her back.
Z yanked the rag down to reveal a filthy cloth that had been balled up and stuffed into her mouth. “Oh hell,” he muttered, and yanked out the cloth.
“You son of a bitch,” Blue shrieked, almost before the cloth cleared her mouth. “As soon as I’m free, I’m going to slit your throat. I’m going to cut off your ugly bald head and smash it like a fucking melon and stuff it up your headless ass!”
Z drew back. “Uh…”
“Told you,” the bald man said, grinning. “She’s pissed. I’ll let her settle down before cutting her loose.”
Blue screamed and thumped her booted feet against the floor. Her ankles were restrained by a chain attached to a heavy ring mounted on the wall. “What did you do