Chapter 625
Katelina choked on a scream. The gearshift missed her face by inches. She waited to make sure she was still alive. Outside, the world roared and crackled, snapping, burning. The car revved, but didn't move.
Katelina leaned up. Micah came into focus, his hand to his face. Blood seeped between his fingers. The windshield in front of him was spider webbed. The shattered edges gleamed in the dancing firelight. Verchiel was a blur in the driver's seat. Katelina shook the daze away to see his head slumped forward, face smashed against the steering wheel.
"Are you okay?" she asked no one in particular, trying to come to terms with what had happened.
"Fuck. I'm alive," Micah muttered.
Verchiel sat up with a groan, his forehead an open gash, bright blood as red as his hair. He lifted his foot off the gas. The engine dropped to an idle. "That was unexpected."
Loren untangled his limbs and wiped blood from his nose. "That's one way to put it."
"Fucking stupid is another." Katelina checked herself for broken bones. They should be dead.
If we were human, we would be.
Outside, the car was ringed in small burning trees. The fire twisted and writhed in the pluming smoke.
"Don't worry, we'll be out of here in a jiffy." Verchiel dropped the vehicle into reverse and hit the gas. The engine raced. Tires spun noisily. They didn't move.
"Um-" Loren wiped his bloody nose with his sleeve.
"Yeah, yeah, hang on," Verchiel said.
Next to them, a slender tree snapped. It bounced against the car, splattering a shower of sparks and burning debris. Katelina and Loren jumped back with a cry.
Verchiel shoved the car into drive. The car rocked, but didn't break free. Another tree fell in a flaming burst that left bits of burning branch scattered across the windshield. Verchiel gave an irritated sound and snapped the wipers on. The blades swooshed across the window, leaving smears of ash. The glass flexed where Micah's head had smashed it.
Micah pressed back, away from the windshield. "Okay, Executioner. Enough fun, huh? Let's get the fuck outta here."
Verchiel jammed the car into reverse and slammed the gas. The vehicle leapt, then dropped back again, tires spinning. "I'm trying. We're caught on something."
Katelina met Loren's eyes, as terrified as her own. Outside, another small tree cracked and landed next to the car in a puff of flames.
Verchiel put the car in gear, back and forth, back and forth. It didn't let go, didn't budge. Seconds became hours. Katelina imagined the spinning tires melting to nothing, the flames sweeping into the car, devouring them.
Burned alive, just like Velnya.
"Fuck this." Micah grasped the door handle, then let it go with a cry of surprise. "Fuck! That's hot."
"It's metal," Verchiel snapped through clenched teeth.
"No shit, Sherlock."
Katelina felt the stab of Micah's determination as he grasped the handle again and threw the door open. Smoke and ashes billowed in. They ducked, covering their faces.
"What in the hell are you doing?" Verchiel shouted.
Micah's reply was a wordless snarl, as he climbed out of the car. His bulky frame stood silhouetted in flames. He hopped over a fallen tree to land in a spray of sparks and ashes near the front of the vehicle. Fire licked his arms and the hem of his shirt.
"Micah!" Katelina shrieked. "Get back in the car, you moron!"
A tree cracked. Katelina saw the black blur drop toward Micah. She tried to scream. Before she could, it slammed into the windshield in a spray of glass pebbles and sparks, throwing the car with the impact. Katelina and Loren dropped to the floorboards, arms up to shield themselves.
The vehicle bounced to a stop. A heartbeat passed. Though wreathed in smoke and heat that burned their skin and eyes, they were alive.
Loren shoved himself between the seats, trying for the gaping door. "Micah! Micah!"
The bulky vampire shoved into the passenger seat, kicking at the burning upholstery. "Fuck! Can we go now?"
Verchiel stopped beating out the flaming seats to drop the car into gear. They took off, bumping over uneven ground. Chunks of burning tree bounced off them as they drove, scattering into the grass. Micah beat out fires on the seats, the dash, and even on Verchiel, while little pebbles of glass rained down from the broken windshield.
The fog-like smoke parted ahead of them. The glow of fire disappeared, leaving only scorched ground. Verchiel gunned it. They sped through smoking grass, and finally skidded to a stop in a field of charred destruction. The four of them sat in their seats, eyes wide, hands clenched, still not sure they'd survived.
The shock drained away. Katelina smacked Micah on the top of his bald, singed head. "What in the hell were you thinking back there? You could have died!"
He threw up an arm to protect himself. "Hey! Watch it, psycho."
"You were nearly killed!" She couldn't reach his throat to strangle him, so she hit him again.
"Yes! Saving you. How the fuck do you think we got unstuck?"
"That tree"
"That tree didn't do shit except break the damn windshield. We were stuck on a fucking stump. I threw us free. If I hadn't done that, we'd still be there, waiting for another fucking tree to land on us."
When words escaped her, she settled for shouting, "You're an idiot!" before she dropped back into the seat. "Fuck!"
Loren wiped soot from his eyes. "Can we get the hell out of here?"
Verchiel didn't argue.
***
Micah might have claimed to be valiant, but he was soon whining about his burns.
"We'll get a snack on the way back to the motel," Verchiel said impatiently. "Look. I think that was the town."
He was right, but there wasn't much left. The fire had devoured the buildings and moved on, leaving smoldering rubble and piles of ash. They climbed out of the car to pick their way through the destruction, stepping over heaps of twisted metal and blackened wood.
Micah tried to use his shirt to dab at his blistered face. Burned full of holes, what was left of the material ripped to shreds in his hands. "Ah, fuck." He pulled it free and tossed it onto a heap of blackened bricks. "Great."
"Hey, no stripping." Verchiel shook bits of glass from his hair.
"You're just fuckin' jealous." Micah grimaced as he flexed. Despite his injuries, Katelina noticed his stacked muscles, like a body builder on a magazine cover.
He caught her and grinned. "Enjoyin' the view there, princess?"
"Actually, I was admiring you without a goatee. Most of it's burned off."
"What?" Micah touched his face and swore.
"That's what you get for being a cowboy." She moved past him, leaving Loren and Verchiel to snicker.
"I saved your ass!" Micah shouted.
She ignored him and concentrated on climbing around the debris.
