Page 55 of Dark OZ

My vision finally cleared, and I dared to open my eyes once more. The car looked like it was miles away. The parking lot stretched, the long white dividing lines growing infinitely into the distance. With each step Crowe took, our yellow cab sank farther and farther away, until finally the fabric of the ground tore apart, disintegrating like taffy pulled too thin. A black hole opened in the center of the ground. One by one, shipping trucks rolled toward the cracking void.

Why wasn’t Crowe stopping? The vibration of his steps was making the crevice gape wider. “Stop!” I cried.

He ignored me.

I screamed and clawed at his arms. “Stop, Crowe, stop! You have to stop! We’ll fall in!” I twisted in his grip, trying to get free. His burning arms tightened, holding me closer to his chest. Why wasn’t he stopping? Was he going to throw me in, tossing me away like everyone else?

A sound, like the universe cracking open, ricocheted around the parked cars. Gunfire. Danny was shooting his gun at the opposite end of the parking lot.

“Monkeys,” he hollered, popping off more gunfire that looked like a stream of golden rings. “We’re surrounded. Get her in the car.”

The cab was so far away. We’d never make it.

Crowe’s arm stretched to a comical length, looking like a long cartoon noodle waving in the air before finally reaching the handle.

I started laughing uncontrollably. It was too funny. Did all of him stretch like that, or just his arms?

Crowe pulled the door open, tossing me over the chasm and into the back seat. I landed against the soft upholstery. Instead of being in the safety of the car, the cushions swallowed me, and I fell into the unending darkness. The last thing I remembered was the way my scream wavered in the air around me before fading into nothingness.

Chapter 25

Thedoorsslammedclosedon the car. Locks deadbolted into place, instantly arming us. I’d climbed in the back with Thea, because fuck Danny. Something was wrong with my girl, and I wasn’t going to let his selfish ass sit in the back with her. Besides, he was too focused on what was going on outside to care.

“Where are they?” Nick peeled out of the parking lot at a breakneck speed. “No one is in pursuit? Why aren’t they following us?”

“They were everywhere. In the air, behind the cars, repelling from the lamps.Everywhere. You didn’t see them?”

Nick flashed a look at me in the mirror. “No. All I saw was you firing your gun at some scared-as-shit truck drivers.”

“I know what I saw. Orin’s team was closing in on us. We barely made it out of there.”

I ran my hand over Thea’s forehead. She was sweating now. Her skin was so hot, her heart racing. “Nick, something is really wrong with Thea.” I tapped her cheek. She was murmuring something, staring with unblinking eyes at the roof of the car. Her pupils were blown wide. Her normal blues and greens were gone and replaced with large black discs.

Danny spun around. His gun aimed at me.

“What the fuck are you doing?” I knocked his arm to the side at the same time he clicked the trigger. His gun fired over my shoulder and into the back window.

Nick swerved the car. “Ma che diavolo! What the hell, Danny?” He yelled, or I thought he yelled it. I could barely hear anything over the ringing in my ears. The bullet lodged in the glass, a small spider web splintering from where it was embedded.

“Orin Berret, you motherfucker. I’m going to kill you.” Danny’s face transformed with rage. Baring his teeth in a roar, he climbed over the center console. He dropped the gun, instead deciding to wrap his hands around my throat. “I’ll wring the life from your eyes for daring to touch my girl.”

We landed on top of Thea. She’d moved on to crying, tears falling in heavy streams from her eyes. For someone threatening death for touching her, he sure didn’t care that he’d just driven all of our weight onto her.

“Get. The. Fuck. Off. Me.” I slammed my fist into his side with each word. We were going to hurt Thea, wrestling on top of her. I’d made a promise to her, and this tweaked-out asshole was not going to make me break that promise.

Nick grabbed the back of his pants, snaking his arm around Danny’s throat and carefully applying pressure. After a minute, Danny’s eyes fluttered, and he collapsed into the passenger seat. A sheen of sweat glistened on his brow, and his lips moved with silent words as he stared off at some unseen target.

I fell back, gasping for air. “What in the actual fuck is going on?”

Nick parked the car along the side of the highway and leaned over Danny, opening his eyes. “He was definitely drugged by something. His eyes are blown wide and bloodshot.”

“Thea’s too…and fuck, Nick, her skin is so hot.”

I slammed my hand into the seatback, pulling a thermometer from the med station. It beeped, the read out displaying 105 degrees, and then before my eyes it climbed. “Fuck. Fuck. 106.”

“That’s really high.”

“I know.”

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