Riders (Riders, #1)(32)

Awesome. Awesome stuff. But it’d been at least fifteen minutes since Daryn had walked out of there, and that was way past my limit.

I dropped my hand on Sebastian’s shoulder. “Well, that was amazing,” I said, tugging him toward the door. “I know I don’t need to audition anymore. I give my votes to him. Unfortunately we have to run. You know how it is during audition season.”

Audition season? Was that even a thing?

“Let go of me,” Sebastian said, trying to break free. “I don’t even know you.”

“Can you believe this guy? Still in character.” I had him at the door by then. Almost out of there. “Thanks a lot, everybody. Break a leg.”

I pushed the door open and shoved him into the hallway.

“Okay, okay! Take it easy!” He put his hands up. “Just let go of me, and we’ll talk.”

I let him go.

He lurched out of my reach, and bolted.





CHAPTER 18

I should’ve caught him right away. He’d only gotten a small jump on me, but as I barreled through the door into the waiting room, I ran smack into the receptionist coming the other way. I managed to catch her and keep us both on our feet; then I took a second to make sure she was okay because I’d really given her a shot. That put Sebastian a few steps ahead of me as I chased him out of the casting office into the main hallway.

“Stop!” I yelled. “Just stop!”

Sebastian froze at the end of the corridor and locked eyes with me, his hands planted on the door to the stairwell. Then he pushed it open and disappeared inside.

I sprinted after him and flew down the stairs, taking the steps three at a time. As I spun around the tenth-floor landing, I saw him rounding the next flight below me. We did that again on the ninth floor, eighth. By the seventh, I was gaining on him. I spun around the handrail, turning the corner, and came to a sliding stop.

Sebastian stood on the landing below. In his hand was something I had never seen before. Two black disks suspended on gleaming chains. I had no idea what it was, but I instinctively recognized it as a weapon.

“I’m sorry!” he blurted. Then he cocked his arm back and flung it.

The thing wobbled through the air, the disks rotating on the chain like orbiting planets. Not a great throw, but I was so close. It came right at me.

I lunged out of the way, executing a half somersault in midair before my ass collided with the wall. I went down, a loud crunch sounding just inches away from my head.

Scrambling up, I looked for Sebastian. All I heard were the receding squeaks of his soles churning on cement steps. I turned to the thing hanging from the wall and couldn’t believe my eyes.

One of the disks had sunk deep into the cinder blocks. The other swung like a pendulum beneath it, making a sharp metallic hiss as it skimmed along, raising sparks, and finally stopped.

I leaned in. The disks and chain were made of … black glass? It looked like the same material as Sebastian’s cuff. Crystal infused with darkness. And it didn’t gleam so much as glow, somehow putting off a black light around it. There was a toggle at the center of the chain, a grip made of the same material.

Sebastian’s footsteps echoed farther away. He was pulling ahead, but I couldn’t leave. Whatever this thing was, it seemed too important to leave behind. I reached out, and hesitated. Told myself to suck it up. It just didn’t look like anything I’d ever seen. Then went for it and grabbed the handgrip.

Nothing. No problem. Just smooth, cool metal.

I tugged. The disk popped out easily, like the wall was made of cork. I lifted it for a closer look. The disks tapped together on the end of the chains; then clink, they snapped together, one sliding over the other, locking into place.

Badass. Amazing. Incredible. I wanted to check it out further, but I had a man to catch. I secured my grip and resumed pursuit.

Sebastian had a lead of a few flights on me by then, so I didn’t expect to almost plow into his back when I hit the first floor and charged into the lobby.

“Who is that?” he asked, without taking his eyes off the glass-walled entrance.

Samrael. No mistaking him this time.

He stood just inside the center doors in dark jeans and a black coat, more casual than the businesspeople around, but he looked like he belonged, polished and sharp. A young exec.

Ronwae, the girl with the red hair, and Malaphar, the pock-faced guy in the oversized suit, were covering the two other exits to the front of the building. There was also a new addition to the posse, a young guy, maybe sixteen, seventeen, wearing a red beanie and slouched skater clothes, who strode up to Samrael’s side just as Samrael spotted us.

“Sebastian, you better follow me,” I said.

That time, he did.





CHAPTER 19

In the Army, you don’t say you retreat. You withdraw. That was what we did. We were outnumbered, underprepared, and uninformed, so. We withdrew like the wind.

I pushed back into the stairwell with Sebastian right on my heels. Moments ago I’d seen two doors on the first-floor landing—lobby and emergency exit—and emergency was this. Now.

I exploded through it, setting off an alarm, and ran into bright, eye-spanking daylight. First and foremost I wanted to see Daryn in my Jeep, ready to burn rubber, but she wasn’t anywhere.

We’d come out onto a street with no traffic. To my right were low-slung buildings with red-tile roofs, stucco walls. Sidewalks lined with huge pots of red flowers. Parked cars, all of the luxury, six-figure variety. Down the street, there was a guardhouse, but not like at Benning. This had flower boxes. Fancy trim around the windows and doors. To my left were massive gray warehouses, STUDIO 5 painted in huge red letters across the top of the nearest one.