Riders (Riders, #1)(65)

I reached down. I picked up the yellow pencil from inside the gutter. Then I stood and watched the strength leave his fingers. Watched as he fell and hit the red bricks of the walkway below. I just stood there.

More, Gideon? Or will you bring me the key?





CHAPTER 39

After that, I lost some time. I wasn’t conscious but I wasn’t unconscious, either. I was trapped in the middle somewhere.

I only remember pieces of what happened next. The dread-locked woman lifting her head and letting out a long, baying sound. Samrael releasing me and leaving with the other Kindred. Responding to a threat that was beyond me. No more Ra’om—that was all I cared about—but I wasn’t free yet.

Nausea hit me. Stomach-clenching nausea, like a concussion and motion sickness, plus the sensation that my brain had been thoroughly ransacked.

I bent over my legs and heaved, riding out the shaking in my muscles, the coughing, and the bitter taste on my tongue. It took me long minutes to regain some control. As I straightened and looked around me, I still felt weak and disoriented.

The darkness Alevar had released from his wings was lifting. Under the glow of the streetlights, the wet cobblestones looked like gold, the apartment windows like crystal. Night had never seemed so bright to me before.

I realized I didn’t have the sword any longer. I had a vague recollection of calling it back just before Samrael had introduced me to Ra’om. I’d tapped into the same feeling as when I’d summoned it. A singular purpose. A clear intention. I was almost sure I could achieve that again.

So at least one good thing had come out of this.

As I found my composure, I became aware of someone watching me from the end of the street. A guy in a dark coat sat on one of the apartment stoops. Blond hair. About my age, from what I could tell. I had a feeling he’d been there for the past few minutes while I’d hacked up my intestines. I also had a pretty good idea of who he was thanks to the cuff, but I didn’t go after him yet. I didn’t trust myself to.

“Gideon!”

Daryn and Marcus came running from the other end of the street. Daryn flew into my arms. I yanked her close and hugged her hard, needing to feel her realness. Ra’om had knocked down some part of me that still couldn’t seem to get back up.

“What happened?” Daryn said, drawing back. “Gideon, your nose.”

“Don’t know.” I felt it now, the swelling and the pain. And I tasted blood on my tongue. “Busted it. Daryn, where were you?”

My voice sounded like it had gone through a shredder, and I was having trouble concentrating. Daryn was right in front of me, but I had to keep telling myself that she was okay. That my mom and Anna were, too.

Marcus looked away, noticing the guy on the stoop.

“We had to leave,” Daryn said. “I tried to get you on the radio. I know you wanted us to stay, but Alevar saw us, then left. We thought he was going to get the rest of the Kindred.”

She looked at Marcus, waiting for him to jump in and help explain.

“Has he been there a while?” Marcus asked, his eyes still locked on Conquest.

“Ten minutes.”

We didn’t say another word, but we both knew what needed to happen. We took off like heat-seeking missiles.

Conquest jumped up when he saw us coming. He ran down the steps and tore down the street, but Marcus turned it up, cutting off his escape route. I came up behind him. We had him boxed in.

Conquest looked from Marcus to me, like he couldn’t decide who posed the lesser threat. He faced me. Wrong choice.

“Hey, man,” I said. “Are you Jode?”

“Who are you?” he said, scowling at me with bloodshot eyes.

No mistaking his accent. He was English. And rich, judging by his threads. Double-breasted coat. Fisherman-style, but the kind you saw on runways, not gangways. He was weaving in place and reeked of alcohol.

That sealed it for me. I hauled off and punched him.

He fell gracefully. Knee, hip, shoulder. Like some part of him had decided, What the heck. I’m passing out tonight anyway. Might as well get started now.

“Gideon!” Daryn gaped at me. “What did you do?” She rushed over, kneeling beside him.

There was no way to explain it all. I couldn’t shake the fears Ra’om and Samrael had planted in my mind. Something felt different inside me. Darker. And we didn’t have time to stand around and try to convince Conquest to join up. I wasn’t going to say all that, so I shrugged and said, “I came. I saw. I conquered.”

Daryn sprang up. “That’s not funny!”

I hadn’t intended it to be funny. But I didn’t clarify that either. My logical, rational mind was slowly coming back online. I had to get us off the street. Daryn and Marcus had been spotted in the Fiat, so we had no wheels anymore. We also had no Sebastian, but my first priority was getting present company to a safe location.

I crouched by Conquest and rolled him onto his back. A bruise was spreading over his cheek where I’d hit him. He let out a big snore, which got a laugh out of Marcus that honestly surprised me. I hadn’t known he could laugh. I pulled Conquest’s sleeve up. His cuff was bright white and had clean lines, more like mine than Sebastian’s and Marcus’s. Right guy.

Then I checked the pockets of his fancy not-fishing coat and found a wallet made of butter-soft leather. Moving through the contents quickly, I came up with a small stack of euros in crisp new bills, credit cards, and a student ID for Oxford University issued to James Oliver Drummond Ellis. No wonder he went by Jode.