Gaslight (Crossbreed #4)(99)

We exited the building and steered right. The temperature must have dropped ten degrees since our arrival, and the cold wind burned against my cheeks. When we rounded the corner, Diesel ambled toward a plane on the tarmac. Through the open door, I could see the coffee drinker sitting in the pilot’s seat. The plane had several windows along the side and a propeller. The shades were pulled down, hiding anything else.

I glanced at the two-step ladder that hung from the door and nuzzled against Diesel, who had his arm around me.

“So can’t you call your friends and tell them you’ll be an hour late?” I asked hopefully.

He stopped and turned to face me. “Not tonight, honey. Duty calls. You can kiss me goodbye.”

As much as I wanted to take Diesel down, we weren’t close enough to the plane. The men could still get away, and I wasn’t entirely certain the girl was in there.

“Got room for one more?”

He gave me a quizzical stare. “Don’t you have someplace to be?”

“I’m also drunk and love an adventure. So what? My friends can wait.”

“Who says we’re coming back?”

I could see the suspicion in his eyes, so I flashed toward the plane and peered inside.

“Mage!” Diesel boomed.

I pulled energy into my hands and hopped up the ladder to blast the pilot, but he reached over and shoved me out, taking a small shock to his arm in the process. I fell onto the concrete and rolled, and Diesel came at me. Behind him near the hangars, Christian was running toward us at full speed. If it weren’t for all the fucking lights, he might have been able to reach us faster.

I sprang to my feet and collided with Diesel, pulling him into the most electrifying bear hug he’d ever known. Sharp pain pierced my back, and he threw me aside and fled for the plane. I stumbled a few feet before regaining my balance and going after him. The plane was on the move, and in desperation, I grabbed on to the tail.

“Let go!” Christian shouted, veering toward a parked plane. “Our plane’s over here. Get Viktor and Blue!”

I punched at the windows and then ran alongside the plane as it turned onto the main runway and picked up speed. I’d ridden on top of a car before. How bad could a plane be?

Then I thought about them doing aerial stunts, and I ditched the plan.

Every time I moved my arm or shoulder, the pain in my back intensified. I reached over my shoulder, felt the handle of a small dagger, and pulled it out. Tears involuntarily fell from my eyes. Another blade was lodged out of reach, but I had no time to worry about myself when we had only minutes to spare. I’d run a good distance from the building, going after Diesel’s plane, and halfway back, I staggered to a stop. Viktor and Blue emerged from the side of the building, and when they saw me halfway down the runway and Christian steering our plane onto the tarmac, they broke into a run. Viktor reached the plane first and got in, forcing Christian to switch seats. Blue kept running and torpedoed right past me, her clothes falling away as she shifted into a falcon.

While struggling to catch my breath, I quickly gathered up her clothes.

The plane rolled right past me, Christian yelling, “Get in!”

I ran alongside, shoving the clothes in first before Christian yanked me through the open door. I squeezed into the back, behind Viktor’s seat, and stared at the imposing instrument panel. As we picked up speed, Christian struggled into the back seat and then pulled out the second dagger.

“Permission to heal her?” he asked loudly. “Two stab wounds—one in her lungs.”

“How do you know that?” I rasped.

Christian didn’t answer, but he must have been able to hear that my breathing didn’t sound right.

Viktor waved his hand.

Nausea crept over me the moment the wheels came off the ground. The cabin was loud and confined—nothing like flying Delta.

“Did anyone do a preflight check?” I joked.

Christian bit his wrist and offered it to me. I stared at the wound, my mouth watering. I could either balk at it or just get it over with and heal. Viktor needed me at full capacity, so I pulled Christian’s wrist to my mouth and drank. The flesh closed back together on my wounds until all that remained was a tingling sensation.

He quickly wrenched his arm away and licked the bite, sealing it. The sweet taste of dark blood still coated my mouth, and I swept my tongue around in search of every drop.

Viktor tapped his headset. Christian reached around and put one on my head.

“Did you finish?” Viktor asked through the headset.

“Finish what?”

“I’m talking to Christian.”

Christian put on his headset not because he couldn’t hear but so Viktor could hear his response. “They’re all done. I’ll send a message to Wyatt before we lose a signal.”

I coughed blood onto my coat sleeve to clear my lungs. “What are you two talking about?”

Christian’s phone lit up as he typed a message. “While you were entertaining our friends at the bar, I put tracking devices on all the planes. I was finishing up with the ones in the hangars when you came outside.”

“I didn’t see the girl, so I don’t know if they have her. The shades on the windows were pulled down.”

My thoughts drifted back to that moment when Christian had appeared from the shadows. The fire burning in his eyes, the sheer determination to reach me as he ran toward the plane, his feet barely touching the ground.