“Dory! Damn it!” I heard Zheng yell, but I was already running and then leaping to the next vehicle in line, a large platform which I tore across in record time, because Louis-Cesare and his one-time captive were battling on the other end of it.
But vamp reflexes are as good or, in the case of these two, better than mine, meaning that they were gone again by the time I skidded to a stop at the edge of the platform, and looked around frantically.
I spied them after a moment, impossibly far away, leaping and fighting their way across the stadium. That would have been less terrifying if the “stadium” hadn’t had huge gaps in between sections. And if the vehicles comprising much of it hadn’t been constantly moving, jockeying for position, and making the spot I was trying to jump to suddenly not there anymore.
I managed to snag a bright red rickshaw before I plummeted to my death, being driven by one of the stadium ticket enforcers who I pushed off onto a bus. That made following the guys easier, or it would have if two hundred and fifty pounds of master vamp hadn’t suddenly landed on the back of my ride, sending us spinning out of control. I managed to compensate after a moment, swerving around a floating house and ducking under a sashimi place. But it meant that I’d lost Louis-Cesare again.
Damn it!
“What are you doing?” I demanded, looking over my shoulder at Zheng.
“I could ask the same of you. What the hell?”
“Tomas, the guy with your guide group?”
“What about him?”
“He was Louis-Cesare’s prisoner for something like a century.”
“What?”
“It’s a long story. All you need to know is that Tomas hates him and is probably trying to stake him!”
“And you’re going to do what about that?” Zheng demanded.
“Stake Tomas first!”
I spotted the two battling masters on the opposite side of the arena, and decided to take a short cut across the large open space. Which . . . probably wasn’t the best plan I ever had. Zheng yelled a warning, half a second before a four-story-tall, bright crimson devil, complete with horns and a pointed tail, leap out in front of us—
And grabbed the squid monster in a headlock before they both fell into the ring.
I didn’t know what had happened for a second, and then realized that Louis-Cesare and Tomas had been fighting near the devil’s cage. They must have damaged it enough to release him, just about the time that the squid thing was let out for the match that was supposed to be taking place right now. It wasn’t, because something better was happening instead.
The crowd roared approval, louder than ever, as two titans faced off. I guessed they didn’t usually see the monsters fighting each other. And for good reason, I thought, because things almost immediately got out of hand.
“Shit!” I yelled, as a flashing aqua, green and bright orange tentacle slashed through the air, barely missing us. And then another one clipped us, sending our ride spiraling toward the dirt, before the devil’s tail punched through the back of us. And we suddenly found ourselves being used like a brick to pummel the squid.
“Every time!” Zheng was yelling. “Every goddamned time—”
I had no idea what he was talking about, and cared less. I felt my fingers slipping; felt an arm the size of a tree trunk go around my waist. And then we were leaping, straight at a man in a smaller, one-person rickshaw.
It was the only vehicle close enough, as everyone else was rocketing away from the fight. But the man—the mage, as it turned out—didn’t want company. He saw us coming, cursed, and got a lasso on us. And, holy shit!
For the record, magical lassos are not fun when you are the recipient. It hurt like hell, burning whatever skin it touched, but it didn’t touch us for long. Because he whipped us over to the side of the great space, onto a grassy bit of land. And as soon as we hit down, he went buzzing away again, to join a dozen more who were attempting to regain control of the situation.
Only that . . . wasn’t going so well. And neither was this, I thought, as Zheng got me into a headlock while the squid screeched loudly enough to threaten my eardrums, and the devil laughed, a great, sonic boom type of thing that made hearing impossible. Except for a master vamp yelling in my ear.
“—not happening! Do not stake my damned team!”
“I’m not staking your team,” I said, thrashing, and really putting my all into it. “Just one.”
“Yeah, but he’s the best one!”
“That’s what I’m afraid of!”
I had been playing fair, which was why I wasn’t going anywhere. I decide to remedy that, and elbowed Zheng considerably below the belt. He didn’t let go—gotta give the guy credit—but he did loosen his grip slightly as well as snarl. “You’re going to pay for that.”
“Maybe, but not now,” I said, and stuck my head in my purse.