Chapter Thirteen
It took hours to reach their destination but still far less time than it would have taken in a car not as fast as the One-77. By the time they arrived at a compound fit for a prison, Danica’s eyes were already at half-mast. She could hardly keep her eyes open. When she climbed out of the car and stretched, it was dark, and she hardly had the energy to check out her surroundings. Instead, she followed Arden and Phi into an entryway she recognized was worth more than anything she’d ever been in, but all she could think about was falling into a bed and going to sleep. She should have been worried about her safety—she was in a strange place with two vampires, after all—but she couldn’t bring herself to care. They wanted her alive, so it didn’t seem right that they would kill her as soon as she got there. She couldn’t very well drive if she were dead.
“We’ll start bright and early in the morning,” Phi murmured, or maybe he spoke normally, and Danica was already half-way asleep.
“Sounds good.” Danica waved his words away. “But I need sleep if I’m going to be worth anything.”
“Of course.” Phi led her through an opulent house Danica couldn’t seem to focus on until he reached a doorway. The door was large and solid, but otherwise, unmarked. He pressed it open and gestured for her to go inside.
Stepping inside, Danica took two seconds to glance around before she turned and met Phi’s eyes. The room was spacious and fancy, but she’d check it out tomorrow. Tonight, she needed sleep.
“We’re going to protect you as much as we’re able to, Danica,” he said, tilting his head. Arden had disappeared somewhere into the house, but Phi had stayed to show her to her rooms. And it was rooms. There were a few doorways inside the area.
“I don’t need your protection,” Danica said, her voice groggy. If she didn’t get to sleep soon, she wasn’t going to be half as good as she needed to be bright and early in morning. “I’m here for one reason and you know it. I’ll drive, I’ll win your race, and after that, I’ll hang up my keys again for good.”
It was a lie, and Danica knew it, but she wouldn’t give anyone that satisfaction.
Phi opened his mouth to answer, but before he could get whatever he’d been about to say out, Danica slammed the door in his face and stumbled her way over to the bed. She had just enough sense to kick off her shoes and pants before falling into a bed that felt more like a cloud than a mattress.
Her dreams were full of two vampires and a race that nearly killed them all. . .
* * *
“We haveabout a week before the race—”
Danica held up her hand to interrupt. “About a week?”
“The final day before the Games is reserved for pomp and circumstance,” Arden answered with a roll of his eyes. “All the petty rich folk like the racers to be paraded around. It’s labeled as a celebration, but really, it’s more like a death march. The elite take bets on which teams will die and how gruesome their deaths will be.”
“How classy.” Danica shook her head at the ridiculousness of the elite, but it didn’t surprise her. After all, money didn’t make people better; it only gave them more money at their disposal to entertain their taste for blood. “So, about a week, got it.”
Phi’s eyes crinkled in amusement. “I will not receive the map of the course until the hour before the race. It will show shortcuts and a few of the traps we can trigger and use against others, but it won’t show anything else. It’s only the course itself. The standard rules allow that at the very least.”
“Our car will be weaponized—” Arden continued, flipping through his own tablet.
“Weaponized?” Danica blinked. “Is that why the death rate is so high?”
Arden nodded. “The main rule of the Race Games is that there are no rules, except for certain things done by the Council, such as the map being sent an hour before or the ball we’re all forced to attend.” Arden turned off his tablet and met her eyes. “Once we’re on the track, there are no more rules except for stay on the track and your whole team has to cross the finish line alive to win.”
“So, if one of us dies during the race, there’s no point in continuing the race.”
“Exactly,” Phi answered. “All three of us need to cross the finish line alive to win.”
Danica sighed, the picture being painted becoming clearer and clearer by the minute. “I assume that means the other teams will all be trying to kill each other.”
Arden chuckled. “More so us.”
Danica’s brows wrinkled at his words, and she glanced between them. “What do you mean?”
Running a hand through his hair, Phi set aside his tablet. “We have a particular brand of target on our backs, I’m afraid. One which most of the other teams won’t be able to resist.”
The admission tickled Danica’s curiosity. She already knew what she had to lose in this race, but Arden and Phi had yet to tell her why they were racing, let alone what they would lose if she didn’t win. For a moment, she considered not asking—it was their business and not hers—but her curiosity won out. If she was going to race for them, the least they could do was explain.
“Are you two going to tell me what you have at stake in this race?” she asked, raising her brow. “You both know what I’m set to lose.”
“There are multiple things at stake for us,” Phi answered. “But they’re not important and not things you need to know.”
Arden scowled at Phi, but Danica waved it away. She’d expected such an answer. For whatever reasons, Phi didn’t want her to know what he could lose and though her curiosity ate at her, it wouldn’t contribute to winning the race.
“Whatever. You gonna show me the car? I’m only as good as the car I drive.” Danica figured changing the subject would help. If they were going to tell her what they could lose if she lost, they would do so at their own pace. As of now, it didn’t really matter. She was going to win for her kids.
“That’s a lie,” Phi murmured, meeting her eyes. If she hadn’t believed they were some sort of creatures before, the eyes would give it away. Not even fancy contacts could make a color so rich. “You are good no matter the car you drive, but the car will give you an advantage. Arden is all about the horsepower. I prefer the tech side of things.”
“You should marry those two concepts together,” Danica pointed out, following Phi as he led them through the house.
In the morning light, the house was far more impressive. Everything was marble and wood, as if they couldn’t help but flash their wealth. Danica wasn’t sure if they preferred it or if it was just the only thing they knew. Something told her that Arden was less used to opulence than Phi was, but she wasn’t sure why she thought that. Perhaps it was the way Arden carried himself, as if he were proud of his surroundings, as if he worked for it. Phi, on the other hand, seemed to not even see it, as if it were commonplace, and it probably was. The more Danica watched the two vampires, the more she wanted to know their backstory.
“We have,” Phi continued, interrupting her thoughts. “We were hoping you would take a look at our work. You won’t recognize some of the mechanics of our car, but I can explain anything you’re not familiar with. You’re a fantastic mechanic, and we want you to trust the car you’ll be driving.”
Smart, Danica thought. Phi seemed to understand how she operated with cars, how she needed to know the vehicle inside and out if she was going to drive it at its optimal level. She was curious about what he meant with some of the mechanics being unknown, though. What could be so foreign to her that she wouldn’t recognize it?
The red Porsche came into view the moment Arden opened the door to a large garage. Tools of all kinds were hung along the walls, top of the line tools. Everything was worth more than all the tools in her garage put together, and that was just what she could see. She had no doubt what was in the toolboxes pushed against the walls were the same. Her eyes took everything in—the cleanliness, the setup, the organization—but ultimately, her eyes fell on the car and held.
It was beautiful, all sleek lines and intimidating demeaner. The rear wheels were wide, the tread on all four grittier than anything she had ever seen on a Porsche.
“Will the track be a dirt one?” she asked, glancing at Phi.
“We don’t know. It’s best to be prepared for any atmosphere. The tracks can be charmed to appear different than their environment. We could either be racing in a desert or even the Alps. There are no limits.”
“She’s completely suited out,” Arden murmured, trailing his hand along the rear of the car as if he would a lover. “Top of the line bullet proof armor and windows, reinforced gas tank, roll cage inside. Normally, she’d only have two seats, but she’s been modified and stripped to be as light as possible since we have three team members instead of two.”
“Is three an unusual number?”
Phi glanced at Danica. “Most race with two but there are no rules to how many you can drive with. I’ve heard stories of teams of four before.”
Nodding, Danica stepped forward and touched the roof of the low-slung Porsche, getting a feel for her. Without waiting for permission, she opened the door and glanced inside. On the driver’s side, most things looked normal except for a few extra knobs and buttons, but the passenger side had its own panel of buttons and levers.
“What do all those do?” she asked, straightening.
“That’s the weapons panel,” Arden answered with a grin. “I installed everything I could possible think of us needing and then some.”
“What kinds of weapons?” Danica tilted her head curiously. Not once had she ever considered entering a race that needed weapons as part of her life plan but here she was. She knew her way around a 9 mm handgun, but otherwise, she preferred the heavy weight of a wrench in her hand. Somehow, she knew Arden and Phi wouldn’t be as low tech as she was.
“Everything from explosives to oil dropped on the road,” Arden shrugged. “There’s even a Gatling gun that pops out of the hood.”
“And all that doesn’t add to the weight?”
Phi nodded. “Yes, but everyone else will be the same. It’s part of the race. We’ve balanced it out with the torque and horsepower so the car will still move the same. However, it’ll be up to you to learn her well enough to win the race.”
Danica reached inside and pulled the hood latch, the rear of the car making a pop sound as she did so. Moving around to the back of the car, she took a moment to find the latch and popped it open, her brows raising at the engine inside.
Most Porsche 911’s had a twin-turbo six-cylinder engine, but the moment Danica looked at this, she knew it wasn’t that. The engine was far larger than any six-cylinder and even the turbos looked different than she was used to. But that wasn’t what caught and held Danica’s attention right away. The size of the engine was one thing. The whole thing glowing as if it were a firefly was another.
“Why is it glowing?” Danica asked, confused. She’d never seen an engine glow like that, and the closer she looked, the more elements she found she didn’t understand. There was a glass bubble attached between tubes that had a glittery blue liquid inside of it. Around the other side, where the slightly off-looking twin turbo rested, there were extra wires attached to it and something that looked like dragonfly wings protruding from it. It didn’t make sense, even less so when she realized how dainty the things were.
“We’ve added in some fairy dust to the gas,” Phi offered as explanation. “It makes the engine glow, but it also adds a boost. Like a supernatural octane booster.”
“The fairies are cruel fuckers, but they know how to have fun,” Arden added with a grin.
Danica shook her head. “Well, call me curious. Can I start her up in the garage or is there some special rules with all these. . . additives?”
“You can start her,” Phi said, tossing her a set of keys and gesturing to the car. She left the rear hood popped open so she could see how the engine worked once she started it, but once she was sitting inside, prepared to press the start button, she hesitated. It had been so long since she’d started up a car with the intention to race it, so long since she’d been prepared to chase the checkered flag, it almost felt surreal.
Phi came over to the door and kneeled down, putting him at eye level with her. “I can feel your hesitation, Danica.”
She met his eyes. “Do you blame me?”
He shook his head. “I don’t, but we must not stop our lives in our grief. Grief means you cared, but we continue on in their image and do them proud.”
“You speak like you know. . .”
A soft smile pulled at his lips. “My mother passed a long time ago. For a while, I stopped moving at all, sitting in stagnation, until I realized she would want me to continue on. Now, all that I do, I do with the knowledge that I carry her blood in my veins, and nothing makes me prouder than that.” He tilted his head. “But if you can’t do this, if you’re not ready, you can walk away. The orphanage is already out of debt. I will allow you to walk out these doors and arrange a plane ticket for you to return to Rockville.”
Danica’s hands tightened on the steering wheel, Phi’s words echoing in her head. He was good with words, speaking them in a way where they seemed to ring with truth. She wondered if that were a product of his upbringing or just how Phi was as a person. Either way, his words hit her differently.
We continue on in their image and do them proud.
“No,” Danica said, steeling her spine. “We’re going to win. I need the profiles on the other teams’ cars, their specs if you have them, and everything we’re up against.”
In a race like this, it was unlikely for the specs to be common knowledge but there had to at least be some information on the cars, or even the racers. Danica would take any information she could get if it meant being able to use those to her advantage.
Phi smiled and leaned across her, too close, but Danica didn’t mind. If anything, the sudden urge to pull him closer overtook her as his long hair trailed over her lap. He pressed the start button and the car roared to life, a beautiful sound of power and grace and money.
When he leaned back, his eyes were twinkling in a way she hadn’t seen before. He was proud of her, and for some reason, that realization made her stomach twist.
“As you wish,” he said, and something inside her wanted to wish for something else.
But Danica turned away from the tempting vampire and gripped the steering wheel tighter.
Now wasn’t the time for sensual thoughts about her teammate.