Blood & Honey (Race Games 1)

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Danica panicked immediately. Everything in her body tensed up, her memories clashing with reality. For a moment, she couldn’t figure out if the flames were a flashback to the wreck that took her father’s life or actually in the here and now. Her stomach dropped, sweat beaded on her forehead, and she froze.

Danica!

The voice broke through, sounding like her father. Was he calling for her to save him? Was he asking for help? Was it all a trick of her mind?

Danica!

She barely breathed, her throat closed with fear. She was going to watch him die again, but where was the car? Where was her father?

“Little Racer!”

“Danica!”

Danica blinked and the flames focused, not the bright orange and blue of her father’s Indy car exploding, but a brilliant flame with all the colors of the rainbow mixed in. She shook her head and glanced over at Arden and Phi, both of them looking at her with clear concern in their eyes.

“I’m okay,” she reassured them. “I’m okay.”

“The fire won’t cut through the car. It’ll hold,” Arden reassured her. “However, it might get hot. Nothing we can’t handle.”

“I’m human,” Danica whispered, focusing on the road before her. Though the flames seemed to fill the sky around them, she could still see the Maserati beside them, knew the Fae were racing the same as them and fighting the fire. The track straightened out and it would be down to only their skills and speed. Danica pressed on the accelerator and focused, but the heat grew quickly in the car, her skin promising to blister. “I’m going to burn,” she clarified. There was no way she could withstand this heat, but she was going to cross the finish line whether she crossed it intact or crispy. She was going to win.

Arden cursed and reached in the back. “Don’t we have the fire-retardant blanket in here somewhere?” he asked Phi. “Please, tell me we didn’t take it out.”

Phi began to dig around and Danica tried not to focus on it, only on the finish line they began to draw closer and closer to. The hairs on her arms sizzled and melted away, the skin there flaring red. When the first blister appeared, her hair sticking to her scalp as the sweat coated her body, she took a deep breath and came to terms with how this was going to go. If she won, no matter how badly she was injured, she only had to be alive. That was the only requirement. She could do that. She would do it for her vampires and the kids depending on her.

“Found it!” Arden exclaimed excitedly. When he came back to the front seat, there was sweat even beading his forehead as he quickly unfolded the chrome-material blanket and threw it over Danica, making sure she was covered as best as possible.

“Arden—”

“Don’t worry about me, little racer. I’ll heal.”

The position put Arden closer to the ceiling, closer to the heat, and she knew he was attempting to hide his grunts. Phi reached forward and made sure Danica was covered just the same, both of them using their bodies and the blanket to keep her from being injured. The heat was still unbearable, but she was no longer burning thanks to their efforts.

With the pedal to the floor, the speedometer rose higher and higher, until it was a literal race to the finish line. The Fae team fought to stay beside them, the noses of the cars taking turns being in front. Power for power, the cars seemed evenly matched, which left it all down to skill.

The flames rose higher, the heat in the car ratcheting up another notch until Arden and Phi began to hiss. Something sizzled and Danica glanced at them in worry.

“Keep going,” Arden ordered, his voice tight with pain. “We’re almost there.”

“Watch your left!” Phi ordered just as a large swinging axe shot across in front of them, having been released a second too early. Danica barely had to swerve to avoid it, the Fae doing the same. It had been hidden in the flames, and only Phi’s quick warning kept her from clipping it and losing their position.

The finish line flashed through the flames and Danica focused all her attention on it despite the sweltering heat that was slowly leaking through the blanket.

The final half mile straightened out completely and though the flames kept up, both Danica and the Fae gunned their engines, racing toward the final line. This was it. This was everything Danica had trained for. This was her moment, and then everyone she cared about would be safe.

Traps sprung around them, but they were moving too fast, already gone before the trap could spring and kill them. A large hole opened up around them, but they were past it before it could catch their tires. The speed-o-meter hit two hundred and the steering wheel shook with the force. The Porsche had taken a beating. Danica only hoped it could continue to hold together.

The Maserati and the Porsche were neck and neck, alternating between who was in the lead.

The fire suddenly stopped and revealed the finish line and something else.

“Danica—” Phi grunted, his voice coated with pain.

“I got it,” she grunted and swerved around the wave of black tar that seemed to move as if it had a mind of its own. It was like a tidal wave, swiping down toward them, but she was around it a moment later, just as the Fae were on the other side.

The finish line was only fifty yards away. They closed the distance, the Fae right beside them, both fighting for the lead. Stands full of people came into view, less people here than there’d been at the start, but after the finish line, there was nothing but desert, the end of the Race Games, freedom, and survival.