Chapter 4 #5
Lucien swerved, ducking to peer past the Rogue blocking his view. Beside him, Rhyden snapped an ammo cartridge into place on his gun, unbuckling his seatbelt as he leaned up, bracing a booted foot on the dash.
Auren was gone.
Rin leaned forward instinctively, eyes flicking over the chaos. She didn’t have her Echogun still.
"Shit!" she cursed.
The wheel jerked hard, and Cyrus caught her waist before she could slam into the seats.
Lucien’s eyes darkened. "Get in the back seat, Vesperin!"
She shook her head, trying to move closer, but her belt yanked tight against her stomach. With a frustrated sound, she clicked it free.
Wintry air flooded the vehicle, along with the whistle of wind and the baying of the Rogue as it kept swinging its tail at the glass. Rhyden had cracked the passenger-side window, bracing his gun against the glass and aiming high. He fired.
Rin flinched. "That’s not an Echogun?" She raised her voice to be heard.
Rhyden didn’t turn, shoulders unyielding as he fired again. The shot went up, missing the Rogue where it was atop the vehicle.
Lucien kept swerving, trying to shake it, but the dented roof showed the Rogue had a secure grip.
"No," Rhyden barked between methodical shots. "Get your ass down, wife."
Cyrus grabbed her arm, trying to tug her back down to the floorboard. "Ves—"
"Stop, Cyrus, I can help," Rin hissed back, yanking free as she placed her knees in the seat and crawled into the back, tumbling into a mass of backpacks and blankets.
She searched frantically for her Echogun, fingers trembling as she unzipped her bag and rifled through it, dislodging her carefully packed things. Nothing. Her chest seized, heart hammering painfully.
Cyrus placed his hands on the seat back and peered at her. "Vesperin, you need to get back over—" His words were cut off by a loud bang.
A roar.
A masculine scream—
Rin spun toward the rear window, just in time to see a flash of white tumble from the roof and roll across the road. They kept speeding along, leaving him far behind.
"Auren!" she screamed, palms slapping against the glass. His form shrank rapidly as they sped away. "We have to go back for him!"
"Cyrus, get her!" Lucien ordered.
Cyrus grabbed her shoulders, hauling her back over the seat roughly—but not before she saw a flash of a blade and wrapped her fingers around the pommel of her Echosword. She didn’t know who packed it. It didn’t fucking matter now.
With the sword in hand, she let Cyrus force her down to the floorboard.
Their breaths mingled, his hot against her cheeks.
Cyrus covered her hand on the sword’s pommel. "Ves, let Auren handle it, yeah?"
She opened her mouth to argue, but metal shrieked overhead.
Long, serrated claws plunged through the roof.
The vehicle shuddered as the Rogue tore it open, ripping free a chunk and flinging it away.
Roaring wind poured in. The Rogue’s eyes bore down on them all.
Rhyden cursed loudly, aiming his gun up, but the barrel was too long, the angle bad.
Not to mention, they were regular bullets. Who didn’t bring Echobullets?
Lowlevel or not, the Rogue was relentless.
With snow beginning to dust the inside of the vehicle, Rin got up on her knees, ignoring Cyrus and Lucien’s warning shouts to her, and used all her strength, fingers curling expertly around the pommel of the sword.
She sliced the blade straight up, feeling the Rogue’s body give as she hit the vulnerable spot near the front chest. Blood spilled down the blade and her wrist as it thrashed, baying so loudly her ears rang.
That wouldn’t kill it—she needed more.
As if the call in her soul was answered by some atavistic part of her, she felt a tug and gasped, her fingers spasming around the hilt.
It felt like being electrocuted. White light sizzled in the air, rushing in her veins and surging from her fingertips, crackling up the blade, straight into the Rogue’s rock-like body.
The monster gave a valiant, dying roar, paws swiping in a last-ditch effort to kill them all.
Then the glow slowly ebbed away, as if it had never happened.
Rin screamed as she twisted the blade, and, finally, the Rogue went limp, sliding further down the Echosword and sagging against the remaining roof. Stuck beneath its weight, she tried to shove it off, her heart one long beat.
A thump hit the hood of the vehicle.
"Auren!" Lucien shouted.
Rin began to tremble from the strain of holding the Rogue off. It had to weigh a hundred pounds.
Her suddenly tired eyes rose, following the sounds. Auren had portaled to the hood of the car, kneeling with his scythe clenched in his hands, hood astray, and snow dusting his blonde hair.
Auren swayed as he crawled to the torn roof, peering down. "Let go," he said hoarsely. "I have it now."
Rin let her fingers release their death grip on the pommel. The sword was stuck inside the Rogue. She fell back to her bottom, Cyrus catching her. Auren ripped the Echosword out and hurled the Rogue’s body away, where it toppled into a snow-filled ditch.
The Soul Searcher dropped into the vehicle, cheeks scraped, blood on his face and hands. "You did well, Hunter."
Rin couldn’t reply because her heart stuttered dangerously, and she gasped, calling out for one name, the only one she knew could help her right now:
"Lucien."