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I was almost to Castor and his prisoners when a very large body stepped in my path. I skidded to a stopped mere inches from Astyanax. He loomed above me like a colossus. His fangs flashed in the light from the moon and the fires forming inside The Factory. My bowls went watery, but I raised the gun.
A massive fist swiped the weapon away with little effort. His other hand swung around and made contact with my jaw. I fell back as Castor started laughing.
"Meridian Six," Castor drawled. He held a hand up to forestall Astyanax's advance. "Why am I not surprised to find you in league with this pathetic group of weaklings."
I spit a mouthful of blood at his feet. "Let us go or I'll set off the bomb I just installed on your propane stores." I held up the remote we'd used earlier to warn Rabbit. Castor bought the lie and stilled.
"What are your demands?" His tone was too casual. He was coiling like a snake preparing to strike.
"Let the boy go," I said, looking him directly in his yellow eyes. "The other two, as well."
Castor's eyebrows rose up. "That's all?"
I shook the remote in the air. "We’ll see."
The corner of his red lips lifted. "Never try to bluff a professional liar, Six." He nodded toward Astyanax. I felt the air shift as the general moved toward me. In slow motion, I pivoted and held up an arm to ward off the fangs. But in the next instant, the deafening boom of an explosion blew across the clearing like a hurricane of fire, bringing with it searing heat and a concussion like a punch to the diaphragm.
The impact knocked me off my feet and sent my body flying toward the spot where Icarus had stood a moment earlier. A high-pitched whine filled my ears and my eyes stung and were wet. I swiped at them and my hand came away bloody. Despite the pain and confusion, a single thought screamed inside my head: RUN!
The chain reaction hadn't spread through the Factory's pipeline. But it was coming. If I didn't get us out of there now we were going to burn. Even though my eyes hurt like hellfire, I squinted through the smoke and located Icarus a couple of feet away. I groped toward him. "Icarus! Can you hear me?" I couldn't hear myself, but judging from the way my throat ached, I was screaming. He rolled over and blinked once, twice, three times before he jerked into motion.
"Dare? Rabbit?" he mouthed.
"There!" Dare was lying on top of Rabbit over near a wheel of the rover. Together, Icarus and I leaned into each other, supporting each other's weights. We stumbled to the ground by Dare and pulled her off him. A trickle of blood glared red beneath her left ear and her eyes were shot through with broken capillaries.
Icarus grabbed her off the ground, supporting all of her weight when she didn't do it on her own. He jerked his head toward Rabbit. I leapt toward the kid and hauled him up to my shoulder with strength borne from fear and adrenaline. When I turned to follow Icarus, I saw Astyanax's smoldering body nearby. His large body had taken most of the brunt of the explosion and it showed. A quick look around revealed dozens of other burning bodies, but I didn't detect Castor's among the injured.
Shaking myself, I sped up to follow Icarus onto the open door of the rover. I prayed he knew how to fly it because we didn't have time for a tutorial. The ground was shaking as explosions occurred in the pipeline underground.
I lay Rabbit on one of the plush benches inside the rover and went to hit the button to seal us in. The sound of the engines whirring to life filled the cabin. Icarus had dumped a shell-shocked Dare into the co-pilot's seat and taken the throttle. "Hold on!" he yelled.
The world tilted wildly. I grabbed onto a handle and held on with white knuckles. As the earth fell away below us, it felt like I'd left my stomach behind. Through the front window I could see the stars getting closer, which meant we were getting farther from The Factory. The last ten minutes had felt like an eternity.
"Shit, Six." Icarus's warning came a split second before The Factory went boom. The concussion rocked the rover, causing it to dip and stutter in mid-air. A sensor started beeping furiously.
"Hang on!" Icarus yelled. He didn’t have to tell me twice. I braced my feet and grabbed onto handholds on the ceiling.
Finally stable, I turned to look out of the rear window of the rover. Where The Factory had stood now looked like the mouth of hell. We'd done it. We'd destroyed the Troika's dragon before it could consume any humans.
The sensor stopped beeping and the rover's altitude leveled off. For a moment, I allowed myself to just breath easy.
Rabbit groaned from the bench. My short-lived respite over--I moved to check on him. The bullet had gone straight through his shoulder. Not a lethal wound, but blood loss could pose a major problem. His skin was pale and clammy, and his mouth worked like he wanted to scream, but he didn't open his eyes.
"How is he?" Icarus called.
"Alive, but he needs medical attention."
Before Icarus could answer, the door to the rover's electrical closet burst open.
Castor launched at me looking like something straight out of hell. His once-elegant face was bloody and patches of skin were charred beyond recognition. I fell back into the bench where Rabbit lay as Castor’s weight slammed into me. His fangs snapped like a beast’s toward my neck. To heal his wounds, he'd need an infusion of blood. My blood.
"Icarus!" I screamed. But I knew he couldn't help me. Someone had to fly the rover.
"The Prime should have killed you when your brat turned out to be a low blood!" he snarled.
I fought and scratched at the vampire's face. I kicked with heavy, sore legs. I screamed my rage at his horrific, burned face.
Movement from my peripheral vision. Then Castor's weight lifted off me. Dare had shaken off her shock and come to the rescue. She and Castor faced off. Her yellow eyes flashed and she hissed, flashing those empty fang sockets. Despite being a eunuch, she looked every inch the fearsome predator capable of murder.
