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I raised my eyebrows. “You can’t seriously think we are going to stop to provide you with a blood snack?”
“I’m planning on saving that little treat for tonight,” said Ronin. “For now there’s a burger place around the corner that I have been dreaming about. The guards would go there every single day at lunchtime and get juicy hot meaty beefburgers, and I could smell them all the way across the prison. And I said to myself, when I get out one of those is the first thing I am gonna eat. One or ten!” He thumped Leo on the shoulder. “This guy knows what I’m talking about. Am I right?” He winked at Leo. Leo did not to smile back.
Ronin practically bounced into the back seat of the car, and then bounced up and down in his seat like an excited toddler. “C’mon!” he said. “Let’s hit the road! It’s drive-through time!”
Leo got into the back seat behind beside Ronin, close enough to keep an eye on the unexpectedly excitable dhampir. I suppose six years being locked in a chair would do that to a guy. Leo did not look impressed.
Storm got into the driver’s seat next to me and started the car. To my surprise he headed for the burger place that Steffane had insisted on. Perhaps he thought Steffane would be more cooperative if we fed him. Or maybe he thought he preferred the Steffane to be busy munching his burgers while I interviewed him than to have his hands free to attack me with.
Given that it was the tail end of lunchtime, the drive-through was packed with a line of cars. Our car crawled slowly towards the front. Leo was keeping a close eye on Steffane, but Steffane was still bouncing like a kid, eager to get his hands on his burgers.
And then Steffane said something. Three words that made absolutely no sense. An explosion ripped through the car. Not fire but pressure. Some sort of magical bomb that threw us against the metal shell of the car. Only Steffane had braced himself against it. I was vaguely aware of him throwing open the door and getting out. I was aware of Leo in the back seat, stunned by the blast, frozen into immobility by whatever it had been. He had been nearest to the source of the blast. He had got it wo
rst. My ears were ringing. I could tell that Storm’s ears were ringing. Storm was desperately trying to shove open his car door but it took him a couple of tries.
I was numb with shock. I tried to open my car door as well. I had to chase Ronin. I had to catch him before he got away, But my hands were not obeying my orders. There was something wrong with them. I looked down and saw that my hands were drooping limply. I had lost my ability to control them. There was something wrong with my wrists and forearms. They looked crumpled somehow. And then the pain came. The pain that left me gasping and fighting the urge to scream.
But I couldn’t scream, because then Leo who had only just managed to open the back door and was scrambling out of the car would know that there was something wrong with me. He would come to check up on me. And I needed to him to chase Ronin.
“Go!” I gasped.
Leo went.
Even after he left I didn’t scream, even though the pain was ripping up my arms and leaving me shaking. I was going to go into shock. I couldn’t go into shock. I had to get out of here. I had to get out before Storm found me like this.
Somehow I managed to get my door open by using my elbow to unhook the lock. I stumbled out of the car, and nearly fell flat on my face. I staggered around and by some miracle I managed to stay upright. If I had fallen no doubt I would have tried to catch myself with my hands by sheer instinct, and the pain would have made me pass out. And I couldn’t afford to pass out.
All around me I saw that people had gotten out of their cars and were staring at me. I couldn’t see Storm. I couldn’t see Leo, and I could not see where Ronin had gone. He was gone. There was no point running after him. My arms were on fire with pain. I crossed them carefully over my chest, cradling them inwards to my body, and gasping as they grazed each other. It hurt so damn much.
Whatever magic that Ronin had used had activated Theo’s shield bracelets, but it had interfered with the magic, and the shields had exploded inwards towards my wrists. The magic had shattered the bones in both of my arms. My arms were useless and in complete agony. I was going to pass out. I couldn’t let myself pass out. Because then Storm would come back here and he would find me.
The watching crowd had closed around me, concerned people reaching for me to see if I was all right. “Move!” I screamed at those who are nearest to me. They rapidly backed away, looking scared.
I ran past the crowd and away from the burger restaurant and down a side street. When I was finally sure that I was somewhere that Storm would not find me, I sank to my knees on the ground. I was fighting to stay conscious despite the waves of pain. If I passed out now then someone would find me. A stranger. They would check me over and see that my arms were broken. They would call an ambulance and rush me to hospital. And then while I was unconscious my body would start to knit itself together and heal itself. And they would see it. They would see my navelstone. And they would wonder what the hell kind of creature I was. They would find my Agency badge on me and they would call Storm. And then Storm would know.
I couldn’t allow that to happen. I fought the the darkness that was creeping into my mind and fighting to take me into unconsciousness. I fought it as I used my hands, which were both numb and throbbing with agony at the same time, to get my mobile phone out of my pocket and somehow dial Theo. I fought the darkness until Theo arrived.
Chapter 31
STORM
Steffane Ronin had vanished without a trace. Storm and Leo had given chase, but the dhampir must have had his route planned out. He must have had friends waiting to pick him up, because he was well and truly gone.
The magical explosive device that Steffane had used had been on the Agency car. How the hell it had got there Storm was determined to find out. Later.
Stunned by the turn of events, and furious with himself, Storm had returned to the car to find another shock. Diana had gone. At first he had worried that Ronin may have circled back to get her, but witnesses said that she had run off of her own accord. That she had seemed injured. Storm had been just about to send a search team out for her, when Diana’s friend Theo Grimshaw had called to say that he had picked Diana up because she wasn’t feeling well. So Storm had returned to Agency Headquarters. At least he now had to worry only about finding one person and not two.
Many hours later the team was still in the office engaged in efforts to find Ronin. London was too busy to throw up any roadblocks, but they had scoured security camera footage and sent teams of officers down to question witnesses in businesses near the area. Nobody had seen anything. Steffane had disappeared into a security camera blind spot. He had done his research well.
Storm had ordered the team to look into all of Steffane’s known acquaintances and find out which of them were most likely to have helped Steffane with his escape plan, and whether any of them were likely to be sheltering Steffane right now. The problem was that Steffane Ronin had a great many acquaintances, and many of them were the exact sort of wealthy and disreputable people who would be able to help Steffane escape.
Storm had even visited the Ronin mansion and persuaded a sullen Rodrigge Ronin to allow him to search the place. Rodrigge seemed to have lost his zeal since the arrest of his mother and loss of his wife. He had allowed Storm in without a search warrant. Storm had even gone into the room where the vampire Gaius Ronin lay resting, still recovering from the Vaerus X imprisonment that his wife Audriett had subjected him too. Steffane had not been hiding in there.
Instructing his team to continue the search for Steffane, Storm left the office. He knew in his heart that the only person who might really be able to find Steffane right now was Diana Bellona. He needed her skills. And anyway, he wanted to know if she was okay. It wasn’t like her to have left and not be in the office looking for Steffane. Which meant that she must have been more hurt in the blast than he and Leo had been. Storm was worried.
Storm called Diana, but she did not answer her phone, which worried him even more. When he arrived at her apartment and hammered on her door there was no answer. Storm listened through the door, but he knew that she was not there. So he went to Grimshaw’s magic shop next.
The wizard Theo Grimshaw seemed confused to see Strom, and even more confused when Storm asked to see Diana.
