The same went for the boy, who seemed locked inside of himself with a delirious fear that made him weep. Cole, weak though she was, held the boy close.
“ What did you say?” Kane said to Black. He took a few steps closer to her. “Sorry, I didn't catch that. I thought maybe I heard you being rude again, you bitch.”
Black stood up. Cole put a hand out to stop her, but Black brushed it away.
“ You heard me just fine, you dumb shit,” Black said.
“ Maybe you didn't say it with enough feeling…”
“ Stop!” Cross said, loudly. “We don't have time for this crap. As soon as we’re ready, we have to get the hell out of here!”
Kane and Black both stopped, but they still looked ready to pounce.
“ We?” Kane said. “No, no, no…I think you left something back there, Cross. Like maybe your brain. There is no 'we'. Ekko and I are getting out of here. I don't give a shit what you do. I mean…look at her! Just LOOK at Ekko!!” It was the closest thing to panic Cross had seen or heard in Kane.
“ Ekko is going to Turn, you moron,” Black barked at him. “What are you going to do then?”
“ Oh, so if we come with you she’ll be all right?” Kane barked. “Are you going to cure her, Doctor Black? Oh, and if you call me a moron again you're going to be Black and blue.”
“ Try it…”
“ Stop!” Cross shouted, and he ran between and pushed them both back as they moved to grab one another. “Seriously? We DO NOT have time for this!” Cross turned to Kane. “Ekko has to come with us, Kane,” he said as calmly as he could manage. His spirit burned against his skin. She was caught up in the anger and aggression of the moment, and the effort he had to expend to hold her back sapped at his strength. “She's a part of this, whether she likes it or not. And I…I know how she feels about you, which makes you a part of this, too.”
Kane was clearly furious, and his fists balled up so tight it was a wonder they didn’t crack. But even though he fumed and gnashed his teeth, Kane kept his eyes focused, and he visibly fought to maintain control. All things considered, Cross thought that the big man did an admirable job of keeping his rage in check.
Kane turned and looked at Ekko. Pale and monstrous though she was, her expression was clearly one of sadness as she nodded assent to what Cross had suggested.
“ Fine,” Kane said, exasperated and angry. “Fine. We're with you.” He pointed and looked at Danica. “But you stay the hell away from us.”
“ Bite me,” Black laughed. “Can we go, please?”
“ Yes,” said a voice from the other end of the loading platform. “You have no idea how long overdue our exodus is.”
It was Ramsey.
Kane turned as if ready to cut the Gol down, and Cross felt the air crackle with the coursing energy of Black's spirit, who tasted of ozone and iron, fire and blood. Without an implement, there was little that Cross could do to stop Black from using her magic.
“ He's coming with us,” Cross said, as loud and as authoritative as he could. He felt cold inside. There was a hollow space where something important used to be, something that would keep him from killing Black in spite of how important he knew she was.
No. Focus.
“ Give me one reason,” Kane said, “why I shouldn't hollow out his skull and use it for a piss pot.”
Ramsey laughed.
“ Well, you're creative, at least,” he said.
Black scowled, and closed her fist. An incandescent blade of shimmering dark glass took shape in her hand, so sharp it made the air bleed.
“ No,” Cross said. He didn't recall picking up the triple-barrel shotgun, but he felt its weight in his hand, felt his finger longingly stroke the trigger. “He's coming with us.”
Black kept her eyes on Ramsey. The Gol hadn't moved — he just stood there with his face covered, his tattered cloak blowing in the bladed wind, his milky eyes regarding them without a hint of emotion.
“ And who put you in charge?” she asked Cross.
“ I did,” he said. “And for one simple reason: unlike you and Kane, I’ve left the arena behind.”
Both Black and Kane looked at him. He saw the confusion in their eyes, the rage. He saw them desperately try to reconstruct the past few weeks, to try to discern truth from nightmare, to try and remember all of the lives they'd taken and the terrible and violent things they'd done just to stay alive. Just as quickly as they seemed to remember, he saw them want to forget.
“ Tega Ramsey is the only reason we're getting out of here at all,” Cross said. Ramsey nodded. “What about the other prisoners?” Cross asked him. “The inmates held in the city?”
Ramsey shook his head.
“ Dead,” he answered.
“ All of them?”
“ Krul protocol,” Ramsey said after a moment, as if weighing whether or not he wanted to share it. “In the event of any sort of incursion or disaster, all cells are summarily filled with neurotoxin. It happens automatically, and without question. Chances are that most of them were dead before you even made it off of that platform.”
“ Wait,” Black said. “That…thing was disrupting everything mechanical. Maybe not all of the gas was released.”
“ In which case those prisoners were let loose into the lowest bowels of the city, where the sentries and golems would destroy them.” He shook his head. “And that’s not even taking into consideration the poison gases floating around in the alleys and lower streets. There may be a few scattered survivors here and there, but you have to ask yourself if they’re worth looking for.”
“ Look,” Cross said. “Maybe…”
A sharp blast of wind cut through the air behind them as a bladed warship rose up out of nowhere. Its turbine engines screamed as their exhaust distorted the air and turned it molten. Bone cannons mounted on the blood-colored forward deck sprayed the air with explosive white needles.
Sparks and bone exploded across the face of the platform. The sound of steel filled Cross' head. Debris flew into his face as he dove through a cloud of choking exhaust and heat.
The maimed man was torn to pieces by the vampire ship’s weapons.
Cross screamed. He tasted hex and glacial salt seconds before Black hurled her sword through the air. Bone needles shattered the blade and turned it to glass, but the resultant explosion sent fragments of onyx dust that flew like a swarm of razor bees. The cloud flew into the vampire vessel and buried it in sharp black sand. The turbine engines sputtered.
Cross took hold of the motor gun on the hovercraft, swiveled the weapon around, and opened fire. The blasts nearly shattered his eardrums, but Cross narrowed his eyes and held the wildly bucking weapon steady. Shots as large as railroad spikes ripped through metal and undead flesh. The weapon shredded the vampire ship into pieces. The vessel listed to its side and spun out of control before it fell into the clouds and shadows below.
Not far away, more ships and fliers took notice.
“ Can we leave now?!” Kane shouted.
Ramsey left no question as to which of the two vessels under repair they should take when he darted past everyone and into the closer airship, a squat vehicle the color of sand. The ship had large turbines at its aft, and large motor cannons at the fore and in a top-mounted turret. The craft’s size identified it as some sort of cargo vessel, but its sleek design seemed more inclined for speed.
Either way, Cross and the others got aboard.
The interior of the vessel was made from twisted and sinuous metal cast in a variety of desert hues. Dark and vaguely organic panels housed wiring that looked like massive tube-worms filled with crackling fluid. The vessel smelled of arsenic and sumac.
Cross instinctively threw a hand against a dark panel on the wall that looked like a black vomit stain. Sharp pain lanced into his hand, but the rear doors slid shut.