The Impossible Engineers (The Doorknob Society Saga Book 2) Read online

  Stupid. I should have realized there’d be more. I got to my feet and spun around, three more men raced toward us. Jess let loose with her blast taking out the other attacker and I tapped her shoulder and pointed to our new problem.

  “We need to go.” I activated my doorknob, created a portal and swung open the glowing blue door. Slade finally reached me and with a smile of relief hugged me.

  “Nightshade?” Jess looked at me questioningly.

  “He’s got a portal generator in the car, he’ll be fine.”

  I was grateful that Slade’s answer put Jess at ease so that she ran through the portal without hesitation and glad for the portal generator that would keep Nightshade safe. Slade followed next. I grabbed the door’s knob and was about to step through when a wave of crimson energy slammed into my portal. I hit a wall when I hurried to step through again. The portal had been turned into a hard glass-like surface. I could see Jess and Slade on the other side. Jess was using her key, attempting to subvert the lock that had been thrown on my doorknob. I turned, the men in black had stopped a few feet away and smiled an I-got-you smile at me. The lead man, not much older than me with long black hair and a mocking expression, laughed as I tried to move my doorknob.

  “I’ve locked it. Haven’t any of your little Guild friends explained that we can do that?”

  I looked back to Slade and Jess, fear was written all over their faces.

  “Run,” Slade yelled, pounding on the glass in a useless attempt to break it and reach me.

  He was right and angry that he couldn’t save me. I was on my own. I let go of my doorknob, energy spilling from my body as I turned and ran as fast as I could. My knob was useless to me now. I was trapped by the lock.

  “Get her.” I heard the leader call out behind me.

  I figured my only hope was getting lost in the ensuing chaos and getting back to a doorway in the Factories so that I could portal out. Only a fully trained Doorknob Society member at the height of their power was able to create a portal out of thin air that was why we all need our doorknobs or any doorknob, in a pinch. Right now I was willing to take anything I could get.

  I zigged and zagged, maneuvering my way through the crowd all the while hearing the men call out that they had me in their sights. Either they weren’t very good at their job alerting me to their movements or they were using it as a tactic to frighten me. I didn’t take the bait, didn’t look back, didn’t let fear take hold and screw up my escape. If they were close enough to touch me, I didn’t want to know about it.

  I felt completely naked without my doorknob. I had no way to block or shield an attack; I had to rely entirely on my feet to get me out of this jam.

  “I have her!” one of the men called from so close behind me that I could feel his hot breath on me. I urged my feet to move faster, pouring on all the speed I had left in me.

  The forceful yank on my hoodie spun me around and suddenly I was twirling like a top, tripping over my own feet. I fell, hitting the ground hard and rolled to a stop a few feet away.

  “You’re not getting away that easily, girl.”

  The guy with the long black hair stood in front of me. We were on a sidewalk in the Diesel Factories. Actually, I was lying on the sidewalk, which gave me a decent view of all the doors not that far away. Though with him standing right in front of me, his skeleton key in hand and pointed right at me, those doors might as well have been thousands of miles away. There was no way I could reach them... there was no escaping him.

  “Get it over with,” I said. If he was expecting me to beg for my life he had a long wait coming. And I wasn’t going to waste my last thoughts on him. I thought of my dad and friends and how it would bother Jess and torment Slade that they hadn’t been able to help me.

  “They were right about you.” He laughed as his key started gathering and forming energy. Tendrils of crimson seeped from its edges and spiraled around it as he let it build, slowly taunting me.

  “Tell them they can kiss my ass.” I was never one to make a bad situation better for myself, and I figured if I was going out I might as well do it on my terms. Cars from the race roared past us down the street, the wind they generated whipping his long hair around his face giving him the appearance of a wild man. He was barely older than me but his eyes were burning with madness.

  “Goodbye, Chloe Masters.” He lifted the key and I watched the streak of crimson shoot straight for my heart.

  Chapter 4

  Status: I mean seriously why me?

  The sound of the roaring engines seemed crazy loud but I didn’t realize why until I heard the squealing tires. Someone turned the wheel of their car far too fast and it came careening toward me and my would-be assassin.

  My black-haired opponent turned away from me and blasted at the flame-hooded car. The energy ricocheted off it and bounced down the street. He screamed in rage and shot another blast that still had no affect.

  The door of the Hudson Hornet kicked open and Nightshade looked at me through narrowed eyes. “Get in now!” he yelled.

  I didn’t question him; I dove into the front seat. I slid in so far that I slammed into his side and was grateful for the close connection. I cast an anxious glance out the driver’s side window. The man in black glared at us with a fury that made me shiver. When his focus settled on Nightshade I could have sworn I saw murder in his eyes.

  “Nightshade!”

  “See ya, Charlie.” Nightshade laughed, threw the car into gear, hit the gas pedal, and spun the wheels as we peeled away from the man he called Charlie. Explosions of light bounced off the back of the car as Charlie continued to attack with little success.

  I remained plastered against Nightshade and didn’t mind one bit. I was safe here with him and that wasn’t a guess, it was fact. Though he was annoying as hell, I could count on him to be there when things got tough. He didn’t desert me and for some crazy reason I didn’t believe that he ever would.

  A vision of Slade pounding on the unbreakable glass caught me unaware and laid a heap load of guilt on me. I slid off Nightshade and into the passenger seat, moving his jacket aside so that I didn’t sit on it. I glanced out the window, trying to figure out where we were in the Diesel Factories. Not recognizing anything, I turned to Nightshade who was busy keeping watch between the rearview mirror and the road ahead.

  “So you knew that guy?” I asked. Nightshade didn’t say anything, instead he nodded. He was beginning to annoy me. Did he really intend to sit here next to me and not say a word? “So who is he?”

  “Damn it.” Was his only response as he yanked the wheel sharply, turning it so that the car swung to the side and shot down a side road leaving the main drag of the race.

  I gave a quick glance out the back window to see if anyone followed and sure enough the old pickup truck had made the same crazy turn we had just made.

  “Great.” I rolled my eyes, turned around in my seat and ignored the blur of buildings flying past the sides of the car. Instead I focused on the front window, and the dark sedan that was speeding straight for us. Where the hell was our next turn off? I hurried to find one but saw nothing. I looked to Nightshade; he was accelerating. I told myself that he knew what he was doing and not to worry. But just in case, I slammed my hand against the dashboard and braced myself. Why I thought that would stop me from crashing through the windshield on impact was anyone’s guess, but hey, I had to do something. It’s just not in me to go down without trying.

  Nightshade reached out and flipped down a small compartment on the dashboard. It had several dials and a key hole in which his Skeleton Key was already resting. He grabbed hold of the key and turned it. Crimson light spread like liquid fire over the entire body of the car, pulsing with power. It surrounded me, hugging close like a living, breathing thing aching for contact. Then in a flash of light everything changed.

  We were no longer driving down a street in the Diesel Factories but instead were on an entirely different street driving down an incline so
steep that I braced my hand on the roof, scared that the car would catapult forward. How my action would prevent that I didn’t know but it seemed like a smart move. I cast an anxious glance out the window and watched as row after row of Victorian homes went by. It didn’t take much to figure out that we were in San Francisco.

  “How?” Before Nightshade had a chance to respond I saw a flash of light behind us and turned to see the pickup truck still on our tail.

  “Damn!” Nightshade slapped the steering wheel and jammed his foot down on the gas pedal. The car lurched forward and we roared down the steep street like a rocket. I looked back and saw the pickup accelerate as it careened down the hill toward us.

  “They’re gaining on us.”

  “Hold onto something.”

  Sure, now that we faced a life or death situation his conversation with me was growing. Those three words added to the other two made it five words that he had spoken to me in the last two months. As we entered a cross section, Nightshade yanked the wheel, it seemed a favorite action of his, and set us spinning and cutting onto another street.

  And what greeted us there... the same dark sedan that had been barreling toward us at the Diesel Factories. Nightshade yanked the wheel again and we jumped the curb. His hand shot out and he spun his skeleton key again. The crimson light flashed over us once more. One moment we were hopping a curb in San Francisco aimed toward at beautiful, old Victorian home and the next we were on a street so narrow that I thought the buildings would scrape the sides of the car. I gave a sigh of relief when we tore out of the alley. Nightshade handled the turn skillfully, merging us into traffic as horns blared and we just missed a collision with oncoming cars. Once clear, Nightshade hit the gas pedal.

  His hand hovered by his key and I wondered where we would travel next. Another shaft of light exploded behind us. I didn’t get a chance to see who followed. Nightshade turned his key for the third or was it fourth time, I had lost count and once again crimson light swallowed us and the street changed.

  Rain poured down around us and I could barely see the street we appeared on. A sign in front of us blinked in large orange letters: BRIDGE OUT! My heart jumped as I turned to Nightshade. He didn’t blink; he just kept driving. So far he had gotten us out of every tight spot, and I wasn’t about to question him now even if we were headed off a bridge.

  “Hold the wheel,” he ordered and for once I didn’t argue. I did as he said, I grabbed it and held it steady as he rolled down the window.

  I had never been in a car where you had to physically roll the windows down. Rain rushed in and Nightshade’s shirt was soon drenched but he ignored it and stuck one hand out the window while holding his key in the other. Energy surged through him and an instant later a blast cut through the air and crashed into the sign. The orange letters blinked for a moment longer and turned dark. Nightshade pulled his arm back in the car and rolled up the window as another shaft of light appeared behind us.

  “Hold on, this is going to be tricky,” Nightshade warned as he took control of the wheel and took a breath and held it. Not a good sign.

  The car raced up the slope of the bridge and I gripped the seat until my knuckles turned white, expecting the bridge to disappear at any moment. The headlights behind us drew closer until the car drilled into us. The car bucked but Nightshade remained in control, his breathing even and his jaw set tight. I forced myself to look out the front window and watch the pavement of the bridge racing at us until suddenly... it disappeared.

  Nightshade gunned the gas pedal with confidence. We lurched forward into the abyss and Nightshade spun the key and I welcomed the crimson light that wrapped around us. For a moment everything seemed to go weightless and then... BOOM. The whole car shook violently as we hit pavement. We were on another street, the skyline clear and recognizable... New York City.

  I thought about the car following us and wondered what happened to it when a flash of light went off behind us. I turned just as I heard the massive crash. I was in time to see the front end of the pickup do a header into the pavement, the front end crushing like tin foil being crumbled. I couldn’t help but laugh at the scene of the truck sitting upright in the middle of a New York City street with people walking by, looking on in confusion.

  “One down,” Nightshade said and turned a corner, racing down a side street. He cut across several more streets before taking a hard right and slamming the car to a stop at a red light, the car rumbling as if annoyed its fun had been interrupted.

  “Maybe we lost them?” I offered, though when I looked across at the opposite side of the light, there sat the dark sedan.

  Nightshade turned and shook his head at me. “Way to go.”

  “Sorry.” I shrugged.

  Nightshade cast a glance back to see if anyone was behind us. There wasn’t and he quickly reached for the shifter and threw the car into reverse, working his feet in unison on the clutch and the gas pedal. Smoke poured from the tires as we shot backwards. Horns honked and drivers yelled, while the sedan remained stuck in the intersection. Thank God for New York traffic.

  Nightshade grabbed the key and turned it again and the familiar flash of light enshrouded us and New York City disappeared in a blink. The sun seemed larger then I remembered it as Manhattan streets gave way to desert and rocks. Nightshade spun the wheel quickly. The car swung around and came to an abrupt stop. I shot a look out my window and saw the reason for his quick action. I stared down into a bottomless, massive gorge.

  He shifted the car into park, grabbed his key and opened the door. “Get out.

  I scrambled out along with him just in time to see the flash of light as the dark sedan appeared, careening full speed ahead at the Hornet. Nightshade pointed his key at it and crimson mist shot out, encompassing the sedan.

  The vehicle didn’t even attempt to break, it sounded as if someone was trying to repeatedly open the door lock, the click, click, click growing louder. The sedan continued to careen straight ahead and right over the edge and into the gorge, disappearing into the oblivion below.

  My eyes turned so wide I thought they’d pop out of my head. “What did you do?”

  “I locked their car from being able to use a portal to escape.”

  I recalled at the start of this chase of how my doorknob had been locked and I was unable to escape.

  “There were people in that car?” It was a question more than a statement.

  “Most likely.”

  “You killed them?”

  “Yes, because they were trying to kill us.”

  “But—”

  “No buts, Masters, if someone is trying to kill you, you make sure to kill them first.” Nightshade walked to the car and I heard him slide the key back into the compartment on the dashboard.

  I walked over to the gorge, though kept away from the edge and stood silent letting what had just happened sink in. I had defended myself numerous times and even fought brutally when my life depended on it... but I had never taken a life. This incident made me wonder if I could if it came down to it. And it made me wonder how it would affect me if I did. I glanced at Nightshade who was pulling off his wet t-shirt and placing it on the hood to dry.

  He had just killed someone and he seemed so calm, so unaffected. Slade could never do that. He would find another way, a better one most likely. Then I remembered what Nightshade had told me about Caleb Darker and that no matter what happened he would kill him. I never really thought about it till now, but he had meant every word of it.

  “We should get back.” I said, my hands trembling as I walked back to the car.

  “Can’t, don’t have enough juice. It’ll be a few hours before we can head through another portal.” Nightshade hoisted himself onto the hood of the car and looked out over the gorge at the setting sun.

  “So you’re talking to me now?” We had only been talking for a few minutes but I couldn’t help needling him. Maybe that’s just how I dealt best with him.

  Nightshade waved at the empty de
sert around us. “Not like I’ve got a lot of company out here.

  “You’re a real piece of work you know that.”

  “Look who’s talking, little Miss Celebrity.”

  “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  “Like you don’t know? You’ve had rewards and accolades heaped on top of you by just about everyone. How do you like your new found popularity?”

  “Is that what this is all about, Nightshade? You’re upset that you didn’t get your share of the glory. Because if you didn’t notice I made it clear to everyone that I couldn’t have done it without the help of my friends. Oh, but wait, that’s right, you were too busy sulking and not talking to me to take notice.”

  “You think I care about that? You really are clueless, Masters.” He shook his head like some teacher admonishing a failing student and it made my blood boil.

  “You’re damn right I think that. I think you’re mad that you didn’t get your spotlight. Why don’t you go console yourself on Jess’ shoulder, I’m sure she would be happy to help you cry it out.” I hadn’t meant to bring Jess into it but he had made me so angry that I hadn’t taken time to think, the words had just spilled out.

  Nightshade’s face flashed red and he hopped off the car and stepped right in front of me. “You want to start bringing other people into this Masters? How are things going with you and blockhead anyway?”

  “Wonderfully, Slade is a great guy, so go ahead and call him my boyfriend I don’t care. He is my boyfriend and I like it that way.” I poked my finger at his naked chest and struck hard muscle. I would have cried ouch but I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.

  “Do you now? So have you told your boyfriend about our time in the closet?” He smirked at me.