Silk Dragon Salsa by Rhys Ford

Author:Rhys Ford [Ford, Rhys]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fantasy
ISBN: 978-1-64405-870-1
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2020-07-13T16:00:00+00:00

Eleven

THE MUSTANG took the curves of the Post’s steep hills with ease, rumbling in a deep throaty growl as if warning other predators away. While I was grateful for Cari’s family letting me borrow the Nova, I was glad I had Oketsu back on the road. It’d been too long since I’d been cradled in his black leather seats, letting the wheels eat up the miles on a distant run. The trip back had been shorter than going up, but that always seemed to be the case. Finding out Kenny Dempsey had bolted toward San Diego cut the trip short, but it’d been a good one.

Except for one thing, and that was sitting in my back seat, complaining about how his rib cage hurt and about the bellyache he got from taking the antibiotics the station medics pushed on him.

“If there was anything that really convinced me I didn’t want kids, it was this trip back down.” Muttering at Ryder didn’t help, because he barely glanced at me. “The twins don’t cry this much, and they barely have teeth.”

He probably was used to hearing people complain. More than likely it was the first bullet point on his Grand Poohbah job description. A Sidhe probably didn’t even get their lordship title until they sat through at least six ten-day sessions of people whining about how their skin hurt or that they didn’t get guacamole on their carne asada burrito. Either way, he seemed to be immune to every single one of Malone’s whine fests.

“Bugs, can you maybe hold your breath for five minutes? If you can, Uncle Kai will give you a nice shiny silver coin.” I gritted my teeth, ignoring Ryder’s nearly imperceptible chuckle. “Don’t laugh at me. It’s still not too late to shoot him.”

“You promised his aunt you would bring him to her at the Post,” the lordling reminded me in a smug tone that made my hand itch to curl into a fist and punch his perfect nose. “It’s only a minute or two more.”

“Less if I gun it.” Oketsu leaped forward when I pressed down on the gas, jerking everyone else back into their seats. “Sooner we dump Malone into Sarah’s lap, the sooner I can get down to business.”

At least Ryder took the acceleration easily. From the sounds of things, Malone might have tumbled around a bit, but at least he stopped talking. The switchbacks were tight, throwbacks to the days when engines were horses and the Merge pushed the hillside out and up, creating a towering mesa point. We came up onto the parking lot fast, hitting the last curve with a dip of the car’s suspension to hug the angle in the road.

We’d made good time coming down from the border, stopping at the automat again to grab some food and a little bit of sleep. Scavengers—the human kind—had already made off with the black dog’s corpse and the mangled motorbike, leaving behind only a greasy smear, a crimp in the guardrail, and the acid-etched pits in the ground where the monster’s blood and spit scored the asphalt.

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