Page 97 of Incubus
The grating of metal on concrete was deafening. Jim focused one half-drunken scattered thought on the dumpster and, just like what had happened with the water glass in the motel room, the dumpster went flying fast and hard into the opposite wall.
Gabriel leapt out of the way just in time, faster than most men half his age would have been able to. The speed of the dumpsterstill managed to crush his hand, but that only removed him of his gun. It wasn’t enough to hold him.
Pulling his crushed hand free again, Gabriel soon realized that he was at the disadvantage and took off running further down the alley.
Nathan wouldn’t have minded, either, if Jim hadn’t immediately jumped up to give chase.
“Jim, no!” Nathan cried, amazed that Jim slipped so easily from his grasp.
“We can’t let him get away!” Jim called back.
The alley cut off just ahead and turned into darkness, swallowing Gabriel and Jim like a hungry creature. Nathan had no idea where it led, but he immediately got to his feet to follow. Not even pausing to look back at Sasha, though Nathan knew the incubus was hot on his heels, he hurried to catch up to where Gabriel and Jim had disappeared. As soon as he turned the corner, he saw that the alley opened up into a comb of others, splitting in several different directions that were equally dark from lack of street lamps. The whole throng of alleys led into the warehouse district and any of the passages seemed as likely as the next.
Nathan was about to pick one at random when Sasha grabbed him from behind.
“I have a better idea,” Sasha said, pointing up at the tall building they were next to. “Better vantage point. Climb on.” Sasha positioned himself as if to scale the wall, despite there being absolutely nothing he could use as leverage.
“Uh…what?”
“Just hang on to my neck,” Sasha insisted. He pulled back one of his hands and it morphed seamlessly into dangerous claws just before he punched his taloned fingers into the brick of the building.
Nathan did not like this idea, but they didn’t have time to stop and discuss other possible routes. Wrapping his arms tight around Sasha’s neck, Nathan braced himself as Sasha began to climb, using his claws like grappling hooks. These alleys were too narrow for Sasha to get any kind of wingspan without starting higher.
Despite feeling frighteningly weightless, Nathan knew that as long as he didn’t look over his shoulder at the ground below, he could handle the height. Of course that didn’t stop him from curling his legs around Sasha’s waist for extra support.
“Climb over me,” Sasha said once they had reached the top.
Nathan obliged, carefully climbing off of Sasha and over him onto the roof. Sasha hoisted himself up easily and his claws faded back into smooth, pale hands.
“Can you see them?” Sasha asked, coming to stand beside Nathan as he stared down into the maze of alleyways below.
Light was meager, but movement was easier to make out from their new height. After a few moments, Nathan spotted what looked very much like two running figures down one of the alleys leading to a larger building.
“There! Come on!” Nathan said, turning to head back to the ledge they had come from.
“Wait. We’ll never catch them on foot,” Sasha said, “but now that we’re high enough…”
Nathan turned to look back at Sasha and saw the gradual shift as Sasha’s clothing faded and his full incubus features took over—the horns gently curling, the wings out and ready. There was still some obvious fatigue in Sasha, but not the way it had been the night Jim almost killed him with a knife to the stomach.
Sasha held a claw out toward Nathan, smiling. “Come on, we have to hurry.”
“Hang on,” Nathan said. “You go, I can…I can just walk.”
“Nathan.”
“You can catch them. Don’t worry about me.”
Nathan would have backed up a step if he didn’t know the edge of the roof was close beside him.
Sasha looked incredulous in a way that didn’t fit his incubus form at all, and moved toward Nathan with all intentions of grabbing him. “This is me, Nate, okay? I’m not going to drop you.”
“Yeah, well…the plane’s not going to crash either but every once in a while…BAM!” Nathan said, his arms stiff as Sasha took hold of them and started pulling him toward the edge.
“Nathan,” Sasha said chidingly, “I’m not going to drop you.”
And then, suddenly, Sasha had Nathan at the edge and he was moving in close behind him, taking tight hold of Nathan’s biceps and pushing off, no warning, just that horrible free-falling feeling with Nathan’s feet dangling...and Sashaflyingabove him.
Chapter 38
