Page 37 of Hero & Villain
“Out, Marcus! I’ve told you, you can’t just shed hair anywhere you want. And you know that you’re not allowed to eat doughnuts! Jezebel’s worried about your weight.”
The cat yowled again before he leapt over the side, skulking away between vehicles with his long tail twitching.
Dirk had moved into a defensive position between me and the cat. I noticed that only then. My heart tingled. I shook it off and tried to remember what we were doing here. Right. I was getting a car. A big pink car thoroughly covered in mountain lion hair.
I looked from the pink boat to her. The dragon. “It has good gas mileage?”
She grinned, green eyes flashing. “No, it has excellent gas mileage. I’ve been working on it with Dirk here, thus the unfortunate color. You don’t seem to mind pink though. Unless the hair was an accident, in which case, you have my condolences.”
I shook my head and touched my hair self-consciously. “No accident, even though it might have been a mistake.”
“Naw, you look very cute. Let’s take her for a ride. Get in,” she said, climbing in the passenger side. I knew how to drive, but I hadn’t actually done it for years, and I’d learned from Toni, who’d learned from Nitro, so my techniques weren’t entirely legal. “Just take the track around the compound, then, if you’re comfortable, we’ll go for a longer drive on a real track.”
Dirk vaulted over the side, sitting in the back, leaning forward so his arm brushed my shoulder. He also had Marcus Licinius Crassus’s doughnut and took a bite out of it like a complete barbarian. So gross. Except that he had pink frosting on his pink lips and…
I refocused on the steering wheel. “Dirk, you don’t need to be here. I wouldn’t want to take any more of your precious time.”
“I’m fine.”
“Are you sure you’re comfortable there?” I asked, glancing at him. He looked very comfortable.
He smiled, but I couldn’t see his eyes behind his reflective glasses. “I couldn’t be more comfortable if I were unconscious, but I appreciate the concern.”
I exhaled loudly, wanting to stick my tongue out at him. “I’m so happy to hear that,” I ground out. “Isn’t this supposed to be a commuter car, not a race car?” I asked Trixie.
She shrugged, shoving some curls out of her face. “Of course, but sometimes traffic gets bad. Off-roading can save some time.” She said it so seriously, like off-roading was always a rational option. Okay then.
I turned the key and shifted into drive. I took a deep breath and pulled out between the rows of cars, driving towards the garage door. The closed garage door. The car leapt forward, and I barely braked in time to keep from crashing into the metal.
Trixie patted my shoulder. “The great thing about this car is that it accelerates so quickly, and it’s got reinforced bumpers and some extra build in the frame, so you could punch right through your generic aluminum garage door without too much damage to the body.” Her slight New York accent didn’t reassure me any more than the grip on my shoulder. The woman was strong.
The garage door started rising, nice and steady. My heart was pounding from the near crash, but Trixie didn’t seem worried at all. I glanced back at Dirk, but all I saw was my own panicked expression in his glasses’ reflection.
“Are you sure you want to be in this car?” I asked.
He flashed a smirk. “I think I’m safer in it than outside it.”
“That’s what you think.” I pushed on the accelerator, and that car did zero to sixty in two seconds. I barely didn’t run into the compound’s chain-link gate, turning the wheel and slidingacross gravel before Toni’s lessons kicked in and I remembered how to deal with speed and sudden changes in direction.
I circled the lot much faster than was safe, but I wasn’t sure how to slow down. I finally slammed on the brakes in front of the gate, and we sat there, dust rising around us in a cloud.
Trix grabbed me in a rough side-hug before grinning at me, her own glasses slightly askew. “You remind me of Nitro. I miss that girl. The way you drive, be sure to wear your seatbelt. Also, go easy on her or you’ll burn out the pistons. Also, the green button in the middle of the steering wheel. It’s a little something extra involving jet fluid. Don’t use it in town as it’s not strictly legal. You have any problems, let me know. Or Dirk. He’s not a half-bad mechanic for a tech geek.” She vaulted out of the car and strode back into the building, leaving me gripping the steering wheel with white knuckles. Dirk took her place beside me, leaning back as if he was enjoying the day.
“And that’s the dragon. She’s impressed you didn’t crash. You were going way too fast. Your skills are on par with those of a back alley racer with no training. Trix respects back-alley racers. I don’t. Let’s do that again with a little more prudence.”
I tried again. That time, I over-corrected on the first turn and ended up ramming the fence. The chain link was sturdy and ended up stretched halfway across the hood when the dust cleared.
“Wow, Pinky. I think you chipped the paint.”
“What is with you and pink? It’s not normal.” I put the car in reverse, and the sound of metal on metal was much worse than nails on a chalkboard. Once I got back on the trail, I shot a look at Dirk. “I should probably admit that I haven’t driven for three years. I’m from the city, and parking is expensive.” That’s what Toni’s excuse for not having a car was. Of course, I wasn’t pretending to be Toni anymore.
“No kidding. Did you actually ever learn how to drive, or did you just happen to boost a car one day and the rest is history?”
I scowled at him. “Toni taught me. It was a stolen car, but I didn’t hit anything. You can’t call grazing a telephone pole hitting something.”
He started laughing. I narrowed my eyes at him, but he just laughed harder, leaning forward while his body shook.
“It’s not that funny.”
