The Prof Croft Series: Books 0-4 (Prof Croft Box Sets Book 1) Brad Magnarella (ink book reader txt) 📖

and then a just as sudden left that fishtailed us the other direction. I lowered my arms to find us on a parallel street. Straggling members of the northbound mob armed with pipes wheeled toward us.

James let out a “Yee-haw!”

Without slowing, he cut around them as they tried to dart in front of the car. Pipes banged off the windows and clunked under the tires. Gunfire erupted, flashing from the shield. Twice James had to drive up onto the sidewalk to avoid hitting someone, but within another few seconds we were past the mob, their mindless screams trailing in our wake. In my rearview mirror, I watched them turn and resume their assault on the street and buildings.

“Good God,” I muttered. “It’s like Zombieville out there.”

“So seriously, man,” James said, shifting into a higher gear. “What’s up with you and Vega?”

I looked over at him. “Me and Vega?”

“You know what I’m talking about.”

“I have an idea, but now’s not really the time.” I flinched as James squealed onto a street with a new wave of rioters, slammed the brakes, threw the car in reverse, and accessed the next block.

“There’s no shame in it, man,” he said, not missing a beat.

I relaxed my grip on the armrest. “We work together, that’s all.”

“But you feel something for her.”

“I feel what I’d feel for anyone I worked closely with. I might even develop feelings for you some d—look out!”

More bullets flashed off the shield. James swerved to avoid a group spilling from a Thirty-fourth street subway entrance, then down-shifted and turned north.

“Naw, man, this runs deeper than that,” he said. “Every time you say her name, your eyes do this thing.”

“What thing?”

“This tiny shift. It’s your tell. Saw it when you first brought her up at the pool hall. Didn’t think much about it till a few minutes ago when you wanted to rip me a new one. And bam, there it was again.”

“Whatever,” I said, my face growing warm.

He turned toward me. “Say her name.”

“What?”

“Just say it, man.”

“Hey, would you watch the road?” I cried.

James swerved at the last moment, avoiding a toppled light pole, then turned back to me. He made small steering adjustments without looking, his tires clunking over debris and glass. “C’mon, man, I want to see.”

“Vega,” I said quickly, for no other reason than to get us across Midtown in one piece.

James leaned back and laughed. “I knew it. You’ve totally got a thing for her.”

“If my eyes did anything, it was only because you made it awkward,” I stammered.

“What’s the big deal? You like her. You’ve got good taste.”

I grumbled. My eyes did a lot of things without my knowledge, apparently. Was I developing feelings for Vega? It had only been a month since Caroline had had her feelings for me wiped clean. I hadn’t gotten over that, not yet. So how could I have a thing for Vega? And yet … I did care about her. And yeah, I looked forward to seeing her now.

“I respect her,” I allowed at last.

“Respect her,” James echoed. “Have you told her?”

“Told her what?”

“About your, cough, respect for her.”

“For God’s sake. Has it occurred to you that the city is literally falling apart?” As if on cue, James turned a corner and sped past a blazing building. Bricks landed on the shielded roof.

“I’m just trying to help a wizard out,” he said, switching the vent setting to Recirculate as the smoke outside thickened. “You’re not the smoothest number. You know that, right?”

“Yeah, I’m an academic. I know that.”

“My advice, then? Start simple. A casual dinner, maybe. Or drinks. See what kind of chemistry you two have outside work.”

“Getting a little ahead of ourselves, aren’t we?”

“You talking about finding the Banebrand weapon?”

“Yeah, the small matter of finding the Banebrand weapon, something even you’re skeptical about. Oh, and then there’s the whole destroying Lich’s pendant and closing the portal to Dhuul. Otherwise, yeah, we’re golden. I’ll go ahead and make that dinner reservation.”

James shrugged. “You were the one who brought it up. I was just trying to help.”

I stared at him in disbelief, but we were arriving at the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, which had to have been a record for an west-east traverse of Manhattan. Once through, we had the highways to ourselves. James shut up, thankfully, and urged the Firebird past one hundred. Other than distant pockets of fire, the destruction was nothing like what was happening in Manhattan, but that would change as the disorder spread. I imagined the world and everyone I cared for, Vega included, reduced to a mindless soup for the Whisperer to feed on.

Please let the Banebrand be in the vault, I thought.

24

James steered through the empty streets of Port Gurney, the Firebird’s beams sweeping past boarded-up buildings and weedy lots. A pack of feral dogs scattered ahead of us, their backward-peering faces lean and fearful.

“Sure this is the place?” he asked.

“The town took a hit when the shipping industry crashed. It’s been a downhill ride ever since. There,” I said, pointing out a leaning strip of buildings that made up the town’s waterfront. “The name of the bar was the Rhein House.” As James turned, I rolled down the window and squinted in search of a sign. A smell of seawater and sewage wafted into the car.

“I see it,” James said, and took a sharp turn in front of a building on the end of the strip. The front window had been smashed, but the hand-painted letters “RH” still showed in the upper left corner of the glass.

I got out of the car and, wand and sword readied, listened a moment. Except for the wind and the slapping of the sea, the town was quiet. But something was telling me to be wary.

“Door’s unlocked.”

I jerked at James’s voice and found him already stepping into the bar. I hurried to catch up. Glass crunched underfoot as I stepped into the orb of silver light growing from his wand. The establishment was a leaf-blown space where I