What came next happened so fast. At a blind curve, a large vehicle roared down on them. Dragos swerved hard, holding the car in tight control. But just then another vehicle came from ahead on the right.
The passenger’s side. Light blinded her.
Dragos gave one last vicious yank at the wheel. The tires screamed as the car went into a spin. Everything whirled. Then the oncoming vehicle was about to impact the driver’s side. He threw his torso over hers, jamming her head into the hollow of his neck.
A horrendous noise as everything—
SEVEN
Pain woke her up. Her body was twisted at an uncomfortable angle. She was surrounded by jagged metal and trapped under a heavy weight.
She groaned.
“Shh,” Dragos whispered. “It’s all right. You’re going to be all right.”
She tried to take a deep breath and couldn’t.
“I can’t breathe,” she whimpered. “I can’t move my legs.”
“We’ve been in a wreck, Pia. You’re pinned in, but I’m going to get you out. For now you must listen to me. Don’t move. Can you do that for me? Just for a little while?”
His voice wove into her and brushed aside her panic. He was beguiling her into calming down. Someday she was going to have words with him about messing with her head. Right now didn’t seem like the time. She tried shallow breaths and mouthed, “Okay.”
“There’s a brave girl,” he soothed.
The heavy weight on her chest lifted briefly. Metal groaned. It was a terrible sound. Pain seared her legs and back. She cried out, and the world grayed over.
Dragos cursed a steady stream of vitriol as Pia lost consciousness again. The impact had been so violent the car was an unrecognizable heap of twisted metal. Most creatures could not have survived the crash. If he had been less than he was, if he hadn’t recovered enough from the Elven poison, if he had not thrown himself over Pia and pushed out with his Power to cover them both, she would have been crushed in an instant.
They were surrounded by shadows. He ripped the collapsed air bag to shreds and threw the pieces out the little twist of space that had been the front passenger’s window. Then he snapped her seat belt. He glared around as the shadows crept closer. He bared his teeth and growled a warning, and the shadows paused. Over the burnt rubber and gasoline smells, the stink of Goblin made his nostrils flare. Soon the Goblins began to creep closer again, their coarse features coming visible in the predawn.
They thought they had him pinned. They were right.
His own body had taken damage, various contusions and cuts, but he ignored it. For him, the injuries were minor. If he had been alone, he would have ripped his way out of the wreck and done a WWF SmackDown on their ugly asses. But if he did that he could do incalculable damage to Pia, maybe kill her. He would have to be very careful in working to free her from the wreckage. That would take time. She was so much more fragile than he.
The Goblins grew bolder. They were misshapen creatures, gray-skinned and brutish with inhuman strength. They were one of the few Elder Races that could not maintain some kind of glamour to make them more palatable for coexisting with humans. For that reason they spent most of their time in Other lands, where magic was stronger, humankind was the rarity and certain technologies such as electrical appliances and modern weaponry wouldn’t work with any degree of safety or reliability.
He expanded his senses and found a passageway nearby that led to a pocket of Other land. Big surprise.
He turned his attention back to Pia. The wreckage had wrapped them together like a ghoulish present. He was twisted at the waist, his torso covering hers. Her seat had broken. She was lying partially in what had been the backseat, while the front of the car had collapsed on her legs.
He wiggled his left arm free and reached behind him to grasp the steering column, which was pressing against his left lower kidney. Bracing himself with his right arm, he pushed.
Careful. Metal groaned and the column eased away a few inches. He stopped before he wanted to, so he could check if shifting the column would make something else pinch down on Pia. He didn’t sense any further collapse. Good enough. He tried the same with the roof crumpled over his back and gained a little more room for them.
Goblins called to one another in their guttural language. One came too close. Grinning, it poked a serrated sword at him through the crunched window hole.
Dragos grabbed the sword. He punched his other arm out the hole. He locked his hand around the Goblin’s throat and crushed it while the creature choked and kicked. He let go. The Goblin crumpled to the ground, claws digging at its ruined neck as it died. The other Goblins watched as their comrade kicked out his life but made no move to try to help him.
How fucking charming. Ignoring his bleeding fingers, he pulled the sword into the car. The other Goblins snarled but kept well out of his reach.