Read Rex Aftermath (Elei's Chronicles) for Free Online

vision.
    “Hera!” Mantis’ voice was barely audible over the ringing in her ears. He was suddenly at her side, pushing her upright. There was no sound, but she read the words on his lips: “Are you okay?”
    “Seen better days,” she grumbled, her headache ratcheting up to a crescendo of drums behind her brow. A fire burned in her left eye.
    He shoved her lightly. “I’ll drive,” his lips said.
    She nodded.
    Sacmis leaned into Hera’s line of vision and dragged her to the co-driver’s seat. Placing both hands on Hera’s cheeks, she checked her eyes.
    “I am not concussed,” Hera said, not even hearing her own voice. She was not dizzy or nauseous, and her vision was clear. “Make sure he does not wreck the aircar.”
    Sacmis grinned, her gray eyes twinkling, obviously pleased with Hera’s snark. “You do that, senet . I need to cover our asses.” She swallowed hard. “I’m sorry I almost burst your eardrums. They were about to shoot you. I had to act fast.”
    Hera nodded and, Nunet’s snakes, her head hurt. She had no doubt Sacmis had done it to save her. “Of course.”
    Since when had she lost all doubt?
    Sacmis trailed her fingers down Hera’s neck. “We’ll be fine.”
    “Maybe.” She missed those cool fingers when Sacmis moved away, to the back of the car, longgun in hand.
    Hera leaned back, a hand on her throbbing face, watching as Mantis put the car into reverse, then jiggled it back and forth. She frowned, and it hurt. “What in Sobek’s name are you doing?”
    “Escaping.”
    Well, at least sound was returning.
    Sacmis cursed from the back, her gun cylinder scraping on the window frame. “Will you stop this dance, mortal? I cannot take aim if you keep swinging back and forth.”
    Mantis stuck his tongue out at her, still playing with the controls. “I’m stuck with two grumpy Gultur. Gods have mercy.” He reversed again, the aircar lurching and hitting the car behind them.
    “What are you doing?” Hera leaned forward, dimly wondering if her head would burst with the pressure, and made a lunge for the steering lever. “You’ll get us killed.”
    “Sit tight.” He bared his teeth in a sharp grin. “I’ve got this under control.”
    “The hells you do.”
    Before she got a grip on the lever, he accelerated, turning the aircar sharply, knocking into yet another vehicle — although, at this point, that was the least of Hera’s worries — and veered into the opposite lane. Then, before she had a chance to shout a warning about the silver aircar rushing onto them, Mantis twisted the lever and turned the aircar a hundred and eighty degrees, pushed the accelerator button, and shot away in the direction from which they’d come.
    Passing the patrol cars.
    Leaving their pursuers far behind.
    Stunned, Hera blinked at the free expanse of the south-bound street ahead. “Sobek,” she whispered.
    “Not too shabby, huh?” Mantis winked, a little wild-eyed, his cheeks flushed and his hands trembling oh-so-slightly on the levers.
    Hera swallowed hard. “No,” she agreed. “Not too shabby.”
    He’d driven clumsily. He was not very experienced as a driver, and he was quite reckless.
    Also decisive, able to judge a situation in the spur of a moment, his thinking flexible.
    She brooded on this, her fingers wrapped tight around the grip of her gun, as they sped toward the outskirts of the town and their meeting point with the others.
    He was so... different from her. A lot as she’d expected. And full of surprises, too.
    “We’ll make it,” he said, seeming to take her silence as worry. Which it was. About many things. “You’re concerned about Elei and the others, aren’t you?”
    She nodded, a little ashamed she had not thought about them since they’d left Istros. “They cannot reach us anymore.”
    “I’ve left an automated message in case they call.”
    He’d thought of that even as they’d evacuated the hospital and organized their escape. Impressive.
    Hera squirmed,