He reached the wall separating the cab from the hold. He’d only have a fraction of a second to act; Vanya was fast, and he was in bad shape.
For Shay and Leah. For my family.
Drakkal charged through the entryway.
His arm was already mid-swing when Vanya turned her head toward him. Her eyes widened, and she leaned away, throwing up her own arms to shield herself. Two of Drakkal’s claws sank into her right forearm.
She hissed in pain and tugged on her arm, but Drakkal spat out the metal chunks in his mouth, curled his fingers to hook his claws deeper, and pulled her toward him. Vanya tipped to her right and ducked, narrowly avoiding Drakkal’s snapping jaws. She jerked her head backward. The back of her skull smashed into Drakkal’s chin. It wasn’t enough to knock him away, but it gave her enough time to tear her arm free of his hold. The smell of her blood filled the air.
Vanya dropped a hand to her belt and tugged her collapsedstun baton free. She swung it at him wildly, activating the weapon as it extended, and Drakkal stumbled back to avoid the blow. She overextended, nearly falling off her seat. Drakkal kicked her. The pads of his foot struck her left shoulder. The baton fell from her nerveless fingers, clattering away on the floor, and Vanya slammed back into the door, bumping the controls.
The transport pitched its nose down.
The sudden change of angle and direction threw Drakkal against the cab’s rear wall. His left shoulder took the brunt of the impact. Alarms blared and flashed on the instrument panels. Vanya recovered first, launching herself across the cab.
She hit him hard, and their struggle devolved into a flurry of slashing claws, gnashing teeth, and kicking legs, all punctuated by wordless snarls and growls. Even if Drakkal was far stronger, he was short a limb, and his body was already battered. Her claws caught his flesh more than once, but her attacks weretoofrenzied; she didn’t follow through enough with anything to cause real damage.
All the while, the transport was plummeting toward a busy, neon-bathed Undercity street.
Drakkal twisted and drove his knee into Vanya’s ribs. She grunted as the blow crushed her between his knee and the rear wall. He capitalized on the lull in her attacks and forced his other leg up against her other side, catching her torso between his thighs. He squeezed.
Vanya cried out and rained blows upon him. Drakkal clenched his teeth and squeezed tighter, blocking and parrying as many of her attacks as he could with one arm.
The transport suddenly righted itself, its front end swinging back up—likely a safety feature engaging the autopilot to avoid a crash. The vehicle rattled. Drakkal slipped backward, reflexively throwing his hand behind him to catchhimself. His fumbling fingers brushed over the controls on the door, lowering the window and disengaging the locks before finally stopping on the door handle.
Vanya renewed her attacks. Drakkal twisted his hips to swing her aside, his only defense against her onslaught in those moments, but he knew it wouldn’t work for long. He needed to end this.
Sometimes, stupid’s all you have to work with.
He tugged on the handle and threw his weight backward.
The door swung open. Air rushed into the cab through the opening, making the vehicle tremble. Drakkal thrust his arm through the open window and caught the door between his bicep and ribs. Gritting his teeth, he dragged himself out of the transport—bringing Vanya with him. She fought and kicked and clawed, latching onto the doorframe. Drakkal roared and poured the fullness of his fury into his strength. Vanya’s hold broke. She screamed.
Drakkal’s legs swung down and away from the transport, and all his weight, along with Vanya’s, was suddenly supported on his right arm, making the window frame dig into his armpit painfully. For a second, time seemed to drag. He looked down to see Vanya caught between his legs, reaching desperately for the vehicle. Below her—at least thirty-five meters below—an Undercity street sped by, the pedestrians crowding it reduced to featureless blurs by the speed and height. His gaze met Vanya’s in that instant. He’d once looked into those eyes longingly, with such admiration.
“Drakkal! Don’t do this!” she begged, clawing at his legs.
He never wanted to look into those eyes again. His legs reached the apex of their outward swing.
He released his hold on Vanya.
Her limbs flailed as she soared through the open air, her eyes rounded in terror. The transport pitched to the side,dragged along by Drakkal’s weight, and he growled at the fresh agony in his armpit. Just before he swung back toward the vehicle, he saw Vanya smash into a ledge protruding from the one of the buildings along the street. Blood sprayed from her body. Within a second, he’d lost sight of her.
His thighs struck the lower portion of the doorframe. Grunting, he instinctually reached for a handhold inside the cab with his left arm, managing only to slap his stump against the passenger seat. He could almost feel the fingers of his left hand clutching at the cushion, but the ghost of his hand could not prevent him from swinging away again.
His legs dangled beneath him, clawing at empty air as though he’d find an invisible ledge or ladder rung to provide some stability. He needed to move quick; even in the Undercity, this was going to draw the attention of the Eternal Guard before long. The spectacle had to be too much for them to ignore.
You’re not nearly done yet, Kitty. Next item. Back to the manor.
Gritting his teeth, Drakkal bent his abdomen and legs at the same time. The transport wobbled as he swung his legs up once, twice, thrice, his every muscle burning as his shins and knees repeatedly bumped into the doorframe.
He roared and tried a fourth time. Finally, he managed to bend his body and lift his legs high enough to plant his feet on the base of the doorframe. He straightened his legs immediately, locking his knees and bracing his shoulder against the top of the window frame. The cuts Vanya had inflicted upon him—along with the few he’d managed to inflict himself—stung anew, and he could feel blood trickling through his fur, but none of that mattered.
Breathing raggedly, he used his entire body to work himself up into a position that would allow him to enter the cabwithout falling—a process that would have been far quicker, easier, and simpler with the use of a second arm. After a heated struggle, he finally fell across the passenger seat. It was so tempting to stop there and rest. It would’ve been so easy to do. His eyes longed to drift shut, his body to lie in peace and stillness awhile.
He didn’t even allow himself a moment’s respite. He scrambled over to the operator’s seat, grasped the controls, and tilted the transport toward the driver’s side. The passenger door slammed shut. When he righted the vehicle, he reengaged the autopilot and turned his full attention to the central control panel. A brief search uncovered the signal jammer control, which he promptly disabled, but there was nothing for the manacles. Vanya must’ve controlled the restraints solely through her holocom.
After turning off the obnoxious music, Drakkal entered Murgen Foltham’s sector into the navigation panel, activated the navigation program, and pushed himself out of the seat. As the vehicle began a smooth climb to join the usual flow of traffic, Drakkal staggered into the holding area, keeping his hand against the wall to steady himself until he reached his prosthesis. It was still hanging where he’d left it.