Free Dread Nemesis of Mine by John Corwin Page B

motorcycle.
    "This one!" Elyssa said, rushing to it.
    Bella jammed her wand against the ignition.
" Contarte. "
    The engine roared to life.
    Bella gripped her staff and shouted another
word. It collapsed into a compact rod. She secured it to her waist
and hopped on the motorcycle behind Elyssa, gripping her tight.
" Madre de dios, this is exciting! Let's go."
    Elyssa gunned it. The bike was an old
Suzuki—a real piece of junk compared to her Harley—but the vampire
couldn't hope to outrun it in the compact car she was in. The
bike's rear tire squealed and the front end lifted off the ground.
Bella squealed.
    A figure leapt atop a roof several blocks
down. Elyssa saw the person unroll a parchment.
    "Another scroll caster," she said, shouting
over the noise of the wind and the engine.
    The moment she said it, a sheet of ice
crackled and crept across the road in front of them. The bike hit
it. The tires lost their grip on the nearly frictionless surface.
Elyssa let off the gas, but it was too late. They spun out of
control and there was nothing she could do about it. If they hit
bare asphalt sideways, the bike would flip. Since neither of them
were wearing armor, they'd end up with a bloody road rash or
worse.
    Bella held her wand out and twirled it. A
solid blast of air hit the bike, stopping the spin and
straightening the bike. Except now they were sliding backwards at
breakneck speed. Elyssa slid the katana from the sheath on her
back. Stabbed it against the ice and pivoted the bike a hundred and
eighty degrees. The bike straightened an instant before the front
tire hit pavement. The rubber squealed. The katana sparked against
the cobblestones. She slid the sword back into its sheath with one
hand while gunning the gas with the other.
    A brilliant ball of starfire speared from the
figure on the roof. Elyssa leaned hard to the side as a
pumpkin-sized globe of white energy turned a nearby dumpster into a
heap of glowing slag. The caster tore open another scroll. Another
sphere of starfire coalesced and bolted at them. Elyssa sped up,
but it was too late to dodge. Her only hope was to lay the bike
down and that would hurt. A lot.
    At the last minute, Bella shouted and the air
overhead shimmered into a mirror-like surface. The energy rebounded
like a moonshot. The scroll caster screamed and tried to dive to
the side, but he was too slow. The crackling starfire caught him in
the chest, vaporizing the right side of his body into blackened
mist. His smoldering corpse rolled off the roof and clanged into an
empty dumpster.
    "Amateurs," Bella said in a loud huff.
    Elyssa saw the green car weaving through
traffic ahead. She almost smiled. Now that vampire bitch was hers.
She split the lane between two cars. Swerved right to avoid
another. Bella's grip tightened. The vampire's car broke free of
the traffic jam and turned left. Elyssa weaved through the last of
the cars and leaned so hard into the turn, her knee almost touched
the ground, and the wheels squealed with the effort of holding the
road.
    The green car screeched through a roundabout,
clipping several cars along the way. Elyssa spotted a break in the
chain guarding the center of the roundabout and steered through it,
cutting the distance between her and the car in half. A truck
pulled out from an alley right in front of the car. It swerved away
and crunched into another car in the opposite lane.
    A lone figure jumped from the car and blurred
away down the street, empty-handed. Elyssa braked hard and
screeched to a stop. She leapt off the bike. Rushed to the car.
Tore the door open and gasped. The passenger seat was empty.
    "No." She spun on her heel, searching the
nearby traffic. "No!"
    Bella came to her side and shouted a stream
of Spanish. "The bastards tricked us. They must have pulled him out
while we were getting the motorcycle."
    "Or skating on ice." Elyssa groaned and
pounded her fist against the roof of the car. A tear of frustration
and disbelief burned down her