Hotbloods (Hotbloods #1)

“That would probably be helpful,” I said.

“We could put some on the blades of those throwing knives. That way, even if it wasn’t a fatal strike, it would still knock the thing out.” He grinned. “Not that I don’t think you could hit the bull’s eye every time after what I saw today. And then we’ve got to teach you how to navigate this ship.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Are you thinking if you show me how to fly this thing that I’ll be so enamored I won’t want to get off?”

“Ah, you’ve seen right through me. Us coldboods and our ulterior motives,” Navan said wryly. “Flying this thing is fairly straightforward, though.”

“Yeah? That’s a little surprising.”

“Come on, I’ll show you now, then I’ll do the darts.”

We went up to the front of the ship. Navan had me sit down in the driver’s seat while he sat next to me. There was a steering wheel, similar to that of a car but slightly bigger, maybe more like what you’d see on a boat. There was also a myriad of buttons and levers, as well as a gear shift. I moved my feet around on the floor and felt two pedals.

“I feel the pedals,” I said.

“Right’s for go, left’s your brake.”

“Okay. And do I have to shift gears?”

Navan shook his head. “You don’t need to shift gears on this. The gear shift actually controls your altitude. Rev up to go higher, rev back to go lower. The pedals are for speed. Just like a car or a bike, you jam it too quickly, the ride’s going to be jerky. First things first, though—you’ve got to turn it on. It’s that button right there.” He pointed to a circular button, opaque turquoise in color, to the right of the steering wheel. “Go ahead and press that.”

I did so, and the ship hummed to life the second my fingertips put pressure on the button.

“If you want to hover, you’re going to rev it forward just a little. Go ahead and try.”

I moved the gear shift forward, surprised at how fluid it was. The ship responded instantaneously, lifting a few feet off the ground. A smile spread across my face. “This is so cool,” I said.

“The steering wheel’s pretty self-explanatory, though you do have to be careful when you make turns at high speed,” Navan continued. “Obviously, you wouldn’t sustain the same sort of damage you would if you rolled an automobile, but there’s still a chance you could hurt yourself or the ship if you try to turn too quickly while you’re in the air. The only other button you really need to concern yourself with now is here.” He tapped his fingers next to an opaque green button, which was maybe six inches from the turquoise button. “This activates hyper-speed and should only be used if you need to escape. Why don’t you cruise around a little and get the feel for it?”

He didn’t need to ask twice. I gripped the gear shift and moved it forward so the ship lifted higher, and I pressed my foot down on the left pedal and the ship accelerated. I had an almost 180-degree view. I turned the steering wheel just a bit, and the ship glided to the left. When I pressed down a little harder on the accelerator, the ship responded beautifully.

“You’re a natural,” Navan said. He leaned toward me, pointing. “Why don’t you try and fly between those two trees right there.”

The trees were two tall evergreens, and they were spaced far enough apart that I knew I’d be able to get the ship through, but I still felt a wave of nervousness as we approached. I had to maneuver around a few smaller trees in order to slip through the gap, but I did it, and when Navan pointed to another group of trees and told me to try to navigate up and over them, I did it with ease, a smile on my face the whole time.

When we brought the ship back, Navan had a smile on his face, too. “Well,” he said, “I don’t have to worry about you flying this ship, that’s for sure.”

And as he smiled at me, I felt that surge in my heart rate again, and I suddenly had the urge to reach over and pull him to me and discover what his lips felt like against mine. But I fought to regain control over my thoughts. To say that now wasn’t the right time would be an understatement—even if I could find the courage to make a move like that.

We had to finish getting ready so we could leave for the village.





Chapter Twenty-Three





The village was small and quaint, with a bakery, a market, a few shops, a post office, and a tavern, along with two churches, one at either end of town. Navan left me and the ship with a good vantage point of the town; we were on a small hillside that overlooked the area, though we were out of sight behind a copse of trees, just in case any of the villagers glanced our way.

“I’m going to check things out,” he said. “So for now it would make more sense if you stay here. We don’t want to draw any more attention to us than we need to.”

I nodded, though part of me wanted to go with him. He was right, though—he’d be able to fly quickly and be relatively inconspicuous. Being in the ship was safer, though it did put me at something of a disadvantage in terms of getting around undetected.

He took off, and I sat at the front of the ship, my eyes glued to him. For several hundred yards, he flew in a straight line, low, barely above the tree line. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

Then Navan stopped suddenly and changed direction, zooming toward the edge of the forest. I could tell by the way he moved that he had sensed something—that something was happening—and almost as quickly I got the ship in gear and raced down after him, trying to keep him in view the whole time. His zigging and zagging made it difficult, but the ship was remarkably agile; it was almost like it knew where I wanted to go before I had even turned the steering wheel.

He was headed for a clearing in the forest, and I saw that he had the dart gun out, and he was aiming it. But at what? I couldn’t see anything—the shifters must be invisible. Navan landed, sprinting forward, taking aim with the gun. He stopped, though, and didn’t take a shot. I landed the ship at the edge of the clearing and jumped out, but not before taking two of the knives with me. I doubted I’d actually use them if the shifters stayed invisible, but it made me feel better to have them with me, just in case.

I could hear sounds, but I couldn’t see anything. A shiver of fear coursed down my spine. The noise was terrible, like a pack of hyenas in a feeding frenzy. On top of that was agonized screaming, distinctly human. First, yelling for help, then just yelling. But where? I looked all around, and above me, I could tell Navan was doing the same.