"Do you owe these guys money or something?" Darwin Madigan leaned over for a look into his side mirror and tried not to panic at the sight of four sinister black SUVs following him and his date. Before he could sit up straight, two more came out of the intersecting street to the right and tried to cut her off. She swerved around them, snarled in the general direction of the drivers, and the cyan glow in her eyes brightened.

Oh, hell, what has she gotten me into the middle of? He braced his hands on the dashboard again, glanced to the left, and found another pair of SUVs emerging from an alley and lining up with the rest. No, what has Darius gotten me into? He set all this up. He shook his head. Darius, you sonofabitch.

"What the hell are you talking about?" she said once she'd gotten past the additional SUVs. Her eyes flicked toward the mirrors and leveled straight ahead again. "What did you do? Did you witness a murder or something?"

″What?" He gaped at her and she shook her head.

"Never mind. Look, we need to ditch the car and try to find a place to hide or, uh, borrow another car to get away in. There's almost no traffic here, so if they're gonna start shooting at us, this is where it'll most likely happen."

Shooting? Darwin shrugged, took a few breaths, and looked around slowly. "W-well, there's a building under construction over to the left, there. Maybe we can lose 'em in that."

"Worth a try. Might be somewhere to hide in it or, if nothing else, a way to split them up and pick them off."

"Pick … you mean, kill them?"

"Not my style. I try to stick to non-lethal methods unless there's no way to avoid it." She gripped the gear shift with one hand and the steering wheel with the other. "We need to get out of their sight long enough to ditch the car or they're just gonna keep following us. They're probably tracking us with traffic cameras or surveillance drones."

"Y-yeah, sounds right." Whatever you say, as long as we get out of this alive, it's all good.

"Okay, I'm gonna attempt a maneuver. Hang on to your titties."

Wonderful. He kept his hands firmly planted on the dashboard as she shifted down to second gear and stomped on the gas. The car launched forward and she shifted up again and spun the wheel to the left, drifting through the intersection and around the corner. She kept accelerating and shifted up again.

"Looks like that bought us a few seconds. Hold on." She whipped the car into another left turn and fired it off a gravel embankment into a pit that was probably going to become the building's foundation and basement. The car landed with an impact that jammed his ass into the seat and something in the front end of the car snapped.

She turned the lights off, killed the engine, and popped her seatbelt.

"Let's go," she whispered.

Sure. Yeah, why not? He released his seatbelt and followed her into the building's framework, his heart pounding and his legs wobbling as if his muscles had turned to jelly. She grasped his left hand and led him to a ramp up to the second floor.

"If we can get to the top," she whispered, flicking her wings, "I can glide us out of here."

At least we won't be trapped. He followed her across the floor until they found a ladder. She motioned for him to climb first while she turned and kept an eye out for the SUV guys, then she climbed after him. They made their way up the next four floors and crouched beside a stack of lumber so he could catch his breath.

He found a maze of stacks of two-by-fours and pipes, sheets of plastic fluttering in a gentle breeze, power tools left sitting on tables and benches, and a forklift over in the corner.

His companion appeared to be listening for something. Engines or footsteps, probably. He kept quiet and let her do her thing.

I wonder what her name is. He'd been waiting for a girl named Bianca, but he doubted this was her. Wonderful. She probably showed up right after we left and thinks I bailed on her.

At least this draconid chick was cute. She had a nice body, aside from the wings, tail, and weird lower legs and feet. And she seemed friendly enough and clearly knew how to handle situations like this one.

Maybe we can salvage this. Like, go out on an actual date if we make it through whatever the hell this is.

"I hear vehicles driving up and stopping," she whispered. She motioned for him to stay put, crept over to the edge of the floor, and squinted at the street. She turned back, pointed at another ramp, and led him up two more floors. There, he found several partial walls and more stacks of pipes and two-by-fours. They ducked between a wall and a pile of long pipes bundled together. "I counted six humans in tactical gear and ten low-grade mechs. Non-sapient ones. Just robots programmed for basic combat, probably. They're following us up."

"Great," he whispered back. "They know we're here."

"Looks that way." She opened her mouth to say something else, then she turned to stare over her shoulder. "Some of them are coming up the ladders and ramps. Sounds like some are climbing up the side of the building."

She crept over to the edge and peered down. Darwin joined her and found four of the mechs scaling the wall in single file.

He took a quick look around and found a pair of acetylene tanks nearby. He arched an eyebrow at … whoever this girl was.

"You're sure those bots aren't sapient?"

"Yeah," she whispered back. "I recognize the model now. Some friends ran into some on a job a few months back."

"Cool." He walked over to the tanks, picked one up, and hobbled back with it. Damn, this is heavy! He lowered it to the edge of the floor, caught his breath, and glanced at her. "Hold on to me so I don't fall off."

Her eyes opened wider and she clamped a hand around his belt and braced the other on a nearby girder. He wiggled the tank to the right until he was sure it was directly above the climbing robots, then he lifted it and she held him steady as he positioned the tank just far enough out not to catch on anything on the way down.

He let go of it and waited for gravity to do the rest. They watched it plunge straight down and smash into the nearest bot's head, driving it into its shoulders and ripping its body from the side of the building. It plowed into the robot directly below, carried it into the next one, and finally the fourth. They plummeted from the fifth floor into the ground and landed in a mangled heap. Several arms and legs ripped loose and flipped through the air.

She eased him back from the edge, stared at him with widening eyes, and an awestruck smile appeared in the darkness.

"I … I think I'm in love," she whispered.

"Really?"

"Well, you're certainly off to a spectacular start." She took a few breaths, fanned herself with her hand, and pointed at a ramp on the far side of the floor. "Sounds like they're rushing toward the ruckus you just caused. We can get to the roof, jump off the far side, and glide away before they can spot us."

He followed her, both of them trying to sprint as quietly as possible, and emerged onto the top floor. Suddenly, the city stretched out in all directions around him, an ocean of LEDs, neon, animated billboards, and holographic projections. There were far taller buildings in the distance, but not many in the immediate area.

"Is this high enough for you to fly off?"

"Yep." She pointed at her back. "Lock your arms and legs around me, but try not to hamper the motion of my wings." She waited for him to do as she asked. "Hold on tight."

Heart pounding, he nodded and whispered, "Okay." He took a moment to secure his legs around her waist, clamped his arms around her, and said, "Let's go!"

Carrying him without any outward sign of strain, she ran to the edge, crouched, pushed off, and spread her wings. His heart nearly blew out of his chest as they fell for a few seconds, then her wings caught the wind and he found himself gliding over the city. He squinted against the wind rushing into his face and had to fight the urge to let out an overjoyed whoop.

We're flying. Oh, holy shit, we're flying! He forced himself to breathe, kept his arms and legs as tight around her as he could, and grinned like an idiot as she soared away from the goons who'd been chasing them. And even better, I don't hear any gunshots behind us.

He sighed with relief and let his chin rest on her shoulder.

We made it.