Dragon Rising Excerpt 12

Inescapable

Asher’s feet pelted the wet asphalt, the dirty squelch the only melody against the bass of his ragged breath. He hit a barricade and leapt upward, grabbing the frame of a car door and slipping on its roof. His free hand sliced open on glass and he cursed as he hit the ground on the other side. Hot blood came, as he knew it would, long before the pain, dripping from his fist as he ducked into the nearest alley and through a door. He slammed into a metal rail in the dark and crumpled, heaving.

The wheeze of his breath rang in his ears, but he tilted his head, listening for his followers. Rivulets of rain splattered through the shattered windows, last vestiges of the thunderstorm that had ravaged the City. But nothing else…

He leapt up, peering back down the alley, his eyes skimming over the makeshift barricade marking the Deacons territory. The barricade he’d been stupid enough to climb in search of food.