Sidekick by Auralee Wallace Read Free Book Online Page B

that. If I was still alive.
    I struggled to find my voice. “How did you—”
    Suddenly I felt movement behind me. We had the Sultana’s attention now. She looked nearly as fierce as Dark Ryder. She had dropped the boy to the floor of the deck above us and was readying her gun to aim.
    Ryder stepped over me to the stairs without looking down. I felt a little like a mud puddle, but a happy, honoured mud puddle.
    “Take one step more, Ryder, and I’ll shoot the child.” All of the Sultana’s flowery language was gone and I caught a glimpse of the woman hiding behind the character—a hard, deadly woman, who would do anything to survive. She slowly lowered the weapon to the little boy sitting cross-legged and sucking his thumb.
    Ryder froze. “You don’t want to do that.”
    “I have done much worse. It wouldn’t bother me in the slightest.”
    “It might when I throw you over the edge of this flying nightmare.”
    Dark Ryder spoke the words quietly, but the threat was palpable.
    “Well, then, we’re deadlocked,” the Sultana said with a pout, channelling a character once again. “However should we pass the time? Maybe I could have my Pulcinella do some tricks. Oh, but I guess he had a flight to catch,” she said with feigned sadness, but she also flicked her eyes over to the edge of the ship, looking almost worried.
    “Enough of these distractions,” Ryder said sharply. “I know your real game, Delilah. Where is the detonator?”
    Wait. The what?
    The Sultana smiled.
    “I saw your people plant the bombs around the square, but I’m sure you wouldn’t let them have all the fun. The detonator. Where is it?”
    And here I had thought the dark band was just causing chaos, but I could tell by the look on the Sultana’s face that Ryder was right. But why would she want to blow up the square? I was missing something.
    The Sultana said nothing. She stared at Ryder, mentally weighing her options. Suddenly she leapt for the door leading into the belly of the ship and disappeared into its darkness.
    Ryder chased after her in a flash, with me right behind her.
    She stopped short. I stumbled trying not to slam into her back.
    “What are you doing?” she asked.
    What was I doing? Ryder was just so cool. I guess I wanted to be swept along with it.
    “Oh…uh…sorry.”
    “Stay here. Help the boy get to safety,” she said pointing behind me. With the Sultana gone, a supersized fire truck was making its move towards the ship, its ladder barely reaching the bottom of the deck.
    Ryder was halfway through the doorway when she turned once more. “Don’t follow me,” she commanded.
    Easy enough.
    Don’t follow her. Right. Done. Only a crazy person would follow her.
    And I wasn’t crazy.
    A cute and very brave fireman came to the edge of the railing in his little bucket, and I thought nothing more than Hmm , why not go for a ride with the fire-hottie in his little fire-bucket. Who knew? Maybe he had a thousand dollars stuffed in his pants from eager women wanting a calendar that he could lend me . But as I lifted the toddler into the cab, I heard a loud crash come from inside of the ship. I turned but could see nothing.
    I spun back to my fire-hero. He had the little boy tucked safely at his feet and a big yellow glove held out to me. I reached for him when an even louder crash sounded behind me.
    I froze.
    I suddenly knew what I had to do.
    “I’ll catch the next one,” I said, then ran for the door.

Chapter Seven
    When I saw the inside of the ship’s cabin, my first thought was Holy crap this balloon is awesome !
    It was like some Bedouin tent from the seventeen hundreds. Dim windows filtered light through hazy air, rich with incense, revealing a lounge area furnished with oversized silk pillows and low-lying tables. This had to be their permanent hideout. Maybe they just floated around thinking creepy thoughts and smoking hookah pipes.
    My second thought was that something about all this didn’t make sense.