Josh spotted an opening between two cars- a VW Beetle and a Lexus.

He pushed his foot to the floor and the heavy car shot forward. But the gap wasn’t quite wide enough. The SUV’s grill struck the side mirrors on the other two cars and snapped them off.

”Keep going, ” Jihoon ordered firmly.

He had Soyeon’s phone in his hand and was talking urgently in a guttural, rasping language that sounded like nothing the twins had ever heard before.

Deliberately not looking in the rearview mirror, 6Seungho roared across the bridge, ignoring the honks and shouts behind him.

He shot along the outside lane, then cut into the middle lane, then back out again.

Soyeon braced herself against the dashboard, peering through half-closed eyes.

She saw the car hit another side mirror, it came spinning, almost slowly, up onto the hood of their SUV, scoring a long scrape in the black paint before it bounced away.

”Don’t even think about it, ” she muttured as a tiny open topped Italian sports car spotted the same gap in the traffic that Seungho was aiming for.

The driver, an older man with far too many gold chains around his neck, put his ffoot down and raced for the gap.

He didn’t make it.

The heavy SUV caught the right front edge of the little car, just tapping it on the bumper.

The sports car was flung away, spinning in a complete 360 degree turn on the crowded bridge, bouncing off four other cars in the process.

Seungho tore through the opening.

Jihoon twisted around in the seat, looking through the rear window at the chaos they had left in their wake.

6”I thought you said you could drive, 6” he murmured.

”I can drive, ” Seungho said, surprised that his voice sounded so calm and steady.

”I just didn’t say I was good at it. Do you think anyone got our license plates ?” he asked.

This was nothing like one of his driving games6! 6The palms of his hands were slick and wet and beads of sweat were running down the sides of his face.

6A muscle twitched in his right leg from the effort of keeping the accelerator pressed hard to the floor.

”I think they’ve got other things to worry about, ” Soyeon whispered.

The crows had descended on the Golden Gate Bridge.

Thousands of them.

They came in a black wave, cawing and screaming, wings cracking and snapping.

They hovered over the cars, darting low, occasionally even landing on car roofs and hoods to peck at the metal and glass.

Cars crashed and sidewiped one another along the entire length of the bridge.

”They’ve lost focused,” 6Fei said, watching the birds’ behaviour.

”They’re looking for us, but they’ve forgotten our description. They have such tiny brains, ” she said dismissively.

”Something distracted their dark mistress, ” Jihoon said.

”Hyori,” he said delightedly.

6”I wonder what she did. Something dramatic, no doubt. She always did have a sense of the theatrical. ”

But even as he was speaking, the birds rose into the air again, and then, as one, their black eyes turned in the direction of the fleeting black SUV.

This time when they cawed, it sounded like screams of triumph.

”They’re coming back,” Soyeon said quickly, breathlessly.

She realized that her heart was pumping hard against her rib cage.

She looked at Jihoon and the Warrior for support, but their grim expressions gave her no comfort.

Fei looked at her and said, ”we’re in trouble now, ”

In a huge black-feathered mass, the crows took off after the car.

Most of the traffic on the bridge was now stalled.

People sat frozen in terror in their cars as the birds flowed, foul and stinking, over the roofs.

The SUV was the only car moving.

Seungho had his foot pressed flat to the floor, and the needle on the speedometer hovered close to eighty.

He was becoming more comfortable with the controls- he hadn’t hit anything for at least a minute.

The end of the bridge was in sight.

He grinned. They were going to make it.

And then the huge crow landed on the hood.

Soyeon screamed and Seungho jerked the wheel, attempting to knock the evil-looking creature off, but it had hooked its feet into the raised edges on the hood.

It cocked its head to one side, looking first at Seungho, then Soyeon, and then in two short hops, it came right up to the windshield and deliberately peered inside, black eyes glittering.

It pecked at the glass … and a tiny starred puncture mark appeared.

”It shouldn’t be able to do that, ” Seungho said, trying to keep his eyes on the road.

The crow pecked again and another hole appeared.

Then there was a thump, followed by a second and a third, and three more crows landed on the roof of the car.

The metal roof pinged as the birds began to peck at it.

”I hate crows, ” Fei sighed.

She rooted through her bag and pulled out a set of nunchaku- two twelve-inch lengths of ornately carved wood linked by four and a half inches of chain. She tapped the sticks in the palm of her hand.

”Pity we haven’t got a sunroof, ” she said. ” I could get out there and give them a little taste of this. ”

Jihoon pointed to where a long shaft of sunlight was coming through a pinhole in the roof.

”We may soon have. Besides, ” he added, ”these are not normal crows. The three on the roofs and the one on the hood and Dire-Crows, the Davichi’s special pets. ”

The huge bird on the hood tapped the windshield again, and this time, its beak actually penetrated the glass.

”I’m not sure what I can do …, ” Fei began, and then Soyeon leaned over and hit the windshield wiper switch.

The heavy blades activated … and simply swept the bird of the hood in a flurry of feathers and a shrill croak of surprise.

The brown-haired warrior grinned. ”Well, there is that, of course, ”

Now the rest of the birds had reached the SUV.

They settled on the vehicle in a great blanket.

First dozens, then hundreds gathered on the roof, the hood, the doors, clutching every available opening.

If one fell off or lost its grip, dozens more fought for its place.

The noise inside the car was incredible as thousands of birds pecked and tapped at the metal, the glass, the doors.

They tore into the rubber molding around the windows, ripped into the spare tire on the back of the SUB, tearing it to shreds.

There were so many on the hood, pressed up against the windshield, that Seungho couldn’t see where he was going.

He took his foot off the accelerator and the car immediately started to slow.

”Drive!” Jihoon shouted. ”If you stop, we are truly lost. ”

”But I can’t see!”

Jihoon leaned through the seats and stretched out his right hand.

Soyeon suddenly saw the small circular tattoo on the underside of his wrist.

A cross ran through the circle, the arms of the cross extending over the edges of the circle.

For a single instant it glowed … and then the Alchemyst snapped his fingers.

A tiny ball of hissing, sizzling flame appeared on his fingertips.

”Close your eyes, ” he commanded.

Without waiting to see if they obeyed, he flicked it toward the glass.

Even through their closed lids, the twins could see the scaring light that lit up the interior of the car.

”Now drive, ” Jihoon commanded.

When the twins opened their eyes, most of the crows were gone from the hood, and those few that remained looked dazed and shocked.

”That’s not going to hold them for long, ” Fei said.

She looked up as a razor-sharp beak punched a hole straight through the metal roof.

She snapped out the nunchaku.

She held on stick in her hand, while the other, attached to the short chain, shot out with explosive force and cracked against the beak embedded in the roof.

There was a startled shriek and the beak-slightly bent- disappeared.

Soyeon turned her head to peer in her side mirror.

It was dangling off the car, barely held on by a shred of metal and some wire.

She could see more birds- thousands of them- flying in to replace those that had been swept away, and she knew then that they were not going to make it.

There were simply too many of them.

”Listen, -” Jihoon said suddenly.

”I don’t hear anything” Seungho said grimly.

Soyeon was about to agree with him when she heard the sound.

And she suddenly felt the hairs on her arms prickle and rise.

Low and lonely, the noise hovered just at the edge of her hearing.

It was like a breeze, one moment sounding soft and gentle, the next louder, almost angry.

A peculiar odor wafted into the ar.

”What’s that smell ?” Seungho asked.

”Smells like spicy oranges ” Soyeon said, breathing deeply.

”Pomegranates, ” Jihoon said.

And then the wind came.

It howled across the bay, warm and exotic, smelling of cardamom and rosewater, lime and tarragon, and then it raced along the length of the Golden Gate Bridge, plucking the birds off the struts, lifting them off the cars, pulling them out of the air.

One moment the car was surrounded by birds, the next, they were gone, and the car was filled with the scents of the desert, of dry air and warm sand.

Soyeon hit a button and the scarred and pitted window jerked down.

She craned her neck out the SUV, breathing in the richly scented air.

The huge flock of birds was being pulled high into the sky, borne aloft on the breeze.

When one escaped- one of the big Dire-Crows, Soyeon thought- it was quickly caught by a tendril of the warm breeze and pushed back into the rest of the flock.

From underneath, the mass of the birds looked like a dirty cloud … and then the cloud dispersed as the birds scattered, leaving the sky blue and clear again.

Soyeon looked back along the length of the bridge.

The Golden Gate was completely impassable.

Cars were pointed in every direction, and there had been dozens of minor accidents, which blocked the lanes … and of course, effectively prevented anyone from following them, she realized.

Every vehicle was spattered and splotched with white bird droppings.

She looked at her brother and saw with a shock that there was a tiny smear of blood on his bottom lip.

She pulled a tissue from her pocket. ”You’re cut!” she said urgently, the edge of the tissue and dabbing at her twin’s face.

Seungho pushed her hand away.

”Stop. That’s digusting. ”

He touched his lip with his little finger.

”I must have bit it. I didn’t even feel it. ”

He took the tissue from his sister’s hand and rubbed his chin.

”It’s nothing. ”

Then he smiled quickly.

”Did you see the mess the birds left back there ?” Soyeon nodded.

He made a disgusted face. ”Now, that is going to smell! ”

Soyeon leaned back against the seat, relieved that her brother was fine.

When she’d seen the blood she’d been truly frightened.

A thought struck her and she turned around to look at Jihoon.

”Did you call up the wind ?”

He smiled and shook his head. ”No, I’ve no control over the elements. That skill rests solely with the Elders and a very few rare humans. ”

Soyeon looked at Fei, but the Warrior shook her head.

”Beyond my very limited abilities. ”

”But you did summon the wind?” Soyeon persisted.

Jihoon handed Soyeon back her phone. ”I just phone in a request, ” he said, and smiled.

 How was it ? ^_^

And guess who did our Rain called … /jengjengjeng

Comments are much appreciated <3 Heheee.