I took a deep breath and moved the stick into what I hoped was Reverse.
God, don’t let me kill us all
, I prayed as I took my foot from the brake and pressed gently on the gas while letting up on the clutch.
The car shuddered to a stop.
“No, no, no, please don’t do this to me.” I pressed the clutch and brake again, put the car in neutral and started it again. This time after I put it in reverse, I eased up on the clutch more slowly as I pressed the gas. The car shot backwards a few feet before my right foot found the brake again and brought it to a screeching stop. My heart pounded. Damn this was a lot harder than people made it look!
I gripped the wheel and pressed the gas gingerly as I let off the clutch. The car rolled backwards until I tapped the brake. Now to turn this thing around.
Something banged on the back of the car and I jerked my head around to find Tarek leaning over the trunk. The tendons stood out on his neck and his eyes burned into me through the rear window.
Christ! How did he get to us so fast?
I gulped and reached frantically for the gear shift.
I got it into first gear but my feet got all tangled up trying to find the right pedals. I turned the wheel as I released the clutch and pressed the gas and the car moved forward in short jerky movements. I was too afraid to look to see where Tarak was so I kept my eyes straight ahead.
The car narrowly missed hitting two parked pickups but the Escalade wasn’t so lucky. I winced as metal grinded against metal but I didn’t dare stop. A few scratches on the Mustang’s paint job were the least of our worries and I could care less about the SUV.
I straightened out the wheel and the car lurched forward. Shouting reached my ears and I glanced furtively over my shoulder at the furious man limping after us.
Just keep going. Don’t let him catch you.
The exit loomed before me and I hit the brake suddenly, making Scott fall forward. My arm shot out just in time to keep him from hitting the dashboard.
I can’t do this. I’m going to get us all killed.
I glanced back at Peter to make sure he was okay. He was still laid out across the seat, totally oblivious to what was going on around him.
Scott mumbled incoherently and I prayed the witch had not screwed up his mind. Another injury he could lay at my door. At this rate Scott would be lucky to get through senior year intact.
I stole a look in the side mirror and sucked in a sharp breath when I spotted Tarek going for the Escalade. I gritted my teeth and pulled out into the merge lane. The car shook every time a vehicle sped past and my heart pounded in my ears but there was no going back now. Risking a glance in the rearview mirror, I spotted a black SUV pulling out of the truck stop and my foot stomped on the gas, making the car shoot forward. I saw a gap in traffic and swung out sharply into the next lane, just barely correcting the Mustang before it careened into the middle lane. I hit the gas again and the engine started to whine. Terrified to take my eyes off the road, I fumbled with the pedals and gear stick until the car stopped sounding like it was about to strain something.
My heart felt ready to burst through my ribs and I swallowed dryly, suddenly very thirsty. I gripped the wheel and focused on my bigger problem. We couldn’t stay on the highway. I could barely keep the Mustang in my lane; there was no way I could outrun them. Our only hope was to take the next exit and try to lose them in town.
The closest exit was four miles away and those were the four longest miles of my life. Every second I expected the Escalade to catch us and run us right off the road. I checked my mirror whenever I dared take my eyes off the road but there was no sign of the SUV. But I knew it was behind us somewhere. I wasn’t foolish enough to think a man like that would give up easily.
I hit the off ramp going a little too fast and almost stalled the car at the bottom, which did nothing to help my confidence. The road I merged onto did not look familiar at all and I let out a nervous groan. I had no idea where I was and I had no business being behind the wheel of a car. Not to mention Scott was blubbering like an idiot next to me, I had no clue where my attackers were and Peter was probably bleeding to death behind me.
Don’t think about that!
I got off the road as soon as I could, taking a series of turns until I was hopelessly lost. A few times I thought I spied a black SUV on a parallel road so I just kept driving, afraid to stop for even a minute. My phone rang several times but my hands clenched the steering wheel too tightly to answer it. It was probably Roland, wondering why we weren’t back already.
Despair of ever finding my way home was settling over me when a large building I recognized came into view. My heart quickened. I had never been so happy to see the mall. Following this street I would reach the high school in ten minutes. I couldn’t go home. There was a strong possibility those men knew where I lived. They might not be able to get past my wards but I couldn’t take that chance with Peter and Scott incapacitated as they were.
“Thank you, God!” I sobbed when I spotted the steeple of St. Patrick’s church. I pulled into the church parking lot and drove around to the back. My hands shook as I turned off the car and immediately turned to check on Peter, afraid of what I’d find. “Peter?”
“Hmmm,” he murmured without moving.
“How are you doing?” I probed anxiously.
“Better than I expected. You know, your driving really sucks.”
I laughed and cried at the same time. Falling back into my seat, I pulled out my phone. My strength almost failed me when I heard Roland’s voice. “Roland… we need your help.”
“What happened? Where are you guys?” he demanded with a desperate edge to his voice.
“We’re behind St. Patrick’s. Just hurry. Peter’s hurt.”
There was a short pause. “Sit tight, I’m on the way.”
I laid my head back against the headrest but my body was too tense to relax. Scott moved, turning his face toward me and his eyes tried to focus on my face. “Why do you hate me?” His voice was small and vulnerable like a little boy’s and I was too shocked to respond. It took me a long moment to remember that his mind was messed up and he probably had no idea who he was talking to. “I wish you didn’t hate me,” he mumbled sadly.
“I don’t hate you, Scott.” It was the truth. I didn’t like him, but I did not hate him either.
“I’m glad.” His head lolled to the other side and he pointed at the empty parking lot. “What a funny looking camel,” he said before his eyes closed again.
Definitely messed up
. I bit my lip. Scott and I might not get along but I didn’t want to see him hurt.
I was still puzzled by Scott’s strange behavior earlier and why he had hung around the rest stop in the first place. It was almost like he had been waiting for me to come out of the diner. But that couldn’t be right. The last person Scott Foley would willingly spend time with was me.
A few minutes later, Judith’s car raced into view. I sagged in relief. “It’s Roland,” I told Peter who lifted a hand in acknowledgement then let it fall back to his side.
Roland ran over and tried to open the driver door. I hit the unlock button and he yanked the door open. He stared open-mouthed at Scott before his eyes moved to me sitting behind the wheel and then to Peter on the back seat. “What the hell happened to you guys?”
I let out a shaky laugh. “It’s a long story. Can you look at Peter first? He’s been stabbed.”
Roland helped me out of the car because my arms and legs felt a little like wet noodles. Then he pushed the seat forward and leaned in to look at Peter. He withdrew and gave me an encouraging nod and spoke low so Scott could not hear him. “He’s okay. It takes us a bit longer to heal when we’re not in wolf form. As soon as we get him somewhere private, he can shift and heal that in a few minutes.”
“Oh, thank God!” I sat on the driver’s seat again and rested my forehead against the wheel. At least I hadn’t gotten one of my best friends killed. I wasn’t a total screw-up.
“We heard the police were called for a commotion out on the highway an hour ago. They said a crazy girl choked a guy at the rest stop and tore out of there in a red Mustang, banging up cars and being chased by a black SUV. I guess I don’t need to ask if you know anything about that.”
“I only hit one car, and that man deserved to be choked for stabbing Peter.”
Before he could reply, a motorcycle roared around the corner of the church.
“You called him,” I said accusingly.
“I didn’t have to. He’s been all over my ass since you disappeared from Dylan’s. He probably put one of those damn trackers on the car before I took off to look for you.”
The motorcycle stopped a few feet from us. Nikolas leapt off and strode straight for the Mustang. His hand closed around my arm and he unceremoniously hauled me from the car. “Do you have a death wish?” he shouted.
“Hey!” I protested but my mouth clamped shut at the thunderous look on his face. He pulled me closer until I could feel the heat radiating from him. Oh crap, was he in one of those rages Chris had mentioned?
I struggled futilely. “Let me go.”
“Forget it. You’re coming with me since it’s obvious you can’t be trusted to take care of yourself.”
“Now wait a minute,” Roland protested, coming around the car as I tried to pull away from Nikolas.
If Nikolas had hackles I swear they would have been raised at that moment. “I’ll do whatever is necessary to protect her, even if it’s from herself.”
My own outrage boiled over. “The hell you will! You don’t own me.”
Surprisingly it was Peter who stepped in – figuratively from the back seat – to play referee. “Hey, this is not helping anyone. Before you all go off half cocked, why don’t you let us tell you what happened?”
Nikolas nodded stiffly and released my arm but did not move away from me. Ignoring his towering form, I explained to Roland how I had met with David as planned and I was about to call Phil to pick us up when the man named Tarek showed up. I heard Nikolas’s sharp intake of breath beside me but I refused to look at him. When I got to the part about arrival of the witch, I saw comprehension dawn in Roland’s eyes and I knew his thoughts mirrored mine. Why were the men from the marina after me? I had been in such a panic to get away from the rest stop that I didn’t think to ask the witch that question.
Nikolas cut in. “You’re sure about him, what he looked like?”
“I don’t think I’ll ever forget that face after what he did,” I said, unable to keep the quiver out of my voice. Thinking about the way he had touched my mind made me feel violated all over again.
“What did he do?” Nikolas’s voice took on a dangerous note I’d never heard before. I paused, afraid to tell him what happened next.
“Sara, did he hurt you?”
“No, not really. He tried to do something to my mind. It felt like something… awful got inside my head and took control of me. I couldn’t move or say anything.” I shuddered at the memory. “It was the most horrible feeling, like I’d never be clean again.”
Roland blanched. “Fuck! How did you get away?”
“I don’t know. One second there was a creepy voice in my head telling me to go to sleep and the next thing I knew the tattooed guy was screaming.” I wrapped my arms around myself and stared past them at the hulking shape of the high school next door, allowing my mind to dwell on what I had refused to think about since the witch’s attack. My mind probed at the silent part of me where the demon was, like a tongue touching the gap where a tooth used to be. “I think… I think my Mori is dead. I felt it dying,” I said hoarsely, filled an inexplicable sadness. Evil or not, its voice had lived inside my head my whole life and it felt like a part of me had been extinguished.
A warm hand touched my back sending a small flare of heat through me. “It’s been hurt, but it’s still alive,” Nikolas said in a gentler voice.
“How do you know?” I asked without looking at him.
“Trust me. I would know if it was gone.” My breath caught at the rough edge in his voice and I wondered if his demon felt pain or anguish if another Mori died.
“What kind of witch can hurt a demon like that?” Roland asked, awed.
“A Hale witch.” Nikolas spat out the words as if they were poison. “A desert witch from Africa. They get their power from the spirit world.”
“Like a shaman or witch doctor?” I asked. I thought shamans were all about healing and helping people.
“Hale witches only deal in dark magic and their power is much greater than a shaman’s. A Hale witch can cripple a person with a single thought and their compulsion is even stronger than a vampire’s, almost unbreakable.” Nikolas paused and I looked up to meet his searching gaze. “Not even the Mohiri are immune to their power. I’ve seen warriors brought to madness after a single encounter with a Hale witch.”
I had no answer for the question in his eyes.
“Hale witches abhor demons and they do not work with vampires,” Nikolas informed us. “And they usually stick close to their tribal region of the desert. It would take something big to get one of them to come all the way to America.” He fixed me with a hard stare. “You are not telling us everything. Who else is after you?”
“No one,” I declared and saw the doubt on both of their faces. “I swear, I have no idea why they attacked me.” It was true. As far as I knew, they were after Malloy, not me.