Page 28 of Relentless (Relentless 1)
Chapter 16
MY GUT CLENCHED. This was very, very bad.
I scrambled away from the picnic table and stood like a cornered rabbit with my heart thumping in my chest before my mind began to quickly evaluate my options. The Escalade was on the far side of the parking lot. The diner was blocked from view by the semi, but I knew it was closer than the SUV. Even if the man was fast, I could make it to the diner and Peter and hope the man did not want to risk a public commotion.
The man must have realized it, too, because he started walking briskly toward us. Any hope that he did not recognize me drained away.
Scott stood. “What’s wrong?”
Movement to my right brought me up short. A dark figure stepped into view around the rear of the semi. Tall and thin, he was dressed in a black robe covered in strange symbols that shimmered in the sun like white gold. A black hood covered his head and hid his face from me, but I could feel something, some kind of power emanating from him. He halted and reached up to push back the hood, and my mouth opened in a silent gasp. The man – if he was a man – was as black as ebony with a small black goatee and a bald head. His face and head were covered in a strange pattern of red and white markings that appeared to be gouged into his skin. But it was his eyes that sent fear racing along my spine. Two white orbs glowed in the black face, and when they turned on me I felt like a deer staring into two headlights coming out of the dark.
“What the fuck is that?”
Scott’s bewildered voice pulled me from my own paralysis. “Run!” I yelled and whirled away to bolt in the only direction available, toward the interstate.
Hands grabbed my arms roughly from behind, and I cried out. I twisted and kicked at the person restraining me, but he held me in an iron grip. “It is no use to struggle,” he said in a clipped Middle Eastern voice. “You are coming with me.”
“Help!” I screamed as I was spun toward the SUV. I saw Scott on the ground looking dazed, and I realized my attacker must have hit him. “Scott,” I yelled at him. “Please help me!”
“What the hell?” he moaned, teetering to his feet. “Someone hit me.”
The man began pulling me backward, effortlessly dragging me away from the picnic tables. “Do something!” I shouted at Scott.
At first I thought he was going to stand there and watch me get hauled away. It took him a minute to comprehend what was happening, and then he started toward us. “Hey, what do you think you’re doing? L-Let her go…”
He stammered to a stop, and his expression went blank. I watched in confusion while he stood swaying in a trancelike state. My eyes went to the tattooed man and found him watching Scott with a small smile on his face.
“Leave him alone! He’s got nothing to do with this.”
“Come with me and your boyfriend will be okay,” the man holding me barked.
“No!” I struggled and screamed Peter’s name.
Dragged backward, I stumbled and almost felt. The man jerked me up, and I used the momentum to bring my head up and slam him hard under the chin. I heard his jaw crack at the same time pain shot through my skull. He staggered, and his grip loosened enough for me to tear free. I spun to face him and kicked out, landing a hard blow to the side of his knee. Off balance, he fell to the ground swearing. I could tell he would not be down for long.
I heard running feet as Peter tore around the front of the semi and took in the scene before him. “Sara!” he bellowed and tossed his milkshake aside, racing toward me. He reached me just as my attacker gained his footing again.
“Watch out!” I yelled to Peter.
Peter turned as a hard fist flew at his face. Moving faster than I’d ever seen him go, he leaned to one side and brought his own fist up, slamming it into the man’s stomach. The man parried with a shot aimed at Peter’s chest, but he only managed a hit to the shoulder. Peter recovered fast and delivered a second punch to his opponent’s gut. I had never seen Peter fight, and the force and speed of his blows surprised me. It also answered my question about whether or not werewolves were strong in their human form. It was clear that my friend was more than a match for the larger, more muscled man.
I was so engrossed in the fight it took me several seconds to register the gentle pressure on my mind, touching, prodding like fingers testing a piece of fruit. My mental walls flew up, and I sensed a flare of surprise from the one trying to invade my head. In the next moment, it surged forward with a force that left me gasping. Horrified recognition filled me as the thing buzzed inside my head like a live wire. My walls faltered at the shock of encountering the same awful presence that had infected the rat at the marina, and my hesitation was all the alien force needed to shove its way around my defenses.
I screamed and grabbed my head as the thing invaded me. It reached into the recesses of my mind, and wherever it touched, it left a path of filth like the slime trail of a slug. In the back of my mind I felt the Mori recoil as my whole being shuddered at the violation, the slow rape of my mind.
“Sleeeep,” a chilling voice hissed in my head. “All is welll.”
“No…” I protested weakly. A cool numbing fog began to steal over me until I no longer felt the ugliness in my head, or much else.
“You will sleeeep now.”
“Can’t…” I mumbled as my eyes grew heavy.
My walls fell. I was vaguely aware of something cold and slimy burrowing inside me like a parasite. The Mori shrieked in agony. Choking, dying, the Mori was dying. I’d always hated the dark thing that had been a part of me my whole life. I should be happy now that the beast would be no more. Instead, sadness bloomed in my chest and tears of grief welled in my eyes.
Coldness reached down, inching toward the center of my being. It came up against my last defense, the gate that held back the wellspring of my power. “Let meee innn,” it commanded as icy fingers pulled at the barrier in vain. I did as it asked, and I felt its triumph as it punched through and touched the essence of me.
Someone began to scream.
I was on fire. No, I was the fire. Roaring, raging, I was an angry volcano spewing molten rock up from deep within the earth. The lava scorched everything in its path with a cleansing fire that burned away the coldness and filth and bore down on the ugly thing pulsing in my mind. I felt a flash of terror that was not my own, and then the pressure in my head was gone.
My eyes opened to see the witch – I knew what he was now – stagger and fall to his knees. His eyes no longer glowed white, and his face had paled to a dark gray. “What… are you?” he choked, his black eyes full of shock and fear.
Instead of answering him, I stood and turned my attention to Peter who still fought my assailant. They traded blows like it was a heavyweight match, and I wondered how either of them was still standing. Across the parking lot, several men stood near their cars watching the fight, but no one moved to break it up. Anger rose in me. What was wrong with these people? They were going to just stand there while teenagers were attacked in broad daylight?
Peter appeared to be gaining ground, and I watched breathlessly as he forced the older man backward with each blow. I glanced behind me nervously at the witch, expecting him to recover and try that mind magic on me again. But he was still on his knees with both hands on the ground like he was about to pass out. Good, serves you right.
“Argh!”
At Peter’s cry of pain, I whirled back to the fight to find him clutching his belly and blood running between his fingers. The dark-haired man advanced on him again, brandishing a bloody knife and wearing a sneer that left no doubt about his deadly intentions.
A howl of rage escaped me as I threw myself at the man’s back, wrapping my legs around his waist and my arms around his throat in a stranglehold that might have broken the neck of a smaller person. My would-be kidnapper dropped his weapon and clawed at my arms as I clung to him, squeezing his windpipe with strength I did not know I had and screaming like a banshee. The fear, the pain, the endless attacks for the last mont
h had finally made me snap, and I poured all my pent up anger and fear into choking the life from the man who was trying to kill my friend.
We tumbled to the ground as the man’s legs went out from underneath him, and the impact jolted me from my murderous rage. Beneath me, the man was no longer moving, but I felt his chest rise and fall so I knew he was still alive. I loosened my chokehold and looked around for Peter, emitting a squeak when I found him lying on the ground a few feet away.
“Peter?” I disentangled my arms and legs from the prone man and crawled across the grass to my friend. Peter’s normally pale face was so white that even his freckles looked washed out. His eyes opened when I leaned over him, and I saw they were glazed with pain.
“Oh, Peter!” Gut wounds were always the worst, and I had no idea if his accelerated werewolf healing worked in human form. I pressed my hand over his stomach to staunch the flow of blood.
He tried to smile and failed miserably. “A knife is nothing compared to a crocotta claw.”
I fumbled for my cell phone with my free hand. “I’ll call nine-one-one. Don’t worry; you’ll be okay.”
“More are coming.”
The deep African voice drew my eyes from Peter to the witch, who was sitting back on his heels watching me.
“What?”
“Tarek.” He pointed to the unconscious man behind me. “He called for backup as soon as we found you. They will be here very soon.”
His meaning was clear. If I waited for the police or an ambulance, Tarek’s reinforcements would get to us first. “Why are you telling me this?”
The witch shrugged. I had no reason to trust the person who had just tried to violate my mind, but then he could have kept his mouth shut and let me be ambushed.
“How did you find us? Were you following me?”
He let out a deep laugh. “You are not such easy prey. I merely sensed your mind as we passed by. But the others know you’re here now.”
I looked at Peter. “We can’t stay here. We have to go.”
He grimaced. “I know.”
“Can you stand?” My hands slipped behind his shoulders and helped him into a sitting position. Between the both of us, we managed to get him to his feet.
“Come on.” I wrapped an arm around him, and together we walked slowly toward the diner. I wanted to urge him to go faster, but his haggard breaths told me how much pain he was in. I felt him weakening with every step.
As we neared the diner, it looked less and less like the refuge I thought it would be. These men had no qualms about attacking me in the middle of the afternoon alongside a busy interstate. People like that would think nothing of barging inside the restaurant and taking us. I looked around frantically. We couldn’t stay here, and we couldn’t call Phil and wait for him to show up. We needed to get out of here now.
At that moment I saw Scott shuffling like a zombie toward his shiny red Mustang parked in front of the diner. Jesus, I had forgotten about him.
“Scott,” I called as we hurried after him as fast as Peter could move. We caught up to Scott as he stopped beside the driver’s-side door, swaying slightly, and one look at his slack-jawed face told me he was in no shape to drive out of here. The way Peter hung heavily on me, I knew he was about to pass out. “Damn it! Why does this shit keep happening?”
I leaned Peter against the car and searched Scott’s pockets until I found his keys. Gently nudging Scott aside, I unlocked the driver’s-side door and levered the seat forward so I could get Peter into the back. He stretched out across the seat with a moan, then promptly went out cold. My breath caught painfully in my chest, and I scrambled to check his breathing and pulse to make sure he was still alive. “I’m so sorry, Peter,” I whispered hoarsely. “I’ll get us out of this, I promise.”
I got out and propelled Scott around to the passenger side and into the seat, fear causing me to slam the door with more force than was necessary. Then I ran back to the driver side and climbed in. Only then did it hit me what I was about to do, and I stared around me in confusion. The Mustang was so different from Judith’s car, and I’d only had one lesson so far. How was I ever going to figure this out?
Okay, first things first. I reached down until my fingers found the seat adjuster mechanism and moved the seat forward until my feet could touch the pedals. Gas on the right, brake in the middle, and clutch thingy on the left. No problem.
I pressed down on the brake. Grabbing the gear stick, I jiggled it into neutral and turned the key in the ignition. Nothing. Don’t panic. Think about what Roland told you.
I lost precious seconds recalling my lesson before I remembered. The clutch! I pressed the pedal to the floor and tried the key again. The Mustang rumbled to life.
Scott made a moaning sound, and but there was no time to check on him. The one time I needed him and he was completely out of it. Figures. I looked around me again. Scott loved his Mustang. I wondered how he’d feel if he knew who was about to drive his precious car.
Movement in the side mirror caught my eye, and I saw Tarek stirring on the ground. I must have really done a job on him because he was having trouble lifting himself to his hands and knees. He scanned the parking lot, and his eyes zeroed in on the Mustang. Even from here I felt the rage radiating off him. He was not happy to be taken down by a pair of teenagers, and his expression told me payback was coming if he caught up with us.
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, 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 backward 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 backward 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 couldn’t 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 bl
ack 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 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. 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.
