Lines of concentration creased on her mouth, and I could tell she wanted to be anywhere but trapped in this car, unable to tap into her demon strength. And then she had me to worry about – the frail whatever I was. Gripping the edge of my seat again, I prepared myself for the absolute worst, and my mind was very imaginative.
I watched stunned as the blue SUV jerked toward us. Lexi’s eyes got huge. “Angel, call Cha–”
Her voice was broken off. Like something from the Dukes of Hazard, the monster truck sideswiped her car. It caused quite a chain reaction.
Her poor car crunched under the impact, metal screeching against metal.
Lexi’s car fishtailed, swerving out-of-control.
And we screamed bloody murder.
Chapter 18
By the time I cleared my rattled brain, the SUV had recovered and was coming at us again. My eyes adjusted just in time to catch a view of the lunatic driver. She was female and had hair the color of strawberries and spun gold.
Emma.
That skankbag. I should have known.
Leave it to Emma to be a buzz kill. What looked to be the perfect end to an exhausting day was ruined by none other than my newest enemy. And the sad part, she wasn’t even supernatural. What she was becoming was a nuisance, extremely bothersome, and a giant pain in my arse. And I don’t think I needed to mention that she was also life-threatening.
You’d have thought I would have been prepared for the second impact. I wasn’t. I knew it was coming and there was nothing I could do about it. Bracing myself, with my feet against the floorboards, I prayed we wouldn’t spin off the road and end in the ditch. I had no desire to be flipped in a car. Again. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Lexi’s demon abilities…it was that I thought Emma would finish what she started. Kill us while we were incapacitated by shards of car parts.
On the second hit, my skull crashed into the passenger side window, spidering the glass. My head split in blinding pain, and I felt the sticky substance of blood drip down the side of my forehead. Black stars colored my vision and I heard Lexi call my name through the tunnel of blackness. When the fuzziness cleared, the nightmare wasn’t over as I had hoped.
Neck and neck the two vehicles raced down the deserted road. Stupid Spring Valley and its country roads. There was never anybody around when you needed them and really how much more of playing bumper cars could Lexi’s take?
“Hey, you okay?” Lexi asked for what I was certain wasn’t the first time.
“Yeah, I’ll live another day.” At least I thought I would if we managed to get out of this sticky situation.
“Good. ‘Cuz Chase would fry my ass if anything happened to you.” She looked a tad concerned.
We didn’t really have time to chitchat or formulate a plan because the SUV was relentless and coming at us again. To make matters worse, if we hurt Emma, we would directly be hurting Travis and nobody wanted it to come to that. But that didn’t mean we couldn’t play a little dirty.
Oh my God. Chase must be rubbing off on me.
“Hit her!” I yelled.
“Hang on. I have a better idea. I’ve grown tired of these games.” Lexi said in an eerie voice, very unlike her usual tone, and slammed the brakes. The sound of rubber screeching pierced our ears. Smoke burned from the tires and my seatbelt dug into my chest as we came to a harsh stop. My head hit the head rest in a jarring thump.
The SUV went flying by.
“Now what?” I questioned, unsure what the plan was.
“I’m going to go buckwild on her boney butt,” Lexi informed. She had that same crazy pitch to her tone.
It was starting to scare me.
The SUV’s brake lights flashed red, and before I had the chance to object, Lexi vanished in front of my eyes. Her door was wide open, letting in the chilly November air. I jumped from the car just in time to see Emma step out of the SUV. I don’t think she ever saw Lexi coming. Heck, I didn’t even see her until she had Emma pinned against the car with one hand at Emma’s throat.
This was bad.
I stared to jog toward the SUV hoping that we would be able to settle this without any more bloodshed. My head was still throbbing like a snare drum. The cut on the side of my head was sticky and covered in dried up blood, not to mention it was painful. I just wanted to get home.
I rarely see Lexi with her demon eyes, but right now they were set aflame. The hand wrapped around Emma’s neck squeezed as she struggled to breathe. I approached cautiously not sure what I was supposed to do. Did I try to stop Lexi? Or do I sit back and do nothing, potentially letting Lexi do irreversible damage to Emma?
Turned out I didn’t have to decide.
Lexi looked fierce and wicked. She eased her grip, but held Emma in place. “My brother might be blinded by the past and what you used to be, but I’m a realist. I know what you are. I can’t believe we used to be friends.” Her words hung in the air and an emotion I couldn’t identify flickered over Emma’s face before she sealed it behind an expressionless glare. “Is there even a fraction of who you used to be underneath all that hate?” Lexi questioned with the sincerity of a friend trying to reach out.