Chapter 47
Kat
As luck would have it, the gate was grinding open the moment I arrived, so I bounced right through it, accelerating when I saw the black Mercedes sedan on the road in front of me. Nicole was driving, her face wild-eyed and blood-streaked.
My mind spun, trying to think of what to do now. Wipe her off the face of the earth, idiot, what else? Floor the accelerator. End that bitch. At all costs.
Yes. Nicole Volange was stopping all of her evil shit right…fucking…now.
Nicole’s eyes widened in panic as I sped toward her. Then Holly’s face popped up from behind her, from the backseat. Holly’s face was streaked with blood.
Shit! I braked, wrenching the van sharply to the left, skidding into their car sideways.
A huge crunch. Glass shattering. Oh Holly, baby. Please be okay.
I stumbled out of the van, blinking the blood out of my eyes. I’d bonked my head. Nicole staggered out of her Mercedes, and came at me, wild-eyed, her hair in blood-stiffened elf-locks.
She had me on the defensive from the start, forcing me to block rapid-fire kicks and punches.
I got in a few good ones, but she got in more.
I was slowed down, clumsy. I risked getting in close, stabbed my fingers into her eye.
Was rewarded by a shriek of rage, but she recovered fast, snatching my hand and torquing it until I was bent over, dragged off balance.
Fuck. I was exhausted, concussed, seeing double, and she knocked me against her car and forced me down to the ground, pounding me.
Then she was on top of me, squeezing my throat with brutal strength. I fought her, clawing at her hands, but I felt everything start to get dimmer, quieter, farther away.
But even from that faraway place, I heard the wet crunch. Then sudden silence.
Something landed on me heavily. Hot, wet, inert. I struggled, gasping for air, until it slid off me to one side, thudding to the ground.
As air came back, and awareness, I saw Nicole, lying unconscious. Our bodies were touching. I shrank away from the contact as if she were toxic waste.
Then I saw Holly standing over us, swaying. Her face was blank and shocked. She held a rusty piece of rebar, bloody on one end. She’d hit Nicole on the head.
I dragged myself to my feet, nudging gingerly at Nicole with my foot to see just how genuinely down for the count she was. I wanted no more surprises, thank you.
She showed no signs of movement, so I dared to turn away and gently pry the length of rebar from Holly’s cold, shaking hands. She couldn’t let go, so I had to peel her rigid, claw-like fingers off the thing one at a time.
When she dropped the rebar, I pulled her into my arms. I heard sirens in the distance. Saw the strobe of police lights.
Good. Bring them on. The more the merrier.
Then Holly started to cry, and damned if she didn’t get me sniffling right along with her. Tears were contagious.
Then Nicole made a sound, that jerked our heads around, sucking in a panicky breath.
She was choking, panting, and then convulsing, her feet drumming, body arching.
She started to foam at the mouth. I left her to it, pulling Holly’s face against my chest. “Don’t look at her,” I said, backing away. Letting karma take its course.
Nicole went still, her face turned toward us, eyes wide and blank and red-rimmed. She had been weeping blood. She looked monstrous.
“It’s over,” I whispered to Holly. “She’s done.”
And just like that, so were we. We sagged down together onto the ground and just rocked, hugging. We were oh, so done. Too done for questions, or to even notice or care about the flashing lights, the yelling, the people running around in a dither.
I roused myself only when I saw Ethan being wheeled by on a gurney. His neck and chest were blood-soaked, but his eyes were open and sharp. Thank God.
He saw me and Holly, and lifted his hand as he went by, with a ghost of a smile. I wanted to run after him, but Holly was wrapped around me, and I couldn’t toss her off.
Then Freya appeared. She was battered and bloody, but ambulatory. She grabbed us both, hugging us so tightly poor little Holly was practically squished.
Predictably, that hug devolved into yet another sob-fest, this time a three-way, and even more intense.
Freya kept thanking me weepily for saving Holly, which made no sense to me.
I’d done it purely for myself, and Holly.
It would have killed me if they’d gotten her.
I couldn’t go through that again. I’d rather be fried by a bolt of lightning.
I was a protector of girls, at the core of my being, because of my sisters.
Life had forged me into that by fire and blood, and I had no other choice.
Nor did I want one, I realized, as I rocked in Freya’s and Holly’s tight embraces.