Before Dawn. Morgan Rice
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understand.
But Kate wasn’t about to leave Elijah to get his ass kicked because of some stupid masculine belief that girls couldn’t stick up for guys. She had a bike, which meant she was faster, and she could use it as a battering ram.
She hitched her backpack off, heavy and lumpy with textbooks. She swung it and charged at the gang of guys, smacking one of them across the back with it.
“Hey!” he shouted, stumbling forward. “Get off, you lunatic.”
He didn’t seem too ruffled by Kate, though she hoped he was just trying to save face in front of his friends.
Maybe it was dumb taking on a group of senior boys with nothing but her bag and bike as weapons, but Kate had been overtaken by some kind of force, like a protective goose looking after her nest. She was standing up against Elijah’s bullies in the way she wished Madison would stand up for her against their bully of a mom.
She doubled back on herself, cycling at them as fast as she could go, making them scatter all over the place.
“Who is that freak?” one of the guys was saying to another as he dodged out of the way.
“Isn’t she Madison’s sister or something?” another replied, laughing at the sight of Kate wielding her backpack.
“Ew, gross,” the first said. “But Madison’s so hot. She must be adopted, right?”
Fueled by their rude comments, Kate charged again. She smacked another guy with her backpack, so hard this time he staggered into another. They both fell to the ground in a heap.
Trying to save face, the guys began dispersing, like a bunch of kids leaving their ice cream to an irritating, persistent wasp. They’d clearly realized that Kate would make their attack on Elijah more hassle than it was worth.
Kate was panting hard from the exertion and anxiety, though there was a little bit of triumphant adrenaline coursing through her as well. She glared at the boys as they left, sauntering down the road, then turned back to where Elijah had been.
But Elijah had gone.
“Hey!” Kate shouted aloud. The least the jerk could have done was stick around to say thank you.
She craned her head around, trying to see where he’d gone. But the more she looked, the more it became apparent to her that there was no way Elijah had had the time to disappear from her sight. There were no houses or shops along this part of the road for him to go into, just a rocky mountainous patch on one side and a steep drop down to the roofs of the houses on the street below on the other. Where had he gone?
She looked around, squinting against the bright sunlight, but he was nowhere to be seen. Then she caught sight of a figure right down at the bottom of the hill, walking along in that graceful, precise way she recognized to be Elijah’s. She had no idea how he’d gotten so far in such a short space of time. She wanted to put it down to the adrenaline messing with her perception, but an uneasy feeling was starting to overcome her. It was just like in the cafeteria. Elijah, she was certain, could move across distances faster than possible.
Kate wasn’t sure what compelled her to chase after him. Maybe it was that whole being seventeen and not wanting to put up with so much crap from people, but she felt at the very least she deserved some gratitude from him for putting her neck on the line. She’d squashed the box of chocolates from Dinah while bashing the boys. They were seeping gooey pink sugar filling all over the inside of her bag. And her copy of Romeo and Juliet had a huge crease across the cover now.
She began pedaling in the direction of Elijah. It was a long road and at points it became quite steep. All Kate had to do was lean forward and let gravity propel her down the hill. She was usually a slow, careful cyclist, not much of a thrill seeker, and it felt good to feel the wind racing through her hair as she careened down the hill.
“Hey!” she shouted when she thought Elijah might be in earshot.
He turned and gave her a puzzled expression. Once again, the moment their eyes locked, a strange sensation swept through Kate. There was an intensity in Elijah’s eyes, a haunted sort of expression behind them. If the eyes were indeed the window to the soul, Elijah’s soul seemed to be old before its time.
Dazed by the sensations coursing through her body, Kate squeezed the brakes on her handlebars. But she was going way faster than she normally would, her bike was old, the brakes were a little worn, and they didn’t engage as quickly as she would have liked. She was practically flying, approaching the end of the road at a crazy speed. At the bottom, she realized with dread, was the highway.
Kate’s heart began hammering as she realized there was no way she would be able to stop in time. She was heading right for the road.
Time seemed to slow to a painful pace as she raced to the inevitable, unstoppable conclusion that she was about to die. Her bike passed the stop sign, her useless brakes screeching and making the smell of burned rubber permeate all around her. Then she flew right over the white markings in the road – and right into oncoming traffic.
Kate caught sight of an RV heading right for her. She saw the eyes of the startled driver – and then she felt the impact.
Kate’s body slammed against the RV. She didn’t feel any pain at all but she knew from the deafening crunch noise that she’d broken something. Possibly everything.
The car’s horn began to blare as she bounced off the windshield, rolling up then back down again, all the way. Her bike was flying up into the air, then falling. She rolled off the front of the RV and hit the ground with a crash, head first.
Black stars danced across her vision. Her bike landed beside her, breaking into pieces on impact with the hard asphalt. Kate became aware of the sensation of numbness, of the metallic smell of blood.
But the pain didn’t come. She knew it was bad. Bad that she wasn’t moving. Bad that she wasn’t feeling anything.
Kate’s head fell to the side and her gaze found the glittering ocean in the distance. As though at the end of a long tunnel, Kate could hear the sound of cars braking, of car doors slamming and people crying out. She could smell gasoline and rubber and metal, and something burning.
Then, through all the chaos, she saw Elijah’s face appear before her and felt herself being scooped up into his arms. He was saying something, but she couldn’t make sense of the words. His expression was intense, panicked.
And just before her vision went black, she thought she saw fangs protrude from his mouth. She couldn’t move at all, couldn’t even scream. But there came the sensation of something sharp, hot, and wet on her neck, she was sure of it.
Then the world disappeared.
CHAPTER FIVE
The first thing Kate became aware of was an electronic beeping sound. She hadn’t spent much time thinking about dying, but she was pretty sure it sounded like this. It was soon joined by another noise; a squeaking. And then she became acutely aware of the sensation of moving forward.
Wheels, she thought. I’m on a gurney.
Then came a strange, overly clean smell, like bleach and detergent.
I’m in a hospital, she thought.
So not dead then, she realized. At least not yet.
Kate felt something in her throat and something else digging into her arm. Not painful but irritating. She tried to raise a hand but nothing happened. She could hear strange noises coming from above her, like people talking through water. As the seconds passed the distortions became less pronounced, and she began to pick out voices and words.
“It’s a miracle,” someone said. It was a voice she didn’t recognize.
“I’ve never seen anyone come back with these kinds of injuries,” another voice said.
“We’ll see if we can get consent from the parents to test her,” the first said again. “Because she was flat-lining when they picked her up, then all of a sudden she was breathing again. They hadn’t even had time to defibrillate her.”
Kate