Daughter of Nyx (Book 2)

Chapter Fourteen

Pressure, so much pressure. Her ears hurt and and heat filled her lungs.

Darkness surrounded her and that wasn't right. It was supposed to be red. Hell was red.

She couldn't hear. But she could feel. Her leg, the only thing not covered by the blanket, felt like it was on fire. Maybe it was.

Elliot!" She tried to scream. He wasn't protected.

There was movement. Arms held her and she was up.

Once again, she was on her feet, cool concrete doing little for the burn. The blanket shifted and she felt something being pressed into her hand.

Words being shouted into her ringing ears.

"Drive. Don't stop. Don't look back. I'll find you."

"I can't leave you." She tried to turn but his fingers held her tight. Madelyn was standing in front of her, looking over her shoulder with horror-stricken eyes. "Don't make me go. Please."

"Go, Chevonne." She could feel the command in his voice, along with an agony he was trying to hide. She knew he had to be. The garage door was open.

"Elliot," she whispered.

With everything inside her, every ounce of strength they all said she had, she fought the command.

"Go, and I will go to the ground."

"Elliot, I—"

She turned against the order. Her lover. Her love. He was...devastated. Burns and ripped flesh was all she could see. But he was still standing there, trying to save her.

"Go," he whispered and she obeyed.

"Find me," she said as she let his command take over, feet moving and her heart shattering.

One last look, her hand reaching for him, she watched at he took a step back into the flaming wreckage of what she considered their home. Unwilling to let his sacrifice be in vain, she hit buttons on the remote and found what they were driving. The Humvee. They scrambled into the vehicle and she started it. As she pulled out, an explosion rocked what was left of the house and she bit off a scream and fought everything inside her to keep from turning around. She had to get Madelyn to safety, if nothing else. They would be okay. They had to be okay. But how?

There were people in front of the gate but she couldn't make out, through the tears she refused to let fall, if they were they were the bad guys or not. An answer that made itself obvious at they threw a line of spikes across the driveway. Elliot said not to stop so she wouldn't. The tires didn't explode, like she figured they would, so she kept going, down the winding road, past where Nikolas almost hit her on that one momentous night. Her tears were falling now, freely, but she refused to give sound to the screams clawing at her throat. Madelyn sat beside her and she needed her.

"Where are we going?" she asked softly and glanced at Chevonne.

"I don't know."

"You need a hospital."

Chevonne knew that, her leg still burning from flames that she couldn't see.

"I don't think we are going to get that option." She looked in the rear-view mirror at th car coming up fast behind them.

She wasn't an experienced driver. Having only driven once since her eighteenth birthday. But now, just like then, she had fear on her side.

Pressing harder on the accelerator, she told Madelyn to buckle her seatbelt. Two seconds later, the car hit them. The impact was less than she thought it was going to be because of her jump in speed, but it was still shocking.