That semi-truck was coming up fast.
Katey grabbed the steering wheel to get out of the way of the oncoming truck, but it was too late. The truck headlights shined bright through her window and the sound of the horn blared in her ears.
Katey ducked below the window, covering her neck with her hands as the full force of the semi hit straight into her side of the car. Katey could hear shattering glass, the crunching of metal and her own screaming, fading into the blackness.
***
Logan’s motorcycle sped onto the scene just moments after the wreck. He jumped off his bike and raced to Mary’s crumbled car. The semi was hardly dented, but the sedan was totaled, that was for certain. Logan could hardly recognize parts of the car. It appeared just a tangled mess of blue metal and jagged shattered glass.
He was tempted to crumble to the blacktop and weep, knowing that no human could have possibly survived this. He blamed himself for letting Mary take Katey away. If he had held on tighter and perhaps reasoned with her foster mother, the stench of death would not have wrapped its ugly claws around his heart, squeezing so tight that he could barely breathe.
But there was no time for sorrow. He had to hope, had to have confirmation that the one thing he had come to care about in this world was not yet gone.
His heart beat fast within his chest as his eyes probed the wreckage for Katey’s body. He peered through the cracked windshield and saw Mary first, hunched over the steering wheel with a piece of metal impaled through her neck. Blood drenched her side of the vehicle and Logan couldn’t hear her heartbeat.
But he could hear Katey’s.
The faint, but steady rhythm brought a flood of relief. She was alive, but for how much longer?
Logan turned and his keen eyes found Katey leaning back in her seat with cuts and bruises over her neck and head. She was unconscious, but still breathing.
He quickly jumped onto the mangled hood of the car and sent his fist flying through what was left of the windshield, driven by the need to get her out of danger.
Shards of glass went flying around him, slicing his skin in various places but it quickly healed over. Logan grabbed the bent frame of the car between his powerful hands and pried it apart with a great lion-like roar. His eyes faded to gold as he reached in and tried to pull Katey from the wreckage. She wouldn’t budge against her seat belt so he extended one of his claws and sliced through it.
Once Katey was free from the twisted car, he cradled her in his arms and carried her far from the vehicle. Her head fell upon his chest and he held her tighter, thankful that she was alive despite the odds. Never again, he vowed, would he just leave her like he did. She wasn’t part of the pack, not part of his family, but Katey had latched onto his soul. Losing her would have been to lose his own life too. A small tear seeped from his eye, the first he had cried in decades, and the moisture mingled with her tangled hair.
His head snapped up when he caught a scent that sent his nostrils flaring. He glanced over his shoulder at the car. His eyes went wide as he saw the gas and oil leaking onto the pavement. He could also detect the faint scent of smoke from sparks emitting from shredded wires somewhere underneath the car.
The truck driver jumped down from the cab, holding his forehead. He had just come to from hitting his head during the collision.
“Get down!” he shouted to the driver as he carried Katey a few more feet from the car.
Logan dropped to the ground just as the gas and oil ignited underneath the car, engulfing the wreckage in a fiery explosion. Katey lay curled up beneath Logan’s body as he acted as a human shield against the flames that surrounded them.
Logan roared in pain as the blaze singed his body. His fangs elongated and his eyes glowed a fiercer gold. He could feel the wolf within him push against the surface, fighting to defend its life as well as Logan’s, but he suppressed it and held Katey tightly to him.
As the flames died down behind Logan, Katey’s eyes flickered open only for a moment and met his golden stare. She only had enough time to see the panic in his eyes before her consciousness slipped away once again.
Chapter 19
Ugh… my head… what happened? Katey’s eyes remained closed, but she was awake now.
She was lying down on her back, itchy blankets laid on most of her body. Something was attached to her fingertips and she could feel her own pulse under her skin.
Katey heard the humming of machinery next to her and faint movement and voices just beyond the walls of the room she was in. She also smelled disinfectant and it reminded her of old people like in a nursing home. She could also smell some kind of food in the room, but she couldn’t tell exactly what it was. There was a bright light off to the side that Katey could detect through her eyelids. She slowly turned her head away from it and groaned, as the movement caused pain to shoot through her neck.
Then she heard more movement coming from close by. Katey cracked open her eyes and found herself in a hospital bed. Katey glanced up at the wall and there was a little box that was monitoring her blood pressure and pulse, occasionally beeping to let them know she was still alive.
The walls were a pale baby blue and the floor was covered with cold white tiles. Over by the wooden door was an empty armchair piled with magazines and school papers. She looked to her left and saw three more chairs, two of which were empty, with Darren occupying the third.
The alpha stood up and approached the foot of her bed. “Hey, how are you feeling?” Darren whispered, his hands gripping the plastic footboard. He looked very tired as if he hadn’t slept all night.
“Like I got hit by a bus,” she managed to whisper in reply.
Darren cracked a smile. “Close enough.”
“My head hurts,” she whined. He gave her a look of sympathy, but there was little he could do to ease her pain.
Katey turned her head towards the window on her right and found Logan sleeping soundly. He was sitting up on a deep ledge, leaning his head against the wall. She noticed white gauzy bandages peeking out from the edge of his sleeves around his biceps, but she knew he couldn’t have been seriously hurt, because of his loup-garou nature. Nothing could ever really hurt him.
He was still wearing the same pair of jeans and gray shirt that she saw him wearing last. That must have been some time ago because Darren had changed clothes since then.
Katey closed her eyes as more pain coursed from her head down to her shoulder blades. The door opened and two more people entered into the room and she could hear hospital noises like shuffling feet, flapping papers and ringing telephones.
“Hey, we got the ice, but there were no cokes left in the vending machine down the hall,” Dustin’s voice rang through the little room as he closed the door rather noisily behind them. “You sure she likes coke? I gave her an orange soda once and she liked it.”
Katey squeezed her eyes shut tighter and Darren shushed them.
“Hey, keep your voice down,” Darren ordered. “She’s awake but her head hurts.”
“It doesn’t look like it,” Ben whispered.
Katey turned her head and squinted at the two of them standing by the door. Dustin was holding a bucket of ice and Ben was carrying two bottles of water in his hands and two more tucked under his arm.
“Oops, sorry. You feeling alright?” Dustin asked.
They each gave a small smile as they sat down in the chairs. Ben passed out the water bottles and put one it on the table to save for Logan when he woke up.
“I asked her that already,” Darren retorted.
“Hey, I can show my concern, can’t I?”
Katey watched Logan as long as she could before her eyes began to drift shut again. She heard the teachers mutter something in what sounded French, but she didn’t pay attention.
Before she knew it, the door opened once again and Katey grumbled at the loud noises as the nurse walked in.
“Is she awake yet?” the nurse asked the guys.
Katey rolled her head over to
the other side and glared. “If I wasn’t I would be now,” Katey mumbled at her bitterly.
The nurse sighed and shook her head. She was a tall, blonde, skinny woman with a big nose and huge lips carrying a clipboard and a pen in her hands.
“No reason to have any attitude, Miss McCoy. You just came out of a fatal car accident alive, against all odds. You should be counting your blessings. You didn’t get more than a minor concussion and a few bruises and cuts,” she said as she began writing down some fancy hospital terms on her clipboard and checking Katey’s vitals.
“So she’ll be ok?” Darren asked softly.
“Oh yeah. We’re just going to keep her until tomorrow morning for observation. She just needs a little rest and as little excitement as possible if you motley bunch can handle that,” she said, hanging the clipboard on the foot of the bed.
As she turned to leave she gave Dustin a playful smile and walked out. Katey raised her eyebrow at Dustin, who just shrugged and leaned back in his chair with a smug look.
“I don’t have a clue what she’s talking about,” Dustin muttered to the others who were eyeing him suspiciously, then took a swig of the water from his bottle.
“I told you not to fraternize like that,” Darren reproached.
“Can I help it if they try to get fresh with me first?”
“What happened?” Katey asked warily, and then tried to lift herself up, but a jolt of pain surged down her spine. Darren was by her side in the blink of an eye and gently lowered Katey back down to rest on the bed. Then she realized she was wearing only a hospital gown and underwear and Katey felt a little embarrassed.
“Whoa, no getting up for you just yet. Last night your mom pulled out in front of a semi-truck. The car was totaled, but luckily Logan was following you, saw the whole thing and pulled you out before the car exploded from a gas leak.” She saw his eyes give her the once over. “I’m amazed you weren’t hurt more than you actually are. The semi hit your side of the car from what Logan described,” Darren explained holding her shoulder to the bed so she couldn’t get up again.
As Darren spoke, Katey remembered the accident. The bright lights, the screams, the blaring of the horn and pain, so much pain that she couldn’t handle it all and passed out. Then, she recalled seeing Logan with his golden eyes and bared teeth, looking scared and yet relieved at the same time.
Katey glanced over to Logan, who was still sleeping on the windowsill. “What about my foster mom?” she asked weakly.
None of them answered her right away.
“I’m sorry Katey,” Ben finally said. “She didn’t make it. There was nothing left of her after the explosion.”
Katey let the words sink in. Mary was gone. Her foster mom was dead. As much as she wanted to be glad about it, she couldn’t. After realizing that Mary was a victim of hard life and unfavorable choices, Katey couldn’t be happy that she was gone.
Then, a thought came that Katey didn’t know how to process. Perhaps, it was a good thing that Mary died. She was free of the suffering that caused her to drink. Free of the hardships of life. Perhaps that explained the flash of determination in her expression just before she steered the car in the path of the semi-truck. She wanted to die, but Katey was hurt that Mary wanted to take her down too.
Katey looked up and realized that her teachers were expecting water-works or some show of emotion for her foster mother. But how could she be sad? This is what both of them wanted. Mary was finally at peace and Katey didn’t have to endure anymore arguments or beatings. They were both free.
“Good,” Katey exclaimed. The teachers looked at her, shocked at her response.
“What did you say?” Dustin asked, bewildered.
“Good riddance.” Katey let her head fall back on the pillow and shut her eyes.
“How can you say that about someone who took care of you?” Ben asked.
“That woman could barely take care of herself, let alone take care of me,” Katey muttered.
“I’m sure she didn’t deserve to die, though,” Darren said.
Katey turned to her teachers with fire in her eyes. What did any of them know? “It was her fault we were in the accident. She was drunk and wanted to take me back to a Group Home. She wanted to ditch me there with nothing but the clothes on my back. She beat me and abused me every chance she got. Why should I care that she’s dead?”
Darren’s gaze turned angry. It was a look she had never seen before on him. Her anger melted in terror. “Let me tell you something, Katey. If anyone has any right to hate their parents, it’s me and Dustin. Not you.”
“What do you mean?” she mumbled, immediately regretful that she had spoken so bluntly in the first place.
“Our fathers were loup-garou,” Darren said. “They were the reason we are what we are and they ditched us before we even had a chance to know them. You talk about your mother abusing you, but we would have given anything just to have someone there…” Darren paused and took a deep breath before continuing. “Why didn’t you tell someone she was abusing you?”
Katey stared, lost in what he said. She had no idea about what their fathers did. Somehow, she pictured both of them being raised by their fathers, mentored under their guiding hands until they reached adulthood. Never did she think that they had been left alone in the world to deal with what they had become.
She might have had no room to complain, but if she had known then she wouldn’t have mentioned her feelings at all. “Would anyone have believed me if I did?”
“I would have,” Dustin said from his chair.
“And so would I,” Ben added.
Katey looked away, ashamed for her words.
“I’m sure you’re just saying all those things because you’re upset right now… Just get some rest, ok?” Darren said, then turned away to join the others at the table across from her bed.
Katey watched Logan, trying to not feel guilty for the way she so harshly bashed Mary’s memory in front of her teachers. There was nothing she could do now. What happened the night before couldn’t be undone and all there was left to do was be grateful she had another day to live.
Darren had said that Logan followed Mary’s car and pulled Katey from the car before it exploded. If he hadn’t be so loyal and concerned for her safety, she wouldn’t have been breathing right now.
Too many unintelligible emotions crowded inside her, vying for a chance to express themselves. Instead, they all collected into one single tear droplet and rolled down her cheek as sleep claimed her.
***
The harsh glow of sunset streamed through the hospital room window, wakening Katey from her sleep. She looked around the room, but none of the teachers were there, only the papers they had to grade and a few scattered magazines.
She looked over to the windowsill and Logan was there, watching her with hopeful eyes. It was so good to see his eyes. It made her head hurt a little less.
“Hey there, sleeping beauty,” Logan muttered before sliding off the ledge. “How do you feel?” he asked, sitting down on the edge of her bed. His eyes were the lightest blue she had ever seen them. They almost looked white in the florescent light.
“I could be better. How are you doing?” she asked.
“They insisted I put these bandages on, but it’s all healed now and they itch. I’m just glad you’re all right,” he whispered and smiled.
“Thanks to you.”
“What do you mean?”
“If you hadn’t pulled me out of that car I would be toast by now, literally.”
Logan winced at her joke, obviously not finding it very amusing. “But if I hadn’t been there when your foster mom got home, she wouldn’t have taken you.”
“We can belabor this all day, but it doesn’t change the fact that you did save my life.”
Logan had no time to contest her again before the door opened behind him and the teachers filed in.
Katey saw that they were carrying four plates of cooked ground hamburger, slices of h
am and turkey, some big meatballs and hamburger patties. Darren was carrying two and handed one to Logan.
“Sleep better this time?” Dustin asked as he sat down in his chair and began eating from his plate.
“Yeah, a little. What day is it? How long was I out?” she asked.
“Don’t worry, you haven’t missed anything. It is only Friday evening. The accident was last night,” Ben replied, sitting in his chair, but setting his food down on a little table that all the chairs seemed to be centering around now. Darren was already in his seat and eating his third meatball. Logan sat back on the windowsill and set his food down to the side. “There was no school today so students had plenty of time to prepare for final exams next week and I took the liberty of calling your boss at the bookstore to let him know you may not be in to work this weekend.”
“Thanks… Where’s my food?” Katey asked jokingly. All the guys looked up at her and gave apologetic looks.
“We didn’t know what you liked to eat,” Darren said.
“French fries,” Logan and Katey said in unison. They smiled at each other.
“Told you,” Logan said as he leaned over to look at Dustin, who just shrugged and kept eating. A moment of silence went by before Darren, Dustin and Logan all looked over at Ben, who had begun nibbling on a piece of ham. He paused, saw that everyone was staring at him, then grumbled to himself and walked back down to the cafeteria to get Katey some fries. It was hard to hold in her giggle at the scene.
“So what’s going to happen now?” Katey asked.
“What do you mean?” Dustin asked with his mouth full.
“I mean, I’m eighteen, my foster mom just died and I have no place to stay… I can’t afford a place of my own so…”
“Oh, that,” Darren said said, “We had already discussed this while you were sleeping. If you have no objections to it, you can come stay with us until you’re able to afford a place of your own after graduation.”
The Enigma (The Loup-Garou Series Book 1) Page 24