by Rose Wulf
Eric threw the Bentley into reverse, kicking up dust and pebbles as he attempted to quickly get enough distance for another collision.
Vaughn ground his teeth, adjusted the wheel, and put his foot on the gas. He would only get one shot at this. He had to time it right.
“What are you—” Angela started to ask as the car lurched forward again. “Vaughn!” Her tone assured him she wasn’t overly fond of this idea.
Dirt, dust, twigs, and pebbles flew as the Audi shot forward, nearly spinning out with the leap in acceleration.
Eric obviously caught on to his intent because the Bentley started forward before swerving to the side in an effort to intercept them. They were far enough past him, thankfully, that the Bentley only clipped his already-damaged rear fender. The Audi started to spin, its momentum thrown off, and Vaughn again slammed on the brakes. There was no way they would make it out safely if this kept up. But the car was on the right side of the Bentley to make an escape if they could just get a little breathing room. Getting that space is the problem.
Unless he did something stupid again.
“Get ready to run,” he said as he jerked the car into park. He purposefully neglected to cut the engine before releasing his seatbelt, not wanting to tip his hand.
“What?” Angela demanded incredulously.
Vaughn pushed the buttons to unlock the doors and looked back at her, needing her to understand him. “I have a plan,” he assured her, “but we have to get out first.”
He could see her hesitation. Her instincts were probably insisting he’d lost his mind—and they might have been right—but she didn’t argue. Instead, she released her own seatbelt, nodded, and together they threw their doors open and jumped to their feet. She would strangle him when she learned the details of his crazy plan, but at the moment, he was glad she was cooperating.
“Run!” Vaughn shouted, deliberately meeting Eric’s glare through the Bentley’s windshield. Even if his plan failed, getting lost in the thick gathering of trees was still safer than being stuck on a narrow, windy dirt road. He waited until he heard Angela’s feet crunching over the ground before turning and running after her. This moment was key. His plan would fail miserably if Eric opted not to give chase.
Eric’s ego was entirely predictable, however, and the crash of thunder overhead wasn’t loud enough to cover the sound of booted feet hitting the ground. “Prescott! There’s no use in running!”
“Is he after you?” Angela gasped as they barreled past the trees.
“Both of us, I’d guess.” It started to hail and Vaughn risked a glance behind them. They hadn’t gotten far enough away from their enemy yet.
“This is crazy,” Angela exclaimed. “We’re just going to get ourselves lost!”
“We won’t,” Vaughn assured her. He adjusted course without warning, caught her elbow, and yanked her with him.
Lightning crashed into the ground a few feet away from where they would have been an instant later. Angela cried out, too close to the raw electricity, and stumbled for a second as her fingers curled into his forearm.
Vaughn spotted a wide tree and pulled them both behind it, taking a moment to catch his breath as he strained his ears for sounds of their pursuer. It was hard to distinguish footfalls from the falling hail and leaf-rustling wind. I have to take the chance.
“What are we doing?” Angela mumbled, still working on catching her breath. She stood closer than usual, one hand curled in the sleeve of his tee, while she attempted to lean forward enough to see around the tree. “He’ll find us and I don’t have signal out here.”
“He’ll find me,” Vaughn corrected quietly, still watching for signs of Eric.
Angela froze at his side and for a second, he was sure she stopped breathing. “What?” Her whisper was nearly inaudible despite the sparse few inches between her lips and his ear.
He met her widened, confused gaze with a firm frown, knowing full well she wasn’t going to approve of what he had to say. “We have to split up. Eric thinks we’re running together. When he sees me, he’ll figure you’re not far.”
“Because I won’t be.”
Vaughn ignored her. “I left the engine running. Let me distract him and get to the car. Get out to the road. You’ll get a signal, you can call me some backup.” The last was said largely to make her feel better. He wasn’t worried about himself in the slightest. All that mattered was getting her the hell away from Eric Matthews.
“No!” Angela hissed, her fingers twisting in his sleeve as her eyes narrowed at him. “I absolutely will not abandon you here!”
“Come out, come out wherever you are!” Eric’s not-so-distant, taunting voice called, echoing through the wind and sleet.
Vaughn shifted, uncurled Angela’s hand from his sleeve, and pulled her closer in order to whisper fiercely, “Go, Angela.” They didn’t have time to argue about this.
But her refusal couldn’t have been more apparent. “I refu—”
He cut her off with a kiss, tugging her forward as he bowed his head and pressed his lips to hers. She froze against him for a beat, obviously surprised, before relaxing into him. He swept his tongue into her mouth, letting himself taste her, all the while knowing the clock was ticking.
The world flashed around them. Something cracked and exploded from another bolt of lightning.
The kiss broke, Angela breathing too hard, and Vaughn’s grip tightened for a long second. He wanted to linger, check to be sure she was all right, but he knew the ultimate answer to that question would be “no” if he didn’t get moving. When she dragged her gaze back to his, he forced himself to say, “Get going, Angie. I’ll throw him off.” She opened her mouth to argue, but there wasn’t time, so he pushed her away and spun her around, pointing her in the necessary direction. “Go.”
When he released her, his attention already turned to the forest behind the tree, she reached out and caught him, recapturing his attention simultaneously. Their gazes held for another second and she whispered, “Don’t you dare die on me.”
Without anything more reassuring to offer, Vaughn gave her his best arrogant smirk before turning away and darting out from behind the trees. He had to pray Angela did the smart thing and backtracked to the Audi. It was damaged but certainly still drivable. All she had to do was get to the main road. All he had to do was keep Eric distracted long enough for her to manage that.
“There you are!” Eric exclaimed as Vaughn burst into his line of sight.
Vaughn came up short, narrowed his eyes at Eric, and clenched his fists. He’d promised Angela he’d pretend to be running with her, but the truth was that wasn’t the plan. The best way for him to keep Eric occupied was by offering himself as a distraction. Arching a taunting brow, Vaughn called, “What, you thought I was hiding?”
“Cocky bastard,” Eric snapped, eyes narrowing into his own glare. “I’ll kill you for sure this time.”
“Give it your best shot.” Keep running, Angie.
****
What the hell am I doing? Her heart thundered in her ears, a lump had formed in her throat, and her eyes burned with tears by the time she threw herself into the driver’s seat of Vaughn’s Audi. Had she really just left him there, stranded in the forest with an elemental psychopath? Angela’s throat clenched a little tighter, making it hard to breathe, and she jerked the car into drive. No matter how much she hated it, Vaughn’s plan had made as much sense as anything else. It was arguably more reasonable than her stubborn insistence to stay at his side. But why couldn’t we both have made a run for it? She knew the answer, of course, but she didn’t like it. If anything happened to Vaughn while he was trying to help her, she would never forgive herself.
Worry later, Angela. She needed to focus. The best thing she could do to help Vaughn wasn’t to make herself sick with worry and guilt, it was to get close enough to town to get some kind of phone signal. He hadn’t fooled her for a second. She didn’t for a second believe he actually intended to hide out and
wait for rescue. Vaughn wasn’t that kind of guy, and she knew he couldn’t stand Eric. She’d always thought it was odd, really, how strongly Vaughn disliked Eric considering their lack of extensive history.
The dirt gave way to blissful blacktop and Angela fumbled in her haste to pull her phone from her pocket. It was almost impossible to predict where the sporadic areas of cell signal would be at any given time of day, but she knew if she drove toward town, she would find them sooner rather than later. Thankfully, by the time she reached the first turnout, she had two bars. She prayed it would be enough.
Her hands shook as she pulled open her phone list. Apparently, she’d spoken to Logan most recently. Logan was a good choice, anyway, given the location of the problem, so she pressed her thumb to the green button.
“Hey, Angie,” Logan greeted casually on the second ring. His voice was too calm, reminding her that not everyone else was panicking. The first flicker of guilt ignited in her chest. Logan was expecting his first child. And here she was, about to pull her brother—likely all of her brothers—into a very dangerous situation. Right when their lives were lining up. Some sister she was. “Angela?” Logan prompted, the calmness in his voice fading into concern.
Angela dragged in a deep, ragged breath. “Eric attacked me and Vaughn in the forest. I’m back on the interstate, in Vaughn’s car, but Vaughn—”
“Where?” Logan interrupted. His voice had gone firm and serious now.
Angela rattled off the location, explained that Vaughn was somewhere in the forest beside the actual road, and Logan promised to call Dean from the road. She wasn’t sure whether or not he intended to reach out for Blake or Nate, but the moment Nate’s name slipped through her mind, she knew she needed to call him, too. Nate could fly. He could get there the fastest. If anyone could get there in time, it was Nate.
She called him without another thought, barely waiting for his customary greeting before launching into her problem. The desperation in her voice scared even her a little, but she decided to care about it later. Nate didn’t say a word other than to assure her he was on his way. The call ended and her phone fell from her shaky fingers, bouncing off her thigh and landing on the floor between her feet.
Vaughn…
The lump returned, larger and harder in her throat, and Angela choked. Tears slipped from the corners of her eyes and she slumped over the steering wheel.
What were the chances Vaughn was still breathing right at that moment? If he wasn’t at least alive when she saw him again, it would be too late. There wouldn’t be anything she could do for him if he was already gone. It would be her fault. It was her fault.
“Vaughn!” His name escaped her lips on a strangled, watery cry and her shoulders shook. What was wrong with her? Who the hell was she to be worth this? What right did she have to even accept someone else’s willingness to risk their lives for her? None. She had no right to do that. She wasn’t anyone more important than anyone else. Certainly, she was less significant than him. This was her problem. Her family’s war. Her responsibility to deal with. Not Vaughn’s. If someone was going to die today, in this fight, it really should be her.
Fueled by her anger, Angela straightened, used one hand to wipe as many of the tears from her cheeks as she could, and rolled the engine over. The banged-up Audi responded on the first try, the low purr of the engine bolstering her resolve. She threw the car into reverse, checked for traffic, and swung a bit too sharply back around until she was aimed for that dirt road. Within seconds, she hit it, going too fast, and dirt and dust flew around her as she sped back to the Bentley.
It still blocked most of the road, so it was easy to find.
She had the foresight to yank the keys from the ignition so no one could steal Vaughn’s car before shoving to her feet and racing in the direction she’d come from minutes before. There was no guarantee she’d find either of them, she knew that, but she had to try. Vaughn was out there somewhere and she owed it to him to do her best to bring him home.
She barreled past a line of dying bushes, one minute running over dry dirt and the next stepping onto soaked mud, and it was like slamming into a wall. Her momentum was what kept her going when her feet stumbled as the wave of recently-expelled electricity washed over her. For as horrible as that sensation was, she knew what it meant. I have to be getting close! If the air was still so saturated with electricity, that had to mean Eric was nearby. And if he was close, then so too was Vaughn.
“Vaughn!”
There he was. She skidded to a stop so quickly she had to reach out and catch herself on the trunk of the nearest tree just to keep from eating muddy grass. There they both were. A small fire crackled at the base of another tree, undoubtedly the result of Eric’s lightning. The leaves of the trees and bushes around them still dripped with moisture despite that no more rain, or hail or sleet, fell from the sky. Eric appeared to be unconscious, collapsed on the ground on his side, his back to Angela and one arm bent awkwardly behind him. Her gaze shot to the other side of the clearing then and landed on the man she was actually searching for.
Vaughn was on the ground, sitting—or partially lying—against a tree, his head tipped up and eyes closed. One leg was stretched out, the majority of the denim covered in mud, and the other was bent at the knee. He had one arm draped over his knee, the other hanging in his lap, and for a dreadful second, he didn’t appear to be breathing. But, as she watched, his chest rose on an inhale and the breath rushed from her lungs. He was breathing.
He was alive.
She’d made it in time.
“Vaughn!” She bolted to him, mindless of her seemingly unconscious enemy or the fire still growing nearby. She didn’t care about any of it as she hit her knees and caught his shoulders in her hands. “Vaughn, wake up!”
He tensed, brow furrowing, and dragged his eyes open halfway. It was only when he finally met her gaze that she registered the nasty burn on his jaw, as if he’d taken an electric punch to the face. Which he probably had, she realized. “Angela…?” His voice was weaker than she’d ever heard it, like the effort to just speak her name was nearly unmanageable.
Angela winced and tears blurred her vision again, but she forced a smile. “Hey, hero. You’re gonna be fine, okay? I promise.”
His lips lifted in a shadow of a grin and he replied, “Wasn’t … worried.”
Groaning from across the small, battle-damaged clearing drew their attention in time to see Eric rolling awkwardly onto his knees. Apparently, he hadn’t been as thoroughly unconscious as Angela had assumed. His arm, though, was definitely broken. When he went to put weight on it, he fell to his face with a cry of pain.
Vaughn shifted, his body tensing again as if to stand, and Angela snapped her gaze back to him with a scolding frown. Putting a little more strength behind her hold on his shoulders, she said, “Stay. You’re in no condition to fight.”
He met her frown with his own, his blue eyes already clearer than they’d been moments ago, and opened his mouth with the obvious intention to argue. Before a sound could fall out, however, a violent wind whipped around them, forcing everyone to squint and blowing Angela’s hair into both her and Vaughn’s faces. The wind pulled away from them almost as quickly as it had settled, the entirety of its power focusing and blasting toward Eric.
Eric cried out again, flying backward and crashing through several scraggly bushes until he collided with a tree trunk.
The ground lurched beneath them, rolling forward and rising up like a wave before crashing down on the building flame. Effectively smothering it. Logan straightened as the ground settled again, brushed pine needles and leaves from his jeans, and turned with a frown toward Angela and Vaughn. She suspected the frown was entirely for her, as she belatedly remembered he’d instructed her to meet them at home.
“Good,” Vaughn grunted as Logan strode closer. He promptly sagged against her, as if the knowledge that they’d be all right had overpowered the adrenaline that had seemingly been keeping him
conscious.
Angela choked and scrambled to catch him properly, lest he land in the mud, and unintentionally pulled him into her chest in the process. Once his head was on her shoulder, she slumped, her own adrenaline rapidly failing her. The fight was over, and Vaughn had survived. As it turned out, he would have survived even if she’d done like she’d been told and not gone back for him. But she didn’t for an instant regret that decision, even despite the look of disapproval on Logan’s face.
“Angela,” Logan called as he knelt across from them.
“Thank you,” she interrupted, offering her brother a smile. Her heart was suddenly exhausted and she didn’t have the strength to argue. She could hear approaching sirens in the distance and, assuming they were Dean’s, she knew it was time to head for their parents’ house. Vaughn was still in need of healing.
It didn’t seem to take any time at all to get to the house, and yet it took forever.
Logan carried Vaughn to the nearest couch and Angela was hot on his heels. She perched on the edge of the coffee table and set to work healing him the moment her brother stepped back. It only took her a few minutes to realize, to her surprise, that Vaughn wasn’t as terribly beaten up as she’d expected. Thank goodness. In her estimation, he would probably wake up in the middle of the night. Early morning at the latest. She’d been worried he’d need so much healing he’d sleep for days.
She’d already explained the situation multiple times, between initial phone calls and after-battle lectures, but her mother only waited a short while before jumping in for her turn.
“What were you thinking?” Lillian demanded from somewhere behind Angela.
Angela sighed and didn’t bother looking away from her patient. “I already explained it all, Mom.” Like three times. Oh, her entire family had been fairly furious about the latest “stunt” she’d pulled. They thought it was ridiculous, thoughtlessly dangerous, unnecessary, and essentially stupid—though they’d refrained from using that particular word—that she’d gone running back to the fight. It was as if they’d all forgotten she’d called for help first, or that they had all been guilty of the exact same thing at some point or another. But that argument never mattered when it came to her and she knew it. I’m the family porcelain doll. “I couldn’t leave Vaughn out there to die for me.”