I turned my head to look behind me and see how close they were, but I ran right into something solid, yet relatively soft. At first, I just saw the T-shirt, which was black, and I froze. I didn’t know if I ran the wrong way or if one of them drove to the highway to catch me from the other side, but I felt so defeated. I could feel the tears coming and pushed them away, preparing myself to at least go down fighting, but all I got from my opponent was a shush. I looked up, recognizing the voice but unable to believe it until I saw his face and knew I wasn’t dreaming. I had been so sure it was one of the guys from the other car, but it was Embry I crashed into.
I hugged him, and tears of relief formed as I tried to catch my breath, before Embry gently put me to the side and pulled out his sword. It would have been better if we had both made a run for the highway, but I obliged. I found a wet log on the ground behind me and hoped I wouldn’t have to use it.
The minions were only expecting me, a little girl by their standards, running for her life with no weapons and her hands tied behind her back. This gave Embry the advantage, so although my teeth were clenched and my knuckles white from holding onto the log so tight, he managed to cut down the three men who came at us with hardly any effort. The Gifted who were acting against their will had all dispersed when Donovan died, so Embry didn’t hesitate to use deadly force. I had to look away, but it was a relief to know that it would take some time before any of them got up and came after us.
“Is that all of them?” Embry asked me once Slick, Muscles and their friend were all lying on the ground.
“No, there was another car full.” I strained, but couldn’t hear a thing. “Where’s Gabriel? I thought he would…did he not wake up?” I fumbled for words. I had been worried about Embry and Gabriel, but it was with the assumption that they couldn’t die. And dying was supposed to break any previously established bonds. Meaning they would come back to me better than new. I was so worried they wouldn’t find me in time that it hadn’t occurred to me that one of them wouldn’t find me at all.
Embry opened his mouth to say something. I was terrified, not sure I wanted to hear his answer, but then I heard Gabriel’s voice.
“I took out four of them on the other side, but I think I saw one…” Gabriel didn’t get a chance to tell us what he saw one doing. As soon as I heard his voice and knew he wasn’t lost to me, I ran to him. I collided with Gabriel like I had on prom night, and with Embry tonight, only this time it was on purpose. Gabriel took me up so my feet were off the ground, dangling for a few moments before he put me down and let me go. He looked about as surprised as I was by my hug, and his own reaction to it.
“I’m sorry, I thought we lost you for a minute,” I tried to shrug it off like it wasn’t a big deal.
“Cutting off my oxygen won’t kill me for good, but I’d rather not have to go through with the coming back to life again so soon,” Gabriel made a joke and gave me a smile.
“I’m really glad you guys found me.” I tried to keep my emotions in check, but my relief was threatening to come out as tears.
“You’re not getting rid of us that easily,” Gabriel assured me, straightening up and fixing his jacket.
I gave him a smile before something rustled in the field to my left, making me jump as Donovan broke through the tall grass. “There you are.” Donovan looked at me with hatred and determination, so I froze like a deer caught in the headlights, then fumbled my way to the log I had dropped when I ran to Gabriel.
Luckily, Donovan was slow from recently being dead, and the guys weren’t as surprised as I was. There was a fierce anger and precision to their moves, as Gabriel expertly karate-chopped Donovan in the back of the neck, which let Embry slice off his right hand once he fell to his knees. I had expected a threatening curse, but Donovan let out a blood-curdling scream instead.
Embry and Gabriel had both killed all the men they’d come up against, except Donovan. They left him to bleed out on the ground, clutching his right arm. It was better to keep him weak and wounded than to let him come back to life in a few hours. I wondered if limbs grew back as good as new when you were resurrected.
Embry put away his sword and came over to me, pulling me into his arms while Gabriel made sure no more men were hiding in the grass.
“The Onstar was genius,” Embry told me with an encouraging smile, trying to distract me from Donovan and his stump.
“I knew I told you that I keep having to call them because I lose my keys, but I didn’t know if you would be able to figure it out, or convince them you were Sam or…” I said it fast, because my brain still hadn’t registered that I was safe. Or at least relatively safe at the moment. But no matter how fast I said Sam’s name, it still hit me like a punch to the gut. “I didn’t know how else you would find me,” I finished, feeling absolutely defeated.
“We’ve got you now,” Embry assured me. He took me in his arms, thinking it was the fear and the adrenaline dropping that made my shoulders collapse.
“He’ll never stop until he has her,” Donovan told us, laughing to himself and clutching his stump.
My saviors turned to him like they wanted him to take it back, as if that would make the words untrue. I was more preoccupied with his use of the third person.
“He?” I asked. It was one thing to always refer to himself as a collective ‘we’, but ‘he’ usually referred to someone else. “Donovan isn’t the one we’ve been running from?” My heart beat faster against my chest.
“Me?” Donovan laughed, a cackling sound worse than his earlier scream. “I am nothing compared to him. None of you would stand a chance if he was here right now. He has powers you couldn’t even imagine.”
I suddenly understood that all of the ‘we’s weren’t Donovan’s grandiose view of himself, but his linking himself to the one with all the power. Donovan was nothing but the weak sidekick to the almighty powerful evil. The thought made me shiver.
“Let’s get you out of here,” Embry guided me towards an old station wagon they left running at the edge of the field, off the highway I’d tried so hard to get to.
“You won’t save her. Just like you couldn’t save Annabelle. Like you couldn’t save any of them,” Donovan called after us like a curse.