running water in the distance, like there’s a river somewhere, but I just can’t reach it. It’s like I’m trying to find something, I think.”
“A dry land, huh? You know that’s pretty common in dream imagery,” Kate assured her. “It comes up in every dream book, in every country I’ve ever been to.”
Helen swallowed her frustration and nodded. “Yeah, but I wake up in the morning and my feet . . .” She stopped herself, hearing how crazy she sounded. Kate studied Helen for a moment.
“Are you sleepwalking, honey? Is that it?” Kate took Helen’s shoulders, encouraging Helen to look her in the eyes. Helen threw up her hands and shook her head.
“I don’t know what I’m doing. But I’m so tired, Kate,” she said. A few exhausted tears slipped out. “Even if I manage to fall asleep, I wake up and I feel like I’ve been running and running. I think I’m going crazy.” She let out a nervous laugh. Kate pulled Helen into one of her pastry-scented hugs.
“It’s okay. We’ll figure it out,” Kate said soothingly. “Have you talked to your father yet?”
“No. And I don’t want you to, either,” Helen insisted, drawing back to look directly at Kate. Kate gave her a searching look, and Helen continued. “Next week, if I’m still crazy, I’ll tell him, but I think we’ve both had enough drama for one week.”
Kate nodded. “You decide when you’re ready to talk about it with your dad, and I’ll be there. My little loca,” she teased smilingly. Helen smiled back, grateful that she had Kate, who could listen to her seriously when she needed it, and then stop being serious at just the right time.
“I think we can leave the rest.” Kate gave Helen one final squeeze. “Ready to go?” she called over her shoulder as she went behind the counter and put the money in the safe.
Helen stowed her broom and made her way to the back door. Switching off the lights, Helen turned to lock up as Kate headed across the alley toward her car, keys in hand.
Neither of them heard a thing. There was a blur and a faint flash of blue light in the corner of Helen’s eye, and a smell. It was a nauseating yet hauntingly familiar odor of sizzling hair mixed with stale ozone. Then Kate dropped to the ground like a puppet with her strings cut. Helen instinctively bolted forward, holding out her arms to try to break Kate’s fall, but the attacker took the opportunity to put a bag over Helen’s head from behind.
She was too startled to scream. As she was pulled backward against a soft chest, it suddenly registered in Helen’s head that her attacker was a woman.
Helen had always known she was strong—and not just strong for a girl. Strong for a bear. She bent her knees and braced the balls of her feet against the pavement, ready to give her would-be abductor the shock of her life. She flexed her back and tried to break out of her attacker’s arms, and was surprised to realize that she couldn’t. The unseen woman was just as impossibly strong as Helen. But Helen had more to lose.
The soles of her sneakers shredded under the pressure of her feet as she pushed off. She took one step, and then another, walking right out of her ruined shoes as she dragged the woman along with her. Then Helen heard a thump, a gasp, and she pitched forward violently as she was released.
Struggling to get the black velvet bag off of her head, Helen heard a rapid succession of slaps, thuds, and the quick huffs of stunned breaths. There was a draft of air and the staccato sound of someone sprinting away just as she yanked the hood off and pushed her hair out of the way.
Lucas Delos stood over her, his body tense, his eyes scanning the distance for something that Helen couldn’t see from her position on the ground.
“Are you injured?” he asked in a low, unsteady voice, still looking out over her head. There was blood on his lip and his shirt was torn. Helen had a bare moment to say she was fine before she heard the sobbing sisters start to whisper.
He looked down at her, and when his icy blue eyes met her warm brown ones, a thrill ran down her legs. Helen jumped up into a fighting crouch. The whispers turned to wails and Helen saw the bent heads and shivering white