any reaction even though I had the sudden urge to run. But I forced myself to keep walking, no change in my pace, no tensing my shoulders. “What makes you think that?”
“No one walked up to the car to get in before it started. I wasn’t watching them, but I didn’t hear anyone, and I certainly didn’t hear any car doors open or close,” she said, keeping her voice low. “They’d been sitting there. When they saw us, that’s when they started the car. Now it’s slowly following us. And I swear I can feel their eyes on my back.”
“Good ears.” I felt like I should have put two and two together myself. I’d been too focused on the stupid carving in the floor that I hadn’t been paying attention to my surroundings.
I blinked. Carving. Strange people watching us. What if the person in the SUV was the shaman who had summoned the spirit?
“What should we do?” Laura hissed.
The car sprung to life, tires crunching on gravel as it peeled away from the curb.
My feet moved. Fast. No real thought behind it. Just the instinct to run. Laura was right beside me, our legs moving in sync.
The car screeched to a halt, and I heard car doors fly open.
“Stop!” a guy yelled, and I twisted my head to look over my shoulder.
As soon as I saw him, I felt the familiar tugging in my forehead just over my eyes. He was a shaman.
Young, tan, wearing some weird construction uniform and standing there with a huge ass gun trained on me and Laura. On the driver’s side of the car, another guy stood in the exact same pose.
That only made my legs move faster. Anyone who points a gun at me is someone I need to get the hell away from ASAP.
I grabbed Laura’s arm and pulled her into the bushes lining the edge of the street. We darted into Kylie’s next door neighbor’s yard.
Car doors slammed. A second later, I heard the pounding of feet on pavement.
We had some distance between us, but they’d be right behind us soon. And from the look of their muscles, they could probably run a hell of a lot faster than we could. Not to mention the whole gun thing.
I didn’t want to die today.
Suddenly, all the shaman magic that had sent tingles through my body felt zapped away from the intensity of my fear. It was like a crash, my head full of wasps and my body stiff and sore.
I swore under my breath and paused a beat to kick off the flip flops seriously slowing me down.
Laura grabbed me and propelled me forward. We flew through mulch, kicking flowers as our legs sliced through the air. My eyes watered, the wind rolling off the ocean stinging them. I had no idea where we were going. To Laura’s house? I was pretty sure letting these guys know where she lived wasn’t such a good idea.
We careened into the backyard. My chest blazed with my pounding heart. The salty taste of ocean air burned my lungs. I told my legs to move faster. I heard something crash behind us, but I didn’t turn around. All I could do was run.
We needed to lose them.
Why hadn’t they shot at us yet?
“Boat keys?” I huffed, glancing sideways at Laura. Her face was beet red, strands of her long hair plastered to her forehead.
“Not with me,” she said, fists pounding the air.
“Nathan,” I puffed back. “Go. To. Harbor.”
We raced into the next yard through a line of perfectly trimmed hedges. Sharp branches slashed my skin, but I barely felt them with the pounding in my head.
My back and neck seemed to burn in random spots. I could almost feel the bullets piercing my skin before a shot was even fired. I cringed at the slightest sound, expecting each time to be the one that meant a trigger had been pulled.
I shoved the branches out of my way and bee-lined for a house’s back porch. The platform came up to my waist, and I ducked under the wood, following Laura. My feet scraped dead leaves. The crumpling sounded like fireworks in the sudden quiet. Both of us stopped, standing frozen, breathing heavy.
I turned to look behind us. The shamans were racing into the backyard, glancing around. They didn’t see us. Yet.
Only two more houses to go, but the shamans were headed our way. They’d figure out fast where we’d gone.
We both moved slowly, weaving through the thick supporting