good chance I'd hit him. Or I'd cry, because whether I liked him or not, what he had said hurt. Like there was something wrong with me.
I stumbled over a few branches and rocks on the ground I couldn't see, but I knew I could find my way back to the road. And I could hear him behind me, his feet snapping twigs as he kept up with me.
Raw hurt opened up in my chest. I stomped ahead, needing to get home, to call Mom and somehow convince her that we needed to move, like, tomorrow.
Run away.
My hands curled into fists. Why should I run away? I hadn't done anything wrong! Angry and disgusted with myself, I tripped over a root sticking out of the ground. I nearly fell flat on my face. I grumbled.
"Kat!" Daemon cursed from behind me.
I gained my footing and rushed forward, relieved to see the road up ahead. I nearly broke into a dead run. I could hear his footfalls now, echoing in the distance. I reached the dark road, wiping the back of my hands over my face. Shit.
I was crying.
Daemon yelled, but his voice was drowned out by the twin headlights of a truck racing toward me, no more than fifty feet away. I was too shocked to move.
It was going to hit me.
Chapter 15
A loud crack of thunder - only more powerful - reverberated through the valley. It was like a sonic blast that shook me to the very core. There was no time for the driver to see me or stop. I threw up my arms, as if they could somehow protect me. The truck's loud roar filled my ears. I braced myself for the bone-shattering impact, my last thought of my mom and what my mangled body was going to do to her, but the impact never came.
I could've kissed the bumper; it was that close. My hands mere inches from the hot grille.
Slowly, I lifted my head. The driver sat motionless behind the wheel, eyes wide and empty. He didn't move, didn't blink. I wasn't even sure if he was breathing.
A cup of coffee was in his right hand, frozen halfway to his mouth. Frozen - everything was frozen.
A metallic taste filled the corners of my mouth. My mind balked.
The engine was still running, roaring in my face.
I turned from the frozen driver to see Daemon. He seemed to be concentrating, his breathing heavy and his hands were clenched at his sides.
And his beautiful eyes were different.
Wrong. I took another step back, now out of the path of the truck, my hand held in front of me, as if to ward him from coming close to me.
"Oh my God..." I whispered, my already-pounding heart faltering for a mere beat.
Daemon's eyes glowed iridescent in the dark, lit from the inside. The light seemed to be growing more intense, and his fists started to shake, the trembling moving up his arms until his entire body seemed to be reverberating in tiny, miniscule waves.
And then Daemon began to fade out, his body, along with his clothes, disappearing and being replaced by an intense reddish-yellow light that swallowed him whole.
People made of light.
Holy crap...
Time seemed to stop. No, time had already stopped.
Somehow, he'd kept that truck from hitting me. Stopped a seven-ton truck from surely breaking every bone in my body with what? A word? Thought?
So much power.
It caused the air to vibrate around us unnaturally. The ground shivered under his sheer strength. I knew if I tried hard enough I could reach down and feel it quake.
In the distance I heard Dee, confusion pouring from her voice, calling to us. How had she found us?
Right. Daemon was lighting up the entire street - he was that bright.
I looked back to the truck and saw that not only was it shaking, but the driver was, too. It was trying to break past the invisible barrier that seemed to hold it frozen in time. The metal beast shuddered and the engine screamed, the driver's foot still on the gas pedal.
I ran, not out of the road, but beyond that. I vaguely heard the truck howl past me. I ran up the twisting road that led to our houses, nestled at the mouth of nowhere. I briefly saw Dee running up to me before I dodged her. I only knew she had to be like him.
What were they? They weren't human.
What I saw was not possible. No human could do that.